Andy Gill
I heard a quote the other day, it was from Viktor Frankl, he said:
“I don’t think man exists to pursue pleasure, I think man exists to experience a deep experiential sense of meaning, and when man cannot find this, he then numbs himself out with pleasure.”
I think this is what happened to the church.
I think this is what’s happening within much of “culturally relevant” churches.
I’m not sure if meaningless comes before pleasure, but I do think that pleasure overrides our sense of meaning, and it can distract if one’s not careful.
When we see churches contextualize the gospel and the life of Christ, we many times see things such as the cross or even Jesus Christ Himself go missing, leaving Christianity empty and meaningless.
In the same way man goes searching for pleasure in place of meaning, so also does the church go seeking for pleasure when they can’t find meaning, and by meaning I mean Jesus.
So in place of Jesus we put lights, video, dynamic/funny communicators, and we stop choosing churches because they have JESUS but because they have great programs, awesome worship leaders, and a cool teaching pastor.
We begin to seek emotional pleasure, as opposed to a divine agent or spiritual director.
In consequence I think we’ve become, superficial, shallow, and very individualistic.
Nothing about those three words shouts Jesus.
Nothing about those three words shouts Church.
Nothing about those three words shouts the gospel!
I think the word they use in seminaries and books, I usually can’t understand, is “hedonism,” though I’ll just call it, “emotional porn”.
Quite possibly this is why American Christianity is dying. We as people in search of meaning have yet to find it within the four walls of our Churches.
If that is you, hear this:
It’s not that Jesus or His Bride is meaningless, empty, or without purpose. It’s just the American Church that is meaningless, empty, and without purpose filling souls with emotional porn, disguised as spiritual joy.
Jesus > Pleasure
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