The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum I hoped that it will never happen but it did.

Indeed, and perhaps it was a result of my not being very clear in my initial post. As I said above, I am more of an irenicist than a polemicist; therefore, I tend to focus on what someone like Warren says that is right, hoping to encourage them, or at least those who follow them into the fulness of the Faith. But the Church needs both polemics and irenics, and just as the polemicist needs to occasionally be encouraged to be charitable and say something positive or encouraging, the irenicist frequently needs to be shown how thin the line dividing error from heresy truly is. Of course, I'm speaking here of true irenicists (like J. I. Packer) and not spineless liberal compromisers, syncretists, or man-pleasers.

Again, to Johan I would say, it is not the end of the world if your elders are looking at Warren's book. Share your concerns, encourage them to sift, sift, and sift (there may be nothing left), and above all encourage them to use something better. If they simply MUST have something "up to date" with numbered lists and to-do agendas, give them a copy of Mark Dever's Nine Marks of a Healthy Church[/i]. For all its strengths, it doesn't have a chapter focusing on worship, and for that I'd suggest Mike Horton's [i]A Better Way and/or Marva Dawn's Reaching Out without Dumbing Down[/i]. Apart from his weak, shallow, and frequently erroneous theology, Rick Warren is a philistine of the order of Goliath, with no eye or ear for beauty or grandeur. While one can find a few useful points in some parts of his book, [i]The Purpose-Driven Church, his ecclesiology is unredeemable and the chapter on worship is an absolute abomination with NOTHING of value and much that is shockingly offensive. ENJOY! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/coffee2.gif" alt="" />