A Church With the Wrong Message

This Chapter is quite interesting and thought provoking. Continuing on with chapter 6 by Gary Gilley in This Little Church Went to Market.

Counterfeit money is recognized by those who know how to identify the real thing. Before we examine the gospel message found in the new-paradigm churches, it would be best to examine the gospel message found in the Bible. The good news in a nutshell is this: Harry is a sinner, in full-blown rebellion against God (Rom. 3:23; 5:1-2). While some Harry's are outwardly religious and some even desire the gifts and benefits that God can supply, no Harrys truly seek after God or desire him (Rom. 3:10-18). As a result of Harry's sinfulness he is under the wrath of God (Rom. 1:18), faces future judgment (Heb. 9:27), and will die both physically and spiritually (Rom. 6:23) and will spend eternity in hell (Rev. 20:11-15).

It is because of Harry's hopeless plight, and the fact that he can do nothing to redeem himself in God's eyes (Titus 3:5), that Jesus Christ, through grace alone, not because of Harry's value and worth (Eph. 2:8), became a man, died on the cross (Rom. 5:8) thus taking Harry's sin upon himself and satisfying the wrath of God (Heb. 2:17), and resurrected from the dead, in order that Harry cold be saved from his sin and be given the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 4). While all of this is a gift from God, Harry obtains hat gift through the exercise of faith (Eph. 2:8,9) - purely taking God at his Word, trusting that God will save him if only he truly believes.

What I hope to demonstrate in this chapter is that while many within the seeker-sensitive movement would ascribe to most of the above definition for the gospel, this is not how the gospel is being presented to Harry. Rather Harry is being told that he is so valuable to God that he sent his Son to die for him. This is, in effect, a denial of grace, whereby God grants us undeserved favor. Harry is also being told that if he will come to Christ, Christ will meet all of his felt needs and that will lead to personal fulfilment. Harry is then being asked to trust in Christ, the great 'Needs-Meeter', who will end his search for a life of happiness and fulfillment.

What we supposedly learn from [a] marketing study is that the real reason Harry doesn't come to church has little to do with his rebellious, God-rejecting nature. Rather it is because church is borning, predictable, irrelevant, money hungry, and odes not meet his needs. The new-paradigm church operates under the credo that Harry is 'hostile to the church, friendly to Jesus Christ.' They 'have the misconception that to win the world to Christ we must first win the world's favor. If we can get the world to like us, they will embrace our Savior. The expressed design of the user-friendly philosophy is to make unconverted sinners feel comfortable with the Christian message.' The only way this is possible, I fear, is to change the message. For the gospel message is not a comfortable one for the unbeliever, and to try and make it so merely deforms it.

That's enough for today. Tomorrow we'll continue with the chapter on a section about the gospel of felt need.

Just an update on stuff around here. We should have our building permit Friday or Monday, and we'll start pouring the foundation for the great room (where the patio used to be) early next week! Mark had 6 friends over Tuesday night and I found 4 of them asleep on our sectional yesterday morning. They had a great time. We're so blessed he has such nice friends. Kristen's room is almost done. She needs to glue some seashells onto her outlets and we need to get some shelves and drapes put up, but then I think we're done! We pick up our 1400 square feet of tile Saturday and finish moving the last of the little concrete pieces Saturday, and dump it Sunday. We're also fitting in a prayer walk Saturday morning an a trip to Stockton for a swim/birthday party for Kristen with family. Lots going on, even more than I'm going to blog about. Thank you in advance for praying for the prayer walk. We're already seeing healing take place in several families on the westside. Blessings this beautiful Thursday!