"Social gospel" creep

A couple of years ago, I received an email from a friend who was forwarding me a link to a non-institutional congregation in Tennessee. Under the heading of “Event Notice” was a “Touch Football Day” at a local park. While institutional churches have long had no qualms about advertising social events, non-institutional churches have recognized that the church has no business promoting a social, non-spiritual event.

While I have no doubt that this congregation did not spend any of the money from its treasury, I am gradually seeing churches blend the spiritual with the social. Although they could say that they do not spend any of the Lord’s money, the lines will become gradually blurred and the next generation will not have a problem carrying this further, perhaps even coming full circle back to church-supported social events! This is the nature of apostasy. Jesus made a clear delineation between His spiritual kingdom and physical kingdoms of the world (John 18:36; cf. Romans 14:17). We need to keep the same distinction in our congregations today.

Kyle Campbell