Transformed, Not Self-Made
Marshall Shelley
July 1, 2005
Within a year of graduating from seminary, I saw Doug Hall's cartoon (right) in Leadership. I'd already had enough experience in ministry to identify with that pastor.
As a church staff, we'd lamented the gap between church activity and the spiritual progress we longed to see. Leadership contributor Roger Judd quoted a pastor who, looking at his church's multiple ministries and cluttered calendar, said, "Our philosophy of ministry is "
Spiritual maturity is what we're after, and that doesn't happen automatically, even for those people we manage to woo into the church. What does it take?
It helps to understand what we seek. America loves stories of "changed lives." Andrew Carnegie the pauper becomes Carnegie the industrialist and philanthropist. Michael Jordan, cut from his junior high basketball team, rises to become "His Airness." Bill Gates the computer nerd becomes Bill Gates, the world's wealthiest man.
Then there's Jared Fogle, who weighed 425 pounds until a diet of two low-fat sandwiches per day and a daily 1.5-mile walk helped him lose 245 pounds, shrink his waist from 60 inches to 34, and made him a national celebrity when he became Subway's spokesperson. Changed lives all. Impressive changes. But is that the kind of transformation we're called to seek?
Leadership's parent company, Christianity Today International, has as its mission statement: "To engage, encourage, and equip the church worldwide, sharing the depth and transforming power of the gospel, as it permeates all spheres of life."
What kind of transforming power does the gospel carry? Looking at Scripture, I see little of the kinds of change found in the inspiring stories of Gates and Fogle. It isn't about self-improvement; it's about being made brand new, inside ...
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