Posts Tagged ‘values’

27
Apr

PURE CONSCIENCE

   Posted by: pastordiehl    in Uncategorized

The old saying goes, “Let your conscience be your guide”. Your conscience is developed by your environment: by what your parents and schoolmates taught you, by your religious convictions, your superstitions, etc. The Holy Spirit can and should play a role in that, but many don’t listen to that still small voice. A story from The Philadelphia Inquirer illustrates this problem.

A 12-year old boy was caught stealing a watch. He told police that previously he had shoplifted a gift for his mother, and he felt he had to do the same for his dad.

His conscience convicted him about not slighting his father, but he had no difficulty stealing what belonged to another. There is a problem with this picture. His conscience was working, but his value system had tainted his conscience.

The only way to have a pure conscience is to know God’s value system as it is outlined in the Bible, and then live by that value system, regardless of how we feel about it. Let’s adjust our conscience.

When have you seen this tainted conscienceness work in someone’s life?

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27
Jan

CHURCH PLANTS

   Posted by: pastordiehl    in The Church and Change

When a pastor starts a church plant from scratch, his values become the values of the church. Those who join after automatically see him/her as the leader and adopt his/her values. When a pastor takes an invitation to shepherd an existing church, it can take three years before he earns the right to begin to persuade a church with established values to change, and usually longer. That’s why church growth experts say the most effective way to reach new converts is through a church plant. So why don’t we all just leave our churches and start new ones?

For starters, its a lot more expensive to start over. Secondly, we have deep relationships with the members of the old church. Thirdly, God has called us to unite and not divide (split). Fourthly, our kids are watching our example and need to see stability in God’s church. Fifthly, its a waste of the church’s resources to keep reinventing the wheel. Sixthly, the man/woman who starts the new church may actually just be rebelling against the spiritual authority God has placed him/her under.

What’s the solution? Find out what the values of the church are early on and see if you agree. If so, support it. If not, don’t even begin to get involved there, because you will eventually be disappointed. At New Hope, what you see is what you get.

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