No wonder I sensed Redeemer Senior pastor Scott Sauls' evangelical approach a problem. He's from Riverside Church, which is much affected by social gospel movement. And so do many traditional churches in America today. I think it's an excuse to eliminate the need to preach to strangers, or simply put, the Great Commission.
Perhaps I wasn't the only one. Based on a news about how pastor Scott was decommissioned from the future new church. (Or it could be that the committee decided to have just 1 senior pastor instead of 2 for the new church.)
Though I do agree with Tim Keller, that if one is commissioned, it is not right to decommission one especially when the whole thing hasn't even started yet.
If Sauls decided to strive through this, my respect for him shall grow. I do hope so.
He is definitely well aware of problems in the liberal Christianity.
It is his reliance on their [liberals] dealings with certain conservative issues that gives Sauls his problem.
He should have strive for a unique stand himself, instead of borrowing ideas from two opposing sides.
It is very good to be fair to either sides. But to not have a "self" opinion/stand, it is very hard for people to follow. It is also very irresponsible.
Because in the end, if I say...Gandhi, we could all relate to non-violent civil disobedience. But what of Scott Sauls? What uniqueness other than he always does his homework on time? The closest one I could come up is: confused individual - perhaps in search for his own identity between the two "extremes: liberal & conservative".
Scott Sauls is a very confused individual and it goes way back to at least the late 90s. He is a "if it feels good, do it" kind of person and has no sense of commitment to any cause, sticks his finger in the air, checks the winds of opinion and changes course.
He was in Lee's Summit MO for a short tenure, started a church planting and when numbers didn't grow, he moved it to the KS side and when numbers still didn't grow, he left (or maybe he was chased out, I don't know as we didn't move to KS with him), a PCA church is needed in Lee's Summit and he abandoned it. It was perhaps his own wishi-washiness that caused the numbers to dwindle.
His adherence to scripture at times was questionable and it doesn't surprise me that over 10 years later, he did what he did with commissioning the deaconess in NY. I doubt it was a mistake of judgement but it appears it has been accepted as that. After all, many felt he was not the one wearing the pants in his family. And from the tweets and messages I have seen recently, he still doesn't. And then bragging about his seats at the US Open on his most recent tweets...not very humble, to say the least. Tennis always was his golden idol.
What surprises me most is that a he was called to lead at a church in Nashville. The very Bible belt of the country and surely not a liberal area.
I believe the reason he was admitted in Nashville church is due to Tim Keller, a famous PCA christian author/pastor in NYC.
Tim Keller to me is on the conservative side. However, it is also obvious he doesn't want to be labeled conservative...calling it a "police state". And he knows the problem with liberals.
This Neither Nor attitude will be the undoing of what they believe in. They put their passion in the mind, but have distance themselves from personal association with congregation...this I think is the main problem with Tim Keller.
It would seem that Sauls' dismissal from Redeemer had rooted in his early days around 2008-2009, when he "ordained" deaconess and had the congregation "submit" to her. This is all in the internet (http://baylyblog.com/blog/2009/11/redeemer-explains-its-ordination-women-big-innocent-mistake).
Which also relates to the dismissal of a Mark Robinson (who seems to go to the other extreme of banning all female deacons). This gave opportunity for some to accuse Redeemer of discriminating black pastors. Which I believe not to be the case.
As for whether it is PCA or EPC regulation, it is not merely how good you can follow them, but whether or not you believe it. Because if a minister is performing a sacrament, teaching, speaking or counseling, his belief in those matters are so crucial that he cannot simply say "I'm just following PCA's rules but please don't tell people I actually do not belief in those principles, for the sake of peace".
I see this as serious problem. But apparently, many do not.