In addition to monitoring trends going on within the greater Christian community, a part of my labor in the Lord here at Apprising Ministries is to make you aware of personalities, conferences, etc. which you need to be aware of.

My writing here in this case really becomes a kind of all of the above. Let me begin by bringing to your attention the SBC Pastor’s Conference 2014—Show Us Your Glory (PC14), which is coming up June 8-9 2014 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore. MD.

The official website tells us:

The 2014 Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference, June 8-9, immediately followed by the Southern Baptist Convention, June 10-11, will be held in Baltimore, at the Baltimore Conference Center right on Inner Harbor.  The theme of the conference represents a deep soul-cry of “Show us Your glory”.

The Conference President, Dr. Bruce Frank of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, NC and his team have been working, praying and planning to create a meeting where the presence of God is experienced in a life changing powerful way. (source, click About)

So all of this contemplative sounding language concerning the upcoming PC14, in order to experience “the presence of God” they hope “in a life changing powerful way,” tells us it’s actually the precursor to set the table for this year’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

There are a number of speakers scheduled for PC14 such as:

J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church, in Raleigh-Durham, NC, Johnny Hunt, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of First Baptist Church Woodstock, in Woodstock, Georgia.

Dr. Ronnie Floyd, served as Senior Pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas for 27+ years, Clayton King, founder & president of Crossroads Ministries, teaching pastor at Perry Noble’s Newspring Church, Campus Pastor at Liberty University, ((https://twitter.com/Clayton_king, accessed 3/6/14.))

Dr. Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship for over 36 years and Pricilla Shirer’s dad, and David Platt, senior pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, author of the book Radical, and appeared in Elephant Room 1.

As you can see below, the three I pointed out in my title are listed first, likely because they are very well known and influential names within mainstream evangelicalism as a whole:

source  [removed/updated by SBC]

Not surprisingly, and not necessarily in this order, that big three above will be closing the show for the SBC Pastor’s Conference 2014—Show Us Your Glory:

source [removed/updated by SBC]

In leaving this, for now, I’m going to share a few reasons for concern about the Southern Baptist Convention choosing these men to teach our pastors and to set the stage for the 2014 SBC Annual Meeting. Let’s begin with James MacDonald , who among other things, would dream up the Elephant Room.

You should know that, so set in their goal to use ER2 to mainstream Word Faith mogul T.D. Jakes, both MacDonald and co-host Mark Driscoll would each choose to resign from The Gospel Coalition. ((See: There’s More To The Resignation Of James MacDonald From Gospel Coalition and Mark Driscoll Resigns From The Gospel Coalition)) Yet the SBC has apparently derived the its very theme for their PC14 “Show Us Your Glory” from MacDonald.

A source who was directly involved with Harvest Bible Fellowship, the denomination extending from James MacDonald, ((http://www.harvestbiblefellowship.org/staff.aspx?site_id=10295&staff_id=94126, accessed 3/6/14.)) informs me that “Show Us Your Glory” is the primary theme of MacDonald’s book Vertical Church (VC). You need to know that there’s much misinterpretation of Scripture throughout VC. ((See: Opening Debrief Of Vertical Church Tour Of James MacDonaldP))

It turns out that “Show Us Your Glory” may derive from MacDonald using these words of Moses in VC in order to create the centered on the self emotional corporate worship experience. This type of sentimental “worship” is so typical today of multisite megachurches headed by vision-casting prophet-pastors like James MacDonald.

We’re also informed that there’s a popular Vertical Church Band song which repeats the following  phrase over and over a la a mantra: “Show us, show us Your glory;  show us. show us Your power.” Listen for yourself:

Those familiar with the Jesus Culture (JC) band of Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church, whom Louis Giglio brought to his Passion 2013, will notice the song’s much like the music of JC. And this Vertical Church Band, “as part of Harvest Bible Chapel”, ((http://verticalchurchband.com/about/, accessed 3/6/14.)) will be at PC14 along with Harvest Bible Chapel senior pastor James MacDonald:

(source, click Speakers)

I’ve also told you that these ER conferences have been the source of an emerging self-appointed Evangelical Ecumenical Magisterium (EEM) comprised of most of the multi-site megachurch prophet-pastors who participated in ER as well as some of those who pioneered this Seeker Driven phenomenon such as Rick Warren.

Four years ago in Rick Warren Brings Love On Record I showed you that Warren tweeted his love for some of these prophet-pastors who’d go on to become an integral part of this EEM:

(source)

Most likely you’re aware of the huge Biblical problems with Warren’s teaching concerning the mythology of his Purpose Driven Life; if not I’ll suggest you peruse the many source materials I collected for you within: Refuting Rick Warren. Here I’m only going to remind you of Warren’s sinful ecumenicism.

I’ve mentioned before that I am a former Roman Catholic so this issue is close to my heart. The SBC is reputed to be the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. How odd then that I would have to warn you that Southern Baptists Assist The Roman Catholic Church To Infiltrate Evangelicalism.

Three years ago in Rick Warren And Teachings Of Demons I documented for you Warren’s personal position on the Roman Catholic Church. For a quick example, Warren is on record as opining:

“Now I don’t agree with everything in everybody’s denomination, including my own. I don’t agree with everything that [Roman] Catholics do or Pentecostals do, but what binds us together is so much stronger than what divides us,” he said. “I really do feel that these people are brothers and sisters in God’s family. I am looking to build bridges with the Orthodox Church, looking to build bridges with the Catholic Church,….” (source, emphasis mine)

“The Church, in all its expressions—[Roman] Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Protestant and many others—has 2.3 billion followers.” (source, emphasis mine)

Warren’s since become bolder in promoting this apostate idea e.g. Rick Warren And His Brother, “His Eminence” Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop Of New York; we even see Warren encouraging the corrupt Mysticism of Roman Catholic mystics e.g. Rick Warren Now Openly Promoting Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism.

As far as Francis Chan is concerned, who often speaks at Passion conferences ((See e.g. Louie Giglio, Passion 2013, And Jesus Culture and John Piper To Preach With Hillsong Pastrix Christiane Caine At Passion 2014)), his spiritual radar is so jammed that he’s even gushed his admiration for New Apostolic Reformation false “Apostle/Prophet” Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer as you’ll see in Francis Chan Declares, “I Love Mike Bickle Of IHOP.”

The sad fact is, spiritual wingnuts just don’t come any easier to spot than the warped and toxic Mike Bickle. ((http://bit.ly/JJSncx, accessed 3/6/14.)) So, here’s my question: Why would I want to try and learn about God’s glory from men like Rick Warren, Francis Chan, and James MacDonald, when it’s pretty clear that their teachings and discernment are so far off target?

Further reading

• EMERGING ECUMENICAL EVANGELEPHANTS AND THE WORD FAITH MOVEMENT
• RICK WARREN AND REV. SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ TOGETHER AT THRIVE CONFERENCE
• FRANCIS CHAN HAS ENDORSED NEW APOSTOLIC TEACHER MIKE BICKLE