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The slope upon which we slip into a Church of Perfidy is the hill of compromise, where we weaken our beliefs and doctrines, and fail to love. This can easily happen if we fail to apply Christ and His guidelines to our lives.

Moving Away from the Centrality of God’s Word.

The foundational error many churches make is the rejection of God’s Word as the authority for their lives (Acts 17:11; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 1:16; Titus 2:11-12; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 4:12). This is the kind of thinking that leads to the rejection of essential doctrines such as the deity of Christ, the Trinity, salvation by grace alone by faith alone, and so forth. This can be anything from outright rejection of the inerrancy of the Bible to just ignoring His Word and concentrating on other things. If we ever water down the Bible, thinking we can attract more people, we delude ourselves. This is in essence saying that the Holy Spirit is not good enough or powerful enough and we must invent stuff to get people into the Church. The Church must preach the Word with passion, compassion with conviction, with clarity, and in truth—without compromising or diluting it. We can be more entertaining, make our messages more relevant and applicable, and become better communicators, but not replace teaching with entertainment! If so, we are deluded by our dilution. A church will stand or fall on the truth of His Word; water it down and it will fail. If by some chance you grow, take careful heed; a big, weak church is not good in His sight but a small, strong church is glorifying to Him. Even if people leave, we are still to preach and teach powerfully and in truth. Even if we suffer financially and personally, we are not to ever, ever water down God’s most precious Word! Never, never, never! And, if I have not made my point yet, here is another— never!

Filed under: Leadership Issues | Tagged: Bible, Bible teaching, Church, Church Growth, Church Leadership, Church Research, clarity, compassion, compromising, conviction, diluting, essential doctrine, God’s Word, inerrancy, Leading Churches, passion, preach the Word, Research, Slippery Slope, Truth, weak church |