Why Seeker Friendly CANNOT Work

Fact: The seeker friendly/seeker sensitive movements are FAILING when it comes to making disciples. They are not failing in every aspect of what they try to achieve, but the fact is that they are failing when it comes to making successful, thriving and overcoming disciples of YHWH and of Messiah. The reality is that even some of their own research agrees with that statement.

(How Does It Function)

Use American business and profitability principles to build churches. In other words use the same principles you would use in building a successful business and apply those principles to church planting, and church making programs.

It's based on give church consumers what they want and they will keep coming back. It typically begins by taking a detailed survey to find out what the un-churched and unbelieving people in your community feel that they need and desire from church.

Then you try to change or adapt all the sermon presentations and outreach programs and ministries and other social programs to meet what the church consumers feel or think that they want from church. In other words, give the customer what he wants and desires from church and he will keep coming back, then he will hear the gospel supposedly and then make a commitment to follow YHWH and follow Messiah.

(Here’s What the Seeker Friendly Mega-Church Movement HOPED Would happen)

People would find the church more inviting and more welcoming

People would, "Like God More."

More people would, "Hear the gospel."

More people would, "Come to Christ As Savior."

They would bring more, seekers and church consumers into the church.

By joining church programs they would hopefully become true disciples and followers of YHWH and of Messiah.

One of the major seeker friendly mega church congregations, (Willow Creek), took a detailed survey of their members, and publish the results in a book called, Revealed: Where Are You? The results shocked the church leadership to its very core. Here is an overview of what they discovered:

Church is more popular.

Church is more fun and entertaining.

People start out their journey with YHWH and Messiah more energized and enthusiastic. However, here's where it FAILS:

People are NOT becoming biblical disciples of YHWH and of Messiah.

People are not becoming biblical disciples of YHWH and of Messiah.

Most people are NOT overcoming through their own life challenges as a result of this movement

Most people are not overcoming through their own life challenges as a result of this movement

Many people are NOT growing beyond their initial commitment to Messiah.

Many people are not growing beyond their initial commitment to Messiah.

Conclusion: "Seeker sensitive movement produces church members, but not disciples." So affirmed the senior pastor of Willow Creek.

Perhaps the most shocking thing of all in this revelation coming out of Willow Creek is in a summary statement by Greg Hawkins:

“Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.”

What that conclusion statement makes in the report is a very horrific concept. It proves that their research has blinded them. They can see that they have not achieved the results they wanted. They can see that they've made a mistake, but at the same time the conclusion statement proves that they have not learned anything from the mistakes they've made. They have demonstrated a complete willingness to make the exact SAME mistake AGAIN.

First, reinventing and reimagining church is NOT the solution to the problem. Reinventing, and reimagining church IS the problem. This whole problem started by using worldly American business building model thinking and applying those standards to church planting. They already admitted that didn't work. So another man made and man invented process will work better?

Second, If using failed man-made techniques didn't work once, how will using more man-made techniques and surveys succeed if you tried again? In other words conducting man-made surveys on what church consumers want didn't achieve biblical discipleship, then how will more man-made surveys solve that problem?

It's Based on a Wrong Foundation

The seeker sensitive seeker friendly movement starts people off on the absolute WRONG foot from the beginning. Even the initial focus is wrong from the start. The seeker sensitive seeker friendly movement begins with the idea of how can we make people happier with God, INSTEAD of focusing on learning how WE can be CHANGED, to make God happier with us. In other words, from a very foundational level the seeker friendly seeker sensitive movement starts off with a man pleasing spirit instead of a God-pleasing spirit. It's wrongheaded straight out of the gate.

Galatians 1:10 NASB95

For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

Colossians 1:10 NASB95

so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

C

Galatians 1:

FACT: The moment that you start a program with the notion of how can I make people happier with God or with church, according to Scripture, you are no longer being a servant of Christ. So the very foundation of the seeker sensitive seeker friendly movements is entirely based on no longer being a servant of Christ, because your focus is on making people happier with God. The moment you become a people pleasing, you are no longer a servant of Christ. Since the seeker sensitive movement is based on pleasing people, it CANNOT serve Christ, by definition. So, the very movement is FAULTY from its very FOUNDATION.

James 4:4 NASB95

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:4

By changing church so that the un-churched sinful world will be happier with God and with church, they are actually training people to become friends with a sinful world, and thereby make themselves enemies to the living God. That can't work. That’s the OPPOSITE of Discipleship. It’s a clever TRAP!

The seeker sensitive/seeker friendly movement presupposes that the unchurched VISITOR is actually seeking seeking God. It proceeds on the assumption that the person who comes to visit church is earnestly seeking after God, and that if they just present the message in a more appetizing way, he will hear the gospel, he will come to Christ and he will be saved. The PROBLEM is that this is based on the WRONG assumption.

The seeker sensitive/seeker friendly movement forgets that the visitor in the pew is NOT the one seeking after God. On the contrary, if the person in the pew has any desire at all for the things of God, it's because God is seeking after him. The person is NOT seeking God, God is the REAL seeker Who is seeking after the person. So, if you are going to be AUTHENTICALLY seeker friendly, you have to be more God friendly and less people friendly, because God is the real seeker who is seeking them.

The seeker sensitive/seeker friendly movement forgets that the visitor in the pew is NOT the one seeking after God. On the contrary, if the person in the pew has any desire at all for the things of God, it's because God is seeking after him. The person is not seeking God, God is the REAL seeker Who is seeking them. So, if you are going to be AUTHENTICALLY seeker friendly, you have to be more God friendly and less people friendly, because God is the real seeker who is seeking them.

Romans 3:11 NASB95

There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;

Psalm 14:1–3 NASB95

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.

They take things that Messiah said would be HARD, and they try to pass it off as EASY and fun. ().

They set about taking the straight, the narrow, the difficult road, and they set about BROADENING the road to make it easier and more comfortable for unconverted people.

They took the gospel which Messiah said WOULD NOT be POPULAR, and set about making the gospel more popular. So they set about achieving an end that MESSIAH SAID would NOT occur. By definition, that CANNOT possibly function well.

John 15:18 NASB95

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

J

They took the gospel which Messiah said WOULD NOT be POPULAR, and set about making the gospel more popular. So they set about achieving an end that MESSIAH SAID would NOT occur. By definition, that CANNOT possibly function well.

John 15:19 NASB95

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

John

1 John 3:13 NASB95

Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.

1 John 3:

John 16:2 NASB95

“They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

So, trying to make Christ and the gospel more popular is actually working to achieve an end that even Messiah said, WOULD NOT happen. So, the seeker friendly seeker sensitive movement is based on trying to achieve an end that is the opposite of what Messiah said would occur.

Think about it. It sets people up to expect the wrong things from God.

The churches went to extreme lengths to change what they do and how they present things so that I would be happier and more comfortable with church. Therefore, does that not stand to reason that I can expect YHWH Almighty God to change His Standards, to change His Requirements, to change His Desires to accommodate my desires, my feelings and my preferences so that I can make it into the kingdom, exactly as the church is modeled things for me? If the church changed to get me into its doors, then won't God also change to get me into His Kingdom, the same way that the church did?

We were not commanded to go forth and make Jesus cool and popular

We were not commanded to go forth and make church members and increase our numbers. That was not the command.

The command was to go forth and make disciples, not church members (). There is a difference.

The seeker friendly movement SABOTAGES discipleship making efforts because it fails to build discipleship is the expectation from the very beginning. The very things that are required to make people happy in church, are the very OPPOSITE things which are required to help them build the character that will be needed for them to become disciples. In other words, the compromises that you have to make in order to keep Jesus popular and fun to get them in the pew, is the very opposite to the mindset that they require in order to become disciples.

Jesus and the gospel are not going to be popular, (; ; ; ; ; ). So, quit trying to achieve an end which Messiah said we were not going to get in this world.

We are not commanded to go forth and make mega church corporations, but we are commanded to make disciples, (; ; ; ; ; ).

If we are not teaching people to obey everything that Messiah has commanded:

We are NOT making successful disciples

We are disobeying a direct command of the Messiah

We are violating the New Testament

We are failing in our mission as churches

Why Seeker Friendly CANNOT Work

The Seeker Friendly Movement Fails at Making Disciples

What is the Seeker Friendly Movement?

The Desired Results

The Actual Results

How THEY Propose Propose to ‘Solve’ the Problem

We've Made a Mistake but We’re Really Not Learning from it.

The Seeker Sensitive Movement CANNOT Work

It's Based on a Wrong Foundation

It Does NOT Focus on the TRUE Seeker

The Seeker Sensitive Movement Seeks to Turn Messiah into a Liar

Seeker Sensitive Movements Create FALSE Expectation Which SABOTAGES Discipleship Making Efforts