Bucking The Trend of Returning to the 1930's Dull Sensationalism

Today’s churches too often are trying to be “sensational” but prove to be rather dull.

(note: I write as someone who, I confess, once fit this group. Thinking I was being 'relevant,' I pulled out all the stops at putting together a 'creative' worship experience. Thankfully I now place my trust elsewhere than in my own creativity as I will explain).

In our new church brochure I tried to address that situation by stating:

"The word 'church' has come to be associated with that which is boring and anything but 'full of life.' We believe that this is the ironic result of churches which sought to entertain rather than build up. If I want entertainment I'm certainly not going to church- we are, admittedly, very poor entertainers. On the other hand, if I want hope, I'm not going to watch Jay Leno."

But the Tonight Show seems to be what many churches seek to emulate.

I watched a commercial for a church in Texas posted on YouTube that was supposed to be hip and cool but which struck me as really odd. Several commenters said that they found it to be "creepy." One person who had been to the church responded:

It does seem a little creepy, if you'd never been to Fellowship Church.
Having been there myself, you can tell it's supposed to be very tongue-in-cheek. That's their style... not taking themselves too seriously.

Doesn't that about say it all?

Someone told me of a conversation he had with a pastor who was frustrated that his co-pastor who had preached that previous Sunday had used the movie clip he intended to use for his upcoming sermon. He explained that the way he went about writing sermons was to find a movie clip, look for a relating biblical passage, and then write his sermon. Not wanting to use the same clip twice left him with no message to preach.

How tragic.

In a message entitled “The Issue in the Church,” J. Gresham Machen (preaching sometime before his death in 1937) said some things as relevant and important for us to hear as they were in his day. He said:

“The world of today is hoping for something new. Things that seemed to be new have proved to be old; the newness of modern inventions has been found not to touch the depths of life. New situation, it has been discovered, do not make new men; a man is not made over by ascending in an airplane to the sky. Novelty has been sought in every sphere, but it is not so easy to find; rebellion against accepted forms does not produce a new style, but sometimes only reveals a pitiful lack of invention; sensationalism has proved to be rather dull. In the epistles of Paul one finds that joyous freshness which modern men are seeking in vain; the first Christians were evidently in possession of something really new. The conditions of life, it is true, were not greatly changed; social institutions in the early church were left very much as they were before. But beneath the outward sameness was a mighty inner change. The novelty of the early church was very different from the novelty of today. Today we have changing circumstances and humanity itself in a rut; then there was outward sameness, but underneath it there were new men. ‘Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.’”

The pressure to become sensationally dull is heavy however.

I recall going to seminary and then into ministry, wanting to do the will of God and to preach and teach, but being taught, directly and indirectly, that man’s methodologies were the only way to reach our culture. Especially within the denominational structures I found myself working in to plant churches, we never talked of the power of God’s Word it was all about the power of our own inventiveness and creativity. At first there is an excitement that comes with the creativity, but then comes the crash as you realize that depending upon your own creativity and strength is a burden that you were not called to bear. What happens is a sense of failure, despair, burn out, which then turns into competitiveness as pastor’s vie for the “creativity crown” because it is the only way that they can find worth out of what they are doing.

How I wish I had always held to the conviction that “the Gospel is the power unto salvation” and not been turned to the left and the right by the methods of man.

James White and Thom Ascol discussed some of these issues sometime back and they really nail it:

James White:

I teach in a Southern Baptist Seminary and I see young men whose spirits are crushed because they are put under such a burden to use unbiblical methodologies and, in essence, to edit the gospel- to get rid of those things which are offensive to the natural man. And there is a tremendous liberty when you come to realize that the Gospel is ours to proclaim, not to edit and we can trust the Spirit of God to apply His truth to His people. we don’t have to hold back, we can speak the whole counsel of God and the only reason that any one of use can go to bed at night with a clear conscience is because, we like Paul, have not held anything back, we have proclaimed the whole counsel of God and that way we can say I am innocent I am clean of the blood of any man because I have fulfilled my duty as an ambassador for Christ I have proclaimed His truth. I see what happens in churches when, because of a push to have artificial numbers, get a bunch of people through the baptistry, 90% of them you will never see again, you’ve just turned them into religious hypocrites, but you get ‘em through there. I’ve seen what happens when that kind of methodology crushes the spirits of young men. Somebody has to stand up and say “enough, no more!”

Thom Ascol

Everyone wants to be successful evangelistically, every Christian wants to see evangelistic success. What we need to do is redefine success in terms James just laid out that the Bible teaches when the Gospel is proclaimed accurately, honestly passionately representing Jesus Christ’s call to repent and believe, that is success. However, I think that the hook that exists in so many church growth strategies and all the new techniques that come out is just this one point- look how many people can be decisioned, brought out or reach decisions or whatever terminology is used and everybody wants to see people come, so the confidence comes in the technique or strategy or program.

Please pray for us pastors that we will put our confidence in the right place and buck the trend to become sensationally dull. This is a great temptation that many of the younger pastors are falling into and simply assuming it is how church "needs" to be done in order to be effective.

Please pray for the churches that they will not pressure their pastors into succumbing to such a temptation.