Carl Trueman offers a great critique exposing the arrogance and scriptural naivety of Andy Stanley.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
We quote the ending of his critique here to point out the glaring sin of Andy Stanley:
“And that is ultimately the saddest aspect of the Andy Stanleys of this world. It is not their patronizing attitude to others. It is not their arrogant assumption that they represent the culture or that they have the right to tell the rest of us how we should think. It is not the sloppy way they bandy words like ‘culture’ and even ‘happiness’ around without ever offering a definition of what they think they mean. It is not their crass prioritization of raw numbers. It is not their complete lack of imagination regarding the moral possibilities of ‘culture.’ Rather, it is the fact that what they confidently present as radical insights are really nothing but lazy, insipid, prosaic, and predictable capitulations to the values of the spirit of the age. In short, they are simply dressing up their society’s tastes as absolute truth. Unimaginative, respectable, lazy and lethal. The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie, is it not?”
Andy Stanley writes:
People are far more interested in what works than what’s true. I hate to burst your bubble, but virtually nobody in your church is on a truth quest. Including your spouse. They are on happiness quests. As long as you are dishing out truth with no here’s the difference it will make tacked on the end, you will be perceived as irrelevant by most of the people in your church, student ministry, or home Bible study. You may be spot-on theologically, like the teachers of the law in Jesus’ day, but you will not be perceived as one who teaches with authority. Worse, nobody is going to want to listen to you.
Now, that may be discouraging. Especially the fact that you are one of the few who is actually on a quest for truth. And, yes, it is unfortunate that people aren’t more like you in that regard. But that’s the way it is. It’s pointless to resist. If you try, you will end up with a little congregation of truth seekers who consider themselves superior to all the other Christians in the community. But at the end of the day, you won’t make an iota of difference in this world. And your kids…more than likely your kids, are going to confuse your church with the church and once they are out of your house, they probably won’t visit the church house. Then one day they will show up in a church like mine and want to get baptized again because they won’t be sure the first one took. And I’ll be happy to pastor your kids. But I would rather you face the reality of the world we live in and adjust your sails. Culture is like the wind. You can’t stop it. You shouldn’t spit in it. But, if like a good sailor you will adjust your sails, you can harness the winds of culture to take your audience where they need to go. If people are more interested in being happy, then play to that. Jesus did.
Source: Andy Stanley’s recent book, Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend, Zondervan: Published 2012, (Kindle 1216-1234). [Source]
Source: Carl Trueman, Reformation 21, http://www.reformation21.org/articles/the-discreet-charm-of-the-bourgeoisie.php (Accessed 4/07/3016, Published 4/07/2016)
Categories: North Point Community Church
That is not just a blatant disregard for the veracity and holiness of the truth of God’s Word, it is an arrogance that simply says to the listener/reader to disregard the bible and the Author, and just listen to your nearest megachurch pastor who has wet his finger and held it up into the cultural wind. The blind leading the blind into the pit of hell.
If the afore-mentioned are Andy’s comments, “People are far more interested in what works ….” I would agree with Mike. Arrogant pragmatism. “Get with it man” seems to be Andy’s slogan. He seems to make a few assumptions with no scriptural basis.
And the last time I checked, the teachers of the Law in Jesus’s day were not “spot-on theologically” because they were teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.