A Good Show
Are You Watching a Show or Following a Savior?
There is a phrase that has a way of cutting right to the heart of what is wrong with much of modern Christianity. It is simple, well-intentioned, and deeply revealing. It goes like this: "You have to give the people a good show."
When someone frames the gathering of believers in those terms, it exposes a fundamental confusion about what the church is and what it is for. Entertainment can fill seats. A compelling performance can generate excitement. A polished production can create a feeling. But none of those things can transform a human soul.
And transformation is precisely what the gospel promises.
The early church had none of the tools we associate with growth today. No lighting rigs. No social media strategy. No celebrity speakers flown in from out of state. What it had was the Word of God, the testimony of men and women whose lives had been radically changed, and the power of the Holy Spirit moving in places that had once been spiritually dead. That was enough. In fact, it was more than enough.
So why, in an age of unprecedented access to Scripture and Christian resources, do so many people show up to church without their lives ever really changing?
The Danger of Itching Ears
Recent research, including the 2025 Barna Glue Study, has highlighted a striking trend among Generation Z. Young people born between 1997 and 2012 are attending church with renewed enthusiasm. They love to worship. They are showing up. And yet, for many of them, increased attendance has not produced a comparable shift in biblical beliefs or daily living. They are in the building, but the building has not yet gotten into them.
This is not a new problem. The Apostle Paul warned about it plainly in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, where he described a time when people would not put up with sound teaching but would instead gather around teachers who say what their itching ears want to hear, turning away from truth toward myths. The warning is not abstract. It describes a real and recurring human tendency to seek the experience of faith while avoiding its demands.
The antidote is not a better show. It is discipleship. It is the patient, intentional work of helping people move from attendance to transformation, from curiosity about Christ to genuine surrender to him.
What a Cult and a Consumer Church Have in Common
It may seem extreme to draw a line between a consumer-driven church culture and the conditions that make cults possible. But the connection is worth examining honestly.
People rarely stumble into destructive spiritual movements because they are searching for deception. They are searching for belonging, for certainty, for healing, for purpose. When those legitimate needs go unmet by genuine community and sound teaching, they become vulnerabilities. A charismatic leader or a tightly-knit group that offers counterfeit versions of what only Christ can provide will find a ready audience.
The critical warning sign is not strange doctrine, at least not at first. It is the surrender of discernment. When belonging to a group becomes more important than belonging to Christ, a person has already crossed a dangerous threshold. They have accepted the frame that says, "I must stop questioning in order to stay accepted here."
The gospel says the opposite. Because we belong to Christ, we must never surrender discernment. In Acts 17:11, the Bereans are held up as a model precisely because they examined what Paul taught against Scripture rather than simply accepting it on the authority of his reputation. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21, believers are commanded to test everything. In Galatians 1:8, Paul goes so far as to say that even an apostle or an angel proclaiming a different gospel must be rejected.
Biblical leadership does not demand the surrender of conscience. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:24, leaders do not have dominion over another person's faith. And in 1 Peter 5:2-3, shepherds are explicitly warned against lording their authority over those in their care.
If something in your spirit signals that what you are hearing does not align with Scripture, pay attention to that signal. Do not silence it for the sake of belonging.
The Masquerade
In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul writes with unmistakable urgency to a church he loves and fears for. He compares the church to a pure bride promised to one husband, which is Christ, and expresses his deep fear that they are being led astray just as Eve was deceived by the cunning of the serpent. He then describes false teachers who preach a different Jesus, offer a different spirit, and present a different gospel, and marvels that the Corinthians put up with it so easily.
His explanation is sobering. Satan himself, Paul writes, masquerades as an angel of light. It should not surprise us then that those who serve him can masquerade as servants of righteousness. Evil does not always announce itself. Sometimes it builds shrines, feeds the poor, and speaks the language of spirituality while pursuing something else entirely.
This is why knowing the Word of God is not optional. It is the baseline protection against every counterfeit.
Less of Me, More of Him
The corrective Paul models is not cynicism or suspicion of every ministry. It is humility, sacrifice, and a willingness to be poured out for others without personal agenda. He boasts only reluctantly, and then only to defend the gospel rather than himself. He reminds the Corinthians that he preached to them without charge, supported by other churches, so that no one could accuse him of exploiting them.
The mark of a true minister of Christ is not a platform. It is a cross.
In 1 Corinthians 3:11-13, Paul reminds us that no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ, and that the fire of God's judgment will reveal the quality of every person's work. What survives that fire will not be the most entertaining ministry or the fastest-growing congregation. It will be what was built on the right foundation, with the right motives, in the right spirit.
The goal was never a good show. It was always a changed life.
John 3:30 says it best: He must become greater, and I must become less.
When someone frames the gathering of believers in those terms, it exposes a fundamental confusion about what the church is and what it is for. Entertainment can fill seats. A compelling performance can generate excitement. A polished production can create a feeling. But none of those things can transform a human soul.
And transformation is precisely what the gospel promises.
The early church had none of the tools we associate with growth today. No lighting rigs. No social media strategy. No celebrity speakers flown in from out of state. What it had was the Word of God, the testimony of men and women whose lives had been radically changed, and the power of the Holy Spirit moving in places that had once been spiritually dead. That was enough. In fact, it was more than enough.
So why, in an age of unprecedented access to Scripture and Christian resources, do so many people show up to church without their lives ever really changing?
The Danger of Itching Ears
Recent research, including the 2025 Barna Glue Study, has highlighted a striking trend among Generation Z. Young people born between 1997 and 2012 are attending church with renewed enthusiasm. They love to worship. They are showing up. And yet, for many of them, increased attendance has not produced a comparable shift in biblical beliefs or daily living. They are in the building, but the building has not yet gotten into them.
This is not a new problem. The Apostle Paul warned about it plainly in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, where he described a time when people would not put up with sound teaching but would instead gather around teachers who say what their itching ears want to hear, turning away from truth toward myths. The warning is not abstract. It describes a real and recurring human tendency to seek the experience of faith while avoiding its demands.
The antidote is not a better show. It is discipleship. It is the patient, intentional work of helping people move from attendance to transformation, from curiosity about Christ to genuine surrender to him.
What a Cult and a Consumer Church Have in Common
It may seem extreme to draw a line between a consumer-driven church culture and the conditions that make cults possible. But the connection is worth examining honestly.
People rarely stumble into destructive spiritual movements because they are searching for deception. They are searching for belonging, for certainty, for healing, for purpose. When those legitimate needs go unmet by genuine community and sound teaching, they become vulnerabilities. A charismatic leader or a tightly-knit group that offers counterfeit versions of what only Christ can provide will find a ready audience.
The critical warning sign is not strange doctrine, at least not at first. It is the surrender of discernment. When belonging to a group becomes more important than belonging to Christ, a person has already crossed a dangerous threshold. They have accepted the frame that says, "I must stop questioning in order to stay accepted here."
The gospel says the opposite. Because we belong to Christ, we must never surrender discernment. In Acts 17:11, the Bereans are held up as a model precisely because they examined what Paul taught against Scripture rather than simply accepting it on the authority of his reputation. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21, believers are commanded to test everything. In Galatians 1:8, Paul goes so far as to say that even an apostle or an angel proclaiming a different gospel must be rejected.
Biblical leadership does not demand the surrender of conscience. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:24, leaders do not have dominion over another person's faith. And in 1 Peter 5:2-3, shepherds are explicitly warned against lording their authority over those in their care.
If something in your spirit signals that what you are hearing does not align with Scripture, pay attention to that signal. Do not silence it for the sake of belonging.
The Masquerade
In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul writes with unmistakable urgency to a church he loves and fears for. He compares the church to a pure bride promised to one husband, which is Christ, and expresses his deep fear that they are being led astray just as Eve was deceived by the cunning of the serpent. He then describes false teachers who preach a different Jesus, offer a different spirit, and present a different gospel, and marvels that the Corinthians put up with it so easily.
His explanation is sobering. Satan himself, Paul writes, masquerades as an angel of light. It should not surprise us then that those who serve him can masquerade as servants of righteousness. Evil does not always announce itself. Sometimes it builds shrines, feeds the poor, and speaks the language of spirituality while pursuing something else entirely.
This is why knowing the Word of God is not optional. It is the baseline protection against every counterfeit.
Less of Me, More of Him
The corrective Paul models is not cynicism or suspicion of every ministry. It is humility, sacrifice, and a willingness to be poured out for others without personal agenda. He boasts only reluctantly, and then only to defend the gospel rather than himself. He reminds the Corinthians that he preached to them without charge, supported by other churches, so that no one could accuse him of exploiting them.
The mark of a true minister of Christ is not a platform. It is a cross.
In 1 Corinthians 3:11-13, Paul reminds us that no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ, and that the fire of God's judgment will reveal the quality of every person's work. What survives that fire will not be the most entertaining ministry or the fastest-growing congregation. It will be what was built on the right foundation, with the right motives, in the right spirit.
The goal was never a good show. It was always a changed life.
John 3:30 says it best: He must become greater, and I must become less.
Posted in Discipleship, Faith, Identity, intentional Christian Living, Missions, Purpose, The Body Of Christ, Wisdom
Posted in less of me, more of Him, Intentional, transformation
Posted in less of me, more of Him, Intentional, transformation
Recent
Archive
2026
February
April
August
2 Comments
Yes! amen!
nServing God shouldn't be a performance! It should be intentional with Gods Truth.
n
nThank you!
<3