Your Opinion; Sept. 20, 2006

September 19, 2006 11:52 pm

— A recent letter to the editor described the signs of the “destructive” nature of the seeker sensitive movement within the Christian church. Seeker-oriented churches are not without their weaknesses, but they are certainly not destructive. The term “seeker sensitive” was made popular by Willow Creek Community Church, which began in the 1970s, under the leadership of Bill Hybels. A “seeker” refers to a person who is searching for truth, God, fulfillment, etc., and “seeker-oriented” churches look for creative ways to reach out to them. Willow Creek has consistently held to the value of being “culturally relevant and doctrinally pure.” Seeker churches do not try to redefine the nature of the local church, rather they have used, and continue to use, innovative methods in an attempt to proclaim the message of Christ to those who do not know him.
Innovators who hold to the historical, biblical Christian faith and who suggest new ways of communicating God’s word have historically been criticized. In the 14th century John Wycliffe was criticized because he translated the Bible into English so that it could be understood among the common people of England. John Wesley and George Whitefield were criticized for organizing Christians into “bands” or “classes,” which looks similar to the small group Bible studies of today. William Carey was criticized in the early 18th century for traveling to India where he served for 41 years as a pioneer missionary. Hudson Taylor, another 18th century English missionary, was criticized for wearing indigenous Chinese dress while serving in China. In the 19th century Charles Finney was criticized for wearing pants (when most ministers wore robes), using common language in his sermons, and urging “convicted sinners” to move to the “anxious seat,” the precursor to the altar call. One minister said, “If Finney comes to my town I will appose him with a cannon!” Early Pentecostals of the 20th century were described as “the lost vomit of Satan” because they dared to pray for spiritual power and for the healing of the sick. And Oral Roberts was criticized for putting Pentacostalism on TV in the 1950s.
Since the 1980s, seeker-oriented pastors like Hybels and Rick Warren have been criticized for changing the essence and message of the Christian church, which they have certainly have not done. Nevertheless, like Wycliffe, Wesley, Carey, Taylor, Finney and Roberts, they have challenged the Christian church to rethink the way we do church and how we communicate, but we do not need to fear their influence on the American church.
I recently attended Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit, their annual leadership conference. In the final session, Bill Hybels closed his talk by saying that there are two words that church leaders must understand and communicate. I was expecting some kind of sensational leadership phrase or a two-word marketing strategy, but when Hybels revealed the two words, I was shocked. The words were “substitutionary atonement.” He then went into a discussion about the importance of communicating the truth that Jesus died on the cross as our substitute and that his blood covers our sin. Not only was this a truth pulled from the historic, biblical Christian faith, it was communicated using weighty theological terms. How orthodox for a seeker-loving innovator!
Derek Vreeland
Pastor, Cornerstone Church
Americus