Writer Rick Kelley

Writer Rick Kelley

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (BNc) — Hard rock musician cum preacher Rick Kelley hit back hard today, Feb. 12, after critics suggested that churches of Christ need to understand this generation better and jettison the pattern theology of the 19th century.

In a lengthy article on his blog, Rick, who works with the Prestonsburg congregation, gave four reasons for the decline among the churches — if such a decline can be proven, he said: the new hermeneutics, a worldly church, a misunderstanding of who the church is, and a moral free-fall in society since the 1960s.

With that, he placed much of the blame for the church’s decline squarely on the doorstep of progressives.

As a former hard-rock musician who was a part of the worldly culture, Rick then went on to identify the effect upon the church of catering to this generation: loss of the church’s distinctiveness, sacrifice of the gospel’s dignity, and sacrifice of Christ’s dignity.

Well into his introduction, Rick wrote:

Say some, we are cutting off our nose to spite our face. Our rigid adherence to doctrine and “pattern theology” is repulsing the generations we now seek to convert. “Everyone is sick” of it, we are told.

“What we need is insight of this generation’s way of thinking.” “This will help us understand why we aren’t converting them, or keeping them.” As if it were our responsibility to please hearers!

Jesus spoke of the futility of trying to accommodate His message to a fickle generation, and said the problem is that they were pretentious children (cf. Lk. 7:31-35).

Read the whole article at this link.

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