The Office

Shelly held the book she had taken out of her purse and glanced around the office. A large overflowing bookcase towered in the corner, between walls that were lined with framed certificates. This confrontation thing was not easy for her to do, and she was more than relieved when the youth pastor of the large evangelical church assured her that he totally agreed with her. She was just a mom of teenagers, so when he concurred that Rob Bell had indeed wandered away from orthodoxy, Shelly breathed a sigh of relief. However, the peaceful feeling quickly left her when the youth pastor mentioned that he still thought the Nooma DVD's in question were "great conversation starters," and he "wouldn't hesitate to put another one on." Even after she revealed to him that Rob Bell is a fan of Ken Wilber (New Age/Buddhist mystic) by showing him a page in her copy of Velvet Elvis that she had brought with her! Wasn't it shocking for him to see that Bell had recommended spending three entire months reading Wilber's A Brief History of Everything?

Apparently not, but she was assured she needn't worry about false teaching in the light of the fact that their leadership loved God's Word and their youth group was not going emergent. Never. They valued the Bible, the youth pastor insisted, but Shelly noticed it was not touched or read once during their conversation, although one lay nicely open on the tidy desk. Several times during their discussion the youth pastor got up up and reached for other books that he highly recommended she read. Later, she couldn't remember all the unfamiliar titles, but she did recognize one new book by Chuck Colson (1). Another supposedly excellent book was called unChristian. Had she heard of it before? No, she hadn't. In fact, Shelly didn't discover until months later that it wasn't really the best book at all when she accidentally stumbled across a book review, and found out that its co-author, Gabe Lyons, was the founder of the Fermi Project (an emerging social gospel ‘experiment’ in church shifting to find the good in our culture).

When the subject finally changed from Bell and books to her concerns about the experiential worship night that was to take place that week, Shelly was assured that it was not going to be a Roman Catholic thing at all - in fact, it was nothing at all like the title suggested. Odd. Why then, thought the teen's mom, was it even called a Tenebrae service in the first place? It was nothing for her to worry about though, as the person in charge of the evening loved Jesus, and besides, "even the Calvinists were doing these things now." As if that made it okay.

Concerning the prayer labyrinths that the youth group had been participating in the last few years, she learned that some other parents had initially protested, but when they changed the name to prayer stations, all had been well - once again, no cause for alarm here. It was just a nice way for teens to experience God. Although the youth pastor spoke very respectfully to her, Shelly was beginning to feel foolish for asking all these questions - besides, walking through prayer stations was probably a better pastime than hanging out at bars or doing drugs. Perhaps she had over reacted and misjudged.

The youth pastor glanced up at the clock. He had to go to a meeting, and so Shelly was politely ushered out of the office after being thoroughly assured and reassured that all was well. Yet, as she walked through the church parking lot, she strangely had an uneasy sense in her spirit that all was not well. But then, who was she to say anything more? It wasn't her office wall that was lined with shiny plaques and things like Bible college degrees and diplomas. She felt unsure about what had just happened in the office that day. The young pastor had seemed sincere, but his answers didn't appear to match his decisions. Only time would tell, she thought. Still, Shelly knew that she had been obedient to God by coming here today and asking this young pastor questions that were on her heart. In the end, every shepherd was accountable to God anyways, not her. In the meantime, all she could to was watch and pray that even if this shepherd would not listen to her, he would heed the warnings of the Holy Spirit, and not lead his lambs down the ecumenical, emerging contemplative path where so many others were going.

End notes:

(1) Read about Chuck Colson and Ecumenism (ECT)

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Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1
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Jeremiah 7