Truth Magazine

By Mike Willis

Across the country church growth seminars are conducted among denominational and liberal folks designed to teach others how to cause churches to grow. None of us is content with dead and dying churches; we want to see souls saved, those who are fallen away restored, and churches growing so that buildings must be enlarged. We are encouraged to see exhortations to greater faithfulness in proclaiming the gospel to the lost, reaching out to unsaved men and women with the gospel of the grace of God. However, this is not what is occurring in church growth seminars.

Things One Must Do To Make the Church Grow

The program for church growth can be analyzed. It’s the same for almost all of the denominations and it almost always involves the following things:

1. Generic preaching. Preaching that draws the crowds must be positive, feel-good preaching. This preaching eschews doctrinal sermons that discuss such topics as inherited depravity, impossibility of apostasy, election, grace and works, and other such weighty topics. Rather, the content of such sermons must be things that meet the needs of the audience — how to overcome depression, how to raise teenaged children, how to survive mid-life crisis, and such like topics.

The sermons must also not emphasize sin, except in vague, general terms. Everyone is against sin, so preaching must condemn generic sin, but never become specific to address such things as divorce and remarriage, immodest dress, dancing, social drinking, gambling, or other relevant issues that might leave anyone in the audience feeling condemned when they depart the worship services. If he feels condemned, he may not return for services next week.

Furthermore, the pulpit must not be used to condemn another’s religion. Sermons that expose the false doctrines taught by the Mormons, Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, and other denominations are avoided, because they may “offend” some visitor who would never return to the services. After all, this is the aim of the sermon — to present a message that attracts visitors and makes them want to come back again. Those things in the gospel that may alienate visitors or keep them from returning are systematically passed by and not preached.

As a matter of practice, many of the mega-churches simply refer to themselves as “community churches,” because all denominations are welcome there, without regard to their previous denominational affiliation, beliefs, and practices. This is done even though most community churches maintain ties to their denominational organizations.

2. A “felt needs” ministry. The mega-churches are com- mitted to the ministry of the whole man. Mega churches survey the town to see what spiritual needs they perceive and then aim the direction of their ministry toward meeting those needs. Such churches have programs of work that feature such things as: divorce recovery workshops, grief recovery, overcoming depression, how to become debt-free, aerobic exercises, church sponsored athletics, day-care, pre-school through sixth grade elementary schools, and such like things. Some churches have large restaurants so that a family can stop at the church building to pick up the children from day-care and school, stay for basketball practice and aerobics, attend a workshop on finances, and have a late supper, all on the church premises. That’s the Wal-mart way!

3. Contemporary worship. Church growth seminars ad- dress the distaste that the baby-boomers have for traditional worship. Consequently contemporary worship services are developed to attract the baby-boomers. To keep from driving away traditional families, whose contributions and support are necessary to keep the doors open, many mega-churches have two separate worship services. The traditional worship services feature songs like “Amazing Grace,” “Just As I Am,” “Be With Me Lord,” and other timeless hymns sung to the traditional melodies, preaching, prayer, observance of the Lord’s supper, and giving. The contemporary worship services are a bit different. The Sunday morning presentation may present the message in drama, rather than in sermon. A special singing presentation is frequently used, featuring singing that is more contemporary (the range of music may be from Bluegrass gospel, to Southern gospel, to Contemporary gospel, to Rock gospel, depending upon which is most attractive to the community). The presentation is professional and the audience listens, rather than participating, showing its appreciation by clapping and hand raising. The assembly has a decidedly Pentecostal flavor with a Baptist doctrinal emphasis (salvation by faith only, once saved-always saved). The preacher may present his message in a sports shirt, casual slacks, and sneakers. The audience may be seated in a circle of chairs or in a circle sitting on the floor. Both are designed to present the casual approach toward worship. The members who attend may show up wearing jeans and a T-shirt or shorts. The audience may be drinking coffee and eating donuts while the lesson is presented.

The role of women in the public services is more pronounced than in the traditional services. Women are used as public readers of Scripture, to make the announcements, to serve the Lord’s supper, to usher, and to serve in other public roles (including preaching). They are added to the “board of deacons” and appointed as elders and bishops.

Those who raise protest against the changes they witness in worship are hide-bound traditionalists whose old-fogey ways stifle the church’s ability to adjust to the changing times in order to reach out to the modern community.

The Pragmatic Defense

The defense of this change is simple: it works. And, who can deny its success? The mega-churches have thousands in attendance and are constantly growing.

The Temptation To Mimic The Denominations

Witnessing the “success” of the mega-churches, there is a great temptation for Christians to mimic church growth practices. Consider some of the things that we can specifically identify happening among us:

1. Change in content of the preaching. The content of gospel preaching is changing in many churches. Its thrust is distinctly positive (that is, these churches eliminate from their preaching those things that may cause a visitor to be offended and not return). Distinctive gospel sermons that have a heavy theological content are eliminated; the one- church theme is removed; the identifying marks of the New Testament church are not preached; exposing the doctrinal apostasies of the denominations is condemned; preaching that specifically condemns immodest dress is eliminated (one can preach against immodest dress so long as he does not define what it is); etc.

Trying to avoid the prejudice the world holds toward the churches of Christ, some have removed “church of Christ” from their meeting house. Signs on the meeting house that say “Christians Meet Here” leave the same impression on the general public as “Community Church” does. This says to the general public, “This is an inter-denominational group, where I can be a member without regard to my denominational ties.”

2. “Felt needs ministry.” Our most conservative liberal brethren (the new “antis”)are fighting a battle for their lives to stave off the social gospel of the felt needs ministry. They are so compromised by their acceptance of fellow- ship halls and the church support of human institutions (colleges, hospitals, orphan homes, old folks homes, etc.) that they have little hope of success. Among ourselves, already we are seeing meetings designed to preach about time management, depression, being debt free, and other such topics that indicate significant movements in the thrust of gospel preaching.

How Can We Compete?

As we witness the growth of the mega-churches, we are tempted to ask, “How can we compete with them?” Our little band of disciples that meets in a plain-jane building in a middle-class neighborhood has little chance of competing with the mega-church with its extravagant building on prime real estate. Why would anyone want to be a member of the church, when he can go over to the mega-church and hear a professional singing group, listen to a dynamic speaker, attend the supper served after services, watch the drama skit, and never be condemned for immodest dress, lack of attendance, or practically anything else in his life?

We tend to forget that this problem has been with the saints since the first century. That little band of disciples in Jerusalem (after the dispersion of Acts 8) had little to offer in comparison with the services at the Jewish temple. They met in the home of one of the disciples. Just across town on Mount Zion, was a beautiful Temple. Its priests were dressed in priestly vestments. The singing was conducted by the sons of Asaph and sons of Korah, professional choirs. The pageantry and ceremony of their public worship were majestic. Their feasts were festive, not solemn and doleful. How could 20-25 disciples meeting in the house of one of the members compete with the Jewish Temple?

The situation was even worse in pagan cities such as Corinth. The pagan worship was also associated with an impressive temple complex. Their worship included banquets and feasts that tended to drunkenness and excess. What’s more, some of the fertility cults had priestesses that committed fornication with the votaries. How could a little band of disciples compete with the pagan temples for the hearts of those young men and women faced with the choice of Christianity or paganism?

Lest anyone think our situation is so unique that we must make some changes to attract the people in order for the church to grow, we need to be reminded of what circumstances our brethren before us faced. Despite the odds that were against those brethren, look at what happened: the Jewish Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 never to be rebuilt and those fertility cults of the first century have passed from the contemporary scene and are barely known, except by a few archaeologists and historians. But the church of Jesus Christ is alive and well! Let us never be tempted by the appeal of modern church growth seminars to change the church of Jesus Christ into another religion built according to the wisdom of men.

If it should be our lot to preach in a time and place similar to Noah, let us be content to stand alone as a preacher of righteousness, not compromising the gospel to appeal to a generation of hell-bound men!

By Larry Ray Hafley

Filling a pothole does not fix the road. It is merely a temporary “surface cure.” Make-up does not do away with unwanted lines and wrinkles (sorry, ladies!), it simply hides them from view. A hair-piece will hide my bald spot. It will not restore my hair.

As an example of an attempted “surface cure,” note the following: “A conference of police chiefs and black leaders recommended . . . that President Clinton establish a presidential commission to study the uneasy relationship between blacks and police officers in America.” The president of the National Urban Coalition, said many young black men have very hostile attitudes toward authority and police in particular. ‘I work with young people every day. . . . The alienation and the resistance among the young is devastating. It’s dangerous for them and for the police. We would like to help the (police) chiefs get their departments more in tune with what the young people need, while we work to make sure the young people are not so anti-social and so hostile.’”

Conferences are not the cure. Changing the “tune” of police departments is not the solution. Changing the hearts of “hostile” and “anti-social” people is the only cure. This work cannot be done by a conference, a commission, a coalition, or a police panel. Primarily, it is the work of the home and family.

War in the streets has been preceded by a dismantling of the domestic realm. Sexual promiscuity and the celebration of the termination of marriage have produced a generation of “hostile” and “anti-social” young people. The end is not yet. It will become worse. Why? In part, because we are treating the surface. We are filling pot-holes and applying make-up when only a complete overhaul of the heart will do (Prov. 4:23).

As long as society honors “hostile,” “anti-social” misfits (John Lennon, Dennis Rodman, and Curt Cobain come to mind) as heroes while it seeks to destroy virtue as a virtue, there will be conflict, deadly conflict. When condoms can be passed out in schools where it is forbidden to teach morality from the Bible, there will be blood in the hallways and in the streets. Where abortion and homosexuality are extolled with “charitable broadmindedness,” while a list of the ten commandments cannot be posted in classrooms, there will be drive-by shootings and murder “just to see how it feels to blow someone away.” When students may be led in studies of immoral and porno- graphic material, but are denied the opportunity to present a biography of Jesus from the gospels as a book report, you need not be surprised when rapes and homosexual liaisons occur on campus during school hours.

By rejecting the Bible’s moral standards, by making light of the sacred union of marriage, we have produced a crop of “hostile,” “anti-social” people. So, while the police chiefs and community leaders are having their conference, they had better post guards outside. If they do not, they may return to a car that has either been stripped or stolen. And if one is caught burglarizing a police car, let him not be accused or charged. After all, the kid could not help it. A racist society made him what he is. He is not to blame. To incarcerate him would make him a victim and deprive him of justice. So, let him go — and plan another conference!

By Johnie Edwards

The Gospel Advocate, a religious publication out of Nashville, Tennessee at one time taught the truth on “The Mission of the Church.” B.C. Goodpasture, the editor in 1948, said concerning the church providing recreation and entertainment for its members:

1. Not The Mission: “It is not the mission of the church to furnish amusement for the world or even for its own members. Innocent amusement in proper proportion has its place in the life of all moral persons, but it is not the business of the church to furnish it. The church would come off a poor second if it undertook to compete with institutions established for the express purpose of entertaining people. It would make itself ridiculous if it entered into such competition. Again, it is not the responsibility of the church, as such, to furnish recreation for its members. A certain amount of recreation is necessary to the health and happiness of the individual. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, it is said, and rightly said; but it is not the function of the church to furnish the play. The church was not established to feature athletics. Rather, it emphasizes the principle that, “bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things; having the promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). Sometimes one would conclude, from the emphasis given to recreation, that godliness is for a little and that bodily exercise is profitable for all things.

2. Not To Turn Aside: For the church to turn aside from its divine work to furnish amusement and recreation is to pervert its mission. It is to degrade its mission. Amusement and recreation should stem from the home rather than the church. The church, like Nehemiah, has a very great work to do, and it should not come down on the plains of Ono to amuse and entertain. As the church turns its attention to amusement and recreation, it will be shorn of its power as Samson was when his hair was cut. Only as the church becomes worldly, as it pillows its head on the lap of Delilah, will it want to turn from its wonted course to relatively unimportant matters.”

How Sad

How sad it is to hear some of the men, who planted the seed to put the church into the business of providing amusement for its people, cry and try to reform those who have taken the church into areas none would have ever dreamed. We had better get to teaching that “. . . the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17), and to help folks understand the Lord’s church is not to leave its God-given mission to that of providing fun and frolic. We would ask, “What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in . . . And if any man hunger, let him eat at home” (1 Cor. 11:22, 34).

By Norman E. Fultz

When just three months out of high school, as a student in a college operated by brethren and where probably 98 percent of the students were Christians, and where the atmosphere was, for the most part, a far more spiritual climate than I’d ever seen, I “fell in love with it.” The students’ camaraderie, the devotional periods, the daily chapel services, and a daily “in depth” Bible class, made for a pleasant experience. The singing was more spirited, the prayers heartily offered, and every Bible lesson (be it in sermon or in the classroom) was joyfully received. The spirit soared! And to this day I’ll tell you gladly that I wouldn’t take anything for the two years I spent in such surroundings. It’s all real, but it’s not the real world in which most of us worship and serve regularly.

For years, though not with regularity, I’ve tried to attend, when I felt I could afford it, college Bible lectureships. Many hundreds of brethren from all over the country converge to hear the talented and well prepared speakers both in lectures and in classes dealing with challenging and stimulating subject areas. Several hours a day are devoted to such exercises. Renewing acquaintances, making new ones with those of like precious convictions, blending many hundreds of voices together in gospel songs under the leadership of a most capable song leader, being led in prayers that touch the heart, one’s spirit can soar. It’s all real, but it’s not the real world in which most of us worship and serve regularly.

Having been privileged to tour Bible lands a couple of times has been a dream come true. Day after day visiting sites of real biblical significance can “make the Bible come alive.” One finds himself wishing that every Christian could have the experience. On the first tour, after our Lord’s day worship in which the 150 or so of us had worshiped in the “traditional site of the upper room,” a fellow gospel preacher remarked as we were departing the service, “I wish I could bottle that service and take it back to my home congregation.” The worship period had been somewhat less structured than are our services normally — singing from memory instead of with hymn books (except for the song leader), standing through the entire service in a quaint old building of great historical moment (Even if not really “the upper room,” we knew the events in the real “upper room” and the events which followed) in which the singing under the direction of an able leader seemed to resonate. In the observance of the Lord’s supper, the communion was not passed to the congregation (no trays available). Instead the elements had been prepared and set out on a stage-like area, and in an orderly fashion we went forward and took a piece of the bread and a cup of the fruit of the vine and returned to our place. Then, when someone had offered thanks for the bread, we each partook of it at the same time. Likewise with the partaking of the cup. It was truly a most uplifting occasion sandwiched in between other emotionally exhilarating experiences such as visiting the Garden Tomb or standing on the Mt. of Olives. It was real, but it was not the real world in which most of us worship and serve regularly.

A few years ago while on a little outing at the Lake of the Ozarks, since the Bible camp attended by many young folk from this area was nearby, we paid the camp a visit. The area in which the camp was situated was peaceful, heavily forested, and remote. Excited youth, in spite of the summer heat and humidity, whose parents, many of them sacrificially, had provided the opportunity, enthused counselors, teachers and other helpers were enthusiastically going about their daily structured activities — Bible classes, chaperoned recreational pursuits, group meal times, evening devotional with speakers, singing and prayers conducted in rustic setting. It all lent an air of elation that one could get “caught up in.” Emotions can run high. It’s real, but it’s not the real world in which we worship and serve regularly.

From the college campus, Bible lectureships, tours of the Bible lands, or Bible camp, we must return to the normal world in which we live our lives, worship, and serve in the normal course of things. In our congregational worship, the singing is perhaps not as spirited nor led by as talented a leader, the Bible classes are not two or three times a day under closely regulated conditions where emotion along with knowledge can build, but twice a week, usually dealing with entirely different subject areas and separated by an awful lot of unspiritually oriented activity in the work-a-day world. The “daily grind” may take its toll and the spirit may suffer some bruises in the interim separating worship periods. The emotional highs are not there, and sometimes it appears that everyone is in the “doldrums.” The prayers may sound like so many parroted cliches mouthed with little fervor, albeit pouring forth from a devoted and sincere heart. The sermons may not be as uplifting at times; because they have the overall congregational needs with which to be concerned, not just some challenging topic which has roused our curiosity.

Instead of thinking that our emotions must be stirred to feverish levels, let us rather understand that he is to be praised.

Does all this mean that our regular periods of worship are any less spiritual or pleasing to God? Absolutely not, if we are worshiping in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Does it mean that our regular periods of worship and study must degenerate into a monotonous form? By no means! But if we must “feed on high emotional experiences” to be benefited in our service and worship, then we had best examine our level of spiritual maturity. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul said, “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy (1 Cor. 14:1). Prophesying might not give as much of an emotional high as some of the other gifts such as speaking in tongues, but prophesying would profit the church (v. 4). Even so, let us desire and delight in those special occasions and let our spirits soar under those circumstances. But realize that they are special times, and we must be prepared to go forward in the normal course of things — persistently worshiping and serving our God. Instead of thinking that our emotions must be stirred to feverish levels, let us rather understand that he is to be praised.