Are churches supposed to be "seeker sensitive"?

Have you every heard of the expression "seeker sensitive"? What does it mean to be "seeker sensitive"? After some quick research, you may find that most people agree that to be "seeker sensitive" means to have a friendly, happy church that only mentions the grace and love of our God without ever mentioning words like "repentance, wrath, judgment and sin."

The goal seems to be to draw people into the church without ever offending anyone. The "mega churches" that have become large and famous in this country are proof that this approach does indeed "draw them in." But, I ask you "Is this approach biblical" and "is this how Jesus operated?" Anyone who has ever read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) knows that the answer is a resounding "NO."

Jesus could have had as many followers as He wanted. In fact, He was well on His way of doing just that. If you read John 6:30-69, you'll see how Jesus thinned out most of his "followers." What happened was that those that were following Jesus asked for Him to give them a "miraculous sign" and instead, He gave them the truth of who He Is. They did not understand and did not like what He told them (basically that He is the bread of life and that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life). Since they did not like or understand what He told them, they stopped following Him, except the twelve. Now they didn't like or understand what He said either, but the difference was that they believed in Him (except Judas, of course, but he had to be there for the scriptures to be fulfilled). The difference between these two responses is the same difference between true and false converts.

The main differences between being "seeker sensitive" and being "Christ sensitive" is that Jesus Christ didn't mind offending the masses and choosing quality over quantity, while the "seeker sensitive" churches of today try hard to be non-offensive as to not hurt anyone's feelings or make anyone angry (where they will leave the church). So it seems that these type of churches are afraid of men and are "man-centered".

In the above mentioned chapter and verses in the Gospel According to John, Jesus also said that no one could come to Him unless The Father had enabled them. This means that if The Father enables someone to come to Christ, that the "offensive" message of the gospel will not chase them away. In fact, it will have the opposite effect! They may not like or understand what is being said, but they KNOW what the words of eternal life sound like when they hear them and are drawn to them! This doesn't mean that we will never understand these words, just not in the beginning of our spiritual walk (like the disciples, who understood later).

The bottom line of this particular blog is that while "seeker sensitive" churches do indeed draw a large crowd, it doesn't mean that they are actually preaching to the elect of Christ (people who are genuinely saved are called "the elect").

One other quick point that I've noticed when I've attempted to watch any presentation (I won't call it preaching) of a "seeker sensitive" pastor to see if they're presenting the gospel message or merely spewing self-help advice, is that they hardly ever use their Bible. They may hold it up before speaking or may put a few out-of-context verses up on the projection screen, but they never seem to use it as the source of their message. It's only there for effect, not to affect! If the pastor of such a congregation doesn't use the Bible, why should the congregation ever read and study it? If they did, they probably wouldn't be sitting in that congregation much longer!

I know that some people love to listen to these types of pastors, but think about it...are they preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? The first recorded word when He began preaching was "repent" (Matthew 4:17). Maybe they're just telling the people what they want to hear. I will leave you with scripture and hope that, if you don't see anything wrong with the "seeker sensitive" pastors and the way they do business, that you would pray and ask God to open your eyes to any false teachings that do not correspond with the teachings of Jesus Christ : (2 Timothy 4:3 (NIV) 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.)