I loved the Thomas Aquinas explanation about why it appears that unbelievers seek after God. They want what only God can give: peace, comfort, validation, joy, but view God as only a means to end and actually reject God himself.
But is not true worship evangelistic?
Psalm 34:8 "O, taste and see that the Lord is good." What's the psalmist's desire here? That more and more people would experience what he experienced with God.
Psalm 96:3 "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!" Here is a mandate to declare God's glory to the world in the context of the corporate, called out, temple worship.
Even in the Lord's prayer, implicit is the desire for more and more people to hallow the name of our heavenly Father.
True worship can't help but be evangelistic. True worship spills over into the desire to beckon the world to join us, knowing full well that those who are perishing will reject the offer and those who are being saved will respond.
You are correct in that true worship is evangelistic. However, the error of the Seeker Sensitive movement is that it makes evangelism the main focus or worship, and thus tends to please men instead of God.
I would define the seeker sensitive evangelism as evangelism which tries to appeal to the desires of the unconverted. In other words, unbelievers don't like biblical worship, so we give them a rock concert. They don't like biblical, expository preaching, so we give them a pragmatic message on successful living. It is one thing to use worship in a way that pleases God can appeals to sinners to repent. It is another thing to change our worship in a way that pleases the unbeliever, just so they can come to church to be entertained. I think that is the stark difference. We cannot change goats into sheep by feeding them goat food.
4 comments:
AHH AHH AHH Awesome!!! (You must move your tone of voice up octaves as you say this)
Amen...
I loved the Thomas Aquinas explanation about why it appears that unbelievers seek after God. They want what only God can give: peace, comfort, validation, joy, but view God as only a means to end and actually reject God himself.
But is not true worship evangelistic?
Psalm 34:8 "O, taste and see that the Lord is good." What's the psalmist's desire here? That more and more people would experience what he experienced with God.
Psalm 96:3 "Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!" Here is a mandate to declare God's glory to the world in the context of the corporate, called out, temple worship.
Even in the Lord's prayer, implicit is the desire for more and more people to hallow the name of our heavenly Father.
True worship can't help but be evangelistic. True worship spills over into the desire to beckon the world to join us, knowing full well that those who are perishing will reject the offer and those who are being saved will respond.
It's easy to get smug in our worship services.
Thanks Pastor Tim,
You are correct in that true worship is evangelistic. However, the error of the Seeker Sensitive movement is that it makes evangelism the main focus or worship, and thus tends to please men instead of God.
I would define the seeker sensitive evangelism as evangelism which tries to appeal to the desires of the unconverted. In other words, unbelievers don't like biblical worship, so we give them a rock concert. They don't like biblical, expository preaching, so we give them a pragmatic message on successful living. It is one thing to use worship in a way that pleases God can appeals to sinners to repent. It is another thing to change our worship in a way that pleases the unbeliever, just so they can come to church to be entertained. I think that is the stark difference. We cannot change goats into sheep by feeding them goat food.
Hope that clarifies at least my stance.
Post a Comment