A Purpose Driven Church Controversy

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning on the controversy created in some evangelical churches by pastors and leaders who are seeking to emulate Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church model:

In April, 150 members of Iuka Baptist Church voted to kick Charles Jones off the deacons' board. The punishment followed weeks of complaints by Mr. Jones and his friends that the pastor was following the teachings of the Rev. Rick Warren, the best-selling author and church-growth guru. After the vote, about 40 other members quit the church to support Mr. Jones.

Mr. Warren, the effusive pastor of stadium-sized Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., is best known for his book "The Purpose Driven Life," which has sold 25 million copies and urges people to follow God's plan for them. He has spawned an industry advising churches to become "purpose-driven" by attracting nonbelievers with lively worship services, classes and sermons that discuss Jesus' impact on their lives, and invitations to volunteer.

But the purpose-driven movement is dividing the country's more than 50 million evangelicals. Some evangelicals, like the Iuka castoffs, say it's inappropriate for churches to use growth tactics akin to modern management tools, including concepts such as researching the church "market" and writing mission statements. Others say it encourages simplistic Bible teaching. Anger over the adoption of Mr. Warren's methods has driven off older Christians from their longtime churches. Congregations nationwide have split or expelled members who fought the changes, roiling working-class Baptist congregations and affluent nondenominational churches...

According to Warren, many churches have grown dramatically by adopting his methods:

At a time when many churches are struggling with declining or aging congregations, advocates of the purpose-driven movement credit it with energizing congregations, doubling the size of some churches and boosting the number of "megachurches" of more than 2,000 members. Mr. Warren says his church and nonprofit arm have trained 400,000 pastors world-wide. He reaches many more through sales of his sermons, books and lessons on the Web. Mr. Warren says he donates 90% of his money to fund philanthropy and overseas training.

But it hasn't worked for everyone:

Despite successes elsewhere, the exodus at some churches adopting the purpose-driven approach has been dramatic. Since taking the job of senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lakewood in Long Beach, Calif., seven years ago, the Rev. John Dickau has watched attendance slide to 550 from 700. "I've often wondered, where's bottom?" he says...

The Rev. Bob Felts, pastor of Brookwood Church in Burlington, N.C., says his former congregation seemed enthusiastic about the purpose-driven approach in the 1990s. So he eagerly introduced the concepts to his new church starting in 2001.

Half the members, he said, balked at his decisions to dress casually, restrict choir performances and use electric instruments. Services now may start with a piercing electric-guitar solo, boosted with amplifiers from the $50,000 sound system. Nearly five years into the process, Mr. Felts says he has more young people than in years past: 40% of those who attend are under 22, as opposed to 20% years earlier. But attendance shrank to 275 this summer from 600. (He expects returning students from the area college to swell the rolls by 70.) Mr. Felts says he had to cut tens of thousands of dollars from the annual budget, which is now $600,000. He says some departing members have accused him of "ruining the church."

My favorite line in the article about why a family left a church adopting the purpose driven model:

The Joneses grew disappointed that they rarely heard Mr. Holcomb deliver messages from the pulpit about God's wrath or redemption. "He didn't preach on somebody going to hell," says Mrs. Jones, 61.

Years ago in Ohio I lost a family at the church I served when they complained that I never talked about God's wrath and hell. They told me people needed to be made to feel afraid and guilty in order to be saved and churched. I told them I didn't believe in hell. They left.

I haven't read The Purpose Driven Church. I have read The Purpose Driven Life and found it much like Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. There is lots of good self-help material, but I am neither highly purpose driven or highly effective, at least in a manner that makes me want to orient my life around their particular models of living.

I can't speak about Warren's church models. I have attended the Willow Creek megachurch outside of Chicago and been through their training years ago. From what I understand it is a similar model: put on a highly entertaining show on Sundays. Keep the messages focused on meaning and relationships, not discipleship or any topic that portrays Christianity as bringing a challenging message to our social, political, or economic world. Offer a second kind of service midweek that is more discipleship oriented. Still, even there they shy away from anything controversial. My most memorable moment at Willow Creek training - this in the early 90's - was seeing the cardboard cutouts of Oliver North in full military regalia all around the church. An "American hero" was going to be speaking at Willow Creek in the next few weeks. That said about that needed to be said about Willow Creek, as far as I was concerned.