PHIL PRINGLE: CORRUPT TEACHING & MANIPULATIVE GIVING.
Below is a transcript of Pringle in his sermon ‘Fighting The Good Fight P1’, preached on Sunday the 19th of January, 2014 (video being obtained).
Let’s analyse and review it:
“Everything you hear us preach up here isn’t by accident. We have thoroughly researched the opposition to it and the positive to it and it’s on a firm conviction and foundation of our faith of what we believe, in Jesus name, amen!”
Phil Pringle has been unashamedly promoting the false teaching about tithing for years. Below, Pringle declares what he and other preachers preach behind the C3 pulpit, “isn’t by accident“. If Pringle is openly admitting that what he teaches is not an accident, then how does he explain this ‘accident’?
Is he prepared to admit that he lied to his congregation about God saying to Joshua that ‘Someone took the tithe’? Is he prepared to admit that he twists the word of God to manipulate his congregation into giving money?
“So when- when stuff comes along about tithing and all that, I’m not bothered by that! I’ve done the research!”
We’re calling Pringle out on this. There is no way he can claim he’s researched this field in depth and then go on to mislead the congregation about his ‘teaching’ on the tithe. He claims, “Everything you hear us preach up hear isn’t by accident”. Can he then play the ‘ignorance’ card once he’s exposed for defending such a heresy?
And if he truly believes this, wouldn’t this make the church view this man, behind the pulpit, as biblically illiterate when it comes to properly teaching on the OT tithe doctrine and NT ‘joyful giving’?
PRINGLE CAN SPEAK AS THOUGH QUALIFIED?
This leads us to the next outrageous thing Pringle states:
“I’ve viewed the opposition’s thoughts! RIDICULOUS, UNQUALIFIED THINKING THAT ARE CONVENIENT FOR STINGY PEOPLE! That’s all it is!”
The tithe doctrine has been refuted for years by scholars, properly trained men in leadership, in the pastoral office and in the fields of apologetics. It is a false doctrine that is peddled by Word of Faith cults or ‘wolves’ who want to fleece the flock. What makes this even more outrageous is Pringle’s own hypocrisy.
Qualified vs unqualified? Don’t you think that’s interesting coming from Phil Pringle considering the fact that he’s been ‘exposed’ for misleading his church into believing that his credentials are legitimate?
If there is anyone who is unqualified to be behind the pulpit – Pringle fulfills his own criteria perfectly.
And for someone unqualified as Pringle, he insists he has the ‘right’ to brainwash Christians everywhere with his false teachings on this dangerous doctrine which shipwrecks people’s faith. In fact, he accuses Christians, that if they withhold the tithe from God, they are “cursed” and accuses Christians of being “the very worst of thieves“.
If Pringle has “viewed the opposition’s thoughts”, why has he only hurled insults their way and created straw men arguments? His assertions have been nothing but misleading eisegesis to keep people quiet and to keep his congregation bound by his legalistic manipulation.
PRINGLE BRAINWASHING C3 MEMBERS?
“With opposite doctrines and teachings that you’ll hear floating around now and then. They may shake you in mind and trouble you a little. But that’s so to drive you to reinforce your conviction about what you believe.”
Notice the deceptive technique Pringle is employing here. If his members are shaken ‘in mind’, he does not encourage them to do a bible study on the tithe. Instead, he insists that these ‘opposite doctrines’ only reinforces this false teaching that he wants his members to believe. This is brainwashing. He is not encouraging people to look at the facts. Instead he is appealing to their emotions as a form of ‘blackmail’.
Sadly, THE opposite doctrine that refutes his false doctrine is the gospel of salvation itself. In other words, he is conditioning C3 members to harden their hearts against Christianity to embrace Pringle’s own works-based religion.
And then of course, Pringle decides to plug his “colleges”.
To get yourself to an longline college or bible college. You can watch it online if you’re watching online now. Online. Online. Just go ahead and enjoy it.”
These colleges are all about indoctrinating people to fit the C3 system. Sadly, the emails and documents we have received from ex-students have confirmed that what they are taught is a poor excuse of biblical Christianity.
It is true that Pringle’s colleges shake people. They shake every penny out of their pockets, shake any truth out of their brain cells and shake any integrity out of their souls.
“And uh- First all get a cornerstone of our faith, firmly established so we’re not moved and shaken. I see people get tossed around and suddenly they are believing something else that they didn’t hear at the beginning! Because there is always somebody trying to kill, steal or destroy your faith. It’s a fight to hold on and apart of that fight is to get yourself on a firm, unshakable foundation. “
Notice how he avoids making CHRIST and the CROSS the foundation of the Christian life. In fact, you can watch his entire sermon on his site. Any viewer should be concerned that Pringle refused to connect the ‘cornerstone’ with Christ and the foundation of their faith with Christ. That’s because according to Pringle, faith (mixed with the tithe) is the foundation – not Christ alone. It’s reinforced a number of times that the cornerstone of the believers life is the tithe.
So why are C3 members submitting to an unqualified man who appears to be blowing immature ‘raspberries’ at those who have refuted the absurd tithe doctrine? C3 members need to wake up and leave this false teacher behind, with his false words and false credentials.
TRANSCRIPT
Here is the transcript:
“Everything you hear us preach up hear isn’t by accident. We have thoroughly researched the opposition to it and the positive to it and it’s on a firm conviction and foundation of our faith of what we believe, in Jesus name, amen!
So when- when stuff comes along about tithing and all that, I’m not bothered by that! I’ve done the research! I’ve viewed the opposition’s thoughts! RIDICULOUS, UNQUALIFIED THINKING THAT ARE CONVENIENT FOR STINGY PEOPLE! That’s all it is! That’s all it is! If the cap fits, you know like- the deal is, that you’ve got to know what you believe and not let yourself be shaken. God is building an unshakable church!
And listen, here’s the thing in Hebrews twelve, twenty six… [Pringle reads Hebrews 12:26]
Now here’s the thing, God’s gonna shhh- allow you to be shaken. With opposite doctrines and teachings that you’ll hear floating around now and then. They may shake you in mind and trouble you a little. But that’s so to drive you to reinforce your conviction about what you believe. To get yourself to an longline college or bible college. You can watch it online if you’re watching online now. Online. Online. Just go ahead and enjoy it.
And uh- First all get a cornerstone of our faith, firmly established so we’re not moved and shaken. I see people get tossed around and suddenly they are believing something else that they didn’t hear at the beginning! Because there is always somebody trying to kill, steal or destroy your faith. It’s a fight to hold on and apart of that fight is to get yourself on a firm, unshakable foundation. There will be weak areas in everybody’s faith. Everybody’s got a weakness somewhere. A hole. And so the Lord allows that to be a bit shaky there so you can reinforce it. And build it up and get strong in that area. In fact, some of the areas is that I’m the strongest on are the areas that I was weakest on. Simply because of that fact.
You don’t grow strong without opposition or resistance. Ask any fitness trainer in the room. Their gonna tell you that’s the way you build muscle.”
Tithing is not a command in the New Testament – we give out of love, from the heart because we are under a new unconditional covenant not the Old Testament law.
Pringle has done some something similar again just recently. You know someone is a false teacher when they twist God’s Word on false teachers.
To prepare you for this piece, we will put up a few different translations just in case C3s critics think it is us condemning Phil Pringle.
God says in His Word:
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.New International Version
For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.New Living Translation
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,English Standard Version
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,New American Standard Bible
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; King James Bible
Now that you’ve read the scripture, ask yourself these questions:
How do you think Phil Pringle will twist this scripture?
Do you think Paul the Apostle wants us to be not only hearers of false teachers but doers of their false teaching?
Well here is Phil Pringle teaching how a person in Christ is a prepared person. Isn’t Phil Pringle fulfilling the above scripture accurately? There is only one scripture used which he twists and then proceeds to teach those with itching ears everything of the world but not “sound doctrine”.
PREPARATION
Paul says in the last days people will heap up teaching because they ears itching to hear the Word (2 Tim 4:3). However it is doing the Word that builds our lives, not just hearing it.
The person in Christ is a prepared person. They get ready. They’re set for everything. Nothing will move them because they’re settled firmly upon Jesus Christ, the rock. They’re doers of the Word, not just hearers only.
In Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, Robert T Kiyosaki, says, ‘You are either prepared or you’re not. You’re either in position or you’re not. If you’re prepared, there is a deal of a lifetime being presented to you every day of your life.’
Benjamin Disraeli, the British Prime Minister in the late eighteen-hundreds declared ‘The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.’
Louis Pasteur also of the late eighteen-hundreds , the famous French chemist and biologist and inventor of pasteurization and various vaccines, also understood the power of preparation – ‘Chance favours the prepared mind.’
“Faith is a creative force. When we operate by faith, we employ the creative power of God.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 66.
We have stressed for a long time now that Phil Pringle does not teach a regenerate faith or the Christian faith that saves sinners from the hands from an angry God. Rather, he teaches a faith foreign to the Christian faith found in the Word of Faith teachings which has its roots in the occult. Is it any surprise to anyone that Pringle will connect his own ‘faith’ and Jesus’ faith to the ‘faith’ of J. K. Rowling, the author that has popularised witch craft to children and families all around the world? Who knew that Rowling’s books are “fit for the kingdom of God”? Who knew Pringle would look to people like her to draw inspiration how to live a Godly life?
D. R. McConnell in his book ‘A Different Gospel’ compares the Word of Faith to the teachings of the metaphysical and Christian Science cults.
Before reading Pringle’s below article, we would like to quote again the metaphysical cult expert Ralph Waldo Trine who links his teachings to the occult:
“THERE is a golden thread that runs through every religion in the world. There is a golden thread that runs through the lives and the teachings to all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviors in the world’s history, through the lives of all men of truly great and lasting power. All that they have ever done or attained to has been done in full accordance with law.
What one has done, all may do. This same golden thread must enter into the lives of all who today, in this busy work-a-day world of ours, would exchange impotence for power, weakness and suffering for abounding health and strength pain and unrest for perfect peace, poverty of whatever nature for fullness and plenty.
Each is building their own world. We both build from within and we attract from without. Thought is the force with which we build, for thoughts are forces. Like builds like and like attracts like. In the degree that thought is spiritualized does it become more subtle and powerful in its workings. This spiritualizing is in accordance with law and is within the power of all.
Everything is first worked out in the unseen before it is manifested in the seen, in the ideal before it is realized in the real, in the spiritual before it shows forth in the material…” [Source]
Here is Pringle’s article:
The Vow
“Put your teeth together” commitment is where we see change and growth in our lives. In our faithfulness we see the change. Commit and you will see you persistence pay off!
But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62
We often make a commitment because it looks easy or we like the outcome, only to find obstacles in our path and the task of achieving it becomes difficult. Put your hand to the plow, Jesus says, and stick with it. Make a commitment and don’t look back, look forwards. Become a product of your future and not your past, by conforming to the vision and not past events.
Joseph rose because he walked like a king and talked like a king while he was a slave and a prisoner. He became a product of his vision, not his past. This takes faith.
Faithfulness is different from faith: it is the quality of good character, persistence and consistency. Miracles are not predictable in the life of a Christian because God wants us to grow: we develop muscles when we have to fight through things instead of having the answer handed to us all the time.
When the insect battles its way out of the chrysalis, it is developing the wings it needs to fly.
There are 9 bones in the wing of a dove. Imagine that the 9 gifts of the Spirit are one wing and the 9 fruits of the Spirit are the other. Gifts are given but fruit is grown over time: if you only have one wing, flight is impossible.
Growth is imperceptible, it looks like nothing is happening most of the time. You plod along doing the same thing but if you compare yourself to several years ago you can see that growth has occurred.
Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. Luke 9:51
Jesus “set His face” to do the task at hand, despite how He felt about it. When you have committed to something you need to get over your feelings. Most of us know the internal argument we have when our alarms go off in the morning, you don’t feel like getting up, but you’ve committed. It is astonishing what can be achieved by simply continuing to do something every day of your life.
Plod along! Committing to God is like compound interest –it does so much more in your life than a lump sum payment can. Your persistence will affect every area of your life, developing character, endurance and faithfulness to give your Christianity a context and the muscles to pursue a breakthrough.
Joseph is one example from the Bible of persistence and many modern day heroes have had to overcome rejection and keep plodding along until they had a breakthrough from Thomas Edison to Michael Jordan:
– JK Rowling had 12 rejections from publishers and was told to “get a day job”.
– Colonel Sanders aged 67 was rejected by 1,009 banks before getting financing for KFC franchises.
They never could have achieved greatness if they had given up or refused to work on their visions because they didn’t feel like it. They were committed.
Commitment is not a word used in the Bible but it means “vow” or “pledge” which appears many times. Nothing is achieved without commitment, so make one today to pursue God and build His house and see what He will do in your life if you stick with it.
See you in church!
Source: Phil Pringle, The Vow, PhilPringle.com, philpringle.com/blog-/thevow#.U9R2b7HqL5c, Published 24/06/2014. (Accessed 27/07/2013.)
“Warren Bennis, as quoted in In Search of Excellence, calls the leader a “social architect.” When a leader is a God-person, a God-seeker, vision is planted deep inside. God often speaks in pictures to God-seekers, especially to leaders. Pictures are the visual language of the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s blueprints for what He wants to build.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 34.
Keep the above in mind as you watch this 2020 Vision campaign video.
Sorry – this is the 2020 Vision campaign video.
Here is the transcript.
TRANSCRIPT
“In the beginning, God gives us vision. This vision is to build the church worldwide. Building the church is God’s top priority in this generation. You and I are called to bring people to Christ, to make disciples and to release those people into ministry within our churches and beyond. And by doing this, we will fulfill the heavenly vision.”
VISION BUILDS FAITH
“Vision from God always boosts faith from the inside of your soul. As soon as we hear the magnitude of what God is calling us to do, we find faith rising on the inside that this is possible. Just like Joshua knew he could take the land of Canaan, so we know that we can build the church around the world.”
FAITH BUILDS INTENTION
“Every vision is just a fantasy without a plan. God has given us a strategy and as we follow that pathway, we will find ourselves expanding right around the world. We will raise up thousands of leaders, connect group leaders, worship leaders, assistant leaders, leaders of churches. People who will work to build the house of God and fulfill this dream God has put in our hearts.”
INTENTION BRINGS ACTION
“Faith without action is dead. Just believing that this vision is going to happen wont make it happen. This vision calls for action. It calls for people to step out. It calls for sacrifice. It calls for stretching. It calls for raising ourselves up to a level we’ve never been before. This action has taken us from seventy one churches in the year two thousand to over three hundred today. It’s taken us from five nations to thirty five nations. And today, we have influence in two hundred cities around the world.
ACTION BRINGS MOMENTUM
This momentum turns a small snowball into a massive avalanche. It’s the power of compounding effort. You and I are involved in a gathering momentum of the great power of God.
AND THE MOMENTUM OF GOD
IS UNSTOPPABLE
Because of this momentum, we are seeing six hundred people around the globe come to Christ every week in C3 churches. Because of this momentum, we’re seeing nearly thirty thousand come to Christ every year. Because of this momentum, each week seventy five thousand people are gathering to worship God. God in heaven is with us. It’s his mighty plan to build his church on the earth.
Together you and I are going to see this amazing thing come to pass. You are part of the history making group of people that are changing planet earth as we fulfill the 2020 Vision.”
CRITIQUE
It is of our opinion Pringle is purposely blurring the lines with the great commission and His 2020 Vision to get people to commit themselves to his movement and not to the true commission of Jesus Christ. If the 2020 Vision was the ‘vision’ that God gave Christians in Matthew 28 this is perfectly fine. Jesus can give us the faith to go out into the world and make disciples in His name. But is this what Pringle is reinforcing?
Not at all. Pringle opens up with the following claim: “In the beginning, God gives us vision”. Already we are off to a bad start. Where on earth does the bible teach this?
Pringle adds his own unbiblical theology into his New Age doctrine on vision: “Vision from God always boosts faith from the inside of your soul. As soon as we hear the magnitude of what God is calling us to do, we find faith rising on the inside that this is possible”.
Where on earth did he get this from? His liver shivers? Notice also his allusion to him being a ‘Joshua’ in this video when he says, “Just like Joshua knew he could take the land of Canaan, so we know that we can build the church around the world.””.
But who gave Joshua the strategy to “take the land of Canaan”? God.
So who supposedly gave Pringle the “strategy” to “build the church around the world”? God.
Is Phil Pringle your Joshua?
This is nothing but subliminal advertising again. While the C3 Media flash snippets of Pringle’s 2020 Vision (“1000 churches”, “500 members”), Pringle claims that “God has given us a strategy”. Wasn’t the biblical Great Commission strategy enough?
This indicates that God has given a vision to Pringle that surpasses that of Jesus’ great commission. Why can’t C3 simply follow Jesus’ commission to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”?
And what is this God-given strategy? Pringle says that if Christians are to “follow [the strategy’s] pathway, we will find ourselves expanding right around the world”. What a claim!
Whatever happens do not question the churches strategies. To do so is to challenge God. Not Pringle. Not C3 leadership. Not C3 church. But God.
Pringle then goes on to purposely misappropriate and reword the scripture in James 2 to his advantage. He reworded the scripture “faith without works is dead” to “faith without action is dead”. He then used this verse to convince his listeners to get on board with his 2020 Vision. A pastor should NOT use the scriptures for his gain like this. Pringle used this scripture to justify people to submit to his divine authority through the infallible 2020 vision God supposedly gave him.
For Pringle to claim God gave him a divine vision and strategy to fulfill but has the audacity to twist his God’s Word like this is satanic. This was not an accident. This was scripted. This was a deliberate tactic to con people to side with his vision.
Using Nazi ideas – the volk
Furthermore, God can’t fulfill His vision without your help! You must help God! Pringle says, “Just believing that this vision is going to happen wont make it happen. This vision calls for action. It calls for people to step out. It calls for sacrifice. It calls for stretching. It calls for raising ourselves up to a level we’ve never been to before.”
Behind all this vision talk is a very Hitler-esque push. Pringle is elevating and attributing a human ‘power’ or a ‘force’ to God. According to Pringle this, “momentum [that] turns a small snowball into a massive avalanche” is the “great power of God”. No. This is volkism. A Nazi philosophy. In Hitler’s work “Mein Kampf” (1923), he let us understand some key points what the ‘volk’ was and how the ‘volk’ worked. Here is a good summary of the volk:
In his book ‘Mein Kampf’ (‘My Struggle’) published in 1923, Hitler set out quite clearly his political ideas. They can be summarised as follows:
… Mankind’s natural unit is the Volk, or people, of which the German Volk is the greatest.
The state only exists to serve the Volk, and both morality and truth are to be subservient to this principle.
The Volk must be headed by a Fuhrer, or leader, who must have absolute authority.
Hitler says about the leader of the volk,
“In that way an eternal ideal, which has everlasting significance as a guiding star to mankind, must be adapted to the exigencies of human frailty so that its practical effect may not be frustrated at the very outset through those shortcomings which are general to mankind. The exponent of truth must here go hand in hand with him who has a practical knowledge of the soul of the people, so that from the realm of eternal verities and ideals what is suited to the capacities of human nature may be selected and given practical form.”
So are we really seeing a move of God Pringle? Or are we seeing you behave like a “social architect”, to construct a volk for your own personal interests? Isn’t God communicating to you the “language of the Holy Spirit to reveal [His] blueprints for what He wants to build”? Or are you playing with peoples ideals to manipulate them to further your agendas? Jesus Christ said,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
What then does Jesus tell us to do?
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”
We are seeing the reverse with the 2020 vision. God supposedly has bent the knee to Pringle and given Phil the authority in heaven and earth through the “2020 Vision” to make people and churches join his volk (“the great power of God”).
Pringle is not saying the “power of God’ is emphasised through the preaching of the gospel which proclaims that Jesus is The Power and The Authority of God personified. Instead Pringle is pushing the idea that thy volk is truth and power, insisting that you be “part of the history making group of people that are changing planet earth as we fulfill the 2020 Vision”.
Can you see what is taking the focus now? Not Christ and his great commission. The focus is now on Pringle, his 2020 vision and those who bend the knee to it in his movement. Pringle’s battle cry is for you to be part of a history making crew that are changing the world because they are fulfilling the 2020 Vision.
So it should be established that Pringle is using clever marketing gimmicks and lies to deceive his congregation into accepting his fuhrer’s vision. This is man is making his own church with out God’s Spirit. Pringle is teaching the power of God is emphasised through the volk under his “god-given” vision and “god-given” strategy.
A Demonic Faith
The scriptures make it clear that it is God alone that gives us the faith to believe through Christ. Not so with Pringle. Pringle says,
VISION BUILDS FAITH
“Vision from God always boosts faith from the inside of your soul. As soon as we hear the magnitude of what God is calling us to do, we find faith rising on the inside that this is possible.”
However, the writer of Hebrews doesn’t tell us to look to visions to build faith. Nor does the writer tell us that visions “from God always boosts faith from the inside of your soul”. Nor does the writer say that when “we hear the magnitude of what God is calling us to do, we find faith rising on the inside that this is possible”. Instead, we read this:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
Whatever gave this vision and teaching to Phil Pringle is not of God. Phil Pringle has replaced God with himself, speaking his own CEO vision to condition people and control them for his own agenda. Let us be clear: when Phil Pringle is speaking the vision to his congregation, they are NOT hearing “the magnitude of what God is calling [them] to do”. They are not “faith rising on the inside”. Instead, scriptures CLEARLY say this:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17
This vision is nothing but a “weight” which members at C3 should “also lay aside”. Hopefully we have made it clear that this is Pringle’s vision – not God’s. This vision is nothing but a godly facade hiding the fact that:
Pringle is calling YOU to action.
Pringle is calling YOU to step out.
Pringle is calling YOU to sacrifice whatever it takes to accomplish his desires.
This is very different to what we see Luke observing in the early church.
” … the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” – Acts 2:47
As Paul said to the church in Galatians:
“Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.”
In our first article, we established that Phil Pringle has promoted emphatically that his God-given 2020 Vision is to have “1000 churches planted by the year 2020 with an average attendance of 500 members”.
In our second article, we proved that even if Pringle is telling the truth, he is rebelling against the infallible God-given 2020 Vision and redefining it to suit his own selfish purposes.
So what on earth does Pringle mean by ‘vision’? Where does it come from? Who gives it? How does it work? What is it’s purpose? How should people react or behave around someone with ‘vision’? Is it a Christian teaching?
In this article, we will provide teachings of Phil Pringle’s irrational ‘vision’ doctrine. This article will continue to grow as we collect more information on Pringle’s ‘vision’ doctrine. We hope this post can help you begin to understand how ingrained this un-Christian ‘vision’ is with C3 church growth and the man Phil Pringle.
Similar to Pringle’s doctrine on faith, his doctrine on vision can also be associated with paganism. If anything, his ‘vision’ doctrine sounds more like spell casting or spell binding rituals to bind people to fulfill his personal desires. You will not find Phil Pringle’s bizarre ‘vision’ doctrine found anywhere in the bible.
IS PHIL PRINGLE ‘THE ONE’?
Here are quotes from Phil Pringle’s books, blogs and sermons.
BOOK: FAITH
“I know that there are some people who are perpetually negative. I sincerely believe that if you want to fly with the eagles you cannot afford to walk with the turkeys. I will walk away from those people when they start to attack the vision.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 75.
“There is a screen within our mind upon which three projections are jostling for prime time… But then there is God. He has a projector with a preset, wonderful destiny as the main feature. As we enter the Spirit through praise and worship, God will form His vision within our thinking. We pray the prayer of faith. The vision of the answer comes to mind and we see it, in living colour. Jesus himself gained faith from the Father through visions. He declared that He did nothing that He did not first see His Father doing. If Jesus could see His Father do it, He had no doubt that He could. Once the vision of the fulfillment of your dream has been planted in your mind, bring it in to your prayer life.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 102.
“Once the vision of the fulfillment of your dream has been planted in your mind, bring it in to your prayer life. Each time you pray the picture to mind and meditate on it. Pray over it. See it happening. Destroy all the images of failure. Replace them with the image of success.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 102-103.
“Right now in my life I spend much time dreaming over my visions of faith. I know this works. I would be a fool to ignore it. Remember, one of the mightiest keys in the Kingdom of Heaven is faith. Vision is a major part of faith, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is directly contrasted to natural eye sight.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 103.
BOOK: YOU THE LEADER
“Warren Bennis, as quoted in In Search of Excellence, calls the leader a “social architect.” When a leader is a God-person, a God-seeker, vision is planted deep inside. God often speaks in pictures to God-seekers, especially to leaders. Pictures are the visual language of the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s blueprints for what He wants to build.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 34.
“Vision is the gift of faith in action. We see this principle lived out in the realm of church leadership quite frequently. C. Peter Wagner concludes that among all the leaders of growing churches that were studied by what is now known as the Fuller Theological Seminary, there is at least one commonality- the gift of faith. He writes,
A study of the largest churches in America has led to the conviction that the faith of the pastors was one of the main contributing reasons for the church’s growth. The spiritual gift of faith was a common denominator found in the pastors of the largest churches.
George Barna also conducted extensive research on church life in the last decade. He states, “My work with churches has led me to the conclusion that the single most important element in having an effective and life-changing ministry is to capture God’s vision for your ministry.”” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 35.
“No matter what the realm of leadership – the home, the workplace, the church, or the community – the vision is crucial. Leaders must funnel their faith into action so that life-changing results.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 35.
“Leadership is clear vision. Without eyes, or without light to aid those eyes, we grope in the dark, unsure of our steps, cautious, afraid, and moving slowly. This is not a leader. A leader is bold and can see the future. “Seeing clearly” is imperative for the leader.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 35-36.
“Faith is what God works through to effect the visions He has given us. He speaks to us, and then, with the faith we have, we believe what He says. Faith is the conception of what is possible before it is seen: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, for the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). By faith we believe in the impossible becoming possible.
This is what leadership is all about. Leaders see what no one else does. In Ephesians 3:20 NASB – “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think…” – the Greek word for “think” is noieo, which means “to exercise the mind or intellect in comprehending, heeding, considering, pondering, perceiving, thinking, understanding, observing, seeing, conceiving.” Leaders actually conceive a reality within themselves before the event happens. This is what a vision really is. It is not just a hope, a wish, or a desire. It is a knowledge that a certain thing is going to take place because of a number of factors:
• God has spoken a strategy that works.
• The strategy has been adopted.
• Realistic plans have been made.
• The team can see it happening.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 35-36.
“When we meditate in the manner described in Scripture, we take our minds into the realm of conception and the place of perception of the purposes of God. Great leaders of the bible, such as Joshua and David, thought deeply and continuously about subjects that were invisible to them until they became realities perceived by their spirits. We read in Joshua 1:8 and throughout the Psalms that they meditated on the Word of God until it became a reality within them, not just a theology. They meditated upon visions of the future until they knew that what they were seeing was more than just imagination.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 36-37.
“This same conceiving process is what God employs in church growth. We supernaturally see our churches growing; we sense the growth within our spirits. Growth is a reality we experience before we actually have it.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 37.
“Good leaders hold positive, views of the future. We believe God fulfills our dreams, and our dreams are enlarged. Our desires exceed what we currently have and where we currently are.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 37.
“We ask God to hear our prayers. As we read, meditate, study, and speak the incredible promises of God (2 Peter 1:4), our faith grows. God speaks to us at our level of faith (Acts 14:9-10), and we find ourselves believing what He has said (Romans 10:17). His truth becomes a reality within us until we can see it (Hebrews 11:1). Our organization is larger. It has grown. We speak it because it is real. We are not pretending. We know something that did not come to our consciousness by way of the natural senses.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 37.
“Another faculty has released this knowledge: our spirit. It is God’s Word in our spirit. It creates a reality that registers in our spirit. We live by this spiritual knowledge and walk in its light.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 38.
“Goal setting is another integral part of achieving any dream. It is what takes a supernatural vision into the material realm where we can see it being accomplished.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005pg 40.
“Goal setting is another integral part of achieving any dream. It is what takes a supernatural vision into the material realm where we can see it being accomplished.
C. Peter Wagner has stated,
For reasons I do not fully understand, some power is released through setting positive goals that otherwise remain dormant. But although I cannot explain it as well as I wish it could, it is a biblical principle that God seems to honor. Goal setting is the modern biblical equivalent to faith, without which it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6). Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Things hoped for are, of course, future. Putting substance on the future is what happens in a faith projection (goal-setting) exercise. ” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 40.
“Dr. David Yonngi Cho, who pastors the world’s largest church, says of his church’s remarkable growth. “The number one requirement for having a real church growth- unlimited church growth- is to set goals.”” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 40.
“Remember, Those who have the gift of faith are growth-oriented, goal-oriented, optimistic, and confident. – C. Peter Wagner.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 42.
“Vision could be just as well described as “vibration.” The leader feels the vision as a vibration. He or she then imparts the feeling to others, who accept the vision and run with their leader to make it happen. The leader has seen something that ignites fire in their souls.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 43.
“A vision is something worth living for, and it is something worth dying for. In fact, if it is not worth dying for, it is not worth living for. Brave, godly martyrs throughout history have proven time and again that what we as Christians live for is worth dying for.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 43.
“The leader feels the pulse of a burning passion and communicates that heat at every opportunity. He or she lives the dream, breathes the vision, sleeps the mission, and eats the goals every day. The leader shares those goals all the time with everyone. It is a vibration the entire organization can feel.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 44.
“When you have to set down the rules all the time, you know people have not caught the dream. People who have caught the vision instinctively know what is appropriate and what is required. They don’t care what it takes; they live to make the dream reality. At the risk of sounding unrealistically romantic, I have to say that unless the hearts of the team members beat with the pulse of the leader’s dream, it’s never going to fly.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 44.
“The leader is the bell ringer, the trumpet blower, the drum beater, the vibration maker, and the vision caster… A great leader imparts the burden, inspires commitment, and sets the pace for achievement of God’s purpose.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 45.
“A leader always has one major message, and this weaves into everything he or she does. It remains the primary focus. A leader is to some degree a prophet, a person with a message. Great leader [sic] see things that others don’t. They preach it until others can see it as well. Their message supports the mission. A leader is a preacher, a person who communicates the fire of the mission. Not all preachers are leaders, but all great leaders will be preachers of one sort or another.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 204.
“The team members we choose need to be able to fight for us and for our vision. The people we choose must have the ability to fight and win. They need to have proven themselves in spiritual battles, and they need to have triumphed. They need to be overcomers. They need to display consistently positive attitudes. These people do not just attend, support, or watch, but they must fight-for us! They shouldn’t fight only for their own victories. They need to fight for the church. They need to defend the pastor when he’s criticized and fight for the church’s reputation, spiritual health, and finances. They need to be genuine soldiers for God.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 265.
“Abraham’s method is far preferable to getting someone from elsewhere. If people do come from outside, give them time to be “baptised” into the church, so they “own” the vision like everybody else. To become true sons and daughters of the church they need to drink the milk (accept the teaching), imbibe the spirit (accept the attitude of the church), and accept the name (be proud of belonging to your congregation).” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 269.
“The people we choose must display real unity with and affinity for the vision of the senior minister and the church. In the process of selecting people for roles in the church, we ask their opinion of the leadership, the rest of the team, and the church in general. We are not looking for yes-man, but if a person has problems with the senior minister and the church, then obviously he or she will cause problems on the team and in the church.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 289.
“Whoever buys into the vision God has for the congregation develops an affinity for all that is going on.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 289.
“The leader must constantly reinforce and restate the vision.
Though the team may have heard it many times before, restating the vision keeps everyone focused on the right things. Whatever the leader speaks on, the vision is woven into the topic so that every subject is viewed with the philosophy and priorities of the ministry in mind.” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 292.
“I will build my church. –Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus has a vision. He has a job to be done. He has determined to build His church. He calls men and women to work with Him to accomplish this dream. In the army of people He has enlisted are a creed called leaders.
Jesus raises up people as servants to Himself and as leaders of His people in order to fulfill His dream. He raises this army to lead His flock. He raises leaders to carry the plan of salvation to the world.
God has lofty reasons for raising leaders. Jesus has declared that He will build His church. The rock of manifest revelation is what Jesus builds His church upon.
Manifest revelation is the flash of light from heaven that pierces the souls of men and women. This is light, the life of God Himself. It is like a piece of God to us. It is food for our spirits. It is what faith is because it is clear knowing-not just thinking or hoping. It is a deep inner knowledge from heaven above.
God’s great leaders lead by revelation. Leaders must receive revelation from the Lord and take their people in that direction. It is vital that we understand what we are to preach, what we are to do, and what kind of organization we are to build through revelation from the Lord.
We must be motivated by the spiritual passion Jesus places within us. We need to build on the revelation God has given us, on our strengths, on who we are in Christ.
Good ideas are not good enough. They need to be God ideas. Just because someone else’s methods work does not mean they will work for us. God plants a unique set of gifts within each of us as leaders, enabling us to do a particular work for Him in a particular way. If we deny those, opting for something else that appeals to us, we forsake the means by which God wants to give us success (1Timothy 4:14).” – Phil Pringle, You The Leader, 2005, pg 305.
BOOK: MOVING IN THE SPIRIT
“Visions from the prophets are given to motivate their hearers to action.
One of the most sensational things on earth is a vision from God. Vision ignites fire in our spirit. It births the ‘prayer of faith’. It is imperative we see in the Spirit so we understand the will of God.” – Phil Pringle, Moving In The Spirit, pg 59.
“Visions possess greater significance than just entertainment! Visions have power.” – Phil Pringle, Moving In The Spirit, pg 66.
“The gift of faith is identified by unnatural boldness in prayer and preaching. It deals with others.
It is visionary. It views the future with absolute assurance and hope.
It thinks positively. It hates negativity.
It feeds on who we are in Christ and also our potential in Him.
It speaks to other people, to situations and often to itself.
Faith dreams and meditates on the finished results of prayer. It does not ponder anxieties.
It lifts others by injecting faith into their lives. It imparts the ability to believe and trust God.” – Phil Pringle, Moving In The Spirit, 1994, pg 90.
BOOK: TOP 10 QUALITIES OF A GREAT LEADER
“Whatever I want to achieve, I simply focus everyone on that point by using every means I have. The effective leader points people in the direction they are meant to be going. Without direction people wonder aimlessly. This is the point of leadership. We are meant to take people somewhere.
Often, it will be somewhere they don’t want to go, so the skill that convinces followers of the journey comes through communicating the vision, the goals, and the strategy to get there. If I am raising money for a building project, I preach on it. I also ask people to tell their stories of the benefits they have received through giving. We create up-market brochures and magazines that send the signal that we are serious about raising serious amounts of money. We regularly reinforce the message to our leaders. Our people must be refocused regularly. Everyone gets distracted. When we are distracted, our resources, energy, time, relationships, and money go to the distraction.
Leaders’ constant tasks are continually to bring our primary purpose to the forefront. Leaders’ pride can prevent us from repeating ourselves, casting the vision again and again. Yet this is the fuel of the organization. People are fired up by the vision. It reminds them why they are doing what they do, why they are going the extra mile, why they are making the sacrifices.” – Phil Pringle, Top 10 Qualities of a Great Leader, 2007, pg 76.
“Many times God urges us to lift up our eyes – Upgrade our vision, see further, broader, bigger. Not negative & downcast but positive & uplifting. Not self-oriented but others oriented.
I thought I had already ‘seen’ in verse 4. The point is we ‘see’ before we ‘see’. What do you see in your future. Dream your dream everyday. Your imagination is part of the creative process in your life.
Can you see sons & daughters coming from distant places? Can you see clients, customers, friends, great people coming into your life?
“Ken(?) and John called me the arch bishop the other night. But it’s sort of like that to present to you the over-arching culture and vision of where we’re going. And I really enjoy doing that.” – Phil Pringle, http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8802074: (05:51-6:02), C3 Atlanta, 8:45am Sermon: ‘?’, 08/08/10.
For a very long period of time we have seen Pringle play word games and use deceptive means to convince people that his prophetic 2020 Vision from God is being fulfilled. The reason why we are tackling this issue now is because of recent footage we managed to find online.
In our first article we established that Pringle had received a ‘God-give’ vision to PLANT 1000 churches by the year 2020.
In this article we will examine how Phil Pringle is purposely going out of his way to convince his members that his church is PLANTING churches daily to ‘fulfill’ the 2020 vision.
IS PHIL PRINGLE YOUR HABAKKUK?
In the past, we critiqued a giving sermon that had Pringle twist the definition of ‘church plant’. We were being overtly cautious at the time because we believed our critics would accuse us falsely of making up the transcript or find some minor fault with us if we accused Phil Pringle of being highly deceptive.
In our “Let Me Just Talk To You Out Of A Scripture…” article, we think it is important to reiterate the following information:
In his message Phil Pringle does not seem to know basic arithmetic:
56 people + 36 wanting to plant a church + 16 churches rebranded + 2 church plants ≠ 120 Church Plants
We are almost forced to believe that Dr. Phil Pringle doesn’t have a basic knowledge of church missions and biblical terminology. Pringle is calling ‘church planting’ a “group of pastors” to be “thirty six churches” and “a guy in Bulgaria who has sixteen churches” who possibly “wants to hook” into the C3 movement…
Pringle continues to make dishonest and unsupported claims suggesting that his organisation is responsible for one church being planted every day in Jesus’ name. Pringle says, “I know you were doubting out there but it’s okay. I have my moments too. And so you and I believing together- we’ll start to see ten churches a day being planted and growing”…
Pringle begins to mix his phrases through his address so that it becomes difficult to know what Pringle actually means…
… previously in his message to garner funding he only talked about the number of churches that were being added to his movement, not how many people “will come to Christ all around the world today”. We can rightly conclude he is still talking about the 120 churches he was talking about previously because he confirmed that these churches were coming into the C3 Movement, “right now in Jesus’ name. That’s just in four weeks time”.
Pringle continues, “That’s just in the existing churches. Now once thesenew ones are coming in. And they come into Christ, they become disciples, they become empowered and they become ministries themselves”
It is important to ask whether more accurately these alleged thousands being saved from his aforementioned C3 church ‘plants’ are not rather those people in existing churches being rebranded into the C3 fold. This is flawed thinking to confuse such people who join the C3 banner with salvation into Christ. The conclusions we come too after such dialogue is not good.
If Pringle is saying churches who join C3 “come into Christ, …become disciples,” “become empowered” and “become ministries themselves”, that would make C3 a cult. That is, if Pringle believes their movement is the only true church with the right teachings and formulas for salvation then he himself has set his movement to be a cult…
The sermon that we critiqued was given on the 24th of October, 2010. We managed to get video footage of Phil Pringle later that week repeating the same false material to his staff and C3 college students.
First we want to show a video snippet that features Pringle at the start of his sermon portraying himself as a type of Habakkuk. In this snippet, Pringle stresses that leaders shouldn’t have a vision but a ‘God Vision’. As he is the leader, Pringle attempts to establish at the beginning of this sermon that he is a ‘leader’ leading by ‘example’ with his ‘God Vision’. Pringle is the Habbakuk of C3. He is the watchman and knows the future where the movement is heading. He has the vision to go forward. (Heaven forbid you question his infallible God-given direction.)
Here is the video. Below is the transcript.
“I just want to touch on a few things here today for all of us. As students and staff. Number one, is uh- vision: the importance of it. And how much we need that if we’re gonna change this world. We won’t achieve anything without a vision. But it needs to be a God vision. Okay?
Just having a vision is really not the answer. And so in all the business manuals and coaching, training, you’ll hear about how important vision is. But that’s just a vision people are dreaming up in their own mind. We need to have a God vision inside of us.” – Phil Pringle, 00:16, C3 Church Sydney and C3 College combined staff and students meeting 27 October 2010, http://vimeo.com/16260821, October 27, 2010 6:30 PM.
“Empowering saints is giving. Is delegation. It’s getting people to do things for God. And- and uh, (hm-hm!), so we- we want to release people all the time to get stuff done. And I think it’s awesome! Every- I mean, every week, just about, we see a brand new musician up on the stage. And uh- to get people preaching in chapel. All these things. But the ultimate goal is that we will get people to plant churches and grow churches all around the world.
In the last- uh- (I haven’t- I haven’t done a really detailed study on this though). Well let me- let me explain this. And I mentioned it on Sunday but for those who didn’t hear, I’ll say it again.
In Bali, (which was what? Four weeks ago? Four weeks ago? I think it was. One month? Yeah. [Crowd laughs] Thanks! Thanks Jake! It wasn’t four weeks. It was a month ago), and ah- In Bali, we had our South- East Asia conference, okay.
So a guy comes out. He says, “I’m joining the movement with my churches”. I said, “How many churches have you got?” He said, “Forty eight 48”. In a place called Myanmar [Burma]. So I said, “Okay”. And I really wanted to clear this up. I said, “It’s not just you joining? You’re actually- all these guys are coming?”
“Yep.”
Then another guy from Indonesia, (Philippines, sorry!), he was joining with eight churches. And then we were celebrating planting two churches at that time. All up that’s fifty eight churches. Right there, okay, four weeks ago. Then, another one of our overseers, has just come back from Indonesia. And he says, uh, he’s just having, he’s got thirty six churches just on their way in as well. That’s- ah- how many’s that? Ninety- ninety- four! Ninety four churches, okay?
Then, ah, in- in Africa, East Africa, the uh, the guys over there said they got about a hundred pastors and leaders. And there were thirty churches in Tanzania, Congo, bla-bla-bla, somewhere else. I thought, “I don’t know if they’re brand new or half new or whatever”. So I thought, “Oh! Just count half of them”. So that’s like a hundred and- that’s a hundred and ten. Hundred and nine actually.
Then Simon told me that he’s talking to a guy in Bulgaria. Ah- who is a really good guy. He’s got sixteen churches. And he is also hooking up. He’s got a big church, one of the biggest in Bulgaria. It’s about six hundred. That’s a big church in that part of the world. So that’s one hundred and twenty. One hundred and twenty churches in one month. That adds up to a growth rate of around about four churches a day. Okay? You know, like- I s- I- I know! I know! So, what are you doing here?
You’re getting ready to look after these churches. You’re getting ready to grow these churches.” – Phil Pringle, 24:16, C3 Church Sydney and C3 College combined staff and students meeting 27 October 2010, http://vimeo.com/16260821, Uploaded October 27, 2010 6:30 PM.
SO WHAT? WHAT ARE WE SEEING?
Let us believe Phil Pringle for a moment. Let us establish for a second that the 2020 Vision IS from God. Pringle has emphatically stated that this 2020 ‘God Vision’ or ‘God-given vision’ is to PLANT 1000 churches. But what are we seeing? We are seeing a man trying to convince his various audiences that the 2020 Vision is being fulfilled for the glory of God.
But were 120 churches PLANTED in his movement over one month? No.
If Pringle was following the ‘God Given’ 2020 vision, he would be planting churches and not rebranding, converting or assimilating churches into his movement. If he is not planting church, isn’t Pringle opposing the ‘God Given’ 2020 Vision?
What else are we seeing? Let’s say that those 120 church joined the C3 movement. What does this mean?
It means that a third of his churches were established in ONE MONTH. If any person examined his claim in ratio to the current number of churches in his movement a few months later, they’d know that Pringle was lying to them. Where are these church ‘plants’ today?
This actually raises more questions. Is the C3 Church Movement mainly made up of church plants or rebranded churches? If the C3 Church movement fills up with redbranded churches, does this mean that the movement itself is failing God and His 2020 Vision?
We are about to discover that the C3 movement is mainly filled with rebranded churches.
ARE CHURCHES REALLY BEING PLANTED OR REBRANDED?
Whenever a C3 Church plant is about to be undertaken in the C3 Church movement, the news is often huge. For example, leading up to it’s establishment, Phil Pringle and other leaders were monotonously advertising, Facebooking and twittering the C3 Hong Kong church plant. If churches were being planted everyday, Pringle and his leadership would be plastering the news everywhere. However, they don’t.
We would like to conclude that the majority of C3 churches are not church plants but takeovers. To say that churches are being rebranded is not accurate. A takeover is more appropriate since C3 specifically targets churches and assimilates them into it’s collective.
What should be evident in the above transcripts is how C3 uses their conferences to target and market to churches to join their movement. In the name of ‘relevancy’, a C3 conference can easily make local churches feel inadequate, boring and irrelevant. Who cares about the local church and cultural sensitivity when C3 is the answer to your church’s problem! (Who could resist the enticing relevant music, the flashy lights, and the manufactured presence of God?)
Consider again what Pringle said in the above transcripts.
“In Bali, we had our South- East Asia conference, okay.
So a guy comes out. He says, “I’m joining the movement with my churches”. I said, “How many churches have you got?” He said, “Forty eight 48”. In a place called Myanmar [Burma]…
Then another guy from Indonesia, (Philippines, sorry!), he was joining with eight churches. And then we were celebrating planting two churches at that time. All up that’s fifty eight churches…”
“And then Simon came back from the European conferenceand he met a guy in Bulgaria who has sixteen churches. And he wants to hook in as well.”
May we remind you again what Pringle said how he wanted people to see his Presence Conference:
“We really want to become more cross-denominational, not parochial about just being C3… And it’s so important that we just, you know, spill the banks, go over, lower the wall, let the water run through the city and be a blessing. And not out there just to drag people into- you know- and to get people into and- many people will get involved in what we’re doing and that’s good. But I don’t want that to be the only motivation that we have. I think that if we have the motivation to be a blessing beyond us, that would be a really good- a really good idea.” – Phil Pringle, C3 Leaders Meeting With Phil Pringle – May 2011, Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgTdtB-ha0s, Uploaded by CCCOF on May 5, 2011.
So we can rule out the fact that this ‘vision’ is about ‘planting churches’. We’ve now established this to be false. While we can argue that C3 does rebrand churches, it doesn’t accurately describe the malicious scheming and marketing attempts they use to target vulnerable churches through their conferences around the world. If what is said in the transcripts is true, then one third of all C3 Churches are takeovers. However, C3 appears to inform us that they have taken over more churches than they have planted.
If people are still not convinced that the 2020 Vision is a lie, this next bit of information should convince you.
THW 20/20 VISION FAILING IN VISION
We wrote an article back in December of 2011. In it we had screen grabs and older information on the location of C3 Churches around the world .
Now the date is the 27th of October 2013. All the screengrabs you see and read below are recorded on this date.
If people visit the c3churchglobal.com website, click ‘CHURCHES’ and you will come across to this page (http://c3churchglobal.com/church):
You will be taken to this map. You will notice links at the bottom of the right hand corner: “VIEW: ALL | PLANTS”. This wasn’t available two years ago. This is recently added. If you click ‘ALL’ you will see this map:
So why does the C3 Church Global have a link to PLANTS? When you click the ‘PLANTS’ link, you will see the following map:
Going by the newer information what are we looking at? There are only seven church plants in America? Five church plants in Europe? Three church plants in Europe? Four church plants in Asia? Four in the South East Asia Pacific rim? Four in Australia? About nine in New Zealand and a few around Fiji?
With the information given, that is about fourty churches in total that C3 Church considers ‘Church Plants’. Yet the C3 movement brags of planting anywhere between 240 to 400 churches worldwide? And what are the churches in blue? Church takeovers?
If this information is true, than Phil Pringle has failed spectacularly to fulfill his 2020 Vision. If God did give Pringle the 2020 Vision, then we have the C3churchglobal website exposing Pringle for the false prophet that he is.
NOTE: We would like to ask for your help next article. If you can help us find churches that C3 has taken over, please email us links, screen grabs, testimonies or other forms of evidence. Our email is c3churchwatch@hotmail.com.
More Christians in his church should tell Phil Pringle to “stick to the bible”. The topic of money is a common message preached at C3 Church. While we do not hear the faithful gospel preached of Christ and Him crucified, it is impossible to escape C3’s ten minute money-grubbing message. People need to face the facts. Phil Pringle has an unhealthy obsession with money and making up fables.
He clearly does not put his faith in God. Rather, Pringle puts faith in his works and finances. Question Pringle’s prosperity gospel and there is a good chance you will be labeled, criticised, ostracised, demonised or even isolated by the leadership. The tithe doctrine specifically is Pringle’s golden calf. In the past, the tithe has been called by C3 leadership the “foundation” or “cornerstone” to every believers life.
This false doctrine is both binding and destructive. This keeps poor Christians in C3 stuck in their poverty. This false doctrine has divided families and churches. Still, Phil Pringle conveniently refuses to examine the historicity and the biblical truth of the tithe. This doctrine helps no one except the false and deceptive ministry of Phil Pringle. Yet he insists Christians must tithe.
In a Sunday night sermon titled ‘Financial Excellence Part 2’ (22/05/2011), Phil Pringle slandered (blasphemed) God. He did so by putting words in God’s mouth. Pringle unashamedly went out of his way to mislead his congregation on his false tithe doctrine. Phil Pringle invented his own theology to convince and intimidate his congregation to continually financially support his ministry.
Before you read and listen to this segment of Phil Pringle, we wish to warn you of following deceptive methods false teachers like himself use on Christians.
WARNING 1: Always hold the pastor accountable to the words he uses. If he his playing with words, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM.
WARNING 2: If a pastor is wrongfully confusing what God is saying to what he is saying, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM.
WARNING 3: If a pastor does not read the biblical text to justify his claims, DO NOT LISTEN TO HIM. (i.e., if he tells you a biblical story and hi-jacks the biblical narrative for his own means.).
WARNING 4: Always check what the pastor is saying in the NAME of God to what God actually says in His Word.
WARNING 5: Always make sure that the Pastor is using biblical reasoning to teach you and NOT emotional manipulation (e.g., guilt, group intimidation).
Below, Pringle breaks all the rules of how a pastor should teach, behave and rightly approach biblical texts.
PRINGLE PLAYING WITH WORDS
In the below transcript you will see Pringle mislead the congregation by calling his financial insights to the bible a “bible study”. How can Pringle call what he taught a “bible study” when he never read the texts in Joshua and Genesis? He never even gave biblical references. This was not a bible study. (A bible study actually involves the pastor explaining what the bible means by reading it and handling the contexts of what is said correctly.)
Throughout the below segment, Pringle kept redefining what the tithe was in very obscure ways. He does this to convince Christians that the tithe is biblical. Ask yourself: is the tithe continually defined by Pringle as ‘a tenth’ or something else? Does it keep changing itself meaning to suit Pringle’s theology or agenda?
PRINGLE PLAYING ‘GOD-AND-SWITCH’ AS IN ‘BAIT-AND-SWITCH’
To actually grasp what Pringle is doing in this segment of teaching, please watch the video at the bottom of this article (one minute in).
Good preachers clearly distinguish when God is speaking through the scriptures. They make sure that their voice is separate from God’s so no man is confused between a man’s words and God’s Word. Not so with Pringle. Pringle at one point speaks as though God is saying something through the scriptures. However, the listener can get easily confused over either God or Pringle speaking to you.
It was incredibly difficult to transcribe this video. In particularly when Pringle said,
“If you give me that [Jericho] then the rest of the land is yours. That’s the first fruits, that’s the tithe. That’s the tree in the garden for Adam.”
Was Pringle telling us this or was he telling us this is what God was saying in the book of Joshua?
PRINGLE AVOIDING THE BIBLE AT ALL COST
Using the books of Genesis and Joshua, Pringle starts arguing his case for the tithe. He AVOIDS reading these texts to support his argument. Instead, Pringle hi-jacks the narrative, lies about God saying things He never said and makes stuff up according to his personal pet theories.
If Pringle read out Genesis 2-3 or Joshua 6-8, then any hearer would realise that the tithe is not even mentioned in these ancient documents. You don’t think Pringle knows this? And what he says isn’t new. The sermon ‘Financial Excellence’ is based off his book ‘Keys To Financial Excellence’. His teaching has been expanded and extracted from his book ‘Keys To Financial Excellence’:
Phil Pringle not only makes up his own theology in regards to the city of Jericho being a tithe, he also teaches that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil is the tithe. Once again, if anyone was reading Genesis 2-3, they would see that Pringle is not honest in handling the God’s Word.
PRINGLE’S MESSAGE
Below is part of the transcript we just critiqued and the video.
“So here’s the Lord saying, “You’re robbing”. You’re taking something that belongs to God. It’s the tithe. You’re sticking it in your pocket. [Inaudible] Bless me. It aint gonna happen.
There’s a guy called Achan in the scripture. And look- If I’m stirred up about anything to do with this message, it is this point I’m making right now. Because, here’s the thing, Achan- does anybody know who Achan is? Achan?
Ok. Here’s the picture. Real quick little bible study.
Joshua comes to Jericho. God says, “March around the thing- seven days. Seven days, seven times. Shout. PHEOW! The whole thing will collapse. But,” he says, “that city is the tithe.”
“Don’t touch anything in the city.” It belongs to God. The whole lot. It was ‘under the ban’ was the literal words. Devoted to destruction. “If you give me that then the rest of the land is yours. That’s the firstfruits, that’s the tithe. That’s the tree in the garden for Adam.”
It’s the firstborn of every animal born on the earth. It’s the first. It’s the tithe.
‘kay. So everybody does it.
“Phew! Don’t touch it! Don’t touch!” Achan sees a big lump of gold. He says, “I’ll take that”. Puts in his back pocket. Goes into his tent. Digs a hole. Puts it in. Hides it in a couple of garments. [Inaudible.] Digs a hole. Hides it.
The next- they’re ready to go to the next town, Ai. Little town. A-i. That’s a little name, three thousand people, bam! Just go up there. Josh is- says ‘Oh, we wont even send the whole army up. We’ll kill these guys in no time at all’. Bam! So he goes up. They get defeated.
Israel gets defeated. About thirty seven of their own soldiers die. Achan doesn’t. One of the soldiers. He doesn’t. They come back. Josh is on his face. He says, “God! How did that happen? We took Jericho with big thick walls! Then we got beaten at Ai, by a nobody group!”
God says, “Somebody took the tithe.”
He says, “What do you mean?” He says, “You gotta find out who did this.” So they find out. Do a little investigation.
“Achan. What are you doing?”
“Woah!” … This is why I’m stirred up about it. Because it’s not about just me individually. It’s about the whole church. I’ve a corporate responsibility to the entire Kingdom of God. To the whole body of Christ.” Phil Pringle, Ps Phil Pringle: Financial Excellence Part 2, http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/ps-phil-pringle-financial-excellence-part-2, Sermon (PM), 22/05/2011.
Below you can watch him say this in the snippet about one minute in.
PRINGLE LYING TO PEOPLE ABOUT GOD
Phil Pringle has a shepherds responsibility to handle God’s Word correctly and NOT lie and slander God and His word for financial gain. If anyone did do a “bible study” reading Joshua 6-8 while Pringle preached, they would notice Pringle made up things God never said.
God didn’t say,
“that city [Jericho] is the tithe.”
God did not say,
“If you give me that then the rest of the land is yours. That’s the firstfruits, that’s the tithe. That’s the tree in the garden for Adam. It’s the firstborn of every animal born on the earth. It’s the first. It’s the tithe. ‘kay.”
When Joshua consulted God in regards to his military losing the battle at Ai, God did not say to Joshua,
“Somebody took the tithe.”
Phil Pringle is making God say and teach things God never said. In other words, Phil Pringle is blaspheming by taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Firstly, this false teaching of the tithe goes against the heart of the Father, goes against Jesus and His finished work on Calvary and the Holy Spirit. Why? It is through Christ we find blessing and freedom away from the curse and condemnation of death, God’s Law and His wrath. As Christians we do not receive the Holy Spirit, God’s promise and blessing by our works. The entire letter to the Galatians makes this case. This is blasphemy no matter which way you look at it, again taking the Lord’s name in vain.
PRINGLE USING INTIMIDATION AND CROWD CONTROL
Pringle lets his emotions run in this portion of his talk. His tone is accusative against Christians for not tithing. If you watch further beyond the transcript, he starts personally confessing his works and his faithfulness to the tithe.
This does not stop Pringle teaching to his congregation that if individuals aren’t tithing, they are accused by God of “robbing,” cursed by God Himself and blocking the progress of his C3 church movement. This is This is why he says,
“I’m stirred up about it. Because it’s not about just me individually.”
The onus is on non-tithers to do what Pringle says or else. His lies mixed with his intimidation is in our opinion bullying. It is of our opinion he is using misleading tactics to force non-tithers in his congregation to tithe, using his own congregation against them. Think of it this way. After this sermon, how would members react to people who say they don’t tithe? After this sermon, do you think non-tithers would dispute this teaching against other members? Do you think they will feel isolated and alone in their thoughts on this matter?
Overall, this is a good example how a false teacher would teach and behave behind a pulpit. Phil Pringle’s false message and deceitful methods are clearly evident in this sermon.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
Looks like Pringle would disagree.
CAN SOMEONE SAY THE WORD ‘HYPOCRITE’?
Phil Pringle said recently at his Global Presence Conference 2013,
“In Singapore you will see lots of negative stuff. You will read lots of blogs by Christians as well that are terrible, negative, attacking, all kinds of things and we live in that kind of age.
But I think people are getting a little numb to it now. I saw on some comments on Facebook today about this conference. I’m thinking, “Oh! PLEASE! You know! Get over it in Jesus name! Amen! Get a life! Do something! Win some people to Jesus! You know like- our worst critics and enemies are within our own deal, for goodness sake. Can’t we get it together and discover the things that unite us are far more the things that divide us in Jesus name. Amen!
We’re here to build the church, not tear it down. I’m not gonna get into cat fights with anybody. Amen! I’ll just ignore it, move on.” [Article]
Well the one that seemingly hates to start the cat-fights couldn’t let the fight go. Offended, upset and miserable, Phil Pringle recently stated,
“But I don’t find that all the time. I find some believers who are still very small minded. Very miserable. Very upset. Very offended. very tight about all sorts of things. And often times- this is the tragedy of that, they’re only like twenty five years old!
I’m going, “You’re too young to be this screwed up! You’re too young to be this hard-headed about doctrine- and about- and to get all angry and bitter and tough about- PLEASE! What are you doing?!? Don’t talk about the stuff. BE the stuff. Don’t fight about words like grace. BE GRACIOUS! Amen!”
Source: Phil Pringle, Phil Pringle ‘Grand Designs | Spare Not’, http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/phil-pringle-grand-designs-spare-not-0, C3 Church Oxford Falls, 09/06/2013. (Accessed 11/06/2013.)
We don’t know what’s more pathetic. A sixty year old pastor blowing raspberry’s at doctrinally hard-headed twenty five-year old’s (someone get Pringle a pacifier); or Pringle using his own doctrinally hard head to tear down Christians. Come on Pringle! We’re here to build the church, not tear it down. If you don’t like Christian doctrine Pringle, just ignore Christianity and move on. Christianity would probably have revival if you left.
WHERE’S THE LOVE PRINGLE?
To point out how askew Pringle’s doctrine is, he clearly doesn’t know what a pastor is, what the church is and who actually builds the church. A pastor is called to look after the flock. The church isn’t called to expand or progress. The church is to behave like a pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Timothy 3). It is up to God to grow it.
Furthermore, this audio shows just how much Phil Pringle disregards his own congregation. Phil Pringle would rather have a big church where no one knows him and no one knows each other. What’s sad is Phil Pringle thinks he is actually saving people if he wants a big church. When you watch to the end of the above sermon ask these questions:
Did Phil Pringle preach a gospel message that could lead someone out of their sins and into God’s grace through Jesus’ atoning work on the cross?
Did they know anything about the gospel?
It is not loving at all to give people the impression they are Christian’s if they don’t know the gospel which is the power that saves from hell.
Now that’s “screwed up”!
WHERE’S THE TRUTH PRINGLE?
“Don’t talk about the stuff. BE the stuff. Don’t fight about words like grace. BE GRACIOUS! Amen!”
What’s odd about Pringle’s advice is that it doesn’t make any sense. What is he talking about? Is this how a sixty year old anti-doctrinal pastor responds to young Christians?
And these are twenty five-year old’s! Imagine if Pringle came across someone half their age.
“And when [Jesus] was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” Luke 2:42-47
Sounds like Jesus was VERY hard-headed. Maybe Phil Pringle should rebuke Jesus in the name of Jesus while he’s at it. Maybe just like his members, Jesus should conform to the image that Pringle wants them all to be.
City News has published an interesting interview with Phil Pringle. We would like viewers to compare the below interview with Pringle with an older article they wrote on Phil Pringle titled ‘Close Friend’ back in 2011.
In this article:
It appears Phil Pringle is attempting to distance himself from being Kong Hee’s oversight. We know for a fact that what Phil Pringle is saying below is not true. If you read the above article, Phil Pringle stated in 2011 that his prophetic office is part of the relationship he has with Kong Hee. It is clear that Pringle prides himself of being Kong Hee’s prophetic oversight.
“In the early years, I would have guided [Kong] and been something like a mentor to him, and I would still be that now, but only by his initiative, not mine.”
However, Phil Pringle may be wanting to distance himself now that the case is underway.
While promoting sex, money, power and murder in her music video clips, Sun Ho is seen by Phil Pringle as “essential to the core, the fabric and the culture of” of CHC. He also says Sun is “key to the future of City Harvest Church”. May we remind readers of Sun Ho’s legacy of raunchy entertainment. While Pringle says that Sun Ho is the “fabric” and the “culture” of City Harvest Church, she seems to lose her fabric and core Christian values to her secular music career.
Asking how Phil Pringle deals with his online critics, Phil Pringle stated that he doesn’t “even bother reading it”. Obviously, critics only give Pringle credibility in his own eyes since he says he’s “not sure [he’s] really being effective if [he hasn’t] got critics”. And how his response biblical in any way, shape or form? Isn’t Pringle demonstrating he lives in both denial and delusion?
On the same subject, Pringle associates critics to radical Arabic communities that murder Christians. Phil Pringle or Kong Hee’s critics could be either Christian or non-Christian. They could be local authority figures like parents, teachers, lawyers, judges or the average person who don’t want friends or family members to go to CHC. To associate these people with murderous, radical Muslim extremists is slanderous, unloving and divisive.
Ask yourself this question: What is doing more damage to Christianity in the City Harvest Church scandal? Who is adding persecution to the church? False teachers like Phil Pringle and Kong Hee or ‘critics’?
Think about the news group Al Jazeera that spread the news about the Kong Hee scandal through the Arab World. Did ‘critics’ get a mention? Were ‘critics’ reported in the CHC scandal and linked to spreading corruption, persecution and murders in Sinapore? Or was Al Jazeera linking the CHC scandal to false teachers like Kong Hee or Phil Pringle?
If anything, wouldn’t Phil Pringle and Kong Hee be furthering the hatred, persecution and murder of Christians in Arabic countries due to Al Jazeera reporting the CHC scandal both ‘Pastors’ are involved in? We are stunned Phil Pringle would stoop so low to associate his critics with murderous radical extremists. Doesn’t this sound like cult-like propaganda to encourage City Harvest Church members to shun critics?
CITY NEWS PROPAGANDA
Here is the article from City News,
An Interview With Phil Pringle: CHC Has A Future Of Incredible Blessing
Updated on 22 May 2013 at 8:13 am By Theresa Tan
City Harvest Church’s advisory pastor Phil Pringle talks about the secret power of giving thanks, his deep friendship with Kong Hee and the future of CHC.
CN PHOTOS: Michael Chan.
Phil Pringle, senior minister of C3 Church in Sydney, Australia and the president of the C3 Church International, a global movement of over 240 churches, is in Singapore to conduct two weekend services back to back at CHC. He is here to support and encourage the church while CHC’s senior pastor Kong Hee and five other church leaders go through the first week of the trial against them for allegedly misusing church funds.
In this interview Pringle shares withCity News how his friendship with Kong Hee began, how giving thanks is a secret weapon, and he exhorts the congregation to see beyond the trials of the present as a purchase for a future that would be a blessing to the nations.
You taught us about giving thanks yesterday. But how do you give thanks when things are really hard, when you feel betrayed or when you feel someone’s done you a great wrong?
I think the sacrifice of praise—which the Bible calls thanksgiving, giving thanks under difficult circumstances—is the best antidote to a bad attitude, because you’re grateful to God not just in the circumstance but for the circumstance. And that’s a big difference.
Sometimes we like to say, we thank God in the circumstance even though I hate the circumstance, but the Bible is actually saying, thank God for the circumstance as well. The funny thing is as soon as you’re thankful for something or someone, you see them positively. So instead of hating or criticizing them, you now see the positive in them.
That’s why Paul thanked God for the people he was writing to, because it gave him a platform for every following comment. One of the best things a pastor can do is to thank God—for his congregation, his board, his wife and children. Even though some of those people might be frustrating him, if he thanks God for them, he’s gonna change his views and see things differently.
And once you see things differently, you actually see a strategy, a way forward. If I thank God for a problem, then I’ll find a way to deal with it because the positive mind always sees a way through. The negative mind accepts defeat and can’t find a way.
You’ve been a friend of CHC since 1992. That’s 21 years till now. What was your first meeting with Pastor Kong like?
The first time I remember meeting Pastor Kong was in a very large warehouse that he had rented, but he only had maybe 120 people. So he’s always had huge faith, stepping out in enormous ways.
The very next meeting I had with him was at our annual conference, now known as the Presence Conference. And he was on his honeymoon. He came to our conference on his honeymoon. So I was very impressed with that, and I gave him a gift so he was able to go out and buy some clothes for his wife as a present.
I think that was the beginning of the relationship, because I saw in him such a great faith, such a wonderful attitude, and I just felt that he was just going to do something incredible for God.
How would you say the relationship has developed over the years?
I think our relationship is a combination of several factors. In the early years, I would have guided him and been something like a mentor to him, and I would still be that now, but only by his initiative, not mine. But I would also treat him as a peer, a colleague, and someone that I would stand with in the faith.
There are not many people in the world I would feel that I am called to lay down my life for—and I’m not trying to be dramatic—but he would be one of them. I generally feel that over the years, my Christianity is expressed in helping people I can help, who may not necessarily be those whom others have access to, such as pastors. There are many pastors who are facing difficult times whom I feel I can be of a little help to.
But I would put Pastor Kong in a totally different category than just that because he’s a close friend. I think that we should lay down our lives for our friends. That’s what the Kingdom is. It’s a privilege for me too. It’s an honor. I’m blessed to being involved with City Harvest Church.
At Presence Conference last month, you had Pastor Kong come onstage. You really showed a lot of support for him, and after that there was a lot of negative talk on the Internet. How do you deal with that?
I don’t—I don’t even bother reading it. You know, I’ll be worried if every comment about me was positive.
Why do you say that?
Well, I’m not sure you’re really being effective if you haven’t got critics. There’s not a person who’s achieving anything in the world today who hasn’t got critics. But we’ve taken criticism all our lives for following Christ, for taking steps of faith. I don’t really bother with it. Sometimes it comes across my path and I try to toughen up and not let it affect me.
You spoke about it during your sermon (last Sunday), about the “poison” that some emails or articles carry. What if a new member in church sees something that offends them? How would you advise them to step away from it?
For a young, new person, that’s such a hard thing. I think you’ve got to be upfront and tell people how you’re feeling. In the early church there was a lot of persecution, a lot more than there is now. There are churches in the Middle East where if people know they became Christians, they could be killed.
I know of a church which last year buried 150 of its members who were killed [for being Christians]. There’s a C3 church in that same country which can’t hold meetings on a regular basis because if the locals know when they’re having a meeting they will attack, so they have to constantly change the timings, and they can’t all gather at once; it’s very underground.
So the reality of Christ coming in to a person’s life has to be very real, [not] just going to church, being religious. Because when people discover Jesus, they will pay any price. I think that’s the surest way (to stay away from the poison). But I also think if they received Christ with eyes wide open, they will see that there is a price to following Christ.
What do you see in the future of City Harvest Church?
The price it’s paying today will be the purchase of a future of incredible blessing, of great abundance. I think it will affect the world in a lot of ways, especially in terms of cell groups, culture and reaching a lost world. I think CHC will have a huge impact in China; it’ll possibly be its most major calling, but it may also affect the whole of Asia.
CHC will be celebrating its 25th anniversary next year. What should the members look towards, what should they focus on?
The next 25 years. If you extrapolate the last 25 years of growth, you’ll probably come out to half a million people, if we keep growing at the rate we’ve been growing at. So once you see an end result, you can develop a pathway to it, a strategy. That’s why God sees the end from the beginning. Every leader or person in management needs to see the end from the beginning.
You would have heard that Sun’s suspension has been lifted and that she is back as our executive director. What are your thoughts on this?
I think Sun is essential to the core, the fabric and the culture of the church, and her input should not be underestimated. Her concepts, her design, her input into the worship, the leadership and the people should not be undervalued in any way at all. I think she’s very key to the future of City Harvest Church.
Source: By Theresa Tan, City News, An Interview With Phil Pringle: CHC Has A Future Of Incredible Blessing, http://www.citynews.sg/2013/05/an-interview-with-phil-pringle-chc-has-a-future-of-incredible-blessing/, Updated on 22 May 2013. (Accessed 23/05/2013.)
In the below quote, Pringle narcigetes 2 Samuel 30:6 to justify, explain and warn his congregation on some peculiar things. It is clear in his use of the text he seems to somehow see himself as a ‘king’ over his church and within the offline or online communities. To clarify, the New Testament does NOT teach that a pastor is a king, nor is Phil Pringle Jesus or Moses. If you have been reading the various articles on Phil Pringle here, it should be pretty clear he is clearly a false teacher and a false prophet. It is this type of person Jesus warns us against in Matthew 7.
In this article, we reveal Pringle provides some interesting information in a sermon he gave in 2011.
Pringle teaches that people in his church may “get wounded” and experience “distress” and “grief”. If it was the world persecuting the church that is understandable. However, Pringle provides the context of his warning. He says Christians in his movement could experience with other Christians (in or outside his movement) traumatic experiences that may test their loyalty to him and his movement. If it’s gossip this is understandable. However, once again – the point of controversy within the framework of his teaching evolved around him. Which leads to our next point.
Pringle reveals he has been approached by people who have said that they will “go to the newspaper”. He emphasises that he has heard people say this “many times” to him. This tells us that people HAVE expressed their concerns to him and he has rejected them, their reports or corrections. The result being, people have seemingly stated to Pringle they will “go to the newspaper” because issues were not personally resolved with Pringle.
Pringle alerts us to the fact he is aware what people are saying on Facebook and blogging communities about him and his movement. In June 2011, MyC3ChurchReview (MC3CR) was established around the time C3ChurchWatch started up. It is possible that Pringle may have been referring to the manager of the MC3CR site who also started a twitter account with about three followers. In spite of what is being said online regarding his teaching or practices, he has shown that he would rather mock them or ‘stone them’. This only goes to show Pringle refuses to be corrected or deal with certain false doctrines, his false gospel, scandals within his movement, bad behaviour or false methodologies.
Here is the transcript:
“The leader who had transformed their lives, turned them into men (feared by the entire country side)- now they want to stone him because they are in such grief because the “soul of all the people was grieved. Every man for his sons and his daughters.”
When people are upset they want to blame somebody. And, “Isn’t he the guy who led us down to do this battle down there? Let’s just stone him!”
It happens. It’s not- not uncommon. Moses. “Isn’t he the guy? Let’s stone him!” Jesus. “Let’s stone Him!” You know. These guys had a- they we’re always addicted to getting stoned. [Audience laughs] It’s like, “Let’s just stone him! Let’s just throw stones! Let’s gossip! Let’s go to the- let’s go to the newspaper!”
Argh! Golly! How many times I heard that? “I’m gonna get all the press down there and yuhyuhgruhyuh!” You think it doesn’t happen? There may even be a day when you’re tempted to think that because something happened when you want out to battle and family members or friends or yourself- you get wounded and you’re in such distress, such grief- that’s the moment where there’s deep loyalty tests.
And you find those moments in life! Everybody does! “I’m gonna Facebook them! Obladyuhyuhyuh!!!” “You wont like any of this on my blog baby! Iya-blurdludludludludle!!! Blog away!” Everybody can have a shot of being heard! I’m gonna tell the whole world, “You’ve got three followers on Twitter!” – Phil Pringle, Ps Phil Pringle: Prayer 4 – I Like People, http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/ps-phil-pringle-prayer-4-i-people, 77:01, C3 Oxford Falls, Sunday Night Service, 25/09/2011.
There is one last thing to consider. Don’t you think it’s odd that Pringle implies that he’ll only listen to you depending on how big your following is on twitter? What other standard must a Christian uphold so that Phil Pringle might listen to their concerns and act on them?
We’ll end with Mark Dever talking addressing the faulty ‘church growth’ standard and application that ministers like Pringle adhere too.