It has been said that freedom is never free.  It would seem that just as many have forgotten that truth as a Nation so too we have forgotten it in the church. Early in the 1940’s there was growing and sincere desire to see people come to Jesus Christ through large evangelistic crusades and massive outreaches in the wake of WW2.  With large building and advancing technology, the ability to reach huge crowds in one setting was exciting.  However, upon closer examination, many of the converts coming forward at the “crusades” never actually ended up in churches and becoming reproducing disciples of Jesus Christ.  Often when this imbalance was pointed out it was met with hostility that proposing any type of “works” would be adding to the Gospel.  After all, it was said, salvation occurs in one’s heart and “only God can see the heart.” In the end, it seems we have added more “make-believers” to church roles and the Gospel had eroded in its regenerating distinctive because to be a Christian one never need to display evidence of being changed by it.  The church began to experience a type of spiritual apoplexy unable to address the fundamental ability of the true Gospel to be both joyfully free and yet exceedingly costly.

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