What Straying from the Bible can do to Churches Today

Anyone who has ever gone to multiple churches before has seen how different churches can be. It could be simply the music to what people wear or deeper like who people really worship to the traditions they practice based on their beliefs. I experience this all the time as I compare my home church to other churches I visit. Why is it that churches have to worship so differently? I think the answer to this questions rests on how people interpret the Bible and who the Bible calls us to worship. And today, lots of people have lots of different opinions on this issue and so they create lots of different kinds of churches based on these beliefs.

The one kind of church I want to discuss today is the "Emergent Church." For those of you who don't know what this is I will give you a brief descriptions to what kind of church they are and then go into more detail throughout the post. This new emerging church is described as a post-modern church. It is based on the idea that you can reach more people through a more "modern" way of having a service. Now let me set you a picture of this new church...

Imagine a group of people coming together in casual clothing, to a room full of couches and seats with one chair in the middle. The room is dark and music is playing via a DJ in the back. As people come in they can sing and have a discussion about the different things that bother them in a laid back situation. At first this sounds pretty good, comfy clothes, relaxed, everyone is equal kinda feel. It really sounds like a small group with Christians meeting together to talk about their problems together. Sounds pretty nice to me. Then I started to really focus and dive into what the church is really about, and that's when I realized what a trap this can be.

This really all starts back to when the Bible was first put together. In those days, the Bible was the supreme authority and everyone was judged according to the Bible. Then in the middle ages, it became the Bible and the Church together. So the church had the same authority as the Bible. This started to lead people to think, well is it really necessary to have the Bible if we can reach "truth" without it? That's when people started to wonder away from biblical teachings and started to teach what they thought.
Think about how with that mentality, you could come up with a church like that. If someone is not in the word and preaching out of the word, you can come up with thousands of interpretations of what they believe is the truth. This leads to theological chaos. The emergent church is responding to this by making it feel real to people in their own way. They make teachings 3D and mystical so you can touch and feel your faith. One man said that to these churches, "...it is more important to feel like we are representing a beautiful expression of our relationship with God then to be right about everything." He is sort of right about one thing, we don't need to know or be right about everything, but we have to be right about the truth in the Bible and knowing the truth embedded in the scriptures. Because of this, the emerging church does not believe a minister is necessary to preach the gospels because you can just discuss it.  Disagreeing with this kind of preaching, a man stated, "The gospel is something to be taught and to believe, not just to experience." This explains why the emergents don't like the regular church, because it teaches about what to believe and how to apply it, instead of how to experience it. Someone else said, "Many of them want to ask good questions, but for things to follow the beliefs of Christians means there are answers and there are limits to what those answers can be." He is saying, you can't just discuss things. You have to have someone preaching from the Word because that's what the gospel is all about. With all of their beliefs so different too, their can be no judgment or absolute truth. 

This type of church is not what Jesus wanted for us. He wants a church founded and rooted in his word because that is where the real truth is found. Because of this we as Christians have to be on guard and really study the foundations of the churches we go to.

From: a poet To: The Great Poet

The Apologist's Evening Prayer

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

My thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle's eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.

                                    - C.S Lewis

This is such a beautiful poem because of the imagery used that makes you think. I think some of the best poems are the ones that don't describe everything or explain everything so you have to think about what it means to the author and what it means to you. One line that when I read the poem stuck out to me was the first and second one. "From all my lame defeats and oh! much more, From all the victories that I seemed to score..." The way I understood it was applying it to my life. I am a sports player and am very competitive with almost everything. My lame defeats... not only my defeats in competition but it life. Things that I failed at that don't matter at all. All the victories I seemed to score... I looked at this two ways. Victories I seemed to score. Yes it was me that scored them but it was God who gave me that ability to win. Once again, victories i seemed to score, seemed, it doesn't really matter, does it? Deliver me...deliver me from my sins and my human ways. O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free...

TBN...good or bad?

This week I was challenged to look and research the Trinity Broadcasting Network. When I heard this name, I had no idea what this organization was about or who they are. After looking at their website, I recognized their crest. This organization has been known for their movies, television stations, and programs. They have made a big impact on our culture.

As I started my research of this organization, I decided to listen and watch some of the programs they have filmed over the years. I thought it was interesting because a lot of what they said I agreed with. A lot of it was glorifying  the name of Jesus with their voices and their words. They would sit and discuss issues and topics through a biblical prospective as they interviewed many ministers and important people. Over all, it felt like a good organization but before I went too far, I wanted to research its beginnings.

The Trinity Broadcasting Network was founded by Jan Crouch, Paul Crouch, and Tammy Bakker in 1973. Its main mission was to be the largest Christian Network to spread Christianity throughout the whole world. After years of ups and downs with finical issues and other setbacks along the way, they are now broadcasting their programs over hundreds of channels. The interesting thing is the network allows protestants, catholics, and messianic Jews to all talk on their programs. This could lead to a lot of different views on different subjects because of the vast difference in the beliefs of some of these men and women.

As I was reading through some of the information I found, I read something about the TBN being accused of prosperity gospel. For those of you who do not know what this means, it is when someone encourages others to give money to the church in order to get a reward later on. Now I believe part of this is true because God says that if you do good works for others in His name, you will be rewarded eternal life with him. I disagree with this if it means if you do good now, you will get a noneternal  thing in return. That is what I don't agree with.

I challenge anyone who reads this to post their thoughts on this network. I believe TBN has done lots of good in spreading the gospel but I do not know all of specifics and would love to know more. If anyone has any other information they would like to share please comment.

Further information on TBN-
Home Website
History of TBN
Shows broadcasted (Praise the Lord)