It's the most wonderful time of the year for us at City Business Church…recently Pastor Frank and I had this conversation:

Frank Damazio:  John? I need to see you right away. It's important.
Reformed Pope: [Walking into Frank's office] What's going on?
Frank Damazio: [sighs] We got three big weeks ahead of us. It's Faith Harvest Season, kid!
Reformed Pope: You sandbaggin' son of a bitch!

Reformed Pope: We are gonna have tons and tons of opportunities to meet gorgeous businessmen that get so aroused at the thought of Surplus that they'll throw their inhibitions to the wind.
Frank Damazio: And who will be there to catch them?
Reformed Pope: Grab that net and catch that beautiful butterfly, pal! What do you like better, Christmas or Faith Harvest Season?
[RP raises his hand]
Frank Damazio: Mr. Pope?
Reformed Pope: Yes. The answer would be, um, Faith Harvest Season?

That's right people, it's Faith Harvest Season…grab that net and catch that beautiful butterfly. Frank actually had a warm up sermon last week to get us prepped for Faith Harvest…but before we get to that…did anyone else read this from the Bulletin a couple of weeks ago?

Today's Thought

There was a great need. A starving crowd of humanity. Thousands of children, women, and men, had not eaten for days and now their stomachs were rumbling. There was a great problem. There was nowhere to buy food. No restaurants, no Red Robin, no Winco, and no money. To give each person even a crumb seemed impossible.

Jesus solved the problem, and He solved it with surplus. He took a little and made a lot. With 5 loaves and 2 fish given to Him by a child, Jesus fed the multitude. In fact, not only did He feed them but they were able to eat as much as they liked.  But notice what happened when everyone had eaten. The disciples collected the left overs and it filled 12 baskets. All the doubters were now collecting left overs.  The miracle was not in the feeding but the message was in the left overs. Left overs are a picture of surplus.

Jesus used this situation to not just feed their stomachs but to feed their minds. It was an object lesson that applies to our lives today. Whenever there is a lack, a need, a crisis, an impossible situation, when God intervenes it is not by the skin of His teeth. God doesnt hold His breath and hope that there is almost enough.

Rather, those 12 baskets are the surplus God has for us. Have a 12 basket mindset. When God meets a need it is always in abundance. It may not be food that we need, but for every need in our lives God is able to go beyond a mere covering of our lives that brings our account to neutral. God is able to bring profit, overflow, more than enough, 12 baskets full surplus to our lives.

I'm really really hoping that is a typo…it could be, there are a number of misspellings as well…but I can only take things as they are written, so…

The miracle was NOT in the feeding??? But the message was in the left overs??? Uh…right. I'm sure as Jesus is feeding the thousands and thousands of people they were all saying:

"Ok, sure he can feed us…5,000 or so…but the real test is if he can have any left over"

"I'll just bet that when the last one of us is fed, he runs out of food… some miracle"

"No Surplus, No miracle".

Give me a break. The miracle was in the feeding…the message was in the feeding…the left over "Surplus" is exactly that…left over extras.

Stop trying to force the scriptures to fit what your pastor wants…instead try standing up and saying, "You know Frank, Surplus isn't really a Bible word in the sense that you want it to be". In fact when I run a Bible Word search for "Surplus" in the NIV I come up with…no results…when I search in the New King James Version (CBC's standard reading as I recall) I come up with…"no results"…when I search in the NASB (my favorite version) I come up with…1 result…shall we read it?

The Widow's Mite

 41^(AH)And He sat down opposite ^(AI)the treasury, and began observing how the people were ^(AJ)putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums.

 42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent.

 43Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury;

 44for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had ^(AK)to live on."

That's right Frank, the one Surplus scripture that I found teaches the exact opposite of what you have been teaching. Please stop misleading your congregation and please start teaching the truth. Frank says "you can't give what you don't have" and I say "Erroneous".

Frank Damazio just wrapped up his sermon series titled "Windows: Heavens Treasures". As with all good sermon series these days, each one had a catchy title that began with the letter P…I am amazed at how God is constantly using alliteration to speak to today's pastors, who knew He was so clever… The 5 P's were: Provision, Presence, Providence, Preview, and Promotion.  I blogged about the first few sermons here.

After listening to all 7 sermons I realized that I had heard these same ideas before, in fact I was actually able to find a video of them posted on You-Tube…check this out, it's a real short (30 second) clip and then we can continue. Btw, I just took hours of preaching and boiled it down to one 30 second commercial (I should get paid for this, but I don't. I offer it as a free service).

This is basically what PF's whole series boiled down to…What IF? In each of his sermons he told you what could happen IF you would just "throw open the Windows of Heaven" …

Quick Side Note Here: For all you CBC supporters out there, are any of you willing to come to the defense of your Pastor for the fact that he spent 7 weeks preaching on ½ of a verse? ½ of a verse? Now I don't know a ton about proper hermeneutics, but I'm pretty sure that's a no-no. He  used ½ of Malachi 3:10 which, nicely enough, says exactly what it is that he wants to preach about…throwing open the windows of Heaven…He reads that part of the scripture and then goes on to tell you what HE thinks about it…for 7 weeks. Can you see why I would be concerned with this?

According to Frank, if you "throw open the Windows of Heaven:" then God will essentially bless you. But my question is How? No, not how will he bless me, how do I throw open those windows? After listening to all 7 sermons I honestly couldn't tell you. The one and only point that I can recall Frank making is to give money to the church (naturally). Other than that there wasn't any substance. He did have everyone pray that the windows would open above their life and he also had people act out opening the pretend window right above their heads (I've been learning about Word Faith teachers lately (thanks Craig) and I think PF might be one…actually he's  more of a "Charade Faith" teacher…you know…with the Funnels and Tunnels and now the Windows and stuff…I'll have to think about that some more). My point is, he might as well had people running out and buying Powerball tickets…

But hey, now that a few CBC'ers are starting to come out of the woodwork, does anyone want to tell me what they got out of the series? Despite our sarcasm here, I really am curious to hear if people actually received…no… learned something (anything).

Another tangent:

Do you notice how a lot of churches push "receiving' something as opposed to "learning" something? You can "receive" a warm fuzzy feeling, but that doesn't really mean anything. My question: What did you learn?

Anyway, if anyone else wants to chime in on "What If", I'd love to hear. By the way, when I finally figure out how to "throw open the windows of heaven" I'm getting a pet elephant.

Here is Another great post by Anna Thanks. (btw, the sermon she is referring to is Window's The Provisions of God, Part 2 (Preached on 5/6/07). 

Yesterday I listened to a continuation of the sermon given last Sunday. PF expanded even more on living in blessing…

…PF used an example of how God will orchestrate things for your benefit, and he told the story of a generous man with a painting company who offered to paint the ‘Couve campus for only the cost of the paint ($7000) and waived the labor and equipment fees ($30000+). His response to this generosity? "Thank You Jesus!" Any thanks to the generous man? Hmmm.

Lets not forget that not only did a kind painter offer $30,000 worth of free labor, CBC is also getting the 217 sign replaced for free (a $3,000 value), all because Frank knows how to slide open the windows of heaven, I guess.

I'm not sure why either of those things are listed as "open heavens"…I certainly don't see any examples of that in the Bible (if that book is still relevant…I've been listening to so many CBC and Judah Smith sermons lately I'm beginning to wonder).

I also thought it interesting that in Frank's 1^st "Window's" sermon he told us that we shouldn't worry because "This is not a finance series"…but he has done nothing but talk about finances (aka blessings from God). I keep waiting for him to talk about something other than finances…but I doubt it happens. (I'm going to go off on a bit of a tanget here, I don't recall for certain if Frank used the following scriptures in this sermon, but he has used them in the past and so…)

I'm constantly amazed at how prosperity preachers (such as PF) are willing to quote Matthew 6:21 "where your treasure is there your heart is also" in the middle of a sermon about "Giving money to them" (which is by far the most common topic they preach on) and yet they can't see the correlation to what their own "treasure" is.

If you spend more time Preaching on "giving you money" than anything else…that would mean you would spend more time Preparing to preach on "giving you money" than anything else…which would lead to you spending more time Thinking about people "giving you money" than anything else…yup, I'd say that's where your heart is…right next to your treasure (actually, it's someone else's "treasure", Frank is just trying to get CBC's hands on it).

Then they often throw in Mathew 6:19-20 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy…" yet that is exactly what THEY ARE TRYING TO DO. It's so incredibly contradictory…I can hardly stand it. Lets try to take a logical look at this:

You, as a member of his church (CBC), are told to "not store up treasures on earth" because when you die "you can't take it with you" (typically followed by the quote "I've never seen a Hearst towing a U-Haul"…lame.).  So the solution, he tells you, is to give away all your treasures…to the church…so they can…store…up…treasure…(long hard pause)…for themselves…?…and in return for this Frank promises that God…will give you…more treasures?

It doesn't add up. If my money is worthless because "you can't take treasures with you" then why does CBC want it…?

I'm going to go throw up now.

Anna posted this comment discussing Frank's sermon Windows: The Provision of God. I thought it was an excellent post that deserved front-page reading (I was actually trying to work up my own run down of this sermon and am glad she did it for me…and better than I would have done). Great job, Anna.

I listened to PF's sermon earlier, today. And all I can do is agree with the sentiment, "Woe, Frank!"

He spent the whole time talking about what it would be like to live under the continual favor of God. Around 17:00 he said, "Whatever it takes to make up a full life, God wants to provide for you." And this is what He will provide:

*provision (great emphasis on $$)
*presence (passing comment)
*providence (everything going your way)
*preview (knowing what's coming ahead)
*promotion

That sermon fills a person with a desire for what God can do for them. Not one, NOT ONE mention of God Himself – what He is like, how kind He is, how generous, how loving. It's like telling someone how to marry a rich man, never mind what he is like. Just think of all the benefits!

PF's sermon is just a CBC version of "The Secret." Except at least The Secret tells you how to get all that good stuff coming your way (visualize success). PF hasn't yet revealed how to get those windows open. Even though the verse says that God will open the windows, Frank keeps talking about how WE can open them. How much you want to bet that next week's sermon says that the way to get the windows open is to give the church $$??

The only problem with The Secret and Frank's Windows is that it can only work in the West. Try to tell the starving widow with children in Sudan that she needs to think good thoughts or give money to her church and then money and opportunity will be hers. Try to explain to the tortured pastor in the Chinese prison that he really needs the windows of heaven open for him so he too can have provision / presence / etc.

Once again I am screaming on the inside, "You twisted it around again!! You have these people lusting after THINGS – even intangible things like preview and promotion – and using God to get them. That is not the gospel! Don't you understand that if you have HIM, that is enough!?! The gospel is the message of a God who pays the ultimate price to provide redemption for His loved ones so that He can live with them in the closest possible relationship.

And yet you spend the whole morning telling people how great it is to have things. Woe, Frank."

Anna, This was what stood out to me when listening to Frank's sermon:

While discussing the way to "throw open the windows of heaven" in order to receive the "Provisions of God" Frank says:

…that is why it is so important that you don't ever stoop to manipulation or lying or cheating or any other carnal means to get what you want…

He then goes into an analogy about why you should never lie on a job application to get a job that you really really want (and believe it's from God because it's a better, higher paying job) because if you do you will likely find that your new employer was also lying to you…and all because you did not wait on the Lord and trust him for Provision.

He says "you may actually get what you asked for"… but it won't be what you need because you used the wrong means to get it (Frank may actually be somewhat prophetic. Hard to believe, but just listen for yourself. He does a great job of describing his own situation at CBC).

While hearing Frank's comment "That is why it is so important that you don't ever stoop to manipulation or lying or cheating or any other carnal means to get what you want…" I began to get a vision…certain words started popping up in my head, I'm not clear as to what they mean or what they were about but I'll share them with you and hopefully you can help interpret.

In no particular order:

Faith, Harvest, Forward, Together, Vancouver, Campus, Three, Hundred, Fifty, Thousand, Dollars, Twelve, Straight, Weeks, Teaching, Tithe.

Frank Damazio, you should listen to your own sermons…you might actually be on to something.

I just listened to Frank Damazio's lastest sermon titled "Windows: Heavens Treasure". I'm going to tell you about it, but I think it would be best if you just listened to it yourself.

At this point in life it appears that Pastor Frank is just making things up. I don't think he cares about anything but his own agenda. After what I heard today, it will be amazing if anyone shows up at church next week to hear Part 2 of this series (I of course will listen to it online, but that's because I have no life).

Here's the Running Diary:

:57 – Frank starts out with this quote: "I do not teach for Knowledge, I teach for Transformation…". At least he's honest right? The last thing he needs is his congregation to actually learn anything. No, it's much better if he can just get them pumped up enough to follow him around. Anyone questioning whether CBC is founded in "hype" need not look any further than that quote. Go ahead and listen to it yourself.

2:49 – Through this sermon he is going to teach us how to "Throw open the windows of Heaven"…how much do you want to bet giving him money is going to be a key factor in this?

2:57 – Yup, he wastes no time: "Let's start with Malachi 3:10"…I do believe this is the only scripture Frank actually knows. It's unbelievable…wait a minute, I spoke to soon…Frank is following up by offering a disclaimer: "This is not a finance series" (right). He actually mentions that he doesn't want people to tune him out just because he's speaking out of Malachi 3…"This is not a finance series". This is great, he just had to clarify so his congregation doesn't walk out on him. I think we are getting to them.

5:03 – "Every person has a window" Translation "Every person has a wallet".

5:50 – Back to Malachi 3:10

Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

I can hardly believe him at this point. He just told his congregation, that this scripture used to bother him when he would teach it only on finance because "I've never ever been in a place where I can say I don't have room for any more money". Apparently there is always room for more money. …I kid you not, listen to it yourself. Anyone questioning where Frank's heart is at need not look any further than that quote.

Fortunately for and according to Frank, this scripture is "not just about finances".

7:56 – Reads Malachi 3:10 again this time in the Message translation.

Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.

Frank is an amazing guy. He is taking his special tithing scripture, skipping past the tithe part, and applying it to his sermon on "opening the treasures of heaven". I can't believe I'm about to say this but, "Frank, you can't do that. You can't leave parts out. If you are going to apply that scripture you need to apply the whole thing. The tithe stays." (I'm sure he will get to that later anyway). Personally, I don't think this scripture can be applied to us today, but if you are going to use it Frank, please use it right.

9:40 – Starts defining the words: THROW, OPEN, WINDOWS, and HEAVEN.

14:47 – Quote of the year. This quote by Pastor Frank is probably the most telling thing I've heard him say in a long time (at least in about 4 minutes anyway). After giving his descriptions for the words above, Frank says,

"There are  scriptures for every one of these, but I won't take the time FOR THAT".

That's right people, Frank Damazio won't take the time for…Scripture, The Word Of God, The Holy Book…he has a bad habit of misinterpreting scriptures, and expects us to take his word on this stuff because he doesn't want to "take the time for that". "THAT" happens to be the foundation of Christian beliefs. "THAT" happens to be the middle part of his churches name. "THAT" happens to be "THE BIBLE". Why doesn't he have time for it? It's unbelievable.

And finally, anyone wondering what kind of Teacher Frank is need not look any further than that quote.

I can't take any more of this sermon. I'm shutting it off now. If anyone else can bear to stomach it, go ahead and finish this post for me.  

This is just absurd.

I just remembered that I sent a letter to Frank a couple of months before I sent the email i posted earlier today. This was my first attempt at communication with Frank Damazio, he never sent me a response. 

Now that I think about it, he probably never got a chance to read it. I bet it never made it past his secretary…well Frank, since we all know you were lying about reading this blog, here is a letter I sent you back in November. Please feel free to respond.

I have removed the personal names from the letter (some people don't like their names being associated with this blog) but the rest is exactly the same.

November 20, 2006

Pastor Frank,

I have a question for you, but first I would like to clear up a couple of things. First and foremost, I DO NOT HATE YOU. I really don't, in fact, in most of my dealings with you; you treated me kindly and fairly.

Many people have brought up the "_________" situation to me, and told me that I am bitter towards you for the way it was handled. I want to make sure you know that although at one time I was very angry and bitter, God has shown me where I was at fault in the situation. When you are young you often look past what you have done and just blame others, fortunately I was able to get through that time.

Looking back on how I acted during high school, I can now see that I created a negative image for myself. I wanted to be known as a trouble maker, I wanted to challenge people and I wanted to do things my way; clearly your response to kick me out of school was justified for many reasons besides my involvement with ____________ (I am assuming you know the situation that I'm talking about. I believe you recently met with _____ ________ about it.) Hopefully you can believe me when I say that I hold no anger towards you.

So…now you are probably thinking "What about the City Business Blog"? Well, simply put, I disagree with many of the teachings at CBC and since you are the head pastor you get most of the abuse from us on our blog.  I feel it is unfortunate, but I think our blog has been a "necessary evil" to help many who have been hurt by the Christian Church.

Anyway, I'm hoping you can help me clear something up. I often listen to your sermons online and recently I heard your teaching titled Miracle Seed for a Miracle Harvest.  At this point I don't really want to get into debating the "Faith Harvest Principles" with you, that gets a little complicated, but what I would like to find out is why you chose to use certain scriptures. I feel that the scriptures you quoted were taken out of context and used to prove a point that YOU wanted to make. This was a little offensive to me.

In your sermon you quoted Genesis 8:22, Ephesians 3:20, and Luke 7:9 and used them to show (1) Planting Seeds and Harvesting is a Biblical Principle (2) God can do anything and everything for you if you give (3) All this requires great faith.

The problem, as I see it, is these scriptures are not talking about that at all.

Genesis 8:22 is talking about God's promise to never flood the earth (a great blessing which has nothing to do with planting seeds).

Ephesians 3:20 is a great scripture on the POWER of Jesus, but seems to be asking that we are "rooted…in love" (not giving) and again has nothing to do with planting any seeds.

Luke 7:9 is about Jesus healing the Centurion's servant; a great story about faith, but again, Jesus doesn't mention any seed planting or harvesting.

It is my belief that we, as Christians, need to be very careful in our use of the Bible. I can't see how these 3 scriptures apply to the sermon you preached. However, I am no Bible scholar and so hopefully, you can show me how my assumptions are wrong.

The reason I am sending you this letter is so that by communicating directly, you can help me better understand your philosophies and hopefully I can find peace in that, thus keeping me from "airing my complaints" online. I should tell you that I had originally tried to get an answer on this from _____, but he refused to talk to me about it. It's probably better this way; you were the one I should have gone to in the first place.

Thank you for your time,

Johnpaul Morton

At one point last December I decided it would be worthwhile for me to attempt to speak with Frank Damazio and try and reconcile. Clearly, as I have previously stated, there are things that I have done in the "wrong spirit" which I felt I owed Frank an apology for. Here is the email I sent him and the following is Frank's reply (I actually didn't have Frank's email address so I just guessed that it was Frank@citybiblechurch.org and the response was from a "Frank Damazio" so I'm assuming he read it, but who knows what liberties his secretary is willing to take):

Tue 12/12/2006 9:51 AM 

Frank, 

I would like a chance to meet with you so I can apologize for the mistakes I have made on my blog over the past few years and also so we can share with each other our hearts and hopefully find reconciliation.  Would you be interested? 

-Johnpaul

————————————————————————————————————

Wed 12/13/2006 1:46 PM 

Dear JohnPaul, 

I accept your apology and forgive you. I have never read the blog so I really don't know all that was done and I don't want to know. I have no offense towards you, John Paul, and I pray that whatever has created bitterness or offenses in your heart will be removed. Life is meant to be lived. Go on with your life and be freed from the past. Whatever happened is over years ago. As far as I'm concerned, we are reconciled. 

Pastor Frank