"Feel Good" Gospel

In an addition to what I talked about yesterday about the "feel good" Gospel... Paul actually predicts the situation of the "feel good" Gospel that I have seen a lot of in many churches today in the 4th chapter of his 2nd letter to Timothy.

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."

I haven't been working in church ministry for a very long time, but in the short time that I have been, I've seen one issue that really scares me. The mega churches are usually the ones that preach the feel good gospel. Even in Harrison, the bigger, popular churches are the ones that leave attendees feeling happy and glad they are a Christian rather than feeling challenged to do something to make a difference in their community and to live like Christ. I've even seen pastors that do preach the word with sound doctrine either get run out of the church or forced to develop a "happier" sermon style to avoid being run off. The church is in a mindset of satisfying their "itching ears" with what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.