Why
are Southern Baptist churches hemorrhaging? Let’s begin by asking a couple of
pertinent questions.
Should
Southern Baptist churches seek to be entertaining? Should churches add
entertainment to their worship services as a form of pragmatism in the name of
attracting lost souls? I imagine many Evangelicals would shout an emphatic
“yes!” But, from Scripture, there is no evidence that Christians should market
the church.
We
are to preach the gospel!
Christians
may ask, “Why not both? Entertainment and Worship?” The reality is that no
where in Scripture is corporate worship’s primary goal to draw lost people to
the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Scriptures emphasize the faithful
proclamation of the gospel which God empowers to save souls through His Holy
Spirit. Churches today within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) have lost
the Scriptural commitment to God’s glory alone.
In
response to the laziness of Southern Baptists and the non-existent fervor for
soul-winning in SBC churches, pastors have resorted to using unbiblical methods
to get lost people in the doors of the church for worship. Pastors, God’s
shepherds, have sought to adjust worship within the Body of Christ to appeal to
those who are members of Satan’s kingdom.
I
understand the heart behind this pursuit, but the sincerity of heart is
ultimately irrelevant, for what churches have really done is exalted the
opinions of God’s enemies–members of Satan’s kingdom–above the very
commandments of a holy God. The end result is a hemorrhaging self-inflicted
hole in our foot. Worship is intended for God’s saints.
Can
a lost person even worship God? The answer is No.
Then,
isn’t it utterly ridiculous to try and make worship appeal to them? For, in
vain they worship a holy God who demands repentance before worship is accepted.
Twenty years from now, as the culture changes, so will the pragmatic church.
For the sake of numbers now, we have grown up entire generations on
entertainment in the church – and they expect nothing less. What they grow up
accustomed to, they will always expect. If you “save” them using entertainment,
then they will continually expect entertainment to be part of the church. Thus,
the moment entertainment became part of Southern Baptist Churches, we shot
ourselves in the foot, and now, we are hemorrhaging.
Preachers
today are expected to somehow keep the attention of their hearers. Many
Christians in our pews evaluate how good a preacher is based on how well he can
keep their attention. It’s amazing how entertainment added to the message
depreciates the responsibility of the hearer to simply listen because God’s
word is being proclaimed. The prophets and apostles had the ears of the
people due to their authority from God.
Today,
the Word of God carries the same authority… and when men faithfully preach the
text the Word automatically demands that hearers listen, for God is audibly
speaking. It is an utter shame, a wretched, pitiful sight for the church to
expect theatrics to accompany the plain preaching of God’s Word. If God or the
prophets or the apostles were standing, proclaiming God’s Word to them, would
they expect the same? Of course they would! For, they do this now with the very
words of God being preached to them.
Neither
Jesus Christ, nor Paul, nor Peter could pastor many of our churches today, for
they would not be entertaining enough!
Finally,
the generation who seeks a drop of entertainment in the message, will raise a
generation who seeks a cup, followed by a generation who seeks a bucket, etc.
The reason for this progression is that the culture has eisogetically read its
thirst for entertainment into the text. And as the culture’s desire for entertainment
increases, the church’s pursuit of entertainment will increase to satisfy this
thirst.
The
sad reality is that the more a culture thirsts for entertainment, the less it
thirsts for God. God is more valuable and enjoyable than entertainment.
Christians cannot feed those who worship entertainment more entertainment in
hope they will repent of their idolatry and run to Christ for salvation. It’s
the equivalent of saying, “So, you worship entertainment? Well, Jesus is
entertaining too.” That’s not repentance; it’s using Jesus to get what you want.
Repentance
is denying yourself and following Jesus. Jesus said, “If anyone would come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). Jesus was not
very pragmatic…
My
prayer is that this trend will stop soon enough before our entire denomination
is bled dry, or before the leg is severed in order to save the rest of the body.
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