THE EMERGING CHURCH IS TWISTING THE GOSPEL

I Timothy 4:1-2; II Timothy 3:1-7

History reveals that Christian fads and trends come and go. It seems that it is common for many pastors and church leaders to constantly look for some new methodology, “new wave” or “new thing” God is doing, “right now.”

We live at a period in church history that is characterized by enthusiasm for methods and means that facilitate church growth. Large churches are commonly equated with successful pastors and successful church growth methods. Whatever it takes to reach that objective, is acceptable, we are told. Church growth has become the measuring stick for successful Christianity.

If we take a good look at some of today's "Emerging churches", past the fancy  technology and secular music, you will find more than just a contemporary worship service. You'll find church leaders encouraging their congregations to trade in their Christian convictions for a gospel filled with compromise. They're slowly attempting to give the church an "update" and the change is not for the good.

We can no longer rest carefree in our Christian identity because it is changing. No doubt you have seen the headlines declaring that evangelicalism is doomed because our young people are leaving the faith. It is no secret that there is an expanding gulf between traditional Christian teachings and contemporary moral values. But the sad truth is that the ideological gulf between evangelical grown-ups and their children seems to be widening too.

Somehow the blame for this gap is being blamed on traditional churches. They are accused of having too many rules as well as being homophobic and bigoted. These are false claims from popular culture in its desperate attempt to keep Christianity imprisoned within the church walls. But now popular culture is being aided by Christ-professing churches whose message to "coexist," "tolerate" and "keep out of it" is more marketable to the rising generation of evangelicals.

The seasoned Christians are noticing these distortions of the gospel. But for young Christians, the spiritual haze is harder to wade through. Desperate for acceptance in a fallen world, many young Christians choose not to take Christ out of the church, and so they are unwittingly killing the church's public witness. In this uphill cultural battle, hindered by scare tactics and fear, three types of evangelical Christians are emerging:

A. Couch-potato Christians

     These Christians adapt to the culture by staying silent on the tough culture-and-faith discussions. Typically this group will downplay God's absolute truths by promoting the illusion that neutrality was Jesus' preferred method of evangelism.

B. Cafeteria-style Christians 

     This group picks and chooses which Scripture passages to live by, opting for the ones that best seem to agree with culture. Typically they focus solely on the "nice" parts of the gospel while simultaneously and intentionally minimizing sin, hell, repentance and transformation.

C. Convictional Christians: 

     In the face of the culture's harsh admonitions, these evangelicals refuse to be silent. Keeping true to the Word of God, they compassionately talk about love and grace of God while also sharing with their neighbors the need to recognize and turn from sin.

Many of us have at one time or another have fallen into each of these three categories. Even though we were raised in church. Being countercultural for Christ isn't easy. What does the Great Commission say? Jesus commanded us to go, "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20).

WHERE DID THE CHURCH GO WRONG?

Today many parents are asking themselves where did we go wrong with children. Following the instructions of Proverbs 22:6; "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" many Christian parents took their children to church and prayed with them every night before bed. Yet the values those children now hold dear do not reflect the traditional teachings of Jesus.

Many of our youth today are being spiritually and emotionally targeted on Christian university campuses, in college ministries and at churches nationwide by a growing liberal movement cloaked in Christianity. Our young people are drifting further away from the orthodox truths their parents and grandparents held dear. 

The church has never faced the exodus we are seeing today. This will have a direct effect on the spiritual and moral values that will shape the future of the church in the coming years. This is why it is urgent that the church start acting now before the situation gets worse.

THE COLLISION OF CHURCH AND CULTURE

The church and culture will continue to collide. The culture wars, the growth of family, the success of missions, the future rests on young evangelicals' worldview. And that is cause for concern, because something has gone wrong with young evangelicals' theology.

The young generation's susceptibility to "feel-good" doctrine is playing a big part in the churches moral decline. The modern church practices depend largely on how the actions make us and others feel, whether the activities are biblical or not. For example, we only attend churches that leave us feeling good about our lifestyle choices, even if those choices conflict with God's Word. We dismiss old hymns that focus on God's transforming salvation, love and mercy and opt for "Jesus is your friend" songs.

Liberal Christian writers and preachers tell the church today that if they accept abortion and same-sex marriage, then the media, academia and Hollywood will finally accept Christians. Out of fear of being falsely labeled as "intolerant" or "uncompassionate," many Christians are buying into theological falsehoods. Instead of standing up as a voice for the innocent unborn or marriage as God intended, Christians are forgoing the authority of Scripture and embracing a couch potato, cafeteria-style Christianity all in the name of tolerance.

This contemporary mindset is what is known as "cheap grace." Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Today cheap grace theology is proliferating around evangelical Bible colleges, seminaries and Christian ministries.

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE HAS BEEN HIJACKED

It is not that young evangelicals were not taken to church by their parents. It is that their training has been hijack by ineffective and sometimes intentionally distorted doctrine.

As constant and pervasive as the attacks on Christianity are at public universities, it is important to remember that young Christians worldviews do not start taking shape after they move out of their parents' houses. Their understanding of Jesus' teachings and convictions begin to form while they are still at home and under the influence of their local church.

Christian parents and leaders must realize that the church has been too trusting. In our busy lifestyles, parents have treated Sunday school as they do softball or ballet class. They drop off the kids for an hour then pick them up and hope they learned something.

We must understand that our young people listen to their Sunday school teachers and their parents, but they also listen to their public school teachers, TV celebrities and rock stars. Youth ministers, volunteer leaders and pastors have to start preparing these children to deal with the very real hostility they face daily at school and out in the world. If we never talk about abortion in church, how can we expect a young Christian girl to calmly explain the option of adoption to her frightened friend who just admitted she is pregnant?

Young Christians actually crave honest discussions about abortion, sexuality, sexual exploitation, feminism and radical Islam. The trend away from biblical truth is not concentrated only in the big cities. It is unfolding all over the world. Old-fashioned conservative Christianity is being traded in for a bright and shiny, mediocre Christianity.

If  the Christians disengage from the public square and fail to engage the rising generation of Christian leaders, then we risk losing our public voice, then our religious liberty, then liberty altogether.

WHERE ARE OUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS?

The last several decades witnessed tremendous evangelical influence around the world. Great spiritual leaders that made a bold impact on families, churches and governments. Now that those few leaders are aging or retiring, or have died, there are very few traditional evangelical leaders left holding the torch and even fewer candidates to whom they can pass it to.

Biblical convictions are not on the verge of disappearance just yet. There is still hope. Christianity will prevail as it always has for decades to come ahead, although less so than in the past because of an increase in Christians who don't have a religious identity.

HEED THE WARNING SIGNS

Christians do not have to look far to discover what happens when the church give up on their traditional convictions and teachings. All we have to do is look at the dwindling membership of  churches around the world.

In order to safeguard the trajectory of the church, we must uphold the authoritative Word of God. It is imperative that those in a position to influence the church have transparent and honest discussions about the culture wars that the church is already engaging. Otherwise they will be silent and accepting in the face of persecution and false doctrine.

The importance of arming the next generation cannot be overstated. If we continue to follow the example of mainline Protestants, evangelicalism will have a gloomy future.