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Post by Alejandro on Mar 19, 2005 0:20:51 GMT -5
I cannot come to terms with Television Evangelism. On the one had I think it is awesome that these women and men of God are trying to reach the lost. But on the other hand, I see it as...almost lazy, I suppose.
I cannot remember the last time I heard of a non-Christian tuning into the Christian Television Network to see so-and-so. Or the last time a country that was in need of God's message (all are), but those who are neglected, having, or being able to afford, televisions; much less the satellite subscription to be able to view it.
In the New Testament we are told to go make disciples. How can you pastor, and have a relationship with these people you don't even know and on top of that ask them to donate? I think missionaries are on the right track, but a week in Zambia is not what I think of when I hear making disciples. I see years. You cannot disciple someone in a week, a month, three months.
What is a person to do?
Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ, Alejandro
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Post by melinky on Mar 19, 2005 9:30:55 GMT -5
Hmmmm, good points. I've never had much use for televangelists myself, but my great-grandmother, who was a shut-in, faithfully watched, and tithed to one until the day she died. She was unable to go to church on her own so she found her church on television. In this way, I do think that televangelists serve God's purpose.
So are they good or bad? That's between them and God, I can only pray that their hearts are pure. Even if their hearts aren't pure, I think God can still use them to reach shut-ins.
Melinda
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Post by Soulfyre on Apr 15, 2005 2:25:38 GMT -5
I believe that "televangelism" is a misnomer. It tends to treat "evangelism" in a manner more appropriate to mass-marketing, with the subtle implication that the "wham-bam-thank you, ma'am" approach to the gospel is adequate to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Now to be fair, Billy Graham, probably the world's most well-known "televangelist", is always careful to refer people who have "made a decision" to further study information, and churches in their area who can address the commands of the Great Commission (to make disciples by bapitizing and teaching all that [Jesus] has commanded) in a more complete fashion. Evangelistic meetings such as those of Billy Graham derive largely from the prairie revivalists, who regularly set up tents during the western expansion of the United States to provide gospel presentations in the frontier, and the Bible Conference movement which spawned such evangelists as Dwight L. Moody and Billy Sunday, who preached to stem the tide of the growing liberalism within the greater protestant denominations. I have a profound respect for the work of Billy Graham, who never attempts to replace the unique work of the Church, the Body of Christ, but rather to enhance it. This, unfortunately, is not the practice of some of the more unscrupulous "televangelists". Televangelists suffer from not having any disciplinary structure to which the are held accountable. Although Billy Graham has learned the perils of such a position and, doctrinal disagreements aside, in general gained the respect of leaders in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communites as well as that of evangelicals, there have been notable "falls from grace" by such well-known personages as Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggert, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Robert Tilton, and others. This has been made the more possible by the evangelical appeal to the rugged individualist, and a general lack of denominational (or traditionial) integrity and formal discipline. After all, if there is no authoritative structure to the Church but what is lent to it by the individual (that is, if the Church is merely the sum of its human parts), then there are no real teeth to Church discipline, and skillful marketing combined with the development of a modern cult of personality combine to assure that penance is only a private affair between the "fallen" leader and God, into which none else can intrude. But it is important to remember that Christianity--the life of Christian discipleship--is not primarily a Lone Ranger experience. "Sharing the gospel" is not simply presenting the "Four Spiritual Laws" and the "Steps to Christian Maturity". For true discipleship is not simply the consent of the Betrothed at the wooing of Her Bridegroom. It is comleted within and is nourished by the Church, the Body of Christ. Such is God's chosen means to bring His Word to the World. We are placed by the Holy Spirit through baptism into the Body of Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit as pledge of our unity in Life with our heavenly Bridegroom. We are cleansed through the washing of water by the word of God, as we are transformed by the renewing of our minds that we might prove in our obedience what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We are corrrected and protected by the authority within the Body of Christ. And we experience a foretaste of the world to come as we enter into that eternal worship of God with the cherubim and seraphim, and participate in the Eucharist as we might experience the kiss of the Bridegroom in anticipation of the great Wedding Feast and Bridal Bower. In Christ, Matthew (soulfyre)
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