Introduction or How I Got to This Point ...
I think as my first post to this blog, I'm just going to relate the story of how I ended up at the point where I want to publicly explore what I'm learning about Rick Warren and the purpose drive life and church movement. I'll try to keep it short.
The first part of the reason to do this, has to do with my new commitment to actually do regular Bible study, so I'm studying PDL and as guide I'll use James Sundquist's book "Who's Driving the Purpose Driven Church?". I have already read the book, but it was just a quick read, I didn't look up the quoted passages in PDL to get the context, and the same with the quoted Scriptures.
And now to the real story. Until recently I was a member of (I was wondering whether I should mention the church by name, and finally decided to be completely transparent) Northway Christian Community (or recently known as Northway Community Church, the word "Christian" is apparent just too scary or not politically correct enough or whatever). This is in a town north of Pittsburgh PA, called Wexford.
My wife and I started to go to NWCC in October of 2001 if memory serves. We actually got married in the following year in Northway. It's a big church, once again if memory serves, around 1500 to 2000 adult members. We immediately loved it! It is non-demoninational, the worship is fantastic and even though it's huge, we felt at home. We attended the 101 introduction to the church class, met some wonderful folks there, and got into a small group where we experienced great community. A few months later we did 201 about spiritual growth. After 201 they told us to complete the SHAPE questionaire before we attend 301. (Those familiar with the purpose driven life and church teachings will recognize these terms). We never did the SHAPE assessment and never attended 301 (and now I like to think that somehow in our procrastination God was actually protecting us from that).
Then in 2003 (or was it 2004? I guess it doesn't really matter) NWCC did the 40 days thing with Rick Warren's the purpose driven book as guide. They made a huge deal out of it. After the 40 days were over, I noticed that they threw out all the old small group study materials that were on display. There were even some study guides and videos that were made by our own pastors, and other great resources. And it all got replaced by, yeah you guessed it, studies from Saddleback. (For those who don't know, Saddleback is Rick Warren's church). I was pretty upset about it, and wondered about it, but unfortunately didn't do anything.
The following year the church did the 40 days of community thing. Same procedure, big, big deal, special push for small groups, DVD studies for PDL etc. I think it was during that time that some church literature came out with the name Northway Community Church. My wife and I was working in the bookstore, and I remember that the guy who was in charge of church finances came in and was very upset about the word "church" in the title. Obviously he wasn't in on the decision, and the reason he was upset was that apparently when the founders first decided on a name, they specifically didn't want to use the word "church".
These are things that are coming back to me now that I think in hindsight about things that happened over the last few years. Other things that happened include the leader (and wife of one of the pastors) quitting as leader of kids ministry around the time that we later learned that all the kids ministry leaders were sent for training in purpose driven church. The guy in the previous paragraph quit and left very suddenly a few months ago. It might all be very innocent, but in my mind things are connected.
So several months ago our head pastor announced that he has this great vision to expand the reach of our church to the public schools, the city of Pittsburgh, other parts of the country and internationally. And they also plan to greatly expand the church buildings. At first all this sounded awesome. But ... the price tag? $15 million over 3 years. But the kicker is that $13 million of that was for the expansion of the church building.
At first I was kinda blind to the problems with the vision, and really wanted to support it. (Well, I still hope that the outreach to the public schools will be a smashing success) But there was obviously many people who had many tough questions. One lady in our small group was wondering what would happen to the people who decided that they don't want to share and contribute to this vision, because it was quite clear that the church was willing to loose a few people in the quest to raise the money. Another lady brought up the point that it appears that the plans for expansion all center around creating entertainment for the young people of the community and getting them to church that way. At first I didn't buy into her argument, but later as I was reflecting on everything, that is one of my big contentions with purpose driven church, it seems to want to entertain people into the church and to salvation.
Anyway, the day to make a pledge to the capital campaign came and my wife and I pledged a decent amount of money to the campaign. But then, a couple of weeks after that, is when everything changed and I am very sad to say we're going to break our pledge and we already left Northway. At the Saturdaynight service (which we usually attend) our head pastor made an unexpected appearance (he was on study break and not supposed to speak). He proceeded to make a passionate plea because the number of people that made pledges was way below what he expected. The problem is that he started out by saying that they had no or very few complaints about the vision, which is clearly a lie! I personally know many people who had issues and had tried to get answers from the church about it, and it all fell on deaf ears.
Pastor Jay Passavant, you broke my heart that night. I had so much respect for you and the things God has led you to do. And in one fell swoop you shattered that. And as I reflected on things I could see the problems in the church. The entertainment and special services just to get people there. The altar calls without much depth and that called people forward without them really knowing what they're responding to. The push for growth just to have a bigger church. And the push to grow bigger and not to grow deeper.
Anyway, now my wife and I are on a quest to find another church to call home. Unfortunately it seems like it might be a struggle to find a good non-denominational church that hasn't been spoiled by Rick Warren and the purpose driven church movement. Please dear Lord, lead us to where you can use us.
Until next time.
The first part of the reason to do this, has to do with my new commitment to actually do regular Bible study, so I'm studying PDL and as guide I'll use James Sundquist's book "Who's Driving the Purpose Driven Church?". I have already read the book, but it was just a quick read, I didn't look up the quoted passages in PDL to get the context, and the same with the quoted Scriptures.
And now to the real story. Until recently I was a member of (I was wondering whether I should mention the church by name, and finally decided to be completely transparent) Northway Christian Community (or recently known as Northway Community Church, the word "Christian" is apparent just too scary or not politically correct enough or whatever). This is in a town north of Pittsburgh PA, called Wexford.
My wife and I started to go to NWCC in October of 2001 if memory serves. We actually got married in the following year in Northway. It's a big church, once again if memory serves, around 1500 to 2000 adult members. We immediately loved it! It is non-demoninational, the worship is fantastic and even though it's huge, we felt at home. We attended the 101 introduction to the church class, met some wonderful folks there, and got into a small group where we experienced great community. A few months later we did 201 about spiritual growth. After 201 they told us to complete the SHAPE questionaire before we attend 301. (Those familiar with the purpose driven life and church teachings will recognize these terms). We never did the SHAPE assessment and never attended 301 (and now I like to think that somehow in our procrastination God was actually protecting us from that).
Then in 2003 (or was it 2004? I guess it doesn't really matter) NWCC did the 40 days thing with Rick Warren's the purpose driven book as guide. They made a huge deal out of it. After the 40 days were over, I noticed that they threw out all the old small group study materials that were on display. There were even some study guides and videos that were made by our own pastors, and other great resources. And it all got replaced by, yeah you guessed it, studies from Saddleback. (For those who don't know, Saddleback is Rick Warren's church). I was pretty upset about it, and wondered about it, but unfortunately didn't do anything.
The following year the church did the 40 days of community thing. Same procedure, big, big deal, special push for small groups, DVD studies for PDL etc. I think it was during that time that some church literature came out with the name Northway Community Church. My wife and I was working in the bookstore, and I remember that the guy who was in charge of church finances came in and was very upset about the word "church" in the title. Obviously he wasn't in on the decision, and the reason he was upset was that apparently when the founders first decided on a name, they specifically didn't want to use the word "church".
These are things that are coming back to me now that I think in hindsight about things that happened over the last few years. Other things that happened include the leader (and wife of one of the pastors) quitting as leader of kids ministry around the time that we later learned that all the kids ministry leaders were sent for training in purpose driven church. The guy in the previous paragraph quit and left very suddenly a few months ago. It might all be very innocent, but in my mind things are connected.
So several months ago our head pastor announced that he has this great vision to expand the reach of our church to the public schools, the city of Pittsburgh, other parts of the country and internationally. And they also plan to greatly expand the church buildings. At first all this sounded awesome. But ... the price tag? $15 million over 3 years. But the kicker is that $13 million of that was for the expansion of the church building.
At first I was kinda blind to the problems with the vision, and really wanted to support it. (Well, I still hope that the outreach to the public schools will be a smashing success) But there was obviously many people who had many tough questions. One lady in our small group was wondering what would happen to the people who decided that they don't want to share and contribute to this vision, because it was quite clear that the church was willing to loose a few people in the quest to raise the money. Another lady brought up the point that it appears that the plans for expansion all center around creating entertainment for the young people of the community and getting them to church that way. At first I didn't buy into her argument, but later as I was reflecting on everything, that is one of my big contentions with purpose driven church, it seems to want to entertain people into the church and to salvation.
Anyway, the day to make a pledge to the capital campaign came and my wife and I pledged a decent amount of money to the campaign. But then, a couple of weeks after that, is when everything changed and I am very sad to say we're going to break our pledge and we already left Northway. At the Saturdaynight service (which we usually attend) our head pastor made an unexpected appearance (he was on study break and not supposed to speak). He proceeded to make a passionate plea because the number of people that made pledges was way below what he expected. The problem is that he started out by saying that they had no or very few complaints about the vision, which is clearly a lie! I personally know many people who had issues and had tried to get answers from the church about it, and it all fell on deaf ears.
Pastor Jay Passavant, you broke my heart that night. I had so much respect for you and the things God has led you to do. And in one fell swoop you shattered that. And as I reflected on things I could see the problems in the church. The entertainment and special services just to get people there. The altar calls without much depth and that called people forward without them really knowing what they're responding to. The push for growth just to have a bigger church. And the push to grow bigger and not to grow deeper.
Anyway, now my wife and I are on a quest to find another church to call home. Unfortunately it seems like it might be a struggle to find a good non-denominational church that hasn't been spoiled by Rick Warren and the purpose driven church movement. Please dear Lord, lead us to where you can use us.
Until next time.
posted by Evert DuToit at 10:56 PM
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