Elmbrook Church is a non-denominational, evangelical Christian megachurch located in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield, Wisconsin, in Waukesha County. Since the church’s founding in 1958, it has become one of the largest churches in the United States. Weekly church attendance averages 7,000, making it the largest church in Wisconsin and one of the 100-largest churches in the United States.[1] Elmbrook Church’s influence is far reaching here in Wisconsin and through its multi-site locations located throughout the Lake County area.
Fame, popularity, and size come with a price, and this is the case with Elmbrook Church. If a Pastor or a church is going to “make it big” nowadays they are going to have to cast aside biblical foundations, teachings, and principals to succeed. Recently I wrote a full-length review over at EBC†Ministries in which I detailed many of the problems that plague this up-and-coming megachurch. I address how they have laid aside solid biblical teaching for namesake, numbers, and entertainment. However, the purpose of this article is not to review this church, but to expose their most recent downward slide toward apostasy in a long winding footpath toward outright rebellion against God and His Holy Word.
Elmbrook Church has said throughout the decades, ” women you can lead, you preach, you can teach, you can pastor.” — Pastor Jason Webb
Over the years, I have witnessed through countless visitations and personal encounters with members and conversations with leaders of Elmbrook the tailspin towards Egalitarianism and liberalism. Over the past few years, Elmbrook has moved towards liberalism by adopting female pastors (pastrixes) in their midst. They also have tried to hide their push towards egalitarianism by giving woman Pastrixs fancy departmental sub names. Such as the current Pastrix over Creative Arts, Laurie McIntyre. All this is done to desensitize people to having women in the leading roles of the church beginning at a minor level. What is going on here is an effort, I believe in my opinion to get people familiarized with having women in authority over men in the church structure. Elmbrook is doing this so that when moving to having a head Pastrixs comes it will not be shocking, but instead well accepted.
This gradual trip towards apostasy has become even more evident over the past couple of months as the church announced that it, under the Pastoral leadership of Jason Webb, is seeking to ratify their church constitution to accept women as elders. Elmbrook’s agenda was made clear in a special message aired before the recent church sermon series “Don’t Miss This.” In this message Pastor, Jason Webb is advocating for an egalitarian orientated church body. It’s profoundly clear that Elmbrook church is seeking to have women in leadership roles. Pastor Jason Webb tried to justify this move in his sermon “God’s Revolutionary Views of Women,” in which he twists and misapplies biblical passages on the subject of women in leadership roles in the church.
For years I have been taught that Genesis 3:16 is the way it is supposed to be ….. men are to lead, and women are to follow…. but don’t miss this….. this is part of the curse; this is not how it is supposed to be…… this is a result of sin entering humanity …. this power struggle is against God’s intent…..
While this dance with the devil at Elmbrook continues, I pray that the Pastoral leadership and the Elders of this church will correct its self and repent of this sin. I pray that they will stand on the Word of God in this area and repent of the liberalism that has crept into the very foundation of Elmbrook and its congregation. If they don’t repent and continue down this path, they will likely fall into total apostasy as denominations before have by allowing women into Elder and Pastoral roles. The next step that will, as it has for any denomination that takes the route of Egalitarianism, will be the outright acceptance of Homosexuality into the church. Elmbrook church, its leaders, and its members are treading on very dangerous grounds that will lead many astray and to very gates of hell for eternity.
You may find the full discussion of the topic of Egalitarianism and Elmbrook church on my podcast show, Cross†Roads Radio. Myself and co-founder of EBC†Ministries, Joe Carlone discuss and review the sermon in full done by Pastor Jason Webb.
[vimeo 225782520 w=425 h=350]
[1] “Outreach Magazine Top 100 Churches”. Sermoncentral.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2016-10-30.
