All I can say is "THIS IS...

Over at Pulpit and Pen Seth Dunn does a great job sharing about some NONSENSE going on in the SBC. If you have not read it please head over to it here. If you do you might need some

After reading the article and watching the video you have to admit that something reeks of manipulation and bait and switch tactics. And before you go thinking "well they were going to lose their property anyway" think about this. Couldn't Johnny boy out of the goodness of his own heart offer "his services" just to help the brethren without the strings deed attached?

And NAMB. SHAME ON YOU...YOU SNAKES WHO BILK PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR PROPERTY IN THE NAME OF "REVITALIZATION." I HEAR THE CASH REGISTER'S SINGING.

Think about this one for a minute!

Shameful Church

In Steve Camp's song "Living Dangerously" he says that "Sunday's become a holiday, they're an empty exercise."

Is this true? For me it is often. "How could someone who was a pastor like yourself says such things?"

When I was pastoring and I had the pleasure of sitting down and listening while someone preached, I winced at the thought of the things that ran through my mind.
I watched how we as pastors would "do" church. I see that extra stanza coming at the end of a no movement invitation. I saw how pastors and music people often plan their music so that it "compliments" one another so it might give more "punch" to the service.
I saw and still see how pastors manipulate people to make "decisions." I see how pastors attempt to use illustrations, movie clips, or stories to create an emotion to sway the listeners.
In the end, we as pastors or laymen for God, in whatever position we serve, become manipulators. We manipulate to satisfy our own, and other's opinions of ourselves.

Mega-Compromise

One of the readers of Dead Theologians recently said

"I would even say that if your church is "mega" in size, compromise has taken place somewhere......"

I have thought about this comment for some time. If you put aside your feelings about your own church, your interests and desires for church growth you have to admit that there is some validity to the comment.

The world is turned off by the message of Christ. No one wants to be told that they are a sinner and that they are Hell bound.

And so, is it safe to assume that to have a mega-church compromise has crept in?

A Probing Question

What Bible teachers, pastors or theologians have had the biggest impact on your walk with God and why?

Words From a Dying Man

 

On March 22, 1758, Jonathan Edwards died. He was 54 years old.
It was a fever he had contracted from a small-pox inoculation just a month before. After weeks of worsening weakness and the recognition of his immanent death, he spoke his last words to his daughter, Lucy, who attended him. Toward the end he said,

As to my children, you are now to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a Father who will never fail you.