Here’s a piece from Forbes that takes a look at some of America’s jumbo churches.

As a warning for ministers struggling financially right now while laboring in various types of ministries for the Lord, it seems good make this information concerning Dennis Lee more readily available.

At 5pt. Salt there’s discussion of a motion made by Dr. Jim Wilson.

This kind of thing isn’t confined to the Catholic Church or evangelicalism folks. It even seems to be found among the “gods” as well: A state appeals court today rejected Hindu leader Prakashanand Saraswati’s request to return to the Hays County headquarters of his spiritual movement while awaiting trial on indecency with a child charges…

Pastor John Chisham with a Biblical exposition on what it means to be a dad:

on this Fathers’ day, I think it appropriate that we revisit this passage of scripture [Ephesians 5:25-33] to examine the role of Fathers ( who should be necessarily husbands) and what we ought to be doing in the home…

Believing in the wholeness and sacredness of matter and energy (i.e., monism/pantheism, the theory that God is all, and all is God), New Age/New Spirituality views that sexuality complements spirituality. Sexual people are spiritual people, and sexual experiences are spiritual experiences. Sex facilitates persons getting in touch with the mystical dynamic and rhythm of life. Being one of the most vibrant experiences life offers, it is not therefore surprising that the new religionists should incorporate sex into their spirituality. As one author puts it, “Sexual ecstasy can transport us into union with the sacred Other, whether soul, God, human beloved, or nature. Uninhibited sexual opening powerfully alters consciousness . . .” In a similar vein, the stunning statement of a radical Anglican priest has been noted: “Sex is the spirituality that reveals the sacramental richness of matter.”
 
Having introduced ourselves to the thinking of the New Age/New Spiritualists, we proceed to set forth their theory that sexuality-equals-spirituality, after which, we will see how this theory seems to be influencing avant-garde evangelical authors, teachers, and leaders, and then submit sex-spirituality to the scrutiny of Holy Scripture.

Read more

In her latest column Marsha West begins:

Liberal “Christians” abhor “fundamentalist” Christianity so they cast it aside and adopt their own set of religious beliefs and values… Before I came to know Christ in a saving way I was a liberal “Christian.” (That was before the liberals coined the term “progressive Christian.”) As all liberals do, I molded Christianity into my worldview. Problem was I kept running into a road block — the Bible.

I rarely read the Bible but when I did I’d invariably stumble on a passage that contradicted what, at the time, was “true for me.” I admit it troubled me but I chose to ignore what I’d read… As a radical feminist I was unapologetically pro-choice and loved to spout off about a woman’s right to “choose” to have an abortion. Then one day I got into a discussion with a Christian friend… 

See also: How The Devil Steals Your Church

The Christian Post reports that the Episcopal church has appointed a panel of theologians to study the morality of homosexuality. That’s like appointing a panel to study the morality of rape or pedophilia. The Bible is clear: homosexuality is sin (Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27, etc.). Yes, lying, theft, murder, pride, and all other violations of God’s law are also sins. When we point out that homosexuality is sin, we are not condemning homosexuals as a special class of sinners. What we are objecting to is so-called Christians trying to re-define what the Bible clearly calls rebellion against God. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.

Satan once asked the question, “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1), and men, in an attempt to get God’s permission to sin, have been asking the same question ever since. I sincerely hope the theologians on this panel come to a biblical conclusion, but the fact that there even needs to be a panel in the first place doesn’t bode well. Whatever conclusion they come to, it will not change God’s law. God’s standards are not determined by panels.

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin . . . (Romans 3:9).

In England on July 4, 1653, during the era of British Puritanism, Oliver Cromwell convened the Barebone Parliament, described by one historian as,

The little band of stern, impassioned men hand-picked by Cromwell . . . with the set purpose of so remaking England’s constitution as to put into actual practice Mosaic law and the pristine principles of Jesus. On the Exchange, in the courts, in the markets, the Englishman was willy-nilly going to love his neighbor as himself. It was, says Lord Morely in his life of Cromwell, an attempt “to found a civil society on the literal words of Scripture . . . the high-water mark of the biblical politics of the time.”

But clashing with English property rights, the attempt of the Barebone Parliament was defeated, the eloquent and biblical oratory of Cromwell notwithstanding. The issue of private land ownership, perhaps even that of the Puritans themselves, forced recantation of the attempt to order English society after a biblical model. Does not the Puritans’ failed attempt at governmental and moral reform have a familiar ring about it? Sometimes those who espouse good laws are hesitant to practice the same, especially when they go against their vested self-interest, and in the cause of Christ hypocrisy is always self-indicting and self-defeating. As one critical historian notes, “The only trouble with Christian morality is that Christians on the whole, do not practice it.” From the get-go, it’s doubtful that efforts at a Christian reconstruction of and dominion over America would succeed. From the evident lifestyles of pan-evangelicals as revealed by surveys–bornagains are no different from non-bornagains–and the moral failures of a few high-profile but now disgraced leaders, there is every appearance that would-be reformers desperately need reforming.

Good laws cannot change bad people. Only grace can do that. The only end for wickedness is divine judgment. It was for Israel, and it will be for America. But beloved, don’t be discouraged by political ill fortunes of the present. Press on. Keep the faith. Live the right. Speak the truth. Be good neighbors and loyal citizens. Vote truth, right, and your conscience before God, all the while knowing that there will be no earthly utopia this side of the Lord establishing His rule on earth, a kingdom “wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). In the meantime, continue to pray, “Father . . . Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

Read all

So, church leadership designs worship services to be an experience akin to attending a Pacer game. A pervasive “need” seems to exist amongst congregants to get excited over excitement. I presume that’s why churches call their Sunday morning services, “celebrations” (Remember the tune, “Celebration,” by Kool and the Gang?). But I often wonder how the attendance numbers would fare if the Pacers did away with all the extra-curricular excitements? What if the atmosphere became like that of those old semi-pro Tacker games I attended as a kid. How many people attend games to just watch the game? Or, must there be other inducements? Similarly, how many people really attend church to worship God? I remember reading where A.W. Tozer once questioned how many people would attend church if the only attraction was God. Seemingly, vast numbers of Christians want to attend, “The Church of What’s Happening Now.” For any to young to remember, during the early 1970s this was the comedic church pastored by a con-artist named Reverend Leroy, who was played by the comedian Flip Wilson (1933-1998) on a TV program named after him.

Read more

Josh Harris has a good post on his blog about why we shouldn’t Twitter in church. Twitter is exploding in popularity, and more and more people are realizing its usefulness. As with any form of communication, though, we need to use it wisely and with biblical balance. Thanks Josh, for sharing your wisdom on this issue.

Speaking of Twitter, you can follow Slice of Laodicea on Twitter to interact with us and be alerted of our latest posts.

“And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” (1 Corinthians 11:24-26)

The inherent heresy of Phyllis Tickle’s words at a communion service held at Rob Bell’s church, the Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI, needs no clarification.

“As we’re about to do that, let us remember what we are doing. We not only celebrate that death and that promise of return, but we’re feeding by eating God, which is what we’re doing here, by eating the body and blood of our God, we are feeding the God within us. For as we take those elements, the Spirit also feeds within us, and is reinvigorated as he, or she, or it is by our faith.”

Listen to more

When a church grows to a certain size, one of the first priorities is to build or buy a church building. One group is challenging this American thinking and encouraging churches to put the money normally spent on real estate into ministry and outreach. Here’s today’s press release from the organization.

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., May 27 /Christian Newswire/ — Research shows U.S. churches spend an estimated $11.5 billion per year on church buildings, leading one Orange County-based church body to challenge churches to reevaluate their spending priorities.

According to Ken Eastburn, pastor of The Well, “The church building was never intended to be the center of Christian activity. Our faith is lived out beyond those walls. Imagine what could be accomplished if churches rededicated their building funds to evangelizing and serving the needy.”

Orange County-based The Well did just that in 2005 when they left their stone and steel building completely to become a community of house churches. Since leaving their building, Eastburn notes that the church body “is naturally more focused on living our faith out in the open and on actively being the hands and feet of Jesus in our communities. Our building held us in.”

So, Eastburn is saddened when he sees research like the 2002 Your Church survey of 150,000 churches that revealed that more than 22 percent of church income goes to building costs, including mortgages, new construction, utilities, and general upkeep. With the average church budget hovering around $350,000, “that’s more than $11.5 billion going to buildings alone,” asserts Eastburn.

While Eastburn is not advocating that every church leave its building, he is challenging churches to think critically about what they are spending on structures.

If those statistics hold for Orange County, Eastburn wonders what could happen if the county’s more than 900 protestant churches cut their building expenses by just 10 percent this year. “Just imagine! This would free up an estimated $7 million dollars to expand the Kingdom by serving Orange County’s most vulnerable and supporting missions — being the hands and feet of Jesus.”

So, Eastburn and The Well are challenging other churches to reevaluate their spending on buildings and to “tear down the walls” that hold them in. Eastburn says, “we’re still openly learning how to do this, and we invite others to learn with us, challenge us and join the conversation.” Individuals and churches can join the conversation at The Well’s blog at www.leavethebuildingblog.com.

###

Christian Newswire

Within the evangelical movement, especially on the part of the emerging church, we hear a lot of talk about “spiritual formation.” The difference I have with the spiritual formation movement is not regarding the destination–Paul wrote that Christians need to grow-up “to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13)–but over the journey, the means emerging evangelicals are proposing to get there. For the journey, we need God’s GPS system in Holy Scripture because in sanctification, success is the destination, and I have grave doubts that human devices will get us there. As through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit incorporates Christ within and among believers, He sets Christ-likeness as the objective for every believer because that is the very meaning of the name, “Christian.”

The problem with so many evangelicals today is that they are not Christ-like. Three decades of “pop worship,” with its emphasis upon entertainment at the expense of edification from God’s Word, has led to spiritual-emptiness that is now giving rise to spiritual directors, spiritual formation, and spiritual disciplines in the emerging evangelical church. “Happy church” has created a spiritual climate for the spiritual formation movement to flourish as the emerging church embraces the mystery of faith in a postmodern culture. To their credit, some evangelicals are at least recognizing that happy church does not make for a holy church.

Recently, I listened to a pastor explain to his congregation why they were not an emerging church.* In his conversation–they no longer call it preaching–he referenced Paul’s statement in Galatians 4:19 to justify employing methods of spiritual formation in the congregation. The text reads: “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you . . . for I am perplexed about you” (Italics mine, Galatians 4:19-20). Connect the dots–formed . . . formation. At the surface of it, the pastor assumed Paul was a kind of spiritual director who was advocating spiritual formation practices to the Galatians. His assumption caused me to look at the biblical text to see whether or not by his use of the phrase, until Christ is formed in you, Paul was promoting spiritual formation. Ironically, what I discovered turned out to be opposite from what this pastor inferred the text to say.

*Mike Erre, “Position Papers: Is ROCKHARBOR Becoming an Emerging Church?,” (http://www.rockharbor.org:80/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=79&Itemid=109).

Read more

By Ben Laake

Traditionally, mathematics has been called the language of science. Scientists and engineers use the language of mathematics to describe the world and to understand and predict the behavior of physical systems. For several centuries, mankind has been learning to use ever more complicated systems of equations to increase the accuracy and fidelity existing between the mathematical description of reality and reality itself. This improved and developed understanding has been used to harness the energy of nature for the benefit of man. The scientific and technological wonders we enjoy and depend on today were made possible by the advanced understanding of our world developed by mathematics. . . .

The foundation of today’s mathematical understanding was laid by many men who held to a worldview that God created the universe. Galileo, Newton, and other early pioneers of modern mathematics believed that the world around them was made by the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth. They worshiped Him and believed that their mathematics described His universe. To these men, mathematics was a language that described God’s handiwork.

Although many early scientists, seeing the hand of God in their mathematics, were led to honor and worship Him, others imagined that by their calculations a model of the universe could be developed that did not require God. Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (1749-1827), a great mathematician, astronomer, and friend of Napoleon, published such a treatise on the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter. On hearing of the publication, Napoleon asked “You have written this huge book on the system of the world without once mentioning the author of the universe?” Laplace answered, “No, Sire, I had no need of that hypothesis.”

A forerunner to modern evolutionists, Laplace believed he had no need for the supernatural to describe the world, stating, “All the effects of Nature are only the mathematical consequences of a small number of immutable laws.”

Read all

By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Sat, May. 16 2009 10:38 AM EDT

“Evangelical megachurches across San Diego, Calif.,are joining Catholics on Sunday to make a public outcry against abortion in their first ever joint pro-life rally.

The demonstration, which will take place after the multiple worship services that typically take place at megachurches, is being held on the same day President Barack Obama will take the stage at the University of Notre Dame to deliver the commencement speech. . . .

On Sunday, congregants from Skyline, The Rock Church, Shadow Mountain Church, Horizon Church, New Venture Christian Fellowship, and East Clairemont Southern Baptist Church will rally in front of the San Diego County Administration Building. There, participants will hear live reports from the Notre Dame campus where protests and arrests are ongoing and where some 40 graduating seniors will hold their own gathering in opposition to Obama speaking.”

Read all

Some have wandered away from . . . a sincere faith and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. (1 Timothy 1:5-7, NIV)

Among emergent church leaders there exists a growing trend to merge the secular with the sacred, to mingle the unspiritual and the spiritual. Emergent reality is viewed to be a monistic whole. For example, Rob Bell states that, “everyone is spiritual.” He says,

Maybe you’ve heard somebody say, “I’m just not into spiritual things.” Are you . . . are you a human being? Yea! Too late! The issue is not whether you’re a spiritual being, or you have a spirituality. The issue is whether your eyes are open and you’re aware of it. You cannot deny what is central to your make-up as a human being. In the Hebrew language there is no word for spiritual. If you would have said to Jesus, “Jesus, how’s your spiritual life?” What? What do you mean? Because to label one area spiritual is to label areas not spiritual. It’s absolutely foreign to the world of the Scriptures. It’s absolutely foreign to the worldview of Jesus. The assumption is that you are a fusion of two realms. And a human being occupies a totally unique place in the universe . . . Everything we do, we do as an integrated being—one-hundred percent physical, one-hundred percent spiritual.

To prove his everything/everyone-is-spiritual templet, Bell quotes Colossians 3:17 where Paul states, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus . . .” He then concludes,

What were they saying? Every act is a spiritual act. It’s whether or not you’re aware of the implications of what you’re doing.[1]

While in contrast to the Greek language (adjective, pneumatikos), there is no Hebrew word spiritual per se, that does not mean that the concept of it is foreign to the Old Testament. Paul wrote of the Exodus Israelites:

Moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. (Emphasis Mine, 1 Corinthians 10:1-5, KJV)

read all »

In his book The Other Side of the River, Kevin Reeves, a former worship team leader, explains that, “It was said regularly that believers coming into the service were either inner court, outer court, or holy of holies Christians, each one needing a certain period of time to come into the manifest presence of God.” It became his and the worship team’s responsibility, in an act he descibes as “charismatic ritualism” (I would call it, “mystic ritualism.”), to help people enter into the divine presence.

During the Old Testament era, entry into God’s presence was restricted to the High Priest one day per year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). For reason of the holiness of Yahweh, and to enter into the divine presence, the High Priest needed to pay attention to the required protocol, or face divine judgment, even death. The Lord would accept no offering of “strange fire” like that offered by the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. For their offering of “strange fire . . . in the presence of the Lord,” the two sons of Aaron died. In explaining to Aaron why they died, the Lord said through Moses, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored” (See Leviticus 10:1-3.).

That’s why the presumptuous way in which some musicians and singers advertise themselves is troubling. One worship leader’s CD contains the following promo. It advertises her as, “Fresh, energetic and anointed . . .” The CD jacket goes on to state that she is “an accomplished singer/songwriter, keyboardist and speaker.” The promo concludes by stating that the recording, her second musical project, will take “you through the door of worship, right into the heart and presence of God.” Note the words of the blurb: her music will take “you through the door of worship, right into the heart and presence of God.” It’s as if, through her music, she will usher people into the Holy of Holies.

Read More

“There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).

Circa 600 B.C. Indicting the people of his day, Jeremiah described that they, “swear falsely,” “refused to take correction,” “refused to repent,” “do not know the way of the Lord or the ordinance of their God,” “were well-fed lusty horses, each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife,” “bend their tongue like their bow,” that “lies and not truth prevail in the land,” that their “sons have forsaken Me and sworn by those who are not gods” and that “every brother deals craftily and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer” (See Jeremiah 5:1-9, 26-28; 9:3-6). Déjà vu! Any reader of Jeremiah and the other prophets cannot help but notice the uncanny resemblance between the society of Judah then and the evangelical sub-culture now. Fast forward to . . .

2009 A.D. In their book UnChristian, two authors from the Barna Research Group describe behaviors evident among today’s pan-evangelical culture. They write:

In virtually every study we conduct, representing thousands of interviews every year, born-again Christians fail to display much attitudinal or behavioral evidence of transformed lives. . . . the lifestyle activities of born-again Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non-born-agains. . . . born again believers were just as likely to bet or gamble, to visit a pornographic website, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium or a psychic, to physically fight or abuse someone, to have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk, to have used an illegal, nonprescription drug, to have said something to someone that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did, and to have said mean things behind another person’s back.

No difference.

read all »

President Obama is being criticized for not holding a public National Day of Prayer Event at the White House this year. Shirley Dobson is heading up the criticism.

You will remember last year that the Dobson’s group refused to require the name of Jesus in the official NDP prayer prayed by Dr. Ravi Zacharias. Barack Obama is only recognizing what Dobson refuses to recognize. The unbiblical, universalist-style prayers intoned in the presence of Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus and so forth are meaningless. Going through the motions is a waste of time. Further, such prayers are an offense to God. Obama has accurately observed that the U.S.A. is not a Christian nation. With that in view, exactly who would Mrs. Dobson have us pray to at the White House when Christians would have been only one of many world religions represented?

Obama’s decision to not hold a Tower of Babel-style prayer service featuring the gods of the American pantheon simply puts an end to the farce. In any event, we can hardly ask God to bless America while the blood of innocents continues to soak our soil. Asking for the participation of America’s death angel President would make a mockery of Christian prayer. At least Mr. Obama is being consistent, which is more than evangelicals are these days.

Note: The official NDP prayer this year does include Jesus’ name, unlike last year. The NDP Committee did not want a repeat of the PR diaster they had last year. It’s too little, to late, unfortunately.  Our nation does need prayer, and specifically Christ’s true church in America. True believers should uphold our leaders, our land, and our churches in sincere prayer that God will actually hear—prayed by Christians  in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.