How to Almost Guarantee Your Children Will Run in the Opposite Direction from the Faith

by Staff March 30, 2015

Do we want to guarantee that our children will run in the opposite direction of our most cherished biblical convictions? All we have to do is sterilize our churches. Make them rigid, unresponsive, grim. Require of our ministers that they play the role of scolding, scowling Reverend Eat-Your-Peas. Treat the gospel as a theological system only, rather than also as a personal remedy. Use the Bible as ammunition for "culture wars" rather than as food for life. Withdraw from the historical situation in which God has placed us. Build up the walls, reinforce the barriers, and make certain that no experience gets in here. Ignore the fact that "doctrine only" is not itself a biblical doctrine.

—Ray Ortlund, When God Comes to Church (p.17)