We have heard Lysa Terkeurst mentioned by women with rave reviews. And we honestly hoped she was a solid biblical teacher. We wanted to let it go at that and in a sense, buried our heads in the sand.
Then some information came across our desk that both surprised and saddened us. And so here we are again . . .
We have concerns for several reasons.
Reason #1
Lysa preaches to men. She was included at The Most Excellent Way To Lead Conference (source). Not only was she the only woman speaking (there were five male speakers) . . . but this was the description for the conference:
We all want to make progress as leaders, but do you ever feel stuck? It’s hard to make a plan and have the focus to be a great leader when you have so many demands. You might even have days where you feel like your potential is passing you by.
I get it. I’ve been there. I don’t want you to waste your time, because your people deserve your very best.
That’s why we’ve asked 6 of the most respected leaders in the country to come together to teach YOU how to lead in the most excellent way. (source)
She was preaching and teaching to men about how to become better leaders. Where in the Bible does it say that women are supposed to publicly teach men what they need to do to lead?
I Timothy 2:12 says this: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
If a woman is supposedly knowledgeable enough about the Bible to be in the position of teaching and authoring, yet doesn’t understand or obey such a basic biblical truth, what does that say about the rest of her knowledge of the Bible? How can you trust that anything else she teaches you about the Bible is accurate and true? {quote by Michelle Lesley – source}
She has also spoken at Perry Noble’s church, Mark Batterson’s church . . . and her own pastor welcomed her on the stage where their church did a series Sunday mornings – with Lisa preaching and teaching, based not on the Bible, but a series going through her book The Best Yes.
This alone is concerning, but who is her pastor and her church? That’s the next reason . . .
Reason #2
Lysa is a part of Elevation Church pastored by Steven Furtick. Now you may not know much about him or his church, but we have read and heard of him for a long time now. And it concerned us, yes . . . but it seemed so far out that we didn’t even want to write on this particular church. We have tried to keep our articles to false teachings that are more subtly entering our plain churches. Some are so far out people wouldn’t even accept them.
But they are getting closer by teachers we call “bridgers”. And many times these are women teachers. Teachers and speakers who other women feel a connection with based on the speaker’s charming personality and their emotional writings. We women are emotional creatures and as such are drawn to someone or something that touches our emotions. It is harder for us to decipher the teachings coming through such a person based on cold, hard logic.
Fighting for the Faith has this to say about Steven Furtick and Elevation Church:
Steven Furtick is a rock star among pop Evangelical megachurch pastors. The church he founded in 2006, “Elevation Church,” is one of the largest and fastest growing churches in the USA. Although he actually has a Masters of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he preaches a “Word of Faith” type of Christianity and considers T.D. Jakes (a Trinity-denying modalist) as his role model. Furtick does not have an in-church board of elders that can hold him accountable, instead he has a corporate board comprised of other mega-church pastors; as a result he makes an undisclosed salary and lives in a 16,000 square foot mansion. He also gets extremely lucrative speaking engagements from his fellow megachurch pastors, and he speaks at many of the largest “Christian” conferences around the world.
Steven Furtick’s sermons are full of Christian words and imagery, but he ultimately preaches a narcissistic gospel devoid of much Biblical truth; instead he uses manipulative speeches that “work the crowd” with spectacular success. Sadly, the Southern Baptist Convention has done little to hold Furtick and his church to the Biblical orthodoxy they are typically known for. (source)
Furtick himself said this:
We don’t teach from Books of the Bible because it gets in the way of evangelism. We don’t offer different kinds of Bible studies because it gets in the way of evangelism. We don’t teach doctrine because it gets in the way of evangelism.
If you want to be fed God’s word or have the Bible explained to you then you are a fat lazy Christian and you need to shut up and get to work or you need to leave this church because we ONLY do evangelism.
Here are three articles that can explain our concerns better than we can.
Pirate Christian Radio – Fighting for the Faith – on Steven Furtick
Lighthouse Trails on Steven Furtick
Apprising Ministries on Steven Furtick
Lowell and I do not post any of this maliciously, but with sadness and a deep concern for the true church. In the title we mentioned a couple articles, and these are written on concerns about Lisa Terkeurst. We will share them now.
Lysa Terkeurst Coming to Athens. Do Not Go To See Her. (full title)
{excerpt} Lysa’s home church is Elevation Church led by pastor Steven Furtick. Furtick is a prosperity teacher who opposes deep doctrine and mocks those who enjoy it, and has taken the title of Super Apostle. He also unsurprisingly preaches blasphemous things. Steven Furtick is a false pastor.
On August 9, 2016 in the Uninvited Book Release party held at Elevation on behalf of Lysa, she once again claimed Elevation as her church and Furtick as her pastor. Furtick also affirmed TerKeurst as one of his church family. This association violates the degree of separation from false teachers demanded by the Bible. (2 Timothy 3:5, 2 Corinthians 6:14, Ephesians 5:7). Instead, she partners with them. (source- Uninvited Book Release Celebration webcast).
1a. In another recent partnership, Lysa recently spoke alongside these men. Aside from Furtick, an additional two have been fired from their pastorates for being unqualified because they fell below reproach. (1 Timothy 3:2). Not excellent. TerKeurst should be separating herself from these ‘leaders’, not supporting, promoting, and partnering with them.
The person speaking here is Perry Noble, who was fired from NewSpring Church 5 months later. Driscoll had already quit ahead of certain discipline and likely firing from Mars Hill Church. A student will rise no higher than her teacher. So ladies, avoid Lysa TerKeurst, because her teachers, associates, and spiritual influences are very low.
{read full article here – The full article contains many informative links}
Leaving Lysa: Why You Shouldn’t Be Following Lysa TerKeurst or Proverbs 31 Ministries
Lysa is charming, friendly, and down to earth- the type of person I would probably want to be friends with if I knew her personally. We have several things in common: a big family (she has 5 kids, I have 6), women’s ministry, we’re even just a couple of months apart in age (which shocked me, since she looks so much younger!).
I first became familiar with Lysa a year or so ago when her name, articles, and memes of her quotes (and those of Proverbs 31 Ministries) began appearing in my news feed on Facebook. What I was seeing sounded good, and I hoped against hope that she was a doctrinally sound teacher of God’s word that I could recommend to my friends and readers. In fact, I resisted vetting her for a while because I was afraid of being disappointed by another popular Christian women’s author and teacher who seemed biblical on the surface but turned out not to be.
Sadly (and I genuinely mean that- I was sad), that is exactly what I found when I began to research Lysa TerKeurst at the request of several of my friends and readers. It’s my prayer that Lysa will repent of the areas in which she is acting against Scripture, learn biblical hermeneutics so she can rightly handle God’s word, and have a tremendous – doctrinally sound – impact on the thousands of women who love her so much. I would love nothing more than to give her a virtual “high five” and highly recommend her to others if she would do so.
Until such time, I regret that I must recommend that women not follow Lysa TerKeurst or Proverbs 31 Ministries (including the other women who write for and are leaders in this ministry) for the following reasons . . . {read full article here}
One of the articles mentioned that Lysa teaches mysticism and direct revelation. Sigh. Like the one quote above, you will find that most – if not all – women who preach to men are not teaching solid biblical doctrine. If they can’t get that one command right, then what makes us think they will accurately discern the rest of Scripture?
And while we don’t enjoy writing articles like this and rather cringe at hitting the publish button . . . please know we do it with a heart of love and concern for the souls of those who read this.
Before we close . . . on one of Lysa Terkeurst’s youtube videos – where Steven Furtick was introducing her Sunday series on her book The Best Yes – one listener had this to say:
As a fellow woman, I would like to leave you ladies with a simple challenge that I have given myself. Why is it most women feel drawn toward self-help, devotional type books when we have the best and purest Book ever right in front of us? Do you think God wishes us to desire another book over His own Word?
Think about it honestly and see what the Spirit lays on your heart.
We believe in the inerrancy and sufficiency of the Scriptures. Jesus said, “Thy Word is truth.” And so we not only believe it, we also base our worldview upon it.