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:
1. PASTOR
2. DEACON
3. 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)
THE PURPOSE DRIVEN PLAYBOOK FOR CHURCH TAKE OVERS
In the past ten years a lot
of churches in America and in other countries have changed from
a traditional New Testament church model to a contemporary Purpose
Driven model, most with sorrowful pitiful results. Thousands
of churches have split, closed, or had significant reductions
in attendance. Most churches, after having a brief upsurge in
growth, either reverted back to their original size or suffered
church trauma by introducing the PDC model in their congregation.
It is important that EVERY church member know if their church
is targeted for a PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH (PDC) takeover. Initially
a small clique of church staff including the pastor plans the
change without telling the rest of the church membership. Church
Transitions (a PDC training
arm) trains the clique initiating the change in eight steps.
The church is not to be informed of the transitions until the
fourth step. After the sixth step if there are some members in
the church who voice concerns the following is suggested:
#1- Identify those who are resisting the changes.
#2- Assess the effectiveness of their opposition.
#3- Befriend those who are undecided about changes.
#4- Marginalize more persistent resisters or questioners.
#5- Vilify those who stay and fight.
#6- Establish new rules that will silence
all resistance. Then the members either accept the changes or
leave the church. Rick Warren, author and director of the PDC
movement, says,' When you reveal the vision to the church the
old pillars are going to leave. But let them leave ... they only
hold things up.' So what are the signs that your church is targeted
for a PDC change?
#1- Change in music to a contemporary rock style.
#2- Removal of hymn books...often words on a screen.
#3- Elimination of the choir or introducing a choral 'entertainment
type' singing group. (Repetitive praise lyrics
are used).
#4- Replacing the organ/piano with rock music type instruments.
#5- Dressing down to casual informal attire.
#6- A repetitive 40 day PDC study program stressing psychological
relationships with each other, the community and the world.
#7- Sunday morning, evening, and/or Wednesday prayer meetings
are changed to other times, named differently or eliminated.
#8- New
versions of the Bible are used.
#9- The decor may be changed to eliminate any resemblance to
the 'former church.'
#10- The name 'church' is often removed and may be called a 'campus.'
Denominational names are often removed.
#11- An emphasis on more fun and party times for the youth.
#12- Elimination of altar calls or salvation invitations.
#13- The elimination of such words as 'unsaved, 'lost, 'hell,
and 'sodomy.'
#14- Reclassification of the saved and lost to the 'churched'
and 'unchurched'
#15- The marginalizing or ostracizing of all who are not avid
promoters of the new PDC program.
Written by the pastor of a Wilkesboro, NC church who went through
this training
