There is a growing trend towards making the Church more “relevant” to the world by avoiding subjects like JUDGEMENT, SIN and REPENTANCE. In a misguided attempt to make the gospel more palatable and less offensive, some choose to evangelise with promises of health, wealth and prosperity…but does that lead to genuine conversion? Can you genuinely recognise that you need a Saviour when you don’t understand what you’re being saved from, why you need to be saved? If you do not recognise you have sinned against a Holy God, how can that lead to repentance? If you do not turn away from that sin and start to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, have you not instead felt “remorse” or “regret”…but in fact never exhibited genuine repentance at all?

It would seem that many professing believers are embarrassed by certain attributes of God – like His abhorrence of sin; the fact He will judge mankind; the truth that there is only one way to be saved. I like the way God describes himself:

Exo 34:6-7 NIV84  And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  (7)  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

If you read through the bible you will get a very clear indication of the character of God; his Holy and perfect character. Yet it is amazing to me how many people worship a God of their own imagination. “Oh…I don’t think God is like that. The God I serve would never…” – how many times I have heard those type of arguments.

It always reminds me of a store I went into where you could assemble your own teddy bear. You could choose the colour, texture, size, clothing, eyes – you could even give it a recorded voice. You can build you own designer teddy-bear. YOU CANNOT do that with God – you cannot disregard the attributes that don’t fit into your mindset or make you feel uncomfortable. That would be idolatry, because you certainly wouldn’t be worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as revealed through scripture. There is no guess work required; all is fully revealed through the infallible word of God. That is the God we must serve. That is the God we must proclaim. Enough diluting and compromising the truth to give people what their itching ears want to hear. If you love them, you will gently and lovingly tell them the truth.

What a tragedy that many churches are filled with false converts, believing a false gospel and being lead by false teachers – mostly because they have been evangelised with the ideas of man rather than the solid foundations and truth of God’s word.

Listen to this discussion about the pitfalls associated with the evangelism methods of the seeker friendly church, and why they are unbiblical:

This YouTube clip is helpful in contrasting the opposing evangelism methods.