Conversion focused or Christ focused?

From the OldTruth blog site;

If you've been around Old Truth long enough, you know that unsubstantiated convert counting is something that I'm passionate about, in a negative sense. First of all, only God knows the real numbers and we could be way off when we count microwavable 'decisions'. Usually the same people who are so geared-up to rebuke anyone for saying that some deviant bible teacher is NOT saved, all too often make the same category mistake by assuming someone IS saved when they really have no idea whether they are or not. Secondly, it too often leads to boasting and assuming that our own methodologies are the reason for people being born again, rather than it being 100% the work of the Holy Spirit. Those are just a couple of reasons why this "counting of unhatched chickens" is wrong. Let's take a look at a few examples of it in action, from yesterday's Easter services.

As always, this isn't intended to impugn the motives of these churches and their leaders, I understand that they are doing what they think is the most effective thing to win souls. Unfortunately, their practices lead many of their followers into a false sense of security about an assumed-salvation which they afterward stop seeing an urgency for. I happen to know that several of these pastors have read what I have to say about these practices of theirs, and they have chosen to simply blow it off as the criticism of a Pharisee without the careful sober consideration that the bible calls for from men in their positions. That's very sad when that happens.

I think you'll also notice that many of these church leaders have established their own unofficial "denomination" of sorts, which is evident in the obvious franchising of each other's ideas. Just one tiny example: Perry Noble preached part of a sermon from within a coffin a while ago, and not long afterwards Pastor Bryson Butts from another church copied the idea and did the same. Some of the first words out of Bryson's mouth, from within the coffin, were the same as Perry's: "WHAAAAZZUP?" (followed by a laugh from the audience).

This year for Easter the thing to do within this unofficial denomination was an Easter Egg drop from a Helicopter. But even more than me demonstrating how little innovative and independent thought there is in the Church Growth Movement today, what I really want to demonstrate in this post is some of the dangerous convert counting that goes on, and in fact - went on over Easter Sunday. Here are some examples from their pastor-blogs:

Michael at Oak Leaf Church said "It was awesome to see hundreds of people come down front and write their name on a giant cross, affirming their allegiance to Jesus Christ." Is he saying that signing your name to a cross makes you born again? Even if he doesn't think so, how many of those who came forward went home thinking so? Apparently he doesn't believe that swearing allegiance or signing your name to a cross makes you saved, because elsewhere on the same page he says that he had prayed for 50 salvations but God gave him 60 instead. And there is the crux of my main point; how does he know, later that very same night, that God gave him 60 salvations? Shouldn't he give it a while, and see if those 60 end up sticking around? Incidentally, Michael did the easter egg drop, and next week he's starting a "I Love the 80's" sermon series just like the Def Leopard t-shirted Steven Furtick preached a few months ago at his church.

Gary Lamb at Revolution Church had his own egg drop and just like Michael gave his attendance stats including "around 20 people accepted Christ as their personal Savior!!!". Once again - we are given a convert count, right away on Sunday night. Gary also says of their worship service: the band was "insane" and they had "a ton of new moving lights today and [they] were awesome".

Perry Noble at Newspring says that 120 prayed to receive Christ at his Easter services. But we've seen Perry claim numbers like this before after preaching sermons that never even talked about repentance. Did he present a full evangelistic message this time? I suppose you could wait a couple of days until the the video of his service is online and listen for things like "repentance" to be mentioned. But my main point again is: Someone passes from death unto life, for all of eternity, and you are sure that the prayer that you had them pray was reason enough to assume that it has happened? For exactly 120 people? And you know right away that this is the case? Apparently their band also played a "death metal version of the classic hit, Here Comes Peter Cottontail!". Perhaps that's worth watching the video for right there. Tony Morgan works for Perry and has published some of the Easter Perryisms that came from the sermon including "Jesus is a man's man. He's the ultimate fighter".

Tadd Grandstaff is a former pastor under Gary Lamb and now has his own start-up church. Amongst his various numeric statistics he mentions the 11 people that "made decisions for Christ".

Steven Furtick of Elevation Church has never been known as one who will disappoint you if salvation statistics are what you want to see. For this weekend he says "over 500 people accepted Christ as Savior" and those 500 people "placed their faith in Christ". Does he really know what's in their heart, and what they placed their faith in? He says that 4,800 attended his services, so that means over 10 percent of his church-goers got saved yesterday. Likewise they planned a massive airborne Easter egg drop.

Danny Echol's church had eggs dropping from the sky too, so did Bryson Butts (the pastor who earlier preached in a coffin after seeing Perry do it) who says tons of people made first time commitments to Christ. Granger gave everyone in the crowd a chem light and then made them sit in the dark (perhaps that qualifies as innovative and "original thought" at least).

I couldn't help but highlight some of the pseudo-denominational copy-catting that goes on in these churches that are supposed to be known for their own innovative thought, but that was really not my main point. They can copy each other's clothes, and download each other's sermons, and borrow each other's stage sets as much as they want, but all of that is a lesser issue than the concerns I've expressed on this page, and elsewhere here on Old Truth about convert counting. It's a practice that Charles Spurgeon called "a counting of unhatched chickens", and it's a practice that the Puritans would have said is a detriment to the soul. Such was the case with Matthew Mead's classic book entitled "The Almost Christian Discovered" which asks of you "are you ALMOST a Christian, but not really?". Let each man test his faith, and count the costs, and be made sure what exactly it is we are being saved from. Unfortunately today, that happens all too infrequently, and herein the church needs to be "always reforming" because it is clearly off the rails in this regard, and statistics reveal a harvest that is mostly rotten.

If you are a pastor or church member questioning these things, I invite you to watch the two videos on this page. Then introduce yourself in the comments below and join with us in a discussion. Don't make the mistake however, of assuming that this page is written by someone who is anti-evangelistic, or doesn't want to see as many souls saved as you do. If that's your thinking, you couldn't be more wrong.