The Downward Spiral

You don't have to be a Lutheran to figure out that the "seeker sensitive" church isn't being faithful. Calvinist brother Les Lanphere nails it when he answers the question "What happens when the importance of numbers outweighs the importance of truth?" in his blog post titled "The Downward Spiral of Seeker Sensitivity." You can read his post on his blog Killer Robot Ninja.

A highlight:

Before too long the subtle changes turn to blatant shifts. The management begins asking for money for future needs as they look forward to bigger buildings and bigger staff. In reality, they have no choice. The people who understand what it means to give money to the Kingdom are leaving. The growing audience of unbelievers doesn’t know what sacrificial giving means, so they must be convinced to donate. Promises of prosperity, through twisted Scripture, are the obvious next step. The poor donations of the ‘new converts’ and unbelievers just compounds the need for an even bigger audience to ask for contributions from.

His conclusion:

If you are in a Church like this, or you know of one that is falling into this hopeless pattern, pray to God for restoration. He is the only hope. The flesh will never repent of this greed, only through the Spirit can God wake this kind of Church up.

Let’s love our brothers who may have made mistakes. Let’s sympathize with their good intentions. Let’s point out their error in love, and call them to repentance in gentleness. With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

photo credit: domnit

HT: Florence