If You Hate Church

Recently I saw this billboard in the Chattanooga area. So, I decided to check out the website for myself and see what this is all about. Just right off the bat I felt like there was something just wrong with the title of the billboard. “If you hate church” – it has such a nasty ring to it. Doesn’t it? I’m all for drawing a crowd so I’m not going to comment too much there. As soon as I opened up the homepage to the website there are 3 videos from 3 different young adults talking about their experiences in church.

These videos use terms to describe what their idea of church should be. Some of the things that are said are as follows “If a church existed where I could be relaxed” and “church should be refreshing”. While I agree that we don’t want to feel like we are walking on egg shells at church but our main focus at church should be on Jesus, not on our own comfort level. We don’t go to church to get a break from reality, or as a “Sunday vacation” but hopefully our motives for attending service should be to cheerfully worship our God and to serve Him in gladness. News flash – church is not about you and I – it is all about Jesus! It is a place where we come to worship Him, to lay or sins at his feet, confessing and asking for forgiveness, where we join in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, where we exalt God far above our daily struggles and our feelings, and where we submit our lives in humble worship to our God.

On the second video the young man said “I can’t relate to it [church]. He said he was looking for a church that is “relevant to today”. This is such a product of the modern Gospel. The Gospel is relevant to all people, at all times, in every arena of life! Why? Because we all have something in common….sin. Once the exceeding sinfulness of sin is explained to the lost the Gospel becomes relevant. That is why the Law must be preached from the pulpit. Remember what the Apostle Paul said “I would not have know sin but by the Law”. It is God’s moral law that causes the sinner to respond to God’s awesome offer of amazing kindness. Galatians 3:24 – The Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” That is why churches need not to shrink back but preach the full council of God.

I hope that I am wrong. I so do. But this sounds like another attempt at a “Seeker Sensitive” man-centered Gospel. I will be eagerly waiting to see what come of this church in our Chattanooga area.