- Image by anna_t via Flickr
Any math teacher will tell you that a blank answer is still an answer. The key is remembering silence literally sucks. It creates a communication vacuum—a marketing black hole pulling anything into it. In the wake of a church’s silence, others will fill the void.
The American church’s lack of voice in the area of creation and origins has sucked in neo-atheists labeling her ignorant and pitting the church against science. A church’s “don’t preach, don’t tell” position on homosexuality leaves society no option but paint it as judgmental and unloving. How? A lack of voice allows other churches to speak on their behalf, offering answers and a theology they might not embrace. View it as guilt-by-association. One church said “A”, and you didn’t say “B”. So everyone is left to assume that because you are also a church, you must think “A” also.
Some churches lose their platform by giving communities the wrong answer, “God hates queers!” Other churches lose their light by offering half-answers: social action without Jesus or justice without the law of God. Most of us have lost ground by saying nothing. Years of separation theology, fear and ignorance have painted the sleeping giant as the town fool. This is no picture for the bride of Christ. So how do we turn off the sucking?
This problem is not specific to churches, either. Steven Covey talks about a ‘first and a second creation‘ — if you don’t take control of the ‘first creation’ the marketplace will determine the ‘second creation’. You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article…
