Kris Vallotton preaches his purpose driven bonafides - you should not expect to be fed at church.

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So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. -- Acts 9: 31 (ESV)

https://charismamag.com/spirit/church-ministry/36510-if-this-is-why-you-go-to-church-you-re-missing-the-whole-point

The key verse is after the conversion of Paul, when the fledgling Christian church finally had a respite from the vicious early persecution. We see here that the church was being built up. We know from other passages that only God gives the increase so He was building His early church. The believers play a role though. The Bible says we are ambassadors of reconciliation for Christ. Does this verse from Acts reveal some implementation of purpose driven marketing schemes or seeker friendly outreach initiatives? Does it indicate that those that comprised the early church needed to step aside for the concern about those coming in? No beloved. It simply says that they walked in fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and as a result the church multiplied. When you combine within believers fearing God to obey His Word and empowerment by the Holy Spirit to live out that fear in comfort then you end up with that shining city on a hill. That is how the church stands out and is different. That is how we become ambassadors of reconciliation for Christ. To hear false teachers tell it today however, the sheep are just greedy and selfish and need to get out of the way of the purpose driven church reaching out to the goats of this world. That everyone should be randomly "ministering" to everyone else, marginalizing the true role of leadership within the church. Above is a link to the latest attack upon the church by Kris Vallotton from Bethel. Let us reason together once more beloved:

"Church hopping, church skipping and church judging is all too common these days. It seems that many people are struggling to find the "right" church with the "right" pastor who has the "right preaching style." Maybe you struggle with this in a less overt way. Perhaps you go to church and feel bored or disillusioned. Or maybe going to church is just a part of your Sunday routine that you don't think about when Monday comes along." -- Kris Vallotton

As Kris tries to lay the foundation for his purpose driven message, he stumbles over some compelling truths he simply does not understand. First he conflates things that do not belong together -- church hopping, skipping and judging. Beloved it does not matter to a purpose driven pastor why you are not in his church that Sunday. Your absence is not part of the successful business model. In the Rick Warren model, you are the cheap labor. Heck, you are the free labor. Whether you are a talented voice in the choir to the parking attendant, to the leader of the security ministry, you serve a greater purpose to put on the Sunday show and bring in the next batch of cheap labor, I mean lost souls. The truly ironic thing is Kris lists these three grievous sins against the church without realizing it is the church that is to blame. I have heard the myth of church hoppers ever since I have been saved but in the 16 years since my conversion I don't recall ever seeing one. I consider them like Bigfoot. An urban legend dreamed up by church leadership to convince more people to join the rolls of membership. Assuming that Bigfoot is real, the problem the church hopper is dealing with and the church skipper as well is that the church simply no longer offers the real Christian with any sane reason to get up on Sunday morning. I remember when I left my church after over a decade of service that many of my friends stayed but they did so for social reasons, not scriptural reasons. Once the church shifted focus from feeding the sheep to entertaining the goats it was only a matter of time before the sheep left in search of food. Not to mention that Warren teaches pastors through the Purpose Driven Church to remove any dissenting sheep through blessed subtraction. As for church judging, Vallotton is just trying to deflect the voluminous criticisms piling up against the cesspool he calls church, Bethel. By the way, that is not judging the church but rather the teachings that come from it. Fake glory clouds, gold dust, gemstones, angel feathers, false signs and lying wonders, prosperity gospels, the NAR and dominionism, mandatory healing and a school to teach the gifts of the Holy Spirit to unsuspecting rubes. The teachings emanating from Bethel are rancid and poisonous to the actual church of Jesus Christ. Vallotton continues:

"Today, I'm here to tell you that life in the body of Christ is so much richer than simply showing up on a Sunday to consume. What if finding a church was less about showing up to be taught something, and more about being a blessing to the people around you? I want to encourage you today with a fresh perspective on the real point of church. It may be different than how you've been approaching it. Check out this video for more (Vallotton summarizes with bullet points):" -- Kris Vallotton

Yeah Kris, that is not a fresh perspective at all. Rick Warren wrote about it in the mid-1990s. His vision was to have mega churches on every corner selling a milquetoast, watered down, sugared up gospel that will save no one but grow these monstrous pyramid schemes with the vision casting pastor dude sitting at the top raking in the bucks. As outlined above, one of the keys is selling the notion that God has a mighty purpose for everyone when there is actually no biblical text to support that. Sometimes living a mundane existence in reverent fear of the Lord is enough beloved. What Kris still does not get, as well as Warren, is that they are doing church the opposite of what the Bible outlines:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. -- Acts 2: 42-478 (ESV)

It is the Lord that adds to the number of believers! The people are supposed to study the word and grow in spiritual maturity. This fact comes as a shock to many who have grown up in the purpose driven church but the church is not meant for the lost! Why? Because the things of God are foolishness to them! Should we still invite the unsaved? Of course because that is the only place they will hear the Gospel and only Gospel has the power to save them! Think now about the sheer idiocy of the purpose driven church model. The problem is not those pesky "consumers" in church every week. In fact, we need more consumers. That is what the early church did in Acts.

"Romans 12:1 says, "I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship." Whatever you do after you meet Jesus is spiritual. There's no such thing as secular when you receive Jesus. If you're saved, you're in the royal priesthood. You don't come to church to be ministered to; you come so that you can be equipped to minister." -- Kris Vallotton

Beloved, the Bible has meaning. God is speaking to us what He wants us to know and understand. The great sin of today's band of false teachers such as Vallotton is they use the Bible to prop up what they want to say. Then they slap a Jesus label on it and market it as the truth. One must do the work of a Berean, and trace back dutifully where they misappropriate the word of God and twisted it to fit their own end to understand why they are heretics. Let us reason together and understand how they get to this point. Kris Vallotton set out to write a piece about service to the church. Maybe the ministry ranks at Bethel are growing lower than expected and they need to drum up more volunteers. Whatever the reason, his goal is to write something affirming one of the foundation pillars of the false teachings of the purpose driven church. That if you seek to consume or be fed at church then you are selfish because it is not about you but about the unsaved. Biblically we have already shown how this is patently untrue and unbiblical but it is fascinating to watch how the false teacher operates to get his desired result. In order to convince his readers, Vallotton cobbles together verse fragments and pious sounding platitudes and throws them against the wall like spiritual spaghetti hoping something will stick. His end game is his false teaching point that you come to church to be a minister instead of being ministered to. Here are the individual strands of spaghetti:

* Romans 12:1 says present yourself as a living sacrifice as your service of worship

* Everything you do after you meet Jesus is spiritual

* There is no such thing as secular when you receive Jesus

* If you are saved you're in the royal priesthood

Let's start with the middle two notions that Vallotton just made up on his own. There is nothing biblical about either of these two notions. You can make the technical argument that everything that we do prior to Jesus is spiritual too; it just isn't the Holy Spirit. The fact that an unbeliever finds the things of God foolishness does not change the realities of the spiritual dimension. The world may find their own explanations but the reality is everything is spiritual on one level or another. I get where he is trying to go with the secular comment but it simply is a clumsy attempt to over spiritualize everything, which is the playbook at Bethel. Nothing is secular after Jesus? Really? Granted we should always be representing Christ and by doing so we bring the light into the secular.

The larger problem is always when the false teacher proof texts his point. Vallotton chooses Romans 12:1 because he likes that it calls for sacrifice of yourself as an act of service. Remember, he is trying to prove that you are supposed to be little ministers at church and not sheep who need to be fed. Of course Romans 12:1 has nothing to do with the point Vallotton is trying to prop up. The word "therefore" should clue you in that Paul is wrapping up previous thoughts which mean to find the proper context of this verse we must start in Chapter 11. That chapter has to deal with the standing of gentiles with God and how we are grafted into Israel and the mercy of God has now come to us! Fantastic teaching verses on the salvation of the Gentiles but nothing to do with the demands to be a minister within church. Then we see Romans 12 in the right contextual light. Therefore, now that you have been grafted in and given this merciful opportunity -- present your bodies as a living sacrifice. How reasonable is it to respond the grace of God by sacrificing our bodies and minds. Not in the Creative Arts Ministry at our church but in abstaining from the sins that so easily ensnare us. Vallotton cheapens the importance of this sacrifice and in doing so reveals one of the more serious flaws in the underpinning logic of Warren's work. The Bible is about God and reveals for us how we can live of our lives according to His will. It is deeply personal to us as believers. Warren strips out the personal nature of the Gospel and makes it just a treatise for the whole. Verses and instruction meant for us as individuals are morphed into broader applications they were never intended to be used for. This serves to depersonalize God in the life of the believer. The literal timeline for a purpose driven congregant is as follows:

Week One is altar call, collect information, and give a bible. Step two is plugging the person into the next baptism class. Third is convince them to join the church and/or fill out a SHAPE application to determine what "ministry" they belong in. Step four is plugging them into ministry and turning them over to whoever is leading that ministry. This process could take a month or so depending on when the classes and baptisms are held. In this model the individual is only important one Sunday. Just one. That is the day of their altar call. All of the other steps occur outside of the Sunday Service setting. Once that person has been prayed for and given a bible, they are no longer the consideration of the lead pastor who must get ready for the next batch of goats coming the following week. This is why the average time spent in a mega church does not exceed three years. The Gospel is an incredibly personal phenomenon and Warren packaged it, marketed it, and warped it into a tool to grow carnal enclaves that call themselves churches. Yes it is true that if we are saved we are considered a royal priesthood but as always Vallotton specializes in missing the point. The usage of royal priesthood and holy nation is a direct restatement from Exodus when God is speaking about Israel. Remember, Paul is finishing his thoughts from Chapter 11 about grafting us into the nation of Israel. It is not so that you can go to a church that will starve you while you work out your purpose in the hospitality ministry. Vallotton continues:

"Banning Liebscher spoke at Bethel and shared stories from planting a church in Sacramento. He said people would come to him and ask, "What do you guys do for the poor? He would respond, "I don't know ... what do you do for the poor? You're the church!" I understand there's another side to this. Often times we have beautiful corporate expressions of ministering together. But we can't forget that the church isn't an organization; it's a body of people. We are the church. The church can't start with the organization; rather, it has to be in our hearts. When you know you're a minister, you're not waiting for someone to minister to you. Instead, you go to church to be equipped, so that you can minister to the people around you. If you work in a nail salon, you're a minister at a nail salon! Hallelujah! You're bringing the kingdom wherever you go."

The bible says we are ministers of reconciliation. Why? Because we are saved and can point people to the Gospel so that they might be saved. While we ought to be doing good works as a result of being saved, it is a ludicrous answer from Bethel's Banning to berate the sheep for not doing the job of leadership. This is how the purpose driven mindset works though. Once the altar call is over, there is almost a disdain for those in church that are not strictly adhering to the plan. If you question leadership, doctrine, or any of the schemes to entice the goats then you are deemed the problem and kicked out of the sheep pen. Vallotton's wistful piety of the church starting in our hearts sounds so spiritual but it again is nowhere in the Bible. Paul goes to excruciating lengths to establish to organization of the church for a reason. There is a danger in trivializing ministry. Not everyone has the same calling nor understanding of scripture. When you start saying everyone can do anything; that is how you end up with a Kris Vallotton because someone at some point told him he could teach and preach when it is clear he cannot. The ministry of reconciliation does not mean everyone runs the church. The ministry at the nail salon for example, will only be successful if you know what you are talking about!

"Some people say, "I work in a dark city ..." and what I'd say to you is it's not dark when you're there! Before you got there maybe it was dark, but it can't be now because you're there. And you're the light of the world so wherever you show up, light shows up. And beyond that, darkness flees when light shows up. How Will You Show Up This Sunday? I want you to take some time and think about your perspective on church. Do you usually go as a consumer, waiting to be ministered to? Or do you go with open eyes and an open heart to Holy Spirit's moving? Picture going to your Sunday service as a minister of the gospel. How will you be equipped? How will you serve? How will you pour out?" -- Kris Vallotton

Vallotton uses the word consumer on purpose to vilify those that do not bow down to his purpose driven theology. The consumers he is talking about are just the sheep of the Lord who come to church to hear the word of God and worship Him corporately. Think of it this way. To Kris Vallotton Martha was the hero and Mary was just a consumer. Yet we know that Mary has chosen the better thing. The conclusion reached here is staggeringly ignorant. Not everyone can divide the word of truth. There is a difference between living out the Gospel and teaching it. When your unsaved co-workers see you in peace during the storm they will want what you have. That is being a minster of reconciliation. We should go to church as a student of the Gospel. To learn and grow in Christ. This distortion is how you end up with so many absurdities growing out of Bethel that leadership then tries to distance themselves from. Grave sucking and dead raising teams started in Bethel yet Bill Johnson and Vallotton will swear they know nothing about it. Search YouTube for the video of the Bethel youth at a Jesus Culture concert trying to heal a man in a wheelchair by dragging him out of it. They are known for allowing anyone to step up and prophesy during Friday night services. Church is not meant to be unrestrained chaos. This is where the purpose driven church drives you. Without the Gospel, no one gets saved but do not worry, there will be plenty of ministers to tell you otherwise.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- April 11, 2018

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.