Meditations on God, His Word, and His World (under the grace found only because of Christ Crucified)
Friday, January 30, 2009
Agree or Disagree?
"The more the Church has accommodated her message to suit the palate of the people the greater has been the decline in attendance at places of worship."
I think he's right. The only exceptions someone could give would be the Robert Schullers and Joel Osteens of the world, but then I think its a stretch to call them houses of worship in direct proportion to how heavily they have domesticated the gospel.
Gotta agree since by accommodate I think he means a flight from orthodoxy.
I would also argue that some churches have failed to be missionaries in their context and have instead built really nice bomb shelters to insulate them from the culture.
While others are seeking to make Jesus relevant by engaging without content not realizing that Jesus is always relevant to everything, we must simply show that.
Its one thing to look like the world and live radically different, but to look radically different than the world but live the same is a tragedy.
I completely agree. In Seattle, churches seem to be fleeing from Biblically sound doctrine as much as they can. They also are having round table discussions with practitioners of other faiths about what we can "learn from each other". Despite the trend toward universalism all these churches continue to shrink because they really don't stand for much of anything anymore. In stark contrast, churches like Mars Hill and City Church are growing too fast for them to accommodate the new people because they preach Christ crucified and resurrected. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones hit the nail on the head as usual.
3 comments:
I think he's right. The only exceptions someone could give would be the Robert Schullers and Joel Osteens of the world, but then I think its a stretch to call them houses of worship in direct proportion to how heavily they have domesticated the gospel.
Gotta agree since by accommodate I think he means a flight from orthodoxy.
I would also argue that some churches have failed to be missionaries in their context and have instead built really nice bomb shelters to insulate them from the culture.
While others are seeking to make Jesus relevant by engaging without content not realizing that Jesus is always relevant to everything, we must simply show that.
Its one thing to look like the world and live radically different, but to look radically different than the world but live the same is a tragedy.
GB
I completely agree. In Seattle, churches seem to be fleeing from Biblically sound doctrine as much as they can. They also are having round table discussions with practitioners of other faiths about what we can "learn from each other". Despite the trend toward universalism all these churches continue to shrink because they really don't stand for much of anything anymore. In stark contrast, churches like Mars Hill and City Church are growing too fast for them to accommodate the new people because they preach Christ crucified and resurrected. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones hit the nail on the head as usual.
Post a Comment