Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly--not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. - 1Peter 5: 2-3 (NLT)
There is a guiding teaching for the new breed of brash seeker friendly pastors we see all over Christendom today. It doesn't matter to what Bible twisting you ascribe yourself too. This teaching is about how to grow your church. How to turn your church into a business, with you as the vision casting CEO/pastor. How to draw goats into your sanctuary and convince them to tithe. Mega churches across this country have successfully employed the Purpose Driven Church model for years now and it has paid off for the kingdom of Satan, not so much for the Kingdom of God. While pastors gave their churches the Purpose Driven Life to read years ago they were reading a different book from Rick Warren called the Purpose Driven Church, which has raised up a generation of preachers who have turned the model of the church upside down. Instead of the pastor trusting God for the horizontal growth of the church while they concern themselves with the vertical growth of the sheep, the Purpose Driven Church teaches them the opposite. That they need to compromise the Gospel in order to draw people into the building. That a church that is growing according to human metrics is being "blessed." It is by far the most damaging doctrine in the last 100 years because so many now lead their churches according to this carnality and claim it is of God.
Today however, we will look at one smaller teaching within the Purpose Driven Church, called blessed subtraction. Recently we saw the self implosion of Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll and one of the more serious charges against him was an infamous sermon where he gleefully referred to the sheep he was hurting and leaving behind as "a pile of dead bodies." What many do not know is the actual opening line of that clip from the sermon has pastor Driscoll saying, "I am all about blessed subtraction." That is a term found in the Purpose Driven Church and Mark Driscoll was an adherent of Rick Warren's false teaching. So what is blessed subtraction? Let's have Pastor Warren explain it:
Be willing to let people leave the church. And I told you earlier the fact that people are gonna leave the church no matter what you do. But when you define the vision, you're choosing who leaves. You say, "But Rick, yes, they're the pillars of the church." Now, you know what pillars are. Pillars are people who hold things up " And in your church, you may have to have some blessed subtractions before you have any real additions. - Rick Warren
Apparently pastor Warren never read the Parable of the 99 and the 1. This insidious teaching has grown in the body of Christ like a cancer, leaving wounded and bloodied sheep dotting the Christian landscape. Many never return to church. Many turn against the church. But who cares if you get another 100 people in the front door? God cares!
An interesting phenomena is happening now though. Some people are turning to Scripture and discovering that what they are being taught is simply unbiblical. The average time someone spends in a mega church is less than three years. After that, many never return to the house of God. They become disillusioned. But as the sheep start to try and feed themselves the purpose driven pastors are pushing back in most foul and disgusting ways. That brings us to David Hughes, pastor of Church by the Glades in Florida. Recently he has been doing a sermon series called "Foodies", which supposedly looks at food and the Bible. Why? Because that is what ridiculous seeker friendly pastors do! I just saw a video from Fellowship Church in Dallas where they reenacted the Michael Jackson zombie video Thriller during their "Walking Dead" sermon series! Beloved this is not church! This is not the Gospel! If I said that to pastor Hughes, he would apparently call me human excrement. In his sermon recently from the Foodies series, he had a table set up on stage and he walked his congregation through the various "chairs" representing the different people who attend a church. In one chair sat the unbeliever. In the next was the "baby Christian." The next contained the maturing believer. Then he came to the high chair, which he called the "I" chair. Because in this chair apparently sits the selfish, big fat whining baby Christians who want to make church all about them. Hughes mocked, "I want more doctrine, I want more worship, I like things the way they were"whaaaaa"
So in the purpose driven mind of David Hughes, if you want more doctrine or more worship, you are akin to a crying, selfish baby. By wanting more of Jesus, somehow, Hughes has turned it into a craven desire. I could end there and say that David Hughes is simply not fit to be a pastor. But he was not done and what happened next was simply beyond the pale. It completely disqualifies him from pastoral ministry and makes me fear for his soul.
http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2014/11/sbc-pastor-david-hughes-refers-to-ex.html
The above link is to a watchdog website that is hosting a two minute portion of the closing of this sermon. In it you will hear this alleged man of God say that since the Bible says the church is like a body, sometimes churches become "spiritually constipated" and they need some "Holy Spirit ex-lax." Who is it that is constipating the body of Christ according to Hughes? The same people he already outlined were so selfish to demand doctrine and worship! Here he refers to them as "mean people who need to leave and take their poison with them." So now asking for doctrine is akin to poison and those who ask for it are human excrement. Wow. Perhaps the saddest thing though was the sound of clapping as this vile garbage was preached.
I heard a local preacher say from the pulpit once that if you can't make things right with a brother in his church then you need to leave. I was stunned. Now I know where he got that unbiblical nonsense from. Same place former pastor Mark Driscoll got his training. Same place David Hughes got his. What do our key verses teach us today about the role of the shepherd? Is it to kick out anyone who disagrees with their silly vision? Is it to degrade people, humiliate them, and compare them to excrement? No beloved. Pastors are supposed to care for the flock God entrusted to them. Do you hear that David Hughes! The sheep you casually refer to in such disgusting terms and encouraged to leave were entrusted to you by God. You will answer one day for each and every one of them. You are supposed to watch over them willingly, not holding grudges. It is not supposed to be about what you can get out of it. They were assigned to your spiritual care and you treated them like the excrement you accused them of being.
Do not fall for the purpose driven lie and the wolves who now prowl the pulpits claiming visions but leading no one to the narrow path. People who preach about zombies or food instead of the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ. Read your bibles and make sure you are getting the real food of the Word of God, not stories about food from the Word of God.
Rev. Anthony
