False Teachers
Steven Furtick
Steven Furtick was born on February 19, 1980 and raised in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. Furtick has a B.A. in communications from North Greenville University and a Masters of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary[1]. One would think that coming from the schooling he has and having a MID he would have a better biblical head on his shoulders. After serving as music director at a local church in Shelby, North Carolina, Furtick and seven families moved to Charlotte and started Elevation Church. The church had their first service on February 5, 2006 [2]. Over the past 6 years Steven Furtick and Elevation church has seen tremendous growth with over 10,000 persons in regular attendance spread over six locations[3]. At this point some of you reading this are saying, “See Furtick he is doing good. Look how big his church is grown.” Well my friend numbers don’t mean a thing. What matters is what Furtick preaches and teaches from the pulpit. It must first and foremost line up with the Word of God and sadly it does anything but that.
While this is not to say, and shouldn’t be over looked, that Furtick and his church has done some nice and kind things for people and the community at large. Like in 2008, Furtick made headlines when his church gave $40,000 to members in envelopes with $5, $20, even $1,000, and told them to spend it kindly on others.[4] Not to mention under Furtick's leadership, Elevation Church has given more than $3.4 million to local and global outreach partners since 2006. In 2011, a partnership with Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx was established to give 100,000 hours and $750,000 to serve Charlotte people in "The Orange Initiative."[5] Lastly, during the church's most recent "Love Week", thousands of Elevation members have packed more than 10,000 sandwiches for the homeless, helped single mothers get their cars serviced, donated blood, cleaned up parks and streets, and built a soccer field for local ministries and renovating buildings.[6]
All these things that I have pointed out are great and wonderful things that Elevation or any church should be trying to do. Like giving money to the poor, raising funds for missions and helping the need with hands on care in our local community. The issue here with Steven Furtick is not with what his church is doing to help support those outside the church. Instead, it’s with what Steven Furtick is teaching and claiming from the pulpit. In other words, it is his lack of biblical exegeses and correct hermeneutics.
Furtick may sound like he is preaching a biblical message from the pulpit but he is really scratching itching ears waiting for a good tickling. Steven Furtick is guilty of many pulpit crimes;
It seems that Steven Furtick and Elevation Church no matter how well minded their attempts to do “good” and be “honoring” to Christ they are they are failing. While we are not saying that everyone who attends Elevation Church is a false convert or is misguided in their attempts in honoring God, we must question them to make sure. What must we question, you might ask? We must question them and find out from those that are following Steven Furtick and his teachings that they have the Jesus of the bible, and not the cheap knock off Furtick is pushing. I am not saying this to be mine but instead of out of love, in many ways we must treat them like an unbeliever who doesn’t know Christ. Helping them find the biblical Jesus.
Furtick is not furthering the kingdom of Christ by helping move it along under sound biblical doctrine. Instead he makes those teaching solid doctrine jobs harder and those Christians following him lives more difficult in finding the truth in Christ.
[1] Elevation Church. WPastor Steven Furtick" . Retrieved August 25, 2011.
[2] Elevation Church. "History" . Retrieved August 25, 2011.
[3] Outreach Magazine (2008). "2008 The Outreach 100 Largest and Fastest Growing Churches in America"
[4] Funk, Tim. "A cool pastor, and a hot church." Charlotte Observer 14 Sept. 2008: A1. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
[5] Baxter, Jennifer. "Elevation church keeps growing" , Charlotte Observer, 4 September 2011.
[6] Kwon, Lillian. "Megachurch Floods Charlotte with Jesus' Love" , Christian Post, 19 February 2010.
[7] http://www.elevationchurch.org/sermons/codeorangerevival/part1
[8] http://www.empoweredbychrist.org/code-orange-revival--code-heresy-abound.html
[9] www.youtube.com /heyhaters
[10] http://www.elevationchurch.org/thecode
While this is not to say, and shouldn’t be over looked, that Furtick and his church has done some nice and kind things for people and the community at large. Like in 2008, Furtick made headlines when his church gave $40,000 to members in envelopes with $5, $20, even $1,000, and told them to spend it kindly on others.[4] Not to mention under Furtick's leadership, Elevation Church has given more than $3.4 million to local and global outreach partners since 2006. In 2011, a partnership with Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx was established to give 100,000 hours and $750,000 to serve Charlotte people in "The Orange Initiative."[5] Lastly, during the church's most recent "Love Week", thousands of Elevation members have packed more than 10,000 sandwiches for the homeless, helped single mothers get their cars serviced, donated blood, cleaned up parks and streets, and built a soccer field for local ministries and renovating buildings.[6]
All these things that I have pointed out are great and wonderful things that Elevation or any church should be trying to do. Like giving money to the poor, raising funds for missions and helping the need with hands on care in our local community. The issue here with Steven Furtick is not with what his church is doing to help support those outside the church. Instead, it’s with what Steven Furtick is teaching and claiming from the pulpit. In other words, it is his lack of biblical exegeses and correct hermeneutics.
Furtick may sound like he is preaching a biblical message from the pulpit but he is really scratching itching ears waiting for a good tickling. Steven Furtick is guilty of many pulpit crimes;
- Narcissistic Eisegesis; Reading your self in to biblical text in place of the meaning of scripture. An example of this would be the Code Orange Revival . http://mcaf.ee/tr7gb [7] The bible is not a story about us it does not tell us our story. It is about Jesus Christ from beginning to end.
- Acceptance and Promoting of Known Heretics; At the Code Orange Revival of this last January, 2012 we saw Furtick promote and accept the following heretics; Bishop Jakes, Ed Young, Christine Caine, Perry Noble, Stovall Weems, Craig Groeschel and Jentezen Franklin. [8]
- Promotion of Prosperity Gospel ; Furtick has been teaching from his pulpit from sometime now about a Jesus, when he mentions Him, that is almost a magical cosmic genie of sorts. Someone that is there to serve your needs and wants. He is promoting a version of having your best life now.
- Teaches an Unbiblical Version of Jesus (Another Gospel); Furtick preaches about a jesus that is not all powerful and holy but really nothing much more than a nerdy white dude that would cry if he got rejected. This is not the Jesus of the bible in any way. He promotes this in his preaching by never defining who Jesus of the bible is. He also tries to equate Jesus as our “buddy” who just wants to be on our side and never would judge us or get mad at us. It's the love jesus. He does not preach Jesus Crucified, Died, Buried, and Resurrected, not the one of the bible. He comes preaching another Gospel.
- Promotes discord Within The Church Body at Large; In a recent video entitled “Hey Haters”[9] Furtick let it be known to everyone that if you disagree with him or criticize him, like I am doing, that you are a hater. His teaching actually runs contrary to the bible. We find in 2 Cor 11:9 that there is to be fractions upon us so we know the truth. We also see in Jude 1:3 that we are to contend for the faith. Hmmm, that would mean to fight, take a stand, or criticize and take a stand against false teachers. What Furtick is actually doing here by teaching that if you disagree with him you are a “hater” is setting himself up as a prophet of God. See “The Code” section on Elevation’s website, http://mcaf.ee/4t8gz , make sure to look at number 4 entitled “We are united under one Vision.” [10]
- Doesn't Feed His Sheep; In “The Code” statement, http://mcaf.ee/4t8gz, We are told in number 5 that “We Need Your Seat.” In other words if you are here to learn forget about it because we only want to reach those far from God. Basically Furtick is telling us if you want to learn doctrine, who Christ is, or anything in depth than Elevation is not for you. At least he is us front. If I was attend Elevation I would take his advice and give him my seat and find a real church that is for the believers and not for the goats.
It seems that Steven Furtick and Elevation Church no matter how well minded their attempts to do “good” and be “honoring” to Christ they are they are failing. While we are not saying that everyone who attends Elevation Church is a false convert or is misguided in their attempts in honoring God, we must question them to make sure. What must we question, you might ask? We must question them and find out from those that are following Steven Furtick and his teachings that they have the Jesus of the bible, and not the cheap knock off Furtick is pushing. I am not saying this to be mine but instead of out of love, in many ways we must treat them like an unbeliever who doesn’t know Christ. Helping them find the biblical Jesus.
Furtick is not furthering the kingdom of Christ by helping move it along under sound biblical doctrine. Instead he makes those teaching solid doctrine jobs harder and those Christians following him lives more difficult in finding the truth in Christ.
[1] Elevation Church. WPastor Steven Furtick" . Retrieved August 25, 2011.
[2] Elevation Church. "History" . Retrieved August 25, 2011.
[3] Outreach Magazine (2008). "2008 The Outreach 100 Largest and Fastest Growing Churches in America"
[4] Funk, Tim. "A cool pastor, and a hot church." Charlotte Observer 14 Sept. 2008: A1. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
[5] Baxter, Jennifer. "Elevation church keeps growing" , Charlotte Observer, 4 September 2011.
[6] Kwon, Lillian. "Megachurch Floods Charlotte with Jesus' Love" , Christian Post, 19 February 2010.
[7] http://www.elevationchurch.org/sermons/codeorangerevival/part1
[8] http://www.empoweredbychrist.org/code-orange-revival--code-heresy-abound.html
[9] www.youtube.com /heyhaters
[10] http://www.elevationchurch.org/thecode
