Doing Church for the Unchurched? For Whom Do Pastors Exist?

Moving along, from the Letter of Mark blog, that's my blog, you can find this at letterofmark .us, the headline reads, For Whom Do Pastors Exist? Written by yours truly. Not that I put any fragrance or anything like that on it.

Why the Claim That “The Church Doesn’t Exist for You” Is a Red Herring

All right, so to kind of give you the setup here, I mean, how many times have you heard pastors berating the people in their congregation saying, this church doesn't exist for you? Or saying things like, we need your seat, and you know, because we're not here for you, we're here for the person who's not already here.

I mean, crazy things like that. And you're going, you know, there's something way screwy wrong with that. But I, you just don't quite know how to, you know, combat it. Well, this article, For Whom Do Pastors Exist? is, well, this is for you.

Okay. I wrote, if I had $10 for every time I heard a seeker-driven pastor justify the crazy antics that happen in their churches by claiming that the church doesn't exist for believers, well, I'd be able to purchase James McDonald's home with cash.

By the way, his home was $1 .9 million. These seeker-driven antics, by the way, includes things such as playing ACDC's Highway to Hell to open their Easter service, refusing to preach the Bible with any depth or accuracy, performing Michael Jackson's thriller, reenacting the famous kiss scene from the Spider-Man movie, and a whole host of other crazy stunts.

See, all those things, you know, you say, why would you do that? Okay. In fact, let me give you just a sampling from Stephen Furtick's version of his sheep beating that he engaged in. Here's Stephen Furtick letting everybody at his church have it for coming to church expecting to be fed.

Here we go. A church for the overlooked, for the unloved. Not for us to have as many different varieties of Bible studies. We got Beth Moore and Kay Arthur and Joyce Meyer. No. You know what we got? We got Jesus.

We preach him. We preach so that people can come to faith in Christ, and we want them to get in a small group and serve so that other people can meet Christ. If you know Jesus, I am sorry to break it to you.

This church is not for you. Yeah, that's right. So if you know Jesus, this church ain't for you. Yeah, but I just gave my life to Christ last week at Elevation. Last week was the last week that Elevation Church existed for you.

So if you gave your heart to Jesus last week, then well, Elevation Church doesn't exist for you. You're going, what is this? Well, it gets worse. In fact, here's a little bit more from that same sermon.

Church doesn't exist for you. And what does that all mean? Well, don't come here expecting to be fed God's word. Oh no. You shut up the church this morning. Did you show up with a bless me, feed me, make me fatter preacher?

I don't intend to do a thing you say, but I'm going to listen to you. And if you dadgum say one thing I don't like, I promise I'll cross my arms and cross my eyes at you the rest of the sermon. Did you show up to file a little bit more religious information in your already overloaded hard drive so that you could do absolutely nothing about it?

The church is full of pot-bellied Christians waiting to shove their spiritual food down their mouth one more time, but they don't intend to do anything to bless anybody. You are a Pharisee. You sit on the front row.

You might even take notes, but you take notes so you can argue with them with your roommate after church. And now I don't really believe in all that. Yeah. But if we ever start turning in this front row Pharisee crowd, I don't think the teaching's deep enough.

I would like a little more hermeneutical explanation on the original languages in the Aramaic and the Hebrew. Jesus says, shut up, help somebody, bless somebody. So you come to church expecting to be fed and for the pastor to go deep in God's word.

What does Stephen Furtick says? Jesus says, shut up, help somebody, heal somebody, serve somebody, pray for somebody. Why don't you do something? Why don't you bring a lost friend to church with you next week, watch Jesus change their life, and then you won't be worried about how loud the music was.

You'll just hope that they meet Jesus. So there you go. I mean, so that's Stephen Furtick's kind of version of it. And I have sound bites from all different pastors, all kinds of pastors from within the Seeker Driven Movement who have their own take on that.

So that's the idea, okay? Church doesn't exist for you. It doesn't exist for believers. By the way, that's a canard. And it's a red herring. It's off topic. So I'm going to try to help you out here, okay?

There is an irony to all of this, and that is that it's something you can't see because I'm reading the article to you, is that every time the word pastor appears in my article, in the first part of it, I bold the word pastor and I underline it because there's an irony here, okay?

Who said that, by the way, the church doesn't exist for you? That was Pastor Furtick, right? Who else has said that? Well, Pastor Perry Noble has said that. Who else has said it? Pastor Mark Beeson has said it.

Who else has said it? Pastor Ed Young has said it. Who else has said it? Pastor Eric Dykstra has said it. So, okay, these weird things. The church doesn't exist for believers, right? So, by the way, and that's supposed to be one of the—this philosophy is why they do all these things like opening up an Easter service with ACDC's Highway to Hell, refusing to preach the Bible with any depth, Michael Jackson's thriller, the famous kissing in Spider-Man.

That's why they'll say, well, listen, the church doesn't exist for you. That's why we're doing all of those things, right? So, when you call these pastors out on their antics, their responses are predictable and consistent and usually go something like this.

Example number one, church attender says, hey, pastor, why don't you ever preach exegetical sermons? I feel like I'm not being fed here because your sermons usually only contain three or four verses taken out of context in order to teach some relevant life principle.

Pastor responds, why are you so selfish? The church doesn't exist for you. It's not about you. Okay, that's one example. Example number two, church attender says, hey, pastor, why did you have the worship team begin our Easter service with ACDC's Highway to Hell?

I mean, rather than a song proclaiming Jesus' victorious resurrection from the grave? I mean, ACDC is worldly at best and satanic at worst, and that blasphemous song should not be brought into God's house.

Pastor responds, why are you so selfish? The church doesn't exist for you. It's not about you. Church isn't for the already convinced. It's for the yet to be convinced. Example number three, church attender says, hey, pastor, why are you preaching about movies rather than preaching God's word like Second Timothy chapter four verses one through three commands?

Pastor responds, why are you so selfish? The church doesn't exist for you. It's not about you. Our church exists for people who are not yet believers. Now, notice each time the pastor answered using the standard seeker-driven talking point and doesn't answer the question, but makes a blanket claim that the church doesn't exist for believers, and therefore, the person asking the question is guilty of selfishly believing that the church exists for them.

Now, anyone who's been railroaded by these tactics knows that something is way off about these claims being made by these seeker-driven pastors, but don't exactly know how to put their finger on the problem or know how to put it into words.

Now, this post is going to help you with that. Now, notice that every time the word pastor has appeared thus far, and I'm pointing to something in the writing version of it, every time the word pastor has appeared thus far in this post that I've bolded it and underlined it.

That is to help you to spot the irony of the statements being made by seeker-driven pastors. And that irony will help you identify the underlying error in their tactics and methodologies. So, here's the irony.

Pastors and Elders Exist to Serve the Church

Nowhere in Scripture does it say that the church exists for unbelievers. Let me say that again. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that the church exists for unbelievers, but there are clear passages that state that pastors and elders are to serve the church.

Therefore, it is ironic and foolish for a pastor whose job is to serve the church to justify methods that don't serve Christians by claiming that the church doesn't exist for believers. You see the problem?

They have a specific job, and their job is to serve believers, and they're doing things for unbelievers that fall outside of their biblical mandate, and then they're browbeating people by saying the church doesn't exist for believers.

Weird, huh? So, here are the key passages that address this topic. We'll begin by first looking at the passages that discuss spiritual gifts. The reason for this is that the ability to teach God's word is a gift that is given by the Holy Spirit to certain people within the body of Christ.

So, here's a subhead. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to build up the church, not the world. The Bible teaches that God, the Holy Spirit, gives different gifts to different believers for the building up of the body of Christ.

I would point you to 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, but specifically, we could point to 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4 through 7, okay? Now, there are varieties of gifts with the same Spirit. There are varieties of service with the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all and everyone.

Each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, okay? That's what 1 Corinthians 12, 7 there says, okay? Now, you're doing common good. Well, Paul goes on to explain what that is, by the way, okay?

So, teaching, by the way, is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit gives to pastors, and this gift is to be used specifically for believers. Let me say that again. Teaching is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it's given to pastors by the Holy Spirit, and this gift is to be specifically used for believers.

Ephesians 4, verses 8 through 13 states this very clearly. Here's what it says. In saying that He, that's Christ, ascended, what does it mean but that He also descended into the lower regions of the earth?

He who descended is the one who ascended far above the heavens that He might fill all things. And He, Jesus, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers, notice it says there, shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So this verse, clearly and unambiguously, in language you can't miss, literally says that Jesus gave us shepherds and teachers to equip the saints and to build up the body of Christ. So in clear and unambiguous language, God states that shepherds, these are pastors, and teachers in the church exist to equip the saints, not unbelievers, and to build up the body of Christ, not the world.

This is clear and irrefutable. Okay, next subhead. Those who have the gift to teach are commanded to feed Christ's sheep by teaching the Word of God. The duties of shepherds and teachers within the church are governed by the instructions given by Jesus Christ.

For instance, John 21 15 -17 states, When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

He said to him, Feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Now Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, and he said to him, Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. Notice that in this passage, Jesus didn't tell Peter to entertain goats or to dazzle the world.

Instead, Christ soberly and firmly reinstates Peter after he had denied Jesus three times, and Peter was reinstated into ministry, and that ministry was to shepherd and feed Christ's sheep. These commands by Jesus to Peter stuck with him his entire life.

Peter himself would later exhort elders and pastors with these words from 1 Peter 5 1 -4,. So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Now it's clear from these passages that pastors are not literal shepherds and that Christians are not literal sheep. All of these images are metaphors that help create a mental picture of the difficult and sacrificial work of pastors.

So, when Jesus told Peter to feed my sheep, what was Jesus referring to? What does a pastor feed Christ's sheep with? Well, the answer is simple, the Word of God, and two passages will suffice in demonstrating this.

First one, Matthew 4, verse 4, Jesus quoting Deuteronomy said,. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Second Timothy, chapter 3, verse 14 through chapter 4, verse 4 says this,.

But as for you, Paul writing to young pastor Timothy, as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, by his appearing in his kingdom, to preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience in teaching, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Now no commentary is needed for these verses because they clearly teach that God's Word is sheep food, that pastors are to be feeding to Christ's sheep. So here's the bottom line. The next time you hear a seeker-driven pastor attempt to justify his shallow sermons and entertainment-driven stunts by claiming that the church doesn't exist for believers, kindly inform him that regardless of who the church exists for, his job exists to serve believers and Christ's sheep, and that if he won't do his job, that he's rebelling against Jesus Christ himself.

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