In my last post I had mentioned that Julie and I were able to attend the The Leadership Summit that is put on by Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Community Church. The event was originally held back in August at Willow Creek,near Chicago, where almost 8000 people were in attendance. This past weekend the videos from that conference were shown at the conference we attended in Glasgow, as well as many other cities around the world. We had somewhere between 400-500 people in attendance at the Queens Park Baptist Church in Glasgow. The fact that that many people showed up to watch videos of the conference in Scotland is pretty amazing. It is very hard to get that many people to show up for any church related events here in Scotland. I think one of the reasons for that is the line up of speakers. Of course Bill Hybels spoke and there were other pretty high profile speakers as well. Most notably though was Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback Community Church in California. He is most well known now though as the author of the Purpose Driven Life. I have to admit for several years I have been a big promoter of him and his books but I'm afraid it's possible that I was decieved by some very slick marketing. In fact I hadn't even thought about taking a closer look until this past summer when I received an e-mail from him prior to the G-8 summit which was held in Scotland this year. The e-mail was basically a promotion of the 'One Thing' campaign to wipe out debt and poverty in third world nations around the world but mostly focussing on the continent of Africa. I am all for reaching out to the poor as the bible is very clear on our responsibility to do so. The thing I didn't like about the campaign is that it was about linking arms with celebrities like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Bono and many more. I would rather do something with established Christian ministries that have already been doing this sort of thing for years. I guess my point is that it would be better to put my support behind something that's ultimately going to give the glory to God and lift up Christ's name. I don't think non-Christian celebrities are going to do that and I don't think God needs their help just because they are really famous. So, I refused to sign the petition or whatever it was they wanted me to to sign and I explained why. Well, one week later I got another e-mail thanking me for joining the 'One Thing' campaign from Rick Warren (It had his name on it so I'll give him the credit). This, to say the least made me a bit angry because I know they set up the e-mail so that once you've opened it you've signed on. Talk about decptive marketing practices. Why does the church need to stoop to these measures? Do we not believe in the Holy Spirit's power anymore? If that were all though I would most likely have left it alone and not mentioned it here but there is more. During the conference, Rick Warren, while sharing his global P.E.A.C.E. plan had mentioned that we need a new reformation but this time it shouldn't be about creeds, it should be about deeds. First of all there are plenty of people out there doing good deeds in the name of Christ in some very poor obscure places but we don't hear much about them because unlike Rick Warren, Bob Geldof, Bono, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and the rest of them, their not drawing attention to themselves. Check out what Jesus had to say about this: "Be careful not to do your `acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." I am all for stepping the effort to help out these impoverished nations but we don't need to exchange sound doctrine for good deeds, they should run together. As a matter of fact, I strongly believe that the church is in a worse state now than prior to the reformation in the 1500's. Check out 2 Tim. 3-4 and tell me that doesn't describe what you see today. More than anything the church needs to get back to the basics of expositional bible preaching and teaching and from that there will be an overflow of deeds.
Another thing Rick Warren mentioned while digussing his personal finances is that he doesn't know of any preachers out there doing it for money. Is he kidding me? Has he not heard of Benny Hinn and most of the people you see on the Trinity Broadcasting Network? Unfortunately, they're all over the place and sadly they are exporting their false doctrines all over the globe.
Well, that's enough for now. Check out these links for more info. on this subject.
http://www.letusreason.org/Popteac26.htm
http://www.svchapel.org/Resources/articles/read_articles.asp?ID=112
http://www.ministrywatch.com/mw2.1/pdf/MWDA_053105_BennyHinn.pdf
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