If you haven’t read the Dan Hasletine article in Relevant this month, you must do so. All I will say is it raises a lot of questions in my own head.
I know I’m part of this rebellious generation who is tired of religion and who has tons of questions – and when they read something like this article, it is easier than not to buy in to everything he says and take it for gospel, and allow that to form their viewpoint on the subject based on the one page article that they read.
I am not buying into his perspective completely, but it raises a lot of great questions. Example – it would take 3 billion dollars to feed everyone in Ethiopia and save countless lives. Yet in America, we spend 7 times that building new church facilities. SEVEN TIMES.
It talks about how the western church has bought into the lie that by doing all these things – fancy screens and coffee bars and sound equipment, that we have “invested in the lives” of the God-hungry American public. But God hasn’t changed – and we have slowly accepted the fact there are hungry, dying people in third-world countries – but we can’t wait to get Joe Smith his next cup of Starbucks before the next service.
My response – as a staff member of a church going through a building program, coffee bars and hi-tech purchases, I am going to share the article with our pastor and if he has some time, pick his brain about it. Is there a balance? I will share my conversation with him as well as more thoughts from the article later this week.
What are your thoughts?