I posted a youtube video a week ago or so of him here.
The below is a transcripted portion of a sermon taken from Pastor Steven L. Anderson who founded Faithful Word Baptist Church. The context surrounds this form he posted on their website concerning supporting missionaries. The transcript below is a response to the form that was filled out by a certain missionary seeking funding.
Are you an Independent Fundamental Baptist? "Yes"
Do you believe the King James Version of the Bible is the Preserved Word of God? "Yes"
How many hours have you spent soul winning in the past month? "?"
How many people have you won to the Lord in the past month? "0"
How many people have you won to the Lord in the past week? "0"
Now I just don't understand how somebody has the audacity to send this to me and say will you, hi my name is Jimmy and I will take all you gimme why don't you send me money every month to go be a zero. Now I don't understand, this just blows my mind, but then it gets even worse. This is what he says, I don't keep track of numbers. Okay, this is what he is saying here: I just do what the Lord is telling me to do. I do a radio program twice a week and an inmate newsletter and I visit the inmates, so he doesn't keep track of numbers right? Okay, page 2. Remember, this is the guy who doesn't keep track of numbers, he just doos, he just does what God tells him to do. Okay, well let's see this. This is his letter to me telling me why I am supposed to support him right? I'm not going to read this whole thing alright? I just highlighed the parts that are applicable. Listen to what he is talking about. Thus the Second Chance Christian Newsletter was born. It started with my testimony as a four page newsletter (that's the first number) and grew to a 63 page booklet. It says from May 2004 to April 2005 we have mailed out 814 Sunday School lessons and almost 50% completed it and returned. From January 2004 to April 2005 1,073 Bibles and Bible related books have been shipped throughout the United States and Canada. During the first 10 months the website had over 175,000 hits. Wow. This guy doesn't keep track of numbers at all does he? [listener laughs] He's telling me how many people click on his website. 175,000 clicks on his webiste and I pass out 813 Bibles...
How many people have you won to Christ sir, missionary that's supposed to be winning the world to Christ? I'm paying you to preach the gospel, not to mail somebody a bible that they can put on a shelf... [account of the Ethopian Eunuch recounted]... People don't like keeping track of numbers because its not a lot of fun keeping track of zero's. It gets boring after a while. Just writing zero, zero, yeah, I wouldn't get exicted about that either. You know, I'm reading this guy, it says here, this is from his pastor, this is his pastor's recommendation to show me why he is so "he has a burning desire to see souls saved". Wow. [laugh] The only thing that's burning are the people in Hell that he didn't preach the gospel to because he is lazy as Hell. That's what's going on.
You can hear the rest of the "sermon" here.
Some questions:
-Is it okay for pastors to criticize ministries of which they know little about?
-What was a major flaw of the Pharisees? Did it involve prejudging?
-Is there a difference between disciplining members of the body and judging them according to the Word and judging other believers based off a questionnaire that provides nothing but numbers and a couple yes's or no's?
-Do you think this pastor or this church would have supported William Carey (father of modern missions) in missions? He did not see a single convert for 7 years.
-How should we measure the work of missionaries? Of Pastors?
-Do numbers skew the grand picture of God's will? (see Carey's link above)
4 comments:
While the guy might be a little harsh, in a way I think he has a point.
A little harsh you say? According to him, Billy Graham is going to Hell.
j razz
I'll be honest with you jrazz, I don't really want to listen to that link, but I'll take your word for it that if said that, then you have swayed me to your side. His message on peeing against the wall is still funny though, and it does raise a righteous indignation against using the public restroom in Germany.
After having a night to reflect on it and read the guy's comments again, I do agree with you jrazz, he went overboard. To diminish a ministry he really did know nothing about based on a question related to one week's worth of it, is wrong. The guy could have taken a week off after having a huge revival and leading 100 people to Christ.
But, your point is not lost, numbers aren't always the way to judge the effectiveness of a ministry. Especially considering the Scriptural passages that speak of each person's role (i.e. one planting the seed who may never see anyone come to Christ, but is instrumental in the work of God for the one later that water and the ultimate work of God that brings the fruition of salvation into someone's life.)
Post a Comment