Before You Decide to Leave

1. Pray.
2. Let your current pastor know about your thinking before you move to
another church or make your decision to relocate to another city. Ask
for his counsel.
3. Weigh your motives. Is your desire to leave because of sinful, personal
conflict or disappointment? If it’s because of doctrinal reasons, are
these doctrinal issues significant?
4. Do everything within your power to reconcile any broken relationships.
5. Be sure to consider all the “evidences of grace” you’ve seen in the
church’s life—places where God’s work is evident. If you cannot see any
evidences of God’s grace, you might want to examine your own heart
once more (Matt. 7:3–5).
6. Be humble. Recognize you don’t have all the facts and assess people and
circumstances charitably (give them the benefit of the doubt).

If You Go

1. Don’t divide the body.
2. Take the utmost care not to sow discontent even among your closest
friends. Remember, you don’t want anything to hinder their growth in
grace in this church. Deny any desire to gossip (sometimes referred to
as “venting” or “saying how you feel”).
3. Pray for and bless the congregation and its leadership. Look for ways
of doing this practically.
4. If there has been hurt, then forgive—even as you have been forgiven.

From Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church? Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007. page 57.
(HT: New Attitude)

TownHall.com reports on Willow Creek Association’s recent “repentance”:

Perhaps the most shocking thing of all in this revelation coming out of Willow Creek is in a summary statement by Greg Hawkins (executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church):

Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.

Isn’t that what we were told when this whole seeker-sensitive thing started? The church growth gurus again want to throw away their old assumptions and “take out a clean sheet of paper” and, presumably, come up with a new paradigm for ministry.

Should this be encouraging?

Please note that “rooted in Scripture” still follows “rethink,” “new insights” and “informed research.” Someone, it appears, still might not get it. Unless there is a return to simple biblical (and relevant) principles, a new faulty scheme will replace the existing one and another generation will follow along as the latest piper plays.

Let’s hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

Concluding Remarks

I never planned to write this blog series. I feel like 2 Timothy 3:12 is happening to me and as such, I cannot be silent: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.“ That is why I must conclude this series with some direct responses to exegetical fallacies employed by the pastor question. The concerns here are for the issues in question; there is no intent to make all this ‘personal’. I really hope y’all could know my brotherly affection and care for this wayward minister and join me in praying for her and those who have heard her speak.

“Even with Scripture’s help I’m not sure anyone can adequately determine the answer to that questions completely — what it means to be woman of God, or what it means to be a man of God. Scripture is clear though on what it means to be in Christ, Scripture is clear on what it means to be a godly human being, Scripture is clear on what it means to be the imago dei, which is the image of God.”

Let me first say that whenever a preacher starts off by throwing out the sufficiency and inerrancy of Scripture in the beginning of a sermon, there is consequently no reason for listeners to believe anything he, or in this case, she, says. Whenever anybody speaks and then commends others to obey their spoken truth apart from Scripture, therein lies no authority or power whatsoever in their words to transform lives.

We can adequately determine from Scripture what it means to be a woman or man of God. For if Scripture cannot give us sufficient answers to all our questions of faith and practice, then it is powerless for our nations to be saved, people freed or changed. And if that be the case, then it would be completely futile for anybody to open their mouth and supposedly preach a word from an powerless religious book. We might as well shut up, shrink into a ball, and cry like a baby because our faith is based on some obscure, unclear and erroneous book — from which we can derive no hope whatsoever.

Fortunately, the inerrant Scripture is our sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience, and it is the Bible alone which teaches us all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured. Just as the Article I of the Baptist Faith & Message reads,

“The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.”

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“Evangelical feminists” and egalitarians use Galatians 3:28 as the primary texts in support of their view of equal gender roles, however, it is a passage that is interpreted baldly out of context and exegeted horribly to present their side of the story.

Here is the paragraph wherein verse 28 lies:

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Galatians 3:23-29

Since a seminarian friend has written a good article explaining the verse’s context, I don’t want to repeat what he’s already said. I will however affirm some important points and add some significant points from my own brief study of Galatians 3:28.

Context

Galatians 3 should be understood as Paul’s response to Galatians 2:11-14. (See G. Walter Hansen’s commentary on Galatians by in The IVP New Testament Commentary Series) In that previous chapter, Apostle Peter is rebuked for dinning with Gentiles in one minute and in another minute he stopped once Jews saw him fellowshipping with the Greeks. The issue there was whether or not it was appropriate for Jews to fellowship with Gentiles, which clearly Peter and the Galatians were confused about. However, the Apostle Paul saw through that specific question to the larger issue at hand, which he contends as the denial of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is why Paul says that Peter’s “conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel,” as Peter had treated the Gentiles as unwanted/unworthy for fellowship upon the sight of his own Jewish people even now, after the inauguration of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus. On Peter’s part, it was hypocritical for him to behave in such an un-Christian manner and thus badly misrepresenting the Gospel he was ordained to proclaim.

To take Galatians 3:28 out of its original context here is to neuter the power of God for the salvation of all who believe — first for the Jew, then the Gentile — but indeed, all who believe. Paul never intended what he says here to be about “gender roles” or what it means to be a woman of God in ministry; to read an interpretation of gender equality into this text is simply ignorant and bad hermeneutics. I come from a public school and haven’t even taken a course on Hermeneutics yet, and still, this Jew-Gentile-Gospel context could not be any clearer to me.
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One of the biggest issues our churches face today is the question of gender roles, and specifically the role of women in the home and in the church. As I begin my seminary studies today in the year 2007, the Bible’s teaching on the primary roles and responsibilities of man and woman is being undermined, questioned, if not simply made unclear. If this was 1907 or 1807, this would not be an issue that would bring about such discussion or controversy. Even since God’s inerrant Word has been canonized it is only these last 50 or so years that the feminist movement has risen to undermine biblical manhood and womanhood. We live in a unique era where we face some of the most dangerous attacks on Scripture that have rarely been faced before.

The evangelical drift away from Scripture’s complementary view manhood and womanhood towards (wo)man-centered egalitarianism has recently affected me in a most disturbing that is (literally) very close to home. I am deeply saddened right now, hearing earlier this week that it is happening at the church I previously attended back at home in Toronto. While something like this may have previously happened before unbeknownst to me, I regret that that day had finally come on September 30, 2007 and it is something that Satan has seared into my memory and journal. Whereas this elephant in the room was previously invisible and quiet, I can now see it clearly and I hear it speak. (It is pink, and everybody is listening to it talk.)

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.
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I have been quiet as I do not want to publish something irrationally, impulsively, without love and humility. I apologize for you faithful readers who yearn to be fed biblical truth in a manner of humble orthodoxy. I am delaying my next article for this very reason. I learned of something that happened recently that has left me significantly heartbroken, saddened, disappointed, disturbed, mad, and furious with a biblical anger. (For a hint at the issue at hand, see my latest Twitter update)

For the time being, I just ask that you would read, interpret and apply the following passage to you and your relationship to 1) Christ, and 2) your church — especially verse 28, which I have highlighted in bold. I hope you won’t read your own thoughts and ideas into this passage, but that you would rightfully interpret the text within its original immediate context and the larger historical-redemptive context in which this passage is located.

Galatians 3:23-29

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Top 10 Largest U.S. Churches

1. Lakewood Church, Houston Texas – Joel Osteen (47,000)
2. Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, Ill. – Bill Hybels (23,500)
3. Second Baptist Church, Houston – Ed Young Sr. (23,198)
4. Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif. – Rick Warren (22,000)
5. LifeChurch.tv, Edmond, Okla. – Craig Groeschel (19,907)
6. Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Ky. – Dave Stone (18,013)
7. North Point Church, Alpharetta, Ga. – Andy Stanley (17,700)
8. Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Va. – Jonathan Falwell (17.445)
9. Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – Bob Coy (17,000)
10. The Potter’s House, Dallas – T.D. Jakes (17,000)

Top 10 Fastest-Growing U.S. Churches

1. Iglesia Cristiana Segadores de Vida, Hollywood, Fla. – Ruddy and Maria Gracia (3,050, 109 percent growth)
2. Calvary Community Church, Phoenix, Ariz. – Mark Martin (2,344, 26 percent growth)
3. Elevation Church, Charlotte, N.C., Steven Furtick (1,965, 444 percent growth)
4. New Life Church, Conway, Ark. – Rick Bezet (2,000, 108 percent growth)
5. Valley Bible Fellowship, Bakersfield, Calif. – Ron Vietti (3,600, 52 percent growth)
6. Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas – Ed Young Jr. (3,000, 30 percent growth).
7. Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Va. – Jonathan Falwell (4,750, 37 percent growth)
8. The ROC (Richmond Outreach Center), Richmond, Va. – Geronimo Aguilar (2,100, 100 percent growth)
9. Redemption World Outreach Center, Greenville, S.C. – Ron and Hope Carpenter (2,000, 31 percent growth)
10. Champions Centre, Tacoma, Wash. – Kevin and Sheila Gerald (1,500, 30 percent growth)

(HT: Christian Post)