"Squishy Evangelicalism "

Kevin DeYoung writes about churches that seem to affirm the right things but something is wrong. He calls it "squishy evangelicalism." His list of ten things that go wrong in churches:

1. The mission of the church has gotten sidetracked.
2. The church has become over-accommodating.
3. The gospel is assumed.
4. There is no careful doctrinal delineation.
5. The ministry of the word is diminished.
6. People are not called to repentance.
7. There is no example of carefully handling specific texts of Scripture.
8. There is no functioning ecclesiology.
9. There is an almost complete disregard for church discipline.
10. The real problem is something other than sin and the real remedy is something other than a Savior.

Read the article If We Believe All the Same Things, Why Do Our Churches Seem So Different? for DeYoung's explanation of his ten points. His conclusion:

The evangelical church needs depth where it is shallow, thoughtfulness where it is pragmatic, and conviction where it has become compromised. A casual adherence to a formal set of basic doctrines does not guarantee real unity and does not ensure genuine spiritual strength.

How to Hurt Many

Michael McKinley shares Mike Minter's Anatomy of Conflict. It starts with "An offense occurs" and ends with "Many are hurt." According to McKinley, the turning point is step 5: "Suspicion on both sides develop." He says that once you get there, "it's pretty hard to pull out of the nose-dive."

By the way, #5 is not very far down the list. So please, please, please, if you're involved in the conflict, do what you can to stop the process as soon as possible.

God-Honoring Work

John Piper was asked in an interview about How to Glorify God at Work. Part of his answer:

Dependence. Go to work utterly dependent on God (Proverbs 3:5-6; John 15:5). Without him you can’t breathe, move, think, feel, or talk. Not to mention be spiritually influential. Get up in the morning and let God know your desperation for him. Pray for help.

Integrity. Be absolutely and meticulously honest and trustworthy on the job. Be on time. Give a full day’s work. “Thou shalt not steal.” More people rob their employers by being slackers than by filching the petty cash.

Skill. Get good at what you do. God has given you not only the grace of integrity but the gift of skills. Treasure that gift and be a good steward of those skills. This growth in skill is built on dependence and integrity. 

Piper has another half-dozen points in his post and acknowledges that there are more things to say about glorifying God in the workplace. What would you add to the list?

Tips on Evangelism

Martin Salter shares Tim Keller’s top 10 evangelism tips. Some people in the comments at his site questioned why there was nothing in the list about sharing the gospel. So read it as ten tips on how to reach out to others in order to share the gospel with them.

The Grace of Godly Self-Denial

From an article at Kairos Journal on what Christians should do to share more with those in need (What Should Christians Do about the “Have-nots?”):

In the debate over Christian social action, Sider and Schneider are both helpful but ultimately unsatisfying. Sider appears to be demanding more than Scripture itself, and his teaching borders on legalism. On the other hand, most believers in the Western world already enjoy their earthly acquisitions quite enough, thank you. They don’t need more encouragement from John Schneider.

Is there a sensible biblical balance? It’s possible, but only if Christians recover the lost grace of godly self-denial. In practical terms, this means every family disciplining themselves to a household budget that carefully plans the expenditure of income. Few things clear the senses like seeing finances in black and white. It shows where one’s treasure resides. An organized budget also helps one be mindful that it is a privilege to live where believers can not only “earn their own living” (2 Thess. 3:12) and pay “taxes to whom taxes are owed” (Rom. 13:7) but have enough left over to meet the needs of others. Families can pray for guidance about where their money would best be spent, whether locally or around the world. Many factors can play into the decision, but this much is certain: budgetary outlays should evidence the pinch of self-denial. After all, how much is spent by Christians on items that will inevitably be called by their proper name—frivolous junk?