Many of you know that each week, on Monday, a weekly article which reflects on leadership, the church and Christ’s mission is sent to several thousand subscribers. This article is longer than my daily blogs. It often represents ideas I am pondering that will be turned into books as time passes and people respond. A new series begins tomorrow. If you are not a subscriber check out back issues and sign up for regular mailings at the ACT 3 website.
During the last few months of 2010 I wrote a series on the danger of ideology to the mission of the church. I am convinced that this danger is very real and very serious. But far too few of our leaders recognize it and even fewer prepare people to actually deal with it. In my final article I wrote about the danger of ideology, pro and con, in a democracy like that America. A longtime friend, who is a big supporter of me and my work, wrote the following response to this article. I share it because it shows the kind of helpful thinking that some readers make when they read this kind of material.
One of the differences in our perspectives is What grieves me most is that the conservative, evangelical churches don't seem to understand how this works in America and instead are still trying to rally Christians to take the country back to some supposed "christian" past. I don't believe any amount of trying to convince them they are wrong will have any affect. That is why I decided to stay out of these cultural battles for the most part and do what I believed every faithful minister of Christ is called to do. Preach and teach while living and modeling the whole Gospel of Christ: preach Christ and seek to live the crucified/risen life of a branch vitally united to The True Vine of God on earth. That is why your fellowship in missional ecumenism is so precious to me and others, especially in America. From this response you can see how much readers help me to think and write better. This brother has served me in untold ways and his voice was very much in the background of my book, Your Church Is Too Small.
The year before us (2011) looks to be intense in all the different ideologies represented in our American context. I take your ACT 3 Weekly to then be a prophetic call to the churches to be more diligent than ever to "make their calling and election" certain as a priority, and that includes the element of our unity in One, Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic, body.
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