The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

Church is so totally like boring dude

A recent article in the Detroit Free Press touts yet another "new kind of church":

New-fashioned church

Pastor hopes to draw families, professionals

It's not going to be like your mother's church. Your grandfather's either.

The pastor might wear jeans and a sports coat. Movies may be incorporated into lessons, and the hour-long service might have a concert feel.

The Macomb Township church is so casual organizers haven't even named it yet. They're holding an online contest through May 31 allowing the public to help choose its name.

The goal of this modern approach is to attract young professionals and families to worship.

The church is joining a recent push to target twenty- to fortysomethings in metro Detroit -- whether it's through the establishment of new churches or creating more relevant programs for young people at older, established congregations.

"I think most people believe in God but for the most part have given up on church. This is a way to reengage them and get them to come to church again," said Josh Hossler, 29, pastor of the new church. Services would include media technology, contemporary music, pop culture and slang -- to replace stiff religious vernacular.

The same old refrain, the same broken record. New, culturally relevant, exciting, engaging, anything but boring and old. That is what churches are after these days because that is what they think people want. They are partly right. That is exactly what sinners want and it draws them in. The problem is that these churches never get past the marketing to the meat. The claim is that they are just seeking ways to reach out to people so that they can give them the Gospel, but these churches get trapped by their own method. They suck people in by entertaining them, but they can never stop because they fear they will lose them.

Warren Community Church Pastor James Thompson said it's a privilege to help the new church, even if he loses members.

"Church planting like this is probably the most effective way to reach people in our present church culture," he said. "So many older churches are dying and many are closing, and there's just a whole new level of commitment and excitement in a new church plant that is much more effective than trying to revive a church that is on the down side of growth."

Churches that are dying are not dying because of their methods, but because they have abandoned the Gospel. Most stodgy mainline Protestant churches long ago abandoned the Gospel and Christians have slowly abandoned those churches to the point that they stopped being true churches long ago. There is more to a church dying than fewer people in the pews. Churches can and do die spiritually and it is less obvious to the naked eye. I am sure that these guys in "The church to be named later" think they are doing the right thing but they are doing what they are doing to appeal to the sinners eyes and ears, not on what the Bible commands us to do.

In marked contrast, and a welcome contrast, is a blog post by Thabiti Anyabwile warning us to be careful in how we grow the church: Be Careful How You Build: A Plea for Boring Preaching.

So here's a plea. Please, please Lord build your church on "boring" preaching and "regular" personalities owned and fired by your Holy Spirit, so that your people will find excitement and emotion that comes from the truth and their affections will rest on You rather than the earthen vessel that proclaims your Name.

Not many people call for boring preaching but Thabiti does and he does has a very valid reason: when the pastor is called upon for theatrics or entertainment, the Gospel is lost. I know that not everyone finds Gospel preaching to be stimulating, but it really shouldn't be. If a sermon is entertaining to a sinner, then they aren't hearing the Gospel. I love hearing the Gospel proclaimed and the Word of God unfolded chapter by verse by word. When the Word if proclaimed and explained and exhorted from the pulpit, THAT is preaching. What goes on in "seeker sensitive churches", emergent types, and other aberrant forms of worship is not preaching in any sense of the word.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4 ESV)