This is a great Will Willimon piece from 2003, but still very relevant:
When, in Seeker Services, do we pull out the cross? When, as we're touting all the benefits of choosing Jesus, do we also say to them, "By the way, Jesus said that anyone who bought into his message would also suffer and die."
Hat tip: Michael Spencer
Thursday, May 31, 2007
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3 comments:
I think this is one of the major problems with seeker churches. It is warm fuzzy Christainity. It is all dessert but no meat.
It's easy to fall into self-parody when being seeker sensitive. We must face that the seekers are also a generation that loves Pulp Fiction, anime, the Sopranos, gangsta rap, and other not-so-warm-and-fuzzy images.
Barbara Brown Taylor has a fantastic Good Friday sermon in which she talks about those roadside cross monuments, and reminds us that those crosses sit at the site of a bloody wreck - and Good Friday reminds us of the bloody wreck that took place on the cross 2000 years ago. Great stuff.
Sometimes I think "experiential" worship has to leave us feeling like we've been punched in the gut.
A good sermon can make you feel good, but it can also make you feel, as Will says "punched in the gut". We need hard, demanding teaching for both clergy and laity.
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