TCW Short Take #4: Gleaning from the Aged Wisdom for All Ages

Doug, let's move more into the methodology of the evangelical church, the way churches presented. Of course, you've seen and been involved in so many churches over your lifetime, but there's been a huge change in the evangelical church. I think it probably originated with Willow Creek and the seeker movement.

The seeker movement sought to craft church around those they deemed seekers of truth. Do you think this has been a net positive? And if they hadn't done this, churches wouldn't be anywhere now?

How do you gauge this methodology change? It's a total negative. The church wrongly takes its cues from the business world model. It's so evident. They build these big buildings and then they want to fill them and they got to ask for more money and money becomes a central issue. And elders generally have business acumen, but they often lack Bible depth for a godly decision making. Money, it becomes the bottom line in the church too. And I hate to see that. Churches need to maintain their biblical standing and what they teach, but often they get themselves in such depth that the number of people coming is equated to the amount of money they're taking in.

And that becomes almost overly important. What do you think about the methodology change in the church from the music to the type of messages away from expository verse by verse preaching to more topical felt needs, a little bit of entertainment and humor? You didn't grow up in your early churches, the influence you had after you became a Christian was nothing like that. Tell us what that church was like. We all opened the same Bible. The pastor would say, give the passage he was going to teach from and we'd have our Bibles open when he came to that. But before that, he'd say, open up your hymn books. We're going to sing whatever the hymn was. There was just a whole different sense of reverence for God. But I do remember in the sixties when we were sitting in church, when a group came in and they were dancing down the aisle, singing music that now would not be anything at all, but dad and I were shocked at how that was coming into the church. We hope you gained from this short take of the Christian worldview radio program. To hear the full program and further connect with this ministry, visit thechristianworldview.org. I'm David Wheaton.