New King James Version (NKJV)
15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16 The former[a] preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
I was thinking about this scripture this morning. There are so many types of churches out there today. I wanted to deal with the so called “Seeker Sensitive’ churches in this blog. We see the band and casually dressed Pastor and pick up the stones immediately.I read this description of what “Seeker Sensitive’ means on ChristianExaminer.com.
A “seeker-sensitive” church is a church whose main purpose is to try to make the church look more attractive to unbelievers. Many churches use technology and media to drive outreach to the communities. Most say this is a powerful outreach tool, but the affects of it can, and will, be very unhealthy for the church as a whole.
I may be simple but why is this unhealthy? Paul says that we rejoice if Christ is preached. Why should we be afraid of churches that want to provide a safe non-judgmental environment for unbelievers? Everyone doesn’t respond to Fire and Brimstone messages. Paul says in Romans 2:4 that the goodness of God leads to repentance.
I may be simple but why is this unhealthy? Paul says that we rejoice if Christ is preached. Why should we be afraid of churches that want to provide a safe non-judgmental environment for unbelievers? Everyone doesn’t respond to Fire and Brimstone messages. Paul says in Romans 2:4 that the goodness of God leads to repentance.
I came across this post on another blog and it perfectly sums it up. There are three types of “Seeker Sensitive” churches and it is wrong to lump them all in together.
A good seeker-sensitive church will have the following characteristics: (1) a heart for the lost, (2) a contemporary 'style', (3) meets people where their at by dealing with felt-needs, and (4) purposefully and effectively guides people towards God-centeredness.
A pathetic seeker-sensitive church does the first three well, but completely blows the last one. They do try, just not very hard and not very effectively.
A sinful seeker-sensitive church acts as if #3 is the ultimate and final goal in life.
Can we please stop labeling people we don’t understand for doing things differently than us? At least take the time to find out if the person or church is doing anything wrong biblically instead of judging them off first impressions.
I visited one of those churches this morning and while it wasn't as flashy as what I'm used coming from a church that uses lots of moving lights and haze machines during worship, the pastor brought out the point that the term "going to church" is unbiblical. And of course this is something that I've been saying for a minute now. Christians tend to think that the church is their place to come and hear the gospel every Sunday and do church. But I always thought that church should be a place of training and equipping. But at some point we have to engage each other in ministry so that we can really truly learn - not how to do church - but how to treat people (including those closest to us).
ReplyDeleteAgreed DJ. I'm starting to believe that different churches are designed for different stages in a Christian's growth. Some churches are foot in the door churches. You'll never come in otherwise but they have enough appeal to at least get you inside to hear the Gospel. Sometimes the criticisms are just as dumb as a High School criticizing an Elementary School for not teaching Calculus. That's not what they were put there to do.
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