Ir-Relevant Church?
It is amazing to me how many entities become their own caricatures. Well, Elevation “Church” in Charlotte, NC has certainly done it for the “seeker sensitive” movement.
Just in case you weren’t already thoroughly disgusted with seeker churches, listen to this short CLIP of their “pastor” describing his “church” as being not a place for believers and not a place to stuff your face with doctrine. In another video he makes fun of people who want deep teaching and more spiritual food. Nope, it’s all about “blessing someone.” If you disagree you’re a Pharisee. Wow (does the Book of Hebrews exist in his Bible?).
What is the true purpose of church? Instead of ranting off the top of my head, I’ll just quote Acts 2:42 -
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
So the purpose of the church gathering is for believers to gather to learn doctrine, have fellowship, take communion, and respond in prayer (see also Romans 12:10; 15:14; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; 1 John 3:11). If you are not doing these things at church then you’re not at church.
Yes, true religion involves helping others (primarily the church) and evangelism. But this is the responsibility of the Church – not the church service. If Elevation wants a tent revival every Sunday that’s fine - but don’t call it church.
(At least his HAIR is relevant!)
I listened to several of his sermon’s online about 6 months ago. He had, not just a sermon, but a series of sermons on himself. They were titled “Getting to know your pastor”. I have been in cults before, and Elevation church certainly has some characteristics of a cult. I guess he thinks that if you know the name “John Calvin” and know some theological terms, that qualifies you to bash John Calvin, theology, and all those who take the time to learn about them???
WOW! I suppose a part of me understands his frustration with people who feel the need to criticize every aspect of a church, but he takes that and runs with it waaay too far in the opposite direction. I can’t believe some of the stuff that came out of his mouth – talk about taking 2000 years of church history and throwing it in the trash.
I watched the video, and he kept speaking about Jesus. But who’s Jesus? He never said who Jesus is.
Wow! We are really reaping the disastrous consequences of anti-intellectualism in the church over the years. I must rant, just a little bit.
Didn’t God use the apostle Paul, one of those edumucated Pharisees, to write most of the New Testament (by the way, I think the other apostles were a little educated as well….Let’s see, they could probably speak more than one language, and they learned to read by studying and memorizing the Torah from the time they were little kids….they weren’t wasting time by watching American Idol; maybe they should not have spent so much time studying and reading about the deep doctrines of God)? It was Paul that wrote specifically on the nature of salvation and the gospel…. Romans, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, etc…. Did God make a mistake in using that overly educated, spiritually obese Pharisee?!!! Did Paul waste his time writing and teaching about the “deep” doctrines of the Christian faith? Instead of writing so much, he should have just told existing believers to not worry about deep concepts or doctrines and just preach Jesus! By the way, don’t Mormons preach Jesus too? Don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses, the New Age Movement, and the Church of Scientology preach Jesus? Maybe we should just all get together and preach Jesus at the same location. After all, they are such nice people.
My thoughts exactly Brian, especially towards the end there. I watched a video of Joel Osteen talking about Mormons where he said something to the effect of “They say they love Jesus, and I think we share that common bond.”. Who is this Jesus guy?! Come on people!
Something else just occurred to me. Where is the evidence that our churches are full of spiritually obese Pharisees who know all of these deep Christian concepts and doctrines, and they just want to come to church so that they can learn more and go “deeper” and do nothing with the knowledge they have accumulated? Isn’t the polling showing just the opposite? Aren’t research groups such as Barna coming to the conclusion that very few Christians actually have and live out a biblical worldview? If I recall correctly, his definition of a biblical worldview is very basic. From my own personal experience, it seems that our churches are full of biblically illiterate people who in reality don’t want to go deeper! Not only that, it seems that PASTORS don’t want to go deeper!!! When apologetics is introduced or talked about among pastors, how many of you out there have heard the excuse…. “well, apologetics is just too far above our congregation’s heads; they won’t understand it or even want to learn how to defend the Christian faith in the first place; besides, we should just preach Jesus.”
Alright, I better stop now. I think I’m going to be in a bad mood now for the next couple of hours. Thanks a lot Doug!
After a little more thought, I must add something to my previous comment. I think there are a significant number of persons in our churches who are willing to go deeper, but they are hindered due to the many pastors and churches that refuse to teach and equip them in such a fashion. But of course, we should just tell them to preach Jesus and serve. We don’t need those “deep” Bible studies.
The first church I ever “belonged” to experienced what you just said. After about 8-9 years, the core families at the church who had been there since the beginning really wanted to see more depth…something beyond the “God loves you” sermon every Sunday. The pastor and elder board were unwilling to change the structure and the church literally split in half over it. There were probably 120 people (the core families) who left and started a new church.
Oh Doug. Your just a spiritual jingoist (GRE word alert!) who thinks that your Greek conception of Christianity is the only right one.
J/K. Sweet post.
Did you see his twitter? I read three of his tweets and then got diabetes. http://www.twitter.com/stevenfurtick
Or perhaps I am simply an obnoxious and obdurate, anti-obsequious yet obstreperous (but never odious), omnius individual.
Two words for Steven Furtick – Tool Box
In way of explanation for the previous post, I figure that there was no point responding to drivel with substance. So I’ll resort to labeling. It seems to work for him. Maybe now I can be one of the cool kids too. I’m working on a faux hawk now.
There’s a fake twitter for him! http://www.twitter.com/fakefurtick
how is this post and the comments i have just read beneficial to the Kingdom of God? just curious…how many people have grown in their faith or been equipped to defend the faith through these “rantings”.
can you help me understand the point of this post?
It is beneficial in that it lets people know that a) the state of the church is not good and that b) not all Christians are caught up in that state. Many people have been blessed by this BLOG, in fact some have indicated that it kept them sane!
JJ,
Think about how many people have been encouraged through this blog. Do you think encouragement from other believers is important as it relates to building others up in the body of Christ? It’s encouraging to know I’m not the only one that notices the deficiencies in our churches and pastors relating to in depth study of God’s Word and defending the historic Christian faith.
When pastors consistently stifle rigorous study of God’s Word and defending the faith, this can be very disheartening! Thank the Lord for Doug, as he is just one vessel among others that God has used to encourage me to continue in my rigorous study of God’s Word and defending the Christian faith.