Should we be moving to bring people into the church? The answer, of course, is a resounding “yes”! However, it is how this is to be accomplished and into which “church”, the visible or invisible church, we should be working to bring them into that is the crux of the matter.
Now, the Christian will use the Word of God to answer these questions, just as he or she faithfully addresses all questions pertaining to this Christian life and faith.
What does God’s Word say? Does it tell us to have entertaining “contemporary” worship services, and music concerts focused on being entertaining and generating positive emotions, lest a hearer become bored and feel uncomfortable? Does God’s Word tell us we should invite our un-churched neighbor to a "terrific, informative, and entertaining" seminar on personal finances, in the hope they will return the following Sunday to be entertained by a Bible story puppet show, or movie and to hear the “Church Growth gospel” - that is, that God loves them and how they too can “help meet the physical and emotional needs of people in their community”?
Just what does the Bible say?
(Just one well-known passage will suffice.)
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19,20: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (KJV)
We are (indeed!) to be about growing God’s church – but our focus is not to be on growing the visible church, but on bringing lost souls to the knowledge of sin and their Savior from Sin and Death, The Lord, Jesus Christ. Our focus is to be on the growth of the invisible church – the Communion of Saints – the Universal Church of Christ – the Church of which all believers are members.
And how are we to do this? We do this by: “…Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…”.
“All things” includes teaching both of the two major teachings (or doctrines) of the Bible, the Law and the Gospel and teaching people to observe (i.e. learn and be faithful) to them. This is also how a church remains orthodox. This is true Christian (and hence, “Lutheran”) orthodoxy.
The Church Growth Movement, on the other hand, is not about a church being orthodox – that is, remaining faithful to the whole Word of God in its teaching and practice. Rather, the Church Growth Movement is ultimately about increasing membership rolls and financial contributions, and building up the egos of its leaders and the organization’s perceived "relevance" in the synod to which it belongs, the local community and the world at large. Making people “feel welcome” and keeping them entertained within the fellowship is the priority. The philosophy of the Church Growth Movement church is that no one should ever be made to “feel badly” (e.g.: guilty or sorrowful) for his or her sins, lest they feel unaccepted and so be ‘driven away”. There should be no preaching of God’s righteous anger and judgment against sin and sinner, no mention of the existence of hell or God’s just punishment for sin. In fact, the preaching of the Law is (ironically) considered anathema there.
Lacking the preaching of the Law of God, there is, naturally, no need or desire for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sinners are no longer “sinners”, but “seekers” and “seekers” must be made to feel welcomed, entertained, and comfortable at all times and at all costs, lest the whole Church Growth scheme collapse in upon itself and the organization and its leaders become as irrelevant as they have made to be the preaching of God’s Law and Gospel among them.
The visible church has enough charlatans and unbelievers in her midst already. Any emphasis upon working to bring people into the visible church without the proper application of Law and Gospel benefits the spiritual welfare of absolutely no one. The church growth movement church lacks the preaching of God's Law and Gospel and so produces no authentic growth in Christ’s Invisible Church at all, because it depends on man’s contrived intervention, instead of relying upon the Word of God alone. Many of today’s "churches" – including some mainstream so-called “Lutheran” churches (e.g. some in the W.E.L.S. and L.C.M.S) - have become nothing more than a worldly conglomeration of secular social organizations, church social clubs and individual lukewarm “faux Christians”. Many of these individuals are only seeking validation by default of their (sinful) lives and a weekly dose of the “warm fuzzy feeling” the Church Growth "gospel" provides, devoid of the One True God and pure Christian doctrine. They want and promote a place where each member is encouraged by the organization’s anti-scriptural teaching on Christian liberty as it pertains to the Doctrine of Church and Ministry and an unscriptural application of First Peter 2:9, so that each member might be free to create their own contrived individual "ministry", in order to draw in more members, thereby increasing their membership rolls and financial contributions. The foundation of such ungodly organizations is not Christ and His Word. Therefore, they are not an orthodox church body. At best they are a heterodox church body and at worst, they are a cult whose foundation in the end is work-righteousness and the sinful notion of fulfilling primarily temporal needs and the ego-centric and materialistic inclinations of it's unbelieving members.
If you find yourself in such a Church Growth Movement “church”, you should speak to your pastor and/or elders with the Word. Show them with Scripture how unscriptural their practice is. If there is no repentance and corresponding change of behavior, you should mark and avoid them as not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but as those that serve their own bellies. (Romans 16:17,18), for there is nothing "Christian" or “Lutheran” about such "churches" or the Church Growth Movement.
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think (know) ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."
John 5:39 (KJV)
~ the Lutheran Watchman, © December 11, 2014