I think that this is a legitimate question for us in these days. Since the time of the reformation church business and church life had continued along in a fairly consistent way finding its only real distinction in some classical differences in doctrine.
However since the mid-sixties and the arrival of the church-growth movement things have really changed. In these days churches fashion themselves to what they see as the most beneficial marketing dynamics. Churches that are really doctrinally identical (they can be that by reducing their doctrine to bare bones) are vastly different as they fashion themselves to particular age group or culture-group characteristics. There are churches that appeal to the young, churches that appeal to those who are ambitiously aggressive, churches that appeal to different styles of music and they are so definitely such as to affront if not offend those who are not of these tastes or interests. It has come to this, that churches are chosen not so much by the criteria of doctrine as by the level of personal interests. And corresponding, God’s people have become segmented and separated over personal interests.
I think that it is fair to say that our churches have greatly lost the understanding of their true mission in their desire to appeal to our world and gain its acceptance. We are becoming entertainment centers of church-lite rather than confronting centers of church-light.
As a lover of history and an interested student of cultures, it will be interesting to see where this goes in the end. It is a cycle that will one day reach a crisis.
