I love this story. From the comments:

I found your website and well just say it’s a blessing for me, liberating to be exact that I’m not the only one. Not saying that ur pastor’s an ass, just the thought that it’s ok to questioning the church authority and getting them responsible of it. I did, my ex pastor stepped down a few months ago, now being investigated of fraud. Nice guy, just forgot that he’s serving God not the goods… well anyway what i did to my (ex) pastor was :

Step 1. Questioning him privately first, bluntly in his face (we had lunch, my mom’s one of the church’s biggest donor, he loved us.. a lot), he denied my accusation and play the angry card, accusing me i was a bitter young guy in need for a big-time repent. Then apparently he told everyone about the evil me, hence the asst. pastor calling me -not by name- (quote) “the thorn” in a Sunday service sermon in front of 5000 people, sent by the devil spreading rumors to shake and hurt the “God-Anointed man”.

Well something just ain’t right in the equation about the first class “mission” family trip to Maldives, Hawaii, Baha etc, new SLK & S-Series, ,”the Canaan” (20k sqf mansion, with a private bowling alley thank you) and of course the old time favorite & repeated tithing sermons…
I’m OK with people getting rich, but not with my money (well to be fair, my mom’s mostly) in it and there’re people in the church losing their job, fighting bankruptcy and with illness, yet being told to tithe tithe tithe!
And yet here’s another 45k$ Patek Philippe for the “god anointed man” doing nothing really with no real job but being fat and speaking about how everyone need to give him more $$$.

Step 2. Feed up. I had enough. So I talked with people, convince my mom to take action, looking for affirmation (one of the affirmation was form this lovely site.. again THANK YOU!), yes there’re a lot of people told me to mind my own business, that I’m just a young rascal (was 25 back then) and somehow kept hearing that it is a sin to question “god’s anointing”, well I know a tiger when i see one.

Step 3. I collected all my guts left in me (after been brutally eaten by the church pack) and we (me and some of the elders, my mom included) reported him to the financial committee. Filed a lawsuit (thanks to my mom’s company legal team) and there you go, now he’s spent $$$ paying for the legal fees, bye2 mansion, and sorry Mrs. pastor no more visit to the plastic surgeon…

Am I evil or what?  Well tell that to the “man of god” who stop funding the elderly home, shutting it literally, denied financial assistance plea from a mother with breast cancer (told her to pray harder, tithe more and god will send miracle depending on how much she will put a seed of faith in here tithing, saying it’s by grace she’ll be healed, she died a few month after unhealed) and bought a new 150k church sound system instead (which cost only 100k, he tithed 50k for himself apparently), not that the one we had broken, it just the Hillsong singers coming and we need to bling up. And oh yes… he gave the infamously evil CA’s props8 tons of $$$ (move away mormons, he gave approx. 215k of the church money) denying people the rights to love and be equal… and we’re not even in USA! (the devil’s own friend, rev. jerry falwell & soon-to-go rev. pat robertson will love this guy company in hell surely).

After the legal huricane, new pastor got in, so this one better keep his hand off my money and use it for the right cause.
Yes you heard me “my money”, I don’t be believe in tithing as a return of God’s money thing, no way, in the The Parable of the Talents, it’s said that the master will taken us into account of the money (skill, etc) entrusted in us… so no way I’m gonna deposit mine in some crooks (who happened ran a money-hunger church) and do nothing about it. Never my intention to dictate pastor what to do, i just expect them to do the right thing as church supposed to do: To act love.

Money (or other things) is not the source of all evil, it’s the willingly evil human hearts, any human hearts are vulnerable including the so-called “anointed one”.

My point is maybe everyone should man up and talk to these pastors in the face, and enjoy the wild ride 

In the credit where credit is due file, I see that City Bible is starting an intramural program this April, which people can join for a very reasonable fee of $25.

This year we will be offering a wide variety of sports, including Men's and Women's Basketball, Co-ed Volleyball, Co-ed Badminton and Co-ed Ultimate Frisbee.

It seems like this is a positive outreach to the community and congregation, and it's more than just prayer meetings, bake sales and bible studies. (not that there's anything wrong with that).

My senior year in college, my roomates and I took an early morning badminton class to fulfill our PE requirement.  One of us even bought a special badminton racket specifically for the class. In truth, we took it a little too seriously. And after some sessions, we would be so angry with eachother that we wouldn't speak for days. 

The other students in the class hated us. It's 8 am on a Tuesday morning, the jocks are hung-over, the hippies sleepy, and everyone else totally apathetic. But not us, we're doing calisthenics and some light jogging to prepare for the upcoming match. We would also spend a significant portion of the class arguing over archane Badminton rules or whether the shuttlecock (why is that word not used more often) landed in-bounds. 

This is all to say, I loved it, and if I lived in Portland and everyone up there didn't despise me, I would totally join their little club.

I have no idea what's going on at the bubbles these days, nor do I care.  However, as I see that some people have found some pretty "funny" youtube videos and websites relating to this years GU conference, I figured I would provide a proper forum to discuss.

This one is pretty ridiculous, but at least they are being creative. Points for effort guys: Pastor Frank Music Video 

This is an amazing interview from a guy who grew up at the center of the Evangelical Movement and hates what it has become. Frank Schaeffer has converted to Greek Orthodox, and in November voted for a Democrat for President for the first time in his life.

In my opinion, Mr. Schaeffer is the future of Christianity. I'm not exactly sure what shape the Christian Movement will take in 20 years. But I gaurantee, it will look vastly different than it does now, and the Dobson's and Damazio's of the world won't be major players. They'll be fringe radicals, that Christians look back on with regret.

Check out this video of Frank Damazio and Benny Perez talking about their half million dollar offerings…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIfUyrWi_fA

That Frank is one funny guy…

 (h/t Negrodamus)

Someone recently posted this comment and I thought it deserved it's own post so that all could read and comment.

SICK, SICK, SICK. I can not believe it!!! Has anyone else seen the CBC website about Faith Harvest? They are now using hungry Cambodian children to help raise money for the latest capital campaign. This is too far. This is wrong. Why oh why do people keep giving these lunatics their hard earned cash? Fine, preach tithing. But combating the flailing economies certain affect on your revenue stream by flashing photos of hungry children in the third world is truly a new low. I would pray for a bolt of lightning to strike the domes but it would probably see it as a sign that God somehow approves of you guys. Mark Estes should be ashamed for narrating this video. Mark, you and I both know that the vast majority of that money will never ever end up in Cambodia. Why can’t you guys on that hill just for once be honest about where the money is going to go?

Pretty sad indeed.

Here is an interesting little tidbit in a Portland Tribune article about how Oregon Representative Karen Minnis spent her campaign money:

Minnis also donated $15,000 in leftover campaign funds last December to her church, City Bible Church.

I like Karen so I hope this all works itself out. And I do know that tracking campaign funds can be tricky. But this certainly looks a little sketchy. Campaign funds aren't personal funds, and thus you have to treat them accordingly. We'll see. 

I received the following email from a former reader, asking me to remove some comments on the blog. And in the process had this to say:

I regret things I've said. I regret my presence there. I was at a picnic on Sat and saw some old friends from CBC and saw for the first time how much (the blog) has hurt people.

I'll be honest, whenever I hear that this blog has hurt people at CBC.  My first thought is always, "Good. That's the point." 

Until these churches (City Bible, the City Church, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Christian Life Fellowship, the MFI Church Directory) come up with a better way to deal with dissent. Or until they stop putting leadership over the congregation, blogs like this will exist. 

Anyway, that's my defense. But really, I'm just posting this so you all know that yep, four years later, they're still reading. Heh. 

Last week, King Mang Zam, Pastor of the Burmese fellowship at City Bible Church, attended World Refugee Day and walked in support of refugees all over the world.

A leader of the event had this to say about the walk:

"We are former refugees living here in freedom; we feel for people who are not free in other countries, people living futureless lives," said Thar Nge, a political dissident from Burma who arrived in the United States four years ago. "People come here to escape racism, genocide, religious pressure, ethnic conflict. But the feelings are the same — without freedom there is no safety."

Maybe, it's just because the Bush Administration has turned me into a pinko commie liberal, but I'm kind of down with supporting this type of event. 

Anyway, when asked about the event, City Bible Pastor King Mang Zam, had this lovely quote:

King Mang Zam, pastor of the Burmese fellowship at the City Bible Church, also praised the work of the sponsoring organizations, drawing an analogy between the towering maples in the South Park Blocks and the network of support from earlier-arrived refugees and the LCSNW, Catholic Charities, and EMO-SOAR programs: "I am very grateful that someone planted these trees so we can enjoy this shade."

Greatest. Quote. Ever.

Several years ago, I spent sometime traveling around China with a school group. And by far, our favorite past time was finding signs in China that had been translated into English. You always knew what the signs meant, but they always had a little flair. They were the best.

(My second favorite pasttime was finding someone who sold coffee.  You could find tea at any little sidewalk cart in that country, but coffee was impossible to find.  And when I did find it, it was always a huge production, with all of the restaurant staff going into the storage shed to find their last remnants of instant coffee for the hungover white foreigner.) …good times. but I digress…

Anyway, good to see someone at City Bible has their priorities straight. That seems like something Christ might do.

Recently, I took a little heat when I poked fun at a young female for claiming that she went to a new level in worship at the latest Generation Unleashed Concert.  I argued that what she experienced wasn't worship, but instead excitement at attending a fun event.  Well, Exhibit A, in support of my argument is this video of the most recent Generation Unleashed Concert.

Generation Unleashed 2008

When you rely on special affects, lighting, guitar solos and crowd surfing, to get Christian teens excited, that's not worship that's manipulation. If worship is just a good concert, then the Rolling Stones have brought more people to Christ than Billy Graham.