Encouraging Mail From a Reader
I’ll be honest. Doing a blog that challenges the doctrines of a large and popular church in the area is a daunting task. I don’t want to be disobedient to the Lord and I don’t want to be doing it with the wrong motives. After the prosperity with a purpose conference I kind of thought of when Jesus said “let the blind lead the blind”, then I get an email like the one below. I asked Nathan for permission before posting the email, so don’t think just because you send me an email I will post it (although I might).
Also, thank you to others how have also sent emails of encouragement during my time of inactivity – your emails and prayers are very appreciated! I think Nathan’s story is like many out there who see the emptiness of false doctrine and a self-serving form of religion that only puts our eyes on what we can gain in this life, when all we need to gain is Christ.
Hi Craig
I just wanted to share with you some of my story over the past year. I’m an 18-year old living in Ontario, Canada. I was involved with the Pentecostal church for a few years through a local youth group and then their church. I left the Pentecostal church last March after much emotional and some psychological pain and stress.
I was at a youth convention in 2005 where Judah Smith was the speaker, and I found what he had to say really connected with me. Over the next couple years, I began downloading and listening to his podcast sermons, at first only once in a while, but eventually on a weekly basis. I built up a library of Judah’s and other TCC and guest pastors messages that was well over 100.
Through these messages, I effectively became a part of Generation Church despite being thousands of miles away. I loved listening to Judah and Jude Fouquier preach; I enjoyed their elaborate and funny stories, and I always felt that I got some life changing out of each message. Listening to those messages, I believe, brought me a lot closer to God, and made me a lot more enthusiastic about studying my Bible than if I hadn’t heard them.
At the same time, I would sometimes get that little twinge when listening to Judah preach that he seemed to be going off in a weird direction, or might be just a little too arrogant. I’m Anglican-raised, so I guess I have a built in aversion to over-the-top spiritual emotionalism. Anyway, the power of whatever altar call being given at the time was strong enough to convince those doubts to quietly go away. After all, nobody’s perfect, right?
As I mentioned earlier, I went through a long and painful breakup with my local Pentecostal church, which I won’t detail here except to say that it was an extremely difficult time, and a necessary one that brought me closer to God. It was very soon after I left in March 2007 that I stumbled onto your blog. Even thought I had left the Pentecostal church, I was still a loyal disciple of GC, and reading your blog gave me quite the shock. I read the exchange between you and Wendell Smith and had my TCC world rather rocked by it. I didn’t want to accept what you were saying, or I tried to find some kind of explanation for it that would also exonerate TCC and GC. But I kept going back to your blog to read more and more, and the more I read, and the more accounts I was exposed to, the more I saw that TCC was falling deeper and deeper into false teaching¦teachings that I was eagerly lapping up through the podcasts.
Sometime after starting to read the blog, about two months after I started, I just stopped listening to GC messages. It was like a mechanism flipped inside and I just didn’t desire them anymore, where before I craved them like a drug. That’s the best analogy I can come up with; being addicted to Judah’s preaching. While my desire for Judah’s preaching died, the disciplines of Bible study and prayer he helped inspire in me stayed on, ironically. I’ve since gone back and listened to a couple old messages and heard things there I missed before, indications of false teachings and unbiblical doctrines that I was too blinded by to see until later. Having now seen where they’ve gone, I am deeply thankful that God opened my eyes when he did, as it seems things have gone from bad to worse.
I write all this to encourage you, Craig. I enjoy reading your site very much, and I’ve been a bit worried at the lack of posting. I understand we all lead busy lives that take priority, but in case you were feeling really down or discouraged, I want to remind you that you are reaching lives not just in Seattle, but across a continent. The influence of TCC is larger than the city, thanks to the Internet, but so is the reach of your blog I thank God for putting me onto your site. I love the truth, and God used that love, anchored onto your site, to bring me out of my TCC-fueled fantasies and false doctrines. Your open, honest, and humble words, along with many of the loyal commentators, have helped me in my own walk with God. Keep fighting the good fight, keep doing it the way you have been doing it, with humility and truth. Be encouraged, and know that you are being used by God, even when it’s just something as lowly as typing on a keyboard. I’m praying for you Craig. God bless you.
Nathan
Tags: Generation Church, Judah Smith, The City Church, Wendell Smith
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