Seeker Sensitive

I'm sure you've heard about the seeker-sensitive church concept. You know, encourage those who might be curious or even seeking for God to come to your church. Cater to their needs and desires. What entertains them? Do those. What turns them off from church? Don't do those. Get them in and then bring them to Christ. That, at least, is the strategy. It assumes, of course, that there are people seeking for God. And it might be simple to assume there is. Haven't we heard about them? There is a problem, though. Scripture.

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Rom 3:10-12)

It's a quote from the Old Testament that Paul calls up in Romans to declare some pretty harsh things about natural man, including, "No one seeks for God." Now, if, by that, he meant "Lots of people seek for God," we have a problem. If he was using hyperbole, we might conclude "A very, very few seek for God," but that is still not "a majority" or "a lot." It would be closer to "nearly zero." At best.

Seeker-sensitive is a grand marketing scheme from the world around us; it's just not biblical. It assumes that the purpose of church is to make converts, and it's not (Eph 4:11-14).

So, we can toss out the seeker-sensitive stuff, right? I'd hang on a moment. Scripture does talk about a seeker.

"The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (Luke 19:10)

So Jesus is the actual seeker in this text. Jesus is seeking out those who, according to Paul, are not seeking Him. Jesus is the seeker of the lost and not vice versa. Thus, anyone who finds Christ was first sought out by Christ.

Seeker-sensitive church? Not really biblical. Unless you clarify that the Seeker to whom they are being sensitive is the One who seeks and saves the lost. But, then you'd want to tailor your church to what pleases the Seeker, right? Now that is a Seeker-sensitive concept I can get behind.