While I Mused the Fire Burned- "Sacred Cows Make Good Hamburger" #2

     Recently I talked about a number of biblical values that the western Church has contextualized to the point of syncretism that has forced us further and further away from biblical patterns of behavior.  In the first blog I said that "we have sacrificed transformation for culturally-determined "sacred cow" practices. I gave three Sacred Cows which need to be turned into hamburger ( see "Sacred Cows Make Good Hamburger" #1).  Here are three more.

     4.  Proliferation of church property dedicated to no one but those already Christian. 

American evangelicals are preoccupied with church buildings and massive building projects. Most of our edifices serve only us while failing to focus on serving others, particularly the have nots of the world. What are we doing to serve the needs of the larger community, especially those who are hurting and in need?  The Christian habit is to build to meet Christian needs. Perhaps this is the most significant evidence of an earthly culture at work conforming the church to the world. In much of the unreached world, church buildings are neither possible or affordable and yet the church is growing at a rapid rate in such areas. Today's believers must conceive of a church system that exists and thrives in the absence of buildings. 

     5.  Education as sufficient preparation for ministry without character development and 

           competence in disciple-making. 

Medicine is one of the few professions where mentoring or discipleship is a common and indispensable practice. Following medical school, a doctor goes through an internship, residency and specialized training, so why is it normal and necessary to train and mentor doctors so meticulously yet something as important  as communicating the gospel is treated so cavalierly?  Seminary education is vital, but learning the art of disciple making and learning to live truth is supreme. We should demand that disciples make disciples as a part of their vocational preparation. We must expect that one who is ministering must live out truth through a holy lifestyle. 

     6.  Understanding the "gospel" as primarily an issue of salvation. 

In a recent book, Scot McKnight says, "evangelism today is obsessed with getting someone to make a decision; the apostles , however, were obsessed with making disciples. Evangelism that focuses on decisions short circuits the design of the gospel..."  When people become Jesus followers their entire lives change. In spiritual terms, they see Jesus and do what they have been meant to do before the foundations of time; they fall on their knees and confess, "My Lord and my God."  What happens next in their lives is discipleship. No one can call himself a follower of Jesus and not be changed into His likeness. Matthew 28 tells us to go and make disciples of all ethne, not disciples of a culturally conformed North American church. Far from simply making decisions we must fulfill God's eternal purpose by being a disciple and making disciples. 

     Sacred Cows make good hamburger. We will never be free from the problems that cultural Christianity breeds unless we deal with these problems at their root. In an alien culture such as post modern America, it is easy to be squeezed into the world's mold, but we must rather follow the admonition of the apostle as he urged, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." (Romans 12:2).