Meanwhile, back the the Church of the Lost Pilgrims:
Disclaimer: Like in Bunyan's or any allegory, the characters and places in the following scene do not represent any particular place or person, only similar settings and personas illustrating such a similitude as required for a contemporary reader to discern characteristics applicable to heed the cautions for our journey from this world to the Celestial City of the next.
Formalist was the lead Elder of my former church. Hypocrisy was one of his Deacons who The Reverend Doctor Formalist appointed for the menial tasks of the building.
When Dr. Formalist-founder retired from the brick-built church in the middle of our town square, Ms. Mary Catch-well, for she would not consent to be called by the surname of her husband, led him to the Free-of-the-gospel Church across town. Her husband Hypocrisy is now an Elder who meets monthly with Pastor Crown-church, renowned for his perfect sermons following the applause of The Special Effects, his electric professional praise band.
Ms. Mary, as they call her, makes certain that Pastor Crown-church does not get distracted by the weekly guests of the gathering (for we come and go freely in his church) and schedules the monthly meetings of the Elders behind the veil where all are sworn to secrecy not to disclose any of the strategic vision of Pastor Crown-church to ordinary church members.
The reason for the tremendous recent growth of the Free-of-the Gospel Church goes back to Pastor Crown-church’s vision and his secret strategies:
- Remove SCRIPTURE from the focus of Sunday.
- Replace the BIBLE with Pastor Crown-church’s vision for everyone to see.
- Take Scripture verses off the walls and projected screens of the church.
- REPLACE Scripture in preaching.
- Say, ‘THE BIBLE SAYS,” before the “Crown-church paraphrase” replacing what God’s word really does say.
- REPLACE expositional preaching with missional preaching concluding with a point to Pastor Crown-church’s Vision.
- Count the numbers including online visitors (but don’t reveal what they are or who they are to anyone).
Think Bunyan:
What Characters do you see at your church?
- Does your Pastor and Church Leadership see any progress of its Pilgrims?
- Does Scripture and Christ-centered Teaching draw the Faithful?
Is DOCTRINE a line in the sand for your local church?
Talk of JESUS .com
Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
Leave a Reply