Much of the Church today has tried to use entertainment (and its gimmicks) to adorn the bride of Christ and to try and make being the bride of Christ ‘cool’ and attractive to the world. Many Church leaders have made a grave mistake here. The Lord does not adorn His bride with entertainment but with love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (the fruits of the Spirit- Gal 5v22)) etc, and He certainly doesn’t care whether the Church looks ‘cool’ or not, far from it, usually His people will be the rejected people, the ‘offscouring of all things’ (1 Cor 4v13) the last in line (1 Cor 4v9), and a spectacle to the world (1 Cor 4v9). No, Christ does not adorn His bride with entertainment, and with the form or image of the world, which is passing away (1 Cor 7v31). The Church is adorned with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the power and presence of the Church, because the power and presence of the Church is the manifestation of the person of Jesus Christ- He is our ‘light on a hill’ which we don’t hide. If He is our light, we should not attempt to create an artificial light. The Holy Spirit gives the Church its attractiveness. The Holy Spirit makes His people the aroma of Christ to a fallen world (2 Cor 2v15).
Entertainment via productions, presentations, games and a ‘lights, camera, action’ mentality have robbed the Church of its central focus- Jesus Christ. Did Jesus come to earth with lights and bells on in order to dazzle the senses and entertain? Did He emphasise physical attractiveness and outward appearance as important in setting up His Church? (Is 53v2) Was He as impressed as His disciples were when they saw the pretty temple (Mark 13v2), no, ‘for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart’ (1 Sam 16v7). God is not concerned with outward appearance, but rather what is going on in the inside of men, in their hearts. God does not use appearance to change the hearts of men, or to draw the hearts of men to Himself, He uses the Holy Spirit: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord.’
A good parallel could be drawn today between what is going on with the news in the world and what is going on with some Churches today. There is a phrase that is used in today’s world to describe the mixture between hard news and entertainment news that is now being shown on TV. Many believe that hard news is dead and that entertainment news is all that is now being broadcast to the world, simply because they believe that that is all that the world wants now. The phrase they use for this kind of news is ‘newstainment’ or ‘infotainment.’. The mixture that some Churches are trying to create between the Holy Spirit and entertainment could now be known and labelled as ‘Spirit-tainment’ or ‘Truth-tainement’.
For those that once saw the Church act as it should and adorn itself as it should, what is going on nowadays should at the very least startle, and at the most outright horrify us. We should be driven to pray for the Church of God, the people whom He loves, and we should not be afraid to take a stand for truth, righteousness and a stand for what should be the true image and true beauty of His bride. We should all be zealous for anything that competes with the Lord’s beauty and the beauty that He gives His bride. Anything that distracts from that beauty or hinders the true glory of the Lord should be taken away. Make no mistake, Jesus will build His Church, therefore let us and especially His ministers be careful how they build, for the foundation is Jesus Christ ‘…but let each one take heed how he builds on it’ (1 Cor 3v10).
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