Pragmatism says that visible results are the yardstick by which we must judge whether or not something is true or useful. Driven by pragmatism, today’s Evangelical church often bases its methods and message on the study of human management philosophy and market studies of the unsaved, rather than study of God’s Word. The results are disastrous.

Pragmatism Defined
Pragmatism is a philosophy which says that results are the criterion by which we must judge whether or not something is true or useful. In the Evangelical church today, pragmatism translates into a way of thinking that says, “If we see visible results (e.g., growth in attendance, larger offerings, a bigger building, a wider range of church activities, a better reputation in the eyes of the world) then God must be blessing us.”

Pragmatism at Work in the Church
Employing this philosophy, the Purpose-Driven church, the Emergent church, and other movements that are attempting to do an “extreme makeover” on the church and the Gospel, base their message and methods on the study of human management philosophy and market studies of the unsaved, rather than on the study of the Word of God.

The actual result is not the “healthier” churches that these movements advertise. Instead, churches that fall prey to pragmatism have increasing numbers of unsaved people (who think they are saved) within them, and true believers within these churches are on a spiritual starvation diet.

But leaders of these movements turn a blind eye to the problems they themselves are creating. Rick Warren, leader of the Purpose-Driven Church movement, even goes so far as to say that Jesus Christ was a pragmatist. The following is a quotation from Warren’s handbook for the movement, The Purpose-Driven Church:

When Jesus sent his disciples out on their first evangelistic campaign, he defined the target very specifically: They were to focus on their own countrymen. “These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.’ ” (Matt. 10:5-6).

There may have been several reasons Jesus narrowed the target, but one thing is certain: He targeted the kind of people the disciples were most likely to reach — people like themselves. Jesus was not being prejudiced, he was being strategic. As I mentioned in chapter 9, Jesus defined the disciples’ target so they’d be effective, not in order to be exclusive.1

The Fallacies of Pragmatism
Far from supporting the pragmatic view, the foregoing passage demonstrates thatpragmatism is not in accordance with the truth for two reasons.

First, Warren the pragmatist completely ignores the plain teaching on this subject found in God’s Word. The reason that the Bible says Jesus and His disciples went to the lost sheep of Israel is this: It was God’s plan from all eternity, and it was the ordained work of God the Son made flesh, acting in obedience to His heavenly Father (Isaiah 53; Matthew 5:17, 11:20-30, 15:24, 23:29-39, 26:63-64; Mark 11:15-17; John 1:11, 1:43-51, 4:25-26, 4:35, 6:38-40). It had nothing to do with “effectiveness” by human measurements.

Second, if we evaluate the results based on human pragmatism — that is, visible results — then Jesus’ alleged “strategy” was as ineffective as any could possibly be: The Jews rejected their Messiah. They crucified Jesus. They persecuted His disciples to the point where they were driven out of Jerusalem and scattered among other nations. By human standards, this was abject failure. But in the eternal plan of God, these pragmatic “failures” brought salvation to mankind and spread the Gospel throughout the world.

Authentic Christianity in Contrast
A popular American restaurant chain has advertised using the pragmatic slogan, “No Rules, Just Right.” That may be an appealing catch phrase for a business where customer taste is the highest standard. But where Christ’s church is concerned, the Bible warns us against falling into the trap of this kind of vain philosophy:

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world…But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? (Galatians 4:3, 9)

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves…? (Colossians 2:20)

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Colossians 2:8-10)

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. (1 Corinthians 2:4-6)

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:13-16)

References:
1. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Church (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1995), page 187.

Dr. Paul M. Elliott is president of Teaching the Word Ministries