WhatHEsaid shared: “During the Forward Together campaign [at City Bible Church] some years ago, I felt uncomfortable with the program. I gave a CD of a sermon to Theo [Johnson] to listen to, as I wanted someone more mature to evaluate it…” 

Who was Theo Johnson? Theo Johnson attended East Hill Church (a mega-church in Gresham, Oregon) for many years. He was there during the days of Jerry Cooke, the pastor who was known for sitting down casually on a stool to preach and before the recent retirement of senior pastor, Ted Roberts, author of, Pure Desire. 

Although a dentist by trade, Theo was a good counselor and blessed many people with his class called, “New Images.” Approx. 2 years before Theo passed on, I spoke with him over the phone about his long experience at East Hill Church. This is part of what Theo told me: 

Ted Roberts, the senior pastor of East Hill Church at the time, forbad anyone to use three specific words from the pulpit or the platform of the church. The forbidden words were: “sin,” “hell,” and “repentance.” If anyone would ever slip and use any of these words publicly, the pastor would have a talk with him/her in his office. 

When the pastor traveled for ministry out of town, Ted would allow Theo to preach. Kind of for the fun of it, Theo told me that he would purposely let one pr more of the pastor’s forbidden words slip out of my mouth just to see what would happen. Each time, his mentioning of one or more of the pastor’s forbidden words would get back to him after he returned home, and the pastor would call him into his office and confront him about it. 

This happened so many times, that finally, Theo had to resign his church staff position. He just could not see how a church could stay true to the gospel of Jesus Christ or the Bible without ever mentioning the words “sin,” “hell,” or “repentance” from the pulpit. 

P.S. Several years ago, Ted Roberts told a Saturday morning class of which I (DM) was a part that the church growth experts were recommending that in order to get more non-churched people to attend church on Sunday mornings, that pastors should cut out their worship services entirely. Ted told the class that he was unwilling to go that far. 

Ted Roberts has fairly recently turned the pastoring of East Hill Church over to his son-in-law, Jason Albelo, the son of the director of East Hill Adult Education, Gil Albelo. I do not know if Jason holds the same kind of platform philosophy that Ted held according to what Theo Johnson told me. 

I file this under, "Sure, why not."  

"Someone's making a lot of money and it's really, really wrong," added Twyman, who founded the Prayer at the Pump movement last week to seek help from a higher power to bring down fuel prices, because the powers in Washington haven't.

The half-dozen activists — Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen — joined hands, bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer.

"Lord, come down in a mighty way and strengthen us so that we can bring down these high gas prices," Twyman said to a chorus of "amens".

I sincerely hope this movement replaces See you at the Pole, where students pray in front of the flag pole every morning before school. And instead, I hope we get, "See you at the Pump", where the working class gather around their local gas station every morning before work, asking God to lower gas prices.

As a believer in the Power of Prayer, I figure if God wants to lower prices, He certainly can. Of course, I'm not so sure God actually wants to lower gas prices, but I suspect this has a better chance of keeping oil prices low than, you know, invading Iraq.

At the Shell station, Twyman had dire words of warning for those who are raking in profits from high gas prices.

"Woe be unto those people that are really greedy and taking advantage of American families," he proclaimed from his pump pulpit.

"These prices will come down, just like the walls of Jericho came down in the Bible," he said, as another chorus of amens punctuated the sound of cash flowing out of the gas pumps.

Sounds like a fun and practical preacher.

Some conservative Christians have drafted an Evangelical Manifesto which shares concerns about the social agenda Evangelical leaders are pushing. The documents founders are asking Christian leaders from around the country to sign the Manifesto:

The declaration, scheduled to be released Wednesday in Washington, encourages Christians to be politically engaged and uphold teachings such as traditional marriage. But the drafters say evangelicals have often expressed "truth without love," helping create a backlash against religion during a "generation of culture warring."

"All too often we have attacked the evils and injustices of others," the statement says, "while we have condoned our own sins." It argues, "we must reform our own behavior."

However, not all Evangelical Leaders are rallying behind this document:

James Dobson, the influential founder of Focus on the Family, a Christian group in Colorado Springs, Colorado, did not sign the document, said Gary Schneeberger, a Dobson spokesman. Schneeberger would not say whether Dobson had read the manifesto or had been asked to sign on.

Phil Burress, an Ohio activist who networks with national evangelical leaders, said that if high-profile evangelical leaders such as Dobson and Land don't support the document, "it's like throwing a pebble in the ocean" and will carry no weight.

While I tend to agree with Phil Burress that this isn't going to change much, it is another sign of discontent from Evanglicals toward their leaders, which you know, I always think is a good thing.

A couple of months ago I heard the following on the Christian radio station 1330 AM (Portland, OR):   

~Christians should not be involved with practicing Yoga. There really should not be a “Christian” version of Yoga practiced in the churches. Not only could Christians be affected by the pagan spirits behind this ancient art, God would not be pleased for Christians to put their bodies into postures that are used in India and other pagan countries as postures to worship their gods and goddesses.~ 

When I heard this, I felt sorry for the speakers. Little doubt, they thought that they were warning God’s people from a spiritual danger that might hurt their walk with God. Instead, what I heard was a very ignorant form of religious legalism. 

The ancient Babylonians used to raise their hands to their chief god, Marduk, and his consort Sarpanitu just like the ancient Israelites used to lift their hands to praise their God, Yahweh. Because the Israelites used the same bodily expression, as did these idol-worshippers, does it mean that they were worshipping Marduk instead of Yahweh? 

In ancient pagan fertility rites that involved sacred prostitution, it would be very reasonable to surmise that the priests and priestesses who copulated in the pagan temples with the belief that thereby they would be guaranteeing good harvests that year for their people, were using the same bodily positions that Spirit-filled couples use to consummate their godly marriage vows. Do such similar bodily postures relating to sexuality mean that Christian couples are performing acts of sacred prostitution when they make love?    

The fact that Christians who practice Yoga for exercise might be putting their bodies into the same bodily postures as pagan worshippers, in my view, does not mean that Christians are worshipping the same gods or that there is an evil spirit involved in certain bodily positions. God looks upon the position of the heart - not the position of the body. 

If well-intentioned ministers want to warn believers of the spiritual dangers of the Orient, they need to dig much deeper. One might be amazed at how a few good Yoga exercises would go a long ways in helping the over-weight preachers we see on cable TV every day to lose a few pounds and thus be a better testimony of the Christian faith – a faith that holds that the physical body is a temple of the Holy Spirit - no matter what form it takes.

The apostles of Christ warn us that self-deception is a very real possibility even for Christians (Galatians 6:3,7; James 1:16,26; I Timothy 2:14; 2 Timothy 3:13). What is self-deception? How can a true believer actually be deceived? In our discussions of the Prosperity Doctrine and the Mandatory Tithe, I have noticed that both sides of these issues will, at times, accuse the other side of "being deceived." Here is a case in point: 

Both Craig and C.T.P. left The City Church in Kirkland, WA where Wendell & Gini Smith are the senior pastors.  When asked by Serj why they left, they made the following comments:  

“It’s not about the cars or houses, it’s about deception and manipulation for the end result of fleecing the flock. False doctrine caused me to leave the church…Paul told Timothy to watch his doctrine closely because it would save his soul and those who hear him. Why do people who take doctrine seriously leave that church? You do the math.” (Craig, City Business Church blog, July 21st, 2007 at 12:41 am) 

“My reasons for leaving are closely related to Craig’s. We both saw the deception and the false teaching. The pastors there are not open to hearing any critical voices speak, even if in love - so that gave us no option, but to move on, although it is hard to stop talking about it because of all of our friends that are still there…They [the pastors of the fastest church planting church in the nation] don’t buy $500 trash cans (like City does) or $4,000 flower pots (like City does), and yes that is true - I was a custodian at City so I know.” (C.T.P., City Business Church blog, July 21st, 2007 at 8:54 am).  

After reading what these two former members said about why they left The City Church, I found the following comments from Pastor Wendell Smith, Craig and C.T.P.'s former pastor, most interesting:  

“Over the years, I have known a few men who chose to debate the issue of tithing with me. Rationalizing their view based on their own limited perusing of Scripture, they decided to take a stand against being ‘obligated’ to give ten percent of their income. They believed the New Testament way was to give as the Spirit led. But always, upon review of their financial records after their departure, we discovered they were giving far less. Why would the Holy Spirit lead them to give less than what both Old and New Testament Scriptures teach? I believe the wrong spirit led them to the wrong doctrine and to the wrong decision! They missed the bigger issues of having a right heart attitude toward God, loving His Word, wanting to please Him, and understanding covenant relationship.” Wendell Smith, Prosperity with a Purpose, The City Church, Kirkland, Washington, 2005, p. 158

Both sides in this discussion accuse the other of being involved in some form of deception. Craig and C.T.P. accuse Pastor Wendell of being deceived by false teaching and using it to manipulate his flock for personal financial profit. Pastor Wendell accuses those who questioned his doctrine of tithing of not loving God's Word, and, therefore, opening themselves up to being deceived by a "wrong spirit." In my view, for any Christian to accuse another believer of being deceived is a very serious matter. What do you think?     

Pam over at How God Messed up My Religion just nominated this blog for The Subversive Blogger Award, or something like that. 

Here is her explanation:

3. City Business Church
Not for the faint of heart. These wayward brothers of a local megachurch take to task through biting satire and razor sharp insight the corrupt messaging of the prosperity gospel and overpaid clergy. You have been warned.

Now, I'll be honest, usually when I see the words "Not for the faint of heart" and "You have been warned", I think I'm about to stumble upon some pretty dirty porn.  But uh, evidently those terms apply to this blog as well.  I thought about this for awhile, and decided that Pam was absolutely right. This blog is subversive, and you know what, that's quite alright with me. My goal in blogging is to undermine the Prosperity Gospel and the churches that preach it.

And you know who else was known as subversive, a young messiah I like to call "Jesus Christ".  Calling out the pharisees wasn't exactly the Status Quo at the time. And the Roman Government didn't crucify Christ because he was complimenting them on their excellent management style.  Christ spent the majority of his life, showing people a better way to live. And they killed Him for it. Jesus was a Subversive Savior.

So, thank you Pam. I genuinely appreciate the compliment.

Responding to a great question from David about making friends at Portland Bible College, a reader writes:

I had a few but distant friends. Most of my peers are VERY sheltered in the church bubble and have no idea how to relate to newer Christians and especially those with a background like mine. The same people brag about their calling to the inner city and reaching out to the lost etc… Like good ol’ charismatics, its all about talk. I stuck to a small group. There was another person i opened up the most to. I didnt trust others. I couldnt relate to the Christian culture bubble. For crying out loud, i speak English not Christianese. And people make judgments and decide who to be friends with and who is worthy to talk to based on outward spiritual lingo, cuteness & clothes you wear.

I want to highlight this comment, because it's true.  The thing about spending all your time in Church and with Church friends and going to Christian concerts and wearing Christian t-shirts and worshipping your pastor, is that you totally lose your ability to relate to anyone that isn't Christian.  *cough* CULT *cough* So many Christians spend all their time in Church asking God for the ability to reach the "lost", and yet never make any actual attempt to reach anyone outside the church. Maybe the answer is a little less Church-time and a little more world-time. 

But we know why that doesn't happen. It's hard. It requires a level of vulnerability. And Christians, in my opinion, are by and large, some of the most insecure people I know.  Most are not strong enough to step outside the Church environment. So they go to Portland Bible College, and stay comfortable for four more years.

One of the classes that I taught in Bible College was called Leadership. We offered Leadership I and Leadership II levels. It was normally only Juniors or Seniors who took the classes.  I team-taught this class with the academic dean of the school whose name was Bill (name changed). One day, Bill distributed a handout to the class that truly began to open my eyes. The handout said that everyone in a local church, including all of the staff and congregation (I’m not absolutely positive about the congregation being included), was to function in the “ministry of helps” and serving to minister to the senior pastor and his vision.

Since the NT mentions the ministry of helps in I Corinthians 12:28 and the gift of serving in I Peter 4:11, I believed that there were (and are) such gifts in the church. But, to hear Bill say that everyone in a church and on a church staff was to function in those gifts to help the senior pastor accomplish his vision began to be too much for me. This handout raised many questions in my mind. Among them were these two:

(1) What if there are believers in a local church or on a church staff that have other gifts besides the gifts of helps or serving? What are they to do with their gifts?

(2) How are the other spiritual gifts like the gift of teaching, prophecy or leadership suppose to function within the confines of a service of “helps” or “serving” directed to benefit the senior pastor? 

Here is a fun website, where individuals write down in bubbles where they find God the other 6 days of the week?

The two most common places people find God: their children and their pets.

One of the highlights of my day is reading quotes from kids who attended Generation Unleashed.

"I've gone to a new level in worship," said Annalise Neciuk, 17, from Vancouver, Wash. "You can't help but be impacted when you're in a room with thousands of other people who are so hungry for the presence of God. That atmosphere alone builds your faith and encourages you to believe for something greater."

I felt the same way last month watching Belmont almost upset Duke in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. It was amazing, thousands of other people craving a Duke loss. All of us believing that nothing would be greater then mocking the Dukies as they left the stadium.  I seriously went to a new level in hating Duke.

But honestly, what is she talking about? What does it mean to go to a "new level" in worship? I know it sounds cool and spiritual to talk about "new levels", but I am not sure it actually means anything.