"We Still Sing Hymns"

"We Still Sing Hymns"
I drove past a church with those exact words on their overly-priced, non-evangelistic sign and almost drove off the road. Do they even know what they are implying?

Could it be that the emphasis this church has is simply on a style of worship, rather than emphasizing Christ? Plenty of churches have found what we could innocently call their 'niche' or more honestly, their 'rut', or as my grandfather would say, "their one-stringed guitar". Whether it is being a "community" church that emphasizes small group fellowships, or a "seeker" church that wants non-Christians to feel comfortable, to the "programmed" church that longs to entertain and dazzle, or the "Bible" church that feels they have the monopoly on doctrine and theology.
Is that what our focus should be on?

It astounds me how subtle this attitude can be. We can see a large ministry and point the judgmental finger thinking "they're big because they aren't really preaching the gospel" or whatever. You and I do the same things with other people we tend to envy. We think we've got the edge over them, and therefore we are better.

How does "We Still Sing Hymns" communicate to the lost? What does that tell the average blue collar family man up early to head to work? Does that touch his life in any way? The style of worship has nothing to do with spiritual truth or the need for you and I to connect with God. It is simply missing the mark, and so often I believe churches are...they're just not advertising so on their billboards!

May you and I not be broadcasting the wrong message to a dying and needy world. May we be beggars telling another beggar where we've found bread, and not why they should appreciate the way we sing a certain song.

Pilgrim