Tough Questions from Active Minds
Strong preaching has long been a hallmark in black churches, but at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Pastor Tony Evans makes sure the communication is more than one-way. He builds a 15-minute question-and-answer session into each Sunday morning service. "Our church started from scratch in 1976, and 50 percent of our people are new converts within the last two years," says Evans of his 450-member, racially mixed congregation. He felt the need to find out what people were thinking and make sure his messages were getting through. So after the sermon, the invitation, and the offering, Evans asks for questions about the morning message. Queries range from the doctrinal to the intensely practical. • "If Jonah hadn't repented in the belly of the fish, would he still have been a believer?" • "If God is stronger than Satan, why does he allow the battle to go on?" • "1 Peter 3 talks about wives winning their husbands to the Lord by living pure, reverent lives. What if you've tried that, and your husband gets worse instead of better?" • "What can you do if you've already failed with your children because you didn't know good Christian principles of child-raising when the kids were young?" "Of course," says Evans, "you've got to know what you're talking about. I was fortunate enough to have a good solid theological education, but every once in a while I still get an unanswerable question, like 'How can a being such as God not have a beginning?' Some answers can't be put into human language. But I'd still rather have the questions asked than bottled up inside." Rick Yohn, pastor of the large Evangelical Free Church of Fresno, California, believes in letting his people set the Sunday night agenda occasionally. "A couple of times each year," ...
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