Monday, April 21, 2003

My Easter weekend was relaxing and enjoyable. Saturday afternoon and evening, we had all of the family over for games, hunting for eggs, and watching the Suns WIN! Sunday morning was church, of course. The music was very good because the choir was so huge (90 people or so). The message on the other hand...


I am seriously concerned about the "gospel" Pastor Jones preached. He focused on the hope that the resurrection of Christ gives us. He spoke about the hope of heaven and pointed out that Christians can use this hope to cope with the problems of this world. Then he used that point to motivate people to believe in Christ. While I agree that hope is a blessing of Christianity I hardly think it is the Biblical gospel. Conspicuously absent from the message was any conviction of sin through the preaching of the Law. Like Luz said, sinners need to be told that they are sinners. The only mention of sin was in the closing "sinner's prayer" that Pastor Jones led...not quite the emphasis on sin I would expect in a gospel message. I will be praying for the elders and pastors and will probably e-mail Pastor Jones to express my thoughts and see if I misunderstood what he was saying.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Paul,
I too worry about the lack of focus on sin in the Christian world today.  Yes, we are freed from it by our saviour's work, but it still exists in our lives, thus, we need to continue to be convicted of it so we'll  change those parts of our lives.
I too have been a part of an ongoing debate from a more "free grace" scenario versus "faith alive."  Basically, the idea is that for some reason if you're a free grace guy, you can to the extreme of conversion to buddhism after Saving Christian faith -- and still be saved.  I hope my position is clear -- I think that is like "trampling on the grace" discussed in Hebrews. 
Not to open that can of worms, but really, I am glad someone else agrees that we, as Christians, should face the sin we do have like the men/women God empowers us to be in His Spirit. 
Kudos, and hope all is well.
Dustin