American Church

Max Lucado is a wonderful and inspiring writer. Few can match his ability to bring fresh insights, infuse substance, and bring clarity to both the commonplace and complex things of life. One of his website posts was titled “Simply ‘Church’.” He posed two questions, “…what would happen if all the churches agreed, on a given day, to change their names simply to ‘church’?…if there’s no denominations in heaven, why do we have denominations on earth?”[1] His point was that we should not attend a church based on the sign outside, but we should join our hearts to the hearts of the people on the inside.[2] This is a noble sentiment and reflects the Apostle Paul’s admonition to the Romans, “Now the God of patience and […]

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, aliens would devour it. [Hosea 8:7. RSV] Many modern evangelical churches have foolishly sown to the wind and are reaping a whirlwind. As a result, many of their once faithful members are abandoning evangelicalism and seeking solace elsewhere, having found that much (though not all) of modern evangelicalism is merely a confused and pitiful shadow of the once stalwart champion and defender of New Testament Christianity but which now has little to offer other than what the world already has given. The abandonment of evangelical New Testament Christianity in America is being hastened by two significant occurrences—one of […]

As noted in Chapter 1, the church over the course of its history has suffered attack from within (theological compromise) and without (cultural compromise), but the principal thrust of both attacks can be described as nothing less than the diminution and final abandonment of biblical truth. Within the theological realm, the diminution and abandonment of truth has occurred because the church has failed to recognize and resist the spirit of the world which has invaded the church. The spirit of the world during an age of rampant humanism has redefined and compartmentalized the meaning of truth in all spheres of American life. Decades of this humanistic view of truth has been absorbed in varying degrees by most American Christians and many evangelical churches. As a […]

“Ouch!” was Bill Hybels’ response to the results of a 2004 survey of the spiritual growth and well-being of the congregants at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. Hybels had pastored Willow Creek Community Church for thirty years (as of 2005) using the seeker-sensitive Church Growth movement model of doing church. Since 1992, Hybels also had indoctrinated twelve thousand churches and their leaders with those same methods and practices through the Willow Creek Association (WCA). As a result of the 2004 survey, the church commissioned a three year study to delve into the reasons for the discontent and lack of spiritual growth in a large segment of those attending Willow Creek. The reasons for the survey results that shocked Hybels and his staff gradually emerged […]

Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, is the largest congregation in America having over 40,000 who attend the 16,800 seat nondenominational Christian mega church. From their base at Lakewood, Pastor Joel Osteen and wife Victoria preach an upbeat message to a worldwide audience of 200 million. The essence of their message can be found in Osteen’s best-selling book Your Best Life Now. Too many times we get stuck in a rut, thinking we’ve reached our limits. But God wants us to constantly be increasing, to be rising to new heights. He wants to increase you in his wisdom and help you make better decisions. God wants to increase you financially, by giving you promotions, fresh ideas, and creativity.”[1] In other words, God wants you to be […]

There is one incomprehensible moment in all eternity and creation’s flow of time at which the Creator’s incarnate Son was executed. Jesus was nailed to a rugged cross by His special creation—man. In Chapter 16 the tripartite story of mankind was briefly outlined: the Creation, the Fall, and Redemption. Before the foundations of the world were laid and before the creation of man, God knew man would reject Him, and He also knew the cost of that rejection. Because His holiness cannot abide the corruption of sin, sinful man was separated from God. Yet, God made a way for man’s sin to be washed away allowing return to a right relationship with Him. But that way would cost the death of God’s son on the […]

The modern American church has mistakenly sought to accomplish its mission through the attainment of cultural relevance by introduction of man’s ideas and methods and abandonment of unchanging biblical truth and authority in order to make the church acceptable to a culture that no longer deems itself fallen. As a result, many in the today’evangelical churches are abandoning a forthright proclamation of the gospel and replacing it with conversations about tolerance, charity, understanding, goodwill, and other noble-sounding objectives defined and dearly held by a humanistic culture. But once again we must look to the pithy writings of A. W. Tozer for wisdom and clarity. “When men believe God they speak boldly. When they doubt they confer. Much religious talk is but uncertainty rationalizing itself; and […]

John the Apostle began his gospel with these words, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God.” [John 1:1. KJV] From this single verse we can know that God and His word preceded creation. Thus, the word of God is eternal and His truth unchangeable. It reflects His holiness and commands. God’s word was given to the authors of the Bible through inspiration. Their inspired thoughts and verbalizations were recorded and man received revelation about the nature and character of God and man’s place in the story of creation, the Fall, and restoration. When we accept the Word we acquire wisdom and are given everlasting life with Him. Because Satan is the enemy of God, he […]

The foolishness of preaching Writing to the Corinthians, Paul described his calling as an apostle of Jesus Christ. “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” [1 Corinthians 1:17. KJV] In the next verse Paul explained that how preaching was received by the hearers depended on whether they were saved or lost. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” [1 Corinthians 1:18. KJV] Matthew Henry wrote that the power and success of Paul’s preaching was not based on the wisdom of man’s words …lest the success should be […]

Doing church To achieve the goal of balance among the five purposes (fellowship, discipleship, worship, ministry, and evangelism), Rick Warren organized the Purpose Driven church around two concepts. According to Warren, the Life Development Process is the “what we do” at Saddleback. Circles of Commitment illustrate the “who we do it with.” Circles of Commitment contain four concentric circles surrounding a core. The goal is to move low commitment/maturity people from the outer circle to high commitment/maturity people at the core.[1] In this concept of “who we do it with,” the outer circle represents the community or unchurched where the purpose of evangelism occurs. This is a pool of lost people that occasionally attend but have made no commitment to Jesus Christ or the church.[2] […]