Showing posts with label church growth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church growth. Show all posts
(Hat-tip to Gregory Jackson over at his blog for the heads-up on this blog post from Herescope. It hits the proverbial "nail" squarely on its head.)
The Scandal and Malnutrition of Sermons for Sale
By Pastor Jeffrey L. Whittaker
I remember sitting in a popular restaurant chain with some friends several years ago, when the waitress came to take our order. One of my friends, when asked what kind of dressing he wanted on his salad, abruptly stated to the startled server, “And I don’t want any ‘dead bread’ on my salad.” After letting the comment sink in, the sweet but stunned girl replied, “Oh, you mean croutons!” To which my friend simply nodded in confirmation.
That analogy has stuck with me all these years, and I remember it every time I order a salad that comes with “dead bread.” I actually don’t mind croutons that much, and have even purchased a bag when passing through the salad aisle at the supermarket. There are so many flavors now: herb, parmesan, bacon-ranch, etc; all so conveniently located that I just reach out and take them as I pass by while filling my cart. However, when applying my friend’s unflattering adjective to preaching, my heart is stirred over a phenomenon which has gripped America’s pulpits in recent years.
I recall opening my mail one morning some years ago and reading my first advertisement for “dead bread”:
“Pastors, are you too busy to spend hours of preparation on your sermons? Tired of feeling the stress of having to come up with original ideas week after week? If so, for just $199.95 you can have 52 weeks of quality sermons crafted by homiletical masters, complete with illustrations! Your congregation is guaranteed to be thrilled with the results or your money back!”
Could this be true? Are there people who actually do this?
My next encounter with the crouton crowd was at a breakfast meeting with a group of ministers when three men from the same “high church” tradition began comparing how their Easter season was going. I was stunned when each one began sharing from the exact same text, outline, illustrations, everything! They chided me for my naiveté and how I could expect to come up with fresh bread week after week after week. The last straw was when I found “sermon seed” in the back of my own former fellowship’s ministerial journal, giving even Pentecostal pastors a shortcut to perfectly prepared and portioned seasoned sermons.
Little did I realize that there was an entirely new “evangelical liturgy” which had been created in the name of pragmatic programming and church growth. There are many websites available to pastors across America (which I refuse to list here) where they can tap into high carbohydrate ministries by simply “clicking and shipping” a veritable supermarket of pre-prepared and pre-packaged food.
This truth was originally proclaimed (in type) in the account of God’s warning to Israel that He wanted them to gather fresh manna each morning, and that they were not to hoard up one crumb until the next day. They were supposed to learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8). They failed to listen then, and the result was spoilage and worms instead of a miraculous manifestation of God’s power (Exodus 16). The Apostle Peter exhorted those of us who preach:
“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God;” (1 Peter 4:11a)That analogy has stuck with me all these years, and I remember it every time I order a salad that comes with “dead bread.” I actually don’t mind croutons that much, and have even purchased a bag when passing through the salad aisle at the supermarket. There are so many flavors now: herb, parmesan, bacon-ranch, etc; all so conveniently located that I just reach out and take them as I pass by while filling my cart. However, when applying my friend’s unflattering adjective to preaching, my heart is stirred over a phenomenon which has gripped America’s pulpits in recent years.
I recall opening my mail one morning some years ago and reading my first advertisement for “dead bread”:
“Pastors, are you too busy to spend hours of preparation on your sermons? Tired of feeling the stress of having to come up with original ideas week after week? If so, for just $199.95 you can have 52 weeks of quality sermons crafted by homiletical masters, complete with illustrations! Your congregation is guaranteed to be thrilled with the results or your money back!”
Could this be true? Are there people who actually do this?
My next encounter with the crouton crowd was at a breakfast meeting with a group of ministers when three men from the same “high church” tradition began comparing how their Easter season was going. I was stunned when each one began sharing from the exact same text, outline, illustrations, everything! They chided me for my naiveté and how I could expect to come up with fresh bread week after week after week. The last straw was when I found “sermon seed” in the back of my own former fellowship’s ministerial journal, giving even Pentecostal pastors a shortcut to perfectly prepared and portioned seasoned sermons.
Little did I realize that there was an entirely new “evangelical liturgy” which had been created in the name of pragmatic programming and church growth. There are many websites available to pastors across America (which I refuse to list here) where they can tap into high carbohydrate ministries by simply “clicking and shipping” a veritable supermarket of pre-prepared and pre-packaged food.
This truth was originally proclaimed (in type) in the account of God’s warning to Israel that He wanted them to gather fresh manna each morning, and that they were not to hoard up one crumb until the next day. They were supposed to learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8). They failed to listen then, and the result was spoilage and worms instead of a miraculous manifestation of God’s power (Exodus 16). The Apostle Peter exhorted those of us who preach:
We are to work, weep, and wrestle with the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to bring forth a fresh revelation of God’s mind and heart to His people DAILY. Today, all the over-worked and under-prayed pastor/CEO needs to do is click, ship, and unwrap the moldy manna, and sprinkle it liberally into the gaping mouths and itching ears of their “flock” (of pigeons not sheep).
Am I being too harsh? Please allow me to illustrate using the very words of some of the most successful ministry marketers and program exporters in America.
Bill Hybels' Self Feeders
Bill Hybels, pastor of the world-famous Willow Creek church in suburban Chicago, after taking an internal survey of his membership, was forced to admit in a recent statement that,
“I got the wake-up call of my adult life… parts of the data just ruined my day. That (“Reveal Now”) survey just rocked my world. Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars in, thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually; when the data actually came back, it wasn’t helping people that much.”
Pastor Hybels has been regarded as one of the foremost church growth gurus, having elevated drawing a crowd to both a science and an art. Thousands of pastors and churches have subscribed to the Willow Creek Association sermons, skits, and music; all with the hope of exponential increase in attendance. In addition to his initial confession, pastor Hybels continued by stating,
- “[The unsaved “pre-christians”] were giving us 9s [out of 10 on their survey].”
- “When we got to growing Christians, the scores began going down. And then we get to fully devoted followers of Christ, and the scores got scarily low…. That really bothers me.”
- “A lot of people in this category said that they’re not being fed… they want more of the meat of the Word of God…. That’s hard for me to hear.”
- “We’ve made a mistake…. We should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become self-feeders.” [emphasis added]
Isn’t it sadly ironic that the unregenerate audiences give Pastor Hybels his highest marks because his services are so “friendly” to them; but those who identify themselves as true followers of Christ are leaving hungry? Hybels laments that the problem is that the people are not learning to take responsibility for feeding themselves!
Mark Beeson's Self Feeders
This sentiment was parroted in a similar rant by Pastor Mark Beeson of Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana, who experienced a similar rude awakening at the hands of his own congregation’s “reveal now” survey. Mind you, these numbers are attributed to “Christ followers” in the words of Beeson, and not to unconverted “men on the street.”
- 47% do not believe in salvation by grace,
- 57% do not believe in the authority of the Bible,
- 56% do not believe that Jesus is the only way to eternal life,
- 41% do not believe that God is personally involved in their daily life, and
- 71% don’t believe that a Christian should live a sacrificial life, instead of being driven by the pursuit of material things.
Listen to the evaluation of this nationally known purveyor of mass marketed spiritual croutons.
“Let me tell you something that the survey revealed, the people of Granger Community Church simply do not have a Biblical worldview…. We don’t know how to feed ourselves; we just don’t have any idea… The majority of Christ followers of this church said that the number one barrier to growth is that it is not a high priority to you… it’s just not really important. In case you have forgotten, you are the leaders."
See how he shifts the blame onto the 6,000 members? What is his solution to this travesty?
“We’re going to increase the length of our weekend services, just a little bit… We are not going to try and hold that [“real ministry”] experience to Thursday night; it will be on the weekend with 6,000 people. We’re not going to stop teaching, but we’re going to add to that the experience of the risen Christ… We’re going to program for it, and it’s going to take an extra two or three minutes.”
That long eh? They are also planning to…
“Add adequate transition time between services to enhance the guest experience… Give 45 minutes between services so that guests, they don’t have to fight, scream, and hate people when they’re parking their car.” [all emphases added]
Do you see the absolute blindness and directional destitution created by a steady diet of “dead bread”? Granger, by the way, has become infamous for very deliciously sprinkled sermon series based upon spandex, R-rated movies, immoral television shows, and many other elements of the fallen pop culture (www.gccwired.com). He also boasts new church plants using local movie theaters where the audience can sit in comfort and watch a prepackaged church service from beginning to end via video, with one of the main drawing cards being popcorn and cup holders!
If these pastors want their surveys to reflect a truly healthy church “body,” then they must feed it Manna and not Madonna. Unfortunately, they would then risk losing their customers who thrive on such apostate appetizers, thus reducing the impressive attendance figures which they routinely use to validate their “success”! Douglas M. White wrote in his inspiring book, The Excellence of Exposition (Loizeaux Brothers Pub. Neptune, New Jersey, 1977),
“A modern congregation is not disposed to show any depth of appreciation for exposition. Again, we are forced to acknowledge the correctness of the indictment. At the same time, this lack of knowledge is largely due to the fact that the pulpit has failed to instruct the people and thereby stimulate such an interest and desire for Biblical knowledge and understanding.” (p. 42) [emphasis added]
The Prophet Amos put it another way in the eighth chapter of his oracle when he wrote,
“11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.”
Churches built upon this malnourished diet of “dead bread” instead of the living Word of God continue to resort to the very thing that led to their famine… more surveys and opinion polls. Dead bread for dead flesh; with no power to nourish or save, no matter how much is consumed. The Apostle Paul urged the young pastor, Timothy,
(1 Timothy 4:6)
He would later plead with the young pastor,
The Apostle Peter also had a similar warning to the young preachers under his leadership.
(1 Peter 5:2a)
Peter didn’t scold the sheep for unfavorable survey numbers, but instead demanded that the shepherds “take the oversight thereof,” leading the church to green pastures filled with the life-giving Word of God! Sheep will eat what is put before them, so the wise preacher must lead the flock to hot, fresh bread instead of mass-produced, dried up garnishes.
Dr. H. Jeffs stated in his famous work, The Art of Exposition (Pilgrim Press, Boston, 1910),
“The Bible is the preacher’s book and the preacher’s glory. Bible exposition is the preacher’s main business. If he cannot or will not expound the Bible, what right has he in any pulpit? He is a cumberer of the ground that might be occupied by a fruit-bearing and soul-nourishing tree. If he does not expound the Bible, what else is there for him to do? He may deliver addresses out of his own head on any subject that occurs to him, and may do it well, but why do it in the pulpit? Is it his own gospel, or has he a gospel that can just as well be preached without the Bible, as with it? He is presumably a preacher of a Christian church, but there would have been no Christian church today if there had been no Bible…. Humanity that has once known the Bible will turn away, after the novelty has worn off, from every flashy substitute for the Bible that our modern Athenians push as the latest thing in the spiritual market.” (Ibid, p.35)
To be charitable, I do believe that many such spiritual restaurateurs are offering their bite-sized gospel because they truly do want to “meet the consumers where they are.” But it must be realized that true conversion is a miracle that can be performed only by the Holy Spirit Himself, and the only thing given to the church through which this miracle can take place is His Inspired Word!
(Hebrews 4:12)
When the church proclaims God’s Word instead of its own ideas of cultural relevance, then true saving faith can come! (Romans 10:17) The God of Israel is, however, raising up a generation of passionate lovers of eternal Truth who will not be intimidated nor seduced by these prophets of pragmatism, and who will give fallen humanity what they need, instead of what they want!
Our Lord Jesus gives us such an example of His strong and uncompromising leadership in The Gospel of John, chapter 6. After feeding a crowd of 5,000 men, He then turns around the very next day (not after months or years of stringing them along in a spiritual “bait and switch” routine) and challenges their motives; changing the menu from fish and chips to His flesh and blood. The horrified clientele became offended and decided to find another establishment more to their particular tastes and liking.
Once again the words of Paul ring through the centuries, calling the preacher to this deeper quest:
(1 Timothy 4:13-16)
When men and women of God labor over the hot oven of prayerful preparation, they are the first to taste the fruits of their labor. I always say that the first sinner to the altar each week is me, due to being confronted with the Lord’s divine demands repeatedly throughout my preparations. Perhaps we would see less moral failure and spiritual shallowness in both the pulpit and the pew if the first priority became the deep searching out of Truth and doctrine, instead of making sure all the smoke and mirrors were ready for the next dinner show. We are called to give the “sincere milk” and “strong meat” of the Word, not to merely click on the notes of someone else’s “30 days of this” or “40 days of that” in the hope of packin’ ‘em in.
They need the cross… we give them croutons. There is much idolatry to answer for from the pulpit to the pew, as well as within the front offices of number-crunching denominational bureaucrats.
Is there any hope? Oh yes! God is on the throne and has the situation well in hand. In the Book of Ruth we read of a time of famine in Israel, much like the conditions spoken of by Amos. However, after a long ten year exile in Moab, Naomi “arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread” (Ruth 1:6). After returning, Naomi (who had taken the name “bitter” while in exile) introduced her daughter-in-law, Ruth, to a redeemer who would bring her into the very bloodline of the Messiah and Savior of the world, Jesus!
When the spiritual exiles and pretenders who have been surviving on the crumbs and croutons of Moabite menus hear that there is freshly baked bread in the Father’s promised land, they will seek out its source and usher in a new season of fruitfulness! Let us all strive to stay true to His call, and to honor His eternal Word! Bon Appetit!
The Truth:
"Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?" (Isaiah 55:2a)
(*Update*)
Here the InternetMonk blog posts that started this whole thing.
In addition, Todd Wilken of Issues Etc., has done an interview with the author of "The Coming Evangelical Collapse", Michael Spencer. Give it a listen!
Wow! Here is some "glass-is-half-full" positive news about American Evangelicalism from Michael Spencer, columnist for the Christian Science Monitor, he says:
"We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West."
"Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century."
"This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good."
"Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close."
Ah, there's nothing like callin'em as you see'em!
Now, According to Spencer, here's why (many reasons I agree with, by the way):
"1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism."
"2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught."
"3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile."
"4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism."
"5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching."
"6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith."
Now, according to Spencer, what will be left?
"•Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches that have defined success."
"•Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions."
"•A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal."
"•The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape, becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that remain true to the liberal vision."
"•Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear."
"•Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism."
"•Evangelicalism needs a "rescue mission" from the world Christian community."
"•Expect a fragmented response to the culture war."
This partly jives with an (AFP) report regarding the rise of secularism, and other reports regarding declining Church membership across the board.
The basic gist of the (AFP) press report states that:
"Secularism is gaining ground in the United States, eating away at the percentage of Americans who identify with the Protestant Christianity of the founding fathers, a poll published Monday showed."
"The percentage of Americans who adhered to no particular religion jumped from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent last year, the third American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) conducted over 10 months last year by pollsters from Trinity College in Connecticut, showed."
"When the survey was conducted in 2001, 14.1 percent of respondents said they were not religious."
Now, if what these reports are stating is indeed fact, then things will definitely be a-changin' in the religious and political landscape as we know it. However, for now, I want to go back to Spencer's reasons why and expectations of things to come.
First he says, "Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism."
When he states the term "Evangelicals" I will suppose that he's referring to everything under the umbrella of "American-style Evangelicalism".
Oddly enough, much of the "culture war" phenomena was started by the family values oriented LDS Church. Only since the late sixties, following the social and political upheaval of the times did the fundamentalists jump on board and try to "take back culture", as if they had owned it at one time or another, or that it's theirs by right or something. Now we have organizations like Focus on the Family, and Campus Crusades for Christ, etc., who follow more of a "deeds not creeds" mentality, which believes nothing more than civil righteousness as God pleasing acts. That's when you hear guys such as Hagee, or Robertson, et. al, claim that when any calamity which befalls the United States is a just punishment from God because of the immoral republic. These guys are classic theologians of glory, God rewards good behavior and punishes evil behavior, therefore when anything bad happens to the nation, it's because of the immorality of its people. Yet, these guys fail to see that everything, even the good things man does is nothing but evil. and for a better explanation on this point see thesis 6, and proof from the Heidelberg disputation.
As for the political element of it all, it is frankly disturbing. It is right for everyone outside the fray of Evangelicalism to look with a jaundiced eye at the gland-hand, Christian, political action committee lobbyists who cozy up with politicians in hopes of affecting some legislation favorable to their side. One hasn't seen such coziness between Church and State since the 15th century, and heaven forbid you tell a fundamentalist that he resembles the papacy, for he's sure to respond, "but I don't pray to Mary or the Saints, or go to confession, or believe the Pope is infallible", as if this "style-over-substance" were the only thing that separates us from Rome.
Later he says, "[w]e Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught."
I'll assume, once again, that when he speaks of "orthodox" that he's speaking of Churches rooted in Biblical doctrine and the Word of God. If this is the case, then I must say that I agree with him. The discipline, or lack thereof, regarding American Churches in passing on their faith, correctly mind you, in favor of the "happy-clappy" style of worship and personal devotion, has showed itself highly inferior to secularist intellectuals, especially when a young Christian is faced with it on their college campus.
Regarding what Spencer is anticipating for the Evangelicalism to come, he said, "[e]xpect [it] to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches...."
Oh no, not more of this! I suppose though if people are going to reject the Gospel and sound Biblical doctrine, not that the current American Evangelical Churches necessarily teach such things, but the masses will still need an idol of "Christian-Lite", you know, heavy on pop-psychology and lite on doctrine, to get them through. I just wish this won't be the case, but I'll suppose we'll see.
Later he says, "[t]wo of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions."
Well, this is already an occurring phenomenon. Please see my article here, and response to that article here where I wrote about, and then communicated with a Fr. Hackney who converted from the LCMS to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Also, another more notable case is that of Christian Apologist Francis Beckwith, who converted from (I'm not exactly sure what Church body he was originally affiliated with, but it was something akin to American Evangelicalism, I think, but please don't quote me on that) to Roman Catholicism.
So, I guess if people grow disgusted by "content-less", "un-historic" Christianity then it would make some sense for someone to gravitate towards something with a tremendous weight of history and meaningful tradition.
All-in-all no one knows what the future holds, and as for me, I'm with Luther (in more ways than just this one) when he says, and I paraphrase, "if someone knew beyond the shadow of a doubt the world were to end tomorrow, I would plant a tree today." So, in regard to crumbling Church movements, where crumblings have actually happened, and rumors of crumblings are supposed to happen, we, that is Confessional Orthodox Lutherans must preach the Gospel to lost and broken souls today.
(But then again maybe there's something to all this, perhaps this is what Dave Wilkerson was talking about on his blog. But then again, maybe not.)
.
.
In a blog post from the religion editor of the Washington Post, Julia Duin makes an interesting, albeit naively humorous comment regarding the decline in congregational attendance across many "main-line" denominations, she says specifically in reference to the LCMS:
"...the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (down 1.44 percent)...The Missouri Synod loss is a surprise in that conservative groups generally do not decline in American churchdom."
Hmmm!
While she may be right or wrong about conservative church bodies (I'm not sure that's anything but anecdotal), she obviously doesn't know that much of Missouri left any kind of semblance to "conservative" a long time ago. Case in point, the ablaze movement. This is perhaps why church attendance is declining in the first place, but then again, maybe not!
."...the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (down 1.44 percent)...The Missouri Synod loss is a surprise in that conservative groups generally do not decline in American churchdom."
Hmmm!
While she may be right or wrong about conservative church bodies (I'm not sure that's anything but anecdotal), she obviously doesn't know that much of Missouri left any kind of semblance to "conservative" a long time ago. Case in point, the ablaze movement. This is perhaps why church attendance is declining in the first place, but then again, maybe not!
.
Alright get a load of this:
"After a two-year study, the congregation decided a satellite ministry might work. They also thought about different ways in which to present the gospel and came up with an approach that Hunter refers to as “casual about church; serious about God.”
“We studied our culture: its movement away from church and its movement toward community and the desire to get together at a café or a Starbucks,” says Hunter. “Our goal was to recreate that atmosphere and bring the gospel to it.”
Guess what church body this is? Is it the PC-USA, the SBC, the LCMS, the ElCA, or some Crypto-Baptist, non-denominational, community mega-church?! No, it is none other than the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod - sans the Lutheran bit of course. Yes, they've decided to feed at the trough of "church-growth", and, if they continue, they'll suffer the same fate as many megachurches before them, the fate of mass exodus.
Beside the repulsive "results-oriented" dogma which undergirds the "church growth" movement, (i.e. if the numbers of your congregation do not increase, then your doing something wrong, etc.) what disturbs me is how blindly behind the times these people are. Seriously, this is mid-90's style church-growth here, get with it!
It all the more proves Francis Schaeffer's philosophy of culture influencing the church true. First, usually 50 years or more before the movement connects with the masses, a new idea, a new social, or political, or business science, what have you, is given birth in the bowels of a university. It'll then begin to subtly influence the bohemian crowd, such as: artists, poets, novelists, musicians, and also the powers that be in science, business, etc., etc. Next, as the bohemian crowd, and the power elite soften the blow of this radical paradigm shift in thought and social interaction, thus, in the process making it "hip", the mass media begins to also subtly introduce it in drips and drabs until it becomes regular group-think, or common knowledge. That process can take years. Then, as this now old idea is communally accepted, the parishioners, and pastors, for that matter, introduce it as a new and bold vision of the future for the propagation of the Gospel message that magically works great results. However, by this time in the cycle, the world has already given birth, consumed, and defecated at least three great paradigm shifts since the first one's examination was even given a chance to play out in the church-growth movement.
The result is a culture that scoffs the church when it takes stumbling footsteps in trying to be relevant and hip to a naturally hostile society. We all have known the parent of a teenager who tries, usually feebly, to appear relevant to their kid and their kid's friends. Yet, when the parent is out the room, the embarrassed kid and the friends as well chide the parents actions for how transparent and obvious they are. The parent merely wants first hand insight into their child's lives, but instead of being honest and direct, they attempt to stealthily infiltrate their social circle, and are usually too blind to see that their feeble actions are further alienating their child. So it is with the church. When the church wears a mask of "sunshine and light" and hides the unpopular aspects of Christianity regarding sin, damnation, and man's complete inability to procure salvation for himself outside of Christ, the church undermines it's central message; the Gospel. No one can receive this precious gift of God without first seeing how spiritually impoverished they actually are without it. So here you have a maxim appearing, the more you attempt to make the Gospel relevant to a hostile world, the more hostile the treatment of the Gospel becomes by it's own handlers.
Let's face it, everyone of us, the Gospel is not a popular message, and Christ promised us as much. When St. Paul traveled to a new place, he went to the synagogue first and proclaimed the salvation Jews have in Christ, and then unto the Gentile. In many towns he was scoffed and treated as a fool, even a criminal at times, however, even in the midst of ostracization from a community, people from that very community would approach him, many times in secret, yearning to know more about this Jesus and his saving work done upon a cross to bring about the resurrection of the dead. Whereever he went he either reaped a little harvest, or a great one, but he knew that the Gospel was the power of God unto salvation. It had nothing to do with the impression he gave to the crowd, or how relevant his message was, for he knew that all men are perishing until Christ's return, and, consequently the messages relevance will endure as well until the end of time.
And when the church covers over the true Gospel with "Gospel-lite", it only deceives all the people they brought in the door by that message. For when these people, at least the consistent and honest ones, begin to explore their Bibles, as they should, they'll find all kinds of unflattering things said about them that their pastor and fellow parishioners have intentionally kept from them. It's a "bait-and-switch" scam. Bring'em in the door with something nice and shiny, and try to sell'em something else somewhere down the line, and hopefully they'll bite. Yet, how many are now leaving, and the solution to this problem, at least according to Bill Hybels, is to "appear" more formal, and more traditional. Notice it is in appearance only, but not in substance.
We don't have to re-invent the wheel here folks. Lutherans do not need to lose their identity in order to gain more parishioners. If we preach the Gospel and for now, only a few are reached, then God be praised, and if we preach the Gospel and for now many are reached, then, and in equal measure, God be praised. We mustn't attempt to "help" God with the Gospel. We preach the Word; He does the rest, that's it, plain and simple!
And now, I'll leave you with one thing, and it is well worth the read. It's called "The Celestial Railroad" by Nathaniel Hawthorne: quite apropos to these devil's of modernity that we speak of.
The Celestial Railroad
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