Overview: Whence Bill Gothard’s Institutional Success?
This brief paper examines the sociological phenomenon of Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles by asking the broad question, How has Gothard managed to perpetuate his teaching to 2.5 million people since 1964? My thesis is that Gothard’s institutional success comes from his ability to not only create the content of his message, but to also perpetuate an institutional context that sustains his message, a feat which few religious institutions achieve on a worldwide scale.
Not A Critique of Gothard’s Content and Methodology, But Not Unrelated Either
Let me say up front that this paper is not a critique of Gothard’s theology and methodology (or “content” and “context,” in terms of my paper). Again, my research here is more preliminary in nature, as if to zoom out and observe the big picture of Gothard’s decades of institutional fortitude without necessarily condemning or condoning Gothard’s teachings or institutionalization.
At the same time the thesis of my preliminary paper has implications for those who would seek to critically evaluate Gothard’s ministry. For example, if my thesis is true (i.e. that Gothard has created both a unique content and a unique context to foster that content), then it follows that the theological content cannot be fully evaluated apart from its sociological context. Furthermore, researchers interested in critiques (both positive and negative) of Gothard’s teaching will benefit from
- the introductory bibliography to both Gothard’s writings and critiques thereof in footnotes 5 and 9 and
- the brief explanation of Gothard’s foundational teachings (7 basic principles + 49 character qualities + 49 commands of Christ) in the first section of the paper.
Read and Respond
I welcome any critiques, comments, suggestions, disagreements, etc.:
Due to my being impacted so deeply in my teenage years through Gothard’s teaching (i.e. my family regularly attended many of his seminars, used his home school curriculum for two years, etc.) and his institutions (i.e. I worked at IBLP’s headquarters in Chicago for almost two years after I graduated from high school), I hope to do further research and writing on Gothard’s theology. If you are interested in such research please let me know.
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I am a 42 year old single mother and have been in nursing school half time for five years. About four years ago something went drastically wrong. I wasn’t able to sleep, at all for about two weeks. I called my pastor, friends, no one knew what to do. There were many trips to the emergency room but the medical establishment only knew to diagnos me as severly depressed, I wasn’t but what else could I do. I had to follow their protocol, find a doctor, get on psyc meds, go to a pshychologist, etc. The meds did me no good, they made me not sleep. The doctor I went to was hateful and rude because I told him this. He eventually dropped me as a patient because I refused to take the medicine he prescribed. I can’t remember the name but I’ve heard lawyers on TV announce that it has caused heart problems and want to take the pharmecutical company to court. I did end up in a psyc unit and was put on a psyc med that did help me sleep.
About six months later I went to a Bill Gothard Seminar for Anger Resolution. The Biblical priciple of crying out that he taught from the King James healed me. I started sleeping six hours a night and weaned myself off the medicine with the help of “The Road Back.” I thank God for the work He’s done in Mr. Gothard. His wisdom saved my life. I was at the point of death. My heart almost stopped beating and my nervous system couldn’t control my bladder I was so exhausted. I haven’t even wrote to Mr. Gothard yet to tell him, it’s been so hard for me to talk about. I wanted to be 100% healed also but that hasn’t happened yet. I’d say I’m 80% though. I’ll keep searching for that 20% of the rest of the puzzle. I actually thing God’s finally given it to me.
One of my professors in nursing school gave me a “diagnosis.” He thought that I had a hormone imbalance because his wife had had trouble sleeping and that was what was wrong with her. I needed a natural hormone endocrinologist and that’s almost impossible to find but miracle of all miracles, a friend of mine found out there is one about 60 miles from me.
Thank God and Mr. Gothard for giving me my life back! I prayed four years ago that God would let me live a few more years and He has! Now I’m praying for a few more! :)
@Lesa
I pray that in your search for “the 20%” you find that in fact the Lord Jesus Christ is your 100%, your all in all, your only hope of heaven; that His Gospel is not primarily about your sleep nor your reciting Jabez’ prayer, but about God the Father sending His Son to redeem you from the curse of the law by the power and presence of His Spirit; that you will find hope in Paul’s profession, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21); and that you will know your only hope in life and death is Christ Jesus:
I know this is an old post but I had to say that your answer to Lesa is excellent. Truly Jesus is our ONLY comfort in life and death. What a beautiful truth! Gothardism sells something else and it mostly (only?) leads to condemnation and despair.
Your paper was very good and easy to read. Have you done any further research?
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for your kind comment. I wish I could claim the credit, but I was simply quoting the Heidelberg Catechism :-).
To answer your question, no, I haven’t done any more research or writing on Gothard or IBLP….
Yes, I knew what you were quoting. : ) But it was still a good answer. I was asking about new research because I dislike Gothardism and I was miserable when I was using the materials. Our associate pastor is heavily into Gothard and I can hear Gothard’s teachings in everything he says. He will be taking over the head pastorship in May. : ( I love my church and don’t want to leave but I’m worried for what is to come.
I think Gothard would be OK (I guess) in moderation but that’s never the case with his teachings. His materials are made to be life encompassing and I think they are very dangerous. I’m mostly interested in a someone producing some research that does not attack Gothard but that somehow gently shows the errors of his teachings and approach. The best book I’ve read was Gothard The Man and His Ministry by Wilfred Bockelman.
In light of my own past experiences I empathize with you and will pray for God’s grace to sustain you both with the fortitude and the wisdom to stand fast in the freedom for which Christ has set us free (Gal. 5:1). Let the Word be the lamp to your feet. Whenever men add to God’s holy law the horrible taskmaster of legalism (aka semi-Pelagianism) is ever lurking in the shadows. Hold fast to the cross and to our Mighty Mediator–the risen Christ–in whom is our every spiritual benefit (Eph. 1).
I think you’re right in that there’s room for an objective, constructive theological criticism of Gothard’s teachings. It seems that the few studies that do exist are focused more on the man or the phenomena surrounding the man rather than on the doctrines taught by the man. Perhaps (if I ever finish school! :-) I might find some impetus for such a project. Or perhaps in the meantime you might take up the pen yourself!
I appreciate your thoughts and will continue to ponder whether such a future project would be worthwhile as a service to the church.
I am familiar with both, but I did not know there was a similarity between legalism and semi-Pelagianism–that’s interesting–I will have to look into that. It seems like it could be helpful as I have the oportunity to discuss my concerns with followers of Gothard’s teachings.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my comments and for all your thoughts.
I loved the first letter and am going to write this down. I was also into the Bill Gothard doctrine and it seemed while everyone else was being blessed by Bill Gothard’s teaching i experierced dispair and it was greatly destructive to me..I tried so hard to practice and to apply the teaching’s from his notebook.. I became so discouraged that i gave up and fell into sin. My life became so bleak and miserable. It has only been fairly recently..the past several year’s that Jesus Christ begin to slowly heal me by His GRACE through His word. What i began to see was how very indoctrinated i had become in legalism!! And saw that ALL MY RIGHTEOUSNESS are as filthy as rag’s. Our life is truely dependant on Jesus Christ. I always had low self esteem and gave up trying to follow Bill’s teaching’s on how to achieve a good self esteem. Thank God through Jesus Christ that i am to deny myself and take up my cross and follow Him!! When we fret over self esteem..we get our eye’s on ourselves and off of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Please pray for me as God unravel’s in me all the dangerous teaching’s of Bill Gothard. Oh that we who come to Christ would get hold of His amazing grace! It’s all of GRACE in Him.
Oh..may i say one more thing? Those friend’s who really became indocternated in Bill Gothard’s teaching’s abandoned my husband and I as we struggled in our relationship with Jesus Chist..we no
longer were worthy of their fellowship. This became such a stumbling block for us. The one scripture
that comes to mind for me is when Jesus told of the Pharisee’s..He told of the Pharisee that stood praying in the street loudly proclaiming..Thank God i am not the poor sinful man down the street from..whereas
the man down the street was crying out to God..Oh God have mercy on me for i am a wretched sinner.
Bill Gothard’ does not accept the concept of God’s grace. through His Son only. He teaches what God has warned us about..Beware of the leaven of the pharisee’s! Also Bill Gothard’s defination of faith is not biblical faith..Gothard’s defination is faith is visualizing what God intend’s to do with us. Faith taught from the bible is simply taking God at His word!
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