Bless His Heart
Once upon a time, there was a this guy named Bill. Bill was a regular guy, nothing really all that special.
One day, a guy from Bill’s town decided he’d start a church. But not a typical church. Nope, he wanted to start one of those “contemporary” churches. You know the kind … “purpose driven”, and “seeker sensitive”. They played rock music and everybody wore jeans to church. Organs and pianos were replaced by drums and guitars. There were these two giant projection screens on the walls with video and lyrics to the songs. Instead of reading the scripture in your Bible, you read it on the screen.
There was a person at Bill’s work that went to this new church. Bill obviously thinks it’s a cult and wants nothing to do with it. Thank goodness! Bill was already a member of a church. He liked his church too! He knew everybody there, and they knew him.
But this girl kept bugging him to come to church with her. Obviously, she had already swallowed the garbage they talk about at her church. But Bill was smarter than that. He knew that she was just a pawn in the new pastor’s “numbers game”, so he continually refused, always letting her know how sinful her church was. God isn’t pleased with rock music, He isn’t pleased with jeans, and He isn’t pleased with video screens.
But after months and months of trying to convince Bill to come, Bill started to have some trouble with teenage daughter. She was out of control and Bill began to wonder what in the world he was supposed to do about this. As a last resort, the girl from Bill’s work mentioned to him that her church was about to start a series on parenting.
This got Bill’s attention.
After talking it over with his wife, they decided that as long as they treated it like a “parenting conference” instead of church, it would be ok to go … just for this week though! After all, Bill wasn’t about to fall for their ridiculous excuse for a church.
So Bill and his family show up at the church. His kids go off to the children’s ministry and they go into the auditorium. Bill makes it clear that he’s glad they don’t call it a “sanctuary”, because it just wouldn’t fit.
The service starts and Bill finds himself laughing at the opening video for the series. Next thing you know, he’s got his notes out writing frantically. He’s shocked at the use of scripture in the service. It’s almost as if he actually enjoyed and learned from the sermon.
After the service, Bill picks up his kids and asks them how things went. Again, he’s shocked at how much they enjoyed church. Even more, he’s shocked that to hear from his children that they didn’t just run around and play games … they were actually taught an understandable lesson from the Bible.
As you can imagine, sadly, Bill swallowed the bait. He was now part of the mega-church he once stood against.
Now, Bill volunteers every Sunday with the children’s ministry that reached his younger children.
He leads a small group out of his home, where every week they study the Bible together, and give support to each other through their relationships.
He now invites people to church every week, and continues to propagate the mega-church cult message.
His marriage is strong, he spends time with Jesus every day, he gives faithfully to his church, and he openly professes his love for Jesus and his commitment to his church.
His teenagers love the youth ministry, and have even started inviting their friends lately.
Bless his heart. Poor Bill lost sight of true Christianity. He’s just another number in the herd of zombies in the mega-church cult.
OK, this was a satire …
but all too often this is the reaction of many when talking about churches that do things differently than their church. Because the church doesn’t preach expository sermons, or sing hymns, or “go deep”, they end up being criticized from all corners of the country. Stories of life change don’t phase them. Stories of salvation are met with discouragement and doubt rather than excitement and rejoicing.
There are probably hundreds of “Bills” in the churches that get criticized the most. But that doesn’t stop the criticism. When the sermons are not harsh enough, they get criticized. When they (gasp!) preach on the tough topics, they criticize the delivery methods. If secular music is played in the service, out come the dogs. But if they lose the secular music, even the Christian music isn’t “Christian” enough for them.
Yep … poor Bill. He’s a Christian, a better father, a strong leader, and a faithful servant of God. But because it happened at that church, it just doesn’t matter to them.
Sad … but unfortunately true.
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Hit the nail on the head.
Appreciated the satire. Can’t say I appreciate the validity of the situation, though….
Good post, Nathan. I think the problem is in what we believe the purpose of the church is. If the church exists to feed itself, then who cares about growth, changed lives and the like? If church revolves around our preferences and traditions then we will convert methods and preferences into doctrines and dogma.
It’s been going on since Jesus’ day and more than likely won’t go away until He comes back. The scary thing is that I think that propensity for stagnation and close-mindedness is in all of us. If we aren’t vigilant, the guys on the cutting edge today could easily become the stagnant old guard in 50 years…
“Bill’s” experience was similar to the one I had when I left my traditional church in favor of a more progressive one. As I sat there listening to the pastor telling me all the reasons I was making the wrong decision, it dawned on me - he was afraid. He knew he couldn’t lead his church in the direction that so many people like me are going, so his best defense was to invalidate it. Sad, because as I understand it, God’s perfect love is supposed to drive out fear.
Fantastic post! I love asking “Pharisees” to help me find in the bible where it tells me what to wear to church and what kind of music I can worship to.
But … is there anything wrong with a traditional church that does preach expository sermons, sing hymns, or “go deep?”
Is one right while the other is wrong?
Is one best — both practically and Biblically?
Is one even better?
Could both models (so-called traditional vs. the more contemporary model described in the post) have flaws?
Dr. Tim Keller had a great discussion of this kind of thing when he talked about contextualizing the Gospel (and I think it has application beyond one-on-one witnessing).
His point was that every Gospel presentation was contextual. For example, just presenting the Gospel in English is a contexualization — it excludes those who speak other languages. The same goes for musical styles, presentation/preaching styles, outreach efforts and so on.
The challenge is to contextualize in a way that is attractive (in that it met the target where they lived) yet true (in that it was in keeping with Scripture).
The danger is always to think that your way of contextualizing was not simply appropriate (meaning that it worked while being true to Scripture), but exclusive (meaning that it was the only way/best to do it … all other forms are some kind of sacrilege).
Just a somewhat mindless (in that I haven’t thoroughly examined this to know if I applaud this thinking or not …) addition.
Thought this article might add to the conversation:
http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=20-07-020-f
@Jalanda
Glad you liked it. I actually know quite a few people who actually have an eerily similar story :-)
@Ben
Delightful insight as usual :-D And I think you’re all too correct.
@Shelly
And you never looked back! Is it ever a bad thing to leave a church where the pastor is content on letting lifeless Christians remain lifeless? I certainly don’t think so :-)
@austin
I don’t like to throw around that word too much, but I certainly understand your point. Too often, in order to make ourselves feel safe, we end up adding a bunch of stuff to the Bible. Sad really.
@Matthew
You bring up an interesting point. Is one way better than another? Is one way more biblical than the other.
There are two churches in my area that I consider the best churches in the area. One is my church (duh) and the other is a church in Easley. The church in Easley is a traditional church. Large Choir (complete with robes), full orchestra, suits and dresses, pews, and the whole deal. They have embraces some contemporary things like projection screens and a very quite drum kit :-) but they are deeply traditional. But in everything they do, they do it with excellence. The pastor is a great speaker (although more topical than expository) and always has good content.
I, like you, don’t much like the exclusivity of any one method (provided the alternate methods don’t violate scripture), but that does bring into question the effect of the method. If we are called to make disciples, and you need a convert before you can have a disciple, then are we not called to be effective in our presentation of Jesus?
I think this topic deserves its own post though. I’ll try to work something up for tomorrow.
Nathan
Gotta love Tim Keller…
I think a traditional church can also be missional. There are a lot of communities in this country that prefer a traditional liturgy. That’s what speaks to them. That’s what they look for and what they expect. Throw someone like that into a NewSpring meeting and they would be lost.
The question really is whether or not people are being reached. If your methods are keeping you from reaching people, then that’s a problem. And the answer to that really depends on the local community/city and the heart of the people in the church towards that community.
Only fair to give Dr. Keller proper credit for his own comments. Here’s the audio of the discussion I reference above: http://theresurgence.com/files/audio/r_r_2006_session_06_audio_keller.mp3
Here’s the document he references: http://www.journeyon.net/media/being-the-church-in-our-culture.pdf
HT: The Reformissionary Blog (http://www.stevekmccoy.com/reformissionary/2005/07/tim_keller_arti.html)
The question is: is this biblical? not does this meet my needs? Is this pleasing to God not is this pleasing to me and my tastes??
I have no problem with the idea of mega-churches. I have a big problem with the idea of the establishment of ANY church that continues to perpetuate the seemingly endless cycle of Churchianity that ignores it’s own obvious failure to address it’s own contradictions, theologically and culturally.
For example, you mentioned in your satire something about Bill getting better teaching, more quanity or quality of scriptural teaching. This is utterly and patently ludicrous in the extreme. Christian understanding and teaching has suffered serious reductionism since it’s inception, and the beginnings were not that great to begin with. Today’s “Christians” are largely social converts, not disciples of Christ. How can I make this judgment? Half the Christian church in the world has been captured by hardline liberals from several movments of the past 100 years, including higher criticism and the ultra-militant gay movement. Often you don’t consider this half of Christianity in your thinking, because you view it as something “other” than yourself. “They” are not really Christianity. But they are. “They” were you, 25 years ago or 60 years ago. “They” were slowly leavened by the influence of atheists who had a will and a plan to take over the Church in the world by becoming the church in the world, reinterpreted and recreated in their own image.
So they captured the priesthoods and the clergy of the mainline denominations. Homosexuals flocked to the ministry, via seminaries, where their proclivities could be masked by their vocation, and their aqenda of transforming the traditional church into a new cult of the gay movement was moved forward and realized. They captured the seminaries next, which were already liberalized since the Battle for the Bible earlier in the century had secured liberal theology in most seminary institutions.
The point here is that if your church does nothing but continue to perpetuate the established errors of Christianity, rather than correct them, then you are a part of the problem, not the solution to it. You can justify your existence as a social club, but don’t call it The Church unless you are doing what the Bible tells the Church to do.
Do you know what the Church is supposed to do? Has your “progressive” pastor progressed you to that point?
Preach the Gospel. Well, what is the Gospel? The Book of Acts records that the first century early Church “turned the world upside down,” with their preaching of the Gospel. Is your church turning it’s world upside down or are they being turned upside down and being “done” by the world spirit of rationalism? Early Christian doctrine contributed to the fall of the world’s greatest pagan empire, replacing it with their own biblical worldview. Are we dismantling the structure of anti-God satanic imperialism in our culture and replacing it with the biblical worldview, or is exactly the opposite happening, because people like you who are young and have no context of history to make these judgments are being loyal to your leaders (pastor worship) and are in love with yourselves to the degree you cannot self-judge your narcissistic delusions.
What’s your plan for extending the Kingdom of God in the earth? Do you have a plan?
Or, more to the point, do you know what the purpose of the Church actually is? Is it just to preach the Gospel of salvation to sinners, get them saved, line them up at the bus stop to heaven and wait it out?
Ok, the NT says that the purpose of the 5-fold ministry is to equip the saints for service, to do the work of the ministry.
Eph.4:11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
Well, let’s count up how our leaders are doing so far. Since the 3rd century, Christianity has spawned over 25,000 separate denominations teaching separate and distinct doctrinal systems, some more or less in orthodoxy with the historical Church, some entirely heretical to historic teaching. So the result of 2000 years of what was supposed to be doctrinal CLARIFICATION became 2000 years of doctrinal destruction and dissimulation, so that when the world hears the sound coming from our mouths, it can’t hear what we are saying because the sound is indistinct. They can’t make sense out of what we are saying, because we cannot even agree amongst ourselves about simple things like free-will, creation, the nature of God, Church polity, baptismal formulas, or whether or not murder, adultery and homosexuality are actually sins or not.
Under the tutelage of pastors like yours (I don’t know him, I’m just using you and him as conversation pieces, our culture has allowed antinomians to take control of our laws, our cultural ethics, our educational institutions, and our churches and seminaries. We tolerate mass euthanasia of the most innocent and helpless memebers of our society, the unborn, while at the same time championing the universal equal rights of animals not to be abused or killed in utero, or by euthanasia.
They have overseen the destruction of the nuclear family while championing the legal rights of the new American family, the Gay/lesbian family. Ozzie and Harriet were evil, but Harriet and Harriet is advanced evolutionary social enlighenment.
They oversaw the rise in divorce rates to today’s levels, where people of this generation don’t consider marriage a sacred covenant before God, but as a weapon to be used in the culture wars to promote the agenda of homosexuals and communists who want the state to abolish marriage altogether. In the communist/humanist system, marriage is abolished and the state raises the children, and indoctrinates them into the worldview of statism.
All the while they were abdicating ground to the enemies of God, inch by inch, line by line, precept by precept, the ministry in America and the world advanced their own agendas, internal and external. Many became famous advancing teachings of their own that attracted millions of narcisscistic believers, like the faith-healers, or the get rich quick, name it claim it preachers (Aimee Semple McPherson, Rev. Ike, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, etc, etc, etc,). Some advanced huge telecommunications empires like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Paul and Jan Crouch, Pat Robertson, and Jimmy Swaggart.
The excesses of these ministries needs no explanation. The sheer insanity of the types of theology allowed to be taught on TBN defies imagination. It’s like listening to demons teach from the Bible.
What’s the bottom line with most of these guys? MONEY. Living like a letch for 30-40 years, soaking money off incredibly stupid Christians whose pastors should be telling them to shut their TV’s off and save their money, and shouyld be teaching them what real theology is. But they are not getting it at churches, so they have to fill the void in their souls for God’s Word by turning to demons teaching from the Bible. At least it’s sounds religious. But it’s more than they are getting in their own church, or they wouldn’t have such an itch to fill their minds with such garbage. If they were actually vbeing equipped, which they are not, they would be correcting these idiots of false Christianity and putting them out of business.
I have already told you that the current Christianity in the world has no effective/coherent/consistent theology for the following subjects:
No doctrine of creation
No doctrine of free-will
No doctrine of eschatology
No doctrine of theonomy
No doctrine of theodicy
No doctrine of inerrancy
No doctrine of apologetics
No doctrine of church polity
When I say they have no doctrine, I mean to say that while their are claims of these doctrines existing, they are self-refuting, easily shown to be error ridden, based on false suppositions, do not obtain what they claim to obtain, are often incoherent and inconsistent in logic, and the church has so many teachings from different factions of theology that the masses have no idea what to believe or why that do believe whatever it is they end up believing.
What you believe as a Christian is largely a construct of where you go to church and the traditions you were raised in.
If the pastors and teachers were equipping the saints, this would not be the case, the saints could think through proper doctrine on their own. This is not the case, therefore, your view of your pastor and your church, while noble and cute, is lacking substantial context.
I am a man who loves Jesus Christ, loves God’s Word, Loves the Church. I wish it were what you see it as. My religious life wouldn’t be so miserable if it were.