As you may be aware, Calvary Distribution (run by Calvary Chapel) recently stopped selling Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life and related products. Roger Oakland, a speaker associated with the Calvary Chapel movement, but not involved in its decision-making, has a rather detailed article on his interpretations of the reasoning behind this.

A few random comments about the article:

1. When I saw that Oakland’s first point was differences in eschatology, I prepared myself to be bored. Not that I find eschatology to be boring, but arguments about it are usually pointless. But the differences are not about pre-trib vs mid-trib vs post-trib, but a basic understanding of how we are to live now. As Oakland states:

Pastor Chuck [Smith, "founder" of the Calvary Chapel movement] has always been known for an emphasis on warning Christians to be alert and ready for the return of Jesus.

And this is shown by Jesus’ words here:

Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

and here:

Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Warren, however states:

Speculating on the exact timing of Christ’s return is futile, because Jesus said, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

I realize that Warren did not write this in rebuttal to Smith or Oakland, but he has set up a strawman, nonetheless. How does one get from living in such a way as to anticipate Christ’s return to speculating on the exact timing?

Related to this, Warren’s view of man “establish[ing] God’s kingdom” is down-right terrifying.

2. Regarding emerginess, I think that some of Pastor Chuck’s statements in a recent rejection of the concepts of the Emergent Church are a bit over-generalized at times (not every proponent of the emergent church agrees with all of the goofy and anti-biblical parts of the emergent movement conversation, which has some good stuff, too). However, some of Warren’s views fall well within the bounds of the goofy parts.

3. Probably no point is more distinct (in the difference between CC and PD) than the bottom line of how things are done. Given Warren’s background in church growth and his guides on how to promote it, the issue is framed in this manner. However, how church growth (or lack thereof) happens is merely a relatively small symptom of a much wider viewpoint. Oakland states:

Pastor Chuck, when asked why the [Calvary Chapel] movement has grown always has given the credit to the Holy Spirit. He has stated on numerous occasions that it is not by human effort or cleverly designed plans dependent of church growth experts.

While one would probably never hear Warren say that it’s not the Holy Spirit that brings about growth the PD way, one would be hard-pressed to genuinely ascribe credit to God, based on a “ministry” that is so strongly entrenched in man’s effort.

And if church growth depends so much on man, so must every other aspect of a Christian’s life. From there, it is not a large leap to even more man-centeredness and only a few steps more to wholesale rejection of God and His work (by your deeds, if not your mouth).

I’m not prepared to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I know people whose lives were truly changed (for the genuinely better) by Warren’s writings. But more and more caution lights keep popping up.

HT to Tim Challies for pointing out Oakland’s article.