Home › Uncategorized › The Final Countdown: Revisiting Phil Pringle’s ‘God-Given’ 2020 Vision Lie (Part 5).

The Final Countdown: Revisiting Phil Pringle’s ‘God-Given’ 2020 Vision Lie (Part 5).

By churchwatcher on May 2, 2019

As we revisit our final article on the ‘God-given’ 2020 Vision, let’s consider how a ‘vision’ message is preached within the C3 movement by its leader Phil Pringle. In the following YouTube review and article (link) from Ps Chris Rosebrough, you will hear the false ‘vision’ doctrine and twisting of scripture being clearly exposed:

“The fact that people think that this guy can cast vision and prophecy is a judgement against them because they’ve got to be under a strong delusion – because even if you know your bible just a little bit you can see through this sham, and protect yourself against people like him, and others under the C3 movement. The whole movement is corrupt going all the way up to the top, Phil Pringle, who is a false prophet, false apostle, false teacher and there’s nothing about him that’s genuine. The man is a charlatan and he’s as greedy as all get-out….” Ps.Chris Rosebrough.

Keeping that review in mind, how can a truly discerning Christian believe that Phil Pringle, the C3 movement and its ‘2020 Vision’ is from God? On the basis of its church growth and expansion around the world? Consider the wheat and the tares, with Satan sowing his own seeds within the field. Do they really believe that God is behind a proven false prophet causing the movement to grow? To combat Pringle’s false teaching (because his followers refuse to hear anything negative about their leader) God is raising up godly pastors, elders, and teachers like Ps Chris Rosebrough, who are both willing and able to continue to confront these false teachers. For more reviews of Pringle’s false teaching click here.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:13-14

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Matthew 7:21-23

Final Countdown Part 5:

“I’ve never found that God asks us to do something that is within our means or within our resources. And so the Vision that we have is always going to be bigger than we currently are. They always call for faith and that’s why it’s so exciting because God calls us to do things that are beyond our abilities. So we’re relying on Him and His power to make it happen.”

Source: Phil Pringle, C3 Church Culture Video, Vimeo, https://churchwatchcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/20120307vimeo-c3-church-culture-video-philchrispringle.mp4?fbclid=IwAR3-WDCRpxtqmCxYno388OsG70myA6CU9yqM4HoQH8MY7ePYZskBbc_dMk8, 07/03/2013 at 10:56 PM.

If you are a C3 member and were told that your pastor, Phil Pringle, has been constantly lying to you about receiving direct visions and instructions from God just so he can manipulate you, what would you think? Would you shrug it off and keep attending C3? Would you feel disgusted that Phil Pringle abused your trust in him as a leader? Would you feel unclean that you are serving a man who is using your God to manipulate you for his own selfish ends?

Our question to C3 members who continue to defend Phil Pringle:

“If Pringle comes to you and deceives you with his lies and false visions, why do you put up with it?

LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES FROM C3 LEADERSHIP

For years Phil Pringle has been manipulating his followers into believing that God gave him his ‘2020 Vision’. Remember when Phil Pringle said,

“God has given us a strategy and as we follow that pathway, we will find ourselves expanding right around the world?”.

God did not give Phil Pringle and his leadership team a ‘strategy’ to fulfill his ‘2020 Vision’. These are the facts – Christian Schwarz, the founder and president of the Natural Church Development Organization, helped Pringle and his staff formulate the 2020 Vision as well as the various strategies to see this ‘vision’ come to pass. If C3 want to claim that God used the NCD to give Pringle the ‘God-given’ 2020 Vision, then Pringle and C3 leadership still lied by omission. Why do they continue to portray Phil Pringle as a true prophet receiving a timely vision from God to plant 1000 churches by the year 2020?

CHRISTAN A. SCHWARZ AND NATURAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT?

A few years ago Schwarz interviewed Pringle’s close friend, Gordon Moore (Editor’s note: Moore is now Emeritus Senior Minister and C3 Global Agent). At the time of recording, Moore is speaking as a representative of the C3 Church movement in the video below. In this interview Gordon discloses where the ‘2020 Vision’ originally came from, as well as the source of their church growth strategies. The proof that Pringle’s ‘God Given’ 2020 Vision, as well as the strategies to carry it out, did not come from God is seen in the following statement from Gordon:

“We have formulated as a result of all of this [NCD workshops] our 2020 Vision which is to have a thousand churches with an average size of five hundred.”

So why hasn’t Phil Pringle (and his leadership team) told the truth about the fact that they were being led by the ‘Natural Church Development’ strategies of Christian A Schwarz? Could it be that Phil Pringle thought that if his followers continue to believe it was God’s ‘vision’, they would wholeheartedly support it? Who is Phil Pringle really trusting to grow his church? These are serious questions given the fact that C3 followers genuinely believe Phil Pringle is a true ‘prophet’ who receives direct visions (such as the 2020 Vision) from God. They are trusting and following a different spirit, a rather convincing counterfeit of God’s true church.

Moore also revealed his thoughts as to the outcome if C3 did not fulfill the Phil Pringle’s ‘God-given’ 2020 Vision:

“However if we don’t, we’ll be pretty happy with the journey because we’re going to be healthy on the way through. But our feeling is that we’re probably going to do pretty well with our vision.”

There you have it. Gordon Moore doesn’t care if Phil Pringle claims to hear directly from God when in reality he’s hearing from Christian A Schwarz, deceiving thousands throughout the C3 movement. And if they fail the ‘2020 Vision’, as long as people are “pretty happy with the journey”, why should Gordon Moore and Phil Pringle worry about blaspheming the integrity and character of God? How can anyone in C3 feel “pretty happy” when these men brazenly deceive them in the name of God – in order to manipulate them?

If a prophet claims to speak and see on behalf of God and their claims do not come to pass, the Old Testament scriptures commanded that the false prophet be put to death. When these false prophets are found in the church today, they are to be condemned and cast out for their lies and blasphemy. However, such biblical discipline in C3 culture would be considered to be ‘unloving’ especially when you can see that C3 followers love their ‘false teacher/prophet’ to the point that they would rather demonize discerning believers who dare to question their leader’s deception.

Source:Results of NCD in C3 Churches, https://churchwatchcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/20120814yt-results-of-ncd-in-c3-churches-drgordonmoore.mp4?fbclid=IwAR0pYY0xfVyTPo87a16E8hEc0rRb2oz-4DXRdepzz6ib4ioU7WqLrCzmGhY Published on 14/08/2012. (Accessed 17/01/2014.)

TRANSCRIPT:

“Results of Natural Church Development in C3 Churches in Australia”

Christian: “We just spent a wonderful evening with Gordon Moore here in the restaurant in Brisbane. But he discussed and shared a lot about experiences that this church has made. Uh, Gordon, your representing the C3 Churches which is according to our research, the healthiest denomination that we are aware of. At the same time the denomination that applies the principles of NCD most consistently. Can you share about what roll National Church Development play in your overall strategy.”

Gordon Moore: “Uh, sure Christian. First of all I’d like to say thank you very much for coming to Australia. We’ve been really looking forward to sharing with you and hearing from you. Um. NCD has probably been the one of the greatest tools we have encountered. I guess first of all in our journey as a movement of churches we started out very organically. Uh, naturally with a move of God and just seeking to plant churches. We found that NCD helped us bring that empirical evidence of growth and health in the life of the church. So our movement has embraced NCD as our number one health analysis tool. We use it in oversight. We encourage all our churches to do this. But we go further than that. We actually take the results and the consultation that comes from your team and seek to apply that to the local church level and also the nation and to all our churches in the movement.

Christian: “Let’s us ask real quickly. Where do you expect your movement to be in the year 2020?”

Gordon Moore: “Funny you should say that Christian. We’ve formulated as a result of all of this our 2020 Vision which is to have a thousand churches with a average size of five hundred. The thousand churches is our quantitative vision that we look for growth, we look for the kingdom of God to grow in advance and also the five hundred average size is a quality measurement. We’re after a “kind-of” church. A church that ranges somewhere between four hundred and eight hundred, that has a team that is viable, that has the resources to go out, plant churches and fulfill the commission of Christ.”

Christian: “And if we meet again in eight years from now, will you say, ‘We have arrived there’ or do you sense that you will be far away from that?”

Gordon Moore: “We’re on track to meet that. However if we don’t, we’ll be pretty happy with the journey because we’re going to be healthy on the way through. But our feeling is that we’re probably going to do pretty well with our vision. I mean if you aim at nothing you’re gonna hit it every time, right? So we believe that having a vision is important but the most important thing is that we are vitally connected to Christ and our lives our healthy. And that reflects in our churches as well. That our churches are healthy communities that are growing and manifesting Christ to a needy world.”

Source: Results of NCD in C3 Churches, Results of NCD in C3 Churches, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzIPWHQLydE, Published on Aug 14, 2012. (Accessed 17/01/2014.)

CONCLUSION:

We have just seen the latest C3 2019 Presence Conference come and go, with their usual lineup of false teachers, both men and women. This event was closely followed by C3 Global’s key team leaders gathering at Oxford Falls to ‘pray and strategise’ for the future. In the group there are few ‘famous’ voices all reviewed on Fighting For the Faith, – Jurgen and Leanne Matthesius, Jon and Becky Heinrichs, Dave and Jenny Gilpin, Mark Kelsey, and of course Phil and Chris Pringle.

These false teachers are the ‘sand’ on which the 2020 Vision now wants to lay its foundation. Again we ask the question, does God grow His church through the ‘ministry’ of false teachers? Or are they simply the ones we are warned about, those who lead His precious sheep away to build their own ‘kingdoms’.

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” Acts 20:28-30

Links to ‘Fighting For The Faith’ reviews of C3 Global key leaders above: