I have been in a lot of debates about the current worship and church revolution known as the seeker-sensitive, Purpose-Driven church. I’ve stated my case, taken on the other side, and come back to argue the same issues again and again. Today, I felt as exhausted with this discussion as a person could feel.
So I wrote. I wrote my mind, and my emotions and my heart. I may be totally wrong. I may be more wrong than right. I may be somewhere on the path to truth. Only God knows. But here is my manifesto. My personal statement of where I stand, and will keep standing.
I don’t mean to offend, but this has become a highly personal issue; a matter of WHO I AM, and who I will be remembered for being. Read with the understanding that this is the hill I’ve decided to live on, preach on and fight on if need be.
________________________________________________
I’m 47. I was born in the era of Elvis and raised with the Beatles. I understand what baby boomers are all about, because I have met the enemy, and he is me. Or us. Or something.
I have been involved in ministry to youth since I was saved at age 15. I started preaching that year. I got my first youth ministry position in 1976. I’ve worked full time in youth ministry since that time, not counting four years in the pastorate, where I fired my youth director and did his job myself most of the time as well. (And nearly got fired.)
I’ve been in the “church renewal” movement. I’ve read Howard Snyder and Elton Trueblood and Finley Edge, all men whom Rick Warren ought to fall down before saying “unworthy!”
I was in the Charismatic movement, too. Secret prayer meetings. Speaking in tongues. Claiming answers. Praying spiritual warfare prayers in the church foyer, because we knew what was really going on in the church. All aimed at “renewing” the church.
I did all the SBC “revive” your church programs. I took 50 people through Masterlife. I’ve done missions trips all over America. I’ve taught revival and prayed for revival, just like Avery Willis and Henry Blackaby said.
I’ve reorganized, renamed, reinvented and renewed everything I could get my hands on in the churches I’ve worked for. I’ve started small groups, hauled busfuls to conferences, brought in the experts and played the videos. I’ve talked spiritual gifts and lay ministry until I was blue in the face.
I started buying CCM when it was The Imperials in leisure suits. I own praise and worship albums older than the people playing in Third Day. I was at Ichthus (the first CCM festival) 18 times, including the ones where 200 people were singing to a banjo plucker in a barn.
Don’t talk to me about changing the church with worship renewal or small groups or the latest thing. On the other side of a few hundred youth services, youth rallies, college nights, concerts, festivals, workshops, seminars, conventions and conferences, I’ve heard it all and done it all.
I read, too. I’ve read Leadership Magazine and Christianity Today for two decades. I’ve read hundreds–yes, hundreds–of books that promised to show the way to changing the church through whatever was the method du jour.
So you will have to forgive me for my lack of enthusiasim for what is going on right now. I’m burnt up and burnt out. You see, I remember when Hybels and company were “The Son City” method. Design the meeting for the seekers and fill up the youth building. Who would have guessed what would come from that?
When I first heard that we should have LOTS MORE MUSIC BY A BAND, it was not a new idea. I was playing rock bass with a three piece band in church when I was 14. Yes, I was the non-Christian kid who came in through the praise band ministry.
When I started hearing about “seeker sensitive methods,” I already had my purple hearts from all those years of pizzas, special events, cool t-shirts, small groups, and extreme games. When people started rattling on about changing the church, I really wanted to say something witty like, “Been there, done that,” because I had.
So dear reader, I have come to a conclusion, and it ain’t pretty.
My generation–that baby boom bunch that we’ve heard so much about–has a compulsion to change the church to be what they want it to be. Why? Oh….don’t you know?
Our generation has been told for the whole trip that we are special. We deserve more. We need more. We are wounded. We are alienated from authority. We are the victims of Vietnam, and divorce, and educational breakdown. Decades of advertising have convinced us that we need our own Oldsmobile, cause we can’t drive daddy’s. We’re smarter. Thinner. Better. We’ve got the short attention span. Television and movies are our medium. We need stories. We’re casual. We need to be met “where we are.” We need to be in “real relationships.” We aren’t satisfied with “church the way it used to be.”
Yeah right. What a crock. This is the most flattered, catered to, lied to and indulged generation in history. I loathe my generation, not because we don’t have some good people. We do, but we also have generational selfishness honed into a kind of idolatry that is truly awesome to behold. We are big, fat, demographic bullies, who won’t play with anyone else unless we get everything “our way.”
My generation is, without a doubt, the generation most likely to repackage God, the Bible, Jesus, the church and the Gospel to suit themselves. My generation must be catered to and told they are special or they won’t show up. My generation must shred what came before them as an act of self-affirmation. My generation must have their own slogans, names and bribes or they won’t come. My generation must be told they are key to everything. My generation doesn’t want to share the faith with other ages and cultures, because we are just so darned cool.
I am tired–bone tired–of being told my church isn’t real, relevant or communicating until we do it like the baby boomer gurus say it must be done. (Insert here an obscene gesture of your choice issued towards the megachurch in general, but make it a good one.) I am tired of hearing that any deviation from the baby boomer preferences means no love, no evangelism, no outreach, no community. I am beyond tired of being told that the baby boomer version of worship and church is the (insert Foghorn Leghorn voice) “real, final, long-awaited wahd from God ahmighty on how things ought to be done ’round heyah.”
Indulge me a moment please. After being bombed for the last fifteen years with the constant message that I really suck because I’m not purpose-driven, I need to clear the pipes. I preach my heart out to my students and my church. I labor in the study and the pulpit to communicate well. I illustrate with humor and clarity. I pay attention to the flow and the text. I connect with the mind, heart and emotions. I’m passionate, and I’m Biblical. I may not be the best, but I’m one of those thousands who give my energy of mind and soul to the labor of preaching.
Don’t haul a video screen into my church and tell me that if I don’t show clips from The Martrix, I’m not communicating. Don’t tell me to buy Rick Warren pre-packaged, alliterated pablum or risk not connecting. Don’t tell me I have to be charming and sweet and positive like the Christless Joel Osteen. Don’t tell me the Gospel I preach–Spurgeon’s Gospel, Luther’s Gospel, Paul’s Gospel–isn’t relevant. Put that stuff up.
I love my people enough to be faithful to the Word of God in both its method and its message. I am not ashamed to have said no to the pressure of baby boomer consumerists and yes to the instructions for preaching in the pastoral letters. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a therapist. I’m not your buddy or your success coach. I’m exalting and proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ as presented in the scriptures and the confessions. If that’s not good enough, relevant enough or real enough, then either you kill me or you deal with it.
I don’t care about the Purpose-Driven Church, the Emergent Church, the Seeker Church, The Church-Growth Church or any other trendy moniker. I’m into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. If baby boomers want their own church, with everything done their way so they don’t have to share with the rest of Christianity, fine. Go have your play date. I’m hanging with the big dogs of Christian history and passing on the hot dogs of American evangelicalism.
Am I mad at someone? No, not unless you penetrate the perimeter and get into my pulpit. Then we’re gonna fight. But I am truly happy that millions of boomers are convinced their way of doing church is better than anyone else’s. I don’t resent their success, though I have to say that seeing the largest church in the country pastored by the nearly certain apostate Joel Osteen is pretty humbling.
I’m fairly confident the time will come when the flash, the smoke and the mirrors will lose their appeal and the truth of classic Christianity will shine through. I’m certain many are sitting in churches right now wondering why they are starving to death on seeker-oriented sermons and entertained to the point of sheer boredom by the gimmick of the week. They write me hundreds of letters. I know they are there. If I hear from them in such numbers, how many more must there be?
Let me be clear, I’m not a nut just being contrary for contrary’s sake. I am solidly in favor of all kinds of music. “There is No God Like Our God” or “I’m Forgiven Because You Are Forsaken” and all their kind are wonderful. Bring them on. But don’t talk to me about throwing out the great hymns of the church to make room for a style that “helps you to worship.” I’m not going to listen.
Let’s go casual? Fine. But don’t ask me to give up a sense of worship being a coming before the Lord. Are we going to use film clips for illustrations, because boomers like movies? Not much we’re not, because if my church doesn’t have all ages in it, I’m going elsewhere.
Humor in the pulpit? In the service of good Gospel preaching, I’m all for that. But don’t start hanging a few “principles” on a bunch of pablum and stories and call it “seeker friendly preaching.” That dog won’t hunt. “Contemporary” and “traditional” services? If you can convince me that we will be one church, with one set of leaders and one mission, and not a bunch of niche groups being catered to instead of called into community, I’ll listen. I’ve seen it work, but not the way it’s being promoted by most boomers today. Bail on the liturgy and get with the current therapeudic God-chatter coming out of the emergent church? Take it home and bake it longer. I’m not giving up the liturgy of the church.
Let’s be honest: those two services that we must have? They exist so the boomers can have everything done their way and not have to deal with the old people.
But rather than recite all the things any reasonable person would consider in responding to this constant and annoying pressure, let me be perfectly clear. Most of the changes demanded by boomers in order to “connect” and “be real” and “meet people where they are” will be in concrete in no time, and when the twenty-somethings or their successors ask the aging baby boomers to change and incorporate their ideas about worship, watch the wars begin. Giving the boomers their stylistic preferences in reshaping the church is going to prove to be the worst mistake American evangelicals ever made. The “boomer megachurches” aren’t presiding over a rediscovery of Biblical Christianity. They are leading a revolution where culture, generational niche groups and consumeristic agendas subvert the Gospel.
I sometimes wonder if this fight is worth it. My generation won’t be deterred. If there is to be a genuine reformation in evangelicalism, I won’t live to see it. I know from my conversations with my friends that the theology of the Solas and the Doctrines of Grace are in no danger of recapturing the mainstream. All I can do is stand my ground in the places God has given me to serve, preach, pray, worship, exalt the King, and await my day in glory, where these battles will be over.
Spurgeon voiced his concerns for his age, and they echo my concern with our own:
“Sometimes we are inclined to think that a very great portion of modern revivalism has been more a curse than a blessing, because it has led thousands to a kind of peace before they have known their misery; restoring the prodigal to the Father’s house, and never making him say, ‘Father, I have sinned.’ How can he be healed who is not sick? or he be satisfied with the bread of life who is not hungry? The old-fashioned sense of sin is despised, and consequently a religion is run up before the foundations are dug out. Everything in this age is shallow. Deep-sea fishing is almost an extinct business so far as men’s souls are concerned. The consequence is that men leap into religion, and then leap out again. Unhumbled they come to the church, unhumbled they remained in it, and unhumbled they go from it.”
The Internet Monk Archives 
Ernie, thank you for that URL. That is the best article I’ve read so far on the topic.
Unfortunately, he, like so many others is mostly stuck on the numbers and seeker issue. I am concerned about balance in the church, and encompasing ALL aspects of church life in purpose.
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Barry,
I found this article at 9marks ministries to be extremely insightful on the Purpose Driven Church. http://www.9marks.org/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID314526|CHID598026|CIID1918134,00.html
Also it is a flawed argument to appeal to numbers to validate that a movement is from God. Imagine if you used that line of reasoning for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. Would it hold up? Why or why not?
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As a 54 year old elder in a Baptist church in Canada, I find that your comments are all enlightening.
However.
Last Sunday evening in my church, the leader (my age) called for “old time favourites” from the congregation. This fit right in with the 80 year old piano player. Fortunately, there wern’t very many there. I’d have been embarrased to bring a friend.
We are considering the PDL model. There are those in our church who oppose this. I notice one common thing about the opposition. Their children are not saved.
I am seaching the web for what people have to say about PDL and it’s companion, the Purpose Driven Church. One thing I have yet to find: The words, “We disagree with this,” and “Our church is growing beacuse..” on the same site.
One more. You quote Spurgeon. His church is now dying. Because it won’t change.
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Mike,
You and I are within a year of the same age and have scarily similar biographies. I’ll just say dittos to and kudos for everything you said in this rant. You’re getting a trackback and a link from my blog.
Just to provide some hope…my wife and I are currently the oldest full time students at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, so most of our friends right now are 20-something seminarians, most of whom will be pastoring churches or leading other ministries in the next few years. We’ve found them to be, on the whole, very sober about their approach to church and worship, intensely biblical, and hungry to connect with the great traditions of 2000 years of church life. You should hear them belt out the hymns in our chapels!
Mark T
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Always wonderful when God puts things right in your hand when you need them. I have been looking to leave my mega-church due to so many reasons and feelings. I wanted to sit down and write them out (to clear and sort my head), but you’ve done most of the work for me! Right on the mark.
BeInChrist
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Thanks so much. What a blessing hearing this. It puts so many things in perspective.
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Thanks so much. What a blessing hearing this. It puts so many things in perspective.
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As another baby boomer, I’ve noticed that dying to my own musical and cultural preferences in worship helps me to die to self too. And that’s very good. It’s also good practice for heaven, which I expect to be sharing with at least some people (Abraham, Paul and Tozer are possibilities) who aren’t baby boomers or younger.
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My prayer for several years has been for God to bring those into our lives with the same desire to seek the only “truth” that can truly set people free.
Having broken from leadership of 18 years in a mega church (the largest in our area), due to dusty bibles and much used manuals, college-teired classes, data-based gifts volunteers, contemporary services, coffee carts, PDC/PDL/PDC, and referring members to worldly tained psychotherapists, we have been unable to find a biblical church in 2 1/2 years. Error, error everywhere.
We found the same when we ministered in foreign countries. Of course, the lies of Satan have no “boundaries.”
May God grant you the strength and purpose for His High Calling.
http://www.beyond-defeat.org is to be a site turning people to the Holy Bible for the problems of life and will show your site as a link.
Many Blessings, J. Lagrand
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Michael,
I thank God for JollyBlogger and the Reformed Blog Aggregator on which I found your article. God’s serendipity is wonderful.
Grace and peace and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and sustain you. You spoke to my heart and my frustration, but without a meaness I may have let through.
I have journeyed through and out of ECUSA following Packer and Stott while reading Spurgeon and Hodge and others. I love my Anglican liturgy and have migrated to the AMiA after confronting our Bishop last year (http://william.meisheid.com/St_Timothys_Church/Rabb.htm). 2/3 of our church left to start anew.
We are dealing with the very things you discuss. Since we meet in a gym, we use projection to simplify our liturgy and reduce cost. Since it is there it begs to expand: backgrounds behind the songs and something to give the liturgy “punch”. I was able to comprimise (I do the PowerPoint) on a liturgical purple background but more is desired. I use classic paintings and other art or photographs where appropriate (before, after, announcements, but not during the actual liturgy) I rebel, but when do you become obstructive? How do you find balance?
It seems to me most modern Christians are snorklers or surfers, skimming along the top of the water of Christ. It frustrates me to no end. My heart has found growth through teaching Packer’s Knowing God (now in my sixth time), but the audience is small because the demands are great, but everyone who participates is changed. I thought it was frustrating growing four or five Christians at a time but not now. Packer has challenged me in the context of your rant in his chapter on The Only True God and idolotry. You have energized me. Thank you.
Grace and peace to you and all you hold dear.
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You can learn more about what I have to say on all things related to the church at https://internetmonk.com/
Obviously, I am not saying the church growth movement or Warren are heresies. I am saying I am tired of having their baby boom entertainment agenda shoved in my face.
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Michael,
You obviously speak from a lot of experience which I can appreciate being in my late 20’s. You have eloquently given your opinion of how the church should NOT be, but I would ask how in your opinion should the church be.
For example, some characteristics that matter to me are:
1. A place where I can focus on and worship God.
2. A place equally balanced in and focused on both Word and Spirit.
3. A place that understands and promotes the Jewish roots of our Christian faith.
4. A place that motivates me and my family to get out and “do the stuff” (to borrow a John Wimber phrase).
If this is done in a purpose driven, seeker sensitive, casually dressed congregation with jumpy music I am not sure that would be bad.
I don’t believe that a method like “purpose driven” defines the essence or uniqueness of a congregation. It is just tool to help them become more organized and focused on Biblical priorities. I have read both of Rick Warren’s books (but not the hundreds of other similar books you probably have read) and I did not find heresy that others seem to have found.
Anyway, that was a great post. Have a great day and God Bless.
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Michael – further kudos from the disenchanted. I come from a PCUSA church I joined in the 80’s because the pastor spoke well and caringly from the Bible. Sadly, the new kid taking the helm is more interested in shallowness. I take some heart in the news that even a few of our youth are realizing having a shallow introduction to God is NOT having a personal relationship with God. I will forward your “rant” on to others to share that the 30-minutes to salvation, i.e. sit-com length resolutions to matters of life, is neither a solution nor a way of life.
Thank you,
Kim in Houston
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I read what Colleen wrote and she really touched my heart. I am in my 30’s and like *some* contemporary songs but I also love the old hymns, they are so beautiful and speak the Truth. But the churches think the hymns will turn the younger crowd away so they dispense with them, but how is it right to turn the older crowd away? If a certain type of music I happen to like turns away an older saint, I’d just as soon do without. Colleen, I’m so sorry for our selfishness. I hope you can find those who appreciate your wisdom and years with the Lord. God bless you.
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Hi, Michael. This exposition particularly caught my eye because a couple of weeks ago in church, our pastor announced that the topic of this years “Bible Study” was to be “The Purpose Driven Life.” I almost gagged. I haven’t been to church for the past two weeks while I wrestled with whether or not I will resign my membership. Some of this PDL stuff has already crept into the service. The only reason we even have hymn books in our church is because about 5 years ago, I complained loudly about their absense. Our church used to be affiliated with the Baptists; now they are affiliated with American Missionary Conference; whatever that is.
Your article, plus some others I have read on the net, today, have convinced me to go ahead and resign my membership. I was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran, wandered with no church membership for about 20 years, joined the ELCA for awhile (I fled when I heard our pastor preach nihilism on his radio program), then joined the church I am in now. While there are things in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church I heartily disagree with, I think I will flee back to them just to be immersed in good doctrine, again.
Frankly, when people ask what religion I am, I don’t know what to tell them anymore except “Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian.” I just turned 58 last week, so I am truly a “boomer”. I never have liked us much; not the drug culture, not the sense of entitlement and surely not the “Country Club” sense of churchianity we seem to display.
Thanks for telling it like it is. Whatever else I may feel about the Missouri Synod, I will forever be grateful to it to the ends of my toes for the good grounding I received as a child. Along with good, godly parents, it has stood me in good stead when presented with this excrement being flung as us in the name of “Seeker Sensitive” philosophy.
Thanks, again.
Jan Johnson
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I grieved my way through what you have written here; it breaks my heart. I was 19 when I came to the Lord, in a church that knew nothing but hymns and joy. The first time I heard a loud band in church, I ran out the back door in shock. The hymns are lost. One church I know in this area sings one verse of one hymn every Sunday morning. The rest of their music is oppressively loud and difficult. This is one of the reasons I have dropped out of church. It just isn’t worth going any more. I’m 77 years old, and I don’t see much chance of finding true worship this side of Heaven. I listen to Adrian Rogers and David Jeremiah and a few others. I read my precious Bible. Maybe the church I knew and loved sang hymns too modern for some of the elderly folk. I didn’t know it, if that’s true. In our book were hymns written in the 17th century. Beautiful things. We never sang them. All I know to say is, “Help us, Lord. Help us all, young and old, to find your heart and stay there, worshipping. And if, by some miracle, others find this place and worship together, help me find them. “
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Mike,
You WILL be quoted! Thanks for the refelctions! As a Lutheran pastor, I am pleased to know that there are folks who see the fluff of the PDL. I trust that those who begin to find its menu selection less than satisfying can walk away before a complete transfusion is necessary. As a Boomer, it is predictably frustrating that these shallow techniques are the conclusions that havee been taken to satisfy a hungry heart. So it is good to sit and wait. God will NOT be mocked. And our arms will be wide open when the Prodigal is fniished in the pig trough!
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Hi Mike:
Thank you for your ‘rant’. I do believe that we are in the ‘last days’ and the ears of the church are going to get scratched (itching ears). Believers must be stalwarts of the truth and not be tossed about by every wind of doctrine. So….amen…preach it. However I was disappointed in the line where you “encourage” your readers to use an obscene gesture….you said: “I am tired–bone tired–of being told my church isn’t real, relevant or communicating until we do it like the baby boomer gurus say it must be done. (Insert here an obscene gesture of your choice issued towards the megachurch in general, but make it a good one.) I am tired of hearing that any deviation from the baby boomer preferences means no love, no evangelism, no outreach, no community.” I am tired of those things too, but we as believers don’t have to stoop to the world’s practices do we?
Thanks again for writing this article.
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Are we uncomfortable in church? Not enough ammusment to satisfy our seeking? A band of my particular genre of music or nothing at all? I am sure that Jesus was uncomforatble. I am sure there were those who also were not ammused with the Gospel He taught, just too danged boring! Hmm, I never remember reading that Jesus had a nice warm up group to get that crowd going; but maybe I missed it in the bible. Is it too much for us to sit through a sermon or teaching – a Sunday school class or worship service when compared to the suffering endured on our behalf – which took several days?
I agree. We ARE a bunch of spoiled babies. What is wrong with going and listening to the Word of God as it is written and leaving knowing we need to be a little better next week. Christ will save us if we believe, but how ungrateful are we? Would it really kill us to dress up for Him? Would it be that outrageous for us to read and study and act out His words? No one ever said we needed to be popular, we need to be followers. I think, maybe I am mistaken, but doesn’t the verse go, “Where 2 or more are gathered”… not 2,000 or more, just 2 would be fine with God.
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Michael…
Some articles regarding the PDL methods of Guilt-Tripping, “Merit-Based” Grace, Borderline Legalism, Decisional Regeneration, and Evangelical Taosim. Read and Enjoy.
Your words and your thoughts are inspiring.
http://www.antithesis.com/features/breaking-the-rules.html
http://www.antithesis.com/commentary/decisional_regeneration.html
http://www.antithesis.com/commentary/tao.html
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Thanks Michael, you seem to echo the thoughts of many Israeli believers. Christianity in Israel is only a few decades old so we have been fortunate so far not to be ‘victims’ of all these trends. May God protect us from this sad and perverse Gospel of the West, and may God protect you as you continue to bravely speak the truth. With thanks.
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Bravo, bravo — I’ve written a little bit about this on my blog, but not as forcefully as powerfully as you. You capture my sentiments exactly. Thank you!
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WHOA! Excellent! *thunderous applause*
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God bless you for your honesty. also, may He protect you from the evil one who is behind the apostasy.
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Micheal,
Your essays have inspired me for quite a while now. They have given me the courage to do something hard. I am chair of our Christian Education committee. I have decided that the time has come to leave the fancy programming behind and simply sit down with the people of the congegation and TALK to them and LISTEN to them about what they want and what they need. No more pre-digested denominational pablum, but the strong meat of the Gospel.
It’s very scary. But like most things God requires of us, that is beside the point.
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So, you’re a boomer eh?
You must then recall a show by the name of Hogan’s Hero’s. In it was a man named major Hochsetter (sp) who always wanted to know; “WHO IZ DIS MAAAN?” You’re hearin it I KNOW! That’s what I cried out after reading you article. Maybe they got that line from Pilate! (NOT) Sir, I am persuaded that you have laid it on the line for many of us. For that I thank God. I myself am a 16 year old Christian(?) in a 45 year old body and it does not take a great Theologeon (sp) to see the course many evangelical churches are taking today. Very sad but also spoken of. Especially in 2 Timothy 3: – 4:5. Stay true and may God bless you and yours.
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Amen! Amen! Amen!
You are right on the money.
I saw this coming in the mid 90’s, and I was repulsed then as I am now. The positive is that it is pushing me and my wife closer to God and His Word, and the true preaching of it.
Thanks for saying what I (and so many others) have wanted to say for years.
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Greatly appreciated your thoughtful writing on the Church Growth Debate. As I have been trying to track down the roots of this movement, I have found that they go back before most of us baby boomers were born. We are not as “innovative” or “relevant” or “cutting-edge” as we have been led to believe. We are more likely useful tools as others want us to enthusiastically “change” the church. We think we are bringing “renewal,” when we more likely are contributing to “changing” the true gospel of Jesus Christ to another gospel.
I have had a wonderful morning reading Charles Spurgeon on-line as I searched for the source of the quote about the “unhumbled” which is near the end of the Contrarian Manifesto. Do you, or does anyone, know from which of his works this comes?
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I really enjoyed that rant Michael. You are absolutely right. Boomers have a huge sense of entitlement. You need to read, The Sybling Society by Robert Bly. Bly’s solutions are wacked but his observations about present society are very sharp. I’m off to a denominational meeting in Nov. and our guest speaker is Gary Nelson. I know nothing about him except he co-wrote a book with Don Posterski. I heard Posterski in person in the mid 90’s and I came out of those meetings alarmed and outraged. He packed his bible Thru all five sessions and never not once read from it or even referred to it. The main message change is that social concensus is the only authority we need to pay attention to today.
thanks for the rant
Jack
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AMEN & AMEN
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I drove a porpoise to church today in your honor. He seemed to like the music, but over lunch he remarked that he felt a bit “lost” in the large congregation. Apparently, he’s more comfortable in small groups.
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Thank you Michael for preaching the solid Word. You echo my feelings exactly.
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Michael, I live in the “Bible belt” of the USA(WV to be exact).I’m 55 years old,brought up Baptist. I read your article with interest. You have a good knack of verbally expressing,what people like myself have been feeling for a few years now. By feeling,I mean that “lack of easiness”the Holy Spirit puts in us when we are confronted with all the seeker sensitive blah.I find myself involved in a new church plant with these very characteristics. I know what I must do and will do so very soon. I applaud your honesty and insightfullness. In my opinion you are on target. I dont say this from opinions based on long studies of statistical analysis,but from the old fashioned(and outmoded)experience of having my spirit agreeing with yours on this subject. Thank you again.
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https://internetmonk.com/worship.html
https://internetmonk.com/psalms.html
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This is what I saw to 4 or 5 years ago and then started asking some major questions about the worship in the church of Christ. What do you think of the regulative principle in worship as practiced by the reformed church in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries? If you would like, I would love to talk to you. I so enjoyed your article on so many levels especially the bluntness. Let us not just stop at our father’s father’s hymns.(which are man-made) but lets go back to the songs of worship which God has given in His Word called the psalms of David.(the only hymns, psalms and songs spiritual that the Scriptures know)
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Michael,
Powerful! Thank you so much for your article. This should be MUST reading for every up and coming minister. I recently had to write a book report on The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. You can check it out at my website at http://www.geocities.com/johnandursula I’m not sure what kind of grade it will get since the University (Liberty) is all into Warren. Anyway, thanks again, and keep preaching the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Let God be true, and every man a liar.
Yours In Christ,
John
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Yes, I understand…..note that I said I am Pentecostal…the early Charismatic movement was very similar but today? Yikes! It is in outer space!
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My Charismatic experience is definately in the overall positve column, especially the early years. My recent experiences have been pretty disappointing though.
https://internetmonk.com/pentecostal.html
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Fantastic! Preach it loud and preach it clear! And…many of us are climbing that hill to hold your arms up too.
However, I am saddened to see that you had a bad Charismatic experience. I was forunate to have a great balanced Biblical one, although it was Pentecostal more than Charismatic(you can see some of my story in my Internet Monk forum comments).
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Amen, and thank you.
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Amen! I’m 40 and totally in agreement with you. This trend toward shallow churchiness is going to be tested in the fire soon. The growing intolerance for Christianity in the USA will eventually evolve into the persecution currently visited upon Christians elsewhere in the World. The real Church will settle underground where it is always strongest. Even now house churches are becoming the bastions of solid preaching and worship.
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BEHOLD! The MonKMan cometh!
You have articulated my thoughts more thoroughly than I have been able to assemble them. This was better than the time you posted the “95 Reasons you won’t wear a suit to church” on your office door. A certain Sid Vicious poster says it all bro –
“Undermine their pompous authority – Reject Their Moral Standards – Make Anarchy and Disorder your Trademarks – cause as much chaos and disruption as possible – BUT DON”T LET THEM TAKE YOU ALIVE!”
That poster hangs on my office door to this day.
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Wonderful article; your anger and frustration do nothing to diminish your point, which is powerful — that’s hard to do!
Excellent.
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It’s worse than you said it was – and it ain’t got a thing to do with the old “hypocrites in the Church” complaint. There AIN’T NO hypocrites in The Church. Neither are we lazy or selfish or nasty or bigoted or unteachable. We do not need “another whipping” from the pulpit, and not a single thing of note has changed in Christendom since 4th century – except one thing. 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
Check out (likely) the OLDEST Christian website on the net – since 1992… (BBS days)
Just Another Christian
“US” 1 John 4:6
Main site front page
http://www.apostasynow.com
The Great Dream Book:
http://www.apostasynow.com/tgd/index.html
(ed)
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Michael, you’ve written the “mother of all church growth critiques.” Your disgust is palpable, and I feel your pain! Keep up the good work!
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Bro. Michael–have been lurking for a few months on IM and related sites; have just found a small (35 person?) church that is imperfect but too small to have big ambitions like the “First Baptist” SBC church we lingered in for the past 9 months that is determined to drink the PDL kool-aid. God bless you. We would not agree on everything–I have not yet been able to discard southern dispensationalism or my Ryrie Study Bible; however, I am somewhat confused at the war between conservative dispies and reformed types–we have so much more in common, including (to my way of thinking) a common ground in the doctrines of sovereign grace . . . at least my flavor of dispensationalism is completely comfortable with the 5 points. Anyway, you have ministered to my wife and me as we have wrestled with the schizophrenic position of our former SBC pastor raising Piper-esque sovereign grace in one hand while embracing PDC and Warren in the other. Every SBC church on the Gulf coast of Texas seems either to have done their “40 days,” to be doing their “40 days” or to be advertising the upcoming “40 days of purpose.” Thank you, again.
Grace and peace–
mkr
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