Posted on 02/05/2013 7:47:25 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
AT A NATIONAL MEETING of youth ministers, the key role of the local church is emphasized.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Love Jesus.
Tolerate the church.
At a time when Americans’ confidence in organized religion has hit a 40-year low, that mindset seems particularly prevalent among younger Christians.
At the recent National Conference on Youth Ministries, Scot McKnight — one of the keynote speakers — challenged what he described as the modern tendency to lift up social justice efforts as “kingdom work.”
“It’s like a tsunami, beginning to overtake the church, and the church is losing significance in local communities because Christians are devoted to changing the world through the political process,” said McKnight, a prominent evangelical New Testament scholar and popular blogger.
Showing compassion, feeding the homeless and working for peace are good causes, but kingdom work involves introducing people to Jesus and his church, McKnight told 285 youth ministers from Churches of Christ in 30 states.
That message struck a chord with some of the youth ministers who gathered at the Crowne Plaza Colorado Springs — in the shadow of Pikes Peak.
“We’ve swung so far from the door-knocking days that we’ve forgotten to actually door-knock on the hearts of people and give them the message of Christ,” said Lee Langdon, youth minister for the Alameda Church of Christ in Norman, Okla. “Reestablishing that into the hearts of our teens and into their own missions is going to be important.”
However, McKnight’s attempt to distinguish social justice efforts from kingdom work did not resonate with everyone....
(Excerpt) Read more at christianchronicle.org ...
Ping
John 12:3-9 Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. 4 Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said: 5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? 6 Now he said this not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief and, having the purse, carried the things that were put therein. 7 Jesus therefore said: Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always.
The First Commandment is the First for a reason.
Solve the Christ problem and the rest will solve themselves.
Thanks for posting. I just sent it to the Pastor of my church which is largely made up of students from a local Chrisitan college.
“Social Justice” is simply another Satanic front and misappropriation of language to promote the religion of Socialism and Marxism.
Confusing service for the sake of supposedly ‘righting societal wrongs’ IS NOT the Gospel Jesus preached. In this country - introducing Jesus is somewhat of a misnomer when what is really needed here is more in the Faith showing others who have grown secular and/or indifferent - “This is the way - walk in it”.
That said, ladyL - as someone who observes the biblical Feasts of the Lord and Keeps His Commandments - I would advise that bashing others on the head with the bible will only earn resentment and not a single person will you lead to repentance.
I’m speaking from experience on that score.
Be careful. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is NOT about keeping the Sabbath or Holy Days. There is no salvation in keeping them.
We keep them because we love Him and because it is how we show our obedience, but they in of themselves are not a path to either Salvation or repentance. They point to Christ, and therefore they are important in the plan of redeeming mankind back to The Father.
However, the Hebrew Roots/Messianic/Sabbatarian congregations continue to focus on the wrong issues that would help this nation pull off a Nineveh. For all the calls to repent and return to the keeping of Days and Hebrew traditions, it is Christ and Him Crucified and Matthew 28:19-20 that are left out in the cold in their message.
We have condoned, permitted or were indifferent to the slaying of an entire generation of Americans in the womb. We have done little to nothing to stand against homosexual impositions even within the church itself. Innocent blood and abominations after turning the eyes are far more critical to our judgment than a people raised in traditions grafted into the faith over millennia.
What is th Gospel of the Kingdom?
What dothey mean by “social justice” in the church world. Either I’m not understanding what they’re talking about or it’s. not being pushed in my circles.
What did Jesus preach?
Did He preach the story of Himself as so much of the churches today preach?
What did Jesus say was ‘at hand’ - and what were His instructions to His followers?
The political Leftists/Marxists have infiltrated the church with a new brand of political ideology - whereby they meld Christianity with Leftist activism and assert that Jesus was a Socialist. Their crusade is to 'rescue Christianity from the Right and put it in the province of the Left where it originated'.
They do this by attempting to convince Christians that to be good followers of Christ, we must embrace "social justice" which mixes the 'good works' aspect of Christianity (Sermon on the Mount) with Leftist ideology and political activism.
"Social Justice" is just another hijacking of our language to cloak evil in a mantle of light. Obama preaches this when he talks about 'collective salvation'. "Social Justice" is merely all the planks of the MarxoFascists being made into a moral imperative and therefore redefining morality to fit their 'change' of our society.
If that were the Gospel, then the Apostle Paul’s writings and the grafting in of Gentiles is a fraud.
The Gospel Jesus preached is not about a single physical nation.
This is why Hebrew Roots proponents essentially frame the Gospel as a path of salvation only through Judaism.
I reject such doctrine.
You will not win a single convert to Christ with such head-bashing.
Been there, done that.
Modern Pharisees and heresy are still the same today as they were in the days of Peter and Paul.
Try a little more Matthew 28:19-20.
Or not.
I’ll concede that your understanding of what constitutes the Gospel is not the same as mine.
No need to apologize. I understand very well the zeal one can have when one understands where many traditions have been grafted into the church, and the delight and better understanding of Christ one finds in observing the biblical holy days.
That said - the Sabbatarian/Messianic/Hebrew Roots culture is focusing on that which will not lead this culture to repentance. Neither are the bulk of these groups willing to get out of their boxes to engage in evangelism in places where the name of Jesus Christ has not even been heard yet.
In some ways, while we both understand that no man may come to Yeshua unless Adonai draw them, these groups themselves are blinded by what can only be called rabid anti-churchianity. Christ and Him crucified is less important than preaching against the errors of historical Christianity and proving tradition unbiblical. While it may be the truth - it is still not the Gospel that leads to Salvation. Christ our atonement is what is important to understand, leading to repentance in Him. If we love Him, we keep His commandments. It is as simple as that - but a message no longer preached here because every wind of doctrine is seemingly more important than what is growing the church in the third world.
Having lived in the cesspool of the third world, I’m stunned by the absolute indifference many of these groups have towards a work God is opening doors for them to serve in. Sadly, most would rather continue to focus on their pet doctrines and separate themselves from any and all who do not agree with their theology. The very things that contribute to their shrinking congregations here in the U.S.
We have to get back to preaching the core and repentance from wickedness. Because the church here in this country is so fractured over preaching doctrine - we have become so hopelessly divided and so lukewarm as to render our faith saltless in this age of evil we now live.
My prayer is for those of us with faith to endure what is coming - and while there is still some daylight left in which to be about Our Lord’s work in His Fields of Harvest - that we are found so doing.
Thanks. Would you mind giving me an example?
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