He continued, “If it was just telling the truth, then we really wouldn’t need the Holy Spirit. We could just say the truth and go about our business.”
“But there’s far more of living out the truths you believe,” KB said, continuing:
In justice and kindness and mercy and long-suffering and patience, in being persecuted for his namesake and not reviling those who reviled you, in forgiving and reconciling, in confession, in giving, in sacrifice, in humility and not associating with the proud and the haughty, not giving yourself to celebrities and people that make money for your church, being somebody that is committed to mission and ministry over genres and access and Instagram pictures.
“A church trying to be super cool or a church being super strict—always coming against all of the groups we dislike and we’re policing everyone that is too close to these groups—this is not demonstrating a life and a doctrine that produces a fruit that people want to eat,” KB said.
“It’s called ‘fruit,’” he said. “It’s not called ‘bitter.’ It’s called fruit. It’s supposed to be something that is desirable for people to engage with. You are called the salt of the world, not the acid of the world.”
KB clarified, “So narrow truths are good, but our love must be very wide.”
“The way in which we are engaging, the way in which we are living out and obsessing over the heavier things of the law—those things need to be demonstrated,” KB continued. “And the failure to demonstrate those things is directly correlated, directly connected to, the church’s loss of ground in the culture.”
Closing the conversation, ChurchLeaders asked KB who his biggest influence is, outside of Christ.
Without hesitation, KB replied, “My wife.”
“She is certainly the biggest influence on my life,” he added, sharing that her kindness and patience are “just an image of what I aspire to be.”
“She’s one of the most consistent people I’ve ever met in my life. I don’t get a different version of her every other day,” KB concluded. “I just really, really hit the lottery with Michelle.”
KB will be joining Phil Wickham and Brandon Lake on the Summer Worship Nights arena tour later this month.
