Sublime

God can give and God can take away. Will we trust the increase or curse the decrease, or will we say, “Blessed be the name of the LORD?” The way we are typically programmed to measure the success of our ministries sets us up for hollow victory and desperate failure. But this is not to say we should never do any measuring. It is only to say that

Every week people file into our church services aching for eternity. In our zeal to provide something they may find comfortable and useful and inoffensive, are we offending the God who wishes to offend us in awe of his glory? Are we dismissing our brother Jesus, whose formula for victory includes crucifixion?

Lots of people can preach the gospel better than you; but nobody can preach a better gospel than you if yours is the true one. We are all on level ground at the foot of the cross. The question is, can you talk about it plainly and personally? This is a necessity for every disciple of Christ, so there must be a gift of teaching required for pastors

The sociologists state candidly their basic conclusion: the congregations that reared these young people offered them no compelling reasons or training about how and why “Christianity is special” (Hoge, 13-18).

Church just isn’t a priority for me.