And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
People had to leave their comfort zone (no Starbucks in the Judean desert) and make an effort to hear a counter-cultural character preaching a seeker-challenging message. Similarly, when our Lord began his ministry, his first message was, The kingdom of heaven is near. Repent, and believe the good news. Hunter’s approach, on the other hand, is similar to that of what is frequently called the “emerging church,” or sometimes the “emergent church.” The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel recently published an article about one of these in Milwaukee. The “attendees” (there are no members, of course) who were interviewed clearly expressed the drawing-power of such a church: it’s all about me. It fits my expectations for what I want and how I will feel fulfilled. No need for repentance, for self-sacrifice, or for submitting to one another in love. “I must decrease that he might increase” might be a pious-sounding motto they would place underneath a picture of surfer Jesus, but it would be absolutely meaningless.
Someday someone will ask these people, “What did you go to Waunakee to see? Couches and a coffee pot? If not, what did you go out to see? A projection screen? No, a projection screen is in movie palaces.” What they did see and hear was someone saying, “We’re trying to keep it from becoming the thing that turned a lot of people away from church.” Like what, Randy? The worship of God that millions, perhaps billions of people of every tribe, nation, and language have found edifying for two millennia? Have you thought you might be producing a generation of post-modern proof passage biblicists who will have an excellent grasp of “this is what this passage means to me,” but not a clue about what the passage means? Why do you have an altar at all in this worship facility, when sacrifice seems to play little or no part in your message, and when, I bet, the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood is never communicated to the faithful from that altar?
