(I apologize ahead of time. This post was a lot longer than I intended and I seriously could’ve written more but restrained myself. I believe the long quotation from 1 Kings 22 was necessary to get the whole context.)

I will start off with what I mean by a “modern church”. It is usually the “seeker sensitive” format of Willow Creek Church started by Bill Hybels and the “purpose driven” format pioneered by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church. It is these two pragmatic formats morphed together in order to attract non-believers who would be reluctant to attend a traditional church that is stuffy and stale.

A modern church would be the concert style worship music. The music is loud, with typical stage lighting of a show, smoke machines, and a large team of musicians and singers, most of the time around ten people, and sometimes more. The music is modern in its composition, even older hymns are rewritten to fit the genre.

The pace of the speaking, during announcements and other information that is not the main message, is like an informercial for some exciting new product that will change your life. It is upbeat, breathless, and full of excitement to provoke an emotional response, like you have to do what they are talking about so you can be a part of the excitement. It sounds like a hard sell to get you to join the excitement.

The message can be devoid of any bible verses. What I mean is they will use a set of verses at the beginning as a springboard into some topic that is not taught in the full context of those verses. It usually turns into some formula that is a life lesson. They will quote other bible verses that appear to support their message but is usually incorrect in relation to what the real meaning is of the chosen text. At the end, the listener feels guilty for not being as good a Christian as they could be and promise to try harder and use the lesson they just learned. For the most part, these are part standup comedy routine, part guilt trip and part life hack messages, and at one point there will be a breathless string of words that will climax into some exciting conclusion to provoke an emotional response. It is usually a performance.

However, what is missing from these churches is any mention of a person’s offense against God, that being our sin. They may make a passing reference to sin (maybe) but there is no explanation of what sin is and how it offends God. But most importantly, they don’t mention the grace and mercy of God that found in the forgiveness of that sin found in the death and resurrection of God’s Son Jesus Christ. The service is designed for non-Christians but they assume the audience are already Christians by stating they have God’s favor.

I attended one of these churches for three years. It was a member church of the ARC denomination (even though they don’t use that title). It has over 2,000 attendees by now. They had the music, the excitable announcements, and the life lesson at the end. They played songs like Sweet Home Alabama, Blue Oyster Cult’s (avowed atheists) Fear the Reaper (the “more cowbell” song which the church band had three people playing cowbells) and The Eagles’ Hotel California right before the beginning of a service. They then would brag that they are a special type of church because they can play those songs. I never stood when they played those songs.

These churches put a huge emphasis on volunteering to serve the church. . In that church I attended, during a monthly midweek service the pastor went on an angry tirade about people who don’t volunteer to serve. He angrily shouted at the end that if any person was unwilling to volunteer or tithe, he didn’t want them there, “Get out! Go to another church because I don’t want you here if you won’t serve.” When I played that service on the website that part was edited out. Another time, they played a video of the team leaders of the parking team. They told a story of how they first started attending the church, how the husband was a willing attendant and how being on the team gave him a warm and fuzzy feeling. The real story is he was reluctant, his wife asked if I would pray for him to attend. He eventually did but he certainly wanted to be somewhere else, arms crossed and wearing a sullen look. The video story was a lie to manipulate people to join the parking team or any other team.

(As a side note, the ministry team leaders should be paid for what they do. It is a job. They are responsible for scheduling volunteers, ensure the scheduled volunteers will show up, cover for those who don’t show up, track inventory, and submit orders for supplies. One person I talked to said it occupied at least 20 hours of their week, and she had to be there for the Saturday service and Sunday services in case someone didn’t show. Also, I volunteered to cook on Saturday nights. I personally didn’t see it as a chore because I actually enjoyed doing it. Call me crazy.)

The small group leaders are not properly equipped. The leader of our group, he was a great guy and his wife was a spectacular person, too, but they did not really know the bible. They solely depended on the small group outline printout of talking points from the previous Sunday’s sermon.

A word about the ARC churches. ARC stands for Association of Related Churches. It is a denomination because each church is required to send money to support church plants. The leaders of ARC are rich, always guilting their people to give money and are paid handsomely to speak at each other’s churches. There plenty of YouTube videos that expose this organization in depth.

Being a large church with a large bank account is not a sign of God’s blessing, and that is the deception that they sell. They tell the people they are part of some special movement of God and the size of the church with a top notch stage production is evidence of that. Certain things happened when the church began, like someone gifted PA equipment because they upgraded their own, are also signs of God doing something special. When I hear these stories now it reminds me of the Story of King Ahab and King Jehoshophat with the prophet Micaiah in 1 Kings 22:

22:1 Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel. 2 In the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3 Now the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we are still doing nothing to take it out of the hand of the king of Aram?” 4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”
    5 Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of the LORD.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not yet a prophet of the LORD here that we may inquire of him?” 8 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” 9 Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah son of Imlah.” 10 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 11 Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made horns of iron for himself and said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are consumed.’” 12 All the prophets were prophesying thus, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper, for the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.”
Micaiah Predicts Defeat

    13 Then the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him saying, “Behold now, the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” 14 But Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I shall speak.”
    15 When he came to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and succeed, and the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.” 16 Then the king said to him, “How many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” 17 So he said,

“I saw all Israel

Scattered on the mountains,

Like sheep which have no shepherd.

And the LORD said, ‘These have no master.

Let each of them return to his house in peace.’”

18 Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”
    19 Micaiah said, “Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. 20 The LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this while another said that. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 The LORD said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so.’ 23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has proclaimed disaster against you.”
    24 Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, “How did the Spirit of the LORD pass from me to speak to you?” 25 Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you enter an inner room to hide yourself.” 26 Then the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son; 27 and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this man in prison and feed him sparingly with bread and water until I return safely.”’” 28 Micaiah said, “If you indeed return safely the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Listen, all you people.”
Defeat and Death of Ahab

    29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up against Ramoth-gilead. 30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you put on your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. 31 Now the king of Aram had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, “Do not fight with small or great, but with the king of Israel alone.” 32 So when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “Surely it is the king of Israel,” and they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. 33 When the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
    34 Now a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of the fight; for I am severely wounded.” 35 The battle raged that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot in front of the Arameans, and died at evening, and the blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot.

King Ahab had 400 false prophets that told him what he wanted to hear. The one true prophet Micaiah he locked away because Ahab didn’t like what he had to say, which was the true prophecy, the true Words of God.It is this deception that I believe is going on in these churches today. These “pastors” are like the 400 false prophets in Ahab’s court, telling people what they want to hear so they will keep attending, keep giving, keep volunteering, and keep fawning over their obviously blessed leaders. They also engage in belittling those churches who preach verse-by-verse sermons, like the false prophets did with Micaiah. (For a further treatment of this passage, please read this.)

The modern church is a distraction that I cannot afford. I once thought that this was the type of church that I believed really had some work of God going but in the end I found it empty and unsatisfying.