Though I still can’t embrace his theology. He may be able to speak well, but he does need to take heed of the words of the Bible and the lines in the sand which God draws.
What issues do you have with his theology? Don’t worry, I am not trying to start an argument. I don’t know enough about him as a Pastor to knee-jerk defend, but I’m just asking for the purpose of information. Are you you talking about his overall theology or just in reference to this video?
I’m speaking in reference to his overall theology. This video, in and of itself, is very innocent and seemingly noble. However, he is more focused on evangelism than discipleship. He openly mocks Christians who desire to be fed the Word of God, saying we should be more focused on growing the church than growing spiritually as individuals. Obviously, this is not the case.
God’s number one call to Pastors is to FEED his sheep, to CARE for his sheep, not to go out and gain converts. It is the call of the sheep to grow the church, but the very definition of Pastorship is to feed the sheep the Word of God.
Mr. Furtick does not feed the sheep. You won’t find the Word of God in his church, as he himself proclaims. His focus in teaching is not the word of God, but how to get people into the church.
If you’re going to delete the true meat of my commentary, please just delete all my comments on this particular post. Thanks.
I’d rather not be giving approval to something that should not be approved. The idea and concept is great, but Mr. Furtick’s theology leaves quite a lot to be desired of someone claiming to be ‘Christian’.
Definitely like that video. Both the content and the video itself. My guess is a green screen (obvious one) then post-production in Motion or After Affects. I liked the motion background and the audio was spot on, both the music and the levels. Great video!
Interesting concept here. Does it make me a hater if I don’t really like this video? I like the message, just not really the presentation, mainly because I had a hard time hearing him over the music.
Other than that, I can’t really speak to Steven’s theology. I don’t know enough about him or Elevation Church to say anything. I would definitely like to get to know him better to see where his heart lies, because his bio is a bit confusing. When a bunch of numbers are thrown out from the start, it tends to raise some red flags, but that’s just from personal experience.
I find it interesting that he has to call out haters. Don’t most secure people just ignore them and do what they feel God has called them to do? Couldn’t all the creative energy used from writing the poetic script to the post-prodcution after effects been used to spread the love he talked about. To use his own analogy did he just act like a toddler and draw and line in the sand against haters and in doing so just hate himself?
The interwebs are ablaze with pastors being attacked all over the place this week!. First it’s Rob Bell and his is-it-or-isn’t-it-universalism-theology (which I couldn’t care less about until his book is actually released) and now Steven Furtick. Sometimes I think we Christians like to get riled up about things that don’t matter in the moment.
This message very well could be the exact response of Jesus and the disciples to the Pharisees. Yeah, as John Acuff would say, I just “Jesus juked” you. He’s calling out the Christians who spend more time complaining about what’s happening in church, sending emails and making calls to stir up trouble in the church, having “did you hear what so and so said/did” conversations in the hallways at church. The music’s too loud, he preaches from the wrong translation, someone’s in my seat, the temperature was too hot or too cold, the Pastor didn’t say hello to me this week, the pastor misspoke and I’m making sure he knows about it. Those haters.
The people in the church who call themselves Christians but instead of being “little Christs” they’re belittling Christ by now stepping up to help, by not volunteering to help change things that need work instead of just whining, the people who won’t tithe “because we don’t like the pastor” but who won’t just leave the church “because this is our church, we’ve been here longer than he has”.
This video has nothing to do about whether Steven Furtick is interested in bringing in new members or deepening the faith of the members of his church. Sunday morning isn’t for deep theology and eschatology. Sunday morning is when I want to bring my non-Christian friends to church and have them hear music they’ll enjoy and hear a message that might challenge them a little, but doesn’t require a seminary degree to understand. That’s what small groups are for. That’s what personal Bible study time and reading is for.
Jesus was pretty focused on evangelism Himself. Teaching to thousands at a time who came from all over to hear him speak, calling his disciples to follow before giving them deeper instruction, instructing them to go to all the nations, the day of Pentecost (obviously this was the Spirit’s day) when thousands of new believers were baptized. Jesus did his deeper teachings in small groups, not to the masses. He gave easy lessons to the masses that required them to think a little, but not get lost. He gave his challenging lessons to his closest group–his disciples. He left them with the hard questions and the missional challenges.
Sure, we’re called to “feed by flock” but that isn’t the only calling. We’re also called to “go and make disciples”. So why don’t we all stop being haters–especially of other Christians–and go out there and be useful Christians.
I’ll put my blindfold on now and step up to the firing squad line that someone drew in the sand.
And see, here’s where you mistake Jesus. Jesus did His ‘easy’ preaching to the MASSES, the unsaved, those OUTSIDE of the church. His deeper teaching to His disciples, that was his ‘church service’. Those teachings to the MASSES was His evangelism. Evangelism happens OUTSIDE the church walls. Spiritual instruction is given to those inside the church walls so that they can take what they’ve learned OUT of the church to reach the lost.
In addition, what did Jesus do when he entered the synagogues? Those were the modern churches of the time. He read and taught FROM THE SCRIPTURE. Should we not be like Jesus as you’ve stated so emphatically? Teaching from Scripture at church service is what He did, shouldn’t we do the same?
Pastors are called to feed the flock. That is their ultimate calling. The church and Christians are called to ‘GO and make disciples’, as you said. But, as you very aptly quoted, the first word of that commandment is GO, that means OUT of the church, OUT into the world. That is where evangelism happens.
Judging unsound doctrine isn’t being a hater, it’s being a good Berean, and a good Christian. It’s doing what Jesus and the apostles told us to do, rather than just blindly accepting what every teacher, false or otherwise, happens to tell us we should believe from a gilded pulpit.
Hence my use of quotes for ‘easy’ in reference to the previous poster’s mention of “a message that might challenge them a little, but doesn’t require a seminary degree to understand”. A pastor’s job is to feed the sheep the word of God, including the ‘easy’ messages (which may appear easy on the surface, but are truly bristling with theological intrigue upon closer inspection) and the more difficult messages.
While I won’t question the duty of a pastor as an evangelist, I simply must contend that the church is not the proper location for evangelism. The church is the place for feeding of the flock and fellowship between believers. Although we should make every effort to ensure that nonbelievers who enter the church are introduced to Christ, we should be taking efforts to make new converts OUTSIDE of the church, into our workplaces and whatever mission field God has placed us in, local or international.
I think you’re on the right track, but you’ve created an artificial distinction between evangelism & discipleship (as a side note, where is the verb “to disciple” in the New Testament? It’s actually what most people call evangelism… But that’s a side note).
Obviously Paul expected non-believers to be in church services, that’s why they had to be conducted with order so the world would see them and clearly get the message.
On the other hand, we do need 2Tim 2:2 teaching going on, but, as you note, that’s not for the whole crowd, just the “faithful” but you don’t ignore the rest, Jesus didn’t, he did both.
As for synagogues being equevelant to churches… Maybe, in some broad brush way. You could say churches grew out of synagogues, but equevelant? That’s a stretch.
Where you see the spirit, there is witness (I.e. Evangelism), and sharing the gospel is the first step of making a disciple (a.k.a. A Christian, as the terms are synonymous in the NT)
So if we use the term “discipleship” (acceptable, though certainly not Biblical) evangelism is the beginning of it, as well as its fruit. After all, one of Jesus’ goals was to make his disciples to become fishers of men.
The two cannot be parted… At least, that’s the way I see it.
Sunday morning is when I want to bring my non-Christian friends to church and have them hear music they’ll enjoy and hear a message that might challenge them a little, but doesn’t require a seminary degree to understand. That’s what small groups are for. That’s what personal Bible study time and reading is for.
I largely disagree with this. The role of a teaching Pastor is to help people better understand God’s word. Small groups and personal study are fine, but Pastors study the word in a way that is different from the rest of us. They study Greek and Hebrew in order to better understand the context of scripture. They study the geography, the history, etc. Even the best study bible cannot replace the value of an excellent teaching pastor.
I understand that people might be turned off by a church where the pastor spends an hour doing an exegetical bible study, but being at church should be more about enjoying music and being challenged. Effective bible teaching and discipleship is critical to the success of a church, not the number of butts that can be put in a seat.
Please note that my response to you is not necessarily a criticism of Pastor Furtick. Again, I don’t go to Elevation. My comments are in the broad general sense.
I am unsure as to who your comment was directed, but the point is moot. Mr. Furtick is wrong, plainly put, as we are called by Christ to judge the doctrine of those who place themselves in leadership and public positions, and it is the role of every person in ministerial and/or leadership capacity to protect their flock from false doctrine.
The goal isn’t just to get converts, it’s to make disciples. And making disciples requires discipleship and deeper teaching of the Word of God. Mr. Furtick seems to have forgotten that part of the great commission in building his organization.
As an erstwhile attendee and volunteer of Elevation Church I had to make the decision to leave because of just this very thing.
Let me say this first and then continue with an explanation of why Steven Furtick and Elevation is treading dangerously close to “cult” status as is evidenced by this immature video. I believe that Steven loves the Lord with all his heart and I believe his motives are pure. However, I also believe that he is a prideful, arrogant young man that is very close to being an egomaniac. The entire church is based around his cult of personality. He makes his “appearances” to deliver his sermons yet dares not mingle with the congregants because of the risk of, as an inside church leader stated during a training session, “becoming common.” Sorry to break this news to you Steven, but you are common as are we all. You call yourself “pastor”, which means you shepherd a flock. That is a little hard to do when you would not recognize but maybe a fractional percentage of them if you saw them in public. But as point number nine of “The Code” (http://www.elevationchurch.org/thecode) states “It is all about the numbers”, not about the personal growth of a Christian, not about offering spiritual guidance, not about learning the deep things of God. It’s the numbers stupid. Get them in, dazzle them with a completely contrived service where even the “hand wavers” in the front, known as the “bull pen”, are doing so as part of the “show”, get them to raise a hand to “receive Christ” and then get them out. Next! Is the Spirit allowed in the building or will He interfere with the carefully orchestrated “show”?
Even more alarming is point number four of The Code whereby it states that attendees of the church agree that “We are united under the Visionary – Elevation is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will aggressively defend our unity and his vision.” Furtick is the “Visionary” and “members” will aggressively defend him and his vision. That smacks of cultism! The “Hey Haters” video reinforces that notion because what Steven is saying basically is “how dare you question what I am doing and you are a hater for doing so.” Of course his quick retort would be “It is not what I’m doing, but rather what God is doing through me…” Sorry, but when a man rises to a leadership position, claims to have specialized visions or knowledge directly from God and it cannot be questioned, that is the text book definition of a cult. Add to that a blind allegiance of the followers to AGGRESSIVELY defend the leader, vision and the unity of the people following and you have Cult 101! Furtick will have to deal with many more “haters” as his star continues to rise. Why he feels the need to answer childishly in a public forum is amusing.
What he calls “hating”, the Scripture calls discernment. It is what Luke (the accepted author of the book of Acts) called “noble character” when the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true. Paul did not get angry that his listeners would question what he said. Is Furtick greater than Paul? Apparently, Furtick does not understand the attitude of John the Baptist when he spoke “He (Jesus) must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). Furtick spends much time pointing to verses of Scripture to defend his vitriol in his blog response to the video and the questions that have arisen. The REALLY alarming thing about his “proof texts” is that contextually they have NOTHING to do with Jesus “calling out haters” of His ministry. Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees for being false religious leaders and heaping rule after rule upon the people they lead. He was talking about their false religiosity, their impure hearts and their lying lips that falsely honored God. This gross misunderstanding and misuse of Scripture to rationalize this childish video is stunning in light of his claim to be one of the fastest rising pastors of one of the fastest growing churches in the US. This just highlights why the church grows wide but not deep because its very leader does not understand even simple Scriptural truths! What this demonstrates to me is that Steven Furtick has what we refer to as a “God complex.” He has elevated himself (no pun intended) to god-like status and is infallible and should not be questioned. That is dangerous! He points to the fact that the church has grown rapidly and therefore must be a mighty “move of God.” If growth were proof that God is in it then Scientology and the Jehovah’s Witnesses must also be moves of God because they are two of the fastest growing cults in the world. My point in all this is not to “hate” Furtick and Elevation Church. My point is that they are some things that are seriously wrong with the methodology they implement to spread the Word and with the attitude of its leader. Go to the church and look for yourself. No pictures of Christ, no crosses, no Scripture verses, but there sure is a giant picture of Furtick at the pulpit at the top of the stairs in the Blakeney location. There is something very wrong. God’s people are being lead astray, dazzled by the hip, cool, rock star pastor and the lights and glitz while God’s word lies in shambles on the floor. Am I a hater? No, I love the Lord Jesus Christ and His people and as Jude 1:3 says “I felt the need to defend the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”
Actually, I’m not too hip on pictures of Jesus in churches. After all, he is the image of the invisible God, should we cheapen that by making pictures of him in our own image? For that matter, sometimes churches seem to worship the cross, rather than the one who conquered it. Just my thoughts on icons in churches… But I think you’re spot-on. Pictures of pastors tend to make me woozy. On the one hand I do think a pastor as a personality that people recognize is important, but he should have his picture up tastefully and reluctantly.
Mark I can weigh in on this as well. I began attending Elevation in June of this year. Enjoyed the messages, they were actually very timely in my life, as I was getting over a bout of depression. As they tell you each week, you need to take the next step and volunteer and become a part of this “great move of God.” I did that, but before I could take my “First Impressions” class , or whatever they call it, I was checking Steven Furtick’s Twitter feed. He was inviting Pastors to preach in the big “Code Orange Revival” in January. His tweets looked good, no problem with the speakers until I saw he had invited T.D. Jakes!!!!! If you are not familiar with Pastor Jakes let me just say he is unmistakeably a “prosperity gospel” pastor and a false prophet. I told he head of the First Impressions of my concern and she encourged me to bring my concerns to the Blakeney Assistant Campus Pastor, Nick Dooley. I finally spoke with Nick on the phone, and he had no idea who T.D. Jakes really was. I told him that I beleived that Furtick was using very poor discernment, the Bible states the the shepherd should protect his flock. He said he would speak with his boss, Chunks Corbett, the Head Campus Pastor at Blakeney about this and call me back, However, he said he knew the answer he would get, and that is that if Pastor Steven thinks it is okay, then we think it is okay too, because Pastor Steven studies and reads and we trust him so we would not question his decisions. I didnt go for a while, but then again I tried to go and volunteer, hoping that I could put aside some of the things I didnt like and just listen to the Word. However, in the First Impressions class I volunteered for the “bullpen” not sure what that was exactly. When I found out that I would be “planted” in the first few rows and expected to raise my hands and cheer and clap and make noise “even if nobody else does” that was it! I am not opposed to doing any of those things in worship but those things should be Holy Spirit driven and not done just because that is “your job”. So when it came time to go for my first Sunday of volunteering, I just could not go, and have no desire to go at all now. I, too, am troubled by the constant affirming that “we really dont care if you are here, we are more interested in the people who arent.” If you listen to a sermon from Furtick in “Confessions of a Pastor” done several years ago, you will hear him say “if you know Jesus then this church is not for you.” To me, that is totally absurd. I agree we are to study diligently on our own but to me there is no substitute for the Word being preached to me faithfully and straight up every week. Yes, I admit, I need that to “charge my batteries.” So, am now looking around to find the place where that will be done every week and also where there is no monkey business going on and passing it off as “worship.” Elevation may be for some,but it is certainly not for me!!!!!
Tim Graves says
That. Was. Awesome. I now have a new respect for Mr. Furtick.
Tim Graves says
Though I still can’t embrace his theology. He may be able to speak well, but he does need to take heed of the words of the Bible and the lines in the sand which God draws.
JayCaruso says
What issues do you have with his theology? Don’t worry, I am not trying to start an argument. I don’t know enough about him as a Pastor to knee-jerk defend, but I’m just asking for the purpose of information. Are you you talking about his overall theology or just in reference to this video?
Tim Graves says
I’m speaking in reference to his overall theology. This video, in and of itself, is very innocent and seemingly noble. However, he is more focused on evangelism than discipleship. He openly mocks Christians who desire to be fed the Word of God, saying we should be more focused on growing the church than growing spiritually as individuals. Obviously, this is not the case.
God’s number one call to Pastors is to FEED his sheep, to CARE for his sheep, not to go out and gain converts. It is the call of the sheep to grow the church, but the very definition of Pastorship is to feed the sheep the Word of God.
Mr. Furtick does not feed the sheep. You won’t find the Word of God in his church, as he himself proclaims. His focus in teaching is not the word of God, but how to get people into the church.
Tim Graves says
If you’re going to delete the true meat of my commentary, please just delete all my comments on this particular post. Thanks.
I’d rather not be giving approval to something that should not be approved. The idea and concept is great, but Mr. Furtick’s theology leaves quite a lot to be desired of someone claiming to be ‘Christian’.
Tim Graves says
And apparently I’m a nub. Apologies, my comment just wasn’t showing for me o.O Awkward.
John Saddington says
sorry bro. we can’t moderate at the speed of the internet at all times…!
Tim Graves says
Nah, it’s cool. I definitely jumped the gun there (and did so not once… but twice!)
The video is still an awesome idea, I just wish it’d been done by somebody worth watching >.>
Jason Bradley says
Definitely like that video. Both the content and the video itself. My guess is a green screen (obvious one) then post-production in Motion or After Affects. I liked the motion background and the audio was spot on, both the music and the levels. Great video!
Nathan says
Interesting concept here. Does it make me a hater if I don’t really like this video? I like the message, just not really the presentation, mainly because I had a hard time hearing him over the music.
Other than that, I can’t really speak to Steven’s theology. I don’t know enough about him or Elevation Church to say anything. I would definitely like to get to know him better to see where his heart lies, because his bio is a bit confusing. When a bunch of numbers are thrown out from the start, it tends to raise some red flags, but that’s just from personal experience.
John Mark Harris says
But then again, there’s a bunch of numbers at the start of Acts 😉
Ben says
I find it interesting that he has to call out haters. Don’t most secure people just ignore them and do what they feel God has called them to do? Couldn’t all the creative energy used from writing the poetic script to the post-prodcution after effects been used to spread the love he talked about. To use his own analogy did he just act like a toddler and draw and line in the sand against haters and in doing so just hate himself?
John Mark Harris says
I see Jesus calling out “the haters” though too (I.e. Matt 23)
Chris Rouse says
The interwebs are ablaze with pastors being attacked all over the place this week!. First it’s Rob Bell and his is-it-or-isn’t-it-universalism-theology (which I couldn’t care less about until his book is actually released) and now Steven Furtick. Sometimes I think we Christians like to get riled up about things that don’t matter in the moment.
This message very well could be the exact response of Jesus and the disciples to the Pharisees. Yeah, as John Acuff would say, I just “Jesus juked” you. He’s calling out the Christians who spend more time complaining about what’s happening in church, sending emails and making calls to stir up trouble in the church, having “did you hear what so and so said/did” conversations in the hallways at church. The music’s too loud, he preaches from the wrong translation, someone’s in my seat, the temperature was too hot or too cold, the Pastor didn’t say hello to me this week, the pastor misspoke and I’m making sure he knows about it. Those haters.
The people in the church who call themselves Christians but instead of being “little Christs” they’re belittling Christ by now stepping up to help, by not volunteering to help change things that need work instead of just whining, the people who won’t tithe “because we don’t like the pastor” but who won’t just leave the church “because this is our church, we’ve been here longer than he has”.
This video has nothing to do about whether Steven Furtick is interested in bringing in new members or deepening the faith of the members of his church. Sunday morning isn’t for deep theology and eschatology. Sunday morning is when I want to bring my non-Christian friends to church and have them hear music they’ll enjoy and hear a message that might challenge them a little, but doesn’t require a seminary degree to understand. That’s what small groups are for. That’s what personal Bible study time and reading is for.
Jesus was pretty focused on evangelism Himself. Teaching to thousands at a time who came from all over to hear him speak, calling his disciples to follow before giving them deeper instruction, instructing them to go to all the nations, the day of Pentecost (obviously this was the Spirit’s day) when thousands of new believers were baptized. Jesus did his deeper teachings in small groups, not to the masses. He gave easy lessons to the masses that required them to think a little, but not get lost. He gave his challenging lessons to his closest group–his disciples. He left them with the hard questions and the missional challenges.
Sure, we’re called to “feed by flock” but that isn’t the only calling. We’re also called to “go and make disciples”. So why don’t we all stop being haters–especially of other Christians–and go out there and be useful Christians.
I’ll put my blindfold on now and step up to the firing squad line that someone drew in the sand.
Tim Graves says
And see, here’s where you mistake Jesus. Jesus did His ‘easy’ preaching to the MASSES, the unsaved, those OUTSIDE of the church. His deeper teaching to His disciples, that was his ‘church service’. Those teachings to the MASSES was His evangelism. Evangelism happens OUTSIDE the church walls. Spiritual instruction is given to those inside the church walls so that they can take what they’ve learned OUT of the church to reach the lost.
In addition, what did Jesus do when he entered the synagogues? Those were the modern churches of the time. He read and taught FROM THE SCRIPTURE. Should we not be like Jesus as you’ve stated so emphatically? Teaching from Scripture at church service is what He did, shouldn’t we do the same?
Pastors are called to feed the flock. That is their ultimate calling. The church and Christians are called to ‘GO and make disciples’, as you said. But, as you very aptly quoted, the first word of that commandment is GO, that means OUT of the church, OUT into the world. That is where evangelism happens.
Judging unsound doctrine isn’t being a hater, it’s being a good Berean, and a good Christian. It’s doing what Jesus and the apostles told us to do, rather than just blindly accepting what every teacher, false or otherwise, happens to tell us we should believe from a gilded pulpit.
Jarrod Cartee says
I dont think any of Jesus’ teachings were “easy”. If you think his teaching were “easy”, well then you must not know what he said.
Tim Graves says
Hence my use of quotes for ‘easy’ in reference to the previous poster’s mention of “a message that might challenge them a little, but doesn’t require a seminary degree to understand”. A pastor’s job is to feed the sheep the word of God, including the ‘easy’ messages (which may appear easy on the surface, but are truly bristling with theological intrigue upon closer inspection) and the more difficult messages.
While I won’t question the duty of a pastor as an evangelist, I simply must contend that the church is not the proper location for evangelism. The church is the place for feeding of the flock and fellowship between believers. Although we should make every effort to ensure that nonbelievers who enter the church are introduced to Christ, we should be taking efforts to make new converts OUTSIDE of the church, into our workplaces and whatever mission field God has placed us in, local or international.
John Mark Harris says
I think you’re on the right track, but you’ve created an artificial distinction between evangelism & discipleship (as a side note, where is the verb “to disciple” in the New Testament? It’s actually what most people call evangelism… But that’s a side note).
Obviously Paul expected non-believers to be in church services, that’s why they had to be conducted with order so the world would see them and clearly get the message.
On the other hand, we do need 2Tim 2:2 teaching going on, but, as you note, that’s not for the whole crowd, just the “faithful” but you don’t ignore the rest, Jesus didn’t, he did both.
As for synagogues being equevelant to churches… Maybe, in some broad brush way. You could say churches grew out of synagogues, but equevelant? That’s a stretch.
Where you see the spirit, there is witness (I.e. Evangelism), and sharing the gospel is the first step of making a disciple (a.k.a. A Christian, as the terms are synonymous in the NT)
So if we use the term “discipleship” (acceptable, though certainly not Biblical) evangelism is the beginning of it, as well as its fruit. After all, one of Jesus’ goals was to make his disciples to become fishers of men.
The two cannot be parted… At least, that’s the way I see it.
JayCaruso says
Sunday morning is when I want to bring my non-Christian friends to church and have them hear music they’ll enjoy and hear a message that might challenge them a little, but doesn’t require a seminary degree to understand. That’s what small groups are for. That’s what personal Bible study time and reading is for.
I largely disagree with this. The role of a teaching Pastor is to help people better understand God’s word. Small groups and personal study are fine, but Pastors study the word in a way that is different from the rest of us. They study Greek and Hebrew in order to better understand the context of scripture. They study the geography, the history, etc. Even the best study bible cannot replace the value of an excellent teaching pastor.
I understand that people might be turned off by a church where the pastor spends an hour doing an exegetical bible study, but being at church should be more about enjoying music and being challenged. Effective bible teaching and discipleship is critical to the success of a church, not the number of butts that can be put in a seat.
Please note that my response to you is not necessarily a criticism of Pastor Furtick. Again, I don’t go to Elevation. My comments are in the broad general sense.
Bill says
Isn’t your last comment the “essence” of what he was talking about?
Tim Graves says
I am unsure as to who your comment was directed, but the point is moot. Mr. Furtick is wrong, plainly put, as we are called by Christ to judge the doctrine of those who place themselves in leadership and public positions, and it is the role of every person in ministerial and/or leadership capacity to protect their flock from false doctrine.
The goal isn’t just to get converts, it’s to make disciples. And making disciples requires discipleship and deeper teaching of the Word of God. Mr. Furtick seems to have forgotten that part of the great commission in building his organization.
Mark Curtis says
As an erstwhile attendee and volunteer of Elevation Church I had to make the decision to leave because of just this very thing.
Let me say this first and then continue with an explanation of why Steven Furtick and Elevation is treading dangerously close to “cult” status as is evidenced by this immature video. I believe that Steven loves the Lord with all his heart and I believe his motives are pure. However, I also believe that he is a prideful, arrogant young man that is very close to being an egomaniac. The entire church is based around his cult of personality. He makes his “appearances” to deliver his sermons yet dares not mingle with the congregants because of the risk of, as an inside church leader stated during a training session, “becoming common.” Sorry to break this news to you Steven, but you are common as are we all. You call yourself “pastor”, which means you shepherd a flock. That is a little hard to do when you would not recognize but maybe a fractional percentage of them if you saw them in public. But as point number nine of “The Code” (http://www.elevationchurch.org/thecode) states “It is all about the numbers”, not about the personal growth of a Christian, not about offering spiritual guidance, not about learning the deep things of God. It’s the numbers stupid. Get them in, dazzle them with a completely contrived service where even the “hand wavers” in the front, known as the “bull pen”, are doing so as part of the “show”, get them to raise a hand to “receive Christ” and then get them out. Next! Is the Spirit allowed in the building or will He interfere with the carefully orchestrated “show”?
Even more alarming is point number four of The Code whereby it states that attendees of the church agree that “We are united under the Visionary – Elevation is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will aggressively defend our unity and his vision.” Furtick is the “Visionary” and “members” will aggressively defend him and his vision. That smacks of cultism! The “Hey Haters” video reinforces that notion because what Steven is saying basically is “how dare you question what I am doing and you are a hater for doing so.” Of course his quick retort would be “It is not what I’m doing, but rather what God is doing through me…” Sorry, but when a man rises to a leadership position, claims to have specialized visions or knowledge directly from God and it cannot be questioned, that is the text book definition of a cult. Add to that a blind allegiance of the followers to AGGRESSIVELY defend the leader, vision and the unity of the people following and you have Cult 101! Furtick will have to deal with many more “haters” as his star continues to rise. Why he feels the need to answer childishly in a public forum is amusing.
What he calls “hating”, the Scripture calls discernment. It is what Luke (the accepted author of the book of Acts) called “noble character” when the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true. Paul did not get angry that his listeners would question what he said. Is Furtick greater than Paul? Apparently, Furtick does not understand the attitude of John the Baptist when he spoke “He (Jesus) must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). Furtick spends much time pointing to verses of Scripture to defend his vitriol in his blog response to the video and the questions that have arisen. The REALLY alarming thing about his “proof texts” is that contextually they have NOTHING to do with Jesus “calling out haters” of His ministry. Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees for being false religious leaders and heaping rule after rule upon the people they lead. He was talking about their false religiosity, their impure hearts and their lying lips that falsely honored God. This gross misunderstanding and misuse of Scripture to rationalize this childish video is stunning in light of his claim to be one of the fastest rising pastors of one of the fastest growing churches in the US. This just highlights why the church grows wide but not deep because its very leader does not understand even simple Scriptural truths! What this demonstrates to me is that Steven Furtick has what we refer to as a “God complex.” He has elevated himself (no pun intended) to god-like status and is infallible and should not be questioned. That is dangerous! He points to the fact that the church has grown rapidly and therefore must be a mighty “move of God.” If growth were proof that God is in it then Scientology and the Jehovah’s Witnesses must also be moves of God because they are two of the fastest growing cults in the world. My point in all this is not to “hate” Furtick and Elevation Church. My point is that they are some things that are seriously wrong with the methodology they implement to spread the Word and with the attitude of its leader. Go to the church and look for yourself. No pictures of Christ, no crosses, no Scripture verses, but there sure is a giant picture of Furtick at the pulpit at the top of the stairs in the Blakeney location. There is something very wrong. God’s people are being lead astray, dazzled by the hip, cool, rock star pastor and the lights and glitz while God’s word lies in shambles on the floor. Am I a hater? No, I love the Lord Jesus Christ and His people and as Jude 1:3 says “I felt the need to defend the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”
Eric Dye says
Have you considered guest posting for ChurchMag? —> https://churchm.ag/contribute/
John Mark Harris says
Actually, I’m not too hip on pictures of Jesus in churches. After all, he is the image of the invisible God, should we cheapen that by making pictures of him in our own image? For that matter, sometimes churches seem to worship the cross, rather than the one who conquered it. Just my thoughts on icons in churches… But I think you’re spot-on. Pictures of pastors tend to make me woozy. On the one hand I do think a pastor as a personality that people recognize is important, but he should have his picture up tastefully and reluctantly.
Mike Tate says
Mark I can weigh in on this as well. I began attending Elevation in June of this year. Enjoyed the messages, they were actually very timely in my life, as I was getting over a bout of depression. As they tell you each week, you need to take the next step and volunteer and become a part of this “great move of God.” I did that, but before I could take my “First Impressions” class , or whatever they call it, I was checking Steven Furtick’s Twitter feed. He was inviting Pastors to preach in the big “Code Orange Revival” in January. His tweets looked good, no problem with the speakers until I saw he had invited T.D. Jakes!!!!! If you are not familiar with Pastor Jakes let me just say he is unmistakeably a “prosperity gospel” pastor and a false prophet. I told he head of the First Impressions of my concern and she encourged me to bring my concerns to the Blakeney Assistant Campus Pastor, Nick Dooley. I finally spoke with Nick on the phone, and he had no idea who T.D. Jakes really was. I told him that I beleived that Furtick was using very poor discernment, the Bible states the the shepherd should protect his flock. He said he would speak with his boss, Chunks Corbett, the Head Campus Pastor at Blakeney about this and call me back, However, he said he knew the answer he would get, and that is that if Pastor Steven thinks it is okay, then we think it is okay too, because Pastor Steven studies and reads and we trust him so we would not question his decisions. I didnt go for a while, but then again I tried to go and volunteer, hoping that I could put aside some of the things I didnt like and just listen to the Word. However, in the First Impressions class I volunteered for the “bullpen” not sure what that was exactly. When I found out that I would be “planted” in the first few rows and expected to raise my hands and cheer and clap and make noise “even if nobody else does” that was it! I am not opposed to doing any of those things in worship but those things should be Holy Spirit driven and not done just because that is “your job”. So when it came time to go for my first Sunday of volunteering, I just could not go, and have no desire to go at all now. I, too, am troubled by the constant affirming that “we really dont care if you are here, we are more interested in the people who arent.” If you listen to a sermon from Furtick in “Confessions of a Pastor” done several years ago, you will hear him say “if you know Jesus then this church is not for you.” To me, that is totally absurd. I agree we are to study diligently on our own but to me there is no substitute for the Word being preached to me faithfully and straight up every week. Yes, I admit, I need that to “charge my batteries.” So, am now looking around to find the place where that will be done every week and also where there is no monkey business going on and passing it off as “worship.” Elevation may be for some,but it is certainly not for me!!!!!
Mike Tate says
Oh and by the way, I never received a return call from Nick Dooley….