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Theology of Leadership is it a snare?

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:31:26 +0800

Once upon-a-time I was born. My parents were Christians and that's all there was to it.

Growing up was growing up with the planting of a church. My earliest memories are of meeting in living rooms singing songs. My mum went into labour with me during a prayer meeting.

I was there at the start.

I grew and I started to see cracks in the plaster. Of course these moments of doubt passed as the mantras of "have faith" and "trust in Jesus" were trotted out along with the idea that doubts were what the devil tried to hurt you with.

Looking back I now know that "trust Jesus" was double speak for "the leaders are right, trust them" but back then I had no language to describe this.

One day at a Christian festival God spoke to me using my imagination. I imaged being given a number of things and a scroll to eat. I knew full well what part of the Bible that came from. So there was I scepter in one hand, sword in another wondering if I was day dreaming or being commissioned.

Time passed I forget about it and never did the "bible study" I was told to do to "research" the meanings of the items.

Then God spoke about getting ready for a great fight. Again nothing happened and time passed.

Then I was inspired to think of my Church as containing a dragon. I shared this with my Mum who was not in the least bit surprised.

My language for describing the cracks I was seeing was getting more comprehensive. Had I read the Bible for myself at that stage things might have been different or I might have been better prepared. As it is I was self assured enough to think I had all the answers and that I saw quite enough of the Bible, thank you very much.

Sadly all I saw were the rather lame guided studies that churches run with young people.

Well then I noticed that I was being groomed for leadership as part of the youth. I clashed with the youth paster regularly. I am a rebellious sort of guy and to my own self only am true.

Result - I had to be educated. It was explained that Jesus authority came from The Father (nodding been here a few times before) and jump of logic the pastors authority came from Jesus and the sub pastors from the paster and so on.

Right down deep something primal shouted "no that's wrong somehow".

From that moment on a golf existed between us and eventually through my own discovery of things I was ill equipped to deal with (you know relationships and real life) we parted company. I left and simply never went back (I'm stubborn and sullen by the way) and the rumour mill followed saying I'd been "kicked out". Which stung more than it should have.

Similar things happened years later and after a lot of hard things happening including but not limited to the death of a child to death and later the loss of a wife and child to adultery and aggressive stuff I'd still rather not talk about I found myself alone and on the short list of naughty Christians.

God spoke to me during all that. I was pledging to go through any amount of hardship to make right what was broken and his words clear as day right into my innermost person where: "That's enough! I can't bare to see you suffer any longer."

It was then that I knew that God is a nice person. I also understood what the Love of God is.

It seems that failing at anything (especially marriage) is bad and in a growing church a divorced bloke should not even help out with the computers.

Did I mention I am stubborn and quite unwilling to be slapped in the face.

You guessed - I left.

It helped that the same power games, the same claims to authority were happening - the same bullish, pushy attitude had arrived and I have a pathological hatred of bullies and pushy authoritarians.

Finally with "only" a Church of England establishment left I really had to do the one thing I had not done all these years.

I read the Bible and woke up.

It all started so simply. I was reading a website and the author was addressing was it okay for a Christian that was also a punk/goth/alternative to get a tattoo. I knew that conclusion was right. Deep down I knew it was but the argument had been badly fudged. For some reason the same pride that has kept me going down the path least trodden all those years compelled me to write my own article. (the whole thing is a multi-parter that I posted to this site)

I started at the beginning and finished at the end.

It was fascinating.

Also I discovered that the word "bullshit" and much of the teachings I had grown up with belonged in the same sentence. Each time I was able to put the gun of truth to the head of a lie it was like discovering Christ for the first time all over again.

I would talk at length to anyone who could not get away about this amazing discovery. I wanted to get in to those old churches and scream the truth to the people. I wanted to tell people that they don't have to sit in church feeling like pots of crap because being a Christian is so easy one need only see the truth and then remember to keep breathing,

It was all so nice.

Then I took on the subject of tithes because no one would answer my questions about tithing and the things God would direct me to do disagreed with the Church tradition. When a missionary couple confided that God had told them to spend it on their shopping too I knew something in the tradition was wrong.

I had some good stinging questions by the end of my first study - Is tithing to a church idolatry? Worse still does it deny the cross? Just as bad: in making people our leader do we surrender our birthright as blood born saints?

By this stage people were telling me to go to Bible college because I sounded like a second year student already. Bible college students would tell me I sounded like the lectures at the college.

There was no way that I was going to let some college or school steal or cloud the joy of discovery. I was damn well reading this Bible for myself and it was good.

Then I started to notice things no one ever preached on.

"It seems good to us and the Holy Spirit to lay on you no great burden than this..."

"The power of the Sin is the Law..."

Suddenly the truth came into my life and snapped a whole bunch of chains. The chains of 25 years growing up "churched". I saw the light and in the light I saw that the rules of humans and "leaders" made the cross of no meaning. I saw that there was a form of Godliness but with the power denied.

I had been lied to and the sad thing was I am not sure those who lied had any idea of the untruth they spread.

"Call no man teacher..."

"Call no man Father..."

These were just abstracts that didn't fit but were good for a round or two of Catholic bashing. Suddenly the penny dropped and I saw the truth.

"For those that are led by the spirit are like the wind - you know not where it has come from or where it will go."

It does not say led by a great pastor, vicar, abbot, guru, bishop, mentor or elder it says led by the Spirit.

"Call no man father..."

Paul wrote that the law was like a guardian that brought you under to Christ but now that you have Christ you have no need of a guardian. Suddenly the light was on.

It is also written in the Bible that Jesus the Christ is established as a high priest after the order of Melchizedekzedek (priest through appointment rather than inheritance). It is written that we are priest of this order and that Christ is the high priest. If a new order has come then the old order with its rules and regulations must pass away.

(See also: if any man be in Christ he is a new creation ... all things have become new)

I saw for the first time that tithes, leaders, and the whole power structure of a church right down to owning big buildings (the early church never seemed to do that) - all of it the whole institutionalization of it all was flawed more deeply than I can express.

In short it was non-biblical.

There was only Christ the head of the Church who leads each of us by his Spirit. Look at Paul - he was selected by God and so he acted. He was not trained or selected for what he did by Peter and the others all they could do was join in, bless it or stand aside.

Then comes the argument that I know some sweat foolish person will make. "we need our leaders as a covering..." or "we need our leaders to guide us"

You do not need crutches rise up and walk for goodness sake.

Then I here "yadda yadda answerability..."

First just to be obnoxious I don't see that word in the bible very much if at all. And second is it not true that we are all called to judge not the world but those who profess to believe as we do? (yes it's in the Bible).

Take, for example, Peter. Peter, praying, trace, gentiles house, Holy Spirit falls. Peter baptizes them. (that was the short version). The other ask him what he is playing at. Peter says what had happened and the others recognize that it is the Holy Spirit of God at work - they don't understand but they say "far be it for us to get in God's way"

That right there is the how church should run. Fluid, centreless, like the wind, powerfull, uncageable.

"Leaders" when we adopt them like that take God's place in our lives.

I have to say that casting off all the crap I'd carried around with me, fearfully tithing, fearfully seeking a "leader" to give me God (I was like a teenager still wanting to suck on a breast instead of eating real food) casting that all off made me feel so light, so free, so exactly happy and full of joy that I am never going back to slavery.

Did you know that Paul addresses "leadership" in a letter. He advises that the people elect a group of wise and spiritual people to be the spokes people for the area and to address those nitty-gritty hard questions when they come up (like should we force the law of moses on to non Jews?)

It had already been decided that the "we shall add no greater burden to you than this..." (if you want to know what those four things are read the book of Acts). So Paul would be going against the Holy Spirit to establish new rules.

This was his suggestion for a group of people most of whom were fresh in the faith.

My greatest sin was allowing other people to have the spiritual encounters for me and let me drip feed on it by proxy.

My greatest joy was giving up that Sin.

I've woken up and I have been born and I know why babies scream so much. Yes this truth that I finally ate upon is bitter in my stomach. I feel an anger and a deep helplessness as I long to set others free as I have become free.

I've shown you have good reasons to not like "leaders" as we understand them in churches or even churches as we know them. So now you can judge me - am I reacting to my pain or to His love? Think carefully because the implications are staggering.

A weblink for you.

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:18:37 +0800

I found a rather interesting blog today and thought that I would share it. sheepleblog.net - it's the blog of a person that has "been in the ministry" but appears to have noticed things seem false and is digging deeper.

Give us your cash "god freak"!

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:49:28 +0700

...And he said unto them: "come unto me all you who are heavily laden and weary and I will lighten your wallet for you."
The Bible According to (some) Church

I hope we all realize that the above quote is a joke but for some reason the good news is a salable commodity. When did we let this happen? When did we become such sluts? When did we sell our souls?

Let me remind you of something - men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth suppose that godliness is a means of to make money. (says 1 Timothy 6:5).

Take for example an arbitrary inner healing or counseling ministry. There are thousands of the things so let us generalize a little. Now the latest one to hit the big news might be branching out and setting up UK or stateside branches.

The people that have been helped by this will say how "God is blessing" the ministry when what they have actually confused is financial gain from popularity with the true blessing. These popular services leave people feeling connected to God (no bad thing), healed or able to face something hurtful from the past.

The crunch comes when our zealous and still "buzzing" convert to this new ministry say "it only costs..." and they follow up by telling you what you get for your money.

Did I miss something? Does the Holy Scripture say: "Freely you have received freely charge a good price for it."? Or is it written "The thief comes to kill steal and destroy but I have come to sell you something nice."?

The Bible I remember reading says things like "take no care for what you will eat or what you will drink", and "do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough worries of it's own. Which of you by worrying can add even an inch to his or her height? Then why worry about the rest?"

The Bible I read says "take no purse with you, nor a change of clothes for a labourer is worthy of his pay."

Now let us just get right down to "brass tacks" as they say. Who pays your wages? Who ever that is that person is your master.

Do not try to say "god" pays my wages when you sell product. I sell product and the person that pays my wages is the customer. If the customer wants it they get it (within reason). If I make my product green but blue is more popular I do not worry about "moral integrity of my colour choice" I sell it in blue regardless of how I think it looks.

Jesus was not talking just about "lusting after the things of this world" when he said that you can only serve one master. That you must choose between God and Money. When you sell the free gift of God you are stuck between two masters. Fatally compromised.

Here is an example. As a business man I use what power I have to get what is best for my business and this is often what my customers want most. Now supposing that there is a supplier that is taking a cause of action I do not want them to take.

I would write to them and say "take this cause of action instead and I will write in my blogs and other websites about you sending my readership and clients to you."

What do you suppose that company will do? They will consider my offer. If they find it a credible suggestion that I could send significant custom (beyond that which they expect from the current cause of action) they will change for me.

When you are selling the good news the same is true - those that can send the most customers call the shots. Or to invoke an old cliche - "he who pays the piper calls the tune".

Christianity is the biggest and best paying market sector in the west today. Is it not time that the market stalls were turned over? Is it not time that the sales culture of the church came to an end?

Be real or be gone

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 11:45:55 +0700

The first lesson that an active member of the laity might need to learn is that they need to be exposed to real fire.

Fire of the kind that does not allow games of lets pretend.

Fire that burns off self deception.

Fire such as provided by regular exposure to sceptics and athiests. These guys (and gals) are very good for you. They will be the first people to point out the BS.

If you are doing one thing but saying another they will point this out. If you are being a prat and denying simple basic facts of human nature, physics or law they will again expose it.

This fire you see burns away that which is not of value.

What is of God is good and endures.

Just take a look at the results of self deception spiritual superstar" and was locked into the image he had created.

This above all - to your own self be true.

You've got to be true to you.

Honesty is the best policy.

We know this simple truth "be real" so well that we have a thousand cliches and snippits of litriture that at any time we can quote and yet for some reason it is very hard for so called christians to be real.

As the laity we do not have the problem of superstardom but we do have the problem of playing lets pretend with a thousand other maladjusted children of the living God each sunday.

Be honest about how you feel. That doesn't mean that because you feel a given way that you must act that way. For example if Fred is angry with Bob it doesn't mean he should follow up on that and beat the crap out of the guy but it does mean that the only healthy thing he can do is admit he is angry.

After that he can address the issue with Bob and make peace or at least come to some form of closure.

The other option is three to five months time when there is a "big" scandle of the fight between two respected memebrs. The issue was never that he trod on my toe, or he has an anger managment problem but that Fred never address his irritiation with Bob months ago.

The same is true of every part of life.

Let us imagine Jim. Average guy who attends an evangelical church. Jim is married with three kids because this seemed like a good idea. Everyone is pleased with him and his wife. Jim and wife and children attend bible study and home group and go to church twice on a sunday and once on a thursday.

He has even taken some talks with the youth group on issues like "the sin of homosexuality" and "why we need to tithe" and other "good" topics. (my personal opinion of these topics is something else again).

The kids all learn thier bible verse perfectly each week.

The leaders think he'd make a good member of staff.

But Jim is probably gay or at least bisexual. He always has been.

One day sitting alone at his desk he realises he can no longer deny who he is. He is sexually attracted to men.

What he does next is the important thing.

(OPTION A) He can keep this a secret. Untill the day he feels the overwhelming need to find a male prostitute and finds himself on the front page of a news paper.

(OPTION B) He can tell the world he is gay leave his wife and kids and live the hedonistic life style until he dies. Until he has a mental breakdown because he is now suppressing his spiritual side.

(Option C) This is the one that is most over looked. It is overlooked because it doesn't create a "support" group nor a social reenforcement circle. It is the hard and narrow way. Simply admit how you feel and deal with the loss of status and friends.

The often abused verse that says "confess you sins one to another" applies here. First (I have it on good authority) it would better translate as "share your weaknesses one to another". Is that so hard a thing to grasp?

What are friends for?

A problem shared is a problem halved.

...and so on and so forth. Common wisdom.

Jim's first act should be to find a good friend.

This is where the whole idea of church falls apart. There is a good chance that his church will contain exactly no appropriate people.

Out of 1000 members and staff 850 will probably not know him beyond recognising his face and name. 120 will probably be aware of him by reputation only. Both lots are likely to offer to pray for him and cast out the "spirit of gayness" or condem him as weak suffering "temptation of the flesh" and other rubbish.

This leaves 30 (or less) people with whom he has some sort of real relationship.

Of that 30 most if not all will follow the same stupid pattern as the others. I know this only too well - I once followed the same pointless pattern.

If he is lucky there might be one or two of that 1000 people that could have the wisdom to listen to him and help him find the next wise thing to do but finding them is going to be a challenge.

So what does that leave? If he approaches the local Gay and Lesbien Allience the 1000 will get the wrong idea and he is worse off.

If he is very luky his wife is a spritual and flexable person and he can talk to her. It's a start but not much. The chances are she'll get the wrong idea, or so he thinks and he doesn't want a devorce just help assimulating this new knowledge about himself.

If he is fortunate there might be a small Christian organisation that is not so up tight or wishy washy as to actual help him out. Give him a person to talk to. What he needs is a trust worthy person that he can chat to. Because all it takes sometimes - a friendly chat so you can figure out what's on your own mind.

Now maybe Jim will eventual be comfirtable and say to his "church" the next time he is asked to speak on such a subject that he is a man who feels a sexual attraction to other men and would the church please stop being to uptight they need a laxative to take a crap.

This will cost him all his "friends" but what any left are true friends.

As the laity we have a hard job. Honesty without judgment.

We need to become the wise person that can drink a cup of coffee (or tea, or a cold beer) with some guy, gal or space cadet and be told "shocking things" (as above) and simply listen.

Let's use another example. Jim has a friend Dave. While Jim is trying to follow Option C and just figure out who he is without denying the rest of who he is (father, husband, believer in God) he brings Dave to the church.

Dave used to live in another part of the country and slipped into achole abuse big time. He lost everything and has moved here to start again.

Over a coffee Dave tells YOU this. He explains that the strong wine used each week at communion and the beer avaibale after home group at Bob's is a big issue for him.

What do you do?

Do you pray in a wishy washy way for him and forget about him after sort of hoping he'll be OK perhaps you go tell Assistent Sub Paster Jones who will "prayfully" tell James, Jude and Harry while mentally striking the guy off the list of potentially usefull members...

or do you take up your mantal as the Laity?

Do you start refusing beer and home group and stop taking communion untill a low or non acholic replacment is available. Do you protest the use of such drinks and get others to join you (knowing that at least Dave is going to back you up).

It's going to cost you friends and staus. You will be seen as a person that rocks the boat.

It will be you that gets the hassle and fuss as you stand between Dave and something Dave can not yet deal with. It could even cost you trips to the pub with others pub going members of your (otherwise "liberal") church.

Much like Jesus did you will rock the boat and pay the price. But that is what the Laity do.

Now let me ask you this.

Dave tells you Jim needs a word. Jim tells you his problem. While that happens Burt confesses he can not afford to tithe and Anne says she is strongly attracted to her friend Jess while John tells you he feels worthless as a member and several well known prostitutes want to come to your house for a chat about this "God thing". To make matters worse two crack deals also want to talk with you and the local GLA (gay, lesbien allience) want you to address a meeting.

You've attended AA with Dave for moral support a few times and then the pastorial team catch up to you.

They want to know if you have been strugling with homosexuality (they saw you talk to the GLA rep), do you have a drink problem (they saw you go to AA) and they wnt to know why are prostitutes and crack dealers coming to your house friday evening (when you should be at bible study).

All this in the space of a few hours.

As a preist you need to protect these people. (this is what "love covers a multitude of sins" means).

You may be suffer loss of social standing and be labled a "gay and drunken drug adict that spends time with hookers".

What are you going to do?

The Church has become a whore.

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:07:19 +0700

You are a female donkey sniffing the desert air, wanting to mate with just anyone. You are an easy catch!

Your shoes are worn out, and your throat is parched from running here and there to worship foreign gods.

"Stop!" I shouted,

but you replied, "No! I love those gods too much."

Jeremiah 2 verses 24 and 25 Contempory English Version.

Like a wanton slut we the church have chased after the pride of vast numbers, after big buildings and high sales volumes untill the church is the single most profitable market in the English speaking world. Unlike most markets that must be courted, tempted and enticed the market of the whore we call Christianity is easy to catch. She actually invites the sales man and thanks them for taking her money. She pays people to come and take advantage of her.

No! You cry, surely not.

Why then do we pay expensive "preachers" who come and give thier current message and then sell us books and tapes. It is a whoredom worse than the tables of the money changers and other salespersons in the temple courtyard.

You haven't been faithful to your God. You love to get paid for being a prostitute.
Hosea 9 verse 1b NIRV

As the people aledgedly of God we need torepent and with speed. We are commiting adultery on God!

?How lovesick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!

Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

Ezekiel 16 verses 30 to 34, ESV

Yet she turned to even greater prostitution, remembering her youth when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 She lusted after lovers with genitals as large as a donkey?s and emissions like those of a horse.
Ezekiel 23 verses 19 and 20 NLT

Tagged: Ezekiel, slut church, whores, donkey dicks, prostitution, unfaithful church

Five Steps to True Church Growth

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:45:29 +0800

In this article you my learn what causes true church growth but many readers have been lied to for too long and will turn away before you see the truth.

This trueth is: "church growth" is a bad thing.

It is easy to find many sites with such titles as "Pro Christian Blogger", "Pro Chistian Speaker" or sites teaching you to grow your congregation ("Pro Church growth" maybe) by this marketing method or that one. "Profesional Christian" is a deception they do not exist.

We don't need a figure head. We don't need professional christians we need real followers of a real Christ.

We don't need another show.

So what if we do things as well as the world when they've always done it that way? Replace style with reality.

The name of Jesus is a joke to most people and it was us, our actions, that caused it to be so.

Where is the reality? Where is the kindess, where is the love for those no one else wants to touch.

After you have stopped the bleeding you can show people the gospel. But first you must heal those wounds where there is nothing to gain.

"Church growth" is an obsession invented in hell.

1 - Give up trying to grow - these are people not numbers. This is not points on ascore card because if you pull in 5 billion but cause just one to fall you have failed. "Church growth" is nothing to do with you.

2 - Give up your pastor's salery - God will bless who he will bless. Work a part time job to feed your family if you must - there is no shame in this. Saint Paul worked for a year making tents. What can we do for the sheep when the wolves are on full time pay? It's currently too lucrative to work in a church. "Church growth" is nothing to do with you.

3 - Give up the sports car, the caviar and the choicest foods - You can not afford them and the price to bring people to Christ. Rather than getting paid to "pastor" take no wage. Put as much money of your as you can towards helping your people - work hard at this.

4 - Be ready to give up the nice building. If it is the will of the master the building will be taken care of. Take no offering, accept no tithes, sell no tapes. Give away your books and your tapes and CDs. Who paid the temple tax? Who fed the Isralists. How did the widow live without every buying more oil or flour? "Church growth" is nothing to do with you.

5 - Give up counting the congreggations - these are people not numbers. If you are left with just one deaf, unwashed street dweller: then care for that street dweller as if he were your own child. "Church growth" is nothing to do with you.

The true pastor has no time to be at the front because he or she is at the back supporting the weak, at the home of the sick or crying with the broken. Church is simply somewhere the true pastor goes when they have time.

It is God Himself that gives. It is God himself that protects you and is God alone that rewards you. Let no one else take God's place as giver of rewards. There is no such thing as "church growth" in a healthy church - at best a church should be a place where people learn to go and care for others or be cared for. If your church is growing then there are more needy than you thought or the people have yet to have thier needs met.

For God is not a man that he should lie. He says "Test me now in this, see if I will not open up the windows of heaven..."

There is more that stand on our side no matter what you see.

Muslims are people too!

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:54:19 +0800

I'm sick of the racism and muslim bashing that I am seeing more and more from fellow westeners. The western world has taken a sharp step to the right in a way that reaks of extreamism. It is time to risk the ridicule and stand up for those who are in need, to speak for those who have no voice, to defend the innocent and to act out the faith we claim. It is time to say that these muslims are people too! The shock fact is ever arabian person I know is a chilled out, laid back easy to get along with person. In local lingo - they are okay! Let us change the wave of hate to something good and do as we should know to do.

The Emerging Church - what is it and from wence doeth it emerge

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 18:09:59 +0800

More and more Christians say the usual ways of "doing church" no longer resonate in a contemporary, postmodern culture. Seeking to fill the gap, a growing movement called "the emerging church" is developing new forms of worship and theological questioning for a new cultural context.
Religion and Ethics - http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week845/cover.html

Over the past five years (perhaps longer) in both the USA and the UK as well as in other parts of the world there has been a blossoming of what sociolagists have called Generation X. Gen X church reflects the difference of this generation to it's forebares but if this were all that was going on we could simply talk about the church in postmodernity.

However, accross the generations a freshness has awoken in a seaming random staratified sample of the church. Some have been subject to "spiritual abuse" and thus repulsed from the church, for others they have felt the need to simply depart and seek truth for themselves. While yet in others they hear the ringing of alarm bells, the call of the spirit, the call to action... call it what you want but something that has so far defied full classification has began.

For those in america this movement has called itself the emerghing church (or the Emerging Church of America (ECoA)). It is a church emerging from the shadow of "old wine skins".

But the truth is, as always, a little larger than you imagine.

I actually have mixed feelings on the term - partly because so many people use it to describe so many things - many of which I'm not sure are really too 'emerging'.

I also don't really like to 'define' things because then they tend to become boxed. The beauty of what I see happening around the world when it comes to communities of followers of Jesus is that there is such diversity, creativity and fluidity. I worry that when we label we perhaps run the risk of institutionalizing a dynamic movement of God.
http://livingroom.org.au/blog/archives/what_is_the_emerging_church.php

Some writers have called it the Final third of the reformation, the second reformation or the encrouching revival. Like all of these things and thier historical examples this has drawn fire, abuse, hard words and (for lack of a better word) persecution. As always this persection has come from the deaply entrenched and establish hiarachy. More so as this new movment seeks to do without the pillars of power in a very mid-60s trend towards community, equality, freedom and acceptance. Christianity has become expirential as of days of old...

At the heart of the Emergent Church movement?or as some of its leaders prefer to call it, the ?conversation??lies the conviction that changes in the culture signal that a new church is ?emerging.? Christian leaders must therefore adapt to this emerging church. Those who fail to do so are blind to the cultural accretions that hide the gospel behind forms of thought and modes of expression that no longer communicate with the new generation, the emerging generation.
Modern Reformation Magazine, "Faith a La Carte?" (July / August 2005 Issue, Vol. 14.4). http://www.modernreformation.org/dac05emerging.htm

For many this movement is about reivaluating everything, moving christ out of dusty buildings and into the community. Church becomes the loose assosiation of people who gather in each others house to pray and share in an emulation of the church as described in the book of Acts.

This has thrown up many anomalies such as Open Source Theology ( http:/opensourcetheology.net ) a site for the emerging church to debate and reform it's own theology.

Emerging church is characteristically postmodern in its suspicion of the controlling structures of religious life and thought: church hierarchy, dominant cultural forms, doctrinal formulations, and so on. So the life and practice of emerging church are marked by a resistance to these structures, but also by a desire to develop positive alternatives.
http://www.opensourcetheology.net/node/229

One of the leading critics of the emerging church in general and Open Source Theology specifically has been Ingrid Schlueter who speaks via web site sliceoflaodicea.com as a sort of self proclaim gardian of christianity, an inquisitor after truth...

Open source theology. Think about that. It's computer program lingo which I will not attempt to explain but sum it up this way: any source will do, take it, just use it.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/archives/2006/01/open_source_the.php

But this is not all that this freshness has to offer. This "reporter" has been in the UK among the silent and carefully growing "gangs" of christians for whom the wisest and most educated members are theology graduates, life time misionaries and other profound and well grounded persons who each fully and deffinitly refuse to found "another church".

What we are looking at is not a movement but a subtal change in attitude across the board.

It is as if these people are all listening to the same very quite small voice. They move in parrelelle directions, their ideas and actions are complimentry and yet for many they are like the wind itself. You can see their effects, and you see them but no one knows where they are going or where they came from...

It sounds very peacfull very gental and even good. Yet it is the willingness to challenge everything for its value. To try every beliefe and attitude in a hot and public fire that seems to scare the life from more traditional leaders (although not all).

Such questions as "Has the bible become a god?" and "Is the root of most of the problems with the church the leadership system itself?" (both found at laityonline.com) are sure to make many christians slightly uncomfirtable. For those whose way of life could end due to such questions it must bring utter terror.

Denial of the Word of God and its ABSOLUTES is a hallmark of someone who wants to "conversate" everything to come up a theology that more acceptable to man than the real thing.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/archives/2006/01/open_source_the.php comments

Being a post-modern movement it is, naturally, fully embarcing modern technology and the internet is ripe with Emergant Conversation once you start looking for it.

http://www.theooze.com/main.cfm
http://emergingchurchblogs.info/
http://www.emergentvillage.com/Site/index.htm
http://emergingchurchnetwork.com/
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/011/12.36.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_Church
http://www.emergingchurch.org/
http://www.emergingchurch.info/
http://blog.planetpreterist.com/virgil
http://laityonline.com
http://www.opensourcetheology.net
etc. etc..

The question therefore arrises as to where all this is heading?

Considerable emphasis is placed on relational paradigms as the basis for all forms of Christian activity. In many instances this has encouraged a shift away from ?concentric? or ?solid? towards decentred or ?liquid? expressions of community (see, for example, the review of Pete Ward?s Liquid Church). This has also led, inevitably, to a blurring of boundaries, both between church traditions and between believers and non-believers.
http://www.opensourcetheology.net/node/229

There seems to be two most likely destinations. A revived more "God like" church or a giant heritical cult.

...pagan, inter-faith, synergistic, transformational (new age) universalism.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/archives/2006/01/open_source_the.php comments

What seems most prominent just currently is that the fear people seem to have for what is being debated far outstrips anything that is actually being done. There is the suggestion that fear and paranoia are currently the biggest dangers for those that oppose this "movement" than any actual threat to thier status.

This E2 Special was created from draft and notes created in preperation for writting an article for submission to variouse sites for publication.

Kevin D. Denee blogs that blogging is sinfull.

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 11:57:06 +0800

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Colossians 2:8

Please note that I want you to test my words and test them with fire - just as you should every sermon and utterance. Just as I hope you will test the words of Mr Denee.

I first picked up this story here but it is also reported by The Register.

Today I expose hypocrasy for all to see.

Let us start by defining a blog. We will (try to) use the same measure of judgement as Kevin (however his definition is at best silly, including as he does every form of social networking).

"When truly understood, social networking pages and actual blogs are slightly different, and it is sometimes hard to distinguish the difference between the two. Therefore, in the case of this article we will consider them all blogs."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

So with this broad-stroke definition let us begin.

a public web site where users post informal journals of their thoughts, comments, and philosophies, updated frequently and normally reflecting the views of the blog's creator.
worldwidelearn.com

and from a second source:

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual...

Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in said chronological fashion made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population.

...Some blogs were an important source of news during the December 2004 Tsunami such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which used SMS text messaging to report from affected areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India.
Truncated from: The Wikipedia

Blogs have a number of common features that make them easy to identify.

Posts or articles
Archive of posts
Dated entries
most recent items at the top
Commenting
The authors name or psudoname clealry attached
reflects the views of the blog's creator

Let us continue now rememebring that Kevin D. Denee is talking about both blogs and social networking sites which he claims are not easily seperable from each other. (that alone shows a lack of understanding so much so that I am tempted to apply Ecclesiastes 5:3 which says ?...a fool?s voice is known by multitude of words.?).

However, by the broadness of his own deffinition we can conclude that the very site, that says that blogging is wrong, itself fullfills all the requirements of a blog.

commentary or news on a particular subject
The authors name or psudoname clealry attached
reflects the views of the blog's creator
Posts or articles
Archive of posts
Most recent entries on the main page
newest to the top

While this does not proove that a thing is a blog we can inductivly take it to be so especially with his broad defination that Kevin uses.

This is called hypocracy.

From this we can possibly already conclude something - Kevin D. Denee is, aside from commiting hypocrasy of the first order, commiting a series of gross logical fallacies. (see Practical Discernment: Lesson one - discernment for beginners. and any other articles tagged discernment on this site for a deeper explination of testing the logic of an argument).

I want to call on two of Matt's points from Practical Discernment: Lesson one - discernment for beginners.

Assumption
The speaker starts from an assumption or other unproven stance. Everything that follows is, therefore, a conjecture and nothing is proven. The foundations did not actually exist and so what was built was imaginary.

and

Theological Point without theology
Sometimes a preacher uses a really good illustration but rather than enhancing a message with a great illustration the illustration takes the place of any real evidence. A perfectly reasonable sermon can actually be found to be a little light on the substance side on a second inspection when you notice no scripture backs the theological point being made.

I also wnat to take you on a quick trip to another web page "E2: Logical fallacy" and suggest that the author of the argument has commented all of the following failures of logic in making his point (and possibly others).

Slippery Slope: a series of increasingly unacceptable consequences is drawn
Complex Question: two unrelated points are conjoined as a single proposition
Consequences: the reader is warned of unacceptable consequences
Prejudicial Language: value or moral goodness is attached to believing the author
False Analogy: the two objects or events being compared are relevantly dissimilar
Fallacy of Exclusion: evidence which would change the outcome of an inductive argument is excluded from consideration
Irrelevant Conclusion: an argument in defense of one conclusion instead proves a different conclusion
Straw Man: the author attacks an argument different from (and weaker than) the opposition's best argument
Too Broad: (The definition includes items which should not be included)

old testiment

Revelation

really

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2:13-15

It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
Acts 15:28-29 (NIV)

1 Corinthians

Jesus

sin

"Should teenagers and others in the Church express themselves to the world through blogs? Because of the obvious dangers; the clear biblical principles that apply; the fact that it gives one a voice; that it is almost always idle words; that teens often do not think before they do; that it is acting out of boredom; and it is filled with appearances of evil?blogging is simply not to be done in the Church. It should be clear that it is unnecessary and in fact dangerous on many levels."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
Colossians 2:16

Acts

When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, "Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place."
Acts 21:27-28 (NIV)

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Colossians 2:8

"All that said, you can?and SHOULD?maintain friends the ?old-fashioned? way, through actual personal contact, as well as letter writing, emailing or instant messaging..."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

new

"This trend is seen in the splinter groups, where lay members dictate how their church is run and what they are taught. Obviously, democratic governments and their leaders are held accountable by the people. Corporations are often owned and directed by the people at large (stockholders). Families today are directed by the impulses of children?another form of the people ruling."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

"The Internet?and more specifically blogs?has enabled everyone to have a voice on any matter. Now everyone?s thoughts are ?published? for all to see. Whether or not it is effective, as soon as something is posted the person has a larger voice.."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

Perhaps the largest problem with blogs is they cater to one?s vanity. Human beings are naturally self-centered and proud, and young people are certainly no exception! Note how the Bible describes this generation: ?There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up? (Prov. 30:12-13).
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

"Job 35:16, which talks about multiplying words without knowledge, summarizes the mindless, mundane nonsense found on weblogs..."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

the blog of Kevin D. Denee: thercg.org

"Many teenagers do not stop and think about what they are to represent. Some have their tongues sticking out; others are dressed inappropriately. One young person who apparently attends a splinter group actually states on her blog, ?I used to wait tables at Hooters?! Although she may not have been familiar with God?s Way at the time of that employment, and so may not have known that this was wrong..."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

"Another element is that inappropriate advertisements can show up on one?s webpage."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

"Let me emphasize that no one?including adults?should have a blog or personal website (unless it is for legitimate business purposes)."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

business

"Let me stop and say this: The young people of God CANNOT get involved in such things! Not even a little!"
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

"Is this article saying that every blog in the world is wrong? No, of course not! Again, there are some professionals and specialists who use blogs to serve a proper purpose."
thercg.org, Kevin D. Denee

What is evangelism today?

Fri, 6 Oct 2006 19:21:03 +0800

According to one site you might as well call it rape.

"Having penetrated the private reserve of her being, he left her wounded, demoralized and violated, reeling from this violent assault."

When your see others not as people but as potential converts to add to your score card then what results is rape. Lust for power and lust to proove oneself better than others. Discuss. (link)