CityView Magazine

10 | January/February 2015 First, he laments the church's departure from biblical authority. Like the prophet Jeremiah's generation, many today are perverting the teachings of the Bible. e authority of Scripture itself is being rejected. As a result, the church is floun- dering like a ship at sea that has lost its compass and rudder. Second, he emphasizes the need for gen- uine conversion for every church member. e very fact that the fruit of the Spirit does not characterize average professing Christians indicates they have never had a genuine experience with God. ird, he stresses the necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit, pointing out the fact that the disciples were nothing before Pentecost and everything aer it. Fourth, he calls the church back to bib- lical discipline and the importance of eve- ry believer taking up his or her cross daily. He laments the fact that too oen those outside the church can discern very little difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. Fih, he challenges the church to teach the centrality of Christ in whom we live and move and have our being. e early Christians had Christ at the center of eve- rything they did. Sixth, he encourages the church to find the excitement, joy and expectancy of the early church. At Pentecost, the Christians were so excited about their faith, people thought they were drunk. Today's church has become dead in orthodoxy and dead in liberalism. Seventh, Graham exhorts the church to relevancy… to address the staggering social evils of our time. However, he em- phasizes the need to start from a spiritual point of view because the greatest need of men and women in every generation is spiritual. We cannot change the world until we ourselves have been transformed by the power of Christ. He concludes by stating his belief that changing people's hearts is the primary mission of the church. Billy Graham wrote these words to the church in 1971. e church today needs to hear these same words and respond with a sense of urgency. CV John Cook is the Senior Pastor of Snyder Memorial Baptist Church. faith A Pastor's Perspective BY JOHN COOK Anyone who knows me at all knows I have a deep respect for Billy Graham. If there was ever a man anointed by God to preach His Word, it is Billy Graham. I recently came across a piece he wrote entitled, "Challenge for a Floundering Church," in which he identified seven needs of the church today. His assessment of the church is direct and sobering. Billy Graham in 1966

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