The gospel according to me
It's all about me. That seems to be the trend in our churches today. In the quest to win people to Jesus, we somehow feel the need to show how everything is relevant to the individual. How will this help me, the church-goer? How will this help them, the congregation? What is the ‘cash value’ of belief?
This was brought home to me recently when it was pointed out that 25 years ago everyone was reading J.I. Packer's book Knowing God. Today everyone is reading A Purpose Driven Life. Now the problem is not that A Purpose Driven Life is not encouraging people to do good things, but rather that the idea of reading a book which is about God rather than us seems to be anathema. And while there surely is a place in our spiritual diet for books that provide practical encouragement and advice on living as a Christian, have we become so self-absorbed that we forget it's actually all about God and his glory? Have our church gatherings, our small-groups, our fellowships been trained to feed on a diet of self-help rather than Sola Dei (for God's glory alone)?