The Message Stays the Same

Why does a company change its message? For instance, when the Apple computer of the 1990s geared up a new campaign in the early 2000s, which demonstrated not the clunky desktop computers that had been the only and every computer of every thinking, hip, creative person, but a mobile computer, which heretofore had been the companion of many a businessman (or woman), used only for accounting and spreadsheeting and word processing, it was to accompany one of the most revolutionary devices. Ever. The iPod.

They had a new product, so they had to change their message. They had to change their marketing. Their new product demanded it.

Why does the Church require pastors to be trained? (See Titus 1:7-9)

I have been listening to an awful lot of bad pastors lately. Not just bad sermons, but bad pastors. They are leading people astray. They have awful doctrine. They have awful ideas. And they are risking leading their people straight to Hell, not because the name Jesus doesn't come up, but because the name of Jesus comes up to get them prosperity or power or health or miracles or what have you. THEY ARE SELLING A NEW PRODUCT. And I have to tell you, this product, this new message of Jesus, isn't going to do jack for you but send you to Hell because it's a different Jesus, it's not the Jesus of the Scriptures, it's not the Jesus who came to earth to die for sinners.

The Jesus that some pastors preach, this faker Jesus (like those that annoy me here or that grieve Chris Rosebrough (for the sake of the people who are fooled by them) on Fighting for the Faith and the guys at Issues, Etc. abhor), call people like me haters because they believe I don't like their innovation. They call people like me haters because I don't like their message. They call people like me haters because we don't believe in a Jesus that promises to make you a ruler over the temporal earth. They call people like me haters because we don't believe in a Jesus that comes to that individual pastor and gives them a vision for their "church." They call people like me haters because we don't believe in a Jesus that comes to tell you what to do now because he wants to "resurrect" you in this life so you can be a "conqueror for God."

They call people like me haters because we believe in a Jesus that IS offensive, because God bloodied Himself and died on a cursed tree, that IS offensive because He redeems sinners, that IS offensive because He condemns people who believe they can save themselves or that they can somehow merit His favor (which only comes through JESUS alone!).

The Church requires that we train pastors because JESUS IS NOT A NEW PRODUCT! The product of Jesus, if I can be so coarse, has never changed. The product is the message: Jesus comes only for sinners, of which I am chief, to redeem them from sin, death, and the devil, those consequences which the sinners have brought on themselves, giving Himself to death fully for all so that we might never die and gives us the promise of everlasting life with Him. This message has never experienced, and will never experience, change.

The Church requires that we train pastors because we are not called to innovate! We are not called to find new understandings of doctrine! Read Titus! It's the doctrine that the Apostles themselves taught that pastors are trained in, found clearly and simply in Scripture, and only that, nothing more, not even our own reason. That's why the Church trains pastors, we must teach what Jesus taught the Apostles to teach! Not that we apply our own reason to the ways and revelation of God. Not that Jesus demands you sacrifice your money so He can bless you. Not that Jesus demands we dumb things down so as to not teach parts of the Scriptures or Creeds. Not that Jesus can't work a miracle in your life because you're not ridiculous enough. This is, excuse me, horse poopy!

The Church requires that we train pastors because we are not selling anything new. Sometimes, depending on context, our "advertising" may need to change, like the language we speak to people or the hymnody with which we praise God. But the things that the Church has always and will always teach is that which the Apostles of Jesus Christ taught. It always will be.

The Church is not a company. The Church does NOT change its message. Our Jesus Christ is eternal, thus He never changes. That which is eternal never needs to be reimagined because it can't be! And the pastors the Church calls MUST be trained to know the doctrine of the Apostles and the eternality of Christ and His one message, which indeed never changes. A change to this doctrine is against Christ, it's true, and will lead people to Hell, not because the doctrine is so sacred, but rather that Christ Himself is the chief telos of that doctrine and anything else misses the mark.

As cool as Apple is, the Church is not Apple, and we won't be changing our message, we won't be compromising it. And if a church does indeed change its message from what is found in the Scriptures, then it's not part of the Church, but is being led astray by Satan, who is behind the ideas that are preached in that "church."