Quotation II
Os Guinness:
...Under the influence of modernity, we modern Christians are literally capable of winning the world while losing our own souls...
That's what Os Guiness wrote in this essay on the Church Growth Movement. Personally in my limited experience, I have little intersection with this movement. Even back home in Malaysia, much less Singapore, I don't really hear about "church growth" or stuff like that. I hear more of "revival" and "reaching out" more than any other things.
So I would think that what is good about the CGM as described by Os Guiness is rather intact in this region without its ugly excesses. But that's just my opinion. More informed adults would know better.
But I want to blog about that quote. I would tend to agree with it. One of the powerful ideas of secularization was that it sort of knocked idol worship from where it stood in culture- as a superstition- which is what it is, even described as such in the Bible. (Read the prophets who decried the idolatry of the Israelites)
In a way of speaking, secularization with help from the explanatory power of science sort of beat the 'gods' to their game. It provided an apparent 'freedom' from the bondage of idols. Ok, seems good. So in that sense, modernity aids evangelism since we have at least on appearences killed one big enemy.
But I guess the type of 'Christianity' that would properly fit into a heart set free by the wonders of modernity is not in the same mould of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Quite simply, such a 'Christianity' needs to be 1) devoid of mystery, hence faith. 2) devoid of humility, since we can rely on our reasonining. 3) devoid of authority, since man is the center of his universe. In our efforts to evangelize, taking advantage of the space provided by modernity, caution needs to be taken so that we do not cookie cut the Kingdom Gospel to fit into the heart of modern man.
I guess any evangelism that is faithful must confront idols (literal) and also man's arrogance and sin before a holy God. Tough act, since the modernity is a minefield. And the most demoralizing thing about mines is that it maims rather than kills. But a gospel maimed is not different from a gospel killed, though it is mistakenly believed to be alive. Take for instance this proclamation:" God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." God loves me for sure, but a wonderful plan for my life? I'm not so sure about that. The above statement is certainly not mysterious, hardly any humility is needed to embrace it, and certainly is not about authority. If anything, it almost is left like an option to us whether or not we want to know this "wonderful plan". It all up to us: Doesn't it sound like the man at the center of his universe all over again? Of course we add the part about how sins separates us from God. But under that first premise, the evil and deciet of sin is easily trivialized.
Sigh...I've written quite a mouthful here. Take some time to chew on it.
...Under the influence of modernity, we modern Christians are literally capable of winning the world while losing our own souls...
That's what Os Guiness wrote in this essay on the Church Growth Movement. Personally in my limited experience, I have little intersection with this movement. Even back home in Malaysia, much less Singapore, I don't really hear about "church growth" or stuff like that. I hear more of "revival" and "reaching out" more than any other things.
So I would think that what is good about the CGM as described by Os Guiness is rather intact in this region without its ugly excesses. But that's just my opinion. More informed adults would know better.
But I want to blog about that quote. I would tend to agree with it. One of the powerful ideas of secularization was that it sort of knocked idol worship from where it stood in culture- as a superstition- which is what it is, even described as such in the Bible. (Read the prophets who decried the idolatry of the Israelites)
In a way of speaking, secularization with help from the explanatory power of science sort of beat the 'gods' to their game. It provided an apparent 'freedom' from the bondage of idols. Ok, seems good. So in that sense, modernity aids evangelism since we have at least on appearences killed one big enemy.
But I guess the type of 'Christianity' that would properly fit into a heart set free by the wonders of modernity is not in the same mould of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Quite simply, such a 'Christianity' needs to be 1) devoid of mystery, hence faith. 2) devoid of humility, since we can rely on our reasonining. 3) devoid of authority, since man is the center of his universe. In our efforts to evangelize, taking advantage of the space provided by modernity, caution needs to be taken so that we do not cookie cut the Kingdom Gospel to fit into the heart of modern man.
I guess any evangelism that is faithful must confront idols (literal) and also man's arrogance and sin before a holy God. Tough act, since the modernity is a minefield. And the most demoralizing thing about mines is that it maims rather than kills. But a gospel maimed is not different from a gospel killed, though it is mistakenly believed to be alive. Take for instance this proclamation:" God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." God loves me for sure, but a wonderful plan for my life? I'm not so sure about that. The above statement is certainly not mysterious, hardly any humility is needed to embrace it, and certainly is not about authority. If anything, it almost is left like an option to us whether or not we want to know this "wonderful plan". It all up to us: Doesn't it sound like the man at the center of his universe all over again? Of course we add the part about how sins separates us from God. But under that first premise, the evil and deciet of sin is easily trivialized.
Sigh...I've written quite a mouthful here. Take some time to chew on it.
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on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 at 10:11 PM.
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