Are you a fisher of men or a "Keeper of the aquarium"? The Christian church in middle-class America has moved, in Sam Shoemaker’s words, from being “fishers of men” to being “keepers of the aquarium.” While we may not say it so obviously, many live as though the Church’s purpose is to make sure that Christians are happy and content. We focus on our own spiritual health, our own fellowship and our own doctrinal purity, often at the expense of interaction with the world. We shy away from engagement: we move out of the city; we abandon hope in public school systems; we start Christian organizations as alternatives to the secular world. While these actions often start as tools for the better equipping of the people of God, they often result in disengagement and a move towards privatized faith and irrelevant Christianity. Christian organizations, Christian schools and universities, and Christian home-schooling lose their focus if we forget the goal—to strengthen the saints so that we might be sent back out into the world as salt and light and as those who transmit the “aroma of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15) to our world.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 21:06:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015