Trinity Baptist Continues Its Descent into the Emerging Church

Rend Collective Experiment

Just nine years ago Trinity Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, began dabbling with contemporary Christian music. The changes have been fast and furious. Today the church obviously cares nothing about earnestly contending for sound doctrine and has renounced the Bible's command to separate from error and end-time apostasy (e.g., Romans 16:17; 2 Timothy 3:5). In April, Trinity is scheduled to host the Rend Collective Experiment for a second time (the first was in 2012). This group is hooked intimately into the emerging church via its close association with and support of emergent leaders such as Tony Campolo, David Crowder, and Shane Claiborne (http://rendcollective.com/bio). In January 2012, Crowder led worship for the send-off of Rob Bell at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan. Crowder thus put his blessing on Bell's rank heresies, including his denial that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and his rejection of the eternal judgment of hell. In his 2011 book Love Wins, Bell preaches near-universalism, as well as a false god, a false christ, a false gospel, a false heaven, and a false hell. Adrian Thompson of Kingsway music publishers says, "Rend Collective Experiment are ... the musical equivalent of what people like Rob Bell and Francis Chan are trying to do with the Church." These are extremely dangerous spiritual waters. Joining the Rend Collective Experiment at Trinity in April is Pentecostal Kari Jobe, who claims to have a "prophetic ministry." She described growing up in a Pentecostal atmosphere: "We would go places where people were giving prophetic words and I would receive prophetic ministry. Many of those prophetic words have come to pass or are coming to pass" ("Kari Jobe Talks Prophetic Ministry," Examiner.com, March 16, 2012). In November 2012, Trinity Baptist Church hosted the Roman Catholic contemporary worship singer Audrey Assad.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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