The Purpose Drivel Church III
This is the 3rd part of my series examining Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Church. In this article, we shall see how Mr. Warren has set aside what Scriptures say is the purpose of the Church. Chapters 3 (What Drives Your Church?), 4 (The Foundation for a Healthy Church), and 5 (Defining Your Purposes) are all intertwined, and in these chapters, Warren essentially redefines the purpose of the Church (and consequently of every local assembly).
Warren submits that churches must be driven by purpose. That in itself is not an unScriptural statement. Where things go bad is that Mr. Warren has defined his own purposes for the Church. In my last article, I asked from where he got his five (5) purposes from. I showed how he twisted Scriptures in an attempt to prove that God requires his man-made purposes in other to produce growth in each local congregation.
Yes; these chapters do contain good things, but no false teaching is presented totally stripped of good and acceptable things.
In this article, I will simply present to you what the Bible says is God’s purpose for His Church, and you can compare it with what Mr. Warren says are the purposes of the Church.
Romans 8:28-29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
and
Ephesians 4:11-13
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
This is God’s purpose for the Church: to bring men to the fullness of the stature/image of Christ. And Scriptures is clear that the means of doing this is the teaching/preaching of the Gospel. This is why all ministry gifts as listed in Ephesians 4:111 are all teaching and/or preaching roles.
Warren’s Five (5) Purposes
Warren mixes up two totally unrelated passages of Scripture – one in which an instruction is given about life to all, and the other in which instruction for ministry is given to a specific set of people, pours it into the broth and comes up with five (5) purposes for all churches to run with:
1. Love the Lord with all your heart. Mr. Warren alludes this to worship. Really? I thought the first thing about loving the Lord is obedience to Him? Note that Warren later uses obedience to push purpose number 5. So, as a matter of fact, there should be four (4), not five, if we are to consider this discrepancy. Surely, this is playing pranks.
2. Love your neighbour as yourself. Mr. Warren says this is how he arrived at “ministry”. But to love your neighbour is not ministry; it is life. Love is the way of life of the believer; not a ministry.
3. Go and make disciples. Mr. Warren pens this down to evangelism. But in reality, again, purpose number five (5) – teaching them to obey is as much a part of making disciples, as is evangelism. So, we should be down to three (3) purposes instead; shouldn’t we be?
4. Baptising them. Okay; this is a big one. If he lists baptism, why should we not add holy communion? But note that baptism is part of the discipleship process too. So are we down to just two (2) purposes or what?
5. Teaching them to obey. Well, as we have seen, if we love the Lord, we will obey all He commands. And we have also seen that teaching people to obey Scriptures is part and parcel of the discipleship process.
Even if we were to accept the two passages that Mr. Warren has sooked up his five purposes from, we would ultimately arrive at two (2) points only; not five. And those points would still not be thye purposes of the Church.
The God-ordained purpose for the Church is that men come to the fulness of the stature of Christ.
The Church Re-defined
Not only has Warren re-defined the purpose of the Church, he has also subtly re-defined what the Church is itself.
All through this book, Mr. Warren makes statements like, “if you are providing a service where they [members] can bring unsaved friends without embarassment…” This is really what he means by a church being purpose-driven or seeker-sensitive.
But Biblically, are Church meetings supposed to be adjusted to make unsaved people comfortable? Are church meetings supposed to be for unbelievers? Is it proper to invite unbelievers to Church meetings? We shall turn to Scriptures.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
When we make it a practice to invite unbelievers to Church meetings (under the excuse of evangelism), what we are in effect doing is creating a scenario in which light fellowships with darkness. It is an abomination.
Acts 2:40-47
40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Those who believed fellowshipped together. And only those who got saved were added to their company or congregation. This unholy mixture that we call a seeker-sensitive church is nothing but evil. God set aside His redeemed, and men mix them back together in church meetings!
Mr. Warren is promoting a very unScriptural concept in teaching that unbelievers be invited to church meetings.
The Church
The Church is made up of the saved, the redeemed, and the sanctified. When the Church meets, only those who profess Christ should be there. While exceptional situations may happen in which an unbeliever walks in, as we see from Scriptures, that unbeliever will either be convicted and get saved, or be offended and not return.
Of the World?
1 John 4:5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
The world does not listen to us. They hate what we have to say, and except God brings a man to conviction, he will not hear. If unbelievers return to a church again and again, and are comfortable there, that church is not preaching the Gospel.
When an unbeliever hears the Gospel, there are only two possibilities:
1. He is convicted, repents and is saved
2. he is offended and hates the message, the messenger and the One who sent him
Check your Scriptures. Unbelievers cannot and will not be comfortable in a place where the Gospel is preached. Their discomfort will either lead to salvation or offence.
The Church is NOT a hospital where the sick come. The Church is the called out ones; those who have been separated by God to Himself, and who fellowship under the banner of this great truth.
Biblically, believers evangelized outside, then brought in those who got saved. Those who do otherwise pollute our gatherings, and rebel against God’s plans, purposes and commandments.
Chasing the Goats; Killing the Sheep
One of the fruits of the purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive congregations is that true believers very often leave because the messages have been packaged to keep unbelievers comfortable. While, churches are being seeker-sensitive, they are going against God’s very purpose: that men may be brought to the fulness of the stature of Christ,
It is sad. It is evil.
Mr. Warren may appear sincere and a very nice person, but he has propagated much falsehood that is wrecking the faith of many who have been bought by the blood of the Lamb. He is wrecking God’s Church with his ideas. That makes him a false teacher.
