The New Theology- BE DIFFERENT!

A new church plant in the Metroplex named itself quite simply ‘The New Church.’ Another around here called itself ‘The Church of Arlington,’ with emphasis of ‘The Church’ as if there were no others.

Have you noticed how all the ‘new’ churches that are being planted have one thing in common- they are all trying to be more different than anybody else? This distinctive has become the reason for existence. It used to be a church would promote the Kingdom of God, or theology, or denomination. But now it is ‘we are more different’ than everyone else. In fact, as they promote this distinctive they unwittingly denigrate the other existing churches. It as if the further you can distance yourself from the ‘norm’ the better able you are to penetrate the culture and offer them something that only you have. It means all the others have failed and now you have the inside tract ‘from God’ on what will work. We are so brash, cavalier, and puffed up about ourselves and our importance!

We are now being reduced to attacking our Brothers in Christ and their archaic methodology much like Pepsi would attack Coke. It is as if we now view each other as the enemy and therefore create the illusion that we are not of the same Kingdom!

I often wonder how God views His fragmented body, The Church. Jesus said He would build His church but then we got a hold of it and ran with our own plans of what it is to be like.

No one likes being characterized as that other church, the out of date church, the ancient church, the out of step church, the has been church, the 'Ichabod' church, and on and on with the name calling.

Dave Terpstra, pastor of The Next Level Church (sic, notice the name) in Denver said the following:

“But we are in the business of Christ and His Kingdom, and there is no benefit in smearing one expression of the Bride of Christ to make our version look more appealing to religious consumers.”

Someday, hopefully, we will see ourselves as the one church, with the one mission, one vision, and the world being greatly impacted by us. Until then we will advertise to a consumer mentality and church hopping constituency who are looking to their own needs instead of reaching out to a lost world whom we are largely missing.

And, by the way, we will tout how 'right we' are by looking at the numeric transfer growth we have accomplished as some divine sanction that we are on the right tract, this time for sure! That, in and of itself, reinforces that ‘we are right to be different’ and ‘they are all wrong’ new theology!

God help us!