Pastor Jim Jenkins penned “He still hasn’t found what he’s looking for” which can be read over at Herescope. Jenkins informs us that “Fuller Seminary rolled out its inaugural video of a new media site FULLER studio. It is a 20-minute piece featuring Eugene Peterson, author of The Message Bible which sold 17,000,000 copies and the rock star Bono.” Interesting choice of guests, as Bono is a professing Christian…who doesn’t believe in the Bible. In The Message, Peterson distorts the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son (John 10:30 & John 14:28), deletes homosexuality from key passages (1 Cor 6:9-11 & 1 Tim 1:8-11) and does all sorts of other alterations. For these reasons CRN does not recommend this “bible.”
Jenkins begins his piece:
It’s entirely possible to look at something so long that you can’t really see it anymore. For years I have been calling people back to simple faith in the inerrancy of God’s Word. I’ve been patronized, mocked and more times than not, simply ignored.
I completed my doctorate at Fuller Seminary at the height of the Church Growth movement. I was exposed to all the marketing influence, the obsession with numerical growth of churches—and it was there that I was first introduced to the term “Progressive Christian.”
We were required to read the book Marketing the Church by George Barna. Some notables at Fuller at the time were C. Peter Wagner, Bob Logan, Carl George, and Eddie Gibbs. The message that permeated the core of the Doctor of Ministry Degree program was that the Church needed to be run as a business, and that the message needed to be contextualized against the backdrop of the culture.