Your scenario is very apt, GC.
In my days as a heathen, I was invited to my brother's "Born Again" worship center (none DARED call it a church!), and went willingly.
When they were all up singing and dancing in the aisles, some crying hysterically, some shouting like they had Tourettes' Syndrome, I felt obligated to "join in" and act the same way. No one else was standing still and heck, I didn't want to be the only one, so I acted the part.
My brother and several of his friends saw me acting as the rest of them and saw this as a "sign" of conversion, and began pressing me for months to return and join them in all manner of 'studies" (read: social hour) and 'events' (usually block parties where only the church members showed up to applaud each other for doing such a good work). When I declined and showed no interest, I was met with hostility. "What, you come to worship with us, and then don't do anything to follow-up? What's wrong with you?", etc.
A terrible experience to say the least, but looking back on it with new eyes, I can see the deception as clear as crystal.
And at the other extreme (at least he fiqured it out):
To: attendees of Spring Meadow Creek Community Center
From: Pastor Andrew M. Slick
Subject: Change of Direction For The New Year
Dear Church:
During my annual winter sabbatical, which took place this year over the Christmas season, I decided to try something new. I put away all of my books on leadership and strategy, and focused instead - on understanding the Word of God, as well as on prayer and fasting. Through this time of prayerful reflection on God's Word, the Holy Spirit brought me to the point of conviction on many matters, the most significant of which are as follows:
I must confess that I used to say that not being relevant was a form of irreverence to God. But when I look back on it now, I see that my idea of "relevance" was not reverent to God's holiness at all. On my sabbatical, I read 1 John 2:15 which says "Do not love the world or the things in the world". It suddenly occurred to me that I was teaching our church to love the things of this world, through ideas like worship that's designed to sound just like secular music.
I made the mistake of regarding worship as an 'experience' rather than a heartfelt act of obedience; I should have asked God how He would like us to worship. Looking back on things now, I see that I was using the word "relevant" to mean - almost anything worldly that would get people to come to church. I confess that I disregarded the bible's commands to avoid worldliness, and did the opposite by using worldliness as "bait" for the unchurched. I know now that the evangelistic relevance that really matters - is the relevance of the Savior to lost sinners, and not our attempts at seeming relevant according to worldly standards, by talking like the world, looking like the world, and behaving like the world.
Because of my stubborn refusal to see that my idea of relevance was disobedient to God's commands against worldly conformity, I usually only preached sermons that I thought you would be interested in. Unlike God's prophets who were not results or numbers oriented, I was "afraid of the people". I was afraid you wouldn't come to church anymore if I lingered on topics like depravity and wrath and the right use of the law. I also preached too much about my own philosophies on life, and these often had little to do with what the bible says. It's clear that this caused many harmful consequences for our church.
You see, I had almost forgotten that people are born again by the Holy Spirit, and although I used to deny it, I had essentially been trying to save them myself, through clever techniques and human creativity. I know that I relied too much on the strategy formulas of men, and overlooked God's definition of what a successful pastor is. Looking back on it, I see now the damage caused to our church, by following these human strategies. I should have listened to those who tried to warn me, but instead, I shut them out.
I admit it. I bought the modern bill of goods that "doctrine divides", and because I felt that it was impractical and not really necessary, I neglected it, and even spoke-out against doctrine. I now realize that my doctrinal errors have lead to many practical errors in the way we've done things at our church. I understand finally, that I was wrong to diminish biblical teaching in favor of things that would make you feel involved and boost your self esteem. Regretfully, in doing this I was showing the Lord that I did not trust His Word. But from now on, I'm going to take
John MacArthur's advice, for pastors to spend a minimum of 20 hours per week in the study of the Word of God.
I'm done spending so much time reading things on topics that the bible does not call me to excel in, such as "leadership techniques". Often, these distracted me from loving my flock anyway, and showed me instead - how to manipulate you. I know now, that this was wrong.
I now realize that my goal of saving lost souls had become my own personal agenda, and an end unto itself. Instead, I should have realized that souls-saved are a means to an end, and - that end - is the glorification of God. I had been evangelizing for the wrong reasons. Had I really kept the end-goal (of God's glory) in mind, I would have cared about glorifying Him in my evangelism methods, rather than just trying to force results, using almost any tactics that persuaded people to make "decisions" for Christ.
Lastly, I believe now that I've confused the purpose of our church meetings. I finally understand that 'church' is not primarily for evangelizing the lost. I should have never tried to cause true believers, who didn't agree with my evangelism schemes, to feel unwelcome here. From now on, the unchurched are still invited to attend, but we're no longer going to try to make them feel comfortable through worldliness and entertainment. Like the churches of old,
if the normal means of preaching fails to convert them, then we will trust the sovereignty of God, rather than trying to save them ourselves through our own creative inventions. From now on, our church will focus on purity and not pragmatism, as God showed us to do in Acts.
I know that this letter will come as a big surprise to you, but as your pastor, I must be true to God, and not to man. I refuse to sell-out any longer, and I am putting aside my own dreams, goals, and desires to be creative. To whatever extent that those things had become idolatry to me, I now repent.
From this point forward - we are going back to a biblical plan for our church; a plan that follows God's strategy, and not man's. We are going to avoid getting off course again in our understanding of what the scriptures teach. Evangelism is VERY important, but from now on - it's going to be more of something that you do, than a primary mechanism of our church meetings.
I realize that as we step away from things like entertainment in church, our attendance may decrease, but this too is in the hands of the Almighty God. I now cast myself at His feet, and whatever happens from this point forward, I know is His will.
To God be the glory.
Devoted to Christ and to the sheep under my care,
Your Pastor, A.M. Slick
Good story. The power of the crowd is amazing.
And terribly dangerous, too, I forgot to add.