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| At this point in her history,
America moves forward on the strength of marketing. Marketing feeds on the new and the novel-- the next new look, the next new gameshow, the next new trend, etc. The American church is a reflection of her culture: We push the new and the novel. NT Wright has a new perspective on Paul. Brian MacLaren has a new definition of orthodoxy. The emergent movement has a new formula for how to do church. Joel O'Steen has a new formula to unlock the abundant life. Rick Warren has the 40-day path to a life driven by God's purpose. A few years ago, Bruce Wilkinson had the Jabez mantra. Trends, fads, movements pop up and siappear as soon as they've come. I'm afraid that the honest, transparent, authentic Christian and church phase is just the latest (or one of the latest) new fads. The thing is, all of these people and movements have something valuable to say (except Joel O'Steen), and not much of what they're saying is really all that new. Augustine and Edwards were being honest and authentic in their confessional autobiographies centuiries ago, as were John Bunyan and John Newton. Liberals 100 years ago were saying much of what modern evangelicals are saying today-- let's be relevant and focus on deeds and not creeds, for deeds bring true change and creeds just divide us (See Harry Emerson Fosdick's Relevant Morality).
What does not change: God is soveriegn. The Gospel is the only good news for lost sinners. The church needs to be faithful to the Word of God. | | |
| Every once in a while, God reminds us of something true that makes us stop and think:
by Sara Groves
It was there in the bulletin
We're leaving soon
After the bake sale to raise funds for fuel
The rocket is ready and we're going to
Take our church to the moon
There'll be no one there to tell us we're odd
No one to change our opinions of God
Just lots of rocks and this dusty sod
Here at our church on the moon
We know our liberties we know our rights
We know how to fight a very good fight
Just get that last bag there and turn out the light
We're taking our church to the moon
We're taking our church to the moon
We'll be leaving soon
http://saragroves.com/ | | |
| For the record, let me say that I am very much in favor of Christians being honest and humble and authentic in their conversations with non-Christians. I think the old sterilized testimony of "I was a lost and hopeless sinner and then I found Jesus so now my life is perfect" just isn't true and isn;t faithful to the Gospel. I am however, suspicious of Christian who talk about being humble, authentic and honest-- being "transparent" Christians. I think there's a world of difference between talking about being these things and actually being these things. The former may win you an audience while the latter may get you into real trouble. If someone says to me "I just want to be honest and be an authentic Christian," I get suspicious and I wonder what they're hiding. Nothing makes a better front than feigned honesty. | | |
| Church worship is a covenant renewal between God and His people. The two participants in the ceremony are God, who is present through the Word and the Spirit, and the body of Christ, God's people, the visible church. The people who lead the worship are either leading God's people in speaking to God or else are functioning as God's mouthpiece to talk to His people. Understanding this simple and Biblical model of a worship service leads fairly quickly to a few key conclusions:
1. The "entertainment value" of a worship service should not be a factor at all. God wants to speak to His people in a way that is clear, understandable (which is why a Latin Mass is wrong) and Biblical, but God is not concerned with putting on a show and engaging the audience in an entertaining way.
2. Worship services should include lots of Scripture reading.
3. Worship services need to include a time for God's people to collectively confess our sins before God and be reassured of the forgiveness that is ours through the Gospel.
4. Sermons MUST be exegetical. A pastor is not free to "give a talk" or "share his thoughts." We don't give a rip what the pastor's thoughts are. That's not why we've assembled as the people of God. We want to hear from God. Unless a pastor opens the Bible, reads a passage of Scripture, and then explains it and applies it to the people, he has failed in his duty as a pastor. He is there to speak God's word to God's people. Nothing less is acceptable.
5. The church, when assembled, should lift up its needs before the throne of grace corporately, interceding on behalf of individual members of the body and their needs. This pretty much shoots down the idea that a mega-church can worship biblically week-to-week.
6. The pastor needs to know his flock well enough to be able to make faithful application of the word to their real spiritual needs. Again, he is there to speak for God.
7. Skits, videos, dance presentations, and even most special music presentations are irrelevant and inappropriate for a Sunday morning church service. We usually want somene to play music while we collect the offering, so we don't have awkward silence during that time, but even that has no real function in the worship service.
Think about this: We go to church to do business with God-- to assemble as His people and approach His throne on His day to offer Him the praise He is due, to confess our sins, to believe in the promises of the Gospel, to present our needs and requests before His throne, to hear from His word, and to respond with giving and a charge to go out into the world as His representatives, blessed by Him and commissioned by Him to represent Him to the world.
Most of the work of the church, and almost all of the work of the church in interacting with the culture and presnting Christ to unbelievers, takes place outside of the context of Sunday morning worship.
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| "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
"So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward." - Matthew 10:24-42, ESV
"Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." - James 4:4, ESV | | |
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