This is a great artical from my brothers in Lancaster PA,I wanted to pass it along to everyone and to say I can see the Lord putting together a band of brothers for the cause of TRUTH. I would ask that you also join with us as we fight for the TRUTH in an age of lies. The church of Jesus Christ has been PROSTITUTED by men long enough, stand with us today with your support as we shout to the world TRUTH DOES MATTER. Rev.Charles j.Paul

What in the world is happening to our churches? Many people are either confused or blindly accepting the new non-traditional worship services that are changing a lot of evangelical churches. It is happening worldwide. Many people are saying, “the church has to change during the twenty-first century if we are to bring the younger generation into it”. Let’s take a hard look at these changes and see if this is really of God, or a shallow misrepresentation of real Christianity.

Bill Hybels is the senior pastor (with a huge number of staff pastors), of Willow Creek Community Church located in Northwest –suburban Chicago with a membership of over 12,000. When Hybels decided to plant a church, instead of faithfully preaching the Word of God, he did surveys on non-churched people in his community. The survey revealed that people (1) didn’t like being bugged for money; (2) church was boring or too routine; (3) didn’t think church was relevant to their lives; and (4) that the Christian message was too negative and too preoccupied with sin, which made them feel guilty.

Hybels’ solution to this marketing survey was to present a program for non-believers on Sunday morning and another to believers on another day or evening. He stated that it was absolutely necessary to have an atmosphere where the un-churched would feel unthreatened, feel welcome, and be entertained. His methods were unscriptural methodology. In reality, he grew Willow Creek man’s way. He gave the people what they wanted! This is referred to in churches as the SEEKER SENSITIVE AGENDA. Thousands attend the “seeker services”. Contemporary or rock music, multimedia displays, dramatic sketches, and messages geared to those “investigating” Christianity. The self-help ethic pervades the sermons. I find the slick, contrived professionalism of Willow Creek akin to corporate culture, not the church, as it should be. Despite Bill Hybels’ humanistic gospel, more and more churches are flocking to the Willow Creek staff to learn the techniques of this mega church.

When one drives to the Willow Creek facilities, it looks more like a junior college with its plush surroundings and buildings, traffic guard bellowing out by microphone directing the traffic. Inside people are dressed from shorts to casual attire. The men in business suits, Willow Creek employees, eye the crowd and walk with their walkie-talkies like secret service agents. There is nothing that resembles a church inside – no crosses or religious icons. It has a snack bar, fountains, and geese swimming in ponds. It looks like high price corporate America, not a church. There are machines that are pumping out thousands of tapes of sermons to be sold to the crowd, video booths, and other wares for sale. “It is a Perfect Babel of Confusion”. (Christianity Today).

The overreaching concern is that the “seeker sensitive” churches compromise the gospel by tailoring their messages down to non-Christians. Theologian David Wells stated, “I honestly believe Hybels doesn’t think he is compromising the gospel by using cultural devices, but he seems blinded to the fact that the culture is not neutral.” For a revealing look as to just how psychological Willow Creek has become, see “Borne on His Wings”, a Willow Creek magazine, 1990. This approach takes a Freudian view to life’s problems. It should be noted that Hybels methodology is used by many cults (e.g. the Oxford Movement) and even in spiritism.

Rick Warren of California’s Saddleback Church is cut from the same cloth and uses the same marketing techniques, etc. as Bill Hybels. Some of the men that have influenced them are:

1. Robert Schuller – of Crystal Cathedral, California. This man has headed up the worldwide cult of Self-Esteem and Self-Love. His teachings are anti-biblical. Schuller is an ecumenist who embraces all faiths. There are many ways to heaven according to his philosophy. Schuller’s influence is enormous, and his Gospel of Success is embraced by increasing numbers of Christian leaders.

2. Richard Foster – “Celebration of Discipline”. This teacher has entered the shadowy world of pantheistic occultism. His book, named above, has many new age teachings in it.

3. John Wimber (now deceased) – Vineyard Fellowship. He created a New Age paradigm shift that is changing thousands of pastors and future pastors of how they view Christianity. John Wimber was very sincere in the desire to bring Biblical teaching. It is the extra-biblical sources he draws on that are the problem. He has made many apostate statements in his Signs and Wonders Lectures (Dave Hunt, Seduction of Christianity).

4. Dr. C. Peter Wagner – Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. He believes in “Dominion and Kingdom Now” theologies. In his spiritual warfare book, Territorial Spirits, he has quoted such people as Paul (David) Yonggi Cho, Larry Lea, Jack Hayford and others who accept Dominion theology. He merges paganism and Christianity in Territorial Spirits. He has established a world ecumenical prayer center in Colorado Springs.

This new type of evangelism seems to be growing and taking root in many or our formerly solid denominational, Bible, and evangelical churches today. The thing we must all do is “test the spirits and see if they are of God” and make sure our pastors and congregations stay in the Word of God. The marketing of the church is not winning souls for the Lord. “May God lead us to follow the Word of God more fully, to be holy and separated from the evil world culture? We must use greater discernment as we encounter the deceptions of these sad days of decline from faith and standards. God save us all from public-opinion surveys and Laodicean religions, American – style!” (Despatch – Endtime Ministries, W. B. Howard).

“… I will spew thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing: and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.” Revelation 3:16,17