CRN.Info and Analysis

This post has to be the dumbest, most illogical thing I’ve ever read. I mean, maybe the author is on some hallucinogenic? I don’t know, how in the world does that church now represent the emergent movement. Men and women how long will we tolerate this kind of “discernment” and “research?”

This would be like blaming all the fundamentalist for Jim Jones. That wouldn’t make sense and frankly neither does this waste of space called a post.

The Church Report recently gave its annual list of the the top 50 Most Influential Churches in America.  The top two were Willow Creek, followed by Saddleback.  Among the top 15 were North Point (Andy Stanley), Fellowship Church (Ed Young), Mars Hill (Mark Driscoll), The Potter’s house (T.D. Jakes), Mosaic (Erwin McManus) and Mars Hill (Rob Bell).  Of course the list was packed with those the watch doggie blogs absolutely love to hate.

Slice of Laodicea recently received a press release from Willow Creek, letting others know about the good news.  It was also fascinating that 29 of the 50 churches are Willow Creek Association members.  “The WCA is a growing multi-denominational worldwide network of more than 12,000 churches from 90 denominations and 35 countries that equips churches and church leaders with strategic vision, training, and resources.”  It really is pretty impressive, all the work they have done.  But here are a few thoughts one the subject presented by Slice commentors

Well, if they’d included the Catholics, Mormons, and rabbis, Saddleback would’ve won hands-down.

But how many synagogues can Willow Creek boast about? I mean we know for a fact that Rick Warren suggested to unbelieving Jews on how to grow their congregations.

“Churches should be small,” he said (I’m paraphrasing.) “Once they get too big, they can’t look after everyone.”  Preach justification by faith alone and all the other doctrines that depend on that. Keep that up and your church will prosper.

Apparently number counting and notches on the belt exceeds spiritual maturity, any of the fruits of the Spirit, and “pillar and ground of the truth” as vital areas of church life. How sad that they’d rather puff themselves up over their influence than give God glory and follow his command to flee the world. I wish they’d stop counting goats and leave the numbers to God, who “gives the increase”.

Meanwhile, a group of young Christians from S. Korea are being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The threats of death are with them daily. This kind of garbage from Willow Creek is sickening!

I’m sure that God is terribly impressed. Do you think He is on their e-mail list, or did He have to get this second hand?  Sometimes you wish you could tell these clowns to crawl back into their hole and play with whatever makes them happy.

I wonder what would happen if Grace Community Church was on the list and John MacArthur put out this press release.  Would their numerical growth be “sickening”?  It’s sad that so many people cannot rejoice in what is happening all over the world.  And who ever said that numbers are not a good thing?  I know we should not judge a church solely on numbers, but it does say a lot.  If a church is growing numerically, it means that new people are coming (which normally means they are coming to Christ).  And it doesn’t mean you have to have thousands coming, but steady church growth is usually a sign of health.

I fear for churches that have no numerical growth, but say something like “well, we may not be growing with people, but our members are all well versed and growing in the word.”  If there isn’t growth, then new people are not coming.  And if new people aren’t coming, then the chances that people are finding Christ in that community are slim to none.

From here:

For my regular readers let me explain. I began posting as the Rev Scottie over at the Slice of Laodicea website. It all began pretty quietly. I disagreed that all modern type Pastors were clones of each other. I posted my opinion that most Baptist churches and pastors in the South are as much clones as anything. As is customary on that blog things went on a rapid downward spiral of personal attacks. I made the mistake of trying to post an honest commentary as well as asking the moderator to tone down the personal attacks. The Rev Scottie posting days were then ended! I wasn’t even allowed to defend myself against some pretty stupid accusations.

In order to prove the bias and agenda of these folks I created the Dr Louis extreme fundamentalist profile. My goal was to see how much out of context scripture, poor spelling, and personal attacks would be allowed. The answer I found is anything goes as long as you attack someone they disagree with. I searched Google and popped in scripture references that would appear to support my position but were used way out of context. I was able to attack my friends Dave Anderson (movie pastor) and Gary Lamb without any rebuke or restraint. I finally created a Dr Louis Blog and linked it here in hopes that some Laodicea readers and posters would consider how wrong it is for brothers and sisters in Christ (By the way that includes dudes and chicks as well) to run each other down in a public forum.

Hattip: MMI