I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among Christians recently. Well, actually I guess it isn’t all that recent, but like trolls on the internet, the trend has become much more vocal. Perry Noble recently tweeted several tweets that on the surface sound very… well… noble.
He starts off well. In fact, I retweeted this one. “If people are obsessed with their own goodness rather than Gods goodness then it’s not the Gospel!” True. I would even go so far as to say that if people only stress our own goodness instead of God’s goodness then it isn’t the gospel. Then he continues: “If a church does not care about people far from God then they do not care about the Gospel!” While I would agree with his premise, I wonder how many churches there are that would say “We don’t care about lost people. We only care about ourselves.” And while I’m sure there are churches who have lost sight of their mission, I have to question the reason for his post. What is he hoping to accomplish? Will people in those churches suddenly realize that they don’t care about lost people? What criteria should we use to determine if our church is one of those churches?
Finally, he again tweets: “If someone is about proving their own intelligence rather than proving Christ then it is not the Gospel!” Huh? I believe that Paul covered this in his letter to the Philippians.
“It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.” ~ Philippians 1:15 – 18
If Paul wasn’t all that concerned with motive, should we be? After all, isn’t the gospel really being preached even if someone is about proving their own intelligence?
A friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook that echoes the sentiments of some Pastors I’ve heard recently as well. The picture had a quote by J.C. Ryle: “There is a common, worldly kind of ‘Christianity’ in this day, which many have – A cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice – which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.” This is a quote from his book Holiness which was written in 1877. The quote in itself, may be accurate, but what did the author have in mind when he penned those words in 1877? Seeker-sensitive churches? Not in 1877. The Azusa Street Revival wouldn’t be for another 29 years either. He certainly wasn’t thinking of Pentecostals. It must have been the Baptists.
See, posts like that will have self-righteous Christians everywhere up in arms because our brand of Christianity is better than your brand. That’s the problem. What does this apostate Christianity look like? How do we identify it today? To say that it exists and then not define it is like saying that there is a deadly disease going around and then not describe the symptoms.
I asked my friend the same question. What does this look like? Can you describe it? In fact, if you asked 100 Christians to define this type of Christianity, chances are that some of them would describe you!
I heard a preacher recently bash “these seeker-sensitive churches” because they didn’t “flow in the Spirit” presumably like his church did. Likewise, I’ve heard preachers bash the “tongue-talking” churches because they could never reach lost people like the ‘seeker-sensitive’ churches could. Can’t we all just get along? Again, I have to question the motives of those who so vocally trash a church who does things differently than they do. Is it because they’re afraid that members of their congregation will leave to go to one of ‘those’ churches? Is it because they want to alert their congregation of the degraded state of Christianity? If so, who is to determine what state Christianity is in? The question becomes does different equate to wrong? The answer is no.
Statistically, “seeker-sensitive” churches are the fastest growing churches in North America. Does fast growing equate to right? No, but neither does it equate to wrong. I suggest that we all stay in our lanes and do church the way we think that God is leading us to do church. If someone is doing it differently than you would do it, treat that person the way you would want someone attending your church who thinks that you should do things differently to treat you. With grace. With respect.
Let’s be clear; I’m not talking about apostate teaching here. I’m talking about methodology. So what if another church plays a different style of music than you do? Who cares if one church focuses on preaching to lost people and another church focuses on developing growing Christians? Again, Paul said that he planted (preached to lost people) and Apollos watered (developed growing Christians). We all have our place.
When Jesus said that the eye cannot say to the hand ‘I don’t need you’ he wasn’t only talking about the local church. He was talking about The Church. We need each other. We need churches who can reach younger people better than our church can. We need churches who can reach people of different ethnic groups than our church can. We need churches who can reach lost people better than our church can. And we need churches who can develop growing Christians into mature Christians better than our church can.
Jesus said “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” What would happen if all of us as Christians embraced our differences instead of ‘one-upping’ each other with our own way of doing things? I say it’s time to realize that we’re all heading to the same destination, we’re just taking different roads to get there. And we’re traveling there with people who are just like us. And that’s OK.