Calvinist Flyswatter

"Founders" announce another "plant"

THE "FOUNDERS" HAVE SET OUT
ANOTHER WEB SITE "PLANT"

Brother Ian Elsasser has called my attention to a new web site planted by the Founders Ministries ["Flounders"]. He says:

"Isn't this the same Timmy Brister that announced Grace Baptist Church was planning to plant a church which, to my knowledge, has never seen the light of day? The last post on the church plant website is dated December 20, 2008 (http://sowinggrace.com/). Yet having never planted a church or been involved with planting a church, he presumes to be an instructor to others. This strikes me as a little hollow -- if they are this eager about church planting, should they not be engaged in the activity? This seems to be the case of those who can't tell others how to do it."

We have called attention to the pretensions of the Flounders as to "church planting" several times on the Flyswatter, but thus far we have yet to see any evidence that any alleged "plant" has taken root and produced anything worthy of notice. They are very adept at "planting" blogs, web sites, conferences, and propaganda, but "where's the beef?"

Their latest "plant" is called PLNTD, and is a web site which comes on with a lot of flourish, promising great things in "church planting." Past forecasts about church planting by the Flounders have failed to live up to the hype, so we wonder what results will come of this new "plant."

The Founders Ministries' original founding "purpose" was allegedly to"recover the gospel" and promote the "doctrines of grace" according to the Founders' theology, ostensibly labled as "Calvinism," but more aptly categorized as Hybrid Calvinism:

"The purpose of Founders Ministries is the recovery of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the reformation of local churches. We believe intrinsic to this recovery is the promotion of the Doctrines of Grace in their experiential application to the local church particularly in the areas of worship and witness. This is to be accomplished through a variety of means focusing on conferences and including publication, education, pastoral training and other opportunities consistent with the purpose. Each of the ministries will be developed with special attention to achieve a healthy integration of doctrine and devotion."

Since their founding in 1982, they have had some success in proselytism and influencing divisions and splits in churches, but we have seen no evidence of churches being planted due to evangelism and soul winning. In fact, evangelism of the unsaved was never a part of the Founders Ministries' purpose, so far as we can discern.

In more recent years, the Founders Ministries has made some pretensions of having an interest in missions and church planting, evidently to at least put on a "face" that they are interested in more than propagating Hybrid Calvinism. But what this amounts to is simply what one reads on their blogs and web sites. We will be watching to see if the new web site amounts to anything more than similar floundering promises.

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posted by Bob L. Ross @ 11:21 AM