Dallas Pastor Pete Briscoe Names 3 Issues Challenging the Modern Church
NASHVILLE – There are three issues challenging the modern church, said Dallas Pastor Pete Briscoe to The Christian Post in an interview Saturday evening after he gave one of the keynote messages at the opening session of the National Religious Broadcasters Convention.
The first one, Briscoe, who is president of Telling the Truth ministries and pastor of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, mentioned is that the Church, meaning the body of Christ, seems to have forgotten Christ. "We talk about everything under the sun but we miss the key reason the church is formed and that is Jesus Christ," he said.
Another is the teaching of the "Word" and how many pastors seem to build their sermons around what he considers "topical preaching." "It seems they pick a topic and then find verses of scripture to go with the subject matter. I don't believe that is how God intended His word to be used," Briscoe said.
His final point in the interview came from Genesis 12 that describes how when God blesses us, He in turn expects us to be a blessing to others.
During the General Session on Saturday evening, Briscoe began his remarks by talking about life's distractions and how even the most committed followers of Jesus can find themselves "distracted" by earthly desires and goals.
He ended his remarks on stage by recalling the story of his Sunday school teacher exclaiming how a glove could pick up a Bible. To demonstrate the point, his teacher placed his hand inside the glove and picked up the Bible. Deflated, Briscoe and the other youngsters observed it wasn't the glove that picked up the book, but rather the hand inside the glove.
"Exactly," said the Sunday school teacher, explaining that the gloves were those in the church but the hand that filled the glove was the spirit of Christ. "As teachers we spend too much time telling empty gloves to go out into the world. But in reality, we instead need to send gloves filled with the hands of Christ to complete His work."