How Can I tell if a Christian Ministry is OK?

Question:

QUESTION: I was forwarded an email from a Christian ministry that looks a little goofy to me. The preacher supposedly heard from God about renaming Harlem. How do I know if this is off the deep end?

Answer:

It’s important in today’s day of proliferating Christian ministries to have some grounds for knowing what is legitimate or not. How do you know? So when you see a Christian ministry or minister that looks a little kooky, the first thing I want to know is if he/she or it stands apart from historic Christianity, if they see themselves branching out on their own in their beliefs. There’s a lot of diversity of style inside the Church so it’s not always easy to tell if a new church is really peddling a new belief.

A new Christianity, no matter what the teacher says, is not a good thing. The church is always in need of reform, but never to a brand new thing, but always back to it’s original design, laid out by Christ. The teacher who says, “we’re reestablishing the one TRUE church” forgets that Jesus said his church would prevail to the end (Matt 16:18). So if it never gets “disestablished” why would someone feel the need to “reestablish” it?

Not surprisingly then, when a supposedly Christian movement separates itself from the historical church, usually a bunch of bad things come with that

1. Christ’s identity is usually lowered, from unique Son of God of Scripture and Creed, to something less,
2. Tthe Bible gets diminished in importance, or added to or subtracted from
3. Christ’s work on the cross gets minimized in importance for salvation, usually requiring some additional and peculiar works for restored relationship with God, and
4. The teacher who brings the “new revelations” gets put on a pedestal and becomes the only source for “truth”.

Here’s a handy way to remember those key tests. It uses the acronym C.U.L.T. (I realize that the word “cult” can be an inflammatory descriptor but these four tests I still find to be very helpful). Here’s the questions you should ask about any church:

C – who do they think Christ was?

U – what’s their Ultimate Authority?

L – do they think eternal Life is gained by works or grace?

T – what place does the Teacher have?

The ministry you’re talking about is charismatic in flavor, which is a branch of Christians that elevate gifts of prophesy. This is not unbiblical, but it does open the door to certain excesses and abuses in some cases. Preachers (and parishioners) in this wing of the church regularly feel they have direct, communication from God. Is this bad? I don’t think so. But, when a Pastor starts to tell of direct revelations from God it’s like using nuclear power. If true, there’s the wonder and power of a Living God using his people to advance his purposes, and if untrue, the chance for abusive charlatanism is quadrupled… Unfortunately, history tells us our concern is not invalid. Certain kinds of abuses have gotten associated with certain flavors of Christian. Pedophilia with Catholic priests, sexual and financial scandal with Charismatic preachers who make bold pronouncements about what God said to them.

The danger in this ministry or others like it, is simply that the preacher’s “revelations” start to drive the church MORE THAN basic, straight forward biblical instruction, which ALL Christians OUGHT TO put on a higher plain of spiritual authority than anything else. However, other ministries will be subject to other dangers, so an emphasis on prophecy is not automatic cause for concern. The lack of humility, grace and Christ-like example of the person/ministry in question will often give you advanced indication of scandal or heresy often long before such things are commonly known. For example, any ministry without clear lines of accountability for their leadership is a train wreck waiting to happen, even if so far all the graphs read up and to the right.

Speaking of prophetic utterances in the church the Bible says:

1 Thess 5:19-21 “Do not put out the Spirit`s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good.”

So the dual command is simple: don’t immediately scoff at the supernatural, because a Living God can and does speak to his people… however, don’t be credulous dupes either. Test everything according to what we’re sure God has already said and done (the Scriptural record is our benchmark of this). And don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. There might be something good to pay attention to, in the middle of other stuff we label as “chaff” – like the weirdness of a hairdo, or the excesses of style.