Recently, over at Together for the Gospel, Mark Dever made the following statement:

I think the most basic practical division among evangelical pastors today may be between those who pursue faithfulness and assume relevance and those who pursue relevance and assume faithfulness.

After reading that, I couldn't avoid asking why we Christians try so hard to make all issues that confront us into "either/or" propositions. I don't understand why we're afraid to ask whether or not we can be "both/and" on some issues instead and still be true to the Gospel.

Why can't our churches be both faithful and relevant?

Mark Lauterbach of GospelDrivenLife attempts to unpack that question. Mark,  pastor of a Sovereign Grace Church in San Diego, is rapidly becoming one of my favorite voices in the Godblogosphere. His is the kind of Christian common sense that seems so rare anymore, and nearly everything he writes resonates with this blogger.

So Mark L. counters Mark D.'s statement and gives a better answer by asking that better question in his series, "Relevance or Faithfulness?"

Relevance or Faithfulness?, 1

Relevance or Faithfulness?, 2

Relevance or Faithfulness?, 3

Relevance or Faithfulness?, 4

I suspect that Mark is not done with this series, but this will give you a start. If you're a regular blog reader, and especially a charismatic, I heartily encourage you to blogroll GospelDrivenLife. I think you'll appreciate Mark as much as I do.

Have a great weekend.