Use more performed music than congregational singing ... (p. 291)
The ground we have in common with unbelievers is not the Bible, but our common needs, hurts, and interests as human beings. You cannot start with a text ... (p. 295)
It sounds like Rick Warren could work for GM. No one has done more damage to modern Christendom than Rick Warren. That is because he has effectively changed the language of Christianity. He has encouraged generations of young pastors to abandon the true Gospel of Jesus Christ in favor of this artificially sweetened version that cannot save anyone. In the entire Purpose Driven Life Warren addresses salvation only once, on page 58. There he states "whisper the prayer that will change your eternity: 'Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you'" and then arrogantly welcomes any who said this ridiculous excuse for a prayer into the family of God. All of salvation and the cross boiled down into nine words. None of those words include sin or repentance. Beloved, no one can be saved in this manner. Since Warren shows a complete disdain for Scripture, he must fail to realize that the Word of God was meant to be offensive.
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. - Matthew 10: 34-38 (ESV)
The purpose driven churches across this land have beaten their double edged swords into plowshares. They have changed the Gospel. They have altered it for any number of reasons. We see some people preach prosperity because they are greedy and want to make money. Some preach a feckless grace that garners them international fame and fortune. Others are simply deceived themselves. It is what they were taught. Many pastors know in their hearts that tithing is unbiblical but it is how they were taught. Tithing however is not an issue of salvation beloved. Preaching the uncompromised Gospel is. When you strip out of the lexicon of Christianity words such as repent, sin, and the blood you are in fact stripping salvation out of the Gospel. When you reduce all of the sufferings of Christ, the brutalization, the betrayal, the whipping, the pulling out of His beard, the crown of thorns shoved into His brow until His own blood dripped into His eyes, the spear through His side and His eventual death all down to nine meaningless words, you have removed the power of God unto the salvation of men from the Gospel you claim to preach. You may succeed in churching them. They may believe they are a sheep when in fact they are still a goat. You may teach them how to do Christian tricks. Teach them all the churchianity vernacular. Get them to be baptized and join a ministry. Maybe get them to tithe or do a missions trip. One day however they will stand before Christ and He will say He never knew them. Because while you were busy trying to not offend them - you never actually addressed their need to be saved. They may very well be churched but they never were saved and being churched does not gain you entry into eternal life. It just doesn't. Words matter.
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." - John 6: 66-69 (ESV)
Yes beloved and only Christ has the words of eternal life. Not Rick Warren. Not your local pastor. This is why any true man of God is too busy lifting up the name of Jesus to get involved in all of this new age, pop-psychology, focus group tested, relevance seeking nonsense. The sad sad truth is that all of these seeker friendly techniques comes down to man thinking he knows better than God. The Apostle Paul understood what had to be preached and why:
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. - 1Corinthians 2: 1-5 (ESV)
