The New Kid On The Block
Posted on July 14th, 2008 by The Reformer into the About Us categoryHello Bloggers!
I have been invited to join City Business Church as a registered user allowing me to post along with our fearless leaders Catalyst and Reformed Pope (who I attended high school youth group with back in the mid 90s). I have been a huge fan of this blog since its inception and posted as far back as 2004. Recently I felt God urging me to begin speaking out again so I am pleased to have this opportunity and I will do my best to bring new ideas and prospective to the forefront. For those of you who know me (formerly ex-City Bible Slave) I look forward to having some in depth discussion about faith, grace, and the call on young people to start a new reformation in the church. For those of you who don't know me, I look forward to sharing my many good, bad and crazy experiences with you. I am 30 years old, been married for 9 years, have a 1 year old daughter, grew up in Portland, Oregon, currently live in Los Angeles, California and work in the legal affairs department of a movie production studio. I truly believe it is time to take a stand against false prophets, heresy, and the destructive Word of Faith/Prosperity lie infiltrating American churches today. Now I know there will be plenty of haters who try to bring me/us down as they always do, but I'm used to dealing with ego maniacs and never shy away from a good debate. I know God has bigger things in store for us and this blog, so lets pull together and usher in some change to these destructive places that call themselves a church. Looking forward to a lot of fun.
Sincerely,
The Reformer
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July 14th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Welcome.
This should be fun.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
So I wanna know your birth certificate name !! puhleeezzeeee :-}
July 14th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Cool
Ex-City Bible SlaveReformer — looking forward cuz I like the way you think!July 15th, 2008 at 3:16 am
I’ve been posting here for a couple years, and I’d be interested to see what your ideas for a ‘new reformation’ look like. It’s obvious there are serious problems in the IC today, and this blog has pointed them out. The flip side would be to set up an alternative that actually brings our Lord’s kingdom to earth in a meaningful way. I have a few ideas to share and I look forward to hearing yours!
July 15th, 2008 at 9:31 am
.
Scary words. Can you elaborate?
Welcome, Reformer!
July 15th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I like the way you think too!
email me: reformer.for.change@gmail.com
July 15th, 2008 at 10:23 am
“The Reformer” sounds like a comic book for recovering mega-church attenders.
SCENE: CBC auditorium
Frank: Repeat after me, “We all love to tithe!”
Reformer: (swings onstage via rope) STOP! You evil villain! These people are no longer bound by Old Testament Law.
Frank: Curses! It’s the Reformer! Everyone, speak in tongues to drive out this divisive spirit! BABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABA!!!
Reformer: Your stupid babbling has no effect on me, Frank. I speak the Truth in Love which cannot be silenced.
Frank: Ushers! Seize him before he says any more. I have to make a balloon payment on my boat this month!
Reformer: HAHAHA! You can silence me, but you’ll never silence my blog! (swings away on rope)
July 15th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
FICM, classic. I love it!
July 15th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Uhm… only young people are called to bring reformation to the church… ahem.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Unrelated question but… can we edit our own posts? I made a truly humiliating grammatical faux pas on my last post and I’m mortified beyond repair.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
This is amazing. Somehow while reading that I was just slain in the spirit.
Frank is God.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I think the true reformation will come when the young people learn to grasp the heart of their fathers, and the fathers of their children.
Generational Transfer Baby! Viva La Revelucion!
July 15th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Sorry, didn’t mean to sound ’scary’. I would like to see a church do what Christ said to do. For instance, Matthew 28:19-20; Make disciples, baptise them, teach them to observe all that Christ commanded. Start with Matthew 11:28-30.
I’m real tired of ‘leaders’ coming up with ‘visions’ for the corporate group that have nothing to do with Christianity. You know, like endless building projects, political campaigns against gays, lesbians, liberals, ballot measures, etc…see Luke 6:46.
By bringing Christ’s kingdom to earth, I only mean to actually start doing what He told us to do. Go through the “I say” portions of Matthew 5 and start living them out. If someone borrows something from you, don’t ask for it back. If someone wants some change from your pocket at the bus stop, go ahead and give them some. If someone says something nasty about you, don’t get upset, rejoice about it!
OK, there’s my elaboration.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Just don’t make me wear tights!
That happens to you too? Glad to hear I’m not the only one.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I don’t see any grammatical faux pas. Those I think we can all handle unless the writer is hurling accusations along with the errors!! That’s when it becomes intolerable!
What I do beg to differ with in your post, though, is insinuating that only young ppl are called to work for God and, in this case, reform. You may have been kidding (or not) but I tend to shut down, go the other way, and give up in the presence of that attitude.
I realize that my reaction is fall-out from what we went through at our former church. The leadership was forever validating the youth as God’s chosen of the hour which is great for the youth but it made anyone over 35 feel like our time was over and we were washed up. Most of us have been hanging on to promises the Lord gave us when we were teenagers and alot of us haven’t seen those things happen yet. God only knows whether those promises were wishful thinking or Him actually promising us stuff. So, you can imagine the insecurity dealing with ‘well your time is over, you had your chance’ type thing.
All that to say, please be careful of the elitest attitude that we all can fall into — ‘Because we are young, we are better’. It can come through just like ‘Because we’ve lived longer, we know more than you’ can come through.
Btw, forgive my grammatics–not being tongue-in-cheek, I just don’t have time right now to think this through more. More importantly to me, please bear with my vent as I work through leftover stuff from old world. Talking it through and clarifying helps though and this is why the blog is good.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Thanks, HEsaid. Your original phrasing made it sound a bit Dominionist — you know, we’re going to conquer the world for Jesus. If we’re going to go that route, we might as well go back to CBC where they are building their kingdom for God.
I’m a bit touchy about that idea, so thanks for clarifying! Obedience beats conquering any day.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:48 am
This is the post I was referring to — which seems like you were being facetious. Sorry I’m so sensitive. Maybe my rant has cured me now that I’ve purged(I hope).
July 16th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I don’t think anyone was saying only young people can usher in a reformation, I definately know that was not my intention. Sorry if that’s the way it came off. You are 100% right, we need all people especialy those seasoned and expereinced folks who can offer wisdom and maturity to radicals who are a mile wide but only 1 inch deep.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:15 am
I was taking issue with the statement about “only young people..”. That’s why I said “ahem”.
Just to clarify.
July 26th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
oh, ok, sorry for the rant!
July 27th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about the purpose of church, and what it was like in the Bible - both old and new testament.
Not sure what to make of the old, but in the new testament some things are clearly coming to mind, which have nothing to do with the modern church today:
1) Jesus was always preaching AGAINST the religious groups and intellectual know it alls
2) Jesus only went to the synagogue to TEACH the people there, it appears he worshipped and fellowshipped elsewhere..
3) Jesus went everywhere to preach the gospel, and called people not while in the synagogue, but while in the world
4) He just didn’t spend much time in the synagogue
5) people “joined” churches when they heard the gospel preached. um, IN the world, not the synagogue. And then they met in homes, as we all know. New converts were made OUTSIDE the church then brought in..we have somehow reversed this
6) I don’t ever see any money going to anyone for playing church or cleaning house - I see that preachers of the gospel can get paid, but no one else is mentioned. And how much time do pastors today really devote to preaching the gospel? Everyone in the church has heard it before - take it to the world! to the streets!
7) all these extra forms of ministry are all in the church today, which was unheard of back then to only minister to believers only and entertain them…the early church was all about getting out and making disciples!
8) we just all really need to go out and preach to the lost sheep in the world. to hell with the apostate church that is full of goats.