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.

Because what Evangelicals do best is copy from that evil secular world out there, I give you:

My Church

See who can find City Bible's page.  

Kenneth Copeland Ministries is fighting back against Senator Grassley's investigation. In a letter responding to the investigation, Copeland's ministry states:

"The church is deeply concerned that the information Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is seeking could be used to subject the church and its members to public stigma, scorn, and obloquy,"

Yeah, I had too look up it up too; "obluquy" means "censure or blame".

Anyway, we'll see how Senator Grassley responds. It doesn't appear that Copeland is getting much help from other  ministries.

"We don't think it's the best approach to wrap yourself in the First Amendment," Kenneth A. Behr, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) told Cybercast News Service. "We believe that financial transparency is one of the cornerstones of financial integrity."

It's been fun to watch this play out. My guess is that the IRS is preparing a lengthy audit of all of the churches under Grassley's investiation. And we'll likely see the results of those audits sometime in 2009.

There are two certainties in life, Death and Taxes. And while Christ cheated Death, he still couldn't get past Taxes. I think Kenneth is screwed.  

Matthew 22:21 - Give to Caeser what is Caeser's, and to God what is God's.

Young, docile, ambitious, uneducated, financially dependent, inexperienced, and insecure men (who are also in need of father figures) are the politically-safest kind of men for pastor-kings to promote in their kingdoms. (Why do you think so many corporations prefer in-house training?) 

The fattest carrot of all that pastor-kings offer to young men (or women) who feel a call to the ministry is ministry opportunity itself e.g., teaching a church class; sitting on the platform; preaching on Sunday night; traveling with the senior pastor; preaching in a sister church, team-teaching with one of the elders, etc. 

In the kingdom of the pastor-king, it is communicated in various ways that those who kiss the ring of the pastor-king obtain the big carrot - ministry opportunities; those who do not miss out on the same opportunities as well as promotions. (I declined becoming an elder in my home church more than once and it was clearly not appreciated.) 

Jesus said, "I am the door…" (application only) but in the kingdom of the pastor-king, it is the senior pastor who is the door to all ministry opportunities (of course, as "ministry" is narrowly defined and expressed in the confines of that pastor-king's kingdom). 

As one of my former pastors told me when I pressed him as to why he was hinting to me that I should quit my teaching position in his Bible College that I had successfully held for about nine years and go to another church: 

"If you will become more like us; I will open up more ministry doors for you; if you won't become more like us, then I won't open up anymore ministry doors for you." 

Young men expend too much time and energy - even compromising their personal convictions and swallowing their sincere questions and doubts - getting on the good side of their pastor-kings so that he will give them opportunities to “minister.” 

All these ambitious men really have to do, if they would just take a lesson from Jesus with the masses or John Wesley with the coal miners as they lined up to go work, etc. is open their front door and go preach to their neighbor or on the sidewalk or someplace there are needy people. 

Instead, the Yes Men of the pastor-king's court seek the honor and approval of men. They choose comfortable pulpits (with flowing water falls or rotating globes in the background), honorariums and choirs who will applaud their shallow, topical messages even though they lack originality and are filled with hackneyed clichés of the politically-correct traditions of their pastor-kings. 

One Sunday evening, I preached a controversial message in my home church; one to which I no longer hold. It was a sermon that supported Postmillennialism (the belief that all of the nations will gradually become Christianized before Jesus returns). Before the message, I playfully told the congregation that the pastor should feel free to correct me after I finished!

My comment was not appreciated. After I ended my message, instead of the pastor getting up to the pulpit and saying something like, “It sure is great that Christians don’t have to all believe the same thing on the End Times,” he tapped the elder who was sitting in front of him on the platform and asked him to dismiss the service; which he did very clumsily.   

The next morning, the pastor called me into his office. He told me that he was the only one in the church who defined doctrine and it was not going to be me! 

I asked him, "Why can Ern Baxter (now deceased) come into our church as a guest speaker and preach Postmillennialism from the pulpit and get away with it but I can't?" He said, "It's because Ern Baxter is not a member of this church; neither is he on staff here. What he says will be heard today and gone tomorrow. Anything Ern says that I choose not to re-emphasize, I just allow to fall through the cracks. In your case, however, since you are on church staff, it is an entirely different story.”

A reader commented that City Bible is getting a Starbucks:

Just found out cbc is putting in a starbucks in the church lobby. They are moving the reception area and book store. It will be located there.

Initially, I thought this was a joke. But I checked to see if other churches have Starbucks in their lobby. (City Bible rarely has an original thought.) And I stumbled across an article discussing Christianity in American, which included this paragrph:

The megachurches thus become part church, part shopping mall and part country club. One in Tacoma, Washington, even has its own Starbucks. Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston has a McDonald's on its 111 acres.

So I guess it's true. City Bible is getting a Starbucks. Here's my question. Why Starbucks? Why eliminate your own home-grown coffee shop to make room for a Starbucks. Will this really increase revenue? Will they advertise outside the church? How does this benefit City Bible?

My guess is that Starbucks will rent out the space in the church. I think City Bible is struggling to pay the mortgage and rent on all of its properties. And I bet they need the rent money to make their monthly mortgage payment. It's a lot like someone buying a home they can't really afford and then getting a roomate to pay the bills. 

But that's just my guess. Why do you guys think they're doing it?

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been traveling for work this past week, and airports aren't really condusive to blogging. Airports really only motivate me to drink and eat Mcdonalds. I usually gain about 10 pounds when I fly.  To be completely honest, on my way to the airport, I had every intention of reading a book and eating a salad.  And then Airport security stole my toothpaste, and I seriously lost it. And subsequently, muttered angrily to myself all the way to the bar.

But I digress…. last night I watched Real Time with Bill Maher and during his New Rules Segment he made the following statement where he compared the Catholic Church to the recently raided Polygamist Cult in Texas. 

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Bill, you can't be saying that the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy Texas cult! For one thing, altar boys can't even get pregnant."

But, really, what tripped up the "little cult on the prairie" was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands all over the world. Cults get raided. Religions get parades. How does the Catholic Church get away with all of their buggery? VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME!

If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you "Pope."

It's like if you can't pay your mortgage, you're a deadbeat, but if you can't pay a million mortgages, you're Bear Stearns, and we bail you out. And that's who the Catholic Church is, the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia. Too big to fail.

Gotta say, I really agree with him. This is why I distinguish between Faith and Religion. Faith can motivate, inspire and sustain a person through tough times. Religion is most often used as a tool to abuse the vulnerable.

(For another excellent take: Read David's post on the Catholic Church's Sex Abuse Scandal)

While cruising around the "blogosphere" last Friday I ran across Mark Conner's Space. If I'm not mistaken (and I very rarely am) Mark Conner is Pastor of City Life Church and is also Sharon Damazio's brother (aka Pastor Frank's brother in-law). Anyhow, there was one post on Mark's Space that stood out to me: Fun & Games with the Media.

As it turns out, a local paper wrote a story about a Physiotherapist who was sexually abusing his patients over a long period of time. In the article there is a headline that states "Churchgoer's `insidious' acts wreak trauma" and at the end of the story there is a comment by this Physiotherapist's defense lawyer saying "Ms Hartnett said he was a dedicated Christian who regularly attended the City Life Church in Wantirna."

Mark Conner (and some of his churchgoers), seem a little peeved that this article connected this man with their church. Mark has this to say

Firstly, this man's behaviour clearly indicates that he is not a 'dedicated Christian' and secondly, he does not regularly attend our church. He obviously has visited our church at some time over the years - like 1000s of other people have. Unfortunately, the journalist didn't check their facts but didn't hesitate to incriminate Christianity and the church. How sad and how wrong.

Mark goes on to post a letter that someone from his congregation wrote to the paper complaining about this lack of journalistic integrity. This letter brings up good and valid points…however, I was struck by the attitude of Mark, and many of the others who posted comments, and their attempt to salvage their image. I, of course, couldn't resist writing a comment of my own which lasted on the site for about 1 day before being deleted. Here was the comment I had written:  

Reading through this I had the same feelings as Anon [a comment previous to mine] did. I started getting sick to my stomach listening to everyone who was trying to distance themselves as far as they could from this "sinner". Obviously this guy made some major mistakes…he hurt a lot of people…and legally he should be punished…but does God love him any less? Does God love you more?

How quickly we forget our own sinful nature…You who are without sin can keep casting those stones, however, I tend to think that LOG in your own eye is going to come back to bite you.

And Mark, I find it incredibly hypocritical that in the very same blog you put down a newspaper for twisting the facts and then do the very same thing yourself.  Shame on you.

Your quote at the start of this blog makes it sounds as though you have no idea who this guy is or if he ever actually attended your church:

"Firstly, this man's behavior clearly indicates that he is not a 'dedicated Christian' and secondly, he does not regularly attend our church. He obviously has visited our church at some time over the years - like 1000s of other people have. Unfortunately, the journalist didn't check their facts but didn't hesitate to incriminate Christianity and the church. How sad and how wrong."

This sounds like the guy just slipped in and out of your church completely uninvolved and unnoticed and it is not until someone else calls you out and says

"I knew Brad and I knew he attended your church regularly and attended a small group from your church."

that you come out with the real story and tell us:

"I have spoken to our pastoral team who knew him and were involved in his situation."

We are all sinners. Some of us are saved by grace and others are in need of that grace, but none of us can boast in our own salvation. I'm ashamed that a "Christ loving" church would be so quick to distance themselves from someone in need just to help save their own image.

When Jesus was on the earth He spent his time loving sinners and rebuking the church and yet now the Church spends their time rebuking sinners and loving themselves.

How sad and how wrong.

Mark Conner of City Life Church, let me ask you this: When was Jesus concerned with his image? When He was criticized for eating with "sinners" He sure didn't worry about doing any damage control.

I believe respect is something that you earn. Today's Christian Church doesn't get respect because they just don't deserve it.

It's a historic day at City Bible Church; they are about to get their first brown elder. Asim Trent is getting the call up to the big leagues.

PRESENTATION OF NEW ELDERS

As senior pastor I work with a group of leaders called the eldership which are the governing board of our local church.  The process by which new elders are ordained is as follows.  I present the current eldership with the names of the potential new elders.  After they confirm these individuals, we as a leadership present them to the congregation to allow you to voice any biblical concerns about the individuals, then we call for a confirmation vote by the congregation.

The City Bible Church eldership is proud to present Asim Trent to you as a potential new elder.  He has already proven his shepherd’s heart and biblical qualifications to serve our congregation and we are blessed to have him.  We trust he will add to the decision-making process of the eldership and serve this congregation with integrity and wisdom.

Asim and Lisa Trent have been involved with City Bible Church for over 13 years. Asim has been involved in the youth ministry since the moment he got saved here at the age of 15 and has served in a variety of areas at CBC.  For the past five years he has been serving in the youth department, currently as the Youth Pastor for the Rocky Butte campus. Asim and Lisa have two children, Houston and Elijah.

Pastor Frank Damazio

Call me arrogant, (I am) but I actually think a certain Mr. Knox's and Mr. Coffee's comments on this blog are what prompted the promotion. They helped call attention to the lack of minority leadership at City Bible.

To be fair, I do not want to diminish Asim Trent's accomplishments at all. He's a good guy, he's loyal, he deserves this honor.  And he has a white wife. (So, you know, one step at a time.)

Anyway, I'm starting to come around to Frank. First he bails from MFI, and now he's putting a person of color in a position of leadership. I like it.