The stories of church when our parents were young are similar in scope to the stories we might resonate with in our churches today. While the structure of contemporary churches has adapted to fit a modern audience, modern-day and early churches share a similar problem: Creating a message that upholds one truth while dismissing another.
Most churches half a century ago were buildings with rough carpet, a pulpit, an organ, stained-glass windows and ornately carved wooden objects. Nothing drew more attention than the wooden cross in the center of the sanctuary wall, which resembles those commonly found in European cathedrals. The building was built for their community to worship God. The place is vaguely important, but it makes no sense why people would sit on hard pews, listening to a man talk passionately about seemingly irrelevant topics. The pastor would preach repentance and would be clear on what he deems morally right and wrong, claiming specific acts as absolute sins, like dancing and vulgar movies.
Several churches in the 70s, 80s, and post-Billy-Graham era often preached a heavy moral message to their congregants. That message, though powerful, degenerated into dogma. While the message was true, its repetition led to a loss of significance, deteriorating into stale dogma. God’s truth would also become falsified through the preacher’s sermon and in the minds of the congregation. Once children become adults, they discover that movie theaters, dancing and art are acceptable uses of leisure time. They hear the preacher’s agreement as he says that joy has many expressions which God encourages. This idea of the church has radicalized the perception of those who grew up in more rigid congregations.
The most profound message children hear in church today is to love and accept others, to relinquish judgement. God is love, and love is the highest virtue and greatest commandment. While the message itself is as true as the message of divine justice preached in churches past, the problem of the church devoting its attention to one message remains. For example, the message to “love God and love others” often morphs from desiring others’ prosperity to diluting the effects of sin or even dismissing the result of sin—death.
The type of church the previous generation knew promoted the message of sin and repentance without a steady focus on the love Christians are called to give. Such a message promoted the idea that unrepentant sinners do not belong in church, and, therefore, are not God’s children. In other words, the church from before was judgmental without a sense of love and inclusion.
However, the new church has leaned towards the other extreme. The new church is in danger of losing its underlying objective view of truth with its disregarding judgement in favor of only preaching love and inclusion. The problem is that the dogma of love is preached without the dogma of justice that churches had preached before. The new church overlooks the truth that people are sinners and in need of Christ. A call to repentance must re-assert itself from the pulpit in the near future. The nature of God’s justice is as relevant today as it was half a century ago, yet the modern churches often choose to ignore it in favor of unbridled inclusivity.
The structure of churches can be traditional like those some knew from childhood or those which include an electric worship band. The problem is not how the church is structured, but is rather how the church preaches its core messages.
While one desire of every Christian is that all people will come to faith in God, the Christian message requires a true and full explanation of what believing in God means. Salvation comes through repentance and that necessitates a definition of sin. In both the former and the current message styles of churches, what it means to be saved and be a disciple of Christ are in danger of losing their complete definitions due to the extreme messages of justice without love and love without justice.