Andy Stanley Says He Preaches in a Way That Gives Pagans Permission Not to Believe
North Point Community Church ‘impastor’ Andy Stanley continued his wretched job of unhitching the church from all the scriptures and proliferating his bizarre and sub-biblical hermeneutic, claiming that he purposeful preaches in a way so that pagans will feel comfortable not believing the gospel message, and purposefully encourages them to “check out” when he’s only talking about Christian issues.
You’ll recall that Stanley previously said that it doesn’t matter if the bible is true, so long as it’s ‘mostly reliable, and that the “foundation of our faith is not the whole bible. In 2018, he got shellacked from all sides for saying that Christians needed to unhitch themselves from the Old Testament and in a recent sermon told Christians not to follow Jesus through the Old Testament, but only through the Gospels. Just a few weeks ago, he also said there’s no ‘Clear Divine Standard’ of God revealed to mankind.
Now, on a recent ‘He Gets Us’ podcast with Ed Stetzer and Albert Tate, Stanley explains his novel approach.
Stetzer: Okay, you’re saying to give them permission not to believe, but you are calling them to something, you’re calling them to a belief? How do you do both of those things?
Stanley: It’s a great question and tell me when I’m talking too long. The invitation is to follow Jesus. That’s it. The invitation is not to believe something. I’m not sure you can make yourself believe something you don’t believe-that’s a big discussion for another day.
The invitation is to follow Jesus. This was his invitation before they even believed, before they knew anything about Jesus; follow me, take a step, follow me through the Gospels. So changing, you know, it affects our apologetic, it affects our invitation, it affects our approach, it affects everything once we decide, you know what, we are creating a safe place.
And of course, we’re going to challenge people, but the great thing is this: a practical sermon works for anybody that’s willing to practice it, whether it’s on marriage, relationships, fixing a relationship, money, whatever it might be. So there’s a way to approach it, and one of the things that I’ve just gotten in the habit of doing is I’ve just, I’ll say in the middle of a sermon. ‘Hey, if you’re not a Christian, what I’ve said so far, knock yourself out. This will help you. From this point on, you may just want to check out because this is really just for us crazy Christians.
I mean, I will be that specific because I want them to know I know they’re there, and I have no authority over them, and I’m not expecting them to do anything. They’re a guest in our home. This is how we do it here, but we’re so glad you’re here.
And again, that’s my language. I think the better we get at that, the easier it is for people who are exploring faith or reexploring the faith after maybe a bad church experience. So yes, there is a call to action there is a challenge
h/t Andy Stanley
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Apparently, Andy doesn’t believe John 3:16 “that whosever believes in Him…”
OK let’s call it – Andy doesn’t believe the Bible, doesn’t believe in Jesus, doesn’t believe in God, doesn’t believe in the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.
Doesn’t that make him an unbeliever?
He’s me of many so-called preachers out there working for the other team. It’s just that Stanley is one of the more obvious ones, not that his congregations can tell.
Seems like the blind, leading the blind, like our Lord told us about the Pharisees. I wonder what his papa, Charles, thinks of his ministry as Charles was not reformed in his hermeneutic and in what he no doubt taught Andy growing up. And look at the fruit it’s born.
I’m familiar with father Stanley’s ministry having worked there for about a decade, and I know his dad doesn’t approve. Ironically, Andy originally broke from his dad (officially) for his not stepping down for being divorced. Maybe that was just an excuse to get away from the denomination which is pretty conservative. At one point, Andy’s church would not marry divorced folks. Now Andy’s talking about marrying gay people!
I dunno, the word “believe” appears nearly 250 times in the Bible, so…
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This is what’s wrong with most churches these days. Church isn’t for the unbelievers. Church is for those who believe to come and worship God. A lot of modern churches have turned this around and make the service about converting sinners.