Closet Calvinist

~ The not so secret thoughts of a Closet Calvinist

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Category Archives: Seeker Sensitivity

Church Marketing Sucks (Part one)

04 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by cc_ in Church, Ecclesiology, Seeker Sensitivity

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

church marketing, church signs, churchmarketingsucks

Church sign: Tired of being a loser? Turn to God

Church sign: Tired of being a loser? Turn to God

One thing that often gets to me is church signs and church marketing. Well, not so much the sign, but how irreverent the message put on them usually is. You know what I’m talking about, the corny puns and bad theology present on most of them.

A few days ago someone in my Twitter feed pointed out a blog called “Church Marketing Sucks.” In particular, they linked to this post by Jeremy Harrison, and then a follower pointed out his followup post.

The author of the posts came across a church sign that said, “The church for people who don’t like church.”  I have touched on Seeker-Driven Pelagianism in a recent post, so I won’t address that here so much, but rather I’ll address Harrison’s comments about it and then I will address his tips for better marketing. Continue reading »

Descent from Arminianism to Seeker Driven Pelagianism

27 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by cc_ in Ecclesiology, Seeker Sensitivity

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Calvinism Rant, Ed Young, entertaining churches, Fellowship church, Pelagianism, sinner's prayer

 

Ed Young Junior performs the “Baby Shark song” at Fellowship Church

Ed Young Junior of Fellowship Church made news this Sunday for his absurd rant against Calvinism that he gave as his “sermon” this week. His argument is a total strawman, and even then I think it got a few hits in on him before he took it down.

His rant lead to a lot of discussion about his theology he holds to and the effects of it.

Calvinists believe that “salvation is of the Lord.” That is, that God does all the work in regards to a person coming to repentance and faith for the forgiveness of their sins. God the Father sent His Son to die in our place, God elects who will be saved, and the Holy Spirit carries out the work of regenerating the heart of the sinner and giving them faith so they will repent and trust in Christ the Savior.

The Arminian view differs somewhat in that they believe that at the regeneration stage the sinner is restored to the point that they can choose whether to repent and trust in Christ. Thus, ultimately the sinner can still choose to defy God and not be saved.

The Arminian view still credits God with most of the work in salvation, but tries to maintain a semblance of man’s free will.

When the Arminian view isn’t taught correctly, or more commonly, isn’t really taught at all in churches that hold to it. People tend to start believing in something different, that is Pelagianism. This heretical view believes that man, by his own volition, can choose to repent and trust Christ on his own at any time, or rather can  choose to obey God at any time.

In evangelism Pelagians and many Arminians tend to try to do the work of the Holy Spirit themselves, believing that it is their job to convince a man to repent and trust the Savior. Victory for them tends to end in convincing someone to repeat an unbiblical “sinner’s prayer” to “ask Jesus into their hearts” and then they are affirmed in their salvation by the pastor who lead them in this prayer. Where is the Holy Spirit in this? Hopefully he convicted their hearts and regenerated them that they may repent and believe. But, typically there is little concern for true contrition.

When this is combined with a misunderstanding of the purpose of the church service, the church service becomes a time of evangelism rather than a time of feeding and equipping the saints.

This leads to what is known as the “seeker driven church.” Ed Young’s church is a fine example of what a seeker driven church is. It is a church for the unchurched, that is, a church for the purpose of evangelism to the unconverted and not for the saints.

Unfortunately, unbelievers don’t tend to have the desire to sit under solid biblical preaching. You know, because they haven’t been regenerated and all that. They are by nature haters of God, so hearing Christ preached to them just doesn’t really fit with their desires.

Ed Young Junior uses his Ferrari as a sermon illustration

To combat this the seeker driven churches tend to stop preaching Christ, ignore the proper use of the Law (that is, to show our guilt and need for the Savior), and replace the Gospel with a system of works. To attract the unbelievers they try to be relevant and cool. For example, Ed Young believes that the way he dresses and the  car he drives can influence who will come to his church. So, he wears a girdle and got Botox to make him more attractive, drove a Ferrari on the stage at his church to show how cool Jesus is, brought wild animals into the church as gimmicks for his sermons about the traits of these animals, does the “Baby Shark song” with his congregation as part of the sermon, and spends a night on the church roof with his wife to show people that they need to have more sex in their marriages. The typical seeker driven sermon allegorizes the biblical text to make it about the hearer, and gives practical life tips to make your life better.

The idea then is that if he can get people into the church with these gimmicks he can keep them there by entertaining them and get them to “follow Jesus” by being obedient. There is no need for the Holy Spirit in this work, because there is no Gospel, and no forgiveness of sins, just the command to obey a watered down version of the law and God will make your life better.

Church boxing match gone terribly wrong

22 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by cc_ in Church, Ecclesiology, Seeker Sensitivity

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bill Scheer, church boxing match, ecclesiology, George Clinkscale, Guts Church, Tulsa OK

 

George Clinkscale, died due to illegal church boxing match

George Clinkscale

Guts Church (yes, that is its real name) in Tulsa Oklahoma had a boxing match today, Guts Fight Night, for the sixth time. Well, tonight things didn’t go so well.

This seemingly seeker focused church thought a boxing match would attract people to the church. And, what attracts men more than a boxing match? I guess giving them a car might, but that is for other churches.

Unfortunately, this church didn’t do things properly. They didn’t get the properly trained referees and medical personnel that are required for a boxing match. And, because of this, one of the boxers died. George Clinkscale died because of this.

Sadly, it will take a death to end this illegal activity. Unfortunately, other churches are still doing things that are almost as stupid.

Churches aren’t to have boxing matches to reach people. Instead, the way the Church is supposed to do outreach is by going to the people and sharing the Gospel with them. People need to be told that Jesus died to pay for their sins, not to be invited to attend church or invited to a boxing match. The Church is made up of believers, the Sunday service is for believers, thought unbelievers are welcome, to equip the saints so they can go preach the Gospel.

It seems the church will be sued by the relevant state agencies and likely by the player’s family. Pastor Bill Scheer may even go to jail over this.

We should pray for the boxer’s family, and the lost people in Guts Church.

Thanks for Phil Johnson of Pyromaniacs for tweeting about this.

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