Thursday, December 14, 2006
Posted by:
Kevin McCullough
at
1:52 PM
Members of the congregation at Saddleback Church, the church led by Rick Warren, are evidently being ushered right out of membership for voicing any concern over the idea of Barack Obama being allowed to speak at the church recently.
I received a lengthy letter from a member of Saddleback this morning that confirmed as much:
I read where you say, speak out. I want to let you know. If and when we do, we are quickly shown the door. I have tried to speak out on another 2 issues that are internally devastating. My honesty was not met with a willingness to take action or to make certain things stop. The inner workings may be just as devastating to learn of.
At any rate, I for one am praying and asking a great deal of questions. On I have is what has Obama actually done for the AIDS crisis? Other than take an AIDS test in his father’s home land of Kenya? I have read Obama’s speech record and even his latest transcript while on Larry King and this is clearly not a man that has a burden for those with AIDS. I have also read his speech transcripts from the conference at Saddleback. If he was not addressing the “congregation” then I am not sure who he was addressing. Any fool can read just the introduction and glean that much.
There is much more to be said, and much more will be revealed on this and other matters concerning these issues.
They are not alone. Members at Willow Creek Community Church were treated the same way when they expressed concern over Bill Clinton being allowed to address a gathering of pastors.
It's too bad that these "seeker friendly" churches are actually unfriendly to their own congregation for simply asking the spiritual leadership of the church to be doctrinally strong.
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The "Rev" Rick Warren has obviously made the choice between being a genuine follower of Christ and secular politics. In short, its all about ... Rick Warren. I now call upon all Christians to work a miracle -- let's transform his megachurch into a microchurch! |
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I'm not taking a stand on the issue of Obama speaking at Saddleback. What I am doing is trying to clarify some sanity here.
Saddleback Church is obstensibly a Southern Baptist affiliate, which means there are rules about setting up membership. They're supposed to be congregationalist. Which means that a vote would have to occur to remove someone from membership against their will. Has that occurred?
Now, if people are unhappy and want a change of pastors, again, that is a democratic decision that is dealt with by the membership.
What I'm saying is that if these people are objecting and not feeling any appreciation for their views it may be that the majority of Saddleback's membership sees a greater purpose to the AIDS conference than they do. That's not necessarily wrong. As far as I have ever read, the Bible does not say churches can't allow non-Christians to speak on secular issues within the church. If it did, I'm guessing Jessie Jackson wouldn't have a career.
I am more-or-less convinced that megachurches WILL fail. I don't think this was ever Jesus' plan for His body, to be that anonymous. So, if Saddleback splits over this or any other issue, I think it is simply God cloning the church and forcing them to "go unto all the world." It's pretty simple to figure that 20,000 members can easily mean that 90 percent of the members can get away with doing zilch ministry and have absolutely no accountability. A quick look at Acts and you know that was NEVER the New Testament church.
So, I don't see this as necessarily a good-evil struggle as God possibly forcing Saddleback Church to break up into smaller churches so they can get more done for the Lord.
On the other hand, we may simply be taking these statements by a few loud-mouths and thinking there is more to it than there is. Every church will have a malcontent or two or, in a church as big as Saddleback, several dozen who grow and feed off one another. They'll come up with conspiracy theories and myths about the leadership. Pretty soon, the public gets a wiff of it and comes to believe that church is "evil" when in fact, it's just some trouble-makers who would have caused trouble in whatever church and circumstance they happened to land.
So, let's not be so quick to judge. |
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Perhaps the problem that seems to be facing "Rick Warren's Church" is that it does not have a strong affiliation with a national church body.
If what your correspondent is saying is true, then the lack of an overseeing body that has determined what correct doctrine is and enforces it at the member church level is what's causing the problem. Congregations with strong doctrinal understanding supported by a national body and other churches to expound doctrine are more likely to survive incidents where one or more of a church's ordained leadership seems to stray from it.
Independent megachurches lead and run and owned by pastors John and Jane Doe are ripe for dissention and false doctrine. In fact, I believe they are breeding grounds for it. Does that mean that national church bodies are free from such things? Of course not. One can clearly see that many national church bodies are straying from pure doctrine and preaching false gospels. The schism going on in the Anglican Church is a case in point. Church bodies strong on promotion of pure doctrine are more likely to be places where heresy and the cult of personality fail to take root.
Every churchgoer should be watching to make sure sound, pure doctrine is being expounded in their pulpits. If the story above is true, it seems some feel the message is being lost under a cloud of political celebrity. That's not what a church is for. |
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