The Wartburg Watch » Authoritarian leadership

Mark Dever / 9 Marks Edict – You Cannot Resign w/o “Permission”

deb — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:31:11 +0000

"Just as freedom to worship is protected by the First Amendment, so also is the liberty to recede from one’s religious allegiance." Guinn, 775 P.2d at 776 Statue of Liberty It is hard to fathom in the land of the free and the home of the brave that CHURCHES ARE IGNORING THE LAW OF THE LAND in order to impose their will on members (and in some cases, regular attendees). Bobby Jamieson, Assistant Editor at 9 Marks, just posted an article entitled: "Pastors, Don't Let your People Resign Into Thin Air". Jamieson begins with these words: "Does your church let people resign into thin air? A church member simply submits a letter or has a conversation with a pastor, and then poof!—they’re gone. And your church couldn’t say whether the person has joined another evangelical church or dropped off the face of the earth. My brothers, this should not be. . . An encouraging number of evangelical churches seem to be regaining meaningful practices of church membership and discipline. But I’m concerned that even some of these churches, however unintentionally, are leaving their back doors wide open." Doesn't it sound like he's talking about sheep or some other kind of Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Thu, Feb 02 2012.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Arminianism, Authoritarian leadership, Calvinism/Calvinista, Church contracts, Church discipline, Covenants/Contracts, Mark Dever, New Reformed Theology, Nine Marks, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Fired Mars Hill Elder Breaks His Silence

deb — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:44:41 +0000

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Edmund Burke FreeFoto.com Dee and I began blogging on March 19, 2009, after several years of giving lip service to it. A week before we launched The Wartburg Watch, Dee called me saying, "We've have got to start blogging NOW because if we don't I fear we'll get swallowed by a giant fish!" For the literalists among us, that's figurative language. With some degree of trepidation, we hammered out our thoughts and went online with our first post — Who Hijacked My Church? If you take time to read it, you will see that we have come a long way in our almost three years of blogging. However, history has shown that our research prior to launching this website was on target. At the end of that first post, we highlighted two issues that plague Christendom: (1) The rise of a new brand of Calvinism and (2) The expansion of church discipline. In our assessment of Mars Hill, we find it interesting that these are significant characteristics of Mark Driscoll's church. Since Dee and I missed the Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Mon, Jan 30 2012.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Acts 29, Authoritarian leadership, Calvinism/Calvinista, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Brierley Versus Driscoll

deb — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:58:39 +0000

"When you've got guys in dresses, you know, preaching to grandmas and young men won't show up as a nation, you've gotta ask yourself, you know, have we picked a course that really fits the past but isn't gonna work for the future?" Mark Driscoll Justin Brierley So Mark Driscoll truly believes he has established a course of action that will advance Christendom? Poppycock! (which means unbelievable) Yep, "Unbelievable?" is also the British radio program hosted by Justin Brierley on Premier Christian Radio. Before we take a look at some of the most controversial exchanges between Justin Brierley and Mark Driscoll, I believe it is important to point out that not everything Driscoll states is correct. Here is a case in point. During the interview, Driscoll tells Brierley that Seattle is "the most educated city in America." Wrong! Here's the most recent ranking in Men's Health. Most educated cities in America, along with their grades. 1. Madison, WI A+ 2. Plano, TX A+ 3. Raleigh, NC A 4. Burlington, VT A 5. Seattle, WA A- By the way, Dee and I are very proud of where our city placed in this ranking – Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Thu, Jan 19 2012.

Categories: Acts 29, Authoritarian leadership, Calvinism/Calvinista, Culture and the faith, Gender Gospel, Gender Roles, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Role of women in the church, Women and the church, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Young, Restless, and Reformed (YRR) – RIP?

deb — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:56:41 +0000

“I’ve been pondering a post on this thing that’s been called Young, Restless, and Reformed. What’s good? What’s bad? What needs to be celebrated? What needs to addressed? For starters, it may be time to retire the name.” Kevin DeYoung (DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed) Jonathan Edwards (Wikipedia) I will never forget that day back in 2006 when the September issue of Christianity Today arrived in the mail. Dee called and said: “You really need to read the article on the front cover called: "Young, Restless, Reformed: Calvinism is making a comeback – and shaking up the church”. (link) As I write this post, I'm looking at that CT issue featuring a guy in a yellow t-shirt with a picture of Edwards on the front along with the words: JONATHAN EDWARDS IS MY HOMEBOY. Much has transpired in the YRR crowd since Colin Hansen wrote that article. Before we get into that, here is a little background information. In early September 2003, a friend and I went Binkley Chapel on the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to hear John MacArthur address the students. He had come to our area for two reasons – to speak at Southeastern as well Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Wed, Dec 21 2011.

Categories: Acts 29, Al Mohler, Authoritarian leadership, C.J. Mahaney, Calvinism/Calvinista, John Piper, Mark Dever, Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, New Reformed Theology, Southern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Together for the Gospel, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Andy Davis and His Associations

deb — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 04:11:22 +0000

"This made such an impression on my heart that I got up out of my hammock, picked up a saw, and cut off a leafy green branch from a tree. As soon as the saw passed through the branch, I knew that the leaves were as good as dead, even though they looked as healthy as they had a moment before. Soon they would wither because they were cut off from the living source. I took that branch with me to work and still have it. The leaves are completely dead now, because I cut that branch almost ten years ago. It represented the end of the era of unregenerate church members dominating the life of FBC." (link) Andy Davis Cathedral in Europe (Taken by Deb) Andy Davis, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina, claims to possess great discernment regarding what is "Biblical". In fact, he is so sure of himself that he proclaims the following at the conclusion of his reformation article posted on the 9 Marks website (see link above): "ONE OF THE GREATEST DISPLAYS OF GOD’S GLORY The reformation of First Baptist Church is one of the greatest displays of God’s glory that Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Fri, Dec 09 2011.

Categories: Authoritarian leadership, Carolyn Mahaney, Doug Philips, Doug Phillips/Vision Forum, Family Integrated Church, Ken Ham, Scott Brown

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Tomczak Sets the Record Straight

deb — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 04:55:58 +0000

"But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." Genesis 50:20 (NKJV) Larry Tomczak The departure of Larry Tomczak from PDI (renamed Sovereign Grace Ministries) has always been somewhat of a mystery until now… For those not familiar with him, Larry Tomczak took a young C.J. Mahaney under his wing back during the Jesus Movement (1970s) and together they founded a Bible study in the Washington, D.C. area called "Take and Give". They attracted a large following which numbered into the thousands and eventually started a church in Gaithersburg, Maryland that is now called Covenant Life Church. Mahaney became the pastor of the church. They also established an outreach ministry called People of Destiny, which focused on church planting, and Tomczak led this effort. He also served as pastor of Fairfax Covenant Church before relocating to Atlanta. (SGMers, if I don't have the history correct, please let me know.) Next year Tomczak will be marking his 40th year of full-time ministry. This milestone must be extremely important to him because he has finally decided to "tell the story of Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Fri, Dec 02 2011.

Categories: Authoritarian leadership, C.J. Mahaney, Calvinism/Calvinista, Church conflict, Church discipline, New Reformed Theology, SGM, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Idiot Sheep or Beloved Children of the Shepherd King?

dee — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:57:47 +0000

"But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." Matthew 9:36 US Sheepherding Experiment Recently, TWW was criticized from the pulpit of a well-known mega-church regarding a post from over 2 years ago in which we believed that a pastor was misusing a metaphor about sheep. Said pastor made sure (in a rather loud voice) that we now understand that he considers himself one of the “idiot” sheep. We are gratified to hear that said pastor counts himself amongst the idiots out here but that is not the only point we were trying to make. We do not believe that the metaphors of sheep and shepherd in the Bible were meant to convey that God thinks we are a bunch of idiots. In fact, we do not see any Bible verses in which God’s dearly loved children are called dumb or idiotic sheep. The Scripture is replete with verses of how a concerned and loving shepherd will guide his sheep. In fact, He will run after even one sheep who has gone astray. When my son was about 18 months old, he preferred to Continue reading →

Written by: dee on Mon, Nov 28 2011.

Categories: Al Mohler, Authoritarian leadership, C.J. Mahaney, Calvinism/Calvinista

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A Laugh, An Affirmation and a “Been There; Heard That”!

dee — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:02:30 +0000

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. H. Westermayer North American Nebula-NASA Around the holidays, we sometimes like to show some videos or material that we might not have time for in our more serious moments. Be careful not to miss the final video which I discovered when following a link that our good friend, Eagle, provided. I guarantee that you will not be able to stop listening. A LAUGH! Some of you might not realize that we have a link to a site called Lark News. It is a Christian news spoof and every time I visit, I have a good belly laugh. I am warning you: they attack idols with wild abandon. Here are two stories with the links. Dour individuals need to avoid this at all costs. ‘Grandma not in heaven’ boy reports "Four-year-old Jeremy Werdt says he went to heaven during emergency spleen surgery, and his testimony of seeing Jesus and deceased relatives thrilled his Christian family and landed him a book contract.Then Jeremy revealed to his family that Wanda Spencer, his maternal grandmother, Continue reading →

Written by: dee on Fri, Nov 25 2011.

Categories: Authoritarian leadership, Musings

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Hurt? Wary? Afraid? Do Not “Join” a Local Church!

dee — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:48 +0000

“Church isn’t where you meet. Church isn’t a building. Church is what you do. Church is who you are. Church is the human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s not go to Church, let’s be the Church.” Bridget Willard Solar flare-NASA This post will not endear me to many pastors. There are some who will understand. If you find one of these pastors, go to his church! When we first started this blog, we told a story based on The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. This story became a symbol for the two of us. In fact, I am looking at my Alice tea cup as I write this. Wonderland is an allegory for today’s church. Authoritarianism, heavy-handed tactics, confusing or strident theologies and arrogant leadership have hurt numerous people. Many have found their way to this blog. Just this past week, I have read a number of stories from wonderful people who have shared their heart-wrenching stories of poor treatment by arrogant ministries. Folks who come from these churches have had “theories” of theology pounded into them for so long that they accept these doctrines as if they are the unassailable Continue reading →

Written by: dee on Mon, Nov 07 2011.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Authoritarian leadership

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Homeschooling Hijackers

deb — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:23:23 +0000

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. " Mark Twain The Louvre (Taken by Deb) We are navigating away from the Mahaney/Sovereign Grace Ministries debacle for the time being and beginning a series of posts on another hyper-authoritarian group that is wreaking havoc in some corners of Christendom. As Mahaney undergoes a time of reflection, we marvel that part of his therapy involves addressing the Capitol Hill Baptist congregation. Here is his sermon topic according to the CHBC website: “September 25 – When Someone Doubts, Guest Preacher: CJ Mahaney.” At some point we will weigh in on Mark Dever’s attempt to rehabilitliate his T4G buddy. ***************************************************** Back in the mid-1990s, my children were fairly small and homeschooling was becoming big. I did a lot of reading on homeschooling and was fascinated by the prospect of educating my own daughters. I read about Dr. Raymond Moore and some of the other pioneers of the homeschooling movement and was impressed by their tenacity. When my older daughter entered first grade, I jumped on the homeschooling bandwagon with great excitement. For three years in a row, I attended the North Carolina Home Educators (NCHE) Annual Convention in Winston-Salem. In April Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Mon, Sep 19 2011.

Categories: Authoritarian leadership, Doug Philips, Doug Phillips/Vision Forum, Family Integrated Church, Patriarchy, Scott Brown

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