"while you can buy your way to growth, you absolutely cannot buy your way to greatness."
Sorry Jim, but he who seeks greatness shall be last in the kingdom of God and it is certainly not a function of our conscious choice. One does not buy their way into growth either. These are not Christian leadership principles beloved. They are carnal principles. What about bestselling author Dr. Brene Brown?
"You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging."
"I now see how owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do."
Beloved these are not biblical teachings. God is worthy, not us. It was only because of who He is that we can be saved, not who we are. There is nothing brave about loving ourselves. Again, I do not expect Dr. Brown to feel this way because we do not share the same beliefs but then it begs the question. Why would I want to listen to her when it comes to anything, let alone leadership? The same goes for the others in this first group as well. They simply do not pass the tests of our key verses outlining who we ought to be following as believers. That leaves the five speakers who are at least involved in some form of church. Once again, do they correctly handle the Word of God and what do their lives bear out? Let us start with Brian Houston, lead pastor for one of the most heretical churches today, Hillsong. Remember it is Hillsong that sang "I Like to Move It, Move It" during worship this year. It is Hillsong that has its own conference this year with world renowned false teachers Joseph Prince and Rick Warren headlining. That same conference was going to allow a platform for disgraced and unrepentant Mark Driscoll until the secular media in Australia shamed Houston into canceling him. He is one of the biggest proponents of the prosperity gospel, which is pure lies from the pit of hell. One of his books is entitled, "You Need More Money." In the pursuit of guilting people into giving money to his church he routinely butchers Scripture. He is one of the money grubbing pastors who falsely teaches that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the first tithe. Anything in pursuit of filthy lucre. This is not even getting into his involvement in covering up his father's sexual abuse crimes and offering hush money to buy off victims. I am sorry but it truly does beg the question. What in the world is Bill Hybels thinking by having Brian Houston speak? I will tell you what he is thinking. He is thinking pure carnality. Brian Houston is famous as the world perceives fame. He is successful as the world perceives success. He has made himself rich beyond the greed of avarice by making merchandise of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why would any Christian want to listen to him is beyond Biblical understanding and the bounds of common sense.
The next big name is Craig Groeschel, pastor of Life Church. Another seeker friendly guru, it was Groeschel who chose to preach life lessons from our favorite commercials this year on Super Bowl Sunday. No need to preach the Word when you can examine the deeper truths inside the popular Bud Light promo spots. He used the Rick Warren technique of doing market research to see what the unsaved wanted from a church and built his around that. He is representative of what is wrong with Christian leadership today. But like Houston, he is widely successful as the world measures success. The same can be said for Nigerian Prosperity Preacher Sam Adeyemi. Pastor Sam lists for us seven keys to financial freedom including:
Believe there is no shortage of money around you!
You deserve to be rich!
Decide to be rich!
It almost seems as if Pastor Sam was taught by Pastor Houston. It is no wonder Hybels wanted them both at this leadership conference because as the world goes, they are exceptional leaders who place the bottom line over everything else, while draping it in Christianese. Beloved I think the point has been made. There is one other speaker who is pastor named Albert Tate. In fairness to Pastor Tate, I could find nothing inappropriate in his ministry except for his decision to associate with this smorgasbord of heresy. In case you were counting, the 13th speaker is of course Bill Hybels himself. Hybels is one of the founding fathers of the emergent, seeker friendly church systems that are almost eradicating sound biblical Christianity in these last days. Pastor Bill had his church create a consulting business that earned 17 million dollars in 2011 by selling marketing advice to churches. If you see nothing wrong with that then you will think nothing of the fact that you will not find a cross in his 72 million dollar sanctuary because his market research told him that the cross would offend unbelievers. I could have saved him some money on market research:
Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised--as some say I do--why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. - Galatians 5: 11 (NLT)
And there we come to it. The bottom line is the seeker friendly theology sold by Hybels and company no longer preaches salvation through the cross. The summit is another expression of that. An annual event where the majority of speakers do not even know Jesus Christ. Where those that work in the church system are just as compromised. On his website, Hybels boasts that 87% of attendees will feel more significance in their lives. The road to hell is paved with people who feel pretty darn significant.
