Warren Buffet and the Church’s Image
When Warren Buffet, the Pope of profit and conscience of the financial world, speaks, people listen. Who wouldn’t want to learn from one of the world’s wealthiest men?
In the midst of the business scandals several years ago, he wrote an editorial for the NY Times providing a prescription for the ailing image of the C.E.O. Listen to what he said: “C.E.O.’s want to be respected and believed. They will be — and should be — only when they deserve to be. They should quit talking about some bad apples and reflect instead on their own behavior” (NY Times 7-24-2002). Strong, but good medicine!
American Christians would do well to visit “Dr. Buffet” as it relates to the ailing image of the church. If we want to regain the respect of the watching world we need to earn it, just as the early Christians did in their culture. It has been said of the persecuted church of the first few centuries that they won the Roman Empire precisely because they out-thought and out-loved their pagan neighbors. Could this be said of us?
Listen to the Apostle Peter: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:12). We mustn’t just be complainers but constructors of a better image. This will come at the cost of our own blood, sweat and tears and not by bashing those who bash us.
Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective”.
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
~1 Peter 2:11-17 NIV
