Alright, let's try this one more time. Purpose Driven Church is a method. Can everyone say that? Let's try, here goes, "Purpose Driven Church is a method". There now, we each get to keep our Pastors and we each get to use our own curriculum. Isn't that nice. And, Rick Warren gets to stay at Saddleback as long as his church wants him and he won't be interrupting our services. He wasn't even elected to represent us, he just graciously and capitalistically, in a fine Calvinistic tradition, made a method that was successful for his church available to other churches, and, he didn't force it on anyone who didn't want it. Now there are reports that some church leaders forced it on their own innocent, unsuspecting members who didn't have enough votes to overcome the "seeker sensitive" juggernaut, but that seems like it is the problem of the local church and the asleep members while the method advanced, not the Evangelical Pope's" fault.Nope, not having any of that nonsense.
- Communism and Fasciasm were just methods of government, just like monarchy, Republics, and Democracies.
- "Winning hearts and minds" is just a method of fighting a conflict (yeah, that worked out real well in Vietnam and Iraq) </sarcasm >
- Abortion is just another method of birth control.
- Do you get the point yet?
The purpose driven church was a collection of heretical views, and blasphemous ideas concerning the church and worship service (of course interspaced with some legitimate teachings and ideas).
All this hoopla concerning Warren's
political faux pas mean absolutely nothing to me. They are symptoms, not root cause.
"Do you get the point yet?"
I think I do. It's like;
A church's liturgy is a worship method.
Prayer meetings are a method for the church family to bring the needs and praises of the church in a united way to the Lord.
Lecturing is a teaching method.
Small groups are a teaching method.
Graded classes are a teaching method.
Identifying giftedness of church members is a service method.
Training church leaders is a leadership method.
Training members in having daily devotions is a maturing method.
Providing areas for service on a regular basis is a missions method.
Accountability groups for members is a personal growth method.
Greeters at the service is a welcoming method.
Regular fellowship gatherings are a method of building up the church family.
12 step programs are a method for the church to provide Christian support groups for recovering people.