Posted on 10/05/2016 6:35:12 AM PDT by Gamecock
Pastor Andy Stanley is defending his approach to preaching amid questions from prominent evangelical leaders who contend his methods undermine the Bible's authority and pave the way for unbelief.
In a lengthy article in Outreach magazine on Friday, the pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, responds to his critics and affirms that he believes in biblical inerrancy. What he is doing, he argues, is changing the angle from which he speaks to more effectively engage a post-Christian society, particularly millennials who have left the Church.
Controversy arose in light of Stanley's recent sermon series wherein he argued that because increasing numbers of people in the United States do not lend credence to the Bible, Christians should dispense with the "because the Bible told me so" rationale for believing its truth claims.
Appeals to biblical authority do not translate particularly for millennials who pursue higher education beyond high school, Stanley said.
"The dechurched who grew up in church exit because they find the version of Christianity they've grown up with unconvincing, uninspiring and irrelevant," Stanley said. Moreover, ample evidence exists for the resurrection and the claims Jesus made about Himself even if one does not believe that a worldwide flood took place or Hebrew exodus from Egypt occurred, he said.
But such a tack bothered Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler who wrote last week on his website that defenses of the Christian faith have never been more necessary. And it is impossible to access that faith without the written Word. Stanley, Mohler argued, was "undercutting our only means of knowing Christ and His resurrection from the dead — the Bible," and warned that his approach would inexorably lead to "abject disaster" for the Church.
"This is an apologetic disaster and would leave Christians with no authoritative Scripture. Instead, we would be dependent upon historians (among others) to tell us what parts of both testaments we can still believe," Mohler said.
"Those parts will inevitably grow fewer and fewer. This is what must happen when the total trustworthiness, sufficiency, and authority of the Bible is subverted," Mohler continued.
Nothing could be further from the truth, Stanley replied in response to such charges. Mohler and others, he asserted, have misunderstood him.
Although Scripture does not provide guidelines for ministering to a post-Christian world, Stanley notes that at several times in the New Testament readers witness Peter and Paul operating from a different framework and using different language when speaking to Jews or Gentiles.
In Acts 17, for instance, the Apostle Paul addresses the Athenians, and urges them to repent from their idolatry. Yet although he refers to Him, Paul doesn't mention Jesus by name. To some that might seem like an egregious omission, like Paul was leaving out an essential element of the Gospel, when really he knew his audience's frame of reference.
"To say Paul's approach to the Gentiles in Athens differed from his approach to the Jews in Pisidian Antioch would be the understatement of understatements," Stanley said. "But his central message was the same. God has done something in the world on behalf of all humankind."
Stanley insists he is doing a similar thing today.
"So will you consider retooling in order to win some and save some? Are you willing to take a long, hard look at everything you're currently doing through the eyes of the post-Christian? Are you ready to be a student rather than a critic? We don't have time for tribes. We don't have time for the petty disagreements that only those inside our social media circles understand or care about," Stanley said.
"We're losing ground. The most counterproductive thing we can do is criticize and refuse to learn from one another. So come on. If you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, that's all I need to know. And in light of what's at stake, in light of who is at stake, perhaps that's all you need to know as well," he concluded.
quote-Oh Lordy......you are soon out in the weeds
not sure what that means.
Perhaps you could think carefully about what the Bible tells us about how children are to be trained up. Since you appear to be a government school welfare addict, perhaps you could pay to educate your children yourself. In any event, education is not a proper function of the government.
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You’re quite a piece of work!
What critter drug your smelly carcass here?
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Nearly every teacher in this nation was trained by godless Marxists in Marxist run colleges and universities. This is true for both private and government schools from Pre-K through university graduate school.
Where is the alarm, urgency or even awareness of the **serious** threat coming from conservatives? I don't see it.
And...most of all, it is important for the Spirit to testify to your heart that it is true.
Fundamentally, a child or youth in a godless classroom **WILL** learn to think and reason godlessly. They must just to cooperate in the godless classroom. How could it be otherwise?
No Christian should ever send an immature child into the clutches of the godless Marxists who run and control public schooling and nearly all universities ( even Christian colleges and universities.)
And....In my county the government school district is the biggest single employer with the largest payroll. A lot of people sitting in the pews earn a living from the godless indoctrination camps either directly or indirectly. Few ministers will preach against this or bite the hand that feeds them.
The Barna research proves the opposite.
quote-The pastor of The Church of the Mega Mall was trained in those fine Christiaan schools you speak of
That wouldn’t surprise me, nifster.
He was probably taught a different 1st importance of the gospel than the one Paul taught the Corinthians.
It starts there.. and one may need to unlearn what they always ‘knew’ before they can learn what they never knew or thought..
new eyes to see and new ears to hear. may change this pastor’s complete outlook on the Word..and how only the Word can be trusted.
It was so subtle I didn’t see it. but He can open the eyes of the blind! willingness or unwillingness to unlearn may hold lots of people back from seeing...
Well, if those same kids are going to Stanley’s church I guess they are rally screwed.
Exactly! This actually trumps any access one may have to the bible or lexicons!
Until July of this summer, when we moved to NC, we lived for 23 years in Alpharetta, GA. Where Andy Stanley’s church is located. Though I belonged to a PCA church, I often visited Andy’s North Point Christian where many of my friends belonged. About three years ago, I realized that something was just not right there. Andy began to sound like Rick Warren and fitting the description of what we generally called the “emerging church”. He seemed to be focusing more on what he thought would draw people in and make them feel good, rather than what the scriptures teach. The worship service became more and more a big show that focused on theatrics rather than Jesus and I felt so uncomfortable there that I never visited again.
And you have gotten so far off from what the original post is about....
Don’t respond this is ridiculous
So you have no idea of who he is or what this original post is about
Now I am so finished
This has gotten so far from what the original post was about
Don’t bother to respond
Are you one of Andys fans?
Oh you mean pointless pastors who don’t preach the gospel aren’t?
Rood is a fraud, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, wanting to put people back under bondage to the Law.
A quick google search of his name and teachings will expose that.
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