Central Indiana Homeschool

Phil Johnson wrote an interesting post a couple of days ago taking Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren to task on their emphasis on marketing and business management in seminaries.

Read it, and then come back for my thoughts.

I don’t completely agree with his analysis, but it’s certainly food for thought. I think that in some ways the church has to move toward thinking more about the “entertainment” and marketing aspect of a church service due to the simple fact that the generation of young people that is growing up now has had their brains conditioned to require constant stimulation. It is one of the same problem that teachers are facing, that a child who has grown up being constantly entertained by TV and video games for three or four hours per day has difficulty finding a classroom interesting. Even a classroom which utilizes technical wizardry” such as PowerPoint.

Once a person experiences the fulfillment that comes from meeting the Spirit of God, yes, they will come back. But in our culture, the chance of that initial meeting seems like it may increase from a bit of marketing and entertainment.

After all, Jesus taught in the methodologies used during his time, as dull, unentertaining and unsophisticated as they may seem to today’s generation.

On a somewhat related note, Jason Robertson has some really interesting thoughts on the whole “emergent church” movement, taking to task the whole Saddleback concept.

So the post-modern worshipper wants small doses of God on man’s terms. God is on trial. God must submit to the critical, sinful, selfish desires of mankind. And God better not even think about that Lordship stuff . . . just short doses of spiritual experiences. All of this before they accept Him.

As always, comments are welcome.