What Shall I Cry Ministries created a video comparing the preaching of Warren and Washer. Therein, each preacher was addressing a conference of preachers, teaching and encouraging them.
Carefully note the divergent sources of Warren’s and Washer’s guidance.
If you listen to 15 minutes of the following linked video, you will begin to hear the difference between man-centered and God-centered preaching.
I highly recommend watching the entire 90 minute video, but the more of the video you watch, the greater the possibility of increasing your own understanding of what each style of preaching looks like; therein, increasing the likelihood that you can identify them in the real world and remove yourself from the man-centered type, as it is heinous to God; furthermore, it contains no saving power.
Washer’s preaching becomes progressively more intense and instructive, as his presentation unfolds; and you will experience a rare example of God-centered preaching.
Warren’s teaching ends around the 60 minute mark of the video; by then, you will have seen how pathetic it is in comparison to Washer’s. But as Washer finishes his presentation of the gospel and his instruction of how those preachers should approach God so that they are Spirit filled and able to minister to their people, you will be educated in the way of godliness as you partake of God-centered preaching; furthermore, this example will likely stay with you and in itself, be of great aid in enabling you to discern between these two types of preaching.
If you know your Bible well, the contrast between unbiblical and biblical instruction will be very dramatic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_fnCCyhiVc&list=LL
I have used Washer’s preaching in numerous posts in this blog because I know (from Bible study) that he is a God-centered preacher: that is, he believes what the Bible says about God and about man; that God is sovereign and that God directs men who seek Him and submit to Him….
Warren, on the other hand, preaches more like a motivational speaker, relying on man-made theories, strategies, etc.; that is, he is more pragmatic.
Pragmatism is a philosophy that was developed in the USA (per R. C. Sproul); it relies on trial and error and subsequent strategies developed by men – they discover what actually works in a situation and afterwards label that “truth.” Then they apply their worldly-wise solutions to the problems they encounter; however, that never works in the spiritual realm, even though it seems to work wonderfully.
For example, the market-driven church was born from man-centered theories about how to build a church; therein, they no longer sought God’s help in bringing in new converts, but they had concerts, fairs, Easter-egg hunts; they wrote purpose-driven books; had purpose-driven conferences…about bringing in new members; about personal spiritual reformation, etc., all to no avail.
All that remains of the market-driven church now is an ash heap of the broken lives; near-empty churches and dispersed bodies of believers….
To learn what happened to the seeming chief guru of the market-driven church, Bill Hybels, read the following article:
If you read through the book of Acts and you will find the following words at least a half-dozen times: “God added to His church daily;” that is, man did not add to the church, God did. It is not man’s church, it is God’s.
Luke’s statements about God adding to His church begin in Acts 2: 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity — 47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
During the past 200 years, there have been various movements that have propagated man-made gospel messages which do not save; so Warren and his fellows did not start this trend. For posts on those perverted gospel messages, see CATEGORIES: Gospel Message; therein are several posts on the MODERN Gospel.
The following link is to the introduction of the series on the Modern Gospel. The 9 minute video explains what is covered in the series – the roots of easy-believism, the social gospel, and more; the other 8 posts contain videos 15-20 minutes in length:
https://sheeplywolves.com/the-gospel-its-modern-look-and-how-it-morphed/
God disdains such things because when men devise their own ways, they are acting like little sovereign gods and acting independent of Him. For examples on what God thinks about that, see the book of Isaiah: he continually confronted the religious leaders for relying on Assyria, Egypt…instead of Him.
[At the end of this post, I added one example from Isaiah 30, as a type of the numerous warnings from God found in the prophets about this problem of self-reliance and reliance upon men instead of God.]
God’s word calls us to submit and rely only upon Him.
If you want another perspective on Rick Warren and his ministry, then see the following post in this blog; it explains why the following preachers do not preach a biblical message: Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, and Steve Chalke:
For other posts in this blog that address unbiblical preaching, see the following CATEGORIES: Prosperity Preachers and Mysticism.
EXAMPLE FORM ISAIAH 30 ABOUT GOD CONFRONTING ISRAEL’S SELF-RELIANCE VIA THE WORDS OF HIS PROPHETS: [emboldening is mine]
[Do Not Go Down to Egypt]
1 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
2 who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
4 For though his officials are at Zoan
and his envoys reach Hanes,
5 everyone comes to shame
through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
Final thought: if you place yourself under man-centered preaching, then you will not be instructed according to God’s word. That kind of preaching sounds very good to our fleshly ears, but it is based on men’s reason and pragmatism, as the apostle Paul stated in the following scripture from Colossians 2:
6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.