I have been reading the book and was struck by the last paragraph and ending of chapter 1. Tim Keller says this, "Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day...We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think." (pg. 15,16)
This is a scary and powerful thought. It is scary because it could be true and it is powerful because it gives me something to work on in my life. I don't want to have a church or friends that are elder brothers. I pray that God will direct me to younger brothers who need Jesus. May God grant to us wisdom as we evaluate our lives throughout this book study. May we put to death the elder brother and younger brother in our lives and love the Father just because of who he is - our FATHER!
And may we attract both brothers to AGCC and see lives changed for the glory of God!
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I would like to discuss this issue/thought on May 17th since it seems to be one of the main points of the book and would be difficult to discuss thoroughly through a blog.
ReplyDeleteThis passage also really made me think about:
ReplyDelete1) how I may not represent Jesus to people in my life and need God's help to do so
2) how extremes on both ends of "catering" to younger brothers or older brothers apart from the gospel can be dangerous and lead to a post-modern way of engaging culture versus creating a self-righteous atmosphere
-Grace H