Bestselling author Eric Metaxas told a group of Christian CEOs yesterday (Sunday), that " the church in Germany prior to World War II is similar to what I see in the U.S. today," according to an article in The Christian Post today. Metaxas was addressing a group of more than 300 executives of religious broadcasting outlets in Nashville, Tennessee.
Metaxas took a break in his ten city Bonhoeffer tour in which he is crossing the United States telling rapt audiences about the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed by Hitler only weeks before the Allies liberated the concentration camp in which the preacher and spy was being held prisoner.
Metaxas will be involved in a nationwide simulcast of his talk tonight about his bestselling book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr,Prophet, Spy. Churches who are interested in participating may still contact him with information on his website.
In last night's talk, Metaxas said," the church today in America is filled with tradition and culture and they had much to be proud of, that sometimes leads to pridefulness. Many German churchgoers somehow missed what it was all about.....merely going through the motions. At this point the church can no longer be the church."
Metaxas will be traveling in the Midwest and Southeast for several more days on his Bonhoeffer book tour. It has sold out in most cities including Nashville.
Metaxas also spoke last night of his secular experience when he attended Yale in which he almost lost his faith. He said before that his parents regularly took him to church as a child where the activities dealt with social activities but not teaching the Gospel as found in the Bible.
He said church to him was primarily a cultural experience and not a spiritual one. And he didn't single out any particular denominations or churches as being guilty of that.
Metaxas further said, "That could be the case in any denomination or religion."
He offered further good advice, saying, "If you don't learn to pray, if you don't hear the Gospel and you don't read the Scriptures, you can't experience God."
He graduated Yale with an English degree and took a low-level job as a proofreader with a large firm in Connecticut. It was there he found his faith. He gives God credit for miraculously working in his life by allowing a graphic designer to share his own faith with him and then converting him.
Metaxas also recently testified in front of a Congressional committee regarding freedom of religion inWashington D.C.
His first stop on his Bonhoeffer tour was in Buffalo in the middle of a massive blizzard. People still drove from hundreds of miles away through treacherous weather to hear his discussion of the book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.
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