If your church is reflecting any of these signs, it might be going seeker friendly: This is taken from-> Southerland’s Overall Steps to “Transition” your church: Change your Approach – from “Program Driven” (read: traditional), to “Purpose Driven”. Change your Target – from reaching saved fellow Christians to reaching the “un-churched”. (this is an oxymoron, since church is by definition for the saved. Is “jail” for the “un-jailed”?) Change your Leadership – Move away from an Elder/Deacon/Board leadership (read: Biblical) model, and have the staff make all the decisions. (IOW, let the people whose paychecks depend on the choices made decide everything. No matter that this may open them up to spiritual attack and make them vulnerable to unethical, even un-Biblical decisions!) Change your Pastors – From a senior pastor model to multiple pastors. (not wrong in and of itself, but they’re using this to make up a new “board” of directors) Change your Ministry – From staff doing all the ministry to lay ministers doing the ministry. (again, it’s not bad in and of itself to use lay-pastors, but they use it to increase indoctrination and “group-think”) Change your Strategy – From no plan to a “Life-cycle process” that is “driven by small groups” (see more on this below) Change your Schedule – Have your services targeted to the “un-churched”, and if you must reach the already saved, do it in a separate service. (Why confuse those poor pagans with true gospel and Biblical teaching?) Change your Small Groups - from traditional educational groups to “relational” small groups. (This is also used to increase peer pressure to accept wrong teaching, and as a format to “seed” in strategically placed proponents to apply pressure to members to conform.) “It concerns how we should relate to the world around us; how we make the gospel culturally relevant…” (pg 15) Direct Steps for Changing Your Church Put together a “Vision Team”: A “small handful of leaders”. Choose mature believers, Dreamers rather than detail people, who are “trustworthy to keep their mouths shut” about your plans until “the time is right for it to be shared”. (pg 77) Work quietly and secretly behind the scenes. (this to me screams that they know people won’t want the changes, but they don’t care – they’re deluded into thinking they know best) It’s preferred that members of the Vision Team are staff, but others can be used if they fit the profile. Prepare for Vision: 1) Collect information. Do surveys of your membership, your neighborhood “un-churched”, and your community. (My church did the REVEAL Survey bought from Willow Creek) 2) Have a “holy discontent” with the status quo 3) Fast 4) Pray 5) Wait Defining the Vision: 1) Discover your purpose and develop a “Purpose / Mission Statement”, (Gee, I thought our purpose was already defined by God’s word? In my church, a “mission statement” appeared on the front of our Sunday bulletins) 2) Define your Target – ask “who is your primary customer?” “Don’t ask who do we want to reach – this is too elitist” (pg. 51) (Supposedly, the “purpose” is given as a “vision from God”. This is why they cling to it so ferociously. They also teach that God has a “different vision” for every church, yet they use cookie-cutter methods that supposedly fit Christians, Jews, Muslims, corporations, etc., and proudly promote this) Planting the Vision: 1) Secure the approval of the “Power Brokers”. The opinion makers, either with formal roles in the church, or members. 2) Secure the approval of members who hold the resources you’ll need to make the changes – money and talent. (In other words, the church will be run by the staff, the wealthy and the powerful – wow, this is just sounding a lot like our government, no?) Sharing the Vision: (Now they finally come out of the closet and share aspects of the plan with others outside the inner circle!) 1) Share with church leaders left out previously 2) Let the “rank and file” know (I find this term insulting), 3) Take your leadership away on a “Vision Retreat” 4) Use the “Power of the Pulpit” to promote your vision & changes 5) Have all your Small Groups go through a “Vision Study” (remember what I told you above? This is indoctrination) 6) Repeat your Purpose Statement regularly 7) Require your leadership to read “The Purpose-Driven Church” by Rick Warren (this book twists scripture like you wouldn’t believe, and often uses Bible versions like the Message so they can say it supports their teaching. But hey, why would pastors bother to be Berean when the marketing for this drivel is so slick? ) Implement Your Changes: 1) Plan to do it slowly – over a few years 2) Be strategic, with the least objectionable changes done first 3) Take your “Key Leaders” as discussed above and put them in very visible places to help convince others. Have them show their approval so others will want to imitate it. (More indoctrination and group-think methods. These people are “seeded” into strategic locations.) Dealing With Opposition: 1) There will be opposition from those whom the enemy controls: (pg. 112) (Do you see the set-up here? If you don’t approve of their methods, they’re taught to see you as demonic. Just black and white. This is how cults set up their structure – “if you’re not with me you’re against me”.) 2) Expect anger and a fight 3) Get members to pray for your church (In my church, we were thrilled to finally, after 20+ years, get a church-sanctioned prayer group started. Now I know it was just one of the “steps” ) Pastors are taught that objectors are “Sanballats” whom Southerland calls “leaders from hell”. He goes on to write “You cannot call this guy a leader from hell to his face, but you can call him a Sanballat”. (pg. 115) (What a great, spirit-filled example to teach – call Bible-believing Christians who object to your man-made and unBiblical methods “leaders from hell”! Basically, they teach that you either Convince people the new way is right, you Fight them, or you Chase them off!) Be Willing To Let People Leave the Church: Southerland teaches that the traditional members who are pillars of the church can just hold you back from the changes, and fight your methods. He and Warren are proud of the numbers they’ve chased off. “When you set the vision and stay the course, you determine who leaves” (pg 127) (They don’t care that their new “church” is a mile wide and an inch deep. It’s only the numbers and the money that count in the long run, no matter how much they try to trumpet their desire to “reach the un-churched”.) (I just found out that my pastor grand-standed in a Trustees meeting, when the Trustees didn’t think a huge building project was needed or affordable. The pastor just told them that they either voted with him, or they were welcome to leave. I’m still in shock!) Other Changes to Make: Drop titles like “Pastor” or “Doctor”, since they’re too formal and intimidate the un-churched Dress Casually - no more ties, slacks dress shirts or coats. You can’t appear “elitist”. Use common speech, and drop “religious” words like “sin”, “salvation”, “judgment”, “hell”, etc. (No need to frighten those poor Seekers or have them feel any conviction in their hearts.)
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 23:23:58 +0000