 |
Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 2
Unity
See also: |
“God says relationships are
what life is all about.” Rick Warren,
[1, page
125]“Relationships are the glue
that holds a church together. Friendships are the key to retaining
members. A friend once told me of a survey he took in a church. When he
asked, ‘Why did you join this church?’ – 93% of the members said, ‘I
joined because of the pastor.’ He then asked, ‘What if the pastor
leaves? Will you leave?’ 93% said ‘No.’ When he asked why they
wouldnt leave, the response was ‘Because I have friends here!’ Do you
notice the shift in allegiance? This is normal and healthy…. Think
relationally!
[2] Rick
Warren, “Relationships
hold your church together.”
“I want to stress the importance
of continually emphasizing the corporate nature of the Christian life
to your members,” wrote Pastor Warren in his church management manual,
The Purpose-Driven Church. “Preach it, teach it, and talk about it with
individuals. We belong together. We need each together. We are connected,
joined together as parts of one body. We are family!”[3,
page 328]Yes, those who truly belong
to Christ are one in Him! We are part of a vast wonderful family that
reaches around the world and stretches through time into eternity! In fact,
the fellowship we have in Christwith those who share the same
Spirit, follow the same Shepherd and delight in the same
Scripturesbrings us a tiny foretaste of the joy we will share with our
heavenly family for all eternity.But Pastor Warren adds some
questionable organizational reasons for emphasizing fellowship and unity. As
he explained in his article, “Relationships
hold your church together,” fellowship among members may be the most
effective way to “grow” large and strong churches. So, in the Church Growth
Movement (CGM), people-pleasing fellowshipdesigned specifically to bond
spiritually diverse people to each otherbecomes a major purpose. This
process includes the following steps:1. Continually emphasize the importance of
fellowship and unity, commitment (including signed contracts) and
community participation. Stress onenessthe “corporate nature” of
churches. This is the heart of “systems thinking,” whether in secular
business or church: everything is interconnected; all is one. Nothing
has meaning unless it fits into the “Greater
Whole.”2. Create organizational structures for
bringing visitors and new members quickly into small groups where
trained “change leaders” can facilitate the dialogue, encourage bonding
and monitor the collective training.3. Warn people against neglecting
“accountability” to the five purposes (or “mission statement”)which set
boundaries for topics to be discussed. Since “divisive” or “distracting”
topics such as government education and occult entertainment may be seen
as obstacles to the envisioned unity, they are often discouraged, if not
banned. As Pastor Warren says, “A purpose statement reduces frustration
because it allows us to forget about things that don’t really matter.”
[3, page
87] Of course, anti-Christian
public education and popular entertainment do mattereven if
“change leaders” refuse to recognize their influence on our children.4. Package truth in ways that make it
palatable and pleasing to everyone, members, unbelievers and seekers
alike. Avoid offensive Scriptures and divisive warnings. De-emphasize
Biblical absolutes or “doctrine.” They hinder unity and “continual
change.”5. Use signed contracts, the dialectic
process and continual assessments to hold all members accountable to the
kind of fellowship mandated by the purpose-driven management system.Saddleback Church models these
five points and many other practical guidelines for church growth and unity,
which we will look at later. But first, let’s consider Pastor Warren’s
teachings on the Body of Christ – the fellowship of believers. While his
book is full of encouraging assurances and promises, it also hides some
strange half-truths and troubling suggestions. The first quote below fits
right into the new collective or holistic view that all parts of an
organization (the system) must be interconnectedand that individuals
only have worth and meaning according to their place in the whole system.
(This holism now permeates, guides and unites organizations
around the world) With that view in mind, ponder Pastor Warren’s next five
statements:“You discover your role in
life through your relationships with others. The Bible tells us,
‘Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not
the other way around…. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we
wouldn’t amount to much, would we?'”
[1, page 131]“The Bible knows nothing
of solitary saints or spiritual hermits isolated from other
believers and deprived of fellowship.”
[1, page
130]“How you treat other people, not your wealth
or accomplishments, is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth.
As Mother Teresa said, ‘It’s not what you do, but how much love
you put into it that matters.”
[1, page
125]
“God wants his family to be known for its
love more than anything else. Jesus said our love for each othernot our
doctrinal beliefsis our greatest witness to the world.”
[1, page
124]
“Whenever you give your time, you
are making a sacrifice and sacrifice is the essence of love. Jesus
modeled this: ‘Be full of love for others, following the example of
Christ who loved you and gave Himself to God as a sacrifice to take away
your sins.'”
[1, page
128] (Eph. 5:2 LB)Do you see the conflicting messages? The
imprisoned apostle Paul, a “solitary saint” separated from his fellow
believers toward the end of his life, is only one of numerous Biblical
examples of faithful men and women who grew strong in faith while
standing alone and sharing the sufferings of Jesus. Check the Psalms,
the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and other persecuted prophets, the Gospels….
Remember that in many Communist prisons, the uncompromising Biblical faith
of tortured believers brought multitudes of fellow prisonerseven
cold-hearted inquisitors and torturersto Christ. Yes, our visible God-given
love for one another demonstrates a divine gift that the world craves but
cannot duplicate. But only the Truth of the gospel (doctrine), made
alive by the Spirit, can spark that same divine life and love in another
person. “Love” without Truth cannot bring unbelievers into God’s Kingdom.
In the last of the five quotes, Pastor Warren
equates the “time” we give to our friends with Christ’s life-changing
sacrifice for us. This principle begs questions such as: Must our
“sacrifice” be prompted and accomplished by the Spirit or does any kind of
“sacrifice” of time count? What if this sacrifice glorifies the human giver,
not God? Could it tempt us to idealize “good deeds” such as the unselfish
works of
Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who embraced a universalist view of God
and the cross? She said she saw “Jesus in every person” (most of her
patients were sick and dying Hindus)a compassionate notion but totally
contrary to God’s Word.
Without Biblical doctrine and a clear
understanding of God’s Word, it’s all too easy to define love (love for God,
love for people….) in human terms that contradict God’s own
teaching about Himself and His eternal moral law.[4]
We might simply apply the world’s definitions for love, compassion,
relationships and sympathy to concepts that deal with spiritual realities.
Then we applaud each other for meeting our own nice-sounding standards,
forgetting that our own human efforts are nothing but “filthy rags” in God’s
sight.
Isaiah
64:6
The prophet Isaiah understood that well. What
counts is not our cultural view of what is right, but knowing and following
God’s ways, which differ radically from ours. Remember
Isaiah
55:8-9 and
Isaiah
64:4-5, where God reminds us to remember Him according to His waysaccording
to what He has revealed about himself, not according to our own shortsighted
perceptions, good intentions, wishful thinking or noble ideals (or visions).
If our relationships rest on human aims and organizational strategies rather
than on Biblical faith and the Holy Spirit, they are worthless to His
kingdom.
When we minimize God’s Holy Word and guidelines,
we blind ourselves. When we conveniently blur the line between what God
calls right and wrong, we won’t even know that we’ve missed the mark. And
when we dismiss Biblical guidelines as old fashioned “doctrine,” we become
vulnerable to timeless deceptions that shift the ground of our thinking from
His unchanging truths to sound-alike myths and illusionsas God warned in
2 Timothy
4:3-4.
But Pastor Warren’s statements make sense to a
postmodern generation that values human relationships more than truth. After
all, God’s absolute, unbending Word (doctrine) does bring division.
It cuts a dividing line between truth and error. “For the word of God is
living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to
the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12
Such piercing truth is incompatible with the
oneness needed for the new “systems thinking”
[see
Church
Growth Glossary] and collective
church management. As Pastor Warren says,“For unity’s sake, we must
never let differences divide us. We must stay focused on what matters
mostlearning to love each other as Christ has loved us, and fulfilling
God’s five purposes for each of us and his church. Conflict is usually a
sign that the focus has shifted to less important issues, things the
Bible calls “disputable matters.” When we focus on personalities,
preferences, interpretations, styles or methods, division always
happens.”
[1, pages 161-162]
That sounds good. We should
not focus on personalities, preferences, styles or methods. Yet Pastor
Warren seems intensely focused on his structured methods for church
transformation, and he communicates those methods to churches around the
world as if they came from the Bible, not business schools at Harvard and
MIT.The bigger problem with the
above declaration is another word Pastor Warren tucked into his list of
“less important issues:” the word, “interpretations.” Today’s trend toward
contextual interpretations of God’s Word (adapted to fit the context of the
popular culture) twists its meanings into pleasing messages tailor-made both
for the unbelieving world and for the worldwide ecumenical movement. And
Pastor Warren’s pragmatic “interpretations” seem designed to block any
Biblical argument against either the mind-changing process that drives
the fellowship or the management methods that drive his church.Let me repeat his misleading
statement concerning boundaries on what kinds of topics and issues can be
discussed:“A purpose statement reduces
frustration because it allow us to forget about things that don’t really
matter. Isaiah 26:3 (TEV)
says that God “give[s] perfect peace to those who keep their purpose
firm and put their trust in [him].
[Italics in the original]
A clear purpose not only defines what we do,
it defines what we do not do. … The secret of effectiveness is to know
what really counts, then do what really counts and not worry about all
the rest.”Keep in mind, the standard
translations of the Bible don’t use the word “purpose” in this verse.
Wouldn’t you rather keep your heart and mind focused on Jesus and His Word
instead of on the purposes defined by Rick Warren?
KJV:
“Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth
in thee.” Is 26:3
NKJV:
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.”
Is 26:3
According to Pastor
Warren, the focus must be on relationships and unitythe kinds of
relationships that help you “feel good” about yourself and your group.
Divisive issues (which might include anything controversial from the
anti-Christian teaching in public school to books and popular entertainment)
are frowned on, no matter how important to your family’s faith and values.
They don’t fit Saddleback’s five purposes! They might even conflict with the
affirmative church atmosphere and cause people to feel uncomfortable. In
contrast, Pastor Warren proclaims a more positive messageone that fits
today’s educational emphasis on self-esteem:“You are a part of God’s
family, and because Jesus makes you holy, God is proud of you!
The words of Jesus are unmistakable: ‘[Jesus] pointed to his
disciples and said, ‘these are my mother and
brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven
is my brother and sister and mother!'”
Matthew
12:49-50
[1, pages 121] Emphasis addedThose statements raise some
questions. First, is God really “proud” of us? Any or all of us?
Isn’t it His righteousness, not
our own, that makes His people holy?
Jesus gave us an answer long ago. Not
wanting His disciples to “think too highly” of themselves and their own
good deeds,” He told a parable about the role of a servant, which ended
with this question: “Does he [the master] thank
that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.
So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are
commanded, say, We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our
duty to do.” [Luke 17:9-10]
Paul knew that truth well.
Confident that anything good in him came from God, not himself, Paul could
fully delight in God’s victory on His behalf: “God
forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Galatians 6:14
[5]
Second, does Matthew
12:49-50, the Scripture Pastor Warren used to prove his point, even relate
to that particular point? Do all Pastor Warren’s readers
know the revealed “will of my
Father” or might they be misled by the many Scriptures that have been
taken out of context? And when Pastor Warren misuses God’s Word, might he
not build a false foundation for Christian unity?There can be no true or lasting
unity unless that unity is based on God’s uncompromised Word. When
churches embrace the same psycho-social strategies as those used by public
schools for multicultural trainingand also by governments and corporations
in “community-building” for social solidaritythey must twist or hide
contrary Scriptures such as
2
Corinthians 6:12-18.[6]
You cannot please God when you rely on the world’s methods for success. When
churches re-interpret and adapt parts of the Bible to postmodern perceptions
and “felt needs,” they shift their foundation from God’s wisdom to man-made
rules and strategies. One of those strategies is simply to rule out contrary
Biblical warnings and to “discipline” or expel concerned and faithful
members as “divisive.”[7]
Church discipline is Biblical,
and I’m glad Pastor Warren upholds it. But when a Biblical principle is used
in unbiblical ways to remove obstacles to a worldly process, it cannot bring
Biblical success. It is hard to separate all the good things Pastor Warren
says from some of the amazing distortions, but God tells us to “Test all
things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
[1 Thessalonians 5:21-22]
So please consider these statements:“All prospective members
must complete a membership class and are required to sign a membership
covenant. By signing the covenant, members agree to give financially,
serve in a ministry, share their faith, follow the leadership…. If you
do not fulfill the membership covenant, you are dropped from our
membership. We remove hundreds of names from our roll every year.”[3,
page 54]“Rick’s Rules of Growth.”
First, there is more than one way to grow a church…. Second, it takes
all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. Thank God we’re not
all alike! God loves variety…. Third, never criticize what God is
blessing, even though it may be a style of ministry that makes you feel
uncomfortable.”[3,
page 62]“When a human body is out of
balance we call that disease… Likewise, when the body of Christ
becomes unbalanced, disease occurs…. Health will occur only when
everything is brought back into balance. The task of church
leadership is to discover and remove growth-restricting diseases and
barriers so that natural, normal growth can occur.”[3,
page 16]“God blesses churches that are unified. At
Saddleback Church, every member signs a covenant that includes a promise
to protect the unity of our fellowship. As a result, the church has
never had a conflict that split the fellowship. Just as important,
because it is a loving, unified fellowship, a lot of people want to be
part of it! … When God has a bunch of baby believers he wants to
deliver, he looks for the warmest incubator church he can find.” [1,
pages 166-167]Does He? I could cite many examples of the
oppositeincluding
my own experience. Actually, both His
Word and factual history suggest that our Lord has countless ways of
training new believers. Many of His most fruitful children are born [of the
Spirit] and nurtured in the crucible of unthinkable challenges. Unlike
church growth leaders and contemporary “change agents,” God doesn’t
standardize His methods or measure His triumphs by the world’s definitions
of success, unity or solidarity.
Keep in mind, today’s Church Growth Communities
are anything but friendly to members who question the secular church
marketing systems, the continual personal assessments and the digital data
systems that measure “relational energy.” Many are quick to “discipline” and
drive out those who refuse to join the small group dialogues or sign their
contracts. We will look more closely at this part of the CGM management
system in Part 3.
The heartbreaking testimony of those who have
been forced to leave these fast-changing churches remind us that a community
that squeezes people into its worldwide marketing mold can be more dangerous
to Biblical faith and understanding than no “church” community.
This program is not about Biblical unity and
community. Nor do Saddleback and other CGM churches have a monopoly on
oneness. In fact, unity (or solidarity) is the ultimate aim of some the most
powerful secular management systems around the world,[8]
and their eminent communitarian guide,
Peter Drucker,
pursues the same organizational goals as Rick Warren. Referring to the
church’s responsibility to serve and meet welfare needs within its
community, Drucker says,“The pastor, as manager, has to identify
their strengths and specialization [what Pastor Warren calls spiritual
gifts and abilities], place them and equip them for service, and enable
them to work in the harmonious and productive whole known as the body of
Christ.”[9]In other words, the church and the world become
partners in today’s grand experiment of educating human resources for a
unified global society. Yes, we must love one another and care for the poor.
But we cannot conform to the world system. Nor can we use the world’s
psycho-social strategies (cloaked in Biblical terms and phrases) without
twisting God’s Word and turning our backs to Jesus Christ, our only true
source of unity. Remember God’s warnings:“Let
no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this
age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of
this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the
wise in their own craftiness,’ and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts
of the wise, that they are futile.’ Therefore let no one boast in men.” 1
Corinthians 3:18-21
…narrow is the gate and difficult is
the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14
Next: Go to
Part 3: Small
Groups and the Dialectic ProcessWe suggest you also read
Social Change and Communitarian Systems and
The
Shepherding Movement Comes of Age
Endnotes:1. Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002). See “Driven
or Led?“
2. Rick Warren, “Relationships
hold your church together.”
http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=3917
3. Rick Warren,
The Purpose Driven Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995).
4.
God’s
moral law can neither save us nor give us the strength to obey its
guidelines. But it gives us a standard for right and wrongand it helps us
to understand God’s holiness, righteousness, mercy and grace.5. We are not to be “driven” by anything.
Instead, we need to “run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross….” Hebrews 12:1-26. “Do not be
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an
unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are
the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and
walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Therefore, come out from among them and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Do not
touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you,
and you shall be My sons and daughters.” 2 Corinthians 6:12-18
7. “But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings
about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man
after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped
and sinning, being self-condemned.” Titus 3:9-118. See “The Global
Quest for Solidarity” at
http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/solidarity.html9. The Business of
the Kingdom, Christianity Today, November 15, 1999.
Home |
Articles |
News |
Chart |
Re-Inventing the Church