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To: Terriergal
After reading this article over several times I cannot help but see that the contradictions in his statements are legion. First he claims he wants to take the church back to the 19th century, yet he keeps trying to change all the churches that are still "stuck in the past." If he wanted to take the church back to the 19th century he'd break up his own church and set up a couple of hundred neighborhood churches. The neighborhood church was the cornerstone of the 19th century church. If he admires it so much, what is he doing trying to remake Christianity in the model of his 21st century "campus"? I don't get it.

Next he chastises the modern church for not getting involved in "social action" like abolishing slavery and child labor, but he refuses to recognize that the fundamentalists he detests are the ones who are on the front lines in the war against Abortion, a war he does not appear to be all that concerned with.

Rather than focusing his efforts on his own church and problems he can actually solve with his church's influence, instead he seems to be interested in global concerns as if the wealth of his church is sufficient to solve problems that all the money in the world has been unable to solve up to the present. There are plenty of ministries that are doing that work. Rather than transforming his ministry into a "purpose driven" "World Vision" organization, he should simply encourage his flock to support World Vision.

I think Warren stepped on the wrong toes when he went after the fundamentalists. I number myself among them. I may not agree with all of them theologically or soteriologically, but I admire their zeal and their unwavering committment to the gospel of Christ.

/rant

155 posted on 01/10/2006 4:39:11 PM PST by P-Marlowe
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To: P-Marlowe
Interestingly enough, Rick Warren's remedy for "stuck in the past" goes beyond just wanting to modernize worship service.

If that isn't enough to drive tradtionalists away, he wants to water down doctrine so that church is sort of like a smorgasbord where everyone can get what he/she wants but need not taste of the things that make him/her uncomfortable. After all, that keeps them coming back, right? Can you say A-P-O-S-T-A-S-Y?

If a minister refuses to address sin, repentance and barely mentions redemption, what is his purpose? (no pun intended)

161 posted on 01/10/2006 5:09:32 PM PST by Southflanknorthpawsis
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To: P-Marlowe
Analyzed like a lawyer :)

I suspect you are closer to the men that began the movement of fundamentalism than you may think

The term itself is borrowed from the title of a four volume set of books called The Fundamentals published in 1909. The books were published by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (B.I.O.L.A. now Biola University), and edited by R.A. Torrey, who was a minister affiliated with the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Initially the project was funded by Lyman Stewart, president and cofounder of the Union Oil Company of California (currently known as UNOCAL), and cofounder of B.I.O.L.A. The books were a republication of a series of essays that were sent by mail to every minister in the United States. They were called "The Fundamentals" because they appealed to all Christians to affirm specific fundamental doctrines such as The Virgin Birth and bodily Resurrection of Jesus. This series of essays came to be representative of the "Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy" which appeared early in the 20th century within the Protestant churches of the United States, and continued in earnest through the 1920s.

318 posted on 01/11/2006 9:52:33 AM PST by RnMomof7 ("Sola Scriptura,Sola Christus,Sola Gratia,Sola Fide,Soli Deo Gloria)
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