It's Time to Walk Away from Steven Furtick
Steven Furtick is an excellent communicator. He’s built a church empire with his “feel good” preaching, attractive worship, and excellent packaging. He even has a degree from my alma mater—The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. By most people’s standards, Furtick is a major success.
Furtick can be a pretty controversial figure among conservative evangelicals. Many of his sermons have left people scratching their heads and asking, “This guy came from Southern?” He also associates with controversial figures from Joel Osteen to T.D. Jakes, which makes it no surprise that he seems to flirt with the prosperity gospel.
I’ve often tried to give Furtick charitable interpretations, but I think it’s finally time for me advocate and truly encourage those who like him and are regular listeners that it’s time to move on. The clip that is circulating on social media right now is pretty hard to ignore. In the clip, Furtick seems to be teaching a heresy known as modalism. Modalism essentially denies the Trinity and claims that there is one God who takes on three different forms—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now charitably, I want to say that maybe Furtick didn’t mean for it to sound the way it sounds, but it is a little hard to ignore when he says, “I am changing forms.” Even if it was a mistake, this is a clip that has been pulled out of an entire sermon and been used on Furtick’s social media accounts. If you realized you said something that sounds like heresy, wouldn’t you have it taken down?
Sadly, these types of clips are becoming common occurrences with Furtick to the point where it would be hard to argue they are accidents or missteps. We have to be careful what we are teaching from the pulpit because Scripture tells pastors they will be held accountable for it. They are leading sheep—in Furtick’s case, a lot of sheep. Pastor’s are responsible to rightly handle the word.
What I am not doing in writing this is making a judgment of Steven Furtick’s status before God because that is certainly not my place. What I am unapologetically doing is encouraging you to quit listening to him. I am encouraging you to walk away, ignore, and not to give him your endorsement. Even if these are all mistakes or accidents and we are being extremely charitable, ask yourself, “Why would I invest my time, energy, and attention in a teacher who is not rightly handling the Word of God and teaching me what it says?”
We live in a day and age where we have access to some of the best teachers out there. If you don’t know who they are then click here for a list of faithful teachers I recommend. We should use these teachers as supplements though and not our source. Nothing can replace the biblical command to gather together as a local church body and listen to the teaching of a faithful local pastor who most likely isn’t on youtube every week. We digest those sermons in a community of other believers where we can process the Word together, challenge one another, and spur each other on to good works and service.
If you’ve been following Furtick then let me humbly encourage you that it’s time to walk away. He may make you feel good, but he most likely won’t encourage your holiness. You’re not the point of the Bible—Jesus is. Learn from pastors who make Jesus big and you small. There’s a lot more comfort and encouragement with a proper balance.
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Update April 10, 2020 - I continually get people emailing me for a list of recommended teachers so I have edited this post to include a page with that list. Thanks for all the feedback from everyone!
