The Franklin Graham Festival in Okinawa and the Degeneration of Protestant Ecclesiology

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Semper Fidelis

2 Timothy 2:24-25
Staff member
For your consideration:
http://www.solideogloria.com/node/151

Over several months now, the Franklin Graham organization has been planning a major festival in Okinawa. Most are more familiar with the term "Crusade" and I'm not precisely sure why they're not calling it a crusade here. There have been more than a few things that have happened that have really opened my eyes as to the declining state of the Protestant Church at large. This culminated this past Sunday but before I get to that, I want to recount some of what has happened in our small Church in just a few short months.

First, about 8 months ago, we learned that the Franklin Graham association would be conducting the festival. As our former pastor had left us suddenly, our parsonage was empty indefinitely as we went through the process of calling a new pastor. The association offered to pay the monthly rent and utilities on the parsonage if we would allow one of their "missionaries" to stay there. We agreed.

Our interim pastor ended up having to leave unexpectedly as well and, due to any better options, one of the Franklin Graham missionaries agreed to "preach" for us. I put that term in quotes because of the ten or so sermons that the man delivered, I considered none of them to be sermons. Eisogesis was the norm and he only used a Scripture verse as an excuse to talk about something completely unrelated. In one case, he used a verse to vaunt into a discussion of Maslow's heirarchy of needs. A couple of times, two of the other Franklin Graham "missionaries" "preached" and their sermons were no better with a complete lack of faithful exegesis of the text. One of the men had been with the Billy Graham association for decades and was fairly "senior" in that organization. He told a story, with fondness, about how Godly his grandmother was and how knowledgeable in the Scriptures she was. That was nice to hear. What wasn't nice to hear was how proud he was that she often filled the pulpit and preached when the pastor was away.

One Sunday our interim preacher from the association had invited a group of people that represented other Churches in the area that were part of the group organizing the festival. Among them was a female pastor. The "sermon" was a plug for the festival and getting us involved in it. The whole thing is called Operation Andrew and uses the Scripture verse about Andrew telling Peter about Jesus as the basis for the name. The principle of Operation Andrew is that you fill out a card with 12 names that your are going to pray for and befriend in the months ahead and then bring them to the Festival. You had to fill out the list twice and one of the cards with your names on it went into a collective bin and are handed out each week to random people in the Church to pray for the names on the list.

During this "sermon" describing the mechanics of operation Andrew we were told of the meeting between the Mayor of Chatan-cho and the Festival organizers. Chatan-cho is actually the city in Okinawa that I live in and it has a huge professional baseball stadium in it. Anyway, they were meeting with the Mayor and telling him that they wanted to use the stadium for the festival. He asked them what it was for and they explained it was to get all the Christians in Okinawa together. The Mayor was amazed.

"All the Christians?", asked the Mayor, "Even the Roman Catholics?"

The preacher beamed with pride as he exclaimed: "Yes, even the Roman Catholics."

I was incensed. After Church, I pulled the preacher aside and told him that it was irresponsible to confuse the flock by acting as if the doctrinal divisions are meaningless. Many in our Church are Filipino and, honestly, they don't really understand the difference. The "preacher" made sure that day that they continued in ignorance of any real difference.

Just recently it came to light that our interim preacher, living in our parsonage, had not paid the rent for several months. The Church secretary and treasurer had repeatedly contacted him to pay his rent and he had excuse after excuse as to why he wasn't paying it. As a member of the finance committee I finally learned about it after I joined the committee and forced the issue. By that time, however, the man had scandalized three people in our Church with his irresponsibility. The Church secretary could not stomach sitting under his preaching due to his lack of integrity. I confronted the deacons about it (our only leadership at this point) and he now no longer preaches at our Church. My good friend (another Marine) was so incensed over the whole thing that he went to his "boss" in the Franklin Graham association. You see, the man kept denying that he knew he was supposed to pay rent. His boss became beet red with embarassment when the whole story was laid out. We received a letter of apology the next Sunday.

With that backdrop, let me fast-forward to this past Sunday. A business meeting was called (man do Baptists like meetings! ) At the meeting, one of the members frantically explained that we were not listed as a "participating Church" for the Franklin Graham festival. This meant that even if "...someone made a decision for Christ..." that the Association would not refer that person to our Church. In order to become a participating Church, the Association required that a committee be formed with statuatory members (according to their rules) and that the members undergo their training. I think many in my Church left happy that day as we received the volunteers for the committees.

I left very saddened.

Why? Because you could be a Roman Catholic Church with trained members according to the Franklin Graham association rules and receive referrals from "decisions" at the festival. You could be a Oneness Pentecostal. You could be a Word of Faith Church.

Doctrinal issues about Trinitarian formulation, the nature of Justification, or a host of other key doctrines are immaterial. What's important is that the Church receive the Franklin Graham training which focuses on method over any substance.

There is also this stark irony of independent Churches (which I disagree with theologically as a Presbyterian at heart) allowing a parachuch organization fly in and act like a pseudo-Synod. It's basically Evangelicals, Heretics, Charismatics, and Catholics Together (EHCCT perhaps?) but in this case there's not even a discussion of Grace per se.

I'm frankly weary of the mantra I keep hearing from the organizers that our divisions are unimportant but that, most importantly, we should just be telling people about Jesus. It's as if you just say "Jesus died for your sins" that it will magically imbue that person with the knowledge of sin and their need for a Savior. It's as if saying that God could have just inspired those five words and that would be all we'd ever need to learn from Scripture. It's as if we can just have a person show up to the Festival, walk an aisle, and then be placed in a Oneness Pentecostal or Roman Catholic Church and everything is OK because we told them that "Jesus died for your sins."

To me this is so much spiritual malpractice and the whole thing is very wicked. "Jesus loves you. God bless you. Now off you go to the Pentecostal Church where they'll make you twice as fit for Hell." They're better off staying in America and letting the Japanese here worship their ancestors than putting them in a Church that openly repudiates Christ's nature or His work.

God help us all. May He turn the hearts of these false shepherds and let them see the horrific spiritual damage they are unleashing. May He open up the eyes of slumbering millions of Christians who think that this parachurch practice is normative for the Christian religion. May He grant me the patience as I labor to protect the brethren at my local Church here from such error.

When I consider the landscape of Evangelicalism today, this Festival really exposes the depths to which Protestantism has descended. I know, perhaps, a little bit about the lament of the Prophets as they saw their beloved countrymen busy themselves with false worship and empty doctrine.

It breaks my heart.

[Edited on 8-1-2006 by SemperFideles]
 
:barfy:

Of course this is nothing new and cooperation with the unorthodox in order to achieve a wider audience and influence has been the m.o. of the Graham organization for over 50 years.
 
Thanks for the report. Very sad. In Deconstructing Evangelicalism, D.G. Hart noted that some historians of American evangelicalism have noted that difficulty of defining the term "evangelical" and have suggested that it is basically anyone "who likes Billy Graham." Yikes!
 
Originally posted by Scott
Thanks for the report. Very sad. In Deconstructing Evangelicalism, D.G. Hart noted that some historians of American evangelicalism have noted that difficulty of defining the term "evangelical" and have suggested that it is basically anyone "who likes Billy Graham." Yikes!

I may like Billy Graham as a person. Don't know, never met him. However, I don't like many of these methods.

The Church in America is in a sad state of affairs!
 
Originally posted by Scott
Thanks for the report. Very sad. In Deconstructing Evangelicalism, D.G. Hart noted that some historians of American evangelicalism have noted that difficulty of defining the term "evangelical" and have suggested that it is basically anyone "who likes Billy Graham." Yikes!
I've read about it for years as well. It's one thing to read about it though and another thing to be in a Church and see its effects first hand.
 
I attended a Franklin Graham crusade not too long ago. It was one big joke, yet I wasn't laughing. There simply is little to no discernment in the American church.
 
Rich,

I can see that willingness to forego the favor of a parachurch ministry at the cost of a potential increase in membership is truly a matter of trusting God to work through the "ordinary means" of "convincing and converting sinners" and adding to his flock.

I am heartened by your testimony of being in a position to be a "defender of the faith" and a comfort to brothers and sisters in Christ in the place where you are. By the grace of God you are doing some "sanctified damage control", my brother. May you continue to improve the gifts of shepherding and "convincing the gainsayers" that are evident even now.

Cheers -- Jay
 
2:1 But false prophets were also among the people, as also false teachers will be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, and denying the Master who has bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.
 
Originally posted by Scott
Thanks for the report. Very sad. In Deconstructing Evangelicalism, D.G. Hart noted that some historians of American evangelicalism have noted that difficulty of defining the term "evangelical" and have suggested that it is basically anyone "who likes Billy Graham." Yikes!

"What Is An Evangelical?" by Dr DM Lloyd-Jones would act as an effective antidote to that sort of attitude.
 
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