CLICHE CHRISTIANITY

I want to tell you about a church that is a good example of cliché Christianity. On their newsletter they make the following statements.

“A vibrant, bible based contemporary church sharing the love of God in the community.”

The word vibrant means “quivering; vibrating; especially vibrating in such a way as to produce sound. Giving the impression of much energetic activity; pulsing.”

When I think of the word vibrant in New Testament terms I think of Acts 2:2 where it says “Suddenly the sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting” and Acts 4:31 where it says “After they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”

The nearest they get to this is to whip up emotions during the so called “worship” time on Sunday morning.

Bible based. I happen to know that this particular church follows the word of God implicitly, unless it contradicts denominational tradition, then the bible is given the boot, like so many other churches.

They pray for 15 minutes before the meeting on Sunday but no other time despite being asked to do more praying as a church. I happen to know that the church did pray regularly, but when a new minister was appointed, he shut down all the prayer times.

A bible based church does not shut down prayer times, they increase them.

Sharing the love of God with the community. I happen to know that every request to be involved in evangelism has been rejected (because the leadership did not think of it first).

This example shows that as long as you say all the right things you are kosher. The fact that you do not do anything you say doesn’t seem to be important.

I read somewhere that unbelievers know if you are genuinely interested in them as people or you are just interested in using them to increase your head count. Perhaps that is why there are so few converts these days in the western church.

They may be sharing something but it is not love. It is more likely they are sharing a series of activities which have to be adhered to if you want to be involved in what they are doing.

Building an experience which is based around the needs of the people involved is rarely contemplated i.e. a ministry to single parents where they can enjoy fellowship and ministry whilst someone else looks after their children or a ministry to men that meets in the pub where they can have a game of pool and just chill out with each other. Jesus came to give us life so I can’t see how making people do this, that or the other ritual is going to give them the life that Jesus offered.

What is even more disconcerting is that there are churches and denominations that teach if you go through a set of rituals each week you will book your passage to heaven. This is blasphemous to say the least as it makes the cross of Christ to no effect because it is salvation by works.

Most churches unfortunately operate on the basis that because the pastor or priest said it is sufficient. Getting the truth from the person that will lead us into ALL truth, the Holy Spirit is positively discouraged. What is said from the pulpit must be unconditionally accepted as the truth.

People and systems like the Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons don’t worry me because their error is obvious. What worries me are the so called evangelical and pentecostal churches that masquerade as “bible believing” but when all is said and done and more is said than done, they are as far from the truth as any other religious system for the simple reason that clichés won’t get us into heaven.