The 'Me' Centered Church

By Matt Smith, 08 January, 2009

The 'Me' Centered Church<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
If Satan himself wrote a book entitled, You Can Be Like God: 7 Steps to Being like God through the Champion Within, it would blend flawlessly in today's top ten Christian best sellers. Here are four of the top ten most popular Christian books recently listed on About.com:
Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul, by John & Stasi Eldredge; this Christian-based view of feminine liberation encourages women to connect with their inner selves and discover the strength and beauty to live fully. Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge, is a daring, Christian perspective about men, encouraging men of God to accept the wild, sometimes dangerous - not destructive - person within. Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller, are short non-religious essays about an inward journey toward the Christian life. Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential, by Joel Osteen is a self-help guide offering a seven-step program, based on spiritual principles, to leading a more meaningful and rewarding life on a daily basis.[1]

Not one of these books is written from a God centered theology but all seem to be written from a man centered one, where the focus is on self not God. At this point, Timothy Wallace's definition of a 'me' centered theology is appropriate, being that it is the theology espoused in our modern consumer church mentality.
It magnifies the gift and the recipient's possession and enjoyment of the gift, often forgetting the Giver altogether and sees the purpose of creation as largely for man's pleasure, and so often assumes some measure of perceived entitlement or "right" to some quality or possession in life. It sees one's good deeds as a dutiful effort to please God and earn favor or respect from God (and/or men) and adds to these (again) some measure of prideful self-congratulation (however well-hidden) for doing works for God. It tends to put the cross behind one and renders some measure of priority to nurturing one's self-esteem, self-image, and personal worth. It tends to assign legitimacy to-and justify-selected thinking, feelings and intentions, in spite of any evident conflict with the God's Word.[2]

In light of this list of qualities, the previous list of top selling Christian books falls short of a Biblical perspective. It would be remiss to say that these books are inherently evil, but they do demonstrate a trend in Christian churches today to want to focus on self. In many cases one's position in Christ seems to be de-emphasized while one's inherent attributes seem to be highlighted. Again, a positive view of self is not bad. In fact, a proper Biblical perspective will lend itself to this very thing, but it is a stark perversion of our position in Christ as people of worth to focus on ourselves as the end in itself.
Challenging self-emphasis flies in the face of popular Christianity. Don Mazat, in his paper on self-image, demonstrates this fact beautifully. He says:
Focusing upon "self" and enlarging "self" appeals to our sinful, human nature. We love to esteem self, to boast of the integrity of self, to read "Christian" self-help books, to sing of how much self loves Jesus, to attend a church service that is dedicated to the improvement of self, and to follow Bible teachers and evangelists who make self feel very spiritual.[3]

In effect, when worthiness is attained through even a little bit of self-effort, it gives credit to man not God. In the grace centered theology of the New Testament however, there can be no room for this exaltation of man for the Bible from beginning to end is about the exaltation of God not man.
Tell this to Pastor Robert Schuller, author of the book Self-Esteem: The New Reformation. In it, he makes the audacious statement that, "any creed, any biblical interpretation that assaults and offends the self-esteem of persons is heretically failing to be truly Christian no matter how undergirded it might be with biblical references."[4] In explaining this theology of the self, he goes on to deny the very sinfulness of man at all with this pronouncement:
I don't think that anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality, and hence counterproductive to the evangelistic enterprise, than the unchristian, uncouth strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.[5]

If this were the only gentleman espousing such silly ideas that would be one thing but, Dr. Ray Anderson, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, tops even this with the following:
If our sin is viewed as causing the death of Jesus on the cross, then we ourselves become victims of a 'psychological battering' produced by the cross. When I am led to feel that the pain and torment of Jesus death is due to my sin, I inflict upon myself spiritual and psychological torment.[6]

What Saith the Scriptures?

If Dr. Anderson is right, then Jesus must have been wrong when He told the parable of the two debtors in the seventh chapter of Luke. The main teaching is that a man that has been forgiven much will be thankful to the degree that he realizes his indebtedness to the forgiver. In many respects this brings up the notion of confession so de-emphasized in our churches. The word, homologein, in Greek conveys the idea of seeing things as God does and literally means to confess.[7] The Bible expresses itself clearly in saying that a true picture of our depravity will lead to a truer appreciation for our position in Christ. The above quotes destroy this idea and, like Satan's temptation in the garden, lead man astray in the prideful sin of self-exaltation. A true picture of self-image is pictured in the following prayer found in the Gospel of Luke:
And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' Luke 18:13

This prayer makes an unfortunate contrast to the best selling prayer of Jabez, contained in an obscure section of first Chronicles:
Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. 1 Chronicles 4:10

At first glance it is exciting that a book on prayer topped the bestseller list. That is until one reads the prayer it's based on. It is no surprise then that a book based on personal blessings would be a hit in today's culture. After all didn't Paul warn Timothy that in the last days men would be lovers of themselves (2 Tim. 3:2)?

Conclusion

The church today has gotten away from its purpose and identity as laid out in Scripture. Again, we do well to remember:
A local church is a group of baptized believers organized together to meet for the equipping of the saints for their ministry; for provoking one another to love and good works; for exhortation; for the exercise of spiritual gifts and the observance of the ordinances (Eph. 4:11-12; Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Cor. 11:18)[8]
The church is not for "seekers" or for "Me centered" people. It is for disciples and "He centered" people. The church can and should reach out to a dying world and that means engaging the culture with the truth that Jesus is the only Way, Truth and Life (Jn 14:6). It also means becoming more like Him daily, walking in faith and His strength. Paul sums this up well when he says:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.Galatians 2:20

At the end of the day we are all simply beggars telling other beggars where we found bread. Let us bear witness then to this fact in our Culture so that we can change the "seeker sensitive" church of 'me,' back to the Bible based <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />church of He.

Matt SmithPastor, Barabbas Road Churchpastormatt@whoisbarabbas.comwww.whoisbarabbas.com619.459.3873