Accountability RequiredSteven Long (01/01/13)

A friend of mine and his wife recently attended a local church Sunday evening. One of the associate pastors preached a sermon about our "anointing" we have as believers. He used several Scriptures to support his points. My friend became concerned as he looked at the context of the passages that the pastor used. Later that evening, he e-mailed the pastor for clarification on the passages. Embedded below is the e-mail exchanged between the two. I have blacked out my friends name for sake of privacy.

As you can see from the e-mail, this pastor is from the Wave Church. The Wave Church has become quite popular in recent years as it is associated with the popular singing group Hillsong. The Wave Church is especially dangerous as it has had popular heretic and Modalist T.D. Jakes speak on church growth on site [source]. But that's another blogpost (or podcast) to address some other time. My main concern is with this pastor's response in the e-mail exchange and his total lack of apathy for Scripture. Instead of examining the context that was pointed out to him he became defensive, as is noted by the tone of his response. More importantly, what does the rest of the leadership of this church think? How should pastors respond when someone, a member or a visiting guest, points to a wrong usage based on the context? The pastor should immediately examine the context to see if he indeed is wrong. If so, he should publicly state it and then correct it with his congregation so as not to impart any false teaching to them. My friend politely asked him to do so. In a conversation with him, he stated that he was very concerned with the pastor's usage of Heb 1:8-9 and that the "anointing" was for the believer when the full context is clearly speaking about Christ's superiority. Pastors are commanded to accurately teach the Word of God. Paul charges Timothy in 2Timothy 2:15 to "cut it straight." This is what the word literally means. Vine offers a bit more insight into this:

orthotomeo (ὀρθοτομέω, 3718), “to cut straight,” as in road-making (orthos, “straight,” temno, “to cut”), is used metaphorically in 2 Tim. 2:15, of “handling aright (the word of truth),” RV (KJV, “rightly dividing”). The stress is on orthos; the Word of God is to be “handled” strictly along the lines of its teaching. If the metaphor is taken from plowing, cutting a straight furrow, the word would express a careful cultivation, the Word of God viewed as ground designed to give the best results from its ministry and in the life._{(emphasis are mine)}.

Pastors and teachers are to be extremely careful and accurate when handling God's Word (James 3:1). Pastor Ritter failed to do this and the leadership of this church should have called him out on it. Folks, Wave Church is dangerous if it handles all of its teachings like this. If it does, I would advise you to stay far far away from it.