From StormFront: The Good News of God:
“If you don’t like the way you were born–try being born again!” This announcement, prominently displayed recently on a church marquee in our neighborhood, reflects perfectly the spirit of religious life in North America today. It advertises to all who pass by the church what sounds like very good news: “If you don’t like who you are now, God has a ‘new you’ ready to try on! Details available inside!” This is exactly the kind of message that modern men and modern women like to hear. What could be better news than to hear that the God who called the universe into existence wants nothing more than to make us over into what we most want to be?
How could this message not be compelling? As a result of years of cultural conditioning, recent generations in North America have come to see themselves almost exclusively as consumers whose sole purpose in life is to satisfy their individual needs. . . .Quite frankly, [the message on the marquee] is woefully inadequate to the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. Not only does this message by itself leave much to be desired, it is also symptomatic of a widespread problem within the church today, which is to confuse the gospel with an infomercial, and the community of God’s people with vendors of spiritual goods and services.
Like McLuhan said, “The medium is the message.” How we go about communicating the message of the gospel is just as important as the actual message itself. When we talk about changing the method or style of our presentation while leaving the original message unchanged, we are fooling ourselves. It doesn’t work that way. Imbedding the gospel in the look and feel of a shopping mall changes the message. Some of these changes are benign. Others are downright destructive. In a footnote, the authors of “Stormfront” also cite another message on a church marquee worthy of a mention: “Free Coffee, Eternal Life: Membership Has Its Priveleges.” That’s cute. It’s also a terrible distortion of the gospel.
Imbedding the gospel in a “house church” setting also shapes the message. So does imbedding it in what we might call a “traditional” worship service. There’s just no getting around this. I guess the question is: are some mediums more appropriate for gospel communication than others? I think so. However, I think we have to be careful about viewing the gospel as some “static” message that we are free to imbed in whatever medium we choose, based upon whatever criteria (pragmatic? theological? cultural?) we come up with. I’m not so sure the gospel is as static as we’d like to think.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
This dude is so off target, it’s unreal. (I’m going to focus mostly on the first paragraph of the quote…)
My take on this quote is that this guy is taking what he knows about the gospel and is comparing his knowledge and preferences with the styles of some church who are trying to reach out. Regardless of you opinion on the shopping mall church, the target audience is the non-believer. Frankly, they could care less about the gospel. They’ll go to a church if someone they know invites them, and they are comforted by the hospitality of great childcare and children’s classes, good coffee, good food, etc… These things aren’t the gospel, and anyone (believer or not) who walks in the door knows that through the actual message of the church that is given with fellowship, worship, Word, and offering.
His quote – “If you don?t like who you are now, God has a ?new you? ready to try on! Details available inside!”… Show me with scripture how that is unbiblical or not related to the gospel.
I’m not going to get into Sam’s comments, I just want to say that I agree with the idea that we have to get away from the consumer mindset that is so prevalent in our churches today. Yes, Paul became all things to all people, and he met them where they were at, but he never compromised the message of the gospel. He taught people that our God demands our lives, not the other way around…
When we come to God, it must be to be consumed BY Him, not for US to consume Him. Whatever context our churches are in (house church, church buildings, whatever) we must be teaching people to pour their lives out before their God.
Love so amazing, so Divine
Demands my life, my soul, my all…
I agree with you, Brian.
I’m not getting this mall thingy. It seems the foundation of the gospel is need based – my desperate need for forgiveness, my desperate need for God’s presence in my heart, my desperate need to be able to put off sin and be transformed by God’s empowering Spirit, for guidance, to be a part of something bigger than myself, to know that there is something wonderful waiting for me on the other side. The gospel is God’s way of reaching out and touching me where I am, then taking me to something bigger and better – devotion, dedication, discipleship.
I don’t remember a time when Jesus chastised the crowds for coming to have a need met. He gladly healed, fed, cast out demons, loved, touched, etc., then used those things as a launching point to call people to discipleship. Many walked away with a full belly and an unchanged heart. But I don’t think Jesus ever changed His method because of it.
So, I’m not that upset with people who are coming to a group of believers with needs on their mind. It’s what I did. It’s what we all did when we fiercely embraced the cross with its healing and redemptive power. But as Max said in one of his books, I think it was Just Like Jesus, he takes us as we are but refuses to leave us there. We are doing well at meeting needs. Maybe our shortcoming is connecting those things to what Christ really wants, our hearts.
…………..or not.