To Hell in a Handbasket...

There's a church on just about every street corner in my town. That's probably the case in your's as well.

Why then does a casual 360-degree glance or 30 seconds with the newspaper tell us that the world is going to hell in a handbasket?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome blog! I like where you are going with this... There's great opportunity to build on the scripture reference!!!

Mike Aleckson said...

Thanks alot! I'm well aware that Christianity is, by design, a "narrow road". But I wonder if we're doing all we can to improve ourselves and the church...

Anonymous said...

The obvious conclusion based on your perception is that churches have little effect on the moral climate of our society.
Why has Christianity lost it's hold on the moral direction of society? Is it that fewer people seem to find a resonant connection with the church?
How could anyone feel disconnected from a man who lived and taught over two thousand years ago?

Mike Aleckson said...

You brought a smile to my face! Yes, it's easy to feel disconnected from a man who lived and taught 2000 years ago.

But I take that as a personal responsibility to teach my students (some of which will one day be church leaders) to firmly ground their messages in the historical setting that Jesus was inserted into. It can be done, and done well.

The church just needs to value the historical perspective while using modern language to express it.

Thanks for the comment!

Anonymous said...

Do you use any sources other than the bible to teach your students? Do you feel that the bible is the only true word of God?

Mike Aleckson said...

Anon,

I teach at a college, so I do indeed use books other than the Bible to enhance the student's understanding of theological concepts.

And I believe and teach that the Bible is the unique, authoritative communication from our Creator regarding His covenant expectations for us. I'm aware of no other set of documents even close to it in terms of its appeal to base one's understanding of the world on, nor am I aware of any "metanarrative" that is more satisfying than that of the Bible.

Perhaps we'll deal with these issues more fully in a future post.

Thanks for the great questions!