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SERMON EXECUTION
When key church conferences or events are weeks away, Phil Pringle executes his teachings in rather peculiar ways. To the average person it sounds like what they are hearing in a Sunday service or bible study is biblical teaching.
Unfortunately this is not the case. It is becoming more evident that C3 members are being seduced by innovative marketing ploys for Phil Pringle’s conferences and events. People need to understand that Phil Pringle can often have a rather different agenda when he is preaching. It is of our opinion that his marketing ploys are becoming more manipulative.
Consider some of these statements he has made in his book, ‘You The Leader’:
“People can become anything under the right conditions.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 267.
“I don’t approach Sundays with an attitude of, “What message shall I preach?” but rather, “What do we want to achieve in our church at this time?” That desired end result determines what and how I preach. Then, within the particular message, I ask myself, “What am I trying to achieve here? What one thing am I attempting to say? What do I want these people to have or do at the end of this time?’
Then I follow the plan.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, pg. 234.
“What we preach is what we get. We are farmers sowing seed. If we are unhappy with the harvest we’re reaping, we should sow different seed. If we want different results, we preach different messages.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 215.
It is unsettling to know that a pastor might be using his position and sermon time to manipulate people. This is what we have recorded Phil Pringle doing in the past.
Another False Prophecy By Pringle Alongside A Deceitful Sermon
Pringle’s ‘Get Ready For God’ Bible Study Notes, Exposed
Pringle’s ‘Financial Excellence’ Bible Study Notes, Exposed
HAS ‘PASTOR’ PHIL PRINGLE CHANGED?
You may be thinking Phil Pringle went through an unusual phase in his ministry. Not so. We have seen him behave like this for a few years now. This year we have seen Pringle misuse his power and position to market his events through his teachings. Specifically this years Presence Conference 2013 and Vision Builders 2013.
In this articles we will not give you a critique of Phil Pringle’s sermons that market people to attend Presence Conference 2013 or Vision Builders 2013. First, we invite you to look at the bizarre C3 Connect Notes study, weeks leading up to Presence Conference 2013. (Emphasis ours in underline.)
35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. John 4v35
(all references NIV)
It says: “don’t you have a saying?” We all have a saying.
– We can say one thing, but God says this: we can’t go without the presence of God.
– Moses and the people set out, but they pleaded: “Please God, don’t let us go without your presence.
The presence of God defines who you are. When people meet you they don’t just experience you, they experience God.
The church is a place of the second chance – but the church is also the house of promise.
TALK ABOUT:
* Are you ready for the hour we are about to step into? Are you willing give [sic] him all of your life?
Ps Greg French moved extensively in the prophetic after this message. We would like to encourage all leaders to have a special prayer and ministry time in your connect group this week. Remember you are a sufficient minister of the Holy Spirit! ‘..Our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit..’ (2 Corin 3:5-6)
Source: CN08Apr13 – Carrying The Presence Of God
Let’s see if Phil Pringle honestly used the single verse in the ‘bible study’ in context. Did he handle the words of Jesus accurately? Does God overwrite all our sayings to correct us? Let’s see what Jesus said:
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” John 4:34-38. (Emphasis ours.)
So what has this verse got to do with God’s presence™? It doesn’t. But what is Pringle trying to say? That God will override our sayings to say something else?
Pringle used ONLY John 4:35 to explain that, “We can say one thing, but God says this: we can’t go without the presence”. This could be true BUT Jesus in his next breath says in AGREEMENT that, “the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true“. So… what is going on?
Why did Pringle exclude this? If he kept the scripture in context wouldn’t people be able to see that God can be in agreement with our sayings?
We are assuming he wants people to think like this in the bible study:
As a reader, are you ready for the hour you are about to step into: Presence™ Conference 2013?
How is it possible to give God all your life if you do not go?
Don’t you realise that God is telling you that you can’t go without the Presence™ of God?
Can’t you see that if you say “I might not go to Presence™ Conference”, God might be telling you to do the opposite?
It’s wrong for Phil Pringle to make Jesus out to be a liar. When you read the verse in its context, the entire bible study is debunked and made pointless. This seems to indicate that Pringle is misleading his entire Connect Group network with this study to try and get people to go to his Presence Conference. Quite frankly this is despicable behaviour coming from a ‘pastor’.
But it get’s worse…
WHAT IS THE C3 VISION BUILDERS DINNER & THE C3 VISION?
Before looking at the Vision Builders marketing ploys Pringle weaves in his teachings, it is important that you understand the ‘Vision Builders’ dinner.
We’ll let C3 explain what it is.
If you do not know what the ‘Vision’ of God is to Phil Pringle, it is this. (Also watch the video via below source link.)
“Our vision for C3 Church is to see 1000 Churches planted by the year 2020 with an average attendance of 500 members.” – 2020 Vision, C3 Church Global, http://c3churchglobal.com/cms/2020-vision. (Accessed 14/06/2013.)
With this in mind, it is time to look at how Phil Pringle convinces people to sign up for the ‘Vision Builders’ dinner so they can make financial pledges to C3 Church’ building initiatives.
VISION BUILDERS MARKETING GIMMICKS
Here is what you will find advertised on the myc3church website. Ask yourself this question: Who “prepares a table” for you? God or C3?
To reduce the size of this article, we will only look at C3’s Vision Builders video and C3’s latest ‘bible study’ Connect Notes.
Here is the video.
The transcript reads:
“What a humbling thing it is to realise that God, the Creator of the universe, maker of heaven and earth, has prepared a table for you. Long before you acknowledged Him, your place had been set, the invitation extended. Taste and see that the Lord is good. It was not a place you could earn or deserve. You were lost. Dead. But now, you are found alive, caught up in his great story. And so before you is a banquet. A feast of provision. That you may play a part in the midst of darkness bringing the light.”
Like other Vision Builders dinner, Pringle encouraged people to bring their wallets to the table and make pledges to the C3 building fund. (Quick reminder: The light is Jesus, not our money.)
There is something seriously wrong with the video presentation. Do you think this advert has gone one step further than worldly marketing? How do you feel when you watch this? Who is really preparing the table? God or Pringle? Who is really asking people to give cash? God or Pringle? Who is asking you to expand in your sacrificial giving? God or Pringle?
The lines were deliberately blurred to entice and pressure C3 members to give sacrificially. But would God really want people to give financially at this event?
C3 BIBLE STUDY CONNECT GROUP NOTES
If that’s not disturbing enough, look how Phil Pringle in the last two weeks planned out the C3 Church bible study connect group notes.
CN03Jun13 – GRAND DESIGNS: PURPOSE, PLANS & PURSUIT
CN11Jun13 – GRAND DESIGNS: SPARE NOT – Ps Phil Pringle
You can see bible passages are being twisted in these Connect Notes when Pringle wants people to ask these questions:
TALK ABOUT:
* Have you ever had a time of stretching with God?
* Are you ever tempted to “bail out” or “dig up the seed” in waiting for God to grow something in you?
* Does it encourage you when God says you shall expand or His people will inherit?
Source: http://www2.myc3church.net/sites/default/files/CN11Jun13.pdf (03, June 2013.)
Here is this weeks Connect Notes questions:
TALK ABOUT:
* What is your part of God’s grand design? Are you looking to the Bible to affirm the plan of God?
* Discuss how our church leadership and vision is always exhorting us to expand and look out.
* Are you involved in the width, the length, the depth or the height of his plan? Where is God calling you? [Note Pringle’s allusion to
* How are you investing in the future of His magnificent house? How can we each step up rather than only attend meetings?
Source: http://www2.myc3church.net/sites/default/files/CN03Jun13.pdf, (11, June, 2013.)
These questions should be properly revealed this way:
* Have you ever had a time of stretching with Phil Pringle pressuring you to give money?
* Are you ever tempted to “bail out” or “dig up the seed” because Phil Pringle keeps telling you, “God [wants] to grow something in you”?
* Does it encourage you when Phil Pringle says you shall expand or His people will inherit?
* What is your part of Phil Pringle’s grand design? Are you looking to the Bible to affirm the plan of Pringle (or testing what He says to what God says)?
* Discuss how our church leadership and vision is always exhorting us to expand and look out.
* Are you involved in the width, the length, the depth or the height of Pringle’s financial plan? What is Pringle calling you to do?
* Discuss how you are investing in the future of Phil Pringle’s ministry? How can we each step up rather than only attend meetings?
What’s the answer to the last question? “How are you investing in the future of His magnificent house? How can we each step up rather than only attend meetings?” Answer: Go to Vision Builders.
Is this biblical? Do people realise they are being financially duped by Phil Pringle? Do they know what they are hearing is not the biblical context but a deceptive marketing scheme? How should members feel if they are being manipulated like this? Is this the way Phil Pringle should run his church?
Please pray that members get wisdom and and understanding so they do not put themselves under financial stress.