A Compelling Case for the “Submerging” Church
By Pastor Tim Goad

Dive!  Dive!  Dive!  Granted, this is usually a command issued by submarine captains informing the crew that certain events have transpired on the surface requiring them to seek the safety of the ocean’s deep.  But, after reading an article that appeared this past Sunday morning on the website of the Columbia Daily Tribute, I’m compelled to recommend that pastors of the relatively few remaining God-honoring and Bible-believing churches of our day issue the same command to their faithful “crews”.  What is it that has gotten me in such a dither, you ask?  Consider the following excerpt from the aforementioned article appearing under the bold heading: “Beer and the Bible”:

In a back room at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, about 50 people gathered on a recent Wednesday night to talk rock ’n’ roll.

Why are Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain considered by some to be messiahs? When did rock music lose its edge and become another product manufactured and marketed by huge conglomerates such as Viacom?

It was a conversation perfectly suited to the setting. Beer-stained wooden tables and the smell of hops complemented a free-flowing, spirited debate among hip young people in scruffy beards and T-shirts.

In 2007, this is church.

Theology at the Bottleworks is run by a wildly successful congregation of young St. Louisans called The Journey. The Schlafly program is part of the church’s outreach ministry. And it works.

Every month, dozens show up at the brewpub to drink beer and talk about issues ranging from racism in St. Louis to modern-art controversies to the debate about embryonic stem cell research. First-timers are invited to check out the church on Sunday, and Journey leaders say many have. Theology at the Bottleworks is just one of The Journey’s ministries, but it has helped the church grow from 30 members in late 2002 to 1,300 today...

...The Journey is part of what sociologists of religion call the emerging church movement.

(To read the entire article, navigate to:  http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Mar/20070311Feat004.asp)

For those of you who might be unaware, the “Emerging” or “Emergent” church movement is the controversial 21st century attempt by many churches to engage  postmodern, unchurched individuals in such a way as to make Christianity relevant to their current worldview.  As can be seen in the above article, there is literally no end to the degree of pragmatism and compromise emergent leaders are willing to commit themselves to in order to enhance the spirituality of “seekers” whose “felt needs” are viewed as far more important than what God’s word might have to say concerning their real needs.  According to Wikipedia...

Proponents of the movement advocate an ecumenical, non-dogmatic view of doctrine in which they embrace a continual reexamination and flexible approach to theology which causes them to see faith as a journey rather than a destination, and to accept even radical differences in doctrinal views and moral standards. This humility and generosity leads most emergents to extend an invitation to people of all religions and beliefs to contribute to the conversation.

Humility and generosity?  How about confusion and heterodoxy?  What the church at-large once acknowledged universally as the warp and woof issues of her very existence and calling are now viewed in the emerging church as “innocuous” and “unimportant”.  Exegetical Bible study based on sound hermeneutical principles, objective teaching on the reality of sin and hell, the Bible’s repeated insistence that we bear a counter-cultural gospel that reveals man’s utter inability to do anything in and of himself to be reconciled to God...all of these time-tested, God-honoring characteristics of the healthy church have been jettisoned in favor of what “works”.  As the late James Montgomery Boice once observed:

“We don't like to admit it, but anyone who honestly evaluates the church's life and outlook will understand that these are not good days for evangelicalism. Yes, we've achieved success, but in a worldly sort of way -- big numbers, big budgets, and big outreaches. Yet church attendance is actually down and alleged "born again believers" do not differ significantly in their worldview from their neighbors. Why? We have forgotten our theology and, consciously or not, have pursued the wisdom of the world, accepted its "doctrines," and utilized its methods.”

John MacArthur, in his book Ashamed of the Gospel provides further insight into what we’re witnessing in the church today:

“Subtly the overriding goal [of the church] is becoming attendance and worldly acceptability rather than a transformed life.  Preaching the Word and boldly confronting sin are seen as archaic, ineffectual means of winning the world.  After all, those things actually drive most people away.”

If this is an accurate characterization of the “emerging” church (and I certainly believe it is), the true church has no choice but to submerge to the greatest depths possible so as to distance herself from that which is actually no church at all.  Contrary to the recommendations of such Christian “visionaries” as Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Joel Osteen, and the like, instead of catering to the felt needs of seekers who, in truth, are simply looking, not for God, but for wholesome entertainment that they can feel good about each week, the true church needs to submerge herself once again into the unsearchable depths of the objective truth of God’s word!  Instead of trying to be more like the world, striving to be more culturally relevant in hopes that people will see that we’re not that much different than they are, we need to faithfully point out to the lost that “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.  Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new”.  Sinners don’t need beer-swilling partners in crime who will sit with them and talk about rock and roll.  They don’t need some newfangled Dr. Phil brand of “I’m okay, you’re okay” affirmation theology!  What they need are those who, having been sufficiently equipped for the work of the ministry in doctrinally sound churches (Eph. 4:12ff.), care enough for their eternal souls to tell them the truth about their desperate conditions outside of Christ.  What they need is for someone to love them enough to warn them that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6:23)!

If the church of this world is indeed emerging then batten the hatches!  Flood the ballasts!  Dive!  Dive!  Dive!  No doubt, the depth charges of postmodernism will continue to come our way but if we sink into God’s word to a sufficient depth, we’ll be impervious to their effect.