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To: George W. Bush
Nor am I.

The funny thing about the entire seeker sensitive movement is that in an effort to draw pagans into the church, they have made the church look just like the outside world.

Think about it.

They decry modern music, but then have heavily amped praise bands that don't sing hymns, but ditties that proclaim themes like "Jesus is my boyfriend."

Don't preach Christ crucified. That turns the unsaved off. Instead Jesus is your friend who dispenses the same advice you can get on Dr Phil. Somehow, the very "advice" that Christ dispenses is not recognized for what it really is, LAW. It will condemn the unbeliever just as quickly as the 10 Commandments.

Let's not call it a church. That turns people off. Call it a worship center that better reflects the prior two observations.

I suppose I can go on and on. At a meeting my Arminian pastor once threw out the term seeker sensitive. I asked him to show me where in Scripture the pagan was called to worship God. He looked at me quizzically and I told him God's people are called to worship Him, not the pagan, so why are we talking about tailoring the worship to the unsaved. Plus since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, let's focus on preaching the Law and Gospel and grow the Church the way God has set out to do.

A worship service is the goal of evangelism, not the place for it....
21 posted on 07/21/2006 9:00:40 AM PDT by Gamecock ("God's sheep are brought home by the Holy Spirit, and there won't be one of them lost." L R Shelton)
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To: Gamecock; George W. Bush

Too many these days think the church is for the unsaved. Uh uh, it's a place for believers to come together to worship Christ in a corporate setting and to take part in the Lord's Supper with one another.


24 posted on 07/21/2006 9:07:49 AM PDT by ksen ("For an omniscient and omnipotent God, there are no Plan B's" - Frumanchu)
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To: Gamecock
They decry modern music, but then have heavily amped praise bands that don't sing hymns, but ditties that proclaim themes like "Jesus is my boyfriend."

Yikes. We have some of those 7-11 songs (7 inane words each repeated 11 times to banging rhythms). I guess there are worse things.

A worship service is the goal of evangelism, not the place for it...

I generally agree but I think there's room for some evangelism in our worship. But not for false evangelism of the kind that suborns scriptural truth to the palatable mouthings of easy-believerism.

I was amazed recently at a related incident. A man known to our church but not known as a Christian came to church. In the midst of the prayer requests and testimonies portion of the service, he spoke up and declared he had trusted in Christ as a result of reading the Bible. Within a few months, the ignorami in this church were ascribing his salvation to the preacher. That is, the preacher the man had never even heard preach. And he did proceed to preach a miserably uninspiring sermon and even got lost in his text several times. I thought about inquiring whether the deacons or preacher had pursued the issue of baptism with him but I realized it was probably more merciful to a new Christian not to raise the issue with people that don't grasp that God can use many things, commonly employing scripture, to cause a man to confess and trust Christ as savior. It's quite unsettling to see (nominal) Baptists who are this confused.
26 posted on 07/21/2006 9:13:00 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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To: Gamecock
At a meeting my Arminian pastor once threw out the term seeker sensitive. I asked him to show me where in Scripture the pagan was called to worship God. He looked at me quizzically and I told him God's people are called to worship Him, not the pagan, so why are we talking about tailoring the worship to the unsaved. Plus since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, let's focus on preaching the Law and Gospel and grow the Church the way God has set out to do

Amen. What was his response?

40 posted on 07/21/2006 11:30:18 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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