Beware of Bob Lenz

This past Saturday I was asked by my retired pastor friend to find information about Bob Lenz and his program called “Dignity Revolution.”  Mr. Lenz has been invited to speak at the church my friend attends, and then the next day speak at a public school in a nearby town.

Well, looking up the program I found it to be a well-respected anti-bullying program which teaches the dignity of all people.  BUT, if Lenz was going to speak at a church, there had to be more to him than that.  So I did my usual search on Google by adding “false teacher” to his name.

Bob Lenz heads an organization called Life Promotions, which includes his Dignity Revolution program.  This organization also puts on the annual Lifest “Christian” Music Festival, and THIS is where I found a lot of troubling aspects about Mr. Lenz.

The first Lifest information I found was in regards to the 2010 event.  I thought this article calling it a “Deathfest” was quite appropriate, based on the types of “Christian” performers invited.  However, there was a huge brouhaha in regards to Lenz inviting Jim Wallis as a speaker, as there should have been (if you aren’t familiar with the outright heresy and liberal theology of Wallis’, I’ll be more than happy to fill you in).

Searching about this incident I learned some really bad news about Lenz and how he stands with Wallis — he is NOT uninformed about Wallis’ theology.  First, Lenz claims that those who speak against Wallis are slandering him (as noted in the above linked article).  I came across one article which cited Lenz as saying Wallis made him the man he is today!  But the most egregious defense of Wallis by Lenz is found in this article, which is a sermon citing Lenz in a message to his “Lifest family.”  “I know Jim Wallis. Jim Wallis loves Jesus. … He believes and upholds the Apostles Creed. I do not agree with all of his politics, or even some of his non-essential theology. But I cannot cancel him based on the accusations that have been made. I have not found enough facts or truth in them to cancel him.”  Wallis’ theology proves he worships a different Christ than the one of the Bible, and it isn’t “non-essential theology” which make Wallis problematic, yet he's was at the 2013 festival and is again slated for 2017.

Bob is apparently part of the heretical “Red Letter Christian” movement, since he writes for their site. He was a speaker at Together 2016, sharing the limelight with a whole raft of false teachers.

In regards to Lifest in general, there is much to condemn.  I found information on most of the festivals from 2010 on, and they seem to all have the same problem of bad choices for performers as well as for speakers (such as psychiatrists), many of whom are known false teachers (Wallis, Tony Campolo, Willow Creek staff, John Ortberg, Luis Palau, et al ).  They are also ecumenical, and the Catholic Mass is celebrated (2016, but this link shows the same for the 2011 version) during the festival.

Lenz also put on an event called Power of One to which he invited heretic Michael Gungor, causing a Christian radio station (with more discernment that Lenz) to pull out.

If you promote false teachers, then you are promoting what they teach — you are giving them tacit approval even if you don’t specifically teach what they teach.  If you promote what they teach, then you are actually teaching people to follow their teachings, which makes them your teachings also, which makes YOU a false teacher.  This definitely makes Bob Lenz a false teacher to be avoided.