In my reading today I ran across a story of a retired pastor who began to notice his former congregation moving more and more in a direction away from the historic truths of Scripture. As this pastor observed what was taking place with the church he had served, he placed the blame for this falling away directly on himself. Here is what he said: "I always told people what to believe. My great mistake is that I never told my people what NOT to believe." As I was working on my Easter message this evening, that quote kept finding its way into my mind and my work.
That story was told by Ben Patterson. I used to read his articles in Leadership Magazine regularly. Here is a talk by Patterson entitled Courage in Christian Ministry. It's from more than a decade ago, but every bit if not more relevant to our day!
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