Rich Stearns left a successful corporate career to lead the Evangelical Christian mission organization, World Vision. He offers an excellent word to the church in a recent piece on the Huffington Post’s religion page.
The essay is here.
Here’s a highlight:
While symbols can be important, we have focused perhaps too much on them instead of the underlying reality they reflect. Instead, we need to go back to the basics of living as disciples of Christ, living missionally for Christ and demonstrating the Gospel in tangible ways within our schools, workplaces and communities. While I would be happy to see the Ten Commandments back on the courthouse wall, the fight over symbolic issues is backfiring, alienating people from the truths of the gospel rather than attracting them to it. The kind of Christianity the world responds to is the authentic “love your neighbor” kind. Its appeal can’t be legislated through court battles and neither can courts stop its spread.
Go check out the rest. His book is The Hole in Our Gospel.
Also, World Vision puts out a Christmas catalog each year. Get the catalog and consider making it a part of your Christmas giving. I can’t think of many gifts Jesus would enjoy more!
Guy M Williams 