A Day in Paradise? The New Era Church
- Luk 6:46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
It has become too easy.
It has become too cheap.
It has become too theatrical, even too contrived.
It has become world-like.
It happens in the comfort of air-conditioned facilities in summer, warmth of heat during winter.
It comes without a personal sacrifice, or shall I say “offering?” Heck, it happens without much personal commitment.
It comes with bed and breakfast amenities in lavatory, child-care, OSHA safe exits.
It provides efficiently timed, non-life interrupting meetings.
It comes with soft-serve iced–truth.
It markets to those who are of similar demographic. No time for messiness.
It has world-class music performances.
It allows us to get our fill, wipe our mouths, leave and enter back to reality – unamended
It is the place where the dead can feel for a moment alive, respected and integrated into Jesus society.
It’s big business when done well, and it’s custodians will do everything to preserve and tend it.
And yet it’s untouchable, it’s protected by the exuberant veneer of Christianism’s, that would create a riot to contest it.
….but it has little resemblance to the authentic church…it is the new era of the modern church, which cares little for legitimacy or legacy but rather for leverage. Church is now a day, generally Sunday, it is not a life nor a peculiar community. It is what it is. We arrived at this point through a series of bad reactions and compromises to scripture. It neither demands nor examines for repentance. It is so seeker sensitive, that confrontation of sin is not only uncharitable but cruel. Integration is the new evangelism. So the church is more converted by unbelieving culture, that the other way around. Holiness is not a requirement if preached at all, since in the new era, it is optional. Hell is not a threat, because the ‘new evolution’ baptizes anyone and everyone with a quasi universalism. It is so clean, so sanitary like the artificial world in ‘The Truman Show.’ While it cannot be dismissed it as ‘fake’ altogether, a wiser believer should ask if Christ is in the true head of it all; first asked in my own life, and ultimately when pondering some of these establishments, so called…’Churches.’
Discern,
Shannon