There are some things that bother me. In being bothered by these things I often have to stop and examine my heart. I wonder at times if I am being judgmental, over-critical, self-righteous or sincerly concerned about the issue I am about to bring up. I pray that this post is born of our genuine concern for the state of the church as it is called to be the visible display of God's glory on earth.
Instead of just naming the issue, let me describe the situation that grieves my heart. Having been a minister of the gospel for thirteen years and having been in the church for twenty-nine years I have observed the same event take place over and over. This event usually happens before and after corporate worship. And this event usually extends to other informal times where saints gather together. The event is simply conversation. Conversation is an important identifier because it is expresses to others, in verbal manner, what is at the forefront of our minds. What you say is what is on your mind and what is on your heart. For some who identify themselves as followers of Christ--or Christians if you're old-school--their conversation rarely, if at all, shows that Christ is on their mind. The content of their conversation seems to exclusively focus on sports, movies, music and other trvial matters and events.
Before I say anymore, let me say that I enjoy watching movies. I love music. I don't care too much for sports, but I am sure that I have other things in my life that would be the equivalent. I don't think there is anything wrong with being amused and/or being entertained. There is a time for everything. But these things should not consume all of our time or a great majority of our conversations. In a society where we consume things, it often appears that these things are consuming us. They take up way too much of our time. Our time is our life...and so to be over-entertained and over-amused and to spend an excessive amount of time doing and participating in these trivial matters means that we are not being good stewards of our lives. We are literally wasting the gift that God gave us to use for His global glory.
Now, the conversations that I have often witnessed before corporate worship and after corporate worship are often focused on entertainment issues. I have seen a few people get very animated and excited when discussing their favorite sports team or plans to go see a movie. That's not what's troubling. What's troubling is what is missing. What's missing is the same passion and excitement over the Lord Jesus Christ, over His Word, over His church or lost souls. What's missing are the conversations of Christians discussing a theological book, or some important issue in culture and how we are to address these things from a Biblical perspective. What's missing are the conversations over doctrine--if you don't love doctrine you DON'T love God...plain and simple.
That grieves my heart. If I were an outsider (unbeliever) looking in at a church that is not consumed with God's glory, it would look like this. "Hmmm...I get it. These Christians get together to sing a few songs, hear a short little talk about life's issues, collect some money to support their building projects, try to collect my info via an attendance card so they can send me mailers to get me to come to their many events and programs--Why? They probably want my money. Then after their corporate meetings--which resemble a mild effort to entertain and imitate the cool things we (the world) do--they gather in affinity groups, either by age or by hobby...and then they talk about movies, sports, lunch plans, concerts, television, celebrities, health issues, politics and all sorts of other things that I enjoy talking about too. Heck, I like this church thing. It's very social...and as long as I don't have to give too much money or time to it, I'm down with the program."
Now I don't mean to sound overly harsh. But we must honestly assess the cavalier attitude that many have concerning the Lord's Day. For many professing believers, it is merely a social time mixed with a little spiritual time. There is no eager anticipation to get us there on time...or even a few minutes early. There is no sense of awe...there is no God-centeredness...there is no capturing of the heart and mind by the Word of God (perhaps due to the irrelevant, man-centered content that preachers pad the the Word of God with). The shift from worship to sensual talk takes place immediately after the "amen" of the closing prayer.
Does that bother, you? Is it possible that this bothers the Lord? As a pastor, it bothers me. And I'm trying to assess whether that is justifiable or not. Should it bother me that after church I want to talk about all sorts of things, but not God's grace, which I just should have heard about for however long the service was. Had I been at an hour and a half long meeting where the President of the United States spoke about nuclear arms, or the troubling economy, or some very serious world issue, and had the meeting just ended, would I be off and talking about the NFL, Michael Jackson, my new belt, Denzel's latest movie or how I went "all-in" and won the pot the night before...or would my mind be sobered by the gravity of the speech and would I have my heart and mind on more serious matters. I think the latter would take place. So why does this not happen with Christians who come to hear Almighty God speak? Why is there such a cavalier attitude immediately after the preaching? Why is the Christian consumed with being amused and entertained?
Well, to be sure, sin is the culprit. Satan would have no greater pleasure than to have us think that all is ok simply because we are happy (due to our being amused and entertained). How easy is it for us to think that life is great because we just ate some Coldstone, or saw Coldplay, or just read a great book on the Cold War, or rented Cold Mountain starring "Nicold" Kidman...um, running out of "cold"-isms. In all seriousness, have we forgotten that we have a great adversary? Have we forgotten to be sober-minded in order to resist his sly tricks? Have we so forgotten that sensuality is a sin? That's what an over-entertained Christian is...sensual. And when we gather together after hearing the Word of the Lord and our mouths run rampant with the latest cultural phenomena, then our words betray us. They show and confess that we are not in love with the glory of God but with the glory of the world.
Now let me say that not every conversation has to be "spiritual" immediately following the sermon. I am not advocating some sort of legalism that says that every conversation we have must be about the Bible. What I'm saying is that more often than not, the conversations rarely go in God's direction. That is troubling and I think it's very telling. How do we fix that? How do we instill in people a sense of awe and wonder so that the weight and glory and presence of God in His Word weighs on us for as long as possible? Well, our preaching must change.
The modern-day preacher, I think, may have too many references to pop-culture and entertainment type things that we already love. What we need to hear more of is God and His marvelous grace. God's attributes need to be expounded upon in His Word and need to be shown in relation to the gospel. God's wrath, faithfulness, goodness, kindness, patience, forgiveness, justice, mercy, righteousness, love, omniscience, omnipotence, decrees and covenants are all related to grace and the gospel. We need to be taught doctrines like election, atonement, imputation, propitiation, perseverance, regeneration, sanctification, adoption, justification and how they are spokes on the gospel hub. We need to be shown how resting is a gospel issue, how child discipline is a gospel issue, how marriage is a gospel issue, how adopting orphans is a gospel issue, how work is a gospel issue, how giving is a gospel issue, how food is a gospel issue, how clothing is a gospel issue, etc. The problem with a lot of preaching is that it carries no weight...no real spiritual weight and merely imitates the advice of the world. Oh, how we need to come away from the Word of God having been jolted by the awe-inspiring fact that "Almighty God has spoken." I think then our conversations would change because our hearts would be captured, not by the world, but by God's grace. Let's not forget that friendship with the world is enmity with God.
My prayer is that one day churches will be filled with exuberant Christians who converse before and after corporate worship. My prayer is that when unbelievers are present and they see these exuberant Christians talking before and after church that they'll step a little closer to hear what all the fuss is about. My prayer is that when they step closer to hear the cause of the buzz, that they'll hear that the glory of God has captured the hearts of His people. My prayer is that the unbeliever will no longer say, "This is a really cool social club" but that they'll give glory to God for our speech and conduct (Matthew 5:16, 1 Peter 2:12) and recognize their wickedness and come to Christ for salvation.
1 Corinthians 14:24-25 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
Isn't this what we want? It won't happen, though, when the church is filled with over-entertained Christians.
