Redeeming Church Conflicts

A Multitude of Faithful, Risk-Taking, Plodders …

Yesterday, I was researching something for one of my pastors and I came across a bunch of emails from one of the hardest-working women in our little church. Her wisdom, wit, and passion (along with her faithful, long-term service to our church family) reminded me of one of my favorite Kevin DeYoung articles that I encourage you to read in its entirety: 

The Glory of Plodding

A few snippets to hopefully tempt you to click through:

The best churches are full of gospel-saturated people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God’s glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with relentless, often unnoticed, plodding consistency … That’s my dream for the church — a multitude of faithful, risk-taking plodders.

 

“It’s possible the church needs to change. Certainly in some areas it does. But it’s also possible we’ve changed — and not for the better. It’s possible we no longer find joy in so great a salvation. It’s possible that our boredom has less to do with the church, its doctrines, or its poor leadership and more to do with our unwillingness to tolerate imperfection in others and our own coldness to the same old message about Christ’s death and resurrection. It’s possible we talk a lot about authentic community but we aren’t willing to live in it.”

“Don’t give up on the church. The New Testament knows nothing of churchless Christianity. The invisible church is for invisible Christians. The visible church is for you and me. Put away the Che Guevara t-shirts, stop the revolution, and join the rest of the plodders. Fifty years from now you’ll be glad you did.”

 

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