Linkathon!
What does it mean to become more like Jesus?
The dangers of partisan Christianity…
When Christian mob violence meets selective grace…
L.A. Churches make worship hip…
Should religious rant be a crime?
We don’t need more Christian celebrities…
“Feminist rebellion” at fault for societal woes…
What happened to the World Wide Church of God?
Walter Brueggemann on Idolatry – ANNOTATE from Wipf and Stock Publishers on Vimeo.
“They call me a cult leader. I don’t care”…
Irish pastor on trial for calling Islam satanic…
Jedi church experiences “awakening”…
Wenatchee the Hatchet on Driscoll’s return.
Multi level marketing in the church…
Carl Trueman on the fifty something man who claims he’s a six year old girl…
What it’s like explaining depression meds to some Christians…
A field guide to Christian non violence…
Four theological objections to evolution…
Why church isn’t optional for Christians…
Many thanks again to EricL for the help this week and for making “the trilogy” a reality.
Support him at top right!
“I’m one of those guys who has an extra sensitive Christian clichĂ© antenna. Some call it a
BS meter.” – Preston Sprinkle
Sprinkle nailed it in article #1.
Trueman’s article is very good and I agree.
The trans community thinks a 50 year old man who says he is a 6 year old girl is trivialising their cause….
” When you decide that categories of identity are merely psychological and that reality is constituted by language, you consequently have neither the right nor the ability to call a halt to the Promethean process which you have unleashed just because some of the results prove to be distasteful to you and unhelpful to your political cause. Indeed, whining like a bunch of, ahem, six year old girls is not going to help you at this point.”
Read the few comments at the end of the Star Wars nativity article. I couldn’t agree more. I love Star Wars, but using it as a nativity, come on. Is nothing sacred? I know. Become everything to everyone to reach the culture.
How much longer, Lord?
The thing I’ve been thinking about Driscoll starting a new church….I’m sure some folks will be concerned about his previous behaviors being repeated….and I’m guessing he’ll be saying “Things will be different now because….”, but I really wonder why if things can be different this time around, why he didn’t just stay in Seattle and make the needed changes there?
i don’t understand thew point of the Los Angeles churches article, and it baffles me why it made the Drudge Report a few days ago. none of these churches are new–they’ve been around for years. None of them are doing anything new. And none of them are particularly unique or “relevant” or whatever word you want to use; they’re all just the standard churches you find in LA that are attended by artsy LA-types. These churches may be the most successful of that genre, but they’re not unique. Churches like that are on every corner in LA. Boring.
is there a reason the comments are showing? Just the first three and the same is tru now of things I think.
dave,
Everything is ok on my end…I can’t replicate the issue.
Try clearing your cache.
it’s hard to shake the juxtaposition of how Driscoll, as he’s recounted things, was presented with a restoration plan by his board that he opted not to comply with. Who else in the history of MH in the last four years was given a restoration plan and bailed rather than comply? wasn’t that some guy named Andrew? It seems as though Driscoll got a founder of the corporation exception that’s not too surprising.
A captain obvious comment but there’s a secondary meaning that Michael will get even if others don’t. 🙂
Last week you mentioned that CT is careful with legal stuff and fact-checking. The story about Jolley (I’d never heard of him before) is one they would have needed to take their time on, and it may well be the beginning of the end of his ministry.
Trading in one cult for another, The world-wide church of God left the Ambassador college in Pasadena but now you have the cultish IHOP movement there. I went a couple times to check it out being that it is in my city and there was nothing Godly at all about there services. Bible teaching way off very new ageish and you felt the evil there. They use the Jesus culture worship music which is very repetitive hypnotizing.
Worldwide church of God doctrine is still alive and well with their offshoots led by David Pak, Bob Thiel and others. They teach the God Family doctrine of Christians being deified as gods at the ressurection at the last day.
The article about the world wide church of God isn’t completely accurate. They didn’t deny the diety of Christ as they taught Binitarianism which is what I used to believe. I know hold to a view of the Godhead that is in line with the Seventh-Day Adventist Pioneers. The world-wide church of God taught that the Holy Spirit was the power of God rather than a seperate distinct person.
j#6 – if i use my google chrome browser the threads here come up all incomplete, FWIW
The stricken shepherd reloads, more wounded to shoot.
i think one could build a ‘what if’ nativity around Star Wars … but the abomination is the Zombie Nativity display
well …
Canon Press pulled A Justice Primer and Doug Wilson issued an apology ad Booth took some blame
http://www.worldmag.com/2015/12/pastor_douglas_wilson_s_book_pulled_over_plagiarism?platform=hootsuite
haven’t read the book but it reportedly touched on how some on the internet talk about controversial points about people who put themselves in the public sphere in ministry, from what I’ve been able to read ABOUT the book.
The CT article about Wayne Jolley is really sad.
This part, to me, was especially chilling:
“According to former followers, no one is allowed to question Jolley’s decisions.
‘Correction upward is always rebellion,’ he often tells his followers.
His critics, he says, are controlled by demons. And congregations that are run by a church board—rather than a pastor—are controlled by demons, too.”
Sheesh.
Lack of accountability is always a bad sign…and there’s significantly more of it in “independent” churches.
This is probably another example of the frog in the pot of water — turn the heat up really gradually and the frog doesn’t know he’s cooked. Poof — one day it’s a cult.
Sad.
The Staff-Only Elder Board sounds as bad as the Buddy-Pastors Elder Board.Does this mark the latest phase in the downward spiral of Evangelicalism? Into a third-world dictatorship where no one can question the senior pastor, also known as the Benevolent Leader. To me, it looks like 3 stages in an advancing disease:
1. Academia Model- pastor had a study, church had a library, and kids went to a Sunday School while the adults received their weekly instruction.
2. Business Model- pastor had an office, church had a bookstore or cafe, and the services were designed to reach the largest market share, even if it meant turning the Sunday School into a mini amusement park and the adult services into a rock concert.
3. Third World Dictator Model- pastor no longer bothers coming to the church building outside of his “performance times” so no need for office or study, church has shrunk the bookstore/cafe to make room for a recording studio for broadcasting the latest propaganda… er teaching of the Benevolent Leader (BL) to all the many satellite campuses and extra services when he doesn’t want to show up in person, and the kids church gets coloring books featuring the likeness and wise sayings of him (no, not Jesus, but BL), while the adults are kept in line with threats of discipline and spied on by BL’s lieutenants or a computer program.
Sad state for Evangelicalism. I hope it can be stopped, but with every passing year I worry more that it is a death spiral.Thankfully, our Lord is still healthy and active, even if segments of His church are sick.
OK, my rant is over. 🙂
I do like EricL’s flow of evagelicalism – however, #1 should not be looked at as the idea, but as the beginning of the slide downward.
“1. Academia Model- pastor had a study, church had a library, and kids went to a Sunday School while the adults received their weekly instruction.”
1. – why are the kids shut up in there own space and not in the church learning “how to do church” by example of their parents and others? Is it really the belief that the Holy Spirit is incapable of communicating his message to a 5 yr old in the main sanctuary.
2.) What is this “while the adults received their weekly instruction.” – is that why evangelical adults go to church – to be instructed? Not to hear God’s word of forgivness for them?”
Again, that is the beginning of the downfall – and yes as EricL says, it has dropped all the way to the bottom.
MLD,
Part of the problem (referring to your comment 2.) ) is what is the efficacy of God’s word? Is it to give information or instruction to enable someone to make a decision(s)? Or does God’s word do something to the hearer?
Secondarily, what is God’s word for? Does it renovate or recreate?