Just A Little Ranting

Okay, many of the people that visit this blog live in the Muncie area. Many of you may have heard some commercials on the local radio stations for a new church in town. The church makes claims to be relevant (other churches are irrelevant), tolerant (other churches and Christians are intolerant), and to have cool music (if you've heard the commercial, you may question their definition of "cool music"). As I hear their commercials, I often think to myself, "This sure sounds like Church-lite."

Let me tackle these things briefly:
a) On Being Relevant- I believe that it is important for all churches and Christians to be relevant. If we are to win people to Christ, we need to be meeting people where they are at. We need to offer ministries that will reach out to the hurting, the lost, those seeking in ways that will speak deeply to the needs of their hearts. The commercial accuses churches of being irrelevant. Well, I've often found that the messages that are put forth by churches like this tend to be more along the lines of "5 Steps to a Happy Life" and less along the lines of the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. I don't know what this church preaches, but from the sounds of their commercials, it's probably close to prosperity gospel teachings. If we want to be relevant, we need to reveal the wonder, fullness, and richness of the Gospel. We need to bring the Word to life in ways that will penetrate through the walls that people have set up. In becoming relevant to our society, many churches are tossing out the Gospel in favor of messages that sound more like self-help seminars. Jesus was relevant because He drew people into Himself. That's what we need to do today...draw people closer to Him. My prayer is that this church is doing all it can to help people experience the life-changing grace of Christ in a real way.

b) On Being Tolerant- This is probably the issue I struggle with the most. Is the church really supposed to be tolerant? Isn't the tolerant attitude of the modern church partly responsible for the idea that the church has become irrelevant? If the church becomes tolerant, how will it look different from the world? Was Jesus tolerant? Jesus was full of grace, but He was never tolerant of people's sin. He never said, "I know that you have a lot of sin in your life, but that's okay." He said, "I know that you have a lot of sin. You can be forgiven if you believe. Now, go and sin no more." He didn't give the message, "Oh, it's okay that you mess up. As long as you're trying to figure it all out." He did say, "Pick up your cross daily and follow me." Tolerant? Hmm. So, I guess it'd be okay for a person to be an alcoholic, closet homosexual, wife beater because, after all, they are tolerant!

c) On Cool Music- If you are going to make the bold claim that your church has cool music, be sure that your commercial contains cool music. My goodness...it's really as simple as that. I could go on for hours about this topic. But, I'll save you all from that.

d) On Wearing Blue Jeans- Big freakin' deal. Is it really that radical for someone to wear blue jeans to church? Does wearing blue jeans qualify one's church as being relevant, tolerant, and cool?

e) On Labeling Other Churches- I feel like it's okay for me to go on a little rant towards this church because, well, they started it. In all honesty, we should all be in this together. There shouldn't be any of this..."we're cool, you're not" business. The truth is God uses all kinds of different churches to draw people to Himself...traditional, contemporary, postmodern, etc.

f) On Being Different- This church claims to be different than all the other churches you've been to. Really? I truly find that hard to believe. I wonder what crazy stuff their doing that I haven't seen done before. What exactly is different? Do they pray? Do they sing together? Do they have a sermon? Hmm...they pray, they sing (remember, they have cool music), they have a sermon (remember, the pastor is the one up front in blue jeans). So, what's different? It really sounds like any other seeker-senstive, contemporary worship church. Different? Um, I wonder.

Well, I hope and pray that God is using this church to enrich people's walks with Him. I hope and pray that all Christian churches are being faithful to the Gospel and doing all they can to spread the Word.

Every time I hear this commercial, it drives me nuts. Mainly because it discredits the work of so many other churches. Maybe I should go check this church out. Maybe it's only their commercial I struggle with. I don't know...I'd probably struggle seeing the pastor in blue jeans (hahaha).