Chris Elrod was reading my blog out loud at the beginning of this video. My little touch of fame with rick warren.

“Come and see.” “Come and die.”

This makes me think of what is happening at our physical church building this morning. There are students ages 13 to 19 spending their Saturday morning receiving training because they are committed to going on a mission trip this summer. They can’t just sign up two days before and pay their money and go. They have a checklist of things they have to complete before being able to go and do. It takes months to a year to complete this checklist. These students know how to share their faith because they learn how to.

We are seeing students coming to Christ and they are being baptized due in part to our students and adults being ALIVE and PRESENT in our community. Not absent.... And yes… we are affliated with the SBC…

And yes, I stand by my comment on the post about Ed’s news on the SBC. It is not about denominations or being non-denominational. We must simply stop being consumed with that and all the other nonsense that can bring about.

If we are to be His body… Let’s start being His hands and feet and etc.... now.. today.. this moment.

CS,

Funny, it feels totally right to me. Western Christians have been far too interested in believing the right things ABOUT Jesus or merely believing IN Jesus rather than believing JESUS and as a consequence believing the things that Jesus believed… the kind of faith that makes us do things and reorder our life.

Far too many Western Christians do NOT have that faith. We need it. That is what RW is calling for.

I appreciate the interview.  I heard Rick articulating more of a “Deeds AND Creeds” philosophy.  I think it would be short sighted to believe a focus on deeds will not impact our understanding of creeds.  We have to pay attention to both so we don’t lose orthodoxy as we add/emphasize orthopraxis.  But doing the things Jesus told us to do the way Jesus told us to do them is critical for the church.  I think that is what Rick is getting at.

There is a lot in that 40 min. interview!

Wendi:

“CS – I’m surprised that you take issue with deeds over creeds.  The pattern in your posts here at MMI seems to argue that there must be visible fruit (deeds) to authenticate people’s public commitment to belief in Jesus (creeds).”

Yes, I do believe in deeds authenticating creeds.  If we have mere beliefs and do not act on them, or they have not changed our lives to the point where we want to do things for Christ, it makes those beliefs pretty null.  A good chunk of the Book of James deals with this. 

I do take issue with deeds OVER creeds, which is the sense of where I think things are going.  Many pastors recently have had this philosophy of, “It doesn’t matter what you believe just so long as you do something for Jesus.” Some of these pastors, like Steven Furtick, then go afterwards as far as making fun of people who want hermeneutics and doctrinal knowledge in their churches.  If we don’t have knowledge, our actions can be misguided.  If we don’t have actions, our knowledge is for nought.  Both must be put in play equally.  And, like I agree with Peter, many people for years have not followed this.

With Rick Warren’s track record of taking Scripture out of context, using copious quantities of (bad) translations to jam in points, and saying many things that cannot be found in the Bible or run contrary to the Bible, frankly, I cannot trust him in leading an effort like this.  When I hear him use such words as a “Second Reformation,” my spider sense starts going pretty high.

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CS

CS,

This argument has been discussed and over-discussed on this site (and I’m trusting that Todd will, because of that, ask us to cease with it here), but suffice to say that many of us who find less fault with Rick will argue that he has been quoted out of context and misquoted as much as or more than any other contemporary Christian leader. I find his beliefs to be orthodox.

Great insight into the heart and passion of Rick Warren. One of his closing lines expressed his desire to move people “from selfish consumerism to unselfish contribution.”

Exactly. Rick is so right on. Third-world missions, spiritual maturity, rejecting consumerism....Rick is right on in my book.

CS - Give me a break. What doesn’t feel right about deeds in addition to creeds. Sounds like, I dunno...maybe James 2!

Derek

Derek:

“CS - Give me a break. What doesn’t feel right about deeds in addition to creeds. Sounds like, I dunno...maybe James 2!”

Again, it’s more of the deeds OVER creeds that I get the impression to where this mentality is leading.  I even cited James as well.  Check my post again, please.

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CS

Yeah,

Let’s all actually put this argument down on BOTH “sides” of it.

CS, thanks by the way for being polite and respectful in the issues you brought up. Deeds OVER creeds (which is not, i believe what RW was talking about although I understand and appreciate your specific concerns a bit) is, you are right, a position to be avoided.

But either way, I think Todd would LOVE for us to let it drop.

Oliver,

It only means that it’s not the discussion that perhaps you want to have. Don’t fret, there are PLENTY of places on the internet to have that discussion.

Looks like Way of The Master Radio picked up on this video and had analyzed some of it on a recent broadcast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVth6gtHBNk

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CS