The Broken Bride: The Fall of the Church

The late 1800's:

  There's a ton of debate on where and when the church fell behind.  When we look back, evangelical culture was so dominant in the late 1800's that the church was the scale on which business and entertainment were judged.  Before a product hit the shelves of a store or before a book hit the editor's desk, the question was always asked; "How will Christians respond?" Products failed or succeeded based solely on how the church would drive the market.  Politicians won elections, not by their faith alone, but rather by their denominational affiliation. Their faith in Christ was a given.  In present day culture we're all jumping to vote for a Mormon simply because we feel like he's closer to being a Christian than his opponent. During this time in history the church missed on one key demographic, the elite universities, and this proved to be a critical problem.

  Around the time that the church lost footing in higher education, something else happened, technology arrived.  Churches controlled newspapers, books and businesses, but the key players in the development of newer technology would turn out to be the alumni of the better universities in the world.  Evangelical Christianity developed the notion that technological change wasn't to be embraced.  The church took the stance that they needed to be able to find this technology in the Bible, or deny it's usage.  The old phrase "if God wanted man to fly He would have given us wings" is not a joke, it was the literal line of thinking that Christians used towards technological advancement.  By the time the church finally did allow technology to creep in, she was already too far behind.  The industries had become institutionalized and the barrier to entry was far too great.  In turn we completely missed our opportunity to take control of advanced media, like movies and television.  Given the culture shift that was coming, missing this window set us back tremendously. 

What culture shift?

  Obviously here I'm talking about the changes that our society has undergone in direct relation to television and movies.  Let me set the record straight, I love TV.  This is not me demonizing television.  I have a really big, nice 3D one right in the middle of my living room and I'm hardly covering it up with a sheet when people come over.  However, this technology did come with a price.  We now live in a culture where critical thinking, reading and studying a subject outside of the bounds of school are unheard of.  This is where Christianity cannot compete.  We can't fix this with more Kirk Cameron movies.  I'm saying that this is an area that we simply can't take back.  This is due to the inherent love of the written word that most Christians share. Christianity is very much a written culture and yet we live in a world that's glued to the TV for 3 hours a day.

  I love to read.  This is going to be nerdy, but reading is literally my favorite thing to do.  I can't remember the last time I wasn't actively reading a book.  It's become even better since I purchased a Kindle.  I can now read tons of old theology and church history books for almost no cost.  Some of these books were rare, if even in print at all, but now they're on my Kindle for a whopping 99 cents.  Calvin's commentaries, lectures by J.I. Packer, sermons by Spurgeon, my list could go on for days.  None of these things were a real option before, but now I have them all.  I can't even begin to relay how much growth these soundly written pieces of theological history have changed my understanding of God's word, much less how much these works have done for the church as a whole.

  What preceded might have sounded like a one paragraph Kindle commercial or even me trying to brag about the books I enjoy.  In reality, it's an opportunity for Christians to connect technology back with our written culture in a way that we couldn't before.  I'm not saying that Kindles are going to save the church.  What I'm saying is that we live in a time when some of the best collections of theological work in the history of mankind sit only a few clicks away.  Books that were once preserved only as showpieces for some one's private library are now available to anyone.  Atheists have a difficult time dealing with Christians that know sound doctrine, philosophy and apologetics.  This has always been the case.  If we have any shot at winning back the culture that we once dominated, it's now.  We lost control by losing intellectual believers, and educating ourselves is a great way to get this back into gear.

  I can promise you we're not going to take it back with emotional music on Sunday mornings. The seeker sensitive church model has been taking root for the last 15-20 years and it's clearly a failure.  What worked before can work again, but we have to embrace our written heritage and stop trying to plug Christianity into holes where it doesn't fit.  Churches need to promote doctrinal education amongst their congregations. Not put theology on a shelf while plugging in an emotional substitute.  Doctrine is what separates the Southern Baptist from the Westboro Baptist, Presbyterians from Pentecostals, and the Mormons from the Methodist.  We all read scripture, but it's the lenses of doctrine through which you're able to discern false teaching from the Word of God.  Your Christian heritage came from men that spent their entire lives slaving over scripture to bring forth teaching that will last forever.  It's a shame to see these men moved from center stage in the life of the church in favor of the latest Christian self help writer being pushed by Life Way.   

  Now none of this matters if we don't actually read the books.  Just having them on hand isn't enough.  Once we take back the intellectual realm, we can put ourselves into position to take our culture back.  I don't want to pretend that I've just cured the disease here, but I can't help but think this is a good start.  The change has to start with each individual believer and penetrate the church long before it will penetrate the culture.  If you're in a church where doctrine isn't considered important or even taught then you need to wonder why.  Paul certainly thought it was a big deal.  His letters to Timothy and Titus were written to give instruction to his two proteges.  In those three small books alone he uses the word "doctrine" 8 times, and all of the verses are instructions for them to teach sound doctrine to churches.  He uses the word "teaching" an additional 12 times.  I guess I just can't see Paul standing in the pulpit saying "today, we're starting a 5 week series on money management."  Although, we can't be entirely shocked by the teachings of our churches.  Paul warned Timothy of this mentality in 2 Timothy 4:3 when he said, "The time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine; but, having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions."  Maybe it's time we stop scratching ears and start teaching sound doctrine.  Or maybe we'll let another 100 years go by and the church will be completely irrelevant to it's own, and all in the name of trying to stay relevant to the world. 

The Broken Bride: The Tragedy of the Dumb Church

I’m Defending, not Ranting:

   I might as well get this series underway with a bang.  The information I post in this series is almost certain to upset some people, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be read.  If it makes you angry, then it's probably what you need to hear.  The truth isn't always fun, but that hardly makes it false.  Before I write this series, I need to relay how it applies to apologetics and why I feel like it might be the most important series I write.  It's difficult to rationally defend Christianity in a world full of skeptics, but you need to know that it's not that skeptics have gotten more advanced, it's the church that's digressed. Culture sees Christians like Homer Simpson saw Ned Flanders.  They think we all walk around throwing out fortune cookie Bible verses while hiding from the truth behind our blind faith.  Let’s be honest, it would be hard to engage in intellectual discourse with Ned.   We can’t proclaim the truth if we aren’t taught the truth.  We can’t engage the world intellectually if we aren’t being taught intellectually.  You can’t plug the hole in this ship with your feelings.

 Before I get into the course material I wanted to share part of a blog post from another site that highlights a major problem in the church today.  The link to the full article will be at the bottom, but this is the meat of the post.  I want to point out that this is not a cheap shot at any particular church or denomination. I'd also like to say that I'm not a fan of the writer's use of the word "dumb" in the original post.  I think they could have possibly taken a higher road here but I also realize that it was intended to grab attention, and it worked.  Regardless of doctrinal differences or preference in music style, we are all the church.  We’re in this thing together.  We are all part of the bride, and the bride is broken.  

The Age of the Dumb Church

Dr. R. C. Sproul has said many times that he believes we are living in the most un-intellectual period in the history of Western civilization. Over 30 years ago, former Lebanese ambassador to the United States, Charles Malik, said the following in his speech at the dedication of the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois: “I must be frank with you: the greatest danger confronting American evangelical Christianity is the danger of anti-intellectualism. The mind in its greatest and deepest reaches is not cared for enough.”

Such statements made by Sproul, Malik, and others were not always heard in the Church. The fact is, the Church dominated intellectual thought and discourse for hundreds of years, producing such thinkers like Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Edwards, and others. Such men had their opponents (the Church always will), but their detractors never ridiculed their brainpower because the Churchman’s intellectual prowess left no room for it.

But shortly after the era of Edwards, something changed. Gospel preachers like Charles Finney arose and replaced the intelligent presentation of the Gospel, which was backed by meaty Biblical exposition and solid philosophical rationale, with emotional appeals, questionable theology, personal anecdotes with humor, a celebrity-style leader, and engineered publicity.

Sound familiar? Unfortunately, in many seeker friendly or liberal churches today, the characteristics of Finney and his followers are played out each Lord’s Day with the end result being a church body unable to intellectually defend the faith they espouse.

Characteristics of the Dumb Church

How can you tell if your church exhibits traits that characterize a dumb church? Although not exhaustive, I offer these criteria that I believe help contribute to a church becoming ‘dumb’:

Where the church leadership is concerned:

• Preaching is always topical and never expository. Selective topical series allow tough and deep theological subjects, as well as ‘controversial’ passages of Scripture, to be avoided with ease.
• Although the church leaders offer strong external facing statements as to how they are a “Bible believing church”, the Bible is actually used and referenced very little in the sermons. Few quotations from Scripture are heard in a message, with the vast majority of all sermons consisting of personal rhetoric, humor, videos, and personal stories.
• When the Bible is quoted, most often paraphrase versions are used, or at best a dynamic equivalence is utilized vs. a literal-formal translation such as the ESV or NASB.
• Biblical terms such as justification, reconciliation, sanctification, propitiation, etc., are avoided like the plague.
• There is little to no instruction for new (or existing) believers on the core doctrines of the Christian faith, and no requirement for new believers to attend such instruction.
• There is no continuous offering of apologetic training classes that are designed to train Christians in the evidences and defense of the faith, and little to no interest of the pastors in the subject area.
• There is no easy way for the congregation to have tough questions answered by the lead pastors; such a thing is quietly ignored, discouraged or not practiced regularly.
• Deep Bible study programs are either absent or deliberately pushed out in favor of more ‘relevant’ classes that deal with softer subject matters (e.g. money management).
• Adult and children’s Bible studies before/after the main church service are either omitted or are second class citizens to “Community Groups” that seek to have members meet in each other’s homes during the week, where no oversight is given as to what is done or taught. These groups, where teaching is concerned, are run “hands off” by the church leadership.
• There is a huge emphasis on relationship building and serving in areas of the church, but no similar importance placed on growing more Biblically and theologically literate.
• The youth department has an unmistakable concentration on entertainment, games, social interaction, etc., vs. actual teaching of Christian doctrines.
• The church either has no library or one that is not kept up to date.
• There is either no staff member assigned specifically to church education, or it is assigned to an already overburdened associate pastor.
• Doctrinal statements of the church are missing or are not prominently made available. If they exist, they do not address any controversial theological topics or make very vague statements concerning them.

Where the congregation is concerned:

• The term “Christian apologetics” is completely unfamiliar to the vast majority of the members.
• Most of the congregation has no knowledge of church history with the names of Polycarp, Martyr, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Wesley, Whitefield, Tyndale, and others being completely foreign to them.
• Attendance of offered classes are very low compared to overall church attendance.

A Warning to the Dumb Church

God warns us in His Word about cultivating a dumb church. For example, chastising his readers, the writer of Hebrews offers this admonition against fostering a dumb church environment: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14).

When you have a dumb church, the writer of Hebrews says the outcome is a body of believers that is incapable of properly discerning good and evil. Slowly but surely, error and heresy creep in with no one being the wiser.

Going Forward:

 As I continue I will address how the lack of church teaching has lead us to where we are today in regard to how society views believers.  This issue doesn’t stop with how people form opinions of Christians, it spills over into how we have lost control over many of the areas that Christianity once dominated.  This includes media, politics and our youth.  

 

The Tragedy of the Dumb Church Link