The Church Growth Movment In the 21st Century

By DENNIS W. COSTELLA, Pastor

FUNDAMENTAL BIBLE CHURCH

And Editor Of

FOUNDATION MAGAZINE

P.O. BOX 6278 - LOS OSOS, CA 93412

Web Page: www.fundamentalbiblechurch.org

The 2004 Annual Conference of the "American Society for Church Growth" (ASCG) was held at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, November 4-6. We attended this conference in an effort to better understand the latest thinking of the church growth leaders who, for the most part, are the theologians, the lecturers, the authors who provide, as the brochure said, "The Emerging...Growing Church" with the theological underpinnings for a dynamic, expansive strategy for ministry in today's cultural context.

What caught our attention was the statement on the top of the brochure cover: "Just when we thought we had figured out how to grow a church . . . somebody changed the rules!" This ASCG symposium featured the "new rules" for the mission of the church that is supposedly in step with what God is already doing in the world, and that is establishing His kingdom.

In former decades the goal was to build mega churches for the stated purpose of reaching the lost and impacting the community for Christ. The church now is to truly go global, and as we shall see, this does not mean sending out missionaries to preach the Gospel and establish local, indigenous churches, but to use the resources of the church to change societies through effecting social, economic and political justice. In actuality, to further establish God's kingdom on earth.

Our contention is that God has certainly not changed the rules! The Church Growth experts may have changed the plan for the church, but not God. The Word of God provides us with the only source of revelation regarding God's will for the church, has not and will not change. The Biblical blueprint for ministry is trans-generational and trans-cultural. Apostolic instruction for the first century church is the same doctrine of God for the 21st century.

Please get in touch with the FEA and request the articles we have published relating to the Biblical response to the Church Growth program and its destructive implications for the church that embraces them. The purpose of this article is different in that it is a consideration of the purported theological basis for the movement, presently and beyond.

Yes, the methods of church ministry will change to some extent at different times and in different cultures. It behooves the Bible-believing fundamentalist to be aware of the present post modern culture and sharpen his own skills in effectively communicating Bible truth in a way that counters the relativism that dominates the thinking our society.

This entails a reemphasis of the absolute authority of the inspired Scriptures, complete dependency on Its all-sufficiency to make the church, and the believer, what God wants them to be. There is also the pressing need to evaluate church ministry in the light of unchanging Biblical principles rather than elevating the traditions and programs of men from former days to the place of "thus saith the Lord" today.

Honesty in ministry where the Word is genuinely exposited and applied, where the Lord and not any man is elevated as the Head above all, and where reverential worship and intensive discipleship glorify God are the distinctives of a church that will speak to the spiritual needs of our day.

The command to "preach the Word" will always include the whole counsel of God, the negative as well as the positive, warning as well as encouraging, separating from doctrinal error as well as standing with faithful ministries, contending for the Faith as well as propagating the Faith. The church, the "pillar and ground of the truth," will be a witness of that Light in a dark world, not overtaken itself by the course of this world and the spirit of this age.

The Church Growth Movement is not a recently conceived phenomenon. This conference was "A tribute to the 20th anniversary of the Donald McGavran legacy." McGavran (1897-1990) was a missiologist who paved the way, decades ago, with the philosophy and basic principles of dynamic church growth that are now standard operating procedure for tens of thousands of churches today. Fuller Seminary has been a primary instrument in training church leaders in the McGavran tradition.

Men such as Peter Wagner, John Wimber and most recently, Carl George, have provided cutting edge training on how to "grow a church." Of course there are many other men and institutions that have done the same, but we were particularly impressed with the large percentage of participants at this conference who were either Fuller graduates, or greatly influenced through this seminary's leadership in the area of missiology. Rick Warren is numbered among them. Fuller Seminary is unquestionably one of the most influential New Evangelical schools of our time in training the leaders that are changing the face of ministry in the world today.

Introductory remarks by Charles Arn, outgoing president of the ASCG, statedwhat those in attendance could expect:

The emerging church has been a concern in recent years as church leaders seek to understand the culture in which we now live - how it is the same, how it is different and what is the proper response for those churches that are committed to carrying on the work of Christ who said, "Go and make disciples."

I promise that you will be stimulated from the ideas and opinions you will hear in the coming days. You will be stretched, you will be challenged, you will agree with some things, you will disagree with others. The goal of these days is not to arrive at consensus but to help each of you be better stewards of the influence that God has given you at this particular time and place in your life.

The ASCG attracts a unique quality of church leaders. It attracts church leaders who first and foremost have a passion for reaching lost humankind and bringing these new disciples into the warm embrace and active involvement of the local church. The ASCG attracts church leaders who are not only committed to reaching the greatest possible number of men, women and children but are curious about how that is best done. The ASCG attracts people who are not afraid to question methods and paradigms if there are better ways that can bring about a greater harvest.

We are not questioning the motivation of those who have taken up the Church Growth program. What we are questioning is the commitment of the same to the absolute, final and unique Testimony of God relating to the ministry in and through the church. The commission the Lord Jesus Christ gave the church is not only "go and make disciples" as Arn stated, but the commission also includes "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20)-preachers in the church are to proclaim and apply ALL apostolic doctrine given the church and exhort the believers to obedience.

The apostle Paul told young pastor Timothy where he was to look for the "how to" do church ministry: "And the tings that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses (the inspired revelation of Jesus Christ to the writers of Scripture), the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2 cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 1 Thess. 4:1-2; Heb. 1:1-2; Rev. 1:1-3).

Here we have God's definition of pastoral faithfulness. That faithfulness entails the preaching of the Word to the congregation and to walk and minister in Its Truth. Holding to sound doctrine is of utmost importance (2 Tim. 1:13-13). That necessarily includes understanding the difference between God's dealings with His chosen people, Israel, and His plan and purpose for the Church during the present Church Age.

Also the faithful church leader will discern the mind of God whether or not numerical prosperity and impressive missional programs are in fact pleasing to God if correct exposition of, and attendance to, the sound doctrine of the Word is compromised.

An example of Church Growth de-emphasis of the importance of sound doctrine in ministry was comments Rick Warren. Following his acceptance of the ASCG's Donald McGavran Leadership Award, he stated:

We now have purpose-driven churches in 122 countries. And if I were to ask every purpose-driven church in America to raise their hand, it would shock America, because we don't them to change their label. On the front it says, "Lutheran, Second Methodist, Holy Power Episcopal," you name it; "Four-peas-in-the-pod Four Square" - it's got everything! Every name you can imagine.

And so it doesn't demand that they change from being Lutheran, or Methodist, or Nazarene, or Assembly of God, or Baptist, or whatever. I don't really care what your doctrine is, what I care about is do you have a process by which you bring people into membership, build them up to maturity, train them for ministry, send them out on a mission, for the glory of God?

Dr. Warren has changed some rules. God does indeed care about what your doctrine is, what you believe or disbelieve regarding what He has said. The Church Growth principles taught the 250,00 church leaders who have gone through Saddleback Seminars, and the corresponding methods for taking a church from stagnation to dynamic growth, may indeed work in any church. Evidently so, the statistics speak for themselves.

But the question is, "Is a purpose-driven church-that denies essential, fundamental truths of the Christian Faith-going to bring glory to God simply because it is now turning out many more zealous, mission-oriented workers for that particular church?" That kind of reasoning does not square with Scripture. Saddleback Church may itself espouse an evangelical doctrinal statement, but if its leadership boasts that it does not care what is believed by the tens-of-thousands they are teaching to do the work and mission of the church, then there is a problem.

The Church Growth principles, along with the related contemporary methods for ministry that Warren has found to work at Saddleback, obviously do quite well in whatever kind of church chooses to adopt the "system" (please contact the FEA for a copy of the "What About the Church Growth Movement?" booklet that deals more specifically with the various components of the Saddleback strategy).

Much emphasis at the conference was placed on gathering statistical data that, supposedly, will determine where God is at work in the world and what the church must do in order to tune-in to the culture. The study of demographics, the urbanization of the population, the movement of immigrant groups, the principles of gaining the attention of the potential consumer-all are needed to find where the growth possibilities are located. Finding out how to gain the attention of the digitalized/internet-dependent society is seen as essential if the church can reach the masses.

A paper titled "A Theology of Methodology" presented by Dr. Elmer Towns, Dean of the School of Religion at Liberty University, outlined the work of Church Growth experts through the years. Dr. Towns emphasized the place of gathered scientific data, in addition to the Bible, to determine what God is doing in the world and in the church:

"Church Growth is the science which investigates the planting, multiplication, function and health of Christian churches as they relate specifically to the effective implementation of God's commission to 'make disciples of all peoples' (Matt. 28:19, 20). Church Growth strive to combine the eternal theological principles of God's Word concerning the expansion of the church with the best insights of contemporary social and behavioral sciences, employing as its initial frame of reference, the foundational work done by Donald McGavran." (The working definition of Church Growth; http://www.ascg.org). . . . Those data are collected scientifically from both the natural world and from revelation and includes both God and His works.

The theological premise that scientific enquiry can reveal additional information concerning God by "His works," in addition to what the Bible tells us, is debatable. We say the Bible alone tells us all we need to know in order to serve God aright and to determine His will how to do His work in the world.

Certainly we can pragmatically observe what works in the world and use the knowledge gained in religious endeavors. For example, secular marketing research gathers data to determine where the plant is to be built, how the organization is to most efficiently operate, and then study the consumer's profile so as to gain the attention, and finally sell the product to him so that the "healthy" company will continue to get bigger. Those principles can be used to build and market the mega church,

But should the church look to the sciences to supposedly find out what God's works are in the world, and those being determined by statistical analysis? Church Growth experts say you can. The statistical demographics tell us that God's work is in the urbanized centers, and that is where the Holy Spirit is working today. Statistical analysis also reveals where the suffering, the injustice, the poverty is to be found-that is where God is at work.

This gathered data regarding the "works of God" leads to the extra-biblical concept that the world is presently God's kingdom, and the church needs to get up to speed with what God is doing in the world to establish that global blessing.

The previous decades witnessed the dynamic growth of the mega church phenomenon. Dr. John Vaughan provided data of its explosive increase in the 21st Century:

One of the most important and visible changes in church growth over the last 20 years is the size and rate at which churches have expanded and will continue to grow. From indications I have received from Catholic sources and major media leaders, the largest U.S. churches today are no longer Catholic churches. They are evangelical, Pentecostal, denominational and independent churches. Sixty of the churches on the Largest list are denominational churches while 40 are independent. Twenty-three are Baptist, 20 are non-charismatic independent churches, and 20 are charismatic independent churches.

Since 1970, we've seen the number of megachurches grow from 10 to now 835. And congregations are reaching megachurches status (2,000 plus) in less time. ...What's driving this growth? The factors are many, including the migration of people to urban centers, word-of-mouth, sharpened leadership skills, churches becoming multigenerational and most recently, Web site access, TV exposure and megachurches teaching other churches through seminars, books and curriculum.

The megachurch phenomenon is not a passing fad. Its influence will continue to grow and the pressure on struggling churches to get on board or go out of business will be overwhelming. Please notice that this dynamic growth phenomenon by the implementation of the Church Growth strategy is cuts across all church descriptions.

Dead and dying liberal denominational churches can be resurrected to hitherto unknown success in packing the auditoriums. Independents, charismatic, Roman Catholic and all the rest can experience the same! How? By availing themselves of "megachurches teaching other churches through seminars, books and curriculum"!

Again, doctrine evidently does not matter-it must not matter-if the promised Church Growth program's success is supposedly a sign of God's blessing. Consider the pressure on Biblically faithful but smaller ministries to compromise-it is immense!

Promotional literature for the American Society for Church Growth (ASCG) conference grabbed the attention of the reader by stating, "Just when we thought we had figured out how to grow a church . . . somebody changed the rules!" The most sensational paradigm shift enunciated at the conference time and again was the need to focus on mobilizing the resources of the megachurches in order to reach out globally to advance the program of the kingdom-not the church. "Church growth" is a trend of the past; "kingdom growth" is the new wave of the future. Rather than focusing on building bigger churches, the church growth leaders have chosen to focus their attention on the social needs of the global community-to move out into the world and accomplish God's work by establishing His kingdom.

Reggie McNeal, author, lecturer and director of leadership development for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, presented the challenge for the church to begin thinking and ministering in a "Theology of the Kingdom" context. He suggested that at Jesus Christ's first advent, the Jews-and subsequently the believers in the early church-"didn't get it," that is, they did not grasp the fact that the kingdom on earth had actually begun when Jesus arrived on the earth. Notice McNeal's words:

Kingdom theology, kingdom focus, is about nations, tribes; it's about people, it's about movements. The church in North America has not been about that. It's been about institutions, about systems and about programs. And so I want to make the pitch for you to consider all of these outcroppings of the Kingdom Movement to see if in fact we can be informed by it.

First of all, of course, there is a theology for the kingdom that many of you are way more in touch with than I can even address this afternoon. But as we all know, looking through the Bible as a whole, there is this kingdom component that sometimes has been overlooked, particularly in the North American context where we've been focused more on the church, our inner workings, our default position of the Pharisee kind of come-and-get-it evangelism; become-like-us-and-we'll - consider-you-for-club-membership evangelism. Let's fix the culture and then we'll all have an easier time to do our kind of Pharisee evangelism.

Notice in the following quote how McNeal equated the Pharisees of Christ's day (who rejected the Kingdom He, as the Messiah, offered to the nation of Israel) with the church today.

One of the problems that we've got with the church growth movement is it's whole association with church itself. In North America, the word "church" has become problematic in terms of it mostly being an institutional sociological phenomena that may have not as much to do with the New Testament Christianity as we'd like to believe. And so the church growth movement has helped to focus on a couple of pieces that we need to carry across the bridge into the new world-the emerging world. But you're going to have to leave a lot of stuff behind ... Underneath all of these new manifestations, these new outcroppings, there is a kingdom component that's really the driver, that's really the engine, it's really what's fuelling all of this emergent stuff.

Jesus talked about the Kingdom but Jesus did not have a corner on the market on kingdom talk in the first century. You see, the Pharisees had been talking about the kingdom of God for at least a century and a half. And, interestingly, they raised the right question which was how do we hang on to the faith in an increasingly hostile world environment?

But the way they answered, it was all wrong. The way they answered it reminds me of what's been going on in the North American context. Because the way the Pharisees decided to deal with the kingdom, it was refuge. So I don't want you to hear of the word 'kingdom' as refuge. Because that's the Pharisee approach. Come and get it-it's what we like-adopt our life, adopt our music, adopt our culture, adopt our politics, adopt our values, become like us and then we'll consider letting you in.

And so people, to get to God, through Pharisees, who are the brokers, you had to become Pharisees. I mean Pharisees developed this completely insular culture, this bubble culture, inside their culture. They only dealt with other Pharisees. They only listened to Pharisee radio stations, they had this little Pharisee insignia on the back of their donkey hind end. I mean they were completely insular. This was the way, in their mind, they would extend the kingdom, they would just try to get as many people to join up with their tribe and become like them as possible.

So He comes and He keeps going-this notion that the kingdom involves a redemptive mission of God in the world. He says to that Pharisee, "let me tell you what the deal is. God so loved the world. Not just His people." Now there are people in my tribe that really think that God is mostly working in the church and the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. The truth is, God is at work in the world. He is always at work in the world. The question is whether or not He is at work in His people. Because only His people who get this actually are the ones that are alive and they're experiencing the missional, in a sense, the kingdom. The rest of it is just club member stuff (church work).

The biggest "they just don't get it" is the reason we have an ascension. Think about it. Jesus has gone through Calvary, come out of a tomb, walked through walls, fed people breakfast buffets, shuttled back and forth. And then someone at a seminar raises their hand and says, "This is good but when are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel." And Jesus just goes, "Beam me up. I'm out of here. I've had it with this crowd." (laughter) And on the way the Holy Spirit tag teams Him and says, "You take 'em for awhile. They've worn me out." (more laughter) That's why we have an ascension. He may have wanted to enjoy hanging around a little more. I don't know.... kingdom theology starts, not with the church-it starts with the world.

The collapse of institutional religion, the globalization, the collapse of values-all that stuff that's part of our culture. Guess what? The good news is in the book of Acts the church would plain catch up to the Spirit-that's the sub-theme of the first half of the book of Acts. The Spirit's always ahead of the church-the church is playing catch up. Guess what? That's right where we are today. We are going to have to play catch up to the Spirit of God, who's jumped out-He's gone nuts-He's running wild in the streets. He's been on CNN non-stop the last 48 hours trying to figure out an electoral vote. So what we see again is God at work in the world-in profound ways. And maybe that gives me hope because maybe the kingdom of God is closer at hand.

It is necessary for the believer to understand that what the Pharisees "didn't get" was the fact that Jesus Christ was, in reality, the Anointed of God, the Messiah and promised King. When they rejected Him, they rejected the immediate inauguration of Christ's kingdom-the literal fulfillment of all that was prophesied regarding the Davidic and Abrahamic unconditional covenants.

This kingdom promised by Jesus Christ will be inaugurated yet future when Jesus Christ personally returns "in power and great glory" at the end of the Great Tribulation to reign as King over the earth for one thousand years. However, this literal, one-thousand-year reign of Christ is not occurring at this present time. These church growth leaders are confusing the future kingdom with the present age in which we live.

Obviously, one of the most significant errors of the Church Growth theology is  the denial of the difference between Israel and the Church-Christ's body formed out of believing Jews and Gentiles alike in the present Church Age. If we do not get this straight, then we have no answer for the kingdom-oriented experts who hijack kingdom texts from their proper, dispensational context in order to formulate and promote their glorious plans for the emerging church in the new emerging era.

In considering McNeal's statements, it is impossible to miss the irreverent tone of his delivery as well. Frivolity is often common place in the "seeker services" where the speaker's relevance is gauged by how casual and entertaining his presentation is. Sadly, this is often a by-product of the cultural stylizing of the modern megachurch mindset.

Without question, a church determined to adopt the church growth strategy will, of necessity, distance itself from deferential adoration of the Lord and His Word. The reverential expectation of those assembled to hear the faithful exposition and application of the whole counsel of God is sadly lacking in the "seeker service" bent on meeting the "felt needs" of the attendees.

The Word of God clearly sets forth the plan of God for this Church Age. The leadership of the church has been given the responsibility to lead those assembled together in God-honoring worship, to instruct and challenge the saints in sound doctrine and equip them for ministry in their individual sphere of influence, and to send forth a Gospel witness through whatever open doors the Lord provides. The mission for the church must never be confused with God's kingdom plans for a believing remnant of Israel.

Also, the "blessed hope" of the church is the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air to catch away His bride, the church. No wonder the speakers at the conference never mentioned this aspect of Christ's coming, for to do so would completely waylay the church growth experts from their plans for going global with the church's attempt to do God's supposed "kingdom work." The "changed rules" necessarily include the scuttling of sound, dispensational theology.

"Emerging Opportunities: Doing Church More Rapidly and Quite Differently" was the subject presented by Dr. Carl George of Fuller Seminary. George presented a model for ministry that fits the criteria of a missional church today-a church more interested in taking the message to the world than merely continuing the traditional, institutionalize church-the status quo. George used the ministry of Robert Schuller as a positive example of how to catch the attention of those in the world.

Let's revisit Schuller, because I think if we study this era, we have more to learn from McGavran and Schuller than any other two people that I can think of. Except we understand McGavran, we don't understand Schuller, because Schuller has few interpreters.

Because Schuller did not set out to impress the church world, he set out to impress the un-churched world, he was stuck with this dilemma of being a Dutchman in Southern California, where the percentage of Dutch moving into Southern California was 2-6 percent of the population, and he recognized immediately that if he became the outpost for the Dutch reformed church, he would have a church of 200, reasonable expectations for his lifetime, and he said, "I've got to do something better than that."

All the churches are arguing over the half that go to church, but there's a half that don't go to any church, and he composed the right question, and the question for him was, "Who am I trying to impress? Am I trying to impress members of my denomination or people who have already developed an appreciation for some brand of Christianity, or am I trying to impress people who have no visible church connection?"

That's half or more of the population to work with. That half has grown since he started. But you examine him, there have been few if none others who have achieved the level of penetration of the un-churched market that he has.

Now you may recall what it was that caused him to cross over. He said in his early psychographics demographic study of the people, he said, "What is it that all of us people out there are interested in who are not now attending church?" Now the question says very close to the one I'm giving you. I'm purposefully simplifying the story. And he was observing Vincent Peale's success as a publisher in writing his book on the power of positive thinking.

And he observed the book sales into the millions, and he said, "It's not just church people who are buying that book!" And he went on to reason that high book sales translates into an evidence of interest on the part of someone. And so he asked himself, "What is it that I can do to capture the attention of the same people who are willing to read Peale?" And as a pragmatist, he said, "Why don't I invite Peale?" And he did, and it primed the pump. But out of that he learned a couple of things. The thing that you're aware of that he learned, is he learned the power of a celebrity as an introduction for your own ministry, and so to this day whenever you tune into the Hour of Power, along with 20 million others.

The problem with this "good example of missional ministry" is, again, the insistence upon meeting the felt needs of the saved and unsaved alike through psychological suggestion rather than the faithful teaching of the Word of God. We have personally covered a Church Growth conference at the Crystal Cathedral hosted by Dr. Schuller.

Please contact us for that report. A vast media ministry that can reach the world but does not faithfully preach the Word is an unsafe ministerial pattern to emulate. Schuller is exalted as a model for the "church" of the future, yet Schuller's ministry is anything but faithful to the truth of the Word of God.

Dr. Rick Warren, after graciously accepting the ASCG Achievement Award, laid out his plans for the future of the church. His words speak for themselves. In the coming years, Warren will focus on "going global" with the intent of advancing God's kingdom in all the earth. After accepting his award, Warren said,

I began to search scripture and God gave me two passages-1 Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. I call it the stewardship of affluence and the stewardship of influence. And these are the things that are on my heart right now-the stewardship of affluence and the stewardship of influence. What do you do with this? Because it's not about you, its about God. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul says, "Those who teach the gospel should make a living by the gospel." In other words, its okay to be paid for your ministry. But he says, "I will not take that right, because I want the privilege of serving the gospel for free." And that's what I want to do.

And in Psalm 72, I found the answer. It's Solomon's prayer for more influence. When you read the prayer, it sounds like a pretty selfish prayer. And he says, "God I want you to bless me, I want you to make me more influential, I want you to make me more powerful." And I'm thinking, "This guy's already the wealthiest man in the world, the wisest man world, he's the king of the most powerful united kingdom in the world at this time.

And he's saying, "Make me more powerful. Make me more influential." But then you read the rest of it, and he says, "So that the king may support the oppressed, care for the widowed and orphaned, be a defender of the defenseless, speak up for the foreigner, the immigrant, care for those who..." Basically, he's talking about all the marginalized of society. And in that, God said to me, and this changed my life, that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence.

When I was in South Africa last year, I said, "Take me out to the bush. Just show me a church." And we went out to a little church that was 75 people in attendance, and this young, African pastor comes walking up, and he didn't know I was coming, and he said, "I know who you are! You're Rick Warren!" I said, "How do you know me?" He said, "I get your sermons every week!" I said, "You don't even have water or electricity, how do you get my sermons every week?" He said, "They're putting the internet in every post office, and once a week I go down to the internet, and I download your sermons, and you are the only training I've ever had." And I burst into tears. And I thought, "Oh God, I would give the rest of my life helping this kind of guy."

And so the Peace Plan is a plan- P.E.A.C.E-to Plant churches, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation. It takes both the great commandment and the great commission seriously. It takes both evangelism and social action seriously, and it is group based. And we can send in our church 4,500 of our members out around the world, and right now, we are doing a one-year prototype test and we're testing this with our small groups in 67 countries.

And a year from today, we're going to release it publicly, so that all of the other purpose-driven churches, now over 30,000 that will have finished Forty Days of Purpose, and then Forty Days of Community, and then Forty Days of Peace. And I intend to change the world. And you say, "That sounds pretty arrogant." No. It ought to be your goal. It ought to be the goal of every believer. Every believer should say, I want to change the world for Jesus' sake. For the cross, not for us. It's not about us.

Please carefully notice Warren's use of the 72nd Psalm, a glorious Messianic psalm speaking prophetically of the "king's son" (v. 1 cf. Luke 1:32-33), Whose righteous reign shall flourish "so long as the moon endureth" (v. 7), Who will extend "unto the ends of the earth" (v. 8) and "His name shall endure for ever" and "all nations shall call him blessed" (v. 17 cf. Isa. 42:1-8).

Pay special attention to that final eighth verse that says concerning the coming King of Glory to rule in His earthly Kingdom: "I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another." This was a prayer of David. The inspired text says in Psalm 72:20, "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." Elements of the prayer could have been intended "for Solomon," but the greater Son of David-Jesus Christ-is clearly referred to throughout.

It seems terribly out of place and out of character for God to have supposedly given this text to Rick Warren as a guiding principle for his future ministry. Peace, justice and the alleviation of social ills will indeed come to pass when the King of kings personally returns to reign as prophesied throughout Scripture, but such is not the mandate for ministry in the present Church Age.

The Church Growth strategy for reaching the culture with a contemporary ministry stylized after what the "seeker" desires does indeed appear to attract the masses. And now, the expansion of that plan to go global with a social issues-oriented program, combined with the witness of Christ, sounds wonderful.

But, again, the Biblical texts all too often used as a basis for this noble plan are taken from sources that prophesy of that glorious reign of Christ the King when He will indeed inaugurate a righteous rule where sickness, injustice, war and even cataclysmic events upon the earth will be no more, for the curse of sin will be taken away. For over a century, the ecumenically-minded theological liberals have dreamed of bringing in the kingdom upon earth by their religious dreams and schemes.

Now, the evangelicals are reaching for the same goal and are dreaming the same dream. But the plan of God for this age is clearly spelled out in the New Testament epistles-the church must conform to the apostolic, Spirit-inspired model that worked in the first century, and it will work in the 21st century as well.

As the apostle Paul charged the believers in the Thessalonian church, "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus" (1 Thess. 4:1-2).

The only way to please God is to minister to others in obedience to the Word-that is the standard of faithfulness, and that is what determines the degree of usefulness for the Lord (2 Tim. 2:15-21; 3:16-17). Preach the Word! Proclaim the Gospel! Contend for the Faith! Changing the rules inevitably translates into disregarding the Biblically-defined purpose, message and mission of the church. Paul reminded pastor Timothy, "And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully" (2 Tim. 2:1-5).

That is not legalism-that is  obedience to "all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). Yes, doctrine does matter. It matters to our Lord who spoke it to the inspired writers of Scripture, and it should matter to us in the 21st century as well.