"TRANSFORMED" Into the Image of His Son

WHAT SHOULD WE THINK OF THE SEEKER-FRIENDLY MOVEMENT?

What should we think of the seeker-friendly/seeker-sensitive movement? Perhaps the most tragic aspect of this matter is that God’s people should need an answer to this question. Had it not been for the decades of spiritual malnourishment among God’s people due to a famine of the Word of God in our nation’s pulpits, the answer to such a question would be obvious. A healthy, well-nourished, discerning Christian will readily detect the blatant problems inherent in this latest "church-growth" movement. I have placed church-growth in quotes because there is a difference between growing and swelling. Living organisms grow naturally when they are properly nourished, receive proper exercise and experience proper elimination. Dead things swell. Simply because something is becoming larger is no indication that growth is occurring. Pastor John MacArthur has rightly reminded us that if we will concern ourselves with the depth of our ministry, God will take care of the breadth of it.

All error, theological or practical, results from one of two mistakes:

1. We may err because, though we have begun with sound presuppositions, we have used faulty logic to arrive at our conclusions.

2. We may err because we have begun with erroneous presuppositions and reasoned to logical but flawed conclusions. Theological and practical errors almost always result from the second mistake. I believe this has been the case with the seeker-friendly/seeker-sensitive movement.

One cannot expect much from those who believe sinners are the efficient cause of their own conversions and that God has done all he can for their salvation. If that is the case, we must surely use every marketing technique and tawdry trick we can discover to bring them to make that all-important "free-will" decision. In reality, the seeker-friendly movement is simply "free-will" theology taken to its logical conclusion.

To me, one of the sadder aspects of this entire situation is that some, who have professed to understand and believe the very truths I am suggesting as an antidote to this perversion of biblical Christianity, have themselves been duped into following its methods. My desire for them is that they will return to the biblical foundations on which they have, in former days, professed to stand and engage again in the type of ministry that will glorify God in the edification of his people.

I invite you to examine with me what seem to be some of the basic presuppositions of this movement and decide whether it is founded on sound biblical truth. I have said these "seem to be" the basic presuppositions of the movement since I have discovered them largely by inference from observing the practices and listening to the statements of its practitioners. If you discover its foundation stones to be biblically sound, by all means continue to build on them. Otherwise, I beg you to follow the Lord’s word through the prophet Jeremiah who wrote, "Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. . . ." (Jer. 6:16).