One of the great disconects in contemporary Christianity is the seperation between faith and life.  One of my favorite quotes in this regard comes from Ed Silvoso who said:

Preaching the Good News without love is like giving someone a good kiss when you have bad breath.  No matter how good your kiss is all the person will remember is your bad breath.

I’m afraid that far too frequently the Church has proclaimed Good News, but not lived it.  We can see this so clearly in South Africa – in some recent research that I conducted I showed that almost 80% of South Africans indicated that they are Christian (this data came from the last national census).  Yet, we still have one of the most racially and economically divided populations on earth. Please see the lecture in this post for detailed statistics and analysis:

http://www.dionforster.com/blog/2009/1/24/a-church-with-mission-or-missions-without-the-church-a-few-t.html

 

Of course there are many wonderful testimonies of Christians and the Church bringing a real balance between personal piety and justice (what John Wesley called personal holiness and social holiness).

If you would like to read the article I wrote on the Church’s role in Reconciliation in South Africa please visit this link:

http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/1267?pg=all

I’d love to hear your feedback!