John MacArthur made some waves over the weekend at Shepherd’s Conference, more commonly known as ShepCon when he was not only able to appear but name dropped Tim Keller and Andy Stanley. But the reason why MacArthur called out these two big names is not necessarily the reason you’d expect.
Tim Keller has always been a liberal false teacher, and Andy Stanley has certainly paled in comparison to his father’s reputation. Earlier this year, Andy Stanley’s views on homosexuality underwent scrutiny that caught the attention of the world of Evangelicalism. This was despite the fact that Andy Stanley’s views have been unchanged for over a decade on this issue. John MacArthur made reference to Stanley’s views on homosexuality but to make an entirely different point.
The point that John MacArthur was making was one about the church at large failing to catechize believers with sound doctrine. Instead many leaders have taken an “inordinate affection” for the culture, saying there’s a “driving desire that’s twisted to reach the culture.” He cites Tim Keller’s city focused missiology, which is widespread in church planting. He then cites Andy Stanley welcoming homosexuals in order to reach them.
John MacArthur points out that everyone in the actual church is a believer, and that those in the church should hear sound doctrine that they generally aren’t getting.
In the past, John MacArthur has criticized Tim Keller’s missiology. As for Andy Staley, it was unclear whether John MacArthur’s comments were from him remembering Andy Stanley’s infamous sermon from 2012 or the recent attention that discernment bloggers raised about his views on the issue. MacArthur has criticized Stanley for a number of issues.
In 2019, John MacArthur told Beth Moore to go home during a word association game at the Truth Matters Conference, which was a conference meant to celebrate his fifty years of ministry.
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