Seeker Sensitive…..really??

There has been a good hearted move in recent years to make church more accessible to non-christians. The principle is a good thing. We do it ourselves by having breakfast and newspapers before Sunday worship, and making the service itself easy to understand. Paul the apostle talks about this principal; Jesus spoke in the cultural language of whoever He was addressing. However one of the unfortunate things that has happened in the church is that we have dumbed down and sometimes hidden the supernatural stuff. Now there are rules in scripture for sharing prophecy, tongues etc in a gathering, and also some boundaries that we have to set to protect people. That’s not what I’m talking about. What I’ve observed is that ministry is often ushered to the side, worship cut short (when the people are clearly engaging with God), manifestations, whether Holy Spirit or demonic can be seen as embarrassing  and quickly suppressed, rather than explained and dealt with. Sometimes I’ve seen God’s presence really strong in a gathering and the people just want to engage but the “programme” is put first.

Now this is often done with a genuine heart to make it more comfortable for non-Christians, in case they think we’re weird. Here’s some news folks, they already KNOW that we’re weird. In fact just across the street from my house is a leisure complex with a theatre. Later  in the summer there is a spiritual medium coming to perform. I know it will sell out just as all those kinds of meeting do. He’ll charge each person about £15 for the show, and his stuff doesn’t even come from God. We have it for free, and much more powerfully, yet we dumb it down and hide it.  The world is hungry for the supernatural! Jesus saw an issue or a situation and usually solved it supernaturally, or showed His compassion supernaturally. He even saw fit to create some wine at a wedding where the guests had already drunk the rest of it. Now “where’s the fruit” in that?? I think God is just generous and extravagant and always acts through love. Often our intentions are good but we miss the point. We need the balance I spoke about previously and we need to embrace the supernatural an make it as common in our walk as everything else. And if God decides our services are boring and wants to mess things up, who are we to say no?