“This is NOT your Father’s church”

By: Dana Slingluff, Via Camden Avenue Church Bulletin

This past week, when we were in the Nashville area visiting our son, I noticed a flyer that had been inserted in the community section of his newspaper. It was an advertisement for a new church that was being started in that community. (My son, said, “they’re always starting new churches here.”)

It was obvious that they were appealing to young, successful, professional-type people. The language was very “hip” as it described the new church. To accommodate everyone’s busy schedule there would be only one service—Sunday evenings at 5:30 P.M. People were assured that it was all right to “come as you are” from the ballgame or the lake or whatever they had been doing. The worship hour would be a “multi-media spectacular” incorporating music performance and drama. Afterwards there would be “Starbucks coffee and gourmet ice cream for everybody.”

The mission of the church was to “do church in an uplifting way,” provide family time in a Christian setting, and for the people of this prosperous community to reach out to the poorer sections of town with service projects. The “hook line” used to draw people? “This is not your father’s church.” My thought was “they have said more than they intended” –only I was thinking of our Heavenly Father.

We must always be cautious not to confuse what is happening with what is right. It may be true that catering to what people enjoy will fill an auditorium, but worship is about pleasing God. Greg Tidwell wrote an article, The Church of What’s Happening Now, in which he warned of five indications that a church is drifting away from the purpose and design for which God created it.

· Beware of any change in worship designed to gratify an audience rather than to glorify God.

· Beware of any shift of congregational focus away from the first century pattern of worship, edification and outreach.

· Beware of any shift in teaching and preaching away from the text of Scripture.

· Beware of outside influence diluting God’s truth. Such influence may come from the world, from other congregations or from religious institutions.

· Beware of complacency. Any church not longing to excel stands in danger of evil’s assault.

·

The psalmist warned “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” (Psalm 127:1) Let’s be sure that the church we build is our Father’s church.

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