"Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy." (Leviticus 20:7-8 NIV)
Multiplied numbers of books on church growth have been written that try to explain the characteristics of so called "healthy" churches yet they don’t really define the characteristics of a holy church.
What are God’s standards for becoming a holy church? His standards have never changed and remain absolute. The holy God reaches down to fallen mankind through the shed blood of Jesus but demands that the redeemed reach up to Him and become holy as He is Holy (1 Peter 1:16) There is no meeting in the middle, no "synthesis" of thought or behavior. God requires nothing less than the redeemed taking on the behavior and thoughts of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)
Historically, the Church Growth Movement has failed to address this question. In any diagnosis of church health, a basic question must be answered: Who sets the vertical? Terms such as "radiant . . . holy and blameless" aren’t easily quantified (Ephesians 5:27).
There is a conscious, organized effort to change the message and the music of the Christian church – to make it more acceptable to the world. The higher standards of Christianity are supposed to transform the world. God hates divorce (Malachi 2:6) yet it takes place in over one out of every two families and is rampant in the Church. We have sacrificed tens of millions of unborn children on the alters of our hedonistic self indulgence under the guise of our right to “free choice.” There is not much difference between the church and society as a whole. We justify this because we want to get people into the church. This isn’t what God intended. Christianity is supposed to transform individuals and not make them more like the world.
The danger we face is making Christianity more palatable and not intimidating to ‘seekers’ – unchurched people – so that both churched and unchurched people can try to bring in more unchurched and make them ‘comfortable’ using an entertaining type of service. We avoid telling people they are sinners because that’s going to make them feel bad about themselves and hurt their self-esteem.
Seduction
The Church is being subtlety seduced. We have become driven more by purpose than His presence. Seeker/seeker-friendly/aware/sensitive-felt need messages rarely speak of sin directly. Instead it is called ‘wrong doing’ or ‘bad/poor choices’ or ‘mistakes’. The reality of a literal burning hell is conveniently overlooked. Jesus is not presented as Lord, but as "Leader." This softened message sears the conscience and lulls the church into semi-conscious state, no longer able to discern the very subtle watering down of the Word. The Bible says "that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron" (1 Timothy 4:1-2 KJV).
A lot of religious organizations and churches are involved. Modern evangelism, church growth and counseling training manuals are all based on the feelings mode, the effective domain, not the cognitive, or the fact. They use Scripture, but they’re using a humanistic dialectic process as well. God is absolute. He doesn’t analyze or question Himself. He doesn’t use rationalistic arguments to persuade people to believe. He doesn’t see Himself as part of the solution because He is the solution. He doesn’t come to consensus with man. Man must come to consensus with God.
Today many churches are fully involved in creating partnerships (relationship/community building) using ice breaker exercises that get you to share (dialogue) with somebody else who’s different than you. You move into the "I think and I feel" mode of conversation for the sake of changing the person.
The truth is that you do NOT dialogue the Word of God, you preach and teach it. You dialogue what you’re not sure about. Decisions must be based upon what the Word of God says.
Separation and divorce are the result of the breakdown of our society, and the moral character that it used to have, because it was built on the integrity and the authority of God’s Word. God hates divorce and yet we have gone to the vagueness, the ambiguity, the tolerance of fallen human nature within the church.
The preaching of the Word is being changed so that we can have a "relationship" with another person. We are learning to pick and choose what Scripture to use out of Bible versions that meet our message, not necessarily what is the original meaning and then extrapolate so that we can continue this relationship under the banner of "unity." Scripture is left out and redefined so that it’s whatever feels good.
Synthesis
Churches that shape their message and ministry around the interests and felt needs of the seeker require mature believers to mix with unbelievers and "synthesize" – that is, come to consensus where truth becomes somewhat in the middle for the sake of "community." What happens is the believer ends up moved very slightly away from their original position of moral absolute – the seeker or the unbeliever is moved slightly more towards faith.
The Word of God is compromised or even sacrificed in the process. God doesn’t grade on a curve. The Church should not be influenced by the world or take its cues from culture. When people walk into the church, it should be a reflection of Heaven not a reflection of the world.
We can attempt to fish with wider nets and draw in multitudes of people. But the reality is that "many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14 KJV). Just because everyone prays the "Sinners Prayer" at the end of a message doesn’t make them a Christian nor guarantee them entrance into Heaven. Jesus warned us of this when He said "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)
The Word of God must be proclaimed as truth and stated as fact. When Jesus taught, He said that some would believe, some would scratch their heads and others would turn away. He always taught factually. It would either convict or not convict people. It was never watered down or softened which is what is happening in today’s church growth movement.
The danger of using modern day Madison Avenue marketing methods, slick ad campaigns, man made organizational techniques and human management principals is that they are changing the environment of the church and minimizing the message preached so as to make it inoffensive. We run the risk of denying the work of the Holy Spirit in motivating the church to reach out to the lost. And we run the risk of not motivating the lost once they come to desire THE truth found only in the Word. The Church is supposed to be tailored around the feeding of the Word for the perfecting, building up and edifying of the saints, rather than for meeting the "felt" needs of unbelievers.
The Unity Objective
Scripture talks about unity and loving one another. But we need to realize that the Gospel is the Good News. It is not unity, it is not hope, it’s Jesus Christ. And so, the hope of the Gospel and the unity of the Gospel is found only in Christ. We must look to Him as the source of our relationship which is based upon Him. We are to "Make every effort to live in peace with all men" yet we must also " be holy" because "without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14 NIV).
The danger is making unity the objective. Because of all the different interpretations of who Christ is, for the sake of unity, you would have to go into the Word of God and find what Scripture has in common with Buddhism, Islam, and all the other religions of the world. Once you find what you have in common, you then redefine Christ for the sake of unity, relationship, hope and world peace.
God’s Word is supposed to change us. We can’t go in and change it. That’s what the religious organizations have been pulled into. People go to seminary not knowing that when they go there and take "biblical" counseling strategies that are rooted in psychology, sociology, and anthropology. The danger is learning how to read the Bible in order to define God’s Word in changing times – actually redefining it for the sake of meeting the felt needs within the community and drawing people in. The Bible calls these felt needs, "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (John 2:16 KJV).
If we use felt needs, which is our fallen human nature, as our agenda, we have changed our belief system. If our agenda is to bring people to the Lord Jesus Christ, we must proclaim the Law which brings them to realization that they are a sinner. The only way they can have their sins covered is through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ the Messiah. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." He didn’t say, "I am the feeling." You don’t come to God through feelings, you come to God through facts, through the truth of His Word. What did Jesus say about unity?:
"Suppose ye that I come to bring peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." (Luke 12:51 KJV)
The Law Of God
Human standards are what psychology and sociology are based upon. They’re not built upon God’s standards. We all fall short of the Glory of God. We’ve all broken those laws. They’re not changeable. We can’t justify the changing of them to make them user friendly for the continuation of relationship with mankind and God. We must realize the hopelessness of saving ourselves and that it’s only in Christ that we receive our salvation. That’s contrition and that is what is being left out today. Now it’s social sin. It’s bad behavior based upon how we relate with one another. Pastors are afraid to speak against sinful behavior because they may be labeled as not loving or tolerant. The Bible tells us to, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:15).
The primary agenda of Christianity is that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ means we might stand alone. Jesus said that we must "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matt 7:13-14 NIV).
The fact that you and the other person disagree has to be determined by your relationship with Jesus and the Word of God. That is the ground we stand on. We don’t change His law for the sake of diversity and to save a relationship with anyone. Compromise comes when beliefs are based on feelings and not the Word of God in faith believing that the Lord knows the answer. We’re accountable to it, as is, not how we feel or think about it. That’s where faith is involved. Faith is not a tool to be changed to our human understanding and knowledge, then coming to a synthesis of "ideas" in order to meet our felt needs for the sake of a relationship. The ministry of Jesus wasn’t built on "I think and I feel." It was built on "I know." Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6 KJV).
Conclusion
If we want to be a Healthy and Holy Church that is filled daily with the HOLY Spirit then we must each be holy and offer our "bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will" (Romans 12:1-2 NIV).
One day soon the Lord will come like a thief in the night. We must teach others to "live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming" (2 Peter 3:10-13 NIV).
"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."(Revelation 22:12-13 NIV)
