The Social Gospel

It ceases to amaze how much man tries to dip their hands in the worship service for the wrong reasons. I will admit that there are some good things that man can do however, as we have opportunity to talk to others, we can the necessity focused on the wants instead of the needs when it comes to God!


You see where the social gospel has been introduced into the religious world as being the thing that a church needs. Let me share with you an example of this. I was talking with a friend here recently and she had attended the “mega-church” here in town recently. She said they had two different styles of worship the traditional and contemporary worship. She ended up going with a friend to the contemporary and she described it as not even a worship time. It was more of a concert the music and bands that were playing during this and I use it loosely “worship” time was missing a laser light show to be the full-blown concert. Yet this is what people say is needed in church today. Times are changing and the reasoning is that we must change and spice up services.

It has gotten to a point today where we see this being the norm of all things. It seems that as a church one must provide more services than that of the gospel alone. Yet it is the gospel and the gospel alone that saves us through our obedience to it (Romans 1:16-17). The apostles were to carry on and continue to build upon the foundation of Christ through spreading the gospel. They were not providing other services to draw people in to worship God.

Yet again today, people believe that we must provide services and entertain those who come in the doors with other ways than that of the gospel. It seems that we have to provide meals to draw people in, offer the instrumental music because it makes worship more pleasant, or even a babysitting service for parents that way they can enjoy worship more often. One of the most popular ones is education. The thinking behind it is that we can provide educational services an income for the church and plus we can offer a discount for those who are members and want a religious type background of education for their children. Preschool and up can receive this education and it is a way to draw people in to their worship.

Yet I have not come across anything of this nature that we are to provide any type of services or anything to draw people in. Yet we even have members who are of the body of Christ that still believe that we must advertise gimmicks to get more to come in and then we can have fellowship after services but if we can get them in the door for any reason then we can share the gospel and teach about the necessities to obey God.

Let me share with you an example we had our first child and we were trying to encourage my in-laws to come to worship services. I had one come up to me and say “hey, tell them they need to hold their grandchild during services and we can get them in the doors and then we can teach to them about the gospel.” After thinking about this it was just as bad as offering a service to get someone to be part of the worship service. Shouldn’t the gospel be what draws one into a worship service. I mean we do have things like gospel meetings and a VBS both are centered around the gospel being shared and perfect opportunities to draw others in. However, when we do not have these, what are we doing to draw people in? Is it a gimmick or is it the gospel? We as Christians must be mindful of the fact that it is the gospel that we must use to draw the lost in.

We should not believe in fables (I Timothy 4:7) that we need more services to draw people into worship God. Man believes that with the changing of times we must change our ways to draw people in. The gospel that has been given through Jesus Christ has not changed with the changing of times. In an ever changing world we must be mindful to not change our ways and give into the social gospel.

Many individuals have lost the desire to hear the truth (II Timothy 4:3-4). The truth has left their ears and they now have been drawn to fables. Therefore they have turned to teachers that would encourage the social gospel. With this being said we have to stand for truth. Believe in the gospel and believe that is this alone through our desire to obey that will draw others in! Do we believe in gimmicks or the gospel that will help meet the needs not wants of people?



Daniel Sanders