Take away a person’s memory and they become anxious, take away a person’s hope and they become terrified.
That was a provocative thought from author Joe Myers. It explains why Christians can be vicious and so out of character when you threaten their past or their future. These days, that loss of hope is leading to anxious and terrified Christians no matter what a church attempts to do.
If a church holds on to its past too tightly the young and progressive are terrified. When the church attempts to adjust and connect with the future, the boomers are terrified. Unfortunately, this terror often leads to harmful acts that destroy our witness.
Perfect love casts out all fear, we’re taught in 1 John. If so, effective leaders must be purveyors of love and hope. Do we as church leaders grasp that and are we equipped to powerfully share it?
The next two days the Cornerstone Knowledge Network (CKN) hopes to discover how to equip church leaders to do just that. I read recently:
Discovery is looking at what everybody else is looking at and seeing what nobody else sees.
By bringing together 18 pastors, authors and thought leaders, we hope to see what nobody else sees. And we’ll share what we find so that we can all more powerfully speak truth and hope into this shifting culture.
There should be some great insights flowing out of the next couple of days so stay tuned to “Twitter” and blog updates here.
Great thoughts, as always, Ed.
That quote applies so well outside the church, too. People are fearful…we have the hope. Great situation!
I’d follow you on Twitter…can’t find you!
@Marla_Saunders for me.
Marla,
Your comment made me smile. An old friend was back. Thanks for blessing my community.
I’m right with you on the “people are fearful and we have hope” line. When people discover Obama and economics fail to deliver we’ll have a terrified community. The church must be ready with a credible answer this time.
I sent you a tweet…I’m @ebahler