Pensees: The Seeker-Insensitive Movement

The Seeker-Insensitive Movement

Church-hopping is a difficult thing to address. On the one hand, churches are so bad, so abundant, and so complex. On the other hand, the good churches are so rare, so few and far between, that hopping is necessary. It is scary to stay too long in one place lest your family dig its roots into a corrupted soil. So hop.

That concession made, however, does not justify the sad practice of church-hopping by Christians who simply will not commit themselves to a local church. This church-hopping needs to be called what it is: backsliding. Though it is often justified as a thoughtful search for a church because no church with the right doctrine our values can be found, it is generally little more than a sanctimonious gloss shellacked over hardening self-love, an unbending wooden delusion.

Backsliding is hardly mentioned these days. It seems inconceivable as a sin. We have so imbibed the consumeristic culture of the day that if our hearts have grown cold, our interest in church has diminished, then it is certainly the fault of the church we attend. It is as foreign as a burka to suggest that – gasp!—the responsibility for happiness in the church lies primarily at the feet of the individual. God didn’t gather congregations to appeal to you. He gathered a congregation of smelly feet for you to wash. Now do it.

But American Christians are persuaded that the consumer is always right. They think there is a verse in the Bible that says something along that line. So when they come across churches who actually say, “No, we’re right and you are wrong,” they’re appalled. They are even more stunned when the church makes no bones about NOT adapting to their wishes. American Christians are suffocating the life out of churches today because pastors are afraid to say, “the consumer may always be right at Wal-mart, but it’s the church, not you, that is the pillar and ground for the truth. Shape up.”

I personally appeal for some hell-fire-damnation preaching to pew-warming do-nothings who flit from church to church without so much as making the least commitment of time and money to God’s people except to offer a token monetary dropping in the plate along with their token bump-on-a-log church attendance. The Seeker-sensitive leaders are naïve to think they are getting mostly un-churched. They’re getting mostly de-churched. They’re getting the coddled second-generation church-goers who know nothing of Christianity except that they have to “do church.” They might as well find “a different way to do church.”

People crave a church with no expectations. That’s why the seeker-sensitive churches are large and ours are generally smaller. Some of these crowd-pleasing churches hardly expect their devotees to listen to the video message. If they choose to mill about in the coffee bar and converse with friends over a macchiato or casually listen to the televised candy-coated sermonette, it’s all up to them. The new heresy is to have expectations. God forbid that you should “impose” a one-way monologue on a sophisticated seeker. God forbid that you should expect them to open their Bible, take notes, and shut up. Worse, how can any culturally-aware pastor expect the congregants to pay respect to the preached word as if it were authoritative? How can an intelligent leader expect the members of his congregation to be more than just Sunday morning pew-warmers? Why would any pastor in his right mind insist that his people become theologically equipped?

Pastors often wring their hands in self-condemning introspection over why people leave. They sometimes pine over the fact that their limited budgets, old buildings, and worn carpet are turning people away. Some are seriously reconsidering their ways. They are so “American” that if the market has dried up they assume that something is wrong with the product. But, whoa! There are other possibilities. Hey, pastor-friends, while it is completely plausible that your tactics are as abrasive as sandpaper and your personality like that of a slug, it is equally plausible that to those who hear your preaching “the word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it” (Jeremiah 6:10). Backsliding happens. And backsliding starts when there is no more pleasure in things godly.

Instead of cringing with self-doubt about why we aren’t winning the popularity contest, let’s be men. For starters, just being men will make us unpopular in this emasculated, effeminate, pussy-footed society. And that’s before we even open our mouths! Then when we do open our mouths and clearly and precisely say, “Thus saith the Lord,” let’s not whine when our ministries don’t make it to the top fifty of anybody’s list, unless it’s a hit list. Unpopularity may be a mark of outstanding success!

Let’s start the Seeker-Insensitive Movement. SIM basically thinks this American Evangelical culture is over-fed, pampered, ignorant, and idolatrously fascinated with the self. Now that Warren’s seeker-sensitivism is proving itself to be the spiritual cotton candy that it is, famished American evangelicals are rushing to the pseudo-spirituality dished up by a quasi-New Age/evangelical soup kitchen. SIM says that the Gospel is not for soft, pampered self-worshipers. It calls for people to repent, abhor themselves for the sin, and turn away from idolatry. And that includes a turning away from self by taking up one’s cross daily.

Paul was so insensitive. He didn’t mind quoting Epimenides in describing the Cretes as “always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.”

Ouch, ouch, and ouch! Not very seeker-sensitive, Paul. Don’t you know that Titus might show the letter to some of those people? Don’t you think we ought to set up a church with a food bar so that gluttons will feel comfortable?

SIM says phooey to all that.

Jesus was so insensitive. “Go sell all you have, then come follow Me,” He told the rich, young ruler.

Wait a minute, Jesus! Don’t you know anything about ministering to rich, young people? Be flattered that he even gave you the time of day! Open a coffee shop for him and do every thing in your power to make sure that — after his token offering to the church — there will be no expectation of radical commitment from him. If You keep saying, “go,” people are going to, um, well, go. Tsk! Tsk! Paul and Jesus need the experts that we have today. No wonder they were so persecuted.

SIM says phooey to all that too.

In fact, SIM wonders if the experts are all wrong. SIM dares to consider the fact that the so-called pastors of the seeker-sensitivism might be described by Jeremiah with these words:

From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:13-14).

A lot of churches aren’t churches. So don’t compare your church to them. They are huge crowds; pastorless, clueless, and babied. Those aren’t churches. On the other hand, many real churches are dying today. Their pastors are intimidated by the culture. These pastors are in the black hole called “middle.” They can’t bring themselves to compromise (or they don’t dare because of their constituency) by capitulating to the Seeker-senstive model, but they can’t work up the courage or the faith to defy it either. They are preaching the Word, but it is lacking in “power, Holy Spirit, and full assurance” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

I say DEFY it. The Word works. Don’t just not do it. Taunt it. Mock it like David mocked Goliath. Your churches could be sparked by revival if you only dared to declare God’s Word with utmost confidence; if you stared down the church-hopper and said, “Take up your cross.”