Counting the Cost, Scene 1

I was talking with a distinguished doctor who was commenting on missionary practices in his area of the world. According to him, there is much valuable work being done, and the people doing it are certainly earnest and dedicated believers. But there is one thing lacking. “We want so much to win the people to Christ,” he said, “that we are watering down the gospel to the point where believing in Christ hardly means anything. There is no repentance, no change of life. It is easy to become Christ’s follower.” I was interested in this man’s opinion, because, as I assured him, the same thing is true of much “gospel preaching” here.
"But Is He with Us?" Section 5
Yesterday we looked at the first three varieties within the church. Today we look at the last two.
 
4. There is a variety of methods. When I wrote of “styles” a moment ago I was approaching this area. But style is more an individual thing; method is organizational. When we speak of methods we are speaking of the difference between those who prefer to work within an institution to change it and those who prefer to work outside, between those who prefer direct confrontation and those who try to win by tact and persuasion, between those who work one-on-one and those who prefer to mount national campaigns. 
"But Is He with Us?" Section 4

There is only one way we will ever defeat this tendency to an improper narrowness in our view of Christian work, and that is to recover a vision of the greatness of the church as Christ’s body. We need to recover the truth Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God who works all of them in all men” (1 Cor. 12:4-6). According to this and other passages, the church contains a variety of gifts, styles, causes, and methods of ministry.
"But Is He with Us?" Section 3

I suppose that in the entire history of the church there has never been a division, however unnecessary or sordid, that has not been justified by some persons on spiritual grounds. Yet if the truth be told, the great majority of them occur for base motives.
"But Is He with Us?" Section 2
In the incident we are studying, the exorcist not only did what he did in Christ’s name and therefore in open allegiance to Christ. He was also effective in what he did, for he was actually casting out demons. This indicates that his allegiance to Jesus was not in word only but by saving faith, for it is only as one is joined to Jesus by faith that power is seen in him. In other words, the man was a true believer in Jesus. His action was a proof of his profession.