ShepherdLeader.com

During my 20+ years of ministry I have seen wolves come in and destroy sheep. The wolves I am talking about are not the four-legged kind or even the two-legged kind. As a matter of fact these wolves are not even flesh and blood, they are ideas. I called these ideas folk religion. Folk religion is one part moralisms, one part Christian cliche and one part country wisdom with just a dash of proof texts.

Roger Olsen has captured the essence of this folk religion in his new book Questions to All Your Answers. It is the type of Christianity that can fit on bumper stickers.

These wolves are like: "If God wants it to happen it will", "God just wants me to be happy", "God won't put more on you than you can bear," "There's a reason for everything."

These cliches can cause people to believe in part of a gospel and not the whole gospel. They can heap guilt, shame and confusion into peoples lives. They can become substitutes for the real, glorious, beautiful and deep gospel of Jesus Christ.

These wolves promise easy answers to complex problems and can cause more problems than they try to solve.

May God give me the grace to recognize the wolves in my community and my congregation. Amen

Hi Alan, I concur with the argument you're making for denouncing folk religion. Our sheep are being seduced, deceived and sometimes devoured by Satan's lies. I came away from our cohort last January wanting to become a better champion of the clarity and power of the gospel. I would like to know more about what you're learning from Roger Olsen's book. Sounds like good stuff!...Alan, do the people you serve have a desire to know the "truth" and grow through it? I am confident you have the spiritual gifts and wisdom from the Lord to know how to best protect your sheep from the wolves!