"Why worry about the process when the results clearly reflect what God wants to be achieved in this world." A lot of Christian leaders today make this kind of argument. They are making the point that "the end can justify the means." So how important really is the process to God? 1 Cor. 14:40 commands us to do all things "decently and in order". This is a clear declaration of the process of which things should be done. And if God is telling us this, we can make the conclusion that there is honoring and glorifying of Him with the process we employ towards the achievement of a goal. We cannot just make a spectacle in our churches, like holding something similar to a rock concert, just so we can make the unbelievers in our community attend our evangelistic service. But you may argue, "Hey! You Christian leaders have told us several times before ‘to win souls at any cost', and now you're telling us having a rock concert at our church to bring in the people is wrong?" Please understand that when we admonish you "to win souls at any cost", the point we are making is that if you have to die for the gospel's sake, then by all means, do it.
The next obvious question is this, "What process is decent and in order?"
First of all, it has to be biblical. There are processes of doing things that were clearly laid out in the Bible. Like when someone is sick. James 5:14-15 tells us that it is the sick that calls for the elders of the church to pray for him and to anoint him with oil. In modern times, television evangelists would announce to everyone that he/she will conduct a healing service so everyone who is sick is invited to come to the venue of the event. This clearly opposes what was instructed of us in James 5:14-15. Another problem with this is that most of the time, it's the person conducting the healing crusade that is being lifted up and not God. Now, as to whether I believe that there is true healing that happens in these events, is another discussion that should be reserved for another time.
Evangelism is another Christian function of which there is a clear instruction as to how it should be performed. Mark 16:15 tells us to "Go into all the worlds and preach the gospel…" There are two instructions here: (1) to "Go" and not wait for the unsaved to come to you, and (2) to "preach" the gospel and not to "sing" the gospel out. Most evangelism programs of churches today start by asking "what people would want to hear" in case we are successful in inviting them to our churches. The churches of today have concluded that people prefer that we talk about God's love to mankind to the point where we have made them believe that God would embrace anyone to His family just as they are, even with no resolve to turn away from sin. Furthermore, they believe that talking about sin and Hell to an unbeliever would only offend and push him away. And so, exclude sin and Hell from the message as much as possible. To make the person stay in your church for the longest time possible, it will also be good to deliver messages as often as the pastor can about the "prosperity that God wants to give people."
After finding out "what people want to hear", the next question is "how they want the message delivered." Churches of today clearly give the answer --- Entertainment! A widely accepted message goes well with entertainment. This is the reason why Christian music has changed dramatically in the last two decades. Now we have "Christian Rock music". Church leaders would allow that their churches be transformed into a rock concert scene for about an hour, with young people banging bodies with each other, if that would mean a big crowd listening to the preaching at the end of the program. I recently saw a video at the website of The Way of the Master Radio of a pastor who delivered a message on the Christmas story ala The Jerry Springer Show. The characters like Mary, Joseph and some fictitious characters that aimed to discredit the integrity of Mary were violently arguing with each other the same way guests in The Jerry Springer Show do. The manner into which this very holy Bible event was delivered in that video was a big blasphemy against the Word of God. But despite that, it breaks my heart to inform you that people in the congregation that watched the skit seemed to have enjoyed what they saw. Churches are willing to degrade the time tested biblical processes in favor of what they perceive as "great evangelistic responses."
The Bible also tells us that "The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul (Ps. 19:7)." The Law was part of the evangelistic messages of Jesus when He was still here. The disciples and the apostle Paul followed through after Jesus ascended to Heaven. Great evangelists 300 and 200 years ago like Whitefield, the Wesley brothers, Luther and Spurgeon had a big part reserved for the Law in their messages. Why? Because the Law serves as our “…schoolmaster to bring us to Christ… (Gal. 3:24)” after it has stopped our mouths and made us guilty before God (Rom. 3:19) and gave us the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20). The person to which the Law is preached not only understands why he needs to put his faith on Jesus, he also realizes that because it was his transgression of God’s holy Laws that put him in trouble, there is a need for him to repent from these sins. Thus, his conversion is complete. But the preachers of our time removed the Law in their presentation of the gospel for the simple reason that they believe, talking about sin will push away the unsaved. They prefer to use what they call “The Seeker Sensitive Approach.”
Pardon me but I really don’t get this approach. It's saying that if you have hurt someone badly and I will serve as the bridge so that things will be settled, to make you get right with the person you've so insensitively inflicted pain on, I will tell you nice things about the person you've hurt (like he is such a forgiving person) so that you’ll feel good about yourself? Duh?! This is crazy! You hurt God insensitively and yet you want His children to be sensitive in dealing with what you did? What you deserve is to be shouted at on your face about the evil you’ve done against God so that you’ll be awakened and moved to do something about it. Isaiah 58:1 says, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression…" I don’t see the Seeker Sensitive Approach anywhere in this verse. Do you? This is why the Law shouldn't be removed in our evangelistic messages for the Bible instructs us to make people examine themselves through the mirror of the Ten Commandments so that they'll see how wretched they are in front of such a holy God. And as far as the "seeker", God is the only Seeker and not you. He seeks for your repentance of sins. He seeks for your total faith on Him.
The second way of knowing if your process is "decent and in order" is to examine if it is "after the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:4)." How do you know if it is "after the Spirit of God?" John 4:24 tells us that "God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." So how do you know if something you are doing is "in spirit"? Godliness is the answer. The manner should reflect holiness which is a prime attribute of God. Anything that does not evoke holiness or, any procedure that it is this world that invented is not of God. And how about "the truth"? Something is of the truth if (1) what is shown in the outside is similar from what's inside (Ps. 51:6) and if, (2) it sets you free (John 8:32).
Let’s test some of the things that have been happening in our churches and see if they are "in spirit and in truth".
I once heard of a church that holds raffle draws for people that will attend their evangelistic crusade. Why is this wrong? The church has now set the stage for the sin of covetousness for people in the crusade. Instead of them there to listen to the preaching of the Word, there will be people whose eyes are now focused on the material rather than the spiritual. The gimmick has failed the test on godliness on the basis of the potential sin it evokes, as well as the fact that raffle draws is an invention of this world and it definitely has no room in our churches. It has also failed the "truth" test because it really has not set the person free in terms of the hold of sin in his life. Some people may come back to this church, not because they have been truly converted, but because they like the cool gimmicks of the church.
Let's do another one --- Church music. There have been songs in our time being sung in our churches (I'm not saying all) that sounds more worldly than Christian. Yes, the lyrics look Christian but the manner they are sang is definitely worldly, like songs classified as "Christian Rock" music. The argument as to why these songs are permitted in our churches is to adapt to the taste of the modern time (Seeker Sensitive Approach). To further add to the modern feel, people leading in the singing of these songs wear clothes that will definitely not glorify God. They wear t-shirts with weird prints and tattered shorts that looked like they have not been washed for about a month. They jump around the stage like unbelievers do in a real rock concert while shouting "Praise the Lord" or "I love you, Jesus" from time to time. Clearly, this kind of music in our churches fails the "spirit test" for rock music is an invention of this world (I really can't imagine God inventing this kind of music), and holiness is not seen in the way people sing these songs and the way they present themselves to God while singing. It also fails the "truth test" for people are not really pouring their hearts in singing the songs because of the message. They simply are moved by the manner it is being sung, a manner more in-tuned to this world than to God. Furthermore, a lot of hypocrisy is committed with lines mentioned by the singers in the songs they sing that they really do not mean.
There are many more gimmicks that churches today employ that clearly fail the "spirit" and "truth" tests. There was a church that had a "Clown Sunday Service" where everyone that came to church that day wore clown costumes. Another church once had an "Elvis Sunday." The pastor that Sunday preached as Elvis Presley, complete with Elvis costume, voice and sideburns. A very famous church in California with a very famous book author as the head pastor, from time to time, have theme Sunday worship services. Some of their past themes were "Rock ‘n Roll Sunday" and "Hawaiian Sunday". It’s sad that so many churches would go to this length just to show-off the results they want, not knowing that they really haven’t achieved what they aimed to achieve, and that is leading people to a true conversion. If someone is in church because he enjoys what’s happening there, then he is a false convert. The only reason why a person is in church is because he has truly repented of his sins and placed his trust on Jesus for his salvation, making him a member of the family of God that gathers together as a church congregation.
You may argue now, "If the process is really important, then why did Jesus, Himself, several times did not act according to the prescribed process like when He healed on the Sabbath?" Actually that's not true. What Jesus went against with was the heartlessness and the insensitivities of the Pharisees towards those that were suffering. Jesus was also showing the Pharisees that their traditions won’t help them a bit in giving them eternal life if their heart is so wicked. Then Jesus laid the processes for doing things. He showed us that the amount of our offerings won't matter if there is no sacrifice and humility in our hearts. He taught us to give without the other hand knowing what the other has given. He taught us the process of praying --- in secrecy. The Bible gives us the criteria for choosing the leaders of our church. Guidelines on the proper use of our spiritual gifts in our churches were written in black and white. Even the manner of dealing with the sins of our fellow Christians was so carefully explained. We cannot deny that God is concern about the process we employ towards the achievement of an end.
God is a God of order. The universe shows us this. To achieve that order, God has chosen to lay down processes to which things must be done. It is our duty to behave according to the process, whether in our churches or in our personal lives. God’s process is sure. This world’s process isn't. God's will is that we get to the results that He wants us to achieve. The only way to have that is if we submit to the process. In doing so, we not only get to the real results, we also glorify God because in a way, we are saying, "Your way is the best way!" Praise the Lord for God-ordained processes!
