The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians to be ready for non-Christians to visit their church, but he did not encourage them to let go of what distinctly made them a church 1Co 14:23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 1Co 14:24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 1Co 14:25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. Most Christians who are involved in a local church have probably heard of the term “seeker-sensitive.” As a result, such Christians likely know what the term means. Critics of the term rightly claim that lost people are not “seeking” the true and living God because unbelievers are spiritually blind and dead in sin and trespasses. Even so, they do have the ability to be curious, which in a sense, is seeking. Some churches change their worship service to accommodate the potential likes and dislikes of lost people. Many churches employ an evangelism strategy that is centered on inviting people to their church’s worship service where a minister promises to and plans on sharing the gospel. Some scholars of evangelism call this a cop-out for those who are unwilling or ashamed to personally share the gospel, but it could simply be a good place for some to start when beginning to practice sharing their faith. Certainly, we wouldn’t want to stop with the practice of inviting people to church events as we mature in sharing our faith. Hopefully we can grow to share our personal salvation testimony and a good presentation of the exclusive gospel of Jesus Christ. It certainly is the New Testament model for Disciples of Christ. I am not an advocate of making worship comfortable for lost people. I do understand modifying styles of music, for example, to match a particular context or to reflect the ethnicity of a community. Two extremes exist in this area of contextualizing for ministry. First, some churches become so seeker-sensitive that they gut the worship service of any biblical content, trying not to offend, and the gospel and glory of God vanishes away. Second, some churches need to make what might be minor changes, but believe their traditions are as canonized as the books of the Bible. They fail to change or update anything, call it the “old time way,” and become a theatre for believers. It is true, however, that the meetings of the church are primarily for Christians. However, Paul, in the above text talks about the unlearned or unbeliever showing up as spectators of all that was going on in the Corinthian worship services. As in Corinth, lost people will come to our worship services, whether through invitation or their own curiosity. The only change that Paul seems to be saying to the church at Corinth is that they needed to have holy things in a certain order. Paul writes throughout chapter 11, 14, and other chapters about how to order a worship service with a bunch of charismatic Christians in one room and even touches on church discipline. Paul didn’t encourage them to change a thing except their disorderliness. He said that if the Corinthian Christians were out of order when it came to speaking in tongues, for example, visitors would think the church folks were crazy. He encourages the church to put a laser focus on “prophesying” or what some say is synonymous with today’s practice of preaching God’s Word. The goal and prayer of the church concerning visitors is that visitors, after hearing or during the hearing of God’s Word being preached, would be “convinced” that the gospel is true, “judged” by God’s Word that they are guilty and in need of the gospel, convicted by the Holy Spirit of the “secrets of their heart” or how depraved their hearts/minds really are, and as a result of all of the above, fall down on their face and “worship God.” Sometimes we do need to change some things in order to relate to our community as we would do at any other location that we would plant a church or try to conduct any type of mission. We could sing hymns in Honduras, but would not, for example, sing hymns in Honduras in the same country music style we sing them in the Southeastern United States. So contexualization in missions should occur anywhere we are trying to be “all things to all people.” However, if we change to the point that we lose the identity of our Lord and Savior being the Head of the church, the focus of our worship, we lose the very thing worth everything and the reason for being a church. We just need to be in order and ready to preach the Bible in a loving and responsible way and potentially change some minor things to fit into our context. God will do the rest. Peace of Christ to you, Kevin Boone
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 01:04:22 +0000
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