News Snippets From All Beats

David Dansker

In determining conferences to skip in the upcoming seminar season, examining the list of Celebrity Christian Globetrotters scheduled to share their wisdom at Crystal Cathedral’s Rethink conference in January 2008 may be helpful. The following are a few Bio-observations for some of these influential icons:

Lee Strobel - is a best selling author and former teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church (under Bill Hybels) and Saddleback Church (under Rick Warren). It was Strobel who thought that the case for Christ was yet to be presented and, ignoring the fact that the task had already been completed and complied in the New Testament by Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, produced an effort that contributed only to distracting from the authorized version; and showed, as does his enlistment with this conference, that he is also unable to fathom the case for discernment.

Jay Sekulow - is the Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Sekulow’s appearance at Rethink is difficult to explain, unless it is the product of too much arguing. One of the identifying characteristics of a good attorney is his ability to argue a case from both sides, and one of the biggest liabilities of an attorney is an inability to remain on the side he has chosen. Is this conference appearance the result of too much ideological plea bargaining?

John Ortberg - is the teaching pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. His appearance at Rethink is easier to understand. This is the same Presbyterian USA denomination that sided with Palestinian homicide bombers and against Israel when the later began building a wall to protect themselves. PCUSA enacted their own brand of economic sanctions by calling for financial divestment from companies doing business in Israel.

It is also the same PCUSA that allows the local presbytery to ordain homosexuals, and denies “the singular saving lordship of Jesus Christ,”¹ and from which thousands of lesser luminaries have been able to flee, with their congregations. Not so with the Ortberg, under whose leadership, and despite its prestige and wealth, or perhaps due to it, his church remains affiliated with PCUSA to this day. So much for the “teaching” pastor.

Notes:

1. Lillian Kwon, “Dissident Presbyterians Offered New Home in EPC,” Christian Post, Jun 26, 2007. http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070626/28167_Dissident

_Presbyterians_Offered_New_Home_in_EPC.htm.

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When mega church pastors leave, often the pastoral selection committee identifies replacement candidates who are themselves mega church pastors. New Life Church in Colorado Springs is scheduled to vote in August on a new senior pastor from another mega church to replace former pastor Ted Haggard. While the situation surrounding this search for a pastor arose from scandal, earmarks of the search for a replacement pastor are consistent with what large mega churches increasingly see their pastors to be.

Noting that a church is a family, New Life associate pastor Bob Brendle also said: “We need an effective CEO.” These new Chief Executive Officers are also well known personalities who are treated very much like celebrities. Celebrity globetrotting is already a well established practice for famous Christian speakers who crisscross the globe from one engagement to the next.

Details learned about requirements of some celebrity speakers, and related by J. Lee Grady, editor, Charisma magazine, mirror those of secular entertainers. When enquires are made for speaking engagements, some of the accommodations that must be met are outrageous–a suite in a five-star hotel, a $10,000 deposit for fuel for their private jet, and a five-figure honorarium.

Mega churches can come up with this kind of cash, but at the expense of the edification of the saints. There is also another aspect to perpetuating this pastoral selection process that provides a very sad commentary on this whole business.

It is a testimony of the ineffectual tenure of these shepherds who supposedly preach to thousands on a regular basis, up to five times or more a week, over several years, and are unable to raise up one solitary pastor from amongst their flock who can take their place. It is also a testimony of the sinful nature of man where nothing else will please but a famous personality.

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Viewpoints gleaned by pastors from celebrity globetrotting grow stranger and stranger. Addressing a crowd of concert goers at the Verizon Amphitheater in Irvine California on Saturday, Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, told the story of a talented marathon runner who began his career one night on his birthday while inebriated. After sharing many highlights of the man’s running career, Chan used the inspirational story as an incentive for Christians who might be struggling too long to find God’s will.

According to Chan, they are too worried about making mistakes, and God rewards his people based on the just-do-it scale of good intentions: it doesn’t matter if whether it was God’s will or not, the fact that you acted is what counts. Chan recounted an earlier time in his own life when he boldly proclaimed to some students that God was going to use them all to start a church in a specific area, and that in fact it didn’t turn out that way. Obviously drawing great comfort from the runner’s story for assuaging his conscious, Chan rationalized that it was acting that counted, and that false pronouncements of God’s will were thus mitigated and excused.

The marathon runner in Chan’s example for getting Christians out of the starting blocks and into service did not run the race to obtain Christ, as far as we know. The service Chan pitched was social service in terms of aid to Africa, where Chan has visited. It is a very sad day to see Christian leaders dissuade people from seeking to do God’s will, and encouraging them to run another race.

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