Salvation < Satisfaction?

It is a sad state when a church's objective truths of salvation, worship, and evangelism are pushed aside and replaced with subjective preference. When trivial things such as the style of worship or the order of a service or the presentation of the message are inflated to an importance on the level of salvation itself, we, as the Church, have lost sight of the most important thing in our faith; we have forgotten the reason why we even go to church.

When we cause a ruckus over the method of serving communion or presenting the announcements then we are either being ritualistic or selfish; we either think that we have to do it because we've always done it that way, or we simply don't want to change , or both.

It's way too easy to get caught up in the worldly view of the church, focusing in on the things we see, and losing sight of the things we can't. We too often sacrifice the important things of God for the important things of man, throwing faith, salvation, belief, and evangelism out the window, and replacing them with preference, satisfaction, ritualism, and attractiveness. Too often, we are focused on the church, and forget about the Church.

We are called to be distinct from this world. How then can we act like those who are lost?

Romans 12:2