Ten Contemporary Sacred Cows that need Tipping

Found this an interesting read this morning. 

1. Entertainment-based Sermons

Pastors/elders/teachers want to be liked. Some want to be liked so much that they’re willing to entertain their hearers while preaching the Bible. They wrongly assume that because people enjoy their sermons, they enjoy Jesus as well. The problem is that if we’re seeking to entertain our hearers, then we don’t believe God or Scripture can hold the attention of God’s people. In other words, you may say “the Bible is worthy of your attention,” but if you’re using entertainment to communicate this, then you’re undercutting your message with your methods. If the Bible is worthy to be heard because God is its Author, then you shouldn’t have to use entertainment to get Christians to listen to it. You just might be entertaining your hearers to death.

2. Bribes

Easter Sunday was just a few weeks ago. With the heightened cultural interest in the resurrection of Christ, churches pulled out all the stops to persuade attendees. Churches gave away cars, money, ipads, food, etc.

Stop Teaching the Ethics of Jesus?

Seriously?  I ran across a blog post today that just boggled my brain.

According to Peter Rollins’ About page, he “is a widely sought after writer, lecturer, storyteller and public speaker. He is also the founder of ikon, a faith group that has gained an international reputation for blending live music, visual imagery, soundscapes, theatre, ritual and reflection to create what they call ‘transformance art’.”  Now, I’m not able to ascertain exactly what kind of “faith” is being talked about when it says he founded a faith group, but in a blog post he posted advocating that we stop teaching the ethics of Jesus, I’m not thinking that his definition of faith and mine are the same.