Warning About Faithwalkers

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[Linda]

I wanted to take a minute to write to students and parents of students who attend Great Commission churches and stumble upon this forum. I just looked at the Faithwalkers page and was surprised to see a little blurb entitled "Honoring Parents". Here is what it says:

Faithwalkers is designed to help young people grow in their love for God. It is clear from the Scriptures ("Honor your father and mother." Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2) that God places a high value on young people honoring their parents.  

Christmas time is an especially important time for most families.  This is particularly so for families who have college students who are away from home during the school year. Therefore, if you are a college student, we ask that you make a special effort to honor, love, and serve your parents and your family during the Christmas holidays. In addition, it is our hope and prayer that every student who attends Faithwalkers will do so in a way that is honoring to God and honoring to his or her parents.

A previous poster had mentioned this blurb, but my understanding was that it was in conjunction with the GCM winter conference called "Ignite". I am surprised to see it on the GCC Faithwalkers page because, in my experience, Great Commission does not honor the parent/child relationship.

Our first realization of this was at a HSLT (high school leadership week in Colorado with other GC churches) where our daughter was asked to commit to "The 10 Commitments". This was a list of things, most innocuous, like "read your Bible every day", or "pray". The one that was deeply disturbing and, in the end, the game changer for our family was "Devote Myself to my Local Church for the Rest of My Life". Here is a quote from that talk:

I made a determination as a young man to not leave my church in Ames until and only when I was sent. I was sent. Now, there is, of course, maybe a unique exception within "our movement" and it's a beautiful thing it's why some of us moved to different cities, big metropolitan areas. One, you may need a job and you can still stay linked with Great Commission Churches because you can find one in that city. Secondly, you may be leaving your local church to go to college to join another Great Commission Church that's like minded and I think that will equally accomplish the same thing. I'm here for life. You're not getting rid of me. I'm here.

Mark Darling is a gifted and charismatic speaker, my point is not to say he is a bad person, or everything he says is wrong. My point is to say that mixed in with some very good things, he teaches some very bad things.

In this case what he taught was that high school students, who are still under the authority of their parents should make a commitment to attend a Great Commission Church for the REST OF THEIR LIVES. This is wrong on so many levels.

A few years later, at Faithwalkers, a top dog guy, Rick Whitney gave a talk on Commitment to Great Commission FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. In that talk, he tells high school students that they are still under the authority of their parents, but parents should get out of the way of their 20 year olds and let the church take over. My paraphrase, of course, but I do suggest you listen to the entire talk. The part I am referring to is about halfway through it. Here is the link, the talk I am referring to is "Totally Committed to the Local Church":
http://gccweb.org/conferences/faithwalkers/west/2008teachings_west.html

One thing GC is good at is keeping up appearances. They have a 13 page error statement from 1991. They still do all the things they apologized for, but they get to "look" like they apologized. They even named their apology "Project Care".  They teach that 16 year olds should commit to their local church for life, then a few years later teach that parents decide where their children will go to church, but they never correct the old bad teaching and, in fact, leave it up for all to hear. Mark Darling never contacted the high school students he misled. He had all their addresses. Rick Whitney was there and knew he said that and 3 years later, gave this talk with a pitiful nod towards parental authority.

Knowing what I know about this group, I find it a little disingenuous that they put up a blurb acting as if they were suddently concerned about parent/child relationships. Maybe they are, but if so, they had better take down the talks that teach the opposite and issue some statements about how they were wrong. That would be a start.

[BTDT]

A previous poster had mentioned this blurb, but my understanding was that it was in conjunction with the GCM winter conference called "Ignite".

A different blurb, put out by a single GCM church, about Ignite.  See http://forum.gcmwarning.com/general-discussion/a-positive-sign/

I'm encouraged about what you quoted.  People, and sometimes groups and "movements", do grow and mature.  There still seems to be quite a wide variance between different GC churches, so thorough evaluation of any church or conference is still well-advised.

"Baby steps, Bob."  (From "What About Bob?")

[Linda]

I am beginning to wonder if GCM churches are becoming a little less sectarian that GCC churches. Both groups have statements regarding attending their conferences.

Here is the statement about Ignite.
For those of you who are students and going home for the holidays we want to be really sensitive to your time home with your family.  We know that some of you may only have two weeks or less to be home and this would really cut into to that.  So please talk to your parents and ask for their permission/blessing to go this weekend while your home.  If they are really against you going then our advice to you is to not go, and honor their wishes.

Here is the statement on the Faithwalkers page.
Christmas time is an especially important time for most families.  This is particularly so for families who have college students who are away from home during the school year. Therefore, if you are a college student, we ask that you make a special effort to honor, love, and serve your parents and your family during the Christmas holidays. In addition, it is our hope and prayer that every student who attends Faithwalkers will do so in a way that is honoring to God and honoring to his or her parents.

I find it interesting and telling that one statement respects parental authority to the extent that they recommend the student honor their parent's wishes. Kudos to them. The Faithwalkers statement, you will notice, is vague. The last line is particularly confusing...it seems to be a given that the student will attend the conference no matter what the parents think.