In the next few weeks, we’ll look at the atheist position.
Is it a valid option? Why do people pick that option? Can it be defended? Ect…
I’ll just start today by posting this ebook, The Infidel Delusion a great book that is, in fact, a response to The Christian Delusion.
I hope you enjoy this.
Here’s my final thoughts on this book… ( View previous comments here)
We’ll summarize ”Defining the vision”, ”Planting the vision”, ”sharing the vision” and ”implementing the vision” like this: Pray until God gives you your vision. Look around you and see who will be your target. Once you defined your vision, keep it a secret, share it only with influential people in the church, Elders, leaders, rich and ”Been there forever” people. Make sure you have them on your side before you tell the church. Choose ”dreamers” and not ”Detail person” who will ”relish procedures and policies”. But don’t worry, God will give the strategic order for your transition.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions here…
The chapter we are all waiting for is ”Dealing with opposition”
This chapter is very important because it shows you how ”Purpose-driven” pastors/leaders view criticism and you’ll understand a lot better why you have the impression to be screaming in the desert when you adress the issue …
First thing, it is never suggested in the book that critics or concerns could be legitimate.
Instead we read that opposition will come from those ”who do not understand”, ”who don’t like the change”, ”whose kingdom you’re messing with”, ”people whom the enemy controls” or ”who just love to be contrary”.
See, no opposition from people with biblical concerns… Notice also, how the criticizers/exhorters are discredited. They ”don’t get it”, they are ”Whiners”, ”prideful” or are simply ”controled by Satan”.
After reading that, let me ask you how you feel? Feeling good? Tempted to go Purpose-driven?…
Let me add a quote from page 114:
”Some people are leaders because they are visionary. Some people are leaders because they are noisier and more opinionated than other. In other words, they are control freaks. (Many pastors I know fit into this camp. )… …they perceive it to be a lessening of their control.”
And this one from page 115:
”I have not looked it up, but I am convinced that the Hebrew word for Sanballat means leader from hell. We all have Sanballats in our churches…”
I think you get the point… ”Who are you to criticize MY vision that God Gave me!?”
It is certainly not a wise approach to ministry. You can never be wrong, you’re in charge, no one can stop you.
We read in the book of proverbs, ”Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many adviser they succeed.” (15:22) and ”Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.” (19:20)
The last ”Key truth” of the chapter reads like this ”Be willing to let people leave the church.” He minimizes the importance of people leaving the church by saying this: ”People will leave your church no matter what you do.” (p.127). They in fact lost 300 commited christians and ”gained” 2000 unchurched.
So the christians left the church and the world came in. How did the world come in the church in such large numbers. Are they suddenly searching for God? Or did we dilute the message to make it attractive?
Jesus said that we would be persecuted because of Him (Matt. 10:22), Paul said that the natural man understands not the things of the Lord ( 1 Cor. 2:14) and Peter said that we will suffer for bearing the name of the Lord ( 1 Peter 4)
What motivates the unchurched to come in?
There are a lot of concerns about this book and the whole Purpose-Driven Movement and as you can see this is a very dangerous book for the church… Stay away!
You can find another review here
I’ll finish here with ”WOW” Statements from the book… ”WOW” Statement are simply statement that I read and just couldn’t believe a christian book would say…
On p.27:”We must have Biblical preaching for people to come to know Jesus Christ. But if good preaching alone would win the world to Christ, we would have finish the job long ago.”
On p.53:”Along our stretch of Flamingo Road are four different church facilities. There is a Methodist… There is a Pentecostal… The Catholic church reaches traditional Catholics. Our church reaches unchurched. … By the way- these churches are our teammates, not competition.”
Yes, you read it right, The Catholics are our teammates…
On p.89:”Some piece of vision should be shared in every sermon that is preached. We now organize our preaching and etaching at Flamingo Road around our twelve-step strategy.”
Yes…We preach the vision, not the Word…
Continuing the review of this very influential book… If you missed it, read part 1 here
It takes me a bit of time to read the book, I have to stop on every page, first to calm down then think and pray… But I was warned on page 15 : ”This is not a book about why the church needs to transition. If you need to be convinde of that, you will be frustrated here.”
I am now at page 95 of 173.
From the forword by Rick Warren,
”I believe the greatest days of the church are all ahead of us and I firmly believe there is hope for our older established churches who will take the risk of rediscovering God’s purpose for the Church.”
The greatest of the Church are ahead of us? Really? I guess Paul wasn’t aware of that when he wrote his second epistle to Timothy. ”The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons…” ( 4:3) Sounds exciting doesn’t it?!
And…What is risky with ”rediscovering God’s purpose for the church” ? We should take risks? I believe the risks Warren is referring to is the risk of losing members and mature christians. As we can read on page 127 ( Yes, I cheated, I had to read ”Dealing with Opposition” first…) : ”We have lost 300 who were already committed to Christ and gained 2000, most of whom were unchurched.”
A lot could be said about that last phrase… But we’ll save it for later…
In the first chapter of the book, ”Preparing for Vision”, we see that a vision is ”God-given” meaning that we need to pray, fast and wait for the Lord to give it to us. We want to see the ”Picture of what God wants to do.”
To illustrate his points, Southerland gives us biblical ”Support”…
On page 34, ”King David recognized that there is a set order when it comes to the relationship of prayer and vision : Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. (Ps. 46:10) Don’t miss that order. First, I must be still enough to hear God. Second, I will be able to know Him and what He wants me to do. Third, God will be exalted as His vision is carried out.”
Do I really need to say that Psalm 46 doesn’t say that at all… ? It is not a call to ”hear” what God wants me to do. It doesn’t say that God will be exalted because his vision will be carried out.
God is our strenght and our refuge, He is Almighty, that’s more the idea of Psalm 46.
Just another example, on page 30 : ”God gives us His vision when we are desperate. He speaks to us when our whole heart and mind and soul is set on Him. When we are really hungry and thirsty for God, we find Him. Jesus said it this way ”Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” ( Matt. 5:6)”
Notice how subtle, he starts by saying ”God gives us His vision when we are desperate.” then tells us that God will speak to us if we set our mind and and soul on Him, when we thirst and hunger for God, we find Him. Then he quotes Matthew 5:6 that sounds a lot like the last phrase he just said. Of course, Matt 5:6 has nothing to do with being desperate and waiting on God to give us His ”vision”. Click here, for a better exposition of that verse.
I guess, we’ve said enough on chapter one.
Just a note, If you read the book, you’ll see that the author walks through the book of Nehemiah, in the Old Testament, to illustrate that what he is saying is biblical. I’ll just say two things on that. First, be very careful when someone tells you that they found a new way to do church in the Old Testament. Second, he is reading the book of Nehemiah with the 8-step change model in mind.
We have an interesting statement on page 86, we read :”You have to read between the lines a bit to see that Nehemiah was careful to include all his leaders in the vision.”
I got a hand on ”Transitioning” by Dan Southerland. Another ”great” book from Zondervan…
The purpose of the book is to facilitate the transition to become a ”Purpose-Driven Church” and to do so, Southerland offers an 8-step plan.
As I was reading the book, I had the impression that the ”need” to switch from traditional to purpose-driven was based on a Business/Marketing approach.
It becomes very obvious in the Chapter 2, ”Defining the vision”, where he uses Peter Drucker’s (”The father of modern american management” to use Southerland’s own words) approach to business. We should adapt Drucker’s ”What business are we in?” and ”How’s business?” to the Church. We’ll look at that later…
First, I want to point out the 8-steps we find in the book and compare them with the 8-steps Change model from John Kotter. ( Kotter is a professor at the Harvard Business School and author.
| Transitioning steps | |
| -Preparing for vision | |
| -Defining the vision | |
| -Planting the vision | |
| -Sharing the vision | |
| -Implementing the vision | |
| -Dealing with opposition | |
| -Making course corrections | |
| -Evaluating the Results |
| Kotter’s steps | |
| -Create Urgency | |
| -Form a powerful Coalition | |
| -Create the vision for Change | |
| -Communicate the vision | |
| -Remove obstacles | |
| -Create short-term Wins | |
| -Build on the change | |
| -Anchor the changes |
As you can see some of the titles speak for themselves. For example : ”Dealing with opposition” and ”Removing Obstacles” or ”Sharing the vision” and ”Communicate the vision”. A bit less obvious, but saying the same thing… ”Making course correction” and ”Build on the Change”.
I think that’s the first step, knowing where the new purpose-driven structure comes from. It is not Biblical but it is a business-like strategy with a strong marketing approach. It is very important to understand that, if we don’t, Southerland will send biblical ”proofs” your way and you might actually believe he has a point… ( Note: These proofs are mostly verses taken out of context or twisting of the Word…)
We’ll go in details in following posts… Continue to part 2
