There was a fad started some time ago called “seeker-sensitive” ministry. This tool for increasing church attendance aimed at downplaying traditional “church” in favour of a style more like a restaurant or show. Some congregations did find more people came out on Sunday mornings for a cutesy performance without a life-changing experience.

When anyone, including a church, centres on results the possibility of derailing increases. We all know that God is really impressed by numbers, budgets and multi-million dollar monuments to human ownership and administrative control. As they say, “Not!”

Too bad that religious Christians don’t have enough faith in the beauty of Jesus and the excitement in the Spirit and the love of God to focus on the divine rather than human “ingenuity”.

At the end of the world home base buildings will not rise to heaven. No church leader will get through the gates of the New Jerusalem with a calculator in hand. And not one denomination will be granted eternal life.

So why would anyone pursue these things?

I have a radical opinion: the Bible contains the Word of God. That opinion persistently causes religious people to attack. Slander, gossip, secret meetings, backroom deals, insinuations, racist malice are weapons religion uses against me.

And what about the Bible? Once, I sat through a kangaroo court meeting where the accuser openly admitted they “didn’t get around to” the Bible guidelines.” Did the Elders stop the proceedings and get on their knees to pray and love that leader enough to correct the sin? No, they defended the sin because they had also sinned. Confession and repentance do not exist for institutional religion. Politics of power does whatever it wants,“lords” it over others and justifies injustice. Religious people want their own way, which replaces humility before the Creator of the Universe.

And that’s what people get in church: cute shows and coffee hours, power politics without accountability, or maybe a chapel for the clique, all without regret.

I don’t regret living like the Bible actually is a living thing (Hebrews 4:12), guides my living, and keeps the follower in touch with the living God while living in this life preparing to live forever with Jesus.

Messiah-sensitive would be more fitting than any fad or technical wizardry.

When you are truly seeker-sensitive you love enough to model the supremacy of God, humbly,  and reject human power.

To which power are you sensitive?