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

 

21 October, 2007   comments: (0) Church History   Did Lost Sabbath Pave Way For Seeker Sensitive? We've had some fruitful debate here on Old Truth this week regarding the Christian sabbath and whether it's still in effect today according to the scriptures. Generally speaking, contemporary Christians say no, and previous centuries of American Christians say yes. In this post, I have an opinion question that I'd like your input on. I've been thinking for a while now, about what influence all of this has had on the Seeker Sensitive movement. Specifically my question is, could the modern Church Growth Movement have gained a foothold in American churches had our country not lost the concept of a sabbath? I have some specific reasons for making a connection between the two concepts, so allow me to explain - and then feel free to speak your onions. I suppose I don't know when exactly it happened, but roughly around the middle of the 19th century, perhaps just prior to the American Civil War, Christianity started changing in many ways in America. Beliefs drifted more in the semi-Pelagian direction, evangelism began to take on many more shapes and forms (some of which were unbiblical and even harmful), worship music eventually began to change in substance, and we lost a great deal of concern for and emphasis on doctrine. Christianity also started to drift away from the 10 commandments and of course the Christian sabbath followed suit. These were not sudden changes, but things that took place over decades, primarily in the 19th century. Fast forward a few more decades, following World War 2. Liberalism had gutted much of the mainline denominations. Billy Graham comes on the scene with crusades that fueled ecumenicalism, we see the downturn of Fuller seminary, pentecostalism has taken root, we see the birth of the para-church organizations, Christianity has come to the radio and TV. Towards the end of this era many parts of our country started dropping their "blue laws" which kept stores and businesses closed on Sundays. That brings us to present times in which the Seeker Sensitive Church Growth Movement has become a dominant force in American evangelicalism. Many of our readers here on Old Truth are fellow refugees of that movement, and it's one of the main topics here on this blog in one way or another. Over the past few years, we've had the opportunity to talk with many megachurch pragmatist pastors who lead the Church Growth Movement. One of the things that many of these seeker-centered church leaders will tell you is that the whole idea of what they are doing is based on a redefinition of Sundays. We will say to them, for example, "what you are doing with your seeker services is not even 'church'". Much to our surprise, they will often agree! But then they say "what YOU think of as church is what we do on Wednesday evenings" (or some will say "what we do in small groups during the week"). In other words, at least in their mind, they have moved the meaty teaching and the believer-worship to another day of the week. That way they can turn their Sundays into what amounts to an evangelism crusade with rock music, entertainment, some lite tips for living based loosely on scripture, followed by a "come to Jesus" invitation. In case my description doesn't do it for you, have a look at this video that Phil Johnson linked to yesterday. This of course, is NOT worship of God by believers. While we all must strive to find new and better opportunities for evangelism, I believe there is something inside true believers that testifies to the fact that what is described above for Sunday morning "seeker church" is flat-out wrong. So my question is: What if our country had not lost it's sabbatarian footing. What if we were to rewind to the early 1800's when churches believed in the sabbath. Could the Seeker Sensitive system have ever made headway in our land? Remember, the concept for many of these churches relies upon the permission that they feel they have to simply switch days; to take believer worship and put it in another day of the week (the mid week service, or small groups, etc). If there were a solid respect for the Lord's Day, would church innovators have a more difficult time selling an idea that tampers with the template of Sunday worship for believers? So in this post, I'd like to discuss that specific question. What impact has the loss of a sabbath day had on the ease in which the Seeker Sensitive movement came into being, if any? I could be way off base here, so I welcome all opinions and thought on this topic. Note however, we are NOT talking about whether the Christian sabbath is biblical or not. That discussion is still going on strong in Chad's thread from earlier this week, so if you want to debate that, bring your bible along to this post and jump in over there. In case you haven't noticed, Chad is the more proficient and careful bible-exegete of the two of us who run Old Truth, whereas you are more likely to get a church history emphasis out of me. It's a combination of personalities that I hope is useful and informative to you our readers and friends. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts. As an aside, for anyone who would like to learn more in depth about some of the historical changes that I mentioned in this post (not dealing with the sabbath though) two books I recommend are: - Evangelicalism Divided, By Iain Murray - No Place For Truth, by David Wells Most other church history books don't handle the past 150 years as in depth as these books. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.965   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism