2.28.2006

Thinking ahead

"A thriving church can easily assume that it 'has it covered' because its current elders are doing a fine job and its current pastor preaches well and looks healthy. Everyone has trouble imagining what the church will look like in fifty years when none of the current leaders is alive. No one even thinks about it. But Charles de Gaulle put it well when he said that the graveyards are full of indispensable men. That day will come whether we want it to or not. A church that does not think of establishing continuity with the future generations of that same church is, in principle, a church populated by short term and anti-covenantal thinkers."

The Paideia of God, p. 110, Douglas Wilson.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous2:54 PM

    One response would be not to lose sight of the kingdom of God for the sake of the institutional survival of a local congregation. It's sad to see, but as I'm looking more at the broader Church, I see her vitality shifts over time from this kind of denom. to that one, from this location to that one, from this generation to the next one.

    From my view there are too many (pastors included) who put their congregation first, the Kingdom second. So praise God for the leaders you've raised who are serving somewhere else right now!

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