Tag Archives: Ed Young

Where There’s A Phil There’s A Way

08 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in C3 & Pringles Associations, Pringle's Influences, Pringle's Issues/Events, Pringle's Outcomes

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HOW KONG HEE IS GAINING FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR HIS LEGAL DEFENSE

We find the City Harvest Church scandal perplexing. Why are Singaporean authorities allowing Kong Hee to leave Singapore to resume ‘pastoral’ duties? This article will be examining how both Kong Hee and his Advisory Pastor Phil Pringle have been using churches outside Singapore to financially support Kong Hee’s legal battles.

We have been analysing Phil Pringle’s Presence Conferences and what Phil Pringle has been teaching us about Kong Hee’s circumstances.

Thanks to Phil Pringle, we have learnt how Kong Hee is gaining financial support for his legal battles. Earlier this year, Phil Pringle said the following:

“I was in Singapore last week ah- folks with our good friends Kong and Sun Hee, although they are very rarely there when I am speaking because it gives them a chance to get out amongst the Asian community or various parts around the world and share in churches their burden ‘n what they’re facing and keep support happening and maintain a healthier relationship and communion with the wider body. And so that’s part of the reason why I am able to go there and uh- and they’ve just had ah- one really interesting breakthrough in this last week where the Commission of Charities (that’s the organisation overseeing charities in Singapore) has exonerated Sun from all ah- all charges against her so-“

Source: Phil Pringle, “Awakening — Part 1″ – Phil Pringle, http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/awakening-%E2%80%93-part-1-phil-pringle, Sunday 14th April 2013. (Accessed 15/04/2013.)

Why is Kong Hee leaving CHC to “share in churches their burden”? Why does he go to other churches to “keep support happening”? Why is Kong Hee heavily involved with Phil Pringle’s Presence Conferences? The answer is very simple.

Back in his 2011 Presence Conference, Phil Pringle prophesied over Kong Hee and then encouraged all the churches gathered to financially support Kong Hee. Not once was it explained to those who attended why he was under investigation. While encouraging people to give, take note what Pringle says,

“Then, I think it was even more for him. I can’t remember the figures. But I know that for- they had to raise seven million dollars for members of staff and others to travel. That’s just that area. If you’ve ever been to Singapore, you know how expensive this place is. To fight the case he has had to employ a legal firm. And I know what the bills are. They are nearly a million dollars each time they come. Between half a million and a million dollars each time those bills come. His church is not allowed to pay one cent of his personal cost that he is incurring in this battle. He has to find it himself.

He’s sold his house. He has scratched together everything he can. One of the things that I’m doing is going there. I’ve made a commitment to be there once every two weeks. Normally it ends up being once every three weeks because of a variety of commitments that I’ve already got and doing things. But when I’m gone, he’s able to travel. And when I’m there, he’s able to travel and preach and find support amongst Asia and other churches.

Uh- I know that he was finding it hard to put some money together to get a cup of Starbucks at one stage. And uh- it’s a challenge. There’s been new legislation passed on the use of commercial spaces in Singapore since this case has come. So the religio- the restriction on his church is severe, ah, in that area [inaudible] after their purchase, go into co-ownership with ah, SunTec. And we’re in there. I will be speaking there in a couple days time. I will be on Friday to speak there happily.” – Phil Pringle, http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=uwNignarJCg, Presence Conference 2011.

If it costs Kong Hee and his team “nearly a million dollars each time they come” to speak at Presence Conference, can you imagine how much Kong Hee is receiving in love offerings? Remember that when Pringle preaches at CHC it allows Kong Hee “to travel and preach and find support amongst Asia and other churches”. So why does Kong Hee travel if it is so expensive? Why go speak at a church event like Phil Pringle’s conferences? What does Kong gain? Pringle answers this above when he says,

“There’s been new legislation passed on the use of commercial spaces in Singapore since this case has come. So the religio- the restriction on his church is severe, ah, in that area [inaudible] after their purchase, go into co-ownership with ah, SunTec.”

What is this new legislation? We can’t find any specific information on this. However Phil Pringle stated,

“His church is not allowed to pay one cent of his personal cost that he is incurring in this battle. He has to find it himself.”

Does it make sense now? If new Singaporean legislation has established that City Harvest Church cannot support Kong Hee’s legal battles, it explains why Phil Pringle is speaking in Singapore so often. It allows Kong Hee to gain financial support from different churches around the world. It explains why Kong Hee is invited back to speak at Phil Pringle’s Presence Conference.

And guess what? Kong can say whatever he wants to whoever he wants… and get away with it. How would Singapore know what his agenda is in other countries? Who would bother keeping him accountable to what he says around the world?

Well we have all the audio we need to prove that Phil Pringle has been allowing Kong Hee to use his C3 Presence Conference to financially support Kong Hee’s financial battles. To confirm that Kong Hee is in fact receiving financial support from Phil Pringle’s C3 Movement, Kong Hee prayed the following at Presence Conference 2012 on the first night (not the opening night):

“Father I just pray even right now from the front to the back, from the left to the right, that tonight you move in a great way. Lord you know that it’s been a tiring time for the last twenty three months. For every step of the way, you’ve been with me, you’ve been with us. And Lord for all that C3 has poured into City Harvest Church, I pray that you multiply back to them, every church –every leader, thirty fold, sixty fold, a hundred fold for your glory we pray. Amen.” – Kong Hee, Presence Conference 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeIYljvQ0G0: 18:11, Day 1.

In this prayer, Kong Hee acknowledges that “C3 has poured into City Harvest Church”. By ‘poured’ he means ‘financially poured’. If you are not familiar with the term “thirty fold, sixty fold, a hundred fold”, it is Word of Faith jargon that means financial multiplication. The idea is that if you give financially, god will multiply your returns supernaturally. The weird thing about this prayer is that Kong Hee said C3 poured money into City Harvest Church. Why does CHC need the cash? Doesn’t Kong need the cash?

While it is debatable if the money above went to CHC or to Kong Hee, the prayer above informs us that Kong Hee IS getting money out of C3 conferences for possibly his benefit. It could be debatable that the money above went to CHC or to himself.

Because Phil Pringle asked people to give money specifically to Kong Hee’s legal battles back in 2011, it is of our opinion that Kong Hee here in 2012 was acknowledging that he received this financial support, using his church as a safeguard rather than saying he received the financial support personally.

Furthermore, in this same sermon we also hear a very one-sided and propaganda-like presentation of Kong Hee’s situation. So we are seeing what Pringle has said about Kong Hee to be true. Phil Pringle’s Presence Conference was a place Kong Hee felt safe enough to “share… their burden ‘n what they’re facing and keep support happening”.

This sermon not only had the above prayer. This sermon is the very sermon that has caused controversy in Singapore where Kong Hee claimed that God apologised to him. This is why we believe some people are outraged with the latest snippet – they know Kong Hee is distorting the severity of the case for his personal and financial gain. Read again what Kong Hee said on the first night of Presence Conference 2012:

“And [God the Father] said, ‘My son, I’m so sorry that you need to go through this alone. But you need to die and you need to go through this to be the Saviour of the world!’ And God the Father had broken and He wept as He turned His face, when His son took the sin of the whole world.

I was saying all this and I’m hearing myself behind the pulpit- and I froze. I could not utter another word. And I sobbed and I shook. Because those were my exact sentiments.

“Father, Father! Why? My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me and thrown me to the dogs?”

And for the first time in eight months, I heard the voice. It is not the voice of a strict angry judge that only want me to perform and build a big church and nothing I do is ever good enough for him. No. It’s not a voice of angry judge. It’s not the voice of a slave driver. That just wants to take and take and wring me dry. But it was a voice of a tender, loving, broken-hearted Father.

For the first time in eight months, God – I heard Him crying. And He said, “My son, Kong, thank you! Thank you for going through this. I need you to go through this alone so that you and City Harvest Church can be the man and the ministry I call it to be. I’m so sorry. But you need to go through with this by yourself, to bring a change to your generation”.

Oh come on! Give the Lord a big hand tonight!

I hear God saying for the first time in eight months, “I love you! I love you! I love you!” Waves upon waves of God’s love- the love of the Father, just, saturated me. All I could say was, “Abba! Abba!! AABBAAAA!!! Daddy! ABBA!!!” And I knew, everything was going to be, alright.

Everything was going to be alright.” – Kong Hee, http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=FKVSXfjhB14, Presence Conference 2012, Night Service, 11/04/2012.

The absolute negligence of Pringle inviting Kong Hee to speak at Presence Conference from 2010 to 2012 was scandalous. He gave Kong Hee the floor to present his propaganda-like stories diguised as sermons. Furthermore, Kong encouraged people in the 2012 Presence Conference to empty their bank accounts so God can financially bless Christians. Not once did Phil Pringle or Kong Hee give an accurate account as to why he was under investigations or why he was facing charges. Why Kong Hee and Phil Pringle are not under severe scrutiny by government watchdogs in Australia, we do not know. Why are they not being scrutinised for misleading thousands of people at these events? Would they be giving Kong Hee financial support or emptying their bank accounts at Kong Hee’s command if they knew the severity of the investigations?

The negligence continued when Phil Pringle allowed Kong Hee to speak at Presence Conference 2013. Recently Pringle asked ignorant Christians attending to once again give sacrificially to financially support Kong Hee’s legal case.

Here Phil Pringle said,

“I would like you just to take a card, an envelope if you’ve got one nearby. And if you’d like to participate in this, I’d like you to consider doing that. Whatever you can do it would be helpful, I know, to them. This will all go completely to Pastor Kong to help with his- costs. He has to pay this week $680,000 I think it is, for his legal fees. He’s covering his whole team’s fees. They have to mount a vigorous defense over three years. Those numbers weigh heavily on- on a person and they have prohibited him from asking his own congregation for any help.

He can not use any of his own church funds. They’ve sold there- they sold the unit they were in. Others have moved to help them in other countries and I would like to think that we can be friends to these people in one of their darkest hours.” – Phil Pringle, http://www.youtube.com/watch? &v=2g-BB9BF7xk , Presence Conference 2013.

The picture again presented is that new Singapore legislation will not allow Kong Hee to use “any of his own church funds”. Instead, just like what was occurring in Phil Pringle’s C3 Presence Conferences, it appears that other churches “have moved to help them [Kong Hee and Sun Ho] in other countries”.

Since Phil Pringle made a video where a number of pastors decided to support Kong Hee, we are starting to see that deeper controversies are growing in this scandal and expanding across the globe. We also observed that Kong Hee spoke at Ed Young’s church in 2011.

proof_exc3ed2011_konghee_08-08-13

Kong also spoke recently at Ed Young’es C3 2013 Conference.

Kong Hee, Singapore Megachurch Pastor Arrested for Fraud, Visits Ed Young’s C3 2013

Did Kong Hee get love offerings from these churches after spreading more propaganda about his plight against the Singaporean government? Why are pastors like John Bevere, Mark Conner, Casey Treat, David Yonggi Cho and many more supporting an alleged crook? Are these the churches that Pringle was alluding to when he said that “Others have moved to help them in other countries”?

Men like John Bevere, Yonggi Cho, Casey Treat and Ed Young have already been exposed as false Christian teachers. Is it any wonder they would support someone like Kong Hee? Are we seeing a banding of false teachers being only accountable to their pack rather than the greater body of Christ?

This scandal needs to be addressed by the universal body of Christ. How far must men like Phil Pringle and Kong Hee go before the church starts dealing with these impostors in the church?

__________
Update 08/08/2013: Provided links and sources to Ed Young’s 2011 Conference.
NOTE: ALL SCREEN GRABS TAKEN ON 08/08/2013.

Follower of Furtick Says They Were “Consistently Ingesting Spiritual Poison”

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in C3 & Pringles Associations, C3 Teaching, Pringle's Behaviour, Pringle's Issues/Events

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We’ve already bought up our concerns regarding Phil Pringle inviting Steve Furtick speaking at Pringle’s C3 Presence Conference 2012. Read the article here:

Phil Pringle Endorsing Problematic Steve Furtick for Presence Conference 2012

Brittany Smith, reporter from the ‘Christian Post’, records a conversation Chandler had with Furtick last year:

“The Reformed community is not a big fan of you,” Chandler told Furtick last year during The Elephant Room, which featured blunt conversations and debates among influential pastors. Chandler had expressed concern that Furtick was rejecting doctrine in the name of outreach.” – Brittany Smith, ‘The Bible Is Not About You,’ Says Young Evangelical, http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-bible-is-not-about-you-says-young-evangelical-67210/, 16/01/2012. (Accessed 20/02/2012)

People also may be critical of Rosebrough’s harsh criticism of Furtick. However, Rosebrough received an email from a member of Steve Furticks church. This member confirmed Chandler, Smith and Rosebrough’s understanding of Furtick. Rosebrough read out the email on his radio program here:

Laying Hold of Eisegetical Nonsense

Chris Rosebrough said,

“Ok. This email comes to us from a man who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He and his wife attended Elevation church for five years. However, they will no longer be attending. And – I’m not going to give you his name cos I know how the Elevators will treat him if they heard who this was.” – Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, Laying Hold of Eisegetical Nonsense: 21:55, http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/2012/01/laying-hold-of-eisegetical-nonsense-.html, 19/01/2012.

This email gives us good insight to Elevation and Furtick. The ex-Elevation member wrote to Chris,

“I just wanted to thank you for your ministry. I’ve been extremely blessed by it in the past few days as I’ve listened to your archives learning about discernment and all of the tricks used by false teachers. I had been going to Elevation Church for the past five years every single week until very recently. I have been feeling unrest for many months, considering leaving the church, sensing much ego on Furtick’s part amongst many other things…

But I was held back by the lies taught every week thinking, ‘Surely, for the church to be flourishing the way it is, it must be God, right?’. Boy was I wrong.

I also want to point out  that despite daily prayer and reading of the Word, I have been unable to grow spiritually, bound by the completely backward, narcissistic eisegesis, teaching at Elevation church. After Matt Chandler’s unbelievable message, and much that I had learned listening to your podcasts, I now know why I haven’t been able to grow spiritually. I have been consistently ingesting spiritual poison and have been reading the bible completely wrong.

I feel like my eyes have been opened and I have had difficulty understanding how I could listen to that, week-in and week-out. But I am just glad that I have escaped that trap. Looking back at all of the people there and how it kept me from growing or even learning anything about Jesus, I have the very uneasy feeling Elevation is being used as an extraordinary cunning tool of evil used to ensnare people. A masterfully orchestrated show, designed to manipulate emotion!” – Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, Laying Hold of Eisegetical Nonsense: 22:47-24:41, http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/2012/01/laying-hold-of-eisegetical-nonsense-.html, 19/01/2012.

The letter goes on,

“I want to point out a couple of observations that I found interesting from Matt Chandlers sermon.

  1. He seems to be looking and preaching directly to Furtick to his left much of the sermon. Especially when he makes points of the bible ‘not being about you’.
  2. He repeatedly says, ‘Look at me’, before saying an important point. Could he be saying that to Furtick?

The cameramen tended to show the crowd and those on stage whenever the audience was clapping. So I scrubbed through the sermon and watched every time it happened, watching Furtick, who did not clap once or even appeared to be paying any attention to Chandler. He was slumped back like a teenager with an attitude. I was especially unnerved when Matt Chandler proclaimed that He doesn’t want Matt glorified. He [God] wants to be glorified in, and everyone applauded except for Furtick. When Chandler says, ‘You are not the centre of the universe’, he looks directly at Furtick. To proclaim that and stare at him in the face when he is clearly despising everything Chandler is saying is so unbelievably bold. He says, ‘There is no sin in your life past, present or future that has more power than the cross of Jesus Christ. None’. That’s forty one minutes into the sermon to applause and amens, accept for Furticks, who at that point is leaning on his fist, presumably glaring at Chandler. He’s normally unbelievably energetic, jumping around, raising his hands, amening pastors off the stage. I don’t want to extract meaning that isn’t there but why won’t he acknowledge the cross of Christ when he so exuberantly acknowledges every other thing uttered by guest preachers?

I’ve watched him for years and I have never seen him behave that way. Thanks again. My wife and I spent hours upon hours, listening to you show learning discernment and being encouraged.” – Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, Laying Hold of Eisegetical Nonsense: 26:50-29:01, http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/2012/01/laying-hold-of-eisegetical-nonsense-.html, 19/01/2012.

We must ask the question, why on earth would Pringle invite such a dangerous teacher to speak to thousands of Christians? Does Pringle not care of his spiritual duties as a pastor?

Phil Pringle Endorsing Problematic Steve Furtick for Presence Conference 2012

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in C3 & Pringles Associations, C3 Ministry, Other, Pringle's Influences

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Once again, Pringle chooses a preacher based on popularity rather than accountability. Pastor Steve Furtick is a controversial pastor that is highly abusive and very controlling. Below is the latest news on Steve Furtick and his Code Orange Revival incident. Phil Pringle is clearly oblivious to the teachers, what they taught at this meeting and the Furtick fiasco behind the scenes,

“Watchng #CodeOrangeRevival http://bit.ly/zHRTZp WOW! So look 4ward 2 Steve Furtick wit us #Presence2012 10th-13th Aprl http://bit.ly/yylQEb” – Phil Pringle, https://twitter.com/#!/philpringle/status/159429028732874752, 18/01/2012.

HAS PHIL PRINGLE LOOKED AT STEVE FURTICK’S TRACK RECORD?

Steve Furtick has continually proven to demonstrate strong intolerance towards his critics and expresses his disgust to them. His video ‘Hey Haters’ reveals his hypocrisy and immaturity. The video he made reveals how little tolerance he has towards his critics:

He has demonstrated hostility to his own congregation for being disciples and those wanting to know more about Jesus.

In the above sermon, he is noted for also saying,

“If you know Jesus, I am sorry to break it to you, this church is not for you.” – Steve Furtick, Confessions of a Pastor

Quick reminder, he is speaking at C3 Presence Conference. He also says,

“We don’t teach from Books of the Bible because it gets in the way of evangelism. We don’t offer different kinds of Bible studies because it gets in the way of evangelism. We don’t teach doctrine because it gets in the way of evangelism.

If you want to be fed God’s word or have the Bible explained to you then you are a fat lazy Christian and you need to shut up and get to work or you need to leave this church because we ONLY do evangelism.” – Steven Furtick

In saying this, Furtick is rebelling against God’s Word and is going against the great commission that Jesus himself says (emphasis mine),

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

While loving each other and evangelising the world are good things, we need to be careful to tightly hold onto the truth at all costs otherwise the church will be thrown by every wind and wave of doctrine (Ephesians 4). Furtick’s extreme focus on evangelism and emergent Christianity has him breach the following scriptures: John 21:15-17, Luke 10:38-42, Matthew 28:19-2, John 8:31-32, Acts 2:42, Titus 1:7-10, Titus 2:1-10, 2 Timothy 4:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.

We have seen the toll of Furtick not remaining theologically faithful. He has endorsed some abusive leaders and heretics for his code Orange Revival 2012. We will see in his Code Orange Revival why it was labelled the Heresy Olympics.

WHAT HAPPENED AT FURTICK’S CODE ORANGE REVIVAL?

While Phil Pringle was wowed by Steve Furticks Code Orange Revival (COR), Chris Rosebrough from ‘Fighting For The Faith’ was appalled by the heresy that was present there. Rosebrough has addressed some problematic key speakers  in the past. These included speakers TD Jakes, Perry Noble, Ed Young Jr and James MacDonald just to name a few. Listen to his commentaries on the COR here amidst the Matt Chandler sensorship issue:

BREAKING NEWS: Code Orange Coverup?? **Updated**

Code Orange Revival Weekend 1 Recap

BREAKING NEWS: Elevation Employee Reveals Reason For Chandler Sermon Censorship

Is Steven Furtick the One Whom the Prophets Longed to See?

Code Orange, Revival or Deception?

Code Orange Revives Mythology

Laying Hold of Eisegetical Nonsense

The Antidote to Antichrist’s Anti-Truth

2012 Heresy Olympics Medal Ceremony

Chris Rosebrough observed the reaction of Steve Furticks body language to Matt Chandlers sermon. Rosebrough got straight to the point and addressed Steven Furtick’s bad behaviour stating,

“He’ll [Steven Furtick] tolerate any gospel except for the biblical gospel. Yeah, if that isn’t the case then why did he hack that out? Why did he hack it out? That was his first impulse and that’s exactly what he did. He was NOT happy – and you can see it in his body language, you can see it in what subsequently happened with him hacking it out. And the final thing was, well, he was caught red handed. And so he had to make the decision to put the sermon back in through the rebroadcasts at 10:12 and 12:12.” – Chris Rosebrough, Code Orange Revival Weekend 1 Recap: 17:58, http://0352182.netsolhost.com/F4F011612.mp3, 16/01/2012.

The behaviour, decisions and actions of Steve Furtick do highlight his personal issues with proper theological preaching and highlights his immaturity as a pastor.

The Sola Sisters from http://solasisters.blogspot.com.au, also looked to see what happened at the event regarding Chandler and Furtick. Below is their article.

Matt Chandler Goes To Code Orange Where He Exalts Christ, Confronts Narcissistic Man-Centered Preaching, and *poof* He’s Gone

Posted by Christine Pack

For those unaware of the latest brouhaha in Evangelicalism, let me first lay out the facts. Steven Furtick, megachurch pastor at Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, is currently hosting a revival which is running from January 11-22 and is promoted as “a 12 night worship experience to set the stage for 2012.” The event is entitled “Code Orange” to indicate, according to Elevation Church’s website, “a heightened sense of urgency….something significant is about to happen.” The line-up of speakers for Code Orange includes Craig Groeschel, Jentezen Franklin, Matt Chandler, Christine Caine, Ed Young, Israel Houghton, Perry Noble, James MacDonald, T.D. Jakes, etc.

So Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Highland, Texas, and one of the invited speakers at Code Orange, stood up at Elevation Church and delivered what turned out to be a barn burner of a sermon. In his distinctive delivery style (that is to say, humble, loving, direct and at times laugh-out-loud funny), Chandler took aim at the kind of preaching that has been so aptly termed “Narcissistic Eisegeis,” and at which Steven Furtick, and so many others in the seeker sensitive movement, excel.

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4

Narcissistic Eisegesis (“Narcigesis”) = Forcing the Bible to mean something you already want it to mean by superimposing yourself into the meaning of the passage, rather than interpreting Scripture for what it means about God, and letting the Scripture simply speak for itself. Conversely, seeking to understand Scripture for what it reveals about God is known as Exegesis, and is also sometimes referred to as the “Literal” or “Grammatical-Historical” approach to interpreting Scripture. Example: The Narcissitic Eisegesis version of David and Goliath would be about you fighting your personal “giants” (i.e., problems, difficulties, setbacks, etc.). The Exegetical approach to interpreting David and Goliath would reveal, instead, an historical account of David’s faith and God supernaturally intervening in an impossible situation for his own glory.

Matt Chandler,
Pastor of The Village Church

Now, back to Elevation Church, Code Orange, and Matt Chandler’s sermon. First of all, before the letters start, I am aware that Matt Chandler is affiliated with Acts 29, has contemplative authors on his site and has claimed audible words from God. I’m not putting a stamp of approval on any of that by posting Chandler’s sermon. The church is in a big muddle today, and I truly do think that we’re in the end times deception, such that even the elect might be deceived. But here’s a thought: maybe part of that playing itself out is that some will appear to be slipping, but when push comes to shove, will stand up and preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. The desire, of course, is for the ones who appear to be slipping to demonstrate that their feet are firmly planted on the Rock of our Salvation – Christ – and it appears to me that Matt Chandler is demonstrating just that. Because really, for Chandler to go to Elevation Church and preach as he did? To stand up before thousands and thousands of people, knowing that his message would not be well received? That could not have been easy, and it demonstrates a fear of God, rather than a fear of man. So the sermon rocked, Christ was exalted, and man was humbled. I can only speak for myself, but I personally need sermons that pierce me and break me and make me lie down on the floor, repenting and crying, and also remind me of the only hope that I have, which is not that I can be great and conquer problems but that God is great and has made a way for wretched sinners (like me) to be reconciled to himself.

But now for the controversial part. Chandler’s sermon was immediately pulled from the Code Orange rebroadcasts. This was pointed out by several Christian writers, including Chris Rosebrough of Fighting for Faith and Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries. Then, the sermon reappeared in subsequent rebroadcasts with a cryptic message from Elevation’s graphic designer about a decision being made to “reformat the content” for the purpose of focusing “the broadcast on Jesus.”

So we’ll let you be the judge. Matt Chandler’s sermon is posted above, where you can listen to it in its entirety. Was this a sermon that should have been pulled because it did not focus on Jesus?
Do you honestly think Pringle knows enough about Steve Furtick to have him speak at Presence Conference 2011? Do we really need this man to influence thousands of Christians in Sydney?