the soft pedal

This came to me during a service today. Just thought I'd share it.

I am convinced that the greatest stumbling block in today's church is not alcohol, pornography, or television; it is not materialism, sports or partying. Rather, what causes the lost and the infant believer to stumble today is the meager means by which today's church draws them into their buildings, the shallow gospel by which they are told they are saved, the anesthetizing they receive against the move of the Holy Spirit, the innoculation our pastors and preachers give them against the life-altering power of God that is found in the bold proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord. To offer a soft gospel that avoids offense, to extend a fine program that entertains, to sate the self-centered appetites of those who will only come to church if the chairs are as soft as the commitments is to offer no Gospel at all, to extend no true hope of salvation to the one who feels the burden of their sin, and to fill the halls with consumers who will ever demand the fast food of self help and never draw others to the feast of abundant life to which Jesus calls us first and foremost by death to ourselves. To demand nothing in order to draw the multitudes is to conduct a seminar, not a church service, but to extend the requirement of death to one's self is to offer life in Jesus Christ, the only sure hope of mankind.