Let’s play: “Guess Who’s Doctrinal Statement?”

Given just the “Core Doctrines” of a Church, can we evaluate its true Orthodoxy and faithfulness?

by Paul Burkhart

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Okay, we’re going to a play a little game I like to call “Guess Whose Doctrinal Statement.” I’ll give you the doctrinal statement of a popular American Church and you all try and think whose it is. Then we’ll reveal the answer and talk about it. Everyone ready?

Okay, here’s the doctrinal statement:

• WE BELIEVE…the entire Bible is inspired by God, without error and the authority on which we base our faith, conduct and doctrine.
• WE BELIEVE…in one God who exists in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to this earth as Savior of the world.
• WE BELIEVE…Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood for our sins. We believe that salvation is found by placing our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross. We believe Jesus rose from the dead and is coming again.
• WE BELIEVE…water baptism is a symbol of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ and a testimony to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• WE BELIEVE…in the regular taking of Communion as an act of remembering what the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross.
• WE BELIEVE…every believer should be in a growing relationship with Jesus by obeying God’s Word, yielding to the Holy Spirit and by being conformed to the image of Christ.
• WE BELIEVE…as children of God, we are overcomers and more than conquerors and God intends for each of us to experience the abundant life He has in store for us.

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So whose doctrinal statement do you think it is? Is it:

• a. Mars Hill Church (Mark Driscoll)
• b. Bethlehem Baptist Church (John Piper)
• c. Lakewood Church (Joel Osteen)
• d. Mars Hill Bible Church (Rob Bell)
• e. The Village Church (Matt Chandler)
• f. Westboro Baptist Church (Fred Phelps)
• g. None of the above

and the winner is . . . found here.

So what do we do with this?

The Bad news: I subscribe to his podcast and have listened to a decent number of his sermons and he really is a representation of the worst and most damaging aspects of contemporary mainstream evangelicalism. It is very frustrating listening to one of his messages. He butchers the Bible, misquoting and raping text after text. And so much of what he says is good. It really is, but it is completely absent of anything uniquely biblical. I am shocked that more pastors of prominence are not publicly taking him to task. I think they should and I think the Bible not only gives warrant to do so, but also commands that false teachers are shown to be what they are.  Here’s a picture I shot at a Christian bookstore in Northern Virginia that seems to get the point across.

The Good news: if you watch any of his video sermons, you will see, when they switch to the audience, that there’s not a single young face to be seen. The younger generation of Christians sees through these charades and does not attend his church. As these older, richer members of his church begin to die, his church will shrink into insignificance. The other good news is that it seems that people around Osteen at Lakewood have been very good at making sure the church itself remains faithful (even if the pulpit does not). The ministries and counseling services offered by Lakewood are amazing. There are ministries for every group imaginable and they use the same solid counseling and recovery program that many of my favorite churches do. But I would say these things have happened by the grace of God in spite of Osteen, and not because of him. Unfortunately, as is shown throughout the Bible, so go the priest, so go the people. The church eventually follows its pulpit, so we’ll see where the church goes over time.

I do want to make clear that my critiques of him are not on the basis of style, “relevance”, “missionality”, or holiness. I believe that God takes great joy in a plurality of perspectives and practice in all those areas. I would rejoice so much if his preaching were actually “preaching” – if it actually mirrored this doctrinal statement. I think Joel Osteen has a style that really is relevant and missional to the people he is called to lead, and I really do think he lives as squeaky-clean of a life as it seems. If only there was some sort of substance or actual biblical truth to what he said – if only there were the cross and the Gospel – then this could be one of the most powerful churches on the planet.

I believe this doctrinal statement was formed by Osteen’s father, the founder and original pastor of Lakewood “church”. His father seems to have been a very great and faithful man of God. It was Joel that added the last point to the statement, I believe, and it was Joel that moved the church out of the Baptist denomination the church was affiliated with, therefore removing all accountability he may have been under before.

What this shows us is that “doctrine” does not equal truth or godliness. Jesus was clear that there will be many at Judgment that will believe in Jesus, his resurrection, and that he is “Lord, lord” of their lives, but Jesus will not have known them. This also means that there will be people who don’t affirm the same specific set of pet doctrines you have and they will be just as faithful to Christ (if not more so) than you or me. Doctrinal statements, creeds, and confessions are not the end-all-be-all of the Christian life. If it is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, then it seems that the tenets of this doctrinal statement have not impacted nor reside within the heart of Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church. I hope I’m wrong. I hope he is merely a young preacher dealing with success and popularity. I hope these truths begin bearing real Gospel fruit in his life and church. I pray for him regularly that the Spirit would move upon this man and shape the people sitting in that stadium week after week, and that God would receive glory, whether by Joel, or in spite of Him.

So let’s love our Christ dearly and become acquainted with the conscience he has given us; surrendering it daily to His Word, and living faithfully in accordance to where it has us each passing day.

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