PASTORAL RESPONSE
WHY DID SADDLEBACK CHURCH CHOOSE TO USE THESE DOCTORS, WHO HAVE BEEN LINKED TO OTHER BELIEFS?
Thanks so much for contacting us with your concerns about the Daniel Plan. We’re very aware of the fact that there are uncertainties about our association with Doctors who may not share our own strong theological convictions about the nature of salvation and about the truthfulness of Scripture. Let us reassure you of some very important details.
-
- Pastor Rick knows each of these Doctors personally and has the utmost trust in their ability to advise us about matters related to physical health.
- Saddleback in no way endorses any teaching outside of Scripture. We may ask a physician for advice about physical health matters, but the beliefs of our church are carefully guarded by Pastor Rick and all of our Pastors. You can rest assured we will never compromise our belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven or that the Bible is the 100% completely infallible and perfect Word of God. These Doctors are helping us as friends, but are in no way advising our church on spiritual matters.
- These particular Doctors have a high level of respect from the public and the medical community at large. Because of the high profile nature of who they are, involving them in this process has not only helped us to be very accurate in what we say about physical health, they have also helped us to appeal to a much larger audience of people both inside and outside the faith.
Our primary objective as a church has always been and always will be to share the truth of the gospel with people who do not yet have a relationship with Christ. Rather than seeing this as a compromise of the gospel, we hope you’ll come to see it as an enormous opportunity to enlarge the influence of the gospel within our community and our nation.
We have already seen literally thousands of people on our campus as a result of involving these physicians who would never have otherwise visited. It thrills us to know that they will have an opportunity to hear the good news about Jesus, and this is our highest goal. We knew ahead of time that some leaders would criticize us for associating with Doctors who may or may not be believers, but we chose, if necessary, to suffer that criticism for the greater cause of enlarging the audience of people who will hear the truth of Scripture about Jesus Christ.
Thank you again for writing to us with your concerns. We appreciate that there are different points of view and respect the right of others to disagree with our methods of evangelism, but what cannot be questioned is our motive – we want to bring people into a relationship with Jesus by “becoming all things to all people, that by all means, we might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)
God Bless,
Brandon Cox
Saddleback Church
Pastor, Designer, Blogger
http://bcox.me