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In the world of questionable and sometimes downright silly Bible translations, one would think that it couldn’t get any worse.
After all, we’ve seen the “In da beginnin’ Big Daddy created da heaven an’ da earth” Ebonics Bible, as well as the “Apostle’s Log” Star Trek English paraphrase Bible. In a more serious effort, the New Oxford Annotated Bible was created in part by pro-”gay” and feminist scholars in order to set forth a more “gay” revisionist interpretation of Scripture.
But now there is a major controversy developing as the latest altered Bibles are being created by organizations that most would think of as being more conservative and reasonable. At the forefront of the controversy are the Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and Frontiers, all of which are producing Bible translations that remove or modify terms which they have deemed offensive to Muslims.
That’s right: Muslim-friendly Bibles.
Included in the controversial development is the removal of any references to God as “Father,” to Jesus as the “Son” or “the Son of God.” One example of such a change can be seen in an Arabic version of the Gospel of Matthew produced and promoted by Frontiers and SIL. It changes Matthew 28:19 from this:
“baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”
to this:
“cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit.”
A large number of such Muslim-sensitive translations already are published and well-circulated in several Muslim-majority nations such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia.
According to Joshua Lingel of i2 Ministries, “Even more dramatic a change is the Arabic and Bangla (Bangladesh) translations. In Arabic, Bible translations err by translating ‘Father’ as ‘Lord.’ ‘Guardian.’ ‘Most High’ and ‘God.” In Bangla, ‘Son of God’ is mistranslated ‘Messiah of God’ consistent with the Quran’s Isa al-Masih (Jesus the Messiah), which references the merely human Jesus.”
In response to these translations, many within the evangelical missions movement as well as many former Muslim converts and indigenous Christians from countries where these translations are being used, are indignant. After numerous appeals have been rejected, a petition has been launched to call for the end to the translations.
More than 3,000 already have signed up.
While the organizations that are promoting these translations are adamant that replacing such terms as Father with Lord or Master best conveys the inspired meaning of the text, many of the indigenous Christian leaders from the countries where these translations are being promoted are broadly rejecting the translations.
The indigenous believers see the introduction of these American-made translations with which they so strongly disagree as a form of American cultural imperialism or colonialism.
According to Turkish pastor Fikret Böcek, such new translations are, “an all-American idea with absolutely no respect for the sacredness of Scripture, or even of the growing Turkish church.”
According to the testimony of one leader from a church in Bangladesh, one of the most problematic aspects of this development is that it gives fuel to the often-heard Muslim claim that Christians are liars who change their Bibles to deceive Muslims. Once a Bible translation is well established within any country, the introduction of such radically different translations reinforces the Muslim charge and undermines trust in the Christian community.
According to Lingel, who can be contacted at info@i2ministries.org, the crisis in translation methodology is largely due to “a postmodern literary bias” that has crept into some translation circles in recent decades. Such translations would seem to demand that the divine author of the Bible change rather than the Muslim reader.
“But Jesus demanded that many of his listeners change,” says Lingel, explaining that instead of demanding that Muslim readers change their understanding of God, these translations seem to convey that God must accommodate the religious prejudices of Muslims.
“Lingel is also the co-editor of a new book, “Chrislam: How Missionaries Are Promoting an Islamized Gospel,” which represents the first major response against Muslim-sensitive translations as well as the larger movement often referred to as the “Insider Movement” or “Chrislam.”
According to reports, of the roughly 200 translation projects Wycliffe/SIL linguists have undertaken in Muslim contexts, about 30 or 40 remove the terms father and son with reference to God and Jesus.
Lingel’s response is quite direct, “These projects need to be defunded.”
Yet according to a recent Forbes “200 Largest U.S. Charities” report, the Orlando-based Wycliffe Bible Translators USA is the third most well-funded religious charity in the states.
Proponents of the Insider Movement claim that this method of reaching Muslims is bearing great fruit. Opponents, however, point out that the so-called converts within the Insider Movement remain “hidden” within their Muslim culture, continue to attend mosque, pray like a Muslim, acknowledge Muhammad as a prophet, the Quran as inspired, and make the Muslim credal confession, known as the “shahada.”
Some now claim that there are as many as 300,000-1.2 million new “Insider believers” in Bangladesh. But one former Insider who left the movement and speaks out in Lingel’s Chrislam book reports that the number of insiders couldn’t be more than 10,000. According to this source, many of the claims are greatly exaggerated so as to bring in more funding from wealthy American missionary organizations.
“Other former Insiders have reported publicly that many Insiders are really Muslims who will do whatever it takes for the jobs and money they are offered by pro-IM ministries to feed their families,” Lingel says.
Further questioning the funding and support of well-known Christian organizations of this movement, Lingel recounts, “I have consulted with the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention on missions and evangelism among Muslims at various times… [Who] stated that there are tens of thousands of Isa al-masih jamaats, or ‘Jesus congregations,’ in northern Africa. But the members of these jamaats call themselves Muslims, do not believe in the Trinity and believe Muhammad is a prophet of God. Are they Christians or Muslims? Why talk about them in terms of missionary success?”
In response to what many Christians see as a heretical movement based on deception, Lingel’s i2 Ministries is in the process of completing a video-based university called Mission Muslims World University, with 40 of the most experienced professors from around the world teaching courses in Muslim ministries, Islamic Studies, apologetics, evangelism and discipleship.
God may hold the whole world in his hand, but persecuted Christians can now hold an entire seminary library on a fingertip.
Bible League International is distributing thumbnail-sized microchips that contain entire theological libraries to Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith.
Bible League International is working with the Digital Bible Society to carry the thumbnail-sized chips to Christians in countries, such as China or Saudi Arabia, where possessing unapproved religious materials can result in prosecution or even death.
“It’s like a miniature Christian bookstore,” said Robert Frank, Global CEO of Bible League International, an Illinois-based non-profit evangelical ministry dedicated to training church leaders using the Bible.
The digital ministry continues the historic work of the Bible League, which went international after World War II when Gen. Douglas MacArthur asked U.S. Christian groups to send Bible to Japan.
The Bible League’s 2011 merger with the Texas-based World Bible Translation Center expanded its abilities to get materials to Christians around the world in their own languages.
The Digital Bible compresses data for maximum storage, then copies the material to cell phone cards, thumb drives, CDs and DVDs, depending upon the country where they will be used. The advantage of the format is that a person can use them, but leave no trace on a computer of their use, unlike the trails left by accessing websites.
Publishers who made their work available for the chip have also agreed to allow the copying of the cards without a fee, Frank said. The works have been translated into Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin and other languages of areas where Christians are persecuted.
“And the content has been donated,” said Synetta Armstrong, senior director of global communications for the Bible League, who demonstrated the chip at last fall’s Religion Newswriters Association conference. “We want to spread the word of God.”
In addition to several versions of the Bible, each of the Digital Bible libraries include worship music, movies, Bible commentaries, a study library, a copy of Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” and other landmark books about discipleship, ministry and history, as well as more than 1,200 images which can be used for a pastor’s study and for teaching others.
“Pastors in these countries want to be trained, but they have no seminaries,” said Melany Ethridge, a spokeswoman for the Bible League.
Irish actor Liam Neeson says he is thinking about becoming a Muslim after undergoing a spiritual awakening in Turkey.
Neeson, who was born into a Roman Catholic family in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, told the London-based newspaper The Sun that he was impressed by the religious atmosphere in Istanbul while filming a movie in the city.
He said: “The [Islamic] call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it’s the most beautiful, beautiful thing. There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.”
Neeson is just one of hundreds of thousands of Europeans who are trading their Christian heritage for the supposed exoticism of Islam. The surge in conversions is contributing to the mainstreaming of Islam in Europe and contributing to the Islamization of the continent.
In Britain, the number of Muslim converts recently passed the 100,000 mark, according to a survey conducted by an inter-faith group called Faith Matters. The survey revealed that nearly two thirds of the converts were women, more than 70% were white and the average age at conversion was just 27.
The survey, conducted by Kevin Brice from Swansea University in Wales, asked converts for their views on the negative aspects of British culture. They identified alcohol and drunkenness, a “lack of morality and sexual permissiveness” and “unrestrained consumerism.”
More than one in four acknowledged there was a “natural conflict” between being a devout Muslim and living in Britain. Nine out of ten women converts said their change of religion had led to them dressing more conservatively. More than half started wearing a head scarf and 5% had worn the burka.
Separately, government authorities revealed that an increasing number of inmates at British prisons are converting to Islam. For example, one-third of the inmates at one of Britain’s most notorious youth jails are Muslims and the religion is attracting a large number of converts.
There are 229 Muslims out of a total of 686 youngsters detained at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution in West London, according to Ministry of Justice figures. There are now so many worshippers at Friday prayers that they have to be split between Feltham’s mosque and its gym.
Prison insiders say most non-Muslims are locked up during Friday prayers because so many guards are needed to monitor the lunchtime service. As a consequence, many disillusioned youngsters are becoming attracted to Islam by the prospect of getting better food and superior treatment at the prison.
One of the more prominent Britons to convert to Islam is Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Booth, who converted after feeling a “shot of spiritual morphine” on a trip to Iran, now wears a hijab head covering whenever she leaves her home and prays five times a day.
In France, an estimated 70,000 French citizens have converted to Islam in recent years, according to a report by France 3 public television. As in Britain, the majority of converts to Islam in France are young women who say they are disenchanted with materialism.
Conversions to Islam are also rife in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway (and here and here), Poland, Portugal and Spain.
In Italy, Ambassador Alfredo Maiolese, an Italian MP, recently became a Muslim and now dedicates his time trying to improving the image of Islam in the West. In Sweden, there are now at least 5,000 converts to Islam.
In Germany, at least 20,000 people have converted to Islam in recent years, according to a report by RTL television. Some of these converts are playing a growing role in jihad in Germany. In 2010, for example, two German converts to Islam who were found guilty of plotting to create what a judge called a “monstrous blood bath” by carrying out terrorist attacks against American targets in Germany.
“This trend has taken on a very threatening quality toward our security, and while not every convert is a potential terrorist, we are facing a sort of homegrown terrorism that has sprouted in our own backyard,” according to Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
Many European coverts to Islam on fact become vastly more pious than Muslims who were born into Islam. Such converts, taking an absolutist approach, are often easily led into extremism.
In Belgium, for example, Muriel Degauque, a woman from Charleroi and a convert to Islam, committed a suicide car bomb attack in November 2005 against American troops in Iraq. A bakery worker, Degaugue had married a Muslim man and quickly became radical in her religious views.
In Switzerland, young converts to Islam are a potential threat to the country’s security, according to Alard du Bois-Reymond, who was head of the Swiss Migration Office until he was removed for his politically incorrect observations.
Du Bois-Reymond told the German-language newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that Swiss converts include people who want a “radically different society” and are “resistant to dialogue.” He described the Central Islamic Council of Switzerland, which was founded and is run by Swiss converts to Islam, as “the most radical group in Switzerland.”
Also in Switzerland, Daniel Streich, a former member of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which campaigned against the construction of minarets for mosques, converted to Islam. He now says Switzerland needs more mosques.
In Spain, at least 50,000 native Spaniards have converted to Islam in recent years, many of them women. Webislam.net, a Spanish-language website devoted to propagating Islam in Spain, recently published an article that encourages Spanish women to wed Muslim men. The article describes marriage to a Muslim this way: “Multiculturalism is a rewarding experience for all concerned.”
A St. Louis woman is suing an Evangelical church over injuries she sustained when a fellow member caught the Holy Spirit and lost control of herself.
Cheryl Jones filed a complaint in December that while visiting the Disciple Fellowship Christian Church in East St. Louis, another member received the Holy Spirit and fell backwards, causing her injury, according to ABC News.
In the complaint, Jones mentioned that there were no ushers or other members to assist the lady who became overcome by the spirit. She blames the church for failing to protect her.
Jones said that when a woman received the spirit, she fell backwards, knocking many people back who eventually landed on her. She hit her head, neck, back and buttocks and was rendered unconscious, according to Courthousenews.com.
She said that she continues to suffer from physical pain, as well as mental and emotional distress. Jones is suing the church for carelessness and negligence and asking for $50,000 to pay for medical and health care for her injuries.
Jones said in her complaint that the church usually has two ushers to assist people who lose control when they catch the spirit, but no one was there to assist her.
“They should have either warned Cheryl and people like her of the potential dangers- especially if they’re not going to have deacons or parishioners to help these people when they fall,” said Brian Millikan, Jones’ attorney.
Millikan added that people falling while being overcome by the Holy Spirit is something that happens often in the church.
Jonathan Turley, a tort law professor at George Washington University, told ABC News that when people are filled with the Holy Spirit, they are worked up into such a frenzy that they may lose their response to risk. He poses the question of how much the church is responsible for anticipating these spiritual outbursts, which can lead to injury.
“The whole idea of being touched by the Holy Spirit is to surrender yourself. In doing so, these are people that are surrendering themselves to collapsing involuntary,” Turley said. “These churches tend to treat this response as the Holy Ghost has taken away the power of the individuals to even stand.”
There have been many cases like this in courts, called “swoon-and-fall” cases, according to On Point News. Plaintiffs usually allege that the church failed to protect them from injury when they “swoon” during an altar call.
The Michigan Court of Appeals recently upheld a $40,000 jury award after finding that it is the church’s duty to provide ushers to catch a “swooning” congregant after she fell backwards.
In 2008, a woman in Oregon tried to sue her church for not providing multiple people to catch a congregant “who was going to be blessed or slain in the spirit.”
Shin Lim Kim was a catcher, but when she tried to catch another member who caught the Holy Spirit, she injured her spinal vertebra, according to On Point News. She complained the church was negligent in not providing multiple catchers nor discussing safe catching tips.
Kim tried to sue for $125,000, but the courts ruled in favor of the church, finding that they were not liable for Kim’s injuries.
The Obama administration shocked the Catholic Church last Friday by requiring that religious organizations offer their employees contraceptive services, including sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, as part of their health plans. While churches themselves are exempt, religiously based businesses, including colleges and hospitals, will be required to violate their beliefs in obedience to the new law. In response, Catholic churches across America read a letter on Sunday in protest.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced in January that church-linked groups will be required to abide by new health insurance requirements that mandate coverage for contraception, sterilization, and drugs that induce abortions – not only to cover them, but to offer them without out-of-pocket costs. Religious organizations have one year to get on board.
This is equivalent to requiring all health food stores, even those run by vegans, to offer a dairy section because it’s healthy and people might want eggs and milk. It’s like demanding all delis, even kosher ones, to offer bacon because non-Jews might come shopping, and to offer that bacon for free. The Catholic Church is up in arms at the government’s interference and disregard for the strongly held religious beliefs of millions of Americans.
In a letter of protest, Catholic churches in parishes across the country read variations of a letter which declared in part: “[T]he Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty… We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights…”
The decision is not just a disappointment to Catholics. The National Association of Evangelicals had also lobbied against the requirement on religious grounds. Tom McClusky of Family Research Council Action condemned the law in a statement, saying, “Despite the fact that certain drugs and devices approved by the FDA can work after conception to destroy a newly developed baby, the Obama Administration mandate still forces all insurance plans to carry these drugs and devices even if employers are morally opposed.”
By directly and specifically mandating that religious groups put aside their moral beliefs, the government has placed the opinions of its agents over the values of the people and has therefore violated the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
The rule does exempt churches themselves, but church-affiliated universities, schools, and hospitals are not exempted, even though the same belief systems apply. On Friday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave religious institutions a half-hearted boon by offering a year grace period, as though giving religious groups a year to violate their consciences was a good compromise.
On the other hand, family planning groups were pleased with the decision. “This is good news for millions of women whose access to contraceptive services under this new benefit was being questioned,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
The issue is not whether millions of women will be forced to bear children when they would rather not. Contraceptive services are still available across the country. The issue is that those religious groups that believe certain forms of contraception are wrong should not have to pay for them.
Michael Walsh ranted about the matter on National Review Online, pummeling the Catholic Church for not considering its options to be more than “either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees.” He wants the Catholic Church to say that they refuse to recognize the law’s moral authority and simply ignore its provisiont. Referring to Poe’s short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” Walsh chides, “Once Montresor’s got you inebriated and chained to the wall, and is just about to cement the last brick in place, it’s way too late to figure out that you’re in big trouble. And here you thought he was your friend and neighbor…”
Yet, it is not the end of religious freedom as we have known it. The Supreme Court just recently ruled in favor of religious institutions in the case of Hosanna-Tabor Church v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2011), in which the justices unanimously gave religious groups the freedom to hire and fire whomever they wanted without the same danger of discrimination cases feared by other employers.
“The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in a sweeping, broad decision. “But so, too, is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith and carry out their mission.” It isn’t the government’s job to interfere in such matters, the justices said.
On one hand, the very purpose of most religious institutions is to care for people, to provide for them and give them assistance and provision as sources of help and comfort in an often hostile world. When the government dictates to religious groups how to accomplish these goals, contrary to their moral codes, the job of the people is to tell the government, “You’ve overstepped your bounds. You need to step back.”
This past Sunday, January 29, Roman Catholic congregations were read letters opposing the Obama administration’s demand that all Catholic universities and Catholic-based charities make sure they provide all employees access to health insurance providing artificial contraception, including abortifacients and sterilization services such as vasectomies and tubal ligations. The “morning after” pill is also included.
The clerics’ fiery rebukes follow Pope Benedict XVI’s January 19 speech in which he warned the Catholic Church of the increasing threats of radical secularism’s intrusion into politics and culture. The Holy Father specifically mentioned the U.S. church’s need to be afforded conscientious objection to the administration’s demand for compliance within one year.
No serious observer can believe that the administration’s real goal is to ensure the acceptance or availability of contraception.
Everyone knows that anyone who wants contraceptives has easy access to such measures even if he or she does not have a health plan that provides for them. The local friendly drugstore has aisles stacked to the ceiling with condoms and other “family planning” measures, while clinics such as Planned Parenthood hand out birth control pills and abortions with abandon — sometimes even to underage girls, as damning videos taken by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles have shown.
No, the real issue is not birth control or the provision of it.
The central issue is government intimidation of and control over religious institutions. It is government’s overriding of the consciences of Catholics and members of other denominations who oppose abortifacients and sterilization.
The 2013 deadline for Catholic institutions to conform to the health care mandate is the proverbial governmental foot in the door for controlling religious institutions — actually, for controlling all people of faith who disagree with the administration’s stance toward abortion.
For the truth of the matter is that the U.S. government’s intrusion into religious organizations, if not halted at this stage, will continue to press even harder for even more sacrifices of conscience. The next step on the part of the government will almost certainly force all religious institutions to provide access to health care insurance that provides coverage of surgical abortions. The administration’s demands are only the first salvo in what is bound to be a continuing battle between the federal government and churches if ObamaCare continues its trajectory and is not dismantled.
But there are even worse consequences if the government continues to try to coerce the church against its conscience and doctrines of faith and practice. If the push to force the churches into positions compromising its rules of faith and practice succeeds, and the church capitulates, there is absolutely no church or church institution the government will not seek to control completely.
By insisting that the state override matters of conscience and faith established by the Church, the U.S. federal government will have followed the examples of tyrannous regimes which have sought to seek to establish government power over the Church. It will essentially be requiring what totalitarian regimes everywhere require of the Church — namely, no separation of Church and state. There will be only the State.
The present pope, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany, has fully understood from the experiences of his youth while in Nazi Germany — and from the experiences of his good friend and predecessor Pope John Paul II while under Nazi rule in Poland during WWII — just what happens when the state dictates its policies to the Church. Both popes knew what it was like to live under a regime which reversed the roles of Church and state. Both saw the Church crushed under oppression.
The Christian view of the Church is that it must act in freedom. It must be free to stand apart from the government and act as the conscience of the state and its citizens. The state is never to act as the arbiter of the conscience of the church. The Church renders to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and nothing more, as all else is rendered to God. The Church remains transcendent as God’s kingdom, above all earthly powers.
Otherwise, when Caesar controls the Church and its entire hierarchy of bishops, cardinals, and even popes, all are forced to salute and to submit to the state, as this famous photo of Catholic clergy offering Nazi stiff armed salute to Hitler illustrates.
If they do not rise up in civil rebellion against this administration’s demands, what will become of the Catholic Church and other denominations in America?
The answer to that question is as follows: they will cease to be the Church in any significant way.
And without the Church and people of good faith everywhere in all denominations acting as the conscience of our nation, our constitutional Republic will also cease to exist.
Fay Voshell holds a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where she was awarded the Charles Hodge Prize for excellence in systematic theology. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com.
The latest statistics from the Church of England show a two percent drop in attendance between 2009 and 2010.
Average Sunday attendance fell from 944,400 in 2009 to 923,700 in 2010, continuing the long-term downward trend.
The number of children and young people at weekly services also dropped by two percent, from 223,000 in 2009 to 218,600 in 2010.
However, marriages rose in the Church of England by four percent, from 52,730 in 2009 to 54,700 in 2010. It is the biggest increase in marriages in any one year in the last decade and follows the launch of a range of initiatives designed to make marrying in the Church of England easier.
The figures show a slight increase in the number of child baptisms, up one percent from 43,480 in 2009 to 43,850 the following year. Adult baptisms also rose by one per cent, from 11,010 in 2009 to 11,160 in 2010.
The number of people opting for a Church of England funeral fell by two per cent in churches and four percent in crematoriums.
Despite the drop in attendance at Church services, there is positive news in the growth of fresh expressions of church. The figures show that there are at least 1,000 fresh expressions and new forms of church linked to the Church of England.
It is the first time that fresh expressions have been included in the Church of England’s annual report on attendance.
Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops’ Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, welcomed the rapid growth but cautioned that more needs to be done to reverse declining church attendance in Britain.
He said: “It’s inspiring to think how much has happened in so short a time. Since the 2004 Mission-shaped Church report, we have seen the development of some 2,000 fresh expressions of church in the Church of England and Methodist Church.
“The Holy Spirit has been at work in reaching thousands of people through these fresh expressions and we are all running to keep up. This is hugely encouraging and is a major contribution to the re-evangelization of our land.
“However it is just a beginning, this is not a quick fix and there is much more to do. Fresh expressions of church are one vital factor, but there is a long haul ahead of us.”
What’s more important? Reaching the lost or growing the reached? Over the past two weeks, the ongoing debate between discipleship and evangelism took center stage during one megachurch’s Code Orange Revival.
Elevation Church, a seeker-friendly church in Charlotte, N.C., hosted a 12-night “old-school revival,” that ended Sunday night, featuring presentations from well-known pastors like Ed Young, Perry Noble and T.D. Jakes. The event drew thousands of attendees but it also attracted critics, who raised important questions for the evangelical church.
Steven Furtick, lead pastor of Elevation, has made it clear that his church’s main goal is about reaching out to unbelievers. In fact, his church’s list of core values called “The Code” states: “We Need Your Seat. We are more concerned with the people we are trying to reach than the people we are trying to keep.”
He told those attending the Code Orange Revival on night seven, “We’re all about the numbers.” Elevation has grown to six campuses in just six years and claims to have more than 10,000 people attending their services on any given Sunday.
Many pastors, including Craig Groeschel and Ed Young, have taken note of the rapid growth. Young, pastor of Texas-based Fellowship Church and author of the new book Sexperiment, highlighted on night five of the revival that Elevation has “baptized about a ‘squillion’ people. That’s growth.”
However, a wide variety of theologians and watchdog organizations have a different view.
David Wells, senior research professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, put it this way in an email to CP: “At the two NFL playoff games this weekend there will be large, enthusiastic crowds but a crowd by itself is no indicator of the work of God.”
Chris Rosebrough, apologist, host of the radio program “Fighting for the Faith” and a long-time critic of Elevation, told The Christian Post: “They equate somebody who wants to go deeper in their understanding of theology as someone who is missing the need to be keyed into the latest move of the Spirit.”
He said pastors like Furtick and Young believe they “know the Spirit is moving because of how many people showed up.” They have a popular message and are “doing a great job of puffing up people’s egos and telling them what they want to hear.”
He compared Elevation to a Chinese company that produces millions of plastic toys that break easily and don’t last. “It’s more expensive and time consuming to make something that has quality,” he noted.
Dr. John Hardin, a writer for 9Marks, a Washington, D.C., organization that helps “church leaders define success as faithfulness to God,” recently completed his dissertation on the history of church promotion in the 20th century.
He told CP that often it’s easier for churches to measure their success in numbers because it’s how our society measures success.
“Quality is hard to measure, unless it’s in a numerical ranking system,” he said. “A quality hotel is one with five stars or 50 positive reviews or 500 guests or a profit of $50,000. It’s much easier to measure and communicate success by reporting 50 baptisms instead of the details of transformation in one person’s life. In 21st century churches big numbers mean big success. And big success means God is behind it, so don’t question it.”
For Wells, the real indicator of success is once people are brought in to the church, whether or not they see Christ as their redeemer.
“Whether they know that he bore their sin and gave them his righteousness, whether there is deepening conviction of sin, whether people yearn to find new levels of faithfulness, whether they are giving themselves to the service of Christ and so on. These are the only indicators there are as to whether God has been at work or not,” he said.
Apologist and author Frank Turek agreed that the numbers aren’t always the whole picture. “It could be a measure of success, but it could also be a measure of popularity. Joel Osteen preaches a mild prosperity gospel and hardly ever talks about sin. He’s got the largest church in America. I would say that’s not necessarily a measure of success for making disciples,” Turek pointed out.
He told CP that part of the responsibility of the church is to make disciples. Just getting people to make a decision for Christ isn’t enough.
Turek added that while it’s a good thing that churches like Elevation are focused on reaching the lost, there is a problem if “the numbers don’t convert to disciples.” He said, “Jesus didn’t say come make believers, he said go make disciples.”
Tonia Bendickson, spokesperson for Elevation, stressed to CP on Tuesday that many of the attendees are active in the church and growing spiritually.
“Elevation focuses on participation, rather than membership, and I think participation in our church speaks volumes to the level of commitment and discipleship happening here,” she said in an email to CP.
She noted that 4,500 people were plugged into “eGroups” or small groups that meet regularly to study God’s Word. “We encourage people to get in a group, because that’s where the real growth happens,” she said. “We’re about to have another eGroups enrollment push here at the end of January.”
Elevation also has more than 2,800 people actively volunteering at the church, Bendickson added. They meet every week “to pray and serve and seek God together.”
Seven influential megachurch pastors took part in live unscripted discussions on different approaches to ministry in the second round of The Elephant Room – an event billed as “conversations you never thought you’d hear” from pastors.
Held in Aurora, Ill., and broadcast to over 70 locations around the U.S., the discussions were mediated by James MacDonald of Chicago’s Harvest Bible Chapel and Mark Driscoll of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church.
With nondenominational churches growing across the county, the role of denominations and church networks was the first topic discussed.
Jack Graham, a pastor affiliated with The Southern Baptist Convention, told audiences that there is “no question denominations are diminishing in their impact, [and] frankly, a lot should go away. Especially those whose theology and commitment to world missions is basically nonexistent.”
Most people in today’s culture aren’t looking for a church affiliated with a denomination, he said. Rather they are looking for “a ‘Jesus Church’ and a church preaching truth and grace.”
Graham doesn’t necessarily see affiliation with a denomination as a bad thing, especially ones like the SBC that have a long history of conservative theology and are giving millions of dollars to “fulfill the Great Commission.”
Denominations, he noted, can avoid becoming institutional and bureaucratic by maintaining the focus on local churches. “You keep [the church] fluid by keeping it a local church movement,” he said.
Mark Driscoll provided the counterpoint to Graham in the first round. Driscoll said often what happens in denominations is that “there is movement, then there is an organization to support the movement and then it becomes an institution where the primary focus is to preserve the institution, not to forward the movement, [and finally] it becomes a museum.”
He said churches have to keep going back to mission and movement in order to avoid this problem.
Driscoll is affiliated with the Acts 29 network – an organization that is dedicated to church planting and highly focused on mission and movement.
“I’m not a Baptist, but I love the Baptists. The Baptists love me,” he said. Driscoll told those in the audience that the Acts 29 network works with various denominations and he is seeing many young church leaders opting for dual affiliations, with both their denominations and with Acts 29.
A dual affiliation allows them to have the assets and benefits from both denominations and networks. Driscoll said that denominations help to provide resources that a network wouldn’t have, like funding and helping to start schools.
“I think we’re going to start seeing more people with dual affiliations,” he said. They help each other fill in the gaps of their ministries.
The Mars Hill Church pastor added that he liked being a part of a network because he is able to “work with people outside of our team and tribe … and have friendships without the politics or criticism that comes from without your tribe.”
Both Driscoll and Graham agreed that dual affiliations help those in different denominations cooperate and work with other evangelicals of different backgrounds. “There is a strengthening of the stakes theologically and a broadening of the tent,” Graham said.
Some churches prefer to say they are a denomination first and a network second, or vice versa, but Driscoll noted, “At the end of the day as long as churches are getting planted and people are meeting Jesus, that’s all we care about.”
A newly appointed state director of an atheist activist group said that he will fight two national Christian-based organizations for what he alleges to be proselytizing at public schools while “targeting the impressionable minds of our children.”
Al Stefanelli, the former president of United Atheist Front and presently the Georgia state director for American Atheists, Inc., said he will take action against the Child Evangelism Fellowship and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes this year. Both groups conduct after-school and break-time activities on school campuses throughout the United States with the approval of school officials.
When asked by The Christian Post as to what actions he would take against these groups, Stefanelli said, “I cannot get into specifics at this time, as we are still in the planning/strategizing stages. You can be confident that we will, as always, operate within the law, using peaceful means.”
In a statement posted last week on the American Atheists Website, Stefanellis writes that in his new capacity as director in Georgia he will “bring new fights against those who would not only abrogate the First Amendment, but do so to the detriment of our children.”
“Make no mistake, these will be difficult fights, as these organizations are large, well-funded and very influential in our schools. The fight will be worth it, though, because what is at stake is our future,” he adds in the post.
Stefanellis told CP that his cause is worthy, basing his opposition to Christian organizations using school facilities for activities by claiming the First Amendment guarantees the separation of church and state.
“The groups in question are national organizations that utilize the public school systems as a platform for proselytizing and evangelism,” he said. “They are operating by using loopholes, which is unethical and immoral, and my goal is to have their methods classified as illegal.”
Christian legal group Alliance Defense Fund responded to the Stefanellis’ proclamation headlined “Some of My Activist Targets for 2012″ by saying First Amendment rights protect Christian groups as well.
“Just as atheists are free to challenge any government action they believe is improper, the Alliance Defense Fund has the same right to oppose them and to stand with those who believe free speech is for everyone, including Christians,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman.
“The U.S. Constitution permits religious tracts and fliers to be distributed at school by students or by outside groups if the school has opened a forum for such materials. While certain atheists may not like the freedoms that the Constitution grants, they certainly have no problem taking advantage of them,” Cortman said.
He added, “ADF will be on the lookout for any attempts by atheists who use threats of litigation to bully schools into conforming to an anti-religious agenda.”
A spokeswoman for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes said her group is aware of Stefanellis’ plans to target the organization and provided CP with a statement about ministry access in public schools.
The statement reads, “FCA student clubs or Huddles are granted access to public schools and colleges by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Access Act (‘the Act’). Passed by Congress in 1984, the Equal Access Act states that whenever a school or college recognizes a single non-curriculum related school club, it must also provide the same access, privileges and benefits to all school clubs. This Act protects religious clubs, like FCA, by giving them equal footing with all other student clubs. This ‘limited open forum’ is available during non-instructional times, such as before or after school and lunchtime.”
“In order for FCA to be a qualified student club, it must be student-initiated and student-led. Many schools require faculty sponsors. As a result, coaches and staff may monitor, facilitate or supervise FCA meetings. Faculty cannot lead or be directly involved in the meetings,” the statement concludes.
Stefanellis also has issue with church and ministry organizations, which he says often shine in humanitarian efforts within communities, but are out-of-bounds when it comes to operating within the public school system and government.
“Regardless of majority demographics, not everyone is Christian and these two groups in particular use nefarious methods of passive-aggressive proselytizing that affects the children of non-Christian parents who should be able to send their kids off to school without the worry that they will be exposed to religious propaganda (magazines, tracts, fliers, etc.) that these organizations leave behind, or via the training they give school teachers and administrators to integrate into their daily activities,” he said.
“While I am a proponent of adults being free to choose whatever path of enlightenment suits them, I am opponent of child evangelism and indoctrination. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. A child should be given all the facts over their formative years so when they reach adulthood they can make informed decisions about their spirituality without being scared into a belief system under the threat of eternal damnation,” Stefanellis added.
ADF’s Cortman sees a paradox in Stefanellis’ argument.
“The atheists claim that children shouldn’t be exposed to religious views, but anti-religious views are apparently fine,” he said. “Our children will be taught someone’s morality, the question is simply whose will it be?”
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