…But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith,… (Hebrews 11:35-39 NLT)
All through history, the believer and the church has earned their reputation from an uncommon life of faith. Sometimes that faith has been a conquering faith, some other times, it has been a faith that simply refuses to surrender. The question that we need to answer today as believers is whether our reputation similarly comes from an uncommon life of faith.
Our struggle today (in most parts of the world) is hardly ever against stoning, being sawed in half, imprisoned, slaughtered. The war the devil is waging against us today is much subtler; he has simply convinced us that the way to populate the kingdom of God is to become cool. ‘Cool’ meaning to simply clone every carnal pleasure that is being hankered after by the world, brand it King James Version, and declare it sanctified and proper for Christian consumption.
And so we have ‘worship concerts’, complete with paparazzi and red carpet. How did we decide that ‘worship’ and ‘concert’ can fit in the same sentence. Isn’t worship complete abandonment as a people gaze upon the glories of the almighty and sing of it to him? Are concerts not events that we attend to watch performers do their thing? For worship, it is the blood of Jesus that makes a way into the holiest and though there will be an innumerable company of angels (Heb 12:22), it is concerts that have red carpets and paparazzi.
We even have reality shows: the world wants to select its Idol and so must we. We have our own gospel singing competition, complete with judges and prizes. We forget that Christian music is sung to God and that it is he alone who can judge the heart and intent of the singer and reward with appropriate prizes. In our hurry to match the world and show just how cool we are, we forget that singing the gospel is a MINISTRY just like preaching the gospel and not simply a talent. At this rate, we should soon have a preaching competition to select the best preacher and of course a praying competition to appoint the ultimate prayer warrior.
This our unquenched desire to be cool is like the Israelites who while heading for the promised land kept longing for the onions and cucumbers of Egypt. It is like Lot’s wife who found Gomorrah so irresistible that she took one final quick look – it proved fatal! She became a monument to those who try to keep one feet in the dark and the other in the light.
To rely on the world and its fads for direction says one thing about us and says it most eloquently, we do not know who we really are. To be the children of the Most High who CREATED the entire universe and to have the mind of Christ and still go around looking for ideas to copy from the world can only mean that we do not know who we really are.
CoLoNiSt 
Mr Wole Olabanji…Hmmm…
The line is blurred, I agree, but I would argue with your position that disapproves the church’s metaphorical utilization of secular ideas in a Godly context.
I refuse to glorify the method over the intended result. I am however guided in that, irrespective of the method I use, I should not compromise on the tenets in the Bible.
Its like saying we shouldn’t use the internet to spread the Gospel, because it was originally used for secular ends. That’s how the post sounds to me.
Worship Concerts, Christian Reality TV shows, whatever the syntax or semantics, if the motivation and intent is pure and consistent with the Bible, then Let God use it as HE wills.
I agree we sometimes take it too far, and if that is the intent of this post, I salute it. Its a necessary rallying call for the moment. But let’s not throw away the baby with the bath water.
God Keep us all.
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I completely agree that we should be extremely careful in order not to be legalistic and throw away the baby with the bath water, or as Christ will put it, destroy the wheat while trying to remove the chaff. Nevertheless, we must be reminded of the saying that says, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Human beings are simply not in a position to judge and awards prizes to the ministry (music, preaching, praying) of anyone. The music ministry is today’s equivalent of the Levites of old who where co-labourers with the priests. If we can have a contest to select the ‘best’ gospel ‘artists’ , then we ought to be able to have one to select the best gospel preachers.
What we may not realize is that the Church (in the west) didn’t just jump into the embrace of gay marriage in one swift move, it happened by a gradual process of rationalizations made with the best of intentions. We are obviously headed in the same direction.
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“…we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord… 2Cor3:18”. Believers suppose to gaze at Jesus with unveiled face but problem is majority of us are beholdin Him with a veiled face. We do not only know who we are, we also don’t know what we are doing. Those “gospelconcerts&realityshows” aren’t about the kingdom, they’re just meal tickets! That’s why its degeneratin into collabos (ala Gordons & AsuEkiye on same stage) Same thing applies to most of those who preach one Nigeria; its nothin but career for em, those radio&tv talkshow/newspaper articles principally puts food on their tables. They’d be out of job without a misgoverned Nigeria. When our faces are unveiled, we’ll see him as he is and transformation (not GEJ’s type) will follow till we conform. We r not out of ideas in the kingdom, we r simply not inspired anymore
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