By John Cole

ONE-EYED CHURCHES

This church sees its business with those outside its walls in too individual a way. People see their only task as ‘preaching the gospel’ - which they usually interpret in very literal and aggressive ways. No escapism here, though the church’s members are usually very conscious that they are no longer part of the world they are trying to convert.

Of course Christians have a specific call to evangelise - but most Christians (whether they are for or against conventional evangelistic techniques) don’t take enough trouble to unpack what this means. (See chapter four)

If a congregation concentrates too much on this task to the exclusion of everything else, several things happen:

a) Their message becomes strident, partisan and doctrinaire.

b) They use cliché language, frequently derived from older translations of the Bible, which they fire at people like grapeshot with no real attempt to make effective communication.

c) The impression is given of a narrow self-righteous clique who think they have God in their pocket.

This, taken to extremes, is the typical and often narrowly sectarian evangelical failing.

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