[CS-FSLUG] ".... the greatest churches today are independent or non-denominational. "

Fri Oct 1 11:35:55 CDT 2004

Are Willow Creek, Saddleback, Promise Keepers, "The Prayer of Jabez," and
"The Purpose Driven Life" of God?  Never a week goes by that I don't get at
least a hundred emails from people asking about Willow Creek Community
Church in suburban Chicago, Saddleback Church in suburban Los Angeles, the
popular books, "The Prayer of Jabez" written by Bruce Wilkinson and "The
Purpose Driven Life" written by Saddleback Senior Pastor Rick Warren, and
Promise Keepers, the men's ministry started by former University of Colorado
football coach Bill McCartney.  These are five highly influential movements
in the church over the past decade that have come under much scrutiny, all
having a common bond that I want to address today.

The common bond shared by Willow Creek, Saddleback, Promise Keepers, "The
Prayer of Jabez," and "The Purpose Driven Life" are that they are all
sovereign moves of God.  Let me make sure that you understand something that
is very important.  You cannot plan a move of God, you cannot force a move
of God, you cannot buy a move of God, and you cannot duplicate a move of
God.  It is sovereign and something that only God can do.  There is always a
specific purpose when God moves and there is a power and presence of the
Almighty that is beyond words.  You can always identify a sovereign move of
God by the fruit that it bears for the Kingdom.  Only God knows why He moves
when He does, but He looks for human instruments, yielded and available to
Him, obedient to the vision He gives them.

I have no doubt that Willow Creek, Saddleback, Promise Keepers, "The Prayer
of Jabez," and "The Purpose Driven Life" are all sovereign moves of God.
Man and money can do many great things, but they cannot transform lives for
Christ, only the Holy Spirit can do that.  The fruit from these moves of God
is indisputable and only a fool with no spiritual discernment would attack
them.  However, as with anything God does, satan will come against it.
Obviously, highly visible moves of God will come under even greater attack
as have all of the above.  Sadly, many of those attacks have come from
within the Body of Christ itself.  Rather than rejoicing in what God is
doing, many in the Body have allowed satan to use them to attack what God is
doing.

Jesus shared great wisdom when His disciples were dealing with other groups
apart from theirs in Mark 8:38-40,  " "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man
driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not
one of us."   "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in
my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not
against us is for us."  The key is simply this, are they preaching Christ
and Him crucified?  In all of these moves of God I share with you today the
answer is without question, YES!

God gave a vision to Pastor Bill Hybels of Willow Creek and Pastor Rick
Warren of Saddleback to reach the unchurched.  They were focused on who they
were trying to reach for Christ.  Those in our world who were not going to
church, not believers in Jesus Christ.  You need to take the time to read
about how these "seeker friendly" churches were started.  Both of these men
were sold out for Christ, had the spiritual guts to believe what God was
telling them to do, and spent many years toiling in obscurity being faithful
to that calling God had on their lives.  For reasons only God knows, He
chose to move in a major way through their efforts to bring many to Christ
that would never have come to know our Lord otherwise.

Likewise, former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney had a
vision to see stadiums full of men cheering for Jesus instead of for
touchdowns.  As he yielded his life to the Lord, God moved sovereignly
through this new ministry called Promise Keepers to reach out to men,
challenging them to be all that God has called them to be in their
relationship to Him, in their marriages, to their children, and in their
careers.  Millions of men worldwide have been touched through this sovereign
move of God to encourage men to rise up and be the men God has called them
to be according to His Word.

"The Prayer of Jabez" and "The Purpose Driven Life" are two of the most
popular Christian books ever written.  Jabez author Bruce Wilkinson is the
founder of Walk Thru the Bible ministries.  He did not just wake up one
morning and write this book.  He spent decades serving the Lord, being
faithful to what God had called him to do, and in the course of his work God
moved sovereignly on this particular book to challenge people to trust God
for their provision.  The actual prayer Jabez prayed is found in 1
Chronicles 4:9-10.  It is a simple prayer by a humble man of God asking God
to bless him, and God sovereignly chose to do so.  It is the simple yet
profound message of asking God to bless us and believing that He will, that
has encouraged millions of  people who have read this book.

"The Purpose Driven Life," written by Saddleback Senior Pastor Rick Warren
is really a byproduct of what I have been writing about for 5 years, and
that is a Biblically illiterate church.  A church that sorely lacks in the
basic fundamentals of the Christian life.  It is God 101 as it simply shares
the basic and fundamental steps a believer in Christ needs to take as they
strive to fulfill God's purpose in their life.  I have stated often that
discipling new believers is one of the areas the church is most weak,
helping new believers in Christ realize that God has a plan and purpose for
their life.  That is what this book has done,  put into easy to understand
language what our life in Christ is all about and the fact God has a plan
and purpose for each one of us.

There are downsides to these moves of God however.  Because these sovereign
moves of God have also translated into incredible amounts of money, the trap
becomes not allowing what started out as a sovereign move of God to turn
into a man made institution.  I will tell you right now that the reason so
many of the denominational churches today lack that fresh touch from God,
the power, the anointing, is because they have become institutionalized.
That is why so many of the greatest churches today are independent or
non-denominational.  They still have the freshness of God and have not
become so institutionalized that there is no room for God and the move of
His Holy Spirit.

The other downside is that you cannot duplicate a sovereign move of God.
You can't put it in a box and sell it.  The only problem I see with Willow
Creek and Saddleback is the packaging and marketing of what has worked for
them to other churches.  Again, if you study the evolution of Willow Creek
and Saddleback, you will see incredibly unique elements in addition to a
visionary founder that you simply can never duplicate.  A church is not a
McDonalds or Blockbuster franchise.  What worked in Ephesus, did not work in
Philippi.  What worked in Philippi did not work in Rome.  Each church is a
unique work of God and you simply can't follow a formula and see the same
results.

***A BIG REASON SOME CHURCHES HAVE TRIED TO ADOPT THE WILLOW CREEK AND
SADDLEBACK MODEL IS BECAUSE THERE ARE LAZY PASTORS WHO LACK THE VISION AND
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD TO GET THEIR OWN VISION!!!  I realize some churches
use the Willow Creek and Saddleback materials as training tools to help
reach those they are currently not reaching which is fine, but being a
pastor is not like running a Shell gas station.  It is a calling of God, not
a job!!!  If God has called you to be a pastor, then God will give you a
vision for your church.  You don't have to try and copy someone else's
vision.  It won't
work, it doesn't work, and the Bible even proclaims that people perish for
lack of vision.  The same God who gave vision to Bill Hybels, the same God
who gave vision to Rick Warren, is the very same God who will give vision to
any pastor who earnestly seeks the Lord!

The only downside to "The Prayer of Jabez" is that you should take the
example of the faith of Jabez, not act like his words are some sort of magic
formula to wealth.  Sadly, many treat this prayer like some sort of magical
chant.  I do take exception with Wilkinson's suggestion to pray the prayer
word for word for 30 days.  Praying someone else's prayer is not a guarantee
that you will get the same answer!  It actually becomes superstitious.  Take
from the prayer Jabez prayed that he had faith to believe God for his
blessings and God honored his faith.  God is no respecter of person and the
same God who answered Jabez is the same God who will answer you!

As for "The Purpose Driven Life," that book should actually be a challenge
to every pastor that the basics do matter.  The fact is your people love
your theological expositions on various passages of the Bible, but the
reality is, they need the basics.  They need to know how the Bible applies
to their daily life.  They need to know what God expects from them.  They
need to be confident that God not only loves them, but has a plan and
purpose for their life.  Even those who have been walking with Christ for
decades need to be reminded of the basics of the faith.  The opportunity is
to take the basics of this book and build upon them in the lives of your
people.

I love you and care about you so much.  I want you to be encouraged today
because God is alive and well in the year 2004.  He is moving through His
servants in a powerful way to bring the truth of His Word and the hope and
love of Jesus Christ to this hurting and lost world.  All throughout the
Bible, we see God moving sovereignly, primarily through those who have
committed their lives to serving Him.  Throughout the last 2,000 years, we
see God moving sovereignly in powerful ways through those men and women who
have answered His call and been faithful to the vision He gave them to make
that vision a reality.

Things are no different today.  We see God moving sovereignly through
churches like Willow Creek, Saddleback, and many other great churches.  We
see God moving in ministries like Promise Keepers and others that are
faithful to the work He has called them to do.  We see God moving through
resources like "The Prayer of Jabez," "The Purpose Driven Life" and others
that have been created to challenge and encourage people to be all God has
called them do be.

I will pray for you today.  Pray that you will fully surrender your life to
Christ and allow Him to work through you.  God works through those men and
women that are completely yielded to Him, faithful to follow the vision He
has given to them to touch the lives of people for Christ.  God chooses to
move in a sovereign way every single day to point the lost in this world to
the everlasting hope there is in His Son Jesus Christ.

I want to challenge you to dare to allow God to move sovereignly through
YOUR LIFE.  As I stated, He is no respecter of person and what God did in
the life of Abraham, in the life of Elijah, in the of Paul, in the lives of
all those faithful men and women throughout the years, He will do in your
life.  Surrender yourself completely to Him, yield your life completely to
Him, be faithful to follow the vision He will give you, and God WILL
sovereignly move through your life to bring hope and salvation through Jesus
Christ to the lost and hurting.

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller

If I can help you in any way you can contact me through my personal email
at bkeller at liveprayer.com

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