Pragmatic Expediency

by Mike Ratliff 

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV) 

The proponents of the seeker-sensitive church growth model may very well have had good intentions when through it was spawned the rise of contemporary mega-churches such as Willow Creek and Saddleback Valley Baptist and their clones. The focus was outreach to the unchurched. That is a proper function of the New Testament Church, however, one of the model’s fundamental components is actually an antithesis of the clear instruction to Church leaders found in God’s Word. That component is pragmatism. 

Pragmatism is deadly to New Testament Christianity because it is based on human reasoning and human ingenuity in solving problems or issues. It utilizes expediency in dealing with issues rather than prayer and obedience to what is clearly taught in scripture. The reason expediency is wrong is that its solutions will always be short term in focus while neglecting the long term. Here is a secular example. Think of the United States Social Security system. It was designed during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. It was based on the number of workers and on the cost of goods and services at that time. However, that was seven decades ago and with the ravages of inflation plus the number of Baby Boomers nearing retirement age, we have a system that is upside down and completely irrational in scope and function. That is a product of the expedient approach to problem solving. 

The seeker-sensitive church growth model is pragmatically based. It seeks to restructure “church” so that it appeals to the unchurched. Rick Warren formulated his version of it by doing a survey of the unchurched in his area about what form of church they would attend. He then came up with the Purpose Driven Church model and implemented it over time at his church. The model stresses the form of worship and preaching to be ‘done’ in a way that does not offend the lost. It seeks to keep them interested. Therefore, doctrine is never mentioned nor is hell or sin or why Jesus went to the cross. Sermons are pragmatic and ‘light.’ They are full of self-help and are geared to increase the crowd’s self-esteem. This structure is totally expedient because it neglects the more mature Christian. In fact, when a church is being transformed into a Purpose Driven Church, those who resist the changes because of the lack of spiritual depth and theological focus are systematically driven off. Hence, they lose the saved and actually save very few. They create a church full of tares. 

In these churches, hymns are replaced with entertainment. Sermons are not biblical in nature, but instead are motivational with no spiritual depth or theological foundation. With all expediency, however, the bill eventually comes due. A good example of this is at Willow Creek when a survey revealed that the more mature believers in that church were hungry. They wanted to be fed spiritual food. They were starving spiritually. Sadly, the “solution” the leadership at Willow Creek came up with was nothing more than another example of expediency. It was decided to not change the level of Bible teaching to feed the sheep there, but to insist that those who want to be fed learn to feed themselves. 

Let me say right here my brethren that I believe that the take over of so many churches by the seeker-sensitive paradigm were very easily accomplished because the root present in those churches was in many cases rotten. Evangelicalism now is not what it once was. It has been decaying for quite some time as the leadership within them made compromise after compromise in order to not offend their members so that they would not split their membership. Those who caved in to this had been compromised by existentialism and humanism. When the seeker-sensitive package became apparent to these leaders they jumped at it. It looked like a quick fix for their ailing churches. Again, this is expedient thinking. 

I just listened to the latest installment of the White Horse Inn. It is titled “Quitting Church. “ The panel discussed the current state of affairs in the American Church dealing with huge mega-churches. Many Christians are simply quitting church in our time because their only alternatives where they live are dumbed-down mega-churches or spiritually dead liberal churches. A survey of the age group that comprises the teens in our time showed something very striking. Most were not interested in the dumbed-down seeker-sensitive churches nor were they interested in the doctrinally light and ceremonially focused churches (these are the ones not yet picked off by the seeker-sensitive paradigm). No, they wanted a church that actually taught and discussed doctrine and had Biblically based worship. What does the Bible tell us about this? 

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV) 

American Evangelicalism met this criterion when I was growing up. I was a Southern Baptist until just a few years ago and I can tell you that things changed dramatically as we approached the end if the 20^th Century. It became “out of season” to preach the Word. Some never forsook their calling, but many did. They made expedient choices that resulted in their churches becoming compromised. However, the command is to, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” Expediency says to abandon what does not appear to be working and seek that that does appear to produce immediate results. However, that would mean not preaching the Word when it is not popular. Has it ever occurred to anyone that God meant what He said? 

Notice that even when people will not endure sound teaching the Pastor is to never abandon his calling. He is to continue to obey His Lord in being faithful to Word of God by doing the work of an evangelist, fulfilling his ministry. My brethren, if you are in a church that is pastored by a man or men who obey this command then rejoice and thank God for you are blessed indeed. Never stop praying for your pastor(s). On the other hand, if your knowledge of the Bible and doctrine is not growing in depth and you are not being fed the deep nourishing meat from God’s word where you ‘go to church,’ then there is a problem. Go to the throne of grace, seek the face of God and pray for wisdom and discernment about what you should do. 

I know that many reading this are in the ‘quitting church’ mode. I have been in this mode for some time. I do go to church, but God has not shown me clearly that I should join any one in my area. Those of us in this mode either have few if any churches in our area that have not been compromised or, if they have not, they are spiritually dead. We know that religiosity saves no one. However, we hunger for the pure food of God’s Word. If you are in Christ, you do. I have compensated by listening to godly preaching nearly every day through podcasts. I also fellowship with believers where I work and with those who comment here. I fellowship with friends at the church I attend. I study my Bible and pray everyday to prepare for these posts. However, what is missing is the family atmosphere of belonging to a local body of believers. With a church family, we have accountability and ministerial opportunities. However, in my area at least, most churches are geared towards young families with young children. My wife and I have an empty nest and so seem to fall through the cracks of the churches we have visited.  In the meantime my brethren, I will continue to seek the Lord and His will about what I should do about this. Please pray for us as well. 

Let us not walk before the face of God with pragmatic expediency. No, instead, let us always seek His wisdom and discernment and obey Him in all we do. How can we go wrong if we do that? 

Soli Deo Gloria!