He is a Christian of many years standing with huge talents in various areas. He has a high-flying job in local government. He attends an evangelical church. I met up with him not long ago. The conversation jogged along happily until…
‘How’s church?’ I asked. He is usually an upbeat kind of character so I was expecting a fairly positive reply. But that is what I did not get. The response from my friend was that basically he was struggling. ‘There’s simply no depth of fellowship among the men there. The preaching is sound, but the pastor is always in his study and the kinds of issues I face with my job are simply not addressed either from the pulpit or in personal conversation.’
Life’s challenges for my friend were deep and complicated while church seemed superficial and somewhat trite.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …