YA…HOOOO…..OOOOOO.
You remember the old commercials. I have a Yahoo email account, and on the Yahoo home page there is a section called “Trending Now”. It is those not so noteworthy events and personalities. What’s trending today, is old news tomorrow.
You either are in the “Trending Now Evangelical Church” or you have visited. You mean to tell me you have never heard of this local body? Where is it located, you ask? Well, in the town where you live in. It is found in every city. It disguises itself under many different names. It has permeated every denomination. At its very core, it is no different that my yahoo home page, because the “Trending Now Evangelical Church” is eager to jump on the bandwagon of the newest evangelical trend.
This phenomenon was observed more than 4 decades ago by one of the most influential expositors of his day, and his influence remains unabated to this day I might add, in his classic work Preaching and Preachers.(1971) Martin Lloyd-Jones sounds prophetic in his diagnosis.
“One of the advantages of being old is that you have experience, so when something new comes up, and you see people getting very excited about it, you happen to be in the position of being able to remember a similar excitement perhaps forty years ago. And so one has seen fashions and vogues and stunts coming one after another in the Church. Each one creates great excitement and enthusiasm and is loudly advertised as the thing that is going to fill the churches, the thing that is going to solve the problem. They have said that about every single one of them. But in a few years they have forgotten all about it, and another stunt comes along, or another new idea; somebody has hit upon the one thing needful or he has a psychological understanding of modern man. Here is the thing, and everybody rushes after it; but soon it wanes and disappears and something else in its place.”(p. 35)
In talking about the fads that the evangelical church has has gone through, pastor John MacArthur in the 3rd edition of his book Ashamed of the Gospel: When The Church Becomes Like the World(2010) writes,
“There was a time when evangelicals everywhere were praying the prayer of Jabez, and the phenomenon was so large that someone issued an entire catalog chock-full of Jabez merchandise – jewelry and knickknacks with 1 Chronicles 4:10 imprinted on them like a talisman. Similar trends have come and gone: WWJD jewelry, truckloads of Rapture fiction, scary novels about demonic warfare, the Promise Keepers movement, “Forty Days of Purpose”, and The Passion of the Christ….Each cycle of enthusiasm manages to capture the attention of the evangelical world for a few weeks – eight months at most. At the start of each new surge, you would think(from the level of breathless anticipation) that the craftsmen of contextualization have finally identified something that will revolutionize just about everything. At the peak of each fad’s popularity, it will be practically the only thing anyone in the evangelical community wants to talk about. Then suddenly one day it will be gone because something newer is on the horizon. … If you are a pastor and your church isn’t up-to-date and on board with the newest trend – if you are just one stage behind(like those who were caught still “doing” Jabez when everyone else had moved on to The Purpose-Driven Life) – you will very quickly be written off as hopelessly uncool, and the inveterate fad-chasers in your congregation will move to a church that’s more hip.”(p. 207)
Nowadays the “Trending Now Evangelical Church” is going after…
- …cool pastors with blue jeans
- …multi-site campuses where the pastor is displayed on a big screen
- …small group studies based upon Hollywood movies rather than the Bible, i.e. Rick Warren’s DVD study guide based upon the recent movie “Son of God” – So much for the sufficiency of Scripture. Hold on one moment while I tear 2 Timothy 3:16-17 out of my Bible.
- …charismatic leaders who perpetuate the apostolic sign gifts of tongues and healing, and this all under the guise of a reformed soteriology(doctrine of salvation)
So, what’s the solution to the “Trending Now Evangelical Church”? I offer 2 answers.
The first, from Martin Lloyd-Jones, in the opening sentence of the previous paragraph I quoted, he writes, “Another argument that I would adduce at this point is that the moment you begin to turn from preaching to these other expedients you will find yourself undergoing a constant series of changes.” So, the solution, according to Lloyd-Jones, is to focus on the preaching of the Word.
The second is from the November 2013 issue of Ligonier’s TableTalk (article written by Michael Brown, pastor of Christ United Reformed Church in Santee, CA)
“In a world that values novelty, innovation, and relevance, the expectation is for pastors to appear hip, worship to feel amazing, and teaching to be useful for our most recent news feed or felt needs. We don’t want ordinary ministers of ordinary churches, but bigger-than-life celebrities who lead transformational movements that are in a rush to make a radical impact on our lives. … There is nothing particularly exciting or novel about a ministry of preaching, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. It is the same routine each week. We hear the Scriptures proclaimed, we come to the table, we sing, we pray, we enjoy fellowship, and then we go home. There are no halftime shows, no rock concerts, and no celebrity personalities. … We do not need more movements, more conferences, and more celebrities. WE do not need the next big thing. What we need are more churches committed to the way disciples have been made since the Apostles planted a church in Jerusalem two thousand years ago: the slow-going, unspectacular, ordinary ministry of the Word, where God is raising dead sinners and creating a living communion of saints.”(p. 66-67)
So, for those in the “Trending Now Evangelical Church”, repent and get back to the basics, namely the Word. Stick to the Word. Preach the Word, in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2)!
