Examining the Seeker-Rude Movement, Part 1

I just heard a respected theologian critiquing the “Seeker-Sensitive” movement. I thought I could speak into this to bring some clarity.

One of his points was that we don’t use the term “seeker-sensitive” anymore. That’s a very old school phrase because it’s not a good description of what effective churches are doing.

There are some churches that are “Seeker-Driven”, where the number 1 question they ask is, “What will a seeker think about this?” And in the process, they throw out anything offensive. These churches are obviously missing the mark.

But, there are lots of churches that are seeker-rude. Where they say, “We don’t really care about what anyone thinks about what we’re doing, we’re just going to do things the way that we’re comfortable with and do whatever’s easiest for us.” That’s seeker-rude!

When a guest comes to your house, you act a little different than usual. You probably don’t eat in your underwear, burp loudly, you probably pick up around the house, think a little more about what’s on the tv, that sort of thing. Christians should also be hospitable to our guests in corporate worship.

In fact, Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 14:22-23. Check it out for yourself and see how Paul says we should consider the needs of others and not just plan our services for our own people. He says our language needs to be clear and understandable. We communicate with people on Sunday in all kinds of ways: through our print material, website, songs, announcements, and sermons.

The Gospel is offensive enough to people’s lifestyle, that there’s no need for us to add to it. Make sure that we consider our guests, after all you don’t want to be rude 🙂