Yesterday I had the privilege of sitting with three representatives of SIM and to chat candidly about the issue of missions and the local church. We talked about the reasons for the decline in missions in the North American church. We talked about the usual suspects: things are too comfortable here, we don't pray enough, we don't talk about missions enough, etc. I then suggested that one reason was there was too much competition between churches. Churches feel that they have to put on a better show than the church down the street in order to keep their people. Shows cost money - hence less money for missions. Those around the table then discussed the latest mega-church plant coming to Brantford. It was then that one of SIM's people described this type of church plant. He called it a "non-evangelistic church plant." Missionaries say the darnedest things.
Last evening our sermon passage was found in Genesis 38. It is an ugly passage. It tells the story of Judah, his sons Er, Onan, and Shelah, and Er's wife Tamar. Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons. His sons are so evil that God kills both Er and Onan for their wickedness. Because Judah fears the loss of his remaining son, he fails to fulfill his obligation to Tamar of marrying her to his last son so that an heir might be raised up to Er. Seeing the failure of her father-in-law, Tamar takes matters into her own hand by dressing as a prostitute and sleeping with Judah. Judah, unaware of with whom he has had sex, subsequently hears that Tamar is pregnant by immorality. He demands that she be brought out and burned for her crime (can anyone say "hypocrite?"). Tamar then produces the evidence against her father-in-law and he relents. The story ends with the birth of twin boys. I jokingly called the sermon the "Jerry ...
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