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

 

26 September, 2005   comments: (0) Today's Pragmatism   Counting The Costs or Gambling on God? Here's another modern church that sees no biblical conflict in using carnal or worldly methods to accomplish the goal of getting more people in the doors. This time around, it's a sermon series based on a "gambling theme". The Texas church is handing out poker chips in the community with their church logo on them. A pastor of the church says: "the goal is to capitalize on the Texas Hold 'Em craze and make our services an easy invite for the people in our community". Sermon titles include: Playing the Hand You're Dealt, Is God Bluffing?, and Living an 'All In' Life. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about another church fad, based on a similar "bring them in with carnality" approach. It features a "sermon kit" that hundreds of churches are buying from the seeker-sensitive mega-church that developed it. The sermon series is based on the sleazy TV series Desperate Housewives. Once again, the idea is to do a "bait and switch", bringing people in the doors with worldly bait, and later telling them that they must forsake worldliness in order to follow Christ. But do they ever really get around to telling their audience that they must forsake worldliness, as the bible instructs? I dont know. This latest gambling theme is getting rave reviews by peer-churches. One seeker pastor, on his blog this week, awarded them his "Cool Church of The Week" honors, accompanied by these comments: "[It's] a clever way to discuss the Christian faith with people who don't typically attend church. With ideas like this, I wouldn't be surprised if they soon experience a full house of worship." One of the pastors of the church that's running the gambling series had this to say: "We have experienced some cool stuff happening in this series. There is nothing better than using our God given creativity to reach people who are still far from him". The pastor reflected on these church services with these remarks: "During the offering we played 'Dead Man's Rope' by Sting and we concluded the service with 'This Is Your Life' by Switchfoot. It was a great Sunday. I think all the services in the series went well for us. Our music and drama people did a good job and each message was compelling and relevant to the stuff people are dealing with in their lives". Elsewhere he said: "It is great to be part of a church that is not afraid to take some risks for the sake of reaching lost people". But to what degree are the risks of violating biblical principles even being considered? This kind of approach brings up many questions, like: Is faith something to be wagered on, and how does a "gambling on God" theme compare with Jesus' clear instructions to count the costs? Should churches try to look like the world, in order to be attractive to the world? Romans 12:2 tells us "do not be conformed to this world" and James 4:4 says that "friendship with the world is enmity with God". Is it right then to entice the world by using things like sleazy TV shows, secular rock music, gambling, etc? These churches would do well to take a look at the standards of purity and godliness maintained by churches in previous centuries. It's more than a matter of being culturally relevant. It's a matter of preaching sound biblical doctrine and a Gospel message that isnt watered-down to appeal to the itching ears of carnal and unregenerate "seekers". These are things that should not be compromised, in any generation, regardless of the culture of the day. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.58   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism