This is a tale of two churches that sit opposite each other on a road near my home. On the south side of the road is a Lutheran congregation of maybe 300 people.

Their website has attractive photos of Arizona scenes, no photos of congregants or the pastor. Nothing is said about its mission or history, but much is said about being Lutheran. There’s one Sunday service.

Across that same road is a Baptist church of about 5,000 people that has been there 10 years. It merged last year with another church in another town 10 miles away, and became multi-site earlier with a venue 50 miles south in a growing community. They have a Saturday evening service and three more on Sunday. They don’t identify their denomination on the website.

We see this scenario often as we drive around our communities. One could just as easily exchange the church labels. Old, established congregations that stay the same, changing little. Others are young, new, vibrant churches that draw in new people. What makes the difference between them? The descriptors above may give hints, but don’t really explain why one church stays small in numbers and the other reaches many more families and fills more needs.

The other day I had the chance to spend valuable face time with Don Wilson, senior pastor of Christ’s Church of the Valley in Peoria, AZ, a congregation of 17,000 and opening a third venue in Scottsdale, AZ, in August. I asked him, what makes the difference?

First, growth depends on leadership, he says, noting what John Maxwell has famously been quoted on that everything rises or falls on leadership. Wilson shares the view that about 5 percent of pastors have the leadership gift.

Another thing holding back churches is their structure, he says. Independent and charismatic churches grow, but if a church has to take everything to a vote of the congregation, it is not likely to thrive. Too often, Wilson opines, the least spiritual people in that kind of church control the church and they have the view “we’ll outlast you.”

He’s not speaking of “dictator models” for successful congregations, but of servant leadership and that churches tend to grow in direct relationship to their ability to endure pain, that is, criticism.

A church is not a democracy, some say. More often than not a growing church may have members vote on receiving a new pastor and affirming the governing board, but little else. In the church of my youth the denomination went to boards of administration and eliminated the elder body (that they came to believe was meddling too much), and the denomination has been on a downward trend ever since. I was in two different ELCA churches when the denomination was revising the bylaws, and in one we eased out the senior pastor as board chairman and gave the role to a lay person. I have wondered since whether that was the smartest move for the vitality of that congregation, though other factors were involved.

There is no one biblical form of church government, but when it comes to leadership and mission and growth, some forms work better than others. This is explained well in two books: Elders and Leaders: God’s Plan for Leading the Church, by Gene A. Getz (Moody, 2003), the founder of many of the Fellowship churches in Texas and elsewhere, and 40 Questions About Elders and Deacons, by Benjamin L. Merkle (Kregel, 2008).

The Holy Spirit may have the last word in a church’s rise or fall, but sometimes he can use a little help from the pew too.

Got a question or comment? Email Ron@ChurchExecutive.com

The most overused word in an election year is probably “projected,” as in Wolf Blitzer saying, “CNN now projects the winner will be…”

We all like to think about what a new year will be like, usually giving it a more rosy picture than it will turn out to be, but then the human condition thrives on hope, doesn’t it?

I turned to Church Executive’s editorial panel (their names are on page 6 on the masthead) for some wisdom for the year ahead, and “it’s the economy, silly” that came to the top of the heap, of course.

“Interest rates have been bouncing off of historic lows for a number of months now [this being written in January],” writes Dan Mikes, evp and manager of Religious Institution Banking at Bank of the West. “Consequently, it has been easy for religious organizations with existing debt to be complacent about refinancing. However, at some point the market will anticipate that a sustained economic recovery and unprecedented levels of cash printing will bring inflationary pressures, and this will cause interest rates to move upward, perhaps significantly.

“Consequently, even churches facing prepayment penalties should do the math now to determine whether refinancing makes sense,” says Mikes. “We expect to see an increase in construction financing requests as the economy continues to recover. As consumer sentiment improves, church leadership may be more comfortable with moving forward with expansion projects that may have been put on hold.”

From the insurance side of the economy, Eric Spacek, senior manager for GuideOne Risk Management and Loss Control, observes that “churches have been enjoying very competitive and low rates for their property, liability and business auto insurance coverage over the past several years. However, the insurance market is showing initial signs that it is starting to turn.

“If this continues to happen, it is anticipated that churches will start to see hardening or increasing property and casualty insurance rates in 2012 and beyond,” Spacek believes.

CFO Denise Craig at Abba’s House suggests that it is a “pivotal year” and that “leaders need to be at the top of their game, honing their skills and remaining dedicated to life-long learning in a time of rapidly-advancing technology.”

Mark Simmons, business manager at California’s Christ Community Church, sees accelerating trends toward online church activities with an increasing variety of devices. “As an example,” he says, “our pastoral search went through almost wholesale transformation as a printed report describing our church was replaced with multi-media available through our website, initial reviews from a couple page resume were replaced by the search committee listening to the candidate speak by downloading podcasts and going to their current church’s website and blogs to learn more about the candidates.

Similarly on the technology side, he sees the beginning of new church systems software that integrate the various church functions into a suite of applications.

Circling back to the economy, Steve Briggs, associate pastor for administration at First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, NC, worries that “many churches will continue to struggle to meet their operating budgets. Mainstream media will ‘spin’ a lot of good news about the economy in a presidential year that may or may not be real.”

Got a question or comment? Email Ron@ChurchExecutive.com

The most overused word in an election year is probably “projected,” as in Wolf Blitzer saying, “CNN now projects the winner will be…”

We all like to think about what a new year will be like, usually giving it a more rosy picture than it will turn out to be, but then the human condition thrives on hope, doesn’t it?

I turned to Church Executive’s editorial panel (their names are on page 6 on the masthead) for some wisdom for the year ahead, and “it’s the economy, silly” that came to the top of the heap, of course.

“Interest rates have been bouncing off of historic lows for a number of months now [this being written in January],” writes Dan Mikes, evp and manager of Religious Institution Banking at Bank of the West. “Consequently, it has been easy for religious organizations with existing debt to be complacent about refinancing. However, at some point the market will anticipate that a sustained economic recovery and unprecedented levels of cash printing will bring inflationary pressures, and this will cause interest rates to move upward, perhaps significantly.

“Consequently, even churches facing prepayment penalties should do the math now to determine whether refinancing makes sense,” says Mikes. “We expect to see an increase in construction financing requests as the economy continues to recover. As consumer sentiment improves, church leadership may be more comfortable with moving forward with expansion projects that may have been put on hold.”

From the insurance side of the economy, Eric Spacek, senior manager for GuideOne Risk Management and Loss Control, observes that “churches have been enjoying very competitive and low rates for their property, liability and business auto insurance coverage over the past several years.

However, the insurance market is showing initial signs that it is starting to turn.

“If this continues to happen, it is anticipated that churches will start to see hardening or increasing property and casualty insurance rates in 2012 and beyond,” Spacek believes.

CFO Denise Craig at Abba’s House suggests that it is a “pivotal year” and that “leaders need to be at the top of their game, honing their skills and remaining dedicated to life-long learning in a time of rapidly-advancing technology.”

Mark Simmons, business manager at California’s Christ Community Church, sees accelerating trends toward online church activities with an increasing variety of devices. “As an example,” he says, “our pastoral search went through almost wholesale transformation as a printed report describing our church was replaced with multi-media available through our website, initial reviews from a couple page resume were replaced by the search committee listening to the candidate speak by downloading podcasts and going to their current church’s website and blogs to learn more about the candidates.

Similarly on the technology side, he sees the beginning of new church systems software that integrate the various church functions into a suite of applications.

Circling back to the economy, Steve Briggs, associate pastor for administration at First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, NC, worries that “many churches will continue to struggle to meet their operating budgets. Mainstream media will ‘spin’ a lot of good news about the economy in a presidential year that may or may not be real.”

During the Thanksgiving weekend I read an article in Vanity Fair magazine, the source of much good journalism, titled on the cover, “Inside the Murdoch-family Fortress.” It had all the earmarks of a good thriller: the father patriarch, conniving daughter and spouse, a son aspiring for the father’s media empire, a wife with undue influence, and much money at stake.

It might just as well been titled, “Inside the Schuller-family Fortress,” that just a week prior saw Robert H. Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral sold off by the bankruptcy court to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Orange to cover some $50 million in debts the 56-year-old ministry owed to vendors and others.

The congregation may sustain itself in a diminished way, elsewhere, but the television ministry won’t likely survive. The four daughters and their spouses share the blame for a great congregation’s demise. But interestingly, if there are any bright spots in the sordid mess, it is with the grandchildren, the adult son and daughter of Robert Anthony and Donna Schuller.

Three years ago I interviewed Bobby Schuller and was immediately struck by his character and intelligence; if anyone in the family had a chance of making a success of succeeding his grandfather, it was Bobby, but it wasn’t to be his timing. He formed his own congregation near Garden Grove that continues today.

The daughter, Angie Schuller Wyatt, is an author, motivation speaker, and businesswoman. She brought an incisive intelligence and open mind when she wrote for Christian Post in November about the bankruptcy decision: “I liken my grief of the Crystal Cathedral’s death to grieving a loved one with a terminal illness.”

Her transparency on the issue is refreshing: “There was nothing I could do to stop my misguided family members. Others in the family seemed to be holding on to ‘a miracle’ that would come just in time. I knew better. Something that defined my life, something I hoped would define my children’s lives, was about to die …

“Eventually the madness worsened to the point that death itself signaled relief. If you’ve ever held the hand of a dying loved one, you know that death becomes the final blessing. Yet, during that final moment, you pause in respect. It’s a holy moment to reflect on what was and to grieve what shall never be again. Yesterday [Nov. 17], Crystal Cathedral Ministries died.”

Angie wrote: “Its problems were not terminal. They could have been solved. My father attempted to fix these problems during his short tenure as senior pastor. He saw the Crystal Cathedral was headed toward bankruptcy. He attempted to restructure the board, cut his siblings’ salaries and establish fiscal responsibility. For these actions, he was fired by the board [July 9, 2008] which consisted of, you guessed it, his siblings.”

A daughter’s love for her father aside, there is a ring of truth to her testimony. Sometimes truth skips a generation.

There was a book written some years back about the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, called “The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson.” When challenged on the meaning of the word tragedy, the author said he meant it not as “Oh, how terrible,” but rather as “Oh, what it could have been.” The Crystal Cathedral had a long run and did much good, but oh, how much more it could have been.

Got a question or comment? Email Ron@ChurchExecutive.com

“People don’t have a giving problem; they have a giving to their church problem. Some simply never developed that habit.” People increasingly choose designated giving.

I once attended a Lutheran ELCA church and I still receive The Lutheran magazine, one of the best among denominations. Its editor wrote about the trends in the ELCA’s statistical reports, many of them on a downward line when it comes to funding. It’s not an uncommon story for most denominations.

But it was the last sentence that caught my attention, when he spoke of “a decline in undesignated giving represents one of the top challenges facing the entire ELCA.” When you parse those words, it’s a pretty disturbing observation. “Donations sent directly to causes and campaigns,” he also said, “result in less money moving on as mission support to synods and the churchwide organization.”

“To say that undesignated giving is under fire is an understatement at best,” says Ben Stroup, an author and writer on stewardship, in commenting to Church Executive. “It seems that church leaders are the last to recognize the shift in giving taking place among the people in the pew. When Passing the Plate (Oxford, 2008) announced that 20 percent of American Christians give nothing to the church, why are we surprised that undesignated giving amounts are falling among regular churchgoers? The church may be losing ground on traditional giving techniques, but people have not stopped giving.”

It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution, he says, when people were paid at a predictable frequency, and the New Deal, when labor laws were enacted to protect income and jobs. This created a sustainable income stream for churches who quickly adapted their tactics to match the consistent income streams of their parishioners. Such a change is taking place again.

Stroup says, “Given the tumultuous economic realities for everyone, this ‘new normal’ has created a more empowered giver who is asking more questions, expecting more say in how funds are used, and are more demanding of the results. This is the antithesis of the traditional church’s approach to undesignated giving which believes the giver gives to God, while the leader disburses the funds with limited accountability from the person in the pew.”

Well, that rather describes my wife and I in our giving pattern. We make up our minds each week whether our offering will go to operating, building, or benevolence. And other weeks we also give to BGEA, Samaritan’s Purse, Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs.

Stroup knocks it out of the ballpark when he observes: “People don’t have a giving problem; they have a giving to their church problem.

Some simply never developed that habit. Their parents didn’t do it. They’ve never done it.

“The bottom line is this: American Christians see their money as theirs, not God’s. This fundamental shift in perspective moves the decision from a disciplined response informed by principles of stewardship to arbitrary generosity acted upon in the midst of an emotional experience.

This puts churches in direct competition with traditional nonprofits, who are – quite frankly – more skilled at talking about money, connecting dollars to impact, and calling people to action. In the absence of the practice and belief in storehouse tithing, undesignated giving disappears,” says Stroup.

“The challenge for church leaders is to borrow the time-tested techniques of the traditional nonprofit world and translate that into the language and practice of the church,” he says. (See Stroup’s article on capital campaigns in this issue too.)

When Bill Hybels came to the podium and told the Global Leadership Summit in August that he had bad news and good news, one might guess there was a cancellation (and replacement) in the conference lineup. There was, but the reasons were unexpected.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz had cancelled out because a gay rights group said it was inappropriate for him to be speaking at an “anti-gay church,” that is, Willow Creek.

Hybels shared that his team and the management of Starbucks had been in conversations over the matter during the week, but that in the end, Schultz decided not to speak.

The gay rights group said that “it is unacceptable” that Schultz would appear on the stage, saying “the church has long practiced dangerous conversion therapy to ‘cure’ people of their sexual orientation … Not denouncing these practices is tacit approval.”

Hybels was gracious and generous in his explanation about the Starbucks CEO’s decision. But others, judging from the Christianity
Today blog, saw it differently.

Said one, “At some point the pro-gay movement is going to be called out for its blatant hyprocrisy and agenda against evangelicals. They’re overplaying their hand and almost forcing anyone who might appear to not automatically acquiesce to their agenda to bow down to them.”

“Well, let’s face it folks,” wrote another, “The guy [Schultz] did the best thing for his position. He knows full well that there won’t be blowback from his backing out of an event at a Christian church because of the protest.”

Well, that aside, is this just a one-time irritant, or does it hold deeper meaning, especially in view of other such challenges by the gay community? There are three implications to consider:

First, the gay community isn’t interested in being accepted by the culture — they want approval, a vastly different thing. We’ve reached the point where churches are being pushed to not simply tolerate their lifestyle, but to approve it — and all that comes with that, including marriage.

Second, the confrontation of the gays is a larger movement against Christian businesses and organizations. Now it is Starbucks, earlier it was the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain, where one incident with the chicken sandwich firm is all about, said one observer, “controlling the narrative.”

Third, biblical authority is at stake. Some churches aren’t talking about the issues that affect their own denominations. I asked one Lutheran (ELCA) pastor what his congregation was going to do about the denomination’s acceptance of gay clergy two years ago, and in so many words, he said: “Most in my church aren’t following the issue, don’t have strong feelings about it, and I’m not likely to raise it with them, if I don’t need to do so.” It’s called avoidance.

A friend in the media told me, “Have we reached a point where a serious Christian [read that, one who believes that the gay lifestyle is sin] will never be able to achieve public office? Issues like marriage, submission, evil, and plenty of other things are not just disapproved of, they are made out to look ridiculous [by the media and gay community].”

He went on: “It does not bode well, and I’m not sure I see a way out of it. Christians are increasingly being marginalized to the point where anyone who seriously tried to defend these values is becoming ostracized. At what point do we start getting hunted?”

Maggie Gallagher, writing in the National Review in August, said, “Gay-marriage advocates have successfully shut down most public avenues for opposition: In entertainment, media, and the academy, opposition to gay marriage is considered suicidal.

“Ordinary Americans hear messages in support of marriage as the union of husband and wife in only two ways at this point: at church or synagogue, and in politics,” Gallagher wrote.

Seminary president Al Mohler  reminds us: “Our greatest fear is not that homosexuality will be normalized and accepted, but that homosexuals will not come to know of their own need for Christ and the forgiveness of their sins.”

Elsewhere he commented: “It is not the world around us that is being tested, so much as the believing church. We are about to find out just how much we believe the Gospel we so eagerly preach.”

COMMENTS?  RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

By Ron Keener

Church members are wise to check out “a too good to be true” investment, that could dash their trust in those who are their fellow Christians.

Larry and Shirley Lee thought they were investing their life savings with trusted acquaintances – the music director at their church and a long-time member of the church – when they put $400,000 into what they thought was a fund that promised (in a brochure) “Safety, Strength, Stability” and a “locked-in” interest rate of 7.9 percent to investors who would put in a minimum of $25,000.

Moreover, not only did the Ohio Lees find their trust violated, but 89 other investors were cheated of $9 million. Elsewhere, in February an Amish man – yes, Amish – age 77, in Sugarcreek, OH, was charged with stealing $33 million from mostly Amish investors in an affinity fraud case.

Affinity fraud is when a shyster takes advantage of a special kind of bond, such as membership in the same church, to cheat or steal from someone. It happened this year to three families in the City on the Hill Church in Boulder, CO in a $750,000 Ponzi scheme. Kevin Lauritsen, 50, in cahoots with the former pastor and another former member of the church, were convicted; Lauritsen was not a member of the church.

Said one of the victims, who lost $275,000 in the scheme, to the local newspaper, “They represented themselves as Christians. They gained our trust. This is breaching trust at the most basic level.” The judge on the case said, “It is not a simple theft for them. It was a theft of their faith in God, which is profound.”

It is all too easy to say it happens all the time, with fraudsters preying on members of the deaf community, religious groups, and minority groups. The schemer violates the trust of his or her own community by falsely promising high returns and little or no risk. You would think that is enough to make any investor think twice, but it happens too often in churches to turn a blind eye to it.

It happens in a variety of settings other than churches: country clubs, senior centers, neighborhood groups. Says one observer, “The hallmark of the fraud is that the scammer looks like or talks like a member of that group. He may be a member of the congregation or a country club golf pro.” It could be an Asian person preying on Asian people, or an African American scamming other African Americans.

In churches, the con man may be “the most Christian of all” in his talk and presentations. Security expert Jeffrey Hawkins tells the story of another kind of fraud:

“What would you do if a woman walks into your church and describes herself as a single mother who needed money to support her two kids. She says she gave her son a $5 bill to put in the collection basket, but realized it was a $50 bill and needed the money back.

“Turns out a couple churches in Florida gave her the money; later police arrested three people in connection with these thefts and for planning to do this to many more churches for gas, cigarettes and ‘pills,’” Hawkins relates.

Hawkins tells too of a man caught sending fake invoices to churches for different services said to have been rendered for electrical work, plumbing, supplies or printing. None of the “invoices” were for large amounts of money, he says, and many churches paid them because they looked genuine — and they were services that churches would normally incur.

“The one thing about ‘scam artists’ or criminals that use deception as a means of theft, is that they are very smart, manipulative and don’t often follow the same methods — they adapt,” Hawkins says. “Where you can take some basic measures to keep out a burglar, more awareness needs to be asserted when dealing with fraudsters.”

I serve on the benevolence team of my congregation, each week making decisions about whether to help on rent or pay for utility bills to individuals really hurting from the down economy. We are guided by a policy we’ve adapted from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. In a year’s time the church probably provides $50,000 to those in need, taking up a mercy offering once a month to replenish the fund.

Con artists are targeting the church and its members. Common sense should prevail, but often isn’t enough. Ronald Reagan said it, in another context, but it is still good advice: “Trust, but verify.”

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

In a church known for its peace stance, a “hearing process” proved useful in testing a controversial issue and keeping the cohesion of the body.

American churches, at least those of a denominational stripe, are increasingly being divided between “gay churches” (those voting to accept gay clergy and adopting an inclusive stance on sexuality) and “straight churches” (those who still see homosexuality as sin and trust to the New Testament understanding). A crude distinction, to be sure, but illustrative.

So when the Lutherans (ELCA) two years ago voted to accept gay, if chaste, pastors, those congregations who objected moved their affiliation to the North American Lutheran Church, a new group. Presbyterian(USA) churches, disagreeing with the move this year by the national body to accept gay clergy, can affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Divisions of this sort threaten schism within Christianity and a division and weakened witness of the faith community to the world. In these denominational debates a yes/no vote will produce winners and, well, losers.

Schism was a fear of one denomination that debated the sexuality issues in July. The Church of the Brethren, a small group of 121,000 souls and 1,000 congregations, most numbering under 75 on a Sunday, labored with its understanding of homosexuality, and with a certain special burden: the Brethren have long described themselves as non-creedal and a “New Testament church.”

Said the Standing Committee, a sort of elder board that screens business prior to the annual conference, “The Church of the Brethren affirms the New Testament as our rule for faith and practice and seeks to place Jesus at the center of our lives and life together.”

Interestingly, the denomination spent two years listening to its members in a sophisticated hearing process that guided the church’s discernment on the issue. In the process called Structural Framework for Dealing with Strongly Controversial Issues were involved 121 hearings, in the 23 districts, with 6,638 participants that was the equivalent of 5 percent of the church’s membership or 8 percent of its active worship attendance.

Sixty-five percent of the hearing groups “being not of one mind,” there was much diversity on the matter. [Disclosure: The Brethren was my church for the first 35 years of my life.]

It was not a perfect process.
They felt, “despite instances of confusion, bias, or even deviation from the scripted process and questions, the process was viewed as well designed and valuable in meeting its intended goal of conversation and sharing. The information gained from the process paints a discernable picture of the denomination as it continues to seek the Spirit’s leading.

“Responses from the hearing process describe a denomination committed to the love and unity exemplified in Jesus Christ yet struggling with how to be authentic to the call of scripture and a theological heritage which has traditionally favored forbearance over doctrinal uniformity.”

In the end, Standing Committee decided that “it is clear that good people of faith, through Bible study and prayer, are not of one mind in how we as a church interpret the Bible or how the Bible is understood concerning homosexuality and same-sex unions.” The delegate body later concurred.

But the temperature of the church was taken, and differences were identified, yet the body “expressed a desire and willingness to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Brethren, known as one of the historic peace churches, held to the tenant of peace-making that served them well over more than 300 years.

More churches might choose a listening process that sheds more light and less tension on issues such as sexuality, though it applies to many controversial topics. This issue is not settled, but the process allowed a strong part of the church to be properly heard.

“Standing Committee urges the Church of the Brethren to continue to wrestle with our tension, to truly listen to one another, to disagree in love, to avoid unkindness toward those with whom we differ, and to continue to seek the mind of Christ together,” the report noted. God’s Word is characterized by continuing revelation, Brethren believe, and the matter didn’t need to be “settled” in 2011. Otherwise, the church’s doors remain open – to all people.

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

Let the conversation turn to the topic of Rob Bell and people first say how much they like the guy personally, but they just don’t like what he has been writing lately.

Bell, of course, is senior pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI, and the author of Love Wins that’s getting a lot of media attention. The book is all about universalism, the view that all people will be saved or brought back to holiness and God.

It’s not a topic that interests me. What does intrigue me is how so many ministry leaders make a bestseller out of what is dubious research. A number of pastors push out the e-mails and blogs giving Bell some left-handed compliments.

Well, not everyone. One pastor shared some pastoral guidance with his congregation. Yes, he’s been a fan of Bell’s work in the past and even defended Bell against criticism. “But his latest book [Love Wins] is irresponsible, at best,” Mark Connelly, lead pastor of Mission Community Church, Gilbert, AZ, wrote his parishioners. He has three concerns for Bell’s book: “First, while perhaps not condoning full blown universalism, Rob takes the reader right to the doorstep and invites them in. Second, Rob uses poor methods of biblical interpretation, and misrepresents the history of the church, to support his proposition. And third, Rob introduces a new version of the Bible story, which is clearly different than the story told by Jesus, the Apostles, and the church for the past 2,000 years,” Connelly advised.

Noting that he has read the book from cover to cover, Connelly says he feels compelled to caution his congregation “against embracing the false teaching Rob puts forth in Love Wins.” In so writing, he brings great courage and pastoral leadership in addressing the book with his church.

In the same week seminary president Albert Mohler came out in his blog with a scathing analysis of another book, Is God a Christian? by R. Kirby Godsey. There’s a bit of history about Godsey, a previous book, and his presidency of Mercer University in Georgia, that you can look up for yourself.

But, says Mohler: “There are different forms of universalism and inclusivism within theological circles today, but the most intellectually embarrassing form of pluralism is the very one that Godsey champions,” Mohler says. “He writes as if all the religions of the world are basically similar, when even a cursory knowledge of the belief systems of the world reveals how dissimilar they are. Godsey does not even privilege monotheism, arguing that Christians should see adherents of all other religions as ‘equals before God.’” Godsey’s book is “not really a serious work of theology at all” and Mohler concludes with calling it “an unmitigated theological disaster.”

So what is the issue here? It is about false teaching.

“Bad theology hurts real people,” says Kevin DeYoung, senior pastor of University Reformed Church, East Lansing, MI, who developed a 21-page analysis of the Bell book. A review that, he says, “is about the truth, about how the rightness or wrongness of our theology can do tremendous help or tremendous harm to the people of God.” Put Bell’s book in the latter category.

It is rather more about Christians who should know better, thrusting a sharp stick in the eye of faith and Christianity, at a time when so few people know their bibles, when the popular culture scolds religion at every turn, when church attendance continues to fall, when religion is drummed from the marketplace, when media and film use every occasion to denigrate the church.

Canadian author and apologist Stephen J. Bedard says that “pastors should develop an apologetic culture in their churches as the need for Christians to defend their faith has increased significantly,” reports The Christian Post. Bedard says that more churches need to articulate what the Gospel is. “Only when they know what the real thing is will they be able to respond to the counterfeit,” says Bedard.

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

Even pastors have their groupies. You know what a “groupie” is: an ardent follower and admirer. An enthusiastic young fan, often a young woman who follows rock groups around. Let’s face it, there are certain pastors who are in the same category as rock stars. They rock!

Often a “groupie” will sit in the same section of the auditorium as the pastor, maybe a few rows back from the front row. It gives them a certain feeling of “involvement” with the head guy, like being in the inner circle.

I know because a few times, when I attended Willow Creek church, I sat in that section behind Bill Hybels. There was a TV monitor built into the front of the stage that senior leaders could watch without straining their necks to look up at the stage.

On occasion when the words of the praise songs on the screens got out of sync with the singers, Bill would turn his head to Lee Strobel or John Ortberg, whoever was sitting with him, and his lips would begin moving. I don’t lip read, but I can only imagine that it was something like: “Can’t we get that fixed?” or “What does it take to make that right?”

But pastors have their detractors too. A year ago we ran an article with the author of a new book on Rick Warren, and for us it was a good story. Well, call me naïve, but I thought the whole world, like me, loved Rick Warren. Not one pastor.

“You highlighted a man on your cover that is a traitor to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” this fellow wrote me of the Saddleback pastor. This individual didn’t like Warren’s friendship with the President.

“Rick Warren may be revered by some, but not by those of us who base our opinions on God’s Word. He has called himself a friend to Barack Obama on numerous occasions, [who has] openly espoused worldviews that are in direct opposition to the Word of God,” the pastor wrote me.

Now this is no small-minded pastor in a small church; he is pastor of a megachurch many times over. He noted that “I assure you that my disgust towards Mr. Warren is based on his double-minded speech about God’s Word.”

Well, I can’t tell you that I am a theologian or can sort through those arguments easily as many of our readers can. But it was an eye-opener that, out there, there are people who don’t much like the theology of Rick Warren, and maybe also Bill Hybels or Andy Stanley or Rob Bell or a hundred other preachers. (When it comes to “universalism” I’ll give you an argument however.)

But wow, it came to me as a shock that people like Warren aren’t universally admired. Duh! This guy said he has written Warren twice to address his concerns and never received a response. And worse yet, our graphic treatment of Warren’s photo [seen here] on the cover “was made to look like Obama’s campaign poster.”

Well, this fellow cancelled the subscriptions to Church Executive for himself and five of his staff and I was told in no uncertain terms: “I also have influence with other pastors and church leaders. You can be sure I will let them know what I think of your magazine when you promote someone who ignores parts of God’s Word. He has become a friend of the world, which would make him an enemy of God,” this pastor wrote.

Within congregations, The Lutheran magazine reports that bullying is on the rise, and Susan Nienaber of the Alban Institute agrees: “Pastor bullying — along with other sorts of bullying — is a phenomenon undergoing a resurgence.”

Its resurfaced everywhere in American life, “but in the more than 20 years I’ve been a consultant, I’ve seen an increase in incivility over the years — although congregations are notorious for what they’re willing to tolerate in the name of being a Christian community,” she says.

“The healthiest congregations have the lowest tolerance for inappropriate behavior. Unhealthy congregations tolerate the most outrageous behavior,” she opines.

So if pastors take some glee in their entourage of hangers-on or fans, most of them know too that coming in over the transom sooner or later will be an ugly, mean-spirited and hurtful missive.

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM