This is the Kumbaya Christianity that the purpose driven model encourages. No one is criticized because the Industrial Complex and brand must be protected at all costs. This is a billion dollar industry beloved! Growth is not necessarily a positive indicator. Cancer grows too. Disease grows. False doctrine grows. The bible says narrow is the way and few are those who find it. FEW. So when a self-proclaimed man of God gives his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini he should be criticized. When a mega church pastor says don't preach the Gospel on Easter he should be criticized. It has nothing to do with growth. It is not that critics do not contribute but rather that Carey does not like their contribution
"2. You increasingly think most new ideas are bad ideas. Hey, it's easy to resist new ideas. But if you think back, there was a time when you were likely far more open to new ideas. Now you're older and wiser, and you've got a way of doing things. The human mind is great at preserving the status quo. You can think of 10 reasons why a new idea won't work, and you and your team never hesitate to list them. The leadership graveyard is filled with the bodies of leaders who say "We haven't done it that way before," and while you understand that intellectually, you've barely realized you're becoming one of those people because, well, new ways seem increasingly bad to you. Sure"not every new idea is a great idea, but embracing no new ideas is a terrible idea. When was the last time you embraced a radical new idea? If you can't answer that question, you're already in trouble." -- Carey Nieuwhof
There is something to be said for being older and wiser beloved. Let us review some of the newer ideas in churchianity. We have seen pastors integrate popular carnal music into worship. One even played Highway to Hell on Resurrection Sunday. We have seen an increase in pastors partnering with Rome, including Mr. Warren. We saw Silent Night turned into a risque' burlesque show. We saw sermons based on movies and locally this Christmas one church is doing a series on the Grinch. Yes, that Grinch. Gun giveaways, monster truck shows in the sanctuary, and pastors doing motocross before the sermon. These are all new ideas but they are all also stupid ideas. Does anyone seriously think there is an idea Carey Nieuwhof might have that will make Jesus Say, "why didn't I think of that!" Certainly not.
"3. The copyright dates on your go-to resources are aging. Copyright dates tell you a lot about how you lead. You'll find them in the books you read, the music you listen to, the movies you watch and if you're a church leader, the songs your church sings. Many leaders will embrace change to an extent, and then they stop. I'm all for reading classics and for sure, my library and resources have copyright dates going back decades and even centuries. That's not the problem. The problem is when your resource library consists contains virtually no copyright dates from the last few years. The major trap most irrelevant leaders fall into is that their go-to resources are all 5-20 years old. They're still living in the 90s or in 2009. Everyone else has moved on. The danger here is that they think they're being relevant, but they really aren't. To your fifty-year-old friends, you may sound knowledgeable as they nod in agreement. But to an 18-year-old, you appear to be a museum. And in the meantime, the gap between you and culture is growing wider every day. The point is not to avoid any older works (a great life is always built on the contributions of previous generations), but to also understand how to translate that into what's happening today." -- Carey Nieuwhof
What ridiculous carnal logic. Everything new must be good but guess what? It usually is not. I have no problem with contemporary worship music if it is biblically accurate and glorifies God but it rarely does. Most songs are not Revelation Song. Unfortunately most are "Oh How He Loves Us"; which is one of the worst worship songs ever written. It is no wonder that Rick Warren prefers the heretical paraphrase known as "The Message." It is new and hip and relevant -- too bad it is not biblical! Here is the real truth today beloved. The Gospel transcends time and culture. The same Gospel that saved a fifth century farmer saved me in 2002. It saved a beggar in France in 1856 and a beggar in Detroit in 2018. It does not change with the times and does not respect culture.
