Tag Archives: Faith

My People – Christian Cliques and Segregation in Church – Picking our Brothers and Sisters in Christ

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We can’t pick Christ’s church.

I’ve mentioned this story before, but for the purpose of this subject, I’ll repeat it.   As I sat listening to my sister in Christ, who was almost in tears, lament that she was asked to leave her church ‘small group’ and find one that fit her age, I honestly was at a loss for words but didn’t find it unbelievable. My mind became numb because I found it so shocking that a phenomenon that should die in elementary school with the ‘cool kids’ had survived and been used to exclude some members of Christ’s church for other because someone else though they didn’t fit.   My people.

James 2:1

“ESV My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. “

We should be able to put a bow on this subject with scripture, but that would logically pre suppose that people in church follow, know or care what God’s Word says.  That’s a leap based on current research.
Christians discriminate?  And yet we do.  We find people who look like us, talk like us, and we hang out with those people.  After all, isn’t that Christian unity?  Is it?  If it excludes some less desirable Christian folk for the inclusion of others based on some arbitrary wish list to be a part of ‘my people,’ then no.  It’s favoritism.  It’s a clique.
We should be able to stop there, but we are a selfish people.  We like security, and yet cliques in Christ’s church do not offer it.  Instead, ‘cliques’ are an echo chamber, it’s a like minded, like talking, and like walking type of people who may exclude others because cliques are comfortable with spiritual apathy.   It’s like the group of ‘cool’ kids in the 3rd grade who exclude those that don’t fit, the weird kids.

God’s Judgment and the Law

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

So why do we group up in to cliques?  We are all sinners under the law and receive the same Grace from God?  We are equal.

Should we look to a pastor to address church cliques?  Yes and no.

Does that pastor practice cliques as a way of pastoring the local congregation?  What would that look like?  Does the pastor have a specific group with in the church that they spend the most time with to the detriment of the congregation as a whole?  If the church is so large that the pastor doesn’t even know the families that make up the whole, then that’s another issue all together.   Then the answer is ‘life groups’ formerly identifying as ‘small groups.’  Then that brings us back to my sister in Christ who was asked to leave a group for another one that would fit her better according to their arbitrary opinion.

“You don’t want dads going to a group discussion for moms do you!?  Do you!?”  That’s not arbitrary, that is a group that is tied to God’s creation.  So, no, I am not talking about that.   There is Biblical support for men teaching me, and women teaching women.

So, yes, if the pastor sees or practices clique behavior in the local congregation, that pastor should repent and walk in a way where he doesn’t show favoritism amongst the flock.

So, no, because cliques also live outside the weekly meeting.   Which unchecked, cliques can grow into discord and even church splits. It is up to each one of us to avoid the appearance of favoritism as we move throughout the body of Christ.   It is a counter ‘My People’ mindset, and behaving in a way that is more global, a Christ’s church mindset.

 

So how does this look in life?

Well we know what it looks like in the third grade.  It’s dodgeball day and the coach chooses two captains, and so it goes that each captain gets a turn to choose ‘their team.’  Their people.   Thus comes the judgement by the nine year old captains, the best first and then the least desirable.  And while it could be argued that this is just the way kids are, they see what they see without valuing each kid beyond what they can use them for, (winning).  What we can say is that type of thinking doesn’t belong in Christ’s church, especially with us who are adulting.  (20pts for using cool modern lingo)

We have to figure out who are truly “my people.”   In Matthew 12:48-50, Jesus is very clear that who ever does the will of his father are his brothers and sisters, his family.  His people if you will.    We to expand our biases past who we think are Christians. And without going through the historic church, even the past fifty years in America, the sin of preference or prejudice has crept into Christ’s church.  With the atrocities of racism to something much more innocent like picking ‘my people’ because of age, fluctuating cultural likeness, socio economic status and so on.  We still do it today.

 

So what is a good test?  Do we find ourselves unwilling to see other Christians as important as people we have identified as ‘my people?’

Group of people taking a selfie

1 Corinthians 12 gives us insight into unity within Christ’s church.

“… 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

And finally

 

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[a] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So then we see from scripture how we all are one in Christ and should have concern for each other, not just those we have chosen as ‘my people.’  All followers of Christ have become ‘my people.’  So let us consider how we invest in the lives of those in Christ’s church.  Our lives are to be spent here in service to our brothers and sisters in Christ’s church, all of the church.  We have a huge family in Christ, let’s open our arms for all the people of Christ, not just the ones we choose.

 

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Steven Davis is a toasted preacher’s kid, media producer, practicing apologist, and musician.

 

Meeting God

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If you want to ‘meet’ God, you can where you are now. You don’t have to go anywhere to meet God. All you have to do is ask him, talk to him, pray.
The teaching that you have to go here or there to meet God does not line up with scripture, God is everywhere you are. #youdonthavetorsvp Jeremiah 23:24 #apologetics

Does the local church create a divide in family discipleship?

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Does the local church create a divide in family discipleship?

The exchange of dialogue is only helpful if that exchange has a point that is potentially beneficial to others. So while it is common in this blog and on the internet to criticize the practices in Christ’s church, this post will hopefully help as we consider our church methods.  I grew up in church as a pastor’s kid, and spent time as a youth pastor, so I’ve seen processes in church from ‘behind the scenes.’  And while that’s important, this post will go beyond my personal experience since, and ask questions in more of a sociological or anthropological expression.

Before moving ahead, I want to address the ‘karen‘ comments.  Since America is the number one country for single parenthood, it would be foolish to say every family that enters the doors of the local church are a mom, dad, two kids with a picket fence. So, the following post is in general, and any responsibilities for supporting discipleship to address non two parent families falls at the doorstep of the local church.   There are always exceptions, but they don’t disprove the rule.

So the premise is, “How Consumer Friendly Churches Create a Disciple Divide in Families.”

  1. Do we care?  In church ministry, what do we care about?  What is the point?  If the point is not biblical discipleship, then there is another point to our efforts in the local church.
  2. What are our methods for Christian discipleship? Scripture tells us to have order, so processes are biblical.  Doing church ‘messy’ which is a fad, is not biblical.
  3. How will we measure the effectiveness of the local church discipleship?

As Christ’s church, how important is the family unit?  Aside from Christ himself, the health of the family should be at the forefront of our discipleship efforts.  I grew up going to children’s church.  Since the children’s building was the original church building, it looked like a mini sanctuary with pews, a pulpit, piano.  And we had our children’s service in the same method as ‘big church.’  What I remember most were the songs we sang, such as Father Abraham. We also had Sunday School on Sunday and then during services like Sunday and Wednesday nights, kids would be in the main service with the adults. So that was my young experience with Christian discipleship.  Your’s was probably different.  Which is why we can’t depend on our individual experiences as proof of success in church discipleship.

So let us address the elephant in the room head on and look deep into his eyes and have an honest conversation.  When a family shows up for the Sunday main service that is to be taught by the pastor, what happens to the family?  As Christians, we say that family is important.  But do we help or hamper the family unit as a local church body?

Scenario #1 The kids go to their age appropriate program and the parents go to the main service that is geared towards them.

Scenario #2 The kids stay with their parents and there is a portion of the adult service that is geared towards the kids.”

A Christian brother of mine was complaining about some of the youths behavior, having to remove them often from the youth service because of their poor behavior.  I suggested that the parents of the ‘trouble makers’ be brought into the youth service so they could parent their children and see the bad behavior first hand.  After all, parents should parent.  Or do parents leave the discipleship of their children up to the local church , just as some leave the education up to the schools?  Proverbs 22:6 gives us the direction.  Parents are to parent the whole child, not subcontract certain sections of child development.  Parents using the local church service to take a break from their kids is the wrong approach and is unlikely to yield any lasting discipleship in their children.  Kids know what is going on.

So how does the local church help parents parent the whole child?

  1. The parents need to know the message their children are receiving.  The writing was truly one the wall at a church we attended when I saw a Christ-less false teaching on the builtin board being taught to young kids.  Do you know what your children are learning at church?  How do you know?  Do you ask?  Do you care? Do you have a strong enough theology to ask the right questions? What would you do if your children are being taught false doctrine?
  2. Is the overall messaging in the local church even biblical?  We know that the consumer friendly local church, especially those who adopt a business model of numerical growth, seek to make the ‘congregation’ happy.   If the adult service isn’t biblical, it is unlikely the approach to children’s church will be.
  3. Is the overall messaging in the local church even for the whole family? And is it seamless? For example;  If the adults learn about Jesus feeding the five thousand, are the kids learning the same in their dedicated message? If not, why not? How is the connection made between the two messages?

So as we return to the two scenarios, we can practically answer which one is better.  If the goal is to make disciples, then why does the local Christian church split the family up?  It can be argued that children learn at a different level than adults, and that is absolutely true.  But that begs the wrong question?   If our approach is to disciple kids on their level, and adults on another level, then what are we doing is doing individual discipleship instead of discipling the whole family. It can’t be any other way if the family is split and never discipled together.

OBJECTION: “But our children’s program is the best around and it the number one draw for people to come!”  I used to think that was important too.  When we were looking for a church, it was my first question, ‘what is your children’s program like?’  But I was asking the wrong question.  I get it, the children’s program that churches do on Sunday morning is a huge investment of time, staff, and money. What I wasn’t asking was, ‘ How does a church disciple my family?’

But what if the Sunday main adult service teaches on Jesus feeding the five thousand and the kids dedicated service does a message, isn’t that family discipleship?  It isn’t.  The family is separated in two different locations. So do we toss our children’s program? Is there another way that the whole family is discipled together at the local church?  After all, just like school education, the parents are ultimately responsible and should be able to reinforce what their children learn.

So the question still remains though; “does the local church create a divide in family discipleship”?  If the local church is not discipling the family unit together, the answer has to be yes.

OBJECTION: “The children won’t understand the pastor’s sermon?”  Well let’s return to Proverbs, who has the primary responsibility of teaching and training their children?  Parents.  As for the approach of the pastor’s teaching, a skillful pastor can adapt the message of the Gospel so even a child can understand. And especially since there are different levels of an education in adults, the simplest expression of the gospel is the best approach.  Not everyone studies hermeneutics.

We attend a Sunday service where the children are invited to stay in the main service.  The pastor will provide a special message to the children at the front.  There is also Sunday school that has a curriculum geared towards the children.  But the main service has the whole family.

What are the benefits to this?

  1. Modeling:  Kids get to see their parents behavior in church.  Kids will do what their parents are doing. If it is important to the parents, the kids will take note.
  2. Questions: When parents are properly taught, they can fill in the blanks when the kids need further instruction.  Again Proverbs 22:6
  3. The local church puts the emphasis back on the family, the support of the family, the focus is back on the parents.

OBJECTION:”Kids don’t behave in adult church.” Well, when will they learn? It is like getting a credit card, but not having credit to get it.  When kids don’t learn to behave in church, it becomes obvious when they get older.  They have to be removed from youth group because of their behavior.  The benefit of having children in church with their parents is parenting their behavior.

Having children in church is something I had to adjust to.  Babies crying, kids squirming is something that I had to work through so to speak.  And what I figured out is, going to church isn’t about me.  It’s about the body of Christ.

What is the problem we are trying to solve?  It is found in the premise, “How Consumer Friendly Churches Create a Disciple Divide in Families.”  The best scenario for family discipleship is to have a method for the local church to hold up the family as the best way to disciple the family itself.  Does the Sunday message need to change for that? If the local church doesn’t have a method for discipling the whole family, then yes.

Why is this important? Because kids are leaving the church.  And the over arching reason is that questions are going unanswered.  Why?  Because in the consumer friendly approach, the most kids get are bible studies on how to be a better person. Consumer friendly churches are asking their consumers on what the speak on, instead of teaching the whole counsel of scripture.  They avoid tough subjects since it will anger people and they may not come back. The goal in consumer friendly churches is to make customers happy.  Of course this is the case, the budget is large and spending money on children’s church set design costs.

Is children’s church bad?  Of course not.  Does it provide family discipleship, nope.   Does your local church have a way of discipling the whole family?  If not, why not?   It is the parents that have the primary responsibility for discipleship of their children.  Yes.  And having them in the main service the only way to do it.  Having only divisional discipleship is subpar and doesn’t benefit the whole family, it creates a divide in family discipleship.

But so what?  Going back to why kids leave the church.  Questions aren’t being answered.  The kids blame the church.  So here comes the anthropological part, if the teaching comes to the family at once, the family discusses it, then there is one message.

But that begs the question, what is the message?  If the church is answering the questions that provide an out for kids to leave the church, then if they do leave still, the church will have successfully discipled the whole family and kept the family, not the local church, at the center focus. Which is how God created mankind to begin with.

 

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Steven Davis is a well done preacher’s kid, musician, media producer, learning apologetic writer.

#apologetics #church #childrenschurch #seekerfriendlychurches #consumerfriendlychurches

 

What’s Our Brand? – What Do We Want People to Know First?

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What’s Our Brand? – What Do We Want People to Know First?

brand logo

Growing up without the money to buy the latest ‘trending’ this or that was a blessing.  Although, growing up without the internet understanding ‘trending’ was also a blessing.  Many of us have a brand whether we want one or not.  But some in our culture push a brand on us.  Think about Amazon, that’s a brand we are all familiar with.  But what about our own brand?  How do we promote our brand?  What is our brand from?  I know people who constantly promote this sports team to the point that’s all they talk about.  One way to find someone’s brand is to look at their social media, if they have one.   We know that employers look at our social media to see what we promote.  That’s our brand.

In the 80’s or so we called this -brand- a reputation.  But today Western Christianity culture has incorporated so much corporate/social media lingo into local churches, it makes more sense to call it your ‘brand.’

When children grow up, what brand do we give them?  Do we push Starwars, Marvel, Barbie as their brand?   As a side note, one side effect of pushing a brand on a child as they grow is, it might limit their own imagination, or affect their personality in a way that mimics the brand, and not something they learn on their own. But that’s a squirrel topic and not the thrust of this post.

And you don’t even have to claim ‘Christianity’ to have a brand.  Atheists have a brand, Agnostics have a brand, Buddhists have a brand, we all have a brand.

What is our brand?  Is it drinking alcohol, partying, YOLO, or is our brand something else?   Good question.  We can change brands as we grow as well.  Maybe in our teen years our brand is ‘x’ and now it’s ‘z’.  Then we look back at our early year brand and shake our heads.  We grow up, our brand changes. Do fans of the University of Alabama have a brand… nope, I’d say they are a cult. Just kidding you lovely rabid Roll Tide people.  Jesus loves you.

As Christ followers, what should our brand be?

Well, an easy answer our brand should be Christ.  But is it really?  What is a good test?  Here is one to think about. – Having been in conversations about Christian topics, I’m often intrigued as to the hero of the Christian conversations.  Or when someone asks us if we are a Christian, is our response true to our brand or do we go off brand in our response.

Question:  Are you a Christian.

Answer:  Yes, I go to ‘X’ church. 

Or is our answer, ‘yes’, I’m a Christian and I’d love to tell you why.  I often see shirts, sunglasses, bumper stickers promoting a local church.   That is their brand.  That’s what they promote.  That church is promoting itself.   But is that what the church should be primarily first?   Of course not.

So what about t-shirts with scripture? Well, that is also a brand.  That promotes God’s word.  What about our speech, that’s a brand as well.  Does our speech promote Christ as followers of Christ, or is our speech ‘off-brand’ of Christ?

So what does it mean to be ‘on brand’?  Well, it means that the message we are trying to convey is consistent with our outward efforts.   Being on-brand means we are true to what we believe. You wouldn’t find a hamburger joint putting, time, money and effort into a commercial about lawn care.  They would put money, time and effort into a message about hamburgers and why they have the best.

In the same way as Christ followers, what brand do we put time, money and effort into?   Is our brand clear to folks as Christ followers?  Or is our brand hidden as Christ followers.  Again, one way to test what our brand is, is to look at someone’s social media.  But we can also look at their lifestyle.  Jesus calls this fruit.  He also called this light and salt.   As Christ followers, our brand is to be akin to Christ.  The Christ found in God’s Word, not the Christ of our making, or even the Christ that our preacher talks about.  We are to understand who Christ is from his Word.

What will we not do without?

A good self test is to examine our lives and see what we are willing to do without and what we are willing to give up.  What’s left in that ultimate decision is our brand.  Jesus requires us to forsake the world for him.  That is the brand he wants us to walk out. I have seen people become quite vitriol in defending Disney, Halloween, even Starbucks, they’ve even included the ‘!’ mark.  Is that their brand?  Or are they just ‘off-brand’ for the moment.

What is our first foot forward?

“I. You are the Salt of the Earth. Matt. 5:13 Jesus in these verse sums up the collected truth of the eight principles of the B-attitudes.
A. What are the properties of salt? The Lord compares true believers with the properties of salt.
1. Salt is used to add favor to food. It has a taste all its own, utterly unlike anything else.
a. When mingled with foods it makes them taste good.
b. It brings out the natural favor of food.
2. It is also a preservative. When added to other substances it preserves them from corruption.”

When asked if we are Christian, what is our first foot forward.  Do we respond with what church we go to?  Do we change the subject?  Does our brand even represent Christ in a way that someone would ask the question?   What is our brand?    Are we honest with ourselves about our brand?  Are we on or off brand?  How close is our brand to Christ?  That takes prayer and examination, and understanding who Christ is in his Word.  Because their are so many brands of Christianity, some on Brand with Christ and some not.  Our brand in Christ has to be founded in his unchanging Word.  So again, what is our brand?

If we are asking that question, we might have a problem already.  The Bible teaches that our lives are not our own as Christ followers.  It should never be our brand.  We don’t develop or own our own brand, just as we don’t own our own lives as Christ followers.  That’s for those who hate Christ, they ‘control’ their lives.  A better question to ask is, “how do I get closer and closer to what Christ teaches?”  How can his brand become mine?

For it was Jesus who gives us hope, who died on a cross for our sins, saved us from an eternal Hell.  Making his brand our brand should be easy.  However we struggle with our greed, our selfishness, life gets busy and we forget about Christ, having a sinful nature warring against our desire.  We should pray to God that he will help us put to death our desire for ourselves and in that we make his brand our brand.  We become salt, we become light because he shines, he seasons our life and encounters with other.  I pray that we all stay on His brand.

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Steven Davis is a well done preacher’s kid, musician, media producer, learning apologetic writer.

 

 

#apologetics #experiencegod #experiencepurpose #theheightschurch #experiencefreedom #makingadifference #blogging #Christianblogger #saltlight

Experiencing God in a Corporate Setting ? Messaging Matters

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Driving by this sign day after day which read “Experience God”, I thought to my self, ‘self, what does that mean?’  I mean it’s a sign that is in front of a building with the word ‘church’ in the name.  It’s a good size building being built and so I looked at some of the other messages of what I could find out about this church based on the messages and marketing signs.  And that will be the subject of this blog post. Messaging Matters.  And before I’m accused of nitpicking, message matters in our Christian testimony.  Words matter.  So I would like to explore this messaging.

At some point in this post, someone might say, well have you been to this church?  How can you judge it based on a few signs?  And of course I can’t.  It doesn’t matter if I go there or not. But if I did go there, it would not change what we will discuss during this time together.  So let’s discuss messaging, and we’ll start first with the big one that was the -rock in my shoe-.  “Experience God”

Experience God

Experiencing God Graphic

I’m guessing this is a rock concert, I actually purchased this off an image subscription. I have no idea what is from. :}

So using the Bible Gateway’s search feature and the phrase, ‘Experience God’, I couldn’t find any scriptures that talk about how to ‘experience God.’  What does that mean?

In Holy Scripture we do find a lot of examples of those who had experiences with God.  For example; the Egyptians experienced God as they drowned in the Red Sea.   Elijah experienced God as he was carried off in a chariot to the sky.   Adam and Eve experienced God’s judgement when He expelled them from the garden.  Balaam’s donkey experienced God when his mouth was opened and started to talk.  If a donkey can experience God, do I need a donkey experience?  What does it mean to ‘experience God’ and how is measured?  What is the proof?  What is the method?

If people are raising their hands, is that how you experience God?  What do we then say about this image at a rock concert?

So what about experience?  What are we to say?  To be honest, we are emotional creatures.  We love our experiences. Some people love roller coasters, some don’t.  Some love watching romance movies, some don’t.   Some people love to watch Rambo circa 1982 over and over and over again, some don’t.

This was a first for me, most churches show their service times. If we follow the logic of the marketing, then we have to assume that people will only experience God, whatever that means, on these three times. Do I sound snippy, nope, messaging matters. Words matter.

So let’s answer question #1:  What does it mean to experience God.

Answer: No idea. If we say our experience is based on us, then we have experienced us.  If we get goosebumps with the music at church, is that how we experience God?  When I wrote Emotion Doesn’t Validate Corporate Worship,  I still get goosebumps thinking about the title song from Moulin Rouge, ‘Come What May.’ In fact, I’m listening to it as I write.  :}  My goosebumps are an emotional reaction. 

A friend of mine told me how awesome their church is.  When I asked what was awesome about it, they said the music is just amazing.  I wonder if that is how one experiences God. Is it good music.

If you are profusely angry at me by now, I’ll understand. And while some of this writing is a bit tongue and cheek, the question remains, what does it mean to experience God at these three Sunday experiences (see sign)?  I have no idea.  Is everyone’s experience the same, is it different, are they experiencing God the same, or is it even the same god?  Unsure.  How is it all measured?

Is this guy experiencing God?

Within the mega-church movement, the building decor has become less religious, more secular, more secular visitor friendly. And let’s be honest, if the word church wasn’t on the bottom of this sign, you’d think this was some type of convention hall. May a new hotel. This trend is on purpose. If there were to have religious symbols, then there is a good chance someone might hold you to your presentation. For the sake of argument, if there was a statue of Mary, then someone might ask you if this church is Catholic.  But without any symbols, any historic church symbols, there is nothing to identify this setting as anything other than a non religious venue.  Something you might see in the the business world.  A type of corporate feel if you will.

Let’s talk about the corporate experience.  We know that experience is very important in today’s corporate environments. After all, you have to keep people happy.  We know that happy people are better workers. We’ve all been to corporate events, they have marketing inside and outside the events, giveaways, maybe live music, door freebies, have greeters who are assigned to different portions of the visitors experience, then you hit the coffee bar, maybe eat a danish, from there it’s off to learn about —insert theme here —.  All of this experience is to make your time memorable.  It’s important that you have a good time.

For good measure, here are – 4 Tips for Planning Corporate Event Entertainment

1. Focus on Creating Memorable Event Experiences

2. Keep an Eye on the Budget

3. Choose Thoughtful Corporate Entertainment

4. Prioritize Your Audience

Let’s move on.

Experience Purpose

Using that pesky Bible Gateway tool again, I couldn’t find the phrase ‘Experience Purpose’ in the Bible.  I know, I know, it’s a modern term.  So let’s chew on the hypothetical. For people who go to these experiences, does someone tell them what their purpose is?  Is it like Elevation Church that has massive volunteer recruiting for the purpose of doing tasks at the church?  Or is it like that false teaching of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life?  I hope not.

Does one have to go to this church to experience purpose?  Or could it be as simple as loving our neighbor which Jesus tells us to do.   What if the purpose I get during this experiential-church conflicts with some other purposes I have already? Which do I choose?  Yes, I’ve gone into silly mode.  And that’s ok, because again, messaging matters, and according to this sign, I can ‘experience purpose’ if I go there. What about the people down at the Baptist church, do they have a purpose?…ok, ok.  I’ll stop.

Experience Making a Difference

Now this message is great! Anyone who sees this, understands that these people are making a difference for the environment.  They are planting stuff and that definitely is making a difference. No plants, no breath ya know.  I know a lot of church organizations have become very environmentally aware.  And since the millennials generation (who by number is surpassing the Boomer generation) is concerned about making a difference in society; this sign about -making a difference- and it’s push for environmental issues is pretty good messaging. #bravo

Experience Freedom

Freedom?  From what?  Unsure.  What does that mean? If I were to infer from thin air, I’d say it has something to do with the freedom found in Christ, freedom from sin.  At least that’s what I’m hoping.  But that requires someone to repent.  So freedom through repentance?  And yes, I know my implications are running on fumes.  I’m just trying to understand this sign. I do wonder if you call the church office if they know what this sign means.  Either way, the king in this sign again is ‘experience.’  That word is pretty important as it is repeated over and over.

The Wrap

So what?  So what’s the big deal?  I’m glad you asked.

No where in Holy Scripture are we taught to ‘experience God.’  And if you go for the experience, you’ll have to go back for it time and time again.  Possibly, you’ll start to equate being a Christian with your experience.  And that’s narcissism and not Christianity.   If we are driven by experience, then anything less than our last experience will just not do.  The dopamine highways in our brain always want more, something new , just like video games, porn and other visual experiences that bombard our brains.

-What you win folks with you have to do and more to keep them.- So if people are coming to a building for an experience, then you’ll have to keep switching it up to keep the dopamine rolling on different highways in our brainage. (yes, I know that’s not a word)

But the bigger question is, ‘why is experience the king here?’  Why isn’t Jesus the hero of this marketing?  Maybe Jesus is taught here, maybe it’s an ‘almost Jesus’ -experience-.  Unsure.  And yes, I could attend, but why, the folks at this church seem to think ‘experience’ is the most important if we judge by the marketing.  I’m supposed to come for the experience. That’s emotionalism, that’s hype.

Finally, God is everywhere, omnipresent.  My purpose is given to me to love on others because of God’s grace to me. My freedom is found in Christ.  And making a difference, well we can do that anywhere.  No secret sauce can be found on the other side of these road signs, but I’m sure the experience is something else for sure.

So what? What’s your beef?  Because message matters.  Words matter.  With so many ‘churches’ moving away from orthodoxy to experienced based church, it should be a warning to us when a church bases so much on ‘experience’, something so subjective, something that is so focused on us. We should want Christ more than experience.  It is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we have all we need.   It is the Gospel that we can hope through good experiences and bad experiences in life.  It is also in the Gospel that we can judge any experience we have.

Does this church preach the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ, one of repentance through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross for all of our sins?  I dunno.  All I know is that based on this marketing, it’s Experience that is the most important message they want us to know.  And that’s no reason to go, not when there is so many theme parks around an hour away.

 

Steven Davis is a well done preacher’s kid, musician, media producer, learning apologetic writer.

 

 

#apologetics #experiencegod #experiencepurpose #theheightschurch #experiencefreedom #makingadifference

Silly Sermon Sayings with Stevey the Squash #notveggietales

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Why do we have Sermon Sayings?  What do Sermon Sayings accomplish?  What weight should we give them?  How do we even use Sermon Sayings in our lives? And what do we test Sermon Sayings with since 1 Thessalonians 5:21 tells us to test all things and hold onto that which is good.

I’ll submit and hopefully show that Sermon Sayings are at the bottom of the list of items that should be presented to the body of Christ during the collective gathering that is designed for equipping the saints.  In other words, Sermon Sayings are mostly pointless for the Body of Christ.

I submit that the popularity of Sermon Sayings is a direct influence of the corporate world into Christ’s Church.  After all, if you’ve ever watched a Ted Talk, there’s a jumbotron with a saying, a quote, a humanistic set of words if you will.

Sermon Sayings are just that, a bunch of words that relate a message.  Is that message founded in Holy Scripture, well it needs testing.  But what if the Sermon Saying is so ambiguous the hearer can’t find a scripture for it.  Or the speaker doesn’t provide scripture for the Sermon Saying.  Well, what’s the point?  Maybe the speaker has a point other than a Biblical one?

Maybe the speaker is trying to replace scripture.

Could Sermon Sayings be a way to lead people away from Holy Scripture?  Of course it could.  After all, a Sermon Saying is not scripture, and by very design, it’s a straying away from Scripture. So what is the point of Sermon Sayings?  Why is Holy Scripture not enough?  Good question.

Well look here:  A list of 10 Star Wars quotes that might work in your sermon.    And this from church leaders dot com.  I guess this is a way to stay seeker relevant.   Here’s an example from that page.

5. “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” — Yoda

Umm, ok, sure?  But Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions have similar sayings.  So what’s the point?  Relevance? Seeker Friendly?  Leeching off the popularity of Star Wars?  Good question. The Bible deals with fear, anger, and hate.  Maybe scripture might be something the Holy Spirit could use as I don’t think Yoda was a Christian. #sarcasm

Let’s look as some more examples.

Where does the Bible talk about the greatness of us? I have no idea. The Bible actually says all have fallen short. Romans 3:23 New International Version 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

So where do we start? Do we look for Hell’s post office. Is it as slow as the USPS? Or maybe they are one in the same. I won’t even start to look for the post office in the Bible. Probably, not there.

I guess this a swipe at John the Baptist as Kris Vollotten believes he is a prophet.

Scripture says that God will supply all my needs according to his riches in glory. — Philippians 4:19 English Standard Version 19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

I got nothing. No idea.

 

So why use Sermon Sayings?  Is it because Sermon Sayings are more relatable than Scripture?  Well, maybe your speaker needs more training. If the twelve Disciples from all walks of life could relate the Gospel message, then it is possible to relate Scripture to everyone.

What does Scripture say about itself.

So what do Sermon Sayings add? A better question is, who do Sermon Sayings focus on, me, you, the speaker?

It’s very popular to speak in church about how to improve ourselves. Just like Ted Talks, sermons have become positive motivational messages on how to have your best life now.

And the list of these sayings goes on and on and on. But the question remains, why use Sermon Sayings? How do they improve Scripture?  We know already that Scripture is sufficient.

 

So why use Sermon Sayings?  I can’t think of a good reason to use them that Scripture is not a better prescription for.

So here is some advice for my brothers who speak to Christ’s church on stage, on social media or other wise…

TIP:  Don’t use a Sermon Saying where scripture can used. Scripture points to Christ.Mark 16:15

“John 5:39
English Standard Version

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and wit is they that bear witness about me,”

We should do the same. One solution is to put scripture references underneath the Sermon Saying.  But then that places Scripture as a secondary source.

So do Sermon Sayings help, I don’t think so. I certainly see the appeal in a corporate setting, but  I can’t find a Biblical reason for Sermon Sayings. So why use them?

If Sermon Sayings are no inspired, why use them?  Do they distract from Holy Scripture, of course they do.  So why use them?  If a Sermon Saying is the basis for a sermon, that’s a problem.  You will have to find out why Scripture isn’t used as the basis for the sermon.  You can ask, “Why are the sermons based off a ‘quote’ or Sermon Saying?”  Why? But be prepared for almost any answer.

For what it’s worth, the greatest problem I see with Sermon Sayings are that they detract from the Bible. They are sometimes plastered on the screen as if they are an epic word from God.  When in fact, they are just a man made design of words, maybe they’re Biblical in nature, maybe not.

2 Timothy 4:1-2 says “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and our of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

What to do.

The next time you hear or see a Sermon Saying, open your Bible and try to support it by Scripture. Ask yourself who is the hero of this Sermon Saying.   If you can’t find scriptural support and it doesn’t point us to Christ, then you have to ask yourself the question, why did that speaker use it. Good question.
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Steven Davis is a burned out preachers kid, musician, media producer, bible school dropout, metal head and learning apologist.

#apologetics #sermons #quotes #faith #christianity #blogging

Time to boot Leaders out of Christ’s Church – Mark 10:42-45

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Time to Boot Leaders out of Christ’s Church

I like to insert humor in my writing so people will calm down, here’s a cartoon from one of my favorite cartoonists.

Full disclosure.  I was going to use the ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ from the Minions, but I don’t find them very funny. Maybe if I wanted to be more relevant, I should have used them.

Now breathe a bit, one one thousand, two two thousand…  Now that everyone’s heads aren’t exploding, let’s take a minute to explore God’s word about what it means to serve in Christ’s church.

Matthew 23:1-12

23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore, whatever they tell you, do and [a]comply with it all, but do not do [b]as they do; for they say things and do not do them. 4 And they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as their finger. 5 And they do all their deeds to be noticed by other people; for they broaden their [c]phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. 6 And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the seats of honor in the synagogues, 7 and personal greetings in the marketplaces, and being called [d]Rabbi by the people. 8 But as for you, do not be called [e]Rabbi; for only One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9 And do not call anyone on earth your father; for only One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called [f]leaders; for only One is your Leader, that is, Christ. 11 But the greatest of you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

We should be able to stop at the words of Jesus and move away from ‘leaders’ in Christ’s church.  But I have personally watched a pastor trump the words of Jesus with his own opinion.  So Christ’s words don’t really matter at times.

Mark-10:42-45

The Request of James and John

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[d] 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave[e] of all.45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Source:  BibleGateway. 

And while I want to explore what Jesus means specifically in terms of lording of others, let’s take a look at what it means to be a leader in contemporary society.

What is a Leader?

What are some aspects of a Leader.

  1. Leaders have employees.
  2. Leaders control the narrative, even individual speech.
  3. Leaders direct their followers in the way of the Leaders’ vision.
  4. Leaders can lead according to how they want, they are only bound to what is important to the leadership power structure.
  5. Leaders are concerned for the bottom line.  Whatever that may be, it could be anything.
  6. Leaders are not bound to Scripture. There is no reason for them to be since the leadership model is not prescribed in Scripture.

A ‘leader’ can be anything, do anything, and get away with anything including calling themselves a ‘vision caster.’ A title that is 100 corporate and found in secular business.

One of the common mechanisms in modern evangelicalism is something called “Vision Casting” a title of “Vision Casting Leaders” Well, neither are biblical. If you’re in one of these churches, ask your Vision Casting Leader to justify his title in the Bible. It’s not possible.

So let’s look at what the Bible prescribes as a leader in Christ’s church…

Here is one scripture (CLICK HERE), here’s another (CLICK HERE) and another is here (CLICK HERE)… If you weren’t able to click on any links is because there are none.  When the bible talks about how we serve in Christ’s church, they are as follows.

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[a] and teachers,[b] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,[c] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

These gifts are for the building up the body, not controlling it. The gifts are actionable and chained to Christ’s loving instruction for his church. Ephesians 4:11-16

Biblical Qualifications for Overseers and Deacons

1 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.

2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full[a] respect.
5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)
6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.
7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. 1 Timothy 3:1-7

Back to the secular definition of a leader. Well, it can be anything, it can be a position of authority for good, it can be a position of authority for bad. Leaders can perform how ever they way. In corporate America, for the sake of argument, leaders can be fired by their leader, stake holders, quit and go find another leadership position somewhere else. Again, leaders can be anything.

The pushback, and the reason some use the word leader in Christ’s church is because it connects to our consumer American culture and that a term like pastor is an old term. At least this is the argument of why Andy Stanley of North Point Church says churches need to move away from the term shepherd. People can’t connect with the term shepherd. Silly. Given that Andy Stanley has diminished the status of the Word of God in his own teaching, let’s avoid him as well as this false teaching as well.

There have always been ‘religious’ people that want to create terms, laws, and practices that are contrary to God’s written word. They do it for greed, personal gain. This was why Jesus rebuked the pharisees, they added to God’s law for their own personal gain, for control of God’s people.

What if a ‘leader’ sins against Christ’s church, maybe a group of ‘leaders.’ What then? Does the supreme leader do then? Who knows, after all, leaders can be anything. Is there a board of accountability? What are the qualifications of a leader in Christ’s church. Maybe they are qualified, maybe not. How do we know? Who knows. After all, a ‘leader’ can be anything. Has any ‘leader’ sinned in your church?  Would anyone tell you?  Good question.

Why unhitch a local church from the commands of God in Christ’s church? That speculation can go on for ever. But sadly we do have examples. Take for example Mark Driscoll and his abusive behavior at Mars Hill church.  Numerous articles in recent history highlighting his others abuse in Christ’s church should be a retina blinding warning to Christians that when ‘leaders’ rule in Christ’s church, abuse increases as a real possibility.

Regarding abuse in Christ’s Church.

Christ’s local church should be the safest place on this planet. So why is it not?

Why does abuse in church happen?    At the root of abuse of most types is control.  One or more people controlling another or group of others. Take for example; A leadership group that has authority over another group in Christ’s church.

  • Leaders don’t care what their subordinates think.  Why would they, the leaders have the best ideas.
  • Leaders lead, everyone else follows.
  • Leaders Rule with or without accountability

It is very easy for a leadership team to abuse their authority since they are the leaders after all.  When faith or authority from the masses is placed into a group of leaders and that group abuses their authority against those subordinate to them, then what?  Is there a recourse?   Sadly, for many churches mega or wanna-be-mega, the only recourse is to leave since the response from those in leadership is; -well this may not be the right church for you.-   “Right church?”  I thought Christ’s church was the right church for everyone?  Right? (redundancy on purpose)

Even the secular world gets it.  This from Psychology Today

“The perhaps best known unsuccessful leadership styles are the authoritarian (or “autocratic”) and the laissez-faire leadership styles. Whereas a person with an authoritarian leadership style will tend to lead by assuming control over all decisions while not soliciting input from or taking the advice of others in the organization”  It seems that much of Christ’s church, especially in Evangelicalism, is operating on a 80’s Wall Street model.  Top down.

If a church leader sins against the flock, how do you know? What happens?

Well if the Catholic Church (no link needed), Hillsong/AOG and as of late the SBC is any indication, covering up that sin seems to be a common practice within Christ’s church.  If only a few people in a local church, the board, leadership group know about the abuse, it can be covered up without any accountability outside those small governing groups.  Disaster to the flock.

So why the title leader?

Ego? (probably)  Relevance? (misguided)

Let’s revisit the common push back from those who use the term ‘leader’ in Christ’s church, “We use the term leader because it is a term people relate to.”  Umm, ok.  Well yes, we do relate to it.  But we also relate to the term Banana.  Why not call those in who serve in Christ’s church ‘Bananas?’  Well, it would be confusing for sure.  Can you imagine, “Hi, my name is Banana John Smith and I’m going to speak to you on the book of John 2:1-11” We all relate to the term banana, but let’s not use that as a label for servants in Christ’s church.  Why not call them, what they do?  This is how the bible prescribes gifts in Christ’s church. Hi I’m John Smith, your servant in Christ’s church and today I’ll be teaching.  I’m a teacher. So the relevance defense is just silly. The term leader is on purpose.  Again, why?  Ego? Control?  Both?

Some want to combine the words into a new term Servant Leadership.  Well that’s an oxymoron.  Can one person serve, be the least in Christ’s verbiage, and be the greatest at the same time?  Silly.

This article and it’s critique of the term leaders and why the mechanism or role of ‘leader’ is wrong for Christ’s church, could go on for days.  There are so many stories of ‘leaders’ falling spectacularly in Christ’s church:

Brian Houston
Most of Hillsong
Jim Bakker
Douglas Goodman
Tony Alamo
Bob Coy
Dave Reynolds
Mike Hintz
Robert Tilton
Mark Driscoll
and so on.

The point of this list is to draw attention to how far off the modern church has gone off course. So much is invested into following ‘leaders’ that we as Christ’s church had created idols for ourselves. And God, true to his word humbles the proud. So why taunt God with continuing with the ‘leader’ model.  Because we won’t learn, we don’t read and/or follow God’s word.  We are proud ourselves and want someone to be proud of. We want to boast about our leaders, our local church.  Proverbs 16:18 in full effect.

The solution? We should instead return to the Biblical model of serving and not ruling. Is this a matter of semantics, the answer is no.

The term, phraseology, or roll of leader is too easily detached from God’s word and open for abuse.  We have leaders at work, we have leaders in kids scout teams, we have leaders in the military, we have leaders in sports. But leaders can be anything and act anyway that they can get away with.  I once had a leader who couldn’t lead a pack of rats in a cheese factory.  We are absolutely used to the term leader and know that we should follow a leader, right? Not because of any intrinsic value of that leader in Christ’s church, but solely because said leader or leaders were voted on or placed in front of us as someone we are told to follow. They lead we follow? And without qualifying according to God’s word.

Everyone, including this writer is subject to God’s Word which includes God’s biblical discipline, God’s structure for his church.   If someone, like Mark Driscoll thinks they are beyond the Bible and have the authority to abuse others in Christ’s church, those people should be booted right out the door. They are no longer qualified to oversee anyone in Christ’s church. There has to come a time when we get tired of seeing these ‘leaders’ abuse people in Christ’s church and say ‘enough is enough.’  The leader paradigm is dead.

So it’s time. It’s time to boot leaders out of Christ’s church.    Christ’s church has no room for leaders only servants.  Christ’s church doesn’t need Lords of Leaders lording over others. If your pastor still uses the term, ask him why when Jesus doesn’t support it.

If people want to lead, Apple is hiring.

#apologetics #churchreform #leadership #churchleaders #churchleadership #christianity #reformation

Steven Davis is a burned out preacher’s kid, unpeeling evangelical, media producer, musician, and practicing apologist.

Summer at the Movies Church Teaching: A Biblical Defense: Why Rambo IV is more Christian than Starwars (Parental Warning)

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The True Gospel

If you’ve never heard the Gospel of Jesus, it is this.  God sent his son Jesus to earth to be the substitute for our condemnation.  We were condemned because we rebelled against God and chose our own way.  But Jesus paid for our sin by dying on a cross and if we believe in him, we will have eternal life. John 3:16.  So if you have never followed Jesus, I pray you will and know that God loves you, and so do many faithful believers in Christ.  If you need prayer or would like to chat, feel free to leave a message.

 

A Biblical Defense on why Rambo IV is more Christian than Starwars

I’m a huge fan of the Rambo series. Ok, maybe Rambo 1, IV, and V.  But in all transparency I haven’t watched V since I’m worried about how they might finish the series.   And besides, I already own the box set of 1,2,3 and IV and I’m quite annoyed that he made a 5th movie.  I mean really?  How am I supposed to make that look nice on my shelf.  Ugg. But at least the Rambo franchise ended.  We all have closure. Starwars? My word!  It’s like a black hole story line, designed in modern times just to make money. – Just like Iron Man, that should have stopped with 1, do not do 2 and 3.  Ugg #Disney –

But I love the idea of Rambo, he for better or worse exposes how those who are in certain situations in life, such as being in Vietnam were/are treated.  He is the hero, there’s a bad guy/guys, and when conflict arrises, he always has to talk himself into acting.

As for Starwars, I’ll put it this way.  If there was ever a series that should have stopped with its first trilogy, that would be Starwars.   And especially since Disney has the rights to Starwars, none of the new movies have eclipsed the first three, or is that 4,5,6.  You see, that’s another issue, the numbering of the movies. So I guess my favorite movies are 4,5,6.  Ok, the old ones. They should have stopped there. But as we see with Ghostbuster 2016, let it goooo, let it goooooooo.

So why is Rambo IV more Christian than Starwars?

I won’t ruing Rambo IV for you, but the main reason is the story line surrounds a group of Christian missionaries who go to Thailand to minister to those in the villages there.  But they are kidnapped.  And Rambo has to decide what to do. Should he rescue them, leave it alone?

Starwars, well Christians are not mentioned. There are no Christian missionaries.  And don’t get me started on the ‘Force’, that’s just a mystical, well, force that is shared among those special few who choose good over evil akin to Bill Johnson’s mysticism.  But, no, there are no Christian missionaries.  Drum roll…….

Final Score:  Rambo IV – 1  Starwars – 0

RAMBO WINS!

Well, enough of my nonsense.  And that’s what it is.  Not only is my Rambo/Starwars analogy kinda lame, it’s not scriptural either.  Unfortunately many evangelical progressive churches have decided to use this type of bait and switch approach to attracting people into the doors.  Below I will scripture will explain why this is a practice that has no place in Christ’s church.  And while scripture should be enough, sadly it won’t be for many.

 

Key Reasons to avoid mixing movies with God’s holy Scripture

And yes, that is a cable attached to the beam and they are about to lift iron man up.

There are so many examples of this blasphemy across evangelicalism and the NAR movements , but I’ll leave those off this blog post as I don’t want to reward them with social media clicks. The above example is the logical end to any twisting or adding of scripture through movies. Anyone who thinks IronMan is Biblical propitiation for Christ is incorrect has lost their way in Christ.

I’ve been accused of writing my own opinion, so this blog post will be heavy with scripture.   Here we go.

1. It’s Blasphemy

“To blaspheme God’s name is to speak with contempt about God or to be defiantly irreverent. Blasphemy is verbal or written reproach of God’s name, character, work, or attributes.” To mix human philosophy with God’s nature and character is blasphemy. God doesn’t need any explanation from a godless source.  He doesn’t need to be partnered with anything or anyone. He is Holy.  We are not.  We don’t need to look through the lens of a movie to see God.   He gave us his Holy Scripture and His Holy Spirit for that.

“3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” – 2 Timothy 4:3-4

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.” – 2 Peter 2 1

If you’re still reading, let’s look at more reasons that this practice of movie messaging is not biblical.

2. Confuses the Gospel

If we go back to the original sin by Adam and Eve, what was the method used by Satan to deceive Eve?  He used confusion by asking Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Did God really say, yes, Satan got Eve to question what God said.  Given what we know about our nature, how sinful our passions are, how we are born in sin, hostile to our Creator, why would we then confuse people on purpose and increase the risk of their/our own confusion about what God says? Good question.

God does not give us liberty to mix the Gospel with anything.  Imagine God in Heaven, He gave His son for all of humanity, and wrote this Salvation story that is found in the sixty six books of the Bible, and yet, He’s like, “I hope my clay can improve on what I’ve done.” Silly and pompous. Galatians 1:6

A non believer comes to a movie church, having never heard the Gospel prior to walking through the doors.  And instead of hearing the straight Gospel, they hear a mix of pagan philosophy, are ‘entertained’ and somewhere in there they here about Jesus.  Congratulations, you now have exposed this lost soul to confusion.  Do we care so little about the souls of the lost that we risk confusing the Gospel?  Why can’t we just preach Christ and him crucified? Another good question.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

If Scripture is what is needed to make man complete, why confuse it?

See also — 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)” Also Deuteronomy 4:2, Revelation 22:18-19 Colossians 2:8

3. The Gospel is not Enough.

It can’t be can it?  There must be something in the thought process of a ‘pastor’ who feels they have to include entertainment into the mission of the church.  My opinion is that this is the influence of the corporate church movement. After all, if a church has installed a corporate structure for growth, then it would be natural for it to have marketing strategies from the business world to achieve that growth.  Happy people give money right?  If a large or wanna-be-large church doesn’t meet its attendance and budget, then the revenue will take a hit. 2 Peter 2

Every book of the New Testament warns against false teaching except for Philemon.  So why do those who practice the movie-gospel method do what they do?  Do they want to confuse the gospel? Do they want false teaching in Christ’s church? But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Gospel is enough, the Gospel needs nothing. When ‘movie-pastors’ elevate human philosophy, giving it the same attention and status as Scripture, that’s a different gospel. The Gospel doesn’t need Steven Spielberg to interpret it.  This is just entertainment. It’s syncretism.

” I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek”. – Romans 1:6

OUTLOUD THINKING: Have those ‘movie pastors’ lost their faith. Maybe they never had any. Maybe they’re in the church for selfish gain. There are many false teachers that are working in the Christian church for the wrong reasons.  Have some lost their faith in a God who created the universe to achieve His goals with or without our help, yes. Why would they feel the Gospel is not enough? If they don’t provide this movie method to the flock, will the flock get disappointed?  Maybe be it’s crowd appeasement.

Man bad – God Good

The solution to addressing movies and comparing it to Scripture is to talk about how glorious God and his Scripture is and that anything man can write or make is evil if it doesn’t align with God and his Word.  That’s a statement, that’s enough.  But it isn’t enough is it? That’s not as entertaining as having your picture taken with Darth Vader on Sunday morning. Think about the likes a ‘movie-pastor’ gets on Facebook.  Yeah buddy.  And that explains why the movie method is used, it’s about vain deceit.

4. And fourthly, it is a sin to those around the world dying for their faith.

We give to missions, we talk about how bad other Christians are persecuted for their faith.  We lament publicly and disfigure our faces as we sit in our stadium seating, popcorn in hand to watch a movie at church?  Odd huh.  It’s like that Sesame street game, -one thing is not like the other-. Imagine a Christian church in China that has to meet underground out fear of being put in prison, watching the ‘pastor’ of a church taking selfies with Chewbacca? One thing is not like the other.

Those who add to the Gospel have lost their faith in God and/or misunderstand what their true mission is.  It’s not their job to grow the church.  It’s God’s.  It is God who draws people to Him.  We are to proclaim the Gospel and only the Gospel.  But those in the corporate seeker friendly mega churches have different goals, success for them is counted in numbers. Some even do head counts of ‘decisions’ and use those numbers as success. They want instant results, the ability to say, “Look, our strategy worked!”  We have ‘X’ amount of new people.  Well congratulations, you have them coming for something other than the true Gospel.  What ever you won them with, you’ll need to keep them with that and more.  If you won them with entertaining dopamine trips, you’ll have to raise the bar next time.  or they’ll go find another place that can out entertain you.

The Gospel needs nothing.  It doesn’t need me or you to change it or add to it. Matthew 28

After all, when you add to the Gospel, people are free to accept, reject and even hate your message. And they’d be right, because it’s your false gospel, you’re gospel is false. You can not go to Scripture to defend your message.  Hating your mixed gospel has no eternal consequences for them, but it will for you.  And the next guy or gal who tries to reach that person with the unadulterated Gospel will have to contend with the false seed you planted.

“32 You must not make my holy name impure so that I will be treated as holy by the Israelites. I am the Lord—the one who makes you holy” Leviticus 22:32  See also: Colossians 2:8

When you mix the Gospel and other messaging, you have no recourse if someone says they don’t believe in your God. You then can’t say, well my God this, or my God that.  You have to re-present your mixed God and not the true God. See the conundrum?

Jesus command: Teach them all I have commanded.  This doesn’t include movie philosophy. It doesn’t include anything outside of Scripture.  If movie pastors are looking for stories, try the parables by Jesus. We know that Jesus spoke in parables at times to even hide the secrets of Heaven from the listener.  We are not Jesus, we can not equate to His parables. Use what he has provided.

Judgement day, Jesus will separate the sheep and the goats.  Who are we to toy with that moment where people will go to Heaven or Hell.  The answer is, we aren’t the ones. We were given one job, one message.   Our fear and love for God should keep us from changing it. But sadly, it has not. People have and always felt like the Gospel is not enough.  They will add this, subtract that.  As a preacher’s kid, I watched as pastors latch onto this church growth trend, or that trend, this philosophy and anything that they feel is needed to achieve their goals.  Will those ‘movie pastors’ change and stop mixing the messaging? I imagine until a new trend comes this will continue.   And being raised in evangelicalism, there is truth in the statement that denominations/churches are very poor in self-examination.  But that’s another blog post all together.

The Wrap

Coming out of evangelicalism to a more orthodox Christianity, my short journey in apologetics has given me one very quick lesson.  Evangelicals when confronted with the possibility of error, can be very vicious. It is predicted that many will defend the movie gospel practice.  Many may talk about how great these movies are, the great lessons they teach.  And that’s to be expected when movie-pastors elevate movies to the same level as scripture in front of the flock, and there-by yoking the words of our God with the words of pagans. Words of warning from our Christ Jesus…Matthew 16:5-12

5When they crossed to the other side, the disciples forgot to take bread. 6“Watch out!” Jesus told them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

7They discussed this among themselves and concluded, “It is because we did not bring any bread.”

8Aware of their conversation, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you debating among yourselves about having no bread? 9Do you still not understand? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?11How do you not understand that I was not telling you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

12Then they understood that He was not telling them to beware of the leaven used in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Sadly, the newer generations are leaving the church.  With church attendance dropping in America, the writing is on the wall. The seeker friendly methods like mixing the Gospel with movies, are not working. it is failing.  Sure, you can entertain people,  but Disney has a 64 Billion dollar budget, churches should return to the Gospel and leave the world outside.  A Gospel that is perfect, sufficient for God to give His only Son and does not need the worlds crutch.  If these ‘movie pastors’ will repent and go back to the Gospel, then there is hope.  Come out and be separate.  Be salt and light.

Steven Davis is a musician, metal artist, media producer, reforming evangelical, bible school dropout, and preachers kid.

 

#apologetics #saltandlight #starwars #rambo #rambomovie #summerathemovies #disney