Quote:
During his weekend sermon, Warren laid out a plan for Saddleback's next "Decade of Destiny" in which he's anticipating exponential growth. And the plan has no room for fake Christians, he indicated.
"Let me just be honest with you as somebody who loves you. If you passively just want to sit around in the next 10 years and just waste your life on things that won't last, you probably want to find another church because you're not going to really feel comfortable here. Because if you're in this church, I'm coming after you to be mobilized," said the renowned southern California pastor.
They include: supernatural power through prayer, using everybody's language and every communication channel for mission, mobilizing everybody from kids to seniors, life-changing truth, loving support or fellowship, joyful worship, generous sacrifices and exponential growth.
"If we went back to New Testament real Christianity, not the fake stuff ... do you think we could reach more people for Jesus?" he posed.
End quote.
This is just a way to get rid of resisters, or perhaps in his own organization (its certainly not a church), those that aren't as quick to jump on whatever bandwagon Warren is touting.
Crossroad has done extensive research on PDL's way of dealing with resisters (those who don't easily go along with the PDL program of Warren's--he learned this from many others including Peter Drucker).
The short list (Crossroad delves into each one with examples and explainations, here I just wanted to be brief with the list titles):
1. Identify the resisters.
2. Assess resisters and determine the degree of resistance.
3. Befried, involve, and persuade borderline resisters.
4.Marginalize more persistant resisters.
5. Vilivfy those who "stay and fight".
6. Establish rules, regulations, laws and principles that silence, punish or drive out resisters
Here are some excerpts from the Crossroad article:
Quote:
Rick Warren is more subtle, and his references to health versus disease cloak his hostility toward "unhealthy" members who resist his agenda. In The Purpose Driven Church, he writes:
"When a human body is out of balance we call that disease.... Likewise, when the
body of Christ becomes unbalanced, disease occurs.... Health will occur only
when everything is brought back into balance. The task of church leadership is
to discover and remove growth-restricting diseases and barriers so that natural,
normal growth can occur."[1,
page 16]
Ponder the subtle suggestions and negative labels Pastor Warren attaches to individuals who question his purpose-driven management system:
"The Bible knows nothing of solitary saints or spiritual hermits isolated
from other believers...."[6,
page 130]
"Today's culture of independent individualism has created many
spiritual orphans—'bunny believers' who hop around from one church to another
without any identity, accountability or commitments. Many believe one can be a
"good Christian' without joining (or even attending ) a local church, but
God would strongly disagree."[6,
page 133]
"A church family moves you out of self-centered isolation."[6,
page 133]
"Isolation breeds deceitfulness."[6,
page 134]Emphasis added in each item
Notice the derogatory implication in each statement. We discussed some of God's special "solitary saints" earlier. Trusting God alone, they grew strong in Spirit. Those who have searched long and hard for a Biblical church with solid teaching and edifying fellowship may identify with what Rick Warren mocks as "bunny believers." And the "isolation" of a faithful Christian who obeys God's call to separation from worldliness and unbiblical fellowship produces purity, not deceitfulness. [2 Corinthians 6:12-18]
You saw evidence of Pastor Warren's holistic views in the chapter on "Unity and Community." Some of the following rules or principles also reflect a collective ideal. Violations open the door to various disciplines:
"God blesses churches that are unified. At Saddleback Church, every member signs
a covenant that includes a promise to protect the unity of our fellowship. As a
result, the church has never had a conflict that split the fellowship...."[6,
page 167] Emphasis added
"Rick's Rules of Growth.... Third, never criticize what God is blessing, even
though it may be a style of ministry that makes you feel uncomfortable." [1,
page 62]
End quote.
Again, the entire article can be read here. I highly recommend it, because while our old church was not a PDL church, they accepted Warren as a Christian, and treated those who saw their doctrine and practice as unbiblical, in the same manner. You might get encouragement reading the Crossroad article if you've felt alone in your fight for Truth.
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