So there I was flicking through the Wesley-Owen church resources catalogue when my attention was caught by the words ‘Contains strong gospel content’. No really, there in a small box under the letters ‘DVD’ was ‘Contains strong gospel content’. The advert was for the ‘Discipleship Explored’ DVD – which apparently, we are warned, contains ‘strong gospel content’ – so presumably not for the Sunday School then.
I flicked back through the catalogue for other such warnings – e.g. ‘Contains strong theological language’ or ‘Contains scenes of a Christian nature’ or ‘PG: Potentially Godly’ – but no, no other materials merited this kind of ‘red flag’ treatment (not even the Bible!).
The mind boggles – what does it say about our Christian culture that it’s felt necessary to warn people that discipleship materials might be, well you know, a bit full-on with the gospel! Come on, we’re not talking about materials for a pre-evangelism cheese & wine party here – this is something for people who are Christians to help them in their faith. The makers have even called it ‘Discipleship Explored’ in an effort to reduce such potential confusion.
Sadly – and it’s pretty sad – there is clearly a market for Discipleship-lite materials, presumably for those saved via the Gospel-lite message so prevelant today. After all why teach people about the battle for holiness when their sin was never a big issue in the first place, why talk about Cross-bearing when they signed up to promises of having ‘their best life now’, why move to the prayer room when you started in the pamper room.
Well good on ‘Discipleship Explored’ – they should wear ‘Contains strong gospel content’ as a badge of honour – and we should seek to win the world and disciple Christians with nothing less.
I flicked back through the catalogue for other such warnings – e.g. ‘Contains strong theological language’ or ‘Contains scenes of a Christian nature’ or ‘PG: Potentially Godly’ – but no, no other materials merited this kind of ‘red flag’ treatment (not even the Bible!).
The mind boggles – what does it say about our Christian culture that it’s felt necessary to warn people that discipleship materials might be, well you know, a bit full-on with the gospel! Come on, we’re not talking about materials for a pre-evangelism cheese & wine party here – this is something for people who are Christians to help them in their faith. The makers have even called it ‘Discipleship Explored’ in an effort to reduce such potential confusion.
Sadly – and it’s pretty sad – there is clearly a market for Discipleship-lite materials, presumably for those saved via the Gospel-lite message so prevelant today. After all why teach people about the battle for holiness when their sin was never a big issue in the first place, why talk about Cross-bearing when they signed up to promises of having ‘their best life now’, why move to the prayer room when you started in the pamper room.
Well good on ‘Discipleship Explored’ – they should wear ‘Contains strong gospel content’ as a badge of honour – and we should seek to win the world and disciple Christians with nothing less.
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