Love this! You nailed it with this article. Even in my faithful, very conservative, Biblically faithful church I can see pragmatism sneak its way into many difficult decisions about how we should be doing things or the direction we should go. The churches I have seen God bless with a lot of growth and faithfulness in the last few years have been the ones who obey the Lord's will above all. Sometimes it seems counter-intuitive to us, but this is why we are to walk by faith and not by sight (or by our pragmatic ideas), and trust the Lord to bring the increase in His timing and in His will, not in our way or will.
I also notice this a lot when it comes to politics in Canada. Many Christians end up voting Conservative, even though the party has become godless and liberal in many ways and not ruled by Scripture, simply because they think their vote would be wasted on a smaller, faithful and Biblical party like the CHP (Christian Heritage Party). Pragmatism is often an easy trap for the devil to use to keep God's people from living faithfully to His Word, and can so often lead to horrible and destructive outcomes, like the examples to outlined in this article. Pragmatism is just another idol, just like the idea of Democracy has become in our society and even in our churches recently.
Love this! You nailed it with this article. Even in my faithful, very conservative, Biblically faithful church I can see pragmatism sneak its way into many difficult decisions about how we should be doing things or the direction we should go. The churches I have seen God bless with a lot of growth and faithfulness in the last few years have been the ones who obey the Lord's will above all. Sometimes it seems counter-intuitive to us, but this is why we are to walk by faith and not by sight (or by our pragmatic ideas), and trust the Lord to bring the increase in His timing and in His will, not in our way or will.
I also notice this a lot when it comes to politics in Canada. Many Christians end up voting Conservative, even though the party has become godless and liberal in many ways and not ruled by Scripture, simply because they think their vote would be wasted on a smaller, faithful and Biblical party like the CHP (Christian Heritage Party). Pragmatism is often an easy trap for the devil to use to keep God's people from living faithfully to His Word, and can so often lead to horrible and destructive outcomes, like the examples to outlined in this article. Pragmatism is just another idol, just like the idea of Democracy has become in our society and even in our churches recently.