"IN THE NAME OF GOD" was an hour long analysis of the Church in America, reported by Peter Jennings. What follows are quotes taken directly from the video, and used for a discussion moderated by Neil Chadwick
"All across America, Christianity is transformed in an effort to keep church-going alive. While 88% of Americans count themselves as Christian, membership in main-line or traditional Protestant churches has been declining since the 1960s. You judge whether the effort to attract people to church helps to deepen their spirituality, or is it just a consumer competition for souls?"
WILLOW CREEK
It's really more like a theater - to help non-church people feel that they can investigate Christianity in a neutral setting.
We're very serious about what Christ did on the cross. But to capture the essence of Christianity in a single symbol, is a little dangerous.
Purely secular dramas are a regular part of the service.
4. Bill Hybels launched the church by finding out what people did not want from a church. Started the church by taking a poll. People didn't like old fashioned sermons, and they were bored by traditional church music.
Willow Creek today is specifically "user friendly". State of the art day care, a multitude of Sunday School programs, there's also a Food Court, and a bookstore; and what they call Christian aerobics.
All of the singers and actors are members of the congregation who volunteer their talents.
Willow Creek has adopted a highly corporate model of organization. The pastor could be described as the CEO.
I get uncomfortable when people mix too much of spirituality and business. Because fundamentally, we're not selling a product . . . we're proclaiming the message of Amazing Grace.
It wasn't typical of our experience with how we would like to practice our religion. It obviously works for many, many people, and the key to good marketing is to give to people what it is they want.
"They have songs that I like, they have dramas with real actors, and it is slick; and it makes me want to come back and hear more. The more I hear then the more I learn, and the better Christian that I'll be."
Bill Hybels is attracting people who might otherwise have stayed away, that is all he's trying to accomplish.
Am I going to communicate the core of the Christian message in a way that he can understand? You just want to make it very clear.
DAY BREAK CHURCH
Let's show them we can also have fun.
I think Jesus Christ would be at an event like this. He enjoyed parties. I think Jesus would use similar methods if He were here today. . . to attract the person who is looking for hope.
RIDGE POINT COMMUNITY CHURCH
The forms that are traditionally associated with the church are so incongruent with the world that we live in, I mean you step through a time warp in terms of the forms that you see.
The danger is always that we will so accommodate ourselves to the culture in which we find ourselves, that the message will be watered down, we'll give in to modernity. The key to avoiding that is to determine ahead of time what are the non-negotiables, what are the hills you'll die on. Let's determine those up front and let's do everything we can to protect and preserve those things. As far as the rest, that's all negotiable.
BEECHWOOD REFORMED CHURCH
There are pastors who feel pressured to water down the Gospel in order to grow, and they're just dead wrong.
It's not my responsibility to always make you feel good about yourself. Sometimes you ought to leave here feeling badly about yourself. We are a group of people who believe that give and take is possible in this selfish culture. We say to people you don't have to have everything your way all the time. You can give a little bit. In fact you have to because the Gospel calls you to do that.
I feel a great deal of personal pressure to deliver the goods every Sunday morning - to be good, to be interesting, even to be entertaining.
We are to be in the world but not of the world, so I get nervous when we want to model too much after the world.
VINEYARD CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
"When do they do the stuff in the Bible?" "We don't do that. We believe in that, we pray about it, but we don't do it." "When I worked for the devil I got to do the devil's stuff. If I'm working for Jesus, I want to do what Jesus did."
At the Vineyard there is no doubt that emotional healing is central to the ministry. People are hungry for a faith they can feel.
I believe that the church of Jesus Christ needs signs and wonders today in order to survive.
When it first started happening with us I was just reading the Bible to the people, and people started falling down and shaking and laughing.
Some people's experience ought, in my opinion, to be done in private; but evidently, God doesn't do it that way.
People are ministered to by other members of the congregation.
There are instances where behavior in the church is too extreme. Remember, not everybody who walks into our building is real healthy. Some people have gone through some pretty tough things in life.
I could force myself to stop. But I really truly believe that its the Lord. Why would I want to stop something that the Lord's doing in me?
It's a mixture of humanity and Spirit.
I want to go as far as the Bible goes. Haven't they read this Book?
CHRISTIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE - Bible Answer Man
Holy laughter has been around for a while.
What this guy's doing is giving Christianity a black eye. This guy is a false prophet.
Jesus Christ has become a means to an end, where in Biblical theology Jesus is the end. Christian theology is not self aggrandizement, it's self sacrifice.
RODNEY HOWARD BROWN
We've become complacent.
Natural humor has a way of causing people to laugh, and after a few seconds or even a minute it'll subside. But this just keeps going on.
I'm not doing anything; I can't stress it enough. I mean I'm doing nothing. It really is God's presence. And I know it doesn't make sense. The unseen hand of the Lord is touching people and giving them joy.
They come in in depression, and they leave in joy. And I feel that's what the Lord wants to do. We're tired of seeing sad people, there's a real hunger in people, they just want to be happy.
GEORGE BARNA
Your competition, in fact, is what else is taking place out in the rest of the world.
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