The “Modern” Church Service

Here is an interesting video that shows a parody of the “modern” church service. It clearly shows how many churches are focused on the wrong things.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJBd8zE48A&w=640&h=360]

Churches are trying to be “relevant” in today’s society by  making their “worship” focused on entertainment and meeting the needs of its members with coffee shops, restaurants, etc. They want to do whatever they can to make church “fun” so they can attract more people to come to their church. Here are some important questions that must be considered:

Whatever happened to the gospel being the power to make disciples? Churches that try to draw in the masses with things other than the gospel are not trusting in the power of the Gospel. These things do not convert people to Christ.

Who is your worship more about? You or God? If you are going to a church because you are more entertained by their worship, you need to repent. Worship should NOT be about you and what you can get out of it. It should be all about glorifying the Lord.

Are churches looking too much like the world? I believe they are, and because of this they are at enmity with God. Friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God.

Would the Christians in the times of the Apostles look at your church as faithful if they came to one of your assemblies? History shows that the New Testament Christians and the Christians in the first few centuries of the church did not even use instruments, let alone full bands, light shows, etc. Early Christians may look at worship services that are done today and ask, why are these services so carnally focused?

Is attracting the lost to church with entertainment, coffee shops, and restaurants Biblical? It is funny how this question is never asked! Attracting the world into the church assemblies is not biblical at all. The example we see in the scriptures is not that the lost were attracted into assemblies, but instead the Christians went out, made disciples by the preaching of the gospel, and then brought saved people into the assemblies.

As you can clearly see, I have my opinions. What are yours?

Supporting Chick-Fil-A: For the Gospel or for Our Rights?

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)

As I have been sitting back and watching how “Christians” have responded to this Chick-Fil-A (CFA) fiasco, I have been surprised to see and hear some of the things I have about why some are showing the support they are to CFA. Some are supporting them because of the boldness of Dan Cathy in proclaiming his views about Biblical marriage. Some have supported CFA because they like chicken and they need another excuse to go. Some people went to CFA on Wednesday to show their support for free speech. Is it only me, or does it seem that some people that claim to be “Christians” are more interested at times in defending their rights as citizens than they are for the Gospel of Christ? My second question is, “How did your going to CFA on Wednesday in any way help in the spread of the Gospel? Did you take the opportunity while you were there amongst hundreds of people to hand out gospel tracts? Did you share the gospel with anyone? The answer to these questions may show how strong our allegiance is to our rights and defending ourselves and our views  in comparison to our allegiance to the Great Commission that Christ gave us.

Also, should we not be expecting that the things that we may say that are the teachings of God will be ridiculed and spoken evil of? Jesus said that people will hate us if we belong to Him, and then we get outraged when the public wants to boycott a company that takes a stand for Biblical values. The world is responding to Dan Cathy’s remarks about marriage exactly the way Jesus said.

Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.(1 John 3:13)

Based on this, how much does the world love you? How much does the world hate you and what you have spoken from the pages of God’s word? The truth is that most of the time the world doesn’t even know that we are Christians, and because of this the words of Jesus may ring true way too often that the world loves those who are like them (John 15:19).

We must be careful to show that we love all of these people in sin and desire for them to be saved. Whenever we take stands like so many Americans did on Wednesday, let’s make sure our purpose is not to defend our rights, but to glorify God and to further the gospel.

If we are not preaching the gospel on the streets and in our communities with the current “freedoms” that we have, what will we do if or when those freedoms are taken away?