Fascist ideology has made its way into Church Growth and evangelicalism. Previously to cover this topic has been Chris Rosebrough of Fighting For the Faith in his audio presentation Resistance is Futile, You will be Assimilated into the Community.
In this article, I wanted to elaborate on the Führerprinzip, a key mechanism under the Gleichschaltung of Nazi Fascism. As churches have embraced the Führerprinzip or the Führer Principle of fascism, the pastor becomes a führer with absolutely no accountability to the congregation they lead. This makes church organization operate like a military unit rather than a ministry. Many have changed the definition of the pastor in order to destroy barriers to church growth and have absolute authority over their organizations. For example, Rick Warren says:
You must change the primary goal of the pastor from minister to leader.1
When asked, “Should we stop talking about pastors as ‘shepherds’?” Andy Stanley responded:
Absolutely. That word needs to go away. . . It was culturally relevant in the time of Jesus, but it’s not culturally relevant any more. Nothing works in our culture with that model except this sense of the gentle, pastoral care. Obviously that is a face of church ministry, but that’s not leadership.2
“Vision-casting” becomes the common practice of the pastor to lead the church and the congregation becomes fully accountable and completely loyal to the leader to fulfill his vision. With fascism and church growth, the Führerprinzip always works down so that those under the authority of the leader make the leader’s vision happen. Dissenters are excommunicated and often escorted from church premises by security or police officers. Mark Driscoll says in this sermon,
You cast vision for your mission and if people don’t sign up, you move on. . . There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace it will be a mountain by the time we’re done. You either get on the bus or you get run over by the bus. Those are the options. But the bus ain’t gonna stop. . . There’s people who get in the way of the bus, they gotta get run over. There are people who want to take turns driving the bus, they gotta get thrown off.3
In Fascist Trends of Passion 2014, I have previously demonstrated how fascism is of necessity and by design a youth movement similar to that of the Passion 2014 event. Also surfacing last week is a children’s coloring book that Elevation Church reportedly uses in its Sunday school classes. One page on “Unity” features a smiling Führer Steven Furtick with the caption: “Elevation Church is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will protect our unity in supporting his vision.”
On the Elevation Worship blog, there is a post titled, “Our Code – Unity Under the Visionary.” It says,
Yo! This week we’re back talking about “Elevation’s Code” (our defining, unique principles).
We Are United Under The Visionary: Elevation is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will aggressively defend our unity and his vision.
I’m about to break things down really simple like. We believe that God’s given Pastor Steven the vision of where he wants to take Elevation’s ministry. And the Lord’s called us all here to use our gifts and strengths corporately as a way of seeing that vision come to life. We’re all playing a unique part in this movement, because we’re all uniquely gifted. We all have different roles, because we have different strengths. Ok, so that’s about as basic as it gets, right? We all play different roles.
The key is that we’re devoted to having a unified spirit among our staff, and as a staff, we all have our pastor’s back. We’re not here to build up our resumes, get a couple years of experience so we can move on to bigger and better things. We’re not partially tied into Elevation, or partially behind Pastor Steven’s vision. We feel called to support him and what the Lord’s doing here.
Worship leaders, we’ve said it before….GET BEHIND YOUR PASTOR. Support him and the vision God’s given him. And please don’t look at your worship leading title at your church as a launching pad for your career. God has far bigger plans for you in your local church than for it to only be considered a stepping stone. He desires a unified spirit between your entire staff and your pastor. Invest your heart and soul into that ministry. Pour yourself out in support of the visionary.4
What about the unity of the Holy Spirit? What about getting behind Jesus and following Jesus as the head of the Church? Rather than memorizing Scripture, this “code” becomes the creed. In the video below, Furtick explains the code to the youth and encourages them to memorize it.5
The führer celebrity pastor may not be challenged or questioned with the Word of God. Discernment ministries are labeled as “extremist.” Where is the accountability? Perry Noble says,
A leader should never allow doubters to dictate the direction of their ministry…when God speaks our obsession MUST be complete obedience!6
Often, these churches have membership covenants with clauses that contractually obligate you to go if you disagree. Many seeker-driven and Purpose Driven churches have membership covenants which can be used as legal documents to protect the Führer and leadership. For example, a confidentiality agreement must be signed by employees and anyone who wishes to “volunteer” at Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina which legally binds the volunteer to a non-disclosure agreement of “confidential information” such as the Church’s research, technical data and financial information. The volunteer acknowledges that any breach of the covenant on their part will entitle the church to pursue any and all legal remedies against them.7
1 Rick Warren, “Break Through These 3 Barriers to Growth,” Pastors.com, March 19, 2012, available: http://pastors.com/break-through-these-3-barriers-to-growth/
2 “Leader’s Insight: Get-It-Done Leadership,” Christianity Today, May, 2007, available: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2007/may-online-only/cln70528.html?start=2
3 “Mark Driscoll – There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus,” Youtube video, uploaded by “310revelation,” November 3, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfTmgPhmlto
4 “Our Code – Unity Under the Visionary” Elevation Worship, May 18, 2010, http://elevationworship.com/leadership/our-code-united-under-the-visionary/
5 “FURTICK TO KIDS: MEMORIZE THE CODE,” YouTube video, uploaded by Amy Spreeman, February 20, 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va8d_DwQ514
6 Perry Noble, Twitter, June 13, 2009, available: https://twitter.com/perrynoble/status/2152766528
7 “Elevation Church Confidentiality Agreement”, available: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qed1hegtmh54wmp/Confidentiality%20Agreement%20Form.%20pdf.pdf
Fascist Trends of Passion 2014