Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

29 December, 2005   comments: (0) Today's Pragmatism   The Letter That Could Announce American Revival It's a letter from a pastor to his flock, and the admissions he makes reflect a miraculous God-given change of heart. After following the seeker-sensitive paradigm for years, he's come to the conviction that Galatians 1:10 applies to him "If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ". Now he's decided to follow God's strategies instead. More letters like this might be an indicator of true revival starting in the American church. But unfortunately, it's not real, and it never happened. What follows is a letter that I wrote myself. However the premise remains, that wide-spread actions like these would be evidence of perhaps a 3rd Great Awakening in our country. As my last post of the year, this letter will serve as a link summary of some of the most important postings of 2005. May this letter be a reminder for us to continue praying for genuine revival in our land. To: attendees of Spring Meadow Creek Community Center From: Pastor Andrew M. Slick Subject: Change of Direction For The New Year Dear Church: During my annual winter sabbatical, which took place this year over the Christmas season, I decided to try something new. I put away all of my books on leadership and strategy, and focused instead - on understanding the Word of God, as well as on prayer and fasting. Through this time of prayerful reflection on God's Word, the Holy Spirit brought me to the point of conviction on many matters, the most significant of which are as follows: I must confess that I used to say that not being relevant was a form of irreverence to God. But when I look back on it now, I see that my idea of "relevance" was not reverent to God's holiness at all. On my sabbatical, I read 1 John 2:15 which says "Do not love the world or the things in the world". It suddenly occurred to me that I was teaching our church to love the things of this world, through ideas like worship that's designed to sound just like secular music. I made the mistake of regarding worship as an 'experience' rather than a heartfelt act of obedience; I should have asked God how He would like us to worship. Looking back on things now, I see that I was using the word "relevant" to mean - almost anything worldly that would get people to come to church. I confess that I disregarded the bible's commands to avoid worldliness, and did the opposite by using worldliness as "bait" for the unchurched. I know now that the evangelistic relevance that really matters - is the relevance of the Savior to lost sinners, and not our attempts at seeming relevant according to worldly standards, by talking like the world, looking like the world, and behaving like the world. Because of my stubborn refusal to see that my idea of relevance was disobedient to God's commands against worldly conformity, I usually only preached sermons that I thought you would be interested in. Unlike God's prophets who were not results or numbers oriented, I was "afraid of the people". I was afraid you wouldn't come to church anymore if I lingered on topics like depravity and wrath and the right use of the law. I also preached too much about my own philosophies on life, and these often had little to do with what the bible says. It's clear that this caused many harmful consequences for our church. You see, I had almost forgotten that people are born again by the Holy Spirit, and although I used to deny it, I had essentially been trying to save them myself, through clever techniques and human creativity. I know that I relied too much on the strategy formulas of men, and overlooked God's definition of what a successful pastor is. Looking back on it, I see now the damage caused to our church, by following these human strategies. I should have listened to those who tried to warn me, but instead, I shut them out. I admit it. I bought the modern bill of goods that "doctrine divides", and because I felt that it was impractical and not really necessary, I neglected it, and even spoke-out against doctrine. I now realize that my doctrinal errors have lead to many practical errors in the way we've done things at our church. I understand finally, that I was wrong to diminish biblical teaching in favor of things that would make you feel involved and boost your self esteem. Regretfully, in doing this I was showing the Lord that I did not trust His Word. But from now on, I'm going to take John MacArthur's advice, for pastors to spend a minimum of 20 hours per week in the study of the Word of God. I'm done spending so much time reading things on topics that the bible does not call me to excel in, such as "leadership techniques". Often, these distracted me from loving my flock anyway, and showed me instead - how to manipulate you. I know now, that this was wrong. I now realize that my goal of saving lost souls had become my own personal agenda, and an end unto itself. Instead, I should have realized that souls-saved are a means to an end, and - that end - is the glorification of God. I had been evangelizing for the wrong reasons. Had I really kept the end-goal (of God's glory) in mind, I would have cared about glorifying Him in my evangelism methods, rather than just trying to force results, using almost any tactics that persuaded people to make "decisions" for Christ. Lastly, I believe now that I've confused the purpose of our church meetings. I finally understand that 'church' is not primarily for evangelizing the lost. I should have never tried to cause true believers, who didn't agree with my evangelism schemes, to feel unwelcome here. From now on, the unchurched are still invited to attend, but we're no longer going to try to make them feel comfortable through worldliness and entertainment. Like the churches of old, if the normal means of preaching fails to convert them, then we will trust the sovereignty of God, rather than trying to save them ourselves through our own creative inventions. From now on, our church will focus on purity and not pragmatism, as God showed us to do in Acts. I know that this letter will come as a big surprise to you, but as your pastor, I must be true to God, and not to man. I refuse to sell-out any longer, and I am putting aside my own dreams, goals, and desires to be creative. To whatever extent that those things had become idolatry to me, I now repent. From this point forward - we are going back to a biblical plan for our church; a plan that follows God's strategy, and not man's. We are going to avoid getting off course again in our understanding of what the scriptures teach. Evangelism is VERY important, but from now on - it's going to be more of something that you do, than a primary mechanism of our church meetings. I realize that as we step away from things like entertainment in church, our attendance may decrease, but this too is in the hands of the Almighty God. I now cast myself at His feet, and whatever happens from this point forward, I know is His will. To God be the glory. Devoted to Christ and to the sheep under my care, Your Pastor, A.M. Slick "...if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land". 2 Chronicles 7:14 Turn on your PC speakers and watch Chris Carmichael's presentation: The Church Growth Movie It asks seeker-sensitive churches . . . "Is this really what we're supposed to be doing?" Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.142   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism