This is the third installment in this series and there appears to be no letting up.
I have called this post "3a" as opposed to "3." The reason for this is that I plan to delve further into the mire of the SBC's convention news with follow-up posts that are equally, if not more, aggravating, discouraging, or simply ridiculuous.
As a Southern Baptist pastor it pains me to see the convention gather every year for fear of what nonsense is going to take place. This year is no exception. I will get right to the point.
The Christian Index, the Southern Baptist bi-weekly newspaper for Georgia, shares the first bit of nonsense.
California pastor Rob Zinn preached the convention sermon and delivered a similar message, saying, “We are a denomination that talks a lot and does little when it comes to evangelism.”
Addressing the topic of dismal baptism numbers within the SBC despite lofty goals, Zinn said, “Our attitudes stink.” The denomination, he added, must be willing to change its methodology while staying true to the gospel message. One of the changes, he added, includes music. His church uses a blended style. He asked grandparents in the audience, “How many of you love those grandkids enough you’d be willing to change your music for them?
“[I]f we’re going to win [young people] to Jesus in this culture, we’re going to have to be willing to change our mindsets,” said Zinn, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif.
“Folks, what you did in the [19]40s and what you did in the 50s isn’t going to win this culture to Jesus.”
So, does this mean that the Jesus Christ who died on the cross and rose again in 3 days is not good enough to save today's young people?
Does this mean that the music is what we are trying to win them with and win them to?
Does this mean that the Gospel is changing?
I know what some are saying as they are reading this.
"The methods change, the message doesn't."
I say that in this process the message is changing also. We have to invent ways to make the gospel more appealing and tasty for our audience. We have to make Jesus out to be a comedian with His hat turned to the side, wearing low and baggy pants, listening to music that really says nothing but is loaded with personal pronouns, drinking a beer (for the Driscoll fans) with a little cussing to impress the youngsters, and leading games at church since sermons are boring and long.
I say this is the kind of foolishness that the church is drinking, eating, and wanting more of everyday.
May the Lord have mercy on us.
5 comments:
Jer 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Jer 6:17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
MarianBlog,
Thanks for your scripture references. How true and timely these are.
DT
It is sad, heretical, and shameful for a claming Christian to teach that our mindsets must change to meet the current culture head-on. It doesn't matter how appealing and tasty we make the gospel, Christ does the convicting.
Dead,
I heard back from Newspring Church out of South Carolina. It seems as though the event that included music from Garth Brooks, "Friends in Low Places," had 200 people become saved! Interesting huh?
Melissa,
This is called pragmatism. To them the end result (people supposedly getting saved) justifies the means (being as wordly as you want to be).
This is total compromise and a picture of an apostate church.
DT
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