Schism Emerges Between Record Searchlight and the Facts of the Sufficiency of Christ Conference

I’d like to call on all the friends of RRF and of Biblical Christianity in general to pray for a situation in regard to the Sufficiency of Christ Conference being held today and tomorrow(April 27 - 28) here in Redding. 

Along with a call to prayer, I feel that I need to respond in some way to the situation that has developed regarding the conference. I do this especially for those who may be visiting our blog, probably through our Facebook page, for the first time, and possibly in response to this situation. 

This conference is “meant to edify ALL of the body in regards to Christ and the gospel, EXALTING Christ as sufficient in all things” (from the promotional flier). We are excited about the opportunity to pursue this biblical goal.

Earlier this week, the organizers of the conference were contacted and interviewed by our local paper, the Redding Record Searchlight. As a part of the interview, the organizers stated repeatedly and explicitly that the purpose of the conference was not  to “bash” a particular local group, known as Bethel Church. Bethel is a third-wave Pentecostal church in Redding which focuses on signs and wonders, and which has a huge following in our area.

The next morning the story hit the front page of the Local section of the Record Searchlight: “Schism emerges between Bethel Church and local pastors’ group.” As a relatively small city, without a plethora of sources of written news, I know that many of you read the Record Searchlight, at least on the weekends.

The article published in the newspaper, from the headline on down contains inflammatory language and misleads the Record Searchlight’s readers concerning the conference and its purpose.

For anyone from the Redding area who has read the article, I, as one of the speakers at this conference, would like you to know that the piece in the Searchlight is a shameful piece of misreporting that has misrepresented statements made by the promoters and spun other comments in a way that is obviously designed to sell newspapers, seeking to turn the event into something precisely opposite of its intended purpose.

While the organizers of the event, as well as myself as a minister of the gospel, do have strong and substantial disagreements with the teachings of Bethel Church, the purpose of this conference is not to single out Bethel or any other group or to bash anyone. The purpose is rather to focus on the need of churches in Redding and around the world to return to an understanding and teaching of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in all aspects of salvation and the Christian life. 

There will certainly be statements made by the speakers calling on churches wherever they may be to move away from false gospels and distracting and competing practices and beliefs and to return to the teaching of the scriptures, and we make no apology for that in any way, and if any particular church finds themselves in the path of that exhortation, so be it. Someone has said, yes, truth hurts, but it only hurts those that it should. 

But, and I wonder how many times we will need to say this for it to be understood, the conference is not intended to focus on any individual or any specific congregation, I don't mean to pan the Record Searchlight as a whole, but this article and how the reporter spun the interview in such an irresponsible way needs to be mentioned, especially because of the increased tension it has caused even among some brothers and sisters in Christ.. 

Please pray for our conference, that Christ would be proclaimed and exalted, and that the eternal truth of the Word of God would overcome all schemes of the enemy to distract from that truth. We are confident that will indeed be the case. 

If you are in the Redding area, I would invite you to come out and hear for yourself. You can find out the details by going to our website at reddingreformed.org and clicking on the big “Sufficiency of Christ Conference” button on the home page.

If you haven't read the Record Searchlight article, but really want to, here is the link.

UPDATE:
The conference was held this past weekend and by all accounts was a great success. The Lord blessed those who attended and God's word and the work of his Son ad the centrality of Christ was powerfully presented by the speakers and enjoyed by the saints and visitors.

Unfortunately there continues to be fallout and grievous misunderstandings brought about by the misreporting of the Record Searchlight. I continue to hear concerns and false charges by various people; all from people, by the way who did not attend the conference.

As was our intention all along, Bethel Church, and in fact any particular church was not mentioned in any of the presentations AT ALL.

It is very sad that even many Christian brothers and sisters have been taking the report in the paper as fact, and then adding lies and gossip on top of it and spreading that misinformation about a conference whose purpose was to preach Christ. I have even heard of one man trying to convince people that our fliers were actually promoting the conference as a purposeful bash of Bethel.

The entire conference was videotaped and will be available on DVD shortly, so anyone who would like to see what was said will be able to do so. Additionally, I and any of the other speakers at the event, as well as the organizers, would be happy to answer questions about the purpose or content of the messages.

Brothers and sisters, I plead with you not to let the enemy of Christ and His church succeed in doing damage to the body of Christ by causing lies about this group of sincere and godly men by bearing false witness against them and spreading the false editorial opinions of the newspaper article as truth among the churches of Redding.
If you listen to the position of the conference speakers and their exhortation to ALL churches in ALL places to focus on Christ and His glorious gospel, and want to disagree with us on that, feel free to, because that was what was promoted at the conference. But please do not take either the article in the Record Searchlight, or the resulting false stories that have floated around based on it as fact.

"He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him." Proverbs 18:13

I will open up the comments on this post to allow productive questions to be asked here. I will try to answer them in a timely way.

May the Head and King of the church be honored and glorified in all things.

Soli Deo Gloria

Pastor Gene