This has nothing to do with City Bible, but I just found this on the internet and have been laughing all day.

If you have a relatively quick connection and sound, click on this link. You won’t be dissapointed.

http://www.funpic.hu/swf/numanuma.html

Recently, I heard someone compare this blog to verbal porn.

Well, to that person I would like to say…

“Thank you”

I know that I only read it for the articles.

Here is a good letter to the editor in the most recent Willamette Week.

Pomo Christianity

Thanks for taking time for the Donald Miller cover story (”Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” WW, Feb. 2. 2005). I was surprised to not hear a mention of one word, though: postmodernism. Books like Miller’s are selling to young people at evangelical colleges who are looking for a broader vision of Christianity.

On campus, the question of whether their ideas are “heretical” or “honest” revolve around the notion of our society’s transition from modernity to postmodernity. Christian theology (and politics!) is too often rooted in a modern conception of the world that leads to fundamentalist thinking. But writers like Miller understand that the message of Christ is bigger than modernity.
Mainstream conservative evangelicals feel threatened and see “Post-Modernity” as a force to be battled, believing that questioning of fundamentalism (a thoroughly modern concept) will lead to aimless belief. Authors like Miller are popular in Portland and other “blue states” (read: postmodern states) because of new, fresh thinking about something old and powerful (the story of Christianity).

Dave Dyk
Northeast Irving Street

This was just emailed to me from a past blogger who has recently found his home. Enjoy.

Hello everyone,
It has been a while but I couldn’t sit idly by and allow this time of year to pass without unveiling the newest fad to sweep by City Business’s door in a long time.
It’s called Tithe Madness. Much like college basketball there is a 64 slot bracket. One spot for the individual tither. The top 64 tithers make the cut. You can either be ranked high enough to be voted in or win your cell group tithe title. We can call this Selection Sunday. Once the 64 tithers are selected and the brackets in place the following Sunday will be round one, 32 tithers from the East side against 32 tithers from the West side. Tithers will battle it out to see who can tithe more.
Kid needs braces? Well why not use the money to make it to the sweet sixteen. Thinking of re-mortgaging your house? You might want to wait until the finals to drop that bomb on the opposing tither.
The final bout will be held at a neutral site. Pastor Frank will officiate. Whoever has enough money reserved to give will be this years raining tithe champion.
Remember if your bank roll is too small to compete you can always wager on who will be champion. If you’re right you can use your winnings to compete next year.
So get your straight jackets and brackets ready. It going to be Tithe Madness.

I just came across this exhortation on City Bible’s “Business with a Purpose” website. Its a message written by Pastor Frank and directed to the Business leaders of City Bible. Its almost inspiring:

Please hear the encouragement and respect I have for the businessperson. You are called. You are special. You are vitally important. You are standing in the gap. You are a key to city transformation. You are anointed for this ministry. You are a marketplace missionary. You are a marketplace pastor. You are a marketplace evangelist. You are a marketplace prophet. You are standing in the right place, at the right time, to do the right thing.

A “marketplace missionary”… I like it. I really do. This little message makes me think that deep down inside, Pastor Frank genuinely admires and appreciates business leaders. It makes me think that Pastor Frank’s intentions are essentially good. His repeated messages on prosperity are born out of a profound respect for the businessperson, and not a desire to get rich.

So what went wrong? How did he go from a genuine admiration of business to “Forward Together”. Somehow Frank let his desire to support business leaders transform into a worship of the business leader. He’s off track.

My take: City Bible Church needs to take the focus off being successful in business and put the focus back on Jesus.

“Out of the heart, so the mouth speaketh.”

I think PF has let his envy of the business leader corrupt the message of the church. And instead of focusing his messages on the grace and compassion of Christ, his messages focus primarily on giving and prosperity. His focus is misdirected. Change your focus PF, and your church will begin to grow again.

(Anyway, I hope this post makes the Reformed Pope happy. He has informed me that I have to provide a minimum of two blogs a week, or else he’s kicking me off the blog. He got the idea from a certain church, where if you work for them and don’t tithe, they threaten to fire you.)

He said, “This much”. Stretched out both hands and hollered Jackpot!

Actually that’s just what I was thinking when I hit the Jackpot at the Texas Holdem table last week in Vegas. For those Texas Hold’em fans out there, I think you might enjoy this story.

So last weekend, I’m in Vegas with my equally degenerate brother Jesse, who when I lost $200 in 2 hours at the BlackJack table told me not to worry, and to keep playing, because I would surely win it all back. His exact quote to me was, “There were times at LaCenter I would kill to be down only $200.”

Unfortunately the dealer didn’t have “win it all back” in mind and by the next evening I had stretched that $200 loss into a $400 loss and I had resigned myself to continue to drive a car with a broken muffler. (Oddly enough though, I was still having a blast. Win or Lose, I love Vegas.)

The last night, in a final act of desperation, I sit down at a Texas Hold’em table with my last $100. I’m playing okay and staying about even, when the next hand dealt to me are double Aces. I’m exstatic, and trying to hide my excitement. I’m definately winning this pot.

(I didn’t know this at the time but the guy across from me had been dealt two kings. So he’s pretty happy too. Unfortunately for him, not as happy as me.)

The flop is laid down and its an 8, and the other two Aces. So, now I’m staring at four Aces and praying to God someone else has a good hand. The guy across from me, with the two Kings, bets the max and I follow with the max. I can’t push my money out there fast enough.

The dealer lays down the next two cards and they are both Kings. So now the guy across from me has four kings, and he throws in a huge bet… and I match his bet, trying desperately not to laugh or smile.

Betting ends, and the dealer says lay down your cards. My opponent throws down his four Kings… the crowd oohs, I throw down my four Aces… and the crowd went wild. The dealer screamed Jackpot. And I started highfiving everyone at the table…

I won $400 bucks. And thought, “Wow, Jesus must love me.”

I also tipped my dealer $40. He said thanks, and mentioned that most people don’t tip that much. But I was like, “Yeah well, growing up I was taught to tithe, and since I rarely go to church, I figure the least I could do was tithe to you.”

Of course there were still several more hours left in Vegas.. so, by the time I got on the plane to fly home I was down $100 bucks for the weekend, but still…. good times…. good times….

There’s a lesson to this story… what that lesson is I couldn’t tell you, but there’s definately a lesson here somewhere.

(Oh and for those who are feeling sorry for my opponent. The $400 bucks came from the Casino, for having a hand with Four Aces. I only got like $30 off the guy with Four Kings.)

It appears that CBC’s policy on requiring people to tithe is quite a hot issue with many bloggers. So far we only have one ex-CBC employee claiming this to story to be fact. I would like to hear from more employees.

They may all still be on a media fast, but I would like to welcome any current employees to offer an up to date perspective. A new point of view is always welcome; after all this bitterness is really dragging me down.

Also, if anyone feels that their job is in danger because of a lack of giving please contact us here at City Business Church. I can think of at least one lawyer who would love to represent that case.

What do you think about this…..

Brian9000 said…
“Anonymous said…The good news is, even though it isn’t taught or encourage to give anonymously, we can.”

Unfortunately this is not true at CBC. I’ve always felt strange about taking a tax deduction for tithing, and having to use a tracking number on my envelopes. It took more work, but I would literally go to the bank and withdraw the exact amount for my tithe, (plus a little tip added on for my “offering”) and put it in the felt sack as cash.

Unfortunately I was an employee of CBC at the time, and after a couple months of this I got called on the carpet. It turns out that according to the Member Tithing Average printout sitting on the office administrators desk, I wasn’t making the minimum number of payments according to the salary CBC was paying me (with my sinful nature I couldn’t help but look at all the other under-paying employees highlighted in pink).

I tried to explain that I paid God anonymously in cold hard cash, but apparently the god of CBC doesn’t like that. I was informed that if I wanted to keep my job, I needed to put my cash in a tithing envelope and remember to write my assigned number on it.

All I’m saying Anonymous, is that not everyone gets to give in secret as you suggest.