Articles
Engaged or Entertained?
Our culture has turned everything under the sun into a show that we observe as detached viewers. Reality television has opened up the most intimate lives of people to the observation and inspection of audiences, and many times we do not know how to differentiate. This is especially dangerous when it affects how we we engage as a church.
The church is not an audience listening to a sermon as an entertaining show. There were times when Jesus addressed "the crowds" but it was never so that they would be entertained and pleased. Jesus spoke to people to get them to respond to the gospel message. The whole of the Sermon on the Mount was spoken to “the crowds" (Matthew 5:1), but all of the encouragements were to be acted upon by the individual in the sight of God. When He ended His address, the people realized their responsibility due to Jesus' authority (Matthew 7:28-29).
Jesus warned those who heard Him not to consider His preaching to be a spectacle, as some had treated John the Immerser, because John pointed toward Jesus as the greater authority. (Matthew 11:7-19) Those who wished to evade responsibility complained that Jesus and John didn't meet their expectations. Any time the gospel is preached, there is a necessary response from the believer. To listen to preaching only as a fleshly exercise is to engage in the sin of Israel that God described to Ezekiel the prophet. (Ezekiel 33:32)
The church is not an audience for the songs we sing as a congregation. How the singing we do together sounds is secondary to the content because the purpose is not to be entertained. If we paid as much attention to the function of congregational singing as we do to the form, we might be better focused on how we engage. The focus of the passages we so often look to for how we engage in musical worship are “speaking to one another” in Ephesians 5:19 and “teaching and admonishing one another” in Colossians 3:16. We are not instructed to be music critics, or a passive gallery, but to be cooperative teachers and admonishers of the congregation.
The church is not an audience for the addition or restoration of a soul to the kingdom. Truly intimate moments that we share with those closest to us are not a place for applause as if we were watching a show. Applause is often an indication of abstraction from the events we are observing.
To turn a baptism, or a confession and repentance of sin into a show is to fail to be truly engaged with the soul of a brother or sister. When we have the opportunity to be present when a person returns to the God who made them, then we need to express our sincere joy in appropriate ways. We can pray with them. We can offer to study with them. We can encourage them to remain faithful.
God's work of salvation is not a human event. Applause as a reaction to the event is rooted in a fleshly understanding of what's happening that is human centered. Ironically, this often happens at a moment that is to be focused solely on God and His glorious grace. (Ephesians 1:3-14) Our response should be joyful, but not admired as an entertaining display.
