I had the opportunity this morning to listen to a half hour sermon preached some years ago by Bill Hybels, the senior pastor of the Willow Creek Community Church. I confess that I don't know much about Bill Hybels, nor am I in particular a disciple of Willow Creek, although I do like some of the music that they've popularized. I also can't deny their success - at least in terms of their numbers. They're the quintessential mega-church and they've certainly reached a lot of people. The sermon I heard this morning though disappointed me. Essentially, it was a classic example of trying to scare people into the Kingdom. To me, the Willow Creek image had always been a much more positive message than that. It raises the question of whether you actually can scare people into the Kingdom.
The sermon focussed on the after-life and in particular on hell. It was a classic example of "you better be prepared or God is gonna get you for it!" type of message. I thought it included some very questionable theology and some very questionable scriptural interpretation. I was amused when Hybels characterized those who believe that a loving God could never send anyone to an eternity in hell as having an "arrogant spirit" when he himself had no hesitation in playing God and sentencing all those he disagreed with to an eternity in hell. Is that not also displaying an arrogant spirit? Very disappointing. And yet - it works, at least in the context of filling the church. I don't think it really is a fair approach to the message of Jesus. It's not that Jesus didn't suggest that there were consequences to unbelief (there are consequences to everything, so why wouldn't there be consequences for unbelief?) but it certainly wasn't the centrepiece of his teachings, at least as I understand them, and I'm not at all convinced that Jesus ever delegated to us the power to decide the consequences and who would face them. And if we go beyond the Gospels, Paul has very interesting things to say about judgment and who might be in and who might be out. Even Jesus acknowledged that there would be surprises. So it seems to me that anyone who speaks about such things with the certainty that Hybels displayed in this particular sermon is running the risk of experiencing a big surprise. But why does it work? Why do so many people seem to respond to threats and fear?
They do, of course. In almost every aspect of life (faith, politics, etc.) if you can make people afraid you can influence them, manipulate them and control them. I wonder if it isn't a rather overt appeal to those with low self esteem - "I can't be good enough, and so I'm willing to believe in this fire-breathing God who's ready to smite me if I slip up even a little bit." But churches that do this seem guilty (to me) of preaching a gospel other than that which Jesus preached. Jesus' gospel focused on love and grace. Consequences to be sure if one chose to live apart from such things, but the overwhelming message I hear in Jesus' words is of God reaching out in love and not anger. I see Jesus saying that "perfect love casts out fear." If that's the case then why is a church that supposedly follows Jesus using fear as a weapon to basically scare people into the Kingdom? It's not right, because it's not consistent. It might "work" in that it might appeal to people's baser instincts, but a faith nurtured on fear of hell is essentially, at its root, a selfish faith which is seeking the reward (or that is at least trying to avoid the punishment) rather than a selfless faith that's pouring itself out in the service of God and others for the sake of God and others. By that I don't mean that people motivated by fear of hell don't necessarily pour themselves out in such ways; only that their motivation for doing so is wrong. They pour themselves out for God and for others in order to gain a benefit for themselves. This is not the living out of the gospel as I understand it. Is it sincere? Undoubtedly. Does it serve others? Yes, it can. But I wonder what it does to the spirit of the person motivated by fear rather than love to do such things?
Can you scare people into the Kingdom? I suppose you can, at least in the sense that you have people who are motivated by fear and by the selfish desire to gain a reward for themselves (or at least to escape punishment for themselves) who are calling themselves Christians, and who am I to judge their confession of faith? It just strikes me as off balance. Fear has no place in a Christian life. Threats have no place in a Christian life. We are to be motivated by love to offer love. I'm not sure that our calling is extended to proclaiming such things as hell and the wrath of God for unbelievers.
Paul says that we (by which he means Christians) get to judge the world, and even the angels. But Jesus said we are not to judge, and at the very least that we aren't competent to take even this present life - never mind eternal life. So our "judgment" cannot be a condemning or threatening judgment. It is the judgement of grace; it is the judgement of God reaching out with open and loving arms; it is the judgment of compassion; it is the judgement that's motivated by the knowledge that we ourselves have been judged and shown a compassion and offered a forgiveness that we don't deserve. How could we be less generous and compassionate to others than God has been to us?
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