
Many churches in America, sadly including many mega-churches, pride themselves on being “seeker-friendly,” by which they mean they are not judgmental and mean like those angry fundamentalists. Carrie Underwood famously supports same-sex marriage and attends a church whose pastor has so blurred the edges on the issue of homosexuality that his parishioners are likely confused about whether God is concerned about the issue at all.
Such seeker-friendly churches typically try to appeal to the unchurched by giving short shrift to the hard sayings in the Scriptures and the firm, fixed, and unalterable moral standards found there. This is because they fear seekers will find them too harsh, too difficult and too out of phase with contemporary culture. Because such controversial truths might run seekers off, it’s best to avoid them entirely and talk endlessly and exclusively about how nice, kind and understanding God is.
And so, as G.K. Chesterton observed, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”
Now there is nothing wrong with being friendly toward those who are seeking the truth. Of course, we want to have open hearts to all, and patiently explain the truths of Christianity to all who have a sincere desire to find out more about God. But patiently explaining the hard truths of Scripture to seekers is much different than avoiding them altogether or so twisting them that they are explained away.
It’s one thing for a man to be a friend of sinners, but it’s another for him to be such a friend of sinners that he becomes an enemy of God by betraying His Word. Such a “friend” of sinners may only be paving their way to a Christless eternity.
Now seeker-friendly churches assure us they will eventually get around to introducing fresh converts to the edgier truths of Scripture. But my question has always been, “When?” When exactly will you do this? Will it be in a main service where the bulk of seekers are? Or will it be in a small, little-publicized setting which minimizes the risk of too many people hearing it, as if these were truths that are too embarrassing for civilized society? Or will it happen at all?
Jesus was the most seeker-friendly evangelist who ever walked the earth. His whole mission was to “seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10b). And yet there were times when His teaching was so hard for the average seeker to stomach that the crowds began deserting Him in droves.
When He began urging His followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood and declared that He alone was “the bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:58), they did not respond by saying “Where can I sign up?” “When they heard this, many of His disciples said, ‘This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? … From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him” (John 6:60, 66).
Things got so bad that Jesus even wondered about the Twelve. “Do you also want to go away?” (John 6:67). Peter’s response suggests they were thinking about it, but finally resolved to stay. “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).