-Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
My ministry in compliance to 2 Corinthians 11:12 – 15
Gregory P. Garwood
Today, as I was reading in daily devotional study, I was focused on Rick Warren and his Saddleback Church. Warren wrote two books, “The Purpose Driven Life.” And “The Purpose Driven Church.” The Purpose Driven books are actually books with a grandiose plan to change the way the world views God and evangelizes unbelievers. Warren welcomes all faiths as equal avenues to salvation and partners with secular institutions in the name of unity. Warren tells us that we need a “new” way of serving God and that the old stuffy ways are no longer effective or applicable in these modern times. He tells us that the bible is out dated and that we must live by experiential spiritualism rather than sound biblical spirituality.
The Purpose Driven books offer strategy on how to coerce, intimidate and manipulate your church and control your gullible sheeple into buying into Warren’s manifesto of church growth through intimidation and contemporary market strategy. As I searched, I found the bylaws for the purpose driven church which I thought looked very similar to a list of bylaws from a very dangerous church I escaped from about two years ago. The church I escaped from is Hopewell Christian Fellowship in Telford, PA. Hopewell was and still is an elitist politicized clique as you will observe in their bylaws. Hopewell has an endless parade of “prophets” (snake oil salesmen) passing through the doors who throw lives into disarray with false prophesies and false hope. At Hopewell, It’s not uncommon for life changing decisions to be made by interpreting things like lightening strikes on specific dates, dreams or running over a squirrel for example. Even the license number of a car can tell you a lot about your future. At Hopewell, everyone is a prophet, everyone interprets dreams and everyone has a “word from the Lord” for you. They have Thursday evening “soaking service” which has now been replaced by the heretical Todd Bentley Lakeland, FL “revival” meetings. (What “spirit” they “soak” in is still a mystery to me.) Like Saddleback, Hopewell has a comprehensive list of bylaws and, as it is with Saddleback, Hopewell requires a potential member to sign a “covenant” with the church. The bylaws of the Hopewell Network are a prime example of Warren’s purpose driven plan taken to a dangerous extreme. I have a copy of the bylaws from the Hopewell Network of Churches that I would like to comment on. The similarity between the Saddleback and Hopewell bylaws is obvious. I have provided a link here so you can view the Saddleback bylaws for comparison to those of the Hopewell Network.
Note that these are both documents of bondage and legalism but that should not come as any surprise because bondage and control are commonly found in abusive churches.
Upon arrival at the Hopewell Network sight I went to the Leadership Team link and saw that they actually have an “Apostolic Leadership Team” with Lester Zimmerman serving as the “Lead apostle.” Behind Zimmerman are Allen Yoder and Curt Malizzi, both “Team apostles.”
Click here for more info on this FALSE apostolic movement.
Rick Warren is attempting to unite the religions of the world with his Global Peace Plan. I firmly believe that the unified Emergent Church will be the entity that will eventually persecute and slaughter the end time saints. Think this is far fetched? Warren’s opinion of any one who questions his purpose driven lie or anyone that does not conform to his “New way” of doing things must either change or die. How does Mr. Warren know that his Purpose Driven Lie is God’s plan? Where in scripture do we read of a unified world church, except for the world system of the beast? How does Mr. Warren know that his plan is from God? It seems to me that Mr. Warren has a very arrogant and elitist attitude if not pompous! The intolerance of those who question sound biblical doctrine is already well under way. Those leaders of the Third Wave / New apostolic Reformation / Emergent Church / Pentecostal Churches / Five Fold ministry / Kingdom Now Theology / hold any sincere believer in utter contempt should that believer, in obedience to the Word of God, question the doctrine he being taught as he holds it to scripture, as you will see in the “bylaws” I have posted below.
The “Lead apostle” of the Hopewell Network of Churches is Lester Zimmerman. Lester is a member of the International Coalition of Apostles and is also a member of the Association of Radical Church Networks LLC. It would be safe to assume that any church who joins the Hopewell “Network” would automatically become a member of that radical, fringe group. These “Networks” are growing at an alarming rate as many pastors are asleep at the wheel while their “sheep” are being deceived and lead away to the slaughter. The majority of Contemporary churches today have strayed far away from sound biblical doctrine, the conviction of sin and the good news of salvation through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ shed for the remittance of that sin for every human who comes to Him in repentance as written in the gospel. The Word / Faith prognosticators are the worst of them. Where the New Apostolic controllers manipulate and control with Bylaws, works and documents of bondage, The Word / Faith people offer what the peoples itchy ears want to hear, a touchy feely fuzzy message of all grace all the time. It’s a false hope, a null, hollow word that is leading many unsuspecting souls straight to hell.
Here are the Bylaws from the Hopewell Network of Churches, in their entirety, as I downloaded them from the Hopewell Network of Churches web sight errors and all. Remember to visit the Saddleback sight and copy and paste the bylaws so you can see the similarity.
I have added my comments and highlighted them in bold. Keep in mind that the words “Network” and “church” are interchangeable because of the high degree of “oversight” and “authority” the “Hopewell Network” wields over the churches. Another point of note, the words “senior pastor” and “Pharisee” also interchange freely, read on, you’ll see why.
Gregory P. Garwood
