The Pied Pipers of Purpose

1.1 The Tactical Role of Pragmatism in Church Transformation

Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church and Purpose-Driven Life seem fairly innocuous upon cursory examination. His books have been at the top of the nation’s best seller lists for months. Churches across America are jumping onto the 40-day bandwagon, incorporating the Purpose-Driven model into their church structure. On the surface “purpose” doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. God has a “purpose” for every life, great or small. A local church should come to understand God’s “purpose” for its existence. The common definition of “purpose” once meant intention, aim, resolution or determination. This isn’t what it means anymore.

“Purpose-Driven” is the tip of a massive iceberg. The context in which to properly place the Purpose-Driven format is within a much larger initiative to transform local churches worldwide. “Seeker-sensitive” churches, Bill Hybels’ Willowcreek model, The Connecting Church (Randy Frazee), Robert Lewis (The Church of Irresistible Influence), Perimeter Church of Atlanta (The Prevailing Church), and others too numerous to mention all build upon the basic underlying principles for church restructuring. This monograph will focus exclusively on the foundations of Rick Warren’s (Saddleback Church) Purpose-Driven model, but keep in mind that the other church models as proposed by Lyle Schaller, C. Peter Wagner, Carl George, Leonard Sweet, Eddie Gibbs, Wayne Cordeiro, Wolfgang Simson, Elmer Towns, Bob Buford, Jack Dennison, Stanley Grenz and many others basically come out of the same mold. This pattern is also known as the “postmodern” church. The various terminologies are often the subject of debates, so for the objectives of this document the transformative prototype will generically be referred to as “Purpose-Driven.” (“Purpose-Driven” has been trademarked by Rick Warren.)

The Purpose-Driven model originated from some radical philosophies about the nature of man and society. These philosophies are bent upon transforming the workplace, schools, government, and churches in our society. The portion of Purpose-Driven visible on the surface, riding the crest of a frenzied marketing wave, has been reduced to the lowest common denominators so that it will carry the most widespread appeal. In fact, the message is uniform and pre-fabricated – to the point where a local pastor can pull off canned Purpose-Driven sermons from www.pastors.com, Rick Warren’s website to train and equip pastors.

But what precisely is the Purpose-Driven philosophy? This plan to transform the “postmodern” church? Its foundation is recognizable as General Systems Theory or “systems” theory generically. Systems theory has been rapidly disseminated in Christian seminaries during the past decade. It is a surrogate theological paradigm, replacing the old traditional doctrines about the nature of man and God with a new evolutionary worldview in which man is transforming himself, his community and society. Systems theory is derived from esoteric philosophies prevalent in 1800s Germany, most notably Theosophy (Luciferianism).[1]

Purpose-Driven is the same plan as the Cell Church (“apostolic” or “postdenominational”) and the “missional” model, all of which come out of systems theory. The cell/apostolic model appeals to the charismatic wing of evangelicalism, with corresponding new doctrines to justify this reorganization.[2] The “missional-systems” model originates from and has been promulgated by Fuller Theological Seminary and the U.S. Center for World Mission, and inculcates new doctrines (e.g., “contextualization” and “evangelization”) into the evangelical mainstream.[3] Both the mission groups and charismatics have been subjected to an on-going barrage of “prophetic” messages (Elijah List, Joel News, Global Harvest, et al.) which give “spiritual” authenticity to the entire process. The Purpose-Driven paradigm markets church transformation in a quite different package, however. It appears to come straight out of the business world, appealing to a wider audience with its pragmatic tone and less audacious experiential accoutrements. By far, the Purpose-Driven model has been the most successful mechanism to integrate systems theory into postmodern church theology and practice.

It is not surprising that the philosophical foundation of General Systems Theory would become part of the new church model. The evolutionary aspect of systems theory easily corresponds with the notion that the Bride of Christ must perfect herself on Earth, structurally as well as spiritually, before Jesus returns. The philosophy of systems works hand-in-hand with computer systems models and is applied to human systems development (i.e., evolution). As a result, the state-of-the-art methods of the computer age have come to be seen as an indispensable part of postmodern Christianity, and particularly useful tools for completing the Great Commission. A parallel doctrine teaches that the historical Church was grossly inefficient, and now that we have these high tech tools we can expedite building the Kingdom of God. There is a resultant new pragmatism in evangelical circles. As long as an activity purports to produce “spiritual” fruit, it can be adopted as an acceptable tool for furthering the Kingdom of God on Earth. Dr. Robert Klenck, critic of the modern church growth movement, has observed: “People try to justify this movement with pragmatic arguments – that the end justifies the means. They believe that it is all right to use the world’s marketing and organizational strategies to market and organize the church, as long as people are coming to Christ. The Bible commands against such thinking: James 4:4 …know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (KJV)”[4]

This gospel of pragmatism seeks to justify the use of worldly tools, philosophies, techniques, and models. There is historical precedent for this. In the previous generation, psychology and sociology were integrated with theology.[5] Modern management theories and techniques, originating from humanistic psychology and sociology, are thus more easily assimilated today. Concurrently, in the seeker-sensitive churches, classic doctrines such as separation and nonconformity have been tossed aside as too impractical and ineffective. In an era where Christians are virtually indistinguishable from the rest of society in all manner of what the Bible calls “conversation” (behavior, appearance, morality), this new pragmatism finds an easy niche. Recently a friend wrote an e-mail discussing a Purpose-Driven church her grandson was attending: “Two weeks ago, he came for breakfast, and I was devastated to hear him say the church he is attending in Portland, Oregon, has groups that are to bring people to the Lord. Two of those he mentioned sickened me. One was for cigar smokers, the other for beer drinkers.”[6]

This monograph will exclusively focus upon the underpinnings of the Purpose-Driven model. A bibliography of general Christian apologetic material about the Purpose-Driven Church and/or Life is provided at the end. Footnotes are provided for the reader who wishes to conduct further investigation into the material presented in this paper. A simple Google search of the terminologies, organizations and names mentioned in this paper will yield an abundance of additional information. Readers are urged to enter a period of prayer, Bible study and quiet reflection. Take serious note as to where these Purpose-Driven premises utterly conflict with the Word of God. The old way of the Cross, the narrow way, is still there for those with a heart to diligently seek Him.

1.2 The Guru of Purpose-Driven Communities

Rick Warren cannot be examined apart from the influence of his mentor, business guru Peter Drucker. It is impossible to research the background of the Purpose-Driven model without learning of Peter Drucker’s inspiration. And it is impossible to study the philosophical roots of Peter Drucker’s ideologies without ending up in the bowels of 19^th century German mysticism – the same German philosophies that gave rise to the horrors against humanity of the 20^th century. This monograph is not a comprehensive look at the influences that shaped Drucker’s life, nor will it scrutinize his complex, nuanced and even contradictory business management views. For the sake of brevity, this document will examine his specific socio-economic ideas which birthed the present church transformation. Drucker’s prolific writings and recent undertakings present sufficient material to illuminate the present discussion pertinent to the church.

Peter Drucker is now 94 years old. Should this paper end up in his hands, we sincerely urge him to repent and renounce the deeds he has committed during the long lifetime that the Lord has given him on this earth. It is not too late for you to repent, sir, and we urgently plead with you for the sake of your soul. May God have mercy on you for the influence your ideas have had upon the past three generations of mankind, and will have on the future generations yet to come. Although you say you are a believer, your testimony is incomplete and conflicting. Your writings and works reflect the esoteric philosophies that you grew up with and have embraced during your lifetime, not the humble, simple, pure Word of God.

A brief history reveals Peter Drucker’s roots go back prior to WWI to the Vienna Circle, where his parents were part of an elite group of intellectuals who embraced radical new philosophies about man, society, and economics that arose out of Europe during the previous century. According to Drucker’s official on-line biographical website (http://www.peterdrucker.at), “In 1933 he emigrated to England, where he worked in banking and took part in the legendary Keynes seminars; shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War he settled in the USA. There, at the beginning of the forties, he began his actual career: as a consultant to General Motors and other large corporations he created the foundations of modern management.” From that point on, Drucker established himself as a management icon of the 20^th century, writing dozens of books, and becoming widely popular as a consultant. Some of the leading men who changed the course of world history in the past 100 years influenced, and were influenced by, Peter Drucker.

Two philosophical essays written by Drucker are assigned significance at his official website: “The Age of Social Transformation,” (The Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1994)[7] and a 1949 essay entitled “The Unfashionable Kierkegaard.”[8] These two essays have little to do with management theory per se. Rather they are philosophical treatises outlining Drucker’s key views about the nature of man and society. Drucker asserts that management is a “social discipline” which “deals with the behavior of people and human institutions.” He has been variously called a “social philosopher” and a “social ecologist.” A friend of Drucker has noted “…Drucker participates in two different worlds. He is a social philosopher as well as a management authority…. These two worlds of Drucker interweave with one another, or rather unite into one. His concern is always the same. He is concerned about the happiness of Man as a social being. That’s why he is interested in society and its development.”[9]

Peter Drucker believes that the “social universe has no ‘natural laws’ as the physical sciences do. It is thus subject to continuous change.”[10] “Continuous change” in systems theory means that man and society are in a process of evolving, and teaches that man can harness change in order to facilitate and expedite his own evolution. In his book The Future of Industrial Man, he “announced the most important insight that many people are not aware of yet: The inevitable failure of not only absolutism but also rationalism.”[11] Hence, Drucker’s view of the basic nature of man is derived not from the Absolute Truth (Bible), but rather from the ever-variable psychologies and social “sciences” – science falsely so-called (1 Tim. 6:20). Drucker’s chief accomplishment has been to blend social sciences with economic theory, creating a new view of the nature of man – a postmodern economic man: “Macroeconomics, now a main branch of economics, treats the crucial factors such as knowledge, technology and psychology as external variables.”[12]

Drucker invented the concept of “knowledge worker” to describe his new economic man. He says, “The very term was unknown forty years ago. (I coined it in a 1959 book, Landmarks of Tomorrow.)” A “knowledge worker” in a “knowledge society” is one who possesses a “formal education and the ability to acquire and to apply theoretical and analytical knowledge,” including a required “habit of continuous learning.” Therefore, education “will become the center of the knowledge society, and the school its key institution.” The “individual is a cost center…. [T]he true investment in the knowledge society is not in machines and tools but in the knowledge of the knowledge worker….” Drucker continues,

Knowledge has become the key resource, for a nation’s military strength as well as for its economic strength. And this knowledge can be acquired only through schooling. It is not tied to any country. It is portable…. Knowledge [is] the key resource….[13]

In other words, each human possesses “knowledge capital” – an economic term indicating human worth or value that can be periodically assessed. This “knowledge capital” is portable, meaning that a worker carries his assessed value from place to place. Humans are considered “value-added” (continually educated or “lifelong learning”) when the assessed value of their “knowledge capital” increases. Drucker explains the significance of human knowledge as “wealth,”

We now know that the source of wealth is something, specifically human knowledge. If we apply knowledge to tasks that we obviously know how to do, we call it productivity. If we apply knowledge to tasks that are new and different, we call it innovation. Only knowledge allows us to achieve those two goals.[14]

Drucker states that this has been valid corporate theory since 1970:

The means of production is knowledge, which is owned by knowledge workers and is highly portable. This applies equally to high-knowledge workers such as research scientists and to knowledge technologists such as physiotherapists, computer technicians and paralegals. Knowledge workers provide “capital” just as much as does the provider of money.[15]

Regarding economic man, “Knowledge Assets” has been defined as “values assessed with respect to their intrinsic potential to both add and multiply value and include skills, experience, policies and procedures, infrastructure, leadership, expertise, creativity, capacity, practices, resilience, ethics, professionalism, formal and informal networks.”[16] “Knowledge Capital” is a corporate asset that is said to be part of a company’s “overall human capital, harnessed via organizational structures and processes, that ultimately determines success. Knowledge is one critical component of human capital, the others being social and emotional capital.”[17]

To Drucker, economic man is incomplete without community. He originally conceived of the corporation as an “organism” to meet man’s need for community. In General Systems Theory, man is thought to be evolving to the collective state of “organism.” Fifty years ago Drucker thought that the large business enterprise would have to serve as the community for the individual. He envisioned the corporation as “the social institution, far superior to government in providing a retirement income, health care, education, childcare, and other fringe benefits… corporate welfarism should replace government welfarism.”[18] But now he believes the answer is “a separate and new social sector.” Drucker considers

that a healthy society requires three vital sectors: a public sector of effective governments; a private sector of effective businesses; and a social sector of effective community organizations. The mission of the social sector is changing lives. It accomplishes this mission by addressing the needs of the spirit, the mind, and the body – of individuals, the community, and society. The social sector also provides a significant sphere for individuals and corporations to practice effective and responsible citizenship.[19]

Note the use of the term “effective” in the paragraph above. Notice the phrases “changed lives” and “responsible citizenship.” These terms have particular definitions that have nothing in common with traditional Christianity. It consequently becomes necessary to re-mold Christianity to fit these definitions. This perspective institutionalizes individual private lives into a gigantic “social sector” that meddles with the spirit, mind and body.

Drucker has worked to transform all three sectors of society, but of relevance here is that the latter part of Drucker’s life has been devoted to targeting churches, parachurches and charities. Drucker says that these “social sector institutions have a particular kind of purpose [emphasis ours].... The ‘product’ of a church is a churchgoer whose life is being changed. The task of social-sector organizations is to create human health and well being.”[20] A recent Fortune magazine article lauds Drucker’s work in re-molding the private sector to fit the corporate model.

Drucker and [Jim] Collins, likewise, think school systems, police departments, churches, charities, arts organizations, hospitals, medical research efforts, and other governmental agencies and non-profits would benefit if they learned to behave more like corporations. It’s the focus of most of Drucker’s consulting now, and Collins hopes to follow in his footsteps. Collins says, “Now that we are really beginning to understand what makes organizations great in the business world, we might actually provide some DNA to the whole social system.”[21]

These activities and beliefs are finding their way into the private sector, to profoundly alter doctrines and practices in the Church.

What happens to churches and other private pursuits, including the right to “free association”? In this institutional and hierarchical worldview, man is complete only when part of a viable “organism” (i.e., organization). Man must perfect himself in an evolutionary sense, working towards the unity and common good of society. His individualism is subsumed by the whole. If this also sounds like the esoteric mysticism of the New Age movement, in which man is uniting into one cosmic body known as homo universalis, it is.[25] Both movements have roots deep in the dark abysses of pre-Nazi Germany. The fact that certain Christian leaders have infused this evolutionary systems theory into Christianity by concocting new doctrines about ecclesiology and eschatology is of relevance here.[26]

Regardless of how Drucker uses the term “society” philosophically, in practice it always ends up meaning State with a capital “S.” Society’s will manifests itself in actions taken by the State. This means the State defines Rights and prescribes corresponding Responsibilities for its citizens, communities and organizations. Drucker lays out a vision whereby individuals (“knowledge workers”) create a meaningful society by acting as responsible citizens and creating community.

Drucker is an advocate of “privatization,” in which the private sector (church, charities) or corporate sector (business) partners with the public sector (government) in arrangements such as vouchers, charter schools or faith-based institutions. It is important to note that the State sets the standards for these partnerships. Privatization is therefore an unbalanced partnership. Each organization in this new social order must demonstrate responsibility according to prescribed criteria such as quality, productivity, performance, standards, effectiveness, accountability, and results. Endeavors must be channeled and directed to work together for a common good. In other words, everyone is focused on the same “purpose.”

This means institutionalizing the private sector. Drucker proposes “The Only Answer”:

Only the social sector, that is, the nongovernmental, nonprofit organization, can create what we now need, communities for citizens – and especially for the highly educated knowledge workers who increasingly dominate developed societies. One reason for this is that only non-profit organizations can provide the enormous diversity of communities we need – from churches to professional associations, from organizations taking care of the homeless to health clubs – if there are to be freely chosen communities for everyone. The nonprofit organizations also are the only ones that can satisfy the second need of the city, the need for effective citizenship for its people. Only social-sector institutions can provide opportunities to be a volunteer, and thus enable individuals to have both a sphere in which they are in control and a sphere in which they make a difference.[27]

Drucker confessed to an interviewer in 2002 that the restructuring would be a challenge. Not everybody is on the same page yet.

I’ve been spending most of my time consulting with nonprofits…. We had 300,000 charitable organizations 30-40 years ago. It’s 1.3 million now. Most of them are not so much mismanaged as nonmanaged. The waste of money is unbelievable. These personal foundations are very strong on good intentions, and they believe that spending money produces results. Their weakness is that they do not define results.[28]

The word “assessment” is an economic term which has taken on the new meaning of “testing instrument.” The economic vitality of man is to be assessed, particularly in the context of his community. The social sector will become more valuable as the value of its people (human capital) increases. This is known as “social capital.” Taking the idea of human capital yet one step further to a societal (State) level is Lewis J. Perelman, author of Schools Out: A Radical New Formula for the Revitalization of America’s Educational System. Perelman proposes a “human capital tax” like a personal income tax. And the World Bank, to which Peter Drucker has been associated most of his life, recently issued a new system of measuring a country’s wealth based upon “Human Resources: value represented by people’s productive capacity.”[29]

The plain history of mankind reveals that economic man is not a new thought or idea, but rather a return to a very old one. Man is, of course, of economic value to other men when he is owned by them. Free man’s worth is inestimable and immeasurable. Slave (servant) man has worth unto others, but his value is limited to what he can measurably accomplish. This is why there is such a focus on “results.” To social planners such as Peter Drucker, man’s status and significance is based upon what economic value he has to Society. The hard-won creeds of the Reformation, in which individual man’s value was deemed incalculable, inestimable and immeasurable, are set to become reversed in one generation. In today’s postmodern church ethics, a believer’s worth is calculated by the capricious whims of men in “leadership” who devise assessments to measure his “servanthood.” Human life is devalued and cheapened. “People without status are just molecules.”[30]

Upon the slippery slope of economic man is this entire Purpose-Driven structure built. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16)

1.4 Elite Partnerships and Strategic Collaborations

Peter Drucker has exerted a considerable influence on Rick Warren. A December 24^th 2002 CNBC documentary about Peter Drucker (“Peter Drucker: An Intellectual Journey”) claimed that he is one of Rick Warren’s mentors and influenced the start and growth of Saddleback Church. Internet notes on a sermon delivered by Rick Warren mention that

Rick Warren shared about a time he was at Peter Drucker’s home…. They were talking about purpose, a clear purpose. He said, “It’s like what I tell business people. There are only two questions in business: One, What is my business? Two, How’s business? Those are the two questions every owner, every manager, every CEO has to constantly ask. What is our business? And, How’s business?”[31]

It is no accident that Peter Drucker has been intimately involved in the life of Rick Warren, the formation of Saddleback Church and the Purpose-Driven model. In Peter Drucker’s 1939 book, The End of Economic Man, in a chapter titled “The Failure of the Christian Churches,” early concerns about the state of the modern church are expressed. Note that Drucker was already writing about a “new society” and “new community” 65 years ago.

The conspicuous and remarkable failure of the churches to provide the basis for a new society is obviously not due to the “godless spirit” of our age which is so often deplored from the pulpits. On the contrary, an age in which an elite can turn to the churches must have a very strong urge toward religion. In spite of this need and search, Christianity and the churches have been unable to provide a religious social solution. All they can do today is to give the individual a private haven and refuge in an individual religion. They cannot give a new society and a new community. Personal religious experience may be invaluable to the individual; it may restore his peace, may give him a personal God and a rational understanding of his own function and nature. But it cannot re-create society and cannot make social community life sensible.[32]

Another one of Rick Warren’s websites, www.PurposeDrivenLife.com, on the page “About Rick,” boasts that “Peter Drucker calls Rick “the inventor of perpetual revival.” This term is very interesting because of its obvious correlation to the concept known in Total Quality Management (TQM) theory as “continuous improvement,” or “Kaizen.” (TQM is intricately interconnected with Peter Drucker’s Management By Objectives [MBO] and both originate in systems theory.[33]) “Continuous improvement” is a system of operation that requires instituting standards that are measurable – attitudes, values, opinions, beliefs and behaviors. Obviously, a “perpetual revival,” if synonymous with “continuous improvement,” would require spiritual standards that are measurable, including not only human behavior, but also attitudes, values, opinions and beliefs. This continuous improvement system, based upon measuring humans, is precisely what Rick Warren is setting up at Saddleback Church and exporting to the worldwide church.

How do you measure “perpetual revival”? It involves inserting the business definitions and practices of TQM into spiritual things. When applied to human worth, the “quality” of TQM is equivalent to the term “capital”. Presumably, a church that successfully launches this program will be said to possess “spiritual capital.” The BPNews website (Southern Baptist Press) ran a Sept. 22, 2003 article by Rick Warren entitled “FIRST-PERSON: Stifled by structure,” in which he claims that he “once asked Peter Drucker, father of modern management, how often a growing organization must restructure. He said, approximately, every time it reaches 45 percent growth.”[34]This would be an example of a “continuous improvement” statement. Another example of “continuous improvement” can be found in a Philanthropy Roundtable interview with Drucker, where he was asked, “What are the nonprofit sector’s main shortcomings?”

The main shortcoming is that far too many nonprofits believe that good intentions are sufficient. They lack the (sic) imposed discipline of the bottom line. The second and very common shortcoming is that they don’t abandon. I got a letter from (sic) fast-growing pastoral church, in which that pastor told me how he owed to me because he accepted my injunction to build abandonment into his work. This is a church that 20 years ago was a storefront. He now has 60 outreach churches and some 20,000 worshippers. And every year, he spends three or four days in a working on abandoning programs that do not produce results. That kind of discipline is still very rare. It’s also very rare in business.[35]

Abandonment may be a sound business practice, but what of Scriptures such as Matthew 18:11-14: doth he not leave the ninety and nine… and seeketh that which is gone astray?

Drucker expects nonprofits (churches, charities) to meet or exceed the same standards that he places on business. Nonprofits, he believes, must define their mission and the results they expect to achieve. They need to become more “effective.” They need to demonstrate performance and produce measurable results. Those who receive assistance from these nonprofits are known as “customers.” To Drucker, good intentions are never an excuse for poor results, and the results must be “changed lives.”[36] The definition for what constitutes results (“changed lives”), and how these results are assessed (measured, evaluated) is ultimately determined by Society. There is no acknowledgement that spiritual results can be intangible. In this new paradigm, only what can be measured, handled, viewed and assessed by modern psycho-social business methods counts as a “result.”

Private donor organizations and foundations are being trained to stipulate that charities they fund produce quantifiable and qualitative results. This is known as “accountability.” It has nothing to do with the traditional understanding of biblical accountability, where local church members are mutually answerable one to another. Instead, this is an institutional form of “accountability,” under a new system of standards, in which there are demands for performance, rewards for success and penalties for failure. This is institutional charity, not the private act of a widow’s mite. The Scriptural admonitions to give to him that asketh thee (Matt. 5:42) and freely ye have received, freely give (Matt. 10:8b) no longer apply. If a charity doesn’t perform up to par, monies are withdrawn. This is because organized charitable donations are now being used as an instrument to effect change, to produce transformation in the private sector.

In the Philanthropy Roundtable interview Drucker veers into a discussion of charter schools and vouchers. While this may seem odd on its surface, it is important to recognize these ideas are interconnected in a communitarian worldview. Charter schools and vouchers blur the lines between Drucker’s three sectors of society – nonprofit, corporate and state – because of how the money passes hands and who is ultimately in control. Charter schools and vouchers, which are run by business corporations and/or sub-entities of the government, operate in compliance with education reform standards set by the State. The State defines the results and prescribes the assessments to measure the learners, who are technically public students. State monies are then, in turn, paid to the corporations who operate the charters.[37]

In contrast, true private education, such as small Christian schools and homeschooling, does not have to submit to excessive State demands for accountability. In order to retain this autonomy and keep local control, private education does not take money from the government. Traditional Christian parents do not share the mindset that their children are “human capital” or potential “knowledge workers.” Money is currently being used as an incentive (bribe) to lure parents into the “system.”[38]

Likewise, private church-based charities which refuse government funds retain their autonomy. Private charities do not share the mindset that they are ministering to “customers.” Nor do they define “results” in terms of the business model. Faith-based institutions, on the other hand, must comply with the standards set up by the State. They become quasi-governmental operations. The payoff for conformity to worldly State standards is money.

Many advocates of government-funded faith-based charities believe that the end justifies the means, and will point to the “results” as evidence of a good work being done. These good-intentioned people probably don’t realize that their activities further the political goals of communitarian societal transformation. These folks may not understand the long-term negative repercussions of cooperating with this new system of governance. In a communitarian worldview any truly private entity (family, charity, church and small Christian school) poses a direct challenge to the “common good.” In the future, the luxury of granting special “rights” to a group of people who profess and practice biblical separation will no longer be tolerated by communitarians. Separatist practices and beliefs do not align with the “common good.”

Rick Warren wasn’t the only beneficiary of Peter Drucker’s mentoring. Drucker also mentored Bob Buford. Buford is one of the leading “change agents” in the movement to restructure the Church. For over two decades he has been the main outreach for integrating Drucker’s ideas into the church. A Drucker biographer explains the impetus for their relationship,

Peter Drucker calls the emergence of the large pastoral church – the “megachurch” in medaiese – “the most significant social event in America today.” He is its intellectual grandfather; he’s been tutoring it for years through the agency of Bob Buford, a highly successful Dallas-based television executive who in 1985 founded the Leadership Network. “His Leadership Network,” Drucker writes in his preface to Buford’s 1994 book Half-Time: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance, “worked as a catalyst to make the large, pastoral churches work effectively, to identify their main problems, to make them capable of perpetuating themselves (as no earlier pastoral church has ever been able to do), and to focus them on their mission as apostles, witnesses, and central community services.” Modest, Buford says, “I’m the legs for his brain.”[39]

Their interconnections are many. In 1988 Bob Buford founded and was founding chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now known as the Leader to Leader Institute, whose goal is to “share wisdom on leadership and management with the leaders of nonprofit social sector organizations.”[40] The Foreward to Buford’s Half-Time book was written by Peter Drucker. Rick Warren gave Half-Time a ringing endorsement:

Bob Buford is one of those rare individuals who has made the transition from focusing on success to focusing on significance. This book will show you how to make the rest of your life the best of your life. I want every man in my congregation to read this inspiring story![41]

In 1984 Buford founded Leadership Network “as a resource broker that supplies information to and connects leaders of innovative churches.” This organization is essentially the Christian outreach for Drucker’s private sector philosophies and activities. It is at the cutting edge of retraining pastors and leaders with “new tools and resources” for the 21^st century church. To further these aims, and to target a generation of “emerging young leaders,” Buford created the Leadership Training Network in 1995 to identify, train, and provide “ongoing peer-coaching network.” And “Mr. Buford launched Halftime (initially named FaithWorks) to mobilize and equip high-capacity business/professional leaders to convert their faith into action and effective results” in 1998, reportedly at Peter Drucker’s encouragement.[42] A more thorough analysis of Bob Buford and his relationship to both Peter Drucker and Rick Warren can be found in Dr. Robert Klenck’s report on the Purpose-Driven Church archived at http://www.crossroad.to/News/Church/
Klenck3.html. In this report Dr. Klenck observes that Buford’s Young Leader Network includes “theologians who construct new theologies that emerge out of practice” – an open admission that in order to transform the Church it becomes obligatory to concoct new doctrines.[43]

In addition to Rick Warren and Peter Drucker, Bob Buford associates himself with a motley crew of well-known New Age leaders. A quick internet surf at Peter Drucker’s Leader to Leader website (http://www.leadertoleader.
org) reveals extensive connections with Margaret Wheatley, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, Kenneth Blanchard, Joel Barker and many others. Each one of these names is associated with a strong futurist bent, based upon an esoteric evolutionary view of man. Margaret Wheatley submitted a chapter to Marianne Williamson’s New Age book Imagine.[44] Peter Senge, as a global expert on General Systems Theory, translated Drucker’s ideas into an evolutionary “learning organization.”[45] Stephen Covey, well-known author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a Mormon with New Age beliefs. Joel Barker is a well-known New Age leader. Kenneth Blanchard is a professional promoter with close associations with Buford, Drucker, and Bill Hybels of the Willowcreek megachurch.

1.5 The Alignment of Performance-Based Results

In 1996 the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (the Rockefeller family has a long and extensive history of association with Peter Drucker) and Mutual of American Life Insurance Company sponsored a symposium organized by the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management (now the Leader to Leader Institute) called “Emerging Partnerships: New Ways in a New World.” This was a revolutionary symposium that addressed the changes in the nonprofit sector. A notable speaker at the symposium was Lester Salamon.

In 1991 Lester Salamon had co-authored a book along with David Hornbeck, education reform guru entitled Human Capital and America’s Future: An Economic Strategy. This book reiterated the views of Peter Drucker. In it “human capital” was defined as

…the acquired skill, knowledge, and abilities of human beings. Underlying the concept is the notion that such skills and knowledge increase human productivity, and that they do so enough to justify the costs incurred in acquiring them. It is in this sense that expenditures on improving human capabilities can be thought of as “investments.” They generate future income or output that justifies the amounts spent on them…. [H]uman capital refers to the productive capabilities of human beings as income producing agents in the economy.[47]

David Hornbeck was possibly one of the most controversial figures in grassroots America during the late 1980s and early 1990s. As an education reform consultant he traveled to approximately 30 states marketing a plan to “transform” education. In these nearly identical state plans Hornbeck referred to children as “human capital.” His recommendations called for sweeping changes in the education of children, including databanking, standards, results (“outcomes”), and assessments. He proposed rewards (incentives) for those who complied with the new standards and penalties (sanctions) for those who failed to meet the goals. This systemic implementation of rewards and penalties later became one of the most controversial aspects of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which is the massive federal education reform law based on Hornbeck plans.

Hornbeck re-defined education away from traditional academic subjects (that require rational thinking) towards affective education – attitudes, opinions, beliefs and values. These affective attributes were deemed more important to the future needs of society’s workforce than factual knowledge, and would become the primary focus of the assessments to ascertain the child’s “human capital.” Education reform plans reveal that “human capital” (i.e., “knowledge capital”) is more heavily oriented towards exhibiting the proper attitudinal attributes and work skills than esteeming a person’s actual cognitive knowledge. Hornbeck also envisioned the local school as the “hub” of a community, offering day care, social services, medical care, food stamps, welfare, mental health, recreation, job training, parent training – a “one-stop-shop” to meet all human needs from cradle to grave.[48]The State would be in charge of every facet of a person’s life, including one’s “private sector” life.

About the same time that Hornbeck began his consulting work going from state to state across the country, Peter Drucker authored an important article in Psychology Today entitled “How Schools Must Change.” In this article, Drucker spelled out the details of comprehensive education reform: lifelong learning, accountability, effectiveness, performance, vouchers, computers, and knowledge workers. He stated that “knowledge is rapidly becoming our true capital base” and “education will fuel our economy and shape our society.” Underscoring his communitarian beliefs, Drucker said that a

society dominated by knowledge workers makes yet more stringent demands for social performance and responsibility. These people, after all, will run our society, and they must have the political and philosophical training to carry out this role. To this end, they must be given a solid moral, as well as technical education.

What morals? Highly affective, State-prescribed, social skills and psychological attitudes, values, opinions and beliefs.[49] The same psycho-social components that were part of outcome-based education and infused into standardized tests.

It is obvious that Hornbeck’s plan for the transformation of education in society is precisely the same as Drucker’s plan for the transformation of the private sector in society. This plan institutionalizes and bureaucratizes the private sector (private lives) in ways that are unprecedented in American history. At Drucker’s symposium, Lester Salamon spoke on the need for the government to become involved in the nonprofit sector, which includes the church. He called for the preservation of government oversight.

Nonprofit organizations must recognize the legitimate needs of the public sector for greater accountability, as well as the need of government agencies to monitor performance, account for finances, and assure equitable, nondiscriminatory practices.[50]

Peter Drucker, speaking at the same seminar, explained that the social sector (nonprofit) is “one of the three pillars on which modern society is based.”[51] He emphasized measurable results.

Partnerships [business/nonprofit] cannot work unless they are seen as investments focusing on results – primarily social rather than financial results…. achieving clear, and preferably measurable results.[52]

Drucker also discussed “core competence” and “uniformity.” In other words, nonprofits must lose their distinctive identities in order to meet the criteria set by the State.

Nonprofit organizations need to demonstrate a core competence in public/private partnerships…. Nonprofits have to understand that government must satisfy the demands of a diverse constituency and must insist on a level of uniformity.[53]

Further, and predictably a premier issue in the faith-based congressional debates, Drucker insists that churches who receive government monies must abandon discrimination, opening the doors to all sorts of sinful practices. The price for institutionalization is accommodation.

We need to explore new opportunities for church and parachurch groups to partner with government, as long as they deliver services in a nondiscriminatory fashion. Churches are but one type of values-based organization, like youth or social service agencies, that can jointly be more effective.[54]

All three of these men – Drucker, Salamon and Hornbeck – have emphasized “human capital” as foundational to the transformation of the private sector. Why would “human capital” be of relevance to the Purpose-Driven church?

This radical view of economic man is the chief cornerstone of all of Drucker’s management theories.
Drucker’s theories undergird the Purpose-Driven model.
This philosophy has nothing in common with the traditional Christian doctrines about the nature of man.[55] The humanity of Man is markedly devalued.
These men believe that a man’s human worth and a church’s effectiveness can be “assessed” – measured by psycho-social instruments.
Intangible matters of the spirit are codified into “results,” and “ineffective” ministries are cancelled (“abandoned”). This new criteria ensures that lost souls will begin to fall through the cracks.
Profit-driven models are applied to matters of ministry of the Gospel, effectually degrading private acts of charity and compassion.
The Word of God becomes secondary to systems theory implementation.
Disturbing questions are raised about those precious people in our lives who do not or can not possess “human capital” or “knowledge capital.”

Education reform has been on the fast track. We can look at education reform and see a picture of the future church emerging. The transformation of the church only lags a few years behind. The No Child Left Behind act, which codifies the radical Hornbeck/Drucker ideas about economic man, gives an indication of what lies ahead. The language in the bill states “ALL children,” a phrase that was also found in Hornbeck’s many state reform documents. Special education students under NLCB are expected to perform on assessments in ways that are not only excessive and impossible, but irrational and bizarre. Entire school districts are prescribed State penalties based on the assessment scores of special needs children, scores which will predictably always bring down the district scores. It creates a situation where special education students become a drain to the school system, dragging it down to the point where the State intervenes in stipulated ways that are intrusive and punitive. This most controversial aspect of the bill is being tweaked by the federal Department of Education due to the national hoopla that is ensuing, but federal officials aren’t backing down from their basic premise.

In the Psychology Today article, Peter Drucker stated that “These people… [“knowledge workers”] will run our society.”[56] An image of a class structure begins to surface, an ominous picture of what “human capital” is really all about. Some will possess it. Some won’t. Will our loved ones, with little or no “knowledge capital,” become a burden to the Church? To Society? And then what? What “Right” to life will they possess for the “common good” of Society? What of the Down’s Syndrome child, the Alzheimer patient, the elderly and cancer-ridden? What assessed value will be placed upon their human worth to the Society?

In his landmark 1976 book How Should We Then Live? the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer addressed the devaluation of human life.

And (taking abortion as an example) if this arbitrary absolute by law is accepted by most modern people, bred with the concept of no absolutes but rather relativity, why wouldn’t arbitrary absolutes in regard to such matters as authoritarian limitations on freedom be equally accepted as long as they were thought to be sociologically helpful? We are left with sociological law without any certainty of limitation.

…[W]ill we resist authoritarian government in all its forms regardless of the label it carries and regardless of its origin? The danger in regard to the rise of authoritarian government is that Christians will be still as long as their own religious activities, evangelism, and life-styles are not disturbed.

…Here is a sentence to memorize: To make no decision in regard to the growth of authoritarian government is already a decision for it.[57][emphasis in original]

1.6 Integrated Measurement Systems Drive Performance

Purpose-Driven depends heavily upon self-assessments and group assessments to measure and monitor its activities. This is because General Systems Theory operates from a “feedback mechanism.” This feedback allows a system to continually improve itself.[58] Bob Buford has developed a Christian Life Profile to assess the spiritual maturity of a church’s members. The Drucker Foundation offers a Self-Assessment Tool workshop for an organization or community, which guides them through the process of transformation. And Rick Warren has a “Purpose-Driven Life Health Assessment,” which is a subjective self-assessment of a believer’s spiritual condition.

These self-assessment instruments purport to measure the things of the mind and/or spirit, and as such are hardly reliable, highly variable, and seldom possess validity. Human behavior is simply not measurable, quantifiable, predictable or consistent.[59] Many of these self-assessment instruments rely upon vanity, flattery, improper self-disclosure of an intimate nature, and dishonesty – behaviors which the Scriptures expressly forbid: For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. (Romans 12:3)

An example of an individual assessment instrument can be found at http://www.pastors.com, Rick Warren’s website devoted to offering technical assistance to pastors who are becoming Purpose-Driven. Citing Peter Drucker’s book The Age of Transformation, the author of this instrument explains that we are in a new age of societal transformation, and that this “is a time, which calls for a critical mass of transformational leaders who will commit to creating a synergy of energy within their circle of influence so new level of (sic) social, economic, organizational and spiritual success can be reached.”[60] Notwithstanding this atypical language, which obviously isn’t biblically based, the rest of the document is a poorly wrought assessment tool to determine “transformational leadership” abilities.

Group assessments measure what is called “organization capital.” This “asset includes a company’s work practices and routines, its storehouse of corporate knowledge in computer databases and in people’s heads, and even culture and values as they guide how a company operates.”[61] In the nonprofit sector, this is also known as “social capital.” It can be the total computation of an organization’s “human capital” or “knowledge capital,” but it is also an indication of how the “organism” is functioning.

Bob Buford’s Leadership Network provides a sample group assessment. Definition of terms is key to understanding assessments. Who defines the terms? And what precisely is to be measured? When you read this assessment think how this system would profoundly alter your local church, your family, your private deeds of charity and acts of love.

Common language and common measurement
Before you can measure progress, you must decide on a common language and what you will consistently measure.

Common language. To avoid misunderstanding, it's important to agree on certain key definitions especially between the ministries in your church. For example, one of the church's most ambiguous words is “reached.” This is the term found in the annual report: “Our programs reached ten thousand people last year.” What exactly does that mean? The same holds true for words like “ministry,” “assimilated,” “exposure to the gospel,” etc. Communication and data are meaningless unless we agree on common definitions. Because the culture and language of for-profit and nonprofit organizations are different, we must also acquire the ability to “translate” without ambiguity what we do and what we are trying to achieve.

Common measurement. We must also decide exactly what, how, and when we will measure and then stick to it….

What should externally focused churches measure?
First, measure inputs–how much of what resources you put toward your objectives and ultimately your mission. For example, how many volunteers did you deploy? What programs did you do? How much money was spent on programs and services?

Second, measure outputs: How many man-hours did volunteers serve? How frequently did they serve? …Measuring inputs and outputs defines what resources are put toward achieving outcomes and is only meaningful if it tells you the progress you are making toward seeing your vision reach fruition. For example, if part of your vision entails “every person of middle school age and above serving or ministering at least once a year for at least three hours,” then you have the benchmark you are measuring against–number of people (every person), how frequently (at least once a year), and how much (at least three hours)….

Third, measure outcomes, or results, of your efforts and use of resources. Whereas outputs measure what we did, it is the outcomes that tell us how well we did it. We who work in the nonprofit sector always find it difficult to measure results. A business always has a tangible bottom line on its profit and loss statement, but what is our bottom line? Peter Drucker sheds light on this topic. He points out that the bottom line for all nonprofit organizations is always one thing: “changed human beings.” Hospitals exist to make sick people well; schools exist to educate the ignorant; churches exist to win the lost and build up the saints. So how does the church measure changed lives? What are the measurable “expected outcomes” of the church’s endeavors?...

Leadership Network associate John Schoenecker makes the point that our inputs and outputs measure efficiency. What effort and resources are we putting against the goals? Outcomes measure effectiveness. Are we accomplishing what we set out to do? Efficiency is doing the right things. Effectiveness is getting the right results. Comparing efficiencies to effectiveness becomes our “return on investment” (ROI). Having this information tells us what efficiencies need to be adjusted to become more effective….

Not surprisingly, United Way has linked to many valuable best practices through their “Outcome Measurement Resource Network”.[62]

Rick Warren has recently launched a Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan initiative, whereby Purpose-Driven churches (those that have already gone through the 40-Days of Purpose phenomenon) are activated to become partners with the rest of the nonprofit sector.[63] It would seem like a noble deed to encourage more Christians to move out of their pews and into street ministry, community service and global mission. And when the first recruitment of volunteers come back from the harvest field with glowing reports of “results” and successes, it will be difficult to oppose what seems to be so good. The ends will seem to justify the means. But hard questions need to be asked. How were the results defined? By whom and by what criteria? By what means were these results attained? Is it possible to independently verify and document the results (given that extraordinary claims could be made for miraculous results)? And, most important, how does this activity “measure” against the plain Word of God?

Using the institutional model proposed by Drucker in his Self-Assessment Tool, and Buford in the paragraphs above, it becomes obvious that the only certain “results” will be acceptable. “Effectiveness” will be defined. How many hours is the parishioner expected to serve? Does it only count when they are volunteering from a list of church-approved activities? What about taking care of elderly parents, comforting nursing babies, homeschooling children, driving the handicapped, baking cookies for a suffering friend, sending money to a widow in need? Does Christian charity only count if the activity has been officially sanctioned by the church? Must charity become institutionalized, monitored, assessed, rewarded or penalized, and databanked? Whereas Jesus said, But when thou doest thing alms, let not thy left hand know what the right hand doeth (Matt. 6:3), this new accountability requires full disclosure.

Purpose-Driven churches have a built-in mechanism upon which to eventually pressure or compel their members to volunteer: the membership covenant that is to be signed. This covenant-signing is connected to the idea of “human capital.” One management expert has proposed that “organizational capital” (“a kind of human capital”) is increased when there is a formal “joining-up process,” a type of psychological contract in which one aligns their life’s purpose with the organization’s purpose.[64] Which raises the obvious question – did the Purpose-Driven “covenant” idea actually originate in “organizational capital” theories? Has a psycho-social concept been dressed up in biblical language to make it palatable?

Interestingly, these church covenants are so vaguely worded and undefined that new meanings could be assigned to the terminology as time goes on. As one critic noted, “The bottom line is this: Once you’ve signed a church membership covenant and boarded the CGM [church growth movement, ed.] train – you’re committed to its destination, even if it changes direction somewhere along the way. This is why Jesus commands us in Matthew 5:33-34 to not make oaths with men because when it’s all said and done we might find ourselves following the wrong god.”[65]

The implementation of Purpose-Driven is already heavily oriented towards the government-funded faith-based sector. Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church recently received an award for its work in the faith-based arena.[66] Bob Buford is following the private sector design of his mentor, Peter Drucker, and leading the church straight into the faith-based movement. He sits on the board of directors of the Foundation for Community Empowerment, an organization on the cutting edge of expanding the faith-based movement. This organization says that it is serves “as a facilitator and catalyst to encourage empowerment, innovation, collaboration and coordination in community revitalization efforts” by “providing technical assistance, coalition building/collaboration support, and grant making to support capacity development efforts.” An assessment instrument known as N-Cap software allows them to conduct assessments.[67]

The future dangers to the autonomy of the local church are great.[68] Faith-based organizations, since the Welfare Reform Act of 1997 and subsequent legislation, are nonprofit organizations that have gone to the feeding trough of the State. This includes nonprofits that perform medical care, emergency relief, housing, care of the elderly, training, shelters, homeless, hospices, food pantries, welfare-to-work, job training, refuge services, child care, preschools, etc. Keep in mind that some nonprofits which perform medical care, also perform abortions or refer for abortions.[69] In order to get the faith-based agenda jump-started, philanthropy leaders working in collaboration, offer training to equip private charities with the new result-oriented mode of conducting business. These activities successfully prepare the nonprofits to receive faith-based monies from the State. Faith-based organizations are more complex than simple storefront charities. They “have program competence, but they need core competencies…. Capacity, planning capacity, supervisory capacity, multi-site management, logistics, human resources,” says Dr. Christine Letts of Harvard University.[70] If a faith-based organization restructures to meet the new demands of its donors, it is said to be “value-added.”

Dedicated to Andrew, Ace and Pamela, whose humanity is inestimable and whose worth is immeasurable.*

Fundamental Baptist Information Service, Cloud, David, “A Visit to Saddleback Church, “ and “The Church Growth Movement: An Analysis of Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven’ Church Growth Strategy, Parts 1 and 2, by Dennis Costella, copyright FOUNDATION magazine, March-April 1998, and many other articles on the postmodern church at http://www.wayoflife.org.

“Cross Over To The Otherside,” by Orrel Steinkamp, The Plumbline, Vol. 9, No. 2, March April, and related articles in The Plumbline, available from Dr. Orrel Steinkamp, 74425 Co. Rd. 21, Renville, MN 56284, http://op.50megs.com/ditc.orrel17.html

Leslie, Lynn D. and Sarah H., “The Shepherding Movement Comes of Age,” published in the Discernment Ministries newsletter, posted at http://www.discernment-ministries.com and other websites. See also “When Is Assessment Really Assessment,” and “Peering Into the PEERS,” posted at this website.

Kjos, Berit, “Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven?” An entire series of articles on the purpose-driven church model posted on http://www.crossroad.to. Many other articles of interest on the emerging global church.

O’Hara, Debbie, “Has Your Church Lost Its Divine Purpose?” and “Church Growth Movement – Revival or Apostasy?” posted at http://www.newswithviews.com.

Endnotes

[1] Cumbey, Constance, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, Huntington House, 1981. This landmark book explains the New Age roots of Theosophy.

[2] During the late 1990s Discernment Ministries sponsored several conferences which discussed the massive changes planned for the structure and function of the church in the new millennium. Audios, videos and DVDs of the speeches were made and are available for purchase from Discernment Ministries. In two separate presentations (in Pittsburgh and in Toronto) Sarah Leslie outlined the structure of the church to come, based upon an investigation of the cell group concept which is linked hierarchically with regional and global apostolic networks. Available for a donation of $15 (videos or DVDs) or $8 (audio tapes) from Discernment Ministries, PO Box 254, High Bridge, NJ 08829-0254. http://www.discernment-ministries.com.

[3] The background on the “missional” church in this paragraph is documented in Al Dager’s book, The World Christian Movement, available from Discernment Ministries for a gift of $14 (see address in footnote 2). An earlier book by Al Dager, Vengeance Is Ours: The Church in Dominion, sheds considerable light on the emergent doctrines. Available from Discernment Ministries for $14.

[4] Klenck, Dr. Robert, “What’s Wrong with the 21^st Century Church? Part 1: Synopsis,” http://www.crossroad.
to/News/Church/Klenck1.html.

[5] See Martin and Diedre Bobgan, PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries, http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org or phone 1-800-216-4696 to subscribe to their free monthly newsletter and order their many books. Their works are essential to understanding the psychological foundations upon which most of postmodern Christianity is built.

[6] Private correspondence. Used with permission.

[7] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ecbig/soctrans.htm).

[8] www.peterdrucker.at/en/texts/p_drucker_kierkeg_en.pdf.

[9] “Why a Drucker boom again? An Introduction to Peter F. Drucker – Eight Faces” An Interview with Weekly Toyokeizai, http://www.iot.ac.jp/manu/ueda/interview/e01.html. These interviews were performed by a close Japanese associate of Peter Drucker’s. At the conclusion of the eighth interview, Drucker gives his stamp of approval: “You manage to bring out what to me is the essence of my contribution and the motivation behind all my concern with management, that it deal with the individual, with community and society and with status, function and order altogether, rather than only the tasks of business and of other organizations.” http://www.iot.ac.jp/
manu/ueda/interview/e08.html.

[10] Drucker, Peter F. “Management’s New Paradigms,” Forbes, Oct. 5, 1998, published on-line at http://www.forbes.
com/forbes/1998/1005/6207152a.html.

[11] “The man who invented management: An Introduction to Peter F. Drucker – Eight Faces,” An Interview with Weekly Toyokeizai, http://www.iot.ac.jp/manu/ueda/interview/e02.html.

[12] Ibid. Also see Adventures of a Bystander, Drucker’s life story, originally published in 1979, re-issued by John Wiley & Sons in 1998.

[13] Drucker, Peter, “The Age of Social Transformation,” (The Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1994, http://www.theatlantic.
com/politics/ecbig/soctrans.htm). This paper is crucial to understand Drucker’s concept of “knowledge capital.”

[14] Koenig, Michael E.D., “From Intellectual Capital to Knowledge Management: What Are They Talking About?” INSPEL 32(1998)4, pp. 222-23, http://wwwfh-potsdam.de/~IFLA/INSPEL/98-4koemm.pdf. The Drucker quote is from Eduardo Talero and Philip Guadette, Harnessing Information for Development: World Bank Group Vision and Strategy, Draft Document, (Washington, DC.: The World Bank, July 1995).

[15] Drucker, Peter, “Will the corporation survive?” November 1, 2001, http://www.economist.com.

[16] Footnote 3 at http://www.leader.com/innovations.htm.

[17] Kochikar, Vivekanand P. “Knowledge – The Currency of the New Millennium,” Infosys. http://www.infosys.
com/knowledge_capital/knowledge/knowledge4.asp.

[18] Skousen, Mark, “The Other Austrian,” http://www.mskousen.com/Books/Articles/austrian.html.

[19] “The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management is now the Leader to Leader Institute: 2000 in Review” http://www.pfdf.org/forms/annual2002.pdf.

[20] Drucker, Peter, “The Age of Social Transformation.”

[21] “Introduction” to the April 5, 2004 issue of Fortune magazine, which is a special issue devoted to 50 years of the Fortune 500, p. 110. Jim Collins is said to be “the management guru and author of the bestsellers Built to Last and Good to Great” (p. 104). Each chapter heading in his book Built To Last has a little ying/yang symbol. And in the May 1997 issue of NEXT, Bob Buford’s Leadership Institute newsletter, in an article lauding James Collins’ and his ideas, ying/yang symbols prominently appear at each paragraph heading and in a shaded graphic of a clock. It is a sad indication of the pervasive leaven of eastern mysticism into this organization’s ideology.

[22] “Peter Drucker’s Search for Community,” BusinessWeek online, December 24, 2002, http://www.businessweek.com
/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2002/nf20021224_6814.htm. In this article, “Documentarian Ken Witty talks about the management guru’s philosophy, his life’s work, and his often unappreciated influence.” Witty says, “He [Drucker] brings a communitarian philosophy to his consulting. That was something I really never heard about until Peter emphasized it in our interviews. He said that what he’s all about is this search for community, the search for where people and organizations find community for noneconomic satisfaction. …He comes to the U.S. and thinks he sees real community in the corporate world. …He still is a European social communitarian….”

[23] CPN paper, http://www.cpn.org/tools/dictionary/communitarianism.html.

[24] “The Third Way to a Good Society,” by Amatai Etzioni. http://www.demos.co.uk/catalogue/
thethirdwaytoagoodsociety_page53.aspx. Note that Etzioni, like Drucker, combines societal ethics with human economics in his communitarian treatise, The Moral Dimension: Toward A New Economics, The Free Press, 1988.

[25] For a thorough discussion of this point, see http://www.reinventingjesuschrist.com. A paperback version of this book by Warren Smith, Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel (Conscience Press, 2002) is available from Discernment Ministries for a gift of $8.50 (see address in footnote 2).

[26] Jay Gary has three websites where one can access information regarding these new doctrines: http://www.jaygary.com/ http://www.presence.tv/cms/index.shtml and http://www.wnrf.org/cms/christian.shtml. It would be easy to dismiss this as nuttiness if it weren’t for the fact that Gary has widespread influence within Christian leadership.

[27] Drucker, Peter F. “Civilizing the City,” Leader to Leader, 7 (Winter 1998): 8-10. http://leadertoleader.org/leaderbooks/L2L/winter98/drucker.html. In this article Peter Drucker admits that he “actually once thought …[m]ore than 50 years ago, in my 1943 book, The Future of Industrial Man, that the private sector business “self-governing plant community” could and would fill man’s need for an “organic community.”

[28] “The Next Society: A conversation with Peter F. Drucker about the future,” The Flame, Spring 2002, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 16. Available on-line at Claremont Graduate University website, http://www.aeo-uami.org/pdf/NextSociety.pdf.

[29] This entire paragraph is fully documented in “When Is Assessment Really Assessment?” by Cynthia Weatherly, Appendix XI in the deliberate dumbing down of America: A Chronological Paper Trail, Charlotte T. Iserbyt (Conscience Press, 1999). Available on-line at http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com in the context of the whole book, or at http://www.crossroad.to or http://www.discernment-ministries.com. This article was originally published in The Christian Conscience magazine, October 1995.

[30] “What makes people happy? An Introduction to Peter F. Drucker – Eight Faces” An Interview with Weekly Toyokeizai, http://www.iot.ac.jp/manu/ueda/interview/e06.html.

[31] “Stations of Life #1: Discovering Your Purpose In Life,” Tim Olson, (Adapted from the sermon “What On Earth Am I Here For?” by Rick Warren, http://kbftokyo.org/sermons2/2000/serm00_312.htm.

[32] Peter Drucker, The End of Economic Man, (re-published Basis Books, 1940), pp. 96-97.

[33] See, for example, Boje, David M. and Rovert D. Winsor (1993), “The Resurrection of Taylorism: Total quality management’s hidden agenda,” Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 6 (4): pp. 57-70. http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers_Winsor_Anti_TQM_1993.htm.

[34] See http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=16728.

[35] “A Passion for Performance: Peter Drucker’s gospel of accountability,” http://www.philanthropyroundtable.
org/magazines/1999/march/interview.html. This particular article gives great insight into how the nonprofit sector is expected to conform to the new standards. The Philanthropy Roundtable controls much of the Christian and conservative Right through a mechanism of pooling their charitable giving, whereby a consortium of foundations agree in advance to finance a particular ministry based upon that ministry’s conformance to pre-set criteria. Anecdotal evidence hints that fundamentalists need not apply. This methodological giving should not be confused with humble collections of the saints for ministering to a specific need. Visit http://www.mediatransparency.org from the political Left for an intriguing and disturbing look into the funding mechanisms of the political and Religious Right.

[36] See extensive information pertaining to the Drucker Foundation Self-Assessment Tool at http://www.
pfdf.org/leaderbooks/sat or http://www.drucker.org. Elsewhere Drucker has said, “So the nonprofit organization has to stick to its mission, to avoid taking on problems in the name of compassion, that it cannot handle.” Muson, Howard, “The Nonprofits’ Prophet,” Across the Board, March 1989, 26, 3, p. 30.

[37] http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazines/1999/march/interview.html.

[38] For detailed information about the points made in this paragraph, see http://www.homeschoolfreedom.org or http://www.westandforhomeschooling.org.

[39] Beatty, Jack, The World According to Peter Drucker, (New York: The Free Press, 1998), pp. 185-86.

[40] Hesselbein, Frances, “A World of Ideas,” Leader to Leader, 9 (Summer 1998): pp. 4-6, http://drucker.org/
leaderbooks/L2L/summer98/fh.html.

[41] This information is culled from the website “Foundation for Community Empowerment,” http://www.fce-dallas.org.

[42] Foundation for Community Empowerment, “About Us: board of directors,” featuring Bob Buford, http://www.fce-dallas.org/au_buford.cfm. For more history on Buford’s connection to Peter Drucker, read Elliott, Barbara, “From Success to Significance,” http://www.capitalresearch.org/publications/cc/2000/0008.htm.

[43] See also: Kjos, Berit, “Social Change and Communitarian Systems,” http://www.crossroad.to/Articles2/04/purpose-links/htm.

[44] To grasp the full significance of this New Age association, see chapter 6 in Warren Smith’s book, Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel from Discernment Ministries (see address in footnote 2), or http://www.reinventingjesuschrist.
com.

[45] For an interesting review of Peter Senge’s writings, beliefs and activities, see http://www.icehouse.net/lmstuter. This website provides a valuable archive of research articles on General Systems Theory and how it is being applied to societal reform.

[46] Satirical use, only slightly modified for publication, of “A Synopsis of the Advanced Practitioner’s Sub-Track of Building Effective City Coalitions,” National Leadership Forum of the Mission America Coalition, Oct. 5-8, 2003, http://boards.faithhighway.com:8080/~cityreaching/guests, click on “City Wide Coalition,” then click on “Track 19 Level 2 Advanced City Reaching.” Wacky though this may be, it is representative of the pervasiveness of the new doctrines and experiences propelling church transformation forward.

[47] Hornbeck, David M. and Salamon, Lester M. Human Capital and America’s Future (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), p. 3.

[48] See the deliberate dumbing down of america: A Chronological Paper Trail, by Charlotte T. Iserbyt (Conscience Press, 1999) for a more thorough explanation of the activities and philosophies of David Hornbeck. Available on-line at http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com.

[49] Drucker, Peter F. “How Schools Must Change,” Psychology Today, May 1989, pp. 18-20. The esoteric roots of Drucker’s system of ethics and values is revealed in an analysis of his business ethics: “Drucker describes Confucian ethics as a guide for organizational ethics; indeed it is ‘the most successful and most durable ethics of them all: the Confucian ethics of interdependence.’… Convinced of the overall importance of Confucian ethics, he claims that ‘if ever there is a viable “ethics of organization”, it will almost certainly have to adopt the key concepts of Confucian theory: clear definitions of relationships, universal rules, focus on behavior rather than motives, and behavior that optimizes each parties’ benefits…’” Bowman, James. S. and Dennis L. Wittmer, Journal of Management History, Bradford: 2000, Vol. 6, Iss. 1, p. 13. The Drucker quotations come from his 1993 book, The Ecological Vision (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers).

[50] “Emerging Partnerships: New Ways In A New World,” a symposium of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, p. 4, 1996.

[51] Ibid, p. 5.

[52] Ibid, p. 6.

[53] Ibid, p. 7.

[54] Ibid, p. 10.

[55] For a theological treatise on the decline of value of human life, see any one of the five-volume series The Complete Works of Dr. Francis Schaeffer (Crossway Books).

[56] Drucker, Peter F., Psychology Today, op cit.

[57] Schaeffer, Francis, How Should We Then Live? (New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1976), pp. 256-7. Readers would do well to re-read this book, prophetic in its time, and grasp the scope of the warning the Dr. Schaeffer was sounding. Tragically, some of the very leaders who are promoting new assessments in the Church invoke the name of Dr. Schaeffer to make it appear that he would agree with their new venture! Beware of revisionist history about this man and his beliefs.

[58] See http://www.learn-usa.com/roa004.htm.

[59] For a thorough discussion about how psychological testing instruments have become mainstream in the postmodern church, read Missions & Psychoheresy by Martin and Diedre Bobgan, available from EastGate Publishers, 4137 Primavera Rd., Santa Barbara, CA 93110 for a gift of $10. Phone 800-216-4696 or visit http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org. Also see “Peering into the PEERS: Does your child have a proper “biblical worldview”? by Lynn and Sarah Leslie, posted at http://www.discernment-ministries.com.

[60] Rees, Erik, “Seven Principles of Transformational Leadership – Creating a Synergy of Energy,” http://www.pastors.
com/articles/SevenTransformation.asp.

[61] Lohr, Steve, “Technology and Worker Efficiency,” The New York Times, Feb. 2, 2004, http://www.
bobpearlman.org/Strategies/Offshoring/New%20Economy%20Technology%20and%20Worker%20Efficiency.htm. See also John F. Tomer, professor of economics at Manhattan College, who proposes that organizational capital “is human capital in which the attribute is embodied in either the organizational relationships, particular organization members, the organization’s repositories of information, or some combination of the above…” http://www.manahattan.edu/business/ecofin/jtomer/org_book.html. Tomer authored Organizational Capital: The Path to Higher Productivity and Well-being. (Praeger Publishing Co., 1987).

[62] Swanson, Eric, “What do you measure? This Month’s Best Practice,” Leadership Network, No. 41, March 26, 2004. See also “Drucker Foundation Self-Assessment Tool: Content – The Self-Assessment Process,” http://www.
pfdf.org/leaderbooks/sat for more information.

[63] See http://www.saddleback.com/home/todaystory.asp?id=6213 and http://www.saddleback.com/peace/
liveservices.asp for launching of this plan, which is unabashedly called the “beginning of a Spiritual Awakening, A Global Movement, A New Reformation.” The acronym stands for “Planting new churches… Equipping leaders… Assisting the poor… Caring for the sick… and Educating the next generation.” Also see “A Purpose Driven Phenomena: An Interview With Rick Warren,” available at Modern Reformation.org, http://www.christianity.com/
partner/Article_Display_Page0,,PTID307086%7CCHID581342%7CCIID1694210,00.html, in which Rick Warren responds to a question about the global P.E.A.C.E. plan: “In the same way, the strength of a church is measured by its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. How many members are we actually mobilizing for ministry and missions? Maturity is never an end in itself. Maturity is for ministry and mission.” [emphasis in original] Also see “Saddleback to Launch New Missions Initiative,” http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/pastors/1248548.html?view=print, which states, “The plan is to mobilize members of the Saddleback Church, along with other congregations – more than 10,000 believers in the next three years – to tackle the challenge of reaching those last unreached people groups.”

[64] Tomer, John F., “Organizational Capital and Joining-up: Linking the Individual to the Organization and to Society,” Human Relations, June 1998, 51, 6, pp. 825-846. Tomer credits a 1973 article by John Paul Kotter with the concept of joining-up. (Kotter, J.P., “The psychological contract: managing the joining-up process.” California Management Review, 1973, 15 (Spring), pp. 91-99.) Tomer is also quoted in footnote 61.

[65] Proctor, Paul, “Church Membership Covenants,” August 23, 2002, http://www.NewsWithViews.com.

[66] Perry, Tobin, “President lauds church program at White House-sponsored event,” BP News, March 11, 2004, http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=17831.

[67] See Foundation for Community Empowerment, http://www.fce-dallas.org/ for more information on this faith-based initiative. Another example of Buford’s activities includes “The Finishers Peer Learning Action Network (PLAN), which touts Rick Warren as an “expert,” to accelerated church transformation and “to provide information, challenge and pathways for people to move into missions.” http://www.finishers.org/ministries/
reports/PLAN_Proposal.pdf.

[68] See Paul Shirk’s book, Come Out of Her My People, an interesting and relevant theological discourse on Church and State, available from Discernment Ministries for a gift of $12 (see address in footnote 2).

[69] See http://www.ksg.harvard/edu/hauser/PDF_XLS/newsletters/Newsletter_summer03.pdf which talks about building international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and mentions working with a Japanese Family Planning organization. Bob Buford sits on the External Advisory Board of The Hauser Center, as does Frances Hesselbein of The Drucker Foundation. Lester Salamon was mentioned in the September 2003 E-Newsletter as an upcoming speaker. These interlocking connections are cozy.

[70] Elliott, Barbara, “Equipping the Street Saints: How to build capacity with struggling social entrepreneurs who are changing lives for the better,” Center for Renewal, http://www.centerforrenewal.com and also at http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazines/2002/september/print/.

[71] Abraham Maslow, father of humanistic psychology, had a profound influence upon Peter Drucker and modern management theory. For example, see http://www.cfil.com/maslow/shtml. For additional information on dialectics pertinent to this monograph, see Gotcher, Dean, “The Dialectic & Praxis: Diaprax and the End of the Ages,” at http://www.professionalserve.com/doublespeak/diaprax1.htm.

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