The way a ministry deals with the “sin issue” may have something to do with the kind of calling or ministry DNA the Lord has called them to operate in. One of my pastor friends has several thousand members in his “seeker friendly” church. He said about a quarter to a third of his congregation are cohabitating with someone they are not married to. He doesn’t try to convict them through sermons because he is trying to develop a trusting relationship with them so they will allow the other ministry leaders to address their moral issues later in their home groups. He’s not trying to clean the fish until he knows he really has them in the boat.
Some of my other pastor friends see that philosophy as compromising the Word of God. They clearly see it as watering down the Gospel in order to draw larger crowds. They believe it to be the main reason why the American Church has become so worldly and unable to positively affect the culture. They also believe these ministers are spineless and fear man more than they fear God. They confidently say nobody in their church of 200 is sleeping around, because they are the “real” believers.
Ironically, one pastor boasts that they had hundreds of sinners in their church last Sunday, while the other minister boasts that they had no sinners in service last Sunday. Each ministry leader has a different idea of what a “ministry homerun” looks like. They are both standing at different stages along God’s ministry assembly line (see our book “The Inner Journey” for more on this Assembly Line). Some are dealing with the raw materials of lost souls by drawing them closer to the boat; others are fine tuning the people by calling them to live the Christian life. Can you see where each ministry may have a different role to play? Can you see your own ministry in this scenario?
You may want to look at the chart in our article about Unchurching to see what kind of church you are currently attending.
Excerpt from “What In Hell… Is Going On?”
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