Cool Community Church on What a “Healthy Member” is in a Neo-Calvinist Church; However Drew Buell Forgot One Aspect as “Sound Doctrine” Means Teaching an Individual Why Rape and Sexual Assault is a Problem in the Military

A look at a post from Drew Buell’s blog on what it means to be a healthy member of a church. This comes from the senior pastor at Cool Community Church in Cool, California and it is indeed quite flawed. I look at the issues with what Drew is teaching and recall a situation of how someone I once knew from a Neo-Calvinist church here in the Washington, D.C. area advocated the same thing from Sovereign Grace, and was a “healthy member” who also taught me why rape and sexual assault is a problem in the military. 

“All animals are equal but some are more equal that others.” 

George Orwell

“Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.” 

George Orwell

I look up to the mountains—
    does my help come from there?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth!

Psalm 121:1-2 NLT 

 

Drew Buell is the senior pastor of Cool Community Church in Cool, California. Drew, it appears, originally comes from Bakersfield, California and was involved in RiverLakes Community Church when he was younger. In 1997 Drew entered the Masters University which is under the influence of John MacArthur. Its important to note that Drew’s jaw hits the ground at the site of John MacArthur and he regularly attends the Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church. You can read Drew’s posts about the Shepherd’s conference here, here and here. I have written a number of articles about John MacArthur and his movement. Here are but some examples that I would like to feature. “A Look at Grace Church of the Valley in Kingsburg, California; Plus Does the Central Valley Need The Masters Seminary?” Then there is “From Strange Bedfellows to Strange Fire: What is the Relationship Between John MacArthur and C.J. Mahaney?” Next is “Is Phil Johnson from Grace to You the Lt. Frank Drebin of the Reformed  Community?” Drew obtained a M.A. from  the Masters University in 2005. His first church that he served as a pastor is Pine Mountain Christian Community Church, in Pine Mountain, California. In 2005 Drew moved his family up to Mount Vernon, Washington and served at Emmanuel Baptist Church as the Pastor of Student Ministries. In time he eventually settled at Cool Community Church, an Evangelical Free in Cool, California. 

When I was reading Drew’s blog I noticed this post and felt that it deserved some analysis and examination. After all I recall hearing much of this when I was unsuccessfully recruited into a Sovereign Grace Church here in the Washington, D.C. area. This article that Drew wrote on church membership is quite flawed and has a lot of issues. It contains the usual concerns that come from a Neo-Calvinist church. I will look at this in more detail below but as always the Sovereign Grace Ministries scandal weighs down Drew’s post like a rock in a pond. When C.J. Mahaney fled and hid behind Mark Dever’s read end at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, why didn’t Drew’s description of membership apply? What you read below is the standard mantra in 9 Marks, Sovereing Grace Churches (SGC), Acts 29 and so many other places. Yet does it apply to pastors and people like Drew Buell? Or is Drew like C.J. Mahaney and exempt from membership requirements just as Drew would be exempt from church discipline? This article from Drew’s blog is called, “What is a Healthy Church Member? My comments below are in red. 

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Over the last couple of years I have become increasingly convinced of the importance of membership in the local church. To be honest, church membership was something that I’d never really heard about growing up and so the first time I was exposed to the doctrine of church membership I balked at it completely. My thought process was something along the line of, “Why do I need to become a member of a local church if I’m already a Christian? I don’t need the church to tell me that I’m saved!” The truth is that church membership is a biblical doctrine and one that I now hold dear, so much so that I recently preached a sermon about the fact that it is the will of God that every Christian become a healthy member of a local church.

I used to be a firm believer in membership and was a member of the local church when I lived in Wisconsin. One of the beautiful things about the church membership that I had was that it was simple. It was not a covenant and it was not binding. It fulfilled simple requirements and I believe was consistent with Jesus’s “let your yes be yes, and no be no.” My thoughts on membership have changed due to being burned by the church and being in a few places that were embroiled by scandal or being unsuccessfully recruited to a former SGM church here in the Washington, D.C. area. I will never be a member of a church again. I have written about the issues with membership covenants which you can read about in “Neo-Calvinist Membership Covenants: The New Berlin Wall Amidst a Theological Cold War?” But here is one question that I would like to pose to Drew Buell…how does Drew know that God is firm on church membership? Did Drew get a text message from God? A fax? An email from God that titled, “Why I believe in church membership.” But there is also another question that I would like to ask as well. Does church membership in a Neo-Calvinist church make a Christian healthy? I want to float that question early on in this post and then answer it toward the end. 

At Cool Community we define a healthy church member in five ways. In other words, a healthy church member is someone who is:

Attending

The first sign that a believer is in spiritual trouble is when they stop attending Sunday morning services, which is why one of the criterions of health at Cool Community is regular attendance on Sunday mornings.

I don’t know if Drew Buell knows this but at the blog SGM Survivors there is story after story of people acting and living differently. The focus was on an external appearance so that one would “fit in.” But I would also push back hard and say that church attendance is not a guarantee of a member being healthy. First of all how does Drew define church attendance? In Drew’s case its in a legalistic John MacArthur, hard core fundamentalist church. Anything less in Drew’s eyes is probably not Christian. So already we are seeing that Drew is redefining what church is. This is what many hard core Neo-Calvinists do. Another question I would ask Drew is why does attending church guarantee strong or solid faith? What about the Christian starving to death in a North Korea internment camp for his faith? Is he not a believer in the Christian faith according to Drew? The same can be said for the new laws enacted in Russia which are driving Christians underground. Are they not solid in their faith? Drew’s view of the Christian faith is tainted and warped and mixed with American cultural baggage. 

Fellowshipping

Since the Christian life is not a solo venture, but a community project is it imperative that we gather together on a regular basis for fellowship. At Cool Community, the primary place this happens is in our Home Groups.

In C.J. Mahaney’s SGM organization this belief was pushed in a book he helped edit called “Why Small Groups?” In SGM the goal was simple…small groups were a means to control an organization. And with the small group leader appointed to report and write up reviews of the small group, it was a way to figure out who was asking troublesome questions? Who was a threat to the ministry? Who was creating doubts that could affect other people? In SGM if you control the small group you also control the church, is that what Cool Community Church is about? Its something that I hope people will consider and ask. Its for this reason and more that I put the George Orwell quotes up top. 

Serving

Jesus said that “even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve…” If spiritual maturity is growing to be like Christ, than serving in a consistent, regular, ongoing ministry is one of the most important ways that we can grow in our faith.

Jesus is about serving and Drew is right to quote that Jesus did not come to be served but to serve. Yet is this true in many Neo-Calvinist churches? Why then do many people place a pastor on a pedestal and describe him as the overworked, suffering individual? Yes there are a lot of pastors who work hard, but then there are a few pastors who are lazy. Its like attorneys, teachers, accountants, and more…you’ll find good ones and bad ones. Another problem is that when you are living in an environment in which church is an idol are you really serving? You are often focused inward and not outward. Many churches are not serving their community. Plus here is another question I would ask…which shows greater love…serving someone because you want to? Or serving someone because you signed you name to a membership covenant because you promise to? Which do you think honors Jesus more? 

Giving

Jesus said, “Where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Randy Alcorn has rightly said that every time you give, you are signing your declaration of independence from the god of money. Likewise, Jim Rickard of Stewardship Services Foundation has said that next to the decision to follow Christ, our decision about what to do with our money is the most important one that we will ever make. At Cool Community we believe that giving isn’t about how much you give, but rather it is about how generous you are. Not everyone can write large checks to building fund, etc. but everyone can be generous with what God has provided.

First of all one must remember that Randy Alcorn is part of the Reformed Industrial Complex. Its my belief that Randy is about the making of money and not honoring God. I addressed the issues with Randy Alcorn in this following post called, “Is Randy Alcorn’s Recent Blog Post Subtly Addressing the Child Sex Abuse Allegations in Sovereign Grace? A Response from a False Accusation Survivor.” Quite simply I would not give money to a church unless the pastor has his salary transparent before the congregation. People have a right to know what they are giving money to. Their money is hard worked and if a church is going to ask to them to give when families are juggling bills and more, then every family who gives money to Cool Community Church has a right to know what Drew Buell’s salary is. If Drew wants to honor God, that is one way that he could do so. The way some of these pastors rule over their church reminds me of a dictatorship in either Latin America or Africa. I appreciate that towards the end of this Drew also seems to imply that giving can also be in other forms as well, for example time is a commodity that is precious. 

Reproducing

Finally, we understand that God has planted our church here in Cool for the specific purpose of making disciples (reproducing ourselves). A healthy church member is someone who is actively engaged in discipling someone and is actively being discipled by someone else.

Of course, there are other good traits that Christians are called to in our Christian lives (i.e. prayer, fasting, bible study, etc.). I’ve basically assumed these under the heading of “healthy”. If someone is a “healthy” church member, I’m assuming that they’re already actively involved in prayer, bible study, etc.

My hope is that these five distinctives of a healthy church member will provide more of a rallying cry for what church membership should look like in our day to day lives until Jesus comes.

Let’s remember growth for the sake of growth is what cancer is. Growth that is strategic and loving is different. But what exactly is being reproduced? When I study the Cool Community Church website and social media of this church I don’t think reproduction is a healthy. 

 

 

This Would Agree with 9 Marks, Yet What About the C.J. Mahaney Issue? 

Much of what Drew Buell wrote would be in agreement with Mark Dever and 9 Marks. After all you can listen to and watch what is said about church membership in the 9 Marks video above which I pulled from their website. The problem with what Drew is saying is that it is clouded and tainted by the entire C.J. Mahaney Sovereign Grace Ministries scandal. Mahaney embraced and said the same thing about church membership. Mahaney in a reference to Charles Spurgeon called the church the “dearest place on earth.” Mahaney and SGM used church membership to control people and practice church discipline. People all throughout the nearly 100 churches in SGM faced church discipline for things that were at times minor or even for posing questions. SGM was an entity that was pretty much cult like. Then what happened? Thousands of documents poured out onto the internet that revealed that C.J. Mahaney had allegedly engaged in blackmail. In addition there were allegations of criminal activity. When all this happened did C.J. Mahaney face church discipline at the flagship church Covenant Life Church? No! The bastard fled his home church and ran and hid behind Mark Dever’s ass at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Mark Dever took him in and gave him cover from church discipline. In the process of fleeing Mark Dever undermined much of the 9 Marks. You can read about it in “9 Marks: What is it? How Mark Dever Undermined it and Made it Worthless.” Its important for people who attend Cool Community Church and those considering it to know that Drew Buell will never face church discipline. Church discipline is for people who are at the bottom of the totem pole. And if you have Mark Dever’s “9 Marks of a Healthy Church” I would suggest that the only function it now serves is that of toilet paper. 

 

Drew Forgot “Sound Doctrine” is Also Teaching Someone why Rape and Sexual Assault is a Problem in the Military

This post hits home for me as the individual who was trying to get me involved in Redeemer Arlington claimed to follow all these practices. He is actually a pseudo but his name at The Wondering Eagle is Andrew White.  Andrew boasted of being a member of Eric Simmons Redeemer Arlington. He spoke about regularly attending and being in a community group which he led on Capitol Hill. Andrew White spoke about fellow shipping and serving and he spoke about reproducing his church. In this case it was reproducing his community group. Andrew espoused all this while claiming that he was in the “healthiest church he ever knew.” I heard it so much that I can still hear him say that as he sounded like a robot that was programmed. So in addition to all that there is one other thing Andrew taught me, and he did it as a healthy church member as defined by Drew Buell. 

Andrew taught me why rape and sexual assault is a problem in the United States military. 

This Air Force Captain did a 180 and without my knowledge gave birth to a false accusation that took aim at my name, ability to earn income and more. It was the darkest season of my life. It left a guy in his late 30’s with PTSD, and often weeping in his bed over what happened. I wrote about it in “How I Managed a False Accusation Given Birth to by a USAF Captain and Care Group Leader from Redeemer Arlington for 408 Days.” Drew I think falls into the trap that if you have the right doctrine your faith will be fine, and that you will be “healthy.” In the process Drew basically spits at Jesus because he has reduced the Gospel to a program that remove Jesus from it. Faith in Drew’s world is about following man-made decree given by men who lord over people. Drew’s thinking is sadly reinforced each time he goes to the Shepherd’s conference. The sad reality is that Drew needs that to re-enforce his beliefs, which I believe reveal his insecurity in the end. If you constantly need to be told what you believe over and over, then you are doing something that is broken in the end. Faith is not complex, after all one can do all that Drew says and still be miles off from the faith. An Air Force Captain echoed much of what Drew wrote and while being a covenant member, doing small group, giving money, attending conferences, following Hebrews 13:17 he also taught an outsider why rape and sexual assault is a problem in the military. Much of that could be undone if he humbled himself contacted me and said, “Dave I’m sorry…” But why should a person who has “sound doctrine” apologize? So in going back to what Drew writes the question asked should be this..are the members who believe this at Cool Community Church actually healthy? 

 

Looking for Stories from Cool Community Church

This is a church that I would flee from, as this is not a “healthy church” at all. I find this interesting as Cool Community Church indicates how diverse the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) ultimately is. Drew Buell’s church is one that is Neo-Calvinist and holds in high esteem John MacArthur and the likes of Al Mohler, Justin Taylor, Carolyn Mahaney, Mark Dever, John Piper and Tim Challies. You can see all those links in this webpage here.  Drew Buell’s Cool Community Church I would avoid in the same manner that you would avoid cancer. I want Drew to know that The Wondering Eagle is going to be writing about Cool Community Church over the course of time. If there are any inappropriate church discipline situations, membership issues or more this blog will write about them and pursue them with EFCA Western District Superintendent Neil Brower. I also want to state that if there are any former members who want to tell their story of Cool Community Church The Wondering Eagle will give them a platform.  That’s if for the day guys, please know that I love you.