Comments on: Church Copycats

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:26:23 +0000

Os Guiness – back in the 1980s wrote ‘The Gravedigger file’ – a book written in ‘back-to-front’, Screwtape letters style (i.e. from the perspective of the enemy, not that of the church). On the back cover of the book is written “What can explain the virtual collapse of the European Church? Or the vital change in American Christianity so that it can be dismissed as ‘privately engaging but socially irrelevant? How is it that Protestantism has come full circle, itself in need of Reformation? Why are the worst current caricatures of Christianity by Christians themselves?”
Guiness identifies (through the persona of one his characters) 3 forces that tend to subvert the modern church: Secularisation – “the process through which, starting from the centre and moving outwards, successive sectors of society and culture have been freed from decisive influence of religious ideas and institutions”. Privatisation – “the process by which modernisation produces a cleavage between the public and the private spheres of life and focuses the private sphere as the special arena for the expression of individual freedom and fulfilment”. and Pluralisation – “the process by which the number of options in the private sphere of modern society rapidly multiplies at all levels, especially at the level of world views, faiths and ideologies”.

What is disturbing is that now in the 2nd decade of the 3rd millennium – some 20 years at least since Guinness wrote the book, certain sectors of the church still haven’t learned the lessons. Why are we still retreating back into a Christian-only world, instead of engaging with secular culture? Don’t we realise that by so doing, we are actually subverting ourselves – or to use Guinness’s term – digging our own grave?

Finally, another well known Christian author from the 20th century – Francis Schaeffer – in a book written in 1968 – ‘Death in the City’, mentions revival and reformation: “Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian’s life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture; revival speaks of a life brought into its proper relationship to the Holy Spirit…… We need to those who know the reality of both reformation and revival, so that this poor dark world may have an exhibition of a portion of the church returned to both pure doctrine and Spirit-filled life.” The problem with revival on its own is that it does not change social structures, we need to have a reformation alongside the revival in order for that to happen. So to conclude, if we truly were to “return to the teachings of Scripture” then we wouldn’t be inventing a GodTube, because the teachings of Scripture tell us to be ‘in the world, but not of the world’. Sorry to be rather wordy, but I hope that this helps…

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:30:35 +0000

“Godwitter? What a flippin ridiculous idea. When did Christians get the idea that ripping off ANYTHING was going to further the cause?!”
Darren: I think it’s possible that the people who started the site (amongst all of the Christian clones out there) weren’t thinking about how the site might further the Kingdom. I think it’s more likely that they saw the negative and worldly aspects of sites such as Twitter and Facebook and have had the gut reaction, “We need to protect ourselves.”
I would even compare it (possibly to a lesser extent) to Christian television. I can’t comment on American Christian TV but here in Australia I get the same “cheap rip-off” impression. But it seems to be from the heart that we want to protect our children / ourselves from the influences of the world, yet still have the “benefits” of those mediums. (A caveat: I have never payed for nor watched Christian TV in Australia, only seen seem ads for the various channels.)
It seems that we are trying to sanitise the world for our own purposes.
So maybe it’s time to start thinking about what we’re communicating (the kingdom of God, and the good news of Jesus Christ), and who we’re communicating to? After all, Jesus did say, “Go into all the world.”
Great article, and I love the Creative Commons idea! If we give back to the community, the community can only grow and be strengthened.

By: Dr. Chris Bryant

Dr. Chris Bryant — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:15:36 +0000

John 17:11, 17 (KJV) -- And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I agree that the phrase "in the world not of the world" is not precicely put in the consise manner that it is so frequently stated in. I do however believe that the above passage teaches the direct concept with the same words as have been stated in times past.

By: sweaza

sweaza — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:57:55 +0000

Just as an aside, the Bible actually never says that we should be “In the world, not of it.” That claim has been made several times in these comments, and while I think the Scriptures teach the principle, the phrase is not in the Bible.
More on topic, I’m waiting for someone to open Godonald’s so I can get a Jesus-burger and gospel shake.

By: Jerry Heinold

Jerry Heinold — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:08:06 +0000

Is it possible that the founders of these ‘Christian’ sites are not even Christians? Maybe they are just people who see a market and try to make a buck. I don’t know. Just wondering..hmmm…

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:02:40 +0000

I think sometimes creating so called “Christian services” is self defeating. If we are called to minister and share the Gospel to those that haven’t heard how is making a little corner just for Christians gonna help. We should be engaging the world not making our own little ones.

By: Stan

Stan — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:39:13 +0000

I went to the Godwitter page just to check it out and to be honest, it isn’t even done very well. IMHO! The “Godweets” (is that what they’re calling them?) on the front page were people logging on to mock it. They created accounts and slammed Christians and praised Allah. It’s a mockery. To quote Michael and Scripture, “Be in the world, but not of it.”

By: Stan

Stan — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:23:29 +0000

My wife’s cousin posted something the other day that I think applies here. I’m not sure if this is his original quote or someone else’s. He said, “We do not become culturally relevant when we become like the culture, but rather when we model what the culture hungers to become.”
I think based on this blog and this quote, we have to realize that the church needs to become what the culture longs for, not repeating what we think is cool. This copycat stuff has got to stop. We have something much better than twitter in Jesus Christ. Why aren’t we focusing on that? Instead, we focus on copying and trying to be cool.

By: Michael Buckingham

Michael Buckingham — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:27:01 +0000

There’s a portion of the bible that we seem to love to skip.
“Be in the world.”
This does not translate to live in a bubble, stay away from everyone else, or keep your eyes closed at all times.
“Don’t be of the world.”
That would mean don’t adapt their beliefs and instead be an example.
So close down Godtwitter, open up a twitter account and be a light in a dark world. Forget posting your video to GodTube about Jesus and post it to YouTube (but please make it good).

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:55:58 +0000

Honestly, I think it’s about money. The Godwitter people or any of those other social networking sites rip-off other people’s ideas because they want to make money on it. If they can sell advertising, what they did just paid off. Christians accept it because they just created a “clean” version.
It goes back to the old saying that we should be in the world, but not of the world. We should be using Twitter, Facebook and Myspace to connect with people and to share the message of Jesus. This is what Christ meant when he said be a light on a hill, the salt of the earth. Don’t take the salt out of the earth by creating seperate social websites.