When a sinner wanders into the church and sits through skits, mimes, interpretive dances, and the like, and yet never hears a clear, convicting message about his dangerous and tenuous spiritual situation– that he is a depraved sinner headed for an eternal fire because he is a daily offense to a holy God– how can that be called successful? You could achieve the same level of success by sending a cancer patient to receive treatment from a group of children playing doctor. A sinner must understand the imminent danger he is in if he is ever to look to the Savior. What’s worse is when seeker-focused churches baptize the masses with their watered-down gospel, assuring them that positive decisions, feelings, or affirmations about Christ equal genuine conversion. There are now multitudes who are not authentic Christians identifying with the church. As you set your strategy for church ministry, you dare not overlook the primary means of church growth: the straightforward, Christ-centered proclamation of the unadulterated Word of God.
If MacArthur is writing to those communities choosing to reach out to unbelievers in their gatherings, then I agree, somewhere in all of whatever is done there needs to be a clear Gospel message. I think however that I am more open than MacArthur regarding the method in which the Gospel is communicated. I do not think there is harm in presenting it in a fashion that the listener can connect with. There is obviously an extreme in which the method may distract from the message or reduce the messages clarity but unless that has happened, I can imagine and support many means by which the Gospel may be communicated.
Of more interest to me is that MacArthur thinks the church gathering is for the believer so I'm not sure why he is giving the advice above. I think this reinforces that there can be a many gathers for a number of purposes each with varying formats and the confusion that ensues when we try to be critical of others. In the end, the whole must lift up Christ and create disciples of His Kingdom.
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