This article at www.ChristianPost.com shows just how slippery the social gospel can be. The social Gospel downplays the spiritual aspects of Chritianity, and is willing to partner with whomever will help them meet their humanistic goals. True Christianity is always God-centered in essence. But with his Global P.E.A.C.E. plan it’s becoming obvious that Rick Warren is replacing the true Gospel with one that is socially driven. Kay Warren (Rick Warren’s wife) made the following comments:

Read more at Vibist.com

So, here is a verse for each person attending to ponder: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30). It would be a whole different innovation for a new regeneration if such a verse was brought to light. I could not find one mention of Jesus in the advertisement but a big push for “YOU”:

Innovation3 is happening later this month in Dallas… January 27-28 to be exact. Have you registered yet? Hundreds of people already have!

And we’ll discuss innovative ministry models, with smaller, practical gatherings centered around multi-site ministry, women’s ministry, externally focused churches, missional renaissance, recovery ministries, generous church initiatives, church planting, and more. But what makes the Innovation3 gathering different than most every conference… is… YOU! We are doing our best to level the playing field… allowing you to connect, network, and collaborate with all of our presenters and attendees…This is turning out to be a once in a lifetime gathering of North American church leaders. Leadership Network has not done an event comparable to Innovation3 for many years. And it will be many years before we do a large-scale gathering like this again. But time is running out, and you’ll need to register soon to save your spot at the party.

…Keller’s gospel is more than the good news that Christ has come to reconcile us to God; it is also solving the world’s problems of injustice, poverty and healing the troubles of this earth. He quotes N. T. Wright, not Scripture, to support his view…Later Keller makes clear what he means: “The purpose of Jesus’ coming is to put the whole world right, to renew and restore the creation, not to escape it. It is not just to bring personal forgiveness and peace, but also justice and shalom to the world…. The work of the Spirit of God is not only to save souls but also to care and cultivate the face of the earth, the material world” (p. 223). Scripture knows nothing of such a gospel message. Nowhere in the New Testament will you find such a commission given to the people of God. You will, however, find a similar message in the Emergent church, N.T. Wright’s New Perspective on Paul and those reviving the old “Social Gospel” agenda…

Many in the new seeker-sensitive experiment in “doing church” have seen only the surface habits of this postmodern world and have not really understood its Eros spirituality. Theirs is an experiment in tactics in which innumerable questions have been asked about the ways the Church can become successful in this culture and they are all prefaced by the word how. How do we get on the wavelength of Generation Xers? How do we do worship so that the transition from home to church, from mall to church, and from unbelief into a context of belief, is seamless and even unnoticed? How do we speak about Christian faith to those who only want techniques for survival in life? How can we be motivational for those who need a lift without burdening them? How can we say what we want to say in church when the audience will give us only a small slice of their attention, especially if we are not amusing? And what is emerging, as the evangelical Church continues to empty itself of theology, is that it now find that it is tapping, wittingly or not, into this broad cultural yearning for spirituality, and capitalizing on that disposition’s inclination not to be religious. Evangelical spirituality without theology, that even sometimes despises theology, parallels almost exactly the broader cultural spirituality that is without religion. Evangelical faith without theology, without the structure and discipline of truth, is not Agape faith but it is much close to Eros spirituality.

This, however, is not understood. Church talks about “reaching” the culture turns, almost inevitably, into a discussion about tactics and methodology, not about worldviews. It is only about tactics and not about strategy. It is about seduction and not about truth, about success and not about confrontation. However, without strategy, the tactics inevitably fail; without truth, all of the arts of seduction which the churches are practicing sooner or later are seen to be the empty charade that they are; and because the emerging worldview is not being engaged, the Church has little it can really say. Indeed, one has to ask how much it actually wants to say. Biblical truth contradicts this cultural spirituality, and that contradiction is hard to bear. Biblical truth displaces it, refuses to allow it its operating assumptions, declares to it its bankruptcy. Here, indeed, is an anti-god, dressed up in the garb of authenticity, but whose world is a world of fiction. Is the evangelical Church faithful enough to explode the worldview of this new spiritual search? Is it brave enough to contradict what has wide cultural approval? The verdict may not finally be in but it seems quite apparent that while the culture is burning, the evangelical Church is fiddling precisely because it has decided it must be so like the culture to be successful.

[David F. Wells, Above all Earthly Powers: Christ in a Postmodern World (Eerdmans, Grand Rapid, MI, USA, 2005), 162-163]

Sharlet describes the organization’s theology as built upon Jesus the strongman and revolutionary, not the savior and street preacher…Hitler gets positive treatment by The Family’s leaders throughout the book; not praise for his atrocities but admiration for his ability to mobilize the masses. Sick indeed but not without precedent in American Christianity…

…Human problems, Buchman declared, require “a God-controlled democracy, or perhaps I should say a theocracy.” Just as good, he added, would be a “God-controlled Fascist dictatorship.”

That dream survives today… in the seemingly sanguine lifestyle fundamentalism preached by mega-pastors… Rick Warren, author of the mammoth-selling Purpose-Driven Life—and, as of April 2008, the official sponsor of Rwanda, which under his guidance has submitted to soul surgery on a national scale to become the world’s first “Purpose Driven Nation,” embracing Warren’s amiably-phrased mixture of obedience theology and Bible-based capitalism as an antidote to godlessness, whether that comes in form of genocide or socialism. Warren, despite his mild-mannered demeanor – or maybe because of it – doesn’t make distinctions. Either you’re with God, or you’re against Him.

But both men (ed. note: Warren & Osteen)—and the new evangelicalism as a movement—continue to preach the merger of Christianity and capitalism pioneered three quarters of a century ago. On the surface, it’s self-help; scratch, and it’s revealed as a profoundly conservative ideology that conflates church and state, scripture and currency, faith and finance. There’s a sense in which Buchman’s vision of “God-controlled supernationalism” thrives today more surely than it ever did in the 1930s, a period of radical economic upheaval. Only, today we call it globalism…

Read more on the shadows of evangelical empire building at Watcher’s Lamp.

Is the evangelical movement suffering a midlife crisis? Or, for those with a more brand-centric world view: Is evangelism entering the "mature" stage of its brand life cycle?

…corporate marketers stand to learn a thing or two about pushing product from "Brands of Faith," specifically viral and word-of-mouth efforts. The real gem of Ms. Einstein’s text is an in-depth look at one of the most successful leaders of the evangelical pack: Rick Warren, whose spiritual guidebook, "The Purpose-Driven Life," is second only to the Bible as the best-selling hardcover of all time. 

…She likens the evangelical movement’s success not to some historic spiritual awakening or God’s hand at work, but to the use of secular marketing tactics.

Can Business Leaders Learn From Leaders of Today’s Megachurches? By Peter A. Maresco, Ph.D. for Academic Leadership Journal

…Is there really any difference between these leaders and business leaders in how they drive home their visions? I guess it really comes back to that basic leadership tenant; having a VISION. It seems that in one way or another every successful leader not only has a vision for what they want to accomplish and an understanding of how to accomplish the vision but they have the perseverance and drive necessary to see the vision through to its completion. They also have a good amount of charisma as well

See the rest at the Watcher’s Lamp.

Pastor Warren must constantly reorganize, like any mayor or CEO, employing a management consultant hired directly from the Old Testament…

…Jim Wallis, author and Editor-in-Chief of Sojouners, sees the whole iceberg, and finds that mega-chruches, once merely “suburban filling stations for seekers,” are replacing the religious right with a sense of community and an actual conversation about Jesus.

See related articles:

Willow Creek & The New Monasticism

Brian McLaren: The Willow Creek Statement

Willow Creek’s Emergent & Mystical Youth Conference

A Shocking “Confession” from Willow Creek Community Church