I was in a pretty big church the other day for Sunday morning service. It was pretty normal I suppose- stand up sing, sit down pray, listen to sermon, go home and eat...nothing out of the ordinary.
As I was flipping through the bulletin during the sermon I came across a section entitled "Steps to Peace with God". It did a pretty good job of outlining redemptive history in 3 sentences or so (does anyone else think that is a problem?) which included God's plan for peace and life, our problem and separation from God and God's remedy- the cross. Of course, once one understands redemptive history in this brief context, the opportunity for response is given: Admit, Repent, Believe, Receive. (I'm surprised it wasn't an acronym- something as easy as ABC...)
Regardless, that is all okay and I don't disagree that all of those things are part of the Christian life, however then came the good old sinners prayer...
Now, I know this isn't in the Bible but just in case someone who read this didn't know what to do or say after reading this and was apparently being convicted by the Holy Spirit to respond, they had a prayer to say that would seal the deal. The legitimacy of the sinners prayer aside, the funniest part of this whole thing is that right underneath this prayer it said, "Used by permission of 'insert well known evangelical association here', All rights reserved".
All rights reserved?
All rights reserved!
This is part of the problem. Like a good Western company they sought to monopolize, patent and reserve the rights to a prayer--a conversation with the Almighty God! Can you imagine this conversation between clergy and a recent convert... "Thank you for praying this prayer, if you could please just send a letter of recognition to this association for allowing you to be part of the kingdom"
Of course this wouldn't be an issue if we didn't reduce the story of redemption and the kingdom life to a prayer. When did this happen? How did this happen?
Where is God?
What are we doing?
What has the gospel become?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment