White Washed Tombs

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Mt 23:27-28 NRSV)

This passage has always been interesting to me. It's part of the 7 woes Jesus describes to the "religious" of the day. I've acted as a Pharisee myself from time to time. Odds are, my local church contains people with Pharisaical attitudes. Yours? The same.

Ed Stetzer has a great interview here with Kary Oberbrunner in regards to Christianity and Culture. It's worth checking out. Let me know what you think.

What's the role of the Church within culture?

The North American Church

From time to time, I check out church research "guru" Ed Stetzer's blog. You can find it here. The most recent trend Stetzer points to is evangelical churches in North America forgetting their mission of sharing the Gospel message and replacing it with a "twelve step program for inner peace." The results have been a lack of importance for evangelism in the North American church.

Stetzer's biggest concern is Christians have lost confidence in the Gospel. In other words, we've moved past the good news of Christ providing restoration, hope, and love to a dying cosmos. We've begun to see salvation more as a individual blessing and for that reason, the challenges in people's lives and meeting those challenges (recovery groups, benevolence ministries, etc.) have taken the lead over the power of the cross. For that reason, the church in North America in is decline. Those "outside our walls" become complacent, apathetic, or skeptical about what goes on inside the church - that is, until a practical problem arises in their lives. The North American church has become a therapy center rather than a place to understand the Gospel.

What are your thoughts?