All the World's a Stage
Paul Shelby Lewis
Recently, I had the privilege of meeting with a small group of college students about the issue of mass-media's influence upon the church. One of the first points of discussion that I was going to address was the fact that our worship services seem to be all about entertainment; but the students beat me to the punch.
For those in my generation, this is not the easiest observation to make. We are children of the television/movie/txt-msg age, so asking about the impact of the media upon our churches is kind of like asking us why we like color television instead of black and white. Even so, one can see that Shakespeare's famous quote has taken roots within our churches.
So what's the problem with people enjoying worship services? Well, nothing, as such. Church should not feel like a funeral, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is life changing and exciting. Moreover, as Hebrews tells us, the word of God is "living and active," so we ought to examine ourselves if we are putting people to sleep.
The problem is in our judgment of success. Like a good movie, we tend to think a service was successful if people were entertained and walked out smiling. Meeting Jesus, repentance, conviction of sin, and other essentials of the Christian life fall by the wayside; let's just make sure that we ensure people have a good time and want to come back.
Here is the crux, though. Unless the church presents the radically different message of Jesus, we will never be able to compete with the secular world in alluring non-believers. And why think we could or should? Alistair Begg noted in a recent podcast that we should expect non-Christians to feel uncomfortable in our church services.
That doesn't mean that we should make it a point to offend non-believers. Quite the contrary, we should seek to present the Gospel in an attractive manner because it is the most amazing, life-altering, earth-shattering message that has ever been brought to this world. It is a reminder, though, that the cross has a way of being offensive all on its own. Everyone loves Jesus . . . right up until you start talking about sin, exclusive salvation, the cross, the literal resurrection, His deity, and His call to repentance.
If we try and compete with the world on the world's grounds, the world is going to win every time. It shouldn't be any wonder why church attendance has been plummeting across our nation.
