Seeker Friendly Church Movement

Seeker Friendly Churches are abominable.

"A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well."

I used to give to sinners those 4 Spiritual Laws tracts from Campus Crusade that began: "God has a wonderful plan for your life". But the truth is "God has an awful plan for the life of the sinner if he doesn't repent -- he goes to HELL". To digress for a moment...I get more grief from young Christians on campus who don't like the words repent, sin or even Jesus because these seeker friendly churches refuse to preach biblical doctrine.

Is there such a thing as a church that is seeker friendly? I say NO. The bible and early church records clearly tell us that the church is the “Assembly of the Righteous” and it is not the place for the pastor to evangelize the sinners. A phenomenon in America has been to have the church member bring their unsaved friends to church and then have the pastor win them to Christ. I have even heard pastors say that the “Pulpit has a special anointing” and this is the best way to get people saved. Hog wash.

I was visiting a Nazarene church this year and the pastor said "I'm about to use that politically incorrect three letter word s-i-n." Image that; pastors are afraid to use the word sin - why? Because the church is run and supported by the unconverted and pastors don't want to lose their jobs!

I just had lunch today with an old friend who was on staff of a large Church in The Phoenix area that was a "Seeker Friendly Church" He parted ways because the pastor said he was using too much church talk and prohibited his staff from using the words 'sin' repentance' and 'Jesus'. He told the pastor these weren't church words but the essences of the faith. When he counseled the young couples he said that 90% of them were living together having sex...what the hell is going on in Christendom?

Many would think that the concerns of the Seeker Friendly movement were "conspiracy theories" yet this is today's Evangelicalism. I even interviewed a recent seminary graduate and he told me that he didn't care so much about doctrine as he did with helping the poor and the environment. I asked him about abortion and he said "It's not going away so why worry". When asked about homosexuals he said "Well even the big denominations are OK with it.

Be not deceived, in the last days they will deliver you up to have you killed thinking they are doing God's work...

This is merely a way of Christians escaping the great commission of preaching the gospel to all men; and a way of the pastor not having to go out into the byways and highways to compel them to come in. This allows the Christians an easy way out from witnessing for Christ and a way out for the pastor from having to evangelize a crowd of people who are hostile to the gospel. God calls all Christians to be witnesses for Christ and He has appointed Evangelists in the church to preach to the unsaved. Unfortunately even the evangelist of today really isn’t doing his job for he seldom preaches the gospel outside the comfort of a church. Most evangelists today are doing nothing but preaching to the choir. Their alter calls are designed to appeal to the self-centered desire of prospering in Christ and living a blessed life. While it may be true that God blesses His children, this should not  be the motivation for coming to Christ. A true conversion is when someone comes to Christ because He is God and worthy to be served and obeyed.

Does the term excommunication have any meaning today? Is there a pastor who would excommunicate anyone? My guess is that this would only happen if the pastor was under public pressure to kick out someone for fooling around with someone elses' wife and the church all knew it. Yet they would not do it in public as Paul tells us to do; in order to set an example to others. Secondly with all of the "seekers" how can you excommunicate anyone - heck most pastors would lose half of their churches.

Today the church seems to view tolerance and acceptance as virtuous in that they often allow people living in open sin to attend the church services. This is unbiblical and when Paul confronted the church in Corinth for accepting the young man who was sleeping with his step-mother, he rebuked the church. His rebuke was over their allowing his attendance without repentance from his sin. Paul said that the church was boasting in their (unconditional love) of the young man and therefore sinning. Paul's answer to the problem was to turn the young man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. Read about this in 1 Corinthians 5. I know that many pastors are aware of openly homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators attending their churches. Instead of following the Apostle Paul's example they surround them with unconditional acceptance - thinking that some day they will repent from one of their messages preached. What about the collateral damage to the rest of the church in the meantime? The young people who understand a tacit message that these sins are acceptable?

Well some people may have been saved by attending an alter call in church but at what cost to the church? Instead of the church being a safe-haven for the redeemed it has become overrun by the unconverted that are looking for some self-messages or motivational talks. Paul told us to not be deceived "bad company corrupts good morals"; in other words the influence of the unconverted will bring down the true believer. Proverbs 25:26 "A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well." As a result of our allowing sinners in our fellowships (by preaching ear tickling messages), the church has followed the world in lockstep. The influence of the financial support of the unsaved in the churches dictates the agenda and sermons. The unequal yoking among church members is pulling the true Christians down. The divorce rate in the church has surpassed the world; the greatest number of abortions is among Evangelicals, soon gay couples will be allowed in the Assembly of the Redeemed because pastors will not want to give up their comfortable lifestyles for a prison cell.

They will justify this by saying that “even the gays need to hear the gospel”. My answer to that is let the gays hear the gospel from TV or Radio or street preachers or other Christians; but if they are allowed to fellowship among the church – it will defile the minds of the youth and babes in Christ. Their presence will be taken as a tacit acceptance of the lifestyle. Jesus had a lot to say about those who corrupt the minds of the young. He said it would be better if a millstone were tied around their necks and thrown into the sea, than to face their judgement for defiling the minds of the youth.

Logically speaking, how relevant can God's will, His righteous demands of holiness and hatred of sin be with a society that is headed for Sodom and Gomorrah? Yet the church wants to be relevant or "just like the world" because they think this is the only way to reach the world. What ultimately ends up happening is the church becomes like the world and walks in lock-step just a few feet behind them. Read the Acts of the Apostles; they didn't preach what the world wanted to hear, they preached that God commands all men to repent and believe the gospel; a message that nobody has ever been crazy about. It seems as though the church is taking her marching orders from the youth in the way everything is geared to pander to them. I don't know about you but when I was a teenager, singing the hymns that were hundreds of years old, listening to sermons on holiness, sin, and hell - didn't bother me a bit.

The watered down messages preached from today’s pulpits wouldn’t offend a soul; yet the bible tells us that Jesus and the Apostles offended many. "Woe to you when all men speak well of you". When you preach the truth of the gospel and those who are not living up to the holiness that God commands – many will be offended; and for their own good. But this is not happening today, the lamp has been covered under a bushel and the church is not longer a shining city on a hill. If your message as a pastor doesn't offend a sinner, you had better ask yourself if you are even preaching the gospel. Pastors need to feed and equip the flock and prepare them for the coming persecution and strengthen them to stand for God no matter how unpopular or "irrelevant" the church will be to society. The church is going to have to accept that it is cannot remain relevant with a society that is headed towards Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jesus and His apostles knew that the only way to build a church was to preach God's law and repentance for the remission of sins. Read the book of Acts chapter 2; Peter preached a message that was so convicting, a message of repentance that pierced the audience's hearts telling them "You crucified the Son of God..." God adds to His church through the preaching of repentance for the remission of sins - not by giving out hot dogs and hamburgers. We often preach and across the way from us on campus the Lutherans have a little table and are giving out brownies and treats - mocking our preaching at the same time. They like most churches have lost their way and don't know what they believe much less what to preach, so they give out cookies and milk in hopes of adding a few members to their friendship club (church).