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Of course, Warren is not alone in making outrageous claims. The Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association claimed in its 2005 annual report that 3.2-million
people had made "decisions" for Christ as a result of its ministries.
Emergent church leaders, Willow Creekers, and others constantly propagate the
claim that they are reaching unchurched people. I'm not saying that some of
them are not doing good work, but the most basic demographic analysis suggests
strongly that many of their claims cannot possibly be true. Indeed, it reminds
me of the one-liner going around during the church-roll padding scandal of the
Southern Baptist Convention a few years ago: "There are more Southern
Baptists than there are people."
The Southern Baptists took steps to clean up their scandal. I can only hope
that Rick Warren and other megachurch and parachurch ministries choose to
exercise more care and integrity in the assessment of and reporting of their
impact. Because the inescapable conclusion is this: the Body of Christ in
America is not growing -- either numerically or spiritually. It is, relatively
speaking, shrinking -- burdened by crass commercialism, a lack of integrity,
and the quest for power and glory of celebrity preachers. An all but
inescapable second conclusion is this: the rest of us, if we do not speak out
against the lies of those who practice "body-count evangelism," are
standing by just as Paul stood by when he guarded the cloaks of those who
stoned Stephen. We, likewise, are guarding this cloak of falsehood --
subjecting the Body of Christ to a modern stoning of its own.
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