{"id":1129,"date":"2011-04-05T15:17:05","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T21:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.returningking.com\/?p=1129"},"modified":"2011-04-05T15:17:05","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T21:17:05","slug":"how-we-got-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/?p=1129","title":{"rendered":"How We Got Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from the author\u2019s upcoming book, Apostasy!<\/strong>\u00a0 This book will be based largely on the resarch work in the Wolves in Wool<\/a><\/strong> series on this blog.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

How We Got Here<\/h1>\n

The gospel message is – and always has been – by Christ, from Christ and for Christ.\u00a0 At any point this understanding is corrupted, apostasy is sure to follow.\u00a0 If salvation is not by<\/em> Christ, then it is by some other means which will ultimately take Christ\u2019s place as the author and sustainer of salvation.\u00a0 The most obvious example of this is the Roman Catholic Church, which after corrupting its gospel to a sacramental and sacerdotal system of works, became more important than Christ\u2019s own work in the church\u2019s now-corrupt doctrine of salvation.\u00a0 If salvation is not from<\/em> Christ, then it has another source as its guarantor which deserves our rightful worship.\u00a0 Most commonly in modern apostasy salvation is believed to be from one\u2019s own religious investments rather than Christ\u2019s grace.\u00a0 The common sentiment is that while perhaps Christ secured the means of salvation, the application of this provision is a uniquely human act.\u00a0 In that case, it is almighty man who receives the glory from the transaction.\u00a0 (Weren\u2019t you smart to have seized the opportunity of salvation for yourself when you saw it!)\u00a0 If salvation is not for<\/em> Christ, then it becomes yet another in a long line of readily available products<\/em> by which man\u2019s existence is enhanced.\u00a0 The gospel, in this circumstance, is not about God redeeming lost humanity to himself.\u00a0 It is rather about man \u201cfinding God\u201d and harvesting the fruition of that endeavor for his own use.\u00a0 This corruption of the gospel leads to an all-too-familiar man-centered understanding of atonement.\u00a0 That general misconception is that salvation \u201cwas all about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes very little self-interest for sinful man to defile the best of ideals.\u00a0 Once salvation becomes \u201call about me\u201d then it is only a mild step until a television preacher can convince you that indeed Christ suffered, bled and died so that you could have all of the comforts in life that He never concerned himself with.\u00a0 A man-centric gospel, when full blown, develops the local church into a self-help service center by which Christian products are doled out to meet the various needs of its constituency.\u00a0 It is not at all uncommon today to hear the sentiment on tele-church that Jesus died for one\u2019s debts, disappointments and diseases \u2013 without a hint spoken of sin.<\/p>\n

Several decades back this man-centered approach to the faith generated a church growth venture which captured the true spirit of American capitalism.\u00a0 While apostasy finds its mark in every generation, this movement profoundly changed the direction of the modern congregation; primarily in America, but around the world as well.\u00a0 Men like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren helped to pioneer the modern rendition of this crusade which systematically attempted to change the functional church growth model from gospel centered to growth centered.\u00a0 With a constant eye trained on a numerical growth oriented valuation, these men and others like them methodically brainwashed an entire generation of pastors into a success-oriented church growth paradigm (where \u201csuccess\u201d equals \u201cfilled pews\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0 Gone were the days of shaking the dust off of one\u2019s feet where the gospel was rejected.\u00a0 Instead, men were called to reinvent the gospel until it produced the desired results.<\/p>\n

As a young youth pastor in the early 90s I was taken to a Rick Warren church growth conference in Houston, Texas along with our church staff.\u00a0 I articulately recall his testimony concerning the establishment of Saddleback Church, the shining monument to the success of and therefore the presumed merit of Warren\u2019s growth model.\u00a0 He explained how he was able to establish a church that people would flock to in droves.\u00a0 Essentially, he visited door to door in their California neighborhoods, approaching the lost and asking them \u201cwhat type of church\u201d they would want to attend.\u00a0 After compiling the results of his exhaustive surveying work, long story short, he built a church that matched the market demands of his neighborhood.\u00a0 Warren continued to explain to us that we should spend less time worrying about theology and that no one in our congregations cared what the underlying Greek terms were for any portion of biblical text.\u00a0 Rather than boring our people with doctrine, he noted that we should focus on preaching twenty minute \u201chow to\u201d sermons on topics that were frankly, irrelevant to the legitimate gospel needs of our congregation.\u00a0 Our focus was to be on holding their attention (while they died in their sins, perhaps) with subjects like \u201cHow to Have a Healthy Marriage\u201d or \u201cHow to Raise Children to be Leaders.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0While I have no reason to doubt Warren\u2019s motives, I have every reason to castigate his methods.<\/p>\n

A new modus operandi was born as an essentially capitalistic approach to \u201cdoing church.\u201d\u00a0 New tactics reduced prospective converts to customers<\/em> and the church became a vendor<\/em> of market-tested self-help product.\u00a0 Some noted the paradigm shift as a gateway only, after which the gospel could be presented in small groups.\u00a0 The sad issue with this scenario is that the average \u201ccustomer\u201d will never desire to hear about their sin, condemnation and future destruction by God\u2019s righteous display of wrath concerning it.\u00a0 The truth was abandoned in all but the most desirable areas.\u00a0 Any difficult, challenging or scary parts were quickly replaced by the warmer and fuzzier in-demand doctrinal fodder.\u00a0 The gospel of Christ was slowly replaced by self-interested ear-scratching platitudes in large portions of the modern church.<\/p>\n

While Warren is only one example of numerous growth-oriented church model shapers, such program based, market driven methodologies became the \u201cchurch planting 101\u201d prototype from that time on:\u00a0 \u201cIf you want to plant a church, get a youth group to go door to door collecting surveys, find out what the people want in a church, hire a top notch implementation team who can deliver it and a good speaker who can sell it every Sunday.\u201d \u00a0We have now literally established in America a market-driven church model to enhance our overtly market-driven culture.\u00a0 The new message, gospel optional, is \u201cdo whatever what gets people in the doors.\u201d\u00a0 Of course, this \u201cnew\u201d method, at root level, isn\u2019t new at all.\u00a0 It is a warmed over, internet savvy recasting of the oldest religious shell game on earth.\u00a0 A big score has always awaited the one who could draw disciples off of the church, as the apostles continually warned even in their day.<\/p>\n

When huge areas of the visible church attempt a truly market-driven approach to growth, foreign issues necessarily emerge on the harvest field.\u00a0 Markets cannot help but to be competitive by nature.\u00a0 If the church\u2019s vision is to win market share, then every other local church becomes an enemy of the cause.\u00a0 A new competitive arena is then born whereby the goals and visions of the organization have nothing to do with the gospel, the corporate body or the ministry of Christ, but the success and veneration of the congregational brand \u2013 to the exclusion and repudiation of all others.<\/p>\n

Contrarily, the biblical<\/em> church works in concert with other congregations to share the gospel to a lost world.\u00a0 No legitimate church considers itself anything but an extension of the body of Christ in a local field. \u00a0A victory for another God-honoring church is a victory for us all (although God-honoring churches are now incredibly rare and hard to find).\u00a0 But a church which operates as a growth-oriented local business will find itself in necessary competition with other congregations; drawing off the dross of their rival by having a better or more marketable commodity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from the author’s upcoming book, Apostasy!  This book will be based largely on the resarch work in the Wolves in Wool series on this blog. How We Got Here The gospel message is – and …<\/p>\n

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