When we tell people God loves them, ‘but’ they’re sinners, what they hear is ‘God will only love me if I get my act together.’
Yes, we are sinners. That reality should never be ignored or underplayed. But qualifying every statement about love and grace with a ‘yeah, but’ about sin is like interrupting a team’s victory parade to remind everyone that they lost some games during the season, too.
Sometimes grace needs to take an uninterrupted victory lap through our lives.
Author
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Karl produces resources for Helping Small Churches Thrive at KarlVaters.com.
He's the author of four books on church leadership. His fifth book, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next, releases on April 2, 2024.
He also hosts a bi-weekly podcast,The Church Lobby: Conversations on Faith & Ministry. Episodes feature in-depth interviews about the topics that concern pastors, especially those who minister in a small church context.
Karl has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience. He and his wife, Shelley have three children and two grandkids.