The Tragedy of the Modern Church is that She's Indistinguishable from the World
Walk into almost any modern Evangelical church today, and you might be forgiven for wondering whether you've mistakenly stumbled into a concert hall, a corporate team-building event, or maybe even the set of a reality TV show. The flashing lights, slick branding, and carefully choreographed “worship experiences” give off a whiff of marketing genius, but there’s something sinister lurking beneath the polished facade.
This isn’t biblically how church was meant to be—it’s a pale imitation, a manufactured spectacle where the line between holy and secular has been thoroughly erased. And the tragedy is, it’s not just the big names like Hillsong, Elevation, Bethel, or Church by the Glades anymore. No, this disease has spread like a plague to the vast majority of Evangelical churches.
They all want to stay relevant, but in chasing that cultural dragon, they've lost their identity. And the result? The people of God are left groping in the dark, unsure whether they’re worshiping God or merely being entertained.
It wasn’t long ago that even the smallest churches understood the gravity of what they were about. They knew worship was a holy, set-apart time—a time to approach the throne of grace with reverence. But now, churches from coast to coast, no matter how humble or obscure, seem desperate to play catch-up with the big boys.
"Relevant" is the new golden calf, and they bow before it eagerly, hoping it will save them from obscurity. It’s almost amusing, if it weren’t so sad. They’ve traded in hymnals for fog machines and iMag screens, expository preaching for feel-good TED Talks, and instead of training up mature disciples, they’ve become masters at cultivating crowds.
This phenomenon is like a fever sweeping through the Evangelical world, and it’s remarkable how quickly churches have adopted the tactics of their larger, more infamous cousins. The blueprint is simple, mimic the spectacle. Darken the sanctuary, turn up the volume, make the music sound more like the latest pop hits, and most importantly—keep it short.
After all, you don’t want to bore the audience, right?
Who needs long, tedious sermons about sin, judgment, or—heaven forbid—repentance when you can instead fill the service with platitudes and vague affirmations? It’s as if they’ve ripped the heart out of the gospel and replaced it with cotton candy—sweet to the taste but guaranteed to rot your soul.