Sunday, September 20, 2009 - Santa Barbara
– Lesson 2 in a series about Trends)
TRENDS (2)
The Community Church Movement
I say this in
contrast with a movement that is gaining tremendous popularity today.
The
community church movement is a
movement that desires to deemphasize denominationalism by creating
community based churches that cater to social needs and stresses
tolerance of doctrinal differences.
Some of the largest and best known churches in this nation are
the results of this movement.
As a matter of fact, according to statistics recorded at,
www.sermoncentral.com out of
the top ten churches in America (congregations) 6 of the top 10 have
affiliations with this movement and the rest, while tied to specific
denominations by name have community church tendencies.
·
Willow Creek in Chicago (#4 on the list)
– located in South Barrington, IL. is said by many to be the original
community and the pattern that other community churches follow.
Its current membership is about 23000 attendees on a given
weekend (3 services in a 7200 seat worship center.
In addition to this, Willow Creek has several “regional
congregations” in the Chicago area.
(Yet they do not call themselves a denomination.)
·
The
Saddleback church (#8)
located in Lake Forrest, CA is
under the direction of Rick Warren, whose book “The Purpose Driven
Church” is a blueprint for the community church.
He is also the author of The Purpose Driven Life, It was
started in 1980 and has an average attendance of nearly 20,000 on a
given weekend.
·
Lakewood church (#1 on the list)
– Houston, TX. Home of Joel
Osteen. Boasts being the
largest church in the United States with
attendance of 47,000
·
Oak
Hills Church, located in
San Antonio. This is the
church where where Max Lucado preaches.
Note: Formerly Oak Hills Church of Christ.
While I did not see anything at their site claiming to be a
community church and they do teach some things differently, there are
CLEAR signs moving in that direction if not already there.
Their goal is multiple campuses.
They have both instrumental and acapella services.
They have softened their stance on baptism now teaching, “Oak Hills also believes salvation doesn't come through baptism, but that
baptism is the initial step of obedience after salvation.”
They have also stated in
interviews that the reason they removed the name “church of Christ” is
because “Some find the Church of Christ name to be an insurmountable
barrier.” (San Antonio Express News, September 06, 2003)
NOTE: As I prepared for this
lesson, I found an article in The Spiritual Sword (October 2000) which
documents that that leaders in more than one community church have ties
to liberal churches of Christ
(History and Development of a
Community Church, Mike Hixon).
Considering this,
today I want to spend a few moments talking about why we should be
concerned about the Community church movement.
I.
Background of the community church
a.
History
- The community church movement traces its origin back to movements that
came out of denominationalism.
One is
the social gospel which
began to be advanced in the early 1900s.
Over the next few decades many churches began to slowly change
their focus to addressing social and psychological needs (i.e.
benevolence and counseling).
About that same time evolution and modernism
were intellectually introduced and this caused many to begin
questioning the authority and
clarity of scriptures.
Historically we can see how this evolved over the next century to
become more and more liberal and a desire to reject “traditional
thought” (i.e. the 1960s generation).
Add to this
the spirit of ecumenism which describes a movement in which more
liberal religious leaders get together and seek unity in diversity (i.e.
let us simply agree to disagree).
In the latter 20th century as people began to become
disillusioned with traditional religion and denominations they began
searching for alternatives.
The community church began to develop out of these roots.
b.
The
foundation of the community church.
When there is a decision to start such a church, the first thing
that is done is to take a survey of what the people in the community
want in a church – then they build the church around that.
They develop ministries for everything and their focus is greatly
on the social needs of a community.
The hope is that by taking care of social needs opportunities
will be presented to preach and teach the gospel to these individuals.
They also encourage members to start their own ministries – whatever
they are passionate about.
This of course enhances the community spirit of the church.
c.
Its
worship – a new and
contemporary worship style. (We will deal with this on Tuesday night)
In Community Churches, there is great emphasis on the entertainment
value of worship. In fact,
many of the mega-churches offer multiple services with different
approaches. You can choose
the more upbeat contemporary service or a more traditional service
(which will still be filled with entertainment).
A typical service will have lots of music, like a concert, prayers and a
short, “relevant” lesson. By
relevant, it means that the sermons will almost always deal with some
current issue (such as an attitude) or uplifting lesson.
Services are geared to keep your attention, even in our entertainment
driven society.
d.
Its
appeal – the emphasis is a
casual atmosphere and an enjoyable time.
You are not expected to dress up.
Service times throughout the weekend cater to your timeframe with
several opportunities to worship.
Many of the mega-churches have services on both Saturday and
Sunday so that you can CHOOSE the best time for you.
You are not expected to participate unless you want to (you can listen
to the music, etc.). In
fact, due to the size of many of these churches – you can blend in and
not even be noticed. Just
the way many like it.
e.
Non-judgmental – another key
feature to these churches.
While there are core beliefs that are expected of all members (and I
suspect that some churches would not permit certain sinful behaviors –
such as homosexuality) the general consensus is, “God loves you the way
you are.” While that is a
true statement – the way they mean it is that they expect LESS change
than God does. As one writer
said as I prepared this lesson, “The
emphasis of the Community Church concept seems to be on reaching the
people of community as they are and where they are – and leaving them as
they were and where they were even after they become members.” (GOT,
Vol. XLIII, No. 1, pg. 18)
The truth about these churches is that they appeal to people who are not
comfortable in the mainstream churches because mainstream churches
expect them to conform to certain standards of conduct.
f.
Preaches a positive message.
Again because of the size of some of these churches it is
necessary to avoid certain controversial issues at the risk of
alienating large numbers of the congregation (for example: You will
probably not find much teaching on unscriptural marriages in some of
these churches. Nor will you
find much doctrinal teaching because such has a tendency to divide).
A church affiliated with the Baptist church (such as Saddleback)
will probably not condemn doctrines of other denominations.
So what some of the
problems with the community church?
II.
Doctrinal Concerns with Community Churches
a.
They
are founded by men –
Like other denominations, community churches can trace their foundations
to the work of some man and many of them are also affiliated with a
particular denomination.
Most community churches are centered around their “pastor” and his
associates. These men (and
women) are very much instrumental in forming (or inheriting) these
churches – and it becomes theirs.
They run it as they see fit.
If you don’t believe this – try telling Joel Osteen to leave Lakewood
church or Rick Warren to leave Saddleback.
See what happens! And
even if they did leave, many of the parishioners would follow them.
We need to be careful not to follow after men –
2 Cor. 11:1-4 finds Paul
being sarcastic as he notes that if one came preaching a different
gospel, etc, “you may well put up
with it!”
The Bible does NOT
speak highly of the doctrines and churches of men –
Galatians 1:6-9.
Galatians 2:5 speaks of an
occasion when men tried to bind their own doctrines and change the
gospel of Christ. Paul said
of such, “to whom we did not yield
submission even for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue
in you.”
1 Cor. 2:1-4 – TRUE gospel
preaching is not “persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
power…”
b.
The
appeal – To please man and not
God. The fact that community
churches are society driven shows that they appeal to men instead of
God.
Galatians 1:10-12 –
continuing with this text.
Paul is clear he does NOT seek to please men.
1 Thess. 2:4, “But
as we have been approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so
we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.”
2 Timothy 4:2-4 speaks of
the time when men have itching ears will be turned aside to fables.
c.
A
Non-judgmental Attitude
i.
The
Community Church is the product of the unity-in-diversity movement that
has been developing for nearly a century now.
Community churches profess to be
non-denominational. They are
NOT! Most are
inter-denominational with
a willingness to accept believers of all faiths. And some are actually
affiliated with various denominations.
ii.
There is a de-emphasis on the
doctrines that divide within denominations and certain lifestyles.
There is a call to not be judgmental in discussing these
differences.
NOTE: IN REALITY this is consistent with the doctrine of
eternal security which
basically says that once one is saved they cannot be lost.
The conclusion is: Why deal with divisive issues if they don’t
matter?
iii.
We
KNOW that the Bible calls for true unity –
1 Cor. 1:10,
John 17:30, 31,
Ephesians 4:1-6, etc.
But NEVER is TRUE unity achieved at the expense of truth!
iv.
Furthermore, the Bible calls for us to make doctrinal judgments –
Matthew 7:6 says, “Do
not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine…”
That is a judgment.
John 7:24 speaks of not
judging according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.
Romans 16:17 calls for us
to mark those who cause divisions.
2 Thess. 3:6, etc.
Such passages call for us to make judgments – BASED upon God’s
word.
v.
BUT,
If a brother is in sin, we BETTER take time to try and win them back –
Gal. 6:1, Jas. 5:19, Jude 22-23,
etc. Their souls
depend on it. We cannot sit
back and ignore their error and expect God to overlook it as well.
It doesn’t work that way!
This is an
introduction to the community church.
Some of the other elements of this movement will be addressed
throughout this series. In
the meantime, may we learn to strive to be the church OF CHRIST instead
of the church of some man!