Thursday, January 04, 2007

Series - The Life of a Christian

I am working on a new series that will examine the Evangelical community within the West (primarily in the North American context). I want to look at how we live, how we SHOULD be living, and address some of the things that concern me.

There are many in the blogsphere who have covered this; probably more ably than I will, but I feel compelled to address some of these concerns. One of the reasons is the recent spate of nonsense from many pastors who have encouraged their congregations to not only act like the world but to seek acceptance for their actions from the world! I am not linking to any examples: this tends to polarize the discussion around personalities instead of issues.

There are more and more hi-profile (and, I am sure, low-profile) pastors who seem to think that it is our mandate to become more hip, cool and worldly than our pagan neighbors; all in the name of being 'relevant'. While I agree that being Luddites, and sticking our metaphorical heads in the sand, is incorrect, I also believe that there are many in the so-called evangelical community who have extended the 'relevancy' mindset to condone any type of behavior that gets them press!

The second reason for covering this is the recent, and growing, backlash against Christianity from within the U.S. This is a backlash created, in many ways, by the worldly living of Evangelical leaders who are seeking political, and societal, power, prestige and position. This has caused some within the secular community to overreact. You may read a snippet of this mindset here. While I believe that it is the right and responsibility of Christians to be involved in the democratic process in the U.S., I feel that many have gone well beyond being involved and now are attempting to exhert their nascent 'political muscle', all the while living in a manner which they condemn in their pagan neighbors.

So, with these two items in mind, I now embark on this series. I pray that I will be Godly, Biblical, and even-handed in my posts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good opening comments. I look forward to this series!

Happy new year, my brother!
steve :)

Ray said...

And Happy New Year to you, my friend!

Ray said...

Dan,

You brought much inspiration to me over the past few years -- I appreciate the visit; I just hope that I can be balanced and Biblical.

Ray