The Parable of The Legos

I think just about every kid in America has played with Legos at least once in their lives. Everyone knows what they look like - little plastic blocks with round, knobby things that snap into each other. Legos were first made in 1949 in Billund, Denmark and, as of 2013, 560 billion Lego parts have been made. That's a lot of Legos!!

It's fun to build things with Legos, using only our imagination as a guide. My grandson likes to stack them WAY up high, as high as he can get them to go. But lately Legos have changed. Not so much the Legos themselves but the way they are packaged and marketed.

I recently visited a young friend of mind who, only a few days before our visit, had lost a friend of hers to suicide. She told me about this young man whose favorite things in life were chocolate milk and Legos. So I thought it would be nice to send my young friend a small set of Legos as a remembrance.

As I strolled down the Lego aisle at Walmart it soon became obvious that I was not going to be able to complete my mission. There were absolutely no small sets of just plain Legos. All the Lego boxes were now kits of some trademarked TV show or movie.

There were Star Wars Legos, Hulk Legos, Arctic Basecamp Legos, Super Heroes Legos, Minecraft Legos . . . they even had Frozen Legos! But no plain old Legos could be found. Sad.

As I thought about the Legos and its company straying from the tried and true "standard" Lego format to all these theme-focused marketing offerings it occurred to me that what happened to the Lego company is also happening to our churches today. They are more interested in "selling" than their original intent - worship.

Many churches have decided to alter the tried and true Gospel of Jesus Christ into a watered down version of what God's Word really proclaims. That too is sad.

Our congregations want more than the plain old Gospel. We need to get a new high-def big screen so the worship lyrics are crisp and clear. And let's take down the crosses so no one is reminded of that bloody scene when Jesus died . . . for us. And let's "reach out" and do something nice for the community so the unsaved will flock to our church! The unsaved are not going to wander into any church because they saw us picking up litter on the side of the road!

None of these things have anything to do with the Gospel.

Legos - Logos

Our churches should not be about entertainment or seeing how many people will come to Polkafest Sunday. Churches are for edifying the body, not entertaining it.

The word logos in Greek means "I say" or "a word" or "THE Word."

"And the Word (logos) became flesh and dwelt among us." - John 1:14

The disciples asked Jesus, "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

And guess what Jesus told them . . . of all the possible warning signs In Matthew 24, Jesus spoke about deception in the church . . . first.

"4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray." - Matthew 24:4-5

We should listen to Jesus' warning and compare everything we see and hear to what has been written in the Bible for us. We don't need churches who make us feel good. We need churches who preach the truth! Otherwise, we shall become lost.

Legos are wonderful things . . . but when we can no longer get the basics . . . just "designer blocks" that give us entertainment, we have lost the origin, the beginning, the whole basis of understanding. NOT a good thing.

Here's a tongue-in-cheek blog post about the seeker-sensitive church . . .

Why I Left Your Seeker-Friendly Church - Bill Blankschaen

A nice worship song telling us that Jesus is all we need . . .

In Christ Alone - Kristian Stanfill

A really good two-hour movie about the seeker-sensitive movement - Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Bob Bufford & Peter Drucker . . .

Church of Tares Film