ASSESSING CHURCH - WHAT TO LOOK FOR

LOOKING FOR HELP FROM THE WRONG SOURCE

I don’t mean to rag on any individual or group desiring to help congregations but … I can’t help myself. I read with dismay the list of services being offered to churches by a consulting team. Like countless other consulting services, this team has developed strategies based upon working with some of America’s most innovative and fastest growing churches, which if applied to other churches, will unfailingly produce the same cutting edge outcomes. That’s the expectation.

BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION OR GRACE

Listen, I have gone to church since I was a boy. I have a good idea of what I heard then, what I trained to say, and what I hear now. I have been a participant in countless ecclesiastical programs and discussions. We tend to emphasize external change and obedience and underemphasize grace. We preach grace but are sort of afraid of it, lest it lead to recklessness.