Today a friend forwarded me an article by Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today. Entitled ‘The End of Christianity as We Know it’, the article talks about the scientific finding that Psilocybin Mushrooms (known as ‘magic mushrooms’ or ‘shrooms’ on the street) can induce deeply religious and spiritual experiences.  He contrasts this with the modern church’s herculean efforts to create such spiritual experiences through worship services, and concludes,

“From the point of view of experience, it seems it’s impossible to tell the difference between drug-induced and “natural” mystical experiences. Both are powerful. Both enable people to enjoy a transcendent moment. Both seem capable of transforming people so that they feel a greater sense of empathy for and unity with other people—what most people would call love.”

“This sort of thing makes many a Christian nervous, and for good reason. We live in an age in which religious experience is the centerpiece of faith for many, many Christians. We disdain faith that is mere intellectual assent or empty formality. We want a faith that is authentic, that makes us feel something—in particular, one that enables us to experience God. When we describe the one time in the week when we put ourselves in the presence of God, we talk less and less about “worshipping God” and more about “the worship experience.”

“So, to hear that people can have even more powerful religious experiences without Christian faith gives us pause. It’s a lot of work to fast and pray and worship and deny oneself—and even then, experiencing God is a hit or miss proposition! What’s the fuss if we can pop a mushroom and have a nearly guaranteed religious experience?”

And finally,

“But the research suggests a number of consequences for the way we do Christianity in our day. If religious experience is something that a drug can induce even more easily than spiritual ritual and disciplines, it may be time, for example, to rethink what many churches are trying to do on Sunday morning: create a memorable “worship experience.”

So where is the church left when deeply religious experiences that change people’s hearts can be induced chemically? What is the purpose of ‘church’ and of the Christian faith itself? What does the Church offer that we cannot get anywhere else?

Good morality and philosophy can be found in any number of religions.  Christianity has no corner on the market there.

Counseling and Psychotherapy are usually much superior to what can be found in the way of ‘help’ in the average congregation.  AA has a remarkable track record in rescuing those thought to be beyond hope.

You don’t need a church to make friends, find a mate, or fill your social calendar.

Modern self help gurus can help you improve everything from your physical fitness, and your manners, to your career and your desirability to the opposite sex.

Many religions claim to improve the lives of their adherents. They can ‘cure all your ills, and pay all your bills.’

And now, apparently, you don’t need to fast, pray, and worship to induce an encounter with the transcendent and produce deep and lasting ‘spiritual’ change.

The one thing that the Church has that can be found nowhere else is Christ and the forgiveness of our sins.

That’s what the church has to offer a dying world. It can be found nowhere else. God reconciling the world to Himself through a dead and risen Jesus.

Many of us in the Reformation traditions have been banging this drum for a long time. Whether it has been Eugene Peterson, mocking the search for ‘relevance’ and comparing much of contemporary worship (even in liturgical churches) to Baal worship in the Old Testament, or the guys on the White Horse Inn radio program, faithfully placarding Christ in His saving work for us, week after week, or faithful pastors who don’t shrink back from preaching the Gospel to a room full of Christians, the message of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus still goes out.

Any other message can be found somewhere else and usually done better than the church can do it.  If this is the case, why even compete?  Why not concentrate on the one message we have that no one else can lay claim to?

Hear me when I say that I am not discouraging spiritual experiences, worship, prayer and the like.  These things will be natural outgrowths of pursuing Christ and His finished work on the cross for us, but to start with ‘worship experiences’  to build our churches and draw a crowd is to put the ‘cart before the horse’, so to speak, and will lead us down the path to spiritual ruin.

To start with anything except Christ and Him crucified is to build our foundation upon the sand. (Matt 7:24-27) We sell people on some concept or benefit they will receive by being a Christian, and then they find out the church can’t deliver it, or they can find a better version of the same thing outside the church, and they become disillusioned and often bitter.

Brethren, these thing ought not be.  There is a better way, and that is to embrace the one needful thing, Christ and His work on our behalf, and to preach and teach this with an unquenchable fervor and an iron-like determination.

By Pat K