pastors

Survey Shows Many Pastors Are Teaching Deception

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‘What a Lie’: Franklin Graham Reacts to Shocking Pastoral Survey, Lambastes ‘False Teaching…Leading People & Churches Astray’

Evangelical leader Franklin Graham (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

From faithwire.com

 

Evangelist Franklin Graham reacted this week to shocking survey data showing more than one-third of senior pastors purportedly believe “good people” can earn their way to heaven, with Graham lambasting some of the findings as “false teaching.”

“I don’t know which 1,000 pastors this group surveyed, but the results are concerning,” Graham tweeted Monday. “39% of ‘evangelical’ pastors they asked said there is no absolute moral truth & that ‘each individual must determine their own truth.’”

He added, “What a lie.”

Graham’s strongly-worded response came after pastoral survey results were published by The American Worldview Inventory, an annual report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.

At least one-third of respondents also said they believe the Holy Spirit isn’t a person and is instead a “symbol of God’s power, presence, or purity,” with at least the same proportion preferring socialism over capitalism. At least one-third also believe “having faith matters more than which faith you have.”

Perhaps most stunning, though, is the 39% figure Graham cited, as that’s the percentage of evangelical pastors who reject the idea of absolute morality and believe individuals get to “determine their own truth,” as The Christian Post reported.

In an age of moral chaos and confusion, these statistics are deeply troubling, which is something Graham underscored as he warned of the impact false beliefs have on the body of Christ.

“The survey also said that 30% of evangelical pastors do not believe that their salvation is based on having confessed their sins & accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior,” he continued in another tweet. “This kind of false teaching is what is leading people & churches astray.”

Graham concluded his tweets on the matter with a passionate defense of the Gospel.

“The Bible is God’s Word, from cover to cover,” he wrote. “It is the absolute truth — it is what counts, not our opinion.”

As Faithwire previously reported, alarming data on American pastors’ beliefs is nothing new. Earlier released data from the Cultural Research Center revealed just 37% of U.S.-based pastors hold to a “biblical worldview.”

Book Review: Prayer Shield by C. Peter Wagner

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There are lots of books, great books, about prayer available these days. This is the only one that I have come across that dissects the needs of christian leaders for personal prayer teams and offers help in putting such a team together.

Pastors, and other leaders are often targeted specifically by satan in order to limit their effectiveness or sometimes cause them to fall from leadership altogether. It is well-known that pastors in Western countries are lacking in their personal lives- on average about 22 minutes per day in the U.S. compared to 5 hours or more in China.

Wagner suggests that for a pastor to be effective, s/he  must determine to do two things:

  1. Increase their personal prayer times, aiming for something like an hour per day.
  2. Develop a prayer team consisting of people with various gifts of intercession- he uses the terms I-1, I-2, I-3 to describe people who are at various places of prayer and personal closeness to the leader.

Peppered with examples to illustrate his points, this book is inspiring and easy to read.

Over the last couple of years I have increased my personal prayer times. Now I am inspired to seek out the true intercessors in my church and community and start building a team.

 

 

Should Adulterous Pastors Be Restored?

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Here is a thoughtful article from “Christianity Today”  about how the church should handle pastors who fall from grace. The author makes the strong distinction between forgiveness and restoration to ministry. I don’t know that I agree with everything in the article but it’s worth a read.

Should Adulterous Pastors Be Restored?

The Bible’s teaching about returning fallen ministers to the pulpit.
R. Kent Hughes and John H. Armstrong/ SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

“Genuine forgiveness does not necessarily imply restoration to leadership,” former CT editor Kenneth Kantzer once wrote after the moral failure of several prominent evangelical leaders. Yet the impulse to link forgiveness with restoration to ministry remains strong. Here two pastor-theologians argue for the importance of keeping separate the restoration to the body of Christ and restoration to pastoral leadership.

The North American church is seriously vexed by the question, “What shall we do with an adulterous pastor?” Over the past decade, the church has been repeatedly staggered by revelations of immoral conduct by some of its most respected leaders. How do we respond to those who have sexually fallen and disgraced themselves, shamed their families, and debased their office?

The typical pattern goes like this: The pastor is accused and convicted of sexual sin. He confesses his sin, often with profound sorrow. His church or denominational superiors prescribe a few months, or often one year, in which time he is encouraged to obtain professional counsel. Then he is restored to his former office, sometimes in another location. He is commonly regarded as a “wounded healer,” one who now knows what it means to fall, to experience the grace of God profoundly.

While each situation must be handled with pastoral wisdom, and some fallen pastors indeed might someday be restored to leadership, we believe this increasingly common scenario is both biblically incorrect and profoundly harmful to the well-being of the fallen pastor, his marriage, and the church of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus was tempted in all points just as we are, yet it was his testing, not any failure, that made him strong. If we do not think clearly, we may be subtly encouraging people to grievous sin so they might experience more grace and thus minister more effectively. Incredibly, in the present context, some are saying things that imply just this notion.

The Forgiveness Approach

The commonly held view. reasons that a repentant and forgiven minister who was previously qualified for pastoral office remains qualified on the basis of God’s forgiveness. Was he qualified previously? Has he confessed his sin? Has God forgiven him? Then we must also.

This logic rests upon the unbiblical assumption that forgiveness of sin is equivalent to the “blamelessness” (or unimpeachable character) required of pastors in 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6. If this thesis is accepted, all God requires is that a fallen pastor be forgiven.

But this confuses the basis of our fellowship with Christ with public leadership and office in church. No one argues that the fallen minister cannot be forgiven. No one should argue that he cannot be brought back into the fellowship of Christ’s visible church. But to forgive a fallen pastor and to restore him to membership in the church is much different than restoring him to the pastoral office.

The “forgiveness approach” is inadequate because it does not deal realistically with two facts: First, adultery is a great sin; and second, pastoral adultery is an even greater sin.

Full article here

One Person Makes A Difference

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You could be the “one person” who makes a difference. Although this article is written for pastors, it applies to every single follower of Jesus.

From Focus on the Family

ONE PASTOR MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

Helpful Articles: Ministry Issues

Pastor Lee holding a babyBy Jim Daly

Picture this scene: it is the middle of the night, and the doorbell rings. A weary man stumbles to the door and opens it. There is no one standing on the front step. But when he looks down, he sees a small bundle in a cardboard box. Instinctively, he brings it inside and opens it. Wrapped inside a blanket is a tiny newborn baby, almost frozen by the mid-December cold.

This is the scenario that played out in a poor urban neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea several years ago—on the doorstep of a pastor named Lee Jong-rak. The baby, which suffered from physical disabilities, had been surrendered by a desperate unwed mother, under the cover of night, in the hope that the child would find a safe refuge in Pastor Lee’s home.

As gripping as this story is, it actually begins many years earlier, with the birth of Pastor Lee’s own son, Eun-man. The child was born with crippling cerebral palsy, leaving his body deformed and making him dependent upon his parents for constant care. His condition was so serious that Pastor Lee, along with his wife and their young daughter, essentially spent the first 14 years of Eun-man’s life in the hospital with him, waiting for the day when they could take him home.

During those years in the hospital, in addition to caring for Eun-man, Pastor Lee reached out to many other physically challenged kids. Over time, he took in several orphans from the hospital. By the time he was able to move Eun-man and the rest of his growing family back home, his reputation as a loving and compassionate shepherd was firmly established. It was this reputation that compelled a frightened young mother to surrender her baby on his front step on that cold December night.

With the problem of child abandonment growing throughout Seoul (on average, more than 200 babies are abandoned on the streets there every year), Pastor Lee knew something had to be done. So he installed a “baby box” on the side of his home as a way for desperate young mothers to anonymously and safely surrender their children. A sign posted above the box bears Psalm 27:10: “For my father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” Since installing the box in 2009, more than 600 babies have been surrendered into Pastor Lee’s care.

Can you relate to Pastor Lee’s story? As a pastor, you provide that same level of love and care. Your circumstances might look different, but you nevertheless invest in the lives of those around you with the same spirit of Christ-like love.

Like Pastor Lee, you’ve probably received one of those midnight knocks on your front door, or maybe a phone call or a text, from someone in crisis. Perhaps the issue isn’t an abandoned baby. It might be someone who has just discovered their spouse is having an affair, or who has lost their job, or been diagnosed with cancer, or experienced the sudden death of a loved one.

And like Pastor Lee, you have challenges of your own at home. Maybe not a child with cerebral palsy, but challenges nonetheless—things that require your love and time and attention, and that have the potential to drain your already dwindling reserves of energy. Even so, when a member of your congregation has a need, you make time, you make room. You sacrifice.

As a pastor, you are available—to care, to admonish, to shepherd, to teach, to listen. This is a gift to your flock and a powerful example to a watching world of authentic, Christ-like love and service. There are likely days when you feel overlooked and unappreciated, but please know that we here at Focus are praying for you as you minister the love of Christ in your community. Thank you! May we never take you and your work for granted.

If you want to learn more about Pastor Lee, I hope you and your congregation will make plans to attend The Drop Box, Focus on the Family’s new documentary film appearing in movie theaters nationwide for three nights only, March 3, 4, and 5. The power of this story is such that the director of The Drop Box, Brian Ivie, actually committed his life to Christ during the making of the film!

Watch this video clip to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how we plan to share Pastor Lee’s story: http://youtu.be/TA-G9kQMzJY.

For theaters and showtimes, as well as resources to help you promote this important movie at your church, visit www.TheDropBoxFilm.com.