Celebrity-Driven Seeker Church?by Vince and Lori WilliamsOne of the many things one will find in every seeker-driven church is the mentality that they have to do something else, aside from preaching the Word of God (2 Tim. 4:1-3), to draw people into the church. Of course, most seeker-driven churches do not even handle God's Word correctly (2 Tim 2:15), even when preaching it. One such church was in the news on March 3, 2012, namely Canyon Ridge Christian Church in northwest Las Vegas (http://www.christianpost.com/news/tim-tebow-to-speak-in-las-vegas-as-part-of-churchs-evangelical-outreach-70768/). Though we do not know for sure how the Word is handled when taught at CRCC, it is clear that they have the typical seeker-driven church mentality.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
According to senior pastor Kevin Oder, twice a year "We try to bring in a person with a story that excites people so that our members invite their friends and our neighbors can get connected to God, and maybe they'll come back next week." The person they invited to come speak was NFL quarterback Tim Tebow (whose testimony is questionable), but we are not here to talk about Tebow. We are here to simply give yet another example of a church trying to bring people in by relying on another method other than Christ and His Word. 2 Tim 3:16-17 clearly says that ALL Scripture is profitable for teaching and training in righteousness, so that we can be equipped for every good work. It's sad to see these seeker-driven churches falling for satan's lies. The Word of God is completely sufficient and He has granted us everything pertaining to life and Godliness (2 Peter 1:2-4). Oder goes on to say that "…I figured that if Jockey saw something in his character, there was a lot more to his story…..." So pastor Oder and his staff were first relying on a secular company to determine the Christian character of someone?Oder also says that "I could just hand him [Tebow] the ball and let him run, but I think in an interview format we'll be able to get to understand him more as a person and he'll say a few things that he might not necessarily say when he's preaching." We've never heard Tebow "preach" (didn't know he was a preacher now), nor have we heard Oder preach, but there is one thing for certain that we can draw from this situation: CRCC thinks they should, at least twice a year, look to something other than the Scriptures to bring people into the church, instead of letting Christ build His Church through the preaching of His all-sufficient Word.This happened again in the news during the Resurrection Sunday service this past Sunday at Celebration Church in Georgetown, Texas (http://www.christianpost.com/news/tebow-preaches-at-church-says-america-should-get-back-to-god-72843/) . Once again, Tebow was interviewed by pastor Joe Champion, who said "In Christianity, it's the Pope and Tebow right now," and went on to say "We didn't have enough room to handle the Pope." (For now, we won't address the promotion of the Catholic Pope in that statement, or the false religion of Catholicism).  Champion goes on to say that "It's not a Tim Tebow show. It's not about a celebrity. There's really only one celebrity that we are going to honor and highlight." It's not a Tim Tebow show, but they have him there to speak? And Christ is a celebrity? Matthew 20:28 plainly says that the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. That's not celebrity status. The fact that seeker-churches like these think they have to do things, like having a celebrity come, to grow their church instead of simply preaching the Word of God, is egregious.Again, of course, this is only one way, and a very subtle one, that seeker-churches use to try to make church more acceptable and enjoyable to the un-churched. We need to pray for these pastors that they will contend for the faith through the preaching of the Word, and for the people who follow them that the Lord will open their eyes to what's really going on.
 
-- Vince and Lori Williamsvinceandloriministries@gmail.comvinceandloriministries.blogspot.com