It is an amazing thing to think about the authorship of the Bible. To think about a man writing it, under the influence of the Holy Spirit is one thing but to think about everything that has happened aside of writing is even better. We have found numerous scrolls and pieces of ancient manuscripts that prove the age old book dates back to the period it claims to be written during. This helps scholars find misprinted or mistranslated words in the text and make for a better and more reliable translation. The amazing thing about all of this is that it is not man’s doing or finding it is God’s plan in revealing these things on his timing.

Divine Preservation

Some ask why we have not found any originals but just copies and manuscripts that are years younger than when the original authors composed. The only answer that is both logical and biblical is that God did not intend for those to be found because he knew the prideful and selfish ways of his people. He knew that if we did have the originals we would worship the pieces of papyrus and stone rather than the words engraved on them. We see this in both the biography of Israel in their worship of hand made idols as well as the Athenian worship of comets and other galactic objects. In our finite minds, we would hold to those pieces of paper as if they were God himself, we would worship them and revert to the days before the protestant reformation, the days when artifacts and icons were worshiped by Catholicism.

Divine Authorship

It is hard to comprehend that God could do such a thing through sinful humans, that he could use them to compose a book that is both flawless and without error. From start to finish it is both one macro-narrative as well as multiple short-stories that add up and fit perfectly like a puzzle forming a beautiful image from its tiny pieces. The way I think about it is descriptive of a painter. A painter sets out to put together a beautiful painting of a landscape with different brushes and colors. Although the painter has a plan of what he wants the final portrait to look like, he doesn’t have an exact image in his head because each brush and color has its own distinct personality and style. God has used many people and many stories the put together His law, His Gospel, and His narrative, but the big picture is an image that could only have been conceived by God Himself.

I am sure that most of you are familiar with the Seeker Driven and Seeker Sensitive paradigms of corporate worship.  They have after all been popular methods of “church growth” for quite some time now.  In a recent conversation I had with a friend from seminary he described his church as being “seeker coherent” a phrase which I think adequately describes the biblical model for corporate worship and also fits well within the current church growth jargon so as to be easily understood.  I want to look at these three paradigms side by side and see how this new category of Seeker Coherent differs from the other two.  I will begin by stating that both the Seeker Driven and Seeker Sensitive paradigms are built upon false presuppositions which find no biblical support.

Seeker Driven

This model is syncretistic at best.  The needs of the so called “seeker” drive the direction of all that the church does.  This means that the church’s theology and methodology are radically altered by the needs of those it is seeking to attract.  In this paradigm the church tends to be focused on meeting felt needs, which are usually physical or psychological, rather than on proclaiming the gospel and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.

Seeker Sensitive

This is by far the most popular model within Evangelicalism and chances are that the methodology of the corporate worship service that you attend has been profoundly affected by this methodology.  This model can be summarized by the phrase “build it and they will come” like the above model it presupposes that hordes of lost individuals in rebellion against their creator are lining up to attend corporate worship somewhere every Sunday.  Within this model the focus is on meeting felt needs as above and gospel proclamation, although this can be debated, rather than equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.  Within this model the pastor is the church’s primary evangelist and “seekers” are brought to this corporate event to hear the gospel.

Seeker Coherent

Unlike the above two models this model’s primary focus in on equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.  Since corporate worship is the gathering of the people of God to worship God it is counterintuitive to make the central focus of this event the evangelization of the lost.  Rather the corporate gathering of the church aims to glorify God and to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-13).  If it is all about equipping believers and glorifying God then why have seeker in the title?  I think the answer is found in Scripture.

“22Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (I Corinthians 14:22-25).

There is far too much going on in this text to fully explain here; however, several observations can be made that are pertinent to the discussion at hand.  Critical to understanding the presence of unbelievers in the corporate assembly of the church is the repetition of the conjunction “if” Paul is giving a hypothetical situation.  Mass amounts of unbelievers entering the assembly is not normative; this is a devastating blow to the Seeker Driven and Seeker Sensitive paradigms.  Furthermore, if Paul were encouraging a Seeker Driven/Sensitive paradigm, as proponents of these views claim, then why would he discourage the use of tongues if they are a sign for unbelievers?  Rather he encourages them to prophesy, to corporately proclaim the Word of God, and because of this the unbeliever will be convicted of both his sin and the presence of God.  What Paul is encouraging them to do is to focus on equipping the saints for the work of the ministry to preach to proclaim the Word of God; he want the glory of God and the people of God to be the central focus of the corporate gathering of the Church.

However, notice also what he is arguing for.  He is arguing that what happens in the assembly should be coherent, easily understood, by any unbelievers who should enter.  Thus we have a church both fulfilling its biblical purpose and doing so in a way that is comprehensible to the culture in which that church gathers.

An Addendum

While “Seeker Coherent” fits well within the current church growth lingo I do not prefer to use the term “seeker” because it seems to contradict Romans 3:10-11.  Within Scripture there is a category of individuals known as “God-fearing.”  Such language is certainly unpopular in an age where God is viewed as a cosmic Santa Clause rather than a sovereign Creator and Judge; however, different terminology should be used to emphasize the total depravity of man and the sovereignty of God in electing individuals to salvation.

This is the last week of class at TMS and next week is finals week so I do not have time to post much. However, I thought I would pass along an interesting post from the Logos Bible Software Blog entitled Smokers Drive Up Costs of Bibles the article is both interesting and contains a very humorous photo, enjoy. I would also recommend that you go to Mark Driscoll’s blog and watch The Banned Church Planting Video it is only eight minutes and worth the time.

For those of you expecting criticism you will be sadly disappointed. In fact, I myself am guilty of seeker sensitive blogging, after incessant complaints concerning the layout of my blog I have decided to re-code it. It is my hope that this simpler layout will placate the complainers among you, just do not expect to have your ears tickled. LOL

Anyways I have not posted in quite a while because school, namely Greek Exegesis II is killing me. I hope that I will have some more posts up soon. In addition, I just recently joined Facebook so look for me on there.

For the final seminar of the 2007 Shepherds’ Conference I attended Dan Dumas’ lecture entitled “Creativity With Out Compromise: How to be Innovative Without Being Seeker Sensitive.” I really enjoyed it and found it to be extremely practical below are my notes from that seminar.

First, We Must Understand that Our Natural Tendency is to Drift Toward One of Two Extremes:

1. Extreme Creativity Devoid of Content
2. Excellent Content Devoid of Creativity

Second, Submissive Creativity Always Places the Priority on Scripture

Third, Intentional Creativity is Necessary to Build a Church

Fourth, Your Motivation (To Be Creative) Should be Practical Obedience to the Command to “Love the Lord your God . . . and Love Your Neighbor as Your Self”

Fifth, Your Philosophy of Ministry Determines Creativity

1. A High View of God
2. A High View of the Scriptures
3. A High View of the Church
4. A High View of Strong Spiritual Leadership
5. A High View of Worship”

Five things that Kill Creativity:

1. The Comfortable Status Quo Places a Death Grip on Ingeneuity
2. We Forget the Nature of God; He is the Creator
3. We Cling to Tradition Over Revelation
4. We are Lazy and Undisciplined in our Ministry (Because Creativity is Hard)
5. We Have a Fear of Man, Namely our Congregations that Hate Change

“Be Creative or Shrivel up and Die” Ten Steps that Foster Creativity

1. Pray and Search the Scriptures Like Crazy: If we are going to be creative then it must be Biblical

2. Place High Expectations on People to Pursue Excellence: Learn to sweat the small stuff. Do not lower the bar. Every aspect of your ministry matters, nothing is insignificant.

3. Clarify that Ministry in the Flesh is Neither Expedient nor Profitable: Creativity must not be a means of artificially inflating ministry.

4. Create an Enjoyable Culture of Change (Constant Scrutiny is the Mark of Creative People)

5. Reject Mediocrity as an Acceptable Way of Ministry (At the Same Time Do Not Become a Sinful Perfectionist): This pairs well with point two above.

6. Refuse to Be Creative in a Vaccume: Churches everywhere may be facing your same situation learn from and with them.

7. Steps to Becoming Creative

a. Intentionally Go Away Alone

–Think Deliberately: Intentionally think creatively.

–Think Distance: Plan for the future. If your ministry is going to change are you prepared to see it through?

–Think Solitude: You need to be undistracted and focus, so unplug and disconnect.

–Think Service: Creativity is not for the sake of novelty it is aimed at better serving others.

–Think Outside the Box

–Think Big

–Think Critical

–Think Ahead

–Think Details: The minutiae matters.

–Think Journaling: Don’t just think write and rewrite and rethink.

–Think Communication: How, when, where, and to whom will you share this.

–Think Patience: Change often takes time you must prepare for this.

b. Intentionally Go Away Together to be Creative

–Be Honest: Be frank, stop beating around the bush and accomplish something.

–Be Smart

–Be Open: Welcome criticism of your ministry from other ministers.

–Be Strategic (SWOT=Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

–Be Humble: Do not become defensive when criticized

–Be Effective: Go away as a group and intentionally address change, do not waste your pastoral retreat on stupid stuff

8. Do Not Confuse Stewardship With Cheapness

9. Do Not Take the Easy Way Out

10. Instruct, Model, Overcommunicate: Let others know what will be changed. Be a model for change. Overcommunicate change, individuals quickly form opinions and twist your words do not give them this opportunity.