“Hear Only the Good Stuff” – the dangers of Glitz and Gismo Christianity

Some years back, a Singapore radio station Gold90FM, ran a series of clever ads on TV with the tagline “Hear only the Good Stuff” (Click to view ad). It depicts a tennis coach commenting to a father how talented his son is at tennis, when the boy is missing every single ball or more correctly, the father only wants to hear the good stuff about his son. It was a clever ruse indeed for persuading listeners to switch to the radio station - Gold90FM will only give to its listeners what they want to hear.

Recently, the Singapore Straits Times ran a centerpiece spread on mega-churches, indicating how these churches are very successful in attracting huge crowds each Sunday by using the latest entertainment and media techniques to communicate their message. Each worship service is filled with young people clapping and making music with songs of praises, often reaching ecstatic emotional levels during worship. The sermons are delivered with the skills of very polished motivational speakers, moving about on stage not unlike entertainers on TV.

There is a very good reason for turning to glitz and gismos during worship services. We live in the era of one minute commercials and 30-second sound bytes. Children grow up surrounded by every communication device delivering connections at breakneck speeds. The conventional wisdom seems to be that if one wants to get a message across, it had better be entertaining enough to attract attention and capture imagination. It is not surprising that churches have turned to these techniques. But aren't we, like Gold90FM, guilty of pandering to the audience when our responsibility should be to communicate the truth however unpleasant?

Today, our young Pastor Andy Goh bravely spoke from Micah Chapter 3, warning us that the temptation to pander to the wants but not the needs of society and congregation is not new. In Micah’s days, the Lord condemned the spiritual leaders and prophets for hypocritically feeding the people a diet of distorted messages to please the congregation and for their own profit.

"As for the prophets

who lead my people astray,

if one feeds them,

they proclaim 'peace';

if he does not,

they prepare to wage war against him.

Therefore night will come over you, without visions,

and darkness, without divination.

The sun will set for the prophets,

and the day will go dark for them.

The seers will be ashamed

and the diviners disgraced.

They will all cover their faces

because there is no answer from God."

Preachers and spiritual leaders should heed because:

• the medium of communication these days may distract and detract from the truth
• the church's agenda may not necessarily be God's agenda
• what the congregation wants to hear is not necessarily God's message for them

“Her leaders judge for a bribe,

her priests teach for a price,

and her prophets tell fortunes for money.

Yet they lean upon the LORD and say,

"Is not the LORD among us?

No disaster will come upon us." Micah 3:12

Like the prophets, every church has a responsibility to communicate the undistorted truth. We must not preach selectively but the whole word and counsel of God as found in the Holy Bible. If we fail to do so we cannot presume God's continual blessings.

Lionel