The Seeker-Friendly Way of Doing Church: Is It Biblical?

While driving in the city in which I live, I saw a sign that was advertising a local church (place of worship). The sign read as follows: "A place where you can belong before you believe." The sign was advertising a "seeker-friendly" Church! What is a "seeker-friendly" church? The "seeker-friendly" movement is an approach to evangelizing the lost or "unchurched" by way of the latest marketing and business techniques. Normally, it begins with a survey that questions the unchurched about the things their nearby place of worship might offer that would motivate them to attend. Let's begin with marketing as a tactic for reaching the lost. Marketing has to do with profiling consumers, ascertaining what their "felt needs" are, and then fashioning one's product, or its image to appeal to the targeted consumer's desires! Recall, the stated goal of seeker-friendly churches is reaching the lost. Is this method of reaching the lost biblical? Can this method be used without compromising the gospel of Jesus Christ? Can this method be used without offending the holiness of God? How can a place of worship be used to get unbelievers to feel at home before they believe in Jesus Christ? The holiness of God should caution us about what we accept and practice from the contemporary "church growth" movement! The gospel and, more importantly, the person of Jesus Christ do not fit into any marketing strategy! They are not "products" to be "sold!" When asked about his success in ministry, this pastor of a Dallas mega-church said, "the product sells itself." How can the church go to the lost for ideas that would compel them to come to Christ? How can one invite the unbeliever to participate in worship as an unbeliever? The Scripture teaches that there are no "seekers" as such (Romans 3:10-12). Those who will be saved are those who are chosen, whose hearts the Holy Spirit will quicken, whose minds He will enlighten. Those who are dead in their sins, He makes alive (Ephesians 2:1-7). No one whom God has chosen and in whom the Holy Spirit is at work can fail to come to Him (John 6:37), so why the need to woo the lost to come to church? In Acts, those who were being saved were added to the church (Acts 2:47), and those who were not kept their distance! With all this emphasis on numbers and church growth, there seems to be not enough attention given to church reduction by making disciples and little devotion to proclaiming and practicing the holiness of God! In Acts 5:1-11, when God struck Ananias and Sapphira dead, unbelievers did not flock to church, but all came to fear God and rightly so! If the fear of the Lord is the begining of wisdom, then the holiness of God must not be ignored! God's holiness will drive some away, but it will drive those who are called to the cross of Jesus Christ! Your move. Be encouraged!