I am reading this book edited by H. Stanley Wood called "Extraordinary Leaders in Extraordinary Times" which is a book about this study of church planting pastors in mainline denominations that talks about their traits and characteristics etc.
One of the church planters who is anonymously quoted in their talks about how we have to as followers of Jesus avoid be "spiritual cul-de-sacs" or "end users of God's grace." I had not heard it put that way before and I really like the term.
Spiritual cul-de-sacs and end users of God's grace aptly describe followers of Jesus who make it all about them. Instead of receiving the love of God in Jesus and being transformed for the sake of turning around and sharing the love of God so that others and the community can be transformed, God's grace ends with them. Like a cul-de-sac there is no outlet.
It is easy for pastors and church people to bemoan the spiritual consumers among us whose primary question in visiting a church is what is here for me and my kids. Yet, as I have written about before the church's job is not only to count new conversions and help people experience Jesus for the first time (as important and absolutely essential as that is), the church is also then tasked with helping and equipping this transformed person to share God's love and transforming their mission fields (work, home, school) through the love of Christ. If we don't do that as the church we end up with a bunch of spiritual cul-de-sacs. If we only soak in God's love but never share it as followers of Jesus then we ourselves become spiritual cul-de-sacs.
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