John Wooden had a unique philosophy about coaching basketball. He seldom scouted an opponent. He believed it was best to concentrate on improving his team’s performance so that the opposition had to worry about them rather than vice versa. Of course it didn’t hurt that Wooden’s UCLA teams almost always had the best talent.
In contrast, University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino, another Hall of Fame coach, puts a huge emphasis on the scouting report. Louisville’s players have to be mature enough to adjust to the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition for his team to be successful. And, as an avid UL fan, I really admire coach Pitino’s winning record at UL.
In recent years many preachers have put a big emphasis on adjusting to the culture. Like Rick Pitino, they believe in order for the church to reach those who don’t know Christ, it’s essential to know how the world is thinking, feeling and behaving and react accordingly.
For example, studies show many non-believers see Jesus as loving and forgiving but they regard the church as hateful and judgmental. Therefore cutting-edge preachers take great pains to disassociate from yesterday’s church and convince the world that, “This is not your mother’s church,” or even, “This is a church for people who don’t like church.”
Over the past couple of decades spiritual leaders have eliminated hymns, robes, formal dress and pulpits in hopes the world will see us in a more favorable light. Even the cross is removed from some modern church buildings since some see it as a threatening or meaningless symbol.
Most in our unchurched culture are turned off when churches talk about money or politics, so preachers avoid taking a public stand on anything controversial lest they alienate the very people they’re trying to win. Young leaders are advised, “Just present Jesus’ grace and compassion and the Holy Spirit will convict them of sin, in His time.”
Spiritual consultants advise that some of our “church-speak” turns the world off and we need to develop new terminology. Don’t talk about the preacher or his sermon; speak of the “lead pastor” who is “sharing a lesson.” The word “Christian” is so broad that it no longer communicates so replace it with, “Christ-follower.”
Recently it’s been suggested the Biblical term “lost” is offensive because it communicates a person is a loser or ignorant. It’s proposed we replace lost with “missed.” In other words, the person outside Christ is, “missed by the Lord’s family.”
I understand the reasoning. And I endorse the passion to reach the unsaved. We need to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The Apostle Paul wrote that we should, “… make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” (See Titus 2:10.) So I’m not advocating the church be mired in old traditions or terminology that put up barriers to evangelism. But I am concerned that we’re trying too hard to identify with the world…in the attempt to relate to our culture:
- We ridicule yesterday’s church and denigrate it unnecessarily. We blame yesterday’s church for the failure to reach today’s culture when the primary reason the gospel is rejected is simply, “Light has come into the world but men loved darkness rather than light.”
- We become more dependent on methods than the message. The power is still in the gospel, not in our being culturally relevant. The power is in the cross, not our being cool. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men to me.”
- We jettison healthy Biblical terminology in an attempt to make the gospel more palatable. The Bible classifies people who don’t know Christ as, “lost”, “hopeless,” “condemned” and even, “dead in trespasses and sins.” If we only tell them they’re “missed” in an attempt to make them feel at ease, we water down God’s warning. We’re not to rewrite the letter; we’re just the mail-carriers. So we should still, “call Bible things by Bible names.” (Admittedly, it’s no fun to blare the horn at a guy driving up the expressway ramp the wrong way, but that’s the needed response. He may get angry at us but in reality we’re doing him a favor.)
- In an attempt to avoid being controversial we are no longer salt and light in the world. The Bible calls us to be “a holy nation” a “peculiar people” who, “proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” While it’s true that sinners felt comfortable in the presence of Jesus, they were also challenged to change by his holiness and compassion.
We get out of balance. We have a dual responsibility. We’re to seek and save the lost but we’re also to shepherd the flock. We get out of balance when we focus totally on evangelism and neglect discipleship. Sometimes older Christians are abruptly told, “We’re focusing on reaching the seeker, so go someplace else if you don’t like it.” However, even mature sheep need to be fed and nurtured.
When the Apostle Paul preached to a pagan audience in Athens we read, “Some of then sneered, but others said, “we want to hear you again on this subject…a few believed” (Acts 17:32-34). Paul didn’t conclude the truth needed to be repackaged since the majority rejected it. He knew that Jesus said, “Some seed will fall on hard ground.” Our task is to sow the seed indiscriminately and leave the results up to the individual and to God.
In the mid 1930’s Dietrich Bonhoeffer became exasperated with the German church leaders because they lacked courage. Preachers kept trying to accommodate Hitler’s demands rather than boldly opposing them. In his book “Bonhoeffer,” Eric Metaxas wrote, “…he was deeply disappointed in the inability of his fellow Christians to take a definite stand. They always erred on the side of conceding too much, of trying too hard to ingratiate themselves with their opponents.”
I think we may be trying too hard to ingratiate ourselves with the world. I’d like to see more courageous church leaders choose the John Wooden approach. Speak the truth in love and let the world worry about us. After all, we have the truth of God’s Word, the power of the Holy Spirit and the promise of heaven on our side. That should be enough. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
