“Churching the unchurched,” begins John MacArthur, “is an absolute fallacy – it is like purposing to let the tares in.”  He goes on to say,

It is absolutely bizarre to want to make unsaved people feel comfortable in a church.  The church is not a building – the church is a group of worshiping, redeemed, and sanctified people among whom an unbeliever should feel either miserable, convicted and drawn to Christ, or else alienated and isolated.  Only if the church hides its message and ceases to be what God designed the church to be, can it make an unbeliever comfortable?

Unfortunately, many churches – if not all – that pursue churching the unchurched by having them simply participate in the life of a worship service in order to “pad” their numbers and stroke their egos diminish the veracity of the Gospel by either concealing or removing it.

Within the Scriptures people are never referred to as churched or unchurched.  All this insinuates is that we are attempting to make people who or unbelievers feel comfortable in attending corporate worship services and other events.  Besides, if we’re striving to connect with the unchurched, is it our desire that they’ll just be churched and never gracefully confronted with the Gospel so that they’ll be converted?   

This is why MacArthur had the following to say,

“That is precisely my concern about today’s pragmatic church-growth trend. The strategy focuses on attracting and keeping the unchurched. For what? To entertain them? To get them to attend church meetings regularly? Merely “churching” the unchurched accomplishes nothing of eternal value. That is where their strategy seems to end.”  

From personal experience and observation I’ve seen churches employ “tactics” that gear their ministerial efforts to include non-Christians in a comfortable and inviting environment.  Such activities typically range from community events, school giveaways, petting zoos, harvest parties, and conversation groups.  These events have no other purpose than to have the people they attract to return on Sunday morning so that the number of attendees will increase. 

Christianity or Humanism?

Church practices that exclude God  and even a need for Him are comparable to the work being done by Greg Epstein – Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University - who “wants to create a kind of church for those who reject religion” (Boston Globe, The Nonbelievers). 

Before going further, for those of you unfamiliar with humanism it is known as “a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity” (The American Humanist Association).

Now, getting back to my point.

In attempting to create this kind of humanistic group, the “Reverend” Epstein has developed Humanist Small Groups (HSGs).  These groups consist of “biweekly discussion…for people who identify with, or seek to learn about humanism.”

These “HSGs” are “known for [their] inclusive discussions, with an environment of community and intimacy, including both intellectual and personal topics.”  Is it just me or does this sound eerily similar to those activities listed above?  I wouldn’t fight tooth-and-nail on this point, but I am willing to compare such practices within Christianity as an implicit endorsement of humanism.

As the true church – those who are called out by the One true and living God – moves forward in the 21^st century we must lean to our LORD for the empowerment to be bold and courageous to gracefully stand for Him in these dark and tumultuous times.  Anything short of living our lives fully for Him is a shame and mockery to His fame and glory. 

An honest assessment of the Seeker-Sensitive movement

Bill Izard, author of The Sensitivity of True Worship, observed that “many churches, designing worship has become most closely associated with that which will best suit the attendees or bests attract the hesitant church-goer, rather than that which is most pleasing to God.”

If we were to observe the trajectory of many churches, we would discover a slippery slope of degradation.  Many churches have begun to gear their worship services for the “unchurched” with the intent of being evangelistic and inviting through means of a comfortable environment, coffee and water, lighthearted announcements, interviews, and loud music.   

Unfortunately, such a position wrongfully presupposes that mankind is generally good and seeking after God and that the church needs to reinvent itself from hindering people in making a “decision” for Jesus.  This presupposition lies upon faulty ground and runs against the grain of Scripture and the Reformed Tradition. 

First off, the Scriptures affirm that man does not seek after God (see Romans 3.10-18; Psalms 10.4; 14.2; and Isaiah 53.2).  The total depravity of mankind has been affirmed throughout church history and reaffirmed within the Protestant Reformation.  To affirm that man is totally depraved, the early Reformers asserted that the effects of original sin have pervaded the entirety of man’s being, namely, their body, soul, mind, and will (R.C. Sproul, What is Reformed Theology, pg. 118). 

If we were to consider the thoughts of the Westminster divines, we would discover an accurate Biblical assessment of humanity’s condition:

Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto (Chapter 9.3).         

Consequently, if we desired to be faithful to the authority of Scriptures as well as church history, our services – in actually being made seeker-sensitive – should be “structured for believers, since only believers are seekers” (Romans 6.4, 10)(R.C. Sproul, Good Intentions Gone Bad, Tabletalk, October 2007, pg. 6).  

Besides, it is not the way that the Gospel is packaged or the atmosphere that persuades and converts people to Christ.  It is the content of the Gospel itself that saves, not the medium by which it is delivered.  The only thing that can cause anyone to desire Christ is His death upon their behalf and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (John 6.44; 65; 10.4, 14-15, 26-30; Titus 3.5-6).

For practices of the church, such as preaching, worship music, etc…, to be geared towards unbelievers in a worship context is antithetical to Scriptural revelation.  A person who is not indwelt with the Spirit of God is not able to accept the things of the Spirit, for they are folly to him, and he is not capable of understanding them because they are spiritual discerned (1 Corinthians 2.14). 

With this in mind it is both unbiblical and unwise to gear our efforts – especially on Sunday mornings – towards unbelievers. 

In the end, why do many churches:

“…offer up less professional, less entertaining lighthearted entertainment?  Why, I keep wondering, would a “seeker” get up on Sunday morning and travel to some giant box to hear a third rate rock band preceding a third tae comic giving a third rate “message” that leaves him in the same state that he arrived in?” (R.C. Sproul, Pragmatic Principle, Talbetalk, October 2007, pg. 59).

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Tags: churching the unchurched, seeker sensitive, unchurched