“ Really? ” I ordinarily appreciate Tony’s ministry and agree with him theologically at most points (plus I regularly engage in street ministry similar to his) but his final assessment of this woman as supposedly not able to summarize the gospel is concerning. Clearly she is not super bright and struggled to articulate her faith, but she did affirm Christ’s death on the cross as the only way for sinners to receive salvation from a literal hell. Also, she was very humble and did not claim to be an expert. Tony’s appeal to Matthew 7:21-23 was totally forced as she was completely teachable, showed no signs of living in scandalous sin, and repeatedly rejected salvation by works. This appears to be a classic case of an evangelist imposing a preplanned script on the conversation rather than charitably dealing with a specific person and their situation. The main pastoral issue here, in my mind, is that she is a professing Christian in a church that is not feeding her sound doctrine. That should have been the main emphasis. Nevertheless, I still love Tony and believe that some good was accomplished here, despite my concerns. Keep up the great work!
11/19/12 2:12 PM
