What a nondenominational Christian pastor admires about Latter-day Saint missions
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Christianity Today editor-in-chief Russell Moore once thought a Latter-day Saint mission was “a misguided use of time and resources,” but then said he was “wrong” because he “misunderstood what these missions are actually about.”
That’s the subject of his article published in Christianity Today on Monday entitled “Mormons Expect More of the Next Generation. Why Don’t We?”
Moore has served as dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and as the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. After his term as president, Moore departed from the Southern Baptist Convention and is the pastor of a nondenominational church in Nashville, per Religion News.
As a Christian “committed to Nicene Christian orthodoxy,” Moore says he disagrees with Latter-day Saint theology, “but when it comes to the sociology of high expectations for youth, I find something that resonates.”
Key quotes from the article:
“We may equip our young people to defend themselves intellectually — from naturalistic materialism, sexual hedonism, and so on — with a ‘Christian worldview.’ But we are not doing as well at training them to authentically and persuasively share their faith as genuine good news and to expect that the Spirit actually can and does change hearts.”
“Are we sending an implicit message to the next generation that we see them as consumers of a ministry product? Compared with the Latter-day Saints, are our expectations for the next generation way too low?”
“Too many of our young people are seeing a flawed vision of Christianity, not because they’ve concluded that they don’t need the church but because they’ve concluded that the church doesn’t need them. We need to communicate to our children that we will not only train them to carry on the faith but also trust them to do so.”
Moore’s article can be read here.
