Stay FAR Away From Trendy Pastor Chad Veach!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So as far as I can tell,

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Pastor Chad Veatch runs a youth -oriented evangelical megachurch called Zoe Church located in the

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Los Angeles area. I believe he used to be involved in Judah Smith's church, which is called Church Home, as well, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about how doctrinally sound his church is.

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Judah Smith, by the way, if that name rings a bell, it's because he was and still seems to be the spiritual advisor to Justin Bieber, which isn't exactly a title that any pastor should be proud of at the moment.

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But in any case, Chad Veatch used to be involved at Judah's church, and he finds himself in the same theological vein with the same types of theological tendencies that Judah has.

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Seeker -sensitive church tactics, trying to primarily reach teenagers and college kids who think most churches are just too uncool for them, trendy clothes, new and exciting church growth strategies, basically everything that's wrong with the

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American church happening in one congregation. If you've spent any amount of time on Christian Instagram accounts and in that whole culture, you'll find that Chad's account comes up quite a bit.

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His whole strategy seems to be, go where the young people are, do what the young people do, and then put a

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Christian flavor on the top of it. Once they're hooked on that, then you can of course give them the gospel and baptize them.

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So with that said, in this video, I'm going to give you some serious reasons to stay far away from Chad Veatch and Zoe Church.

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One of the first ways I could demonstrate this to you is through an interview that Chad did with the Christian Post online.

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In that interview, he describes his philosophy of ministry, and he says the following, Again, the gospel is not tired, but people are tired of tired presentations of the gospel.

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I think the church is only as strong as the next generation, so if we have a gap of that, we're going to miss out on that window.

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Basically, in Chad's view, young people are tired of the old gospel presentations that they've become all too accustomed to.

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They need something new, something exciting, to draw them in. Embedded in this statement, though, is the idea, the underlying concept, that the gospel alone is not enough to win people to Christ.

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We need something in addition. This idea has become very popular with pastors like Judah Smith, Mike Todd, Stephen Furtick, and everybody pretty much in the seeker -sensitive crowd.

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We're not going to change the gospel, they say. Don't worry, don't bother about that. We're just going to change the presentation of the gospel to make it more palatable and win more converts.

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But ladies and gentlemen, this is most certainly a problem. And it's a problem because it's a recipe for false conversions.

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Let me explain why. When someone comes to Christ, they must be willing to give up everything to follow

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Him. That's the nature of true discipleship. In fact, that's what all of the disciples did. They gave up what they had to follow

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Christ. Jesus Himself says in Luke 14, 26, Now don't get me wrong,

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Christ is not telling us to actually hate our family members in the way we would usually think about that. After all, we are called to love all people in the greatest commandment.

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Rather, Jesus is making the point that in order to follow Him, you must be willing to give everything up, including your family's approval.

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Matthew 4, 18 -20 says, These men wanted to follow

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Jesus, but in order to do so, they had to give up their family business, their financial security, and their own autonomy as to where they lived and where they went.

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Christ was Lord, and they simply recognized that. This is what true discipleship looks like.

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So there's a problem, then. When church leaders like Chad Veach say that young people in our country have grown tired of the old

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Gospel presentations, they need new and exciting techniques in order to come follow Christ. You see, if Simon, Peter, Andrew, James, and John were all willing to leave their jobs, their hometowns, and their retirement plans in an instant just to follow a man who they had never met before, explain to me why we can't expect modern young Christians to follow

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Christ even if it means giving up a few small worldly preferences. This simply does not follow with the ministry of Jesus Christ at all.

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If these young people are not willing to come to Christ based on the Gospel alone, based on the work of Christ alone, if they need new and exciting ministry methods to win them over and convince them that Christ is worth their time, then they probably aren't

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Christians. Christians love Jesus and want to serve him more than they love trendy clothes, pizza, laser light shows, shorter sermons, louder music, or any other thing that these seeker -sensitive pastors think they need to win people over.

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Let's review what Chad said again, shall we? Because I think it's very telling. He said, and I quote, The Gospel is not tired, but people are tired of tired presentations of the

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Gospel. I think the Church is only as strong as the next generation, so if we have a gap in that, we're going to miss out on that window.

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End quote. Romans 1 .16, on the other hand, says something completely different. It says, quote, For I am not ashamed of the

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Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. End quote. It is the

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Gospel, you see, not the tactics of modern youth -oriented trendy pastors, that truly brings people into the

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Kingdom of God. Now, there's an immediate reaction that will arise, inevitably, when I make these kinds of arguments.

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I already know what many people are going to say. But Colin, he's not doing anything wrong. Doesn't the

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Apostle Paul say in 1 Corinthians 9 .22, I have become all things to all people, that by all means

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I might win some? And he does say that he does this all for the sake of the Gospel, doesn't he? Here, Paul clearly says that there is some way in which he's adjusting his conduct to the people around him.

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And he even says that he does this for the sake of the Gospel. Therefore, how can Colin really make the case in this video that Chad Veach is in the wrong when he's just doing the same thing that Paul did?

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Those are great objections. But the answer to them is very simple. Look at the context of the passage in question.

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People love to quote this passage, but they don't enjoy studying it and putting proper boundaries on it.

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For instance, just after the becoming all things to all men portion, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 .27,

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quote, But I discipline my body and keep it under control. End quote. Does this sound like Paul has made his

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Church a trendy, youth -oriented free -for -all that's focused on fun games, music, and cultural fads?

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No. He writes all of these things with a heart of self -control and setting proper biblical boundaries on himself and others.

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Also, we know that in context, Paul is talking about Jews and Gentiles. He's talking about distinctions between these cultures.

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He's not talking about bringing seeker -sensitive tactics into the Church at all. Rather, he's talking about avoiding things that are a direct, offensive, and unnecessary stumbling block to certain people.

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If I were a missionary, for instance, and someone asked me to take off my shoes when I came into their house to share the Gospel with them,

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I would gladly do that for the sake of spreading the Gospel. If a Jewish person invited me to dinner and asked me not to eat pork,

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I would gladly abstain from that meat for the sake of telling them the Gospel. Paul is talking about taking basic, reasonable, conscientious steps towards spreading the

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Gospel. What Paul is not advocating for is changing the entire atmosphere and flavor of the

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Church's ministry to be cool and trendy and youth -oriented. That's simply not what he's saying at all. And as a final point,

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I want you to remember something that seeker -sensitive teachers almost always forget. There is more than one verse in the

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Bible. The Word of God tells us to practice proper Church discipline. That's Matthew 18 and 1

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Corinthians 5. But seeker -sensitive churches do not practice this in almost any way. The Bible also tells us to make a practice of calling out sin and confronting the wickedness of our culture.

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That's Ephesians 5 .11, for instance. But again, seeker -sensitive churches rarely do this. Moreover, the

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Bible tells us to design our Church culture, practices, and government around His standards and His Word alone.

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But seeker -sensitive churches tend to design these things around man's selfish desires. And finally,

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Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 .4, So I have a question.

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If Paul's writing of being all things to all men is meant to be taken as a free -for -all on virtually every modern ministry tactic that we can come up with, then why was

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Paul not feeling free to use clever speech or persuasive speech? It's not sinful for him to be persuasive, right?

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And the answer is because Paul's message of becoming all things to all men is a limited and restricted message fundamentally.

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He's not giving a free -for -all, and everything he says must be used not as a blank check, but as an edifying instruction for people who've actually had their hearts changed by Jesus Christ.

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When you submit to Christ, you stop seeing this as an excuse to do everything you want in your ministry.

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Rather, you see the passage as a reminder to not put a stumbling block in front of people you're ministering to.

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Again, remember that Paul was not talking about changing the whole atmosphere, tone, and overarching methods of his ministry.

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He was talking about making a few common -sense changes to the way that he operated in some limited cultural settings.

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So when you look at Paul's private conduct with regard to the cultural differences between Jews and Gentiles, and you take that conduct as a prescription to design your church around the shallow and fickle culture that modern young people create in any way you want, all you're doing is showing us where your heart truly is.

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You have your philosophy of ministry. You have your tactics. You have your methods. And you want to find a passage that excuses them.

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But ultimately, you don't think the gospel by itself has the power to change hearts and minds. Because if you did think that, you wouldn't constantly have to make it more exciting, interesting, and cool in your gospel presentation.

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That is the fundamental issue here. So let's pray that Chad Veach and pastors like him would repent of their foolishness and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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Thank you so much for watching. If you liked that video, please like, comment, share, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so that you never miss another one.

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you, and God bless.