Recently I was teaching on 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 to a camp staff and was pointing out the temptation of watering down the gospel. The word that the NIV translates “distort” is translated by the ESV as “tamper with” and my study bible notes that the greek word used here is also used to describe when winemakers water down their product. In the nearly 25 years I have been doing full time youth ministry, I have seen plenty of watered down (and thereby distorted or tampered with) presentations of the gospel in order to appeal to students. The truth is that such faux gospel ministry has been damaging the church for a very long time. The future of youth ministry as well as the church (and the two are intertwined) is dependent on solid proclamation of the gospel… the real gospel we find in the scriptures. This relates to an interesting article on Dr. Mohler’s blog that takes a look at why conservative churches are growing. This one is through the lens of a sociologist.
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