Interests:Reading, Creative Writing, web browsing, book-shopping, religion/philosophy, comparative theology, disability support (I myself have mild cerebral palsy). Expertise: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 encourageith 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.
- 2 Timothy 4:1-3 Occupation:Administration Industry:Public Service
Ignatius Flame Ministries: The Ultimate Youth Pastor!
While the joke may be funny, what actually is being taught in contemporary youth ministry isn't really that different.
Albert Mohler on why Christian Youth are rapidly desiring more conservative approaches to ministry as opposed to slick and contemporary:
Youth Ministry in a New Key? Substance over Sugarcoating
Posted: Monday, October 30, 2006 at 2:38 am ET
TIME magazine, not to be mistaken for a journal on youth ministry, suggests in the current issue that evangelical youth ministry is trending toward substance and away from what it calls a "sugarcoated" approach.
From the article by Sonja Steptoe:
Youth ministers have been on a long and frustrating quest of their own over the past two decades or so. Believing that a message wrapped in pop-culture packaging was the way to attract teens to their flocks, pastors watered down the religious content and boosted the entertainment. But in recent years churches have begun offering their young people a style of religious instruction grounded in Bible study and teachings about the doctrines of their denomination. Their conversion has been sparked by the recognition that sugarcoated Christianity, popular in the 1980s and early '90s, has caused growing numbers of kids to turn away not just from attending youth-fellowship activities but also from practicing their faith at all.
Now, that is an astounding approach -- maybe these kids are hungry for biblical substance and something more than entertainment and pizza. Well, they probably still want the pizza, but they don't want to waste their time in useless and superficial youth programs. After all, they are swimming upstream against an adolescent culture. In many cases, they are more seriously-minded than their parents. They have to be, because the stakes are higher.
I am constantly asked a fascinating question by parents: Why are my children more conservative than I? The answer is complex, but when it comes to today's youth and young adults, the fact is that they have had to think clearly about the genuine options available. They have had to make hard decisions about life, meaning, morality, truth, and significance.
The fact that TIME found this story interesting is a story in itself. Now, if only we could encourage these parents to be as serious as their teenagers -- and their pastors as serious as their youth ministers.
NOTE: TIME looked at youth ministries at Calvary Baptist Church in Bellflower, California; Shoreline Christian Center in Austin, Texas; and Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. A nice comment about Covenant Life Church: "Similarly, teens at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., are embracing the big doses of Bible study youth pastors now recommend. Teen ranks have tripled, to nearly 600, since the mid-1990s." I have seen the Covenant Life youth ministry up close, and they do dispense "big doses of Bible study." It shows.
STAR TREK: Mr. Spock's take on Unconditional Election
I took my Dad to see the new Star Trek movie last week. Now both of us are die-hard fans (he being fond of the original 60s series while I gew up under the tutelage of "The Next Generation).
With regards to the new film, we both loved it. The time travel subplot allowed for the writers to obviously have a degree of freedom in creating what served as both a prequel and an original story without having to compromise established continuity. I guess my only gripe is that the main characters are portrayed as being considerably younger than their original incarnation i.e., Chris Pine's Captain Kirk is portrayed as being only 25 years old whereas William Shatner's Kirk is at least in his thirties.
Anywhoo, back to what this blog is for: the discussion of theology. While surfing through YouTube, I found this short but interesting video from the Original Series. Surely with a mind that is so Rational, Mr. Spock should at least have something to contribute with regards to the Arminian/Calvinist debate about Romans 9:10-13 and unconditional election, right?
Complementarianism: The Achilles’ Heel to the Reformed Resurgence?
Much has been said within the Reformed Christian blogosphere about the resurgence of Calvinism among the younger generations of professing evangelical Protestants. This was perhaps brought to major attention is Christianity Today editor Colin Hansen’s book Young, Restless and Reformed. Here is the original article by Hansen published in the September, 2006 edition (YouTube videos added for the purpose of illustration):
______________________________
Young, Restless, Reformed
Calvinism is making a comeback—and shaking up the church.
Collin Hansen | posted 9/22/2006 01:54PM
Nothing in her evangelical upbringing prepared Laura Watkins for John Piper.
"I was used to a very conversational preaching style," said Watkins, 21. "And having someone wave his arms and talk really loudly made me a little scared."
Watkins shouldn't be embarrassed. Piper does scare some people. It's probably his unrelenting intensity, demanding discipline, and singular passion—for the glory of God. Those themes resound in Desiring God, Piper's signature book. The pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis has sold more than 275,000 copies of Desiring God since 1986. Piper has personally taken his message of "Christian hedonism" to audiences around the world, such as the Passion conferences for college-age students. Passion attracted 40,000 students outside Memphis in 2000 and 18,000 to Nashville earlier this year.
Not all of these youth know Piper's theological particulars. But plenty do, and Piper, more than anyone else, has contributed to a resurgence of Reformed theology among young people. You can't miss the trend at some of the leading evangelical seminaries, like Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, which reports a significant Reformed uptick among students over the past 20 years. Or the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, now the largest Southern Baptist seminary and a Reformed hotbed. Piper, 60, has tinged the movement with the God-exalting intensity of Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century Puritan pastor-theologian. Not since the decades after his death have evangelicals heaped such attention on Edwards.
Reformed theology often goes by the name Calvinism, after the renowned 16th-century Reformation theologian John Calvin. Yet even Edwards rejected the label, saying he neither depended on Calvin nor always agreed with him. Still, it is Calvin's followers who produced the famous acrostic TULIP to describe the "doctrines of grace" that are the hallmarks of traditional Reformed theology: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints. (See "It's All About God.")
Already, this latest surge of Reformed theology has divided Southern Baptist churches and raised questions about the future of missions. Its exuberant young advocates reject generic evangelicalism and tout the benefits of in-depth biblical doctrine. They have once again brought the perennial debate about God's sovereignty and humans' free will to the forefront.
The evidence for the resurgence is partly institutional and partly anecdotal. But it's something that a variety of church leaders observe. While the Emergent "conversation" gets a lot of press for its appeal to the young, the new Reformed movement may be a larger and more pervasive phenomenon.
It certainly has a much stronger institutional base. I traveled to some of the movement's leading churches and institutions and talked to theologians, pastors, and parishioners, trying to understand Calvinism's new appeal and how it is changing American churches.
God Starts the Party
A pastors' conference is the wrong place to schedule a private meeting with Joshua Harris. He didn't even speak at the conference I attended, but we still struggled to find a quiet spot to talk at his hotel. Slight and short, Harris doesn't stick out in crowds. But that doesn't stop pastors from recognizing him and introducing themselves. The unassuming 31-year-old took time to chat with each of them, even as our interview stretched late into the night.
Harris was a leader among his generation even before he published I Kissed Dating Goodbye in 1997. But the bestseller introduced him to a wider evangelical audience, earning many fans and at least as many detractors. Now he pastors Covenant Life Church, a congregation of 3,800 in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Harris grew up as a youth leader in a seeker-sensitive church and later joined a charismatic congregation. Neither place emphasized doctrine. "Even just thinking doctrinally would have been foreign to me," he explained. He knew enough to realize he didn't like Calvinism, though. "I remember some of the first encounters I had with Calvinists," Harris told another group of pastors during Mark Driscoll's Reform and Resurge conference in Seattle in May. "I'm sorry to say that they represented the doctrines of grace with a total lack of grace. They were spiteful, cliquish, and arrogant. I didn't even stick around to understand what they were teaching. I took one look at them and knew I didn't want any part of it."
Harris's response is anything but uncommon in evangelical history. Reformed theology has periodically boomed and busted. Calvinists have always inspired foils, such as Jacob Arminius. The Dutch theologian argued that God frees up human will so people can accept or reject God's offer of salvation. That debate prompted his critics to respond with TULIP. Reformed theology waned during the Second Great Awakening. Most recently, Calvinism has played second fiddle to the charismatic and seeker-sensitive/church-growth movements, all of which downplay many theological distinctives.
For Harris, things started changing when he read Piper describe God's glory and breathtaking sovereignty. Later, C. J. Mahaney, a charismatic Calvinist and founding pastor of Covenant Life, took Harris under his wing and groomed him to take over the church. Mahaney, 51, turned Harris on to his hero, Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th-century Calvinistic Baptist preacher in London. Mahaney assigned him a number of texts, such as Iain H. Murray's Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism. "I would have been reading Christian comic books if left to myself," Harris told me, flashing the characteristic self-deprecating humor he shares with Mahaney.
The theological depth attracted Harris. "Once you're exposed to [doctrine]," he said, "you see the richness in it for your own soul, and you're ruined for anything else."
He notices the same attraction among his cohorts. "I just think there's such a hunger for the transcendent and for a God who is not just sitting around waiting for us to show up so that the party can get started."
Passion conferences also inspired Harris to trust in a God who takes the initiative. Harris first attended Passion in 1999 and sought the help of conference founder Louie Giglio to plan a similar event, from which blossomed Harris's New Attitude conferences. "Someone like Louie is saying, 'You know what, it's not about us, it's about God's glory, it's about his renown.' Now I don't think most kids realize this, but that's the first step down a pathway of Reformed theology. Because if you say that it's not about you, well then you're on that road of saying it's not about your actions, your choosings, your determination."
Passion's God-exalting focus keeps Piper coming back to speak year after year. He attributes the attraction of Reformed theology to the spirit of Passion—namely, pairing demanding obedience with God's grandeur. "They're not going to embrace your theology unless it makes their hearts sing," Piper said.
More Than a 'Crazy Guy'
During the weekend when I visited Piper's church, the college group was learning TULIP. The student teacher spent about 30 minutes explaining unconditional election. "You may never feel the weight, you will never feel the wonder of grace, until you finally relinquish your claim to have any part of your salvation," he said. "It's got to be unconditional."
Following that talk, I met with a group that included Laura Watkins, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota. Like Harris, Watkins grew up in an evangelical church that downplayed doctrine. Calvinism certainly wasn't much of a draw for Watkins as she searched for a church in college. "The only exposure I had was high-school textbooks that teach about John Calvin as this crazy guy who burned people," she said.
Yet she stayed for the spiritual maturity and depth she noticed in the church. Now she's as articulate an advocate of Calvinism as I met. She unwittingly paraphrased Spurgeon as she explained her move toward Reformed theology. "When you first become a believer, almost everyone is an Arminian, because you feel like you made a decision," Watkins said.
Watkins didn't stop with election. An enlarged view of God's authority changed the way she viewed evangelism, worship, and relationships. Watkins articulated how complementary roles for men and women go hand in hand with this type of Calvinism. "I believe God is sovereign and has ordered things in a particular way," she explained. Just as "he's chosen those who are going to know him before the foundations of the earth," she said, "I don't want to be rebelling against the way God ordered men and women to relate to one another."
Piper no longer scares Watkins. He's more like a father in the faith, though she says they have never spoken. Privately, Piper contrasts sharply with his authoritative pulpit persona. I dare say he's even a little meek, if relentlessly serious. We mused on Reformed theology in his home in February following one of the last sermons he delivered before undergoing surgery for prostate cancer. He reflected on the rebellion he has unrepentantly fomented.
"One of the most common things I deal with in younger pastors is conflict with their senior pastors," Piper said. "They're a youth pastor, and they've gone to Trinity or read something [R. C.] Sproul or I wrote, and they say, 'We're really out of step. What should we do?'"
He tells them to be totally candid and ask permission to teach according to their newfound convictions, even if they are in Wesleyan-Arminian churches. Of course, he tells the young pastors to pray that their bosses would come to share their vision.
Baptist and Reformed
Starting in 1993, the largest Protestant denomination's flagship seminary quickly lost at least 96 percent of its faculty. SBC inerrantists had tapped 33-year-old Al Mohler to head the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which until then had remained open to moderate and liberal professors. Mohler addressed the faculty and re-enforced the school's confession of faith, derived from the landmark Reformed document, the Westminster Confession.
"I said, in sum, if this is what you believe, then we want you to stay. If not, then you have come here under false pretenses, and you must go," Mohler, now 45, said. "As they would say, the battle was joined."
Indeed, television cameras and news helicopters made it difficult for Mohler to work for a while. He still isn't welcome in some Louisville churches. That's not surprising, since no more than 4 faculty members—from more than 100—stayed with Southern after Mohler arrived.
Now it's hard to believe that less than 15 years ago, Southern merited a reputation as a liberal seminary. Mohler has attracted a strong faculty and spurred enrollment to more than 4,300 students—which makes it the largest Southern Baptist seminary. But SBC conservatives may have gotten more than they bargained for in Mohler. The tireless public intellectual freely criticizes perceived SBC shortcomings, especially what he considers misguided doctrine. Oh, and Mohler is an unabashed Calvinist. His seminary now attracts and turns out a steady flow of young Reformed pastors.
"This generation of young Christians is more committed, more theologically intense, more theologically curious, more self-aware and self-conscious as believers because they were not raised in an environment of cultural Christianity," Mohler said. "Or if they were, as soon as they arrived on a university campus, they found themselves in a hostile environment." Mohler explained that Calvinism offers young people a countercultural alternative with deep roots.
Mohler's analysis brought to mind one Southern seminarian I met in Louisville. Bradley Cochran grew up attending a mainline church with his family in rural Kentucky. He hated Sunday mornings, and by age 15 he had racked up a police rap sheet and developed a drug problem. But Cochran's troubles softened his heart to the gospel, and he fled his hometown to enroll at Liberty University. While there, he eagerly shared the Good News and earned an award for his evangelistic enthusiasm. A classmate loaned him some Sproul books, where he learned about predestination. He grew to accept this doctrine, but he said other students criticized his Calvinism before he even understood what the term meant. They couldn't understand how he squared God's sovereign choice with evangelism. Those challenges only intensified his study of Reformed theology. He became emboldened to persuade others.
"I felt like Calvinism was more than abstract points of theology," said Cochran, 25. "I felt you would get a much bigger view of God if you accepted these things, an understanding of justice and grace that would so deepen your affections for God, that would make you so much more grateful for his grace."
Cochran bolstered his arguments by boasting that he had never even read Calvin. Indeed, the renowned reformer appears not to be a major figure among the latest generation to claim the theology he made famous. Centuries ago, George Whitefield, the Calvinistic Methodist evangelist of the First Great Awakening, similarly argued: "Alas, I never read anything that Calvin wrote; my doctrines I had from Christ and his apostles; I was taught them of God."
The relationship of theology to evangelism has become a flash point among Southern Baptists. SBC Life, the journal of the SBC's executive committee, published two articles on Calvinism in April. In one, Malcolm Yarnell, associate professor of systematic theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, argued that Southern Baptists generally reject any notion that God "arbitrarily chooses individuals to be damned before they are born."
"[T]he greatest tragedy is when adherence to TULIP leads to division in churches and prevents them from cooperation in, and urgency for, a passion toward fulfilling the Great Commission," Yarnell wrote. He concluded, "Southern Baptists are first, last, and always followers of Jesus Christ, not John Calvin."
The most provocative comments in the SBC may belong to Steve Lemke, provost of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. In April 2005, he presented a paper on "The Future of Southern Baptists as Evangelicals." Lemke warned, "I believe that [Calvinism] is potentially the most explosive and divisive issue facing us in the near future. It has already been an issue that has split literally dozens of churches, and it holds the potential to split the entire convention."
Lemke noted that Calvinism has periodically waxed and waned among Southern Baptists. "However, the number of Calvinist faculty dramatically increased [starting in the 1980s and] over the next 20 years." Lemke and many others explained to me that Calvinists like Mohler earned leadership roles during the SBC's inerrancy battles due to their reliably conservative theology. Their academic and biblical rigor suited them for seminary positions. Now, Lemke said, their influence has made the "newest generation of Southern Baptist ministers … the most Calvinist we have had in several generations."
Lemke doubts that Calvinism has yet reached its high-water mark in the SBC. But he is no fan of this trend. Baptism and membership figures, he said, show that the Calvinist churches of the SBC's Founders Ministries lack commitment to evangelism. According to Lemke, the problem only makes sense, given their emphasis on God's sovereign election.
"For many people, if they're convinced that God has already elected those who will be elect … I don't see how humanly speaking that can't temper your passion, because you know you're not that crucial to the process," Lemke explained.
Evangelicals who adhere to Reformed theology have long chafed at such charges. They remind their critics that Whitefield, one of history's most effective evangelists, believed God elects his church. In addition, Edwards defended the First Great Awakening's revivals with Religious Affections. More recently, J. I. Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (1961) showed persuasively that there is no contradiction between those two ideas.
"I think the criticism of Reformed theology is being silenced by the mission and justice and evangelism and worship and counseling—the whole range of pastoral life," Piper said. "We're not the kind who are off in a Grand Rapids ghetto crossing our t's and dotting our i's and telling the world to get their act together. We're in the New Orleans slums with groups like Desire Street Ministries, raising up black elders through Reformed theology from 9-year-old boys who had no chance."
Deep into Doctrine
Calvinistic Baptists often told me they have less of a problem with churches that don't teach election than with churches that downplay doctrine in general. An SBC Life piece published in April by Daniel Akin, a former Southern professor and current president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, presented this perspective. "Let us be known for being rigorously biblical, searching the Scriptures to determine what God really says on [God's sovereignty] and other key doctrinal issues," Akin wrote. "For the most part, we are not doing this, and our theological shallowness is an indictment of our current state and an embarrassment to our history!"
The young people I talked to want churches to risk disagreement so they can benefit from the deeper challenges of doctrine. Joshua Harris said years after he graduated from high school, he bumped into his old youth pastor in the grocery store. The pastor seemed apologetic as they reminisced about the youth group's party atmosphere, focused more on music and skits than Bible teaching, Harris said. But the youth pastor told Harris his students now read through Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.
"I think there's an expectation that teens can't handle that, or they'll be repulsed by that," Harris told me. "[My youth pastor] is saying the exact opposite. That's a dramatic change in philosophy in youth ministry."
Pastor Kent Hughes senses the same draw for students who cross the street from Wheaton College to attend College Church. "If there's an appeal to students, it's that we're not playing around," Hughes said. "We're not entertaining them. This is life and death. My sense is that's what they're interested in, even from an old man."
Perhaps an attraction to serious doctrine brought about 3,000 ministry leaders to Louisville in April for a Together for the Gospel conference. The conference's sponsors included Mohler and Mahaney, and Piper also spoke. Most of the audience were in their 20s and 30s. Each of the seven speakers holds to the five points of TULIP. Yet none of them spoke of Calvinism unless I asked about it. They did express worry about perceived evangelical accommodation to postmodernism and criticized churches for applying business models to ministry. They mostly joked about their many differences on such historically difficult issues as baptism, church government, eschatology, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They drew unity as Calvinist evangelicals from their concerns: with seeker churches, church-growth marketing, and manipulative revival techniques.
Roger Olson, professor of theology at Truett Seminary, Baylor University, said more than just Calvinists worry about these problems. "A lot of us evangelical Arminians agree with them in their criticisms of popular folk religion," Olson said. "I agree with their basic theological underpinnings—that doctrine is important, that grace is the decisive factor in salvation, not a decision we make."
If Olson is right, co-belligerency on these concerns could forestall further conflict, at least on the Calvinist-Arminian debate.
A Passion for Puritans
Mark Dever hasn't sold books to the degree Piper has. And he doesn't head a flagship institution like his longtime friend Mohler. He doesn't even pastor a megachurch. But oh, how strategic his church is. Hop off Washington, D.C.'s Metro on the Capitol South stop. Head north past the Library of Congress and the Capitol. Turn right and bear east before you reach the Supreme Court. A couple blocks later you'll see Capitol Hill Baptist Church, which Dever has led for 12 years, beginning when he was 33.
Yet location isn't what makes Dever's church so strategic. Maybe it's all the political maneuvering in the air, but Dever networks effectively. He conceived Together for the Gospel and otherwise works to connect conservative evangelicals who worry about the same things. Dever's church also trains six interns at a time, imprinting his beliefs about how a local church should run through a related ministry, 9 Marks.
I visited Capitol Hill Baptist in January. The church kicked off with Sunday school, which really should have been called Sunday seminary. Class options included a survey of the New Testament, spiritual disciplines, and a systematic theology lesson on theories of the Atonement.
Such rigor can be expected from a church led by Dever, who earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge studying the Puritans. He embodies the pastoral theologians who are leading young people toward Reformed theology. He has cultivated a church community in the Puritan mold—unquestionably demanding and disciplined. And the church attracts a very young crowd. Its 525 members average 29 years old. Dever mockingly rejected my suggestion that they aim to attract an under-30 crowd. "Yes, that's why we sing those hymns and have a [55-minute] sermon." Dever smiled. "We're seriously calibrated for the 18th century."
Dever and others have turned a young generation onto some old teachers. He organizes his study around a canon of renowned church leaders that includes Augustine, Luther, Calvin, John Owen, John Bunyan, B. B. Warfield, Martin Lloyd-Jones, and Carl Henry. It's mostly Puritans who have fueled this latest resurgence of Calvinism. Leaders like R. C. Sproul and J. I. Packer have for decades told evangelicals they have something to learn from this post-Reformation movement. During the late 1950s, Banner of Truth starting reprinting classic Reformed works, including many from Puritans.
Among the Puritans, Edwards is most popular. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School professor and Edwards scholar Douglas Sweeney said his seminary includes many more Calvinists than 20 years ago. Not unrelated, he said among evangelicals "there is more interest in Edwards today than there has been since the first half of the 19th century."
Garth Rosell, church history professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, has noticed his students' increased interest in Puritan studies, especially Edwards. He suspects young evangelicals gravitate toward the Puritans looking for deeper historic roots and models for high-commitment Christianity.
That's at least what Jordan Thomas, a 28-year-old church planter, told me about the Puritans. "I don't read them to find out what these guys say about Calvinism," Thomas told me in Piper's church. "It's their big-hearted love for Christ. They say things about their devotion to him that I'm just like, I wonder if I know the same Jesus these guys love."
Scripture Trumps Systems
Evangelicals have long disagreed on election and free will. The debate may never be settled, given the apparent tension between biblical statements and the limits of our interpretive skills. In addition, some will always see more benefit in doctrinal depth than others.
Those fearing a new pitched battle can rest easy. That's not because the debate will go away—for the foreseeable future, the spread of Calvinism will force many evangelicals to pick sides. And it's not because mission will trump doctrine—young people seem to reject this dichotomy.
It's because the young Calvinists value theological systems far less than God and his Word. Whatever the cultural factors, many Calvinist converts respond to hallmark passages like Romans 9 and Ephesians 1. "I really don't like to raise any banner of Calvinism or Reformed theology," said Eric Lonergan, a 23-year-old University of Minnesota graduate. "Those are just terms. I just like to look at the Word and let it speak for itself."
That's the essence of what Joshua Harris calls "humble orthodoxy." He reluctantly debates doctrine, but he passionately studies Scripture and seeks to apply all its truth.
"If you really understand Reformed theology, we should all just sit around shaking our heads going, 'It's unbelievable. Why would God choose any of us?'" Harris said. "You are so amazed by grace, you're not picking a fight with anyone, you're just crying tears of amazement that should lead to a heart for lost people, that God does indeed save, when he doesn't have to save anybody."
For those who uphold and espouse Reformed theology, one would ask “What could possibly wrong with this? Obviously God is doing something in bringing these young people to such an awesome revelation of his sovereignty.”
At first this may seem to be true, yet look at this list of some of the preachers whom the “Young, Restless and Reformed” are looking up to: Albert Mohler D.A. Carson John Macarthur John Piper J.I. Packer Mark Dever Mark Driscoll R.C. Sproul Tim Keller Wayne Grudem
What do all of these preachers have in common? Yep, they’re all men.
Three weeks ago, my church touched on the subject of complementarianism vs egalitarianism in relation to gender roles within church based on 1 Timothy 2. The sermon was fair in explaining the arguments for against whether women can take up teaching and pastoral roles, though the main “big idea” was holiness in relation to personal modesty. I was able to speak to various leaders about how people responded, and the feedback ranged from intellectual curiosity, to frustration and to a rare degree, offence. Ps Lance brought up an interesting point with regards to the “consequences of ideas”: among Pentecostalism today, one can find a reasonably large entourage of prominent female preachers (e.g. Joyce Meyer, Lisa Bevere, Christine Caine, Bobby Houston, Darlene Zsech) who have written books and serve as itinerant ministers. On the other hand, given that Reformed churches have been historically beencomplementarian and not having women take up teaching roles, it is hard to find a Calvinistic “Titus 2” Lady. Ergo, when a young Christian lady after months of serious Bible study joins the Reformed Resurgence, one of the pitfalls that is likely to occur is that there is a gaping void with regards to teaching and mentorship from mature women in Christ that just so happen to also hold to a Reformed soteriology in such a way that they can coach and support the new “T.U.L.I.P. Girl” when it comes to issues that are best discussed among women. If you were to walk into a Christian bookstore and ask at the counter for a book on women’s issues by a female author that held to a Reformed view of salvation, chances are that you sadly won’t find one.
Evangelism Explosion (EE) vs XEE: A Culturally relevant improvement or a culturally appeasing compro
In contending for Biblical Evangelism, I have all-too often been accused of being a Ray Comfort fanboy with a biased view towards any other program and ministry. Now I’ll admit that on the basis of biblical exposition alone, Ray Comfort’s Way of the Master ministry does put forward a gospel presentation that is more in line with biblical precedent than others such as Campus Crusade’s “4 Spiritual Laws/Knowing God Personally” or Bill Hybel’s Walk Across the Room. So in fairness, what I’d like to do in this post is to do a review of another popular evangelistic ministry along with it’s newer offshoot. Let me say first that in full honesty, I have the utmost love and respect towards the late D. James Kennedy. He was the rare combination of expositor, shepherd, evangelist and scholar. While these virtues are certainly what all pastors are called to do, few do so in the balanced manner that Kennedy did. He truly was a genuine contender of the faith.
The History of Evangelism Explosion
From the Official Website: EE started in 1962 by Dr. D. James Kennedy. As a young pastor, Jim watched all his attempts to grow his first congregation go down the tubes. His church attendance dipped. Recalling those difficult times, he said, “Extrapolation made it clear that I had two-and-a-half months of ministry left before I was preaching to only my wife—and she was threatening to go to the Baptist Church down the street!”
Jim called this time the lowest point in his ministry. It was then that friend, and pastor, Kennedy Smartt, invited Jim to assist him in, of all things, a series of evangelistic services in Scottdale, Georgia, “I who had decimated one church was being asked to ship my technique across state lines. Have plague will travel!” quipped Jim.
During those 10 days of meetings, Jim simply went out with his friend and watched him engage people spiritually. By the end of the meetings, 54 people made professions of faith in Christ. Jim returned to Fort Lauderdale with the seeds that eventually became Evangelism Explosion. His church began to grow, and grow. In a brief 12-year period, church membership increased from 17 to 2,000.
Realizing that he couldn’t do this alone, he made witness-training a bedrock of his ministry, utilizing on-the-job training. In 1967, his Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church was singled out as the most rapidly expanding church in America. In 1972, EE was incorporated with its own staff and Board of Directors. As it spread to other countries, EE materials were translated into other languages. By 1984 more training clinics were held overseas than were held in the US.
In early 1996 EE was planted in all nations of the world. Materials have been translated into more than 70 different languages and clinics have been held in many nations. But there is still much work yet to be done developing national leadership and establishing strong, indigenous ministries in every nation.
The International Office provides an administrative base and raises financial support for the international operations of this ministry. It also oversees the material sales and training clinics for the United States. EE is a multi-denominational, non-profit missions organization whose operations are dependent upon our Lord’s grace and the gifts of His people.[i]
The EE Program From the Official Website:
More and more people are becoming equipped to share their faith in Christ through Classic EE. Classic EE outlines how a whole congregation can be motivated and mobilized to perform the task of sharing their faith in Jesus.
Once lay leaders and laypeople are trained, they, in turn, train others beginning the important process of spiritual multiplication.
Classic EE begins when a pastor or lay leader attends EE leadership training. Each pastor and lay leader then returns to his or her own church and begins to train church members (Level 1 training). The training includes actual witnessing experience. The inexperienced (trainees) go onto the streets in evangelistic outreach with the experienced (trainers) leading the way.
Line upon line, trainees gradually learn how to present the Gospel convincingly. Experience builds confidence. By the end of the training, each trainee is able to share the whole Gospel presentation.
EE training is scheduled across the country. EE offers training to fit your schedule from one-day Share Your Faith Workshops to more in-depth training of two-days or longer. [ii]
Becoming a skilled pilot not only takes class work, but on-the-job training. It’s the same with evangelism. Unfortunately, too many evangelism courses are all class work and no practical witnessing experiences.
Evangelism Explosion Leadership Training Clinics get you “in the air” with skilled Trainers who go out into the harvest field and share Jesus’ saving story confidently and completely.
You observe. You learn. Then you participate incrementally until you’ve mastered, and shared an entire Gospel presentation.
In a few short days this training has changed lives resulting in changed churches!
It’s no secret that the church is the key to the Great Commission. Once lay leaders are trained in EE, you’re ready to take off as you then equip the members of your church.
An EE clinic is not an easy commitment, but it’s small when considering it will change the lives of your congregation and community forever!
It’s the same method Jesus used. He began with a handful of people and turned the world upside down!
Take flight in four steps:
• Key leaders from your church attend a five-day Leadership Training Clinic (if at all possible we encourage pastors to attend) • Begin training people in your church • Watch as key lay leaders take charge of evangelism and outreach • Experience personal and healthy vital church growth!
Pastor, it starts with you, and filters into the hearts of laypeople releasing them as lay leaders who train others and reach your community for Christ.[iii]
The EE Gospel Presentation: “Did You Know?”
Review:
Pros: 1. An eternal focus: the “Did You Know” tract begins with a proposal relating to the reader’s eternal welfare. The opening statement is not a humanistic one wherein God is seen as the answer to man’s insecurities and lack of fulfilment, but rather the focus is one that anyone has at least thought about once: “What will happen why I die?”
2. Sin is treated is specifics as opposed to being defined as an abstract: While not explained in the manner of directly referring to the Moral Law in the way that Way of the Master is best known for, the presentation nonetheless explain that sin is indeed violation of a real, tangible law and listsindividual trangressions.
3. Grace-centred: The tract explains both the justice and mercy of God as two interlinked divine attributes. The presentation expounds upon human inability as well as the need for God’s grace apart from works.
4. Lordship focused: Some tracts leave the explanation of Christ divine identity out on the grounds that it is perceived as irrelevant or confusing. EE on the other hand describes Jesus as not just a man, but as God, using John 1 as the basis. Furthermore, the tract explains before the call to respond that saving faith is more than cerebral assent, but it is a call to repentance and full transformation.
5. Reformed Soteriology: While Kennedy does not specifically mention Calvinism or T.U.L.I.P. by name, he nonetheless presupposes throughout the textbook Calvinistic concepts such as Total Depravity, Regeneration preceding Faith and the evangelist’s reliance not upon himself, but the power and providence of the Holy Spirit. Of course, there are no doubt Arminians too who (mis)use EE as well.
6. Local-Church Discipleship and Accountability: With due respect to my brothers in Christ who serve in evangelistic parachurch ministry, all too often a “successful” witness encounter rarely goes beyond the encounter itself. That is, the new convert is merely left to fend for themselves without instruction as to what they are to do or where they are to go. EE’s formal training on the other hand starts with the local church with a focus on training senior leaders who in turn train the elders under them, who in turn train members, etc, until the whole church is mobilized. In that regard, Senior Pastors are formally taught how to properly “do the work of an evangelist”(2 Timothy 4:4). One of the traps a lot of churches make is in separating the discipleship ministry from the evangelism ministry; i.e. “I snuff ‘em, you stuff ‘em!” This often results in the evangelism ministry having a detached accountability wherein should an evangelist preach an unbiblical gospel presentation, the responsibility lies not on the evangelist who should be indicted for false teaching, but rather the discipler. EE on the other hand calls harvest workers to fulfil both roles: gathering the fruits, feeding the new convert, getting them “folded” into church membership, and hopefully training them to the point that the process can be duplicated with the new convert “enlisting” to join the battle for souls.
Cons:
1. Sinner’s Prayer recitation: Here is Dr. Kennedy giving an invitation to recite the sinner’s prayer -
Paul Washer’s “War on the Sinner’s Prayer” - >
2. Congratulatory gesture: Following from the above point, including both a congratulatory gesture as well as a “spiritual birth certificate” is both presumptuous as well as trite. The downside of including a congratulatory gesture in a printed tract is that one need only turn a page to seeCONGRATULATIONS! written in bold and wrongly assume they are now saved because the tract told them so despit the apparent lack of conviction or understanding (I speak from experience in using the tract with one-on-one witnessing. Since then I simply tore the page out.)
3. Requires large Human Resource base: While EE may be good for those who wish to start an outreach ministry from scratch, there is an underlying presumption that said church will already have a pre-established discipleship program for members along with sufficient church administration to keep track of new visitors in addition to a health intercessory prayer ministry. Ergo, in an environment that doesn’t really have such ministries already up and running, the EE program probably won’t be very sustainable. (The same critique could also be applied to new church plants).
XEE
From the official website:
For more than 45 years, Evangelism Explosion has impacted lives around the globe by equipping believers to share their faith. Millions have been trained and they, in turn, have trained millions of others. This “spiritual multiplication” is why EE has been so successful. Equally exciting for us is that, every year, millions of people make a profession of faith in Christ through EE and hundreds of churches experience tremendous growth.
Now we have developed XEE, a new and effective way for Gen X and Y leaders to equip people in personal, relational evangelism. Through XEE, people become the type of witnesses that Christ intends for us all to be. XEE trains people to really connect with those around them and build stronger relationships. Using this platform, it’s easier for someone to share the Good News simply and confidently. Ultimately, we want to help people lead their friends to a relationship with Jesus. We invite you to get on board.
The XEE Gospel Presentation
00 Intro On a Scale of 1 to 10, how fulfilling would you say your life is?
What makes it an X? Would it change in either direction if God were in your life?
Many people think of God as Uncaring Uninvolved Dead
But that's not true. God wants to have a relationship with us and give us a full life.
01 Life Jesus, who is God's Son said"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)
Let's think about what Jesus meant by life to the full. He is not talking about our circumstances, or a feeling of well being, He is describing a dimension of life, rather than a quality of life. It's like the difference between virtual life and real life. Life to the full is life lived in real relationship with Jesus, and results in life both now and forever.
What do you think stops us from having life to the full?
02 Us We ignore God in attitude and in action. We rebel and separate ourselves from Him, breaking our relationship, which ultimately results in death - permanent separation from Him.
Ignoring God in attitude leads to ignoring Him in action. Because we ignore God, we end up living life our own way. Some of us do this in small ways, and some of us in really big and devastating ways that have significant consequences. We mess up our lives and we never find real fulfillment in life. When we live in rebellion to God, it affects and breaks our relationship with Him.
The Bible says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) "There is no one righteous, not even one; There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away." (Romans 3:10-12a)
How do you think God will react to us ignoring Him?
03 God "God is love" (1 John 4:8) On one hand God is loving, so He doesn't want to punish us.
"God is just" (Exodus 34:7b) on the other hand God is just, which means He must punish our sin.
God's love for us doesn't depend on what we do for Him. He wants to have a relationship with us. But no matter how much He loves us and doesn't want to punish us, He cannot ignore our sinfulness.
God solved this tension in the person of Jesus.
04 Jesus Jesus lived the perfect life.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was fully God and fully man. He lived a perfect (sinless) life. Being man, He experienced adversity - just like us - in the midst of social upheaval, depression, and crisis. But, being God, He never sinned. Because Jesus chose to obey, He lived his life to the fullest; being blessed by God and being a blessing to those around Him. It's the way life was meant to be lived.
So if Jesus lived His life to the full, what does that mean for us?
Jesus did something no one else could do because of who He is. Being without sin, He became the substitute for our sins, and by doing so, He has removed the barrier that blocked our relationship with God. He took our penalty, our sins were laid on Him and He assumed our guilt and our debt, and He rose from death to a life forever. This means we can join Jesus and live with Him forever. We're not covered by guilt or sin anymore, because Jesus has removed it.
The Bible says, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."(John 3:16)
Our relationship with him can start today, and we can have life to the full, now and forever.
05 Faith How do we receive this life to the full?
Jesus says, "I am the way the truth and the life." (John 14:6)
We start this relationship through faith, and receive this life to the full as a free gift.
Faith is not simply knowing in our mind the existence of God and Jesus. Faith is not temporary or fleeting.
Faith is Knowledge, Agreement, and Trust.
It is understanding who Jesus is and what He did for you, agreeing that He is in fact the Lord and Savior, and trusting in Him alone for life to the full.
We cannot in any way earn or deserve this relationship with God.
The Bible says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Trusting in Jesus is the only way by which we can receive this life He promises.
06 Response
The real life Jesus offers can start today and go on forever.
It's a life that lasts beyond the grave. Jesus offers us this life to the full. All we have to do is take it.
Would you like to begin this relationship with Jesus and have life to the full?
You need to: A. Admit that you have sinned against God, need to repent, and accept His forgiveness B. Believe that only Jesus can save, that He died, and rose again C. Commit to following Him as Lord and Savior
If this is the desire of your heart, then we encourage you to tell God by speaking to Him in these words:
My Lord and my God, I admit that I have been wrong in not following You. I turn away from my sin - I repent. Please forgive me. I believe that You paid the penalty for me on the cross and that You rose again from the dead to offer me new life. I commit myself to following You as my Savior and Lord. I want Your gift of life, now and forever. Help me to live for You by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Jesus says,"I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life."(John 6:47)
Review:
Pros: 1. Generational target: XEE is designed to reach out towards a specific taget group, that is GenX and Y. It notes the characteristics young people in today’s era have with regards to culture and aims to respond accordingly.
2. Contemporary teaching methods: XEE makes use of various multimedia technologies such as DVD and Internet rather than just face-to-face lecturing. Viewers are shown the method taught and demonstrated by young people who model the outreach target.
3. Use of natural dialogue as opposed to a “canned” presentation: As demonstrated in the videos, the XEE Gospel presentation was not so much a word-for-word recital of a formula, but rather came out as natural conversation that involved both parties.
Cons: 1. Shift from eternal to temporal concern: EE’s trademark feature is the proposal centred around eternal consequence: “DO YOU KNOW for sure that you are going to be with God in Heaven?” On the other hand, XEE is very much focused on Life here on Earth, proof-texting John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
2. Lure of life-enhancement: Following from the above, the underlying motif shifts from eternal welfare to a subtle suggestion of life enhancement; that life here on earth is incomplete and unfulfilling apart from a relationship with Jesus. It must be remembered that when Jesus used the word “full”, he was not necessarily speaking of improved quality, rather it will be full of the believer’s calling from God. And when we look through the scriptures, we do see that the disiples definitely lived lives that were indeed “full”: shipwrecks, stonings, imprisonment, persecution, etc.
3. Omission of the Moral Law: While XEE correctly quoes from Romans 3 to describe sin, it fails to expound upon the specifics of the Law as it’s EE parent did. The explanation of sin, morality and the Holiness of God thus becomes abstract and ad hoc.
4. Relational rather than Confrontational slant: XEE is unapologetically a relationship/friendship evangelism method. In todays age, Relationship/Friendship evangelism may seem like the best way to witness on the grounds that light of the fact that we live in a society that embraces relativism and political correctness, to suddenly approach someone out of the blue and “preach at them” about sin and the need to receive christ as the only means of salvation, hence it is better to build a level of trust until they seem confortable with issues of faith. Based on Australian culture, it seems that this should be the ideal way to witness. However, such an approach does have shortcomings if taken to an unhealthy extreme: 1. It becomes dependant upon the virtues of the messenger: The Christian has to exert themselves to be extra- attentive to their mannerisms, expressions and attitudes. While Christians are to be careful that they maintain personal holiness, especially among non-believers, we should be careful that we don't impose upon ourselves a degree of perfectionism that eventually leads to legalism, or worse, pride. Secondly, we may find that others within our friend's immediate social group that are also non-christians who just happen to be calmer, nicer, more gentle, attractive and outgoing than us! Consider the merits of the Apostle Paul as he described his own ministry in 1 Corinthians 2:1-51When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. Later when defending his ministry to the Corinthians, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:10 (New King James Version)“For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” Paul was clearly not the ideal candidate for relational witnessing. 2.One can become unequally yoked:2 Corinthians 6:14-18 warns 14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?15What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." 17"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 18"I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Being unequally yoked doesn't just mean having intimate relations with a non-believer (e.g., Boy-Girl Relationships, marriage), but it can apply to any kind of connection between two people from something as meaningful as a close friendship to something as disconnected as a business partnership. Either way, when a believer lacks resolve to be open and up-front about standing for their convictions and “earnestly contending for the faith”(Jude 3), eventually compromise will set in when the friend takes the more dominating role in the friendship to the extent that the Christian finds themselves unwittingly doing everything to please that person, even going as far as to deny faith in Christ when the friend openly declares to show no interest or belief in God at all. “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ”(Galatians 1:10). 3. People receive the saint, but not the savior: When the messenger is made sovereign over another person's salvation instead of God alone, it can lead to the potential convert making a decision for Christ based on what they see in the messenger, and not the actual concern of the gospel. Their “discipleship” consists not so much of growing in Christ-likeness, but rather emulating the characteristics of the person who led them to the point of decision: a charismatic personality, a successful lifestyle, intelligence, natural charm. Sadly, when the witness either goes through a “dry spell” in their walk and/or starts to backslide causing them to not be at a full 100% in their own Christian walk, the new believer can only be expected to follow and be stumbled. 3For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4They think it strange that you do not plunge with them I nto the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 1 Peter 4:3-4
At it's core relationship evangelism as exemplified by XEE presents a erroneus view of fallen man's relationship with God that is unbiblical on the grounds that the Bible teaches that the fundamental difference between belief and unbelief have nothing to do with a person's “Connections”, but rather their spiritualcondition:
5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.Genesis 6:5
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.Isaiah 64:6
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
21For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "Mark 7:21-23
19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. John 3:19-21
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Romans 1:18-27
10As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." 13"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." 14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15"Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16ruin and misery mark their ways, 17and the way of peace they do not know." 18"There is no fear of God before their eyes." 19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.Romans 3:10-20
7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Romans 8:7-8
3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.2 Corinthians 4:3-4
The Bible is clear that apart from the grace of God in the act of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, man on his own has no ability or inclination whatsoever to seek, worship or obey God. We cannot self-regenerate. Any attempt merely results in counterfeit religion at best. Scrpture portray the spiritually open-minded not as though they are humble “seekers” in search of God, but rather rebellious idolators trying their hardest to turn away from him completely. How does this apply practically in outreach? Listen to the words of the apostle Paul as he explains how he put this principle into action: 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18For the message of the cross is foolishness [gk. Moria, from where we derive the english word “Moron”] to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:17-24
There's a two-fold application in the above passage. Firstly, human virtue on it's own is not a contributing factor when it comes to salvation. When true believers gather together, there should be a sense of shock that those present are not there as representatives of the World's finest when it comes to whatever is considered hip, cool or successful. When you look at People Magazine's Top 50 Most Beautiful people, how many of those listed are in a personal relationship with Christ? We see this demonstrated within Jesus' selection of the twelve: uneducated fisherman (Peter and Andrew), unruly youths (James and John, the sons of Zebedee), a tax collector (Matthew), even a local terrorist (Simon the Zealot); these were those society considered expendible. To the humanist who wants to stand before God on judgment day thinking they're going to receive a trophy for how good they thought they were, all they can expect is a hard slap in the jaw by the sovereign grace of God.
Secondly, Paul clearly did not make attractional appeals to people at the worldly level in the hopes that it would lead others to Christ. If anything, he saw such thinking as a hindrance to the annointing of the Holy Spirit in his ministry. He desired to be completely reliant upon the grace of God in such a way that his preaching would point people to Christ rather than himself. It was not as though Paul was an inept moron; when we look at the issues he covers in the letter of Romans, it's obvious that he could have gone toe-to-toe with the intellectuals of his day and given them a run for their money; yet even so, when he was in athens among the philosophers, their response to his presentation of the gospel was "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" (Acts 17:18). When people reject the message of the gospel it is not because they personally reject you even though may seem to do so vocally, it is because “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned“ 1 Corinthians 2:14. Again, the difference between belief and unbelief lies not in the merits of man – in either the messenger or the recipient – but rather the supernatural intervention of God. How then are we to serve as the mid-wife of this new birth? “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15. On the other hand, if a person is convinced to “make a decision” for Christ on the basis of the very things Paul preached against in 1 Corinthians 1:18-24, don't expect them to last long as inevitably they will encounter people outside the church who display such things on a much grander level than those within.
In conclusion, XEE marks a vast departure from the attempts by D. James Kennedy to create an evangelistic ministry built upon a foundation of Reformed ideals. If anything, there is an underlying shift in churches’ soteriology wherein the emphasis is not on conversion as a confrontational experience wherein one is quickened to promptly be brought face-to–face with his sin, but rather as a relationship with a God who promises an improved life on Earth.
If D. James Kennedy were still alive, would he agree with the format of XEE?
A critical review of the Willow Creek Leadership Summit
Seeker-Sensitive Leadership?
Those who frequent this blog will be all-too aware of my concerns with regards to the outreach strategies espoused by churches that adhere to the seeker-sensitive model as demonstrated by the likes of Purpose-Driven Life authorRick Warren at Saddleback in Southern California and Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek in Chicago along with the newer “Emergent Church” movement that while making the claim to be a generational “response” to the former, nonetheless plays on the same proposition of “Christian-as-consumer”.
But what about the actual views of leadership and pastoral care that these churches put forward? How does the framework for outreach that these churches hold to fit into the broader paradigm that also incorporates leadership and the actual running of the church? Is it advisable for churches who seek to build a strong, faithful leadership core to heed the counsel offered at an event such as the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit?
First of all, let’s look at the speakers for the annual summits over the past two years: 2008 - Bill Hybels Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church - Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor, LifeChurch.tv - Brad Anderson, Vice-Chairman & CEO Best Buy, Inc. - Wendy Kopp, CEO & Founder, Teach for America - John Burke, Lead Pastor, Gateway Community Church - Chuck Colson, Chairman & Founder, Prison Fellowship Ministries - Efrem Smith, Senior Pastor, The Sanctuary Covenant Church - Bill George, Professor, Harvard Business School, Former CEO, Medtronics - Catherine Rohr, CEO & Founder, Prison Entrepreneurship Program - Gary Haugen, CEO & Founder, International Justice Mission
2007 - Bill Hybels - Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 under President George W. Bush. - Michael E. Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School. - John Ortberg, senior pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, California. Ortberg served as the teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church from 1994 to 2003 and earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Fuller Seminary. - Rev. Dr. Floyd H. Flake, senior pastor of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York in Queens and the president of Wilberforce University in Ohio. - Carly Fiorina, President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005. - Marcus Buckingham, author of four best-selling books, including his latest releaseGo Put Your Strengths to Work. In his books, he gives important insights to maximizing strengths, understanding the crucial differences between leadership and management, and fulfilling the quest for long-lasting personal success. - Richard Curtis, best known as the Oscar-nominated screenwriter for the popular British romantic comediesFour Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hillas well as theMr. Beantelevision series.
- Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States, from 1977 to 1981 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
The list includes not only Christian pastors, but also secular business leaders, and, in the case of Richard Curtis, a film-maker. Perhaps Hybels’ most famous guest was U2’s lead singer Bono when he did an interview at the 2006 summit:
But what kind of leadership model is Hybels really trying to create here? Is it merely a pastor’s conference wherein church leaders can receive impartation as to how they can lead their flock to draw closer to God? Is it an evangelistic event for secular leaders where the Christian speakers can hopefully engage them within their context with the intent of eventually preaching the gospel? While participants may claim both in Hybels’ defence, in actuality, it seems to be neither. Rather, by allowing leaders who are either Christians not serving in a pastoral ministry or mere non-believers an equal platform with ordained Christian ministers, the eventual outcome is syncretism where hopefully ideas can be exchanged, shared and implemented.
But how does this actually compare with the biblical criteria for leadership within the church? 1The saying istrustworthy: If anyone aspires tothe office of overseer, he desires a noble task.2Thereforean overseermust be above reproach,the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable,hospitable,able to teach,3not a drunkard, not violent butgentle, not quarrelsome,not a lover of money.4He must manage his own household well, with all dignitykeeping his children submissive,5for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care forGod’s church?6He must not be a recent convert, or he maybecome puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.7Moreover, he must be well thought of byoutsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, intoa snare of the devil.
Qualifications for Deacons 8Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine,not greedy for dishonest gain.9They musthold the mystery of the faith witha clear conscience.10Andlet them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.11Their wives likewise mustbe dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded,faithful in all things.12Let deacons each bethe husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.13Forthose who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
The Mystery of Godliness 14I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that,15if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.16Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: Hewas manifested in the flesh, vindicatedby the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. 1 Timothy 3 (English Standard Version)
After examining Paul’s criteria, it is obvious that not every speaker at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit would fit – let alone even agree with – what is actually required of anyone who aspires for a leadership position within the church. More importantly, the very cornerstone for Christian leadership is given in v9 and 16: the “mystery of godliness”; that is, Christ and Him Crucified. One that does not affirm Christ simply cannot contribute in any way to the operation of the church, no matter what practical skills they can contribute. Even someone like Bono, who may declare himself a “Christian” and employ biblical language plus engage in charitable activities mainstream Christians would agree with, still nonetheless holds to religious views that are muddy at best, blasphemous at worst.
According to John Macarthur: The church in those last ten or fifteen years has basically been in many ways co-opted or commandeered by the entrepreneurs. And the guys who can really pull it off, the guys who are the clever guys, the glib guys, the smooth communicators, the guys who are really savvy to the marketing strategy, the guys who have a lot of money at their feet who can access a lot of money and pull this off are becoming the success models for the church. And now they're getting all the kudos, they're selling books by the millions, they're creating massive websites and sucking up all kinds of other pastors and churches into the vortex of these entrepreneurial kind of culturally driven quasi churches. It isn't that everything they say is wrong. It isn't that everything they do is wrong. It is that the church is being run by market savvy entrepreneurs. That in itself has no connection to Scripture.[i]
Mark Driscoll on the dangers of “Eliashib and Tobiah” (Nehemiah 13)
The issue is do Christian leaders have the right level of trust in the sufficiency in the authority of scripture that they realize that the actually don’t need to look to external sources? Says Paul Washer: Over the last several decades there has been a mighty battle with regard to the inspiration of Scripture. Now some of you have not been a part of that battle, but many of us in more liberal denominations most certainly have, a battle for the Bible.
But there is only one problem. When you come to believe as a people that the Bible is inspired you have only fought half the battle because the question is not merely is the Bible inspired, is it inerrant. The major question following that that must be answered: Is the Bible sufficient or do we have to bring in every so called social science and cultural study in order to know how to run a church? That is a major question. Social sciences, in my opinion, have taken precedent over the Word of God in such a way that most of us can’t even see it. It has so crept in to our Church, our evangelism and our missiology that you can barely call what we are doing Christian anymore. Psychology, anthropology, sociology have become primary influences in the Church.
Several years ago, many years ago when I was in seminary I remember a professor walked in and he started drawing footprints on the blackboard. And as he marched them across the blackboard then he turned to all of us and said only this. “Aristotle is walking through the halls of this institution. Beware, for I hear his footsteps more clearly than those of the apostle Paul and the team of inspired men who were with him and even the Lord Jesus Christ himself.”
We have come to believe that a man of God can deal in certain tiny areas in the life of the Church, but when it really gets tough we need to go to the social experts. That is an absolute lie. It says here in Scripture that the man of God may be equipped, adequate, equipped for every good work. What does Jerusalem have to do with Rome? And what do we have to do with all these modern day social sciences that were actually created as a protest against the Word of God? And why is it that evangelism and missions and so called church growth is more shaped by the anthropologist, the sociologist and the Wall Street student who is up on every cultural trend?
All the activity in our church must be based upon the Word of God, all the activity in missions upon the Word of God. Our missionary activity, our church activity, everything we do ought to flow from the theologian and the exegete, the man who opens up his Bible and only has one question.
What is thy will, oh God?[i] John Macarthur continues: You know, the simple question is: what ever happened to the man of God? What ever happened to the man of God who is known as a man of prayer, as a man of deep understanding of Scripture, who is known as a Bible teacher, who is known as a godly man whose life is a pattern to follow, who is a discipler of others, who's a builder of spiritual leaders? And even going deeper into the issue, whatever happened to the understanding of the church as the body of Christ over which Christ is the head who Himself as the Lord of the church has already defined the ministry of the church and the content for that ministry and the leadership for that ministry and how that leadership is to function? It just seems as if we've pushed aside the biblical model. We've pushed aside the man of God.[ii]
Why then, would someone like Bill Hybels be so easily be persuaded to look beyond the precedent set by scripture and look to secular authoritires? The answer may actually lie within his Seeker-Sensitive evangelism model and how it relates to his view about the human nature:
Consider: the seeker-friendly model presupposes that – contrary to what scripture says about man being “dead in transgression and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) – is only partially wounded is his ability to know God. In essence, everyone is seeking after spiritual things and has a latent desire to know the things of God. The eventual outcome of this thinking is actually pluralism: if everyone possesses a latent ability to seek and know God on their own, then Christians are merely in a higher class than everyone else aboard the same boat. It is perfectly reasonable then, for the Christian to look outside the boundaries of the Christian worldview when practically anyone and everyone can contribute. Now let’s examine the biblical view of man: man is a fallen being, corrupted in heart, mind, body an soul without the ability to know God for who he is (John 3:19-21, Romans 1:18-32, Romans 3:9-18). God in his sovereignty elects a chosen few (Romans 8:28-30, Romans 9:1-24, Ephesians 2:8-10, 1 Peter 1:1-5) and regenerates them through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-8, John 6:44, John 6:65, Ephesians 2:4-5) which has been made available via Christ’s death on the cross which served to act as a set propitiation (John 10:14-15, John 15:13, Ephesians 5:25). With this in mind, logically we must conclude that it is the church alone that holds the monopoly when it comes to understanding the things of God. Ergo, outsiders simply cannot contribute to the Christian’s endeavours on the grounds that such knowledge cannot be truly grasped in the way that the Christian has been allowed to thanks to being born again through the Holy Spirit.
TIME
