Are Christians Just Theists?
R.C. Sproul insightfully and creatively explains that:
To call a Christian a “theist” is roughly equivalent to calling the space shuttle Atlantis a “glider.”
Let’s ponder that related to singing and preaching in many Evangelical churches.
Let’s ask a question about each:
• Are the lyrics of most worship songs in Evangelical churches simply theistic, or are they Christian? 
• Is most preaching in Evangelical churches simply theistic and moralistic, or is it Christian?
Christ-Centered Worship Music
“Worship wars” will, unfortunately, likely be with us until heaven. People battle over whether to sing “contemporary” (always defined by the person in charge…), or “old hymns,” or “blended.”
To me, I don’t care if a church sings “contemporary, or if they sing “1800s hymns,” or if they sing “Christian hip-hop,” as long as what is sung is Christian and not just “theistic.”
If you did a collation of all the lyrics of all the songs your church has sung in worship services over the past twelve months, would they be Christian or would they be theistic?
Go ahead. Do it.
Assess the lyrics of your songs and see how much of Christ, the Gospel, redemption, salvation, sin, grace, forgiveness, crucifixion, resurrection—all the heart of Christianity—you actually sing about.
Every song we sing in a church worship service, we should be asking, “Where is Christ?”
Up-tempo songs that don’t point to Christ could be sung anywhere.
Songs that are generically about a God, could be sung at a non-Christian worship service.
Jesus commands us to worship in spirit and in truth. Yes, “experiential” worship is wonderful. But what “experience” of “who” are we aiming at if the lyrics do not portray the One Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life?
Generic, experiential, theistic lyrics that fail to point to Christ and the Gospel, our need for His grace, our amazement at His grace, and God’s glory because of Christ’s grace—fail the Christian truth test.
Christ-Centered Preaching
The same is true with preaching.
Every sermon we listen to, we should be pleading and praying, “Show me Christ.”
Good moral messages that don’t point to Christ could be preached anywhere. They are simply “nice talks.”
What do I mean by “good moral messages”? They are messages that say, “The Bible says to do this good moral activity or think these good moral thoughts.” But they fail to show that it is impossible to do any good apart from Christ, they fail to point us to the Cross for our immoral actions and thoughts. They fail to point us to grace.
“Good moral messages” lead to works not to grace.
“Good moral messages” might even provide lots of good advice or principles or steps for living well. And that’s okay, if they center on our inability to live well apart from the Cross, apart from grace, apart from becoming a new creation in Christ.
Moral messages that don’t point to our absolute need for Christ to forgive our immorality and to change our hearts so we can live a holy life end up being about works and self-sufficiency. They are not focused on grace and Christ-sufficiency.
The “big idea” of every message from Scripture should be: “Christ Is Indispensable.”
Why? Because the “big idea” from the Trinity to us is: “I Am Indispensable.”
The old commercial said, “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”
Far too many so-called Christian sermons are more like self-help talks that scream, “I can get up on my own!”
These are generically moral messages that never center on the core message: “I need Christ!” “We need Christ’s gospel of grace!”
If our singing and our preaching are divorced from Christ, then let’s not call it Christian.
Let’s call it theistic moralistic preaching and theistic experiential singing, but let’s not call it Christ-centered.
P.S.
A brief, but important, post script…
P.S. # 1: No, I’m not secretly upset at my church or my pastor. I’m an elder at my church. We regularly assess our worship and our preaching based on their Christ-centeredness.
P.S. # 2: Please do not mis-use this blog post to start a worship war or a preaching war at your church. If you are not a pastor and you see some issues with the worship or preaching, first, be very prayerful. And, second, if you decide to discuss this—do so with your pastor and do so respectfully.
P.S. # 3: If you are a pastor and you find that the Christ-centered assessment shows some deficit in some aspect of the ministry at your church, be wise and gracious as you work with the rest of your leadership team to move to a more Christ-centered focus.
Join the Conversation
How do you assess whether worship and preaching are Christian or theistic, moralistic or Christ-centered?
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