As we get closer to Christ’s return, we are seeing a greater rise in compromise within churches. So many have become the poster children (to a tee) for the Laodicean church the Bible describes.
Many today just want their ears tickled. Many are content to seek a place where they can socialize, grab a cup of coffee, listen to a feel-good message, and be entertained. What’s that called?… seeker-friendly? Not all, but more and more churches are looking more like the world and accepting its philosophies and ways.
Aren’t we called to be salt and light? Aren’t we told to be in the world but not of it… to separate ourselves? If so, why are so many so quick to want to emulate the world? Why are so many so enamored with mimicking what the world does? Christians should stand out from the world, look very different from the world, because we’re called to not be like the world.
1 John 2:15 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Something that greatly bothers me and grieves my heart is how “celebrity” has been ushered into the church. Worship services feel more like entertainment than true worship. It’s hard to get into the right mindset to worship the Savior when the worship leaders on stage seem more like they are performing and trying to soak in the limelight rather than fade into the background and point people to Jesus.
And, the loudness! So many churches crank up the decibel level so incredibly loud that even earplugs can no longer serve as protection.
How loving is it to harm people’s hearing so that the church can provide some “experience” that they deem important or that they feel they must provide to compete with other churches? Isn’t looking out for others important? Isn’t protecting one’s health and well-being important? Isn’t pointing others completely to Christ with every action and decision important?
One would think celebrity in the church and among Christians would be clearly understood to be wrong. Celebrity always casts a shadow… it elevates someone over God. It is IDOL WORSHIP!!! If we truly love God and want to obey Him, we have to reject all aspects of “celebrity” both in the church and outside of the church.
These verses are very clear:
Exodus 20:1-5 “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
Romans 1:25 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”
Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Matthew 22:37 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
In a nutshell… the church is not called to compromise. Christians are never called to compromise, and everything we do should point to the Savior, not ourselves and not others.
There are some things in life that are gray and some that are black and white. There are things in life that may require a question mark and other things that undoubtedly require a period. Celebrity in the church is not a gray area; it’s clearly black and white, and it’s wrong… period.
It is very sad to see compromise creeping in. Because, with every compromise, the light we’re called to shine grows a bit dimmer.
Several years ago, I felt moved to write about the topic of celebrity and how it’s crept into the one place it should never be… the church.
https://www.raptureready.com/2019/08/03/servants-not-celebs-holly-spate/
I hope this article, shared many years ago, will stir your heart to pray for our churches. Because He, our great Savior, deserves all our adoration, awe and praise!