Repentance of a PDL Pastor

Danny W. from Revival...It's Personal highlights the following comment from Pastor Chris Humphreys regarding Warren's Mulligan Theory of the Atonement: A False Gospel? at the Extreme Theology blog...

Below is an exerpt from a comment made about RW and his PDL product. Chris Humphreys has a unique knowledge of RW. Much of the correspondence was very nasty, very un-Christlike, but I found this posting to be from a knowledgeable person on many levels... concise and precise...

I hardly ever go to blogs, simply because I don't have the time. I am a pastor of a relatively new church, one that tries to be a Bible-Driven church, plus I do retailing/merchandising work during the week. I went to seminary with Rick Warren; we graduated the same time. I am sure I had elective missions classes with him...

When I left for my first pastorate, a new church start in Michigan, it iswhen Rick and his wife went to California. In Ohio, I came across a paper Rick wrote called C.A.M.E.O., Contemporary Approaches to Minisry, Evangelism and Organization. This was like the foundational philosophical approach to Rick's ministry which has taken shape in his Purpose-Driven materials.

I was fully immersed in the church growth movement. I went to all the conferences,and I read all the books. I heard Hybels, Warren, Maxwell and others inperson. I ate it all up. . .until in 1992, after 11 years in the ministry, I began to read the Bible exhaustively. It probably is a good idea for pastors to read the Word from time to time! I came to see when I laid my CGM notes side by side with the Bible, that there was very little Scripture used and what was used was greatly twisted out of its context. God opened my eyes to see God's sovereign grace in Scripture.

I am making a very long story short,which is hard for a preacher to do. Everything fell into place. Truth decay causes church cavities. You sow poor theology and you reap bad methodology. Rick (and Richard Abanes) is the prime example of a man who really thinks he is doing the right thing, but is clueless about what good theology consists of, and how vitally important it is to everything we do as handlers of God's Word. Charles Spurgeon faced a downgrade in his day, and today we face another. Warren, Osteen, and Hybels are loved by this world. That is why they get all the media attention. It seems I recall Someone in the Bible saying something to the effect that "woe to you when the world speaks well of you. . ."

-Pastor Chris Humphreys