C.S. Lewis called this "Good Pretending."
“As practical imperatives for here and now, the two great commandments have to be translated ‘Behave as if you loved God and man.’”
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”
Women entering the workforce has completely destroyed quality of life for Americans
1. Two incomes became the new one income.
Once everyone had to work, employers and banks raised prices. Houses doubled. Families didn’t get ahead. They just ran harder to stay in place.
2. Kids got raised by institutions instead of parents.
Daycare replaces bonding. Schools replace values. Screens replace discipline. Then everyone wonders why kids are anxious and disconnected.
3. Communities disappeared.
If both parents work all day, nobody is home. No neighborhood stability. No local support. Just isolated families worn out from the grind.
4. Stress shot through the roof.
Two commutes, two schedules, no downtime, constant rushing. Marriages crack under nonstop exhaustion.
5. Divorce became the easy option.
Two incomes make it simple to leave instead of fix problems. The family foundation got weaker.
6. Birthrates collapsed.
If both parents are working 50 hours a week, having more than one or two kids is almost impossible. Entire generations are shrinking.
7. Government filled the void.
When no one is home, institutions step in. Schools. Daycare. After school programs. Healthcare systems. Government support. Weak homes create more state dependence.
8. Men lost purpose.
A man’s historical role to build, protect, and provide got diluted. Many men checked out. Society suffers when men have nothing to fight for.
9. Women were sold a false dream.
They were told a career and a boss would make them happier than raising their children or building a family. Now we have record levels of burnout, depression, and regret.
10. Families turned into roommates.
Everyone works. Everyone is tired. No one has energy for each other. The home stopped being a team and became a collection of exhausted individuals.
"The highest of missionary motive is
neither obedience to the Great Commission
(important as that is),
nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing
(strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God),
but rather zeal — burning and passionate zeal — for the glory of Jesus Christ."
—John R. W. Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World (IVP, 1994), 53.
@greggilbert Preaching is only one aspect of faithful shepherding. To say that AI will replace pastors is like saying a recorded lullaby can replace a mother’s embrace — it may replicate the sound, but not the soul.
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Church “hurt” is inevitable on this side of the resurrection. Much grace, patience, and forgiveness are needed. Christ provides it!
But wounds inflicted by grossly negligent and/or abusive church leaders run especially deep. They bring a special kind of disrepute to the name of Christ.
Dear wounded sheep: Your Chief Shepherd sees you, knows you, and loves you. He is not like those leaders. And you can believe that our Lord will deal severely with every unjust and ungodly under-shepherd.
Also, you don’t have to stay in that church under that leadership.
Assuming you’ve fulfilled every Scriptural obligation toward your leaders, you are free in Christ to flee wicked leaders into another fold with faithful shepherds.
Resist cynicism. Don’t punt. Contrary to your experience, not all churches and church leaders are this way.
The best way to heal from a disorderly church is in the care of healthy church.
Our church confessionally locates itself within the broadly Reformed tradition.
We are aware that there are problematic teachers, schismatic dividers, and worldly grifters who claim the same confession and tradition.
Our pastors have learned from experience that followers of such pop-teachers will come to our confessional church THINKING we’re all like-minded, unless…
Knowing their influences, we lovingly TELL them otherwise before they come into membership:
“Brother/sister, we’re glad you’ve benefited from the ministry of our church and are interested in coming into our membership, but since these are your influences, you should know up front that…
“If you’re committed to this or that particular teacher on this or that particular issue related to marriage, culture, race, politics, etc, we not only disagree with those teachers on these issues, but will teach and preach our confessional standards in a way that often implicitly, but sometimes explicitly, opposes them.
“Knowing this, if you’re interested in learning more about our concerns, we would be eager to slow down the membership process and discuss these things in detail with you.
“But if you’re so committed to these teachers and their teachings on these issues that you might feel a conscientious need to *militate against* our church’s teaching on these matters, then we may need to encourage you to find another more like-minded church, because
“You’re probably gonna end up having a difficult time pursuing the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace in this church.”
Some will call this narrow and divisive. But good Pastors know they have a responsibility to guard the flock from church-harming and church-splitting error (even if doing so slows the church’s numerical growth).
A deliberate membership process, including membership interviews, is helpful toward these ends.
Because trust me: Detonating that grenade BEFORE they come into your church’s membership is way better than having it go off a year or two into their membership when other people are potentially taken out with them.
Southern Baptists would benefit from a lesson in church history. During the denominational battles over liberalism in the 1900’s, the group that was the most destructive to biblical denominations was the moderate middle. The middle was basically theologically conservative but they were unwilling to stand with truth and with the denomination’s confession of faith against their existing relationships. Over time, the PCUSA, the Episcopal Church, the National Lutheran church and many others all fell to liberalism, while the moderates said “We believe the Bible and orthodoxy, but we don’t want to be harsh and enforce it too radically.” The consistent biblical Christians were driven out. And then the moderates found themselves in denominations with liberals. And just as the moderates could not find it in themselves to stand against creeping liberalism, they couldn’t find it in themselves to stand against liberalism at all. The result was that even the moderates had no home anymore. And now they had no power to do anything about it.
Finally, the presenting issue was always women pastors. That was the camel’s nose in the tent. We know from history that when denominations in the 1900’s failed to stand on this issue, it was always a bellwether, a harbinger of things to come, indicating a certain decline into full blown liberalism. The liberals know these facts too. Southern Baptists would do well to understand this.
So apparently some people are surprised and/or think it’s controversial that I’m Reformed? Shouldn’t be. Anyone familiar with historic Reformed Protestantism should clearly see that my academic, theological, evangelistic, and apologetic methodology and motivation all stems from the particular heritage that I stand within. One, might I add, thoroughly and completely rooted in scripture itself as its motivating principle and director.
You can find this and all my other infographics at https://t.co/Q0HRwRFejS.
@lukestamps Would be interesting to see some integration of social media into a class like this. TikTok as a platform has a LOT of theological debate happening and a lot of bad theology is put out even by “Christians”