Friday, April 20, 2007

The Disturbed Church

Update below!

A couple of weeks ago, my husband heard a promo for a new church in our area. He went to their website to check it out and what he found can only be described as disturbing! Here are some quotes from their website:


"We believe that church can and should not only be relevant to your life, but it should also be a fun place to come. We also believe that kids don't have to be bored at church. One of the things that we hear from people that come to Foundations is, "We don't have to drag our kids to church any more. They get us out of bed on Sunday mornings! Our family loves coming to church."

Every week we do what is called "Fusion." This is what happens when Nickelodeon collides with the local church. What results is a zany, high energy environment that the whole family will enjoy.

So fire up the double shot of espresso load up the minivan, and experience a relevant, exciting, and fun church right here in your community!"


"Following the adult and children’s gatherings, families will come together for a 45 minute family extravaganza. It will be a presentation that is relevant to all ages. What Walt Disney would do, had he gone to seminary. A sort of spiritual Nickelodeon. It will be fun. It will be entertaining. But most importantly, in age-appropriate ways it will reinforce Christian principles and deliver God’s Word."


Where do I even begin with this? I realize that I am really hormonal right now and I want to protect you from an irrational, hormonal rant ... but this may actually be a rational, hormonal rant! (Did you know there was such a thing?)

Church should not be relevant to us and where we are! That's one of the problems with many evangelical churches today. They live out practices which favor a man-centered theology while neglecting God-centered theology. I think "children being bored at church" is often just a reflection of the hearts of their parents. How can we be bored when God's Word is being opened? How can we be bored when we are hearing the voice of God? If we are bored, then we need to check our own hearts.

"When Nickelodeon collides with the local church ... what Walt Disney would do if he went to seminary..." Do I even need to go here? I just can't stomach that! My prayer for my children is that they would never be exposed to this type of collision. My prayer is that they meet God each week as they dive into His Word. That is my prayer for my entire family. Church isn't about me and what I want and making myself feel good. (Read what Kim wrote). Church is about God - worshipping Him, opening His Word! We don't need to alter it - or make it pretty - or present it creatively - we just need to present IT!


Update from a comment: Check out this quote from Pastor Kent Hughes, of College Church, in Wheaton, Illinois; "The unspoken but increasingly common assumption of today's Christendom is that worship is primarily for us--to meet our needs. Such worship services are entertainment focused, and the worshipers are uncommitted spectators who are silently grading the performance. From this perspective preaching becomes a homiletics of consensus--preaching to felt needs--man's conscious agenda instead of God's. Such preaching is always topical and never textual. Biblical information is minimized, and the sermons are short and full of stories. Anything and everything that is suspected of making the marginal attender uncomfortable is removed from the service. Taken to the nth degree, this philosophy instills a tragic selfcenteredness. That is, everything is judged by how it affects man. This terribly corrupts one's theology."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check out this quote from Pastor Kent Hughes, of College Church, in Wheaton, Illinois; "The unspoken but increasingly common assumption of today's Christendom is that worship is primarily for us--to meet our needs. Such worship services are entertainment focused, and the worshipers are uncommitted spectators who are silently grading the performance. From this perspective preaching becomes a homiletics of consensus--preaching to felt needs--man's conscious agenda instead of God's. Such preaching is always topical and never textual. Biblical information is minimized, and the sermons are short and full of stories. Anything and everything that is suspected of making the marginal attender uncomfortable is removed from the service….Taken to the nth degree, this philosophy instills a tragic selfcenteredness. That is, everything is judged by how it affects man. This terribly corrupts one's theology."

Jenn said...

Brian- you seem to be a very learn-ed man! Seriously, good quote. I will probably add it up above to others can see it.

Kim said...

Hey. That guy ought to get a blog, huh?

I think you should take a daily dose of hormones if they get you going this good :) This post is a great wake-up call. Too bad the ones following this trend don't know they are asleep.

Christina said...

Amen, Amen and Amen. It's one of the reasons why we left our previous church. They went from opening God's word to full scale Nickelodeon. One Sunday I learned more about Gilligan's Island than I did about God!

So now we are in a church that honors God's word and the kids are learning to have a taste for that rather than Disney Church. It was hard at first.

I am starting to have people talk to me about why we left. Or more accurately, I should say I am having people start to notice that we are gone! The church is so big that people just think that you are at a different service. I'm encouraged by your post to share with them that the word of God is better for kids than Disney Church. So many of them are so excited about it though because it's so fun. I'm not against fun, but I think that having that BE the church service is doing them a disservice.

BTW, your link to Kim just takes me to her web site. Was there a specific post you had in mind? I know she's written about this too.

Kim said...

All I can say is...that is just not right. Just the opposite of what a church should be doing...the philosophy of ministry is all way out of whack...covering up God and His word to say it is not sufficient. When everything we need is in God's precious Word!

Christ alone is sufficient.

Sadly, most people would not see a problem with this and they would easily say...I can jive with this. Cool. I'm sure there are lots of churches looking for the next best idea to incorporate into their church to make it more relevant. If it draws a crowds then anything goes.

I'm sick.

Kim