World War III

Now showing…

http://markconner.typepad.com/catch_the_wind/2009/06/whatt-about-homosexuality.html#comments

Mark Zschech – the mystery man behind Hill$ong TV and the Mercy Ministries exorcism scandal

(The Sydney Morning Herald reported during the Mercy Ministries abuse scandal…

“……Two former directors of Mercy Ministries, Mark and Darlene Zschech, who brought the program to Australia from the US in 2001, have also been associate directors of the Hillsong Church’s annual conference.

Darlene, described as “one of the key worship leaders at Hillsong Church”, and her husband no longer appear to have any connection to Mercy Ministries……..”

From http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-business-of-giving-mercy/2008/03/17/1205602293116.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 )

Pat Mesiti – those that can, do, those that can’t, teach

The Sunday Star Times reports…

“Books have always been used by salesmen to enhance their credibility, though a new series arriving in New Zealand takes that to a new pitch.

The nine books in the Millionaire Makers series ($14.99 each) tempt buyers with promises of “$100,000 in 100 days”, achieving “financial abundance for life”, or “Cracking the million dollar sales code”.

But these are really advertisements disguised as books, trying to drum up bums on seats for seminars in Auckland’s Aotea Centre in August, November and February at which the nine authors – some of the biggest names of the Australian wealth seminar scene – will attempt to sell mentoring schemes, high-risk options trading systems, boxed software programs and even franchise-style online marketing businesses to Kiwis who want to barely work at all and yet be fantastically rich.

Each book contains a “free” invitation to a seminar “worth $1994″ (a very specific sum derived by comparison to the pricing of the seminars of US motivational speaker Tony Robbins).

In effect, punters who pick the books up from the natty black display stands in bookstores around the country are being asked to buy the advertisement for the seminar.

It’s brilliant marketing really, as befits the man behind the series, former evangelical pastor Pat Mesiti, now a preacher in the secular church of financial abundance.

Mesiti is a fascinating and charismatic man to meet, not least because of his colourful background as a preacher with the evangelical and highly commercial Hillsong church in Australia.

There’s no doubting the energy of the diminutive Mesiti (who is in great nick for a man whose brows now sport receding grey locks) nor his acute awareness that any journalist he meets is a single internet search away from learning about his past.

In fact, Yahoo’s new helpful habit of trying to anticipate your searching requirements suggested I add the word “scandal” to my search command even before I finished typing Mesiti’s name.

Consequently, it is he who brings up his public disgrace in 2001 when he was stood down as a preacher at Hillsong for visiting prostitutes, a scandal that led him to reinvent himself on the wealth-creation speaking circuit.

It’s still a sensitive point. As we talk the phone goes. A current affairs show producer calls as we talk, asking Mesiti to front for an interview. “Are they dirt-diggers?” he asks nervously, clearly weary of constantly revisiting his sexual sins.

Hillsong church and Mesiti still have much in common, including the message that God and Jesus want their believers to be rich, and, unusually, that Jesus was himself wealthy.

Mesiti sums it up for me. He doesn’t believe Jesus was broke. If Jesus was poor why did he have a treasurer? How could he have afforded to keep such a retinue of disciples? How else could he have afforded to take so much time off work?

Mesiti adheres to the school of thought among predominantly US preachers with a penchant for the good life that Jesus was wealthy, and what’s more, the mainstream churches know it, but are keeping the truth from people in order to amass riches for themselves (Mesiti points out that mainstream churches are among some of the biggest landowners in the world).

Mesiti’s stance is not far from Hillsong head man Brian Houston’s claim that true Christians are money magnets. “If you believe in Jesus, he will reward you here as well [as in heaven],” he once told a Sydney Morning Herald reporter.

Mesiti claims that despite having left Hillsong, he has a similar mission to the wealth- dispensing God. “I tell the people, their prosperity is my passion,” he says.

The nine authors of the Millionaire Makers series share that mission, Mesiti claims. That’s handy, because it is the only way to address the key paradox of the motivational speaker/ professional mentor: If they are so wealthy and successful, what are they doing on the speaking circuit flogging their books and mentoring systems?

“Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach,” is the old saw that comes to mind, particularly for a journalist who has met many financially successful people.

The standard response is that they have a mission to teach and to free humanity from the shackles of society/poor schooling/bad parenting, which all combine in a malign conspiracy to keep us from the secrets of wealth.

Of course, the way to break free from the shackles and achieve wealth quickly and painlessly, according to the Mesiti school of thought, is to buy the book/the mentoring scheme/the software. Such mentoring brings “wisdom without the wait”, he tells me.

For the record, this cynical journalist for one is deeply sceptical about get-rich-quick schemes. I have no doubt they work – the problem is, I think they work for those selling them, not those buying them.

There are no audit trails, no published success rates to prove it one way or the other.

That leaves those handing their cash over taking a leap of faith.

I wouldn’t dispute that speakers like Mesiti can be a powerful force to motivate people to get out there and improve their lot, but it’s hard not to see that as secondary to the sales pitch. Pick your gurus carefully.”

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/personal-finance/2548780/Just-whos-getting-rich-quick

How a fart at the wrong time could have killed TD Jakes

The Dallas Morning News reports…

“Bishop T.D. Jakes told the congregation at his church Sunday [June 14] that a last-minute change of plans kept him from being killed in a natural gas explosion at his Fort Worth home last week, according to an Associated Press report.

At the Sunday service at The Potter’s House in Oak Cliff, Jakes said that he would have been getting dressed near the site of the blast if he hadn’t suddenly had a feeling that he should cancel a meeting.

Because of that, he was nowhere near the sunroom of his home when the explosion occurred.

According to a report by WFAA-TV (Channel 8), Jakes was in another home on the property at the time of the blast.

Lt. Ken Worley, spokesman for the Fort Worth Fire Department, told reporters at the time that the explosion appeared to be accidental but that no cause had been established.

The sunroom – originally a large patio that had been enclosed as part of a renovation – had a gas-fed pool heater and a large gas-fed barbecue grill, Worley said.

Damage was centered in the sunroom, and there did not appear to be any structural damage to the 15,000-square-foot home, he said.

There was no fire because the explosion consumed all the available gas, he said.”

From http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-jakesblast_15met.ART.State.Edition1.50bbc8e.html

Why am I not surprised that this is an AOG church?

New Bethel Church - pool photo

The Courier-Journal reports…

“When Melissa Bell heard of plans for a church-sponsored “Open Carry” gun celebration in Valley Station on Saturday, she warily decided to check it out.

She has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, saying she wanted to be able to defend her daughter if she ever faced an attack, but the Louisville resident wasn’t sure how well pastor Ken Pagano, organizer of the service, was going to present the case for firearms ownership.

“I really came to make up my own mind whether this gentleman was an insightful, intelligent man or a nut I didn’t want on my side,” she said of Pagano. “I was pleased.”

So were the rest of the roughly 200 people who came to New Bethel Church for the rally, which has made headlines around the world.

Church members — many of them wearing identical blue shirts with the church’s name as they helped direct traffic and check weapons to make sure they were not loaded — were joined at the event by their friends and others who heard about it on the news. About 10 members of a local private militia were among those who attended.

The event has been criticized by other religious leaders, who say churches have no business glorifying deadly weapons. Across town, another event carrying an anti-gun message was held.

But Pagano, the Marine veteran and police chaplain who leads the Assemblies of God congregation, was unapologetic, saying one cannot defend a person’s First Amendment right to religious liberty without the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

“We love God, we love our country,” he told the applauding crowd. “Without a belief in God, without a belief even in firearms, I don’t believe this country would be here the way it is today. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Attendees listened to rules about carrying unloaded weapons securely in holsters, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, sang patriotic songs such as “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” and watched a series of Internet videos arguing for the right to bear arms and warning that gun-control advocates would put people at risk of mass murderers and other criminals.

New Bethel Church decided to go ahead with the controversial service, despite losing its insurance coverage in the days before the event. The church was able to find another carrier to provide coverage.

While many attendees were church members, the event drew outside interest from people such as Bill and Lavone Koernke, who drove from Bardstown after hearing about it on the Internet.

The couple, both with unloaded guns in their holsters, regularly hunt and enjoy target practice. They said they believe the church is supporting an essential right.

“I don’t see anything wrong with persons defending themselves,” Bill Koernke said. Citing a recent spate of deadly shootings in churches and schools, he said gunmen often target such places because they know people are unlikely to be armed.

Doreen Rogers, an Air Force veteran who attends Southeast Christian Church, agreed.

“I wish more churches did this, I wish more people did this,” she said. “For some reason, most people think that carrying guns is sinful. It’s not. I think my life is worth protecting.”

She said she never expected to be invited to wear a gun in church, but added: “I bet a lot of people who have been in churches lately and seen members killed or pastors killed are wishing they had.”

In recent years, gunmen have made deadly attacks in Baptist, Unitarian, independent and other churches.

Several camouflaged members of the Ohio Freedom Fighters, a private militia, attended to show their support for the event, said organizer Kevin Terrell. He passed out literature warning that people need to defend themselves “when they come for your guns.”

Attendees brought canned goods for a local food pantry and entered a raffle for a free handgun — won by sheriff’s deputy Joe Grace, who was working a detail at the event.

Across town at Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church, about 50 people gathered at a protest event sponsored by Interfaith Paths to Peace.

“The only weapon we need is a peaceful heart,” said Terry Taylor, executive director of the nonprofit organization devoted to intercultural sharing.

The open-air event held on a grassy lawn behind the church in Louisville’s East End opened with chant by six monks, exiles from Tibet on a U.S. tour from their monastery in southern India.

“I find it extremely distressing that faith and guns in any way go together,” said Anne Walter, formation minister at St. William Catholic Church in Louisville.

Religious leaders and peace activists opposed to the Valley Station church gun service first considered staging a protest outside New Bethel Church.

Rather, they decided to hold the counter-event, Taylor said.

“We are not about protest,” Taylor said. “We are about a peaceful alternative.”

The interdenominational gathering drew Bellarmine University students and faculty to read a poem to attendees who watched performances from lawn chairs and blankets laid on the grass.

They wore T-shirts with a tongue-in-cheek message that said simply, “What gun would Jesus carry?”

“I don’t believe Jesus would carry a gun,” Bellarmine University education major and senior Lara Donnelly, 22, said.

Mark Issacs, a board member of Interfaith Paths to Peace and founder of a local coalition dedicated to a peaceful resolution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict in the Middle East, said he believed in the right to bear arms, but was distressed at the notion of churchgoers packing heat.

“I am a clear believer in the Second Amendment,” Issacs, 53, an architect, said. “But I also believe our churches and our holy places need to be at the forefront of waging peace.”

The Valley Station church kept most of the numerous television and newspaper camera crews off the premises, allowing only an Associated Press photographer and a Russian journalist with a small camera inside the building.

Pagano said the service had three purposes: To promote firearms safety and responsibility; to promote Americans’ Second Amendment rights; and “as Christians, we wanted to create a venue to share our faith with people.”

From http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2009906270342

George Barna goes gay

The Barna Group reports…

“The gay and lesbian population, which constitutes about 3% of adults, has garnered national attention in the past several years thanks to issues like gay marriage, gay adoption, and other gay rights conflicts. In the wake of those controversies and the spotlight aimed at gays, Americans have developed numerous assumptions about the lives of the homosexual population. A new survey by the Barna Group explores the spiritual life of gay and lesbian individuals, providing some surprising results.

Spiritual Similarities

Out of the 20 faith-oriented attributes examined in the Barna study, there were just a few in which there were no significant differences between the heterosexual and homosexual populations. The areas of similarity included the facts that a small minority of people in both groups believe that Satan is real; equivalent percentages of these groups feel they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others who believe differently; similar numbers of people from each group contend that good people can earn their way into Heaven through their goodness; and rates of participation in house churches is about the same for both groups………….”

Full research findings at http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/13-culture/282-spiritual-profile-of-homosexual-adults-provides-surprising-insights

Michael Jackson – it really doesn’t matter if it’s black and white

Michael Jackson wrote…

“Childhood
“Have you seen my childhood?
I’m searching for that wonder in my youth
Like pirates in adventurous dreams,
Of conquest and kings on the throne…”

Written and Composed by Michael Jackson

In one of our conversations together, my friend Rabbi Shmuley told me that he had asked some of his colleagues–-writers, thinkers, and artists-–to pen their reflections on the Sabbath. He then suggested that I write down my own thoughts on the subject, a project I found intriguing and timely due to the recent death of Rose Fine, a Jewish woman who was my beloved childhood tutor and who traveled with me and my brothers when we were all in the Jackson Five.

Last Friday night I joined Rabbi Shmuley, his family, and their guests for the Sabbath dinner at their home. What I found especially moving was when Shmuley and his wife placed their hands on the heads of their young children, and blessed them to grow to be like Abraham and Sarah, which I understand is an ancient Jewish tradition. This led me to reminisce about my own childhood, and what the Sabbath meant to me growing up.

When people see the television appearances I made when I was a little boy–8 or 9 years old and just starting off my lifelong music career–they see a little boy with a big smile. They assume that this little boy is smiling because he is joyous, that he is singing his heart out because he is happy, and that he is dancing with an energy that never quits because he is carefree.

But while singing and dancing were, and undoubtedly remain, some of my greatest joys, at that time what I wanted more than anything else were the two things that make childhood the most wondrous years of life, namely, playtime and a feeling of freedom. The public at large has yet to really understand the pressures of childhood celebrity, which, while exciting, always exacts a very heavy price.

More than anything, I wished to be a normal little boy. I wanted to build tree houses and go to roller-skating parties. But very early on, this became impossible. I had to accept that my childhood would be different than most others. But that’s what always made me wonder what an ordinary childhood would be like.

There was one day a week, however, that I was able to escape the stages of Hollywood and the crowds of the concert hall. That day was the Sabbath. In all religions, the Sabbath is a day that allows and requires the faithful to step away from the everyday and focus on the exceptional. I learned something about the Jewish Sabbath in particular early on from Rose, and my friend Shmuley further clarified for me how, on the Jewish Sabbath, the everyday life tasks of cooking dinner, grocery shopping, and mowing the lawn are forbidden so that humanity may make the ordinary extraordinary and the natural miraculous. Even things like shopping or turning on lights are forbidden. On this day, the Sabbath, everyone in the world gets to stop being ordinary.

But what I wanted more than anything was to be ordinary. So, in my world, the Sabbath was the day I was able to step away from my unique life and glimpse the everyday.

Sundays were my day for “Pioneering,” the term used for the missionary work that Jehovah’s Witnesses do. We would spend the day in the suburbs of Southern California, going door to door or making the rounds of a shopping mall, distributing our Watchtower magazine. I continued my pioneering work for years and years after my career had been launched.

Up to 1991, the time of my Dangerous tour, I would don my disguise of fat suit, wig, beard, and glasses and head off to live in the land of everyday America, visiting shopping plazas and tract homes in the suburbs. I loved to set foot in all those houses and catch sight of the shag rugs and La-Z-Boy armchairs with kids playing Monopoly and grandmas baby-sitting and all those wonderfully ordinary and, to me, magical scenes of life. Many, I know, would argue that these things seem like no big deal. But to me they were positively fascinating.

The funny thing is, no adults ever suspected who this strange bearded man was. But the children, with their extra intuition, knew right away. Like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, I would find myself trailed by eight or nine children by my second round of the shopping mall. They would follow and whisper and giggle, but they wouldn’t reveal my secret to their parents. They were my little aides. Hey, maybe you bought a magazine from me. Now you’re wondering, right?

Sundays were sacred for two other reasons as I was growing up. They were both the day that I attended church and the day that I spent rehearsing my hardest. This may seem against the idea of “rest on the Sabbath,” but it was the most sacred way I could spend my time: developing the talents that God gave me. The best way I can imagine to show my thanks is to make the very most of the gift that God gave me.

Church was a treat in its own right. It was again a chance for me to be “normal.” The church elders treated me the same as they treated everyone else. And they never became annoyed on the days that the back of the church filled with reporters who had discovered my whereabouts. They tried to welcome them in. After all, even reporters are the children of God.

When I was young, my whole family attended church together in Indiana. As we grew older, this became difficult, and my remarkable and truly saintly mother would sometimes end up there on her own. When circumstances made it increasingly complex for me to attend, I was comforted by the belief that God exists in my heart, and in music and in beauty, not only in a building. But I still miss the sense of community that I felt there–I miss the friends and the people who treated me like I was simply one of them. Simply human. Sharing a day with God.

When I became a father, my whole sense of God and the Sabbath was redefined. When I look into the eyes of my son, Prince, and daughter, Paris, I see miracles and I see beauty. Every single day becomes the Sabbath. Having children allows me to enter this magical and holy world every moment of every day. I see God through my children. I speak to God through my children. I am humbled for the blessings He has given me.

There have been times in my life when I, like everyone, has had to wonder about God’s existence. When Prince smiles, when Paris giggles, I have no doubts. Children are God’s gift to us. No–they are more than that–they are the very form of God’s energy and creativity and love. He is to be found in their innocence, experienced in their playfulness.

My most precious days as a child were those Sundays when I was able to be free. That is what the Sabbath has always been for me. A day of freedom. Now I find this freedom and magic every day in my role as a father. The amazing thing is, we all have the ability to make every day the precious day that is the Sabbath. And we do this by rededicating ourselves to the wonders of childhood. We do this by giving over our entire heart and mind to the little people we call son and daughter. The time we spend with them is the Sabbath. The place we spend it is called Paradise.”

From http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2000/12/My-Childhood-My-Sabbath-My-Freedom.aspx?p=1

Unattractive women who think they can turn a gay boy straight

CNN reports…

“The boy writhes uncontrollably on the floor, but the church members remain calm, if increasingly loud. They’re trying to drive a “demon” out of him.

“You homosexual demon, get up on outta here!” they say. “You demon, loose yourself!” “You sex demon … you snake!”

The shouts, the convulsions, the references to homosexual spirits — they are all captured on a video posted on YouTube by the Manifested Glory Ministries. The video has sparked anger among gay youth advocacy groups and put the small church from Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the middle of an ongoing national debate on gay issues.

Patricia McKinney, pastor of the nondenominational church who describes herself as a prophet, said she has even been receiving death threats as a result of the video, but doesn’t understand the outrage.

“I believe in deliverance, I believe in anointing, I believe in the power of Jesus,” she said in a phone interview with CNN. “I’ve been threatened already, I’ve been attacked, and it doesn’t make any sense to us. Really, what they’re doing, they’re putting me out there on the mat.”

McKinney says she doesn’t refer to the events of the video as an exorcism, but rather a “casting out of unclean spirits.” She said this isn’t the first time that an event like this has taken place at her church, but it is the first one centered around homosexuality.

McKinney said the boy approached the church and told her he wanted to be a pastor, but was struggling with his sexuality. “We allow [gay people] to come into our church. We just don’t allow them to come in and continue to live that lifestyle,” she said.

“God made Adam and Eve,” she said. “He made a woman to be with a man, and a man to be with a woman.”

Robin McHaelen, who worked with the 16-year-old boy at the center of the video in her position as executive director of True Colors Inc., a gay youth advocacy and mentoring program in Connecticut, said the video was taped in March. She would not identify the teen.

McHaelen said she doesn’t think the church acted maliciously — but that’s part of her problem with the video.

“None of the people in this video were intending to hurt this kid,” she said. “They performed this ritual in an attempt to rid him of feelings that he didn’t want to have.”

The boy is the fifth teen True Colors is aware of that has undergone an event like the one documented in the video. But unlike the boy, not all the teens approached a church or religious organization.

The event, McHaelen said, reflects a culture and society that doesn’t believe a person can be both Christian and gay.

“That’s what makes me so sad and so mad,” she said.

McHaelen said she talked to the boy since the incident and said he’s feeling very conflicted and confused in trying to reconcile who he is with his religion.

“He’s 16 and having the feelings that he’s having, the relationships he’s having, and then [he's] being tormented by ‘What if I’m going to go to hell because of what I feel and who I am?’” she said.

McHaelen notified the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, as she’s mandated to do in her position when she suspects abuse or neglect of a minor. However, she told CNN the department will be looking into whether or not abuse or neglect occurred by the parents and family of the boy, not the church. The department declined to comment Thursday.

Isaiah Webster, Director of Communications for the National Youth Advocacy Commission, said he was deeply saddened by the timing of the video and the accompanying uproar.

“It’s very, very sad that this still takes place in society,” he said. “It’s also very sad that it comes about during this week, [as the] 40th anniversary of Stonewall is this weekend.”

The so-called “Stonewall Riots” are believed by many to have kicked off the gay liberation movement.

“That is really something to celebrate,” Webster continued, “and it’s unfortunate that young people still have to endure things like this.”

McHaelen said that as an advocacy group, she doesn’t think True Colors can take any legal action against the church, and said she would rather engage in an open dialogue with its members.”

From http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/06/25/connecticut.gay.exorcism/

And Metro reports…

“Gay exorcisms are regularly being performed in Christian churches in Britain, it has emerged.

The ceremony is being carried out to rid worshippers of the supposed dem­ons which make them homosexual.

The pastor of one Pentecostal church in north-west London said he held four or five exorcisms a year and claimed they always worked.

However, gay campaigners said the 20-minute ritual often traumatised those on whom it was carried out.

Details of the practice emerged after a video of the exorcism of a 16-year-old American boy was posted on YouTube.

The footage was taken down amid calls for the church leaders involved to be prosecuted.

Here, the Rev John Ogbe-Ogbeide, who runs the United Pentecostal Ministry in Harrow, said he carried out the ritual to cast out evil spirits that were responsible for homosexuality.

He added: ‘The evil spirits are telling you what’s wrong is right, the opposite sex is not attractive.’

There was no minimum age for the ceremony because a demon could take hold at any point in life, said Mr Ogbe-Ogbeide.

Sometimes people were calm during the process but sometimes their body convulsed.

‘There are some who speak but we know this is the demon. The demon can speak through anybody,’ he added.

Mr Ogbe-Ogbeide last performed the ritual in January to help a young man, who was planning to marry his girlfriend but said he was also in love with another man.

He added: ‘He said if it carried on it would upset their plans to have kids and he wanted to live in matrimony.’

But the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement said it was frequently contacted by people left traumatised by the experience.

Chief executive the Rev Sharon Ferguson, said ‘a lot of fundamentalist groups believe homosexuality can be cured’.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said he had heard of exorcisms on children, which was child abuse ‘pure and simple’.

He added: ‘Some adults who have been pressured into exorcisms have been preyed upon when they’re in a vulnerable state and not really able give fully informed consent.

‘They’re maybe people with learning difficulties or mental health problems. There needs to be a thorough investigation of all the churches who are doing these exorcisms.’

In March, it was revealed that a fifth of therapists, many in the pay of the NHS, had attempted to ‘cure’ patients of homosexuality.”

From http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Homosexuals_left_traumatised_by_ceremonial_cure&in_article_id=692445&in_page_id=34

Senior Pastor briefly visits own church

Brian Houston twitters…

“Well I was in Brisbane Campus this morning and home tonight. Love it! Love serving God and helping people! B.

11:39 PM Jun 20th from TwitterBerry“

From http://twitter.com/BrianCHouston

Former Creflo Dollar staffer sues televangelist

The San Francisco Chronicle reports…

“A lawsuit filed in a California court Wednesday accuses Atlanta televangelist Creflo Dollar of stealing a spiritual text message business concept, then marketing the business to his worldwide audience for millions of dollars in revenue.

The lawsuit, filed by Devone Lawson of Marina del Rey, Calif., accuses Dollar, son Jeremy Dollar and other ministry staff of breach of nondisclosure agreement, fraud, unjust enrichment, civil conspiracy, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets.

Lawson is seeking in excess of $10 million in lost revenues, according to his attorney James Evangelista.

“This lawsuit exposes the absolutely worst kind of greed and malfeasance — that which is conducted under the cloak of a religious enterprise,” Evangelista said in a statement. “Apparently Rev. Dollar and the Dollar Ministries do not practice what they preach, unless the ‘prosperity gospel’ they preach justifies fraud.”

A spokeswoman for Dollar did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

Starting in 2004, Lawson claims he spent a year working with Dollar’s World Changers Church International ministry on a subscription service that would send daily inspirational text messages to church members’ cell phones.

In the lawsuit, Lawson claims the ministry violated a nondisclosure agreement when it eventually formed another company and launched a similar “Word On the Go” text messaging service in 2006.

“When we were working together, I felt like it was an honor,” Lawson said, adding that later, “I couldn’t watch him on TV.”

Attorneys for Lawson estimate the $4.99 per month subscription service generates more than $50 million a year in revenue.

Dollar, known for his pinstriped suits and charismatic sermons, was among a group of high-profile ministers whom Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley urged in 2007 to answer questions about their spending, board oversight and involvement in for-profit businesses.

Dollar has resisted, comparing Grassley’s inquiries into church governance with questioning churchgoers about their prayers and confessions.”

From http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/24/state/n152143D88.DTL

Real men of Jesus – Mr. Over-Emotional Worship Leader

Fiji’s Christian enforcers

Australia Network News reports…

“Fiji’s police force has become caught up in an evangelical Christian crusade.

Coup leader and Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has said repeatedly one of the reasons for the military’s 2006 takeover of Fiji was to end racial and social division.

But last weekend, all police officers not on duty were told to attend a Christian crusade event.

The country’s ethnic make-up means its police force has members who are Hindu and Muslim, as well as Christian.

The crusade is being driven by the evangelical “New Methodist Church”, led by Atu Vualono, brother of Police Commissioner Esala Teleni.

Commissioner Teleni is a military man appointed to the law and order role by interim Prime Minister Bainimarama.

Over the weekend, police played a big role in the crusade, with Fiji’s TV coverage showing officers marching through the capital, Suva, chanting the name of Jesus.

All officers not on duty were told attendance was compulsory, a fact confirmed by police spokeswoman Ema Mua to Fiji TV.

As part of the new Christian outlook, it has been announced the Fiji Police Jazz Band is now the Fiji Police Worship Band, and from now will be playing only gospel songs.

Earlier this year, after senior Hindu and Muslim police raised concerns about the push to embrace Christianity, they were confronted by Commissioner Teleni and told if they were not happy with his plans they should quit.

Despite the force’s mixed ethnic profile, Pramod Rae, general-secretary of the National Federation Political Party, says it has been made clear that does not matter.

“It’s becoming more of an indoctrination process, rather than a Christian crusade,” he told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program.

The country’s biggest Hindu representative group is the Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha Fiji.

Its national secretary, Vijendra Prakash, says it has no concerns about Hindu police being forced to embrace a Christian crusade.

“We feel that the prayers are offered in good faith to one almighty Lord,” says Mr Prakash.

Pramod Rae says the Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha Fiji “has been actively part of this coup regime right from the beginning”.

From http://australianetworknews.com/stories/200906/2606813.htm?desktop

Pastor, why have you got cocaine stashed up your bum?

The Journal Gazette reports…

“A man identified as a Fort Wayne pastor and radio personality has been arrested on three charges of dealing cocaine.

Fort Wayne police said the department had received several complaints about the Rev. Curtis White III selling cocaine, and the Vice and Narcotics Section investigated him for a month before making an arrest Friday.

According to a written statement, police served a warrant at White’s hotel room in the 4900 block of Bluffton Road and found 6.6 grams of crack cocaine in the room and 6.5 grams of crack cocaine “secreted in a body cavity of Mr. White.”

White, 59, of the 4200 block of Hanna Street, was being held on $150,000 bond.

Police said Beatrice Knox, 44, of the 3700 block of S. Lafayette St., aided in making the purchase.

She was charged with two counts of dealing cocaine and one count of possessing cocaine. Knox was being held on $102,500 bond.

White has been Sunday morning host of the Gospel Train Unity Inspirational Hour on 102.9 The River, the station confirmed Monday. It said he paid for the time, and the payment was listed in connection with Divine Faith Baptist Church, 1433 McCulloch St.

His promotional item for the station describes him as a pastor, but does not say what church with which he is affiliated.

A call Monday to the phone number listed for the church said it had been disconnected or was no longer in service.”

From http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20090622/LOCAL07/906229947/1002/LOCAL

Scared of gays? Form a breakaway church

The Star-Telegram reports…

“Fueled by disputes over many issues — including ordaining a gay bishop — conservatives who have left the national Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada approved a constitution Monday creating a new Anglican Church in North America.

After nearly unanimous adoption of the constitution, some 800 Anglicans — representing 700 dioceses and other groups with some 100,000 parishioners in the U.S. and Canada — stood and sang PraiseGod From Whom All Blessings Flow, in celebrating the new organization.

New canons and bylaws will be voted on Wednesday at the convention, being held at St. Vincent’s Cathedral in Bedford.

The coalition’s ultimate goal is to be recognized by the 77-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion as a “parallel province,” a conservative alternative to the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, now the official provinces of those two nations.

But that won’t happen overnight, said Robert Duncan, a former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.

“This is a great moment in Anglican history and for Christians everywhere,” Duncan said. “But this is not so much a conclusion of something as it is a beginning.”

During discussion of the constitution, Duncan recognized Nigerian Bishop Alfred Nwaizuzu, who shouted “Praise God” in telling how Peter Akinola, archbishop of Nigeria, and other Anglicans in that nation support the new group.

Among those attending the assembly were representatives from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Jerusalem, Southeast Asia and Rwanda. Sessions continue through Thursday afternoon.

Jack Iker, bishop of the Fort Worth group that left the Episcopal Church, welcomed delegates to the first session and presided at the celebration of the Eucharist.

Duncan turned cheerleader during an opening address, telling of the sacrifices of pensions and loss of friends caused by separation from the Episcopal Church.

“Are we ready, if still more is asked?” he asked. “Yes!” the congregation declared.

Duncan, who will be ordained as archbishop of the group Wednesday night at Christ Church Plano, said the big challenge is “to keep the main thing the main thing — sharing the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ with all who will listen.”

William Wantland, retired bishop of Eau Claire, Wis., who has been an assisting bishop to Iker, has said that the group’s new constitution and proposed bylaws “make it clear that sexual relations are permitted only between a man and a woman within the confines of holy matrimony. Fornication and adultery, including all homosexual acts, are prohibited.”

The new constitution allows local groups to control their property and to decide whether to ordain women. That’s a concession to groups like the one led by Iker, which refuses to ordain women.

Duncan told the group that the constitution is not perfect but that “it is enough.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams of the Church of England, the symbolic leader of the 38 national bodies making up the Anglican Communion, has voiced concerns about the alternative North American province and said its recognition could take years.

Duncan said, however, that many conservatives in Africa, South America and Australia are dismayed over same-sex marriages and gay ordinations — particularly that of the Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire — and support the proposed province.”

From http://www.star-telegram.com/religion/story/1447711.html

I’m coming back to the heart of watching The Sunday Footy Show in my PJ’s

Jeff Elkins writes…

“……..Joe Christian is attending Small-Medium Church. At some point he becomes frustrated. Maybe it is inaction. Maybe it is ineffectiveness. Maybe it is personal conflict. Maybe he is attracted by a fancy programing, rocking worship, or compelling speakers. Maybe Joe just gets tired of showing up every Sunday. For whatever reason, Joe leaves Small Medium Church and gives Megachurch a try.

At first Joe is fired up. Everything at Megachurch seems better. The preaching is better. The worship is better. The programs are better. The building is better. Crap, even the coffee is better. And the atmosphere is exciting. There is so much going on and so many people. Joe feels like a freshmen in his first week of college. Everything is awesome.

And the problems Joe had at Small Medium Church don’t exist at Megachurch. The worn thin relationships are gone.  The faults of the pastor aren’t glaring him in the face anymore. The ministries he ran aren’t hanging around his neck like a yoke. Everything is new.

Joe immediately invites friends. His faith is energized. He loves being there and wants everyone he knows to have the same amazing experience. He joins a small group; gets in a ministry; signs up for a mission trip. Joe drinks it all in.

But then, over time, the new fades. The problems that existed at Small Medium Church are at Megachurch as well; they are just better hidden by the size of the congregation. And the “better-ness” of everything starts to fade too. Sure the building is nicer, but its still just a church building. Sure the preaching is compelling and inspirational, but Joe still doesn’t remember the sermon beyond Thursday. Sure the programs are more professional, and Joe isn’t solely responsible for them like he was at Small Medium Church; but they are still just programs. They aren’t changing the world.

Finally Joe’s energy and enthusiasm starts to fade. He attends Megachurch less and less. Until finally, after about five years, he barely goes at all.  He thinks about going back to Small Medium Church; but he remembers all the issues there and his stomach turns. Instead, he just stops participating in church all together.

Repeat this pattern in the lives of millions of Joe Christians and the decline of the American church begins to make sense.

Here’s the bottom line:

Megachurches are not “reaching the lost.” They are simply the last stop before Christians walk from the church altogether. They carry an atmosphere of excitement and energy because there are enough new people coming in to keep the blood pumping; but they’re leaking.

Here is a terrifying thought for you. Megachurches are often touted as the future and salvation of the American church because they have such amazing energy; but it is clear they are simply feeding off of small and medium churches. So what happens when small and medium churches run out of people to feed the monsters?……………”

From http://www.examiner.com/x-13920-Baltimore-Baptist-Examiner~y2009m6d21-Megachurches-leak

Bloody idiot

The OC Weekly reports…

“It’s telling about the sad state of religion reporting in Orange County, one of the founts of American Christianity, that no one has yet to report this: a major Trinity Broadcasting Company personality has pleaded guilty to two felony DUIs that put a 70-year-old man in the hospital with serious injuries.

On April 26, around 10 p.m., one Stephen Eugene Galiher was speeding at least over 85 miles per hour in his company-owned BMW on the 73 Freeway near the 55 Freeway interchange when he smashed into a car, causing it to overturn twice. Galiher–the head pastor at Trinity Music City Church, the main place of worship at TBN’s Christian music theme park in Hendersonville, Tennessee–was in town after appearing four days earlier on Behind the Scenes, a show where TBN head Paul Crouch checks in with his many ministers. A California Highway Patrol report obtained by the Weekly shows that the officer on hand “smell[ed] a very strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Galiher’s breath and, his eyes were red and bloodshot.” When asked what he drank, the pastor admitted to “2 glasses of red wine at the Newport Beach Island Hotel.” Either Galiher’s a lightweight, or he’s a big liar–when was the last time drinking too much wine created bloodshot eyes?

Steve Galiher (as he more commonly goes by) told the CHP officer he was heading to “the company house off Bear Street” before crashing. He then failed all the field sobriety tests, at which point the officer arrested him for a DUI. His actual blood-alcohol content is still unknown, as it’s not listed in the field report.

On May 22 in Orange County Superior Court, Galiher pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and causing injury and DUI over .08 BAC causing injury. But Galiher isn’t scheduled for sentencing until Dec. 18 and is free on $100,000 bail. He remains on TBN’s roster; his victim, on the other hand (whom the Weekly is not identifying but we’ve spoken with his family), remains in the hospital with four broken ribs, a broken arm and leg, and had to get pins put in his vertebrae. He cannot currently walk due to the injuries caused by Galiher.
 
Here is Galiher and Crouch trying to fleece poor Christians out of more cash with TBN’s nefarious Prosperity Gospel. How about a prayer for the poor man whom Galiher nearly killed, Crouch?”

From http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/gimme-that-oc-religion/tbn-personality-turns-wine-int/

4 Corners report on ‘witch children’

“The Niger River Delta in Africa is a living hell for many of its people. Massive industrial projects have poisoned the land and the water. Sickness and disease are rampant. The source of the region’s problems is clear but many people do not blame the government, instead they have turned on their own children.

Encouraged by a group of evangelical preachers these parents are told to believe that their bad luck is the work of Satan, given human form in their own offspring. Their children are accused of making people ill, of poisoning food and polluting the drinking water.

Denounced as ‘Satan made flesh’ by powerful pastors and prophetesses, the children are abandoned, tortured, starved and sometimes even murdered. These same ministers also offer to exorcise the devil from the children for large sums of money. In doing this they have created a remarkable industry and made themselves wealthy, while condemning many families to poverty.

Helen Ukpabio is one of these powerful evangelical preachers. She runs the Liberty Gospel Church. As well as preaching about witches and demon children, she has made a series of films that promote the view that children can be agents of Satan, and can kill and eat human flesh. In the wake of these movies the number of children being branded witches has increased dramatically. Few people will stand up to the evangelists.

This week Four Corners follows the work of Englishman Gary Foxcroft, who has devoted his life to helping these desperate and vulnerable children. Gary’s charity, Stepping Stones Nigeria, raises funds to help Nigerians who have rescued children who have been accused of witchcraft.

We travel with Gary as he meets small children like Mary, who has been abandoned by her parents. The program tells how her mother has died, her father has left her and the villagers where she grew up now threaten to kill her because they believe she is a witch. Gary decides to take her to a special shelter to protect her.

Five years ago the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) began by providing a home to four children branded witches; now it has over 150 in a makeshift shelter and school. The people there struggle to provide food and clothing for the children and the youngsters themselves live with the knowledge that their own parents have rejected them. The charity has few resources and struggles to survive.

Faced with this crisis Gary Foxcroft takes the children from the CRARN orphanage to the governor’s residence to demand assistance and to ask that laws be made to punish anyone who harms children. The meeting provides a remarkable climax to a film that is both shocking and uplifting.

“Saving Africa’s Witch Children” goes to air on Four Corners at 8.30pm on Monday 22nd June on ABC1 and is repeated at 11.35pm on Tuesday 23rd June.”

From http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2009/s2601755.htm

Or watch the program online here

The Hill$ong Conference backlash

Vietnamese Evangelical Church pastor Colin Reynolds blogs…

“In a couple of weeks many young people in my church and other church-goers will be making their annual pilgrimage to Sydney, NSW for the Hillsong Conference. Over the past three years, this white man has accompanied the masses to ‘megachurch Mecca’ and, if really honest, gained a lot from the conference experience. So coming up to this time of year, I have had many youth presume that I’m again going to be a guest of the Houstons in the first week of July. And they have appeared slightly bemused when told that this year I’m not going. I have explained to many that I need to be around this year for planning purposes re. our own church’s National Youth Conference at the end of this year. True in some part but not entirely. So I want to explain the real reasons I’m not going to Hillsong Conference this year…or to any Hillsong Conferences in the foreseeable future for that matter!

First, this year the headlining keynote speaker at Hillsong Conference is Joel Osteen. For those unaware, Osteen is the pastor of America’s largest church, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. He is also one of the most outspoken apologists of the “prosperity gospel”. In essence, this man holds the belief that the strength and sincerity of your Christian faith is inextricably linked to the state of your assets and income. In other words, the stronger in faith, the richer in wealth. It is the view that God’s grace isn’t just a reflection of your forgiveness, salvation and righteousness, but is tangibly linked with his blessing on your life in terms of your material prosperity. There is no other warped twisting of God’s Word and Being that infuriates this white man more than prosperity gospel thinking. I’ve never once heard of any legitimately struggling, materially poor person of God spruiking prosperity gospel nonsense. I guess it really must only be the wealthy Kingdom-dwellers who are most blessed – Jesus must have ‘unintentionally’ left that one off His Beatitudes list! So with Joel Osteen headlining Hillsong Conference this year there is no chance I’d be supporting him or his ministry team in any way, shape or form.

Secondly, I have had a gutful of Hillsong Church themselves and their adherence to all things prosperity gospel. As a church they boast an annual income in excess of 50 million per annum. And I acknowledge that it is their money – what they choose to do with it is up to the church leadership in accordance with the agreeance of those members who make their own choice to give their titles and offerings into Hillsong. I guess I have just come to realise that they really don’t need my paltry once-a-year offering of my time and money into their conference coffers and, more the point, I don’t need to offer it. Actually, to be more precise, I don’t want to offer it! I know Hillsong have more than enough people in their fields ’sowing seed into their harvest’. My seed would be better sown elsewhere. If there is a more materially-driven body of Christ in this nation than Hillsong Church then I’d like to know about them! They are as much prosperity gospelists as Osteen and Lakewood Church – perhaps just not as prosperous?! Yet!

Lastly, last year Hillsong Conference finished on the usual high it does on a Friday night with a praise & worship celebration night. The highlight of which was the appearance of one Michael Guglielmucci who, complete with oxygen mask etc… performed his renowned worship song “Healer”. Following this, with 20 000 other attendees mostly in tears, including myself (unashamed to admit that given I cry once-a-week on cue when watching Find My Family!) watching on, Guglielmucci was prayed over by some of the most famous Christian speakers today. Of course this all happened before the sensational revelation that the whole Guglielmucci terminal cancer story was simply an elaborate, if not confusing hoax to deflect attention away from his real confessed condition of having a pornography addiction. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned there are two issues that I still cannot reconcile regarding the whole Guglielmucci scandal – if Hillsong church and their leadership are meant to be the ’spiritual giants’ and ‘front-runners’ of this nation’s collective local Church with supposedly the most spiritually-intune Christians in their fold then why did not any of them discern or detect some issue with Mike Guglielmucci’s situation? Was the devil just way too sneaky when it came to Mike and his ‘cancer’? And secondly, I have seen few, if any sincere attempts by Hillsong to maturely and positively deal with the scandal from their end. Yet all it seemed they were interested in was pulling their CD’s with his songs on them off the shelves so as not to tarnish their precious name. Constant trawling and copyright restraining of Youtube downloads of the song “Healer” also make Hillsong look bullyish and petulant. What I have still to reconcile in myself is that I was present, I was witness to and I was spiritually moved by what ended up being one of the greatest church shams this nation has ever seen in recent times. And for that, at this time at least, I am unwilling to return to the venue where I was duped and played for a fool.

So this white man isn’t attending Hillsong Conference this year. By no means is this a protest against Hillsong and my views must not be taken as authoritative and even definitively correct. They are just my views – nothing more, nothing less, take them as you please. And as I said before, I won’t be returning in the foreseeable future. I never say never because who knows; maybe one day Hillsong church might begin to see past the collection plate and return to what I believe is a truer essence of Christian living – something like what Micah spoke of in 6:8 – that is living out justice to the poor, loving mercy and walking with God in humility. So there it is…bye-bye Brian and Bobby…have a ‘richly’ blessed conference!”

From http://thiswhitemansworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/hillsong-hiatus.html

Anchored down in Anchorage

The Anchorage Daily News reports…

“I made it into the Anchorage Assembly chambers on Wednesday just about the time a Christian guy in a red shirt was testifying in detail about how gay people are into flogging. It was X-rated and creepy no matter how you cut it, but it was especially weird because my mom was in the room along with a lot of people carrying Bibles.

There had already been too many crazy-making, repetitive evenings of testimony about whether to add sexual orientation to the city’s non-discrimination ordinance. The ordinance defined “sexual orientation” as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. It covered housing and employment. It was not breaking new ground. Similar ordinances exist in more than 100 cities. Some are 30 years old.

But pressure from church groups led assembly members to tinker with it. By Wednesday it was absurd.
The Assembly was actually considering an ordinance that would exclude transgender people completely and would make discrimination against gays and lesbians legal for all private employers in Anchorage. So instead of protecting people from discrimination, they were writing the ability to discriminate into the law.

And they were letting the circular hours of testimony go on and on, including testimony from people who don’t live in Anchorage. I guessed it was because some of those who want the issue to go away were waiting for Dan Sullivan to take office. Sullivan is a conservative guy, and many expect him to veto whatever the Assembly approves. One way or another, it seemed the measure was destined to fail.

I was there because of a photo a friend had posted online of a big black Dodge Durango that showed up at the Loussac Library the day before. It had “Straight Pride. Say no to Homo!” painted on it in white. It shocked me because it tapped into something I don’t come into contact with that often in Anchorage: blatant homophobia.

The thing that was killing me as I sat there was that it was really just an ugly war over something symbolic. Was it going to make a huge tangible change in a huge number of lives? No. It was a simple gesture of tolerance. As it stands, only a tiny fraction of those who call the city’s Equal Rights Commission to complain about discrimination end up going through the process to find a remedy. It could pass and most of Anchorage would wake up the next day largely unchanged. But the Assembly lost perspective on that and couldn’t seem to get it back.

I stepped outside onto the library lawn. It had a tense carnival atmosphere. The Christians, wearing red shirts, waved anti-ordinance signs along 36th Avenue next to the gay people and supporters swathed in rainbow flags. There were hot dogs (Christian) and sandwiches (gay), techno (gay) and hip-hop (Christian). People bobbed heads to respective beats.

Jim Minnery, the head of the Alaska Family Council, caught up with me by the hot dog stand. He’s nice enough and we went around for a while even though we disagreed. His big thing was the issue of Christian businesses having to serve gay people. He gave the example of a Christian gynecologist who refused to do in vitro fertilization for a lesbian couple in California. They sued him under nondiscrimination laws and won, he said. I told him as a far as I was concerned, the Christian gynecologists could be excused from making gay people’s babies.

But I kept thinking about Minnery’s example. In vitro fertilization was one thing, but what about emergency surgery? When you sign up to be a doctor, do you have a right to refuse patients you don’t agree with? Where does religious freedom end and human rights for gay people begin? Is “religious freedom” in this case just a code word for prejudice?

And, what about common sense? Under the ordinance, churches would be allowed to discriminate in their hiring, but church-goers would have to follow the same rules as everyone else. That seemed fair. It’s not illegal for a doctor to say, “I’m obligated to treat you, but I don’t agree with the way you live your life.” If my doctor said that, I’d be getting another doctor in a hurry. If the ordinance passes, it might mean some uncomfortable conversations. I’m not sure uncomfortable conversations infringe on anyone’s religious freedom.

I walked through the crowd reading signs. “Truth is not hate.” “Hate is not truth.” “Everyone snuggles!” Then I ran into a kid holding a sign that said “Gays recruit children.”

“Do you really believe that?” I asked him.
He shrugged, and then looked straight ahead like I wasn’t there.
I went back inside just as Pastor Alonzo Patterson headed for the podium. He’s from Shiloh Baptist, maybe the biggest black church in town. He and my grandparents worked on civil rights issues in Anchorage 30 years ago.

About then I realized we weren’t just talking about Christian doctors, we were talking about any business in the city. Right now a restaurant owner can put a sign out front that says “No gays allowed,” and that would be totally fine. A health club could ban gay people from the pool. I really don’t think that’s the kind of city we live in. So why would it be so hard to make it part of the city code?

Patterson was getting worked up. He was outraged that anyone would compare the civil rights movement to the gay rights movement. Gays weren’t beaten down, he said. They weren’t lynched. I thought about Matthew Shepard, the gay kid beaten to death and tied to a fence in Wyoming in 1998. I thought of gays sent to concentration camps when my grandmother was a girl in Italy.

The ordinance change is about symbolism and that symbolism is important. It’s about making a statement that everyone is welcome here. It’s overdue. It’s common sense. I believe the majority of this town supports it.

But it appears a room full of red shirts is enough to convince some Assembly members otherwise.”

From http://community.adn.com/adn/node/141916

Who wants to be a millionairehead?

The Sydney Morning Herald reports…

“A former Hillsong preacher has countered the gloom on financial markets by offering some sage tips on how the world can extricate itself from its economic mess.

In an email to the Reflux newsrooms during the week, the Castle Hill-domiciled Pat Mesiti spruiked his upcoming motivational speaking tour where he claims he will give people the tool “to work a financial miracle” in their lives.

“You will never, ever again feel threatened by the global economy whether it’s booming or in a recession, you have the power and knowledge to fully secure and protect your wealth,” reasoned Mesiti. It is unclear if the US Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, or Bank of England governor Mervyn King will be taking notes.

“It sweeps you in like a raging torrent. It literally propels you into success just by the atmosphere … the speakers … and the quality of people there. It literally carries you to success,” Mesiti said of his so-called Millionaires Makers Bootcamp. Tickets are a modest $997 a pop.

In a carrot for would-be attendees, Mesiti said there would be a special guest attending one of his seminars. One of “the world’s leading experts on wealth and prosperity”. The nameless individual apparently charges $250,000 a speech but will only be presenting in one of the cities Mesiti’s seminar is visiting.

“I will release more details about our full line up of speakers in a while but I will say this is a star studded cast of wealth building experts,” explained Mesiti. “I have spared no expense to bring you the best speakers on financial abundance on prosperity. These are my own personal mentors, the people I turn to when I need advice!” He will be heading the seminars with his business partner Greg Owen, the founder of a motivational speaking company and a “successful business entrepreneur”.

Mesiti claims to have 4000 would-be millionaires already in training and ultimately plans to “make” 10,000 millionaires. “I dare you to become a millionaire. If you’re interested, I invite you to join me. I want you to be one of the 10,000 millionaires,” Mesiti said.

Despite Mesiti being unwilling to give away his millionaire-making secrets free, he has offered some tantalising tips. It seems a lot easier to make a million dollars than many people let on. “That means if you want to build wealth and make a million dollars, the first thing you must do before anything can happen is shift your mindset!” Mesiti said.

“Most people think, ‘Well, I’d like to just have a hundred thousand dollar income’, but why ask for the hundred thousand when I can get you to the millionaire status? It’s crazy!”"

From http://business.smh.com.au/business/exhillsong-holy-roller-offers-heaven-on-earth-20090619-cr5v.html?page=-1

Pay rise for accused pastor

The Star-Ledger reports…

“A new board of a township church wants to give a nearly $40,000 pay raise to its pastor, who was accused by the state of bilking the church of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a state-appointed fiscal monitor reviewing the church’s finances.

Randolph Christian Church board members want to boost Eric Simons’ salary from $47,696 to $85,400, but have not given the monitor, Donald Conway, any reason for the pay increase.

 

The report also states Simons and co-pastor Phillip DuPlessis used $22,000 in Randolph Christian Church funds to start a business venture with a Nevada law firm.

The company they founded, Highpoint Group LLC, holds the title of a $450,000 schooner that was purchased with church funds. DuPlessis had been ordered by the state to turn over the title or registration of the schooner he is currently living on with his wife and children in Jersey City.

The report is the second in what is expected to be a series of reports on the church’s finances. The first report was released on May 14.

Al DePaola, the church’s treasurer in the late 1990s under previous leadership, said a pastor’s salary is based on the size of the congregation. The bigger the church, the bigger the pay. But membership at the Randolph Christian Church has sharply decreased after Simons came in 1999, and dropped from 300 to less than 100.

According to the 2008 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, IRS guidelines suggest pastors of a congregation of 50, with a church income of $65,000 a year, should make an annual salary can be upwards of $24,000, which includes housing, cars, benefits and retirement package, said former congregant and private investigator Maria Palumbo.

DePaola said Conway’s suggested salary of $55,100 “sounds fair and reasonable,” based on criteria the monitor used, such as church income, attendance, region and denomination.

“The board would have to produce a compelling reason for going way beyond that, and provide in writing how they came to that decision,” DePaola said.

Simons and DuPlessis have until the end of the month to pay back $225,000 owed to church members and former congregants who said the religious leaders used those church funds and honoraria for the boat, the Liberty Schooner, according to the report.

They also must hand over ownership of the vessel to the church so the congregation can be reimbursed. If they don’t pay the church back by June 30, the monitor will select a boat broker and put the schooner up for sale at $450,000, Conway stated.

“It appears that RCC funds have been used to pay for personal expenses of Simons and DuPlessis,” Conway stated.

The church’s three pastors, including Simons’ wife and senior pastor Marianne, also used members’ donations and proceeds from selling the $5 million church building to buy a $1.6 million estate in Randolph Township and take life-coaching classes, state officials said.

The church board also plans to sell the Randolph estate, which is being used by the Simonses as a parsonage. The board hopes to make back the $1.6 million, but Conway says the price tag is “not realistic,” given the sharp drop in the state’s real estate values.

“By listing the property at an unrealistic selling price the only thing accomplished is to extend the period of time that RCC will be paying the carrying costs of the parsonage and further deplete the cash position of RCC,” Conway stated in the report.

The church board wants to oversee the sale and not involve Conway, the report stated.

The Simonses and their children will continue living in the parsonage until it is rented or sold, said the pastors’ lawyer, Robert Margulies. He said they hold “social events” in the house.

“It’s the same thing that any other pastor would do,” Margulies said.

The Simonses continue to hold nondenominational worship services at the Randolph church building.”

From http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/randolph_church_wants_to_give.html

Building up the body

The Moscow Times reports…

“A Karelian court sentenced a Lutheran pastor to three years in prison Monday for illegally selling steroids to bodybuilders, Interfax reported.

The Petrozavodsk City Court found Andrei Antonov, 44, pastor of the city’s Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit, guilty of organizing a criminal group in 2007 with a friend, Gennady Yeroshkin, who worked for Karelia’s Federation of Bodybuilders. The two men were accused of selling illegal steroids to bodybuilders at a gym in Petrozavodsk, the capital of the republic in northwestern Russia.

Yeroshkin was sentenced to four years in prison Monday.

Officers with the Federal Drug Control Service and the Federal Security Service seized more than 8,000 pills and 200 vials of steroids, most of which were kept in the church where the pastor worked, when they arrested the two men in March 2008, Interfax said.

During a search of the church, Antonov willingly turned over a TT semiautomatic pistol that he owned, it said.”

From http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/378783.htm

‘This guy is no more a pastor than I am an astronaut’

The New York Times reports…

“Word of the deal spread swiftly among Ecuadorean immigrants, along a robust grapevine from New York City out to Long Island and into Westchester County. In Peekskill, N.Y., a gas station worker named Henry León heard about it through a friend of his wife’s: The pastors of a storefront Pentecostal church in Corona, Queens, had the inside track on a special allotment of green cards the government had earmarked for church congregations.

Mr. León and his wife made the two-hour trip by train and subway to Corona to meet with one of the two pastors, Gregorio Gonzalez. He told them that all they had to do was to fill out a form and provide $8,000 each in cash and some personal identification documents, Mr. León recalled. The green cards would be ready in a month.

It seemed too good to be true. And it was, according to prosecutors in the Queens district attorney’s office.

Mr. León and his wife are among at least 120 illegal immigrants in the New York region, most of them Ecuadoreans, who the authorities say were defrauded out of a total of nearly $1 million by Mr. Gonzalez, 56, and two accomplices who were arrested in March and April. The authorities say it was one of the region’s largest cases of immigration fraud in recent years.

Mr. León, 26, a Roman Catholic, still finds it hard to believe that a man of the cloth would lie to them. “For someone who talks so much about God,” he said, “why did he play people like that?”

Immigration fraud has become widespread as hucksters, many of them newcomers themselves, take advantage of illegal immigrants desperate to legalize their status yet hesitant to seek help from law enforcement agencies for fear of deportation. Pastors accused of fleecing the faithful are nothing new, either: In April, a former minister of a church in Forest Hills, Queens, and four others were indicted on charges of swindling investors, many of them elderly or disabled church members, of more than $9 million.

But the story of the Corona scheme suggests how especially insidious immigration fraud may be when practiced by leaders of a church — the institution that many immigrants turn to for friendship and guidance in a foreign land.

The Rev. Brian Jordan, a Franciscan priest based in Manhattan who has worked with immigrants and refugees for 26 years, said the victims in such cases are caught in “double jeopardy.”

“The people are being scammed, and what makes it worse is they’re being scammed by someone they trust, these so-called pastors,” he said. Speaking of Mr. Gonzalez, he added, “This guy is no more a pastor than I am an astronaut.”

Immigrant advocates and law enforcement officials in New York and across the country say that immigration-fraud schemes operating out of religious institutions appear to be rare. But some may go unreported, given illegal immigrants’ suspicions of the government and the transience of many small, independent churches.

Prosecutors say Mr. Gonzalez and Gerardo Bello, 21, set up their church, La Iglesia Roca de la Salvación Eterna, in the cellar of a brick house in Corona early last year. The authorities said that it was unclear how large a congregation the men had built, but that neither was ordained.

The services apparently took place in a large room where investigators said they found about 30 folding chairs and notebooks containing handwritten hymns. One immigrant who said she went to the church to confront Mr. Gonzalez said she arrived during a service and saw no more than seven people in attendance.

Mr. Gonzalez, officials said, is an Ecuadorean immigrant, too — in the United States illegally and subject to deportation. He and Mr. Bello face charges of grand larceny, fraud and possession of stolen property. Mr. Gonzalez’s sister, Maria Gonzalez, 52, is charged with grand larceny and possession of stolen property. Their lawyers did not respond to telephone messages.

The Rev. Christian Santiago of the Rock of Salvation Church, a venerable Pentecostal church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., said Mr. Gonzalez began attending his services about two years ago.

Soon afterward, Mr. Santiago recalled, Mr. Gonzalez started a Bible study group in Corona. But Mr. Santiago said he distanced himself from Mr. Gonzalez when he noticed that the other man was showing “more interest in money than in spiritual things.”

In interviews, 10 immigrants from five families said they learned about the Corona pastors’ offer in the spring of 2008. Several agreed to speak only if their last names were not published, for fear that the defendants or their relatives might seek revenge.

Many were not members of the church, but say they had heard about the pastors’ offer from relatives and friends. Maria, 47, an unemployed Ecuadorean living in Corona, said she got word from her daughter, who was told by a friend whose uncle was getting involved.

“We were so excited that we didn’t really consider the consequences,” Maria said, adding that she and seven family members each paid Mr. Gonzalez $9,000.

Mr. Gonzalez, the immigrants said, told them versions of the same story: that the federal government was holding a special lottery for 12,000 green cards earmarked for churches around the country. But time was short, he warned, and they would have to pay him a fee in cash, ranging from $6,000 to $10,000.

“It seemed so strange that it was so easy, but he convinced us,” recalled Viviana, 27, who lives with her husband and two children in Astoria, Queens. “We were foolish.”

She and her husband, an auto mechanic, paid Mr. Gonzalez $16,000, she said, draining their savings and borrowing money from her mother in Ecuador. Others borrowed from friends or colleagues, most at high rates of interest.

But a month came and went, the immigrants said, and no green cards appeared. When they pressed Mr. Gonzalez, they said, he told them the process would take another few weeks. He had scheduled interviews for them at a federal immigration office, they said, and gave them dates.

As those dates approached, the pastor said there had been more delays, owing in part to the coming presidential transition. He rescheduled the appointments, they said, and those, too, fell through.

Mr. Gonzalez used the language of piety to appeal for patience and tamp down their suspicions, the immigrants said. “He always said: ‘Have faith. Where is your faith?’ ” recalled Margarita, 51, a devout Catholic who said she and nine other family members paid Mr. Gonzalez a total of $80,000.

But as the months wore on, and some people began to demand their money back, Mr. Gonzalez’s language turned sinister, the immigrants said: he threatened to call the authorities and have them deported. Several months ago, they said, Mr. Gonzalez stopped answering their phone calls and closed the church.

Maria and her family were among the first to notify the district attorney’s office. Another group of immigrants was referred there by Father Jordan. Soon, prosecutors say, they were deluged with calls.

Many of the immigrants say they find themselves in deep financial holes at a time when work is scarce. Officials can offer only limited hope: Full restitution for victims is often difficult in cases of economic fraud, especially in immigration-related cases, which almost always involve cash transactions.

But the hurt, witnesses said, has gone far deeper than the financial loss.

“We’re simple people,” said Margarita, tears spilling from her eyes. “They gave us the word of God.”

From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/nyregion/17scheme.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&pagewanted=all

Just remember – Pat Mesiti’s message ‘does not promote Christianity’

Lance (Group Sects) writes…

You may remember a recent (empty) legal threat I received from a person purporting to represent the former Hill$ong and Christian Shitty Church pastor Pat Mesiti. It was in response to a post I did about Brian Houston, Phil Baker and Allan Meyer working for Mesiti at a wealth motivation conference at a plush Gold Coast resort last year.

(April 21,2009) “Hi Geelongboy,

http://groupsects.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/brian-houston-sacked-pat-mesiti-from-hillong-so-why-is-houston-now-back-working-for-mesiti-at-a-secret-location/
     Please remove this blog post immediately.

I am writing as my company represents a technical arm of Pat Mesiti’s 
business.

In reference to your blog post –>

Pat Mesiti is not a sect and his message is not a promotion of 
christianity. This blog video utilises copywrited material and Pat 
Mesiti’s legal arm will be filing a law suit if you do not remove this 
blog post within 24 hours .

Please advise when it is removed.

Thanks, Regards

Greg Cassar
Internet Marketing Strategist
InternetMarketingDoneForYou.com…….”

Further legal checks confirmed the threat as baseless, as any disputes over copyright are between the uploader of the video content and Youtube itself. This blog (and any blog that hosts Youtube videos) posts code which gives site visitors a preview snapshot of the videos hosted by Youtube, but does not host the Youtube content itself. A ‘porthole window’ is opened up on the blog in which Youtube content can be ‘embedded’. Just as banner ads you see on some sites are not actually part of the website itself but are hosted elsewhere.

However I 100% agree with the claim that Pat Mesiti’s message is not a promotion of Christianity and never has been. I took the threat to mean that a line had been drawn in the sand between Pat’s ‘pastor life’ and his new life as a secular wealth motivation speaker. My linking him to Christianity is obviously potentially bad for business.

So what am I to make of these more recent blog posts? 

Marc Ng Mun Ho blogs…(May 7, 2009)

“Church was really awesome this week. We had a guest for the week who is Pat Mesiti, a motivational speaker. I don’t know really know much about this guy but I assume he must be really an important person since he came all the way from Australia & is willing to give a talk in four days in a row from Thursday to Sunday. My assumption was correct. Pat Mesiti was really out of this world. I’ve attended only the Friday & Sunday service although I’m supposed to accompany my cousin on Thursday (sorry Justin). Pat Mesiti’s seminars were about relationships & finances although I like the part more about relationships. He told the differences between men & women & explained how each gender should learn to tolerate with other. Some words he used may be controversial especially among women but you can’t deny what he said is true though. In the finances part, he explained that Christians should change their mindset about making money by frequently coming up with new ideas to bring up business organizations & not always depending on God for provision. In short the seminars in four days was a real eye opener & I hope he would come back again to our church in the very near future……”

http://theknowledgeablewarrior.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-cant-sleep-well-because-of-heat.html

Kevin Loo blogs…(May 10, 2009)

“So good to see all of you in [City Harvest, Singapore] church again! I trust that you have had a great and amazing week. This weekend all of us are in for a treat as we have Ps. Pat Mesiti together with his wife, Andrea and his wonderful daughter, Sophia with us! Ps. Pat has been coming to our church for many years now and we have been growing and growing in the way we think since the first time he came. Personally, I truly appreciate the ministry of Ps. Pat as he always challenges the way we think and how we should elevate to the next level! And I am sure this week is of no exception either. As we come with a right attitude, all of us will see growth and breakthrough to new heights! The Lord is faithful and He will take us higher!

Apart from that, this is also the first time Ps. Pat taught us on relationship….”

http://cityharvestchurchkl.blogspot.com/2009/05/dear-church-greetings-in-wonderful-name_12.html

And the Gold Coast Generation Church website advertises…

“CHURCH DETAILS

Central Campus
11 Crown Court
Varsity Lakes, QLD
P. 07 5522 0905 | E. info@generation.org

Northern Campus
456 Pine Ridge Road
Coombabah, QLD
Friday 26 June Pat Mesiti – 7pm @ Generation North
Saturday 27 June GBN with Pat Mesiti – Click on www.gbn.org.au for details”

http://generation.org/sunday-28-june/

[Andrew Hoyes, Generation Church's senior pastor, is also the director of GBN, the 'Generation Business Network http://www.gbn.org.au/about.html ]

The Generation Business network site advertises…

“GBN – Success Seminars

Generation business Network exists to inspire & motivate business leaders to develop their potential to lead & influence in every sphere of life.

News:

Saturday 27th June 09 – Seminar with Pat Mesiti

 

Keynote Speaker, Author, Trainer, Strategist and Business Advisor

Pat Mesiti has been dubbed “Mr. Motivation”. And for good reason! He isn’t just a speaker, he is a performer. Pat Mesiti comes to life when he sets foot on stage. His energy is incredible, drawing in crowds of thousands. Click here to Read Pat’s bio.

• Starting at 9:00am and finishing at 12:00pm on Saturday the 27th of June 09 @ the Generation Auditorium
• 11 Crown Crt Varsity Lakes
• Cost: $25 pre-booked, $30 at the door; Morning tea included.
• Call us for more information on (07) 5522 0905, or email info@generation.org

Reserve seats for you and your staff today!

>>> Exclusive Q&A Lunch with Pat Mesiti – Limited to 15 seats <<<

2:00pm – 4:00pm after GBN seminar on Saturday 27th June 09

Cost: $250 per head

Call now! Limited seats available on (07) 5522 0905 “

 http://www.gbn.org.au/

BTW, remind me not to get in the way of Pastor Andrew Hoyes and his church.

Andrew Hoyes twitters…

“Watching terminator with my exec team! It doesn’t get much better than this! I’m a terminator fan from way back! A

6:23 PM Jun 4th from TwitterBerry”

http://twitter.com/andrewhoyes

Josh Kelsey correctly contradicts Phil Pringle’s BS prosperity theology

When is a biker a bikie?

The Sydney Morning Herald reports…

“Randall “Animal” Nelson is a founding member of the Kings Cross Bikers, a loose group of 20 or so ex-crims, ex-drunks and charity workers.

Smothered in tattoos, rings and bracelets, he wears a bunch of badges on his leather vest, including a Medal of the Order of Australia for charity work, presented in 2004.

Mr Nelson does toy runs to children’s hospitals, unofficial outreach programs for the area’s homeless and drop-offs to the aged.

“Our agenda is helping people less fortunate than ourselves,” he said through his tobacco-stained beard.

The “young seventysomething” has not always been a saint. He had a couple of early stints at Long Bay Jail and made a final “just visiting” day-trip in the early 1990s, with motorbikes and strippers to raise the spirits of old mates.

“There’s a few crims here and there [in the Kings Cross Bikers]. All types of people associate with us.”

But the bikers and charities are worried that the Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009, dubbed the bikie laws, may put their good work at risk.

“Technically, they could be outlawed, which just highlights the stupidity of the law,” said Pastor Graham Long of the Wayside Chapel.

“Animal’s one of the most docile, kind-hearted people you’ll ever meet. He’s in here all the time, usually to grab second-hand stuff to give it away to people.”

Reverend Bill Crews tells a story of the Kings Cross Bikers having tea and scones with senior citizens before driving delighted ladies around on motorcycles. “We’ve only got praise for Animal. The Kings Cross Bikers are just characters,” he said.

A spokesman for Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said: “Just because someone’s involved in charity work doesn’t mean they’re not involved in criminal activity. They could be disguising themselves. It’s a matter for police to assess them.”

Superintendent Tony Crandell, Commander of Kings Cross police, said they “are aware of a number of organisations operating within its boundaries”.

Organisations operating lawfully would not be investigated, he said. “However, any illegal or antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated and will be investigated to the full extent of the law.”

The Crimes Act 2009 pertains to any network, not only those on motorcycles. It can be enforced on any group suspected by the Police Commissioner and one Supreme Court judge of criminal activity.

Political rhetoric has focused on bikers. Premier Nathan Rees told Parliament: “For all their rough appearance, bikies are also sophisticated criminals who launder their money through a variety of businesses.”

Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell said: “I would have no problem if you put all the motorcycle gang members in two rooms and allowed them to shoot themselves to death.”

But Mr Nelson doesn’t care what they think. The city council allocated a motorcycle-only parking zone outside Kings Cross Library, where a photo-portrait of him sells for $3000.

“That’s my office,” he says. “But everybody’s welcome. I fought for this place for everybody.”

From http://www.smh.com.au/national/endangered-animal-charity-worker-biker-now-in-firing-line-20090613-c6qc.html

Mark Driscoll – Calvin without Hobbes

Lance (Group Sects) writes…

Normally I wouldn’t give this much space to a drop-kick like Mark Driscoll. But when I learned over the weekend that there had been genuine moves to have him spear-heading church planting here in Australia, then I thought it timely that we discover a bit more about the beliefs that Driscoll would seek to impose on the Australian church.

As a side note, Driscoll is the original hater of ‘queer, limp-wristed’ (Driscoll’s own words) men.

Perhaps that’s one thing that Driscoll doesn’t understand about the cultural difference between America and Australia.

Perhaps in the US, church people are reluctant to publicly criticise Driscoll, fearing the wrath of God.

In Australia though, it’s much more likely that Driscoll would be told upfront to ‘fuck off back to America’.

The New York Times reports…

“Mark Driscoll’s sermons are mostly too racy to post on GodTube, the evangelical Christian “family friendly” video-posting Web site. With titles like “Biblical Oral Sex” and “Pleasuring Your Spouse,” his clips do not stand a chance against the site’s content filters. No matter: YouTube is where Driscoll, the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, would rather be. Unsuspecting sinners who type in popular keywords may suddenly find themselves face to face with a husky-voiced preacher in a black skateboarder’s jacket and skull T-shirt. An “Under 17 Requires Adult Permission” warning flashes before the video cuts to evening services at Mars Hill, where an anonymous audience member has just text-messaged a question to the screen onstage: “Pastor Mark, is masturbation a valid form of birth control?”

Driscoll doesn’t miss a beat: “I had one guy quote Ecclesiastes 9:10, which says, ‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.’ ” The audience bursts out laughing. Next Pastor Mark is warning them about lust and exalting the confines of marriage, one hand jammed in his jeans pocket while the other waves his Bible. Even the skeptical viewer must admit that whatever Driscoll’s opinion of certain recreational activities, he has the coolest style and foulest mouth of any preacher you’ve ever seen.

Mark Driscoll is American evangelicalism’s bête noire. In little more than a decade, his ministry has grown from a living-room Bible study to a megachurch that draws about 7,600 visitors to seven campuses around Seattle each Sunday, and his books, blogs and podcasts have made him one of the most admired — and reviled — figures among evangelicals nationwide. Conservatives call Driscoll “the cussing pastor” and wish that he’d trade in his fashionably distressed jeans and taste for indie rock for a suit and tie and placid choral arrangements. Liberals wince at his hellfire theology and insistence that women submit to their husbands. But what is new about Driscoll is that he has resurrected a particular strain of fire and brimstone, one that most Americans assume died out with the Puritans: Calvinism, a theology that makes Pat Robertson seem warm and fuzzy.

At a time when the once-vaunted unity of the religious right has eroded and the mainstream media is proclaiming an “evangelical crackup,” Driscoll represents a movement to revamp the style and substance of evangelicalism. With his taste for vintage baseball caps and omnipresence on Facebook and iTunes, Driscoll, who is 38, is on the cutting edge of American pop culture. Yet his message seems radically unfashionable, even un-American: you are not captain of your soul or master of your fate but a depraved worm whose hard work and good deeds will get you nowhere, because God marked you for heaven or condemned you to hell before the beginning of time. Yet a significant number of young people in Seattle — and nationwide — say this is exactly what they want to hear. Calvinism has somehow become cool, and just as startling, this generally bookish creed has fused with a macho ethos. At Mars Hill, members say their favorite movie isn’t “Amazing Grace” or “The Chronicles of Narnia” — it’s “Fight Club.”

Mars Hill Church is the furthest thing from a Puritan meetinghouse. This is Seattle, and Mars Hill epitomizes the city that spawned it. Headquartered in a converted marine supply store, the church is a boxy gray building near the diesel-infused din of the Ballard Bridge. In the lobby one Sunday not long ago, college kids in jeans — some sporting nose rings or kitchen-sink dye jobs — lounged on ottomans and thumbed text messages to their friends. The front desk, black and slick, looked as if it ought to offer lattes rather than Bibles and membership pamphlets. Buzz-cut and tattooed security guards mumbled into their headpieces and directed the crowd toward the auditorium, where the worship band was warming up for an hour of hymns with Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.”

On that Sunday, Driscoll preached for an hour and 10 minutes — nearly three times longer than most pastors. As hip as he looks, his message brooks no compromise with Seattle’s permissive culture. New members can keep their taste in music, their retro T-shirts and their intimidating facial hair, but they had better abandon their feminism, premarital sex and any “modern” interpretations of the Bible. Driscoll is adamantly not the “weepy worship dude” he associates with liberal and mainstream evangelical churches, “singing prom songs to a Jesus who is presented as a wuss who took a beating and spent a lot of time putting product in his long hair.”

The oldest of five, son of a union drywaller, Driscoll was raised Roman Catholic in a rough neighborhood on the outskirts of Seattle. In high school, he met a pretty blond pastor’s daughter named — providentially — Grace. She gave him his first Bible. He read voraciously and was born again at 19. “God talked to me,” Driscoll says. “He told me to marry Grace, preach the Bible, to plant churches and train men.” He married Grace (with whom he now has five children) and, at 25, founded Mars Hill.

God called Driscoll to preach to men — particularly young men — to save them from an American Protestantism that has emasculated Christ and driven men from church pews with praise music that sounds more like boy-band ballads crooned to Jesus than “Onward Christian Soldiers.” What bothers Driscoll — and the growing number of evangelical pastors who agree with him — is not the trope of Jesus-as-lover. After all, St. Paul tells us that the Church is the bride of Christ. What really grates is the portrayal of Jesus as a wimp, or worse. Paintings depict a gentle man embracing children and cuddling lambs. Hymns celebrate his patience and tenderness. The mainstream church, Driscoll has written, has transformed Jesus into “a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ,” a “neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that . . . would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell.”

This reaction to the “feminization” of the church is not new. “The Lord save us,” declared the evangelist Billy Sunday in 1916, “from off-handed, flabby-cheeked . . . effeminate, ossified, three-carat Christianity.” In 1990 a group of pastors founded the Promise Keepers ministry dedicated to “igniting and uniting men” who were failing their families and abandoning the church. In recent years, mainstream megachurches — the mammoth pacesetters of American evangelicalism that package Christianity for mass consumption — have been criticized for replacing hard-edged Gospel with feminized pablum. According to Ed Stetzer, the director of LifeWay Research, a Southern Baptist religious polling organization, Mars Hill is “a reaction to the atheological, consumer-driven nature of the modern evangelical machine.”

The “modern evangelical machine” is a product of the 1970s and ’80s, when a new generation of business-savvy pastors developed strategies to reach unbelievers turned off by traditional worship and evangelization. Their approach was “seeker sensitive”: upon learning that many people didn’t go in for stained glass and steeples, these pastors made their churches look like shopping malls. Complex theology intimidated the curious, and talk of damnation alienated potential converts — so they played down doctrine in favor of upbeat, practical teachings on the Christian life.

These megachurches, like Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston and Bill Hybels’s Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, have come to symbolize American evangelicalism. By any quantitative measure they are wildly successful, and their values and methods have diffused into the evangelical bloodstream. Yet some megachurches have begun to admit what critics maintained all along: numbers are not everything. In the fall of 2007, leaders of Willow Creek sent shockwaves through the evangelical world when they announced the results of a study in which churchgoers reported feeling stagnant in their faith and frustrated with slick, program-driven pastors. “As an evangelical, I would say this tells us something,” Stetzer says. “The center is not holding.”

Mars Hill has not entirely dispensed with megachurch marketing tactics. Its success in one of the most liberal and least-churched cities in America depends on being sensitive to the body-pierced and latte-drinking seekers of Seattle. Ultimately, however, Driscoll’s theology means that his congregants’ salvation is not in his hands. It’s not in their own hands, either — this is the heart of Calvinism.

Human beings are totally corrupted by original sin and predestined for heaven or hell, no matter their earthly conduct. We all deserve eternal damnation, but God, in his inscrutable mercy, has granted the grace of salvation to an elect few. While John Calvin’s 16th-century doctrines have deep roots in Christian tradition, they strike many modern evangelicals as nonsensical and even un-Christian. If predestination is true, they argue, then there is no point in missions to the unsaved or in leading a godly life. And some babies who die in infancy — if God placed them among the reprobate — go straight to hell with the rest of the damned, to “glorify his name by their own destruction,” as Calvin wrote. Since the early 19th century, most evangelicals have preferred a theology that stresses the believer’s free decision to accept God’s grace. To be born again is a choice God wants you to make; if you so choose, Jesus will be your personal friend.

Yet Driscoll is not an isolated eccentric. Over the past two decades, preachers in places as far-flung as Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., in denominations ranging from Baptist to Pentecostal, are pushing “this new, aggressive, mission-minded Calvinism that really believes Calvinism is a transcript of the Gospel,” according to Roger Olson, a professor of theology at Baylor University. They have harnessed the Internet to recruit new believers, especially young people. Any curious seeker can find his way into a world of sermon podcasts and treatises by the Protestant Reformers and English Puritans, whose abstruse writings, though far from best-selling, are enjoying something of a renaissance. New converts stay in touch via blogs and Facebook groups with names like “John Calvin Is My Homeboy” and “Calvinism: The Group That Chooses You.”

New Calvinists are still relatively few in number, but that doesn’t bother them: being a persecuted minority proves you are among the elect. They are not “the next big thing” but a protest movement, defying an evangelical mainstream that, they believe, has gone soft on sin and has watered down the Gospel into a glorified self-help program. In part, Calvinism appeals because — like Mars Hill’s music and Driscoll’s frank sermons — the message is raw and disconcerting: seeker insensitive.

Most people who attend Mars Hill do not see themselves as theological radicals. Mark Driscoll is just “Pastor Mark,” not the New Calvinist warrior demonized on evangelical and liberal blogs. Yet while some initially come for mundane reasons — their friends attend; they like the music — the Calvinist theology is often the glue that keeps them in their seats. They call the preaching “authentic” and “true to life.” Traditional evangelical theology falls apart in the face of real tragedy, says the 20-year-old Brett Harris, who runs an evangelical teen blog with his twin brother, Alex. Reducing God to a projection of our own wishes trivializes divine sovereignty and fails to explain how both good and evil have a place in the divine plan. “There are plenty of comfortable people who can say, ‘God’s on my side,’ ” Harris says. “But they couldn’t turn around and say, ‘God gave me cancer.’ ”

Though they believe that God has already mapped out their lives, Calvinists have always been activists. Ye shall know the elect by their fruits, not by their passive acceptance of fate. When it comes to wrestling with life’s challenges, however, they reject the “positive thinking” ethos that Norman Vincent Peale made famous in the 1950s. That philosophy still dominates the Christian self-help market in books like “Your Best Life Now” by Joel Osteen, which promises readers that everything from a Hawaiian vacation house to a beauty-pageant crown is within their grasp if only they “develop a can-do attitude.” Marianne Esterly, a women’s counselor at Mars Hill, says she tries to help women resist the desperation that can come with forgetting that man’s chief end is to glorify God, not to obsess over earthly problems. “They worship the trauma, or the anorexia, and that’s not what they’re designed to worship,” she says. “Christian self-help doesn’t work. We can’t do anything. It’s all the work of Christ.”

Calvinism is a theology predicated on paradox: God has predestined every human being’s actions, yet we are still to blame for our sins; we are totally depraved, yet held to the impossible standard of divine law. These teachings do not jibe with Enlightenment ideas about human capacity, yet they have appealed to a wide range of modern intellectuals, especially those who stressed the dangers of human hubris in the wake of World War I.

Driscoll found his way into this tradition largely on his own. He recently earned a master’s degree through an independent-study program he arranged at a seminary in Portland, Ore. Years ago, paperback reprints of old Puritan treatises in the corner of a local bookstore piqued his interest in Reformation theology. He came to admire Martin Luther, the vulgar, beer-swilling theological rebel who sparked the Reformation. “I found him to be something of a mentor,” Driscoll says. “I didn’t have all the baggage he did. But you can see him with a quill in one hand and a drink in the other. He married a brewer and renegade nun. His story is kind of indie rock.”

Driscoll disdains the prohibitions of traditional evangelical Christianity. Taboos on alcohol, smoking, swearing and violent movies have done much to shape American Protestant culture — a culture that he has called the domain of “chicks and some chickified dudes with limp wrists.” Moreover, the Bible tells him that to seek salvation by self-righteous clean living is to behave like a Pharisee. Unlike fundamentalists who isolate themselves, creating “a separate culture where you live in a Christian cul-de-sac,” as one spiky-haired member named Andrew Pack puts it, Mars Hillians pride themselves on friendships with non-Christians. They tend to be cultural activists who play in rock bands and care about the arts, living out a long Reformed tradition that asserts Christ’s mandate over every corner of creation.

Like many New Calvinists, Driscoll advocates traditional gender roles, called “complementarianism” in theological parlance. Men and women are “equal spiritually, and it’s a difference of functionality, not intrinsic worth,” says Danielle Blazer, a 34-year-old Mars Hill member. Women may work outside the home, but they must submit to their husbands, and they are forbidden from taking on preaching roles in the church.

“It’s only since women have been in church leadership that this backlash has come,” says the Seattle pastor Katie Ladd, a liberal Methodist who holds that declaring Jesus a “masculine dude” subverts the transformative message of the Gospel. But New Calvinists argue that traditional gender roles are true to the Bible, especially the letters of Paul. Moreover, embedded in the notion of Adam as the “federal head” of the human race is the idea of man as head of the home.

Nowhere is the connection between Driscoll’s hypermasculinity and his Calvinist theology clearer than in his refusal to tolerate opposition at Mars Hill. The Reformed tradition’s resistance to compromise and emphasis on the purity of the worshipping community has always contained the seeds of authoritarianism: John Calvin had heretics burned at the stake and made a man who casually criticized him at a dinner party march through the streets of Geneva, kneeling at every intersection to beg forgiveness. Mars Hill is not 16th-century Geneva, but Driscoll has little patience for dissent. In 2007, two elders protested a plan to reorganize the church that, according to critics, consolidated power in the hands of Driscoll and his closest aides. Driscoll told the congregation that he asked advice on how to handle stubborn subordinates from a “mixed martial artist and Ultimate Fighter, good guy” who attends Mars Hill. “His answer was brilliant,” Driscoll reported. “He said, ‘I break their nose.’ ” When one of the renegade elders refused to repent, the church leadership ordered members to shun him. One member complained on an online message board and instantly found his membership privileges suspended. “They are sinning through questioning,” Driscoll preached. John Calvin couldn’t have said it better himself.

Most members, however, didn’t join Mars Hill in order to ask questions. Damon Conklin, who is 41 and runs a tattoo parlor, says he joined Mars Hill because Driscoll made his life make sense — and didn’t ask him to pretend to be someone he wasn’t. “I decided to stop smoking crack and drinking every day,” Conklin says. “I had to find some kind of God in order to do that.” He hated the churches he visited: “I would show up looking as mean as possible, with my Afro blown out, wearing a wife-beater, and then I’d say, ‘Why don’t they like me?’ Then I went to Mars Hill, and I believed Mark.”

Driscoll’s theology “changed how I view women,” Conklin says. He quit going to strip clubs and now refuses to tattoo others with his old specialty, pinup girls (though he still wears two on one arm, souvenirs from earlier, godless days). Mars Hill counts four of the city’s top tattoo artists among its members (and many of their clientele — that afternoon, Conklin was expecting a fellow church member who wanted a portrait of Christ enthroned across his back). While other churches left people like Conklin feeling alienated, Mars Hill has made them its missionaries. “Some people say, ‘You’re pretty cool and you’re a Christian, so I guess I can’t hate all of them anymore,’ ” he says. “I understand where they’re coming from.”

Mars Hill — with its conservative social teachings embedded in guitar solos and drum riffs, its megachurch presence in the heart of bohemian skepticism — thrives on paradox. Critics on the left and right alike predict that this delicate balance of opposites cannot last. Some are skeptical of a church so bent on staying perpetually “hip”: members have only recently begun to marry and have children, but surely those children will grow up, grow too cool for their cool church and rebel. Others say that Driscoll’s ego and taste for controversy will be Mars Hill’s Achilles’ heel. Lately he has made a concerted effort to tone down his language, and he insists that he has delegated much authority, but the heart of his message has not changed. Driscoll is still the one who gazes down upon Mars Hill’s seven congregations most Sundays, his sermons broadcast from the main campus to jumbo-size projection screens around the city. At one suburban campus that I visited, a huge yellow cross dominated center stage — until the projection screen unfurled and Driscoll’s face blocked the cross from view. Driscoll’s New Calvinism underscores a curious fact: the doctrine of total human depravity has always had a funny way of emboldening, rather than humbling, its adherents.”

From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11punk-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Mark Driscoll won’t allow his adult children to marry someone from a different church – updated*

*(Video Transcript)

“(question)….What are your feelings about married couples who are both Christians but attend different churches because of how they were raised?

(Driscoll)……Suicide, is the first word that comes to mind. Suicide. There is no way we would ever let our children marry someone under those circumstances. No way in the world. Because what you’re saying is, not just we attend different churches, we have different theologies, we have different views of God and sin and family, and when we disagree we have different courts of arbitration. Those are parallel lives. If you can’t worship God together, you’re not ‘one’. I mean, let’s say you disagree on something and he says ‘well, my pastor says’ and she says ‘well, my pastor says’….good luck resolving anything. Good luck.”

Interestingly, in the video Driscoll has a woman teaching alongside him on stage.

Driscoll has made clear his views on women in ministry.

“Without blushing, Paul is simply stating that when it comes to leading in the church, women are unfit because they are more gullible and easier to deceive than men. While many irate women have disagreed with his assessment through the years, it does appear from this that such women who fail to trust his instruction and follow his teaching are much like their mother Eve and are well-intended but ill-informed. . . Before you get all emotional like a woman in hearing this, please consider the content of the women’s magazines at your local grocery store that encourages liberated women in our day to watch porno with their boyfriends, master oral sex for men who have no intention of marrying them, pay for their own dates in the name of equality, spend an average of three-fourths of their childbearing years having sex but trying not to get pregnant, and abort 1/3 of all babies – and ask yourself if it doesn’t look like the Serpent is still trolling the garden and that the daughters of Eve aren’t gullible in pronouncing progress, liberation, and equality…”

http://www.dennyburk.com/?p=785

Australia spared Mark Driscoll’s arrogance – for now

Mikey Lynch blogs…

“I’m sorry to report that we’ve decided to pull the plug on the original plan for a network-of-networks with Guy, Steve, Al, Andrew and myself. As a result, Driscoll has decided not to come back to Australia at the end of this year.

Al Stewart writes:

We’ve decided that Our coalition of 5 isnt’ going ahead at the level of one organisation. We’ve decided we won’t try to run one legal entity holding all this together as the network of networks is too complicated, we’ll get on with it, and cooperate as we can at an informal level. We plan to keep each other in the loop and work cooperatively where ever we  are able. With regard to Mark Driscoll not coming, I think we can just say it’s not possible at the end of this year, we hope sometime in the future to invite him again.

This was not a personally negative, political or theological decision. It was a practical matter. We were not convinced that a national organisation, especially organised for a December 09 deadline, would be a wise move in the long-term.

Each of us will continue to work at promoting church planting in our various networks and States with the Sydney Anglicans, RICE, Vision 100 and a new initiative in Melbourne.

Stay tuned for more news about what will unfold. Stay tuned for possible plans for Driscoll to visit in 2010. Stay tuned (no doubt) for the possibility of Driscoll exploring options for an Acts 29 Australia or even a Mars Hill Australia campus.

Please pray for each of us that we can have a clear view of what’s the best next move. And please pray for Australia. An explosion of church planting in Australia is not contingent on a national network nor on Driscoll. Rather it’s contingent on God choosing to bless the people who are getting on with it, whether Christ Church St Ives, Docklands Melbourne, Kingston Reformed Church Tasmania etc ….”

From http://xnreflections.blogspot.com/2009/06/big-news-no-oz29-no-driscoll.html

The banning of Major Tom aka Face***t

Lance (Group Sects) writes…

As regular readers would know, the commenter ‘Facel__t’ is permanently banned from my blog/s.

I have suspected from the outset that Major Tom was Face__t and initially put all of his posts through to moderation.

I then decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach while avoiding the pitfall of entering into dialogue with him.

I am now 100% positive that it is Facel**t using another alias to post here, and therefore any future comments by Major Tom/Face___t will no longer appear (until he invents his next alias and then I ban him again)

Happy Days with Richie Cunningham

The Los Angeles Times reports…

“Father and son pastors were each sentenced to two years in state prison today for stealing $3.1 million in church funds to buy luxury cars, time shares and golf club memberships.

Richard Wimberly Cunningham, 76, of Moreno Valley and Philip Ladd Cunningham, 52, of Laurinburg, N.C. pleaded guilty to felony grand theft and fraud charges, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The father and son stole the money from Calvary Baptist Yorba Linda Church and School, where both worked as pastors. They used it to buy time shares in Hawaii and Palm Springs, golf club memberships and luxury cars, including a Cadillac, according to prosecutors.

The Cunninghams controlled eight church bank accounts and between May 1, 2001, and April 30, 2006, wrote checks to themselves, used church-issued credit cards for personal expenses and shifted money between accounts to avoid detection, authorities said.

Philip Cunningham also pleaded guilty to forgery for faking the signature of another associate pastor to write fraudulent checks that required two signatures. Church members uncovered the theft after noticing a discrepancy in some financial records.

Prosecutors said the pastors have paid $3.1 million in restitution to the church.”

From http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/06/father-and-son-pastors-sentenced-to-prison-in-oc-church-theft.html

Pat Robertson says ‘that guy was a homo’

Are the Osteens coming to Hill$ong Conference in Sydney or not? – updated*

*A commenter has posted this e-mail from Hill$ong clarfying whether Joel Osteen will be physically live in Sydney, or via a television link from the US.

“Dear ?, Thank you for your email to Hillsong Conference. In regards to your enquiry, we can confirm that Joel Osteen will be live at Acer Arena with the Lakewood Team on Thursday Night. There was never a time where he was not going to be live in the arena. We do look forward to seeing you at conference! If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.”

Crystal Cathedral business to stay in the family

The OC Register reports…

“Sheila Schuller Coleman still can’t believe that she was chosen to lead the megachurch her father founded.

During Sunday’s service at the Crystal Cathedral, Coleman’s father and Crystal Cathedral founder, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller announced that his eldest daughter will take over leadership of the entire ministry at the cathedral and help implement his vision.

Coleman said she never thought she’d head this church, particularly because she is a woman and the Crystal Cathedral is a rather conservative Christian church.

“Our church didn’t even start ordaining women until 1973,” she said today. “I’m proud of my dad for doing this and I hope I can serve as a role model for younger women who want to get things accomplished in this church.”

Her mother, Arvella Schuller, was a force behind the cathedral, but she worked mostly in the background, Coleman said.

“There was just no place for women in a church and that’s the way it’s been for a long time.”

The older Schuller told his congregation Sunday that the cathedral is going in a new direction toward a brighter future under his daughter’s watchful eyes, according to transcripts of the service.

“(Sheila) has earned a doctorate degree in administration and leadership and that’s the kind of power leadership this church is going to need today and tomorrow,” he said.

Coleman will be his “co-leader,” Schuller said.

“I will motive and clarify the vision,” he explained to his congregants. “Sheila will be standing next to me and lead this ministry in a more strategic and unified church.”

Coleman will take the place of interim senior pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz, a position that was left vacant after her brother the Rev. Robert Anthony Schuller resigned. Dissension in the family was said to have caused that split. The younger Schuller has since moved on and partnered with his son-in-law and GodTube founder, Chris Wyatt, to acquire AmericanLife TV, which they will use to broadcast “family-friendly” programs.

Ortiz will remain part-time with the Crystal Cathedral as a teaching pastor, Coleman said.

Her father had single-handedly led his ministry for 53 years, she said.

“But now, it’s time for us to transition from solo leadership to team leadership,” Coleman said.

Sheila Coleman is the wife of Jim Coleman, president of Crystal Cathedral Ministries. She is also the author of the recently published book “Mommy Grace: Erasing Your Mommy Guilt.” The book talks about the “mother’s guilt,” which Coleman says in the book, takes the joy out of being a parent.

Before Sunday’s announcement, Coleman served as the principal of a private Christian school on the Crystal Cathedral campus and head of Family Ministries. In fact, she was ordained only a month ago, she said.

Donna Schuller, wife of Robert A. Schuller, said today that she is not at all surprised at the announcement. She said she has seen it coming since July 9 when Jim Coleman, Jim Penner (husband of Schuller’s daughter, Gretchen) and Fred Southard were appointed to the newly created Office of the President at Crystal Cathedral.

“(Sheila Coleman) is taking over her brother’s place,” Donna Schuller said.

But, she added, that she and her family are focused on “new beginnings” rather than dwelling in the past. In addition to her husband’s new venture, Donna Schuller said she is also involved in her son Robert V. Schuller’s new ministry to start Sunday in Orange.

“We are all excited about these new opportunities,” she said.

Coleman, who also addressed the congregation during Sunday’s services, talked about the Cathedral’s new beginnings, stating that her role will be that of “a directing leader” and to be her “father’s legs” in terms of running the ministries.

“God has given the vision to dad and I’m just to assist him in communicating it and to make sure that we as a ministry are all moving in one direction and following that vision,” she said. “I believe in team leadership and I will be just one member of the teams leading the “Hour of Power” and the local church.”

Coleman said the goal of Crystal Cathedral Ministries will be “to reach the un-churched through a positive message, a message of hope and love and joy.”

Coleman said she was her father’s first receptionist when, at the age of 4, she would answer the door of their home.

“Now I just want to help him finish strong,” she said.

Her father told the congregation in no uncertain terms that Coleman will now be their new leader.

“There have been many times in the past weeks or months when you wondered when you had something to share, who do you talk to?” he said. “Who’s running the church anyway? Who’s the leader? As of today, the lady at my side is the leader of leaders.”

From http://www.ocregister.com/articles/schuller-coleman-cathedral-2458555-new-crystal

Broke and broker

The Sydney Morning Herald reports…

“The world’s richest and largest Anglican diocese has lost more than $100 million on the sharemarket and is investigating ways to cut programs and ministries across Sydney.

Two years ago the Anglican diocese of Sydney was able to allocate $30 million to educate new ministers, spread the Gospel and reach out to young people. But returns from investments have plummeted so steeply that the funds available next year have been slashed to $5.6 million.

The cuts will probably jeopardise funding for places at the ministry training institution, Moore College – causing either lower student numbers or higher fees – and Youthworks, which recruits young people for mission work.

They will also eat into allocations for clergy, including the archbishop, bishops and regional offices, and some resources have already been restructured.

The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, has written to clergy warning that the global financial crisis has caused significant losses. He said the diocese had borrowed money to invest and used the profits to build churches in 2007.

“In the extraordinary conditions at the end of 2008, as the whole market fell, this strategy also accentuated our losses,” Dr Jensen said.

“As a result, our investments have fallen by more than half and distribution of money from our investments has been cut by 50 per cent.”

At one stage it is believed the diocese had lost nearly $260 million but this has reduced as the market has recovered.

The diocese became aware of the looming crisis earlier this year. Now a series of inquiries is under way, and committees are debating what to do before the mess and its consequences are put to the Synod in October.

Sydney parishes will not be affected immediately because they have been put on a financially independent footing and last year raised about $66 million towards their operations.

They pay their own priests – about $42,000 a year – and anecdotal evidence suggests parishioners have maintained their giving, despite the downturn.

The Sydney problems surfaced as the Melbourne diocese reported a cash deficit of $1.6 million, also blamed on the financial crisis.

The Sydney diocese has avoided selling bricks and mortar assets but has been forced to sell millions of dollars worth of shares.

“Our investment position is now stable,” Dr Jensen said. “All bank debt has been repaid, investment risks have been significantly reduced, and our liquidity position is very strong.”

The Reverend John Cornish, the rector of St Alban’s at Epping and a long-time Jensen critic, said it was a shame so much money had been wasted and, while it was good to build churches in new housing estates, “excessive enthusiasm” meant the diocese had stayed too long at the stockmarket gambling table.

“Nobody’s taking responsibility for this. In other organisations heads would roll.”

In July 2007 the former chief financial officer of St George Bank, Steve McKerihan, quit his $1.8 million a year job to become the chief executive of the Sydney Diocesan Secretariat to run the church’s business interests.

“Steve’s been a wonderful asset,” said the Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, who also serves on the secretariat.

Dr Jensen said he had warned at the Synod last October that Australia had just undergone the “test of abundance” and a “test of want” might lie ahead.”

From http://www.smh.com.au/national/millions-wiped-out-by-church-gambles-20090609-c29m.html

Pat Robertson – sects with ducks

Hill$ong United – bigger than Jesus

‘Bryan’ blogs…

“Was it worth it? May be.

I found myself not being able to close my eyes to focus on God and worship, because I wanted to see them play. I mean, I paid for the concert, so why should I close my eyes? Was I picking Hillsong United over God? May be.

Then I found myself looking around and judge others on the same criteria. “This man’s cheering for Hillsong not God, and this girl’s taking pictures of Hillsong instead of worshipping.” Was I being a hypocrite? May be.

The concert was held at a huge church in VA Beach. As soon as I saw couple of Macs lying around the church for people to use, I thought, “So this is where all the money from concerts and offerings go.”

Was it worth it?

Yes it was.”

From http://bryanl87.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/i-paid-20-dollars-to-go-watch-hillsong-united-concert/

Two and a half men

The Last Laugh

The Sydney Morning Herald reports…

“Laughter may be the best medicine, but God is no joke, according to an Anglican bishop who has chided Christian church leaders who think of themselves as stand-up comedians and resort to making jokes during sermons.

The Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, says there is nothing funny in “lame-fisted attempts” to crack jokes and be funny during services and church meetings. Humour has its place, but God and church, he says, is no laughing matter.

“I am frankly sick of ‘leaders’ ruining the atmosphere of the meeting/service and disrupting the focus on God with half-baked comic lines,” he wrote for a Sydney Anglican online ministry resource guide. “Or they detract from my reflection upon some important point made in the sermon with smart cracks or attempts to make funny comments about the preacher or the sermon.”

This, he said, interfered with the congregation’s relationship with God.

Bishop Forsyth came to public prominence as the minister who wittily crossed words with the publican Arthur Elliot across from St Barnabas Anglican Church in Broadway. While humour was a good tool to connect with a congregation, it should not compromise the message of salvation, he said.

Sydney’s Catholic Auxiliary Bishop, Bishop Julian Porteous, agreed with the sentiment, saying that Mass was not the venue for the priest to indulge his own personality.

“A religious ceremony, for Catholics a Mass, is a sacred event, and therefore the whole context of celebration should be one that engenders respect, appreciation of the divine and a whole sense of reverence for holy things – that is always got to be the ground in which a priest approaches his duties.

“There has been a tendency for people to feel a joke at the end of the Mass is something to leave people with a smile, but I personally don’t think it is appropriate.”

Preserving the dignity of the occasion should be uppermost in the mind of a priest. “There can be place for a comment which may be a truth or insight into the foibles of humanity, but jokes, if they are corny and self-serving, are inappropriate.”

Howard Langmead, the Anglican minister of St John’s in West Brunswick, Melbourne, whose other job is as a stand-up comedian, says humour when well done is an effective communication tool, can unite a congregation and demonstrate the vulnerability of the preacher. His catchphrase is “God created comedy. And it was good.” But he can see the dangers of a poorly executed joke.

“Humour is a fantastic communication tool but when badly used it’s painful, but that applies to all types of communication. You have to understand your audience, and the humour should be related to the context and content. You can have humour that refers to the topic of the sermon, and when a group of people laugh there is a sense of togetherness; the fences are down.”

From http://www.smh.com.au/national/drop-the-comic-altar-ego-clergy-told-20090608-c0we.html

The church I see doesn’t have emotionally manipulative videos to get your money – or bouncy castles

Phil Baker tumour battle

Haydn Nelson writes…

“Dear friend of Phil and Heather Baker and of Riverview Church …

 

 The leadership of Riverview Church announced over the weekend of the 30th-31st May that Phil Baker, our Senior Pastor, had fallen ill while on holidays in Denpasar in Bali. We prayed at that time for his restoration.Yours very sincerely,

Riverview Church seeks to be a place that speaks truth and encourages faith – both in the good times and in the hard times – and we are now in a place where we can update you more fully on what has transpired since then.

The original nature of Phil’s illness had been in the form of a type of seizure. He recovered not long after this event but some preliminary tests since conducted in Denpasar – particularly a CT scan – found something of concern. However, this preliminary testing needed to be confirmed and clarified via an MRI.

Phil and Heather arrived back in Perth on Tuesday evening, the 2nd of June and it was felt prudent to take him straight to hospital. He has been in hospital all week awaiting an MRI test.

On Friday morning, the 4th of June, leaders from this church gathered – in accordance with James 5:13-16 – to anoint Phil with oil and pray for his restoration and healing.

On the afternoon of the same day, the MRI was completed. The results of this test came through on the afternoon of Saturday, the 5th of June, and the news is both encouraging and challenging.

Phil has a spherical tumour located in the back left of his brain.

The encouraging news is that the attending neurosurgeon is convinced that it is a meningioma – which is not a brain tumour but a tumour of the meninges (which is the membrane that covers the brain). What makes this encouraging is that meningiomas are, in almost all cases, completely benign. They can be removed and the patient can make a full recovery.

The challenging news is that it is significant in size and is located in such a place that it will require delicate skill for the surgeons to excise it.

Surgery has been scheduled for this coming Friday, the 12th of June.

We, at Riverview Church, do not believe it is a coincidence that the theme of this and the next month in the life of our church is “Faith: Expectant.” We, along with Phil and Heather, have decided as individuals and as a church to step forward into this challenge – that we will speak faith and hope to this mountain rather than passivity (Matthew 17:20).

On Friday, the 4th of June, as Phil was being anointed with oil and prayed for, two of our leaders shared scriptures – one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. Paul Morrison recounted the story of David in 1 Samuel 17 who, when facing a literal giant, ran “toward the battle line to meet him” (v. 48) – not simply because he was unafraid of the battle but, having already been anointed by Samuel, he knew that his destiny lay beyond it. Adam Meredith recounted the words of Jesus when faced with the illness of his friend Lazarus in John 11:4 – “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

I have spoken with Phil and he has encouraged us to react to this news with courage, wisdom and a faith-filled trust in God. Phil strongly believes that his time is not over– that God has much for him still to do – and he’s ready for the challenge ahead.

That is Phil’s and Heather’s prayer and that is our prayer – that we will be a people of faith and not of fear; that we will hope and not despair; that we will trust in God and not in circumstances.

The coming days will have both tears and laughter and, no matter what the future holds, we are ready to walk this journey of faith with Phil and Heather.

If you wish to send a message of support to Phil and Heather at this time, please send it to the following email address:

reception@riverviewchurch.com.au

 

 

Haydn Nelson

Executive Minister (Acting)

Riverview Church”

From http://www.riverviewchurch.com.au/fileupload/11edad467fc2bbb8726de12bae6252ed.pdf

Haydn Nelson announcement audio

Brian Houston’s version of the Bruce Hills coup at Garden City

“……..After having had a couple of little conversations with people about the way our campuses work and the way that they bless each other and iron sharpens iron and in fact the two show to be better than one, in the sense that we can have greater resource to affect more people, we actually talked, just conceptually about the fact that with technology there’s no real reason why you couldn’t do that elsewhere, and we started talking very loosely about South-East Queensland.

And then, a friend of mine has been pastoring what has been a key church for many years in Brisbane, Garden City Christian Church, and toward the end of last year…..errr……. he was no longer to be the pastor of that church.

Now I just started to think about the possibilities of Garden City. I know there were 5 or 6 other people who had talked to them about the potential of maybe some form of multi-campusing.

But I, having talked to the board, invited them down, and some of the key guys there spent lots of time with many of our key team. And then through interacting and praying and talking about it, it’s ended up that Bobbie and I  now are Senior Pastors of what is Hillsong Brisbane, a campus of Hillsong Church.

And what we intend to be doing is working with other people, and empowering other people and really seeing that ministry and our ministry work together for greater impact.

My prayer is that Hillsong Church, whether it’s in Brisbane or whether it’s in Sydney will always champion the cause of local churches everywhere.

We sure don’t see the church as our competition. We want to bless the church, help the church, resource the church, equip the church, and that is the spirit of the Hillsong Conference which is right around the corner……..”

From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9x-elMvmNc

The churches that built the pyramids

Daily Nation reports…

“Twenty people have killed themselves after being ruined by pyramid schemes which an MP claimed were operated by prominent people. Kenyans lost Sh34 billion in the con games, which MPs said were masterminded by well known persons. Thousands of investors were left destitute with almost two dozen taking their own lives.

Devious scheme

The MPs, speaking under parliamentary privilege, linked former Cooperatives Development minister Njeru Ndwiga, the wife of Trade minister Amos Kimunya, one-time influential State House confidante Stanley Murage, the chairman of the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission, Mr Andrew Ligale and Ms Mary Odinga, who once served as an ambassador, to the devious scheme.

Others named by MPs Bonny Khalwale (Ikolomani) and Mithika Linturi (Igambe South) were Mr George Donde, Mr Gideon Mwiti, a Dr Ndamwe and a Mr Zakaria. MPs accused the Government of “protecting” those behind the con schemes and demanded immediate action to ensure that thousands of Kenyans who have been turned into paupers are refunded their money. Said Dr Khalwale: “These individuals were protected by the government.”

However, Cooperative Development minister Joseph Nyaga told the House he could not confirm whether those named by MPs were the masterminds of the fraud. Mr Nyaga, nonetheless, said the names must have come out during the public hearings. “We know as a fact that 20 Kenyans committed suicide and many families separated because of losing their money through pyramid schemes,” he said.

He urged restraint among MPs and Kenyans, and promised to make public the findings of the task force that conducted investigations into the activities of the schemes. The report by the task force, headed by former minister Francis Nyenze, he said, will reveal the full list of the masterminds.

“Just give me two weeks and I will bring a report, since we still have to clarify these issues (of those named by the MPs),” he said. The Nyenze team, formed in February 2008, has toured the country, collecting views and registering victims who lost money in the schemes. Mr Nyaga said the task force had interviewed directors and managers of the collapsed schemes to ascertain the truth regarding the claims made against many of them.

During the public hearings, investors named a former MP, relatives of senior politicians, five prominent law firms and several church leaders as the masterminds of pyramid schemes that collapsed in 2007, leaving many investors penniless. Church leaders were also deeply involved in schemes, the report revealed. “They preached about the schemes in churches and public gatherings using bible quotes of planting a seed to earn more,” said the report.

In particular, the report noted that the Deliverance Church was frequently mentioned in the course of compiling the report. The task force heard painful stories of how investors throughout the country were left destitute or in debt when the schemes collapsed.

Sell the land

One investor told the task force in Nyeri that she had convinced her husband to sell the land on which their matrimonial home stood to put money in one of the schemes expecting huge returns. They lost everything. She said her husband got so depressed that he died. Today, she is a homeless widow with three children.

An Embu pastor recounted how he quit his job in Nairobi to start a branch of a pyramid scheme. In Kisii, a witness told the task force how his family had raised more than Sh400,000 and pumped it into a pyramid scheme. When it collapsed, his relatives were diagnosed with illnesses such as high blood pressure.

The problem for depositors has been that the law is vague on pyramid schemes. When they collapsed in 2007, some investors sought the help of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission but the graft body deals with public agencies or officers only and is not mandated to pursue private individuals or institutions.

The investors were advised to seek redress in the courts, where the wheels of justice turn painfully slowly. Though the Central Bank of Kenya and the police instituted several cases against suspected managers of the schemes, no one has been punished for the fraud to date………..”

From http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/606934/-/ujrdoh/-/

Could someone please de-code this? – updated*

Brian Houston twitters…

“Hillsongs global spread is bout to enter a season of growth and blessing,because 1 disloyal Bondi pastor helped me to see some perspective.”

From http://twitter.com/BrianCHouston

Within an hour of that message being re-posted here, it mysteriously disappeared from Houston’s twitter page.

An anonymous commenter here shed some light on Houston’s cryptic message.

“Brian Houston was incredibly offended when church at the beach bondi, now c3 bondi left the AOG movement towards C3. Maybe he thought it came across as too bitter.”

The Bondi church’s website appears to confirm this.

“Church at the Beach was planted from Sydney Christian Life Centre, now City Hillsong church. Pastors Mark and Joy spent 18 years committed to the vision of this great church, with ten of those years in full time ministry. At the end of 1997 they came to Bondi as a satellite church.

In January 2000 Church at the Beach became an autonomous church plant and moved to the Swiss Grand Hotel. The congregation continues to grow strongly with many vibrant men, women and children who love God and people.”

http://churchatthebeach.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=29

“Church At The Beach is Now C3 Bondi

Great news everyone – as you will know if you are regular member of the church, Bondi Church at the Beach has joined the C3 group of Churches, we’re very excited by this and are expecting great things! We are having a celebration weekend on 6th & 7th June – so come along and join the fun.”

http://www.churchatthebeach.com/

So one would have to assume the ‘1 disloyal pastor’ incurring the wrath of Houston is Mark Horan.

“Mark has been a fully ordained Minister since 1991, working on staff at Sydney Christian Life Centre for 10 years before coming to Bondi…..”

http://churchatthebeach.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=30

Brian of course has a right to be miffed, given his own loyalty to Garden City Church pastor Bruce Hills.

A farcical aquatic ceremony

When pastors go off their meds

Danny Nalliah blogs…

“Dear family and friends in Christ around the World,

Pastor Danny stated, ‘In my 26 years in Christian ministry, I have repeatedly heard about the End-times, the Antichrist, and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, so many times by so many different Preachers and Bible Scholars. But nothing has stirred my spirit as much as the following presentation by Dr Joe Vankoevering, a Prophetic Teacher and Scholar of the Word of God. I have always sensed so strongly that there could be a very big possibility of the Antichrist being a man from the Islamic faith.  I pray that you will be prophetically challenged and spiritually awakened to realize how close we could be to the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior!’

Following is the link to the written transcript of an excellent biblical based and prophetic DVD on the possible identity of the Antichrist, the Unveiling of the Man of Sin!…..

……You may order the DVD and book package from Dr Joe Vankoevering’s website at: http://www.godsnews.com/products/packages/the_man_of_sin_package.html ”

From http://catchthefire.com.au/blog/2009/06/04/unveiling-the-man-of-sin-possible-identity-of-the-antichrist/#more-2535

But wait, a pastor from Sarah Palin’s hometown says the anti-Christ will be gay.

‘”….’Will the Antichrist be a homosexual?

By Ron Hamman
Religion Views
Published on Monday, May 25, 2009 9:15 PM AKDT

In answering this question, it is important to assert the question does not originate with me, lest someone out there think that I am bringing some new doctrine out to bolster the political climate. But as the study of Bible prophecy includes verbiage as to the behavior of the one called “that Wicked” by Paul in II Thessalonians, it is not only a legitimate question to ask, but also one to answer.

While the word “homosexual” is not in the Bible, the behavior of those who practice homosexuality, and God’s estimation of them, very definitely is. When the word came into existence I cannot tell you, but what we can say for sure is that when Noah Webster published his first dictionary in 1828, it was not included. This means that homosexuality is a modern word invented to replace the word Noah Webster did include, sodomy, defined as a crime against nature. This is historical revisionism in action.

Sodomy is defined in scripture by two things, the first being that of where it began: Sodom. In Genesis 13:13 we have the first mention of the men of Sodom, pronouncing that they “were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” Their saga is continued in chapters 18 and 19 with their sin being so great that not only does God say that it “is very grievous,” but he himself comes down to destroy them with fire, the rubble of which still stands as a warning to us today.

While the Genesis account does not graphically describe their sin, leading some to deny it as being the same as homosexuality, their sin is obviously just that by how it is described: lying with mankind as with womankind. What other conclusion can be reached when they want to “know” the men who were in Lot’s house, the same word the Bible uses in Genesis 4 in relation to the conception of Cain? And that Lot himself understood their intentions is clear; not only did he call such behavior wicked, but he also offered his virgin daughters as substitutes, which the men of Sodom refused.

And one more thing: Sodomy is the only sin for which God came down from heaven to destroy. Though God dealt with many other sins in various ways, there is no other for which he came down from heaven to verify and destroy. In the New Testament, sodomy is declared to be “against nature.” And of the men, Paul in Romans 1 says they leave “the natural use of the woman….”  In effect, there is no greater sin against God than to reject how he made you, and no greater sin against women than to reject how God made them.

But will the Antichrist be a homosexual? Having seen what the Bible says of sodomy, we have no further to look than the book of Daniel, chapter 11 to find our answer. It says, “Neither shall he [Antichrist] regard… the desire of women….” As I said at the onset, I am not the first to draw attention to this, but the verbiage is clear.

From a lost perspective, the reason sex sells, pornography is profitable, and prostitution is “the world’s oldest profession” is mankind’s desire of women. From Christianity’s position, it is part of the glue for the bond of marriage and the propagation of a godly heritage. But homosexuality does not regard this — in their unbridled lusts they burn for their own gender.

But consider this: The time is ripe for such a leader. Indeed, it should not be surprising that the one who is against everything Biblical and Christian should be a partaker of so great a sin; there is no greater way to reject the Creator than to reject your gender and his design for it. And at what other time have we seen such perversion come out of the closets onto our streets, threatening violence if we do not accept their ways?

Is it any wonder that Revelation 13 says that this same Antichrist will make war with the saints of the tribulation, and overcome them? Are they not now readying themselves to make it illegal to “offend” them in any way, calling it hatred to preach against their sin? Is it because they love us? The time is ripe for such a man.

But remember that sodomy is the one sin that God left heaven and came to earth to destroy. Could it be that this will be the predominate sin on earth when Christ descends from the clouds to fight against the armies of wickedness? And will it be just a coincidence that the Antichrist will be the very first occupant of the lake of fire, tasting eternal death 1,000 years before even the devil himself?

You be the judge.

Ron Hamman is pastor for Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla.”

From http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2009/05/27/faith/doc4a1b794bd0fd9907394285.txt?referrer=digg

And radio host Mike Malloy poses as a fundie to discuss Ron Hamman’s article with the pastor.

Communion boot camp

Hill$ong and iTunes

Lance (Group Sects) writes…

There’s been a lot of noise of the non-musical variety coming out of Hill$ong people about the success of their latest release on iTunes.

From Brian Houston’s twitter finger….

“H/song Uniteds a_CROSS the EARTH is still #2 in US itune d/loads ahead of Keith Urban, Marilyn Manson etc. To buy; http://ow.ly/9nTW ”

—-

“Ok Apple store saying itunes #1. itunes saying #2. Either way.. GOD IS GETTING GLORY!”

From http://twitter.com/BrianCHouston

As I write, the Hill$ong album is #15 on the iTunes chart behind Sunny Side Up by Paolo Nutini (now Paolo gets the glory)

I’ve previously written that a hit on the Australian ARIA chart is meaningless (sales as low as 500 through your church will get you in the top 10) and that it’s international sales, and particularly US sales that count.

Hill$ong United has been playing a series of concerts across the US and congratulations go to the band because they are achieving some success from all their hard work and city-hopping.

But it’s interesting when you take a closer look at the raw sales figures.

iTunes is just one retail seller, not representative of all music sales.

FMQB reports…

“Eminem’s Relapse album is at the top of the sales chart for the second week in a row as it sold another 211,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. With 819,000 sold in total, Relapse already has become the fifth best-selling album of the year. 

Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown remained at #2 this week, shifting another 75,800 copies. This brings the album close to Gold sales status in just three weeks. The Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack is still holding on strong at #3, moving 52,000, and Marilyn Manson earned a #4 debut with The High End Of Low, selling 49,000 in its first week. This gives Manson and his band their sixth Top 10 album.

Other debuts this week came from country duo Montgomery Gentry with For Our Heroes, bowing at #11 with 26,000. Christian act Hillsong United started at #21 with Across The Earth Tear Down The Walls by selling 17,600…….”

www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=1353821

Given that 17,600 is the follow on total sales from thousands of people attending Hill$ong United shows in the US buying the Hill$ong merchandise afterwards and/or going home and downloading the album from stores like iTunes, I would have thought the raw number would be much higher than that, although maybe there’s a lag between actual sales and the Nielsen numbers still to come.

One interesting quote I saw this week related to the aim behind Hill$ong’s music.

“As a pastor on the Hillsong church leadership team, Reuben [Morgan] works alongside Darlene Zschech to create an atmosphere of praise and worship that draws people into God’s presence and helps soften hearts to Jesus’ salvation message.”

http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/artistdetail.php?artist_id=259

If that’s the internal logic that’s driving Hill$ong’s music ministry then I think it’s time for some hard truths to be told.

Far from softening people’s hearts to the salvation message, I think it’s having the opposite effect.

It feeds the perception that Pentecostals are a bunch of mindless happy-clappers who live and move in a world all of their own.

As part of my efforts for this site, I have never ever seen someone who’s not a Christian show any interest in Christian worship-style music. Maybe an interest in crossover acts like Sixpence None The Richer or POD but never the full-on worship stuff.

The interest in Hill$ong United and similar Christian worship bands is from already-churched Christian youth who’ve been exposed to the music since they were 14/15/16.

Perhaps the music contributes to a softening of hearts in the context of a church service where an emotive message has been preached, but in and of itself, Christian worship music only serves to create a wall between the church and the people who usually refer to the worshippers of Baulkham Hills as ‘those Hill$ong …[bleeps]…’

But since Hill$ong United people rarely move outside of the internal logic of the Pente sub-culture, they can’t be blamed for believing that their small world has meaningfully connected with the wider world.

However the chart of sales of Chocolate Crackles from church fetes does indicate that revival is near.

Is this the same Channel 10 that broadcasts Benny Hinn’s BS each morning?

Christian ministry politics for dummies

Christian Today reports…

“AIS chaplain of 20 years, the Reverend Peter Nelson 63, the former Heads of Church ACT Churches of Christ representative when ministering to fellow ministers, often quotes the distinguished theological psychologist, Dr Archibald Hart of Fuller Theological Seminary, when he stated:

“I have spoken with many in the professions from astronauts, engineers, business and corporate people, professors, athletes and entertainers, but there is no single group of people under more constant stress than those in Christian ministry.”

This situation is all too familiar to Ministers and those in full time Christian ministry, but it is not necessarily obvious to those outside the cloisters of a ‘Christian calling’.

Some of the reasons associated with Christian ministry stress is the twenty-four-seven syndrome: there is a constant pressure upon a pastor’s emotions as he or she deals with the problems inquirers bring, the pressures of bringing something fresh each time they speak publicly and a host of other issues within the structures of the ecclesiastical life.

One of Peter Nelson’s associates, Well-Being Australia chairman, Mark Tronson, who is a Baptist minister of 32 years, claims there is another hidden issue that goes much further than those more obvious issues.

M V Tronson believes that ‘the politics’ associated with Christian ministry is as robust as in any other sphere of human endeavour; greater pastoral insights in this aspect of professional ministry could be offered at seminary level to alert Christian workers to such pitfalls.

He has two suggestions for strategies that may help those starting out in Christian ministry.

Because the uninitiated idealistic Christian worker is usually ’stunned’ when a politically contrived situation first appears, because it seems to them to come from left field, Mark Tronson suggests some ‘dancing steps’ might be given.

These could be techniques to help the new pastors to position themselves realistically, and help them remove the rose-coloured glasses and to see the bare politics that are laid out. This knowledge, and a well thought-out plan, may help a psychological backlash from developing.

He also suggests that a recovery course be offered, for the times when the Christian worker becomes disillusioned by the political maneuvering. This strategy may help allay any long-term damage to the psyche or reputation of the pastor (such as that caused by false accusations, innuendos, tactics …), this damage is often irrecoverable.

“If this type of personal damage is not acknowledged and dealt with, for some, it can take months, years or even a lifetime to recover,” M V Tronson noted. “Numerous Christian workers, many of them experienced people, having come through this type of situation, find themselves emotional wrecks.

“Having to look into the eyes of those who ‘played you’ and be polite (possibly even on a daily basis) can be a nightmare.”

The Christian worker who finds himself (or herself) confronting such a ‘dark night of the soul’ is not alone. The scriptures are replete with the universal human failing of intrigue, and how the Providence of God has intervened in some circumstances.

“If the seminary training can include robust strategies to help the novice pastor (and experienced ones too) understand and cope with the politics, then this will nurture the spirit of the pioneer,” Mark Tronson stated optimistically.

“The new Christian worker would be able to start his/her career a whole lot wiser, with this knowledge combined with natural pastoral wisdom.

“Moreover, they will be playing a tune that Jesus addressed. In becoming ‘street wise’ in Ministry, an abundance of ‘good fruit’ can be gleaned, reaping rewards that were once never considered possible.”

From http://au.christiantoday.com/article/a-whole-lot-wiser/6375.htm

Well, I tried

Lance (Group Sects) writes…

Last week I stumbled on Brian Houston’s new blog, hosted by News Limited Brisbane suburban newspapers.

Brian has tended to be the master of one-way communication (I talk, you listen) but surprisingly he’s experimented with a bold new venture by having an interactive blog.

Hill$ong’s previous attempt at an interactive blog didn’t last long and it was closed within a few days after some commenters began asking some curly questions.

But there were high hopes that this time Brian was making a serious attempt at dipping his toe in the water of the outside world, away from the circular internal logic of the Pente sub-culture.

And it looked like there’d been some mending of fences with News Limited, after Hill$ong copped a bollocking in recent years from News Limited publication The Australian, which prompted ‘Is your News Limited?’ stickers apparently appearing on the bumpers of cars at Hill$ong.

From the new blog….

“(News Limited)…Hillsong founder Brian Houston has taken control of Garden City Christian Church, but will continue to live in Sydney. He wants people to give him time to prove himself and invites users to ask him questions in this special blog.

(Brian H.)…Give the church time and just see the real effect on people’s life.
My experience in life is people come and people go and they are allowed to do that and I think the answer to that is it will come down to different individuals.
At the end of the day you can only build a church on people who want to be there and want to be part of it.
On a Sunday morning there is people of all ages there.  There is no doubt there is a lot of young people at our church, at Hillsong Church, but there is a good mix of people.
We are an easy target. My take on it is that it is part of being effective, unfortunately.
The other of it is clearly agenda driven. It is people who don’t have a platform, outside of Hillsong Church (who) have their own agendas.
What do you think?”

Brian then answered some readers’ questions….

“Hi, Ps Brian here. Please forgive me if my answers are slow… but technology is not my greatest strength and I’m new to this.

But I am so excited about this new season in Brisbane and the opportunity to chat online.”

—

“Hi Jerimiah, I wanted to start with your question “What type of church do I see being built in Brisbane”
- I love the church and to me the name over the door is never the most important part. It’s whether or not the name of Jesus is exalted.
My prayer is that Hillsong Church in Brisbane will continue to believe in loving God, loving people and loving life, and that this will be reflected in all we do in the local community.”

—

“Elida, Friday nights give Bobbie and I, and others, a great opportunity to be across the various campuses of our church in a more effective way. We are going to give this our very best for 6 weeks and then we will reassess the best way to approach the weekends.

We hope that Friday night is a great option for people and especially in bringing colleagues and friends.”

—

“Hi Victor, as we have stated many times, Garden City Christian Church continues to exist and historically the Senior Pastor each year determines the board that they believe can best help fulfill the vision of the church for the coming year… and then the Senior Pastor’s recommendations are ratified at the AGM by the members.

The current board will continue to oversee all areas of church governance until the AGM.
It actually was agreed by the current board that their invitation to me to become the Senior Pastor and for the church to operate as a campus of Hillsong Church includes the following basis:
That the way to take this partnership forward was for the board to consist of 3 members of Hillsong Church and 3 member of Garden City CC plus the Senior Pastor.”

—

“Odia, my favourite part of a church service is any part where people connect with Jesus and His plan for every human being, whether that happens in a response to salvation or through the preaching and teaching of the Word or through the praise and worship.”

—

“Hi David T, Hillsong Church is known for many different things by many different people.
Praise God that many have been impacted by the praise and worship but others have experienced the heart of Hillsong (which hopefuly the worship reflects), which is to love and help people which ever way we can.”

—

“Laith, I pray that we have the challenges in days to come some time in the future.
It’s all about connecting people to God’s purposes for their life and we always add more services and give people more opportunities to come.
I pray for the day when building are too small for churches all over Australia.”

—

“Ben, Hillsong Church is a non-profit ministry made up of everyday people like yourself.
I believe a place for everybody in our church family but please understand that NOBODY is under obligation to do anything. Giving is a heart issue and you or any of your friends are welcome here with no strings attached.”

—

“Hey guys I have to run to another meeting now but I have really enjoyed chatting to everyone and can’t wait for tonight.
Let’s do this again.
If you want, you can always check out http://www.hillsongbrisbane.com

Thanks.
Brian.”

—

A short time later I contributed this…

“Lance White writes:
Posted on 29 May 09 at 02:13pm

Hello Brian,

In order to put to rest internet speculation, did you, or Hillsong, or anyone representing you or Hillsong make any legal threat against the blogger and former Hillsong staffer ‘The Thinking Theologian’ that resulted in their blogs recently vanishing from the net?

Could you please also outline the process by which Hillsong gained control of the domain name hillsongbrisbane.com from a site that was critical of Hillsong?

Thank you”

That was last week and the line from the outside world to Brian has strangely gone dead.

Or maybe I should just ‘give it time’?

From http://southern-star.whereilive.com.au/blogs/story/give-it-time/

Where is the line with enticing people to church?

USA Today reports…

“Jerry James took a right to the chops for Jesus the other night. Clad in sweats, boxing gloves and headgear, the former standout amateur boxer stood inside the ropes during the homily Saturday night at New Life Church in Sioux Falls.

The church bulletin referred to it as “Saturday Night Slam.” But Pastor Alex Klimchuk’s intent in turning his altar into a boxing ring was more enticement than entertainment. “We try to reach out to those who aren’t already going, who think church is boring,” says Klimchuk, 30. “The truth is, the church is having problems getting young men inside them. So we ask, ‘What will reach the guys?’ This seems like a perfect answer.”

For three weeks last month, the church used a fight ring as a parable for the spiritual battles of mankind. New Life staged a tae kwon do bout and submission matches. James and four other pugilists went through a half-dozen two-minute rounds of sparring in front of 75 to 100 mostly young males. It is putting on a self-defense program.

Each round was followed by a message from Klimchuk.

In the past 10 to 20 years, many of Sioux Falls’ mainline churches have created “contemporary” services where members show up in blue jeans and with coffee cups. Guitars have become a staple. So have big screens used for presentations.

Judy Shaw, pastor of the non-denominational Center of Life Church, said she sees nothing unusual in turning altars into boxing rings.

“I travel throughout the United States, and I travel abroad, and what Pastor Alex is doing is not out of the ordinary for churches that are very progressive,” Shaw said. “A lot of youth will not go to the traditional churches they were raised in. They say it’s not relevant, not reaching them and they’re bored.”

In Dacula, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, minister Ron Brent helps train about 200 people in martial arts at Hebron Baptist Church. The classes hold many opportunities for sharing the Gospel, he says.

“If somebody is scared, I’ll stop and share that they’re not alone, that God is here with them, that they are here among Christians,” Brent says. Even the pads used for protection are ministry opportunities for Brent, who tells his students “you should be putting your spiritual pads on every day.”

Across the nation, karate classes have gained popularity.

“The idea that would be going on within a church context doesn’t surprise me at all,” says Robert Thompson of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. He acknowledges that some folks might disapprove.

“Some say it’s a wonderful art form,” Thompson says. “Others, though, begin to think the sport itself represents a certain kind of behavior that should be frowned upon — namely, hitting one another.”

Klimchuk’s effort at New Life resonates with Audri Vargas, 17, who started attending the church three years ago.

“Before, church wasn’t that fun. It was something I went to because I had to,” Vargas said. “But here, I get into the message.”

From http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-02-02-church-fights_N.htm

Filthy De Lucre – Auckland’s Jewels From Heaven hoax

cults.co.nz reports…

“Rob DeLuca is the Pastor of His Way Church. He has strong links to Todd Bentley and he strongly endorses William Branham, the Word Faith Movement, the Holy Laughter Movement, Kathryn Kuhlman, and Rodney Howard-Browne. Rob DeLuca is assigned a Danger rating here because of his endorsement of and association with proponents of strongly unbiblical teaching, not because he is in any way a dangerous person, as such…..”

From http://www.cults.co.nz/d.php

“Prophetic Word Spoken over Todd Bentley and the Nations
Prophesied on March 8, 2008

This is exactly word for word what was spoken over Todd Bentley (from Fresh Fire Ministries) at the “Downpour Conference” on the Gold Coast in Australia, on March 8, 2008, by Pastor Rob DeLuca from New Zealand (this is a picture of Rob Deluca prophesying the actual word over Todd Bentley):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Todd, I saw a vision, and it’s concerning four revivals that are going to take to place in the world.

I saw a human boomerang flying out of Canada and it hit the nation of England, it hit the nation of Australia, it hit the nation of New Zealand, and it came spinning around.

I saw “Todd Bentley”–your name on the boomerang, but I knew that it was the Lord showing me that it was you, and I saw it fly back around and it came and hit America.

But, there was a bit more accuracy to it. It hit the state of Florida. The Lord is showing me that what took place in Pensacola, and also what took place in Lakeland with Rodney –you’re gonna bring something very strong to Florida.

I see something BIG in Florida. Then I saw the Lord turning you into a human nail, you know, like a spike nail. I saw the hand of God, I saw the Father hit this hammer and it hit you and it went straight into the ground of Florida.

I saw a scroll attached to this nail and it said, “The Kingdom of God has now come.” I really believe that what has taken place in the last 20 years in Florida, will be rekindled and rebirthed from your coming and going to Florida. A matter of fact, I will be even more bold to say that I believe that there is going to be a massive work where it’s so fruitful, that there will be seasons of time in Florida from Canada.

I saw it hit England, Australia, New Zealand, but I saw it going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. But I really believe that it’s not just going to touch thousands, but tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. It’s going to be something that’s going to be heard around the world.

And Father, we thank You for it. I thank You for the revivals that are coming to the nations that have been spoken and seen.

I thank You Father for England. Lord, let the impartation of revival come with the new wave, with the greater glory to England.

I thank You for Australia. I thank You even for the impartation over these days, but Lord, let this be the beginning. Let this be the embryo stage of something that turns into a great giant of a revival in the nation of Australia.

I thank You for New Zealand. I thank You Father that people will come from all over the world and taste and see the impartation of the effects of revival that has been tasted even in the last week.

I thank You Father that it is for our generation and for the generation that’s coming. Lord, let history be made even in the now, we pray.

And I thank You for the anointing that’s on this man of God. I thank You Father that we honor the gift of God and we value the gift of God and in doing so Father, we declare blessing concerning the increase of his ministry, concerning the promotion of even being one that’s sent to take entire nations to influence entire nations.

Father, let America be influenced from what’s about to take place concerning the seasons that You’re preparing for Todd in Florida.

In Jesus name, what’s happened…I really believe what happened–it’s even going to hit CNN, it’s going to hit news broadcasts, it’s going to be talked about all over America. There’s something brewing so big and so strong that it’s going to waste the nation with God’s glory, definitely, in Jesus name.

Pastor Rob DeLuca
His Way Church in New Zealand”

From http://www.freshfire.ca/index.php?Act=read&status=revival&Id=135&pid=954&bid=923

The ‘contemporary’ church completes its transition

The Des Moines Register reports…

“When John Claussen steps before church members this morning, he won’t be wearing his usual suit or robe.

Instead, the senior pastor at Park Avenue Christian Church in Des Moines will be clad in full clown gear, conducting the service as Leviticus W. Doorknocker. His wife, Cindy Claussen, youth director at the church, will join him as clown Hannah Hosanna.

The church’s clown service is the first of many specially-themed Sunday services planned for May through September. The audience is encouraged to participate and come dressed up, too.

Traditionally, summer church attendance sees a decline as people take advantage of the warm weather, John Claussen said. The hope is that these fun, less formal services will remind people to put aside an hour on Sunday for worship.

“Each one of these services, even though the themes may seem a little crazy, the message is still hope,” he said. “I like to do more dramatic things, different dialects, to get people’s attention. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously.”

Looking at the lineup — from western music on “Cowboy Sunday” to “Uniform Sunday,” where attendees come dressed in the uniform of their choice — it appears churchgoers are in store for anything but your typical sermon.

Claussen, who participated in drama while in school and community theater, has also been doing Christian clowning for more than 20 years with his wife and family, he said.

Some of the characters people will see this summer are new, while others have been developed over the years, Claussen said, at camps and sermons done in Iowa and California.

One of his characters, Marshall Wayne Eastwood (a combination of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood) will be leading the June 28 service, he said. “The message is ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.’ The message is just dealing with how sin can get the best of us … but God wants us to live.”

On July 19, Claussen will don bib overalls for “Billy Bob’s Barnyard Bible School,” and share the message of “A Productive Farm.”

Claussen, who was associate pastor at the church 20 years ago, remembers trying out some of these unique services back then. They were well-received at the time, he said, and he hopes they get the same reaction now.

“I love it when people say, ‘We have to come next time because we just don’t know what you’re going to do,” he said. “It’s good to surprise people.”

From http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090531/LIFE02/905310303/1041/LIFE01