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The beating heart of the ministry of Jesus and the early church is encounter and relationship. Not theory. Yes, doctrine is important. Experience without sound doctrine is blind. But doctrine without experience is empty.
From my POV young people who leave the church are doing so due to the emptiness of teaching without encounter and experience. What people need is the Lord, with them, and not mere teaching that God is with them.
Hwa Yung has written:
"A 21st-century reformation will demand reinserting the supernatural into the heart of Christianity. This will result not only in a sounder biblical theology but also a more powerful missional church. The world will then understand what Jesus meant when he said, "But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matt. 12:28, ESV)."
- Hwa Yung, "A 21st Century Reformation: Recover the Supernatural," christianitytoday.com, Sept. 2010
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