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Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Become Good News People Again


Today’s world needs a revolution. Not a violent one; we’ve had plenty of those. We need a revolution that changes hearts and minds with love. That is what I believe Jesus came for. It is also what I believe he has sent us here for. And it is also what I believe the world is poised to receive.
Jesus didn’t come to earth just to change your Sunday morning routine and voting patterns. He came to change your life every day and in every way. The power of change is for every one of us, not just priests, pastors, and preachers. And everyone that is changed becomes a change agent.
Today the “evangelicals” are quickly being duped to support a bigoted, bombastic, bully who boasts of sexually conquering other men’s wives and who profits off of other's gambling addictions and objectifying young women. This tells us more about the state of evangelicals than the candidate they support. We are no longer good news to this world.
My friend Lance Ford says in his book Revangelical:
What evangelical is supposed to mean—bringer of good news— is completely different from what it has come to mean for many in our society: judgmental, misogynist, bigoted, homophobic. How did this happen? How did the “good news” people come to be widely regarded as bad news?
Evangelical literally means "gospel people" or good news people. The gospel itself is all about transformation—change. We should be the ones bringing a revolution of heart to the world. Instead, we spend our time debating theological stances, moral codes, and political issues. We quickly shout our offense at the world’s values and behaviors. We are people known for resisting change. How did we get here? What will it take for us to rise up again with a real revolution of love that the story of Christ truly merits?
Let’s face it: more of the same thinking will only produce more of the same activity. We need a change of mind—yesterday. We need to think and, consequently, respond differently if we hope to make any change in this world for the better. And that is what my new book One Thing: A Revolution to Change the World with Love addresses. 
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This post is from the introduction to One Thing.

3 comments:

Chuck Stock said...

Love the blog post Mr. Cole. I agree on most of your points. Trump is certainly a blow-hard at best. Max Lucado has echoed similar feelings.

I am curious why the other serious candidates such as Hillary Clinton and even Sanders get a pass? Hillary and her husband are easily just as bad. They lie, cheat, steal at best and maybe have done things even worse, but everyone seems to focus on Trump. I won't be voting for him, but I also refuse to vote for Hillary or Sanders which means Libertarian or no vote at all for me.

Sorry I know this isn't the main point of your post, but I'm curious why so many pastors are focusing solely on Trump this election cycle.

Neil Cole said...

Chuck, the article is about the lack of goodness among "evangelicals". Neither Clinton nor Sanders are gleaning large numbers from this block of voters. But if aTrump wins the nomination they may.

Chuck Stock said...

Thanks Neil for the response. Hillary is much more likely to win the presidency than Trump even if he gets the Republican nomination. Again sorry for getting off track, thank you.