Brother Joel just sent this to me and I thought it was kinda funny. Anyhow, since Justin is still recovering from the Hood to Coast, this is what you get:

I am going to put this on craigslist think it will sell!!!!!!!

Autographed version of the bible - $1,000,000

I have a near-mint copy of the Bible, signed by the Big J.C. himself. According to Amazon, this is one of the better selling books of all time. I'm guessing the Prince of Peace would be happy to hear that.

This book was entrusted to me by the Knights of Templar, they borrowed it from Our Savior sometime between 28 and 32 AD and forgot to give it back. It was one of those things where they said they'd return it in a week, but then they didn't get around to reading it right away. And you know how you always feel bad returning a book you haven't read, especially when the lender asks you what you thought of it. So in trying to avoid an awkward moment with the Alpha and Omega, they hung onto it until they had more time. Well that time turned into about 2000 years, and it got mixed in with some other books and made it into a yard sale box.

At first, the King of Kings' signature wasn't worth much, but after Our Redeemer died on the cross for your sins, apparently the value skyrocketed and then rose more gradually over the next 2000 years as more people learned of the Good Shepherd's story.

Why am I selling it? I could say that I'm interested in sharing the Word of God with someone else - become a "Fisher of Men" so to speak. But the truth is I just bought a Wii and don't have room on the bookshelf for both. I'll either use the money to fight world hunger, or buy that Rock Band game I've been hankering for.

A reader writes:  

"I was attending the City Church downtown which was run by Judah Smith's father Wendell Smith. Judah ran a group called Young Professionals and I attended this group for a couple of months. I do not attend this church any more because the members and Smith are insane.

Last Saturday I listened to Smith make a remark that Islam is a religion that only focuses on converting people and is intolerant. He then declared that Christianity is the only belief system that does not do this. I'm a history major and an educated person and know that Islam is a tolerant religion. Also, when it comes to extremism, any religion can be a religion of the sword.

After the service I went and talked with another member of the City Church (not Smith), explaining that Islam is not a bad religion and that Jews, Christians, and Muslims should live together in peace. This member blew up at me and accused me of having Satan in me and that other religions living together in peace are the work of the devil. 

His father on telecasts makes these absurd claims that God has appeared to him in visions and that he has appeared to people and healed them. I was wondering if you know anyway that these people can be exposed as frauds or investigated." 

A reader recently had this to say:

I left the church and God many years ago, hurt and broken. When I finally came back to God I went back to a church that is part of the MFI organization. I now attend another MFI church out of state. In both of those churches Tithing is encouraged and I do give my 10% every payday…At my church we teach our people to give because we love. Not to get anything. If you don’t want to give, and you can’t give with a grateful heart don’t do it. What you give is between you and God…I give because he gave me everything. I go to church on Sunday because I love it. If I want to take a Sunday off, no problem. My pastor will actually tell you to take a weekend off. A very different philosophy then what I was raised with. I just want to point out….MFI church. Not all of them are bad. Just like not all people at CBC or City Church are bad. I am a mature adult. I have a strong relationship with God. I don’t do anything because someone tells me I have to. Sometime ago I grew up.

I have to agree that there are good churches within MFI and good people within CBC and The City Church.  No one denies that.  However we can't deny the reality that people are who they associate with.  That's just fact.  You can't spend a large percentage of your life apart of something and not have it affect you.  I hope readers out there can realize the error of this persons thoughts.  You cannot be apart of corruption and say that because you are not individually involved in it, that it's OK.  That's the excuse used by people who looked the other way in the 40s, 50s and 60s during racists Jim Crow laws.  A lot of people did not participate in the evil but they didn't work to stop it or fight against it either.  They can claim they were not the bad ones but they still perpetuated the cycle by not acting.  So if a church is apart of MFI, they represent the overall philosophy and doctrine of MFI, even if they don't buy into it 100%.  That church and it's members are still apart of all the bad that comes with MFI whether they participate in it or not.  If a church is really that great they would stand up against MFI and say they don't want to be apart of a corrupt system that's responsible for ruining so many lives.  But by partaking in the money, power and support of MFI they are showing that deep down, they are just as bad as everyone else.  Sold out to a wrong cause for money.  Similarly, if those people at CBC and The City Church were such good people they would say enough of this BS and walk away.  But they too stay and partake in the big and powerful because they like the image that it brings.  The only real way to bring change to these places and show them that they are wrong is to walk away from them.  If MFI only had 3 member churches and CBC only had 100 members, they would be forced to change!  But as this comment shows, a lot of people don't have the courage or the faith to say enough is enough, so they rather try to justify their presence there by claiming that they don't participate in the wrongness.  That to me, is just wrong.

Negrodamus writes:

After being apart of the City Business Church family from virtually it's inception, I like to get a little philosophical for this post, I just finished reading George Orwell's book "1984" and there was a quote that stood out to me regarding a mysterious, sinister and ubiquitous figure named "Goldstein." Orwell, speaking of this character:

… [A]lthough Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were, in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less. Always there were fresh dupes waiting to be seduced by him.

So here is the my question, Who is "Goldstein" today?

A reader writes:

Have you guys heard/written anything about Living Hope Fellowship in Aloha, Oregon? The place is ripe with unreal, unbelievable religious abuse and inconsistencies. The pastor is a graduate of PBC and a proud member of MFI. Interestingly enough, he left MFI years ago and referred to the organization as "The Firm".
 
Now he subscribes to the same thinking and the bizarre happenings at that church could fill a book. The pastors have allowed their kids to take over and run the church, their theology is bizzare, they have covered up major sexual indiscretions, but defamed others for not paying their tithes consistently and the list goes on.
 
Just curious as I've not seen anything written on them and I cannot imagine there aren't scores of bitter ex-LHF'ers. Right now, people are leaving in spades.
 
Take care. You guys are awesome.

I'm posting this email for two reasons.

One, the writer called us awesome.

Two, the sentence "people are leaving in spades".

Sometimes I feel that readers of this blog consider themselves victims. And while I admit some people truly are vicitms of their church, the vast majority are only vicitms, because they never had the courage to leave the congregation. No one forces you to attend church.  You are always free to leave.

Now, I grew up in the church. So I understand the emotional ties one creates with the pastor and congregation. But when that emotion changes from a feeling of belonging to one of anger and bitterness, then you just need to leave. And you need to stop blaming others for your failure to act.

*Editors note: I do not verify the accuracy of the statements made in the letter above.

Here is a great response by Negrodamus to the following question by blog reader "Me"regarding True and False Gospel:

Me said:

Negrodamus, (great name btw)

As a matter of curiosity, and i mean this will all due respect, what Gospel were you preaching at CBC? And I request specifics because I know the Gospel I heard preached while I was there. I know and have had very personal conversations with Pastor Frank, Doug and Donna Lasit, Ken and Glenda Malmin, Lanny Hubbard, Asim Trent, Marc Estes, Jack Louman, Brian Dahne, and many many others. Also, while at PBC and CBC, I was also in leadership in Gen Church. I never heard any Gospel that I couldn't read in the Bible. So i earnestly ask what it was you were preaching, and if you feel as though you were taught that or somehow formed it on your own. Please if you've time, explain a bit more.

Negrodamus resonponds:

I'm glad you ask. Here's what I was preaching, a gospel of works. I don't know if I can keep it anymore simple. Hence, take one of Frank Damzio's newest books, say, "The Unshakable Life" http://www.citychristianpublishing.com/books/?isbn=1-59383-039-4, the comments from Frank read as following:

This book is written for those in the trenches of real life. It is written for those who experience challenges, surprises, disappointments, successes and failures that shake up their days. It is for those who are ready to build an unshakable life-a life that is anchored, immovable and indestructable. Join with the author as he develops each one of these Seven Declarations for an Unshakable Life, based on the unshakable Word of God: I will live life strong. I will love God's house. I will hold my head high. I will have an overflowing heart. I will turn to God at all times. I will walk on a level path. I will not lose heart.

Me, do you seee what's wrong with the premise here? The onus, the weight, the burden of living an unshakable life starts with you, not Christ. Look at how many times Frank says "I will", count them, it's seven. I will live, I will love, I will hold, I will have, I will turn, I will walk, I will not lose. Do you see that? It's all about I…I…I…I… The gospel always starts with Him…Him…Him…Him… The unshakable life is not found in a set of principles, it's found in a person, JC. Now of course, you could combat this by saying "Well, Frank does talk about Jesus in the book!" Of course he does, but only as an after thought. Christ is never the hero of the book, we are. In fact, they nicknamed Frank amongst his peers as the Porcupine Preacher because he was good at giving so many points and principles. I remember listening to those sermons back in the day like "wow, how in the hell did he find so many principles in that one passage???" He would take a biblical story like David and Goliath and teach on "how to face your giants?" He would say stuff like David didn't just have one stone, he had five other stones because David had brothers. I would sit there, clutching the pew in front of me totally mezmerized as I hung on to every point Frank made. Frank would say "do you know what those five stones represented?" I would think to myself "No, but whatever they are I need them to face down my giants!"
So Frank would go on point by point, he even had sub-points within the points and I would walk out of the domes that Sunday morning with a fresh commitment to living out those points. I think if you added it all up he gave something like 15 points that morning. Then I would go next week and there would be another 15 points if you included the sub-points and by the time I finished year one of listening to Frank's sermons I had something like 720 principles or points to cultivate in my life in order to have an unshakable, over-flowing, spirit-filled, set the atmosphere, leaving my past behind me, breakthrough, successfully achieving, financially providing, leadership developing, spiritual warfaring kind of life. And the list went on and on.

After a while I would be like "how in the world can I do all this????" Christianity became too exhausting, I wondered to myself "Where is the peace and rest that Chrsitianity offered?" I weighted and burdened the youth at CBC shoulders with principles and points that were impossible to keep. To put it simply, I burdened them with the law because I didn't get the point of the law. I used the law as a system of salvation. It became my savior. If I was keeping the law, the principles and the points then I assumed I was succeeding spiritually, but if I failed at any one of those 720 points Frank preached then I was crushed spiritually and emotionally. I didn't realize that I was saved from the law and yet saved for the law. I was saved from it in the sense that I can find my rest in Christ, my perfect life is found only in him. There is nothing I can do to get God to love me more and yet there is nothing I can do to get God to love me less. He loves me period. My role is to accept His acceptance of me. I am saved by grace and changed by grace. He met every point, every principle, every standard for me, so I can get off this treadmill of works, expending energy and yet ending up nowhere. And yet on the other hand not do away with the law because it is a good guide to life.

Now, back to Frank's David and Goliath point. If he, we and all the Christianas in that building would have seen the real hero of the story that fateful morning, we would have walk out liberated, not burdened because we would have looked to Him and not ourselves to defeat our enemies. Christ stood like David as our representative, he faced down our giants when we were cowering in the hills like Israel's army defeated by our foes and He and He alone stares down, faces down or better yet beats down our ultimate enemy-sin and death. This is the heart of the gospel, not some man-centered gospel that brings into focus us when we approach a biblical text, but rather the true gospel of the bible all brings into focus Him, period. If Christ is is not the hero, than we make Him merely a helper but not a savior.

We get emails, lots and lots of emails:

I just came across your blog, and find it fascinating.  As a former member of the City Church and Capital Christian Center, and a frequent visitor to CBC I had to send you these clips.
 
Meet "Pastor" Krist Wilde, the youth pastor at Capital Christian Center in Boise (Son of Senior Pastor Ken Wilde). He is the self-proclaimed best friend/cousin of Judah. He has spent his adult life trying to duplicate the life and ministry of JS.  In fact, in the first few minutes of the clip from April 2008, he mentions his jealousy of the fact that he is stuck preaching while Judah is attending this year's Master's Tournament watching Tiger Woods. (2:50 in the clip)
 
http://www.capitalchristian.com/Resources/MediaViewer.aspx?id=74&st=1
 
Krist's messages are marked by:
 
Large words he looks up in the thesaurus and uses in incorrect contexts

Lots of the same marriage/sex references Judah uses

The same wardrobe stylings and flat-ironed hair from the Judah playbook

Same long winded sermons filled with lots of fluff and no substance

You combine the lack of sincerity with the desperate attempt to appear cool, and frankly, I felt a little embarrassed for the guy.  

Great question from a reader:

Alright. So, I'm a transplant from California to Seattle. Let me tell you, I've had considerable trouble finding a church to join up here, largely due to many of the doctrinal issues I just read in your blog.  (Funny story: someone recommended City Bible as a church for me, and I googled them and found this site.) Fortunately, I grew up in a church that taught me about grace properly. My problem now is finding a church that will keep me honest and provide some nourishment without helping me become more self-righteous than I probably already am. Do you have any suggestions?

Do any of you Seattle readers have any ideas?

Responding to a great question from David about making friends at Portland Bible College, a reader writes:

I had a few but distant friends. Most of my peers are VERY sheltered in the church bubble and have no idea how to relate to newer Christians and especially those with a background like mine. The same people brag about their calling to the inner city and reaching out to the lost etc… Like good ol’ charismatics, its all about talk. I stuck to a small group. There was another person i opened up the most to. I didnt trust others. I couldnt relate to the Christian culture bubble. For crying out loud, i speak English not Christianese. And people make judgments and decide who to be friends with and who is worthy to talk to based on outward spiritual lingo, cuteness & clothes you wear.

I want to highlight this comment, because it's true.  The thing about spending all your time in Church and with Church friends and going to Christian concerts and wearing Christian t-shirts and worshipping your pastor, is that you totally lose your ability to relate to anyone that isn't Christian.  *cough* CULT *cough* So many Christians spend all their time in Church asking God for the ability to reach the "lost", and yet never make any actual attempt to reach anyone outside the church. Maybe the answer is a little less Church-time and a little more world-time. 

But we know why that doesn't happen. It's hard. It requires a level of vulnerability. And Christians, in my opinion, are by and large, some of the most insecure people I know.  Most are not strong enough to step outside the Church environment. So they go to Portland Bible College, and stay comfortable for four more years.

We recently received this email from a reader:

Do either of you know anything about Frank withdrawing his membership from MFI? Would that mean he'd be withdrawing his church as well? (If so, no doubt it has something to do with Bob MacGregor being Mr. Iverson's choice for the next MFI top dog.)

If Frank is withdrawing completely, I wonder if he's starting something of his own to replace it?

Can any of you verify this statement? Or is it just a rumor? If true, I think it's probably one of the few decisions by Frank that I actually commend. MFI is a pretty useless organization.