4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
The Bible doesn't exist in a vacuum. For it to make sense, people need to see the Gospel lived out. That creates two problems for the modern evangelical.
The first is that it backs away some from the Solo Scriptura theme. It takes a church to raise a disciple, not just a good book.
It also means that churches need to need more than get the person to say the Sinner's Prayer and make a trip to the dunk tank; there is the unsexy job of disciping folks beyond a bullet-point faith declaration.
We've had a couple of baby dedications at church this month, and one of the elements of that ceremony is the church pledging to help the child grow in faith. That requires modeling, and not the type that happens on runways. It puts some pressure on folks to walk the walk and not just show up on Sunday morning if and when something else isn't on the schedule.
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