IS BEING "SEEKER-FRIENDLY" TRULY FRIENDLY?

We came across a thought-provoking article recently that points out the problems of a church "going seeker-friendly." Here are some of the more convicting parts:

"I once read through a stack of newspaper and magazine articles that highlight a common thread in the user-friendly phenomenon. These observations from newspaper clippings describe the preaching in user-friendly churches:

• 'There is no fire and brimstone here... Just practical, witty messages.'
• 'Services at [the church featured in the article] have an informal feeling. You won't hear people threatened with hell or referred to as sinners. The goal is to make them feel welcome, not drive them away.'
• 'As with all clergymen [this pastor's] answer is God– but he slips Him in at the end, and even then doesn't get heavy. No ranting, no raving. No fire, no brimstone. He doesn't even use the H-word. Call it Light Gospel. It has the same salvation as the Old Time Religion, but with a third less guilt.'
• 'The sermons are relevant, upbeat, and best of all, short. You won't hear a lot of preaching about sin and damnation, and hell fire. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching. It is sophisticated, urbane, and friendly talk. It breaks all the stereotypes.'
• '[The pastor] is preaching a very upbeat message... It's a salvationist message, but the idea is not so much being saved from the fires of hell. Rather, it's being saved from meaninglessness and aimlessness in this life. It's more of a soft-sell.'

"So the new rules may be summed like this: Be clever, informal, positive, brief, friendly, and never, never use the H-word." - John MacArthur

"When a sinner wanders into the church and sits through skits, mimes, interpretive dances, and the like, and yet never hears a clear, convicting message about his dangerous and tenuous spiritual situation – that he is a depraved sinner headed for an eternal fire because he is a daily offense to a holy God – how can that be called successful? You could achieve the same level of success by sending a cancer patient to receive treatment from a group of children playing doctor. A sinner must understand the imminent danger he is in if he is ever to look to the Savior." - John MacArthur

"I fear there are some who preach with the view of amusing men, and as long as people can be gathered in crowds, and their ears can be tickled, and they can retire pleased with what they have heard, the orator is content, and folds his hands, and goes back self-satisfied. But Paul did not lay himself out to please the public and collect the crowd. If he did not save them he felt that it was of no avail to interest them. Unless the truth had pierced their hearts, affected their lives, and made new men of them, Paul would have gone home crying, 'Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?'...

"Now observe, brethren, if I, or you, or any of us, or all of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amusing men, or educating men, or moralizing men, when we shall come to give our account at the last great day we shall be in a very sorry condition, and we shall have but a very sorry record to render; for of what avail will it be to a man to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds, and heaven and earth are shaking, and the pit opens wide her jaws of fire and swallows up the soul unsaved? Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the judge, and if still, "Depart, ye cursed," shall be his portion?'" [Charles Spurgeon; Soul Saving Our One Business, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 25 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1879), 674-76.]

May we see more pastors raised up with a passion for the lost - a passion that will force them to not mince words! May we see more pastors raised up with a passion for the found - a passion that will force them to biblically feed the sheep!

SAVING THE LOST

Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture men from the devil's clutches and the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

--C.T. Studd (1860-1931) was an English missionary who faithfully served His Saviour in China, India, and Africa.

CARNIVAL & OTHER OPEN AIR ADVENTURES

After flying all night from Houston, TX to Rio de Janeiro - with intermittent sleep - we arrived at our Brazilian home across the bay from Rio on February 16, 2010. I had a few hours to rest before finally getting my shot at doing some serious evangelism during Rio's world famous - and largest - Carnival. I had intended to preach with Ruben Israel of Bible Believers at Mardi Gras (the U.S. version of Carnival) in New Orleans, but we had to come back to Rio a few days earlier than originally planned due to space limitations on the flights right after Mardi Gras/Carnival.

I understood, after talking with Alexandre, a guy I'm discipling from Candido Mendes University (UCAM), that I'd be preaching with the aid of 2 or 3 guys from the Jews for Jesus Carnival project in the homosexual district of famous Ipanema. However, it became clear that the local Jews for Jesus leaders weren't about to associate their group with a hell fire preacher accompanied by a bullhorn and confrontational banner. So, suddenly, I was on my own. I could have submitted to their approach and been able to don the project t-shirt, but I was anxious to inaugurate my banner - with "You Deserve Hell" and a quote of Rev. 21:8 on one side; a quote of Heb. 10:31 on the other - in sin-soaked Rio de Janeiro. And boy was Rio "sin soaked!"

The first group I encountered in the park just two blocks from the homosexual district was a group of guys (who turned out to be homosexuals) waiting for a bus. I was walking with my banner unfurled and preaching from my bullhorn. It is amazing how people react to the statement "You deserve hell." Even well-meaning, so-called Christians seem to cringe at this biblically true statement (based on such well-known verses as Rom. 6:23 and Rev. 21:8). In my humble opinion, evangelism today is more defined by the culture than by the Bible! Oh, for a return to God's word for our evangelistic training - vs. such emphases as "We need to be connecting with the lost," "You've got to earn the right to be heard" or "That was appropriate for that time period, but this is the 21st century."

Not wanting to take away from legitimate and necessary changes in one's approach (e.g., evangelistic films, the evangelistic use of the Internet, etc.), have people really changed? My Bible tells me that no, people are still sinners under condemnation and in need of a Savior. That's why I still see - and expect to continue to see - a need for confrontational evangelism. Talking about a biblical method that is also one of the most cost-effective ones around! An open air evangelist can literally give thousands of people the bad news they so desperately need to see and hear so that they will either stop to ask him - like they did Peter in Acts 2 - how to be saved or, at least, go their way with God's relentless Word pounding away in their consciences.

Back to Ipanema (Remember the famous Bossa Nova song The Girl from Ipanema?), my homosexual "listeners" began to get a bit too agitated for my tastes. I was getting verbally "assaulted" from all sides to the point of not being able to adequately handle their objections and questions. Meanwhile, a thirty-something woman got into the fray, tearfully asking me for help. What I couldn't figure out was what exactly she needed help with! Finally, amidst all the confusion - complicated by my lack of sleep - I decided to walk to another part of the park. I was initially followed by several homos, who took it upon themselves to "denounce" me to those within earshot. One even hit my banner after trying to grab it and pull it down, but his friends called him off. Another kept unplugging my microphone from my bullhorn while I tried to preach, but I was just grateful he didn't try to cut the cord like some have done with a couple of my open air preacher friends.

I started preaching toward a heterosexual night club and was told I should go home since it was past my bedtime! One indiscreet woman expressed her disapproval of my message by bending over and "flashing" me with her gluteus maximus! A guy kept telling me to preach to his friends - by name - who had cans of beers in their hands. The "flasher" then threw her can of beer in my direction, but was well off the mark.

I decided to move on and preach to the folks waiting at the bus stop on the other side of the park. That group was calm and seemed particularly attentive. When I moved in the direction of the side of the park where I had encountered the homo crowd two guys stopped in front of me to read my banner. I soon discovered that they were Irish, so I had a good time challenging their presuppositions regarding the bible and Jesus Christ - in English! One of them seemed more "in tune" with the things of God, but the other was in blatant rebellion against his Maker.

I made one more attempt to preach to the nightclub on the other side of the park, and to my surprise, encountered two Americans - one from my old stompin' ground of San Diego. They both wanted pictures with me before discovering that I was a fellow American with a banner - in Portuguese - that said "You deserve hell." One told me in a rather crude way that I was courageous (i.e., "Bill, you've got b_ _ _ _!"), while I challenged each to seriously consider their true condition before a holy God and how to remedy it. One of the Americans - an airline pilot - told me he'd meet up with me again somewhere to continue the conversation . . . as he walked off with his Brazilian "date" (i.e., one-night-stand?).

It was already 3:00 a.m. and I could tell I was too tired to keep going, so I packed it up and headed for home. However, my curiosity led me to check out the Lapa area of downtown Rio, which is notorious for being one, big all-night block party during Carnival. Things were all lit up with hundreds of people still going strong at 3:30 in the morning. Next year I know where I'll be going! The Ipanema park was dimly lit, had at any given moment only 75-100 people in it and NO POLICE! The Lapa makes more sense . . . next year!