Category: The Church Today

globalization and botched ops

This, though sounding like a line from a mainstream ‘pastor’ in the States, is from the last paragraph of Tony Blair’s “Faith and Globalisation” lecture: “If people of different faiths can co-exist happily, in mutual respect and solidarity, so can our world. And if faith takes its proper place in our lives, then we can live with a purpose beyond ourselves alone, supporting humanity on its journey to fulfilment.” And this is the opening line of the lecture: “Let me summarise my argument to you this evening. Under the momentum of globalisation the world is opening up, and at an astonishing speed. Old boundaries of culture, identity and even nationhood are falling.” [sic]

teacuppamela.pngSo, I’m contemplating — no, not spirituality ;o) — all that’s going in the world and I guess I’d really have to agree with one of his comments: “the world is opening up at an astonishing speed.”

Here’s a little more, from the same lecture:

quotebegin.gifThe foundation will concentrate on certain key specifics. The first will be to help the different faith organisations to work together in furtherance of the Millennium Development Goals [*]… which are, in many ways the litmus test of the world’s values. Faith groups do great individual work in this area…. if helped also to combine together. The MDGs are stark in their ambition and necessity. We are falling short as a world in meeting them. It would be a great example of faith in action to try to bridge the gap and awaken the world’s conscience. The second will be to produce high quality material – books, websites, every means of communication… The foundation will concentrate, in the immediate term, on the six main faiths, the Abrahamic three and Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism. But, though the foundation will expressly not be confined to the Abrahamic faiths, we will partner existing organisations that promote better understanding and co-existence between Christians, Muslims and Jews, notably in The Coexist Foundation’s [**] vision of creating Abraham House here in London, where people of those faiths but also others, can encounter some of their traditions, explore their roots and, without glossing over their differences, discover what they share. We will also help partner those within any of the faiths who stand up for peaceful co-existence… But I freely confess there is a broader objective.”
[* The UN Millenium Development Goad link added – only for info, not endorsement]
[** TCF link added – only for info, not endorsement]

The unity message was hitting pretty close to home this past week with several international ‘guests’ in nearby Seattle at the Seeds of Compassion conference. Now, to be clear, I’m really not opposed to ‘leaders’ from other areas, nations, etc., visiting — so, it’s not what I’m referencing here at all. It’s just so disconcerting to hear supposed Christians refer to these guests as if to endorse or even be in agreement with what they stand for. In addition to referencing the use ‘his holiness’ or ‘holy father’ in connection with any earthly man – but particularly those who are guests in the US this week – I feel greatly discouraged that opportunities to tell the Truth were not only missed, but because they were missed, the Truth was essentially denied. There is only one holy Father and that’s God – only one Holy and that’s Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Just because a prominent man is called thus and such by his own followers, does not mean that a believer in Jesus should ever refer to that man as ‘holy’ or ‘his holiness’ or whatever.

In these last days… O, how I pray God will raise up men who will stand in the gap – and though there doesn’t seem to be a radical, visible gap yet when “Christians” like Rob Bell refuse to take a stand for Jesus – the day is likely coming when those who stand for the Cross and those who don’t will be clearly seen. Though given an incredible opportunity to proclaim the Truth, Rob Bell seemed more aligned with those who don’t follow Jesus than with those who have even a little or maybe even no understanding of the Truth. What a pitiful shame he never used the platform to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and salvation by faith in Jesus alone and did not distinguish himself as a Christian and therefore, by default – his own fault – was (perhaps unwittingly – perhaps fear? perhaps something else?) appeared to be in alliance with the one-worlders and complicit with other ‘religions.’ Jesus said, in Matthew 10.33, “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”

I feel quite sure that those of other “religions” were/are surely not sympathetic with followers of Jesus Christ as Rob Bell apearred to be with other ‘religions.’ Rob Bell answered one of the questions from the audience: (as best I could transcribe from the audio)

quotebegin.gif…Life is journey… and journey is a fundamentally different way to understand life than destination and on a journey all I am responsible for is the next step and that’s all I’m e-v-e-r asked for – is the next step I don’t have to have it all figured out, I don’t have to defend it all I don’t have to have it all nailed down and and if you can shift from destination understanding to an to to journey it frees you – to take life as it comes let it be what it is and do the next right thing.”  — Rob Bell

The moderator was…   well, decide for yourself – listen for yourself to Rob Bell here (see second video as quoted in part above).   I’m thinking Ingrid correctly states: “The emerging emporer is without clothes”

The Berean Call’s Ancient-Future Heresies – McMahon

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intentional or haphazard…

teacuppamela.pngWhen days are busy, there’s just no way around it — not everything gets done that ought to have been done – but haphazard or intentional (or vice versa) what’s really most important usually does (get done – even if poorly). That’s how things have been or have seemed in the last couple of weeks. I’ve wanted to blog so many things – for there have been so many great things going on – so many things to comment on or to share with you. It seems that for the last few weeks life’s been almost a blurry series of hurry up, clean up, make food, hurry up, wash up, eat up, get up, clean it up, make food… and it’s all good. There’s a big difference between being tired in ministry and being tired of ministry.

For the last ten days we’ve had missionaries, students and other guests here — and before that, we had family from all over. Now, all the hurry, hurry, hurry has passed and all those days, events, and activities are part of a mental scrapbook of sweet memories. So, today is the first day of the new normal. I’m trying to unwind the reel and review the events – and as I do, I’ll write about a few of them… you know… now that things are back to normal (?). Through the years I think we redefine normal about every three weeks or so — for that’s about how long things seem to stay essentially the same — about three weeks. Maybe two. Maybe a day.

So, we’ve had students here from the same mission’s school that Timothy attended. It was great to see them bright and early each morning, to listen to their classes and to serve them meals each day. They had opportunities each day to go street preaching, witnessing and to do door to door evangelism. From Oregon to Seattle provides quite a different venue and mix of people to talk with. They had ample opportunity to sharpen their skills, to listen to the LORD and to *see* people. It’s one thing to walk along and see the masses, but it’s wholly another thing to *see* people and hear their stories and share with them the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And around Seattle — at Pike Place or Union Square or at the University of Washington, or Western Washington U, there were plenty of people with strong views – plenty of people gathering ‘knowledge’ but none of that knowledge will save, none of that knowledge has eternal value. So, they talked… they walked… they heard and they spoke of the Truth. We pray for God’s Word to not return void – that those who spat on them, those who burned tracts, those who ate tracts would one day come to the knowledge of the Truth – and we pray that God will continue to strengthen the church that the church would see the mandate to go into all the world preaching the gospel and making disciples.

We had a tremendous answer to prayer… One of the young women Wes was talking with, on one of the days street preaching, was a woman new to the area. She asked if Wes was a believer in Jesus – and when he said, yes, she asked if he was a born again Christian — a follower of the Saviour, Jesus Christ the Son of God? She wondered if there were believers in the area – Wes told her he didn’t know specifically in that particular area – but that if she was looking for an opportunity to hear the Word, to sing and to fellowship that she could join us in our fellowship of beleivers on Sunday. Problem – no transportation. Wes told her no problem – he & our family would pick her up. He gave her our phone number. She gave her address – no phone. So, Sunday when looking up her address on Streets ‘n Trips, no location found for that address. Sigh. What to do, what to do? Mapquest? No such address found. So later he came downstairs and asked us all to come into the kitchen and pray with him that Ruth would call. He prayed in earnest to the Lord that the Lord would have her to call, that he would be able to bring her up to our fellowship that was to meet later in the day to accommodate all the guests, students and families. He prayed; we joined him and asked the Lord for His will to be done. Riiiing, riiiing…. Riiiing, riiiing… (we have caller ID announce) call from _________. We had never heard the name before (nor could we understand it), but we knew who it was and we praised the Lord that He had, indeed, heard our prayer and He intentionally answered.

Wes and a few of the children went to pick her up and eventually brought her to the home where our church met. I had gone ahead with a few of the children and waited there for his arrival. When he arrived, he introduced the beautiful Ethiopian woman, Ruth, to the church and they welcomed her. It was lovely. What seemed haphazard was truly an intentional blessing of the Lord. She was blessed and was a blessing. At the end of the day when Wes and I brought her back to our home briefly, she looked at all the photographs in our living room and her eyes landed lovingly on the photos of Kathryn and the Ugandan children and Timothy in Ghana… she turned and saw another photo of Kathryn kissing a Ugandan baby — her eyes welled with tears, she smiled and hugged our younger children… they hugged her with smiles and told her they’d see her again. We drove her home — talking the whole way about her life here and her desire to find work. I don’t know what the Lord has in store — but I do know He did bless that meeting — some might have called haphazard or coincidence.

The students saw the hand of the Lord – we all saw His hand. They saw the intentional work of the Lord when believers simply walk in His ways and follow Him. I don’t know when or if we’ll see her again — she lives such a far distance from here… but God knows — and now, more than ever, I’m sure He’ll make it very clear. Intentionally.

Our lives may be or seem pretty haphazard sometimes.  Praise God He loves us so.  So intentionally.

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When you get a wake-up call

teacuppamela.png I’m mulling over lots of things today as I clean bookshelves and re-order the movies, dvd’s and cd’s. The dust on some of them gave me a bit more necessary information when I questioned: Do we watch this anymore? Did we ever watch this? And, as always, I walk down memory lane when I go through belongings I haven’t looked through in awhile. Today’s purging of outdated or unused materials is absolutely nothing at all compared to the great purge of sixteen years or more ago. At that time we made, for all intents and purposes, a virtual clean sweep of practically all the movies and music we owned. Really… and that day has been etched in our family’s history as: The Day Daddy Went to the Dump.

So I came downstairs to get a cuppa tea and write some notes when I happened upon an email from Vision Forum.   And after reading it I was left pondering several things – one, our departure from most all things Disney happened a couple of years before The Day Daddy Went to the Dump time period of our lives.

We had been to Disneyland the year before and came home with the overwhelming thought: hey, that place is not right… the whole premise is deceptive – but it was so fun – or was it?  Anyway, then it was around that time that The Little Mermaid had come out and in the stores were all things Mermaid.  And we got to thinking… is this what we want to say and do? Is this the right message?  Is this the right anything?  I will never forget Wes walking by the television set where The Little Mermaid was playing and he heard, at that moment, the intro to the movie:  “Ariel, the rebellious teenager…”   And at that moment, he said. “No.”  He did not want our daughters dressing like that, talking like that, looking like that, acting like that or —thinking— like that.

Those were hard days.  Hard days that were worth every heartache, misunderstanding, expense, etc., etc.  Because those days were the shaping of our family.  It was as if, in those days, a stake was driven into our family’s foundation and history and it was the ‘day of decision’ — one of those days where we said, from here on out, we are going to follow the LORD in what we say and do and what we see and hear – and it’s got to line up right.  We had been walking with the Lord and were believers, but I think we had allowed too much of societal norms to shape our home and teaching of our children.

Looking back now, I wish we had said more, done more, thought more, acted earlier on many things — one of which was the catastrophic influence of:  most all things Disney — even though I agree wholeheartedly with the “Examples of Good” in the following list I’ve quoted below.

But I think the whole “Disney issue” that people deal with now is much like other issues Christians face… we often wake up and smell the coffee quite awhile after it’s been brewed and quite awhile after it’s been cooking on the hotplate of the coffeemaker.  It’s often not until the smell of scorched coffee starts to assault out senses that we say – wow,  we can’t drink that!  I know, coffee’s a pretty bad analogy. But the point can be seen.

Think of all the things that you, now as a conservative Christian, may have, at one time or another, not been too offended about.  Okay… take music or movies or dress or dating, or public school or birth-control or careers vs. ‘staying home’ or college away from home or whatever… what was passable or acceptable or even just accepted is now questioned in light of Scripture. I guess that’s really why I take such a hard stand and will continue to take such a hard stand against the merry-go-round of the meet-your-felt-needs- and the entertain-you-to-death church  trends  of the last 10-15+ years. It’s why I write about the things I do – because things are so subtly slipping into our homes and lives and they are really off — they are really contrary to the Word of God.

It’s not until that reality strikes believers in the face that decisions are reevaluated or wake-up calls are heard.   Just watch, it will not be too long before more in the church say:  Hey, this mysticism, this relativism, this conversation, this revisionist writing of the Bible, this carnal teaching, this denial of the omniscient, inerrant, omnipotent, Triune God…. wait, this… this… this just isn’t right.   When did this happen?   How did this happen?   And by then the church will have been carried away with all of that and more for  years.

Just consider the abortion industry. It was well into the practice that the wake-up call was heard – and believers began to gasp at the horrific atrocity of the death of innocent unborn babies and the highly profitable abortion industry. Things go on and people are told to mind their own business, don’t offend other people, don’t say things that will rock the boat. We’re told or conditioned to just be quiet and let people do what they want even though… well, you know… you and I don’t do those things… it’s not really for us to judge. and on and on.

I think that’s what’s gone on with the Disney lie all these years. And now, people are waking up to the fact that Disney, generally speaking, has been a promoter of all sorts of things that have become foundational teaching diametrically opposed to the Word and Way of the Living God and, subsequently:  society, traditions and cultural behaviours have been not only accepted, but endorsed as right or good.  And fun – because it’s… just Disney.

So, this from The Vision Forum… read more here. This is an excerpt from the letter I just received:

“Evaluating the Disney Legacy

These messages examine the Disney philosophy of filmmaking, the history of the Disney empire, and the impact of Disney’s many innovations on film and culture. Also included is an analysis of the philosophical and theological perspectives often presented in Disney’s children classics, both for good and for evil.

Examples of Good

· Walt Disney’s personal emphasis on the family as a basic unit of society.

· Appreciation for science, investigation, exploration, and innovation.

· Cultivation of virtues of heroic boyhood.

· Gratitude for the American legacy of freedom.

Examples of Bad

· Moralism without sound theological foundation.

· The “cutification” of witchcraft and evil.

· Reliance on pagan myth and fantasy, rather than biblical icons and worldview.

· Promotion of Darwinian evolutionism. “

 

Just think of situations where Disney has infiltrated or formed your thinking… you may not even realize it, but you might say, noticing the lateness of the hour: O, I need to leave… or O, the clock’s about to strike twelve, I’d better leave before I turn into a pumpkin.

 

 

But more, and probably worse, is that many of us have said, O, it’s okay, it’s a Disney movie… it’ll be okay. Disney used to be synonymous with family friendly. But was it really?

 

 

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In the mailbox today

For many years now I have written about trends in the church, church growth methods and marketing strategies and what church growth strategists are saying and doing.

What was in this space for a few days were scans of postcards from local churches and I have removed them and I would like to apologize for posting them – for the intent was not more important than people.  It was not my intent to criticize a specific local church, but rather to use the example of the postcards to demonstrate methods or as an example of purpose driven or emergent church methods and it was not my intent to cut down specific persons. at all.

So.  I offer my sincere apologies to any who were offended by my posting of those post cards.   I pray to continue to be used of the Lord to share what’s going on in the church today and to encourage trust and faith in the Living God and following after Jesus, the Truth and the Word of God.  These are very, very remarkable days as we watch for His appearing.

He is alive.

with love, a repentant heart, and faith in the only One who is able to save;

sincerely —pamela

the signs of the times

I felt I ought to clarify, just a bit, my post of a few days ago: “One of the first gents of emergents” bcz I am concerned that I perhaps inferred favourable thinking regarding the “ministry” and work of Rob Nooma Bell. I have occasionally been thought of or called judgmental when I talk about or point out blasphemous or apostate or deceptive teachers and preachers. So, in an effort to be kinder, gentler, I think I just might have appeared to endorse the presentations, the ‘pastor’ and the work.

So, just in case there’s still a question, may I share some Scriptures that will shed light on the emergent gents and the work, the way and the deception at the core of those who rewrite Scripture, deny the power of the Gospel or deny the Truth or the only Way to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, or teach and spread cunningly devised fables, wise in their own eyes, calling evil good and good evil… that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter… woe unto them… This is the seductive, illustrious emergent conversation. This is a sign of the times.

Marvel not:

 

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1 John 2.18

 

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1 John 2.22

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
1 John 4.1-3

And no marvel; for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11.14

Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1.7-9

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
2 John 1.7

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20.10

one of the first gents of emergents

It’s important to prove all things and hold fast that which is good. Prove all things. This man, Rob Bell, is probably one of the most influential ‘pastors’ in one of the fastest growing churches, Mars Hill, in America today. This is the “other Mars Hill” – not Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill church in Seattle. Rob Bell is known for his “Nooma’s” — short film clips depicting a particular concept or thought. The Nooma’s are thoughtful. The Nooma’s are thought provoking. The Nooma’s are provoking. Positively or negatively depending on what you think of them, what you think after watching them and what you think about the message they give (or don’t give).

This, from the Nooma.com site on what a Nooma is: “It’s short films with communicators that really speak to us. Compact, portable, and concise. Each Nooma touches onissues that we care about, that we want to talk about, and it comes in a way that fits our world. It’s a format that’s there for us when we need it,as we need it, how we need it.”

I remember seeing them for the first time a few years ago. Straight away I had a reaction. I made notes and comparisons with the Word. My reaction was strong. It’s stronger today.