Seems to me we are reading and hearing a lot these days from folks lamenting the steady decline in membership of our churches. In some instances they are even closing their doors and giving up. Thankfully, there are many others that are doing quite well.
I heard something in early 1958 that I considered to be extremely profound. It is something that seems to be directly related to the problems some of our churches are having today.
It was in a classroom at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. The class was on evangelism and the professor was Dr. C.E. Autry, who was also a great evangelist of that day. Dr. Autry was sharing with the class some things a soul-winner must know if he or she expects to be effective. I recently dug out my old notes and would like to share a couple of his points with your readers:
1. “Christianity does not consist of the personal goodness of the individual.”
2. “The greatest danger in the world is that the churches will offer the people a kind of Christianity that will produce a sense of forgiveness without repentance or regeneration.”
Sad but true, many of our churches seem to be ignoring these principles today. Could it be that Dr. Autry was also a prophet as well as an effective evangelist and seminary professor?
My prayer and earnest hope is that pastors and other leaders in churches such as those mentioned above might seriously consider and appropriate these words of caution from Dr. Autry into their respective ministries.
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