What Is Going On?

What is this? What’s going on in this current evangelical climate?

This movement calls itself Christianity and has retained some of the trappings, but it looks less and less like the New Testament and more and more like something our self-worshiping culture has invented. What takes place inside our proudly nondescript-looking buildings is veering sharply away from a cross-carrying message and embracing wholeheartedly the religion of self-esteem. We must FEEL good about God, or we aren’t satisfied. Unless we have a worship “experience,” we don’t think we’ve had church. So we’ve found a way to induce plenty of emotional surges we assume are spiritual. And if they’re not, who cares? We like them better anyway.

The largest church in America is pulling in the crowds with its continuous assurances that God thinks they’re all awesome. God's precious promises to His own are tossed to the masses as though they were written to anyone within the sound of the leader’s voice. Worship bands fill stadiums with people seeking these emotional surges, giving them what they want: shrieking guitars, thundering drum rolls, fog machines, and sensual voices designed to elicit a shiver of delight. Read the lyrics to one of those top “worship songs,” You Say by Lauren Daigle. Ask yourself: Who is being worshiped? “God” is mentioned once, in a whisper, and could just as easily have been omitted. This could be sung to a boyfriend, lover, mentor, or friend. 

How is this anything like the worship the Lord demands it in scripture?

What we are experiencing is not biblical Christianity and it can’t even be called a religion because the requirements for participants are few. Sunday mornings are aimed at pleasing the general public and making sure they come back. Coming back is the goal. As long as they come back, we’ve got a success story.

So what keeps them coming back? That’s the question that dominates staff meetings, drains the budget, and plagues ministry leaders. How do we get them to come back? Above all, we must avoid the mistake Jesus made when He boldly proclaimed: “Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” (John 6:56). Verse 66 then says, “Many of his disciples turned away and no longer followed Him.” 

Ooops! Did Jesus mess up? Should He have told them something they weren’t ready to hear? Maybe He would have benefited from a study in cultural relevance or a Church Growth conference. And the apostle Paul was downright insensitive. 

We certainly don’t want to make that mistake, so we pad our messages and our music with soft words that no one could object to. What we call “worship music” has now disintegrated into peppy lines with only vague references to a generic God who loves us and that’s it. We don’t want to drag out all His other attributes, because some of them make us uncomfortable. Song-writers are quietly replacing songs about the cross with lyrics that celebrate our feelings about it—and we scarcely notice the shift. As long as it’s got at least one half-reference to something biblical, we decide it is an acceptable song for worship. But the real goal for lyricists is this: Be sure this song makes the Billboard Top 100. And the real goal for worshipers is this: We wanna sing whatever's popular right now.

Songs about the love of God are wildly popular. Even unrepentant reprobates can croon about it with hands in the air, having a moment. Who could object to this theme: “God loves me. God pursues me. God does everything He can to find me so He gets to be with me. God’s love is amazing, universal, and requires nothing of me.” We jump in the river, slide over a waterfall, and sing about oceans, but who are we really worshiping? When Sunday morning devotion does not translate into Monday through Saturday living, we were never really worshiping God at all. We are worshiping a better version of ourselves.

Doctrine is a thing of the past. True study of scripture is too tedious for this smartphone generation, so we satisfy ourselves with inspirational tweets and favorite verses that don’t make us uncomfortable. One leading pastor is discouraging use of the Old Testament, claiming it is just too controversial for this generation. Above all, we must not make anyone uncomfortable. So meetings of the so-called church are ones any active homosexual could enjoy. Dating couples who had sex the night before can enjoy the chance to feel spiritual. Why would pedophiles, porn addicts, alcoholics, or the dishonest need to stay away? There is nothing in our services that would convict them in the slightest. Instead, they are assured that “nobody’s perfect” and “we’re all broken,” so join a life group and be one of us.

This is not the church. This is not Christianity. This is not biblical and this is not right. The freest nation in the world is knowingly shackling itself to the prison guard of public opinion. We are squandering the few days we have left to shout truth from the rooftops, choosing instead to murmur to our visitors that Jesus will make their lives better, so why not sign up. Nothing to lose. By the time we are legally silenced, will much in our services need to change? Who would object to the feel-good, watered-down, self-esteem building rallies we call worship services? I wonder if Jesus would even recognize what we call “church.”