Seeker friendly or God obeying?

There is a growing trend within American churches in general and specifically within Churches of Christ to organize their Sunday gatherings so as to be attractive to outsiders.

It used to be that they were used to beat them severely with hell-fire and damnation. It seemed to work -- superficially. All to often, those who responded to one of the 23 verses of "Just As I Am" were immediately forgotten -- being given little or no discipleship training. Then there was great consternation over their "dropping out" so quickly.

Now, in our postmodern environment, we seek "seekers" so we can make them feel good about entering into a relationship with God/Jesus. Here are the closing paragraphs of an essay, What’s Wrong with Being Seeker-Centered? by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason, one of my favorite sites.

Here is the solution to the church's problem. We have to abandon the seeker model and we have to adopt the Biblical model. Ooh, that sounds so arrogant. You are saying what they are doing is not Biblical? Yes! This is not rocket science. Find me anywhere in the Scriptures where the church gathers as Christians for the purpose of watering down the Gospel message and getting people to come into their church congregation. The church gathered for training and edification of believers, then they went out with the message of sin and salvation so people could get right with God before they could even begin to think about whatever purpose God had for their lives. First things first. That is the consistent model in every single time in the book of Acts where the Gospel is preached.

In all 14 times the Gospel is preached where we have detail of what they said, there is not a single occasion where anyone was invited to have a relationship with God. There is not a single occasion where anyone is told that if they become Christians their life will get better, they will have more purpose, and everything will fall together. There is not a single occasion where the Apostles said that God loves them. The word love appears nowhere in the book of Acts. Now, is the love of God manifest there? Sure. But it is not the central message. It isn’t what leads to salvation. It is not what the Gospel is all about. The love of God is manifest in the efforts that He took to rescue a fallen human race. That’s the measure of His love. But the message is about fallen human beings, about sin and righteousness and judgment, and that Jesus came to restore man to their Savior against whom they have persistently rebelled. That’s the message that saves.

After you read this essay in full, I recommend you brouse other offerings there. No, I don't agree with all there, but it all does make me think.

Dan