Multiplying Ministries

...congregation in Oklahoma City. This congregation is under the supervision of the Philadelphia Church of Christ. And, a fellow named Randy Moon, he used to be an Oklahoma Christian. Randy Moon is the minister of that particular congregation. It's there.

It's established. They've had their official opening, if you wish, a couple of months back. They're in the process of changing their name, if you didn't know. I once said many years ago on discussing, the Boston movement that if they could just figure out a way to change their name to distance themselves from us, it would suit them very well. And the name that they're using, I don't know how official it is, is the church of Christ dash Jesus.

The church of Christ dash Jesus is the name that many of the Boston churches are beginning to adopt in order to distinguish themselves from the churches of Christ. The Boston church has been described as a classic Christian aberration or a cult, not by brethren, unfortunately. I'll talk about that a little later, but by newspapers in Dallas and elsewhere in the country, Boston itself, and is listed as a bona fide cult by religious educators even outside of our own brotherhood. So tonight, we're gonna study the Boston Movement, the history of it, of its doctrine, ask the question, what's wrong with this thing? And hopefully, give you Bible answers, not my opinion, but Bible answers to to that to that particular question.

First of all, I wanna talk to you about the history of the movement. I wanna talk I wanna thank Elvis so kindly for having brought over, I don't know, Kent's office, I guess, or something. An overhead. A nice overhead. Lovely overhead.

No spots in it or anything. No wrinkles because I had a lot of overheads tonight, so I appreciate Elvis' wrestling this thing over. History of this movement. First of all, you need to know that this movement is not unique to the churches of Christ. Multiplying, discipling, we'll call it the Boston movement because that's what we know it by.

But it was originally called the Multiplying Ministry. This is not a unique movement to the churches of Christ. It, it it the best way I can explain it is imagine a tree that has roots. This is a kind of a tree here if you wish. Okay?

There's the trunk here. And, here is here are the roots. The roots of the Boston movement come from many different sources. You might not be able to read this, but, different books, different philosophies and ideas. Juan Carlos Ortiz, early in the mid seventies, books on discipleship from Argentina.

The Fort Lauderdale Teachers Convention in, again, the early seventies, a lot of pioneers of this thinking, this philosophy began there. The Maranatha Ministries that you might have heard of. Maranatha Ministries again, began developing this philosophy of discipleship or a way to do discipleship. Books by Watchman Knee. I've lot of I've read a lot of books by Watchman Knee.

A lot of good ideas in there, but also a lot of dangerous ideas, especially the, normal Christian church life and its spiritual authority, written back in the thirties. Watchman Ni, was a preacher, a Chinese preacher, who died in prison. A very prolific writer, a very deep writer, but a lot of his works. The Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ, these type of groups. Also, a very an especially influential book by a man named Robert Coleman, The Master Plan Book of Evangelism.

A lot of ideas in Boston come directly out of Robert Coleman's book. His brother, Leon Coleman, I believe, is the editor of the Serendipity Bible, those of you who use the Serendipity Bible for your small group Bible study. Leon Coleman is an expert in small groups, how to use small groups in order to make the church grow. I've attended some one of his seminars in Canada. Excellent on small groups.

Don't agree with a lot of his kind of, you know, theological stance, but certainly knows what he's talking about when he talks about how to use a small group. Very good. Well, this is his brother who wrote this, Robert Coleman. Of course, Wesley's holy clubs and holiness ideas and Roman Catholicism, the idea of spiritual directors or individual confessors. All of these sources, all of these roots here work towards creating a movement that eventually found its form in our brotherhood that was originally called the discipling ministries and the multiplying ministry, and today is called the Boston movement.

Now the interesting thing is that the ideology that comes from a lot of these places has been rejected by the majority of the denominational and charismatic world because of the problems that it caused. We jumped on the bandwagon long after the others discarded these ideas and found them much too problematic for themselves. Our problem is that with the in the denominational world, these ideas were centered around holiness and personal growth in Christ. Whereas in our brotherhood, in the churches of Christ, the ideas that came out of these books and these philosophies centered not around or developed not around personal holiness, but centered around the message that evangelism ought to be done, and how authority in the church needed to be expressed. And because the ideas expressed themselves in this way in our church, it became very volatile, because it had nothing to do or not necessarily so much to do with personal attitude and growth, but rather numerical growth in the church.

And because it had to do with numerical growth and authority, it caused division and split and all kinds of headaches that we have read about and heard about. Now the beginning of the movement within the church dates back to the early and mid seventies in Gainesville, Florida, at the Crossroads Church of Christ, where Chuck Lucas, a man named Chuck Lucas, was training campus ministers to go on different campuses to begin the work of evangelism. And he trained them using many of the methods and ideas contained in these books and from these teachers. In 1977, the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston, Texas withdrew their support and denounced 2 particular campus ministers that they were supporting at the time who had been trained at crossroads. And the elders at the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston withdrew the support and denounced these 2 individuals because of the tactics and methods that they were using were found to be unbiblical, and their their sources being in denominational writings, especially the book, The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman.

The two people who were suspended were Roger Lamb and Kip McKean. In 1979, Kip McKean, continued to be supported by the Crossroads Church, of Christ and eventually went to Boston, where he became the evangelist for the Boston Church of Christ. And now this particular church is the main spokesman for the entire movement. Chuck Lucas, is no longer at Crossroads. It's no longer included and involved in the multiplying ministries.

And as a matter of fact, the Crossroads Church, the originator of this thing in Florida, has since rejected the whole process and rejected the idea of the multiplying ministry and has asked officially to be received back into the fellowship of the church. And I think you may have read about that in the Christian Chronicle a little while back. Now we need to understand that this is a worldwide movement which operates on purpose, outside of the fellowship and the influence of our brotherhood. No accident. They operate on the outside on purpose.

It is the fastest growing element within what we refer to as the church of Christ. Well, it's the fact it is the self proclaimed fastest growing element within the church. The thing is with autonomous congregations, thousands of which are in Africa and South America, and so on and so forth, that don't bother sending in their reports all the time. It is the fastest self proclaimed growing church, in our brotherhood, or growing movement in our brotherhood, but we don't know that for sure. But certainly the numbers are very, very, are very, very impressive.

They do plan to be the church of Christ by the year 2000. That's been self proclaimed. They are supposing to represent you know, when people say Church of Christ, their idea is they will represent Church of Christ in the minds of the public by the year 2000. For a time, the Boston church was the fastest growing congregation in the United States, and the London church, you know, Boston church you know, the London church planted by Boston, was the fastest growing church outside of the United States. Every congregation is now or will be influenced in some way by this group and its practices.

This group and its practices has been, certainly in the eighties, the main issue. We've moved on to other issues in the nineties, if you've noticed, you know, styles of worship, role of women, so on and so forth, to go on and on with this stuff. But the Boston movement continues to be a force to be reckoned with, in our brotherhood. The question that usually is asked I've had experience with this in Canada and here in the United States. Usually, the question that is asked immediately is, what's wrong with Boston?

I mean, what's wrong with it? What's the problem? You know, if if they were to if they were to preach, you know, that Jesus is not the son of god, boy, we'd be on him in a minute. Or, you know, you're not it's not important. You don't have to be baptized.

You know, boy, we we figure that one out in a hurry. Or if we walk in and, one of the good sisters was up in the pulpit preaching, you know, powerful sermon on Sunday, we could spot those things. You know? It's a little tougher to spot, you know, with because, you know, they it sounds like, feels like, looks like the real thing. So what's wrong with Boston?

What what is the problem here? What do we have to be careful? What's our beef with this particular group? Well, you know, there are many little things, but three main things have have surfaced as being points of contention. Points that that, preachers and teachers, and elders, leaders in the church have recognized that is wrong with the Boston movement.

Three things that are unbiblical clearly about this group. The first thing is its organization. The organization of the Boston Movement is not biblical. We have a pattern in the New Testament, not for every single thing. There's not a pattern for every single thing, but there are patterns for certain things.

And when we do have a pattern, when we do have a New Testament example or command or inference, when we can put together these elements to to to decipher a pattern for how to do things or how to organize things or how to proceed, we we must necessarily follow that pattern. Well, in the new testament, there is a pattern for church organization. There is a pattern for that, and the Boston church does not follow the New Testament as far as how to organize a church. Let me just give you an example. For example, let me show you how the Boston church is organized.

You have a thing called the mother church, which is in Boston itself. The mother church is is is the congregation from which you need approval. If you're going to become an evangelist for the Boston Church of Christ or any church belonging in its orbit, you need approval from the Boston church. Now sometimes they'll deny that, but in reality, it's the truth. You need approval from Boston, for example, if you wanna apply to church anywhere.

You couldn't just go apply to church in the name of the Boston movement without approval from the Boston church. Then they have different categories of churches. You have the mother church, which is in Boston. You have pillar churches. Now Boston is also a pillar church, but it is the mother church at the same time because it's the first one.

But pillar churches are churches that have a very significant role. There are congregations that are responsible for sending teens and church planters to specific countries. And these pillar churches take talent from other different churches to supply their need. For example, the San Francisco Church of Christ is responsible for all of California, for Hawaii, and for Asia, for mission work. That's their territory that they have been carved out by Boston.

You know? The pillar church in San Francisco is responsible for that particular territory. You have capital city churches, and those are national churches. The church, for example, in Oklahoma City is a capital city church, and it's responsible for a certain territory. You have small city churches, countryside churches, and then you have house churches, the smallest group, the sum the smallest common denominator, if you wish, where each congregation divides up his territory into zones, and each zone has a leader.

And within each zone, there are house churches, and each house church itself has one of these leaders. House churches are all, as well as their local and zone leaders, overseen by the main congregation, usually usually capital city churches. Capital city churches oversee the small city and the house churches. These here are kind of feeder churches to capital city churches. Capital city churches provide resources, teams, and so on and so forth for pillar churches in their work in establishing the church in major areas.

And all of these received orders from the Boston Mother Church. Now the main problem with this system of organization is that one church can and does control other churches. And this is exactly the Roman Catholic system. You know, some of you may have a Roman Catholic background, you know that I do. And I mean, the province of Quebec, where I come from, is divided up.

You know, parishes, you know, it's divided up into sections, and diocese, where a bishop is in charge of a certain section and the cardinal is in charge of a a couple of bishops and so on and so forth. This is exactly this system. I mean, I I grew up under this system, where 1 church was in charge of you know, 1 man was in charge of 15 churches, and each church was in charge of little parishes out in the country. This is not a new system, boy. This if they say revolutionary.

Hey. This is very, very old. This is an old, old system. The problem, of course, with this is that this system for church organization is not taught in the New Testament. There's no pattern in the New Testament for a hierarchical church organization.

You can't find it. You can't even force it. It's not there. History also shows that each church in the apostolic era was independent and autonomous, And each congregation is admonished. In the New Testament, congregations are admonished to submit to who?

To Jesus Christ. How? By submitting to His word. There's nowhere in the New Testament where any apostle admonishes the church to submit to the system or to submit to the organization. Always the church is commanded to submit to Christ or to submit to the word or to submit to the spirit or to submit one to another in humility, but never to submit to the system or to the organization.

So this first of all, someone says, what's wrong with Boston? Well, the organization is not biblical. It's not a biblical organization. Is that dangerous? Sure.

We have to obey all things that are given to us in the Bible. Second thing that is wrong with Boston is that its view of authority is not biblical. Its view of authority these are subtle things, aren't they? You can't just kind of grab them, you have to explain them, but they're there nevertheless. Their view of authority is not biblical.

One of the basics of the entire movement is the concept that Jesus taught us that our jobs as Christians was to disciple other Christians in exactly the same way that he discipled the apostle. According to Boston, the job of the church, the job of individuals is to disciple each other the way that Jesus discipled the apostle. That was the that was the concept in the book Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Colvin. Now this concept permits the introduction of the idea that one Christian can and should have authority over another Christian in order to train him or train her in Jesus Christ. Just like Jesus had authority over the apostles in order to train them and mature them, then older Christians or mature Christians have responsibility and authority to train younger Christians.

You know, it sounds good. Sounds good to me. In the Boston mold, this has brought forth various levels of authority among ministers. Example, here's authority level for ministers. You have such a thing as a lead evangelist, the lead evangelist in Boston, Kip McKee, for example, the lead evangelist.

And you have a co evangelist. You have an intern, and then you have a zone leader, a house church leader, a woman's counselor, a discipler, and a disciple. Now I didn't list these in alphabetical order. I listed these in the order of importance, the order in which authority is vested in the Boston Movement. The lead evangelist has the most authority, and the co evangelist has the next level of authority.

And the intern, who is interning to become a co evangelist or a lead evangelist, has the next a zone leader, and and all the way down all the way down the line. What's the problem with this? Sounds good, sounds well organized, there ought to be the problem with this is that the New Testament sees no distinction in authority between any minister in the church. You know, Christ is the only head in the church, Colossians chapter 1 verse 18. And the Bible teaches us that all Christians must submit one to another, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 21.

And that the church must follow the leadership of the elders who have the role of leadership in each local congregation. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. Yes. There is submission. We submit to the eldership who is over us, who are over us in the lord.

That's biblical. Jesus' training of the apostles is not the pattern for normal church life. You know, I might say, woah. Woah. Woah.

Yeah. Jesus' training of the apostles is not the pattern for normal church life. There's the reason for that. The apostles' mission were to be was to be an eyewitness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they had they were empowered miraculously to carry out this witness. Which one of you are an eyewitness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

None of us qualify to be apostles in the sense that Peter was an apostle. And excuse me, which one of us will play the role of Jesus here? None of us can qualify to play the role of Jesus. That is not the pattern for the life in the New Testament. Another idea in their, you know, view of authority is that no evangelist is accepted as such unless he is appointed by Boston or trained in the Multiplying Ministry.

I knew a man in Canada who had who had been to school, who had completed training, you know, had served 15 years in the mission field, had established congregations, had established bible training schools, had preached the gospel, had brought 100 of people to Christ, if not 1,000, had trained native missionaries and sent them out, and then came back to the United States, and came back to Canada, actually, and began to work and became enthralled with the Boston movement. He had spent 15 hard years out in the field, and he had a little bit of fruit to show, a few congregations, a few 100, you know, conversions, perhaps 2 dozen country preachers going out establishing churches, and he felt discouraged. And he came back, and he saw, you know, Boston baptizing 500 in a 1000, and he became discouraged and became and I'm bored with this with this movement. And then all of a sudden, for some strange reason, he himself was rebaptized and could not preach the gospel until he went back into training at Boston, in Boston, Massachusetts, not in Montreal or in Toronto. He had to go to Boston, Massachusetts to get training.

Imagine, 15 years. I once asked him I won't mention names, but I once asked him. I said, what are what about all these people, the UBaptics? Are they not saved? What about all these preachers that you've sent out with the gospel?

Are they not saved, and the people that they're preaching to are not saved? Am I not saved? Do we not know the gospel? No? The New Testament teaches that knowledge of the word is what prepares a man for the ministry of the word.

2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 15, Paul says to Timothy, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture, he says, is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. The knowledge of the word is what prepares a man for ministry of the word, and along with purity of life is the only criteria to judge the evangelist's right to preach. In first Timothy chapter 4 verse 12, Paul says, let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. That's the criteria for being an evangelist, to know the word of God, have the zeal to preach it, and to have a life which is pure that you can offer forward as an example, that your words and your actions match.

Not that you have to go to a particular city and take training from a particular group of people. That's not the New Testament way. Timothy and Titus were never on different levels of authority. Another thing is, they about authority is that the criteria to determine spirituality in the Boston Movement is the production of disciples and the training of disciples. The more disciples that you've produced, the more disciples you've trained, the more authority that you have.

The essence of all the activity, prayer partners, internship, co evangelists, house leaders, quiet time, confession of sin, so on and so forth, has as its objective the cloning of disciples by the disciplers. And the more success you have at this, the more authority that you receive. But in the New Testament, the criteria to determine spirituality is not how many clones you make. The criteria to determine spirituality is the production of the fruit of the spirit. And this this is produced by obedience to the word, not obedience to men.

That's what Jesus tells us in John chapter 15 verses 1 to 7. If we obey the word, the word will produce in us spiritual fruit, a maturity in Christ, not obedience to men. We've fought that for 2000 years, not to obey man. Jesus said that the greatest in the kingdom will be the least, the servants of all, not those who are in charge of all, who are the great. And so what's wrong with the Boston youth movement?

Their view of authority is not a Bible view of authority. And then thirdly, their view of Christian relationships is unbiblical. The Boston Movement always has a master pupil relationship going. They always see people in the position of in between. 1 is always being discipled and discipling someone else.

Someone is is always a master, and someone else is always a pupil. In their system, one must be discipled by someone else. One must confess sin to someone else. One must read, must have quiet time sponsored by someone else. But the New Testament teaches that, that a Christian is a king and a priest.

First Peter chapter 2 verse 9. Peter says, we're priests and kings. We're royal priesthood. And no one is master over us except Jesus Christ in an individual sense. Did you know that?

No one is master over us except Christ Himself in an individual sense. And in a corporate sense, only the elders as a group are over us, individually in each congregation. You know, when I was battling this group in Canada, one of them came to me and said, Michael, why don't you become one of us? You're young and you're enthusiastic, and and and you're evangelistic. You know?

You're a yuppie. You wear a button down shirt. And I said to him, I spent 29 years in the Catholic church. No one will ever make me a prisoner again. When I heard the gospel, I became free.

No one, no one will will ever put a yoke back on my neck ever again. Not you, not anybody. Because now I know the truth, and I am free. And I will remain free forever. The New Testament teaches us that a Christian is a priest and a king.

No one is master over him. No one is master over him. Also, they always see salvation overseen by someone else. They always see each individual overseen by another, and a small group overseen by a house church leader. All the way to the top, the evangelist and ultimately the Boston church is over you.

But the New Testament teaches that we work out our own salvation as individuals. And God promises us that he'll provide the word, 2nd Timothy chapter 3, verse 15. He'll provide the holy spirit, Acts chapter 2 verse 38. And he'll provide shepherds, Acts chapter 20 verse 28, to help us as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. He won't leave us alone.

He'll give us the word to guide us. He'll give us the holy spirit to comfort us. He'll give us the shepherds to lead us. He'll give us all these things, but in the end, we work out our salvation. No one oversees our salvation.

We work it out. We begin it by saying, yes, lord Jesus. I come to confess your name, to be buried in the waters of baptism for the forgiveness of my sins. We begin there, and we continue by saying, yes, lord Jesus. I put away this sin.

Yes, Lord Jesus. I follow you. Yes, Lord Jesus. I will serve your church. Yes.

I will submit to your word. No one dictates our salvation. So the Boston movement is incorrect because its view of authority is not biblical, its view of organization is not biblical, and its view of Christian relationships is not biblical. And the reason that we have a hard time a lot of times is that these ideas, these concepts are not, you know, clear. They're not black and white.

You gotta think about them to understand. But these issues have divided many churches and have ruined thousands of people. Let me give you a couple of special terms that I want you to think about here. A couple of special terms. House church.

Because again, we use the same terminology, but it means something different. A house church, these are groups who meet in a house overseen by 1 leader. And the house church usually feeds the local city church. Now house church is a biblical concept. It's biblical for Christians to share their lives for mutual edification and to do so in each other's homes, Acts chapter 2 verse 46.

But this idea becomes wrong when this is formed into a unit overseen by 1 person, and this unit itself is overseen along with other house churches by 1 single congregation, as is the custom and and and system in the Boston movement. If a church meets in a house, then it is an autonomous and independent congregation. It's not to be ruled by one man. Eventually, that group needs to find elders and and grow and so on and so forth. Another term is discipleship.

Again, a legitimate New Testament word. The process where one person is molding another person to be a mature Christian. It is biblical to go out and make other disciples of Christ through preaching and baptizing and through teaching. Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 to 20. It is wrong, however, to say that one system for doing so is ordained of God and another system is no good, as is said by the Boston movement.

Every congregation, this one included, is responsible to preach, to baptize, and to teach so that people can become discipled and remain faithful to Jesus Christ. And every congregation must do it with the tools that they have at hand. In the 1st century, Paul went into synagogues and he preached on the Sabbath, and he he exhorted people to believe in Christ, and he used the old testament scriptures as proof. 2000 years later, in Montreal, for years, I used television and radio to do the same thing, an electronic pulpit. Two different methods, exactly the same message.

Another term is prayer partner or discipleship partner, very important. This is the basis for the whole movement. It's the basic unit of measurement. It is the point where one disciple is placed over another in order to begin discipling him or discipling her. And this system finds its origins again, Robert Coleman's master plan of evangelism, not in the Bible.

I mean, it's right for us to call all men to become disciples of Jesus Christ and to help them find out for themselves through study and through prayer and through teaching and guidance how they can best serve the Lord. But it is wrong when one is discipled into a system where discipling is the end rather than the means. Another thing too that we find in the New Testament, if you're to do a study, is that discipling is usually done by the group rather than by 1 single individual. We encourage each other. The group encourages each other.

The young teach the old. We mutually edify each other. And then finally no, that's it. We mutually edify each other. Now the Boston movement is based on a man made system of ideas that makes its teachings on organization, on authority, and on relationships within the body incorrect.

And my question has always been, why why have we been frozen into inaction? Why don't we do anything? We just let ourselves get sucker punched over and over and over again. I think it's because the results are so spectacular. You know, this is a pragmatic snare that says, the end justifies the mean.

The movement as a whole has not been marked out or really been condemned in a serious way by the church as dangerous and destructive and divisive. You know why? I think because in North America, we are trained to measure success first and foremost by size, and not by truth. I mean, I keep hearing over and over again, but boy, how can you argue with the success? I mean, they baptized 3,000 people, you know, in 1 year.

How could you argue with that? There must be something right. I tell you, in Quebec, they baptized 2,000 people a month in the Catholic church. Does that mean they're right? They indoctrinate a 1000000 people a month in China into communism.

Does that mean it's right? I mean, if size makes you right, boy, we sure are wrong, because we are the tiniest, aren't we? Very humbling when you look at stats. You say, you know, the methodists and the southern baptists, the the the the the the the the churches of Christ mainline, you know, point 012%. You know, I mean, if we're talking about if size makes you right, we're dead wrong.

But size never made right in god's sight. Truth makes right. Truth makes right. We hate to argue with size, especially when we haven't matched size. We hate to argue with it.

I tell you this. They are the new legalists that promote submission to by the human spirit to mortal men in the name of discipleship to Christ. They're the new legalists. But I tell you, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

That's what Paul said 2000 years ago. Alright. One last overhead and then we're out of here. How did Boston proof your church? How did Boston proof your church?

How did Boston proof still water? Number 1, make no apologies in condemning its practices. This group is a fact of life, and we must deal with it because it won't go away. But if it won't go away, you need to be ready. How did Boston Proof your church?

Make no apologies in condemning its practice. One of the early mistakes was that the church tried to reconcile differences and refused to accept that this group was ruthless and deceitful in its practice. As I kept seeing over and over again apologetic articles all the time, give them a chance, give them a chance, rather than marking out the things that were obviously wrong. And we paid for that. Like all cults, it believes that the end justifies the mean.

I know this from from close-up. The end justifies the mean. But what does Paul say in Galatians chapter 1, verse 6? He says, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another. Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of not do away with the gospel, just distort it.

But even though we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. If it's different, let him be accursed. Don't apologize. Galatians 1 teaches us to reject and condemn those who pervert the gospel, and this group does this in substituting human achievement for grace as the identifying factor of the power of the gospel. Do you hear what I said?

They say that the power of gospel the power of the gospel is seen in production. I say the power of the gospel is seen in grace. And you are strong and you are mature in Christ, if you're able to stand and say, I stand only by the grace of God, if you have the courage to say that, then you're right. That's what the gospel teaches. We need to knock them and turn away from this group as one that is hurting the cause of Christ, and one that has caused great division in the church.

If not this passage, what about Romans chapter 16 verse 17, where Paul tells us that we should mark and turn away from those who caused dissension in the church? How many hundreds of congregations have been divided? How many thousands of people are now seeking counseling because they've been destroyed by this group before we take action? Secondly, keep evangelism as the main focus of the church, Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 and 20. I tell you the only reason that this movement even got started was because there has been a letdown in evangelistic zeal in the church, and they simply filled the void with their twisted version of the great commission.

That's all that happened. Leaders need to renew their commitment to making evangelism the foundational ministry upon which the other works of the church are based in order to keep a proper spiritual tension that will maintain enthusiasm and challenge in the work of the church. Evangelism is the spear point of the church, and it's what makes every other ministry pick. BBS is evangelism, and it's a sign of weak spiritual commitment that there isn't more commitment and more interest in that particular program. That's where we get the message out into the community.

Finally, number 3, create an environment of mutual dependence and communication. Acts chapter 2 verse 42. You see, cults strive on people who are isolated and frustrated and need something to belong to and someone to understand them. In Acts chapter 2 verse 42, the Bible tells us that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, into prayer, to fellowship, to breaking of bread. What we read between the lines here is a fellowship of believers who were codependent, who were open with each other and communicative towards god and towards each other, An open, warm, accepting, caring, interested, supportive fellowship is the best deterrent to the wolves coming in and stealing away the unsuspecting ones.

In the end, this movement, like all cults, will collapse upon itself. That that'll happen. You can be sure of that. In the end, this movement will fail, just like all the other movements throughout history. But in the meantime, it is wreaking such havoc and such destruction on so many unsuspecting souls in the church and, unfortunately, sold towards searching for the truth.

I say to you, beware, beware, beware. Be careful. Listen to the lesson tonight and take the call. Tonight, we're going to sing, as always, a song of invitation. If you need prayer, if you need to confess your lord Jesus Christ for him on in back to us, if you need to make your needs known to the elders, or you need to be restored to the church because you have fallen away from the church.

Whatever your need, we sing this song at this time in order to give you a moment to reflect on what you need to do and come forward to express those needs now to express those needs now to express those needs now to express those needs now to express those needs now to express those needs now.