Promise Keepers:
and the rising tide of ecumenism
By Gil Rugh
Sound Words. 29 pages.
Available from Christian Research Network, PO Box 8400,
London SE13 5ZQ
This is a well written and timely assessment of Promise Keepers, the men's movement which has swept the USA and is seeking to get started in Britain.
Pastor Gil Ruh of Indian Hills Community Church, Nebraska, challenges the movement on three fronts. Having described the fundamentals of the movement, he sets Promise Keepers firstly in the context of ecumenism. One of the seven promises of the movement emphasises reaching beyond 'denominational barriers'. The anti-doctrinal ecumenical agenda has been promoted by the liberal World Council of Churches, and the experience-centred charismatic and Christian psychology movements. The booklet places Promise Keepers in the same mould, especially with its willingness to embrace Catholicism and its deliberate fuzziness over justification by faith alone in Christ alone. 'There is so much theological diversity among those involved in Promise Keepers that no in-depth discussion of Scripture or what it means to be a Christian could take place without tearing the movement apart.'
Secondly, Ruh points out that while 'vital relationships' and accountability might be good between men on a voluntary basis within a local church, Promise Keepers is essentially para-church in its set-up, and that to make out that such things are obligatory in order to grow in godliness is to go beyond what Scripture says and is therefore dangerous.
Thirdly, Ruh warns that the leadership of Promise Keepers in the USA is closely related to the Vineyard Movement. 'The founder and main spokesman of Promise Keepers, Bill McCartney, is a former Catholic who converted to the Vineyard Movement.' Consistent with Vineyard ideas, McCartney and others will often give 'prophecies' at Promise Keepers rallies, and especially because of the doctrinal fluidity of Promise Keepers, it is impossible to hold speakers accountable for what they say. McCartney's pastor, James Ryle, claims to be a prophet, and has claimed that through the popularisation of music, the Beatles were God's instrument for bringing 'worldwide revival'.
It is interesting to note that some more right-wing Christian thinkers see the move away from doctrinal Christianity towards a more relationship/ experience-orientated Christianity as a 'feminisation' of the faith. If that assessment is true, then it is ironic that a men's movement may well be inadvertently accelerating that agenda.
