Sloppiness in the Church?

For some time now, I’ve been burdened for the Church. My heart’s been heavy with grief from seeing increasing sloppiness in the Church.

You say “Sloppiness?”

Yes. There’s sloppiness everywhere around us: in business, in education, at home. We’ve become “the sloppy generation”.

Look at the way people dress for work, for schools, in public. Baggy pants with waistlines below the hips and crotches at the knees, pregnant women with tight jerseys above the belly, necklines mid-breast and pants bundled up at the feet for lack of length adjustments. That’s not to mention the new disheveled hairdo styles that have been passing as “cute”, and all the rest of it.

And that has crept up in the Church as well. I once attended a service where people worshipped up and down the aisles in T-shirts and barefooted, collection plate in one hand and a Tim Hortons coffee in the other. I see women – both slim and obese -- with short skirts ignorantly 'mooning' when sitting or bending down.

We’ve lost our fear of the Lord. We’ve lost our reverence in the Church. It’s a difficult thing to bring out but when the Holy Spirit keeps stirring your heart to talk about it, you just can’t run away from it.

What’s wrong with the Church? Well, firstly, in many Churches there is the lack of qualified leadership – that is qualified in people skills. There is a lack of “leading by example”. There is a lack of preaching the hard issues of dress and personal presentation.

The famous sales and personal development trainor and motivator, Zig Ziglar, for one, said it is a demonstrated fact that people who are dressed up perform better at school and at work. Remember what lawyers do when defending their clients? They have them trim their hair and shave, and dress up to change the impression of the public.

Some time ago, as I was thinking about all this, the Lord led me to an article by David Wilkerson on a sermon he made to a group of pastors in a denominational headquarters chapel service entitled “The Dangers of the Gospel of Accommodation”.

In it he describes at length, what the Lord is saying about His Church.

He says that a Gospel of Accommodation has been creeping into the Church, especially in America (North America). The description of “accommodation” is: “to adapt, to make suitable and acceptable, to make convenient.” Exactly what another message, from another servant of the Lord, was saying from a completely separate platform. And basically what the Lord has been showing me in the past many months.

In speaking with other concerned Christians, I also have heard similar comments. Many of these folks have stopped going to Church. Yet, they love the Lord. But they all have similar stories.

The Wilkerson article says that the “new gospel” has influenced many ministers of every denominations and given birth to megachurches who serve thousands of people who come to hear a “nonconfronting message”, spoon-fed with humorous skits, drama and nonabrasive sermonettes on “how to cope, called a seeker-friendly or sinner-friendly gospel”.

He then points out that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is none of that, but has always been confronting. He says that there is no such thing as a friendly gospel. But there is friendly Grace!

Jesus said he came to fulfill the law of the Old Testament, not to condemn it. I like the leadership style of Pastor Pat Francis of the Kingdom Covenant Ministries which is just that – teaching folks to be their very best in every way.

The article breaks down 3 points to explain this gospel of accommodation:

1. It is the accommodation of man’s love for pleasure.2. It accommodates all man’s aversion to self-denial.3. It accommodates man’s offense to the gospel.

I quote one paragraph from the Wilkerson article to illustrate the distress of the issue:

“In disbelief I watched a televised Sunday night service of a seeker-friendly church-seeker-friendly by its own admission. To a packed church where thousands attend, the pastor said, "This is fun night, a David Letterman night."

“The youth pastor came out and did his monologue as David Letterman. Then they showed 10 of the most boring things teenagers do during preaching. Three of the 10 were throwing spitballs, yawning, and picking their noses. (My note here:And I am reminded of the many television ads that teach kids to act just like that.) The crowd went crazy. (My note here: I am also reminded of the grown-ups encouraging kids by their laughters of just that kind of behaviour.) After the service, the pastor brazenly announced, ‘We're not here to offend people, but to make church comfortable for everyone.’ I wept.”

Indeed we have heard many times people say that they don’t want to “offend” people to the point where we avoid telling them they should live holy and respectful lives before God, in fear and trembling, in awe of a God who will judge our every detail of our lives.

To quote from Wilkerson’s article, "Son of man, I made thee a watchman. You were to hear the words of My mouth and give them warnings from Me. You were to tell the wicked, 'Thou shalt surely die.' And you gave them no warning nor spoke to warn the wicked to turn from their wicked ways to save their lives. These same wicked men died in their sins, but their blood I'll require at your hands."

Sounds harsh?

Problem is, if we have become sloppy on the outside, we have become sloppy on the inside. And on the inside is where character and worship comes from.

In Matthew 16:24, Jesus says that any man who will come after Him will have to deny himself, take up his cross and follow Him..

Do we self-deny ourselves for God? Or do we do everything to make us “comfortable”, regardless of respect for life and for others?

You can read David Wilkerson’s entire article by ckicking on this link: “The Dangers of the Gospel of Accommodation”