There once was a church that was totally centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Above the entrance to their meeting place hung a sign that read:
“We Preach Christ Crucified.”
Everyone in that church knew what their purpose was in this world. But over the years, some ivy began to grow up around the entrance, and it obscured the last word of the sign. And soon, the sign simply read:
“We Preach Christ.”
The members of the church never really noticed that, because the sign accurately reflected what was going on inside. Rather than preaching the crucified Savior as they had in the past, they were now just preaching Jesus as a loving man—an example of how to live—but no cross. As the years passed, the ivy continued crawling over the sign, which now read:
“We Preach.”
