What about Movie Clips? Applying the Regulative Principle

I had been a pastor for just a few months when a faithful church member sought me out to discuss the use of media in the services. He had led previous pastors to incorporate video and sound clips, and he wanted to be of help to me. He started off with a question kind of like this:

 

“So, what do you think about movie clips in the services?”

“Well, I really hadn’t planned on using media in the services.”

“Really? I’ve been involved in worship for quite some time, and it’s a pretty effective way to communicate.”

“Yeah, I don’t doubt that. But I’m afraid it might distract people from the heart of the service, the singing, preaching, and praying of the Word.”

“I wouldn’t think of it as a distraction, more of an addition, it makes the whole service better.”

“You might be right, but I really want our focus to be on the power of God’s Word to engage and excite us, so I’m going to stay away from movie clips.”

That’s about how the conversation ended. We were two grown men who both love the Lord but with different viewpoints on what would most honor God and be helpful to this local church. If you were in my shoes, how would you have answered his question?

Over the years, I’ve been asked to weigh in on many such issues related to our Sunday morning service.

Should we have Independence Day bunting? I said no, after figuring out what bunting is.

Christmas decorations? I said yes.     Continue at Aaron Menikoff

Thoughts on The Purpose-Driven Church (18 years later)

Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven® Church is now 18 years old. It is the best-selling book on church ministry philosophy ever.

Warren is sensitive about complaints that his overtly pragmatic strategy for church growth leads to doctrinal compromise, so he subtitled his book, "Growth Without Compromising your Message & Mission." He insists throughout the book that you can follow his "seeker-sensitive" model of ministry without compromising or watering down your message. On page 244, he writes, "A worship service does not have to be shallow to be seeker sensitive. The message doesn't have to be compromised, just understandable."

But then, just a few sentences later, he writes, "The unchurched . . . do want to hear how the Bible relates to their lives in terms they understand and in a tone that shows you respect and care about them. They are looking for solutions, not a scolding."

Notice how quickly Warren undermines his own commitment not to compromise the message. People don't want to be scolded, he tells us. And yet Paul told Timothy that Scripture is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). How do you preach reproof and correction—not to mention instruction in righteousness—without someone feeling scolded?

I frankly don't think it's the business of the preacher to trouble himself with whether people feel scolded. The preacher's task is to unfold the meaning of Scripture in a clear, authoritative, and persuasive manner—and if people feel scolded when Scripture rebukes them (as they inevitably will), then that is between them and the Lord. As a matter of fact, as preachers, we are instructed to reprove and rebuke, as well as exhort—with all longsuffering and doctrine (2 Timothy 4:2).

Doctrine?

Doctrinal preaching also takes a hit from Rick Warren. Notice in that quote that I cited above, he says, "The unchurched . . . want to hear how the Bible relates to their lives." He makes clear throughout the remainder of the book what he means by this. He is arguing for an emphasis in our preaching that is practical rather than doctrinal—more "emotional, experiential, and relational" than didactic. He is dismissively critical of what he calls "classroom churches." In Warren's words: "Classroom churches tend to be left-brain oriented and cognitive focused. They stress the teaching of Bible content and doctrine, but give little, if any, emphasis to believers' emotional, experiential, and relational development" (p. 340).

Now I happen to believe that all doctrine is inherently practical—or at least I would say that there is inherent practical value in understanding and defending sound doctrine. Furthermore, all legitimate religious emotions, experiences, and relationships are a believing heart's response to biblical truth soundly taught: doctrine.  Continue at Phil Johnson

A Trumpet Blast for Christian Men

In the midst of the posing, effeminized, quasi-adolescent pastors who populate the “stages” of American seeker and emerging churches today, a sure blast from the trumpet from the godly pastors of old is a welcome sound. Horatius Bonar was one of those who issued a certain sound from God’s Word during his ministry. He didn’t pander to the unsaved, he didn’t try to cast himself as relevant, he didn’t take on the behavior and appearance of those on their way to hell. He stood like a man and delivered the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. He also took trouble to disciple those who were converted by teaching them from the Word of God. No whining about “context”, no talk of seismic spiritual shifts and new paradigms, no fog blowing, no calls for a “new kind of Christianity”, just the truth delivered to his listeners, straight between the eyes. Here’s a message he delivered in the 19th century which is a powerful and needful today as it was when it was first given. It is directed to men. How desperately we need godly men today who will stand in an hour of apostasy and compromise.

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The Seeker Sensitive Movement Al and RC

 

HT: Truth Matters

Calvin on the Church Growth Movement

I am convinced that the vice behind much of the "seeker-sensitive" and "church-growth" movements is impatience. The natural human impulse is to want results—and to want them now! So we dream up ways and means to make the "church experience" palatable to the unregenerate, instead of breaking their hearts with the Law and providing the remedy through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The failure to make people understand their true condition before God, not in the level of their "felt needs," needs that are perceived through the filter of the carnal mind, but in the relationship of the Creator who demands His image to be perfectly represented in the only creature who bears it, effectively closes the door to the good news—the news that God has made a way, through His Son, for His demands to be spotlessly met in man if only man would know who this Son is, believe in Him, and trust Him for the solution to the problem—for if the problem is a lack of self-esteem, a lack of leadership, a lack of success, then only a false gospel will suffice.

Calvin thus speaks the truth:

"And, therefore, though some may murmur, and others scorn, and others slander, and though many differences of opinion may arise, still the preaching of the Gospel will not be without effect; so that we must sow the seed, and wait with patience until, in process of time, the fruit appear" (John Calvin, Commentary on John — Volume I (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classic Ethereal Library), John 7:31). Underdog Theology

The "Seeker"-Sensitive "Gospel" Leads Men Straight to Hell

"The Seeker-Sensitive Movement: Your Thoughts Al and R.C..."

HT: Reformation Theology

The Church is Changing, What is Emerging?

The Seeker Movement - David Wells

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

The following description is taken from YouTube - GRK

First, I highly recommend reading this article by Christian Smith:
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

If you go to a "Christian Church" where they actually are against preaching the Scriptures, it's a good chance that you're not going to a Christian church at all. Christian Smith has coined the phrase to describe this new religion that is permeating many of these "seeker" churches as "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism".

Here is how Smith breaks down the religion:
1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in ones life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

Here are the words "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" broken down:

Moralistic: Characteristic of or relating to a narrow-minded concern of the morals of others; self-righteous

Therapeutic: Having or exhibiting healing powers: a therapeutic agent; therapeutic exercises.

Deism: Strictly, the term denotes a certain movement of rationalistic thought which was manifested chiefly in England from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century.

Affirmatively, deists hold to
(1) the existence of a personal God, Creator and Rule of the universe;
(2) the obligation of divine worship;
(3) the obligation of ethical conduct;
(4) the necessity of repentance from sins;
(5) divine rewards and punishments, here, and in the life of the soul after death. These five points were stated by Lord Herbert Cherbury (1583-1648), called the father of deism.

Negatively, the deists generally denied any direct intervention in the natural order on the part of God. Though they professed faith in personal Providence, they denied the Trinity, the incarnation, the divine authority of the Bible, the atonement, miracles, any particular elect people such as Israel or the church, or any supernatural redemptive act in history."

(Adapted from Baker's Dictionary of Theology, s.v. "Deism")

It's another religion, folks, and it completely explains why passages in the Bible are selectively cited while others are overlooked. For those of you who are familiar with the "seeker" movement: think about the verses they selectively cite. Do the verses, out of context, not support the religion of moralistic therapeutic deism? Do not the verses that are omitted speak against the religion of moralistic therapeutic deism?

Thanks to Mark Kielar and CrossTV for allowing this video to be posted. To get this program, go to http://www.crosstv.com or call 1-877-CROSSTV