The Revenge of Measuring Success by Results

I was sure that the long-standing practice by evangelicals and fundamentalists alike of judging success by numerical results had died a long overdue death in the 1990′s. My seminary education had instilled in me the commitment to judging my ministry as a pastor by the standard of whether it pleased God or not, that is, whether it was faithful to Scripture. Numbers mania had gone the way of the dodo by the late 1990′s.

Or so I thought. Pragmatism seems to have returned with a vengeance. In order to survive the ever-changing ministry environments of the past decade, many ministries seem to have made their peace with whatever changes of philosophy will keep their doors open.

To make matters worse, not many members seem to have noticed. Ministries that once prided themselves on their conscientious commitment to a thoroughly Scriptural philosophy and practice have overthrown all core values in a matter of a few years (or sooner). And those who challenge the turn to pragmatism find their protestations falling on deaf ears.

Carl Trueman, church history professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, and ever keen cultural critic, writes about the turn to pragmatism he sees:

This all takes me back to a question I have raised before: in a world where success is the ultimate sacrament of absolution, who is there with the credibility to call the successful to account?  Not the man in the small church.  Suspicion that he is motivated by envy will always undermine his authority in such a context.  And, if we are honest, envy will likely always be a part of the motivation for such criticism. I preach total depravity, after all, and it is also the one example where I can honestly say I consistently practice what I preach.  What pastor of a church of fifty does not want to be pastor of a church of five hundred?  The church I serve has ca. 90 on a Sunday.  Yes, I would love a few hundred more.  If we ever got to four hundred, I hope we would plant a church, as long as I did not have to drink zinfandel and grow a soul patch.  But yes, I would be lying if I said I did not have a twinge of envy at those whose ministries are – well, you know, successful.  I guess that is the word.

So what about the successful?  Will they point out the problematic excesses of the self-promotional culture which seems to pervade much of the modern conservative evangelical church?  One can only hope so; but history gives little cause for optimism on that score.  Nobody wants to bash the successful, for our culture assumes that that would be to identify with failure and mediocrity.

The psychology of success is fascinating: those who are successful often start as well-intentioned people; but increasing success almost always seems to bring in its wake an increasingly relaxed attitude to the rules, a fuzzier conception of right and wrong and an odd sense of entitlement whereby the successful come to think that, for them, the normal criteria of behaviour do not apply.  This incremental exceptionalism is reinforced by the failure of those who should check them from actually doing so.  It is almost as if, for all of us, success (and in church we typically mean numerical size and growth) is the ultimate criterion of truth and that therefore as long as it seems to be working, as long as it is popular, it must be true.  You can ape the Hollywood aesthetic; you can be increasingly vague on the hard teachings; but as long as the machine keeps working as it should, everybody is happy — or at least comfortable in their silence.

… As long as you pull in the punters, especially the young ones, as long as your name on the conference flier helps to sell tickets, and as long as your preaching is popular with the rising generation, those with the standing to state the obvious and do something about the excesses will generally not do so for fear of spoiling something which seems to be working as it should.  Indeed, you will enjoy the benefits of a powerful and heady perfume which gives the successful a high and hides the hollow reality from outsiders: the sweet smell of success.  You just can’t beat it.

And when it all blows up, you can be confident it will be nothing to do with anyone.  “Seriously, guv, I never even knew the man…..”

I think we would do well to consider.

Doctrine vs. Jesus? Some Musings on Sentimental Christian Pablum

 I’ve heard the song only a couple of times now, and so I can’t quote it exactly. But it’s message goes something like this: it’s not our interpretations that matter, it’s not our firmly held positions, it’s not the doctrinal points we argue over — “It’s still the cross!”

 The implication, of course, is that Christ’s cross is the center-piece of the Christian faith and its irreducible essential. And because the cross is so important, we should not fuss over such things as interpretations and doctrine. The cross of Christ — this is what is important, and this is what we are all about.

 What puzzles me is this: just how is that so? How is it that the cross of Christ is of central importance? And what does that mean? The fact is, there is no way to answer the question without giving interpretation and establishing doctrine — the very things that are said to be unnecessary! Clearly, it is not the pieces of wood formed into a cross that are essential to the faith. What is important is Christ crucified. But even that — Christ crucified — is virtually meaningless until we explain (i.e., interpret) precisely what its significance actually is.

 Now of course the significance of the cross is that in his death the Lord Jesus Christ offered himself to God as the substitute for sinners, standing in their place to make satisfaction for their sins. That is, his was the death of a penal substitute, and we who trust in him are freed from our sin and condemnation precisely because in our place he bore our wrath and endured our curse. This all is what the Bible makes a point to affirm for us over and again. But you see all of this is interpretation. It is doctrinal formulation. And such is essential to the Christian faith. It is unthinking and misguided to pit “the cross” against interpretation or doctrine, for apart from these “the cross” has no meaning whatever. In short, the song quoted above, for all its good intentions, is nonsense.

 For generations the church has been plagued by rising elements from within that decry the need of doctrine. We have had pietism and quietism and of course the run of the mill “Let’s just have Jesus” voices. “Why don’t we all just believe in Jesus and leave it at that?” Or, “It’s not doctrine that matters — life is what matters. Practical godliness and holiness are what are important!” But here we go again — what does it mean to believe in Jesus? Who is he? Why should we trust him? And what is godliness? And why is it so important? All this involves interpretation, doctrine, apart from which such well meaning assertions are meaningless and would reduce Christianity to nothing.

  We must understand that Christianity is built on propositional truth. It is distinctively a creedal religion. It is much more than that, of course. But to Christianity creed is basic. It rests on certain truth claims. There are certain propositions which are held up as true, apart from which there is no Christianity at all. Moreover, these truths have implications. And the claim of Scripture is that all this God has revealed in his Word for his people to learn and to believe earnestly in order to worship him and live before him aright. And so God commands us to “study” and “meditate” on his Word, “rightly dividing” it according to “the pattern of sound doctrine” the apostles have given us. Indifference to this Word — indifference to its truth claims — cannot in any way be said to be godly or noble. It is, in fact, anti-Christian.

 What God calls us to is not to shun interpretation. He calls us to interpret his Word carefully and faithfully. And what today’s churches need is not less doctrine but more doctrine — an ever increasing exposition and understanding of God’s precious Word. It his here, in interpreting God’s Word, we learn of a cross and a Christ of the cross, of a resurrection and a salvation for sinners fully accomplished and freely offered, of a coming judgment, and of a infinitely amazing and loving God who has done for us in his Son what we could not do for ourselves.

No, so far from shunning interpretation, we must relish it thankfully and pursue it worshipfully.

 

Country Club Christianity

I have never been part of a country club, but I have visited a few with friends who were members. And the experience has always been a good one. Country clubs exist because people are social beings. We like to mix with other people, make friends, and we like to share common interests — whether golfing or other amusement or perhaps a particular social agenda. Of course for some, it seems, belonging to a particular country club is a matter of pride — there may be a certain prestige associated with the membership. But still, the country club can serve a good purpose.  Friendships, amusements, activities, entertainment, social agendas — these are good things.

Even so, the country club is limited. Its purpose is not to address issues of eternal significance. It is not designed to help its members come to know God, find the forgiveness of sins, prepare for the final judgment, or provide instruction how to live faithfully before their Creator. These matters are simply not in its purview. It exists for other, more secular and temporal purposes.

There are ways in which the church and the country club are similar. Christians too are social beings, and we love to mix with other people, make friends, and share common interests. And this is one of the great values of the church. But of course a church which goes no further has missed the mark entirely. The church does not exist to address mere secular or temporal issues. The church exists in order to give a voice for God. Our whole reason for being is caught up in knowing, hearing, loving, serving, and speaking for God.  This is what the church is all about.

You’ve probably heard the criticism leveled at some churches — “They’re just a country club church.” Perhaps you have said it about some churches yourself. Such “country club churches” indeed exist, and it is surely one of the worst indictments they could ever receive. And the symptoms of country club Christianity are obvious. A country club church exists for social and secular and temporal reasons. It has a religious flavor, to be sure. But its focus seems to be on other things. Evangelism, seeking to win the lost to Christ, is not high on its agenda. Prayer is something we do before the meal or the preacher does for us on Sunday morning.  “Worship” is more entertaining than humbling.  One church service a week is more than enough, and that (the Sunday “worship service”) must not go too long — this, after all, is just one slice of our very crowded life. The preaching must not be too long, nor must it be too personal — if the preacher dares to invade our space and meddle, he’s overstepped his bounds. He must never make us feel uncomfortable — his purpose is to make us feel good.  And if anyone says “Amen!” (1Cor.14:16) during the sermon, he is probably a fanatic and will certainly get some funny looks from others in the congregation.

Country club Christianity. It’s not about God, really. It’s about relationships, entertainments, activities — a religious kind of secularism. A religion that is used perhaps to salve a conscience but a religion which makes no demands on life. A religion which is really very convenient and which exists precisely because it is convenient. But it is not a religion for discipleship. It is not a religion which calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and passionately pursue Christ.

Country club Christianity, in other words, is not Christianity at all.