Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

4 October, 2005   comments: (0) Today's Synergism   "Power Team" Uplifts Souls, Promises Results What if your church could do something to increase it's attendance by over 20% in the next year. What if that same "something" was proven effective, and would result in as much as 30% of your visitors making decisions for Christ? You must be thinking: what is it - a new mega-church purpose program perhaps? No, it's a bunch of itinerant weight lifters known as the "Power Team", and they feel strongly about their ability to predict how many souls will be saved through their power-packed performance. Tom Ascol of Founders Ministries wrote on his blog last week, how the Power Team is making church visits in a nearby area. Tom wrote this, about the local newspaper article reporting on the Power Team: "Between the theatrics, members of the group lead the audience in prayer and talk about how religion changed their lives and got them out of trouble." "The show at South Biscayne ends with the Power Team inviting people who want to accept Jesus into their lives to come to the front of the stage" and then be immediately "submerged in the church's portable baptism tub." All of this for only $50,000. . . [read more] On their website's belief statement, the Power Team says they "are committed to clearly communicating a Bible-based theology", yet their theology seems to lack an understanding of how souls are saved. Salvation is of the Lord, and is not something that can be statistically planned or systematized. Yet listen to how strongly their website pumps them up: Take advantage of one of the most recognized names in evangelism to help draw families into your church that ordinarily wouldn't even darken your doors. . . Proven effective for almost 30 years. Powerful Results: 2-3 out of every 10 who come, make decisions for Christ. Averaging a 20% church growth within 12 months following crusade. Averaging 60% "Unchurched" visitors nightly! Their website, which mentions Billy Graham as their evangelistic model, lists the testimonies of some noteworthy American church leaders. Here's a few of their comments about the Power Team: "This has been, without a doubt, the greatest evangelistic meeting our church has ever had. All previous records were shattered with over 1,600 people attending the last night of the crusade and over 1,100 people becoming believers in Jesus Christ." "14,200 people attended and 2120 people responded to the altar calls!" "During the crusade, nearly 1000 people made commitments for Christ. Without a doubt, it has been the single most effective soul-winning event that [our church] has ever sponsored." The Power Team makes the same mistake as another ministry that claims "a soul a month" for your ongoing $48 monthly contribution. The reality however, is as Charles Spurgeon once said: "You will win as many souls as God gives you, but no one will be converted by your own power". The attitude that man can plan revival (through tent meetings, crusades, etc.) is relatively new in church history. Here are the words of Charles Finney, the 19th century evangelist who is commonly considered the father of this trend: 'Revivals were formerly regarded as miracles . . . For a long time it was supposed by the Church that a revival was a miracle, an interposition of Divine power, with which they had nothing to do, and which they had no more agency in producing than they had in producing thunder, or a storm of hail, or an earthquake. It is only within a few years that ministers generally have supposed revivals were to be promoted, by the use of means designed and adapted specially to that object' (Charles G. Finney - 1835, Lectures on Revival, p. 17f) Commenting on Finney's words (above), and with great relevance to the modern church-growth movement, Monte E. Wilson says: To the modern ear, Finney sounds quite 'normal.' But to the Calvinistic ears of our spiritual forefathers, he was espousing nothing short of heresy. To say that revivals could be planned, promoted and propagated by man necessitated a revamping of one's appraisal of human nature. If humans are dead in sin, as the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, then regeneration depended upon the sovereign act of the Holy Spirit. However, if regeneration was a matter of a will not enslaved to unrighteousness but free to choose between sin and righteousness, then the individual needed to be argued or persuaded into the Kingdom of God. One obvious consequence of this reappraisal of human nature is the placing of technique at the forefront of evangelism and revivals. Before Finney, preaching the Word of God and prayer were generally believed to be the means of grace God would use in His sovereign timing, to bring revival. Now, it was a matter of changing people's minds. Therefore, most anything that could accomplish this end became 'holy': anything that was seen to hinder the individual's decision-making process was either foolish or evil. Did teaching 'mouldy orthodoxy' (Henry Ward Beecher) bore people? Then it must be replaced with emotionally challenging storytelling that will move the masses. Does the singing of King David's Psalms excite the masses? If not, write simple (simplistic?) choruses and put them to popular tunes. Everything the church does must now be evaluated by one thing: RESULTS. For a biblical review of God's role in salvation, read Pastor John MacArthur's sermon entitled: "The Sovereignty of God in Salvation" Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.65   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  RSS Feed  |  Contact