Why The Bible Is Not Enough

From an outstanding post on the problems with contemporary evangelism, at Pastoralia:

For most regular folks who don’t believe in Christ, seeing churches and Christians stake out rabid territory on these topics [like the sovereignty of God or “grace vs. works”] is like watching two Phrenologists fight for customers by arguing the finer tenets of their trade. . . .

Who in Christianity today, has consistently demonstrated they possess a body of knowledge which produces people who actually resemble Christ himself? I’m not asking who is the most articulate preacher, or the most venerated scholar, or who leads the biggest church, or who writes the best books. Those accomplishments may constitute competency in leadership, logic, prose or marketing, but not necessarily competence in Christlikeness. . . .

Ironically, then, the Bible alone is insufficient for this task. We can’t keep pointing to it and shrugging our shoulders as if to say, “Hey, I’m not the one who said it, He did.” We have to take responsibility for actually becoming competent practitioners of the vocation to which we have been called through the person we claim to have found within those sacred pages.

Read the whole thing.