Jan
04
2010
Religious Cushioning
No one enters the ministry to further the status quo. Every evangelical pastor, every enthusiastic young Christian for that matter, wants to see conversions, spiritual growth, and biblical reformation where it is needed. But youthful zeal wanes. Life crashes in. Pastors get tired. Congregations fall back into old patterns.
Here’s Richard Lovelace’s explanation:
Pastors gradually settle down and lose interest in being change agents in the church. An unconscious conspiracy arises between their flesh and that of their congregations. It becomes tacitly understood that the laity will give pastors special honor in the exercise of their gifts, if the pastors will agree to leave their congregations’ pre-Christian lifestyles undisturbed and do not call for the mobilization of lay gifts for the work of the kingdom. Pastors are permitted to become ministerial superstars. Their pride is fed and their congregations are permitted to remain herds of sheep in which each has cheerfully turned to his own way (quoted in C. John Miller, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, p. 19).
The result of this compromise, argued Jack Miller, is “the church as religious cushion.” The body of Christ becomes less a living, breathing, growing, healthy organism and more a coping club, a society of mutual reinforcement, nothing but a cushion against the pains of life. Miller explains:
The religious cushioning may take a number of forms. In its liberal variety, its primary concern is to comfort suburbanites with a vision of a God who is too decent to send nice people like them to hell. In its sacerdotal form, its purpose is to tranquilize the guilt-ridden person with the religious warmth of its liturgy. Among conservatives and evangelicals, its primary mission all too often is to function as a preaching station where Christians gather to hear the gospel preached to the unconverted, to be reassured that liberals are mistaken about God and hell, and renew one’s sense of well-being without have a serious encounter with the living God (p. 26).
How does the church avoid being nothing but a religious cushion? Good preaching. Strong leadership. Earnest repentance. Heartfelt prayer. Biblical integrity. All of these are essential. And in and through them must be an awareness of sin and a delight in the Savior.
This awareness of sin, I hasten to add, should be of our own sins more than anyone else’s. As an expository preacher I preach the text in front of me (I hope). But there is always some freedom in applying the text. This is where the preacher can move the church toward catatonic or cushion. The temptation, subtle and strong in every preacher, is to preach to other people’s sins. And so our sermons rail on emergents or homosexuality or Richard Dawkins. If we are from a different crowd, we will rail on those who appear not as welcoming, or too dogmatic, or too concerned about everything in the last sentence. Either way, we blast the sins that few people in our church struggle with and most people in our church thoroughly dislike. Consequently, the preacher sounds prophetic, the people appreciate the passion, and everyone feels good about life and ready to face a new week. Church as religious cushion.
But the sin we should hear about most is our own. Just as the iniquity I should most disdain is mine.
Along with a convicting awareness of sin permeating the church, the preaching, and the leadership, there must be an exuberant delight in the Savior. Christ must be seen in his all his glory, which means he must be beheld as a crucified substitute, not simply a dear friend, good example, or revolutionary. We should smell in our churches the stank of sin stinking up to high heaven and the aroma of Christ, the acceptable offering before the Father.
Sin and salvation–an awareness of our sin and a delight in our Savior–are the two necessary conditions for spiritual renewal. Without a real hatred of our real sins, including the pastor’s own people-pleasing and the congregation’s status quo seeking (and the conspiracy between the two), and a real love for our really risen Lord, we will turn the church from pillar and power to fluffy pillows.
17 Comments
This is awesome. The church in America would look completely different today, if more pastors acknowledged that we are a sinful, fallen people, with no power, no ability, no chance and no hope of change apart from Christ.
How can we truly worship, unless we know how wide the gulf is between sinful man, and almighty God?
And…. (to your point)… this awareness of fallen man should first and foremost (and possibly only) be awareness of our own personal deep abiding and particular sinful nature.
[...] rest of his post called “Religious Cushioning” articulates a lot of the things I have been feeling in the second half of my first year as a [...]
from a tired pastor on a monday morning….thank you for this post.
after a month of announcements, blurbs in the bulletin, letters mailed to every church members home, yesterday was to be the sunday we sought to have every member attend sunday school.
the result… the lowest attendance in a year.
i needed this.
-stephen
[...] Religious Cushioning from Kevin DeYoung by Kevin DeYoung [...]
Related to this I see that confession as an element of the worship service has become rare. It smells to much like traditionalism for us evangelicals. How do we regain this need to come together as a body, confessing our sins to one another and before the Lord as a necessary aspect of our worship?
Thanks, Kevin for another thought provoking post!
[...] express conviction, even enthusiasm for being told how bad they are. Kevin DeYoung writes about ‘Religious Cushioning’ and the need for true preaching to be the agency through which genuine conviction of sin and [...]
[...] church as cushion Posted on January 5, 2010 by Scott Kistler Kevin DeYoung considers how churches can become cushions, focusing on comfort rather than on challenging their [...]
[...] Kevin DeYoung considers how churches can become cushions, focusing on comfort rather than on challenging their congregations to truly encounter God and be changed by him: [...]
[...] : "http%3A%2F%2Finthroughthefrontdoor.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F05%2Fbig-comfy-church%2F" } This is an excellent post from Kevin DeYoung about a very real problem in evangelical churches today. A [...]
How critical we can be of our churches and often without mercy. Although I agree with much of Mr. DeYoung’s comments, I am also put off by his generalization of the American church, which is what often happens in blogs concerning “the church today.” Yes, we allow too much “cushion” in the church and don’t challenge enough, yet I believe there are many more pastors who are encouraging their congregations to be accountable Christian witnesses and disciples than there are pastors who are not. You can call me a blind guide or over-optimistic OR you can call me hopeful and experienced.
Sam, I too see many hopeful signs in the church. I believe, as you do, that many pastors and churches are doing good work and serving Christ faithfully. My post was not intended to be an assessment of the American church, just a warning of what can happen in our churches and in our hearts. Blessings.
This post made me feel better about my often precarious place in the church. Thanks for that. And to speak to a few of the comments, I think we should confess together. Often, I attend two services per Sunday: one at my Assembly of God megachurch where I can hear some wow-factor preaching, and lose my hearing for a few hours, and one at an Episcopal parish, where I can find my God in a quieter reverence, and recite with the rest on bended knee, “forgive us, Lord, for what we have done, and have left undone.”
I was happily surprised to see you quote Richard Lovelace (quoted by C. John Miller). That quote is originally from Dynamics of Spiritual Life, which I’ve been reading slowly, and has been the most clarifying, eye-opening, insightful, prophetic look into corporate and individual spiritual life that I’ve ever read. I highly recommend it.
I agree with your two conditions for spiritual renewal – knowing our sin and delighting in our Savior. Lovelace says the two preconditions to renewal are an understanding of the depth of sin and seeing God’s holiness as it really is, which is saying almost the same thing. And to top it off, Mahaney’s definition of humility is assessing ourselves in light of our sinfulness and God’s holiness. I see a theme here!
Oh for preaching and teaching that betrays a heart painfully aware of its sinfulness, God’s holiness, and delighting in the Savior who reconciles the two. May God spark true spiritual renewal among us.
This is so helpful. When something leaves you both crushed and free then it can only to linked to some powerful gospel truth that has come through. We need to start talking about renewal in these terms more…! Cheers Kevin
[...] de Young has written a great piece about the temptation for church to cushion us from our own sin and the need for salvation. The [...]