As i prepared for Sunday School today in 1 Corinthians 13, I came across this quote from John MacArthurs commentary on 2 Corinthians.
Indeed, the present state of the church is a cause for grave concern, prompting widespread calls for renewal. Seminars, conferences, and books offer suggestions for remaking the church so it can better market itself to contemporary society. Self-styled experts sound dire warnings that the church’s very existence is threatened. If it is to survive, they insist, it must reinvent itself. It must become more culturally relevant and improve the packaging and promoting of its message. They argue that the church must do a better job of targeting people’s felt needs, and it must reach them with more efficient forms of communication than it currently employs.
To that end, a number of innovations have been proposed to save the church from the oblivion that these self-appointed experts believe threatens it. Some suggest developing virtual churches on the Internet. These would, in effect, be technologically updated versions of the drive-in church, where people can worship without the exposure of interacting with others. Such “cyber churches” would also offer the convenience of allowing people to “worship” from the comfort of their own homes. And if the service did not meet their felt needs, they could simply close their Internet browser.
Some would replace traditional churches with more congenial, less confrontational forums, such as house churches. They believe the low level of control, lack of structure and authority, and absence of historical and theological traditions in such settings would make unbelievers feel more comfortable. If the traditional church structure is to be retained, significant changes need to be made. Preachers must be replaced by presenters, who use no notes and do not hide behind pulpits. Presumably, that will generate a more positive response from their hearers. Sermons are obsolete, because one-way communication is ineffective. Furthermore, excessive references to Scripture should be avoided, because they are distracting to the biblically illiterate. Systematic Bible exposition will also have to go, because most people attend church sporadically and find it irritating to miss messages in a series.
Frankly, the idea that the church might go out of existence unless it reinvents itself in the fashion recommended by the so-called experts is a brash and irresponsible, if not blasphemous, assertion. Will God’s plan, formed in eternity past, to call out a people for Himself, redeem them, and bring them to eternal glory be thwarted if the church fails to reinvent itself to fit worldly expectations? Is the church, which Jesus Himself promised to build, and which He declared would not be overpowered even by the “gates of Hades” (Matt. 16:18), to be rendered ineffective by a lack of cultural sensitivity and marketing savvy? Having purchased the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18–19), will the Lord Jesus Christ stand by and allow it to be relegated to the scrap heap of history by its own ineptness?
The theories of the modern church-growth experts raise the crucial question of who determines what the church is to be. Many of the suggested changes noted above are the result of surveys. The idea is that the church, like any business, should find out what its customers want and then give it to them. Only then can it hope to remain relevant. That may be good marketing strategy, but it overlooks the fact that the church is not a business selling a commodity. The church’s priorities are not determined by surveys of unbelievers or marginal Christians, but by the truth of God’s Word, which discloses the will of the Head of the church—the Lord Jesus Christ.
What the church desperately needs, therefore, is consistent, faithful, clear theological exposition of the mind of the Lord as revealed on the pages of Scripture. Only then will it be equipped to effectively counter the moral and spiritual crises of our time. The church must submit to the authority of Scripture. When it does so, the result will not merely be sound information, but holiness, which is the key to the church’s blessing and impact in the world.
Even though Scripture is clear that holiness is central to the Lord’s will for the life of the church, the most neglected principle of the church-growth movement is the confrontation, restoration, or discipline of those who sin. To intrude on people’s privacy and hold them accountable for their behavior seems the height of folly, certain to alienate people and destroy the church. Confronting sin seems outdated in an age of moral relativism and ambiguity. People want the freedom to do what they want. Churches have become fellowships of independent members, with minimal accountability to God and still less to each other. The result is an entire generation of pastors and church members who have no experience of the church confronting sinning people and calling them to repentance or removal; thus, no serious, personal dealing with sin, so essential to the spiritual virtue of the saints.[1]
[1] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2003). 2 Corinthians (pp. 439–441). Moody Publishers.
Notice the date, this was an issue almost 20 years ago and we are still wrestling with the issue.
Everyday we need to walk a delicate line between cultural relevance of the church and adhering to the accuracy and application of the scripture. As we seek to reach our community we adjust to follow Pauls scriptural example.
1 Corinthians 9:22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
But we must not forsake Gods design on the church, Read this quote and contemplate its implications and applications on you and your church.
If you have read this when we meet remind me with the phrase. “Revelation is relevant”