Should a church be seeker sensitive?

A popular model for many churches today is the 'seeker sensitive' approach to evangelism and conducting church services. One of the most high profile exponents of this is Rick Warren, whose book The Purpose Driven Church was released almost 20 years ago. The seeker sensitive advocated by Warren and many other involves changing church to something which is more friendly, culturally sensitive and appealing to the unchurched, a church experience which is non threatening and which will give them what they want from church. Old style hymns and worship will be replaced with a more modern worldly style of music, including pop, rock and rap. Long expository sermons will be diluted down into a shorter story based talk that meets the perceived needs of the hearers, with biblical doctrines such as sin and repentance being rarely mentioned. The focus of the message will instead be light on doctrine, centred on man and with the Lord Jesus Christ presented as the means of you improving yourself and filling that void in your life. Essentially it is church done the way the unsaved want it to be done, a way that does not cause them to feel uncomfortable or threatened. The seeker sensitive church will also provide for the social needs of the area with numerous programs aimed at improving the lives of those living in the community. These churches have been very successful in seeing large congregations built up very quickly, with thousands of people in attendance and multi-million pound programs being run by the congregation. The question is whether the seeker sensitive approach to doing church is one that we should adopt, and whether it can be supported by scripture.

Celebrity preachers and star-struck Christians

There are many Christians today, who claim to hold to the fundamentals of the faith, and who attend churches where the gospel is faithfully preached, yet who are also fans of big name celebrity preachers that are anything but faithful to the word of God. Men like Mark Driscoll, Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, women like Joyce Meyer, somehow attract a following within conservative denominations, their status as a celebrity preacher being such that many believers are either deceived or ignorant as to their true nature; that they are 'false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves'. How is this so, that so many within the evangelical church today are attracted to the teachings of these false prophets, and have become 'star-struck', unable to see beyond the name and the personality.