Last weekend I decided to check in on Bob MacGregor and City Harvest Church. We haven't blogged about City Harvest much, mostly because City Bible and The City Church have given us plenty of material, plus Bob was an excellent youth pastor to me all through High School. Bob actually cared about me and my future and when most everyone at CBC had written me off, Bob agreed to meet with me once a week…and then he showed up…every single week…for quite a few months. Pastor Bob is good and caring man.

So…I decided to check in…and was not sure what I would find. Cruising through the City Harvest Church website I stumbled upon a sermon Pastor Bob had given back in February titled "Calvinism and the Sovereignty of God". I was very intrigued. The church I attend is rather Calvinistic in its teaching and I've heard certain members of CBC bashing my church because of this, also Bob is a member of MFI. (I don't get the feeling that many MFI sponsored churches would openly accept Calvin should he wished to attend.) I braced myself for the worst.

What I expected to hear was about the heresy of John Calvin and the ridiculousness of his 5 points (T.U.L.I.P.) - quick note to all CBC readers: Don't bother asking your pastors what they think about the 5 points; they don't have the first clue what they are. Skip ahead and go straight to Lanny Hubbard, it's what your pastors would tell you to do anyway - ok, so I expected a good Calvin bashing…

…what I got was a real and honest look at the positive things Calvinism brings to Christians. As it turns out Bob was in the middle of a series on church history. He was actually wanting his congregation to be educated…he was actually TEACHING them (which is quite dangerous you know, it tends to lead to people actually thinking for themselves instead of just relying on their pastors). It was very refreshing. And I don't know if I'll have time, but I would really like to hear this whole series. Church history is quite fascinating.

So here he is, teaching his church about Calvinism which is a rather difficult subject. He is risking upsetting half his congregation and I didn't know how he was going to do it. Wisely, instead of focusing on the difficult parts, the controversial points, he focused his sermon on the "good things that Calvin brought to the church", and he did it in a balanced way.

He talked about the Sovereignty of God and how when he realized God chose him…regardless of whether that was based on God's foreknowledge or God's choosing his elect isn't the issue…when Bob realized that God chose him he began to feel secure in his salvation…for the first time. I thought this was great.

He went on to talk about the Gospel of Jesus. That's right, not the Gospel of Blessing as Mr. Wendell might have you believe, but the Gospel of Jesus…the Cross…Grace…the Sovereignty of God. He touched briefly and moderately on "Once saved always saved" and then ended his sermon. He started out teaching and ended up preaching…I loved it all.

Based on that one sermon, here are my thoughts of City Harvest Church: it's a good solid church to be a part of. I'm sure there are lots of things that I would disagree with CHC about: Tithing?, MFI membership?, Spiritual Covering?, but in the end all these things are secondary. As long as the true Gospel is being preached I don't care about all the rest of that stuff. Good job Bob, good job City Harvest.

If you are looking for a quick but balanced overview of John Calvin's teachings I recommend you listen to this sermon.

On a side note, I don't personally buy into all 5 points of Calvinism, but I found that my study of them led me closer to God and helped me get rid of a lot of my "religious" attitudes. I highly recommend that everyone take an open look them…regardless of how ridiculous they may sound when you first read them.

Well this is inappropriate:

Details Magazine offers this quiz to see if you can tell the difference between an Evangelist and a porn star.

Whipping a devout congregation into a frenzy can raise a person’s blood pressure. When the Joel Osteens of the world reach the climax of a sermon, their cheeks are pink and their heads are thrown back in rapture. In fact, in tight shots, their faces resemble those of porn stars committing a cardinal sin. Take a look at these close-ups and see if you can tell who’s giving glory to the Father and who’s bringing it home to Daddy.

http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_5479 

I'll spare the Judah Smith jokes for a moment and just ask a simple question:

Are quizes like this the work of the devil persecuting God's church for their righteousness or the result of America's Christian Church making a mockery of God?

I'm a huge American Idol fan, and have been voting non-stop for my boy Sanjaya. (The pony-tail mo-hawk killed me.)

But in other AI news, I ran across this interesting tidbit about contestant Chris Sligh. Evidently, he is a worship leader at his church and was recently kicked out of Bob Jones University.

Sligh also talked to the News about being kicked out of the Christian fundamentalist college, Bob Jones University, for attending a contemporary Christian concert featuring the group 4Him.

He enrolled at another Christian school, North Greenville University, and is three credits shy of a music degree.

Leaving Bob Jones "was actually good, because I had been trying to figure out how to leave," he said.

What!?! Sligh was kicked out of BJU for going to a 4Him concert! I didn't know there were people who admitted to being 4Him fans, let alone go to their concerts.  But wow! And I thought Temple Christian High School was lame.

My friend Pete sends in this study showing a correlation between sex and delinquency.

A national study of more than 7,000 youth found that adolescents who had sex early showed a 20 percent increase in delinquent acts one year later compared to those whose first sexual experience occurred at the average age for their school.

In contrast, those teens who waited longer than average to have sex had delinquency rates 50 percent lower a year later compared to average teens. And those trends continued up to six years.

The study defines delinquency:

To determine rates of delinquency, students in the survey were asked how often in the past year they participated in a variety of delinquent acts, including painting graffiti, deliberately damaging property, stealing, or selling drugs.

So, sex leads to grafitti. Who knew?

The New York Times has a three part series discussing the difficulty the Pentacostal Church is having keeping their youth in church.  The series does not really delve into any new topics, but it does have this fun paragraph describing the struggles of teenage Evangelicals.

And for the teenagers, it means navigating a tricky adolescence in which the boundaries are strict, but not always understandable. They can have cellphones and video games, but are told not to watch television. They can date, but preferably only other Pentecostals and then sometimes only with a chaperon. Dancing is taboo, but they can gyrate in religious ecstasy. Horror movies are bad, yet preachers regale them with gruesome visions of the apocalypse.

What? "Dancing is taboo, but they can gryate in religious ecstasy". I did not know this; this is news to me. At City Bible/Bible Temple, they define "gyrating in religious ecstasy" as hopping up and down.

I hesitate to do this, but…

I would like to challenge Cowboy the Magnificent to write out what she (or whatever) believes to be the truth in regards to Biblical interpretation of the "Tithe" and send it to me for posting on this site. It's only fair to give both sides an equal chance to share.

Cowboy, you are real good at pointing out others problems (as we all are here), but are you willing to take an actual stand for yourself (Forgive me if you have already done this, I read very few of your comments).

Write it out and send it over; we will give you center stage…and then we will likely mock you (I want to be very forthcoming about my intentions).

Do you accept?

A common complaint about this blog is that we are too negative and we criticize too much. It's a fair complaint.

So in the interest of balancing out the blog, here is a wonderful story about a New York construction worker named Wesley Autrey who while riding the Subway with his two daughters saved the life of another man who had fallen into the tracks of the subway system.

Here is how the Times describes the scene:

Nearby, a man collapsed, his body convulsing. Mr. Autrey and two women rushed to help, he said. The man, Cameron Hollopeter, 20, managed to get up, but then stumbled to the platform edge and fell to the tracks, between the two rails.

The headlights of the No. 1 train appeared. “I had to make a split decision,” Mr. Autrey said.

So he made one, and leapt.

Mr. Autrey lay on Mr. Hollopeter, his heart pounding, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep. The train’s brakes screeched, but it could not stop in time.

Five cars rolled overhead before the train stopped, the cars passing inches from his head, smudging his blue knit cap with grease. Mr. Autrey heard onlookers’ screams. “We’re O.K. down here,” he yelled, “but I’ve got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s O.K.” He heard cries of wonder, and applause.

This reminds me of my favorite Bible Verse:

Greater love hath no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.