When it comes to today’s Church... who is following who? Is the Church following Jesus... or has the contemporary church movement so radically impacted both the church and culture, that Jesus is expected to tag along with the Church?
Methods (doing church) have certainly changed... Walk into many churches today and you hear rock music, you see people wearing jeans and flip flops, and gazing at big video screens displaying everything from video skits, visual props, light shows and the occasional scripture. Messages focus on contemporary and cultural issues... sex, success and decision making and a host of other life-improvement topics. The concepts seem to be working id you measure success by the numbers. A whole generation of boomers and busters are now trying church and finding that the contemporary style and themes meet their needs and brings them closer to God. Or so they think.
It’s true.. traditional churches are struggling with declining numbers, while contemporary churches are rapidly growing.
What about Truth? I am talking about God’s unvarnished untainted Truth as revealed in His Holy Word the Bible. Is that message part of today’s contemporary fast growing Church? How about discussions of sin? The consequences of sinful living? What about repentance and redemption? The return of Christ and the coming judgement? Last time I checked, “His Truths” were not so popular with boomers or busters or anyone caught up in worldly pleasures and pursuits.
We are living in a critical time of church history. The Bible, God’s Word, is undergoing revisions, that are bringing about divisions in His Church. The Truth of God’s Word is being compromised, watered-down or outright ignored so as not to offend anyone. Ecumenical and heretical teachings are being endorsed for the cause of unity and church growth. The gospel of Jesus Christ is being disguised as “contemporary” to make it less offensive and more acceptable to the masses who think some form of church involvement is a good thing... but not a place where they want to be confronted with who they really are... sinners in the eyes of God.
The contemporary Church movement has been a designed strategy for more than 35 years, and its worked to draw people to a place to be entertained, but not to life-transforming truth. Now, even churches that once taught Biblical Truth faithfully verse by verse, preparing the flock for the imminent return of Jesus Christ, are looking for ways to make their services more seeker-friendly and are less concerned about the prophetic signs we are living in the last of the last days. This trend is not just in America, but worldwide.
Preachers, leaders and churches that once believed church growth was dependent on feeding the sheep and equipping the saved to share the gospel with the lost, now promote humanistic means to draw in the masses based on a consumer style of evangelism focused on “finding out what people want” to “get them in the door.”
Churches once led by ministers committed to Biblical Truth, are now employing experts who use worldly principles borrowed from secular corporations with material goals to bring about success. Rather than following Jesus and His Word, church leaders are looking to successful men and their methods so they can become part of a movement that is based on principles foreign to the sacred Scriptures.
Furthermore, when church leaders promote strategies to enhance the Kingdom of God here on earth by human effort, when concerned believers warn about the dangers, they are labeled as divisive ones.
Bible believing preachers that once taught the Bible are now looking for ways to attract people to their congregations by providing extra-biblical experiences and an atmosphere that includes candles, icons, incense and the introduction of Roman Catholic practices with the sacraments. When concerned observers suggest this appears to be leading to a partnership with Roman Catholicism they are considered to be negative opponents of the “new thing” God is doing that is reaching our generation.
It is apparent to many faithful adherents of pure Biblical teaching, that we are at another crossroads in church history, a fork in the road. So what does the future hold? Are preachers and elders going to stand up and make their voices known if they have concerns about the direction current trends are leading? While some say, don’t be negative – just be known for what you believe, not what you are against – perhaps it is time to reread what the Old Testament prophets said. When followers of God stray from the Truths of God, they are never to feel comfortable.
If we truly believe that Jesus may return soon, what position should we take? Should we be promoting methods of church growth that produce big congregations with shallow believers who are asleep when Jesus returns? Shouldn’t leaders be sounding the trumpet and warning of His imminent return? The risk... people will leave a church that teaches truth, promotes urgency and cleaves to the Bible alone as the guide and standard for holy living.
This is a time when church leaders –– preacher, elder and teacher must make decisions regarding the direction they are going to go. It is a time to proclaim God’s Word, His Truth, with boldness.
REMEMBER what Paul said to young Timothy as he was being prepared to take the reigns of Church leadership. The words must have rattled Timothy to his core, but they also strengthen and emboldened him to persevere in preaching and teaching nothing but Truth. Here’s those jarring words Paul passed onto his young protégée as recorded at 2 Timothy 3:1–5...
...mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
Now is not the time to be compromising and appealing to the easy feel good methods of preaching the gospel. GOD HAS NOT CHANGED! His wrath against those who have perverted His Church awaits. Jesus is coming... sooner than you might think!
