In his 1986 book, Your Church Has a Fantastic Future, [Robert] Schuller provided what he called “A Possibility Thinker’s Guide to a Successful Church.” The book is a manual for a ministry built on pure pragmatism, sensationalistic promotion, a therapeutic message, and a constant and incessant focus on thinking positively.As most of those who keep up with the headlines know, Schuller's Crystal Cathedral has declared bankruptcy.
His message about money was simple: “No church has a money problem; churches only have idea problems,” he asserted.
I guess he ran out of ideas.
Any church founded on a pastor's good ideas will ultimately fail; but it is spiritually bankrupt from the start.
3 comments:
Or his ideas weren't in line with God's ideas and thus they fell apart.
Jason, yep. What I mean by "good idea" (and why I use the scare quotes there) is "stuff we made up." The best good idea is the biblical vision for the church, of course. :-)
The only thing left of our church are the dry bones. I think the last pastor and the board that called him had somehow bought in to the idea of psychology instead of the Gospel. The church went down hill for 20 years until the board told they pastor they could only hire him for part time work. He resigned. Now we have a part time pastor who is preaching the Gospel. We are praying that God will put on the sinews, muscle, bone, and organs, etc.
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