I ran across an entertaining, withering, insightful series of columns about the state of the church in our culture that I wanted to call to our readers’ (all five or six of them) attention. The author is Doug Giles, a columnist on the Townhall.com website, author, and pastor. He is also the creator of a radio program called Clash Radio. You can read his full Bio here.
The columns are a series titled “The Detergent Church,” a word play on “The Emergent Church,” and in stark contrast to it. Giles pulls no punches, using some pretty creative labels for both the good and the bad versions of the church. The structure of the series is his elaboration on his ten point “laundry list” he describes as the way “‘the called out ones’ can be the holy hellfire Detergent Church they’re ‘spose to be.” He suggests putting on a cup. You guys will understand. Here’s the list.
- Get men who dig being rowdy back in the pulpit.
- Could we have some sound doctrine, por favor?
- Preach scary sermons (at least every fourth one).
- Get rid of 99.9% of “Christian TV and sappy Christian music.
- Quit trying to be relevant and instead become prophetic contrarians, I’m talking contra mundus, mama!
- Put a 10-year moratorium on “God wants you rich” sermons (yeah, that’s what we need to hear nowadays, you morons, more sermons about money, money money!).
- Embrace apologetics and shun shallow faith.
- Evangelize like it’s 1999.
- Push lazy Christians to get a life or join a Satanic Church.
- Demand that if a Christian gets involved in the arts that their “craft” must scream excellence and not excrement.
Yes it’s edgy, but I think right on target. Read all four installments at the links below. I suggest that you print or save the pieces when you get to them. The web site has been down a good bit and I couldn’t always get to these pieces. Enjoy!