In the midst of the current onslaught, the hostile takeover of mainline churches by the seeker-sensitive hoard of mega-church devotees, the following quote rings clear and true. It stands as one of the many unheeded warnings from those a generation ago who looked into their crystal ball and saw the logical outcome of a church who has lost its bearings – a church swimming in the sea of cultural acceptance.
A church living large in the land of Laodicea.
“The world today is laughing at the church, laughing at her attempts to be nice and to make people feel at home. My friends, if you feel at home in any church without believing in Christ as your personal Savior, then that church is no church at all, but a place of entertainment or a social club. For the truth of Christianity and the preaching of the gospel should make a church intolerable and uncomfortable to all except those who believe, and even they should go away feeling chastened and humble.”
– Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Christian entrepreneurship has infected our seminaries to such an extent that we now mass produce, in assembly line fashion, an army of current and wannabe church CEOs and not Spirit-led men of God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones reminds us of just how far we have fallen. For me, it’s sobering to see what we, as the salt and light of the world, will do to prostitute ourselves for the prize of worldly acceptance and cultural relevance. “After all,” we say to the laughing world, “we just want to be loved.”
Pray that you will be different.
Note: This quote is from The First Forty Years 1899-1939; Banner of Truth, p. 142
