Ministry Confusion

I’ve been reading about and posting some notes about the current Annihilation controversy. I do think this article presents perhaps a useful view of how the process of straying into doctrinal error occurs over at long period of time 30 years or so.

Here are some quoted highlights:

For years, Cameron’s ministry orbit reflected that confidence. His work with Ray Comfort and Way of the Master was defined by a confrontational, law-driven evangelistic method that assumed eternal torment as the backdrop of every gospel appeal. It was confessional, sharp-edged, and unembarrassed about doctrinal boundaries. Plain, public truth-telling was not a scandal; it was part of both evangelism and discipleship.

In arguing for the importance of preaching the fearfulness of the eternal wrath of God in evangelism, Comfort wrote on page 116:

Perhaps modern evangelicalism’s reticence to preach what produces fear is simply due to concern about the reaction of sinners. Some may worry that the message may be aligned with what is commonly called “hell-fire” preaching. Yet there is a vast difference between the use of the Law and hell-fire preaching. Understandably, the thought of the existence of hell, without the use of the Law to justify its existence, is unreasonable to a sinner’s mind. How could a God of love create a place of eternal torment? Imagine if the police suddenly burst into your home, thrust you into prison, and angrily shouted, “You are going away for a long time!” Such conduct would undoubtedly leave you bewildered and angry. What they have done is unreasonable.
However, if the law burst into your home and instead told you specifically why you were in trouble by saying, “We have discovered 10,000 marijuana plants growing in your backyard. You are going away for a long time!” at least you would understand why you are in trouble. Knowledge of the law translated fear into understanding.

Unfortunately, sometime around 2009–2011, Cameron’s formation took an unfortunate turn.

During that period, he and his family began attending Conejo Church in Southern California, founded and led by pastor and missionary Rex Holt—a Southern Baptist congregation that, by 2010, was firmly situated within the Rick Warren/Saddleback/Purpose-Driven ecosystem. Its stated values — “Relationships win out over rules,” “Acceptance brings healing,” “Encouragement imparts grace” — were classic seeker-sensitive slogans. Its affiliations included IMB, NAMB, the California Southern Baptist Convention, and Warren’s PEACE Plan. A sermon series titled “The Secret” reflected therapeutic, motivational framing rather than confessional exposition. In keeping with Purpose Driven methods, any spiritual fad was fair game.

In a seeker-sensitive ecosystem, epistemology expands: intuition, experience, and relational harmony begin to share authority with Scripture and confessions. Hospitality becomes a theological virtue that blunts discernment. Tone becomes a gatekeeper that filters out the hard truth. Public rebuke comes to feel unloving, even when the error is public. Doctrinal “questions” are elevated to the level of virtue, while settled convictions are recast as arrogance.

This is not a uniquely Kirk Cameron story. It is a parable of modern evangelicalism.

When churches catechize their people in G.R.A.C.E. acronyms, therapeutic series, and “relationships over rules,” they do not simply change how people feel about church. They change how people reason about doctrine. They habituate leaders to prize consensus over clarity, to treat the process of sharpening doctrine as a barrier to growth, and to interpret disagreement as a tone problem rather than a truth problem.

That formation does not create heresy overnight. It erodes the habits of mind that make heresy recognizable.

Cameron’s journey from Revival’s Golden Key to “Hellgate” thus illustrates a larger pattern: seeker-sensitive culture does not stop at responding to worship style preferences — it continues its submission to fleshly preferences until it’s telling lost people the “good news” that hell isn’t as bad as the church has always taught.

What begins as a pragmatic church-growth strategy ends up functioning as an epistemological WD-40, loosening doctrines that previous generations treated as long settled and fundamental.

None of this requires denying that Cameron is a brother in Christ. Nor does it require labeling him a heretic. The concern is deeper: it is about the integrity of how Christians engage one another in public, and how pastors steward the truth entrusted to them.

You can read the whole article here.

Two other notes, I found Comfort’s quote about Hell-Fire preaching interesting.

Likewise reading the Mission Statement of Conejo on the surface doesn’t sound bad. relationships are a good thing. Such position statements are very common in many Evangelical Churches, they do sound very good. But they subtly shift the emphasis from solid Biblical theology towards this side. Much of this comes from the Purpose Driven Way, and modern Pragmatism of Church Consultants.