Too Sensitive?

I've written before that God has a wonderful way of tying things together in my life. There's been something on my mind lately to write about and it seems that for the last couple of weeks I just keep seeing, reading or hearing something that reinforces it. I love how God works. I have a feeling this will be a theme for a couple or three posts, so bear with me. I want to focus this first one though on something I just read.

A few months ago, I bought a book by John MacArthur titled "A Tale of Two Sons." It an entire book on the parable of the prodigal son. I started to read it but only got a few pages in. I got side tracked by two or three novels and just never picked it back up until a few days ago. After only twenty or so pages, I realized how awesome God's timing is.

Throughout the beginning of the book MacArthur lays out the background and setting for the parable. He offers a real insight into the culture of that time and into how Jesus' public ministry had progresed. One subject he continues to tackle is the role of the Pharisees. At every turn they were trying to discredit Jesus, oftentimes calling Him a "friend of sinners." This provided quite a quandry for most of the throngs that followed Christ. Here is a man claiming to be the Messiah that had been promised to them. A man who had a clear message and performed miraculous works. But they were taught from childhood to see the Pharisees as their spiritual leaders, and the Pharisees were continually finding fault with Jesus. Besides, Christ's teaching was becoming much more personal and challenging in the time leading up to the parable of the prodigal son. The Pharisees hatred of Jesus began to spread and more and more people began to turn away. This is where I love what MacArthur says. Rather than try and condense, I'm just going to reprint it all here. He says it so much better than I could.

"John 6 shows how and why the vast majority of people finally turned away from Christ-and many even turned completely against Him. The multitudes followed Him as long as He was feeding them and doing other miraculous works, but they did not like His strong teaching. As a matter of fact, Luke 14:26-35, the passage imediately preceeding the exchange in Luke 15, includes some of Jesus' most strongly worded teaching. It's all about denying self, hating father and mother, and counting the cost of discipleship. Ironically, just when the self-satisfied, respectable, materialistic multitudes began to drift away because of that kind of teaching, that's when Luke says that the tax collectors and siners drew near. (That, by the way, is a damning commentary on today's popular strategies for reaching the rebellious, disenfranchised, and outcasts of society by softening the gospel and stressing only it's positive elements.)"

I remember about twelve years ago leaving my church home with a group of thirty or so other people in order to plant a new church. During the planning process we decided that this new church was going to be "seeker-sensitve." Basically, the idea was to offer a casual, non-threatening environment where people who normally wouldn't go to church could come and feel comfortable. The dress was casual, and the music contemporary. The sermons were designed to be life-applicable while remaining biblically based. Nothing too deep, just something that people could take away and actually apply to their life. The in-depth study was relegated to Wednesday nights. It was wildly successful by societies standards. The church is now classified as one of the nation's relatively few "mega-churches", with weekly attendance well over 2,000 people.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I find myself at a different church now. Actually, I'm right back where I first started. That's not to be taken as any indictment on the church I helped plant though. I have many friends there, and I try to stay informed on what they are doing for God. But I have to say that as I've steped back into a slightly more traditional setting, I've started to wonder if our modern "seeker sensitive" philosophy is doing more harm than good. Not in all areas mind you. The casual atmosphere, to me, is fine. After all, Jesus said to come as you are. The music is fine too. I think there is a very very fine line between worship and entertainment sometimes, but so long as we are ever vigilant and aware of that line I think there can be a lot of power in contemporary worship.

But lately I've been wondering about our message. And when I say "our", I'm referring to the modern church in general. Why is it that we feel the need to be so sensitive? Are we saying that the message of Christ is too much to handle? Are we saying that the way Jesus delivered his message was not the best way? We have one ultimate source of truth in the Bible, and we have one living example of that truth in Jesus. Didn't Jesus say that it is not the healthy who need doctors, but the sick? And that he didn't come to call the righteous, but the sinners? (Mt. 9 12-13) If then, Jesus came for the sinners, and we are also trying to reach sinners, then why are we changing the message instead of letting the message change us? Isn't it almost in a way invalidating the methods and message of Jesus? MacArthur pointed out that it was as Jesus' message became more challenging that the tax collectors and siners drew near. Why then, as a modern church society, are we seeking to soften the message and be more "sensitive" to those who are seeking?

Like I said, this is something that has been on my mind a lot the last couple of weeks and I have more illustrations and more comments. But for now, what do you think? Are we too sensitive?