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    Max Lucado:  Stepping Down was “The Hardest Decision of My Life”

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    Q. You announced in March that you were going to step down as senior minister of your church. How difficult was that decision?

    A. It’s been the hardest decision in my life. I love the church and I love being a pastor, but I developed a heart condition and that really prompted the decision because the church is about 5,500 in size, in members, so that it needs a full-time, healthy senior minister.

    Q. How are you feeling now?

    A. I give myself a B minus. I’m not quite an A but I was a D, so I think I’m doing better.

    Q. So what will your new role be at the church when the new person arrives?

    A. We’re going to call it minister of teaching and writing because I do so much writing, and the church sees it as really an extension of the church. I would like to preach somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the time, maybe as much as 50 percent, but a lot of that depends on the new senior minister, whatever he wants.

    Q. Will this change in your life give you more time to write?

    A. Yes. And I’ll be able to write at a more relaxed pace.... I’m very much looking forward to that.

    Q. Why did you choose to write about John 3:16?

    A. I love to write about a passage that people are already familiar with, like the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, and 3:16 is really the most famous verse in the New Testament.

    The advantage of that is when people hear the verse, I’m not on new territory. We’re on common ground.

    Q. You call it the “Hope diamond” of the Bible, but you also acknowledge that there’s nothing politically correct about its claim. It seems that you are saying that it is exclusive rather than inclusive.

    A. There are couple of phrases that give 3:16 its starch. One of them is the phrase “only begotten Son.” And I dedicated quite a bit of the book to that because that’s a bold claim. It comes from the Greek word monogenes, which means “only genetic” or “one genetic.” Jesus claims to have genetic connection with God that no one else ever claimed to have, same DNA.

    Then the phrase “in him.” God so loved the world he gave his monogenetic son so that whoever believes in him. Well, that’s pretty exclusive there. It’s not my job to apologize for the exclusivity of the passage but to highlight it.

    Q. So you’re saying it may be exclusive, but it’s truthful.

    A. It’s truthful and it is one of those deal-make or deal-break claims of Christianity.

    Q. You unpack each segment of this famous verse chapter by chapter. Which do you think is most important?

    A. The word I love is “whoever” - “whoever believes in him shall not perish.” Now there’s an inclusive word. It throws open the doors. Whatever generation, however rich you are, poor you are.

    Whatever ethnic background, whatever gender, whatever age.

    Q. You express the notion that there is a conspiracy to minimize hell. Why do you think that is?

    A. I believe there is a devil. I believe there is a spiritual force that works against God’s people and God’s will. So if I’m the devil then I’m going to try to convince people there’s no hell and I’m going to do so by getting them to minimize - with their language - hell.

    Q. Is there a way to crystallize what you think heaven will be like?

    A. I think heaven is the resurrected Earth with resurrected people who have put their faith in Christ.

    SOURCE:  Winston-Salem Journal

    The Winston-Salem Journal recently ran an interview with Max Lucado. Lucado, 52, talked about the challenges he's facing and the well-known Bible verse, which reads: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Following are excerpts:

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