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"Take
Heed" Ministries
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Cecil Andrews, PO BOX 13, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AL, Northern Ireland. Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net |
Willow Creek connection to the foul-mouthed
‘Jersey Boys’
In a
recent email [1st November 2007] from the
ministry of Lighthouse Trails they identified some results from a survey
carried out by the leaders of the Willow Creek Community Church [Senior
Pastor – Bill Hybels]. Herewith are some extracts from that email –
The
headlines on a Townhall.com article this week certainly catch the attention…The
article talks about a survey Willow Creek performed and the findings of the
survey. Townhall columnist Bob Burney explains:
Willow Creek has released the
results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and
philosophy of ministry. The study's findings are in a new book titled Reveal:
Where Are You? co-authored by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins, executive
pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. Hybels himself called the findings
"earth shaking," "ground breaking" and "mind
blowing." And no wonder: it seems that the "experts" were wrong. The report reveals that most of what they have been
doing for these many years and what they have taught millions of others to do
is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ. Numbers
yes, but not disciples. It gets worse. Hybels laments: "Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars
into,
thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the
data actually came back it wasn't
helping people that much…”
Burney quotes Hybels who talks about what he feels
Willow Creek should have been doing:
“We made a
mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and
become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people
that they have to take responsibility to become 'self feeders.' We should have
gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between services, how to
do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own”.
Cecil’s
comments:
Shortly I will cite an example of how Willow Creek have
obviously failed in this area of ‘discipleship’ in the life of one particular
Willow Creek adherent but I want to say at this point that whilst Bill Hybels
is correct in part that professing Christians have a responsibility to become
what he calls ‘self-feeders’ there is also a God-given commission given
to church elders to “Take Heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers to feed the Church of
God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the
flock…men…speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore
watch and remember” [Acts 20:28-30] – this feeding/fencing role of elders
is also clearly identified in Ephesians 4:11-14 “And he gave some…pastors
and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man…that we
henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, by which they
lie in wait to deceive”.
It is vital to note the
clearly identified relationship between the necessity of sound teaching by
the elders, pastor and teachers and how that sound teaching will then act
as a guard against false doctrine and false teachers. Again I will show clearly
that Willow Creek are failing their flock in this area of protection against
false teachers and false doctrines.
Returning to the failed
‘discipleship’ of one Willow Creek adherent I want to refer to a musical that
has been performed in the La Salle Bank Theatre in Chicago. It is called ‘Jersey Boys – The story of
Franki Valli & The Four Season’. This particular group had many hit
records during own my teenage years in the 1960’s – songs like ‘Rag Doll’ and
‘Sherry’ to name but two. In the programme guide for the show, under a heading
of ‘Who’s Who’ there is this entry –
KRAIG
McCREARY (Thug:
Guitar) thanks God for life; and Mom, wife Christy, Austin and Jack for
love and encouragement. Kraig has played on thousands of commercials; written,
recorded, produced and arranged hundreds of recordings, and has been MD for
Jonathan Brandmeier and WILLOW CREEK CHURCH. Show credits include Rent,
Lion King and Movin’ Out’.
So here we have someone
involved in the musical ‘Jersey Boys’, in both musical
accompaniment and acting roles, (Thug: Guitar) who
has publicly identified his clear link to the Willow Creek Church. How
does this relate to what I have referred to as failed ‘discipleship’? Well, I
can assure all readers, on the very best of authority, that no sensitive
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ could endure more than 10-15 minutes of this
‘musical’. From early on it is laced and littered with obscene, foul-mouthed
and indeed blasphemous language. No maturing disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ
could possibly be a party to such an offensive production yet sadly Kraig
McCreary clearly has no difficulty in participating in such an unholy show.
This is a real example of what was identified in the report of the failure of
Willow Creek to produce ‘solid
disciples of Jesus Christ’.
Having identified their
failure in this respect are Willow Creek taking the right steps to redress this
failing – not by the evidence of an upcoming [April 2008] conference that they
are advertising for SHIFT 2008. Herewith are some extracts from their
website –
Shift
– April 9-11, 2008
As the world of student ministry continues to shift and change, so do the needs of those who serve students. Recognising this, our team has designed an event that is unlike any other Student Ministries Conference we’ve ever hosted. SHIFT 2008 is about innovation: Rather than highlighting one specific model of ministry, we’ve invited some of the most innovative thinkers and leaders we could find and asked them to shape our experiences and discussions.
Wed.
April 9:
Main session: 9.00-10.30am
Main session: 11.15am-12.45pm
Willow Creek’s answer to
their problem of failed ‘discipleship ‘ of young believers is to expose them at
SHIFT 2008 to two of the leading proponents of what has been called ‘The
Emerging Church’. Far from shielding them from ‘grievous wolves’ and
‘every wind of [false] doctrine’
Willow Creek is willingly opening
their doors to such men and their ‘cunning craftiness’. On other
articles on our website I have highlighted the gospel-destroying views of Brian
McLaren who rejects as ‘divine child abuse’ the glorious truth at the heart
of the Christian gospel – the truth of ‘penal substitution’ by Christ on the
Cross of Calvary. As for Dan Kimball, Roger Oakland in his book exposing ‘the
emerging church’ called ‘Faith Undone’ writes on pages 45-46 ‘If you
listen to the emergent conversations long enough, you will hear a recurring
theme: Christians are wrong to confront unbelievers head on with the Word of
God…They often use Jesus as an example, saying, He did not confront people but
always accepted them for who they were…Kimball refers to the story where Jesus
is sitting near a well by Himself…and he talks to a Samaritan woman. Kimball
alters the story by saying “He [Jesus] stopped and asked questions of the
Samaritan woman and didn’t just jump in and say ‘Samaritans are all wrong’”.
But Kimball is wrong, Jesus did the exact opposite! He didn’t ask her ANY
questions and he confronted her straight on…The fact is Jesus did confront
people with the truth’.
When it comes to making ‘sound
disciples of Jesus Christ’ I’m afraid for Willow Creek it’s a case of
out of the ‘seeker-sensitive frying pan’ and into ‘the emerging church fire’.
Cecil Andrews – ‘Take Heed’
Ministries – 13 November 2007
PS Further helpful
information on both Brian McLaren and Dan Kimball can be accessed on these
links –
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/brianmclaren.htm
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/dankimball.htm
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/stevemuseemerging.pdf