IT'S HARVEST TIME (10 OF 11)
by Keith Krell
Scripture: Matthew 9:35-38
This content is part of a series.
It's Harvest Time (10 of 11)
Series: Church Matters!
Keith Krell
Matthew 9:35-38
Two churches have made national news in the last three weeks. A church in Ohio is enmeshed in a battle with a strip joint. Every weekend church members visit the site, block traffic, take photos of the license plates of customers, and then post them on their ''shaming'' site. Apparently there's a fair amount of condemnation and verbal insult offered in the process. Consequently, the owner of the strip club, along with a couple of his dancers, set up shop outside the church on a Sunday morning, wearing bikinis and eating hamburgers. The pastor says now the church is really solidified, and will see it through to the end.
A church in Georgia is at war with a high school because their mascot is a demon. The church has been collecting signatures of protest saying that a pitchfork-wielding mascot sends the wrong message to teens. Yet, the students and the administration maintain that the mascot doesn't symbolize evil or Satanism. The principal says that the origin of the mascot is from a World War II fighter squadron out of their local military base. The school adopted the name in a show of patriotic honor to the squadron. The pastor says he's ready to fight for what he believes in. The school says it's ready to rumble, too.
What are your initial impressions of these churches? My personal opinion is that they are fighting the wrong battles. The desired actions hold little or no hope for any real or substantive change. Furthermore, these kinds of battles bring ridicule to the Christian faith and alienate the very people we should be trying to reach. Do you think those strippers want to go to that church, after their livelihood is threatened and they are called names? Not hardly. One of the strippers, a married mother of six, says she was tired of being called a ''homewrecker and a whore.'' She views the members of the church as hypocrites, and their offers of salvation are reje ...
Series: Church Matters!
Keith Krell
Matthew 9:35-38
Two churches have made national news in the last three weeks. A church in Ohio is enmeshed in a battle with a strip joint. Every weekend church members visit the site, block traffic, take photos of the license plates of customers, and then post them on their ''shaming'' site. Apparently there's a fair amount of condemnation and verbal insult offered in the process. Consequently, the owner of the strip club, along with a couple of his dancers, set up shop outside the church on a Sunday morning, wearing bikinis and eating hamburgers. The pastor says now the church is really solidified, and will see it through to the end.
A church in Georgia is at war with a high school because their mascot is a demon. The church has been collecting signatures of protest saying that a pitchfork-wielding mascot sends the wrong message to teens. Yet, the students and the administration maintain that the mascot doesn't symbolize evil or Satanism. The principal says that the origin of the mascot is from a World War II fighter squadron out of their local military base. The school adopted the name in a show of patriotic honor to the squadron. The pastor says he's ready to fight for what he believes in. The school says it's ready to rumble, too.
What are your initial impressions of these churches? My personal opinion is that they are fighting the wrong battles. The desired actions hold little or no hope for any real or substantive change. Furthermore, these kinds of battles bring ridicule to the Christian faith and alienate the very people we should be trying to reach. Do you think those strippers want to go to that church, after their livelihood is threatened and they are called names? Not hardly. One of the strippers, a married mother of six, says she was tired of being called a ''homewrecker and a whore.'' She views the members of the church as hypocrites, and their offers of salvation are reje ...
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