May. 13, 2008 - The Church of Oprah

Oprah in the News, Again

Oprah seems to be popping up more and more in the Church's sphere. A local church's sign reflects her ongoing influence on our culture. The sign said "Are you listening to God or Oprah?" I even turned on the radio in my car and heard Greg Laurie preaching. Oprah's name came up in his sermon. He was talking about a USA Today news article that quoted someone saying Oprah was the new spiritual and moral authority in America. Some are even comparing her to Billy Graham in her spiritual influence. Can you even imagine such a statement? I searched for the article and found it here.

I found another article (opinion) that is a little harsh but still brings up alot of interesting points. No matter how I look at it, Oprah is a dangerous entity in the Christain realm today. She like many others disguise their beliefs with enough Biblical truths to make everyone believe she is a true follower of Christ. I implore everyone to dig deeper. New age beliefs run rampant in her speech. She states openly she believes that they are many paths to heaven and many ways to worship God. This is not Biblical. It is not the Truth.  Jesus said" I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,..." John 10:9. The Bible is very clear. There is only one God and only one Way into Heaven.

I asked all of you if I should completely stop watching her show or continue watching when she has home decorating shows, etc. that I like to watch. I have decided I can't continue to watch her shows no matter what they are about. To do so would be supporting her and her beliefs by giving her the time of day. She is leading many people astray and I can't be any part of that. 

On a related topic, I want to share an interesting website I found. This site is a shining example of how New Age beliefs, goddess worship, and paganism is inflitrating the country's mainline denominations. Those of you that are Lutherans that belong to the ELCA will find it especially interesting. The site is www.herchurch.org. If it wasn't such a dangerous site, it would almost be laughable. You have to check it out for yourself and make up your own mind.

Apr. 29, 2008 - A Creation Conference ....

...and Apathy

I am a southern. I live in the BIBLE belt. The conservative of all conservative places, right? I don't think so, no, not anymore. The BIBLE  belt is becoming apathetic and lazy. Let me give you an example.

This weekend there was a Creation Conference in our county, this weekend. The conference was set up by a public high school senior as his senior project. He has a desire to go into the ministry. His advisor suggested he do something dealing with his desire. He chose Creation vs. Evolution. He asked a member of our congregation, who is very knowlegable in this area, to be his mentor. This member was also a speaker at the conference. They invited a professor, Dr. Charles Jackson, from Liberty Unversity to come speak, too. Dr. J. , as he likes to be called, has participated in several debates against evos. He uses the evos research to prove their very own theory isn't valid. You could tell he is a very intelligent person. He spoke in very intellectual terms, but then put those in terms we lay people clould understand. The turn out was better than expected. There was 300 to 350 people there.

I'm getting to my point, hold on. We live in a small rural county, that has around 200 churches in it. Do you know how many out of the 300 people that attend were pastors? 50, no. 25, no. 10, no. There were 5 pastors there, FIVE. FIVE, out of the 300 people. FIVE, out of 200 churches. I know pastors lead a very busy life, but come on. Are they not concerned about the lies our children are being taught? Are they not concerned that our kids are being taught a theology disguised as a scientific fact? I know several churches had events planned for the weekend. One had a spring fling celebration. One had its annual fundraising BBQ a week early. Both are in important in their own way, but are they as important as the struggle for our childrens' minds?  Apathy.

Why has apathy invaded the BIBLE belt? I think there are several reasons that have diverged at the same time. One is the decline of the denominational churches. The long time bastions of southern churches, the Southern Baptist and the United Methodist, are succumbing the influence of the world. I know some of you Southern Baptist would disagree with me. Your paticular church may have not, but there are those that have and it won't be long before it creeps into more and more churches. My DH overheard Dr. Jackson tell a pastor at the conference that he was fired from a Southern Baptist college for refusing to teach evolution at the college. That sounds like wordly influence to me. On the other hand,  I know several churches in our area have broke fellowship with the Southern Baptist over the Southern Baptist conservative beliefs. So there is a strange dynamic going on there, a struggle for power. Then, there is the United Methodist. Oh, how John Wesley must be shaking his head at the denomination he founded and their liberal hiearchy. They no longer stand on the word of God but on the Book of Discipline. The world has taken foot and is sitting in the front pew. There are several other small churches; independent baptists, church of God, etc. They are more concerned with their people being at church every time the church doors are open, even if they have to sacrifice family time to do it. The story of Eli and his sons obivously have no meaning for them. People in the south are disillusioned. The BIBLE is no longer being focused on. Very few churches are left that preach and teach the whole BIBLE, the whole truth of God's word, his love and his wrath. People are hurting. They need hope, help, and love. Churches are doing no one any favors by ignoring their members sin. We all sin. We all fall short. The CHURCH, the body of Christ's function is to love and hold each othe accountable. The accountablity isn't there. The love is to some extent, but if we fail to loving hold a person accountable for their sin are we really loving them. I have been in one of these lukewarm churches. I know how hard it was for us to leave a place where generations of my family worshiped. However when the word of God was no longer preached, we had no choice but to leave. It is not my intention to offend anyone. I am making some sweeping generalizations. This is my opinion of what I am seeing in our county. There has been so much turmoil going on in so many churches in our county. I believe it is a direct result of the word of God not being the focus.

Another reason is the influx of people from other areas moving into the south. They are bringing with them their values, beliefs, and ideas. We have seen an influx of people with very liberal viewpoints. They are influencing our schools, churches, and our communities. One apple spoils the whole bushel is a popular saying that is holding true here in the south. The influx of these ideas are slowly eating away at the souths' BIBLE beliefs and ideals. We are to ever vigilant against the influence of the world. We southerns as a whole have dropped the ball. Our culture is slowly being eaten alive by the world and its influence. Our churches are suffering the most. Apathy has taken control.

There are those of us that aren't apathetic. We are working hard at trying to raise up of kids in the ways of the Lord. We are working hard to get our priorities in order; God, family, others, self. We are trying to live a life that lets the light of the Lord shine through. We are trying to take a stand. We are trying to let others know of the insidiousness of the worldly influence. We are trying to warn them that the pretty package the world presents is rotten to the core. We are trying to be vigilant. 

The turmoil we are seeing in our county with the churches, I believe, is God separating the wheat from the tares. I thinking He is trying to separate the real followers of Christ from the self-proclaimed so-called Christians. He is sorting out His body from the body of the world. Hopefully the south will rise again to be a great proclaimer of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, we once were.  

Feb. 29, 2008 - Why are people leaving organized churches?

Organized Churches on Decline

I had an interesting conversation with a family member. This family member and I were talking about churches. I was asked about another family member not being at church. I replied something happen that they decided to leave. The reply I got back was, you aren't going to get along with everyone at church. All churches had their problems. The people in the church were just like people outside of the church. The recent study mentioned on the evening news was talked about where people are leaving churches. This family member said that people want to be entertained.

I agree with alot of what was said. Some people do want to entertained. Churches do have their problems. Not all people are get along. But what I thought was interesting was the statement that people in the church were just like the people outside of the church. What if they weren't the same? Would that stop people from leaving?

The term Church is used today to mean something other than the believers and followers of Christ. Church know is thought of as one building with one congregation belonging to one denomination. Everyone thinks their Church is the best, their congregation is the best, and their denomination is the best. I have personally heard many preachers from the pulpit make fun of other denominations in a way they hope it sounds like  they were joking. Is that the way a Church should act? If we all believe in Christ and the Bible, does it matter whose is the best? Could this be one reason people are leaving organzed churches? 

The true definition of CHURCH according to the Bible is the body of Christ, believers in Him, those who follow His ways. I think the organized churches in America have lost sight of that. The Churches in America are not full of born-again saved believers. Alot of them are full of people who are social net working, people who go and give a little money to easy their guilty conscience, people who go to fill out another line on their resume, and people who go to make it appear they are better than they really are. It sounds harsh, but I have experienced it.

People of the CHURCH should be different than people on the outside. If we profess to be save than we should try to act that way. None of us are perfect. All fall short of the glory of God, but we can try our best to let people see that we trying to live better life. Actions speak louder than words. I believe that is way people are leaving organized churches. They see people in action and know they aren't living up to what they are professing or preaching. For you see that is where the Devil is in his element. If he can get a so-called  "saved" person to act different than what he professes to believe, he can use that to turn a person who is considering becoming a believer off.The churches want to say it is because people want to entertained that they aren't coming to church. Some of that may be true. However, there are alot of hurting lost people that want something better. They need hope. They need to see that a better life and way can be accomplished and lived with a few mishaps.

Hypocrisy is the real turn off. We should guard against it and try to avoid it with every turn. We are all guilty of it at times. I know I am most certainly am. I know we all aren't perfect and never can be entirely perfect. But we can acknowledge our mistake, get on our knees, ask for forgiveness, confess our mistake to someone, and try harder with God's help next time. That is what is so great about the God we serve. He forgives us freely and numerous times. He will provide the help and willpower we need to do better. All we have to do is ask.

Glory to GOD on high! Praise be to GOD! Amen! and Amen!

Oct. 9, 2007 - Deciding To Leave A Place Of Worship

I want to talk about our decision to leave our place of worship I had attended all my life. A place of worship where our DD was the 6th generation of my mother's family to become a member. It was one of the hardest decisions my DH and I had to make in our married life. Now that I have a peace about the whole ordeal, I am ready to blog about it.

Our place of worship was a main stream denomination. It was a Biblically based place of worship. (I will not call it a church, because we, the Christians, are the church.) We had an old-time preacher that preached from the Bible. I felt he preached a little too much fire and brimstone, but at least he preached from the Bible. He was an excellent pastor to his flock. He spent hours at the hospital visiting our sick members. He visited our shut-ins and our nursing home residents. He went on weekly visitations to visit members. He was a great source of comfort for a grieving family.

Under his leadership, our place of worship grew and their desire to help others grew. During his tenure, our place of worship had an opportunity to buy 26 acres of land adjacent to their land. The decision was made to purchase the land to expand the cemetry and one day open a chuch school. It was a big leap of faith and one that paid off. The land was made off in 2 years time. Our place of worship was growing and it was decided to build new Sunday school rooms. We moved into the new rooms several months before our preacher retired.

In our denomination, we don't keep a preacher more than 4 or 5 years. The conference picks the new preacher that is to be sent according to a list of qualifications the place of worship sends in. The old-time preacher we had was an exception. He requested to stay until he could retire. He ended up staying a total of nine years. Under his leadership, our place of worship rebelled against our conference over the admittance of homosexuals into the ministry. When it was being brought up as a possiblity in our conference, the leadership decided to withold money we pay to conference until the issue was dropped. Our place of worship being of the biggest and one paying the most into the conference helped stop the homosexual issue for awhile. The leadership knew once our old-time preacher left the conference would send a liberal replacement inspite of our requests.

Our new preacher was indeed a liberal. He tried to disguise it but liberal he was. All he preached was love and acceptance. The 3 years he was there he mentioned hell maybe 3 times and sin 2 times. Alot of his sermons were off a sermon website. He would use scriptures but not preach on them. Or he would incorrectly preach about what the verse was saying. DH and I would go home , look over the verses again, and discuss what it was really saying. Often times, we would come home from service more frustrated and angry than we entered. We started going less and less. One Easter Sunday after a glorious start of worship with the Holy Spirit moving from the uplifting music anticipation for a wonderful sermon was in the air. He preached for exactly 7 minutes. He told 2 stories, one joke, and used no scripture. It was such a let down.

After 3 years, he left. We were hoping for an improvement. It seemed for awhile our new preacher was. He turned out to be a wolf in sheeps clothing. He was even more liberal. Once again the homosexual issue came up. DH, along with 2 other men, requested a meeting with the new preacher to see where he stood on the issue. One of the men opened with a verse of scripture and started to tell how he thought it would help them discuss the situation. The preacher spoke up and said he was the only at that meeting quailfied to say what the scripture meant because he was educated in the Bible and had a Masters Degree and a Doctoratr. DH looked hime right in the eye and told hime didn't give a flying fig at how well-educated he was and his degrees didn't impress him none. The result of the meeting was they finally got him to admit homosexuality was a sin but nothing was resloved. We continued to hang in there. All of my older relatives kept telling us "It is our church don't let the preacher run you off." 

Easter Sunday 2006 was our last Sunday at that place of worship. Instead of preaching on the glorious events surrounding Easter and  its miracle, the preacher preached against the evils of non-denominational churches and how the main stream denominations were the only righteous denominations. DH looked at me and said, "This is our last Sunday at this church." I whole heartedly agreed.

All the fault doesn't lay with the preachers. They are only a symptom of the underlying problem. Our place of worship was losing its focus. It went from a place that spent money on others to a place that spent money on themselves. When a friend of ours spoke out against our first new preacher getting his sermons off of the internet, life-long frinds turned aginst him and he left. Loyal member volunteers who were being paid for their services but turned the money back over the church were replaced by educated people. The most distrubing thing to us was that none of the older members were speaking up against what was happening. They had the mind-set it is our church. We will tolerate things until we get another preacher. Things will get better. Things aren't better. Over a 100 people have left the church in the last year and a half.

We have been to visit several different places of worship.We haven't settled anywhere yet. We know God will direct us to where we need to be. Right now we know that will not a denominational place of worship. Please pray for us and our search.