Marketing Madness and The "Felt-Need Gospel"

Is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of market-driven churches have been really generous lately? No, Im not talking about charity, Im talking about the kind of giving that's designed to "get". Get people in the doors that is.

A recent USA Today article entitled
"The message: God is cool" reports on one church's marketing campaign that gave away 5,000 frisbees and 3,000 water bottles. The same article also cites another church providing coffee and free access to laptop computers in its Connection Cafe, and another giving away treats from the church's own neighborhood ice cream truck. Here's another church offering free gas for your car, another giving away free U2 concert tickets, free Super Bowl tickets, and another with free chocolate, and last but certainly not least - a free Hummer. ... [Read More!]

The Day Bible Study Went Away

It's a sad fact of reality in many modern churches; bible study and doctrinal teaching are becoming things of the past. At the forefront of this movement, we find the familiar mega-church purveyors of the new formula for "church success". As an example, consider the subtle message behind these statements from the best seller, The Purpose Driven Life:

"God won't ask you about your religious background or doctrinal views." (p.34) "The last thing many believers need today is to go to another Bible study. They already know far more than they are putting into practice." (p. 231) ... [Read More!]

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Pragmatism Missing in Ezekiel

The first three chapters of the book of Ezekiel make a very convincing case for the impossibility of pleasing God with seeker-centered preaching.

In a nut shell, Ezekiel is told by God to speak the exact words that God gives him to speak, to a rebellious people. No sooner does God tell Ezekiel this, than He informs him of this one critical bit of foresight: "It wont work"!
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Attracting Modern Youth With Spiritual Junk Food

It was Easter week several years ago, in the Seeker Sensitive church that I used to attend. I decided to stop in at the mid-week youth outreach event that our church was offering. Our youth pastor called it "Ugly Easter", and if we were to determine the success of an evangelism method by a head-count, then this popular event seemed to be fruitful.

Although I was accustomed to what I thought were "progressive" evangelism techniques at the time, nothing prepared me for what I experienced at Ugly Easter. ... [Read More!]

Positive and Prosperous, It's The New Lakewood

Nearly two hundred years ago, Horatius Bonar declared: "For we know that the unrenewed will is set against the Gospel; it is enmity to God and His truth. ~ It is the Gospel that the unbeliever hates; and the more clearly it is set before him, the more he hates it."

Perhaps no other church in America provides so great a contrast to Bonar's "old truth" Christianity, as America's largest. In the last few weeks, Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church moved into it's new home, a renovated basketball stadium in Houston. ... [Read More!]

The Church Growth Movie

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