There’s a lot of talk nowadays about all the new trends in the church. Some people are happy with the changes, and some, like me, are downright appalled at how far afield from the Bible the church is moving. My greatest concern is that the gospel, by which we are all saved, is being left behind in the shuffle to attract unchurched people.One rarely hears a straight gospel message preached from the pulpit anymore. Instead we have weekly series on marriage, finances, child rearing and so on. Sometimes one would think we weren’t in church at all, but in the midst of a 12 step support group or listening to a religious version of Dr. Phil.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of being given Christian instructions on how to live. It’s necessary in a chaotic world which has no clear standards of behavior any more. What I object to is that in many cases it’s being done to the exclusion of the word of God.
I’ve even seen secular books on physcology, marriage and child rearing being used as teaching guides. In fact, some of the Christian books that are being used have very little to offer in the way of true Biblical instruction themselves, but simply rehash the same warmed over pop physco babble that’s been around for years. Very few churches I know of even use the Bible to study the Bible anymore. Some pastors don’t preach out of it either, but use denominational sermon guides.
Then there are the soft sell sermons, where Christ is only mentioned in passing, or in some cases not at all.
In his great little book “This Little Church Went To Market”, Gary Gilley describes the difference between the real gospel and what is being substituted for it nowadays.”Salvation is not simply, under the new gospel, the forgiveness of sin and the imputation of righteousness. It is not a deliverance from the wrath of God upon a deserving and rebellious people.”"The new gospel is a liberation from low self-esteem, a freedom from emptiness and loneliness, a means of fulfilment and excitement, a way to receive our heart’s desires, a means of meeting our needs.”
Sounds pretty good so far, right?But wait….”The old gospel is about God; the new gospel is about us. The old gospel is about sin, the new gospel is about needs. The old gospel is about our need for righteousness, the new gospel is about our need for fulfillment. The old gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing; the new gospel is attractive. Many are flocking to the new gospel, but it is altogether questionable how many are actually being saved.”
Friends, saving people is at the heart of the gospel message. Without that as the end result, we are merely speaking empty words and preaching another Jesus. We may leave feeling good after hearing a “new gospel” sermon, but it does nothing to develop the character and the discipline of Christ in us, which we all so desparately need. If you are hearing another kind of gospel, run, don’t walk, to the nearest exit and get into a real Bible based church that’s more interested in deepening you spiritually than in tickling your ears.
Thanks again Margaret, this is an excellent post and very accurate. I hope it causes many to read and many to run as you say to a bible believing church. Its funny and my wife after reading this pointed it out to me. The modern false gospel does not make true followers of Christ feel better. Actually they always feel worse for the sense a lack of bible teaching and absence of Christ in the whole service. This modern false gospel will only saticfy thoses who are lost and have no desire to really surrender to Christ. The more blogs on the net exposing the modern deception the better. Keep it up sister.
By: judesplace on August 2, 2007
at 12:14 pm
http://www.informz.net/pfm/archives/archive_529389.html
Thought you might find this interesting, especially the last paragraph of the article…(above site)
Have you seen this one?
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/10/willow_creek_re.html
By: iwanthetruth on December 27, 2007
at 11:31 pm
Thanks for those links, Iwant.
To see Bill Hybels admitting he made a mistake with a program driven church is indeed groundbreaking! Now I am waiting for the public repentance, the actual return back to prayer, Bible reading and “self-feeding” as he called it.
With the way things are going in our society, with Christianity coming under more and more attack, we may not always have churches to attend, if the ACLU and others have their way, so it’s very important that we do these things for ourselves nad our families. No church, or spiritual leader, no matter how much we admire them, can have a relationship with Christ for us.
I would like to see the same thing happen in other ministries who have gone too far afield of the real message of the gospel in their efforts to attract folks. Let’s just hope this was a move of the Holy Spirit and not just Hybels changing his mind as a result of the surveys. If it’s the Holy Spirit that’s wonderful, if it isn’t this will be a temporary regret.
Time will tell.
By: mbaker on December 28, 2007
at 2:40 am
Well guys I see Colsen praising Hybels for admitting his mistake. This kind of stuff makes me sick. Hybels has run his seeker sensitive church like a buisness but in buisness when the CEO makes a multi million dollar mistake he gets axed or worse he gets taken to court and charged with some neglegance bordering on the criminal!
Hybels has been prominent in destroying Christ’s Church here in N.America with its seeker sensitive deception and Colsen has the gall to sing his praises! Of coarse, Colsen has had his own success in destroying the church with his brain child of the Catholics and evangelicals togather organisation. With such men the scripture says do not even say God speed lest you share in their evil work.
2Jn 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
Kind of like Watergate for Colsen all over again, this time he defends Hybels not Nixon! Such men never learn.
The hypocricy of this guy seems to know no bounds! He actually uses a phrase from the reformation in his article. The very reformation that Colsen has done his very best to destroy over the past 20 yrs!
Lord have mercy upon us and your church!
By: judesplace on December 31, 2007
at 2:24 pm
You are right that there are a lot of big names in ministry nowadays who seem to be doing more harm than good.
I would like to see more local pastors quit jumping on the bandwagon with these guys to attract more folks to their churches, and see them stand up in their pulpits and start a grass roots movement to move the church back to its position honoring Christ as the Head – with more than lip-service.
There are few speaking out, but not nearly enough. As you said, it seems to be a small group of highly visible CEO types who seem to have their own agendas who have the most influence right now.
I believe some of that lies at the ordinary Christian’s door, however. It’s the old law of supply and demand. We don’t have to accept such shoddy leadership, yet because we are too busy, too indifferent or too politically correct to demand more accountability from our spiritual leaders we are seeing a generation of spiritually bankrupt folks becoming the majority in our churches. The best thing we can do is wake up and smell the coffee, and be a whole lot tougher on these folks who are misleading and misrepresenting Christ’s church.
In my opinion, we have ignored their negative influence on the church as a whole, and minimized the damage to the church’s witness throughout the world far too long! It’s time for His people to be courageous enough to rise up now and take back what is rightfully Christ’s church.
By: mbaker on December 31, 2007
at 3:43 pm
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/leading_the_way/
MBaker…Listen to this… I think it is most excellent
By: iwanthetruth on January 4, 2008
at 4:21 pm
Regarding mbaker’s plea for a movement to raise it’s voice against the current state of the church, there’s a very strong group of influential pastors and leaders (mostly Reformed) who are quietly but surely going against the current tide of easy-gospel, prosperity-driven churches.
I attend a conference dealing with the post-modern issues (similar to the blog iwanthetruth pointed), and how this worldview is savaging the evangelical church today. It was called “Contending for the Truth”, and organized by Ligonier Ministries (lead by R.C. Sproul, a reformed theologian and teacher). Several excellent speakers were there (Piper, MacArthur, Zacharias, Mohler) and we received an in-depth, exalted view of the need to do more apologetics work to defend the gospel.
There was another great conference called “Together for the Gospel” hosted by another round of great teachers (Piper, MacArthur, Dever, Mohler, Duncan, etc.), which was fully devoted to the issue of preaching the gospel in the church today. A book was issued with the full versions of the sessions, all of them directed to pastors. The conference was filled with at least 3,000 young pastors (mostly in theirs 20’s and 30’s) which are fully devoted to preaching the full gospel of the cross (I’m planning to attend the 2008 conference in March).
Friends, I have been in the church my whole life, and only now (at 38) I’m starting to get the gospel clearly communicated to my brain and to my heart. These leaders (which we from our Pentecostal background dismissed as “cold”, “dead theologians”) have a zeal for the Word of God, for His exaltation, for the gospel, and for personal holiness, that I have not known in my life. So, as you may see, there is hope.
Gadiel
By: pastorgadiel on January 6, 2008
at 6:50 am
Pastor Gadiel,
I commend you for speaking up, and I am relieved to know there are conferences such as the ones you have and will attend.
I highly recommend John MacArthur’s new book:
“The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception.”
Not only is it a timely read, it is an excellent teaching tool. My husband and I purchased the workbooks that go along with it and the two of us are doing a home Bible study.
Do stay in touch when you’re able. I have a 4 part post on intercession coming up soon, which you might find of interest.
God bless you in your efforts to bring the true gospel back into the forefront to the people of Puerto Rico.
By: mbaker on January 13, 2008
at 11:05 pm
In the last year my church or I should say ‘the church I used to attend’, has taught on Contemplative Prayer, Altered States, Imagery and Auras stating that certain practices have been stolen by the occult or New Age movement from Christians and that we need to take them back. I wrote a very detailed letter, via email, to him and copied the elders. I also wrote a response to another elder re the false visions/prophesies of Ryan Wyatt.
I received a letter (email) from the pastor who used 1 Timothy 6:4-5 (New Living Translation), 2 Timothy 2:14-17 (God’s Word Translation) and 2 Timothy 2:23-26 (New Living Translation) to disfellowship (d) me — altho he never used that the ‘d’ word.
He refused to discuss the questions and issues I had.
My heart was broken. But I am healing as I look for another church. It has brought me into a sweet place of fellowship with the God I serve and love.
The farther I get away the clearer I see things.
By: deseanjones on January 24, 2008
at 5:45 am
Deseanjones -
The farther you stay away the more clarity you will continue to get. To me, it is amazing how when we put our focus back on the true Word of God, we will recognize more how much deception is out there, how many wolves in sheep’s clothing are out there, and how truly far we can be guided away from the truth.
Hang in there sister.
By: das1217 on January 27, 2008
at 5:03 pm
Desean,
Thank you for being one of the few who will stand up to false teaching nowadays.
Our experience has been similar. We have found that the Calvary Chapels are one of the few churches in our area who do stick to the truth of God. They preach verse by verse out of the Bible, so that you get the real context.
We have really learned a lot in our few months of attendance. If you have one in your area please do try it.
In the meantime, take heart. It took us several tries to find the right church. One of the saddest experiences we had is contained here:
http://christianconcerns.wordpress.com/2007/10/10/what-would-jesus-really-do/
God bless.
By: mbaker on January 29, 2008
at 6:03 pm
mbaker,
Thanks for the recommendation. I’m reading the book already and, as all other MacArthur’s books, this is just great. Hope God is shaking a lot of His people with these thruths before is too late.
Just a comment on what deseanjones was talking about from his/her former church. Now in Puerto Rico some pastors are starting to teach about some sort of magnetic/force fields that develop around you when you spin in “godly rejoicing”. Some “prophets” are “jumping” in and out of parallel dimensions, moving from one place to another “by the Spirit”. All sorts of occult/new age teachings are being introduced by the same ones that were called to protect the sheep from the Devil.
So deseanjonesplease stay tuned to God in prayer, be careful about which places of worship you attend, but be sure that God will direct you to safe place because He is the One “who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior” (Jude 24).
In Christ,
Gadiel
By: pastorgadiel on February 12, 2008
at 3:23 pm
Pastor Gadiel,
Thanks for letting us know about the new “spinning” trend. I’m not aware that it has reached our shores yet, but I’ll be on the lookout.
Glad you are enjoying the MacArthur book. All that have read it say it’s been very helpful in learning to articulate the differences between truth and deception.
We will continue to keep you in prayer as you try to bring forth the real word of God in Puerto Rico.
Thanks for keeping us updated, and may God bless you and your ministry richly.
By: mbaker on February 12, 2008
at 3:35 pm