An excellent quote from Steve McVey’s June issue of “Grace Vine”
Amen and Amen Steve !!!
In the past few months a fair number of people have either emailed or commented to me about the emphasis I’m giving to the need for a grace revolution — an uprising among those of us who understand the grace walk and who believe that now is the time to come together to make a concerted, united effort to bring the pure, undiluted grace of God back to the forefront in our world.
Recently the religion editor of USA TODAY interviewed me. The article was about Paul Young’s book, The Shack Unlike many religious leaders who have criticized the book, I have publicly affirmed it and recommended it. (You can read the USA TODAY article on my May 29 blog online.)
Something I found noteworthy in the published article was the statistic that only three out of ten people in America attend church every Sunday. Yet, The Shack has risen in popularity to the place of number one on the NY Times Best Seller List. That means a lot of people who don’t go to church love that book. That fact tells me something that I hope you see too.
People are tired of the stale, worn-out expression of what they’ve known in the past as Christianity. That has to be why they don’t go to church. On the other hand, there is a great hunger to know the love of God. I believe that’s why The Shack has skyrocketed like it has done.
I want to be very clear about this — I love and support the church of Jesus Christ. I know many godly pastors and local churches that passionately keep Christ as their focus. Having said that as plainly as I know how, I have no doubt that some will still accuse me of being anti-church — a ridiculous charge since I spend most of my time ministering in local, traditional churches. I’ve never told anybody to leave his particular church and I never will. (I have written in general terms about getting out of legalistic churches with autocratic leadership, where grace can’t even be shared.)
The sad reality, though, is that many churches are not expressing authentic Christianity. That’s not intended to be a slam against anybody. It just is what it is. Many churches are built more around personalities and programs than on Christ. Go to some churches and you’ll see more excitement about their programs and plans than you see about Jesus. Listen to what they talk about and emphasize. You’ll see, if you haven’t already.
They’re ChristianMalls that market Jesus for one reason — to attract customers to the Mall. Call me cynical if you want, but I’ve seen this growing trend over the past years. Experts like George Barna (the religious trends guru who wrote Revolution) confirm what I’m seeing.
Some have suggested that I may offend people with the direct approach I’ve taken lately. Offending people isn’t my goal. In fact, I’d rather not do that. Just like you, I like to be liked. The fact is, though, that those who put popularity above being true to what they believe is a God-given mission doesn’t usher in revolutions and I want to be a revolutionary — in the right sense of the word.