Often when someone encounters Disciple-making Movement strategy, they get concerned about non-believers reading the Bible, learn to obey and share what they are learning. The question goes like this, “How do you avoid heresy?” The presumption is, there must be a “trained” human there to manage the content to avoid ‘misinterpreting’ the Bible.
I heard a foreign leaders say this recently, “if the church is to be devoid of lukewarm heresy that has plagued it for years, we must have trained theological leaders.” This statement has the same roots as the questions often asked about the dangers of letting unredeemed people discover God by reading the Bible.
So let’s put this to the test. The US, probably the most theologically educated church in the world. How are we doing?
Lifeway Research and Ligoner Ministries just published a research project on the beliefs of “Evangelicals.” It is important to note that this is not “Christians” but Evangelicals
those who strongly agreed that the Bible is the highest authority for Christian belief; that personal evangelism is very important; that Jesus’ death on the cross was the only way to cancel the penalty of sin; and that trusting in Jesus is the only way to eternal salvation.
The graph below shows some of the some of the critical ‘heresy’ that exists in the Evangelical pews.
The church largely settled the question of Jesus’ origin in A.D. 325 with the Nicene Creed, which states that Jesus is “begotten not made.” The belief that Jesus was created is called Arianism, named after the fourth-century priest Arius who argued from Bible verses such as John 3:16 and Colossians 1:15 that “there was a time when the son was not.”
Yes, in the pews of the the most trained theological leaders you will find heresy. It shouldn’t surprise us since the Apostle Paul found himself fighting hersey.
So my question, “Why are people so concerned about heresy in DMM (Disciple-making Movements). See this video for explanation of DMM click here.
The secret lies in the mindset shift from knowledge based discipleship to obedience based disciple making. For more on Mindset Shifts see Spent Matches Chapter 4. click here
Listen to a podcast on the Lifeway Research click here.