Pitting Evangelism Against Discipleship

Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC is a living incarnation of the seeker-sensitive deeds NOT creeds thinking that has invaded the church.

He recently preached a sermon series entitled “Confessions of a Pastor” and he did all of us a huge favor. He candidly and passionately articulated his disdain for doctrine, discipling and feeding God’s sheep with God’s Word. (some video from the sermon is posted below)

I’ve seen this over and again with churches that have gone Purpose-Driven. Sound Biblical teaching is replaced with self-help 'practical living' sermons, hymns and songs with ANY deep doctrinal content are replaced with me-centered 7/11 songs, and those who complain about the lack of doctrinal depth and missing Biblical content are mocked and ridiculed and forcibly shown the door. But, normally this is done in private. Furtick, in the video below, decided to do this in public.

Listen carefully and you will hear how Furtick and others like him justify their entertainment-driven, relevant, self-help topical services. Its all in the name of evangelism and ‘kingdom multiplication’.

The most telling quote from Furtick’s diatribe is:

“If You Know Jesus This Church is NOT for you!”

His attitude is this:

We don't teach from Books of the Bible because it gets in the way of evangelism.

We don't offer different kinds of Bible studies because it gets in the way of evangelism.

We don't teach doctrine because it gets in the way of evangelism.

If you want to be fed God's word or have the Bible explained to you then you are a fat lazy Christian and you need to shut up and get to work or you need to leave this church because we ONLY do evangelism.

Notice also that "serving in the church" is the ONLY benchmark Furtick accepts as a good work for Jesus. What about serving Jesus by being a good spouse, parent, child, student, employee or business owner? Furtick and countless others like him, in their myopic obsession with evangelism and numbers have literally ignored their duty to feed and care for God's sheep and make disciples.

What is at stake is the Gospel itself because the people who attend these churches won't have enough Biblical grounding to withstand even the most ridiculous 'wind of doctrine'. These men, by pitting evangelism against their Biblical duty to 'make disciples' are setting the church up for Total-Apostasy.

Please take the time to read the scriptures passages I've supplied below the video. The contrast between the two is stark.

John 21:15-17   When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

Luke 10:38-42   Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.”

Matthew 28:19-2 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

John 8:31-32   So Jesus said ...“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Acts 2:42   And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

Titus 1:7-10 "For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not tbe arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. 10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers..."

Titus 2:1-10   But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, uworking at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 9 Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

2 Timothy 4:1-4   I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25   "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, -- “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” -- Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and lthe wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

Comments

[JO]

For grins I read through this entire blog. I loved to read it mutate from unloving semantic nitpicking to personal testimonies from lives changed at Elevation. I gotta tell y'all; after attending one service at Elevation, in which my discernment radar was at its skeptical best, I downloaded one year of sermons and listened to them in the next two weeks. Blown away! In the first few weeks of constant attendance I noticed three important things. One, the Christians I've met over my 21 years in Charlotte who now attend Elevation are mature, walk the talk Christians. Two, a lot of them followed their KIDS to Elevation and never left! Three, the nominal Christians who stumbled upon Elevation for the reasons condemned earlier in this blog (seeker sensitive, relevant, contemporary), have all seen the light of God's spirit sparked anew in their hearts. I absolutely love that this young man preaches OLD SCHOOL gospel truths and preaches a no compromise love and praise for God's gift of Jesus Christ. OUTSTANDING! What's more, God is SO alive in my life now, directing me when needed, hugging me when needed, correcting me when needed and always consistent with his word, that I am humbled and awed by the timing of Elevation in my life. Our family has gone through a very very difficult trial these past months and although no one on staff at Elevation has personally discipled us or counseled us, GOD HAS! Steven Furtick and his excellent team lead us all to the GREATEST disciple, God himself. Nothing could me more wonderful or relevant than that. Praising God boldly to the world has become second nature. We will love the dead and wounded to Christ through OUR life in Christ! Erego, Christ is fulfilling the great commission naturally through our willing hearts. Awesome.

[Blake Porter]

Doesn't one of Paul's main points to the Church in Corinth harbor around "DIVISION"?

Grace and Peace,
Blake

[JakeStew]

Dear Chris Rosebrough,

where you actually in the audience of the particular sermon of which you have posted videos?

i doubt it.

but i WAS.

and i can't believe how far from the truth you have streched and twisted this story. I almost feel bad for you because you have missed out on such a great leap towards leading poeple to Christ.

Pastor Furtick is a great man of Christ.

[Jimmy]

This man does not take any critsism on his posts, and for being greeat man Christ he is not. He is a typical modern day pastor.I was in one of these churches like Elevation-they are dangerous and satanical.Read Revelation or any part of the new testiment.This man is not of God.He does not want feed the sheep of Christ but feed his own personality.

[Vanko]

a challenge to everyone:

for 52 weeks listen to a taped sermon of noted EXPOSITORS like John MacArthur, Chuck Swindoll, Haddon Robinson, John Piper, John Stott; and

read devotions written by known EXEGETES like D.A. Carson, J.I. Packer, and THEOLOGIANS like Alister MacGrath

then listen to Furtick.

while you're at it, it is extremely helpful to read "how to read the bible for all its worth" and "how to read the bible book by book" both by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart

[Amy]

I read this discourse -- this nasty, mocking, gossipy, judgmental, holier-than-thou gang up -- and it becomes perfectly clear why so many nonbelievers remain nonbelievers. I have some atheist friends, and this kind of behavior is exactly why they don't want to be Christians and why they don't trust Christians and why they'll never set foot in your church. Your diatribes are proving them right. Shame on all of you for your hateful hearts.

[Rollins]

This guy is young and obviously very spiritually immature, however zealous he may be. It's wonderful that he wants to win others to Jesus, but by putting down doctrine and the teaching of the Word, why would unbelievers think they needed Jesus? He would have to explain the DOCTRINES of sin, grace, and our need for a Savior. But then people might get too spiritually obese. What this country really does need is more spiritually obese people!

[M Allen]

You can watch the entire sermon, nothing out of context, at http://www.elevationchurch.org

While I agree with his attack on "front-row pharisees", he does not do a good job distinguishing from people who truly want to dig deeper into God's Word, and use it to further serve the Lord. Yes, we should have harsh words to say about those who want to just get intellectually fat on theological issues and not actually serve Jesus. But what about those of us who ARE serving in practical ways, in addition to wanting more theologically deep sermons? In this sermon he talks about how none of the people that Jesus called into discipleship were "seminary trained". He uses the shepherd David as another "untrained" example as a servant for the Lord. Interesting that he fails to mention Paul, the guy responsible for a healthy portion of our New Testament! Paul was FAR from untrained and simple.

I sort of get what Steven Furtick was getting at in this sermon, but he's done a huge disservice to the idea of legitimate Biblical study in the way he's presenting it to hundreds of non or new Christians (pretty much everyone his church is targeted at, by his own word)

[John from Down Under]

Guys can I can throw my 2 cents in from the other side of the Pacific? I haven’t read the entire blog thread, just the comments on the last page. I completely agree with ‘Amy’, ‘Rollins’ and the ‘M Allen’ comments.

The healthy biblical position is somewhere in the middle. We need both solid doctrine AND practical service to the body of Christ and the community to show them that God cares. Doctrine is the bone structure of our faith. It gives us posture, shape, definition and mobility. Without it our faith will be a wobbly mass.

Without service on the other hand, we reduce our faith to an ideology and an intellectual exercise. We are Christ’s hands and feet (the body of Christ) and by helping other Christians in need (food and drink etc) it’s as if we are rendering service to Jesus himself (Matt 25). As John said when he got old “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:17-18)

It was obviously important to the early church to do both. They boldly proclaimed Christ’s resurrection (doctrine) and took care of the immediate material needs of their spiritual family (service). “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need” (Acts 4:32-34)

This debate is a classical example of extremities and polarization. Both sides have gone to extremes here. I think the front row Pharisees analogy has merit though. I’ve being reading some blogs on this site for a couple of weeks now and I think it is one of the greatest gatherings of modern Pharisees. A national convention should be timely soon. You can smell the sulphur on every page. I hadn’t realized the toxicity of so many Christians who squirt their venom on every opportunity to ‘defend the faith’. This is done under the guise of Online Discernment Ministries (ODM’s) but it really is a euphemism for SADP (Self Appointed Doctrine Police), the Christian SWAT team that shoots anything with a pulse different to theirs.

We don’t know their hearts (only God does) but if their verbal cyanide is anything to go by, it seems that character assassination is in vogue. Old John in the same chapter mentioned above, said this: “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him” (v.15) For their sake I hope their hatred is only directed to the teachings they disagree with and not the teachers.

We are biblically authorized to judge the teachings. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1) “Test everything. Hold on to the good” (1 Thess 5:21). In fact it is commendable in the eyes of God to weed out the false teachers. “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false” Further down Jesus tells the Ephesians, “But you have this in your favor: YOU HATE THE PRACTICES of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate”(Rev 2). Note it was THE PRACTICES he commended them for hating, NOT THE PEOPLE.

But God is the only one who can judge the teachers. “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts” (1 Cor 4:5)

Some false teachers are sincere God-loving Christians who are ‘sincerely deceived’ and others are outright frauds. The latter are the ones Peter obviously had in mind when he wrote, “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping” (2 Peter 2:2-3)

LET’S JUDGE WHAT THEY SAY AND NOT WHO THEY ARE. God bless you all from down under. (PS We’re all watching to see your election results with eager anticipation)

[Pastor Mike Lawrence]

How many ways could you possibly miss the point? You just don't get it. You need John 3:17 -- God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.NIV Or are you one of those KJV only people? The KJV says: God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. KJV Hmmm... wow -- it says the same thing.
When did you forget that the first thing people need to hear is that Jesus loves them? Hasn't the world seen enough (too much?) of the damage that comes from condemnation?

[stephanie]

Wow. Self-righteousness seems prevalent in him. Anyway, thanks for writing this.

[Phillip]

So how many of you guys rubbing Mr. Furtocks name in the dirt actually evangelize, or preach, or teach, or do anything remotely Godly other than get on here and spout off scriptures about how wrong he is? Seriously people grow up. Im only 18 and i grew up as a pastors kid and iv seen exactly what traditional Bible study in the sense most people know it accomplishes. Yes Bible study is awesome but just doing Bilbe study and nothing else harbors complacenecy in the church. O and please stop taking Mr. Furtocks quoets out of context. Thank you and God Bless.

[Donald Floyd (Matthews, N.C.)]

Shame on all of you. Many of you know God's word, but when is the last time you shared Christ with someone. You study, study, study and pick pastors apart, but you do not take it to all the Nations. I have attended the Church and they do study the word, they have small groups that study Gods word. You have read an article and know you seem to know all about Furtick. Same on you. He is letting God work through him and he knows he is not perfect. He does preach doctrine and he has no place for the Pharasees such as many of you. Get over it. Study God's word, live your life in Christ, go to church, and share the good news with others. Stop running your mouths and do something for the kingdom of God besides hack up Furtick. And if he is sinning, confront him like it says in Matthew 15:18 since you want to be perfect with scripture. We have to stop this gossip, slanderous, pick apart pastors that are really fullfilling the great commission junk!!!!!

[Julie]

He proves the need for real Bible teaching in his own lack of discernment when he seems to equate Beth Moore, Kay Arthur, and Joyce Meyer with each other. These women teach very different things, and at least one of them is a false teacher.

[Valeria]

We're coming to a time when we're going to be persecuted for being Christians. It has been a long time coming, but now it seems to be escalating. Some of you pastors are going to have to decide whether to speak about certain sins and risk breaking 'hate' laws. Brazil just passed some legislation that relegates religious broadcasting to late night because of negative statements about homosexuality. These statements are considered obscene and not fit for children. The next thing will be to do the same with the Bible....brand it as obscene.

I think we may have to go to the gulag...whatever form that takes in America. I hope I am ready to do that if I have to, but I am not willing to go to the gulag for slick video presentations and fancy shirts and cool haircuts. So many of the more public ministries are ridiculous and eventually the pastors and churches who are laboring in obscurity...I guess getting FAT on Bible study...are going to be lumped in with the 'big boys'.

I know that the Bible speaks of the 'foolishness of preaching' but this doesn't mean we're supposed to act like fools. And I know that the Bible says that the Gospel is offensive, but we're not supposed to be personally offensive.

Preachers who resist the new-fangled emergent stuff are going to be relegated to increasingly smaller churches, or maybe they're going to end up in another line of work. Maybe God will be gracious and grant us a revival and maybe it will start in the small churches where folks are 'just preaching' and 'just singing hymns'. Go to church, hear the Word preached by a man called of God to preach it, then go home and follow Jesus. Is that so hard?

Some of this stuff that's going on seems to totally leave out the work of the Holy Spirit.

Check out the 'spontaneous baptism' services at Elevation and other places.

[Daniel Prince]

The law of diminished effect; the Bible has become old to us. It's boring to the world. We assume that we have gained everything there is to know about the Bible. So, in light of that, why should we study verses that we have been hearing for over 2,000 years?

It's sad, really; to think that there is nothing else we should know about God and the Bible.