Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. - 1Corinthians 15: 1-2 (ESV)
I think the only thing worse than considering the greatest tragedy in the church today is to go to the trouble to isolate it only to miss the mark by a million miles anyway. Such is the case of Thom Rainer, Christian writer who this week wrote a brief article where he outlines what he viewed as the greatest tragedy in the church today. The article for reference can be found here:
Beloved, in the course of my discernment writings, many issues in the modern church are addressed. It is not done out of glee or joy at someone else's misunderstandings. It is done because Matthew 7 teaches us that multitudes of churched people will stand before Christ consigned to an eternity of suffering in hell. Multitudes of churched people therefore simply have it wrong. They will spend their temporal lives thinking they are serving God only to say "Lord Lord" on the last day and that breaks my heart as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is easy to look across Christendom and isolate the prevailing false doctrines and teachings. The prosperity gospel is teaching people that following Christ means greed and excess are OK. The word-faith heresy teaches that we are little gods. The hyper-grace heresy teaches people that they do not have to worry about sin. The false signs and lying wonders movement teaches new age mysticism and evil spirits as a genuine move of the Holy Spirit. The overall framework of the purpose driven church model does not focus on the need to repent, without which there is no salvation. None of these however is the greatest tragedy in the church today. No; I am afraid that the greatest tragedy is that people cannot see these overwhelming problems at all. That they are blind to them. I cannot tell you how many times a post is made in Facebook denouncing a false teaching and how many people who sit under that very same false teaching chime in with an "Amen." How many Christian leaders continue to advocate for tweaking a system that is entirely broken. A system that is entirely serving the devil cannot be tweaked. We need to come out from among them. I present the thrust of the argument from Thom Rainer:
Evangelism is dying.
Look at the data. Measure almost any group of churches today versus 30 years ago. You'll likely find only one person is being reached with the Gospel for every 40 to 60 church members. You will find that conversions have declined precipitously. And where you find numerical growth, you are more likely to find the growth is transfer of Christians from one church to another.
That's not evangelism. That's sheep shuffling.
It sounds so right doesn't it? Yet within this rationale lies the true tragedy in the church today. That leaders can examine a corpse and think it is alive. Let us deal with a few inconvenient truths that have escaped Mr. Rainer. The first problem with this rationale is that evangelism for the sake of evangelism saves no one. The assumption made in this analysis is that churches today are in the business of saving people when they most certainly are not. They are in the business of growing their church. That is the heart of the purpose driven business model. Sure it is all in the name of "evangelism" or "reaching as many for Christ" as possible but the question remains - what are you reaching them with?
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. - Matthew 23: 15 (ESV)
This is one of the seven woes Jesus pronounced against the Pharisees, who also tried to reach as many as possible. The problem as Jesus correctly diagnosis here is that reaching them is not the point. Reaching them with the Gospel is the point. The key verses today spell out clearly that it is entirely possible to believe in vain. To put our faith in a gospel different than the real Gospel. As these verses clearly teach, there is only one Gospel in which we stand. Only one Gospel by which we are saved. If we want to avoid believing in vain, we must hold true and fast to this one Gospel. So the question again becomes - what are you reaching people with? The true problem is not that there is no evangelism. They problem is people are being evangelized with a false gospel and thus they are not being saved. That is the greatest tragedy in the church today. That and the fact that the Thom Rainer's of the world cannot see it.
Secondly however, we should look at the data as Mr. Rainer suggests but through this prism. The difference between churches today and 30 years ago is quite stark but again it has little to do with evangelism and everything to do with false teaching through the growth of mega-churches. Think about some of the absurdity in the past 30 years that would have stayed on the fringes in the past. Holy Laughter where people rolled around on the ground barking like dogs. Brownsville, where the spasmodic jerking and uncontrolled body spasms were blamed on the Holy Spirit. Lakeland where a tattooed biker punched and kicked people in the name of Jesus to "heal" them. Bethel where the gifts of the Holy Spirit are taught in a "school of the supernatural" as if they were parlor tricks. Gem stones, gold dust, angel feathers and glory clouds. This stuff is no longer fringe beloved. It has infiltrated the church. It is mainstream. Those who dare question it are now relegated to the fringe as divisive.
The last point Mr. Rainer makes here is the case for sheep shuffling. He is again right but misdiagnoses the real problem. The average time spent in a seeker friendly church is just under three years. That is how long it usually takes for most people to see through the sham. Many never return to organized church again but many just start church hopping. Seeking desperately a church that will actually feed them the Word of God and stop catering to unsaved goats. Alongside this is the purpose driven principle known as "blessed subtraction." It is taught to new pastors that it is OK to see sheep wander off. Let them go if they are disagreeable! Forget the 99 and 1! So it is no wonder that there is a great deal of sheep shuffling going on in the church today.
The reason however, has nothing to do with evangelism and everything to do with the Gospel not being preached. Without the Gospel, no one gets saved. Without the Gospel, we believe in vain. Matthew 7 is quite real and it is time for people who claim the leadership mantle in Christianity to stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I am sure Mr. Rainer means well but applying a band-aid where a tourniquet is needed will only result in more bleeding out. There is no point in crossing the seven seas to make a convert that is twice a son of hell. The second greatest tragedy in the church today is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the only one that can save people, is barely preached anymore. The greatest tragedy however, is that no one is willing to admit it.
Rev. Anthony.
