But then there are the people. See if this poem rings true:

To dwell above
with those we love
Ah, that will be glory!

To dwell below
with those we know,
Now that’s a different story!*

Now: what have my actions preached to him? They have preached that Christians are people who do good things for their neighbour. They have preached that niceness, and kindness, and morally upright behaviour are what make you a Christian. In short, they have preached justification by works.

Your works have indeed “preached” something. But it isn’t the gospel.

I think many liberal Christians, but certainly not all, would agree with me that the Church exists to mix things up a bit. She is not in the business of making anyone feel comfortable. However, it is true of revolutionary movements everywhere, that there is always lurking in the background some ‘committee of public safety’ deciding which establishments we are to mix up and which we are to keep.

But church leaders, vocational and lay alike, became program averse. So they slowly began eliminating outreach programs in their churches. I understand why this development took place. The programs seemed ineffective, not culturally relevant, and often cumbersome to lead and implement.

The problem, however, is that nothing replaced the programs. And the mild culture of outreach in churches was replaced with no culture of outreach.