Some of your comments.
Thank you Wesley for your comments and reply-Tim
Here are Wesley's comments
Dear Tim,
While I have enjoyed many of your posts and links, this is my first reply. I have been very involved with discernment almost from the beginning of my life in Christ, which began in 1985. It was almost two years before it even dawned on me to find a church. Though most of my interests revolved around the theology and teaches of Jimmy Swaggart, David Wilkerson, Dave Hunt and the like, my wife and I joined a church that was interdenominational and, as we soon found out, didn't support any of these types of ministries but rather the Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts types. The Spirit of the Lord was strong within the congregation of about 150 and I believe it was where the Lord wanted us to be. Soon I was elected to serve on the auxillary board and I got involved with practical ministry things (ushering, music ministry, etc.). Somewhere along the way, though I still never got anything from the foolish, unscriptural things of the Prosperity cultists, I got away from discerning. By 2000, I was the Music Minister, lay minister, Sunday School teacher. Our Pastor retired and his brother-in-law stepped in, fresh from the corporate world where he had been a district sales supervisor with Coca-cola. At first things seemed pretty good. There was going to be a "new openness", the Pastors (who said that with his wife, the church was getting 'two for one' so instantly she was also called 'Pastor') were going to be accessible to the people in order to better minister to the needs of the congregation.
Long story short, they began to install new tools in order to set up structure (for future growth). Unknown at the time, they began instituting things spelled out by C. Peter Wagner. Last year, we started the year off with a fast, a call to get into the word, seek the Lord in prayer, and focus on what the Pastor called "A Year of Great Gain". The Lord began to take me back to discerning the Word (to Galatians in particular). I had some serious questions and made them known to him. They instructed me that people in a church, particularly leaders such as myself, are never to question God's man; that is very wrong and God won't honor that type of attitude. I told him, on an off-night, that Genesis 8:22 and John 3:16 weren't scripture proof backing up his favorite line from Oral Roberts ("You have to sow a seed in order for God to meet your need") and that having an outreach to kids in apartment projects where clothes, food, and water was handed without mentioning Jesus Christ and the need to be born again to escape going to hell was a different approach than that of Acts, where there focus was "Repent and be saved in the name of Jesus Christ". By September, my eyes had been opened up and through many different ministries, such as yours, Discernment Ministries.org, Dave Hunt's web site, and many, many more, I began to see that the church my wife and I had raised three daughters in was following a different gospel with a different Jesus, i.e., Purpose Driven, Prosperity, basically the new social gospel of the New Apostalic Reformation. According to 1 Timothy, I had to "withdraw" so I stepped down. I seriously thought the Board would here my concerns, consider the words I gave them in two letters. But the teachings of "covering" and "servant leaders" and "submitting" should have told me better.
I know I'm not alone. And for those who have been in a similar situation, they know how hard it is to basicly have to divorce yourself from false teachers. But following Christ was never meant to be easy and is totally worth it. Rediscovering Jesus Christ, and His deliverance from the addiction of religion, is a tremendous thing. We have to seriously remember --- these are the Last Days. And everything He said they would be like is true. Do not be deceived, people. Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you. That's what the Cross brought us!
Here are Wesley's comments
Dear Tim,
While I have enjoyed many of your posts and links, this is my first reply. I have been very involved with discernment almost from the beginning of my life in Christ, which began in 1985. It was almost two years before it even dawned on me to find a church. Though most of my interests revolved around the theology and teaches of Jimmy Swaggart, David Wilkerson, Dave Hunt and the like, my wife and I joined a church that was interdenominational and, as we soon found out, didn't support any of these types of ministries but rather the Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts types. The Spirit of the Lord was strong within the congregation of about 150 and I believe it was where the Lord wanted us to be. Soon I was elected to serve on the auxillary board and I got involved with practical ministry things (ushering, music ministry, etc.). Somewhere along the way, though I still never got anything from the foolish, unscriptural things of the Prosperity cultists, I got away from discerning. By 2000, I was the Music Minister, lay minister, Sunday School teacher. Our Pastor retired and his brother-in-law stepped in, fresh from the corporate world where he had been a district sales supervisor with Coca-cola. At first things seemed pretty good. There was going to be a "new openness", the Pastors (who said that with his wife, the church was getting 'two for one' so instantly she was also called 'Pastor') were going to be accessible to the people in order to better minister to the needs of the congregation.
Long story short, they began to install new tools in order to set up structure (for future growth). Unknown at the time, they began instituting things spelled out by C. Peter Wagner. Last year, we started the year off with a fast, a call to get into the word, seek the Lord in prayer, and focus on what the Pastor called "A Year of Great Gain". The Lord began to take me back to discerning the Word (to Galatians in particular). I had some serious questions and made them known to him. They instructed me that people in a church, particularly leaders such as myself, are never to question God's man; that is very wrong and God won't honor that type of attitude. I told him, on an off-night, that Genesis 8:22 and John 3:16 weren't scripture proof backing up his favorite line from Oral Roberts ("You have to sow a seed in order for God to meet your need") and that having an outreach to kids in apartment projects where clothes, food, and water was handed without mentioning Jesus Christ and the need to be born again to escape going to hell was a different approach than that of Acts, where there focus was "Repent and be saved in the name of Jesus Christ". By September, my eyes had been opened up and through many different ministries, such as yours, Discernment Ministries.org, Dave Hunt's web site, and many, many more, I began to see that the church my wife and I had raised three daughters in was following a different gospel with a different Jesus, i.e., Purpose Driven, Prosperity, basically the new social gospel of the New Apostalic Reformation. According to 1 Timothy, I had to "withdraw" so I stepped down. I seriously thought the Board would here my concerns, consider the words I gave them in two letters. But the teachings of "covering" and "servant leaders" and "submitting" should have told me better.
I know I'm not alone. And for those who have been in a similar situation, they know how hard it is to basicly have to divorce yourself from false teachers. But following Christ was never meant to be easy and is totally worth it. Rediscovering Jesus Christ, and His deliverance from the addiction of religion, is a tremendous thing. We have to seriously remember --- these are the Last Days. And everything He said they would be like is true. Do not be deceived, people. Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you. That's what the Cross brought us!
posted by Tim Wirth | 10:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home