For high comedy visit www.FrankDamazio.com and check out his Welcome Letter. If you read it in a yoda voice, it's even better.
The farther I get away from City Bible, the more I'm convinced it's a low level cult.
City Business Church
It is not by grace that one enters the kingdom of heaven, but by tithing. – Damazio 3:16
Every blog post but one that is listed on the first page has a number in it. Classic P. Frank!
Very soon CBC should be renamed The United Church of Pastor Frank
WOW! Damazio really thinks highly of himself!! To think that the world is now somehow more privileged to share in his “sermon notes, personal research papers, prayer cards and book reviews” is outright hysterical. I would be laughing if I didn’t know how many mindless robots actually believe this stuff is truth. Oh well, the only saving grace is knowing that outside their little Portland/Seattle/Boise bubble no one knows, cares, or has any clue who this guy is. In fact I bet a majority of prominent charismatic Christian leaders outside their circle don’t even have a clue who he is. Sorry Frank, I know you wish you were Billy Graham but the years and years of false doctrine and spiritual abuse will never open that door for you.
Hahahaha! When I was no longer attending City Bible, or at least I stopped attending regularly, I was always so surprised when people I met outside the church, both Christians and not, didn’t know about CBC or Frank Damazio or Doug Lasit. It’s funny to me now that it surprised me…just sort of goes to show that if he does think that, he isn’t the only one. I feel that I was a fairly “typical” CBC member so it wouldn’t surprise me if many members feel/think that way. It’s their whole world.
I think this also explains why there have been so many “City” church plants lately. These people think that by going to another city and claiming they are from City Bible of Portland, Oregon that it will impress people. It won’t.
You ministering to their lives will impress them. Your “City” church name isn’t gonna do anything.
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Yeah JT, I am right there with you. Man when I was a BT/CBC kid I thought we were by far the best church in the whole damn world. I remember thinking “why would people go anywhere else?” Then I got older and started seeing the seedy side. The lies, the corruption, the false doctrine. I went to the public high school only 2 miles away, met other Christians, visited other churches and realized that NO ONE knew or even heard of Bible Temple. I was like but the dude wrote one of the best selling Christian books of all time “The Making of a Leader.” Or so I thought.
And now that I’ve been in Southern California for the last 7 years and been to some of the biggest and most recognized churches in all of America and beyond, I’ve learned that no one outside the MFI world (which really isn’t that big) has no idea about CBC, PBC, Frankie, or all the other hoopla they self promote up there. I think that’s why they have such a chip on their shoulders about it. Its hard being the red-headed step child that has to bring a sack lunch everyday, gets no attention from the pretty girls, and can’t play on the varsity squad. Eventually you screen “fire” in the hallways hoping someone notices who you are. Problem is after they’ve done that they don’t become cool, but rather just weird.
When I was in college in upstate New York, none of the Christian kids had ever heard of Frank Damazio or his book. But amazingly a lot of the Christian students had heard of Josh Harris and his book “Retards Don’t Date” or whatever it’s called.
So when I told them that I went to church with Josh, they were kind of impressed. Of course, even back then, I would badmouth Josh Harris. Because for a guy who didn’t date, he sure did hit on a lot of chicks.
Duh. He wrote a book that was basically a free pass: mack on all the chicks you want and none of them will ever expect you to follow through and start dating them. He could get all the gratification of female attention from multiple girls and they all think he’s just being a “nice guy”.
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Hahaha, yeah he “hit” on my wife a time or too.
I’m not trying to be mean, but Frank Damazio is no Dr. John Piper, Chuck Swindoll, Francis Chan, John Macarthur, or Billy Graham.
I once heard Pastor Judah once say that Frank Damazio was one of the “smartest/or brightest minds” in America today. I about fell out of my chair laughing. Really no one outside of the small MFI circle (idaho, Washington, and Portland area) has any clue who this guy is.
To even suggest that he is a renowned theologian is almost laughable.
I’m not saying this to be judgemental. I just think in many ways some of these guys have an inflated view of how big their influence is.
… Or a deflated view of how big the world is.
Of course it’s a cult… of this I have no doubts.
I finally read the intro. Oh. My. Goodness. This is what I gathered from it:
–The internet was created for “such a time” as Frank sharing notes
–Frank sure hopes God signs on for his great idea
–Now leaders don’t have to do their own study work
–Using Frank’s stuff, a “higher level” is attainable
I am in awe of such a massive ego. I hope the Lord talks to him soon.
Is this kind of the obscure, warped view of leadership I’ve heard so much about lately from my leaders?
I got the following twitter from Doug Lasit recently, “Leadership is inside out: God forms you, you impact your leaders, your leaders impact your church.” I’m really confused by such a comment. I’m being “peskily fascicious (spelling?)” here.
Does that twitter mean God doesn’t directly form our leaders?
Does it mean I don’t directly impact the church, even though I set up chairs, enter registrations, and sell concessions for the church?
Does it mean God is forming me for the sole purpose of impacting my leaders?
Does it mean my leaders impact the church so that those who are impacted by the leaders and formed by God can then impact their leaders in return?
I see how this could mean God is the foundation, working in our lives, and we then work as under-gardeners for our leaders who will then stand on stage and preach to the multitudes. I can’t see, though, why having one-on-one conversations with people about real life struggles on a level we both understand and can pray has less of an impact than a pastor who preaches from the stage and then has his minions taking care of the relational stuff. Maybe I’ve not actually been anything other than a number in the leadership’s eyes all along.
Yeah, my head is spinning.
OK, but only because you asked!
Facetious
Thanks!
Well the twitter idea might work if the leaders ever listened to their underlings. So just how are you supposed to impact your leader? The only way you are “allowed to” relate to your leader is to adore, obey and fetch coffee. Bah.