I am profoundly skeptical of the whole seeker-friendly church marketing strategy (and that is what it is), but we saw an especially tragic example on a church in Alamogordo. "What do we have to do to get you in here?" The cynical response is, "Free meth!" The correct response is, "Preach the gospel. Use words if necessary." The example your members show will attract far more members then your social media presence.
"What do we have to do to get you in here?"
ReplyDeleteThere was that church in Oakland that featured sex orgies for those admitted to the inner secrets.
I am profoundly disappointed by the dilution of the church, the loss of distinction of the body from the world. And it has been done willingly from within. If I were to go into it, it would be a very long treatise. 'To know Him and to make Him known' sounds wonderful but it is not more than a slogan. Preach the gospel is always the correct answer.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that this is not a new happening. I went to Bible college, back in 1984, and even back then, I saw the dilution of the Gospel beginning. They were not concerned about the traditional methods of Biblical study or expository preaching. But if you came up with some off the wall idea, you got a great grade.
ReplyDeleteI could not actually believe it, and I was going to a traditional type school. For pastors, they were trying to get us to question everything that was always just accepted as being the truth. Suddenly, things like the authority of the Bible, or the actual virgin birth of Jesus and the worldwide flood, were called into question. They were taking a stance that so many of the formerly accepted facts were instead just apocryphal stories intended to teach a lesson.
The result, in just a short generation, is that we see young people leaving churches in droves, and many people flocking to the feel good churches.
I actually do think that it is going to turn around, in time. But it won't be by people of my generation who starts it. I think that it is going to be a younger generation, seeking a real God, the God of the Bible, who will return to the churches who are actually preaching about the one true God, the God of the Bible.
That God is a God who loves unconditionally, but who also is a God who has a standard, that of perfection. And the perfection is only able to be achieved through the sacrifice of Jesus.
If we don't as a nation return to God, then we will as a nation, fall. Of that, I have no doubt.
This is a result of America's Freedom of Religion. Just as anyone can say he or she is an artist and no one can say otherwise, anyone in America can form a church with whatever theology to attract adherents and call it a "Christian" church.
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