Greg Laurie joins SBC

KevinC1129

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Following another year of declining membership and baptism, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) just gained one of the biggest evangelists and megachurch pastors in the country: Greg Laurie.

The day after Laurie’s annual Harvest America crusade, he announced that his church would be joining the SBC, which was also holding its annual convention in Phoenix.

Laurie is among the best-known leaders of the Calvary Chapel movement, and the one-time heir apparent to its late founder Chuck Smith. Though his 15,000-member Harvest Christian Fellowship in California will remain affiliated with the 1,000-plus church network even after moving into the SBC, the move makes Laurie’s shift toward mainstream evangelicalism official.

Greg Laurie, Calvary Chapel’s Big Crusader, Joins Southern Baptist Convention

Not sure how this is going to work, or what effect it will have on other Calvary fellowships. Just don't understand how he is going to remain affiliated with Calvary Chapel while being a Southern Baptist.
 
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KevinC1129

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I've tried listening to him on the radio. His message is pretty decent if you can get past his self aggrandizing and constant sales pitches for his new book about Steve McQueen.

He seems to have started doing that more and more recently, especially the pitching his books and other material. He was even doing it during the most recent Harvest Crusade, which sort of surprised me, as in the past, he has kept on point and just shared the gospel.
I still think he's one of the best pure evangelists out there today though.
 
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justme6272

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Just don't understand how he is going to remain affiliated with Calvary Chapel while being a Southern Baptist.
What's the big affiliation? Each Calvary Chapel is independently owned and operated. It's not a trademark name. Anyone can start a church and call it Calvary Chapel. The pastor decides who his board will be made up of (friends who will do what he wants). Each church is it's own boss, unlike the SBC which requires you to abide by their denominational rules or get kicked out at the next convention, as has happened to churches who go off the liberal deep end.

I'm at a loss as to why any church, especially a successful one, would want to lower itself by joining the bureaucratic SBC. There's nothing to be gained from it, especially for Laurie.
 
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justme6272

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Just don't understand how he is going to remain affiliated with Calvary Chapel while being a Southern Baptist.
Easy. Follow the money.

By the way, when is the next non-SBC conference of speakers who are going to charge everyone megabucks to attend, which they can redistribute amongst themselves? Will Laurie be one of those "speakers?" There's big money in having a gift for gab. Franklin Graham pays himself $700,000 a year just to head up an inherited non-profit when his gab is not even that great. (If you've heard him preach, you know that he's no Billy Graham.) That doesn't include all other sources of income.

People are profiting off ministry in ways that turn my stomach green.
 
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TuffyS

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I have been listening to Greg Laurie for maybe 20 years or so and I have seen a shift in his style of preaching in the 3-4 years. At first I was taken back a little and even stopped listening to him, about that time my wife "found" Greg and started listening to him. I love an in depth dive into scripture and she has a harder time following many of the Pastors I enjoy. She loves Greg and so it made me take another look and what I have realized is Greg is now focused more on evangelism and salvation and that "feeding the flock" is left more to others. I watch him on Sundays with her and it is more like a pop concert and a talk show BUT his message of salvation is right on target. The method has changed but the message has not. Possibly Greg sees a way to reach more souls through SBC than he can on his own. The time is short and you can see the urgency in his methods.
 
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JohnD70X7

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I have been listening to Greg Laurie for maybe 20 years or so and I have seen a shift in his style of preaching in the 3-4 years. At first I was taken back a little and even stopped listening to him, about that time my wife "found" Greg and started listening to him. I love an in depth dive into scripture and she has a harder time following many of the Pastors I enjoy. She loves Greg and so it made me take another look and what I have realized is Greg is now focused more on evangelism and salvation and that "feeding the flock" is left more to others. I watch him on Sundays with her and it is more like a pop concert and a talk show BUT his message of salvation is right on target. The method has changed but the message has not. Possibly Greg sees a way to reach more souls through SBC than he can on his own. The time is short and you can see the urgency in his methods.

Too bad. Feeding the flock is what produces a congregation seekers of truth want to belong to.

The trouble with overemphasis on evangelism alone is that it's more about numbers than actual souls saved. We are to DISCIPLE all nations... not just convert them to what most will consider just another religion with a Jesus Fish on it.
 
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JohnD70X7

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I studied at a SBC seminary extension campus in the late 1980's and found it to be focused on numbers and tithing... compromised by humanist (which is another way of saying satanist see Matthew 16:23) teaching going back to higher criticism of the Bible (with such false doctrines as Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah which were the seedbed for such heresy as the Jesus Seminar in the 1990's) ← where mere mortal men based on their humanist scholarships voted whether or not Jesus actually said something in scripture or not.

I left the SBC and never looked back (except as a temporary local congregation to occasionally worship at). We went directly to Calvary Chapels before that (just after I left seminary and the denomination. Shook Pastor Chuck's hand after one of his marvelous sermons. Such a happy man. He had David Hocking in his staff in those days. A man of grace. Most ministries wouldn't touch Hocking after losing his own ministry over a lasp in moral judgement. Pastor Chuck did.

I wish you could have seen the people in his congregation. Bikers, beach bums, I'm sure druggies and hookers... All there to worship Jesus and hear the Word of God the way only Pastor Chuck could teach it.

We were in San Diego in those days and we asked Pastor Chuck if there were any Churches like his (we were not too familiar with the Calvary Chapel movement in those days). "Oh, yes," he said with a big grin. He had just helped Pastor Mike Macintosh dedicate a new campus / building in Rancho Santa Fe (north San Diego county) Horizon Christian Fellowship. Macintosh was a junior pastor at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa for years before starting his own ministry in San Diego (which had four campuses at one time... one was an old public school the Mount Alifan campus). All through the 1990's we worshipped at the various campuses Pastor Mike, and Pastor Miles McPherson (who began his own ministry The Rock Church that began at SDSU (Go Aztecs) in the auditorium then rebuilt / refurbished a main campus where the old Marine base used to be (Liberty Station)).

When we moved out of State it was hard to find Calvary Chapels that appealed to us. Sigh...
 
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JohnD70X7

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We did go to a Methodist Church who had a wonderfully gifted Pastor Lady (junior pastor) who could teach, sing, play a variety of instruments... But the denomination played the old shell game to shift pastors around... she did get senior pastor in a far off town and then retired eventually here.
 
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JohnD70X7

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I try but can't listen to him. Seems like he says all the right words but I don't feel the Spirit is behind him...
Not your cup of tea? Find a good teacher (who teaches biblical truth rather than the traditions of man) that is your cup of tea.
My Beloved Bride loves Jesus and is edified by most Bible teachers but some really turn her off with shouting etc.
Me, I can listen to just about any type so long as whet they preach and teach is true and biblical.
Some I must admit really put me to sleep (but they typically did not have a passion for what they taught)...
 
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