Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Quote for the day

"The evangelical church must shoulder much of the blame for the drainage of scriptural knowledge from our society, a knowledge that was commonplace only a few decades ago. Far too concerned with excellence in our musical productions, entertainment of our young people, and creation of worshipful experiences, we have all but neglected the systematic teaching of the Word. Surely our churches are still bulging with Bible studies, lectures and even sermons, but it is becoming increasingly rare to find the Word of God maintaining its centrality in the Christian community. Bible studies are often a mere sharing of ignorance, sermons are seldom expository and pastors and conference speakers work hard at keeping their audience happy and meeting their felt needs. Ministers are being trained, not to be shepherds of the flock, but presidents of a corporation. As a result, not only is the unbeliever ignorant of the Word, but often the Christian also is as well. Ignorant Christians live foolish lives as they bounce from mystical experience to entertaining programming in hopes of finding an anchor. A return to the priority of the Word is the great need of the moment." -Gary E. Gilley,