The Awesomeness Driven Church (via Jared Wilson)

Jared Wilson writes about what he terms as ‘The Awesomeness Driven Church’ and addresses the issue of how a church that lacks the gospel lacks spiritual power and life, no matter how many other attractions and entertainments it offers.

Yesterday I watched a video of a motocross bike jumping over a pastor on stage. Now, I’m not saying that church or its pastor don’t have the Holy Spirit, but I am saying that setting up a dirtbike track in your sanctuary is profoundly stupid.
What is profoundly stupid is the sheer amount of innovation, creativity, energy, ambition, and astounding levels of human wherewithal that go into crafting the most amazing worship experiences Americans have ever seen inside churches where the gospel isn’t preached. I can say this because there’s only one thing we hold that the New Testament calls “power,” and that’s the gospel.

In a follow-up post Wilson explains ‘Why I’m Against the Awesomeness-Driven Church’ the change in his own thinking about the power of the gospel has resulted in

…[Wilson’s] biggest shift in thinking when it comes to worship services. Do we take the thing people need and treat it like medicine that must be administered with a spoonful of sugar? ‘Cause that’s what the “dirtbike on the stage” approach essentially means: we take something lost people find cool or appealing or attractive and use that to lure them in for the thing we know they don’t find cool or appealing or attractive, thereby communicating that “Yes, we know this is the not so cool part” and then try to convince them it’s really the important thing. But we’ve already demonstrated even we don’t believe that. Or else we wouldn’t feel compelled to dress it up with a dirtbike.