The Fad-Driven Church

. . . The dictionary defines a fad as "a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal." This could just as well be a description of congregational life of many Christian churches today.

There is a new book, a new program or a new emphasis every year or so. It's all anyone can talk about; it's all the preacher preaches about - for a while. Then, as quickly as it came, it's gone. As eagerly as it was received, it's abandoned and forgotten.

At first this might not sound like a problem. Some Christians can remember when the Church didn't jump from bandwagon to bandwagon every year or two. But for others, this is all they have ever known. For them, it is hard to imagine what the Church would be like without the constant ebb and flow of church fads. For them, the long list of church fads represents their personal history as a Christian: Spiritual Gift inventories, Spiritual Warfare, Promise Keepers, Weigh Down Workshop, The Prayer of Jabez, the Left Behind Series, Becoming a Contagious Christian, a long succession of evangelism and stewardship programs, and most recently, The Purpose-Driven Life and 40 Days of Purpose. There are many Christians for whom this list (give or take one or two) is Christianity. Some church fads come and go, some come and stay. A few are genuinely harmless; most contain serious theological error. All are popular - while they last. In the fad-driven-church, "exaggerated zeal” has replaced "the faith once for all delivered to the saints." l

In the course of hosting Issues, Etc., I've examined most if not all of the recent church fads. I am always surprised - not by the fads themselves, but by something else.. I am always surprised by how uncritically churches accept a fad, how enthusiastically churches embrace a fad and how carelessly churches abandon a fad. That is why this article isn't about the fads themselves, but about the kind of churches that accept, embrace and abandon fads.

Every fad has a life cycle. The fad is first accepted, then embraced and finally abandoned. For the fad-driven church, this life cycle is a way life.

The cycle begins with acceptance. The fad-driven church is practiced at this. Too close an examination of the fad at the outset might raise too many questions. "After all, this book is a best-seller!" "Thousands of churches are doing it, how can we go wrong?" Accept first, examine later, if at all. This acceptance may come through the pastor's active promotion or through grassroots popularity. Either way, the fad spreads like wildfire in the congregation.

The cycle continues with enthusiastic embrace. By "enthusiastic" I don't mean excitement or emotion, although those things may be involved. What I mean is that the fad-driven church embraces its latest fad with creedal intensity. While the fad has currency, it is an article of faith. Belief in the fad becomes a mark of loyalty to the church. During this phase of the fad's life cycle, critics of the fad may be dismissed as unloving, judgmental or unconcerned for saving souls. At the very least, they are viewed as troublemakers and obstacles to the church's mission. During this phase, in some cases, the fad may dictate what is preached, the content of bible study or even the focus of congregational life.

The life cycle ends with the abandonment of the fad. Some fads have a built-in expiration date... most simply linger until something better comes along. The fad-driven church may cling with a martyr's fervor to the fad while it lasts, but everyone knows that its days are numbered. Sooner or later it will have to be abandoned. Accept the fad, embrace the fad and abandon the fad: This is the life of a fad-driven church. There are exceptions to this life cyc1e. In a few cases a fad doesn't die; it grows into something bigger than a fad. It grows into a movement... I have often been critical of church fads at the height of their popularity. After several encounters with fad defenders, I noticed something. The seasoned member of the fad-driven church will defend his fad today. But he will happily abandon the same fad six months from now. I realized that the fad itself is inconsequential; everyone knows that it will be forgotten sooner or later. Christians caught in the cycle of church fads must defend a particular fad, because by doing so, they are defending their willingness to accept, embrace and abandon fads in general. They are defending their fad-driven-ness.

The need of discernment in the Church is one of the most frequent admonitions in Scripture.2 Paul's warning to the Ephesians is typical:

We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects unto Him, who is the head, even Christ.3

The church is supposed to stand immovable against "every wind of doctrine." By contrast the fad-driven church is a windsock. If you want to know which way the wind is blowing, the latest teachings, the newest programs or the most current methods, just look at the fad-driven church, If you want to know what the fad-driven church will be doing next, just walk through your local Christian bookstore or page through a Christian publisher's catalogue.

In the fad-driven church, books, programs and seminars are evaluated primarily by their sales, popularity and attendance record rather than on their theological merit. "False teaching? Why would so many churches be reading this book if it contained false teaching?”…Can millions of Christians be wrong? Yes, they can.

Ironically, the fad-driven church often excuses its lack of discernment in the name of saving souls. It justifies its appetite for fads in the name of evangelism. "Whatever it takes" is the creed of the fad-driven church. "Whatever it takes to reach the lost" is supposed to be a courageous new strategy for evangelism. But "Whatever it takes" is not a strategy. "Whatever it takes" is an admission that you have no strategy. Sinners aren't saved by "whatever." Sinners are saved by what Jesus did at the Cross. "Whatever it takes" is just another way of saying, "Whatever people want," or "Whatever everyone else is doing." Rather than seeking the lost, the fad-driven church is just seeking its next fix.

Some advocates of church fads take the "Eat the meat, spit out the bones" approach to false teaching. They claim that practicing discernment means spitting the "bones" of error while eating the "meat" of truth. There are several problems with this approach. First, it assumes that a church fad contains only isolated false teachings, like so many bones in a fish. But many church fads don't just contain false teaching; they are based on false teaching... Second, the "bone spitting" approach assumes that the errors of the latest church fad will be obvious to everyone. Often they are not. In the 2nd century, Irenaeus battled the fad of Gnosticism. He observed:

Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than the truth itself.4

The "inexperienced" are still infants in the faith. Would you give an infant a fish to eat knowing that there were bones in it?

Finally, the "bone spitting" approach fails to recognize that a continuous stream of fads will erode the church's ability to discern truth from error. With every new fad, the fad-driven church grows less able to recognize the truth. In time, the fad-driven church is unable to discern the true Gospel. Paul found this to be the case among the Corinthians:

If one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted; you hear this beautifully.5

This is the bottom line. A church willing to tolerate some false teaching will eventually tolerate any false teaching - even a false gospel, a false spirit and a false Jesus. For this reason, when it comes to: false teaching, Scripture's command isn't to "bone-spit," but to avoid it altogether.6

...Os Guinness has written recently about the "idol of relevance" and accurately described the mentality of the fad-driven church:

And of course, whatever is next must be a great deal better still... The past is beside the point, outdated, reactionary, and stagnant. In a word that is today's supreme term of dismissal, the past is irrelevant, Everything Christian from worship to evangelism must be fresh, new, up-to-date, attuned, appealing, seeker- sensitive, audience-friendly, and relentlessly relevant... ."All new," "must-read; "the sequel that is more than equal” - the mentality is rampant and the effect is corrosive.7

Rather than making the church more relevant, this mentality only makes the fad-driven church more susceptible to fads and more desperate;

Relevance without truth encourages what Nietzsche called the "herd" mentality and Kierkegaard "age of the crowd. "Further compounded by accelerated change, which itself is compounded by the fashion-driven dictates of consumerism, relevance becomes overheated and vaporizes into trendiness.8

Feverishness is the condition of an institution that has ceased to be faithful to its origins. It is then caught up in "a restless, cosmopolitan hunting after new and ever newer things.”9

They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water [Jeremiah 2:11-13]. This explains the short life span of so many church fads. It is the result of desperation. The fad-driven church's new cisterns are broken. They can't hold water. Even while the last drops drain from the old cistern, the fad- driven church must desperately dig a new one. But the new cistern is as leaky as the old one, so the digging must go on.

William Inge said, "Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.” Take away the fads, and what of the Church is left in the fad-driven church? In some cases, what's left isn't the church at all, but a collection of principles, practices and ideas that don't add up to anything resembling the Christian faith. Rather than "the pattern of sound words"10 there are only the remnants of past fads.

In the name of saving the lost, the fad-driven is trading the saving message of the Gospel for the newest gimmick. If such a church does reach the lost, will it have anything to say that can save them? ... Will the fad-driven church give Christians Jesus or Jabez, lasting forgiveness or the latest fashion?

And for the member of the fad-driven church who has known nothing but fads, will these fads leave her a Christian on her deathbed (or will she be left wondering what that whirlwind of best-sellers, seminars, video sermons and three-ring binders was all about?)

The church that wraps its identity and mission around the evanescent desires of finicky consumers, will run the risk of creating a church as ephemeral as those desires.11 Will the fad-driven church remain the Church? In its “exaggerated zeal for all things new, will it hold fast to the unchanging message of the Cross?”

We live in an age of pious distractions. We live in an age of church fads. The fad-driven church has structured its life around the trends and innovations of the day. Christian publishers and the mega-church gurus are ready to provide something new as often as the masses demand it. But St. Paul encourages and warns the Church:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead; and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.12

The Church has something better than any fad. The time has come. Ears are itching. Ears are turning. The Church must take up Paul's charge. Now more than ever the Church must preach the Word and ignore the fads.

Many in the fad-driven church believe that preaching the Word is impractical: "If just preaching the Word worked, people would be lining up at the door." Others in the fad- driven church believe that preaching the Word is outdated: "It may have worked 50 years ago, but not today." Others believe that preaching the word is just too simple, Rick Warren has said as much,

We've all heard speakers claim, "If you'll pray more, preach the word; and be dedicated; then your church will grow." Well, that's just not true. I can show you thousands of churches where pastors are doctrinally sound; they love the Lord; they're committed and spirit-filled and yet their churches are dying on the vine.13

This is nonsense. How can a church that is preaching the Word, of God be "dying on the vine?" Paul tells the Church to preach the Word not because it is the most practical way, or the most current way, or the simplest way. Paul tells us to preach the Word because it is the only way. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified; to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.14

G.K. Chesterton said, "The Church always seems to be behind the times, when it is really beyond the times; it is waiting till the last fad shall have seen its last summer. It keeps the key of a permanent virtue." That key is the Gospel, the message of the forgiveness of sins purchased at the Cross, with the blood of Jesus.

That key is the Gospel proclaimed to every sinner every Sunday... Yes, this Gospel is popularly believed to be impractical, outdated, and simplistic. But it isn't. Rather, this Gospel is "power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. 15

Without this Gospel, the Church is at the mercy of every new fad. However, with this Gospel, the Church really is beyond the times.

As I write this, my 12 year-old daughter is convinced that hip-hugger bell-bottoms are the greatest idea in fashion history. I don't have the heart to tell her that I used to think so too. She thinks her father looks old-fashioned and lacks all sense of style. I don't have the heart to tell her that I look back at pictures of my bell- bottom days and laugh. I don't have the heart to tell her that someday she will do the same. The Church is an old man who has been wearing the same clothes in the same style his whole life. He refuses to change with the fashions. He simply lets the fads pass him by. Yes, he seems behind the times. But look again at what he is wearing. He is clothed in Christ.

2 Romans 16:17; 1 Cor. 14:29; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 1:9; Phil. 1:8-11; 2 Thess. 3:6; 1 Tim. 4:6, 16; 6:3-5; 2 Tim. 1:13; 2:15; 4:3-5; Titus 1:7-14; 2:1; 1 John 4:1; Hebrews 5:14.

4 Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus Haereses, 1.,2, in The Ante-Nicine Fathers, vol, 1, Alexander Roberts and James Donalson, ed., Hendrickson, 1994.

6 Gal. 2:4-5; 5:9; 1 Cor. 5:6; Phil. 3:2; 2 Thes. 2:15; 1 Tim. 4:6-7; 6:20-21; 2 Tim. 1:13-3:1-17; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 3:17-18; Rev. 2:14-16

7 Os Guinness, Propheti imeliness, A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance, Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003, pp. 40, 76.

8 Os Guinness, Dining with the Devil, The Mega- church Movement Flirts with Modernity, Rapids: Baker, 1993, p. 63.

11 Philip Kenneson, James Street, Selling Out the Church, The Dangers of Church Marketing, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997, p. 20.

13 Rick Warren, "Rick Warren Interview" at http://www.pastors.comiportal/new/Ricklnterview.asp

14 I Cor. 1:21-25; Also Matt. 24:14; Luke 24:46-47; Romans 10:17; 16:25-27; 2 Cor. 4:5; Col. 1:25-28.

Thanks for sharing that story. I totally agree with you. Over last night (since this thread was posted yesterday), I thought over some of the comments here, and I came to recognize that Rick Warren's work and books fill a niche, they bring to people's attention some things about their relationship and God's purposes that perhaps they've never thought of before. In that sense, they are instructional, and provide needed encouragement and admonition for many. But some have approached Warren's work as some sort of be-all formula for church or individual growth, and I'm not sure even he intended his work to be so used.

Follow Christ!...and if Warren's works bring a person to the point where they are determined to follow Christ, then they've been helpful.

I agree, but I also know that God has laid out a course for us to run, like a cross-country course, and He wants us to move along that course, to mature, to grow in our capacity to know, experience, love, and serve Him. I'm not saying anything you or anyone else here doesn't already acknowledge and agree with. I will only add that although the basic gospel, and the basis of obedience and faith (the same thing, to my understanding) are simple, Paul tells us in Eph. 3 that there is a knowledge of the depths of the love of Christ that are beyond comprehension...knowledge beyond comprehension...beyond the ability to even describe. Having been entranced by the simplicity of the gospel, Christ is always calling us "further in and further up" to paraphrase Lewis. I don't begrudge Christian teachers who have started countless people on that journey, but there is also a need for teachers who are always just a bit ahead of us, urging us onward.

Agreed

I've always said if it takes a circus to get them there it will take a circus to keep them there.

But there is a section of society that we have to reach for Christ, and they are the hardest to reach. The ones that like action and "circuses." We as a Church of the Living God need to do a good job of reaching them under His leadership.

Spurgeon Said:
"We cannot go on as some churches do without converts. We cannot, we will not, we must not, we dare not. Souls must be converted here. And if there be not many born to Christ, may the Lord grant to me that I might sleep in the tomb and be heard no more. Better indeed for us to die than to live if souls be not saved. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies, and if they perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

What is this "discipled life" that you're referring to? To me, my reading of the Word of God tells me to preach the Gospel, love not the evil world system, use my gifts to glorify God and bless and love others, and seek greater Christlikeness. All of those things, RW teaches in the PDL.

Reading, telling, loving not the evil world system, using your gifts and glorifying God is practiced everyday around the world by other religions, such as Islam. How can that be? Because it is something that most do because it is expected of them as good "religious people." When Warren "teaches" such he is doing so from a position of a works-related mentality that will, hopefully in the minds of the practitioners, find favor with God.

The discipled life, which includes the above, is the "natural result" of dying to self. Whereas in one realm, one has to be encouraged to "do," whereas in the latter realm no encouragement is needed because when one is dead to him/herself, the Holy Spirit has total freedom to move through the disciple. Big difference indeed.

I can guarantee you that Warren doesn't teach the biblical understanding of discipleship, because if he did he would NOT have 20,000 people, most of whom are not committed, coming to hear him.

I can guarantee you that Warren doesn't teach the biblical understanding of discipleship, because if he did he would NOT have 20,000 people, most of whom are not committed, coming to hear him.

Where do you get off claiming that most of the 20,000 people who come to hear Warren preach are not committed Christians? Do you know every one of them? Do you have a direct revelation from God telling you this?

What makes your walk with God better than theirs? Are you holier than them?

I think sometimes the purpose gets confused. I mean, clearly we're commanded to reach the lost. But there's also a lot of text about ministering to the flock. Ministering to each other. I think that sometimes a local church can get so caught up in "reaching the lost" or maybe just growing or the sake of getting bigger, that they ignore the command to minister to their own.

Excellent words and you're exactly right regarding the function of the Church.

It is my view that the Church is to be the expression of Christ in the world, an expression that is totally and completely antithetical to that of the world. This is accomplished when God's people are gathered in public, as in the Book of Acts, where the love and devotion to EACH OTHER is seen by their unbelieving friends and community.

It is this "incarnation" that should be taking affect in the Body of Christ today but sadly isn't, that negates the need for gimmicks and programs for "outreach." The Church is the Body of Christ and thus MUST minister to itself by defering (i.e., serving) to each other in love. When this happens, people will flock to Christ, as they did in the Book of Acts, where they were added "daily."

The so-called "Great Commission," in my opinion, was spoken only to the apostles by Jesus, telling them to "go and make disciples." It is these disciples that made up the churches, local expressions of Christ scattered about, that brought most of the souls into the Kingdom, not preaching on purposes or G12 global "government," et al. Nothing has changed for us today except that we have long departed the biblical principles of church, which has now become so similar to the world, as to the heirarchial structures, buildings, organizations, CEO pastors, etc., that it has lost its appeal, which was and is designed to be totally different from the world.

Reading, telling, loving not the evil world system, using your gifts and glorifying God is practiced everyday around the world by other religions, such as Islam

What on God's green earth are you talking about? Muslims don't KNOW God, because they haven't accepted the only Son of God, Jesus Christ. So how can they be glorifying God?

whereas in the latter realm no encouragement is needed because when one is dead to him/herself, the Holy Spirit has total freedom to move through the disciple. Big difference indeed.

I'm in agreement with what you're saying here, but how does this speak against the PDL? What if, in the Holy Spirit's working, Rick Warren is doing exactly what God wants him to? Then RW would be "dead to himself". I say it would be hard for you to say that RW isn't "dead to himself", unless you be God Himself and I'm not aware of it

I can guarantee you that Warren doesn't teach the biblical understanding of discipleship, because if he did he would NOT have 20,000 people, most of whom are not committed, coming to hear him.

Outrageously ridiculous comment. I think another poster accurately addressed this by saying, how do you know what's in the hearts of 20,000 people? Like I said in a previous post, I imagine there were people at the day of Pentecost when 3000 people came to the Lord (and later in Acts when 5000 came), people that were saying "oh this can't be of the Lord, IT WAS JUST TOO EASY, they aren't real disciples, this really isn't of God" blah blah blah... But it ALL was of God. And remember that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

By the way, your numbers are a little off anyway, now Saddleback is up to 35,000 ;)

It's fun talking, anyway...

Reading, telling, loving not the evil world system, using your gifts and glorifying God is practiced everyday around the world by other religions, such as Islam.

The evil world system is epitomized by Islam. They no more glorify God by their religious practices than pigs glorify God by flying.

I really have to worry about a person who claims to be a Christian who would extoll the virtues of Islam and in the same post question the committment to Christ of 20,000 people who get up early on Sunday morning to hear a gospel message preached by Rick Warren. And why do you question their committment? Because they'd rather hear a postitive God glorifying gospel message from a preacher like Rick Warren than an angry Christian-bashing Pharisaical message by some preacher like you?

/rant

There are so many issues here. The attention span of todays human. People have been searching for the truth in the scriptures for years. How it applies and relates to them. Part of it has to do with the conflicting messages sometimes given in scripture. Other times, it has to do with the traditions of the varioius denominations that use a scripture here or there to advance thier theory of a Godly walk or salvation while assuring followers that those who don't embrace this may have salvation at risk.

Additionally, when the scriptures were recorded and for many of the first 1500 years after the death of Christ, there was no such thing as a middle class. Now there is. And the middle gets bounced between the "trust in God and everything will be ok" and "your prayer was answered, but maybe not to your desire, but God's plan." In todays modern man, who truly understands God's plan?

There is very liberal theology. There is very conservative theology. There are those who believe in the Marian aspect of faith, those who speak in tongues, those who handle snakes, those have communion every service while others only do so once or twice a year. There is salvation by expressing faith, salvation through baptism, baptism through sprinkling and dunking, once under or three times under. Again, is it any wonder that modern man who has seen amazing scientific advances has difficulty in understanding his role in the world, his understanding the role of God in science if He is involved and how it all applies.

In my top 30-40 metropolitan area, there are over 100 denominations in the yellow pages. That's over 100 variations of the truth.

Many will point to the culture of the day as the reason for the variations and the ever changing fad of the day. Yet, if todays technology existed 2000 years ago, it is likely the same would have occurred. Technology allowed for further investigation and mass communication of the latest fad books or theologies. And who really knows if someone has cracked the true meaning of something in the good book. Even discerning individuals have a hard time seperating the hay from the chaffe. Discerning folks during the flat world days would have stuck to that principle instead of allowing the novel idea that the world is round to go forward.

Many say that the Bible is not a fluid document, yet if it isn't then why has enlightenment taken place over the years. Why has the fault between the Catholic and Protestant groups been seen as an advance when it truly was based on a fluid interpretation of the scripture and the understanding of tradition.

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