People need a healthy dose of Scripture.  The Scripture speaks of a God who is not fashionable, trendy, or vogue.  However, the Bible does speak of a God who is big, weighty and holy; of a God that is a consuming fire.  This is not the type of deity to be trifled with by seeking to create an “exciting” climate.  God’s relevance does not depend upon human innovation or ingenuity.  God’s relevance is based on the fact that He is God and there is no other. 

1998: Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire dominated the baseball conversation.  This was a magical year for a sport in desperate need of a jolt.  Baseball got more than a jolt that year, for both men would eventually break Roger Maris’s home run record (61) with Sosa hitting 66 and McGwire 70. That summer baseball was at an all-time high, stadiums were filled, casual fans were once again interested; the atmosphere was charged and electric.

Yet as we now look back upon that particular season, the short-term “success” has had long-term consequences.  Today, both Sosa and McGwire are regarded as the chief cheaters in a very dark period in the history of baseball.  Both men have been associated with steroid use.  Steroids always advertise short-term gains but they yield long-term problems.

In the short term, both men created a lot of noise and buzz.  They grabbed the attention of the American public and generated untold revenue.  Yet, currently both men stand on the outside-looking-in when it comes to the Hall of Fame.  Short term noise…Short term buzz…Short term electricity…Long-term consequences.

Today in the Church it would seem that we can make some of the same parallels.  David Wells describes the trajectory of the Church by saying, “There is a yearning in the evangelical world today.  We encounter it everywhere.  It is a yearning for what is real.  Sales pitches, marketed faith, the gospel as a commodity, people as customers, God as just a prop to my inner life, the glitz and sizzle, Disneyland on the loose in our churches—all of it is skin deep and often downright wrong.  It is not making serious disciples.  It cannot make serious disciples.  It brims with success, but it is empty, shallow, and indeed unpardonable.  It is time to reach back into the Word of God.”

Disneyland on the loose in our churches. Every attempt is made to manufacture a climate that is noisy and electric—exciting and vogue—trendy and hip.  Today in the Church, the winds of novelty and ingenuity often drive everything; with precious time and resources given in an attempt to stay ahead of the cultural and technological curve.  Where the Church used to be governed by the motto of Sola Scriptura (Latin phrase meaning Scripture alone determines life and practice), today the motto is Sola Cultura (culture alone dictates life and practice).

When the culture dictates Church philosophy and practice, then the inevitable will happen:  the Church will constantly be adapting to whatever is new, vogue, hip and trendy.  The problem with this is obvious—the Church cannot stay ahead, nor should the Church try.  As the writer of Ecclesiastes states, “This is a chasing after the wind.” The Church should have a missional heart as it seeks to engage the culture, but the Church should never allow the culture to determine its life and ministry.

What people need today is what they needed yesterday.  What people needed yesterday is the same thing that the previous generation needed, as well as the generation prior, and all generations.  Trends and fads wither; novelty and ingenuity fade; but the Word of God endures forever.

What people need and what people may want are two different categories.  People need a healthy dose of Scripture.  The Scripture speaks of a God who is not fashionable, trendy, or vogue.  However, the Bible does speak of a God who is big, weighty and holy; of a God that is a consuming fire.  This is not the type of deity to be trifled with by seeking to create an “exciting” climate.  God’s relevance does not depend upon human innovation or ingenuity.  God’s relevance is based on the fact that He is God and there is no other.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  The Church is to proclaim a God that is large enough to capture attention—without having to drum up attention by creating a short-term buzz.

James Boice, the late pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, once said, “The great issue of our day would not be the authority of the Bible, but its sufficiency.  Would we trust it to be all that we need for life and godliness, or would Christians turn to other revelation and experiences?”

From my vantage point, it would appear that there is an ever increasing desire for the extra-ordinary.  No longer is it enough for God to speak through His Word; today we long for the unusual or the special.  What this tendency highlights is an increased interest in “spirituality” and a decreased level of biblical literacy.  It appears that many within the Church today seem to be hungry for an experience, but not hungry for God Himself.

This raises some important questions: How do we come to know God?  How does He reveal Himself?  What we do know is that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth; the Spirit will always honor and highlight Truth.  Since God’s Word is Truth we learn of God and experience Him as He reveals Himself in His Word, not apart from His Word.

Though the yearning for the extra-ordinary has apparently sky-rocketed during our day, this is not an exclusively modern problem.  This is a human problem; the tendency within the heart of man in every generation.

In Luke 16 we read about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus.  The rich man lived in pomp and splendor all of his days, while Lazarus was covered with sores and longed to fed by the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  Eventually, both of men died.  Lazarus went to Abraham’s side (heaven), while the rich man went to hades, where he was in utter torment: “He lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.  And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.”  Abraham responded to the rich man’s by saying, “No, this is not possible.  During your life you made your decision—you chose your own path.  Besides, there is now a great chasm (gulf) that separates those who are in heaven and those who are in hell.”

Notice however the rich man’s next request:  “Then I beg you, father, to send him (Lazarus) to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.”  The rich man asked for a dramatic, special and unusual experience to take place; he asked that Lazarus leave the bliss of heaven to go speak to his brothers.  Surely that experience would change them.  Surely that encounter would wake them up.  Surely seeing a dead man come to life would forever alter the trajectory of their lives!

But notice what Abraham said:  ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”  Moses and the Prophets—in other words, the five brothers have the Scripture; they already have the written testimony of God.  They already have God’s Word.

But the rich man continued his plea:  God’s Word is not enough.  God’s Word is not sufficient.  God’s Truth will not capture their hearts!  No, what they need is something extra-ordinary to capture their hearts.  They need someone to rise from the dead.  That would do it!  To this Abraham responded:  “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

In this account, Abraham speaks just as clearly to the Modern Man as he did to the rich man.  If you want to know God and His Son Jesus Christ, then you will find them and should look for them where they are to be found: in the Word of God. There you will find the testimony of the One who rose from the dead. That should be extraordinary enough for all of us.

“For the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of the Lord endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Robby Grames is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is pastor of Colfax Center PCA in Holland, Iowa.