The Problem of Seeker Sensitive Preaching
Does that sound biblical? No, no and no. The reason is that by trying to reach the unsaved to get converted by "comfortable church experience", "non-threatening message" and a watered down message is a very dangerous thing. Pastor Paul David Washer has countless times talked against seeker sensitive preaching in the Baptist parishes. Pastor Ray Comfort's videos "True and False Conversion" and "Hell's Best Kept Secret" as well as the book "Revival's Golden Key" otherwise revealing Ray's not so best kept secret of PROPER evangelism. If you have read the book "The Gospel According to Jesus" by Pastor John F. Macarthur it should serve as a reminder that Jesus was NOT a seeker sensitive preacher especially when his expository on the rich young ruler comes to mind. Jesus' message was as offensive to proud sinners as it is today. Even without that book and reading just through the Bible, I can see the message was never seeker sensitive. To be honest Jesus was hated during His earthly ministry and He is still hated today, the apostles were hated, many Baptist preachers like Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards were hated, Presbyterian preachers like Vernon McGee and Billy Sunday were hated... and it's no surprise Pastor Paul David Washer is also hated because he targets the watered down Gospel churches. When the churches go seeker sensitive, so do the schools they are handling!
However we end up having pastors who are running huge megachurches filled with people who show no sign of true conversion. How can I say really false conversions? While I do not believe in the heresy of sinless perfection and I am still a sinner, I will still fall and even the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:14-25 we have the hard reality he still struggled with sin. However there is a difference between struggling with sin and sinning all they want. Every sinning is willfully done no doubt about that.. David sinned willfully when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, I sin willfully whenever I say curse words because I got angry or want to inflict harm or murder somebody. The difference is this- I am a miserable sinner when I sin- although I did not lose my salvation I lost the joy of it momentarily. God chastens every disobedient believer (Hebrews 12:5-6) and every Christian who sins gets chastised. However the problem has to be these false converts have the tendency to think they possess eternal security and sin all they please. Anybody who believes they possess eternal security but are sinning all the want need to have their false sense of security shaken because such people aren't saved to start with.
Now to tackle on this "comfortable church experience" which has actually led to many false conversions than real ones. We have the problem of the pastor being afraid of what people will say rather than what the Bible says. Listen, the prophets and apostles DID NOT care what others will say, they were focused on preaching God's Word as it is. In the time of Emperor Nero's reign, Christians would rather die for Christ even if they were called as "fanatics" and "extremists". Paul gave up his head for the sake of the Gospel of Christ. You might want to think also that during the reign of Nero and his many evil successors, Christians would rather die. Martin Luther faced the Council of Trent bravely in attesting the truth of the Scriptures. The Anabaptist preacher William Tyndale who was a friend of Martin Luther chose the flames over renouncing the truth of Scripture. Charles Spurgeon did not water down his message just one bit just so his pews would be filled. That is quite different from what we have today.
The modern church settings have started doing a lot of watered down messages. Pastor John F. Macarthur shared his own experience in "The Gospel According to Jesus" in page 89, chapter 7. In the most current edition and I am reading from the "revised and expanded edition", he himself admitted that he once preached a watered down message to a person who he supposedly led to Christ. The problem as he admits it was that he preached an incomplete message that went like, "Well yes, you simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Savior." However the problem as he presented was that after he led the person in prayer, however the person never got saved. In that same chapter, he really reveals what went wrong. Jesus was not at all a seeker sensitive when it came to preaching. The rich young ruler needed to realize that he was far beyond help except by the grace of God. People can't really and truly accept Christ as their Savior if they don't even know Him as Lord, the offended Lord and that they are the sinners who have offended this holy, righteous Lord who knew no sin yet chose to become their sin offering. Watered down preaching tends to remove repentance of sin and calls it "works salvation". Listen, unless people repent of their sins, they will never accept Christ fully for who He is resulting to a false conversion. That's why I'm pretty disturbed at how some Independent Baptists have ended up creating false conversions as well. Watered down messages tend to remove the hard part that is all about sin. It's hard to believe that you are a sinner, it's hard to believe that the sinless Christ died in your place... and it's hard to believe that because people don't feel good whenever the issue of sin is being dealt with. This message of easy believism has become disastrous because it preaches a very incomplete message and embraces false converts as true ones.
Today, we also have the false sinner's prayer. We have a watered down Gospel that just goes like this, "Well just admit you are a sinner, believe Christ died on the cross and repeat after me." No repentance of sin, no conviction of sin, no real broken hearts and no sorrow for sin. In short they had NEVER admitted they were sinners. Some evangelists have even done it short cut way that is why I DO NOT like using the plain Roman Road without explanation. In fact, the Roman Road kinda takes things out of context which I have condemned some preachers for which cannot be compared to priceless use of the Law preaching. It's just "repeat after me"... no real preaching against sin. No preaching like Charles Spurgeon's priceless "Turn or Burn" and Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" type of preaching. Instead, we just have them say a few words, repeat after me, no real conviction, dunk them and then later they are already proven not saved to start with. Looking at Chick tracts which are being labeled by the free grace groups as "works salvation" because it includes the phrase, "Be willing to turn from sin." and "Repent of your sins." however it must be realized, except people repent of their sins (change of mind about it), the will NEVER admit they are sinners. People who do not repent of their sins will never admit their sinful state, people who are not willing to turn (repent) from sin will never repent of their unbelief towards Christ just like the rich young ruler. Like somebody I knew supposedly got saved and was baptized in a Baptist church but later in his life, he returned to being a Roman Catholic. Examining how their church did evangelism, what a watered down message they preach! Some people after being led with a sinner's prayer however go back to their foolish paths like works salvation proving they are not saved to start with.
Seeker sensitive preaching can also actually start confusing Christian denominations with non-Christian denominations. In fact, I would dare say that the very contradictory Evangelicals and Catholics Together movement was a result of seeker sensitive preaching and it was signed by many ecumenical pastors like Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker who are both having their own financial scams aside from the obvious fact they are connected with the Roman Catholic institution. Many times I've seen the Trinity Broadcasting Network with its very watered down messages and two, unequal yokes with Rome. Many preachers we thought are saved aren't. Just a thought, even that sermon called "I Have a Dream" by the late Jesuit-trained puppet Martin Luther King Jr. was obviously seeker sensitive- seeking to reconcile the irreconcilable differences between Roman Catholics and born again Christians and such stupidity still exists in Rick Warren's open air ecumenism. In fact false teacher Joel Osteen's Lakewood cult is notorious for its acceptance of false Christians like Roman Catholics and Mormons to name a few as "brothers and sisters in Christ". Listen those who claim to be Christian denominations but are NOT at all fit with the fundamentals cannot be Christians- they are not brothers and sisters in Christ for born again Christians but rather mission fields. It's really sickening to think how many so-called preachers are also Freemasons and are also having seats with the Popes. It's very important to tell people who are stuck in false religion the fact that they are stuck in false religion, that their works can't save them because they are fallen sinners and that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ. But instead, we have pastors who refuse to preach to them fearing to lose popularity. Such pastors' credibility are very questionable as well. The church is a business but not a monkey business.
Truth of the matter is they keep telling me that I write nonsense, I'm watching too much cartoons, I'm a fossilized bigot because I stand by the old time preaching of the Bible. By God's grace, I am sticking to the fundamentals of the Bible, exegetical preaching, expository preaching and so on. In fact, it's a brave move for certain pastors to even be proud of their being "hopelessly narrow minded" by the world. So what if I'm a "terrorist" because I preach John 14:6. Well they really can't tell the difference between the Christian holy war against Satan against the Jihad of Muslims either.