Emergent Monday - Steven Furtick Superstar

I really do not like polluting a worship service with narcissism, manufactured miracles, and secular noise, the primary purpose of a worship service is to praise and worship God, not the pitiful accomplishments of man.

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

If Pastor Paratus stood before our congregation of Bereans during a worship service and started reciting the play-by-play of the on-going Denver Broncos game for no other reason than many of us in the congregation like the Denver Broncos, I'm sure that the board would have a meeting to discuss this. The service is to worship and glorify God, not the Denver Broncos. 

How could that possibly be any different than Steven Furtick's Elevation "Church" playing heavy metal secular music during a worship service simply because he likes it? Songs like the drug culture anthem Purple Haze by Jimmy Hendrix, music by the "theologians" Arrowsmith, the God glorifying hymn I Love Rock and Roll, and the center of all things worshipful New York New York must be found worshipful to the goats of Elevation church. Of course if you do not find this edifying it's probably because of your diminished intellectual capacity, or in the words of Steven Furtick:

“A lot of people don't like rock and roll in church because they're STUPID.” -Pastor Steven Furtick

Then again, what kind of explanation do you expect from someone who has publicly stated that they believe that Joel Osteen is "a great man of god"? It's not about what the congregation wants, it's not about what the church board wants, it's not even about what Steven Furtick Superstar wants, it's about what GOD wants.


Now don't get me wrong, Elevation Church has done a lot of charitable things to support their community, a lot of money has changed hands at Elevation and quite a bit of it has gone right into the community to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless and for that I say "God bless them!" But as Isiah pointed out, without out God  all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garments, and getting right with God means getting right with His word and a good way for a church to start would be with the governance of the church itself. These are not secret rules they're easily found in Titus 1:5-11, 1 Timothy 3:1-13, and 1 Timothy 4:7-16

Steven Furtick's Elevation church does not have elders and deacons in the biblical sense, they have a board of overseers made up of pastors from Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, Washington, and Florida, all of whom stand in megachurches before megacongregations and rake in the megabucks and have little to do with the sheep and goats of Elevation church, they're there to monitor the money. Yes, the rabbits have been put in charge of insuring the proper stewardship of the carrots.

You may recognize some of these people who populate the board of overseers, and be sure you check out the video in that link where Mr Furtick takes credit for Jesus' work (and demands you fork over your money). You may notice that one of the 'elders' on that list has been fired from his own church. Personally I think Perry Noble should have been fired from his own church for this and this, and a if Elevation had a modicum of discernment they would have removed Mr. Noble from the board the moment he opened his mouth to say that the sin of homosexuality is caused by the imagined sin of not tithing.

Mr. Furtick appears to enjoy the adulation of others, in his sermons he appears to relish the roar of the crowd and not care as much about the weeping of convicted sinners. If engineering a spontaneous miracle is needed to boost his self esteem, a spontaneous miracle will be engineered. How about 3,519 spontaneous baptisms in less than a year each one taking no longer than 30 - 40 seconds? No true biblical miracle has ever depended on planning and teamwork like Mr. Furtick's spontaneous manufactured miracles, but here's the instruction manual for spontaneously engineering a miracle. Nothing says "spontaneous" like a 9 page instruction manual.

In addition to spontaneously prepositioning bags of clothing for the spontaneous baptisees and spontaneously posting every baptism on social media, a spontaneous team of 15 spontaneous volunteers spontaneously "sit in the auditorium and begin moving forward when Pastor Steven says to go" and they spontaneously "Move intentionally through the highest visibility areas and the longest walk" This is called the miracle of the Priming of the Pump.

I truly feel sorry for those caught in the Cult of Furtick, children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, even those with a minimal amount of discernment can pick up a bible and see that Mr. Furtick's sermons are a mile wide but a half inch deep. He sounds like he's preaching a sound biblical sermon from the pulpit, but in the end it's merely ear tickling. Mr. Furtick's ministry is dangerous for numerous reasons:

Narcissistic Eisegesis: Exegesis is extracting the meaning from a text, the way we should read the bible. Eisegesis is the act of putting your own meaning into a text, something we should never do and false teachers do quite often. Mr. Furtick does this one better by injecting himself into the text, and doing this so often that a word has been invented just for him: Narcigesis.

Does not Feed His Sheep: Mr. Furtick does not want biblically literate people in his congregation. The early version of "The Code" (The values of Elevation Church) used to contain item #5 - We Need Your Seat, which said that "We are more concerned with the people we are trying to reach than the people we are trying to keep" meaning that if you know what the Bible says, get out! He wants to teach his bible to unwary goats. Here is a review of the original Code, the code has since changed to meaningless prattle. In his sermon series entitled "Confessions of a Pastor" Mr. Furtick articulated his hatred for doctrine, discipling, and feeding God's sheep with God's word. Some memorable quotes from this series:

“If You Know Jesus This Church is NOT for you!”

We don't teach from Books of the Bible because it gets in the way of evangelism.

We don't offer different kinds of Bible studies because it gets in the way of evangelism.

If you want to be fed God's word or have the Bible explained to you then you are a fat lazy Christian and you need to shut up and get to work or you need to leave this church because we ONLY do evangelism.

Promotes discord Within The Church Body: Mr. Furtick released a video entitled Hey Haters where he emphatically states that anyone who criticizes him, disagrees with him, or shows him the biblical error of his ways is doing it out of hate for him rather than sorrow or pity for his sheep. His arrogant, rude response to loving corrections is not what Christ had in mind for us

24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

We are to contend for the faith (Jude 1:3) which means to take a stand and correct false teaching, correct those who are in opposition. By claiming that anyone who disagrees with him is a "hater" Mr. Furtick is saying that he can read the hearts of someone he never met, and by teaching this "hater" theology he is setting himself up to be a prophet. Not a prophet of God however, because quite often the word of God disagrees with Mr. Furtick and that makes God a "hater" too. Which is true, because Proverbs 6:16-19 tells us that God hates several things, including "the one who sows discord among kindred"

As for my original point, the secular music - especially rock and roll, there is no reason why it should ever be performed in a worship service, primarily because it does not glorify God. Anything that does not glorify God and edify and encourage the congregation does not belong in a worship service. There's other reasons why rock and roll should never be allowed in a house of worship. Lots of reasons

For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:10)

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8)

Brothers and sisters we should all pray for Steven Furtick and his congregation that the Holy Spirit convict them all of God's true word and that the light of His truth snatches them back into His loving arms, where they, and all of us belong.