Heritage Reformed Presbyterian Church holds to God's words through the Apostle Paul found in 1 Thess. 4:3: "This is the will of God, your sanctification....for God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness."
Yet sadly, we have an epidemic of churches that subtly invert this message into "This is the will of God, your brokenness... for God did not call us to holiness/cleanness, but in brokenness."
True Christian fellowship is built around a common, deeply rooted faith
and love, and such is only produced by a common, deeply rooted unity in doctrine, in understanding of who God is and what He has done through Christ, as revealed in His holy word, the Bible. It is faith in Christ, faith in God, who He is and what He has done, that creates true Christian community and fellowship, yielding holiness of life and joy in the Lord. Eph. 4:7-16 and many other Scriptures show this.
But today the very men ordained by God to be His vessels to promote and produce this Christian fellowship and holiness (pastors/teachers and elders) so often seek unity in personal feelings, meeting felt needs, or a certain aesthetic or branding or niche demographic (cowboy church, etc.). It is a superficial unity and fellowship at best. It is something hip churches can plaster on the front pages of their websites, showing women (sometimes men too) with eyes closed and hands exalted to the heavens, with the lyrics to the pop "worship" song visible saying something truly rich and strengthening in the faith like "ooh ooh God you are good, ooh ooh God you are so, so good...all the time".
Because everyone's hands are lifted and some tears are shed, hugs are given, prayers are made, lingering occurs, everyone believes the Spirit has worked and true Christian fellowship has resulted. But did you notice that none of those things is what Scripture says produces true fellowship, unity, and growth in the Lord and among His body?
There's a reason these churches advertise themselves as a church for broken people, those "just trying to make it". It's because the leadership hardly has more of a clue about who God is and how to serve Him and live for His kingdom than those they are supposedly teaching. The pastors, too, are "broken", and so they cling to a few verses in Scripture about God promising to be good and merciful and bless you, and unity is built around the Lord loving you in your ignorance and brokenness, baptized with a few Bible verses to make it seem like something more.
Hence the emotional release through manipulative music, mood lighting, aesthetics, etc., at these "worship" services, which are really self-help and/or therapy sessions at best, pity parties and making light of sin and God's holiness at its worst. Often the pastors are local celebrities, idols, and border on cult leaders. It is church for broken people, brought to you by broken people. Which is meant to sound humble and welcoming, when really if you applied that to any other field of work or study, it would rightly ring many alarm bells. "Broken worship for broken people" is akin to "free alcohol for alcoholics". It emotionally comforts and conforms you -- not into the image of God and sanctification, but in your brokenness. After all, the Lord loves you despite your brokenness. It's okay. Imagine an AA meeting where the leaders are still alcoholics, and say "it's okay, the Lord understands and is welcome in this place. He's here to be your divine crying shoulder."
I'm obviously putting this in the starkest of contrasts. But this is the principle, the formula, the blueprint for producing large (and thus automatically blessed and successful according to their eyes) churches today. It is a very sophisticated ear tickling, even if some of the leaders are actually sincere and not consciously false teachers.
But at some point, people with porn addictions, wrecked marriages, no job or life skills, pride and envy issues, drinking and anger problems, frustration with the Lord, etc., want more than a crying shoulder. They want, or should want, more than a group hug, an emotional release that is deified in a "worship service" on Sunday mornings. If God can only offer a hug and sympathy, but not sovereignly change your heart, give you new holy affections, and open your mind to understand the Scriptures to truly be built up in the faith and knowledge of Christ, which produces real fellowship with the Triune God and true unity and bond with fellow Christians....then why bother going back? It's all hollow and has diminishing returns. This is why many people "apostatize" from this so-called Christianity.
Some people keep coming back to these churches, embracing their brokenness, but others, by God's grace, get tired of this and start asking deeper questions about the Bible and what God's Word actually says and means. They want the Truth, even if it hurts, and soon find their church leaders don't want to talk about the Truth that hurts, or don't know it themselves and keep offering spiritual pain relievers and feel-good uppers that never address the source of the pain -- our sinfulness and ignorance of Christ and His Word.
So here's an advertisement for a church you won't see too often today, sadly. If you're tired of having your spiritual pain pacified with smooth, soothing words that quiet the conscience but never help you overcome sin and know the Lord and His calling to seek first His kingdom and righteousness more deeply, then come to Heritage Reformed Presbyterian Church, where we strive to preach all of God's Word, the full counsel of God, as the Apostle Paul and Christ Himself did and commanded to be done. That means the ministry of a healthy Church both hurts and heals, it breaks down and builds up, it kills self to renew self in the image of God through Christ by the power of the Spirit.
But through this, the Lord produces a true bond between His people, rooted in knowledge of the Lord, love for the Lord, producing an increasing holiness in us in service to the Lord and one another. You get more than a crying shoulder. You get a helping hand. By God's grace, you receive the "holiness, without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). And the communion and company of holy people who know their holy God and serve Him and one another in holiness and love, is a much deeper and joyful communion and company than broken people who know a broken God and serve Him and one another in brokenness and self-pity.
Ephesians 4:11ff.:
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
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