>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dea5315@... [mailto:Dea5315@...]
>Sent: Wednesday, 25 February 2004 8:00 AM
>To: soundofgrace@...
>Subject: [soundofgrace] faith comes by HEARING
>
>Dear List,
>
>As you can tell this subject bothers me a great deal because I believe
as
>evangelical Christians we're heading right into our very own dark age.
>
>Faith comes by HEARING and hearing by the word of God.
>
>You're actually proving my point for me in this.  That somehow the
boring
>old medium of preaching just isn't getting the job done so we need to
turn
>to movies, and make it exciting and controversial in order to win
souls.
>
>


David, David, David,

(Someone said Jeff Jeff Jeff to me in a post just recently and I think
it might have been you!)

But let me pour out my heart to you (and anyone who listens):

While I do not want to put Mel Gibson beyond the pale as some seem to
want to do here - Barnabas is one of my biblical heroes! - I have to say
that it really worries me, this very trend away from a proper preaching
of the gospel and a movement toward those things which are supposedly
more educational, more engaging, more effective (ha! ha!) than good -
dare I say it? - old fashioned preaching!

So David I really agree with those sentiments above.

Last night I went to our church's business meeting. We heard presented a
vision! They want to be relevant! They want to encourage care among the
brethren! They want to reach out to the community.

Nothing said about ministry of the word and preaching. Nothing said
about pastoral care whereby the pastor or some competent church leader
enters people's homes and listens and engages and confronts with the
gospel of Jesus Christ. These things are apparently outdated.

Yet for all the talk the church seems to be just plain irrelevant to so
many young people. It is all I can do to get my son to a service. My
daughter feels on the outer. My stepdaughter I found out today is doing
drugs and has her three children to look after.

So yes David as you say

That somehow the boring
>old medium of preaching just isn't getting the job done so we need to
turn
>to movies, and make it exciting and controversial in order to win
souls.

We want to be relevant but cannot see the wood for the trees. The most
relevant thing today IS the preaching of the gospel.

God bless,
Jeff