Let me entertain you

Culture contrary to godliness #5

You don't have to look far through the links on our sidebar to see that a great deal of "churches" have shifted in focus from eternal life to entertainment.

Dealing regularly with young Christians and non-Christian youth in my work, it is terribly difficult both to resist the popular usage of entertainment in ministry and also to find a legitimate place for recreation in fellowship that does not degenerate into hype-driven entertainment.

It is frightening that floodgates have been opened for this phenomenon to spill over violently into the wider church out of our youth ministries.

What is the problem with entertainment? It is, after all, a very normal and essential part of today's popular culture. Herein lies the beginning of the problem. What is important to the world should be far less important to children of God.

The main issue is that entertainment focuses on occupying our attention and stimulating positive emotions. In some ways it is totally opposite to worship, where we are completely focused on God with our mind and affections in devotion.

So, entertainment could be said to be permissable on occasion at best as a form of recreation, however it should not be the driving force of our lives and CERTAINLY NOT the central aspect of a church meeting.

I feel that often in my own life there is a drive to seek out entertainment for some kind of fulfillment. But if this takes over my life or yours, we need to make a change.

Another way entertainment detracts from godliness, is the forms of entertainment we indulge in. Secular comedians are almost always crude or at least insinuative and often take the liberty of slandering our holy faith. Secular movies are full of blasphemy, bloodthirstiness and worldly philosophies. Popular music is more and more sexually explicit in nature, with the catchy beats hooking people in to be subjected to whatever message the artist wishes to promote. Partying and revelry leads to drunkenness and worse situations and if believers involve themselves, they will get taken along for the ride.

But we all know someone who professes Christ and indulges in one or more of the above activities and most of us would not have to point the finger away from ourselves.

I think the early church found its satisfaction in communion and fellowship with their God and one another. When we meet our base desires for pleasure in forms of entertainment at church events, are we not substituting a deeper communion for a cheap thrill and quick fix for the flesh?

2 Timothy 3:4 tells us that in the last days men will be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. When entertainment replaces God as the center of a church community, we have surely seen this Scripture fulfilled before us.

Let us therefore strive for a new dedication to piety and devotion instead of chasing after every new fad and craze that sprouts up in the fallen world.