Sunday Sermons
The Real User Friendly Church
The Real User- Friendly Church
Have you heard the latest fashionable idea called the “user-friendly church’?: “The experts are now telling us that pastors and church leaders who want to be successful must concentrate their energies in this new direction. Provide non-Christians with an agreeable, inoffensive environment. Give them freedom, tolerance, and anonymity. Always be positive and benevolent. If you must have a sermon, keep it brief and amusing. Don’t be preachy or authoritative. Above all, keep everyone entertained. Churches following this pattern will see numerical growth, we’re assured; those that ignore it are doomed to decline” (Ashamed of the Gospel, John F. MacArthur Jr., p. 45).
Right Idea—Wrong Definition
Let me start this lesson by saying that I am not against the idea of the church being “user- friendly”, I think everything should be user friendly, from my computer, to my car, to my microwave oven, all innovations should be easily used by the user. What is objectionable is churches calling themselves “user-friendly” when, sadly, they are not. For example:
Any church that allows visitors to think they are saved, then they are not saved, is not user friendly! Any congregation that allows members to remain in sin or in sinful relationships—is not user friendly. Any church that does not teach people what the word of God truly says is not being useful. Any church that does not warn people even about the reality of hell is not being useful or genuinely friendly. Any church that does not preach the whole counsel of God is not being useful (Acts 20:27).
Useful Churches
Seeing that the church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is the head (Ephesians 1:22-23), a useful church seeks to be in subjection to the head on all matters and faithfully relates Jesus’ will to all who will hear. Churches are being useful when they perform their task of making known God’s truth and defending it (1 Timothy 3:15). Any church that presents a standard different from Jesus’ expectations is not being useful (Galatians 1:6-9). One mark of a useful church is that one will find out quickly where one stands before God. A church is being user-friendly when the lost find out, without much delay, that they are indeed lost (Acts 2:37; 8:36) and need a Savior. Something is wrong if I can attend a congregation for years and be unaware that I am even lost.
The Non-Offensive Myth
The idea that avoiding doctrinal topics or discussions about sin or judgment is non-offensive preaching is false. It certainly offends God, and all who love the truth. I’m not sure where people got the idea that this is a good thing, because non-offensive preaching has a horrible track record in both Testaments:
- “Who say…to the prophets, ‘You must not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions’” (Isaiah 30:10). Sweet little lies help no one.
- “Everyone is greedy of gain, and from the prophet even to the priest. Everyone deals falsely. And they have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘peace’, ‘peace’, but there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:13-14). In this passage observe who watered down preaching seems to bring improvement for a while—yet it is superficial healing.
- “And by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting” (Romans 16:18). Obviously, smooth and flattering speech is easy to listen to, and does not demand change, and yet change is what prepares us for eternity.
- “But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” (2 Timothy 4:3). We must desire life-saving truth more than continual comfort in this life.
The prophets, John the Baptist, the apostles, and Jesus Himself practiced this particular style of preaching and church growth.
John the Baptist challenged his generation with a firm message—“repent!” (Matthew 3:2). Part of his message included a clear warning about hell fire for all who did not repent (Matthew 3:12). Jesus preached the same message of repentance (Mark 1:15). In the Sermon on the Mount He specifically addressed the sins that are common to man of every age: hate, murder, lust, adultery, divorce, lying, hypocrisy in religion, paganism, greed, worry, false teachers, lip service to God and failure to obey Him (Matthew 5-7). Jesus basically violated about every rule of the faddish “user-friendly church" movement. The apostles were just as uncompromising in their preaching, to be specific, they taught:
The current generation was crooked, wicked and doomed (Acts 2:40). Drastic and immediate action was needed, including repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38). The current generation was rebuked for being rebellious (Acts 7:51), Jesus is the only way to God (Acts 4:12), the Judgment Day is a reality (Acts 17:30), and all other religions are a sham (Acts 17:22ff).
The Customer is Not Sovereign
When God authored the Bible, He consulted no one. There was no poll, marketing survey or attempt to find out what “the unchurched” wanted or thought they needed. When people say that the church needs to meet people’s “felt needs”, one needs to underline the word “felt”. A “felt” need is an emotional need that people think they have—but people can be dead wrong about what they actually need (Jeremiah 10:23; Proverbs 16:25). The gospel was not designed to meet perceived needs, rather, it was designed to address real spiritual deficiencies. Unlike false teachers, God never tries to "sell us" something we really don’t need. Neither does God waste our time by addressing all sorts of secondary things which are not the issue at all. For example, if I am presently engaged in sin, I might not have good self-image, or my self-esteem might be low. Yet God doesn’t spend a lot of time addressing either of those issues, rather, He focuses on the real problem, that is, my sinning. Therefore, the call to humble ourselves and repent is the quickest solution to my real problem (James 4:1ff).
Ananias and Sapphira
I never hear the term ‘user-friendly church’ without thinking of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. What happened there flies in the face of almost all contemporary church-growth theory. The immediate result was that God did something in the church in Jerusalem that was so scary that all the members of the church were afraid (Acts 5:11), and fear came upon everyone who heard about the event (5:11) to the extent that some unbelievers did not want to become part of this group (5:13 “None dared to associate with them”).
Lessons to be Savored
- The particular sin which brought about the swift deaths of two church members is not one that a lot of people would consider to be very serious, neither now nor then. This is not an uncommon sin. Lots of disingenuous people give money under false pretenses, or want to appear more generous or spiritual than they really are. If the elders of a congregation demanded the death penalty for a member who did this today—most people would consider it a big overreaction, yet that was precisely God’s reaction. We must love truth, even when it gives us a personal or social disadvantage.
- “The contemporary user-friendly movement aims for just the opposite. Rather than arousing fear of God, it attempts to portray Him as…easygoing, lenient, and even permissive” (MacArthur, p. 63).
- One will not hear much about the judgments of God in the Old Testament in many modern “user-friendly” groups, yet this example is nothing more than a repeat of the principle that we find in the Old Testament. Whether we are talking about the lesson of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-3) or Achan (Joshua 7), the principle is the same, God’s people need to take God seriously, and treating Him as holy means obeying Him, for sin in the camp will not be tolerated.
- If one stops their reading of this particular text at Acts 5:13 "But none of the rest dare to associate with them”, one might walk away erroneously thinking that after this event, this congregation never converted anyone else and the church here eventually died out. Yet there is more:
“However, the people held them in high esteem”: Acts 5:13
In other words, a certain part of the community respected Christians because of this event. Some wanted to have nothing to do with the movement, like perhaps the merely curious, yet others greatly respected this congregation. They admired the standards, the expectations, and that sin was taken seriously. I wonder how many Jewish people thought to themselves, “Boy, we could use a purging like that in our synagogue!” Remember, good and honest people expect a church to be strict and have high standards—after all, it is a church! Notice that the apostles did absolutely nothing to soften the impression in the community. They did not say something like, “Hey, we need to reinvent ourselves” in order to present a more positive image. Nope. No apologies, no advertisements in the paper, no retractions, and no clarifications. They did not try to “spin” the event, i.e. “What God really meant was…”
“And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number”
The congregation where God publicly struck two members dead because of “mild” lying—experienced tremendous growth! Why? Because events like this or preaching like that of John, Jesus and the apostles quickly weeds out the curiosity seekers and focuses in on only those who are prepared to pay the cost of true, life-changing, and rewarding discipleship (Luke 14:26ff). It equally prevented the congregation from being filled with half-committed people who would only water down the intensity of the group—which would bring spiritual death. It was God’s way of making sure that a congregation that had instantly grown from 3000 to 5000 was filled with 5000 genuine believers rather than flakes, ensuring that the congregation would remain sound and continue strong into further generations. Let’s then be both friendly and useful, by honestly telling people what they actually need to hear in the most loving way possible. Let's share life-beautifying truth in season and out of season! (2 Timothy 4:2)
Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.com
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net
