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| Chicago's O'Hare Airport |
When church becomes an entertainment center biblical literacy is the first casualty. I'm so thankful we're not putting money into entertaining the people at Redeemer. A main goal of mine is to increase Jesus-literacy. So we preached through the 4 gospels over a period of 5 years. Now we are 5-yearing our way through the letters of Paul, emphasizing Pauline Christology.
The world doesn't offer this. We do. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "When the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first."
Church leaders don't want to be hated, so they focus on attracting more and more people. Swindoll says: "But if we're here to offer something the world can't provide, why would I want to copy the world? There is plenty of television. There are plenty of talk shows. There are plenty of comedians. But there is not plenty of worship of the true and living God."
Besides, "Jesus never suggested that crowds were the goal. He never addresses getting your church to grow. Never. So why is that the emphasis today?" I agree! At our Annual Family Gathering tonight I told my church family that I'd much rather be lean and influential than large and couch-potatoey.
