Not of This World

The Bible outlines the clear contrast between the ideals of this world and the principles of God's
Kingdom, and we can choose to follow the Word or the world. In 1st John 2, we read:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

We have to be extra careful that we are abiding in Christ and abiding by His eternal principles.  He offers us a countercultural view of the world, in which we are not trying to gain acceptance to those in this world, but that we are seeking to please Him.  And, we can model and communicate His truth in a way in which people desire what we have and Who we follow.  We must allow God's Word to shape our viewpoints and inform our understanding, so that we are truly submitted to the Lord.

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We have been called out of this world and declared to be citizens of a heavenly Kingdom - our position is to seek to positively impact this world with the truth of the gospel and not to allow the 

principles of the world to dictate how the Church is to act. Jesus said in John chapter 18:

36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." 

37 Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

There's a new church in Santa Cruz, California, that's been generating some headlines - it's called the Greater Purpose Church, and I guarantee you it has nothing to do with The Purpose-Driven Life, the classic Rick Warren book.

But, it's apparently designed to be out of the box.  According to The Daily Wire:

The pastor of the Greater Purpose Church, Christopher VanHall, said, “What would it look like to be a church that looked like the movement that Jesus started and not like the church that we know in America today? Out of that consistent questioning came this model for a brewery church that generates funds for local charities.”

OK, so the church serves beer during its services - hardly what you would call a sign of the "movement that Jesus started."  What else?

The pastor says:

We are open and affirm LGBTQ. We are feminists and I believe Jesus was, too. We are environmentalists, which I believe that’s the original mandate of the children of God to take care of the planet that we all know and enjoy. We are anti-war, which I believe Jesus was, too. We are all for racial justice, which Jesus was a Palestinian. Jewish rabbi. He was a person of color that was killed by white supremacy so we’re usually making every effort to be on the frontlines for racial justice. So that’s what sets us apart from many American churches.

Yep, you could say that again.  Well how about that charity thing?  Quoting from the pastor:

“We said, ‘Hey, why can’t we do a brewery and then we can use the space on Sunday before it opens to the public as a worship space and then we can use the funds to give to local charities that people of all faiths, all sexual, all racial, and even all racial identities can support?’ So we came up with this model and we found an awesome spot … consequently happened to be right below Planned Parenthood in Santa Cruz, which we adore and support their efforts for giving health care to women.”

The "church" is scheduled to open next year.

Well, if you need a laundry list of liberal social causes, including a number of causes that run contrary to a Biblical worldview perspective, this is the place.  I don't see anything in the pastor's comments about salvation through faith in Christ.  Nor about the sanctity of life; rather, they support Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider.  LGBTQ agenda?  Check...and apparently not welcoming gay people into the church so that they might experience true freedom and life. Jesus killed by white supremacy?  There's a uniting thought (not really) - social justice, under the guise of bringing unity, becomes a tool for division.  We have to make sure the causes we support and the principles we declare are Scripturally based.

The Church is established to impact the world with the gospel; we have to guard against allowing the world to impact the way we do Church and the message that we share and live.  When salvation by faith in Christ alone is superseded or even smothered by the philosophy of embracing good-sounding social concerns, then we have reversed the order that I believe the Bible teaches.  Our desire as Christians should be to see as many people come to Christ as possible, and then to seek to produce fruit that is Biblical as God gives us the ability.  We can either incorrectly make the Church look like the world, or show the world what it means to look like Christ.