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Pastor's E-Devotional

One of my favorite preachers is Barbara Brown Taylor. Barbara is an Episcopal priest, teacher, and preacher of renown. She was noted in Newsweek as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English speaking world. In her book Bread of Angels she writes:

After careful consideration of Jesus’ harder sayings, I have to conclude that he would not have made a good parish minister. So much of the job depends on making it easy for people to come to church and rewarding for them to stay. Talk to any of the church growth experts and they will tell you how important it is to create a safe, caring environment where people believe their concerns will be heard and their needs will be met. The basic idea is to find out what people are looking for and to give it to them, so that they decide to stay put instead of continuing to shop for a church down the street.

I agree with Barbara. The constant pressure is to “grow the church.” Yet we are called to follow. Jesus; even when Jesus’ words conflict with our worldview. The American ideal of Christians as upstanding and good-hearted citizens is in play here. The hard thing is to realize there is a growing number of people that are not only “not-religious” but religious ways of thought are foreign to them. I believe the church is in peril, anytime it strays too far from Jesus’ words.

So instead of telling you God wants to bless you and that means monetarily – I would rather quote “Pick up your cross and follow me daily.” One is technically somewhat true but not the whole truth. Christianity without the cross is not Christianity at all.

Yours in Christ,
Wayne