at The Love Shack.
WELS AnswerMan
Q:
Please provide your view of the organization known as Lifechurchtv. It appears that the church does research on movies and then draws Christian conclusions. Maybe this is a platform to reach out to many unchurched, but I would like to know what you think.
A:
We also rejoice whenever and wherever God's Word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, and we believe God will use that Word to serve souls as he promised. Not having any personal exposure to or experience with lifechurchtv we must appraise their convictions and ministry based on what they publicly confess on their website.
Their statement of beliefs is limited to what they call "essential" beliefs, which are for the most part solidly Christian. The statements are weak on the nature of sinful mankind (they say we are all "marred" but fail to speak of us as spiritually dead and incapable of doing anything God-pleasing on our own). The statements are also weak on clarifying how a sinner obtains saving faith in Christ. Their language smacks of synergism, but whether this is their theological stance or whether they simply use culturally popular terminology on this is not so clear.
They are affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church. And in their own words, "What makes the Covenant unique from other denominations is the fact that while it strongly affirms the clear teaching of the Word of God, it allows believers the personal freedom to have varying interpretations on theological issues that are not clearly presented in Scripture." While this approach to Scripture as stated is a fully acceptable one, it appears that they classify many Bible teachings as "not clearly presented in the Bible" when, in fact, they are clearly presented but contested by false teachers. I sense that Bible teaching regarding conversion (monergism vs. synergism or semi-pelagianism), the sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper), and End Time theology (amillennialism vs. millennialism and dispensationalism) would be among subjects that are declared off limits regarding a definitive stance.
Solidly Christian in many respects and sadly compromising in other respects is my initial appraisal based on their website information. But they appear to be in tune with culture, ultra-contemporary in methodology, not hesitant to toot their own horn regarding growth and perceived success, and lavish in their use of praiseworthy adjectives to describe themselves -- so they will likely do just fine as an external organization. And that takes us back to where we started. We trust the Lord to use their preaching of his Word and limit the negative impact of their failure to preach that Word fully.
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GJ - Somebody has been reading Ichabod - or the Book of Concord. WELS AnswerMan has progressed from bad spelling and worse theology to sensible, Lutheran answers.
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The Core
So, our mention of The Core church in Appleton made me want to find out more about just what the core is, so I went to their WEBSITE and found out some interesting things. The mission of the Core is to "transform lives for Christ through faith that is real, relevant, and relational." However, it does not come across as the upbeat, modern, contemporary church that I thought it would be. True, they do claim to have modern music, and their website's design resembles that of a rock band or TV show (such as Supernatural), but what was said regarding the church did not really address any other modern features such as cupholders, popcorn, or layout. Instead, they focused on somewhat traditional aspects, such as spreading the word and focusing in on Jesus' importance. While I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that, I was just surprised that there was not more of a new-agey vibe. I think perhaps it would be interesting to learn more about how this particular community that seems so focused on past events (aka Jesus) actually views and deals with the very modern aspects of their church. I have actually sent them an e-mail, asking something to the effect of how do they address this modernism and I hope to get a response soon! But in the meantime I can speculate and then compare my speculations to whatever response I get (if I receive one).
Perhaps, this church is not 'bringing the modern into their religion' (seeing a cupholder and somehow fitting it into their way of thinking), but it appears to be fitting their religion to the modern, by finding contemporary songs that express their religion and attempting to appeal to the younger generation by using modern website techniques to express themselves.This modernization would probably benefit them in the long run, as religions need to change and adapt with the times, but I am not sure how they are doing it. I look forward to learning more later, and will have a more clear idea of just what The Core is then.
