Soon after I left the New Age I went Shopping for a church. This was in Melbourne, Australia. Unlike the US, there weren’t a lot of options available – at least, not that I could find at the time.
My first inclination was to attend church at St. Joseph’s up the hill from my house. It wasn’t the smartest move I ever made. I was raised a believing Catholic. Yet when I attended a secular school I was faced with dilemmas which the church couldn’t answer to my satisfaction. Worse, the priests I approached didn’t seem to believe their Bibles. I soon became lost.
So here I was, again, attending a Roman Catholic Church. It lasted about two or three sessions at most. Essentially, I wanted to learn more about Christ and I wanted to hear great biblical sermons. I was hungry for that. What I got was preachy social justice fluff.
They used the term “reconciliation” quite a lot back then. But this “reconciliation” had nothing to do with our being reconciled to God through Christ. This was the kind that preceded what we understand to be the “social justice” and “woke” movements today.
Perhaps I wasn’t diligent enough in looking around, because I couldn’t find a viable church. Even the local Protestant churches were pushing the reconciliation angle. Some were worse in terms of accepting certain sinful behavior (which is all the rage today). It appeared to me that these churches were creating safe places in order to attract higher attendance numbers.
There was one Melbourne pastor who identified as a born-again evangelical. He had a regular gig on a Christian radio station, and sounded pretty cool. He and his wife also ran a church. So I looked into that.
Here again, though, this church focused on the principle of providing a casual safe space. You could amble in at any time, find a nice couch, get a cup of coffee and have a friendly chat with like-minded others. I didn’t want to chat and wasn’t looking for a safe space. I was hungry to know more about the bible and God.
All this came back to me this week after reading an article by a young Catholic lady. My intention isn’t to demean her here, only to note that her view of church is widespread. The title summarizes her position very well: Churches could win back teens like me if they were more welcoming and less judgmental.
According to this young lady “‘God’s house’ should be welcoming.” In order to achieve this it must do several things. For example she writes that Judaism and Buddhism have “embraced inclusive programs to draw a larger young audience.” For Judaism it means programs to embrace more LGBTQ+ spaces. For Buddhism it means “allowing college students to learn mindfulness through on-campus meditation sessions and wellness retreats.”
She writes,
Even particular Christian denominations are trying this approach, like the famously progressive Unitarian Universalists. A common program in their congregations is Neighboring Faiths, which takes teens to various places of worship to encourage welcoming all ways of worship equally and even incorporating them personally…Embarking into spirituality is very much a choose-your-own adventure, but interested youth cannot do it alone. (Emphasis mine)
Many Christian churches today are focused on filling the empty spaces and growing their particular church. They often change the music and make the sermons culturally relevant in order to do so. They also participate in church-growth strategies which often have nothing to do with the gospel.
Regrettably, these churches will often attract people who aren’t just looking for a church pleasing to them – these people want a safe understanding god who unconditionally affirms their personal worldview-spirituality. But churches shouldn’t be glorified social clubs pandering to shoppers. See our previous article Remember the Signs.
The focus of the church (Christians) should be proclaiming the good news of the gospel, not diversions to increase numbers. In C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Mr Beaver tells the Pevensie children that Aslan isn’t a safe lion,
“Safe? Don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King I tell you.”
The God of the Bible isn’t a safe God. The ramification of this safe-god mindset has eternal consequences. The real God doesn’t compromise with sin. He can’t because He is good-holy. For this reason He sent His Son to die on the cross; in order to save sinners. This is the gospel message sinners need to hear, not a safe-space, not inclusivity, and not entertainment.
Furthermore, it is God who draws sinners through the preaching of His Word. God doesn’t need church building gimmicks or some soft gospel (which is no gospel at all).
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! Gal 1:8-9
God doesn’t need us or our worship either – it’s all the other way around. We need to worship Him for our own good. Everyone will have to come to terms with God sooner or later – everyone will one day face Him (Phil 2:9-11; Heb 9:27).
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-18
Does your church regularly preach the biblical gospel of salvation, or are you being comfortably lulled and entertained into hell?
Maranatha!
Further reading:
Four Questions about the Atonement
The Bible: The Living Voice of God
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