Purpose Driven or Scripture Driven? - Way of Life Literature

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An Analysis of the “Purpose Driven”StrategyBy Dennis CostellaThe following article by Dennis Costella is fromFoundation Magazine, March-April 1998 (FundamentalEvangelistic Association, 1476 W. Herndon, Suite 104Fresno, CA, 559-438-0080, http://www.feasite.org/Info/fbcprice.htm)After personally covering the Saddleback CommunityChurch “Building a Purpose-Driven Church” seminar held inSouthern California this past January, it became clear to methat some of today’s most influential religious leadersmisunderstand and misrepresent the true purpose of thechurch today. Dr. Rick Warren, pastor of SaddlebackCommunity Church and director of the “Building a Purpose-Driven Church” workshops, has influenced thousands ofchurches during the last decade that are interested in the“Church Growth Movement.” Without doubt, every churchin the United States must give, or has already had to give, ananswer to the strategies of building a superchurch. Sadly,many have already jumped on board. The possibility ofdynamic growth for struggling churches, especially oldfashioned,Bible-believing, Bible-preaching fundamentalchurches, is tremendously appealing. However, it isimperative to ask this question: “What actually must be donein order to accomplish dynamic church growth?” We mustwarn about Rick Warren’s unbiblical answer to that question.The purpose of this report is not to warn or challengemainline denominational churches or middle-of-the-roadevangelical churches to accept Biblical principles regardingchurch growth and to gain a proper understanding of the very98
nature of the church. No, these groups are already committedto a course of compromise. It is not surprising that the vastmajority of liberal and New Evangelical churches todayreadily fall for the superchurch growth strategy, for theyvehemently reject Bible separation and have long sinceadopted theologies and ministries that do not insist uponcontending for the Faith or for the inerrancy of Scripture.The Biblical counsel we would give to one who might findhimself in such a church is to come out of it and follow theLord’s leading to a solid, Bible-believing, Bible-preaching,separated and militantly fundamental church.The purpose of this report is, however, to exhort andencourage those churches that are attempting to maintain astrong, fundamentalist testimony. Our burden is for churchesthat are trying to stay true to the Lord and have experiencedlittle or no growth through the years as a result of their standfor the truth. The temptation to incorporate some of thetechniques of the dynamic church growth model is great.Who does not want to reach more people, draw a largercrowd or be more effective in ministry? Nevertheless, thequestion that every Bible-believing Christian andfundamentalist pastor should ask is “What must be sacrificedin order to gain more members and become a‘superchurch’?” After observing and evaluating theSaddleback Seminar, we firmly believe that if the “Purpose-Driven Church” model is to be followed, then fidelity to theLord and His Word must be sacrificed in order to gain thenumbers. It is important to note, however, that Warren doesnot say a church must be huge in order for it to be vital orhealthy; rather, he believes that a church’s health can beequated to its dynamic growth.So what are some of the changes that must take place for alocal assembly to adopt the growth strategy of the99
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Warren Tells Pastors to Get Rid of
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faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ
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which he or she is highly gifted an
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“The Bible says, ‘Self-help is
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On page 70, Warren quotes Hebrews 1
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lyrics. It is the words that make a
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appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ
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Saddleback Church features nine dif
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the book of Acts and the Epistles I
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Paul’s gospel is clear. It says t
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Warren’s Anti-fundamentalist Tira
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atheism and calling it “one of th
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smoke screen. It is a straw man. I
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instructed to follow in the book of
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orderline as possible” (Henderson
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"ATMOSPHERES ARE GOING TO COMETHROU
Page 48 and 49: to believe it myself; and that’s
Page 50 and 51: wicked than same-sex relations? Whe
Page 52 and 53: how sick and blasphemous this thing
Page 54 and 55: Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. PlanSpeaking
Page 56 and 57: “The church is not called to tran
Page 58 and 59: Roger Oakland rightly observes:“W
Page 60 and 61: absolutely nothing about kicking pe
Page 62 and 63: It is a sad fact that Southerland h
Page 64 and 65: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mar
Page 66 and 67: Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Bahai,
Page 68 and 69: clamour for a confederacy which wou
Page 70 and 71: American Baptist ChurchesThe Baptis
Page 72 and 73: Dr. Frederick Anderson, secretary o
Page 74 and 75: “Then the third day came. A stone
Page 76 and 77: eferred to as God in the Scriptures
Page 78 and 79: 100 “lesbian, bi-sexual, and tran
Page 80 and 81: “Through visualization and dreami
Page 82 and 83: Bono complains that the churches ha
Page 84 and 85: salvation is by grace, for instance
Page 86 and 87: Warren’s and the Ladies HomeJourn
Page 88 and 89: Is that not what “unconditionally
Page 90 and 91: Furthermore, if God doesn’t expec
Page 92 and 93: article; but to a Muslim, that’s
Page 94 and 95: Warren Doesn’t Mention JesusIn Ju
Page 96 and 97: Warren Predict’s A “NewReformat
Page 100 and 101: Saddleback model? From our understa
Page 102 and 103: on Sunday to all the church body, a
Page 104 and 105: church growth. While the contempora
Page 106 and 107: program) then the resultant growth
Page 108 and 109: away from the larger issue at hand-
Page 110 and 111: unreconcilable dichotomy between fl
Page 112 and 113: giants,” accepted his methods. Fu
Page 114 and 115: children of Israel could have said
Page 116 and 117: that the local New Testament church
Page 118 and 119: etrays its weakened hold on the obj
Page 120 and 121: e turned unto fables. But watch tho
Page 122 and 123: Paul had no target group! All neede
Page 124 and 125: Judge Not?The following is from our
Page 126 and 127: ingeth forth good fruit; but a corr
Page 128 and 129: must welcome and neither judge nor
Page 130 and 131: the law, but a judge. There is one
Page 132 and 133: About Way of Life’s eBooksSince J
Page 134 and 135: ecumenical; it is charismatic; it i
Page 136 and 137: Transformational Power of CCM. V. S
Page 138 and 139: variety of situations, including ho
Page 140: “The encyclopedia is excellent. T
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