Thursday, February 27, 2014

Cameron Cole: What We’re Saying When We Don’t Mention the Gospel


Two of my couple friends have moved to new cities in the last few months and tried out new churches with disappointing results. One couple attended a church with a conservative bent where the pastor spent the sermon railing against liberal churches and their position on sexuality. The other couple sampled a mainline Protestant church, where the pastor’s message was that we are the “salt and light” just by being ourselves.

The obvious problem at both churches: There was no Gospel in the message.

A nice lady gave me a series of CDs from her church that included her pastor’s five-week explication of Song of Solomon. He did a great job teaching on the meaning of each verse in context and ended with a passionate exhortation for everyone to commit more effort to improving his or her marriage.

It was a well-intentioned sentiment, but the sermons contained one problem: there was no Gospel in the message.

In most seasons, stories such as these disappoint me, but, given my life circumstances over the last quarter, they enrage me. I am literally left feeling ill. Keep reading

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