While on vacation in Texas last week, I got to do a little bit of reading. One of the books I brought with me was This Little Church Went to Market by Gary Gilley. I gave it an airplane read (which is better than a "beach read" and less than an "office read").
Basically, this book is a critique of the current trend of churches who are selling out the gospel and the purpose of the church. In this book, Gilley critiques both Rick Warren and Bill Hybels (and the Willow Creek model).
Here is a little sample of what you will find:
"What we supposedly learn from the marketing study is that the real reason Harry doesn't come to church has little to do with his rebellious, God-rejecting nature. Rather it is because church is boring, predictable, irrelevant, money hungry, and does not meet his needs. The new-paradign church operates under the credo that Harry is 'hostile to the church, friendly to Jesus Christ.' They 'have the misconcerption that to win the world to Christ we must first win the world's favor. If we can get the world to like us, they will embrace our Savior. The expressed design of the user-friendly philosophy is to make unconverted sinners feel comfortable with the Christian message.' The only way this is possible, I fear, is to change the message. For the gospel message is not a comfortable one for the unbeliever, and to try to make it so merely deforms it."
2 comments:
yeah, the cross is not an offense.
yeah, the flesh doesn't find repentance repugnant.
yeah, the flesh loves to submit rather than be autonomous.
Hybel's leadership books have made me wonder if he's a Pelagian. I know he wouldn't admit to it, but functionally he is because he never reckons with the flesh.
I praise God that they are men like yourself that desires to glorify God by preaching and teaching the glorious truths found in God's Word again instead of tickling the ears of men and women. It's my prayer that churches across this country would stop worrying about numbers and instead focus on the souls of the lost, the spiritual growth of it's members and be united in the Gospel.
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