I think I'm catching on to a trend, here.

The words and phrases, "Building Community", "Missional", "Relevant", "Cultural Awareness", "Relationship", "seeker friendly", and "Meeting them 'Where they Are'", have become little more than post-modern code words for "hangin' out with sinners." And of course, the prime example is Jesus. After all, "Jesus ate with sinners."

This is very common amongst the "Church didn't meet my needs, so I left" crowd. These are often people who may even have, or had, a legitimate complaint against a particular church or denomination. They have a problem with the "institutional church", or "organized religion." But often enough, having swung one way in a bad way, they then swing wildly to the other in an equally bad way.

The error that I think they are making is stated thus: "Since abc is bad, then everything NOT abc is good." That's not terribly different from "if abc is bad, then anything opposed to abc is good."

In other words, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. In this case, the "enemy of my enemy" is world.

What these people, who are fond of pointing out that "Jesus ate with sinners", are not fond of pointing out is that, sure, Jesus ate with sinners. But he then told them to "repent and sin no more." Jesus used the opportunity of "being relevant" to gain an audience, but he never left that audience without them hearing the words, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repent, and sin no more."

And this is almost always the claim made by these sorts of people. "We are only using 'culture' as an inroad to, hopefully, afford the opportunity to share our testimony."

(Note: "Sharing Your Testimony" is completely useless if it is not preceeded by the "Sharing of the Gospel". Otherwise, all you can expect is "Cool! You can party with us anytime!").

"Sharing their testimony" often means nothing more than, "Hey, I'm just like you." Somehow their "testimony" never gets around to that part where they come to realize that they are a sinner before a God who is, according to that God, "angry with sinners every day" and who has promised to destroy both the sin and the sinner together in hell unless they repent. Somehow, that bit never gets to the table.

If the tactic of "meeting them where they were" was to "bring them to where you are", then I'd have little complaint. But the problem, as I see it, is that too many Christians, once they've met them where they are, they stay there themselves! And consequently, they never lead them out, or come out themselves either.

In the end, the whole point of "relationship" and "community" seems to be nothing more than an excuse to hang out and have "relationship" with the "community" so they can enjoy the lifestyle they experience (and, perhaps, used to experience themselves and now look back on with a retrospective, romantic eye).

"Meeting them where they are" turns out to mean, "Hey, we'll come be wordly with you. "Seeker friendly" is rather the flip-side of the same coin: "Hey, you can come be worldly with us!"

Here's my take.

Look. If all you want to do is go down to the sports bar and watch the game and have a few beers, then by all means; go do it. I don't have a problem with it. I don't think there's anything wrong or sinful about it. We're cautioned against drunkeness and brawling, but if your goal is just to enjoy a brewski and watch the game with some friends, then knock yerself out, and God Bless you in your fellowship. I'm quite serious.

If you have a cadre of fellow believers who all know their proper liberty in Christ, and are capable of proper moderation, and your conscience doesn't condemn you, then go to, my friend. Be careful not to do so in a way that would damage the weak faith of another brother (in other words, be discerning), but otherwise, enjoy your fellowship.

It is perfectly permissible to enjoy fellowship without turning it into a "preaching opportunity" in the middle of the Super Bowl.

But christian fellowship is not "ministry." Fellowship is fellowship, and ministry is ministry. The two do not mix. One follows the other. To them, ministry follows fellowship. To me, fellowship only follows ministry - and specifically, ministry that has successfully born the fruit of fellowship.

But to sit there and try to justify it by claiming it's building inroads for the Gospel is just plain disingenuous. It borders on lying, and it's definately self-deception. It betrays the fact that your conscience does condem you, because you feel the need to justify your behaviour by dressing it up in "missional clothing."

Using "missional", or "relationship building", or "reaching out" as a cover for your desire to not only go where they are, but also do the things that they are doing, without intentionally making the attempt to lead them to a right view of themselves, their sin, their judgment before an angry God, and "the way and the truth that leads to eternal life" is doing no one a favour. Not you, or them.

The problem with addressing this business is that no matter when, along the way of "reaching out in a mission of building the relationship", no matter when I point this out, they can always say, "That's exactly what we are doing. We were just geting to that point about 'repentance' when you barged in here with guns blazing and screwed the whole thing up. Thanks a lot!"

But I'm not buying it. If this were true, someone would have seen some results somewhere. And "Hey, I made them just like me..." is quite different from "Hey, they're SAVED from God and his judgment and hell." I've never seen ANYONE go into the world, to be accepted of the world, who later came out themselves, and certainly not with anyone else at their side, whom they plucked from the fire, still smelling of smoke.

It becomes a lifestyle. And usually, a permanent lifestyle. They call it a "missional" lifestyle.

I call it a "dog returning to it's vomit". I call it "starting in the spirit and trying to finish it in the flesh." I call it, "putting the hand to the plow, and looking back." Jesus gave LOTS of these warnings.

I think that there's a subtle misconception behind this phenomenon: To people in this camp, "ministry" is the work of man, and it requires, as Jesus said, "being wise as serpents."

But ministry is not the work of man, it's success is not predicated on the techniques, and efforts, and oratorical skills of men. Nor on powerpoint presentations, sermon illustrations, games, X-Boxes, pool tables, men's fellowships, knitting clubs, or any other of a hundred of man's "relationship building" activities.

The work of God is performed exclusively by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit works exclusively from the Word of God. The Gospel must be heard; not demonstrated in a sort of "charades" game in which you hope people somehow "get it". ("Five words, first word, two syllables, read... no... "RE", second syllable, sounds like wrote... no, like 'pen', Oooo, Oooo. Pick me. I know. It's 'repent and sin no more...' ding ding ding!" Not gonna happen.)

The truth is, for a of of these people (perhaps not all, but most), they are ashamed of the Gospel. It makes them uneasy to talk about Jesus Christ in front of non-believers. It's easier to say "We'll just make friends and hope they 'get it' without us actually having to say 'except that you repent and are born again, you will in no wise see the kingdom of heaven'". The only reason anyone would feel this way talking about Jesus, is because they themselves are uncomfortable with it. Ducks certainly don't mind talking about water. And Christians don't mind talking about repentance.

Trying to convert the world by spiritual osmosis instead of stating it plainly is doomed to failure. And if you are stuck on that "they will know by your love for one another" bit, it's worth noting that Jesus simply said that that's how they will know you are His disciples. It will do nothing to make THEM his disciples unless you TELL THEM HOW.

The Gospel works through HEARING THE WORD and the Holy Spirit brings conviction, and the person turns to Christ as saviour from themselves and from God! Far from the Charade games, this ministry sounds like this: "For all have sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of God..." And the man, in his heart, through the work of the Holy spirit hears a voice saying "This means me. This is me he's talking about."

THAT is the working of the Gospel.

I think its possible that one of the reasons that so many have turned to the "missional/relational" model is that, to them, Ministry is "pragmatic" - it's true if it works (or seems to work). It appears (to them, at least) that the "traditional approach" just doesn't work. There aren't enough people being saved for this means to justify the ends.

What they do not realize is that Jesus said this would happen.

This is a common misconception held among the "Triumphalists" or the "Kingdom Now!" crowd. To them, their view of end time church is a church that is growing, sweeping great crowds in through "revival." A church that is preparing and presenting an overcoming "bride" that has brought the world into subjection, and is ready to present it as a gift to the bridegroom. But Jesus called that "the wide gate."

Jesus painted a picture of the true faith as something ever dwindling - ever decreasing on earth until, in the end, it would be completely erradicated from the face of the earth if He did not intervene and put an end to it. And a Holy Spirit who is drawing men until the full measure of the Gentiles has come in, and this Holy Spirit then begins to change from drawing men, to pulling away the retraints on their evil that their evil may know almost no end, just in time for Christ to return and pick up the very few who are left of His true body and church before the Father says, "Enough!" and destroys the world, and it's people in Hell. That's what Jesus called "The Narrow Gate."

Meanwhile, the "Church" is busy blogging about ways we can "accept people as they are", turning churches into circuses, sanctuaries into Hollywood Screening Rooms, and the Gospel of Repentance and Faith in Christ alone into a relic...

...Just like Jesus said it would happen.






I touched on the subject matter of this post briefly (well, OK, not so briefly) in my Paintball article. In that article, I took exception to the so-called Christian claims of "taking the gospel to the paintball field". Since I think I said it pretty much as best I can in that article, let me just quote it for you here and close with that.

The Work of the Kingdom

Another prominent aspect of "Christian paintball" is the supposed “work of the Kingdom of God.” This arrogant, blatant nonsense, above all else, arouses anger and indignation in me. In absolute truth, I would respect a man who tells me “I do it ‘cause I wanna have fun with the rest of the world.” He’s at least being honest.

But this damnable nonsense of justifying it by claiming that we are “taking the Gospel to the Paintball field” will purchase no sympathy from me.

Let me state this bluntly. People who make this claim are lying – without exception. They have no interest at all in “taking the gospel” anywhere. If they did, they would find that place within five seconds of walking out of their front door. If the question is 'Where can I preach the Gospel today?" the answer is "EVERYWHERE YOU GO."

They want to play paintball because it satisfies a lot of the lusts of the flesh, but they do not want to face the fact that that is the reason why. So they attempt to justify it - and by doing so only heap the further charge of “hypocrisy” upon their heads.

Phrases such as "taking the Gospel to the paintball community," or "being a living example of God's word," or "sharing Jesus with others" are common amongst supposed “Christian paintballers.”

But paintball has nothing to do with any of these things, and lots that is downright contrary to it.

What are computer programmers to do? How about police officers and school teachers? Jesus preached only to carpenters, 'cause that's who he hung out with? Peter only to Fishermen, and Paul only to tent-makers? Matthew only to IRS employees? Luke preaches only to doctors? Or are all Christians called to be a witness to Him at all times and in all places, not just where they feel "led" to "hang out and relate?"

Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is an inter-personal thing. It has nothing to do with any particular activity. Do they suppose that they cannot just go to a paintball event and share the gospel whether they are participants or not? Must we be prostitutes to "bring the Gospel to the street?" Must we inject ourselves with heroin in order to preach to drug addicts?

That's the belief of what calls itself "the church" today. The modern "church" believes that the Gospel Message (which Paul claimed was alone in it's power to save), that the Gospel Message must first be made "relevant" before it can be grasped and accepted. This is completely contrary to scripture which claims that it is completely self-sufficient for all matters pertaining to salvation and Christian instruction. The Gospel message needs to be SPOKEN, not "exhibited and absorbed through osmosis... maybe... if we are lucky...." The Gospel message needs to be preached, not related... Why? Because the Preached Bible message goes straight from GOD to man, whereas the "relevant" message is FROM MAN, to man. That's why.

There's no such thing as "preaching the gospel from the inside." The gospel is always preached from the outside, in! Only the lifestyle is demonstrated from the inside out, and that's not the paintball lifestyle with it's flashy worldly goals of pride, boasting, domination, intimidation, money, prestige, and stardom. In fact, the two most popular words that I have heard at a paintball field are "domination" and "intimidation." There are whole lines of paintball guns and clothing named after just these two words - that and the word "Evil".

Against this backdrop, any notion of "preaching the gospel" is downright insulting to Christians who have in some cases have had their lives taken for teaching about a lifestyle of holiness, graciousness, servitude, meekness, and non-violence and for living lives that are the polar opposite of your typical paintballer.

And do you know how I know there is no preaching of the Gospel on the paintball field? (I mean aside from the obvious fact gained from simple observation?) Here's how:

Because they know as well as I do that once the Gospel is introduced, the friendship is over. Once the Word of God comes into play, they go out. Once Jesus is introduced, the division immediately follows. If the Gospel - the REAL Gospel of Jesus Christ, (not the watered down "Jesus can be your friend" gospel), the real Gospel of REPENTANCE OF SIN - once THAT Gospel is preached, then Jesus' own prophetic words will be heard, echoing in their ears: "You shall be hated by all men because of my name, the name of Jesus which you preach."

I know there is no "taking the Gospel to the paintball field" going on because the paintball field would REJECT THEM if they did. They may preach "somebody's gospel", but not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus' word DIVIDES people. It SEPARATES people. It CALLS OUT one group of people and DRIVES AWAY another.

If you are in the company of the world, and you start preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you won't HAVE to "come out from among them" - they will THROW you out.

Simple test: If what you are preaching doesn't result in people asking you to leave, then you aren't preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. You are preaching the Gospel of Man.