Sunday, March 23, 2008

Quote For the Day - Spurgeon

"The mission of amusement produces no converts.
The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship
joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other
as fruit from the root. The need is BIBLICAL DOCTRINE,
so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire." --CH Spurgeon

3 comments:

Marc said...

Excellent. He nailed it. That should be the theme thruout the church but unfortunately it is not.

Dee Martin said...

Then how do we fix that? I don't believe it's necessarily more programming - programs are great but they only get people in the door and entertain for a short time. They take a lot of work to maintain and the actual spiritual growth in my experience isn't as deep or long lasting as we would like.

We need sound doctrine (and I do not mean the Discipline), sound teaching, and prayer.

I think that having programs without those things is like inviting people to a banquet where the food on the table is actually that fake stuff they make for photographs for commercials. Great looking - but no sustenance. Imagine how you would feel if you came home from work and that's what Wendy had fixed for supper?

I also believe that the gospel is a powerful thing and that it is only when we as humans try to "help" it along too much that it loses that power. If it is presented in a way people can remember then the presenter can get out of the way and let God do the work. I hope I can remember that next week!

Marc said...

You are correct. Programs are not the answer. They are just a piece of the puzzel. Sound biblical doctrinal teaching is the answer. I believe that church leadership should have all teachers and leaders in the church go thru some sort of laity training on this. I feel inadequate at times when I am teaching. I believe that this would translate better into church programs, etc. I have asked for this for myself, to try to improve my scriptural knowledge base and teaching abilities. I would like to be so much better at expressing GOD's truths. But there is unfortunately no agressive pursuit of laity empowerment at this time.