It Makes me Sick

In Acts chapter 20 Paul explains to the Ephesian elders that "wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them." While Paul is speaking directly to the elders of the church in Ephesus, the same is true with many churches today.

The leader of this pack of wolves? The Seeker-friendly and Emergent movements. According to these movements anyone is allowed into the flock. The churches goal is to gather as many lost people as possible in one big, cool, expensive building. Sounds good, right? I want to hug someone right now. There's only one problem IT'S UN-BIBLICAL! It strays far from the biblical view of the church: A gathering of believers who glorify God become equipped for works of service. These seeker friendly churches water down the gospel, sugar coat its message, and re-package it as if it's not enough. These "Christians" feel that there is no need to minister outside of church. "Just bring 'em here! Get as many in the door so we can count 'em and make the cover of whatever Christian Magazine as the most successful church of 2007." Successful? Thousands of spiritually immature churchgoers who think that they are giving it up by committing to a one-hour "church service" once a week? Is that what Jesus considers a successful ministry?

The only difference between these services and a U2 concert is that the services are half as long and Bono might actually use the name of Jesus... maybe.

It makes me sick

Do You Really Like Spurgeon?

"Calvinism is the Gospel."

A Blog Record and the Book of Acts

My last post got 3 DIFFERENT comments!!! How crazy is that. I think I shed a tear when I read it.

I have been reading through the book of Acts in my daily devotions and something very very clear has been pointed out to me. The church isn't what I thought it was!
No where in scripture do I find followers of Christ seeking to get as many people as possible into church so they can pump em up a bit and give em some Jesus! (which is what so many churches today do). Instead, churches existed ultimately for the glory of God which consisted of the fellowship of believers, the sacraments, etc.

Do you want to know how they saw conversions? Do ya? Ok. Here we go!

THEY TOLD PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS!!!
They actually participated in real and genuine ministry which meant that they had to get their hands dirty. They had to risk rejection. They had to put their lives on the line. They had to swallow their pride!!!!

It's not easy to share your faith. It's way easier to invite people to church. So easy that we have neglected the truth of scripture in order to cater to our wants. Churches have become increasingly shallow... "a mile wide and one inch deep."

It's my prayer that I will personally grow in knowing God's purpose for the church, swallowing my pride and sharing my faith without shame. I hope and pray that the Body of Christ will want nothing more than the glory of their true love.

Stop Singing to God like He's Your Girlfriend!

I was listening to a popular band that I like and I was bothered by the ambiguous lyrics to a number of their songs. Then I started to think about this trend that's going on in a lot of seeker-friendly churches today. The thought process goes something like this: "This song was most likely written about a girl but we can sing it to God because it talks about love and stuff." I sort of understand that... but not really. There are two major reasons why.

1. If you really love Jesus your going to find a way to sing to Him without having to borrow lyrics from pop-songs. In all seriousness, Christian artists should have the best lyrics (not the cheesiest). After all we are children of God! (1 John 3:1)

2. (This fits better with the particular artist I was listening to.) If you call yourself a Christian artist your listeners shouldn't have to wonder whether or not your talking about God or a girl. If it's about a girl, fine. But if it's about God remember that He is your Lord and Savior, Creator of all the Universe, the Alpha and the Omega, The King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, NOT a girlfriend.

Some may come back and say that the Bible gives the picture of God and the Church as husband and wife. This is plainly true and I am in no way disregarding the intimacy that is required in a relationship with Christ. But the biblical image is of God as the bridegroom, the pursuer and redeemer of his bride (Hosea 3), once again, NOT a girlfriend.