……Adding to the fertile soil for legalistic
parachurch gurus to adversely influence churches and individuals is the modern
idea that we must have experts in every area of life. Rarely does a week go by that I (as a pastor)
fail to receive a call informing me of a new video series that is "must
viewing" for every church body. The
expert on marriage relationships; the expert on child rearing; the expert on
interpersonal relationships; the expert on this; the expert on that has made a
video series. Surely no mere pastor can
keep up with 'the experts.' And so, we
are encouraged to turn our churches over to Dr. ___________. After all, he or she supposedly knows more than any of the rest of us, and if we will just do what he or she says, we
will all succeed in our Christian lives.
This is not intended to be a blanket condemnation of everything and
everyone who is part of what might be called a parachurch ministry. However, any and every time the parachruch
dictates to the church rather than the other way around, parachurch is out of
place. And any individual who follows a
parachurch ministry more closely than his own local church has a definite
problem with his priorities, since parachruch organizations are never mentioned in the Bible…….If you listen to those trying to sell many of these products
you are likely to conclude that pastors just aren't necessary anymore. And why would anyone in the pew want to
listen to old 'what's -his- name' week after week when they could be listening
to 'the expert!'
Robert Pruitt
