I've posted on Rick Warren several times over the past few years, often with criticism, but at times I have tried to point out areas where it is appropriate to commend him. Bloggers always run a risk when they post about Rick Warren. If you criticize him there are near-sycophants who can spin anything off and have him come out smelling like a rose. If you praise him there are many who can find a cloud in any silver lining and will use anything as an opportunity to hammer him.
Trying to walk a middle road is tough when it comes to Warren.
Lately I have posted a few things of a complimentary nature. This is partly out of theological conviction. Though I have no desire to use the PDL stuff and really wouldn't recommend it, I can accept the fact that he is a brother whom I disagree with. As I mentioned in this post I believe in total depravity, not utter depravity. In other words, though sin taints everything we do, no one is pure, unmitigated evil. When I disagree with someone I am pretty satisfied to say "I think this person is wrong," without resorting to name-calling, condemnation or casting other aspersions on their character. And I do believe there is much in Warren that is praiseworthy.
Having said that, today I came across some things that I believe are particularly egregious.
As many of you probably know, Warren has had some interaction with the Synagogue 3000 Network, an organization concerned with revitalizing Jewish life.
That, in and of itself is not a problem, at least in my opinion. I think it is incumbent on us to be good neighbors and this could even include providing some assistance to members of other religions. We may even find an occasion to share general revelation style insights with each other. I know that in seminary, one of our professors would invite clergy from other religions to speak to a pastoral theology class just to help us learn how to interact with other religious clergy in the public sphere. Don't worry folks, there was no hint of proselytism or indoctrination here.
I can remember being greatly impressed by the Jewish rabbi's words about teaching children and took some things away from that. Similarly, the Islamic clergyman told of how he had memorized a large part of the Koran and I was properly convicted and shamed for my lack of knowledge of my own Scriptures.
I offer that to say that I think we ought to be careful before we jump in too quickly to criticize Warren just for talking to these Jewish friends. But we can and should analyze the content of these conversations.
On the S3K website you can download (registration required) video clips of some of Warren's interaction with these Jewish leaders. In the videos he is very winsome and personable, and he has a killer Hawaiian shirt that I definitely am coveting. Yet he is sharing church growth principles with these Jewish leaders on how to improve their congregational life.
My question is this - is there any biblical warrant for assisting members of other religions in improving their worship? Before you write that off as a no-brainer, easy no, please think about a couple of things.
If you are pastoring a church and a rabbi (or Imam) comes by with the architect who built your facility because said Rabbi is thinking about hiring this architect to build his facility, would you give him a tour of your facility? I would hope so, it would be the neighborly thing to do, yet this would definitely help improve his worship.
Or, suppose you live in the Gulf region and you are good friends with your Jewish neighbor whose synagogue on the next block was destroyed. If that neighbor asked you to come help with cleanup or something like that, would you do it? I hope so. Even though you may be an instrument helping worship restart or continue there, it seems to me that this would be a wonderful example of loving your neighbor.
So, if Warren shares some general revelation insights on congregational life with a rabbi, that in and of itself is not worth having a meltdown over. I will say that I don't think I could participate in such a forum, but I am not prepared to throw the book at him for that.
But I think we can throw the book at a Christian leader who builds a relationship with members of another religion with no intention of sharing the gospel with them. In the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, there is an article called "Jesus' Man has a Plan," which speak of Warren's work with the Jewish community. Warren recently attended and spoke at a Friday night Shabbat service. I realize I weary my readers with all of the qualifications I make on these things, but let me say that attending a worship service of another religion does not strike me as forbidden. I wouldn't have a problem with going to a synagogue or a mosque as an observer. I would simply want to let the officiating clergy know I was an observer and could not be a participant. However, participation in such a service would be out of bounds. The article says this:
Warren spoke at Sinai as part of the Synagogue 3000 program, which aims to revitalize Jewish worship.
Indeed, can a Christian take part in an activity designed to revitalize Jewish worship? I would say yes, under one condition - sharing the gospel. The apostle Paul had a burning passion for the conversion of his fellow Jews and would share the gospel with them in any situation. But, Warren didn't share the gospel.
The other secret to his success is his passion for God and Jesus. Warren managed to speak for the entire evening without once mentioning Jesus — a testament to his savvy message-tailoring. But make no mistake, the driving purpose of an evangelical church is to evangelize, and it is Warren’s devotion to spreading the words of the Christian Bible that drive his ministry.
Now again, with my infernal qualifications let me give credit where credit is due - somehow, some way, Warren has been able to convey to this Jewish writer of the article that his passion is for Jesus. Kudos to Rick for that. Yet to speak in a worship service for a non-Christian religion and not speak of Jesus is beyond the bounds of acceptability.
And apparently, he is not planning to speak of Jesus to these folks:
Warren told Wolfson his interest is in helping all houses of worship, not in converting Jews. He said there are more than enough Christian souls to deal with for starters.
Since this is not a direct quote from Warren, only a report, I would be delighted if someone more in the know could tell us that this is not true. Yet, failing that, I fail to see how Warren can plan substantive interaction with Jewish leaders without seeking to "convert" them.
I had an "aha!" moment about Warren a few years ago. I had read the article that Modern Reformation did with him where he came out sound plausibly like a calvinist. A few months after that I was in Southern California and had the good providence to be able to attend an evening service at his church. During the sermon he uttered those classic words "God is a gentleman and will never violate our free will." This is a classical arminian statement.
Hearing this you could assume that Warren is either 1) an inconsistent calvinist, 2) an inconsistent arminian, 3) a liar, 4) a sloppy theologian, 5) all of the above, or 6) none of the above.
I tend to go with #6 because I think there is something more significant in play here. He may be a sloppy theologian but he is perfectly consistent with his ministry philosophy that the audience dictates the message. If you are familiar with his material in The Purpose Driven Church, you will know that he teaches that there are five audiences to which we must minister - community, crowd, congregation, committed and core. He says we must tailor the message to the audience.
There is a good deal of wisdom in this. I can use big words with my core people that I would never use with the community and there are things I can talk about with my core that I wouldn't talk about with the community.
But the message would have to remain consistent across the board. My "aha!" that Sunday night in SoCal was to realize that Warren is actually very consistent with his own ministry philosophy - he savvily tailored one message to the calvinists at Modern Reformation and savvily tailored a different message to the folks back home at his church. And in this case he has used his savvy to tailor a Jesus-free message to the Jews.
It seems to me that the purpose driven model and the five audiences could be a wonderful tool, and a great servant of ministry. But it seems to me that this has become the controlling paradigm for his ministry and that purpose driven has replaced gospel driven.
I do want to conclude by saying that I am not going on an anti-Warren crusade here and won't be watching him for any false move. Nor do I think he is going to hell. Nor will I deny that he may have some good common grace insights to share with the rest of us. I also want to be clear that in my comments about Jews above I referred to them with terms like "friends" and "neighbors," intentionally to show the attitude we ought to have toward them.
Like Paul, we can and should love our Jewish neighbors, serve our Jewish neighbors and there is even a place for becoming like our Jewish neighbors in some way. But when we become like them, we must become like them to win them. In this case, Warren is becoming a Jew to the Jews with no obvious intention of winning them.
It used to be that when Tim Challies would post a critique of Warren, Richard Abanes would show up to defend him. This is a case where Richard or someone needs to show up somewhere and show us all that this is a big misunderstanding, that he was misquoted, that there is something going on behind the scenes where he is actively sharing the gospel, or something like that.
Failing that, the criticism is fair that Warren is a minister of the gospel ministering without the gospel.
Recent Comments