Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. -- Romans 1:24-25 (ESV)
The implications for damage from the NAR are far reaching. There is a generation of youth being targeted now with carnal teachings about how special we are. How worthy we are. How powerful our words are. It is a petulant faith that worships the created instead of the creator, as God outlines for us in the key verses today. This slippery slope has become more pronounced over the past 30 years as the Purpose Driven teachings have merged with the NAR teachings to become more and more mainstreamed. While we often look at the effects on theology, we rarely stop to examine worship, which directly forms our theology. The last generation grew up on singing Friend of God for example without appropriate teachings on how one actually becomes a friend of God. Thirty years ago, we stood in awe of God and sang how great He is but today we stand in awe of ourselves and sing how much He loves us. There is nothing sadder than watching mega congregations shouting at God to give them their inheritance (Blessing of Abraham) or begging Him to take them deeper (Oceans) when their faith and theology are barren wastelands built on self-help and motivational speeches. The above linked article gives us an insight into the modern depraved mind of a worship leader raised on this poor teaching. So, let us reason once more together beloved:
"There is an epidemic taking place on worship teams all over America; something that is happening right under our noses--and many have no clue that it is even taking place! There are many people in worship ministries who are not walking in the purpose that God called them to, and us worship leaders aren't doing anything about it. Things used to be so simple before we had all of the modern technology and highly-organized ministries and functions that are now an integral part of our churches today. Please don't misread what I am saying. I am not against organization, and I am extremely appreciative for technology and everything that it has to offer nowadays, but there is a crucial key that sometimes gets lost in the mix. It is easy for all our "busy-ness" inside of the church to keep ministry going strong to shift into "business," thus losing sight of the individual people who make up the teams we lead." -- Cathy Sanders
Cathy Sanders' biography lists her as an "anointed" worship leaders and Psalmist, so you understand how deep she is into this teaching. An actual Psalmist is someone who wrote one of the 150 Psalms. Cathy Sanders is not one of those. Modern Charismania however does not care. They aspire to titles that are either no longer used or simply draw attention to themselves. This is how you have people calling themselves super-apostles and mega-prophets. The rest of this introduction reveals how much Cathy has bought into the purpose driven teachings. Her premise is that worship leaders are not "walking the purpose God has called them to." That is straight from Rick Warren's teachings. Let's see where she takes it:
"We are Called to Equip the Body. Paul's words in Ephesians 4 can help us to get a better focus, "Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-12, NLT). If we look at the original Greek for the word "equip," we see more than just giving tools to someone for a job; it means to put something into order, to adjust it, to strengthen and make something what it ought to be. As worship leaders, this is what we are supposed to be doing for those who are under us. Our responsibility is to help God's people walk in the calling He has placed on their life and strengthen then for that purpose, not our own. Unfortunately, sometimes we can be more focused on how people can fit into our own vision and program instead of helping them fulfill their calling. We force a square peg into a round hole, and that person's actual purpose gets put on the shelf for an unlimited amount of time, while our mission as worship leaders is fulfilled every Sunday." -- Cathy Sanders
Whoa Ms. Sanders, slow down. That list included apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. It gives no indication that worship leaders is included. How in the world do you get so full of yourself that you think as a worship leader your responsibility is to help God's people walk in their calling? Listen, I am not denouncing worship leaders as they do have a real duty within an organized church service. They are responsible for leading the people of God into His presence. They are responsible for making sure that their own issues, ego, or desires do not infringe upon the corporate worship. They are responsible to make sure that the worship is truly unto God and not man-centered. That is it however. It does not carry over into the pastoral and leadership roles listed in Ephesians. Stay in your lane.
"The last thing the enemy wants is for all of God's children to walk in their purpose. If that were to happen, he would lose every stronghold and foothold in the body of Christ, and there would be an overflow of the kingdom of God reaching the world like never before. So Satan is happy when people are distracted from fulfilling their calling. He wants to keep that person singing in the choir because we needed another tenor instead of writing the next pivotal worship song, or keep that other person playing the drums every week when they have an anointing to lead. All the while, we are content to get all our spots filled so our program runs smoothly! When my husband and I were youth pastors, I was always trying to cultivate the gifts of those on my team. Our worship team was mostly led by the youth themselves, except for maybe one or two other people and me. Whenever possible, I would have others on the team lead, even if they weren't the greatest at it yet. If I noticed the guitar player also had an anointing to sing, I would have that person lead a song from time to time to see if it was something God was developing. Our ministry is supposed to look like a river, always flowing and never growing stagnant. From my experiences in many years on ministry, the people who missed what God called them to do were the ones who stayed put in one specific area way too long, never allowed to step out to fulfill what God put on their heart." -- Cathy Sanders
