At this season in my life, I am extremely busy raising my family, but I also have the gift of serving and I always feel like I’m not doing enough for the Lord. Whether it’s false guilt or conviction, I couldn’t say. It’s hard to find that balance and maybe that’s the answer I’m looking for.

Thanks for your kind words. At the risk of sound self-serving, if my post encouraged you – may I point you to article I wrote for Reformed Persectives Magazine and posted by Mongerism on Biblical Servanthood. I hope it encourages you more..

http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_details/26206/http://thirdmill.org/newfiles/nat_palmer/nat_palmer.torncurtain.html/c-114/

just click view this link.

Nate

The real trouble with the “Seeker-Sensitive” movement begins with it’s theology. With their Arminian based (I won’t even say real Arminianism) they come to the church believing that people are able to submit to God if only they can be made to understand the stakes involved. That stands opposed to the Biblical understanding that God uses the foolishness of preaching to regenerate and create faith in his elect people.

As a former member of an admittedly “seeker sensitive” church I have seen this played out and even explained quite clearly.
The thought process is that it takes someone a couple years to become sufficiently convinced of the gospel to make the leap to “salvation” and so what happens is, in hopes that someone may someday believe, the teaching and preaching is watered down so as to not scare people off before they choose to believe.
What is the first thing to go? The plain, offensive, gospel.

The trouble with comparing Hudson Taylor with Bill Hybels et al. is plain. Hudson didn’t change the message to suit the audience, he wore different clothes. He had a cultural divide to cross that mainstream America doesn’t but imagines it has between generations.

The whole thing comes down to the gospel. Do they believe it? Do they believe it can save without fancy “excitements” to draw people in. Is it the main event in a circus, or is it the power of God to salvation?

Clearly they don’t, otherwise they wouldn’t worry about “what works” because they wold understand that the gospel preached is the only thing that “works”.

The thing to note in seeker-sensitive churches, as compared to H.T in China is simple. H.T. changed his appearance so he would gain a hearing for the plain truth of the Gospel. S.S. churches add entertainment, which doesn’t preach the gospel, hoping people will stay long enough to hear something of value.
Entertainment necessarily reduces people to spectators. The Gospel necessarily creates servants.

David

You wrote – Hudson Taylor dressed like the Chinese because he was a foreigner in their land and was showing respect for them. Yes, it helped him by assimilating into their culture, but remember he was not Chinese to begin with. His dressing like them was an act of humility which was valued highly by the Chinese people at that time. That is quite different than someone who is already American “reaching” the American.

Response – Until he assimilated into the culture the interior Chinese were trying to kill Hudson as a “white devil” – I’ve read one of his biographies and don’t see the humility principal you mention, but perhaps it is there. My point was, and is, the seeker movement is attempting to reach across cultures to gain credibility to present Christ. The fact that two people are “American” does not mean they have the same culture. There are different cultures between regions, generations, size of population centers, etc. This is pretty well documented and agreed upon.

You wrote – You respect the different culture, you observe it, you don’t overtly offend it (except by the gospel), then you present the gospel. I have been in two different churches who went the seeker way, and have listened to sermons by those who pastor other seeker types…and their version of the gospel is not the same gospel, and as Paul says in II Corinthians they present another Jesus,

Response – I highly question that the seeker methods lead to presenting a different Jesus? An untrue Gospel can be presented regardless of the methods being used – traditional, seeker, gen-x, etc. And the true Gospel can be presented regardless of the methods used. It would be interesting to see your examples of this. If indeed a different Jesus is being presented, is it because of the methods or just plain ignorance of the Word.

You wrote – I have made 13 trips to the Ukraine and Siberia to preach and teach, and understand being a Jew to the Jew and a Gentile to the Gentile; understanding the way they think and perceive life, and how they approach life, and what is culturally permissive, accepted, and forbidden

Response – so why is it so difficult to see this as necessary to reach another culture within America? Surely you realize there is not just one culture to be reached in North America. Having white skin does not mean people have the same culture. The 80 year olds in our area do not have the same culture as the 20 year olds.

You Wrote – The ends never justify the means, ever

Response – This is rhetoric. As long as the means are not immoral or unbiblical, I would say the means are justified by the ends. And those who use creative means will continue to be called irreverent, unbiblical, disrespectful, users of gimmicks, etc. I say bring it on. If bribing kids with candy get’s them into a situation to hear the Gospel, I’ll do it; Just like Moody did. If using a drama can help capture the attention of an unbeliever to present Biblical truth, then great.

You Wrote – The use of modern technology is a no-brainer. The church should make use of all the best technology available, in fact, it has always done that. To my knowledge the church hasn’t used pump organs in decades…

Response – my point was when organs were introduced it was viewed skeptically just like you view seeker methods today

You Wrote – Both are important. Integrity and fidelity to the method and the message.

Response – Who defines the method? As much as a regulatory system is looked for in Scripture, I don’t see it. The Message of the Gospel cannot be changed but methods can.

The Gospel is gold and methods are not. If the Gospel is changed, regardless of the methods, it is wrong. If People hear about Christ through different methods, then PTL.

You respect the different culture, you observe it, you don’t overtly offend it (except by the gospel), then you present the gospel. I have been in two different churches who went the seeker way, and have listened to sermons by those who pastor other seeker types…and their version of the gospel is not the same gospel, and as Paul says in II Corinthians they present another Jesus, and their method of presentation appeals to the baser nature and removes the distinctivness that separates the sacred from the secular.

I have made 13 trips to the Ukraine and Siberia to preach and teach, and understand being a Jew to the Jew and a Gentile to the Gentile; understanding the way they think and perceive life, and how they approach life, and what is culturally permissive, accepted, and forbidden. Hudson Taylor did the same thing with the Chinese, but all you can focus on is his dress and hair. In any culture and in any time you still must present the gospel with integrity, keeping the gospel the gospel, not tainting it with matters or methods that appeal to the flesh, or softening it so that is not confronting. The ends never justify the means, ever.

The use of modern technology is a no-brainer. The church should make use of all the best technology available, in fact, it has always done that. To my knowledge the church hasn’t used pump organs in decades, it is using podcasts, HD-DVD, the latest digital technology (I even use a portable MP3 stereo recorder), and all the modern acoutrements, but that is not the point. Being wowed and enthralled by the technology, the audio, the video; being carried away by the music does not a Christian make, nor does it edify and equip.
Personally, I don’t like organ music and if I never heard another organ in church I wouldn’t miss it, but the point is what are we conveying and how. Both are important. Integrity and fidelity to the method and the message are important. That is what those of us who question the seeker-sensitive modus-operandi are concerned with.

Morris

I don’t know if you’ll see this post since the nature of blogs sometimes only allows a day or so on a topic and then its off to the next one. But this topic, of biblical servanthood, is near and dear to my heart.

I can totally sympathize with you and your sentiments. I had similar and worse thoughts about serving as well as the people I supposedly was serving.

The once motivating truth of the Gospel of when I first became a Christian slowly, over time dimmed in its radiance. Soon, my passion to serve, once a blazing torch within, began to flicker and then went completely out. It became harder and harder to force myself to serve in the church. The monotony and meaninglessness of tasks began to take its toll on my affection. Bitterness and laziness soon set in and I started to actually loath Sunday morning because I knew I had to serve.

How could stacking chairs be any benefit to me or to God? Why should give up my Sunday mornings? If faith, not works, saves us then what does it matter if I serve in the church? Why can’t someone else do this for awhile? I did my time. If this welcome table was not set up, would anyone even care?

I could no longer comprehend why I served or whom I served. Burned out and extremely frustrated, my focus shifted from amazement of the Gospel onto burdens of Church life. The reallocation of my passions from the God of the Gospel to my own comforts was now complete.
This bitterness was only heightened by my own perception of the attitude towards serving by others within the church. I mistakenly imagined that everyone else, seemingly able to remain Christian without serving, enjoyed their Sundays while I toiled. Maybe they understood something I didn’t. The more I thought about enjoying my Sundays, the more I became sour to the idea of serving and to the people I served.

Then our church in California decided to send a church planting team to Texas. My wife and I felt God calling us to go with them. I knew the embryonic church would need people to serve a lot more than in an established church, but I questioned if I could do that. I knew I couldn’t serve in the condition I was in. I felt as if I would be a dead weight to the church and a liability to my pastor.

As I remembered the passion I had when I first became a Christian, I started asking myself how I got to this spiritual malaise. Just a couple years ago I was so “on fire”… what happened? Why should I be a servant of anybody? Is there any purpose to any of this? Why should I serve when other people never do anything? What is the incentive and motivation for me to serve people in the church let alone people who do not even know Christ?

It is important to note at this point that servanthood is not an exclusive trait to Christianity or to the Bible. In fact, each one of us is not a neutral free agent sitting in the stands waiting to get into the game of servanthood. On the contrary, every one of us is an experienced and active participant engaging every day in all kinds acts of service. However rather than serving others or God’s interests, most of the time we are serving ourselves.
Instead of serving God, we serve idols of money, self-esteem, image, and career. We place our energy, hope, and trust into serving and nurturing them. They have become the masters of our affections and industry. However, none of those other concerns or interests is supposed to be the true motivating factors for Christian servanthood.

Biblical Servanthood is not about what other people are doing, even if they should be serving. Rather servanthood is all about what I am doing or rather whom I am worshiping. In opposition to those motivations, true Biblical Servanthood is primarily concerned with worshiping God. Merely being a servant and doing servant stuff is not the issue that defines and distinguishes Biblical servanthood.

While action is a vital ingredient to serving biblically, the major emphasis for Christians is found in the reason we serve, namely the person and work of Jesus. How we serve is defined, motivated, and made possible by whom we serve. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the starting place for defining a vision for serving biblically in and out of the local church. There can be no other starting points or competing motivations.
As Jesus points out in the Book of Matthew, we cannot serve both God and our own interests at the same time. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Matthew 6:24. Either we serve God or we are serving an entirely different master.

To clarify the purpose and distinctions of Biblical Servanthood, we can summarize that it magnifies the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the benefit of others. The distinction the Gospel makes between biblical servanthood and every thing else is not that it transforms us into servants. Rather because of Christ and through the Holy Spirit, a shift in our focus has occurred from serving ourselves and our own idols to serving God and his purposes. The mere act of service and the exercising of one’s gifts are not the endgame or even the pinnacle of Biblical Servanthood.

On the contrary, it is all about God and what He has done and not about me and my accomplishments. Put another way, our service for God is driven because of God. More profoundly, biblical servanthood is not primarily based upon our love for God but instead it is first and foremost founded, driven, and sustained by God’s love for us. A love that devised our salvation and a love that fully purchased it on the Cross. In Biblical Servanthood, the Gospel transforms service into worship. In worhsip I must primarliy concerned of my heart and actions not the motive and innaction of others.I hope this helps.

Nate

Friends who pastor such churches have lamented to me how hard it is to get these folks to start serving after being catered to and appeased for so long.

It’s kind of a live by the sword, die by the sword whammy.