Unfortunately what that kind of thinking has wrought is a society so intent on not challenging self indulgent behavior because it may offend the self indulged, that self indulgent behavior has become the status quo. “If it feels good, do it” is now the societal mantra and if anyone would challenge your right to be the you that you want to be they are labeled as prudes who just want to prevent people from being “true to themselves”.
Unfortunately that kind of destructive thinking has found its way into the church and if continued it will end with many professing Christians hearing the unfortunate words “I never knew you” from the mouth of Jesus as they stand before the judgment seat.
Walk into pretty much any “modern” church today and here’s what you’ll find: Service will start about 15 minutes late with people filtering in from the coffee bar. Before the start of “worship” the house lights are dimmed and spotlights are focused on the “worship” band. The leader of the “worship” team will welcome you and begin to sing an up-beat rock style “worship” song as smoke machines billow out fragrant smoke. The words of the song will be on huge screens on each side of the stage, but very few sing along because quite frankly you can’t understand the lead singer and the back-up singers are singing in indecipherable harmonious non-articulated rhythmic intonations. The drums are loud, the horn section groovy and the guitar riffs are Clapton-esque. All the spectators/congregants around you have their hands raised, their eyes closed and they are dancing to the bands funky rhythm.
After three fast, two slow songs and a catchy chorus that is repeated 17 times, a GQ looking man in designer shoes with a high-tech, virtually invisible headset/microphone comes to the stage and introduces a multi-media presentation that invites you to an up-coming concert/skateboard demo/outreach event hosted by a hip celebrity wannabe who never-was. Once the smoke has settled and the ringing in your ears has subsided, another hip dude in jeans and an un-tucked designer shirt comes out with a big book and a bottle of water in his hands and sits down on a sofa. He gives a 30 minute message about how you can be a better father/mother/child/employee/boss/neighbor/cook (pick one)-never opening the book he brought out- supporting each point with a very well produced video/power-point clip.
The service ends at exactly the right time because in the next 22 minutes the auditorium needs to empty of the early service goers so that the late service goers can file in to watch the start of the same show that starts 15 minutes late because the lines at the café are long. As you exit, being careful not to make eye contact with anyone, you overhear the 20 something’s behind you declare “that was awesome…the worship band rocks!” and you can’t help but to want to come back next week to experience that again. Meanwhile as you get to your car and head for the exit ramp, six cars cut you off, four honk and scream and seven parking attendants sustain minor injuries from impatient church goers trying to get home before kick-off…just another day at the Whispering Valley Epic Revolution Non-denominational Community Outreach Missional church.
There has been a deliberate paradigm shift in how church is done from “what can I offer my King” to “what can my King offer me.” We no longer are seeking to serve God we are now seeking to be served by God. We want to have a “cool worship experience” by having “worship” be performed to entertain us and we want to be amused by relevant teachings that cause us to feel comfortable in our various shortcomings and hopeful for a purposeful and successful life. “What’s in it for me? How will it affect my life? How does that help me?”
But worship is in no way to be for us, worship is to be exclusively directed to God and intended for God…tailoring it to fit our desire to be entertained is leading us down a path that is contrary to Biblical Christianity and will not lead to a true experience with God. And teaching relevant, “you too can be successful in life and change the world” messages is just feeding the congregation's self indulgent tendencies and is doing a great disservice to that congregation. Church should not be about you, it needs to be about Christ.
Some would argue with me on this. Many say that it doesn’t matter how you believe…it just matters what you believe. They’ll tell me that they believe in Jesus just as I believe in Jesus therefore how church is done is purely a matter of taste. They say that they aren’t changing the Gospel just the delivery of the Gospel to more effectively reach the “post-modern” culture. I am conservative (which means boring to them) and they are free, seeking to worship and serve Jesus without burdensome constraints…get with the times…adapt to the culture…live free…
But the real question is this…is the gospel you are teaching in the Gospel of the Bible or are you teaching a different - false gospel? Are you truly free to worship without constraint or are you in actuality being held captive by your desire to maintain control over and feed your fleshly desire to be relevant and admired? Is the message truly remaining intact when you change the delivery methods to methods that service people's need to be indulged and feel significant?
One of the highly respected so called thinkers of this “modern” church discussion wrote recently that “many of us understand the Gospel in terms of Jesus’ radical, profound, and expansive message of the kingdom of God” he went on to write that one of the central issues in the conversation of the modern church is the kingdom of God and then defined the kingdom of God by quoting another thinker who said it is “a generative people who believe that a more beautiful and sustainable way of life is possible.” He then added “within many of us there is a desire for the Good News of Jesus to really be good news for the people of the world and not just the promise of a world to come. Many find good news in the call of Jesus to join the kingdom of God.”*
The delivery vehicle for this new hip message has refocused from preaching what they call “turn or burn” messages to preaching that helping people meet their physical needs will make you feel good and help you find your purpose. Solving world hunger, curing AIDS, world peace and communal prosperity are possible if we all join together, setting aside our differences and work toward the goal of establishing the kingdom of God on earth.
That sounds great! Who wouldn’t want to be a part of the “kingdom of God” and have a “beautiful and sustainable” way of life? Helping others does make you feel good. And who would argue against working for world peace? But there’s one HUGE problem with that thinking that needs to be pointed out…THAT’S NOT THE GOSPEL!
Jesus told us that we will know who His disciples are by their fruit. Teaching this false "Kingdom of God" gospel has resulted in some very dangerous fruit leading many of the leaders in this emerging conversation to become proponents of some seriously heretical ideas like looking at other religions for insight on life. You see, if the kingdom of God is “a generative people who believe that a more beautiful and sustainable way of life is possible” then Buddha, Gandhi, John Lennon and Tom Cruise would be great proponents of the gospel. Most of us know people who are living life in direct opposition to the Bible who have great ideas on how to solve world hunger, cure AIDS, bring about world peace and communal prosperity. We all know of non-believers in Christ who have found an inner peace and centeredness through meditation and breathing techniques.
So if how they’ve described the gospel is true, then there is more than one way to enter the kingdom and that is in direct conflict with the Gospel of Christ. And if we can join this kingdom of God (as they have described it) by simply working toward a beautiful and sustainable way of life in this world for everyone, then Jesus died for nothing.
A couple days before Jesus was delivered up to be crucified He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while being cheered as a conquering king. Why did the same people who cheered Him as a king demand His death a couple days later? The Jews in that day were under the oppressive rule of the Romans and were cheering because they were expecting Jesus to defeat Rome and set up His kingdom right there and then, but He didn’t, it wasn’t yet time, so they turned from an adoring crowd to a murderous mob. As much as they wanted the kingdom of God to start that day…it didn’t.
The same is today, as much as we want the kingdom of God to start…it isn’t time and it won’t be time until Jesus comes again and righteously judges the world that is oppressing His children. It will be at that time and only at that time that we will see His kingdom ushered in…and we have absolutely no control over that timing. Seeking (looking forward to) that coming kingdom and letting people know that they must show repentance to have access to the kingdom of God is what the Gospel of the kingdom of God is as laid out by Jesus in the Bible. The Good News is not that you can have a purposeful and successful life where everything you desire can be attained here on earth, the Good News is that God loved you so much that He sent His Son to pay the penalty for your sin so that if you believe that fact you can have access to His future kingdom and help today in navigating this fallen world. The evidence of that belief is self denial not self indulgence and the result of that self denial is inner peace not world peace.
If you are a pastor or worship leader I understand the desire for you to get people to fill the seats of your church…that is a good desire. But if you are getting people to come by putting on a good show and by feeding the worlds self indulgent need to be relevant and purpose driven, then you are leading your congregation down the broad path that leads to destruction.
The function of a church should be to lead people in the worship of God, boldly proclaim the true Gospel, and disciple the congregation into a growing, fruitful relationship with Christ. Leading worship properly should never draw attention to the worship band…leading worship properly means that you are leading people to go to God humbly, by faith, to thank Him and praise Him for the fact that He has given His Son so that you can have access to Him. Teaching the true Gospel is not teaching about what God can do for you…teaching the Gospel is teaching about what God already did for you. And discipleship is not picking and choosing the topics that tickle the ears of your congregation…discipleship is teaching the Bible in its entirety and leading your congregation into a relationship with Christ based on absolute surrender to His will.
Jesus taught that if you want to be a disciple of His you must (in other words it is not an option) put aside your desires, die to yourself, and seek His will as opposed to your own. (Matthew 10:37-39; 16:24-25, Mark 8:34-35, Luke 9:23-24; 17:33, John 12:25-26; 14:23…among many others) The Bible also teaches that in order for you to be recognized as a child of God you must understand that you are without esteem and that humility is required from you if you want to find His purpose for your life. (Psalm 34:18; 51:17, Isaiah 57:15; 66:1-2, Matthew 5:3-5; 18:4; 23:12, Luke 14:11; 18:14, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:6…among many others) We need to be living and teaching what Jesus taught: surrender, brokenness and humility. If we do that we will find that it is in those things that we will find true life…an abundant life!
* Doug Pagitt and Mark Scandrette quotes taken from Relevant Magazine. {Link}
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