Beware of self-selecting testimonies

A few weeks ago, the world’s oldest man made the news when he died, though while he was still with us, he attributed his 113 years to “cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women.”

It brought to mind a hypothetical testimony that sometimes rolls around in my head. Missionary Joe tells of the time when he came face to face with a hungry African lion. Just as the lion was about to pounce, Joe starts witnessing to the lion and tells him that if he becomes a Christian, he will one day to to Heaven and will enjoy idyllic days lying down with the lambs. The lion bows his head, purrs, then walks away.

Joe becomes famous for his story and holds special seminars telling people how to use the Bible to survive hostile animal encounters. The trouble is, description is not necessarily prescription.

Although Joe still has a pulse and the notoriety to tell his story to interested listeners, there are 99 other missionaries who also tried witnessing when they met their lions. You’ve never heard of them because dead men don’t hold seminars to tell us that quoting the Bible to lions is a bad idea. The millions of men who died early and miserably as victims of cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women rarely get book or movie deals.

In the next few weeks, Noble and Furtick are offering to tell motivated and well-heeled listeners how they can do church like them. If they want to pay their money for an interesting day, good for them, but they should probably keep the tale of Joe and the lion in mind when they listen to these remarkable men.

I don’t know what Noble is going to cover in his sessions, but we can look at some earlier (free) advice he’s given to church leaders on how to handle their finances. For one example, Noble encourages pastors to engage in financial risk taking.

If I hear one more pastor say [that they don't have enough money] I am going to throw up–ON THEM!

Money will ALWAYS be a challenge–ALWAYS!  Big vision requires big dollars…and I would say that if your back has never been against the wall financially then your vision isn’t worth anything!

…STOP USING MONEY AS AN EXCUSE AS TO WHY YOU ARE NOT GROWING!!!

Some more Noble advice:

The only question we should wrestle to the ground, “Is this clearly what Jesus wants?”  If the answer to that question is yes then we’ve got to understand that if it is God’s will then it is God’s bill.

God doesn’t give us as leaders worry-free guarantees because if He did the element of faith would not be necessary.  If God has called you to plant a church, the resources for that church plant will be there.  If God has called you to build facilities the resources for building those facilities will be there.  If God has called you to pour into youth and children the resources to pour into youth and children will be there.  There has to come a point when we trust Him to provide for our needs, even when we don’t see how it is possible.

…we should not worry when our Heavenly Father gives us BIG VISION…because HE has the resources to make it happen!

Noble clearly believes this, because this is his experience of how God handles finances. Noble’s ten-year history with NewSpring is of some early financial stress followed by unusual and prolonged financial success. When Noble invests money in buildings, people and programs, he usually finds amazing success (the only partial failure that I’m aware of was losing the Greenville auditorium, though that was not a problem of his making). He has spent a great deal of money and attention building a high-class children’s facility, which he will justifiably show off to his attendees this week. When Noble builds things, people come.

The danger is if people go back to their churches and start spending money they don’t have on lavish facilities, technologies, and programs. People are coming to hear Noble’s and Furtick’s seminars because their risky decisions worked for them. No-one is going to hear from pastors who did the same thing, but no-one came. They are now either anonymous or roofing contractors.

What’s interesting to me is that Noble and Furtick apparently don’t believe that their success really can be replicated, because, when given the opportunity, they clone rather than reproduce. If Noble were able to teach how to build fast-growing churches, he’d be sending Noble-trained pastors to Greenville, Florence and Columbia. He doesn’t; instead he clones himself and appears on screen in life-size high definition. Furtick’s expansion plans assume the same pattern of cloning rather than reproduction.

As Noble and NewSpring obviously understand with their video strategy, Noble is lightning in a bottle. Noble’s success is probably attributable to an unusual combination of divine calling, personal experience, sense of humor, ADHD, evangelistic zeal, theology, inhibitions, speaking and management style (the list is undoubtably longer–add to it in the comments if you like).

For the people going to the seminars, listen to Noble and Furtick for their stories and the wisdom of their experience, but be careful if you try to copy them. Don’t try to be the next Noble or Warren or Osteen. God called you, so be you.