SEEKER
SENSITIVE MOVEMENT
Churching the
unchurched is an absolute fallacy – it is like
purposing to let the tares in. It is absolutely bizarre
to want to make unsaved people feel comfortable in a church. The church is not
a building – the church is a group of worshiping, redeemed, and sanctified
people among whom an unbeliever should feel either miserable,
convicted and drawn to Christ, or else alienated and isolated. Only if the
church hides its message and ceases to be what God designed the church to be,
can it make an unbeliever comfortable.
What we need
most are seeker-sensitive lives, not seeker-sensitive services.
Mark Dever and Paul
Alexander
The
Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers,
Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 209, www.crosswaybooks.org.
Seeking God?
We have totally revised corporate worship services to be sensitive to
“seekers.” If worship were to be tailored for seekers, it would be directed
exclusively to believers, for no one except believers ever seeks God (Rom.
3:9-12).
R.C. Sproul
None Righteous, Tabletalk, April 2004,
p. 7, Used by Permission.
The
gratuitous leap of logic comes when church leaders think that because people
are searching for benefits only God can give them, they must therefore be
searching after God. No, they want the benefits without the Giver of the
benefits. And so structuring worship to accommodate
unbelievers is misguided because these unbelievers are not seeking after God.
Seeking after God begins at conversion, and if we are to structure our worship
with a view to seekers, then we must structure it for believers, since only
believers are seekers.
R.C. Sproul
Good Intentions Gone Bad, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 6. Used by Permission
of Ligonier Ministries.
One does not
structure the church to meet the felt needs and desires of the tares. The purpose of corporate assembly, which has its
roots in the Old Testament, is for the people of God to come together
corporately to offer their sacrifices of praise and worship to God. So the
first rule of worship is that it be designed for believers to worship God in a
way that pleases God.
R.C. Sproul
Good Intentions Gone Bad, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 6. Used by Permission
of Ligonier Ministries.
The modern
movement of worship is designed to break down barriers between man and God, to
remove the veil, as it were, from the fearsome holiness of God, which might
cause us to tremble. It is designed to make us feel comfortable.
R.C. Sproul
How Should We Then Worship? Tabletalk,
January 2005, p. 7. Used by Permission.
If there were
such a thing as a seeker, what would he be seeking? The church growth movement
seems to believe he would be seeking more of the same. In a world consumed with
lighthearted entertainment, we offer up less professional, less entertaining
lighthearted entertainment? Why, I keep wondering, would a “seeker” get up on a
Sunday morning, and travel to some giant box to hear a third rate rock band
preceding a third rate comic giving a third rate “message” that leaves him in
the same state that he arrived in?
R.C. Sproul Jr.
Pragmatic
Principle, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 59. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
A service
that might attract the lost would be one that does not hide the transcendent,
but reveals it. A service that might attract the lost would be one that does
not deliver more of the same, but that shows forth the One. A service that
might attract the lost would be one heaven bent on giving a map, rather than
celebrating being lost. A service that might attract the lost would be one that
panders to those who are sick of being pandered to, by refusing to pander. A
service that might attract the lost would be one that offers discomfort to
those who are sick and tired of being comfortable… If anyone is seeking, he is
seeking what he has not found in the world.
R.C. Sproul Jr.
Pragmatic
Principle, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 59. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
It’s all the
rage today. If your church is struggling to reach people and be relevant, do
away with preaching, hymns, and anything traditional. Instead, do what successful corporations do:
give people what they want. A hip environment, convenient services, lots of
contemporary music or drama, and maybe a catchy campaign. Downplay doctrine or
Christian lingo. If you must preach, keep it short and upbeat. That is
the seeker church movement that’s rapidly transforming – and even splitting
– countless congregations.
Author Unknown
Promotional Material from Grace to
You.
Whatever means you use to get people into the church is precisely
what you must use to keep them. If you get them with a 'religious circus', then
you must keep the circus going – keep up the entertainment. If you get them
with biblical preaching and teaching, then that will keep them
and you will not need the entertainment.
Ernest Reisinger
The size of
the crowd rather than the depth of the heart determined success. If the crowd
was large then surely God was blessing the ministry. Churches were built by
demographic studies, professional strategists, marketing research, meeting
“felt needs” and sermons consistent with these techniques. We were told that
preaching was out, relevance was in. Doctrine didn’t matter nearly as much as
innovation. If it wasn’t “cutting edge” and consumer friendly it was doomed.
The mention of sin, salvation and sanctification were taboo and replaced by Starbucks,
strategy and sensitivity.
A Shocking “Confession” from Willow
Creek Community Church, "Bob Burney Live," WRFD Columbus, Ohio.
Used by Permission.
Men may be
seeking religion, a way to sooth a guilty conscience, or some way to resolve
their problems and to feel good about themselves, but men do not seek God on
their own. When the church's regular worship services are redesigned as seeker
services to emphasize evangelism, (contrary to God's pattern found in Ephesians
4), the result is that the saints are hearing the gospel fifty two Sundays a
year, and are not being built up in the faith. Redesigning the main church
service in order to appeal to the lost is a departure from God's plan. It may
be appealing to men, it may add to the "numbers," but is it not a
better idea to design the church and worship services after the pattern set by
the One truly responsible for the increase (I Cor.3:6)?... The Biblical pattern
is that the regular meetings of the church were primarily for the believers,
not for the lost. When the gathering of the saints was over, THEN evangelism
was to begin in earnest!
J. Delany
The Purpose of the Church, Used by
Permission.
For many
churches, designing worship has become most closely associated with that which
will best suit the attendees or best attract the hesitant church-goer, rather than that which is most pleasing to God.
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Worship
is a holy expression before a holy God. To invite nonbelievers into such a holy
process is a precarious thing, and to design worship in such a way as to
accommodate their secular mindset is not only ineffective evangelism but also
severely compromised worship.
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
If
we are obsessed with making our Christian worship comfortable and non offensive
to those who hate Him, we are in danger of denying Him and His call to holy
living. Are we justified in taking such a risk, only that we may not offend?
Surely Christians are not to seek to offend, but Christ says those who
follow Him will be offensive – it is unavoidable.
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
The
act of purposefully designing worship to accomplish the goal of evangelism is
without biblical precedent… We may worship through evangelism, but never are we
instructed to evangelize through worship.
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Nobody loves
the unbeliever more than Jesus. (Rom. 5:8) He is the true Seeker come to
seek and save the lost. But Jesus was not "seeker sensitive" as the
term is used today. There were many who came to Jesus only to be turned away
because they had come for the wrong reason.
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Some would
suggest that Jesus was “seeker sensitive” in that He worked His miracles in
order to attract large crowds to which He could share the gospel. But in
several passages it is plain this is not His motive: Mark 5:43; 7:36; 8:26, 30;
and Luke 4:9-12 (and these are by no means exhaustive). Clearly, Christ did not
intend these miraculous works for public exploitation. There is little to
indicate Christ worked miracles in order to draw a crowd. He was opposed to
selling the gospel by appealing to their love for the sensational. (See Jn.
2:23-25)… He sharply rebuked the five thousand for seeking Him for merely
physical satisfaction. Jesus did not teach us to draw people to Him by
appealing to their senses. Instead He claimed full responsibility for drawing all
to Himself by way of the cross (Jn. 12:32); therefore, exalting Christ,
"and Him crucified," is to be the primary object in worship, as well
as evangelism. (See Rev. 5:8.)
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Neither
can we say the disciples were “seeker sensitive.” In Luke 10:10-16 Christ gave
seventy of His most faithful followers specific instructions to symbolically
“shake the dust from their feet” as a rebuke to those who do not accept the
gospel. He doesn't tell them to try a different method, revise their message,
or buddy-up to the people in an effort to win them over. Instead they were to
do exactly as Christ had commanded, preaching the gospel He had declared and ministering
in His name, no matter what the result. And what about Paul?
Hear again Galatians 1:10: “For do I now persuade
men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still
pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Instead of seeking to
be a people-pleaser, the true disciple, and thus the true worshipper, mirrors
Christ's uncompromising zeal to please the Father.
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
If the aim of
the church is to grow, the way to do it is to make people feel good. And when
people discover that there are other ways to feel good, they leave the church
they no longer need. The relevant church is sowing the seeds of its own
irrelevance, and losing its identity to boot. The big question today has become
how to get the baby boomers back, what techniques and methods will do the
trick. Polls are taken on what baby boomers want and churches are competing to
make sure they get it.
Carl Braaten
The Gospel for a Neopagan
Culture, Eerdmans, 1995, p. 19.
Contemporary
Christian literature is awash with the notion that, in order to be effective
and successful, we must respond to market forces. In earlier generation, such
an approach was unheard of. The tactic employed by Paul in Corinth was far
closer to the model of the day. “Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.” That was his message. Even though the Corinthians we demanding
miracles and wisdom, Paul did not give them what they wanted. Indeed, he
continued to supply the one thing they clearly did not want – preaching. He
rejected the style and content that was most acceptable in his day… It is not
possible to give people what they want to hear and proclaim the message of the
Cross at one and the same time.
Alistair Begg
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 178-179.
Religion
today is not transforming the people – it is being transformed by the people.
It is not raising the moral level of society – it is descending to society's
own level and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because
society is smiling accepting its surrender.
A.W. Tozer
Our drive to
evangelize and our desire to grow numerically have led us to “use” worship as a
tool to reach the lost. We have gone so far as to turn our worship services, as
opposed to evangelistic services, into "seeker-friendly" meetings, so
the world will feel at home when they come into the house of God. We should
always be sensitive to the unsaved, but nowhere in Scripture are we told to
accommodate the world in what God calls the believer to offer to Him.
Ron Owens
The Worship Service: A Hindrance or a Highway
for Revival, Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.
Worship, as
we find it in Scripture, is the exclusive right, privilege, and responsibility
of the child of God. It is spiritually impossible for an unbeliever to worship.
The prevailing idea that the church needs to sound like the world in order to
win the world demonstrates a serious misunderstanding of what church really is.
It demonstrates more concern with what the world thinks than with what God
thinks.
Ron Owens
The Worship Service: A Hindrance or a Highway
for Revival, Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.