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| In the light of Euro 2004, a church in Suffolk organised some special sports services one Sunday in the summer. One church leader said, "We are going to prove that God and David Beckham do go together by introducing a major football theme to our church." Another declared, "This is church as you've never seen it. The nation has gone sports mad this summer and we are joining in with the buzz. The service will have a computer penalty shoot-out, sports videos and even oranges at half time. We want to look at how we can play the game of life and come out winners."
No doubt these people meant well, and genuinely wanted others to become interested in the Christian gospel, but was this really the way to go about it? Lively and exciting at one level it may have been, but it is also an example of what can happen when once we cease to allow Scripture to regulate all that is done in the name of worship and evangelism. Without the objective standard of the Word of God to control our activities, we are just left with subjective opinions about what is appropriate in our circumstances. The more daring and innovative we are, the more "in tune" with the modern world we think ourselves to be.
Perhaps many evangelical churches would not want to go as far as the one described above, but the trend is within them nevertheless. That is why we have such things as "worship groups", dramatic sketches, and so on - things that are aimed at pleasing man rather than God.
This is all so very sad when we stop to consider the riches that are to be mined from the Scriptures. When a man proclaims these glorious truths in the power of the Holy Spirit, why does a church need to turn from them to rely on sport and other pursuits of this life in its worship? Surely there is enough in the Bible to interest hearts and minds in the things of God. Why turn from the fountain of living water to broken cisterns that cannot satisfy?
Yet people do turn away from the preaching of the Word to things that entertain. The church in question measures its attendance in hundreds, whereas other churches in the region, where the Bible is central, sometimes struggle to get into double figures. What an indictment this is on the age we live in. Our zeal may be commendable, but our superficiality is a cause of shame. It all speaks very clearly of the need for a visitation of the Holy Spirit in grace and power.
Peter Kinley |
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