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Christisking
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Joined: 2005/7/20
Posts: 671
Los Angeles, California

 The Confession of Pastor Steve Ross - How to preach and pastor a church without converting a single

This is a letter every Church going Christian must read! Pastor Steve Ross of Newhaven Christian Community Church gave a confession from the pulpit last Sunday that shocked his congregation beyond belief. Pastor Steve Ross is the 58 year old, 16 year Head Pastor of Newhaven Christian Community Church, and author of several books and small group lesson plans. Newhaven Christian Community Church is located in a middle to upper-middle class suburb of Chicago. An impressive 4000 - 5000 people attend Newhaven’s 3 separate Sunday morning services every week, at their beautiful 2 year old 200,000 square foot church located at 43000 Lexington, on the west side Newhaven. Pastor Steve's confession was so unexpected and completely shocking that members of the congregation fainted and wailed at the top of their lungs with cries of shock and disbelief. Pastor Steve is the first pastor to ever openly and publicly admit to being personally trained, taught, and continually tutored by Satan and his demons, in the fine art and pursuit of damning as many souls to hell as he possible could. Pastor Steve came clean with his congregation last Sunday telling them that, “I have been meticulously schooled and coached by Satan and numerous demons in the art of deception and counterfeit. Satan often said, ‘you must master the ability to appear to be a sheep while acting like a wolf, or in other words, the ability to preach and to pastor your church without ever converting a single soul.’ “ Pastor Steve also claimed in his sermon/confession that Satan first physically appeared and approached him with the proposition of selling his soul while he was working on his bachelors degree in Theology at a well known and respected Bible College/Seminary in the Mid-West. That's not all, the most shocking claim of Pastor Steve Ross and the one that will surely dominate the subject of conversation on Christian Talk Radio and throughout congregations nation wide is that Satan approached numerous other students at the seminary he attended and other Bible Colleges across the country with the same soul selling proposition. Pastor Steve said “large percentages” knowingly and unwittingly had accepted Satan's offers also, and “ there are thousands upon thousands of pastors, preachers, and church leaders currently behind the pulpit of large and small churches of every denomination who are continually under the instruction and guidance of Satan and his demons on how to, as Satan would put it ‘master the ability to appear to be a sheep while acting like a wolf or in other words the ability to preach and to pastor your church without ever converting a single soul.

Below is a list of items and subjects that Pastor Steve handed out to his congregation and has published on the internet. He claims Satan and his demons continually taught and instructed him on these specific subjects and points, in order to insure the damnation of his congregation. Pastor Steve said, “Satan would have me and the others pick one to five items at a time to concentrate and focus on, while keeping all of them in mind and working them in as circumstance deemed they fit.” Pastor Steve said he had repented and as evidence would dedicate the rest of his living days trying to expose the other pastors currently working for Satan. Pastor Steve strongly urged all Christians world wide -

“Please read every single one of these and make sure your pastor doesn’t follow any of them! If he does you will know who his instructors are!”

1. Make your first and foremost goal to secure your own popularity. Make sure your preaching is always focused towards that goal, and you will not convert souls to Christ.

2. Avoid preaching doctrines that are offensive to the Capitalistic or materialistic American way of thought and life. You want to make sure your congregation never says of you, as they did of Christ, "This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?" When was the last time you and your congregation said about your pastors message, “This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?” If you answered this question “not recently” “I can’t remember” or “never” pay very close attention to the rest of this letter, and how it applies to your pastor.

3. Boldly denounce sin in the abstract, but cowardly make no allusion to the sins of your present audience. When you preach your token condemnation of sin message, make sure your audience leaves very worried and disturbed about the condition and sins of “the world” (homosexuals, abortions, prostitution, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, etc.) This will divert their attention from the condition of their own souls and sins. (materialism, vanity, pride, greed, idolatry, etc.) They will remain comfortable in their own sin, feel holier than thou, and self righteous (religious pride) all at the same time. I believe this to be a common and wide spread practice in the churches today that are pastored by ravenous wolves. This trick of wolves will surely send millions to Judgment Day thinking they are sheep only to find out they are goats.

4. Make sure no one sees the spirituality of God's Holy Spirit, from which the knowledge of sin is brought to light. If you do this the sinner might see his lost condition, and flee from the wrath to come. Don’t worry Satan has many copy cat and imposter spirits that can look and feel almost the same. If necessary these can be deployed to fool most of your congregation.

5. Your first focus should be to please, rather than to convict and convert your audience.

6. Don‘t give sermons that provoke deep, intellectual, or spiritual thought. This will ensure your sermons will not contain enough Truth to convert a single soul.


7. Make sure your sermons leave no lasting impression, so be careful not to make any direct propositions or commands. If you are too direct or personal and stand boldly upon the Word of God, these Truths might be remembered and upset the conscience of your congregation.

8. Make no distinct points, and take no disturbing issues with the consciences and sins of your flock. They might remember these issues, and become alarmed about their souls.

9. Give your sermon the form and substance of a flowing, beautifully written, but never-to-be-remembered essay. Direct your style and approach so that your audience will say "You gave a beautiful sermon," but can give no further detailed or life changing memory of it.

10. Preach the Gospel as a remedy and a cure, but conceal, or ignore the fatal disease and diagnosis of the sinner.

11. Preach salvation by grace; but ignore the condemned and lost condition of the sinner. You want to make sure the sinner does not understand what you mean by grace, and feel his need for it.

12. Preach Jesus Christ as an infinitely amiable and good-natured fellow; but ignore those scathing rebukes of sinners and hypocrites which so often made his hearers tremble.

13. Avoid especially preaching to those who are present. Preach about sinners, and not to them. Say they, and not you! If you do this you will ensure that that no one finds a personal and lasting application of your rebuke of sin. This will ensure their soul damned to hell! Always keep your eyes peeled for this trick, it has been very effective, fooled many, and used often!

14. Aim to make your hearers pleased with themselves (stroke their egos) and pleased with you, and be careful not to wound the feelings of anyone.

15. Preach no searching and rebuking sermons! This will insure you will not convict and convert any of the worldly members of your church.

16. Do not make the impression that God commands your flock hear and now to obey the truth.

17. Do not make the impression that your church commit themselves upon the spot and give their hearts to God. Instead, leave the impression that they are expected to go away in their sins, and to consider the matter at a later date and at their own convenience. This trick is making a big come back with these new Hollywood production “seeker service” churches. If their is ever a large or small group of seekers of Jesus Christ, and the message of Sin, Repentance, and Salvation, is not loudly and boldly preached every time for all to hear, you are in the presence of ravenous wolves!

18. Make sure you dwell much on their inability to obey, and leave the impression that they must wait for God to change their natures. It sounds something like this - “This is a long process folks, we have believers for over 30 years in the congregation who are still learning this stuff”. This will keep you congregation falsely comfortable in the pews for many years.

19. Make no appeals to the fears of sinners; but leave the impression that they have no reason to fear. Continually and constantly imply their salvation is eternally secure by grace. This will keep them comfortable in their sins and on a path straight to hell.

20. Preach God as almost all mercy. The true and full representation of the wrath of God might alarm the consciences of your audience.

21. Try to convert sinners to Christ without producing any uncomfortable convictions and guilt of sin. This will produce a false copy of the original.

22. Flatter the rich and you will repel the poor, and you will convert none of either class. This is very common in America today.

23. Make no “hard to hear” or uncomfortable mentions of the Christ taught foundational doctrines of self-denial, cross-bearing, and crucifixion to this world. If you did this, you might actually convict and convert some of your church members. Does your pastor emphatically and continually teach the foundational biblical principles of self-denial, cross-bearing, and crucifixion to this world that were taught to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself?

24. Do not rebuke the worldly tendencies of the church, so you don’t hurt their feelings, and finally convert some of them. When is last time your pastor gave a sermon boldly rebuking the worldly tendencies of your church (not “the world“) encouraging repentance on the spot?

25. Should anyone come to you and express anxiety about their souls, do not probe them by any uncomfortable allusion to their sin and eternal damnation. Encourage them to join the church at once, and command them to assume their perfect safety within the fold, and you will have helped damn one more soul to hell.

26. Be sure not to represent salvation as a ongoing and committed state of loving self-sacrifice and a spiritual, personal, relationship with God; but rather as a free and easy state of self-indulgence and material pleasures. By doing this, you will prevent sound conversions to Christ, and instead convert your audience to yourself.

27. Make sure you select your sermon titles and present them, so you can attract and flatter the wealthy, aristocratic, self-indulgent, extravagant, capitalistic people of society. Doing this will ensure that you don’t convert any of them to the cross-bearing religion of Jesus Christ, but rather a clever copy that allows self indulgence of wealth and/or the “finer things” of life.

28. Do not rebuke or even mention extravagance in dress or outward displays of material wealth. If you were to do this you might accidentally convict the vain and capitalistic members in your congregation of their sins.

29. Don’t show or exhibit a great fire, deep burning and unquenchable passion for rescuing sinners from the pits of hell. (as a real man of God would) But rather represent yourself and Christianity as jovial and fun loving religion, and you will have a social club of unconverted “christians”.

30. Address the imagination, and not the conscience, of your congregation.

31. Make it your great aim to be personally popular with all classes of your congregation.

32. Don’t ever say anything to anyone that they will take personally, unless of course it is something flattering.

These tricks of Satan perpetuated by the wolves serving him from behind a pulpit were not exposed by Pastor Steve Ross. This list is a shortened and paraphrased list, from a letter written by CHARLES G. FINNEY in the 1850’s to expose the charlatans and imposters behind the pulpit 150 years ago. How many of these applied to your pastor or one you've heard on radio or TV? This is nothing new, sorry to say. The wolves have to know about these tricks and have practiced these tricks for hundreds of years. What a shame we’ve let them fool us again! For I assure you, as Charles Finney did 150 years ago, no matter how holy a man of God your pastor appears to be, if he continually practices even one of these tricks of Satan, he is, without a single doubt, a wolf bent on the destruction of your soul! Please make a stand and do not perish with him!

Charles G Finney - How to Preach So As To Convert Nobody - circa 1850 -
http://www.matthew548.com/preach.html




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Patrick Ersig

 2005/8/6 18:48Profile
AgapeLove81
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Joined: 2005/8/4
Posts: 47
Albany, GA

 Re: The Confession of Pastor Steve Ross - How to preach and pastor a church without c

This is a really scary thought. It makes me wonder if I have ever gone to a church like this. But at least he finally realized and was convicted of his wrong doings. Thank you for sharing this heart felt confession.


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Chrissy

 2005/8/6 21:00Profile
Nellie
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Joined: 2004/4/5
Posts: 952


 Re: The Confession of Pastor Steve Ross - How to preach and pastor a church without c

Thank you for sharing this.
God Bless you.
In His Service
Nellie :-)

 2005/8/6 21:49Profile
Compton
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Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 2732


 Re: The Confession of Pastor Steve Ross - How to preach and pastor a church without c

This is some heavy duty stuff here. Much to consider...

One question popped out to me.

Quote:
Satan often said, ‘you must master the ability to appear to be a sheep while acting like a wolf, or in other words, the ability to preach and to pastor your church without ever converting a single soul.’



Does this mean that wolves never lead people to the altar for the "sinners prayer"?

MC


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Mike Compton

 2005/8/6 22:23Profile
Joshua99
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Joined: 2005/5/19
Posts: 118
Austin Tx.

 Re:

Quote:
Does this mean that wolves never lead people to the altar for the "sinners prayer"?



I will say some of them do, most being false conversions. Even though the Word of God does not return void, IF it goes into a heart sincere in repentence, wanting to love God for what they have done to Him, in spite of the vessel the Word was delivered from.

Who is Steve Ross, anyway?


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Bryan

 2005/8/6 22:57Profile
Joshua99
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Joined: 2005/5/19
Posts: 118
Austin Tx.

 Re: The Confession of Pastor Steve Ross - How to preach and pastor a church without c

Could you give us a link to the website and the article your getting the story from. I would like to see this myself. Thanks, Bryan


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Bryan

 2005/8/6 23:16Profile
ccchhhrrriiisss
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Joined: 2003/11/23
Posts: 4779


 Re: The Confession of Pastor Steve Ross - How to preach and pastor a church without c

Hello Christisking...!

I did a Google search for this particular church, and the only "Christian Community Church" in Newhaven that I found was a homosexual congregation. Also, I have found that most "community church" congregations tend to be tied to the non-Biblical "homosexual church" movement.

http://www.mccnh.org/

Also, I looked up "Pastor Steve Ross" through an exact-search with Google, and all I found was your [u]exact[/u] post listed on another website (perhaps your own website).

http://www.thesearchforbiblicaltruth.org/confessionofsteveross.htm

Do you have any information or links that could validate your article?
It would be wonderful for a false teacher to confess to his congregation that he was leading them astray!

:-)


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Christopher

 2005/8/6 23:46Profile
Christisking
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Joined: 2005/7/20
Posts: 671
Los Angeles, California

 Re: The Confession of Pastor Steve Ross - How to preach and pastor a church without c

Quote:

[b]These tricks of Satan perpetuated by the wolves serving him from behind a pulpit were not exposed by Pastor Steve Ross. This list is a shortened and paraphrased list, from a letter written by CHARLES G. FINNEY in the 1850’s to expose the charlatans and imposters behind the pulpit 150 years ago. How many of these applied to your pastor or one you've heard on radio or TV? This is nothing new, sorry to say. The wolves have to know about these tricks and have practiced these tricks for hundreds of years. What a shame we’ve let them fool us again![/b]

Pastor Steve Ross is a fictional character used to express the relevance of these tricks exposed by Charles Finney 150 years ago. The story of Pastor Steve Ross is meant to draw the reader into the list of tricks and then meant to be explained as fictional at the end of the story. Although Steve Ross is fictional in this story, how many "Steve Ross's" are there behind the pulpits today? I believe there are many "Steve Ross's" who know exactly what they are doing, but have yet to come forward and confess.

Although I was attempting to fool the reader at the beginning of the story, I also meant to explain “These tricks of Satan perpetuated by the wolves serving him from behind a pulpit were not exposed by Pastor Steve Ross” but actually written by Charles Finney, at the end of the story.

The intent again was not to trick and fool, but to add shocking impact and modern relevance to a 150 year old letter.


Charles G Finney - How to Preach So As To Convert Nobody - circa 1850 -
[url=http://www.matthew548.com/preach.html]http://www.matthew548.com/preach.html[/url]


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Patrick Ersig

 2005/8/7 0:15Profile
Joshua99
Member



Joined: 2005/5/19
Posts: 118
Austin Tx.

 Re:

I do not approve of your method, it is unexceptable before the lord. Who are you trying to impress? As I read your original post, you made it quite clear it was a modern day issue, "last sunday..this happened". Whatever was your intent, the end does not justify the means.


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Bryan

 2005/8/7 1:43Profile
Compton
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Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 2732


 Re:

Quote:
The intent again was not to trick and fool, but to add shocking impact and modern relevance to a 150 year old letter.



Brother, I share some of your concern, but perhaps your deliberate ambiguity undermined your point about those who use "tricks" to "fool us again." :-?

Quote:
Although Steve Ross is fictional in this story, how many "Steve Ross's" are there behind the pulpits today?



A contrived fictional pastor is hardly convincing evidence that there are many like him. If your point can't be made with some reference to factual reality...perhaps the point isn't as strong as the passion you feel behind it.

MC


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Mike Compton

 2005/8/7 5:54Profile





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