Taking a Walk

Read this first. Trust me, will help you a lot before you read my entry.

It details the younger Falwell's call for people to step from behind the pulpit and go preach the Gospel at folks and tell them what is right and wrong.

i wish someone would step from the pulpit and have a news conference announcing that they were demanding other religious leaders to follow them into the streets to feed the homeless, care for the sick and visit the prisons and live out the gospel as opposed to preaching it.

The sentiment isn't wrong, but people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. In less than 300 years, Christianity grew from maybe 1,000 jews to 6 million strong in the Roman empire. Not by preaching, but by caring for widows and orphans and healing the sick and lame.

Francis of Assisi spoke my favorite quote ever. "Everywhere you go, preach the gospel...
...but only when necessary, use words."

This is Falwell's commission, Christ's own great commission was not "go and tell people what is wrong and right" (although it was implied in the code he lived by), it was "go tell the good news, the good news that i have lived and died so your sins are forgiven."

That's beautiful, not antagonizing or presumptuous.

Nearly every denomination of Christianity is shrinking in the "1st world" and growing in the "3rd world." Makes you wonder why, and i think the answer is true Christian community and the care of God's people, rather than words, pulpits, and so forth.

Some days, i dunno if i am up to that kind of call, or if i'll be able to inspire that in my youth or congregants. i sure hope so.