Conservative Post

1Co 2:1-5 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

In this day and age the church has come up with all kinds of gimmicks and forms of entertainment to evangelize the lost. We work to draw the lost into our churches with music, and different forms of entertainment. A couple of examples of this is the pastor who used a trapeze and another rode a motorcycle in the pulpit area. There is a prevailing attitude in churches today that says “What ever it takes” meaning everything is permissible if it attracts the lost to the church and they can hear the gospel. Such nonsense is another classic example of the ends justifies the means.

My mentor in the ministry once told me something and I believe it is true, “Whatever you win them with is what you will have to keep them with.” If you win them with music then when there is no more music they will go away. If you win them with entertainment then when there is no more entertainment they will go away. Such is the scriptural sign of a false conversion. And what is worse it is these same people that we win with entertainment are the same people we add to our membership rolls and they take part in taking care of God’s business. It should be no wonder that we have so much infighting in our churches. We have been terrible door keepers and the lost are ruling our churches all because of the “whatever it takes” mentality. To put it in other words “the end justifies the means”.

Paul was very careful to make sure that the conversions in his time and under his ministry were based on a sound presentation of the Gospel rather than the wisdom of men. For it is that very thing that interferes with the true gospel and the demonstration of the power of the Holy Ghost. Today the church does not want to wait on the Holy Ghost neither does it want to go out into the highways and bi-ways and just present the gospel filled with the Holy Ghost and without the wisdom of men. Today’s church says the gospel and the Holy Ghost are not enough so we must add entertainment and methodologies so as to be more effective. Today’s church says we do not want to go out and win the lost so they work up devices to draw them to the church. Today’s church completely ignores “Go ye into all the world” and instead has replaced it with “Come ye into our show”.

The church needs to spend less time entertaining the goats and spend more time in prayer, fasting and the word filled with the Holy Ghost and walking in the light of Christ. The church today accomplishes much without God all in the name of “whatever it takes”. The church should take heed to the wise words of Erwin Lutzer who said “Not only do we need to be doing God’s work, but we need to do it God’s way and for His glory”.

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