Many in the Western world view Christianity more like visiting a mall than like following Paul, who said, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ,” (I Corinthians 11:1). If we are not biblically disciplined and personally self-disciplined, it is easy and feels literally normal to treat the church (for which Jesus died) as if it were a shopping spree.
Sound a bit too harsh? Consider how many times you have heard someone say, “I finally found a church I like!” The very content of the sentence betrays the motive, “I was looking for a church that pleases me.” It’s not really surprising considering that we are in about the third generation of “marketing church” as if we were advertising a product for sale:
Ours is the best…
You’ll love the taste of our new…
Come try the new…
You’ll love it…
Oh, what a feeling…
Be the first on your block to get the new…
We have what you’ve been looking for….
The various churches in any town can easily get into competition for marketing their services, worship, classes, age groups, etc. “Our seniors go on a bus trip every year!” “We have the most exciting youth minister!” “Our singing will send chills up your spine!” “There’s a reason we are named ‘Happy Church!’” You get the picture.
When churches stoop to the pitiful practice of parading their piety or their people-pleasing product to an immature and unspiritual world, advertising what pleases people is almost inevitable. With a larger attendance, the preacher usually makes more money. With larger attendance, we look more successful to an undiscerning world. With larger attendance, we attract more people, and it can become a self-feeding cycle.
The basic problem, of course, is that any such approach is a miscarriage of God’s will and God’s Word. In reality, many forget that Paul was commissioned by God to specifically condemn self-pleasing worship. In II Timothy 4:1-5, we read,
I solemnly exhort you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
The antidote for such humanly-focused religion is for Timothy to preach the Word and to, “use self-restraint in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry,” (II Timothy 4:5). All godly church leaders must use self-restraint to keep the message His message. The command to “preach the word” in verse 2 shows that we must avoid preaching psychology and sociology and stick to theology (study of God through His word). Once any teacher, preacher, or congregation steps off the path and turns to the right or the left they have inevitably abandoned God’s will. One is reminded of God’s instructions to His people in Deuteronomy 28:13-14: “Listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today, to follow them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or the left, to pursue other gods to serve them.”
Did you catch that, turning to the right or left (off God’s planned path) leads to pursuing other gods (small “g”) whether they be literal idols or the modern idol of following whatever attracts “consumers” to some sort of church?
There may be no better passage to study deeply than II Corinthians 5. Paul says he has a vital and encompassing ambitious goal that requires courage: “But we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
“To be pleasing to Him,” not self, not others, not my internal idea of fun nor my own human idea of what spirituality is—and certainly not whatever is pleasurable to my senses.
But why is Paul so deeply dedicated to pleasing God? Glad you asked. Paul knows that a day is coming when “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad,” (II Corinthians. 5:10).
Paul then brings us back to his present thoughts about our job on earth, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men.” Persuade them to do what? The very thing he has just mentioned: “be pleasing to Him.” That reality should forever settle the question of pleasing people or pleasing God. However, for some, the temptation to please people, whether in personal life or in designing worship, etc., seems just too hard to resist. Pleasing people might grow numbers but it never grows true, godly spirituality and never focuses on pleasing Him.
The answer, the only answer to any temptation is to have as our goal, in every area of life, to please God in our worship and in the world. Pleasing Him must be our overarching goal if we are to truly be His people headed for His eternity. Where is your focus? What is your goal? To please Him or to please self?
ray@rockymountainchristian.com
