Awhile back, Steve Camp posted on his blog a satirical list of top ten signs that indicate you were in a bad church. The second sign, “Worship team performs their favorite Led Zeplin medley; with an altar call of “Stairway to Heaven”, is really not far off from reality. At least not at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Community Church. Scott Hill over at Fide-O, apparently visited Saddleback about a dozen times and shared his list of “15 Things I Learned at Saddleback.” One of them was “I learned 'The Living Years' by Mike and the Mechanics makes for a very sentimental invitation song after you have preached a message on respecting the elderly.” Yes, apparently they really did play that song for an invitation!
The more I learn about Rick Warren and his ministry, the more concerned I get. At one time, I thought that Rick Warren was basically solid theologically, even though I did not necessarily agree with everything he said or did. At least he seemed better than Bill Hybels and Willow Creek. But I think that is what many people think. Unfortunately, that may not be the case. The more I read about his philosophy and teaching, the more I realize he is not as sound as many think.
I recall when his book came out , “The Purpose Driven Church”. The book made some good points, but there were many things that I did not like about it. I recall a statement in the book that set me on edge, where he essentially slammed expositional teaching. And then of course we have his latest effort, “The Purpose Driven Life”. I received a copy of the book as a gift. The book proved to be a great disappointment. It did make some good points, but I just thought that it turned out to be quite shallow and just seemed to ooze with a man-centered theology. He often misused numerous passages of Scripture and used so many different translations of the Bible, many of which were loose paraphrases that had a tendency to distort the text of Scripture. The reason Rick Warren concerns me so much is that he is one of the most influential Christian leaders in America. The church better start exercising discernment and return to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, rather than latching onto the latest fads of the moment!
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1 comment:
You are too nice. :-) Warren is new age for sure. Unfortunately, all that is post-modern views expository teaching as part of the problem. The evangelical church has watered down and abused Scripture so badly, especially in the last 50-100 years, that the pomo and purpose driven crowd view it, and rightly so, as a major failing. Their solutions leave a lot to be desired though, as they are essentially tossing Scripture out as any kind of authority in the Church. There are very few churches teaching the Word and I believe that the number of such churches will decrease dramatically in the next few years.
Good post.
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