The Conversation

I had an interesting talk with an older gentleman the other day. This gentleman was very opinionated and spoke very harshly about the “State of the church” today. He claimed that a terrible evil had infiltrated the church. This evil that he was referring to was what he called “The Contemporary Movement”. He called the leaders of this movement “religious terrorist” – “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. He boldly proclaimed that these contemporary leaders were “rolling Hell right through the front door of the church”.

Just to give you a little of the flavor of the conversation, here is a direct quote:
(He gave me a printed copy of his thoughts)

Hell is rolling in the front door of the contemporary churches, demons are climbing through the windows, and the Devil is standing on the podium laughing with glee. These so called churches have become cesspools of sin and they are leading precious souls into the very jaws of hell.

Usually I would not find such a conversation interesting at all. Usually I would have very little tolerance for this type of venom. But, I was sort of a captive audience. So I listened with all the respect and patience I could muster. Apparently what had this fellow so fired up was his fear of change – any change. There wasn’t really any Biblical backing or support for his complaints, but to him, because church did not look or feel the way it used to, it must surely be evil. The old style churches that made him feel comfortable were dying, and the contemporary ones that he despised were growing. He bemoaned the fact that some popular preachers today were wearing flip-flops and Tee-shirts; they were preaching entertaining sermons and using upbeat contemporary singing in their services. (Apparently sermons and songs have to be boring and dull to be scriptural)

I did not argue with him. I did not try to point out the obvious inconsistencies that I saw in his line of reasoning. I simply told him that I knew a lot of good people who would agree with him. And I really thought what I told him was true. I do know a lot (a whole lot) of people who would absolutely agree with him. In fact, they would agree with him wholeheartedly - that is until they heard the rest of the story….

There were two things that made this conversation so interesting. First was the fact that this old gentlemen had been a preacher for over fifty years. The second thing was the odd fact that he was not a Church of Christ preacher. He was a Southern Baptist preacher.

So, maybe I don’t know anyone who would agree with him after all.

I wonder which is worse; a conservative Southern Baptist, or a contemporary member of the Church of Christ?