The Death of the Mega Church
Commentary by Roger Oakland
For a video introduction for the Commentary go to: http://www.understandthetimes.org/utttvpc1.shtml
Over te past several decades, biblical Christianity has been under a major attack from Satan, the one who deceives the whole world [1]. A number of man-made church growth programs designed or inspired largely by the well-known church growth guru Peter Drucker have had a major impact on what was once called Evangelical Protestant Christianity. These churches and denominations, which often consist of Christians who have believed and taught the Bible, have been cleverly led into what I call the Drucker “666” plan, without many of them even knowing it [2]
Peter
Drucker
This
clever humanistic plan authored by Drucker and others has reshaped
modern day Christianity. Fellowships of believers that once gathered to
hear the teaching of God’s Word have been turned into corporations that
are driven to be successful businesses. These churches are now run for
profit, and in many cases the Spirit of God has departed.
The pastors who were once shepherds and guided by the Holy Spirit are now corporate CEO’s. They often have puppet boards made up of “yes” men. They now focus on the accumulation of power, possession, and property and have forgotten about serving people and being witnesses for the gospel.
Drucker, now deceased, was a well-known globalist with an emphasis on one world government and one world religion His concept was better known as the three-legged stool plan. This plan is also found in the Bible; the Book of Revelation describes this “666” plan. [3]
Peter Drucker was also a famous consultant for three well-known present day American pastoral super-heroes: Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, Bill Hybels of the Willow Creek Church near Chicago, Illinois, and Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.
The
Crystal Cathedral Garden Grove, California
Recently
Robert Schuller's empire declared a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy after years of
success. While church services are still being held, some have wondered
if this is a sign that the church growth era is coming to an end.
Schuller
, Hybels and Warren
Others
have discovered that the only way to survive as a mega-church in a
postmodern society is to look for new ways to communicate to this
generation by joining hands with what is called the Emerging Church
Movement. This was also one of Drucker’s inspirations, which he conjured
up with business partner Bob Buford. The Emerging Church can be
documented to be just another road to Rome through Babylon. It is
bringing about the fast demise of Bible believing Christianity.
Whatever the case, it is still apparent that the Bill Hybel's seeker-friendly church growth program coupled with Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Church and Purpose Driven Life Plan have been designed to be part of the PEACE Plan. This PEACE plan embraces New Age mystical contemplative practices that are based on a revival of ancient Babylonian religious methods, which are driven by doctrines of devils (1 Timothy 4:1). There are also signs that both these movements, mentored by Peter Drucker, are joining together with Roman Catholics with a plan to build the kingdom of God here on earth without the King.
This of course is what Rome has planned for centuries. This is the plan the Jesuits authored years ago and have been implementing ever since the Counter Reformation. This sinister group founded by Ignatius Loyola (a contemplative mystic, by the way) has always had a clever plan to infiltrate all Bible-based churches and organizations with the goal of establishing a One World Religion and a One World Government. This plan also includes an attack on the Word of God, changing and revising to become the word of man while at the same time making the word of the pope into the word of a god.
Recently Rick Warren and Tony Blair met at Saddleback to discuss their plan for the globalization of religion for the cause of peace. Warren promoted his PEACE Plan, and Blair explained the task he has been given by the Pope to bring about a One World Religion for peace in the name of Christ. Paul Kagame, Tony Blair and Rick Warren are on the Advisory board of The Rwanda Presidential Advisory Council. They are partners together in setting up what could be a one-world religion, which prepares the way for the coming antichrist of which the Bible warns.
Denominations and Churches that are Purpose Driven And Not Spirit Led
There are
a number of other well-known churches and denominations that seem to be
caught in Satan’s trap and are also on their way towards the One World
Religion predicted in the Bible to be part of the End Times Apostasy.
Some of these pastors and church leaders were once active in warning
their flocks of the dangers ahead. However, many of the sheep can now
see that something has happened. Rather than the sheep being protected
or warned, they are now being led to the slaughter as they are driven to
market. This is very sad!
In order to understand how and why this is happening, it is important to study the Word of God. It is apparent from Scripture that God never intended men to choose men to be Kings over the people. You can read about this in the Bible. The children of Israel wanted a King. God insisted this would bring about disaster. History shows that God eventually allowed Israel to have what they wanted, and they suffered the consequences.
In the New Testament, we see this pattern repeated over and over. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Pastors are supposed to model their ministries after Jesus. The sheep make up their flocks but are abused. Pastors are to protect the sheep not send them to market. Jesus is the One who believers should follow - Him alone.
Once more, from the examples that are given to us in the New Testament, we see that humans are prone to the deception authored by Satan because they do not read the manual, which in this case is the Bible. They follow after men, their methods, and their movements - men who can be easily misled by wrong motives. This following a man model, which in the beginning may look to be a work of God and led by the Holy Spirit, will actually, over time, self destruct.
A leader who becomes the founder of such a movement can eventually be looked on as the “Pope”of that movement. If this Pope does not have his eyes totally on Jesus Christ but instead seeks after power and possession, it will not take long for his leadership to be tainted.
Those whom he has influenced will be tainted as well. The organization will begin to clone the same model. Over time, a Roman Catholic denominational plan develops with a hierarchy that everyone is familiar with – pope – cardinals – bishops – priests and then the sheep – the poor sheep.
While conferences will be held and the basics of the faith constantly discussed and enforced, it seems that after time no one pays attention to what is said. Over time the foundational beliefs once so essential to the organization in the beginning gradually are replaced with other views that become more important. Rather than teaching the Bible and focusing on being a servant to God, successful pastors often look for other ways to expand their horizons by joining hands with those who do not even believe what the Bible teaches. Instead of being servants of the Lord, some even seek after position, property, and power and forget from where they originated.
It is tragic to see an organization, driven to become larger or a church seeking to become a mega church function like a business. This is not what God ever intended. When one begins to analyze what went wrong, it becomes apparent. Men were following men and not Jesus Christ. They thought that they were led by the Holy Spirit when instead it appears they have been driven by another spirit. They may have started out right, but they ended up wrong.
So What
Can Be Done?
There is
a biblical solution to this problem. It is very simple. Mega churches
are not in the Bible. Jesus was more interested in teaching His
disciples than He was about congregations of thousands. Apparently,
Jesus had never been to a Church Growth Seminar on how to be
seeker-friendly or purpose driven. These man-made methods have no
biblical basis and have distorted what it means to be a part of the
bride of Christ.
Further, methods that allow men to do what they want to do by refusing to listen to the council of others, is just plain wrong. Pastors who say they need one hundred percent support from their board and then fire board members who do not vote their way need to be taken to task. This style of leadership is not only ungodly, but it is dangerous. Such leadership becomes more like a dictatorship , often put in place by someone who becomes hungry for power and obsessed by money and success. Jesus would have never shepherded His flock that way. And He sure didn’t instruct the disciples to shepherd that way either.
When Scriptures are used as a method of manipulation or mind control over others this is a terrible mishandling of the Word of God. How many pastors have you heard say “DON’T TOUCH GOD’S ANOINTED” when they have been confronted with the truth and asked to respond? This apostate style of Christian leadership is about how much power a leader has over his flock, whereas a good shepherd is a pastor who follows the Good Shepherd in all that he says and does. He not only teaches the Word from the pulpit but he listens to what has been taught and lives it.
While it is possible that someone can be deluded and not know it, when warnings are given from the Word of God that shine light into the darkness, there is no excuse. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone is a sinner and in need of a Savior, saved only by God’s grace. When leaders go wrong, they need to recognize their sin and repent. Covering up sin only hardens the heart and makes the situation worse.
In these days of strong delusion, when Satan is pulling out all the stops, maybe it is time for pastors to put their pride behind their backs and stand up before the Lord. The consequences of shepherds in sheep’s clothing leading sheep towards apostasy will be severe.
Anything that has been hidden and not dealt with will eventually be uncovered. While some think the rapture will happen first or they may die before sin is revealed, this is not the way to cover up. There will be the Judgment Seat. Better for all things to be revealed now than later. Better to be forgiven now than to have to deal with sin later. Better to be judged here on earth than to be judged later by God when nothing will be hidden from His sight. In 2 Timothy 20, it talks about vessels of honor and dishonor. In verse 21 it says: “
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.”Is this not the time for Christian leaders to “purge” themselves and return to honor rather than dishonor? Yes, this is a time of reckoning. This is a time to get it right before it is too late. How has it happened that those who once warned about the coming apostasy now, when the apostasy is here, have somehow fallen asleep and shut their mouths? And why would it be that those same leaders condemn those who are now doing the warning, telling them to shut up and go away?
The Bible has the answer. Paul wrote to Timothy and told him how to deal with this kind of a problem. He said:
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all [men], apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And [that] they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.L
Let us pray that God's will, not Satan's, will be accomplished.