9.25.06 - Trends and Traps (cont. 2)
Today’s culture defines reality by its market value. Unfortunately, the mantra of the post-Enlightenment church is relevancy, practicality, and contemporary – thus making the market value of our faith “excessive practicality,” which warrants rejection. Relevancy is not the great summum bonum; the great summum bonum is the person Jesus Christ.
“As a whole, Evangelicalism seems incapable of reaching into our culture with a distinctive message because we have allowed the message to fall prey to enculturation. The average fare on Sunday morning seems more concerned with demonstrating the usefulness of the Bible in the management of our personal affairs than declaring the person of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Sin is now chocolate cake.”
When young believers are inquired as to the nature of the Christian faith, their explanations remain “undefined.” Thus, the data suggests that though our churches may be growing in size, they are simultaneously weakening.
Christianity [in America] has fallen to the lust of newer, bigger, practical, and attractive. The scientific revolution of the eighteenth century has given the adolescent church the lenses of corporate materialism, and we have worked to fit the “peg” Christ [and the gospel] into the "hole" of rationalism. However, by its nature, Christianity is not rationalistic; it cannot be tested by analytical proportions.
“Mystery, wonder, and awe are often lost in the business of growing American religion. We must have fallen into the rational error of thinking that numbers is the objective test of the penetration of a pagan culture.”
Therefore, through the covetousness of relevancy and management strategies, we define church growth as "effectiveness", and numerical growth as "spiritual growth." May it be known that Christianity has never been enamored by size until now. We have spent the past 100 years trying to become culturally relevant, still we have little to no influence upon our culture.
“I greatly fear that personality has more street value than character and the ministry verges on a personality contest.”
Sadly, the evangelical church has become self-centered. This is a result of the basic idea that the vitality of an organization is a function of personal empowerment. The disestablishment of the American church has demanded this.
Some have given up on church because their hurt removes their ability to smile, and our culture has made the strength of our spirituality equated to the length of our smile.
But...
READ ON> [1 2 3]
