We kind of misread it and well…flip-flopped it. So here we have been operating on the premise that Jesus wanted us to be, ‘Of the world - but not in it.’ Oops, our bad.We are just now realizing how far this dixletic moment might have set us back. ‘Of the world’ –..... that has been the church growth pattern we have been striving for.
So we made the business model our guide and the bottom line our purpose. We replaced our pastors with managers and missiology with sociology. ‘Of the world…of the world’…ask what would the world do...what would the world want? And that’s what we did, that's what we wanted.
We put Starbucks in our foyer and cup holders in our sanctuaries.
No need to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. We have one right here.
We have door prizes and giveaways. It’s like a game show and there are no losers!
We accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. No crosses, no conviction, no shame. We latch on to the affirmative. You aren’t lost and in danger of God’s wrath. - You ain't no sinner! You are a Pre-Christian!Our doctrines have been tested by Barna, our sermons mass-produced by Warren and our staff reprogrammed by Ryan Seacrest.
It has worked so wonderfully! We are dynamic! We have thousands of church-going, ‘Best Life Now’ believers who have no condemnation, no conviction and no desire for things above.
We’re saved! On our way to Heaven! Forgiven and free! And we were able to lay claim to all this without the untidy business of humility, discipleship and sacrifice. We kept our pride, our power, and our greed. (we should have suspected something was amiss.)
‘Of the world’…But by God, we are “not in it.” We created the Whatever World Believer's Dome. (our take on the BioSphere.) No need to go outside. No need to go ‘in the world’. We have it all here under one roof.
No need to mingle with the pagans outside – no need to buy their goods or attend their schools or listen to their music or laugh at their jokes. – We have our own marketplace right under one big roof. We have our own cruise lines our own diets plans, our own 'Thirst No More' bottled drinking water! We have our own concerts, our own comedians, our own magicians. On stage, tonight. Admission only $27.
We are so 'set apart' that we eat nothing but Christian vitamins, watch nothing but sanctified soap operas and have our breath refreshed only by sucking on messiah mints. Our 'Blessed Broadcast Network' increases our faith to the point where we realize any miracle can be bought with a pledge.
So we did it. We are ‘of the world’ – we enjoy all the world enjoys – but under our roof pride becomes positive confession and greed becomes godliness. Sin is softened by our sanctified psychology. Even our old lusts has found a place where adultery, and porn and prostitution is not condemned - but understood, sympathized, ministered to. It's like the Garden of Eden!
We've become disloyal and ill mannered, stubborn and unforgiving, yet all in a very spiritual sort of way. ‘Of the world’, you see, ‘but not in it.’
My God, what have we done?
We are reevaluating our new marketing slogan:
‘Come to Whatever World where it never rains on your parade.’
