Kite Jockey’s Weblog

There has been a big movement in parts of the Christian church over the last few decades to move toward a seeker sensitive style of worship. It seems to me that this is based partly on the belief that there must be a lot of God hungry people out there somewhere just waiting for the right type of church to introduce them to God. If this is the basic premise that these churches are operating on then I must whole heartedly disagree with their most basic reason for being seeker sensitive.

I do not believe that most non-believers are looking for God. My reason behind my belief is found in scripture. Psalm 53: 1-3 tells us (paraphrased) that some say there is no God, that there is no one who does good, and that there is no one who seeks after God. Romans 3:11 says that,

“there is none who understands, there is none who seek for God” (NASB).

So where doest that leave us. Are the seeker friendly churches failing? Well the answer to this question is yes and no. If you look at the numbers of attendees the seeker friendly churches are doing very good. They seem to have no trouble with filling the pews or chairs or arenas. With there alternative worship style they tend to draw in large crowds. The music in these churches tends to be more hip than that of the “traditional” church. The speakers are more vivacious than their more traditional counterparts and in most cases the whole atmosphere is usually very lively and not unlike a pep rally. Unless you are just into Gregorian chants or something why wouldn’t you be attracted to this type of atmosphere, it is very electric. However, there is still something missing in many of these churches. In some cases they have chosen to focus so much on drawing large crowds and being hip or cool that they have missed one very important point, and that is to preach the entire gospel.

The preaching of the word has to be the focus that defines the church. Romans 10: 14 says,

“how then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they here without a preacher?” (NASB)

So do the seeker friendly churches not preach the word? That is not what I am saying. What I am saying is they tend to preach a non-offensive version of the gospel or a partial gospel. The core issue seems to be to bring in the unchurched (which is a good thing) and those that have been hurt by more traditional churches (still a good thing) and do your level best to not offend them (not such a good thing).

The Gospel is offensive. Why do I say this? Again we can look to the Bible for that answer. In Hebrews 4:12 it says,

“For the word of God is quick, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. (KJV)

The word of God is meant to cut into the very heart of the sinner to expose the cancer within which is sin and help the sinner see the need to be cleansed of the sin. When any church does not preach the full gospel because they are afraid of offending those that listen, they are cutting short the work that the word of God needs to do in that person’s life. In the same way that a surgeon cannot cut someone without a knife, a pastor or teacher who does not preach the whole gospel in an effort to not offend, becomes, as a result, ineffective.

You don’t have to be seeker friendly to not preach the whole gospel of Christ. I have been in a few main line churches that have been guilty of the same sort of thing. However, as a rule, I have usually found this type of thing being done on any given Sunday at a good number of seeker friendly services. Even if people are getting saved under this type of teaching and even if the pews are always full that, in of it’s self, is not a measure of success. I think too that if you look at the stats that show the how the church and the culture differ, the seeker friendly movement more than any other is responsible for the stats that show that increasingly there is very little difference in the church and the culture at large with things like drug abuse, abortion, homosexuality, and divorce.

Today an article was published by Christianity Today that revels another problem within the seeker friendly movement. That is mature Christians are not being fed and are developing apathy toward the church and reaching others for Christ. This too goes back to a non balanced approach to the gospel.

My prayer is that instead of being seeker sensitive that these churches will become sinner sensitive. They need to get back to preaching the whole word of God. You can still have very lively and hip worship services just as long as you give the people what they really need and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all of it power and glory.