Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
By Charles Spurgeon
An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it during the past few years. It has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. Read More
It is probably a step in the right direction when you hear that Perry Noble has used the word “sorry” in a sentence. Many times I have had to send my kids out of the room when he has appeared on television. What? Not only because he played “High way to Hell” as a worship song and declared his sermons are PG-13 rated. No, my concerns are much deeper as he holds the office of pastor yet displays such a lethargy to wards godliness that he is more than a distraction to the preaching of the gospel. It’s good to see that my concerns over his course language, aberrant theology and conduct have been shared by many. And you see….
After South Carolina Pastor Perry Noble apologized to his congregation for criticizing those seeking more discipleship, a Christian apologist and radio host said a simple apology isn’t enough. He suggested that Noble go on a “Repentance Tour.”
Chris Rosebrough, host of Fighting for the Faith, noted on his program that the public apology was a step in the right direction, but he also doesn’t think Noble should stop there.
“I personally think that at this point the magnitude of the error disqualifies Perry Noble from being a mentor to pastors,” he said. Because Noble made those statements at a leadership conference for pastors, Rosebrough said he has to do more to undo the damage of those statements than just apologize to his congregation.
The controversial comments were made at a 2009 conference called Unleash, an annual leadership event conducted by Noble’s church, NewSpring.
During his session, Noble told pastors that “the person that always screams I want to go deeper” is “the jackass in the church.” …Read More!
After listening to Matt chandler’s barn burning sermon at Elevation Church’s Code Orange 2012 Revival my heart was uplifted. He preached the law and the gospel, repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. He also decried the “me centred” seeker sensitive tendencies in the church. Yup, all in one sermon. The red mist fell and his sermon re-plays were taken off program but young Matt had already done a job worth commending him for.
I am excited to see who will be inviting him next. Surely this invitation may have been made long before the Code Red Orange Revival but it sure will be an interesting one (if it ever happens). Perry Noble and New Spring church (a mega church with over 14,000 congregants) will be hosting Matt Chandler soon! …Read More!
Where did we ever get the idea that people can save other people, and even save themselves? Sure, nobody comes right out and says that, but you can tell that they think it. It’s amazing how this one theological error upstream ends up causing an entire evangelism epidemic downstream. No, theology is not useless “head knowledge”, it impacts our actions. And in this case, bad theology has produced an entire errant evangelistic system.
The problem that we are seeing today, is that church leaders believe that people can control when and if the New Birth occurs. Here’s one example with scenes from an actual church service:
We are warned of the problem in Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God:
“If we forget that it is God’s prerogative to give results when the Gospel is preached, we shall start to think that it is our responsibility to secure them. And if we forget that only God can give faith, we shall start to think that the making of converts depends, in the last analysis, not on God, but on us, and that the decisive factor is the way in which we evangelize. …Read More!
Imagine a book authored by James Emery White (an intelligent spokesman for many of the seeker movement’s ideas) and (not to be confused with the Reformed Christian apologist James R. White) he is also the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church, a megachurch in Charlotte. The same book is endorsed by people like Geoff Surratt from Saddleback, Jim Mellado from the Willow Creek Association, and Marshall Shelley from Leadership Journal. The Foreword is by (wait for it, yup) Perry Noble and includes blurbs from Bill Hybels and Rick Warren.
James Emery White’s latest book, What They Didn’t Teach You in Seminary: 25 Lessons for Successful Ministry in Your Church (Baker 2011) will teach you a couple of therapeutic moralistic things to do to enhance your church experience but a review of it by Kevin DeYoung succinctly noted that:
1. Theology felt strangely irrelevant throughout the book. It would not be at all fair to say White or other seeker church leaders don’t care about theology or that they don’t affirm orthodox theology. They do, on both accounts. But it feels assumed at best and a necessary nuisance at worst. In his introduction Noble explains that he dropped out of seminary because he didn’t want to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on something that didn’t really equip him for ministry in the real world. No one cared about TULIP, Noble observes, or Christ’s impeccability for that matter, or fancy theological words or lectures on church history. I don’t doubt that many people in many churches don’t give a rip about theological terms or concepts. But just because they don’t doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. Maybe our people fall asleep when we wax on about justification or imputation because we are frankly bored ourselves. Maybe we haven’t been gripped by the great doctrines of the faith. Maybe we haven’t done the spade work in the text and in our hearts to see how the doctrine of Trinity or the incarnation or limited atonement is massively relevant.
I sometimes wonder if seeker church pastors have heard theology presented so badly and seen it applied to real life so poorly that they’ve concluded that theology is the problem. …Read More!
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 