Driving the Purpose Driven Church Out

Driving the Purpose Driven Church Out!

I will start by saying that most churches today are under attack from some sort of “movement” other than following God’s word and most are unaware of it, either because there is still Godly leadership holding it at bay, or they are in various stages of the change which is a slow methodical process. Matt 16:6 states; “Be careful”, Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees”. W. A. Criswell in a book of collective works of his sermons, wrote a sermon entitled “What shall I do with Jesus”? In it he gives an experience about an individual in a church he pastored. He stated: “ In the little country church where I once pastored, there was a man who was a chain smoker. He developed a little sore on his lower lip from which a cigarette always dangled. The sore did not go away, so he went to the county seat and asked the physician about it. The physician looked at it and said: “you have a cancer on your mouth that is very serious. Go to the city, to the hospital, to a specific surgeon. You must have the sore removed because it is dangerous”. The man returned home, and his neighbors learned of the cancer on his lip. One of his dear friends came to him and said; “It is expensive to go to the city, to that hospital, and to that surgeon. I have a little vial of medicine at home. I will bring it to you. You put the medicine on the sore, and it will heal the sore forever”! He took the medicine and placed it on the sore. The days and weeks passed, and the man went back to the physician. By that time the sore had worsened. The physician looked at him and said, “sir, are you not the man to whom I said, “you have a cancer, go to the hospital”? The man said “yes”. The physician said, “why did you not go”? The man replied, “doctor, a neighbor said that if I would use this little vial of medicine, it would heal the cancer and save me the time and expense”. The day came when that cancer ate away the entire lower part of his face and neck, and his tongue lay on his chest. This is exactly what Satan does to us when the Holy Spirit points to the Son of God. We are afflicted people. We are dying people. We are sinful people. Sin is not only a wrestling in this life, but it has to do with the judgment that is to come”.

We spend our time listening to the advice of others in the guise of “spiritual leaders” rather than coming to Christ Himself for the answers, on our knees and in His word. Like this example that Criswell makes, when we look to any source other than God, other than the Healer, we are led astray through sin, and by the wiles of Satan. God’s word is and always will be the consummate answer to all our problems if we will just take the time to read it on a regular basis, and hide the words in our hearts. John 14:15-18 states “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever– the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” If you read God’s word and hide it in your heart no one can sway you from the truth. The church was not meant to be a forum for the opinions of man through spiritual books, but a place for the equipping of the saints through the word of Christ and Christ alone!

Our church here in Southeastern Tennessee is an SBC church. We were still following God’s mandate up until our pastor of 23 years went home to be with the Lord. This was a church of nearly 1200 in attendance on a regular basis in a county that only has 100,000 people. There are of course many, many more churches here as well so, most people would consider this church one of the most successful ones. When our pastor died, several things took place; a period of confusion and mourning, a staff that decided they needed to take control (possibly because of the confusion) and the grave mistake of putting together a search committee that had no elders on it and no clear directive as to what to look for in a pastor nor how to properly go about doing so. I must note here that we were a Congregationalist church in polity by our founding by-laws and constitution up until this point, which means that we believe that all decisions are made by the body of believers through the Holy Spirit, not led by an individual or group of individuals.

After nearly two years of searching a new pastor was found, and promptly accepted by the congregation without any close scrutiny of his doctrinal and theological values. The first six months or so were rough, and most chocked it up to needing to bond with us and get used to his new position. This of course was not to happen, and people started leaving slowly at first, and at the later part of his tenure in large numbers until the apex where there were only around 675 left. A lot of these were those who believed in waiting to see what God will do, or were new people who came to our church from other churches because of the changes that were made to our church.

As for the changes; it started with a slow and gradual change away from worshiping God out of respect and reverence to a “feel good” service filled with loud music patterned after today’s music with some spiritual lyrics thrown in and a message that was primarily just pats on the back for how wonderful everyone was because we are God’s children. A salvation message if given consisted of “just turn to Jesus” with no mention of who He was, why we should do so, or how it takes place. After being in the pulpit for about six months the pastor introduced Rick Warren’s materials, 40 Days of Purpose and 40 Days of Community into the church and preached them from the pulpit. The staff was made to read and follow materials that the pastor brought in that pushed the church further towards a purpose driven church. At this time the direction of how the church was to operate turned into a business model. Many of the original staff were removed as “no longer needed” or “does not fit the direction we want to go” and their programs were removed. The music minister of over twenty years himself was routed out by bringing in a young music minister who was given equal status with the existing one, and given free reign by the pastor to change whatever he wanted along with starting a new service that separated the membership due to time changes and styles of worship. By the way, this young man who took over the music ministry position had a degree in philosophy and no formal music training, whereas our old music minister went to college for music as well as seminary and was an ordained minister, which this young man was not. After he had been in place long enough to compile a list of trumped up charges the pastor forced out the original music minister. It was at this point that my part in all this takes place.

What is wrong with following Rick Warren’s plan or anyone else who is into the seeker-sensitive or purpose driven movements you may ask? For one, you are following after the opinions of man rather than God. Secondly, this movement is set up where the younger generation is telling the older one’s how they are to worship, and how they are to present themselves to the community they are in. This goes against God’s ordained social order which has been in place since the beginning with Adam and Eve. Let me clarify; How many of you ran your household as a child or let your children do so? Hopefully none of you! That is precisely what this movement does! We hear from the pulpit time and time again how we need to change to fit the needs of the culture and tailor our way of worship to bring in the younger generations. This means a compromise by the older generations, to accept the ways of the younger, rather than being an example of Christ and let the Holy Spirit work in the lives of the lost! It also means a compromise of values and morals as our culture is continually falling short, so why would we do the same? We cannot save anyone in and of ourselves, it is the work of the Holy Spirit and we are just a means by which the Holy Spirit works through our actions and the way we live out our lives apart from the culture that brings about that change. If we change to fit the culture, what is different about us that the culture will recognize when all else fails for them and they seek answers that will work, namely having Christ as a foundation for their lives?

I will say that my involvement was due to a direct revelation of God that woke me up in the middle of the night and He gave me instruction that I was to stand up for my church. What I did not realize at the time was that the previous music minister who is a very godly man, had been praying for 30 days for a man to take a stand for the truth at our church and straighten out all that was wrong with the way it was operating. I found this out the following morning after I went to him to tell him I was told to make a stand. The man broke down and wept in front of me and proceeded to tell me how he had prayed for this to happen, but had not figured on it being me. You see, I am a 21 year retired, disabled veteran and was a First Sergeant for the last five years of my career. My bad days outnumber the good, and yet I was called to this task. If I have learned anything in life it is this: God chooses whom He will to do His bidding and far too often we fail to recognize this and dismiss those who would otherwise benefit us in some area that God would bless us.

My first move was to look at how we had done business in the past, and then look at all the changes. What I found out was that we never voted away our right to govern ourselves and in fact many of the decisions made in the past couple of years were both unethical and unbiblical. There was also a strong lack of proper leadership due to many individuals being hired by the pastor who were unqualified for the positions, and all had an allegiance directly to him. He had placed individuals in positions on committees and amongst the deacons to further his hold on the daily workings of the church. After compiling all this I went before the personnel committee to inform them of what I found out, and to tell them what I felt God had placed on my heart; which was that the church would fail if these things were not taken care of. The most important action amongst all this was giving back the right of the membership to govern themselves. I knew this action would not be enough, and by this time I had been actively seeking information on the internet about this “seeker-sensitive” movement. For the most part people are insulated from knowing the truth about these movements and do not know the down side. The good thing is there has been a ten-fold increase in the past year of information about what these movements do to churches that previously was censured. For every story there is more than one side and I was able to find it through men like James Sundquist who was gracious enough to help me find what we needed to make change happen. I, and my church are indebted to him for his help in exposing this apostate movement and indirectly with our eventual triumph over it.

After seeing the committee I knew they would not do anything in and of themselves without a push from somewhere, so I set out to find out who was for or against the direction the church was going. This was not hard as just taking a few minutes to talk to a person after church or when seeing them on the street, one tends to know where a person stands. I managed to get together several Godly men and women who were active within the church. Many of the men were deacons or influential by virtue of wealth, teaching positions, or in one case a lawyer. We held a secret meeting off church grounds to discuss the direction the church was going, and looked seriously at the Acts model for churches ( I have included a paper on this written by one of the deacons who knew we needed change at the end of this article), and we came to the conclusion that we must put forth the effort to try and make things right. If we did not, we felt we would be negligent in following Christ’s mandate that each of us were responsible for. After much discussion we concluded that we needed to start by going before the deacon committee meeting and present the way we are supposed to be governed to them. Since we had several deacons in our group, they were willing to take on the task. In the meantime the rest of us were to slowly work on the rest of the membership to find out where each stood with the way things were in the church. I went about getting all the info I could on the purpose driven movement and passed around flyers to each of the members of the group and started on the rest of the people I knew. I received a lot of great advice from James that I used along with a piece of writing that turned out to work the best, which was a one page piece by a pastor from Wilkesboro, NC entitled “The Purpose Driven Playbook for Church Takeovers” (I have included this at the end of this article as well). This K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) paper was like turning on a light for most who read it, and truly was a blessing in our work to bring the church back on line to biblical principles. I also received many articles from James Sundquist along with works by Bob DeWaay, Noah Hutchings and others that helped me understand what was going on and how to counteract it. This movement is like a snake slithering its way into the church unawares.

I will say this referring back to the way we used to do business in our church. The SBC some time ago did away with Elders as a governing group and put the control within the deacon body to perform both tasks. This is unbiblical! If we had direction from the elders at the start, we would never have swayed away from our original way of governing ourselves, would have had wisdom on the committee that sought out the new pastor, and would have had the necessary checks and balances to keep the pastor accountable to the church. According to Acts, there are supposed to be pastors (shepherds), deacons, and elders (bishops) in all churches. If we are to model the church in accordance to God’s word we must follow its direction in how we are to conduct business and who is fit to fill those positions. If we do not do so, we are not following God’s mandate for the church, but our own!

We were successful in getting enough of the deacons to see the validity of doing things in accordance with what was in the by-laws. This with some pressure was brought before the staff and made known that it must be corrected or we would lose many more members. After having our first business meeting in almost six years we were able to re-instate the by-laws. Not long after this, after many people approached the personnel committee and pushed for things to get straightened out or they would leave, the pastor was asked to step down. At this point we are now looking at re-writing the by-laws to follow what Acts shows is the proper leadership model for the church, and also give the elders a large say-so in who we accept for a pastor. We have decided also to stay without a pastor until we have sorted out who we are and how we want to present ourselves to the community. We are looking for an older retired pastor to step in during the interim to straighten out the staff and direction of the church before we accept a new pastor. This person will not be asked to stay on permanent due to the mixed feelings his choices will cause amongst the membership. As a side note: we have already seen a rise in attendance now that the pastor is gone, and people are also starting to give again (many of the older members had not felt led to do so due to the ungodliness in the way things were being handled). We have also seen many first time visitors, which has not happened in quite some time.

I must stress that all this came about after answering a call, much prayer, study of God’s word for direction, seeking answers from men like James, and took the better part of a year to see it come to fruition. If it is meant for your church to throw off this apostate brain-washing program, then it will be done in God’s time and must be done God’s way. It took many hours of talking to people, and looking up information that brings to light your particular set of circumstances. It also took being in God’s word pointing out to all who will listen, exactly what God’s word has to say about the way you are to conduct yourselves as a body of believers and where your particular church has gone wrong in following after man, not God. Church is for the equipping of the Saints, not a forum for entertainment. I will say for the record that I am not a deacon, staff member, or affiliated in any way with my church other than being a member and occasionally teaching a Sunday school class. My scope of influence is limited and as such, decisions were made during the process of letting go of the pastor that I am not in agreement with. One of these decisions was that the church signed a “no contest” agreement with the pastor, stating that we would not say anything bad about him, and he would do the same. THIS IS NOT SCRIPTURAL and should any other church be fortunate to throw off this program, I implore you not to do the same. This man is now free to go somewhere else and damage another church in the same way he did ours. This is also the reason this article is written in anonymity as I am not allowed to divulge who we are or to openly accost the pastor for his wrong-doing. I can only pray that God will now deal with the man, and those who have followed after his example. May this work be a blessing to those who need hope, and are looking for answers to their problem. If you recognize the pattern in this work, you should be looking hard at getting your church right with God, and purging your church of this filth. May God bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you!!

Written by a member of a Southeastern Tennessee SBC church that went Purpose Driven and purged it!

Church Leadership per the New Testament

There are 3 offices to be recognized for church governing per the New Testament model. They are:

PASTOR
DEACON
ELDER / BISHOP (the term “bishop” is used interchangeably with “elder” Titus 1:5-11)

Special Note: Apostles should also be mentioned as New Testament church leaders. The apostles were all appointed by Jesus in person and have since all graduated to heavenly places along with other believers in the early church (first century A.D.). Apostles were also counted as elders (see 1 Peter 5:1, 2 John 1:1 & 3 John 1:1).

PASTOR

(Ephesians 4:11-12) “¹¹ And He Himself (Jesus) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying (building up, discipling) of the body of Christ….”

Pastor means “shepherd”. You will find a true shepherd located with his sheep. He holds the rod and staff; instruments of guidance, rescue, correction and discipline. In Revelation chapters 2 - 3 the pastors of the seven churches addressed were referred to as “angel”. For example Revelation 3:14, " And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write ….” The word “angel” in Greek is literally “messenger”, and perhaps it’s why the pastor “brings us a message.” Read about all seven churches and discover that the pastors were responsible in largest part for the heart-condition and behavior of the worshippers within each of their churches.

The pastor is accountable to the Lord Himself and to the other elders of his church body, being himself counted as an elder. And because a pastor runs its day-to-day activities, it is reasonable for a church to pay him for his labor.

DEACON

See: Acts 6:1-7 & Philippians 1:1. The word “deacon” means “servant” as in “serve tables” (see Acts 6:2), but they needed to be men of wisdom (Acts 6:3 & 5… “full of faith and the Holy Spirit”), so we know that they were there to fill a greater need than simply being table waiters. They were put in place to see to the Christ-like distribution of the resources of the church.

Acts 6:1-6 (In this passage the word “deacon” is loosely referred to, but that’s what Luke means.) “¹ Now in those [early] days [of the church], when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. ² Then the twelve [apostles] summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve (“serve” is the Greek word “diakonein” = root word for deacon) tables. ³ Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; ⁴ but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ ⁵ And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, ⁶ whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.”

The reference to deacons in 1 Timothy is very similar to that in Acts 6 (1 Timothy 3:8-13), “⁸Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, ⁹ holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. ¹⁰ But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. ¹¹ Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. ¹² Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. ¹³ For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Although deacons should take performance instructions from the pastor (shepherd) they are accountable for their behavior to the elders as well. Deacons are to manage the dispensing of the church’s resources to needy members in both an equitable and Godly manner. They are in place to see that wisdom and personal Christ-like compassion is exercised in caring for the physical needs of the membership inasmuch as the individual church has means. In so doing the deacons declare to the world, through their ministry of resources, that the church can and will care for its members, thus becoming a spiritual witness to the world outside. John 13:35… “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Deacons serving a group of families within a local church, such as a “family ministry plan”, is a really good model of this New Testament picture.

ELDER / BISHOP

There is so VERY much written in the New Testament about elders (or bishops) that it seems unbelievable that Southern Baptists have largely done away with the office in practice. Elders are “overseers”, the guides of the church. Less mature members are urged to imitate their love, Christ-like behavior and dedication to the work of the church.

“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.’” (1Peter 5:5) For a member of a local church to say, “I don’t want to be governed by a group of elders”, is an audacious and un-Godly testimony. A statement indicating gross spiritual immaturity or a lack of Bible knowledge.

In Titus 1:5-11 we learn that the terms “elder” and “bishop” are the same function. Furthermore, in every church Paul commanded Titus to appoint a body of elders. Confirm this within the following context… “⁵ For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you— ⁶ if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination (a lack of accountability). ⁷ For a bishop (see in verses 5 & 7 how “elder” and “bishop” used interchangeably) must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, ⁸ but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, ⁹ holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict (make judgments concerning the church). ¹⁰ For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, ¹¹ whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.” And in Acts 14:23, “So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

To be clear, per the above, there were to be elders appointed in EVERY church. And, to be clearer, there are to be multiple elders in each church… if you would say, a “board of elders” or a “council of elders”. The New Testament references for this are many: Acts 11:27-30, 15:2-23, 16:4 & 20:17 & 28-35(overseers), and 1 Timothy 4:14 & 5:17-19, and 1 Peter 5:1-4. In Philippians 1:1 we see bishops (overseers or elders) being addressed by Paul separately from deacons, one more indicator that the offices and functions are not the same.

In the above and in the following the qualifications for elders are rigorous and clearly stated: (1 Timothy 3: 1-6) “¹ This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. ² A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; ³ not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴ one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence ⁵ [for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?]; ⁶ not a novice [rather experienced], lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.”

As related in the above, the elder has very much a judicial role. See Titus 1:9… “to exhort and convict those who contradict….” This fits with the protocol Jesus gave us regarding a brother who sins against another brother (Matthew 18:15-17). In that protocol the third and last alternative is, “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.” The “church” herein does NOT mean “an open business meeting” as there are too often those present who are spiritually immature (see Galatians 6:1). Rather “tell it to the church” here means the elders who have authority to judge between quarreling members. Paul referred to the same thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 6… “Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?”

The elders’ authority doesn’t end with spiritual matters in the church. See James 5:14, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

In John’s Revelation there are the mention of “twenty-four elders” in precisely 12 passages, (Revelation 4:4 & 10, 5:5-6, 8, 11 & 14, 7:11 & 13, 11:16, 14:3 and 19:4). Scofield’s notes suggest, “These elders represent the church. The very word ‘elder’ has church significance,” (referenced at Revelation 4:4). It should again be asked if we can pass by so lightly such an importantly taught New Testament doctrine?

It is the combined wisdom of the elders in each church body, reflecting the Word of God and in the Spirit, that holds the pastor (and his staff) to accountability for selfless service in all that he and they do.

Authority & Accountability:

We are all to be under authority, Matthew 8:8-10 & 28:18 and Luke 19:17. “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account.” (Hebrews 13:17)

Each individual church, additionally, should be accountable to a standard setting authority grounded in the Word, for example the Southern Baptist Convention. Within the early church the apostle Paul seemed to be his own “convention”. The Southern Baptist Convention holds each church body to a basic set of standards which, if violated, can bring expulsion consequences.

An interesting observation regarding this accountability issue in the church is the note in Acts 6:5… “And the saying pleased the whole multitude (of disciples).” Here the apostles call upon the “…multitude of the disciples…”, making them a part of a resolution to a problem affecting the non-Hebrew segment of the church, the distribution of resources to “Greek” widows. So, we have what may be the first church “business meeting” (see the word “business” at the end of verse 3 of Acts 6). The result of this gathering was the appointment of seven deacons to equitably serve the body.

Without accountability in the church there will, sooner or later, be self-serving behavior manifest, division and ugly conflict.

Conclusion:

As mentioned already, Southern Baptists have incredibly, in most of their churches, done away with the Council of Elders concept. Instead the deacons have been looked to for the fulfilling of two roles, that of deacon and that of the Council of Elders. This has been both a functional and doctrinal error. The church’s mission and the church itself have suffered as a result.

A word about unity in the body. This paper began with a quote from Ephesians, chapter 4 (see following “PASTOR” on pg.1) and ending at verse 12. Picking back up at that point… “¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting….” Although unity in the body of Christ is a very important character, as described here it is not simply having a unanimous vote in a church business meeting, rather unity is found in our faith in Christ and the knowledge of Him with the purpose of bringing us in line (accountable) to the “fullness of Christ” . Unity, therefore, at the expense of sound Bible teaching, and obedience to the Word, is too high a price to pay for the sake of simply being unified. And furthermore, a church body in business meeting having a unanimous vote does NOT determine, nor necessarily reflect the will of God. It is very dangerous to say, or even imply, that the Father’s will is determined by the taking of a vote. The will of God for believers is rather our living in obedience to and submitting ourselves to His Word.

If the operations of any local church do not include functional and Biblically defined accountability, then it will eventually fail. In so failing it will be an ill witness for the Kingdom and cause many to reject our Lord’s gracious salvation. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)