The Church as Pleasure Purveyor
A LEADING pastor in one of the largest cities of the nation has recently said that the country church is a flat failure. He thinks it is not worth the time devoted to it, and that unless the country church can be made the center of country life, it might as well go. He recommends establishing a "parish plant where reading-rooms and gymnasiums, pool parlors and moving-picture shows, will be installed for the enjoyment of all the members of the community." He thinks that if such pleasures were adopted, the general drifting away from the church might be counteracted, and "that the present-day unrest which has detracted materially from the church attendance" might be overcome. The sentiment is growing stronger and stronger, particularly in certain localities, of making the church a kind of social club that will dispense all sorts of pleasure, and through these pleasures and enjoyments, win the multitude. In following such a course, the great essential of presenting salvation through Christ is largely overlooked. The power that comes into the life through the Spirit of God, and that regenerates and re-creates, is not accepted. This condition shows two very strong influences: First, the church is losing sight of its mission, and consequently is losing its power. Second, the craze for pleasure has become so strong that even the weakened yet professed church of Jesus Christ is bowing before it. Among the things that the apostle tells us would make the last days perilous is that men "having a form of godliness" would deny its power, and withal, they would be "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Please read carefully the third chapter of 2 Timothy, particularly the first few verses. The hilarious pleasures that this world has to confer, and God and His gospel of salvation, are presented before the multitude, and the deliberate choice is made of accepting the pleasures rather than God. But men who make this choice are deceived, and ministers who lead in such things are deluded completely. There is a joy in the gospel of Christ that is far superior to anything that this world has to confer. Let us not be deceived by the conditions that prevail in this time.