Nowadays, it seems more important to please the world than to please the church (please note I said please the “church” not please “God”) — even though the Bible says we should prioritize those in the household of faith.
We don’t care if our conservative brothers are stumbling all over our creative freedom. The important thing is that unbelievers are not stumbling over our message.
We no longer go to preach where the idols of the world are, it is much more fruitful to bring the idols into the church to lure the world in. We trick them to win them. We tease their weaknesses and manipulate their addictions because the end justifies the means. We bait them with images of wines and spirits and then when they show up we spring up the Holy Spirit on them.
It is not like we are worshiping these idols ourselves, we are not, we are simply going where the sinners are — establishing a point of contact. Like Jesus, we are simply lunching with Simon and dining with Zaccheus.
So what if our brothers in faith disagree with our strategies? So what if our brothers don’t get it? They are the ones who need to grow up, to get with the program. We will not be patient with the weak in the church (read, the “narrow-minded” in the church). Why encourage their hypocrisy? Why succumb to their holier-than-thouness?
Even Jesus faced resistance and condemnation from the Sadducee and Pharisee of his day, that is why we are confident in what we do. It doesn’t matter that the Sadducee and Pharisee were UNBELIEVERS, yes even the high priest. Somehow, it seems more appropriate to dismiss conservative Christians as unbelievers simply because they think our methods unwise.
The end is near and we need to harvest as many of the lost as fast as possible.
And as the masses stream in through the front door after their idols, those inside are being carried out in their #judgmental stretchers through the back door — their faith in a #hypocritical condition.
And it’s really alright because, well, we can see the fruit. We are winning the world.
#Selah
“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Gal 6:10)
“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.” (1 Corinthians 8:9-12)
A big shout out to J.C.
Alien Citizen 
there is nothing biblical in all that you have written above. nowhere in the Holy Scriptures are we told to trick, lure, manipulate people to receive Christ, has 1Thes2:3. this is deception of the highest order an it is not far from apostasy. the end justifies the means???? what of Romans6 then?
Kennedy, please, with all due respect, make a point of looking up the meaning of “irony,” and something called. “tongue in cheek,” please.
Ngare, I totally understand what you are saying, I see the truth in it, but I think this post is a little polemic, even for you.
I have served in the Mavuno teenz church from late 2012 to end of 2013. Your concern about protecting the ‘conservative’ within the church, I also identify.
At teenz konnect I have met kids who are ‘innocent’ having to sit thru things I dont think they were ever ready for. And yes there are lotsa other kids there with crazy experiences, kids who havent been churched up until the walked into Mavuno. And there those kids who are from VERY christian families but are very unchristian when you get to know them. The sad thing in all of these is that I felt atimes the unbelieving and ‘wild’ kids (who need Jesus just as much as everyone else) are prioritized over the kids that seemingly have their ‘act together’. This is actually a duplicated model of Mavuno’s main adult church service structure, and I am afraid it is inaccurately adapted for the teenz.
Its such a hard balancing act to play, relevance vs compromise, especially when you have an eclectic congregation and a church that is ‘Missional’ in its urban agenda.
I would suggest that as people are making analysis of this matter, to consider all possible factors at play in objectivity and the wisdom of the scriptures.
Thanks for your input bro. I didn’t mean to come out polemic; I guess I still need to work on refining my satire.
On the issue, I think first impressions matter… a lot. It would be an impossible world if the only way the weak (and conservative) among us would understand what’s going on is if they first read the manual on Mavuno’s Ministry Philosophy. There is simply no time for that.
Also, I think it is one thing to address the harsh realities of the world in church. We are not trying to protect the “churched” from the truth. Even the Bible explicitly describes gory scenes and sinful sexual escapades. But it is a whole different matter to tantalize the senses and play on people’s imaginations in the name of “being real”.
I happen to think this difference is infinite. Explain to the churched kids what Blurred Lines is instead of assuming (and forcing) a standardized and flattened state of moral depravity and then beginning from there. The biblical worldview does not support a “majority sets the starting point” approach to social evils, or does it?
interesting perspectives here. edu, your comment…eish. good one.
Related:
“Some churches today are using carnal means to attract members, but this is not only dangerous; it is also unbiblical” ~ Paul Washer