Can A Leopard Change Its Spots?

by Mike Ratliff

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. (Jeremiah 13:23 ESV)

compromise [kom-prom-mize]

Noun

1. settlement of a dispute by concessions on each side: everyone pleaded for compromise, the compromise was only reached after hours of hard bargaining

2. the terms of such a settlement

3. something midway between different things

Verb

[-mising, -mised]

1. to settle (a dispute) by making concessions

2. to put (oneself or another person) in a dishonourable position

Adjective

being, or having the nature or, a compromise: a compromise solution [Latin compromittere to promise at the same time]

compromising adj

Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006

As one who left a church because it becoming Purpose Driven back in 2006 I awaited with much anticipation the results of Bob DeWaay and Chris Rosebrough going to Saddleback to interview Rick Warren. Bob’s book Redefining Christianity is a wonderful exposition the PDC paradigm. Chris is part of our discernment team at CRN and has an awesome blog called Extreme Theology. In any case some of us were a bit surprised when Bob and Chris returned saying what a wonderful host Rick Warren was and how there was no acrimony between them as they discussed the issues.

However, the more I pondered this and discussed things with friends and fellow warriors I began to see that what is really happening is that Mr. Warren is working very hard to change his image. I spent most of today researching the Purpose Driven Church model, Church Transitions, and Rick Warren and was very surprised to find that most of the material that came up in my searches was dated to 2006.

Bob DeWaay said in Redefining Christianity that Rick Warren is responsible for the gutting of the Church. It is through the Purpose Driven Church model along with the “helps” such as Church Transitions that our churches were transformed from traditional to purpose driven. It is this process that caused many of us to lose our church homes. We either left voluntarily as I did or were asked to leave by the pastor.

The PDC model along with Church Transitions has sections pertaining to dealing with “resisters.” They are looked at as just troublemakers. Dan Southerland of Church Transitions calls them whiners who must be dealt with. He calls it playing hardball. Rick Warren is quoted as saying that the transition of a church will always come against those who try to stop it and these must either leave or die. He wasn’t threatening to kill anyone, but his point was that it would be better if they just died off.

I was a Deacon in another Church in the 1980’s through the 1990’s. It was a traditional Southern Baptist Church in Oklahoma. We lost our Pastor in 1992. Our new Pastor was very different. He made sweeping changes. One of the first things he got rid of was Precept Bible studies. I was one of the leaders so this hurt a bit. He got rid of the Choir. He got rid of the hymnals. The pews on the stage for the choir were taken out so the drum set could be setup. He played bass. His brother played guitar. He had young men from High School play the drums. Almost all of my friends from the time we had joined that church in 1987 left within the first six months of this new Pastor coming on board.

I was ready to leave because I was no longer teaching nor was I being fed. I should have listened to the Spirit here because there were other warning signs. My son is very smart, but not an athlete. He was about 11 when this new Pastor came on board and within an year my son didn’t want to go to Sunday School anymore. He just didn’t fit in to the new style.

Back then I had never heard of Bill Hybels or Rick Warren. However, this new Pastor flew all of the Church ministers to Chicago for a week to visit Hybel’s church then a few months later he took them all to California to visit Saddleback. I believe this was before the Purpose Driven Church book was published. In any case, from that point on our Church became focused entirely on reaching one age group, young adults in their late 20’s and early 30’s.

The reason we left in 2000 was that I was transferred from OKC to Tulsa by the company I worked for. We were in Tulsa for about 18 months then moved to the Kansas City area in 2001 after I was recruited by the company I work for now. The church we joined in 2001 also went Purpose Driven in 2006. However, there were signs that something was up almost 2 years before I left in the first week of May 2006. It started in late 2004 when I was in the midst of my own personal revival. I was asked to become part of a committee to rewrite the Church Constitution. I found it very interesting when those that chose me said that the Pastor was not part of the committee. I didn’t know what they meant by that.

In any case, as we began work on it I had just finished my first book so I was given the task of writing paragraphs that others drafted. However, I was very surprised that our Pastor was at every meeting. He guided us into everything. He would not allow us to change anything without his input. The main thing that changed in the Constitution was the addition of our Purpose Statement. The more I thought about that the more I began to become very uneasy with all of this focus on “churchy” things when what we should have been concerned about was the preaching of the Word and the discipling of our people. It was as if those things were unimportant.

Over the next year or so our Pastor became increasingly hard to understand in his sermons. He kept talking about his vision for the Church. Late in 2005 he began preaching through Nehemiah. He kept focusing on Nehemiah dealing with troublemakers, et cetera. It was about this time that I came to know Ingrid and Ken at the old Slice of Laodicia blog. Ken shared a great deal in his posts about the Purpose Driven Church model and what really went on during a transition. It was as if he was describing exactly what was going on in our church. A few weeks later our Pastor gave me a book to read. It was Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church. I almost fell down.

There was a meeting planned to discuss the implementation of the PDC model and he wanted me to read the book and be ready to discuss it. I already knew more about the PDC model then anyone else at our church and I knew that God was expecting me to stand against it. I wrote a paper which I gave our Pastor the last Sunday of April of 2006. I had to be out of town the following Sunday when the big meeting was to take place. However, I made sure he got the paper. Several of the men in the church quit talking to me that day and I was looked at with suspicion from that time on.

I went to a Deacon’s meeting the Saturday after we got back from our trip. It was in that meeting that I just sat there and listened to these men plan how they were going to go full bore into the PDC model for our church. On Sunday I went in early to set up my class and found that it was to be absorbed into other classes and I was no longer a teacher. My wife and I left after the early worship service and never went back.

It was surprisingly painful. It caused a great deal of stress between my wife and I. A few weeks later we received a letter from our ex-Pastor. I was at work when it came in. My wife called me and read it to me over the phone. That evening we talked about it. She was very upset with how he blamed me for everything and didn’t even try to talk with us together. It was as if he was writing us off. Since this time we have not been official members of any local church in our area. We have visited a Reformed Southern Baptist Church which met in an elementary school. We visited a Willow Creek knock off church that a coworker of mine attends. We visited a Sovereign Grace Church for quite awhile. Then we visited another SBC church in our town that meets in an elementary school. Then from May 2007 through May 2008 we visited an independent Baptist Church that is Reformed. However, just a month or so ago we were invited to an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in our area. This is where we are going now.

What was so traumatic for us through this is the lack of many really solid churches in our area. So many are either going after the PDC or Willow Creek thing or they are focused on all the wrong things, such as religiosity or man-pleasing, watered-down theology. Bob DeWaay was right. Rick Warren has gutted the American Church and he has been vilified and confronted about it for the last several years. However, now he is working to make peace with some of his strongest opponents. Is the Leopard attempting to change his spots?

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. (Jeremiah 13:23 ESV)

I do not think that Rick Warren is changing anything except how he interacts with those who effectively oppose him and his ministry. One of the things he is attempting to do now is disavow any responsibility for the things such as I shared above. I contend that he is responsible and God will hold him to that because it was from his attempt to change the Church into his Purpose Driven Church model, which is the merger of secular marketing techniques ala Ken Blanchard with a way to do Church that seeks to please the masses instead of Christians, that gutted the Church. Warren’s act of listening to and responding to Chris and Bob at the meeting at Saddleback is not an act of repentance. He may be seeking some sort of compromise. However, I promise you that he will give up nothing, but expect us to move more in his direction. Just because there is no acrimony does not mean the man is willing to repent or is doing so.

Our response must be to be Christlike in our rebukes of Rick Warren and those who support him and become his apologists. We must not stoop to mud slinging or name calling. No, we must take the high road, but that does not mean we stop speaking and writing the truth. Yes, dialog with the man, but never compromise. Never forget that God is Sovereign. All of the attacks on the Church are allowed by God to test us. Are we passing the test? If we go after what is man-pleasing just to get along then we fail. However, if we stand, even in the face of withering fire from those who oppose us, we pass the test.

Yes, please pray that Rick Warren and company will repent. However, never forget, it was our Lord speaking through Jeremiah who said that those accustomed to doing evil can change just like a leopard can change its spots. It cannot happen unless God breaks them and grants them repentance.

Soli Deo Gloria

Addendum: Collateral Damage from Watcher’s Lamp