Wednesday Link List

For the superhero fan at your house. Click the image to learn how to order.

Again, some great articles you may have missed in the past 168 hours.

• First of all, if you missed it, check back for our exclusive article about the Dalit people of India, published yesterday on the 20th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa.
• An open letter to Joel Osteen in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. “…the kind of opulence you sit nestled in no way resembles the homeless, itinerant street preacher Jesus who relied on the goodness of ordinary people to provide his daily needs. They rightly recognized that mansions are not places that servant leaders emulating this humble, foot-washing Jesus occupy.” The lesson: Jump in and help, don’t wait to be asked…
• …and a Houstonian looks at the lack of initial response in the context of larger issues.
• After taking a stand against racism and white supremacy at the MTV Video Awards, a 24-year old 4th-generation descendant of Gen. Robert E. Lee who is a graduate of Duke Divinity and ordained pastor at Bethany United Church of Christ in North Carolina has resigned because of the media attention and backlash…
• …The resignation in his own words.
• From Peter Enns, following The Nashville Statement, a statement on statements: “…public statements are largely written for the already convinced, are therefore belligerent by design, too often passive-aggressive in tone, and therefore are a colossal waste of time, not to mention make it that much more difficult for others to bear witness to Jesus.”…
• …On the same subject, don’t miss our article from the weekend, with links to two of the most powerful articles we found on the subject.
• Tearing Down the Monuments: “The young protesters in Durham, North Carolina, tied a rope around a Confederate statue and pulled it down. Then they kicked it and spit on it as they chanted, ‘We are the revolution.’ Seven of those protesters are now under arrest for inciting a riot and for damaging public property. Angry mobs will not heal America’s racial problems. If we want to overcome hate, we have to do it decently—and with the same commitment to non-violence that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. espoused in the 1960s.”
• Leadership Lessons (1): Here are ten questions that Christian leaders should print out and review each and every week. Sample: “#6 Who will walk more with Christ next week because he/she learned from me this week?”
• Leadership Lessons (2): On playing second fiddle, Clay Scroggins is the campus pastor of Andy Stanley’s mother ship in Alpharetta, Georgia and has just released, How to Lead When You’re Not In Charge (Zondervan). “All of us are in charge of something, and you don’t have to be in charge to begin to take charge.” An interview with Outreach Magazine.
• Essay of the Week: The social and Christian stigma of having mental health issues.
• “The earliest Latin commentary on the Gospels, lost for more than 1,500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in English for the first time…This sheds new light on the way the Gospels were read and understood in the early Church, in particular the reading of the text known as ‘allegorical exegesis’ in which elements in the stories are interpreted as symbols. So, for example, when Jesus climbs into a boat on the Sea of Galilee… the sea which is sometimes rough and dangerous stands for the world, while the boat corresponds to the Church in which Jesus is present and carries people to safety.” 1500 years later, digital technology brings it to life.  and then offers some positive aspects.
• A question for Randy Alcorn: “You write biblical and theological books, and encourage good stewardship of time and money. Why would you succumb to the superficial trend of coloring books?” With his own addition to the genre releasing yesterday, Alcorn responds in great detail to each of the three types of push-back he’s received and then offers some positive aspects of the hobby.
• Link to more links: This article connects you to each of a ten part series by Michael J. Kruger on Taking Back Christianese.
• At a time in which regular church attendance is in decline; a pastor in the UK looks at the SBNRs; those who are “spiritual but not religious.”
• Meanwhile, back in the States, the anatomy of the decline among the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.)
• A writer for the new Star Trek series stops filming and orders an actor to repeat a line without reference to God.
• ♫ New Music (okay, six months ago, but now that The Newsboys have covered this…): So last week we introduced you to Cody Carnes husband of Kari Jobe-Carnes; here’s his version of The Cross Has the Final Word…
• ♫ …but why does this Newsboys’ version only have 200 or so views?
• ♫ New Tween Music (actually the album released Friday, but the song was out in April): Jamie Grace’s The Happy Song. (At least she doesn’t use the phrase, “I’m gonna get my worship on.”)
• What? A Phil Vischer Podcast without Skye or Christian? Family ministry expert Elizabeth Smith answers questions sent in last week.
• A British supermarket’s line of Greek foods featured a distinctive image of a Greek church. Now, the cross in the picture has been airbrushed out.

This church serves as an image for a line of Greek foods sold in a British supermarket. Lately, the cross has been airbrushed out of the picture.

• The T-shirt at the top of today’s column is a reminder to tell you about Doxacon, a Christian Sci-fi, fantasy convention similar to ComicCon.
• Finally, from the very strange mind of Matthew Pierce, a blog post that at least starts out to be a list of The Ten Best Hymns…
• …Or if you’re reading him for the first time, his 7 Reasons Churches Fail, an article that is probably grounds for committal in most states.
  

Wednesday Link List

This is another photograph in a continuing series by people known to readers here; this sunset was taken Monday night by author and pastor Mark Batterson.

 

On Monday I raked leaves and collected links; you could call it my own little feast of ingathering.

• If a conservative family wants to block their daughter from going to college, they can refuse to sign off on her financial aid package.
• That Noah’s Ark theme park in Kentucky may not qualify for state tax credits if they only hire people who believe in the flood after which the park is named.
• Many Evangelicals distance themselves from Joel and Victoria Osteen, but their views may be more common that we think.
• On the issue of election, this writer states you must choose between two extremes, there is no middle ground.
• Worship Leader’s dilemma: Wanting to continue to use a song by [name of worship leader] after a revelation of moral or doctrinal issues.
• You can file this one under the category of Most Counterproductive Conversion Stories Ever. (Author’s words!)
• If there are people in your church who have simply run out of money, it may be that whatever approach you take to help them may not be helpful.
• Scot McKnight’s blog has a sneak preview of Philip Yancey’s new book, Vanishing Grace…
• …A different type of book is coming October 27th: Unwelcome, a collection of church visitor horror stories. #DoNotDoThis (You can win a copy by sharing your own.)
• An update on a September article that went viral, in which a woman describes the aftermath of her husband’s coming out, divorcing her, taking the children, and marrying another man.
• A church mourns the loss of its youth pastor, his wife and teenaged sons.
• Zondervan has launched an instructional video that links to a webpage to help parents and grandparents navigate the maze of child and teen Bibles currently available.
• If your church uses a bulletin — print or electronic — you need to read these 15 observations on church communications and look at the links for each one.
• A veteran Christian songwriter on the issue of people who aren’t singing and how to get them engaged…
• …but if you’ve got about eight minutes, here’s a church where I don’t think you could not sing.
• If you’re reading the Bible purely as a manual or textbook, your sermon titles may be similar to the ones listed in this article.
• Celebrate President Jimmy Carter’s 90th birthday by suggesting that he might go to hell for saying that Jesus wouldn’t discriminate against LGBT people. Or better yet sign a petition asking for an apology from the two pastors who made that claim.
• Essay of the Week: “God Has Never Done a New Thing Using Old Songs.” (I guess we know on which side of the worship wars this one falls.)
• The next time it’s your turn to make the introductions, instead of introducing people in terms of what they do, introduce them in terms of what they are.
• Celebrity Stalking: It’s interesting how his Christian faith keeps intersecting with Justin Bieber’s journey, but this week it was Selena Gomez photographed with T. D. Jakes after attending his church.
• What does relief and development in Africa have in common with last week’s Nobel prize winners in Physics?
• From the leading Anglican website in the UK, an all-time top 100 Christian books list.
• Contest: Here is an illustration desperately needing a sermon to go with it. Which text and application would you pick? (Sorry, there are no prizes.)
• People’s expectations for funerals are changing.
• Sermon of the Week: Talbot Davis on FedEx, UPS, and why we should embrace obscurity in Christian service.
• Children blurt out the worst things at the worst times, but this one has that nightmarish quality…
• …and speaking of nightmares, a lot of people are terrorized by the thought of being picked to do the closing prayer at small group.
• Rob Bell’s latest ‘Surf ‘N Seminar’ conference claims to be targeting “People in business, creatives, entrepreneurs, those who work in healthcare, education, law, media and of course, moms.” In other words, the “Business Edition” is for everyone. (Everyone who has the $700.)
• Celebrating new births: Each new faith commitment at Louis Giglio’s Passion City Church is represented by a light bulb.
• Video of the Week: This live acoustic version of Depths from Hillsong’s No Other Name album, not to be confused with Hillsong United, which brings us to…
• The band Hillsong United took five awards home from The Dove Awards, and the Gospel Music Association also presented an award to satellite radio provider Sirius XM.
• It’s unlikely your boy will want to wear a dress, but if that, or something similar arises, this parent’s response is worth filing away.
• The writer of a piece on “The War on Advent” would like to see secular party-planners be more more liturgically minded.
• Podcast of the Week: Sorting out the Nephilim from Genesis and Numbers. Or trying to. Actually, we’re not sure who they were. (27 minutes)
• If you want the marriage to last, have a cheap wedding, but many guests.
• Are you a hypocrite? “Being a hypocrite is a human condition, not just for churchy folks.”
• There is also an egalitarian movement in the Jewish community.
• Separating church and state collides with the principle that you can’t exclude on religious grounds as a New York high school makes a second attempt to shut down a Christian club.
• KidMin Korner: I wonder if the Read and Ride concept has application for Christian education programs?
• Link List Extra: The woman at the well had a name. (Well of course she did; everyone does.)
• Yes, there were weird news stories this week.
• Finally, the latest children’s book from Tyndale House is one part Dr. Who and one part Duck Dynasty.

Paul Wilkinson’s wisdom and Christian multi-level business opportunities — “just drop by our house tomorrow night, we have something wonderful we’d like to share with you” — can be gleaned the rest of the week at Thinking Out Loud, Christianity 201 and in the Twitterverse. 

From the archives:
The problem with out-of-office email notifications:

Lost in translation: The English is clear enough to lorry drivers – but the Welsh reads “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.” …Read the whole 2008 BBC News story here.

Wednesday Link List

Each week, I get paid to write teasers for some great online resources, as well as some quirky ones.

• After 40 years as a writer, Philip Yancey looks at The Golden Age of Publishing.
• Analysis: Some hints as to a recent survey showing that the love Evangelicals have for Jewish people is not reciprocated.
• Someone you know may need this book: An interview with author J. J. Jasper on grieving the loss of a child.
• Christians in Mosul ordered to leave this city found their homes identified with a painted letter ‘N’ for ‘Nazarene.’
• The drive home and the Sunday dinner: A look at how to debrief the weekend sermon with your children.
• I have an inkling about this one: A movie probing the friendship between J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.
• The McCormick Ridge Holiness Church in Whitleyville, Tennessee begins life after buying back its building from the Wesleyan Church denomination after a dispute that began over what the pastor considered unethical investments in the pension fund for ministers.
• 

  You can also read today’s links at PARSE, a Christianity Today website; click this image

  If your church grows (like you want it to) some key people may lose their favorite seat. (And parking spot.)
• Canadian North Point affiliate pastor has a great back-catalog of leadership articles on his blog. Recently posted, 21 signs that a “closed” sign may be heading for your church, unless things change…
• …and another article which shows that, while you may not read tea leaves to spot societal shifts, you can read into 5 things Netflix can teach us.
• A Pentecostal who frequently writes as to why the (capital C) Church should permit women in ministry offers seven reasons why the same (capital C) Church often does not.
• Christian Leadership Parental Complications: When your child is dating a non-Christian. (The author says to skip the “unequal yoke” bit.) …
• …Related: “What if a daughter’s father took some responsibility not just in vetting a young man, but in investing in him and preparing him to make much of Jesus in dating and marriage?” How to date your daughter’s boyfriend.
• Some people think the Bible is just an ancient book that belongs in a museum. Now, that museum is becoming a reality.
• Perseverance (and preservation) of the saints: R. C. Sproul seems to allow the possibility of “falling past the point of no return.” Or appearing to have “irretrievably fallen.” A Reformer looks at apostasy…
• (…Which of course reminded me of the Steve Taylor song, Not Gonna Fall Away, which seems to exist on YouTube only in this 8-minute remix.)
• A North Carolina Baptist pastor takes scripture memorization to extremes.
• Do I really have what it takes to lead this missions trip? That and four other questions leaders ask while packing their suitcase.
• Flashing back to ’90s Christian culture: If I had a Kindle, I’d probably download this book, the title of which is…uh…
• Pastors have problems with what people think about them. That and nine other things they don’t admit publicly.
• Teaching teens that, over the long term, monogamy makes sense.
• A seemingly impossible story of pregnancy, pregnancy termination, and a live, healthy birth.
• After the upcoming Exodus: Gods and Kings movie releases, director Ridley Scott plans to tackle the life of King David.
• A social media ‘Dear John’ letter, only this one begins, “Dear Facebook…“
• Ten ways the seniors in your church can be integrated into youth ministry.
• Essay of Last Week: With 40 links last Wednesday, some things were edited. This one is Anne Marie Miller’s take on why discussions on modesty are often misdirected.
• Essay of This Week: Perhaps the way some Evangelicals do communion is “too painless.”
• 12 signs of abusive leadership in churches that pastors should not tolerate.
• This acoustic version of Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) was posted by K-LOVE back in October, but given the popularity of the song today, I mention it here.  The top ten video versions at YouTube have a combined viewership around 31,500,000…
• …while a group that often covers other artists songs, Worship Mob, is our Video of the Week with a 7-minute original song.
• Symbols Quiz Time: You have a fish on your car, and you know the dove represents the Holy Spirit, but what about the pelican?
• Moving forward, your church’s website will need to be mobile-compatible.
• Christian singer Natalie Grant makes her film debut in the movie Persecuted, an American political suspense thriller involving an evangelist framed for murder.
• Remember when the front of the church consisted of the choir loft, communion table, wooden pulpit and overstuffed high-back chairs?  That’s no longer the case.
• Here are three very disparate false assumptions that worship leaders can make…
• …also from Canada, this report on swimming upstream: A music society fights for the preservation of hymns by condemning modern worship leaders…
• …and concluding our music links trio, this writer calls the various distractions one encounters during worship time, Worshiping in the Wild. (Please do not feed the animals.)
• Finally, proving that the American-biased, success-based teaching of Joel Osteen has absolutely no application outside of, for example, the G20 nations, there is the website Third World Osteen.
• Well…I don’t know about you, but I could keep doing this all day, but…  Our closing image comes from The Master’s Table (click below) and was photographed at WalMart. (The upper image is also a t-shirt from Gardenfire.)
  

 

Wednesday Link List

This paradigm-shifting “chunky” cross necklace is sold on Etsy. I’ve seen the “inline” cross on bracelets, but never necklaces. Click the image to purchase.

It’s the last day of the month and also the income tax deadline in Canada. Having 15 more days than my U.S. friends in no way implies that I’ve got my tax return complete, or even started; but hey, we’ve got links.

Walking out to the tip of the hand was the highlight of my recent trip to Rio. Okay, actually I found this on the blog Launch Clarity; click to read (and check out the April 24th post on church signs.)

Clicking anything below is going to redirect you to PARSE, the link list’s owners for the past ten months. Happy linking!

• So who you do you see as the most influential people to your life and faith? Time Magazine has their Top 100, and one blogger has his.
• Can I share something with you in confidence? Actually, there are things for pastors to consider before answering.
• Links to more links: Ten talking points concerning Paul’s words, “I do not permit a woman to teach…”
• The Rest of the Story: As Heaven is for Real (Thomas Nelson book) becomes a box office success, the mother of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven (Tyndale House book) reveals serious concerns about the latter book’s veracity.
• Not on Twitter? Here’s 25 things that might change your mind about joining (and 25 peeks at Tweets you’re missing.)
• A Pro-Choice organization has successfully forced Google to take down advertising for crisis pregnancy centers.
• Breaking up is hard to do: Especially in a smaller church, it really hurts when individuals and families leave.
• I am so challenged by everything Shane Claiborne writes, especially stories like this one.
• Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts has passed the one million copies sold mark.
• Another Christian film project: Check out For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles.
• It’s hard to know how to process this, but just days before the service canonizing Pope John Paul II, a giant cross dedicated to his memory collapsed, crushing a man to death…
• …Also at The Telegraph, China is on target to be be the world’s most Christian nation in about 15 years.
• If you missed out on becoming a saint this weekend — most likely because you’re alive and reading this — here are your next steps to sainthood.
• 31 speakers at this year’s Wild Goose Festival.  How many of these names do you recognize?
• This one’s about six weeks old now, but like The Bible Answer Man I’m voting for Osteenification to be one of the new words of 2014; at least in Evangelicalism, if not a great title for a Christian rap song.
• American Bible Challenge, seen on the Game Show Network, is returning for a third season with host Jeff Foxworthy.
• Holy genealogy, Batman; this woman claims to be the Virgin Mary’s 65th cousin.
• Move over, Charlton Heston; Ben-Hur will be the next project for Mark Burnett and Rona Downey.
• North Point Church probably has more internet domains registered than any other church, so they’ve created a central focal point for their online activity.
• Via Skype, this weekend, Greg Boyd was a guest on Premier Radio’s Unbelievable broadcast/podcast in the UK.
• These Easter kisses weren’t candy or chocolate…
• …And if your Easter attendance wasn’t all it could have been, maybe it’s because you missed this article.
• This isn’t one of the major annual book lists, but smaller, independent Christian publishers have their awards, too…
• …Also on the topic of size, a small church pastor apologizes to his kids for all the things they had to do without…
• …While at Parchment and Pen, a half-hour podcast about megachurches also offers many insights into smaller churches.
• Though Trinity Western University’s law school won the battle in their home province, British Columbia; the same didn’t happen in more populous Ontario.
• When Thom Rainer was asked if he would officiate at their wedding, first, the couple always got this letter…
• …Which brings us to this picture; it makes a point in a creepy way.
• Despite having 7,000 daily blog readers, she decided it was time to drop out of the race.
• Devotions from the headlines: On Ukraine and the sovereignty of God.
• As youth culture dominates, the elderly have lost their place at the table, both in broader society and in the church.
• A member of the band Jars of Clay is the latest get caught in the middle of the gay marriage issue.
• The company that helped Mark Driscoll reach bestseller status, is currently laying low.
• At my own blog this week: Faith-focused movies in perspective, and pastor homes in gated communities.
• Getting in touch with my feminine side: Sandra Stanley’s recipe for strawberry pizza.
• Finally, we also leave our female readers with this: Church would be a safer place for men if hot women would dress a little frumpy. (For balance: some advice for men.)

Paul Wilkinson can be read daily at Thinking Out Loud, Christianity 201 and Twitter. Below: A Baptism cake (source unknown).

Missing Easter Sunday

Apparently James MacDonald isn’t the only one who has issues with preaching about Easter on Easter Sunday morning. I found this in my files from April, 2009:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ~Galatians 2:20

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I enjoy reading the worship sets that people file at Fred McKinnon’s blog as part of something called The Sunday Setlists. So I looked forward to the recap of what was being presented on Fred’s blog for Easter Sunday in some of the top churches in the U.S., Canada and beyond. I know some worship leaders find the Christmas Carols frustrating — we won’t get into that debate now — but figured anything dealing with suffering, death and resurrection of Christ would represent the best that Christian music (modern and traditional) has to offer.

Some worship directors clearly rose the occasion. In both their comments and their choice of songs it was clear that this high point in the church calendar was also the high point in the worship music cycle of their house of worship.

But other worship leaders clearly weren’t going to let something as pedestrian as Easter get in the way of their worship agenda. In fact a couple of churches — as evidenced either in the WL’s writeup or further linking to the church sites — clearly continued with other theme series they were running. At least one did a kind of split service between their current series and Easter, as though the ‘holiday’ was an interjection not unlike making room for a baby dedication or mention that it’s the Sunday closest to Veterans Day.

On April 13th, I wrote the following letter to McKinnon:

I didn’t want to spoil the mood in the Sunday Setlist comments, but it’s amazing to see the difference between the WLs who really focused on the death and resurrection of Christ, and those who simply did the songs that are currently popular, or the songs they were going to do anyway before Easter “got in the way.”

Everybody encourages everyone else in the respective blog comments; there seems little room for critical evaluation here.

The one that really got me was the church that went ahead with a sermon series acknowledging that it had nothing to do with Easter.

As a guy who is being edged out of weekly WL duties — it is a young man’s game — I really wish I was still more active, when I see so much disregard for the central Sunday of the church calendar.

More recently the blog Slice of Laodacia reports that the website Pirate Christian Radio awarded the “Worst Easter Sermon Award” to Joel Osteen. Here’s some highlights:

“Every Christmas Christians whine and complain about secular and atheistic efforts designed to take Christ out of Christmas yet more and more Christian pastors have committed an even worse offense and have removed Jesus Christ and His victorious resurrection from the grave from their Easter sermons,” said Chris Rosebrough. “Far too many pastors have played the role of Judas and have betrayed Jesus. Rather than being paid 30 pieces of silver, these pastors have sold Jesus out for the fame and adulation that accompany having a ‘growing, relevant ‘man-centered’ church’.”

…The sermons Rosebrough picked for this year’s contest included:

• A sermon that explored the “deep” spiritual lessons of the movie Slumdog Millionaire .
• A sermon entitled “Beer Babes & Baseball”
• A sermon entitled “Livin’ Venti” that encouraged people to live life to the fullest.
• A sermon entitled “You Have Come Back Power”
• And a sermon entitled “Easter in the Octagon”

This year’s winner of the first ever, Worst Easter Sermon Award went to Joel Osteen’s sermon “You Have Come Back Power”.

Commenting on Osteen’s sermon Rosebrough stated, “Jesus didn’t die and rise again on the cross so that you can have ‘come back power over life’s set backs’. Osteen completely missed the point of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and as a result he missed the entire point of Christianity.”

Said Rosebrough, “I wasn’t surprised that Osteen was the first winner of this award. Osteen is like the Tiger Woods of heresy, he takes false teaching to a whole new level.”

And also a couple of days ago, Stephen Weber on the devotional blog Daily Encouragement writes the second of a two-parter called The Tyranny of the New writes:

…Most churches now want to be identified as contemporary (whatever that really means). Wouldn’t most churches in 1900 or at any other time in history have been contemporary during their age?

My annoyance at the contemporary church is not the embracing of the new, something I feel has been done all through history, but rather the tendency to devalue and disparage the old. Among so many I encounter a snobby attitude toward older music, i.e. hymns or even music written within the past twenty five years.

I was visiting with a friend after Easter who attends a self-identified “contemporary” church in our area. He’s my age and has a history in the church. I asked him about the service, “Did you sing some of those great Easter songs like ‘He Lives’ or ‘Christ The Lord Is Risen Today’?” He told me, “Oh no, we just sang new choruses.” I asked if they sang any songs dealing with the Resurrection. He told me they sang an “old” song from 1999 that he thought might have had something to do with the Resurrection! That’s sad!

One of the best memories I have of 2008 is a Good Friday service where the worship was led by a man in his late 60s. He chose mostly modern worship pieces, but the choices were so absolutely, totally focused on the message of the cross. At the time, the choices seemed so self-evident — especially having just come from a similar service in a nearby town — but I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote them all down anyway, trying to preserve this lesson in choosing worship material.

By the way, Weber’s text for his post was:

“This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it'” (Jeremiah 6:16).

I think that something key is being lost when worship leaders miss the point. In the church I contributed to most over the past three years, I was solely responsible for the first 35-40 minutes of the service, and then the pastor would speak for 35-40 minutes. That’s a major responsibility. I wasn’t on staff, I wasn’t on the board, but I had the second largest contribution to each person’s Sunday worship experience. Humbling.

Therefore, I wouldn’t dare walk into an Easter Sunday service without being absolutely convinced that this particular date demanded my absolute best. Easter is why we have a church. Easter is why we have a faith. Easter is why we have a hope. Easter is why we have salvation.

Agree?

Update March, 2010: As we approach Easter again I noticed this particular post was getting a lot of traffic. I just want to point out here that The Sunday Setlists — mentioned in the first paragraph — is now part of The Worship Community blog.

Also, if you’re not a regular reader here, I also didn’t want to leave the impression I was giving a blanket endorsement to the Slice of Laodicea blog or to Pirate Radio. I’m just saying that I think in this instance they got it right.

Is the Part of Christianity That is Rapidly Growing Actually Christianity?

Much has been written about the decline in church attendance in Western Europe and North America, but at the same time we often hear reports about the growth of Christianity in South America and Africa. I think we really need to ask ourselves however if the ‘thing’ that is growing in those places related to the Christian faith as most readers here understand it. In fact, many Christians in those continents are embracing the prosperity doctrine.

Prosperity preaching has many forms, but the two most known examples are Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen. The sheer size of their respective ministries (Joyce on media and Joel in his megachurch) means that for many Christians, they constitute mainstream Christianity. Rick Warren, Andy Stanley and Bill Hybels all pastor megachurches, so it seems easy to include Joel Osteen as though they are all in the same category. But they aren’t. It’s easy to compare Joyce Meyer to other authors on the shelves at Christian bookstores like Philip Yancey or Max Lucado but she is clearly in a class by herself.

One test is compatibility. If you’re moving from Chicago to Atlanta to Orange County, it’s easy to transfer from one of the aforementioned churches to another, but at Joel Osteen’s Church you’d get an entirely different vibe. Similarly, if readers of Craig Groeschel or Kyle Idleman picked up one of Joyce’s books they would sense they were moving into different territory.

But earlier this month, a U.S. pastor decided to connect the dots more fully for his congregation:

I have been preaching for 20 years.  Yesterday I did something that I have never done before in a sermon.  I publicly called out false teachers and named them by name.  I said,

If you listen to Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer, if you take what they teach seriously, it will not be good for you.  It will be detrimental to your long-term growth as a follower of Jesus.

He then goes through a list of doctrines taught by Joel and Joyce and carefully examines their doctrines. It’s a longer post requiring your time and attention, but i believe Rick Henderson has done his homework.

You can read the whole piece — and the 1,050 comments received to date, by clicking here.

One of the challenges of running articles like this is that you attract all kinds of people whose comments are based entirely on a loyalty to the Bible teacher, pastor or author in question. Whether or not they read the piece in question is hard to determine. They feel it is their spiritual duty to rush to the defense of their shepherd.

I know this from personal experience with articles about Joyce Meyer and James MacDonald.  In the world at large, people can look at six tenets of a person’s personal beliefs and say, “I agree with 1, 3, 4, and 6, but not number 2 or 5.” In the Christian world, there is no grace granted to those who respect a person’s ministry in several areas, but disagree with a couple of others.  Attacks are consider personal even when there is no such intention.

I once told someone I was writing a critique of a newly-released book, and they were quite upset that I had chosen to criticize it. No, sorry. A critique is not necessarily a criticism. Critical thinking is not necessarily criticism. And both are about concepts and ideas, not about individuals.

So I applaud Rick Henderson for his willingness to do the hard thing, and actually do the research necessary to prove his point.

If the prosperity doctrine is responsible for the huge migration of South Americans away from the Roman Catholic Church to the Charismatic Protestant Church, then I wonder if some of them would have been better served to have stayed where they are. In fact maybe more than just some.

Rick Henderson writes:

The Prosperity Gospel is much like all other religions in that it uses faith, it uses doing good things to leverage material blessings from God.  Essentially, use God to get things from God…

…This is not the Gospel.  This is a false Gospel.  Joel teaches that we open ourselves to God to get more from God.  He teaches that we use our words to speak into existence a better reality.  This straight from the Word of Faith Movement.  This is not what is taught throughout the New Testament.  Consider what the Apostle Paul wrote.  And remember that he wrote this while in prison.

Philippians 4:10-13 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Wednesday Link List

Welcome to yet another installment of “Let’s see what everybody else is doing online.” Actually there are some really strong links here this week, you won’t be disappointed, but I think both guys in the above cartoon are going to be.

• Our lead link this week isn’t lighter fare. The Dictionary of Christianese worked hard to provide you with the meaning of all things kairos, such as kairos time, kairos season, kairos opportunity and kairos moment.
• Todd Rhoades invites you to play: Who Said It? Oprah or Osteen? Before peeking at the answers, why not phone a friend or use this as a small group icebreaker.
• Jamie the Very Worst Fundraiser admits that some of the pictures — and descriptive language — you see in missionary letters may not be entirely representative of what is taking place on the mission field. Partner with someone to read this. 
• The church once known as the Crystal Cathedral will be renamed Christ Cathedral, while the people who once worshiped at the Crystal Cathedral will gather under the name Shepherd’s Grove.
• The Christian teen whose song Clouds recently reached 3 million YouTube views, Zach Sobiech, died Monday surrounded by family at his home in Lakeland, Minnesota. He was 18.  
• As of last night, Oklahoma pastor Craig Groeschel reported that 71 families from Lifechurch had lost their homes.
  
• At Parchment and Pen, perhaps the reason many adolescents and young adults have faith collapses is because they aren’t properly conditioned on dealing with doubts. Must reading for Christian parents. 
• Also for parents: If you’re wondering what to do with your teens (or tweens) over the summer, you won’t be after reading this list.
  
• Catholic readers should note that there are some rosaries on the market that aren’t exactly kosher.  William Tapley guides you to spotting the iffy prayer beads.
• This just in: “No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may enter the Lord’s assembly.” Actually, it’s in Deuteronomy. A must-read for guys.
  
• A music therapist at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville gets kids to write songs, and then gets the songs recorded by the city’s best. A seven minute documentary; keep the tissues handy. (Love what the kid said who had a song covered by Amy Grant!)
• Pastors’ Corner: What if your weekend sermon was more like a TED Talk? Could you deliver the same content in 18 minutes or less? 
• So in a debate of house churches over traditional churches who wins?  This article includes discussion of The Meeting House in Canada which reflects the best of both.  (Be sure to continue to page two.)
  
• Graphic of he week: A conversation at the atheist’s car garage.
• Top selling Christian music in the UK this week is the band Rend Collective Experiment, according to a new music chart service there.
  
• …And graphics for your Facebook or Tumblr each week at Happy Monday at The Master’s Table.
• The subject of the Soul Surfer book and movie after losing an arm to a shark while surfing, Bethany Hamilton is getting married.
  
• My video upload this week for Searchlight Books — sponsor of our Christian classics collection — was a scratchy 45-rpm single of Roger McDuff (the gospel music guy) doing Jesus is a Soul Man circa 1969. To get on this YouTube channel, the songs have to not be previously uploaded.
  
• Baptist book publisher Broadman and Holman aka B&H wants to stop publishing fiction in 2014 unless the book in question can have a tie-in with Lifeway curriculum product or other brand merchandise.
  
• Ron Fournier aka Tehophilus Monk has a short excerpt from the book Why Priests? by Gary Wills which calls into question the entire concept of priests in the ecclesiastic hierarchy.
• We can’t do it by ourselves. Sometimes we need Outside Help. Classic pop/rock some of you might remember from Johnny Rivers.
  
• Not enough links for ya this week? Dave Dunham’s got another 15 for you at Pastor Dave Online. 
• During the week between link lists, I invite you to join my somewhat miniscule band of Twitter followers.
  
• The lower graphic this week is from an article at the youth ministry blog Learning My Lines.
  

Wednesday Link List

Apologies to subscribers whose paragraphs have had ever-increasing font sizes. WordPress doesn’t always interpret HTML tags consistently, but we’re checking each post now before it publishes. Hopefully…

• In 40 rooms in England’s Lake District, copies of The Bible in the bedside table have been replaced with Fifty Shades of Grey.
• Classic Media, the parent company of the Veggie Tales brand is to be purchased by DreamWorks, creators of Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon.
• God called me to add this link — okay, not really, but Heather Goodman things we overuse Holy Spirit language.
  
• “Accepting people is more important than agreeing with them;” is among the findings of Elastic Morality, a 2011 Canadian youth research title that’s been flying under the radar.
  
• Anglicans at The Falls Church in Virginia prove they can do modern worship songs as good as anyone else. Click here to listen to A Thousand Amens. 
• And speaking about breaking denominational stereotypes, how about this: Baptist Monasteries. Yes, they exist and they aren’t new.
• Meanwhile, conference speaker and author Gordon Dalby gets busted by a Catholic Priest for receiving communion. 
• Mixing church history and doctrine, Parchment and Pen offers a thumbnail sketch of the rise of the Catholic Church. 
• If you missed the video embed here Monday, you need to go take a look. For those who did watch, here’s another speaker from the same Lutheran youth conference, Leymah Gbowee.
• When churches close, there’s no place for no place for marginalized kids to go; and Karen Spears Zacharias knows this from experience.
• It’s not new, but here’s a classic video of Tony Campolo explaining how he came to throw a birthday party for a hooker at 3:00 AM.  
• David Platt on video talks about comparing modes of radical Christian living. 
• Two articles from New Direction Ministries that someone you know might need: (1)For the straight conservative Christian trying to repair a relationship with a gay loved one; and (2) The other side of the coin: When gay people long for reconciliation with their conservative Christian family
  
• A portrait of Joel Osteen has been removed from a Georgia Library even as the TV preacher describes his message as not so big on hell-fire.
• And speaking of preachers, this list goes back to February, but I like how Dudley Rutherford handled this listing of the top ten preachers in America.
  
• An Australian church that averages about 300 attendees is applying for permission to build a 5,000 seat auditorium.
• In the spirit of the First World Problems meme, Michael Belote offers First World Theology Problems, though I’m not sure I get all the nuances of this.
• To new bloggers just starting out on WordPress: (1) Get rid of that “Hello World” post that came with your theme template by either deleting it or writing something profound to appear as the ‘first post’ you never wrote; and (2) Replace that “Just Another WordPress Blog” with your own tagline. Please!
  
• Graphics today are from Faith in the Journey.
  

Wednesday Link List

Wednesday List Links

Welcome back to WLL. You’re not playing the game unless you click through. Place your mouse on the underlined section of each story and click.  (“Oh, you mean that’s how it works?”)  Above image: Sacred Sandwich archives.

• Like his father before him — and at almost the same age and circumstances —  a Pentecostal minister from a snake-handling sect dies from a rattlesnake bite.
  
• A former marine gets assigned to preach the section of the Sermon on the Mount dealing with non-violence. Reactions were strong, but not from military people.
•  “For an insecure 16/17-year-old kid whose life, identity, main social activity, and faith were wrapped up in the church she’d been a part of her entire life, it was devastating.”   Check out 11 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When My Church Split.
• Saturday, May 26, 2012 was supposed to be M.’s wedding day. But in between, after reading the book, When Sinners Say I Do by David Harvey, things changed.
• Thanks to whoever sent me info about Cardiphonia. Original worship songs on three different themes on a pay-what-you-can basis. The newest is Hymns for the Ascension.  Or just listen.
• Just when you thought you had solved the dilemma of whether to be buried or have your ashes scattered to the four winds, now there is the option of diamond burial.
  
• On a similar theme, here’s a major discussion at Parchment and Pen on the subject some of you have considered, How Can Heaven Be Heaven When People You Love Are In Hell?
  
• Got 9 minutes? On video, an orthodox priest teaches the difference between the Protestant view of salvation and the Orthodox view of salvation, under the title, Love Wins – An Orthodox View.
  
• Got 53 minutes? That’s a greater commitment. But you’d get to hear the very first ever Phil Vischer podcast with Skye Jethani. (This is for you adults, not the kids.)
  
• Got all day?  Check out the video-on-demand apologetics programs featuring Ken Ham at Answers in Genesis.
  
• Joel Osteen is set to sit in the producer’s chair for a new movie about the life of Mary which he hopes will be “the biblical prequel to the story of The Passion of The Christ.”
  
• Remember that story about the 43-building college campus that was going to be given away free of charge?  Well, it’s down to two finalists.
  
• Here’s an article by yours truly at C201 designed for those of you who want to rethink how you draft your prayer lists. (I actually do some serious writing once in awhile.)
  
• And a message to those graduating from the hallowed halls: The academy doesn’t need more academics, but the local church does.  Advice for theological seminary grads.
  
• Mystery link: Does anyone know the story behind this Elevation Church music video? The YouTube location has no information and the blogger who posted this was equally silent.
  
• Matt Hafer’s advice to pastors actually has application to anyone who proposes to stand before a group of people and lead them into God’s Word.
  
• It’s “the only billion dollar house in the world.  Ironically, it’s found in one of the poorest countries; India.” America’s Next Top Mommy looks at over-indulgence.
  
• You have to read the comments on this one: Advice for students heading off this fall to a Christian college or university.
  
• Todd Rhoades thinks it’s only a matter of time before a pastor legally changes his name to something ending in dot com.
  
• If the Blue Like Jazz movie missed your town, you can arrange for a showing.
  

Classic auto emblem from The Holy Observer

Wednesday Link List

We read blogs so you don’t have to!  Or something.

• Brent Mosley is president of Bluefish TV, the company that makes — among other things — those little two-minute video clips that start your weekly worship service.  He blogs, too.  Check out Is The Church Telling The Complete Story?
  
• Speaking of video, it’s been three years since it was filmed and two years since it was released on DVD, but now you can watch Joe Manafo’s detailed 42-minute documentary study of alternative churches in Canada in its entirety at the website for One Size Fits All.
  
• A list with ten things is actually easier to produce than when you decide to narrow it down to five.  And these five are well-chosen.  Trevin Wax posts Five Trends to Watch for in Evangelical Christianity.
  
• And speaking of Trevin, here’s a video of a church promotion that he (and Zach at Vitamin Z) think is one of the best church advertisements ever.  “Before we tell you who we are, we want to tell you who we were.”
  
• Contemporary Christian book author Skye Jethani tells why he doesn’t read many books by contemporary Christian book authors, in a piece at Out of Ur provocatively titled, I Read Dead People.
• Dan Horwedel whisks you on a link-list journey of his own in a fascinating examination of the Christian worship song, God of This City.  Both the major-key version and the minor-key version.
  
• I don’t read — let alone link — to Ann Welch’s blog very often because it’s more of a women’s blog and a parenting blog, but she’s been in the link-list here since day one because she is a blogger who has my utmost respect. Here’s a shorter piece even the guys can take a minute to read at her blog Resolved 2 Worship, titled Dart Throwing.  (Turn your speakers up, too; she’s got a great blog playlist.)
  
• Chuck Colson believes that while most Christian children’s books contain a Bible narrative followed by “the moral of the story,” we need to teach kids to recognize the worldview being promoted in everything they read.  And he’s introducing a product that will help them do just that.
  
• Pete Wilson raises the oft-discussed issue of swearing, or things that some people consider swearing.   200 comments so far about words like darn, dang, heck, geez, and shoot.  (And then, Daniel Jepson raises the same topic, too.)
  
• A woman in a senior’s home invites John Shore into her room, and then dies holding on to John’s hand.  Yikes!  Obviously, readers are wondering why the story is just surfacing now.
  
• Albert Mohler thinks that Piers Morgan’s interview with Joel Osteen identifies one topic where we either stand for Biblical truth or we try to dance around its politically incorrect implications.  Mohler says that sooner or later we’ll have to deal with our own Osteen Moment.
  
• A Tennessee pastor refused to baptize a couple’s baby because the couple wasn’t married. He wants to make a statement about teen pregnancy.
  
• Time for a quick hymn sing.  Here’s a couple of versions of a classic hymn that is well-known in England but not at all in North America.  One version is more modern, the other is most formal, but both of them work.  Check out Tell Out My Soul.
  
• This week we should pay Trevin a commission.  If you’ve read the bestselling book Radical by David Platt (Waterbrook), you know all about “Secret Church.”  Well, this year, the event is available as a simulcast for any church that wants in. (Posted even though the event is a Lifeway thing. Look guys; no hard feelings!)
  
• Here’s a return of a Link List favorite; Mike Morgan’s weekly comic, For Heaven’s Sake.