You should come to understand that there is an emerging church slowly swallowing up mainstream evangelicalism. I referred to it a while back here at Apprising Ministries as the Ecumenical Church of Deceit (ECoD). What was shown in that earlier piece is that it encompasses three of the major pillars in the semi-pelagian new evangelicalism which has its roots in the man-loving Church Growth Movement—the Purpose Driven Church of PDL Pope Rick Warren, the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church, and the self-aggrandizing Word Faith Church.

The fact is that they are now merging. Just take a look at the names that litter the speakers lists of various recent and upcoming new evangelical, and even evangelical, conventions and you’ll see this ECOD beginning to come together. At one time or another—in various combinations—men like Erwin McManus, Robert Schuller, Perry Noble, Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell, Eddie Long and T.D. Jakes have appeared, or will be appearing together. And just try and find a convention or conference that emerging church pastor Dan Kimball isn’t at.

These are the men who are shaping the ECOD of this man-centered “missional” new evangelicalism as typified by new breed pastors like Tim Reed, “Senior Minister at Owosso Church of Christ” in Owosso, Michigan. In addition to his duties there Reed also runs a blog called Blurred Brain. Here’s an example of the kind of humor this new breed pastor enjoys On the menu today. Reed is a contributor as well at a blog run by Chris Lyons called CRN.Info and Analysis, which was originally set up to attack my friend Ingrid Schlueter of Slice of Laodicea. When she founded Christian Research Net Lyons et al felt it was there duty to now become the Watchdog of the Watchdogs; most specifically of CRN.

Sadly, Reed in particular seems to have a minor obsession with me and he has also taken to regularly making disparaging comments about my labors in Christ such as, “If Silva understood the gospel at all”; “the alleged pastor Silva”; “if Silva had any credibility left” and “his earlier pleas for money tells us what he thinks being a pastor is all about.” Unfortunately pastor Reed hit a new low today when he publicly published a private email I sent him concerning his post Lessons from the language incidents.

You will see this email publicly referenced there; well, actually just a small portion of it, in an update to that aforementioned post:

*update*
I think I’ve just been threatened by Ken Silva. I just received an email that says:

A polite admonition to be careful about running with the big dogs there Tim, you could get yourself hurt.

Ken

Pastor Reed has been unethical, as you will see, by publicly publishing an email with a disclaimer clearly indicating it was meant as a private correspondence. In fact, he even later placed a portion of the disclaimer into a comment mocking it. And to me it also appears that Reed is being disingenuous by publishing only a very short section of this email in order to make it seem as if I personally was threatening him. However, the context of the email will show that I was admonishing him to be careful when criticizing, and dealing with, men like Steve Camp and Erwin McManus who are probably a bit out of his league.

And concerning the lack of proper Christian ethics becoming more and more evident with these new breed new evangelical pastors like Tim Reed the following comment says much about Reed himself:

Comment from Tim Reed
Time: November 19, 2007, 5:40 pm

Christian,

I thought the same thing.

Also, he became my pastor about the same time I felt bound by ridiculous disclaimers in the bottom of emails.

So honoring disclaimers on emails—legally binding or not—concerning privacy is now considered “ridiculous” by new breed pastors like Reed? I’d say this is a most telling ethical disclosure. As is his CRN.Info post I referenced in The New Evangelicalism: Forest, Trees, Arrogance, Ignorance and A Love of the World in the Emerging Church where Reed and others there are arguing FOR the use of profanity among Christians.

And now the entire discussion with pastor Tim Reed follows:

—– Original Message —–
From: Apprising Ministries
To: Tim Reed
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 4:13 PM
Subject: Re: Retraction and Apology

Tim:

About your “Lessons…” post straw man…better straighten out your boy Chris Lyons.

Apparently he missed your memo:

“I realize you like bashing men of God, like Erwin McManus” (Chris Lyons-see below)

But ya “See, the emphasis isn’t on whether or not the comparison is true, it’s on [McManus’] status. We’ve commented before on the guilt by association tactics that are in almost constant use by watchdoggies, this is probably why. The point isn’t to get to the truth of the matter, it’s really an argument about the status of the individuals involved.”

A polite admonition to be careful about running with the big dogs there Tim, you could get yourself hurt.

Ken

The information herein is protected by the pastor-client privilege and is therefore is to remain strictly confidential. It is intended for review and private use only by the designated recipient named above. This email and its contents may not be reproduced in any manner without the expressed written permission of Ken Silva and Apprising Ministries.

If you are not the designated recipient your review, use and/or dissemination of the information herein is not authorized by the sender, and may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability. If you have received this electronic mail by mistake, please notify the sender immediately. Thank you.

—– Original Message —–
From: Chris & Suzanne Lyons
To: Apprising Ministries
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 12:57 PM

Subject: Correction

Ken,

I’m just wondering if you will be printing a retraction/correction of your most recent article, “Forest, Trees, Arrogance, Ignorance and a Love of the World”, since the “Nathan” commenting on the thread is not Nathan Neighbour of Mosaic church, but Nathan Rice (blog address: http://www.nathanrice.org/)

I realize you like bashing men of God, like Erwin McManus, as much as you possibly can, but I thought you might have enough integrity to admit when your rush to judge got in the way of your “research”…

Yours,

Chris

Then when I saw that Reed had chosen to publish my private email to him I sent him the following:

From: Apprising Ministries [mailto:apprising@hughes.net]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 4:56 PM
To: Tim Reed
Subject: Fw: Retraction and Apology

Tim,

I guess your Christian ethics take a back seat to an attempt to make me look threatening. A couple of things though pastor: 1) You did not address the actual substance of my email, which I will later address in a public post since 2) you decided to publish it despite the disclaimer at the bottom.

O, and if you look carefully at what I wrote—which I paid specific attention to—I said nothing at all of a personal nature. The subject matter was the “status” of men like Steve Camp and Erwin McManus; who because they are virtually household names throughout much of the visible church, are “the big dogs” in that context.

I will give you “A” for effort though.

Sincerely,

Pastor Ken Silva
President
Apprising Ministries
https://www.apprising.org/
Ezekiel 3:7-14

General Editor
Christian Research Net
http://christianresearchnetwork.com/
2 Corinthians 11:12-15

The information herein is protected by the pastor-client privilege and is therefore is to remain strictly confidential. It is intended for review and private use only by the designated recipient named above. This email and its contents may not be reproduced in any manner without the expressed written permission of Ken Silva and Apprising Ministries.

If you are not the designated recipient your review, use and/or dissemination of the information herein is not authorized by the sender, and may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability. If you have received this electronic mail by mistake, please notify the sender immediately. Thank you.

His reply follows below, and then my final comment on this unfortunate incident with pastor Reed:

—– Original Message —–
From: Tim Reed
To: ‘Apprising Ministries’
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 5:06 PM
Subject: RE: Retraction and Apology

Ken,

Let me quote you: “I copied exactly what you said and it now speaks for itself.”

Also, let me quote you again: “You just feel free to post whatever you want to post.”

Regards,
Tim

—– Original Message —–
From: Apprising Ministries
To: Tim Reed
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 5:24 PM
Subject: Re: Retraction and Apology

Tim,

You did indeed quote me; but note however, that you did not speak to your lack of Christian ethics in publicly publishing a private email in the first place. There is a disclaimer to that effect right at the end of it.

What your quote actually refers to something which I had copied and posted at another time from one of your public posts at the watcher of the “watchdoggie” website where you are a contributor.

I don’t think this is going to reflect all that well on your character, but since you have given me permission to post whatever I want, then it seems good in the Lord to now let people see the entire conversation.

Sincerely,

Ken