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Be Alert! Commercialization of the Word and Rising Religio-Fascism Part 1
Published by Moriel Ministries
January 19, 2008
Shalom in Christ Jesus,



2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.



2 Peter 2:1-3
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.



2 Peter 3:3-4
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."



2 Timothy 3:1-7
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.



Jeremiah 18:15
`For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in bypaths, Not on a highway,


1) Selling the Good Book by its cover
Princess Bible Publishers have found a niche -- a big one -- for stylized Bibles inspired by pop culture. Almost anything goes

LOS ANGELES TIMES [Tribune Company] - By Stephanie Simon - December 25, 2007

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. -- The original scribes of the Bible may have been inspired by God. Their modern- day successors? They find inspiration in vacuum cleaners, polka-dot bedspreads and a slick, hot-pink Juicy Couture purse.

This all may sound a bit irreverent. But consider it from the Bible publisher's point of view: How do you sell a really old book that 91% of households already have?

You can't update the content, or get the author on Oprah.

But you can make the look sizzle. If pink and shiny sells a purse, why not a psalm?

In the conference room they call the Bible Bunker, executives of Bible publisher Zondervan pore over fabric swatches. They watch PowerPoints on the latest in appliances and accessories, noting color trends. They caress bold new patterns in embossed faux leather.

"People ask, 'How do you get excited working on one darn book?' " says Scott Bolinder, an executive vice president. "Yet there's probably no place you can be more imaginative -- and more strategic."

It's still possible to purchase, for as little as $7, a traditional Bible with a stiff, dark, fake-leather cover, of the sort that used to be tucked into pews all across America. But if the industry had stuck to those, it wouldn't be selling $770 million worth of Bibles a year in the U.S. alone.

Figuring an average price of about $30, which may well be conservative, that adds up to 25 million Bibles a year. By comparison, Scholastic has shipped 14 million copies of the latest Harry Potter book in the U.S. The second-hottest book this year, "The Secret," has sold about 3 million copies.

In that context, the Bible's success is phenomenal. Zondervan plans to keep stoking demand by making sure God's word looks hip, sounds relevant and is advertised all over, including in Rolling Stone magazine and Modern Bride, on MySpace -- even on a jumbotron in New York City's Times Square.

"A lot of people read the Bible because it's obligatory, something to keep God off their backs," says Paul J. Caminiti, a vice president. "We're looking to turn them into Bible lovers --- so it becomes part of the warp and woof of their being."

The first wave of innovation came in the 1980s, when Zondervan, Thomas Nelson Inc., Tyndale House and other publishers began to create Bibles aimed at specific groups, such as teens or newlyweds. These editions contained the whole Scripture, but with added commentary, prayers and tips for spiritual growth.

Five years ago, a supplier came to Zondervan headquarters here in western Michigan with a new imitation leather. Soft and supple, it could hold fancy stitching and vibrant colors.

"I remember [the chief financial officer] saying, 'Let's not go too crazy. Let's start with two-tone, tan-and- brown and tan-and-black,' " Caminiti says. "Then we ventured out into red and yellow and they just took off. Everybody wanted them."

The splashy look snagged prime display space not just in Christian retailers, but in secular bookstores, Wal-Marts and Costcos.

Zondervan began churning out limited-edition, one- season-only Scripture: a thin checkbook-shaped Bible with jazzy blue and silver stripes for $30, a square Bible in meadow green for $35, a pocket-size edition in soft browns and oranges for $20. At least a third of Bibles are purchased as gifts, and Zondervan made sure there was one for every occasion -- even sorority rush. (The light-pink and apple-green colors of Alpha Kappa Alpha have been a big hit.)

On a gloomy Monday in mid-December, Zondervan executives review a palette of mahogany hues for a Father's Day edition. In the Bible Bunker -- amply stocked with huge, buttery cookies -- they turn next to a marketing dilemma.

This coming year marks the 30th anniversary of the best-selling New International Version of the Bible, a highly readable translation that has vaulted Zondervan (a division of HarperCollins) to the top of the Bible publishing world, with a 40% market share.

To celebrate, the company is producing an update of the NIV Study Bible, with thousands of revised footnotes. Formatted with extra-wide margins for note- taking, bound in premium leather, the new edition has been tentatively priced at $119.99.

But Randy Bishop, vice president of production, has cold feet. The existing NIV Study Bible comes in a dozen sizes and bindings, priced from $25 to $80. He wonders if customers will pay so much more for the anniversary edition.

"If you put chocolate coating on an Oreo, it's a different cookie, and you ought to be able to charge more," Caminiti argues. "The packaging has to scream that this is something really new: First time! Fudge-dipped! Chocolate-coated!"

Todd Niemeyer, vice president of sales, chuckles and murmurs, "Smoke and mirrors."

The team kicks around inexpensive ways to make the new edition stand out.

"We could put in an extra ribbon marker --- Maybe special parchment paper at the beginning?" Bishop suggests.

"There you go!" says Brian Scharp, vice president of Bible marketing. "The list of premium features is growing and growing."

"Gold-plated bling?" Niemeyer asks mischievously.

"A vial of Holy Land soil attached to the back?" Bishop offers, as the room dissolves in laughter.

The Zondervan staff has turned down a few ideas -- a 3-D pop-up Bible, for instance -- that they found too gimmicky. "There is a line, because it's God's word," Scharp says.

Later, though, he admits: "It's hard to draw the line in any one place and say, 'We're never going to cross that.' "

Zondervan recently published a Celebrate Recovery Bible for alcoholics. (The commentary notes that Adam showed an addict's skill at denial when God scolded him for eating the forbidden fruit.) For kids, there's a comic-book Bible in Japanese manga style. (One panel shows elderly Isaac and Rebekah praying for a child. In the next panel, Rebekah's stomach pops out -- to a "WHAM! BIFF! POW!")

Holman Christian Standard offers the Golfer's Bible, a compact hardcover that intersperses the Gospel with advice on proper grip. Thomas Nelson puts out BibleZines -- including the New Testament packaged as a glossy teen magazine, complete with beauty tips and quizzes. There's even a waterproof Bible with pages that fold out, map-style.

All this has raised predictable concerns.

"Where the fine line between accessibility and desecration is, is not real clear sometimes," says Phyllis Tickle, a noted Christian author. "I find it really, really distressing to think that young people may have their first impression of Christian Scripture presented to them in an almost pandering way."

Shopping in a Christian store in Grand Rapids, Kurt Forrest looks almost dizzy at the selection. He's trying to find a Bible for his 7-year-old son among more than 300 titles, including some that break up the Scripture with science projects or descriptions of gory battles.

"I want the full-blown Bible," Forrest says, frustrated, "something he can carry with him all the way out into his teen years."

Nearly 20 minutes later, he's still browsing.

Which points up a flaw in the Bible-for-every-interest strategy: Half of all customers who walk into a store intending to buy a Bible leave empty-handed, according to Brenda Lugannani, a vice president of Family Christian Stores, the nation's largest Christian chain.

"When they look at what's available," she says, "it begins to confuse them."

On the other hand, modern Christians have come to expect a very personalized faith.

The culture has steadily moved away from the biblical concept that believers must be "in the world, but not of it." Instead of stepping into a distinct Christian culture, they stay where they are, and Christian culture comes to them. There are Bible studies just for Harley owners, evangelists who target only wrestling fans, ministries for skateboarders and rappers and porn stars.

So why not a glittery pink, totally tubular Soul Surfer Bible?

"We're serious about taking the Bible to the masses in a way the public can understand and engage," Caminiti says. "We've always said we publish for every age and every stage, and we do that unapologetically."

That's good by Melinda Skarli, who's searching a Family Christian Store in Grand Rapids for a Bible that her teenage daughter can give a troubled friend. "I want one that's going to be cute enough for her friend to be attracted to," she explains, leafing through a compact edition bound in hot pink and orange.

In a way -- an admittedly commercial way -- theologian Kurt Fredrickson sees modern publishers as following the hallowed footsteps of Christian heroes such as Jan Hus, William Tyndale and Martin Luther, who risked their lives to bring God's word to the masses.

"For centuries, there's been a desire to make the Bible more accessible," says Fredrickson, who directs the doctor of ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Yes, the concept of a trendy Gospel may sound tacky.

"But we're Americans," Fredrickson says. "We're always trying to find a niche."


[email protected]


2) Dumping Sola Scriptura
HERESCOPE - By Discernment Research Group - November 29, 2007

    "In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is false, irrational, and harmful to the cause of Christ. --- And it has produced a mean- spiritedness among the over-committed that is a grotesque and often ignorant distortion of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.

    [The problem is] "the idea that the Bible is the sole source of knowledge of God, morality, and a host of related important items. Accordingly, the Bible is taken to be the sole authority for faith and practice."
J.P.Moreland quoted in "Postcard from San Diego:
Fighting 'Bibliolatry' at the Evangelical Theological Society,"
by Ted Olsen, Christianity Today, 11/14/07.



When evangelical leaders talk about a Second Reformation, they mean reversing the tenets of the First Reformation. A stunning example of this occurred recently when evangelical professor J.P. Moreland blasted "over-commitment to the Bible" and neglect of "work on broad cultural themes." If this is the current state of apologetics in the evangelical world, then grievous times have arrived.

Perhaps this lack of commitment to Scripture alone, i.e., Sola Scriptura, explains the recent activities of Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, Leith Anderson, Emergents, and a host of Fuller Theological Seminary leaders, who could all sign on to a common faith document with Moslem leaders (see previous post). There is a terrible omission in this so-called Christian worldview.

Below, Anton Bosch has some pertinent comments about this rather blatant shift in focus.




Overcommitted to the Bible?

At a recent conference, the most popular paper resulted in four times as many people crowding into the room than it was designed to hold. The title of this provocative lecture was "How Evangelicals became overcommitted to the Bible and what can be done about it."*

The speaker said that in "the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is false, irrational and harmful to the cause of Christ." He claimed that this over commitment has produced a mean-spirited and grotesque distortion of Christianity. He also said that the problem was with "the idea that the Bible is the sole source of knowledge of God, morality, and a host of important items." I will not bore you any further with the rest of his mindless ramblings.

So what?, I hear you say, "this is what you can expect from atheists, liberal theologians and other unbelievers." The problem is that these ideas were proposed at a meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society by no-one less than J.P. Moreland , a well- known Evangelical theologian and professor at Talbot School of Theology, which describes itself as "a conservative, evangelical seminary"!

If this is what it means to be Evangelical, then I am not one of those.

First, we need to confirm that the Bible is indeed the sole source of knowledge about God. Nothing about God can be discovered through any other means than through His Word. Not only is the Bible the sole source of knowledge about God, but it is also the sole source of knowledge of morality (right and wrong) and of every important matter that affects mankind. For generations believers and churches have confirmed that the Bible is the only authoritative and infallible rule of faith, practice, doctrine and daily living. Or in the words of the Reformers: "Sola Scriptura" (only Scripture).

The sad fact is that Moreland was simply verbalizing what most "Christians" think. Even though they won't admit to it, the majority of "Christians" believe science rather than the Bible. They trust their experience rather than the Scriptures and their traditions over the Word of God. Most believe that common sense is equal to Bible truth. Psychology is seen as more relevant than the Word of God and the television is more true (and exciting) than the Book. Worst of all, they believe their preachers even when they contradict the Bible.

Next we need to ask the question: "Are Evangelicals indeed overcommitted to the Bible?" The answer is an emphatic NO! The reality is that the vast majority of Christians do not really believe the Bible and they are not even moderately committed to it, let alone over- committed to it. And before we speak in general terms, let's think about ourselves. The reality is that if you and I really believed that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God, we would live very different lives and be very different people. Here is some evidence:


  • The Bible says that "for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:36- 37). If we really believed that, every one of us would not say half the things we do say.
  • The Bible teaches that unbelievers will be condemned to an eternity in Hell (Revelation 20:14- 15). If we really believed that, we would be spending much more time on our knees in prayer. And we would be pleading with people to make right with God with a sincerity and conviction that would convince many that we actually believed what we were saying.
  • The Bible teaches that Jesus is coming soon and at a time when we least expect Him (1Thessalonians 5:2-3). Yet the vast majority of "Christians" live as though He is never coming back.
  • The Bible reveals that God knows and sees everything all the time and yet we act as though God does not know or see what we do in secret and that He is unaware of our deceit, lies and hypocrisy.


In the same way we can examine countless Scriptures and see that very very few of us actually, really believe the Bible and are committed, not just to read it but to live it. Very few Christians believe that the Bible is God's Word - the word God has spoken. Most believe that it only contains some words about God, mixed with some suggestions for a happy life.

No, the Bible is God speaking to mankind. It has no less authority than the ten words God Himself scribed into the two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai. He has not changed His mind about His Word and it will be the standard against which every life and action will be judged. Whenever we open the pages of the Book we should do so with reverence and awe - they are God's eternal words.

We don't need less commitment to the Bible we need more - a lot more. We need a fresh reverence, love and respect for the Bible. It should not be the basis of speculation and debate but rather of obedience and practice. We need preachers who will unreservedly commit to the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible. We need men who will "preach the word" (2Timothy 4:2) without fear or favor. We need Christians who are humble enough to believe God's Word, no matter what others say or think. And we need churches that are committed to actually expect their members to live according to the Bible. In short - we need to get back to the Bible.

Heretics like Moreland should be excommunicated publicly. Schools, and the products of the schools, that harbor such unbelievers should be shunned. Churches should not accept preachers that have studied under such men or in such seminaries.

In case you think that is radical, then hear what Paul said: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8-9).




The Truth:

"Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." (1Corinthians 1:20-21).

*The paper was delivered at The 59th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society held November 14-16, 2007 at San Diego, California. The full text can be read here.



3) Megachurches Add Local Economy to Their Mission
Evangelicals Riding the Beast

NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Diana B. Henriques and Andrew W. Lehren - November 24, 2007

In Anchorage early in October, the doors opened onto a soaring white canvas dome with room for a soccer field and a 400-meter track. Its prime-time hours are already rented well into 2011.

Nearby is a cold-storage facility leased to
Sysco, a giant food-distribution corporation, and beside it is a warehouse serving a local contractor and another food service company.

The entrepreneur behind these businesses is the ChangePoint ministry, a 4,000-member nondenominational Christian congregation that helped develop and finance the sports dome. It has a partnership with Sysco's landlord and owns the warehouse.

The church's leaders say they hope to draw people to faith by publicly demonstrating their commitment to meeting their community's economic needs.

"We want to turn people on to Jesus Christ through this process," said Karl Clauson, who has led the church for more than eight years.

Among the nation's so-called megachurches - those usually Protestant congregations with average weekly attendance of 2,000 or more - ChangePoint's appetite for expansion into many kinds of businesses is hardly unique. An analysis by The New York Times of the online public records of just over 1,300 of these giant churches shows that their business interests are as varied as basketball schools, aviation subsidiaries, investment partnerships and a limousine service.

At least 10 own and operate shopping centers, and some financially formidable congregations are adding residential developments to their holdings. In one such elaborate project, LifeBridge Christian Church, near Longmont, Colo., plans a 313-acre development of upscale homes, retail and office space, a sports arena, housing for the elderly and church buildings.

Indeed, some huge churches, already politically influential, are becoming catalysts for local economic development, challenging a conventional view that churches drain a town financially by generating lower- paid jobs, taking land off the property-tax rolls and increasing traffic.

But the entrepreneurial activities of churches pose questions for their communities that do not arise with secular development.

These enterprises, whose sponsoring churches benefit from a variety of tax breaks and regulatory exemptions given to religious organizations in this country, sometimes provoke complaints from for-profit businesses with which they compete - as ChangePoint's new sports center has in Anchorage.

Mixed-use projects, like shopping centers that also include church buildings, can make it difficult to determine what constitutes tax-exempt ministry work, which is granted exemptions from property and unemployment taxes, and what is taxable commerce. - - - -


Read Full Report Posted on the Be Alert! Weblog


4) Megachurch Took in $69 Million in 2006
Evangelicals Riding the Beast

"Dollar said his income comes from personal investments, including businesses and real estate ventures." [Ed. Note: Basically, in biblical terms that means the money comes from riding the beast.]


ASSOCIATED PRESS - November 12, 2007

ATLANTA - An Atlanta megachurch took in $69 million in 2006, according to a financial statement the church's minister released in response to a Senate investigation into him and five other well-known televangelists.

The Rev. Creflo Dollar disclosed the World Changers Church International's financial information to The Atlanta Journal- Constitution, but said the money he spends is his own.

Dollar said his income comes from personal investments, including businesses and real estate ventures. But the church gave him a Rolls Royce, which he mainly uses for special occasions, he said.

"Without a doubt, my life is not average," he said. "But I'd like to say, just because it is excessive doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong."

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, launched an investigation into the finances of six ministers after hearing reports of some preachers' lavish and opulent lifestyles. In a letter last week, he requested answers by Dec. 6 to questions about their executive compensation and amenities, including use of fancy cars and private jets.

Besides Dollar, the letters were sent to faith healer Benny Hinn, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Texas, David and Joyce Meyer of Missouri, Randy and Paula White of Florida and Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga.

Dollar questioned the investigation's focus on religious groups. The minister is among the religious leaders who preach the "prosperity gospel," the teaching that God will shower faithful followers with material riches. But he said he uses only his personal finances to pay for his luxuries.

"My lifestyle does not come out of the church's bank account," he said.



5) Believer bitter over 'prosperity' preachings
ASSOCIATED PRESS - December 27, 2007

The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches.

And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Florida, area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.

Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn't strong enough.

"I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them," she said. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't watch anyone on TV hardly."

All three of the groups Fleenor supported are among six major Christian television ministries under scrutiny by a senator who is asking questions about the evangelists' lavish spending and possible abuses of their tax-exempt status.

The probe by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has brought new scrutiny to the underlying belief that brings in millions of dollars and fills churches from Atlanta to Los Angeles -- the "Gospel of Prosperity," or the notion that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches.

All six ministries under investigation preach the prosperity gospel to varying degrees.

Proponents call it a biblically sound message of hope. Others say it is a distortion that makes evangelists rich and preys on the vulnerable. They say it has evolved from "it's all right to make money" to it's all right for the pastor to drive a Bentley, live in an oceanside home and travel by private jet.

"More and more people are desperate and grasping at straws and want something that will alleviate their pain or financial crisis," said Michael Palmer, dean of the divinity school at Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson. "It's a growing problem."

The modern-day prosperity movement can largely be traced back to evangelist Oral Roberts' teachings. Roberts' disciples have spread his theology and vocabulary (Roberts and other evangelists, such as Meyer, call their donors "partners.") And several popular prosperity preachers, including some now under investigation, have served on the Oral Roberts University board.

Grassley is asking the ministries for financial records on salaries, spending practices, private jets and other perks. The investigation, coupled with a financial scandal at ORU that forced out Roberts' son and heir, Richard, has some wondering whether the prosperity gospel is facing a day of reckoning.

While few expect the movement to disappear, the scrutiny could force greater financial transparency and oversight in a movement known for secrecy.

Most scholars trace the origins of prosperity theology to E.W. Kenyon, an evangelical pastor from the first half of the 20th century.

But it wasn't until the postwar era -- and a pair of evangelists from Tulsa, Oklahoma -- that "health and wealth" theology became a fixture in Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin -- and later, Kenneth Copeland -- trained tens of thousands of evangelists with a message that resonated with an emerging middle class, said David Edwin Harrell Jr., a Roberts biographer. Copeland is among those now being investigated.

"What Oral did was develop a theology that made it OK to prosper," Harrell said. "He let Pentecostals be faithful to the old-time truths their grandparents embraced and be part of the modern world, where they could have good jobs and make money."

The teachings took on various names -- "Name It and Claim It," "Word of Faith," the prosperity gospel.

Prosperity preachers say that it isn't all about money -- that God's blessings extend to health, relationships and being well-off enough to help others.

They have Bible verses at the ready to make their case. One oft-cited verse, in Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians, reads: "Yet for your sakes he became poor, that you by his poverty might become rich."

Critics acknowledge the idea that God wants to bless his followers has a Biblical basis, but say prosperity preachers take verses out of context. The prosperity crowd also fails to acknowledge Biblical accounts that show God doesn't always reward faithful believers, Palmer said.

The Book of Job is a case study in piety unrewarded, and a chapter in the Book of Hebrews includes a litany of believers who were tortured and martyred, Palmer said.

Yet the prosperity gospel continues to draw crowds, particularly lower- and middle-income people who, critics say, have the greatest motivation and the most to lose. The prosperity message is spreading to black churches, attracting elderly people with disposable incomes, and reaching huge churches in Africa and other developing parts of the world.

One of the teaching's attractions is that it doesn't dwell on traditional Christian themes of heaven and hell but on answering pressing concerns of the here and now, said Brian McLaren, a liberal evangelical author and pastor.

But the prosperity gospel, McLaren said, not only preys on the hope of the vulnerable, it puts too much emphasis on individual success and happiness.

"We've pretty much ignored what the Bible says about systemic injustice," he said.

The checks and balances central to Christian denominations are largely lacking in prosperity churches. One of the pastors in the Grassley probe, Bishop Eddie Long of suburban Atlanta, has written that God told him to get rid of the "ungodly governmental structure" of a deacon board.

Some ministers hold up their own wealth as evidence that the teaching works. Atlanta-area pastor Creflo Dollar, who is fighting Grassley's inquiry, owns a Rolls Royce and multimillion-dollar homes and travels in a church-owned Learjet.

In a letter to Grassley, Dollar's attorney calls the prosperity gospel a "deeply held religious belief" grounded in Scripture and therefore a protected religious freedom. Grassley has said his probe is not about theology.

But even some prosperity gospel critics -- like the Rev. Adam Hamilton of 15,000-member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in suburban Kansas City, Missouri -- say that the investigation is entering a minefield.

"How do you determine how much money a minister like this is able to make when the basic theology is that wealth is OK?" said Hamilton, an Oral Roberts graduate who later left the charismatic movement. "That gets into theological questions."

There is evidence of change. Joyce Meyer Ministries, for one, enacted financial reforms in recent years, including making audited financial statements public.

Meyer, who has promised to cooperate fully with Grassley, issued a statement emphasizing that a prosperity gospel "that solely equates blessing with financial gain is out of balance and could damage a person's walk with God."



6) Gay-Activist Group Targets Several Megachurches
Same-sex couples who are raising children are being recruited for 'family outing.'

FAMILY NEWS IN FOCUS - January 2, 2008

Soulforce, a gay-activist group, will visit several evangelical megachurches this year to "initiate conversation" and "change hearts and minds." Joel Osteen's church is on the list. So are Saddleback and Willow Creek. Bishops Harry Jackson and T.D. Jakes will be receiving visits, as well.

Same-sex couples who are raising children are being recruited to be a part of the group's American Family Outing.

Caleb H. Price, research analyst at Focus on the Family, said the friendly fa�ade belies the goal of the group.

He said: "Soulforce claims to want one thing - dialogue - but in reality, what they're trying to do is disseminate a false doctrine into the wider Body of Christ."



Also


Rick Godwin & Eagle's Nest Christian Fellowship: Spending raises questions
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS [Hearst Corporation] - By Abe Levy - November 21, 2007
Pastor Rick Godwin constantly presses his flock at Eagle's Nest Christian Fellowship to give generously for a new $36 million megachurch under construction on the North Side at the same time he spends tens of thousands of dollars of church money on luxury items for himself.
When he flies, it's first class or private chartered plane. He stays in high-end hotels and buys expensive gifts for some of his church associates. He can watch the Spurs from an AT&T Center luxury suite and play golf at the exclusive Club at Sonterra.
In 2005, an independent audit done at the church's request questioned similar expenditures, such as spa services massages and vitamins for Godwin, and warned that changes were needed to bring the church into compliance with tax rules for religious nonprofits. - - - -
See More Posted on the Be Alert! Weblog

Source Link



District teams with church for 'gay' event
WORLDNETDAILY - November 29, 2007
A number of school-sponsored clubs are holding a World AIDS Day "event" at a California church that will be opened with "remarks" from Rev. Benita Ramsey, but school officials are denying it is in any way school sponsored or religious, even though the same "event" a year ago included a "prayer" meeting.
The dispute arose over the announcement on school stationery from the Murrietta Valley Unified School District, which said the "Murrieta Valley High School will hold an event at St. Catherine's Catholic Church in Temecula to commemorate World AIDS Day."
"Students from several school clubs will take part in the event including the Gay Straight Alliance, Black Student Union, Ballet Folklorico, Si Si Puede, MVHS Dance and members of the MVHS Choir, Temecula Valley Choir and Riverside City College Choir," the school said. - - - -
Read Full Report


New York: Gay Pastor in the Bronx Could Lose Her Collar
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Tim Murphy - November 25, 2007
In 1994, when the Rev. Katrina D. Foster became pastor of Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx, she threw herself into ministering to her small, mostly Caribbean-born congregation. She not only preached to them on Sundays but lived in the neighborhood and showed up to support them in everything from surgeries to legal matters.
But Pastor Foster was keeping a secret from her congregation. She held onto it even after a woman came to live with her in the parsonage, then joined the church choir.
"Some people would say, 'It's so nice you have someone to live with you in that 11-room house,' " said Pastor Foster, 39.
But in 2002, when the woman, Pamela Kallimanis, became pregnant, they knew the time had come. So Pastor Foster sat her congregants down one by one and told them that she and Ms. Kallimanis were partners and were expecting a child.
Not one person openly criticized her, she said. Instead, "they threw us the most wonderfully outrageous baby shower in the side yard next to the church," she said. "The woman I was most anxious about telling" - the church president - "I thought she was going to leap across the table and hug me."
The response, however, was not all positive. A small number of families trickled away. Pastor Foster said only one member told her outright why she had stopped coming. "I got her on the phone one day and she said she couldn't sit under a pastor who was a homosexual," she said.
Now Pastor Foster and her roughly 100 congregants face a new challenge: the possibility that she, along with four other pastors in the New York area and 81 nationwide, could be defrocked in 2009 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The country's largest Lutheran denomination, it allows openly gay pastors but forbids them from being in same-sex relationships, according to the Rev. Stephen P. Bouman, bishop of the denomination's New York-area synod. - - - -
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7) San Diego Christian Leader Pays Steep Price For Speaking Out Against Rick Warren
JAMES HARTLINE REPORT - December 29, 2007

A nationally recognized Christian activist has learned firsthand that there is a steep price to pay for speaking out against the moral corruption of one of America's most powerful Protestant [sic] ministers. Despite the high cost to himself personally, James Hartline has been willing to expose, what he says, is a disturbing trend of theological and moral compromise coming from the pulpit of Rick Warren, pastor of the 20,000- member Saddleback Church.

Included in Hartline's laundry list of complaints against Pastor Warren is the recent speaking engagement of pro-gay and pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at Saddleback Church. Hillary Clinton's invitation from Warren to speak at his church followed a speech by Clinton before the radical gay activist group The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) where she told the HRC "she wants a partnership with gays if elected president."

Hartline, who publishes a number of Christian news websites, says that he does not take any pleasure in speaking out against Warren. He simply does not want his fellow Christian believers to be taken advantage of by Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren's unbiblical activism. It has been painful for Hartline to stand up to Rick Warren -- In the process of reporting on Warren's moral compromises in the pulpit, Hartline has had a number of well-known Christian friends turn on him and abandon support for his ministry.

Several months ago, the San Diego-based Christian activist could tell that something was just not right in his relationship with two close friends who work in the Christian media. Warm and welcoming conversations had abruptly turned into brief, cold and uncaring responses to his telephone calls and emails. For Hartline, he had a hard time understanding how close friends could so quickly become "spiritually schizophrenic." Eventually, he began to see a pattern evolve. What James Hartline was about to learn in the midst of this trying time would cause him to understand how treacherous the religious waters in America have become in the 21st century: "Taking on Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren is the religious equivalent of taking on a mob boss in the Italian Mafia," says Hartline.

James Hartline concluded that all of these newly- found troubles with his friends began when he signed a well-publicized ministry coalition letter in December of 2006. The ministry coalition letter that Hartline is referring to is a document he signed along with some of America's top evangelical leaders. The letter was published in newspapers and websites throughout American on December 1, 2006. The document was titled: "Pro-Family Coalition Issues 'World AIDS Day' Appeal to Rick Warren to Address Homosexuality and 'Gay' Promiscuity in Effort to Stop Pandemic."

Among the many things that the coalition saw happening with Pastor Warren's AIDS Summit event that they had outlined in the document was his inviting of pro-abortion and pro-homosexual activists to speak at Saddleback Church. Peter LaBarbera, a leading figure in America's evangelical pro-family movement, called on Warren to address the leading cause of HIV transmission in the United States: gay promiscuity in gay sex clubs. LaBarbera pointed out in the AIDS Truth Coalition press release that Pastor Warren had invited Mark Dybul, a practicing homosexual, to speak at Saddleback Church.

The evangelical document was a major embarrassment for Rick Warren. The document, issued as a press release, confronted Warren for allowing pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama to speak at Saddleback Church during Warren's AIDS Summit. The document pressed Pastor Warren to speak out against homosexual promiscuity, a leading cause of AIDS -- something members of the AIDS Truth Coalition did not see Rick Warren mention during his AIDS Summit at Saddleback in 2006. - - -

Because Hartline, a former homosexual, has been fighting AIDS for ten years, his statements in the coalition letter against Rick Warren brought extra attention to Warren's immoral compromises during Saddleback's AIDS Day Summit. Hartline's highly publicized comments in the letter stated: - - -

According to published reports, Saddleback Church began to evict members from their congregation when these members confronted Rick Warren for his inviting pro-abortion advocate Barak Obama to speak from the pulpit of Saddleback Church. Shortly after these confrontations began to become public and after the AIDS Truth Coalition press release was issued, KBRT radio personality Paul McGuire invited Warren's wife Kay onto his program. For an hour on that program, McGuire allowed Kay Warren to attack and degrade the many Christians who had questioned her husband's ministry tactics and practices. McGuire's program went from being a Christian talk show to a manipulative platform for Rick and Kay Warren's emergent church propaganda. Paul McGuire's website now prominently features a supportive photograph of Rick Warren. Additionally, McGuire has repeatedly featured sound bites by Kay Warren in his program's advertisements. - - - -



8) Rick Warren's distortions of reality
WORLDNETDAILY - By Joseph Farah - December 13, 2007

Rick Warren loves to apologize for things he didn't do, for things other people did that weren't wrong, even for things that occurred hundreds of years before he was born.

For instance, he recently apologized to Muslims worldwide for atrocities committed against their ancestors during the Crusades.

He also recently apologized for American "excesses in the war on terrorism."

And he has apologized for the church because it hasn't done enough about the spread of AIDS and problems like global warming.

Yet, I must observe that despite his predilection for apologies, he has a great deal of trouble owning up to his own personal mistakes.

Here we are more than a year after his misguided trip to Syria in which he was used politically by the anti- Jewish, anti-Western, terror-supporting police state, and
Warren insists his only error was in posing for a photo op with President Bashar Assad.

The whole episode, Warren says, is just a big misunderstanding. And - guess what - it's all my fault!

Here is what he told WND staff writer Art Moore about the trip to Syria: "The only mistake I made in Syria. This was the mistake. I shouldn't have taken a photo op [with the president]."

In other words, Rick Warren still doesn't get it - despite all the dialogue on this issue. He still does not recognize how his trip gave aid and comfort to a diabolical enemy of freedom and Christianity. He still does not recognize how destructive it is when the Syrian dictator shows pictures of himself with Rick Warren and quotes "America's mega-pastor" saying harshly critical things about the U.S. and offering nothing but praise for Damascus. He still does not recognize how saying there is freedom of religion in Syria is a lie that justifies the country's continued persecution of Christians - particularly in neighboring Lebanon.

Instead, Warren blames me. He says I'm lying when I present this information to the world. And he's still defending the totalitarian terror-sponsoring state!

"Syria says we have freedom of religion, [but] it does not mean we have freedom to change religion," he says. "That's the problem. The problem is you can be a Christian in Syria and not be persecuted. I could give you hundreds and thousands of examples of that. Christians that are actually meeting above ground, they are not in secret. I've been in their churches. The problem is we've got to get them moved to the next step, which is the freedom of conversion."

Freedom of religion, of course, means people have the right to choose their own faith. It does not mean you have the right to attend services in a government- approved church.

In police states that persecute Christians, there is almost always an above-ground church. That's how the Soviet Union maintained control and gave the appearance of religious freedom. That's how it is done in China today. That's how it is done in Syria today.

Warren rationalizes more by explaining how Syria is not near the top of the list of countries that persecute Christians.

What he chooses to forget is that within days of his trip to Syria, the most prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician in Lebanon, Pierre Gemayel, was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut. Syrian intelligence agents were suspected. Lebanon, once the only Christian country in the Middle East, has been torn asunder by terrorism and violence overseen by Syria for more than 20 years.

I called on Rick Warren to condemn Syria for that assassination, as much of the world did. He chose to ignore it, as he has ignored the systematic persecution of Lebanese Christians by Syria.

While in Syria, Warren also tried to make the case that Syria was not involved in terrorism and is actually a "moderate" state.

Not only does Warren have exceptionally low standards for religious freedom, but he is either woefully ignorant of Syria's position in the hierarchy of world terrorism or, worse, deliberately covering it up.

Every major terrorist group in the world has headquarters in Syria. Syria is a terror-sponsoring country, according to the State Department. Syria is Iran's closest ally. Iran is the No. 1 terror-sponsoring country in the world.

But back to what Warren says was his "only" mistake - posing for a picture with Bashar Assad. Warren claims the Syrians, without his consent, issued the following public statements:


  • "[The] American delegation stressed that the American administration is mistaken not to hold dialogue with Syria."
  • "Pastor Warren hailed the religious coexistence, tolerance and stability that the Syrian society is enjoying due to the wise leadership of President al- Assad, asserting that he will convey the true image about Syria to the American people."
  • Warren gave Assad a "memorial drawing" to "thank the Syrian people for their --- efforts exerted for maintaining peace and harmony."
  • Warren was quoted as saying: "Syria wants peace, and Muslims and Christians live in this country jointly and peacefully [for] more than a thousand years, and this is not new for Syria."
  • He would, in the words of the official news agency, "tell the Americans that the ideas which had been shaped about [Syria] didn't reflect the truth and they have to come to Syria and see by themselves and realize her nice people and visit her wonderful and historical ruins."
  • It was reported he told Syria's Islamic grand mufti that there could be no peace in the region without Syria and that 80 percent of Americans rejects what the U.S. administration is doing in Iraq.
  • He praised Islamic-Christian co-existence in Syria.


"So, Joseph Farah took that information off of the government sheet and said, 'Rick Warren said this about Syria,' off of the statement," he claims now. "I happened to be in Rwanda from there. I wrote Joseph and said, Joseph, that's just not true. I didn't say those things. You're reading a statement. And he wrote back in a very accusatory letter that said, well, I can't wait to see the video. In other words, he didn't believe me. He said, I can't wait to see the video. And I wrote him back and said, there is no video."

Actually, please go back and read what I wrote at the time. Never did I accuse Rick Warren of saying these things. Never did I make that assumption. In fact, I concluded my column suggesting Rick Warren would come home saying he was misquoted.

As far as video goes, Rick Warren's story has changed over and over again. Yes, he told me there was no video. Then I saw video on YouTube - that was the video that showed him saying Syria was a land characterized by tolerance and moderation and religious freedom for Christians. After I sent Warren a link to the video, it was pulled down within minutes.

Even now Rick Warren is saying that little video clip was an anomaly, insisting the rest of his trip was not recorded. However, as WND has previously reported, that is not what he told his own Saddleback Church congregation upon his return to America.

He showed video of his trip in the church and said it was culled from over 12 hours of video recording! Members of his flock were so disturbed by the contradiction between what he told them and what he told me that they took the trouble to provide me with the details.

"I didn't lie at all," says Warren. "He [meaning me] didn't stop to check it out. And so he then writes six columns on the basis of his assumption. There was no video of that meeting. At the end, they took a picture, so he chose to believe what the government said, instead of believing me."

Not so. I never accused Rick Warren of saying those things. Instead, I gave him the opportunity to repudiate them. Interestingly, he never has - at least not with any specificity.

Yet, he still feels compelled to explain that Syria is not that bad. All I know is that if I went to a foreign country and met with the president, who then manufactured quotes from me and issued these false statements to the world, I'd be pretty bugged about that. I would hold that country accountable. For some reason, Rick Warren doesn't feel that is necessary.



Also


Ed Note: WorldNet Daily's Art Moore did a three part series on Rick Warren back in December which many Discernment ministries such as Lighthouse Trails carried on their blogs. If you have not read the articles, I have posted the entire series on the Be Alert! Blog with links to the original reports that also contain numerous pictures.

Rick Warren: 'I always own up to mistakes'
'Purpose-driven' megachurch pastor answers evangelical critics - Part 1

Rick Warren: 'I never wanted fame'
But pastor with global vision says he 'loves making an influence' - Part 2

Rick Warren: AIDS too big for church alone
Traditional values challenged in unusual alliance to combat disease - Part 3



9) Rick Warren Counsels Jews on Recruiting Congregants
THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Jennifer Riley - December 17, 2007

Megachurch pastor Rick Warren attended a large Reform Jewish gathering last week to share tips on how to build a community.

Warren - who saw his church expand from seven people meeting in his house to 22,000 people worshipping in an expansive treasure island-like campus - said the key to holding onto visitors is involving them in a small group.

"We believe congregations have to grow large and small at the same time," Warren said Thursday, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. "We don't really feel like people are in the congregation until they're in small groups."

The "Purpose-Driven" pastor spoke to thousands of Jewish leaders Thursday night at the Union for Reform Judaism's biennial convention in San Diego.

With the holiday season in mind, Warren urged clergy to take advantage of crowded events to publicize other programs so people can get involved in the community through smaller groups.

"There are some principles that apply regardless of our faith, if it's Jewish or Christian," he said at the convention.

One of his principles: "Just be nice to people. Smile."

After Warren spoke a few minutes at the podium, he sat alongside two popular Southern California rabbis for a casual talk about strengthening congregational life.

Other advice given by Warren included looking at everything from an outsider's viewpoint, such as simplifying worship terms, making strangers feel welcome, and encouraging interaction.

"The congregation that really loves people, you have to lock the doors to keep people out," said Warren, whose Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., is scheduled to host 14 Christmas services this year with an estimated crowd of 45,000 people. - - - -



10) False Message Preached to Wal-Mart Shoppers
BIBLICALTHOUGHT.com - By Drew Kerr - December 13, 2007

You may have been innocently going about your Christmas shopping when Wal-Mart and Sam's Club played a Christmas Carol Concert in all of their stores. On December 7, 2007, Wal-Mart and The Salvation Army teamed up with Mr. Purpose Driven for a video presentation by the Salvation Army's Brass Band and a Christmas message from Pastor Rick Warren.

The short message given by Rick Warren was as follows:

"What is the purpose of Christmas? We find the meaning of Christmas in the words that the angel gave us 2,000 years ago: It's a time for celebration, it's a time for salvation and it's a time for reconciliation. The angels said three things: I bring you good news of great joy; Unto you is born a Savior and peace on earth good will toward men. This Christmas, make it a time for celebration. It's a time for good news of great joy. Celebrate the good news in life, not the bad news. Look for the good news: God's love for you. Make it a time where you don't just go through the season thinking you just want to get it over with, make it a time to really celebrate. I bring you good news of great joy. Make it a time for salvation. You know the Salvation Army for over 100 years has been using Christmas as a time to collect funds that minister to people all year long; the uneducated, the sick, the poor, the defenseless, the orphan, those who need it most. What does salvation mean? In a word, it means freedom, freedom from fear, freedom from guilt, freedom from bitterness, freedom from loneliness. It means freedom from my past and free to look into the future with confidence. This is the message of freedom, the message that the Salvation Army has been bringing for over 100 years. Make it a time for reconciliation. The first Christmas the angels said, 'Peace on earth, good will toward men' and I don't know a time in our history when we've needed the message of reconciliation more. We need to be reconciled to our families; to our neighbors; to our enemies; to other nations; to each other. It doesn't matter what religious background you have. We need to be reconciled to God and to each other. This is the message that I hope you'll carry this Christmas."

There we have it Ladies and Gentleman! This message by Rick Warren is void of biblical doctrine and exhibits his false teaching. Why the Southern Baptist Convention hasn't exercised any kind of discipline on him is beyond me? The Baptists may have independent churches, but the association of churches needs to speak out against heretical teaching.

Warren mentions salvation and then defines it as freedom. The truth is that the Bible speaks of salvation as deliverance from the wrath of God to be carried out upon the ungodly at the end of this age (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:8-9 and 1 Peter 1:5). What eternal benefit will anyone gain if they have salvation as defined by Warren? He defines salvation as "freedom from fear, freedom from guilt, freedom from bitterness, freedom from loneliness." Rick Warren is comforting unbelievers on the road to condemnation by telling them that they are "free to look into the future with confidence". Woe to Rick Warren for preaching a false message to a lost and dying generation (Gal. 1:8-9).

Rick Warren has changed definitions and this causes us to scale the language barrier with him as we do when involved in apologetics against the cults. Rick Warren has redefined the meaning of salvation. This is similar to discussions with Mormons when talking about salvation, the Christian has deliverance as the definition and the Mormon has exaltation as a god as their definition of salvation.

I would like to say something to the person that doesn't understand why I would write a blog about Rick Warren.

When I meet people that are raving about Rick Warren's books, it becomes clear that bad doctrine needs to be uprooted and good doctrine needs to be planted down. The fans of Rick Warren need to understand that if God is just, then He cannot forgive sinful man without a substitutionary sacrifice. Mankind is not accepted into God's kingdom by merely coming to understand their purpose. If you are a person that enjoys Rick Warren's teaching, then here is a place we can dialog and hold the teaching of Rick Warren up to the light of Scripture. Does the Gospel entail finding God's purposes? Is the Gospel about telling people that God will never love them any more nor any less? Like Rick Warren, should we tell people that there is nothing they can do to make God stop loving them? Or is the Gospel something like the one presented below?

-God will sit in judgment of all mankind (Romans 2:16) and "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13)". "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne" (Psalm 97:2).

-Man's problem is sin: "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden his face from you" (Isaiah 59:2), "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

-God has provided a substitute: Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people (Hebrews 9:28). "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). "Therefore He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).

-We can't just pray a prayer and expect to go to heaven, but we must have a new relationship with our Creator. A new relationship with our Creator will require a new relationship to sin. We must have repentance by turning from our sin and turn to God. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). "Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'But the righteous man shall live by faith'" (Romans 1:16-17).

-When you turn to God in repentance and faith, after God gives you a new heart and new desires, then you will become a Christian. "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life" (1 John 5:11-12). "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20). "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36).



11) Taking Revival to the World
Australia's largest and most influential church extends its reach to London, Paris, and Kiev.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY [CTI Publications] - By Cassandra Zinchini - October 26, 2007

Step into a Hillsong London service and you walk into the Dominion Theater, which seats 2,000 people. Choose a seat on the balcony or on the ground floor, and when the strobe lights and sophisticated video images begin flashing in the dim theater, you might wonder if you're waiting for We Will Rock You: The Queen Musical!, the show currently running at the Dominion.

Hillsong Church, which recently celebrated its 20th year in Sydney, Australia, is growing its global reach Sunday by Sunday. As the largest church in Australia's history, it regularly attracts 20,000 people to its weekend services. GOD TV, a Christian satellite channel, broadcasts many Hillsong events, boosting its potential audience to 400 million worldwide.

A member of the Assemblies of God denomination, Hillsong has burgeoning church plants in London, Paris, and Kiev, Ukraine. It has also been holding services in Moscow and Berlin. Hillsong's reputation alone is enough to generate huge interest. In London, a Saturday night service and three Sunday services are necessary to accommodate the 7,000 in attendance.

Hillsong is perhaps best known for its music. Its famous worship pastor, Darlene Zschech, wrote the song "Shout to the Lord." It is estimated that 25 million Christians sing that song each week worldwide.

Since the 1990s, Hillsong has released about 50 praise and worship recordings. Hillsong United, its youth ministry and band, has sold recordings by the millions in the American market. Hillsong United began its recent North American tour in Nashville, at the worship service of the Gospel Music Association's music week.

Last fall in London, 3,000 people gathered at the Excel Center for the first-ever Hillsong Conference Europe. On the first night, the crowd hushed and then broke into applause as the lights went off and words appeared on the video screens at the front: "The church is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body in which he speaks and acts and fills everything with his presence."

Applause broke out again as the music began. A lone guitarist stood in the spotlight. Beside the stage, Zschech stood drinking coffee, bouncing up and down in her heels. Hillsong's senior pastor, Brian Houston, stood front and center watching the screens flicker footage of a welcome from Sydney, Australia, to Paris, where a drummer played in front of the Eiffel Tower, to the slums of India to a crusade of thousands in Brazil to a choir in Toronto singing the Hillsong chorus "How Great Is Our God."

This event was a Hillsong-branded depiction of the Great Commission and a moving visual picture of their self-proclaimed mission: "To reach and influence the world by building a large Bible-based church, changing mindsets, and empowering people to lead and impact every sphere of life." And it means "every sphere"-from church growth to politics to revival to social action to personal healing. - - - -



12) A Shocking "Confession" from Willow Creek Community Church
Ed Note: Don't get too excited yet as this may not be as good a report as it sounds to be at first hearing. First of all notice that it took a "study", not the Bible to figure this out and secondly the news now is that all Willow Creek is doing is more "studies" to best find how to fix this problem. There is certainly much more to come on this issue.
BE/\LERT!


CROSSWALK [Salem Communications Corporation] - By Bob Burney - October 30, 2007

If you are older than 40 the name Benjamin Spock is more than familiar. It was Spock that told an entire generation of parents to take it easy, don't discipline your children and allow them to express themselves. Discipline, he told us, would warp a child's fragile ego. Millions followed this guru of child development and he remained unchallenged among child rearing professionals. However, before his death Dr. Spock made an amazing discovery: he was wrong. In fact, he said:

We have reared a generation of brats. Parents aren't firm enough with their children for fear of losing their love or incurring their resentment. This is a cruel deprivation that we professionals have imposed on mothers and fathers. Of course, we did it with the best of intentions. We didn't realize until it was too late how our know-it-all attitude was undermining the self assurance of parents.

Oops.

Something just as momentous, in my opinion, just happened in the evangelical community. For most of a generation evangelicals have been romanced by the "seeker sensitive" movement spawned by Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. The guru of this movement is Bill Hybels. He and others have been telling us for decades to throw out everything we have previously thought and been taught about church growth and replace it with a new paradigm, a new way to do ministry.

Perhaps inadvertently, with this "new wave" of ministry came a de-emphasis on taking personal responsibility for Bible study combined with an emphasis on felt-needs based "programs" and slick marketing.

The size of the crowd rather than the depth of the heart determined success. If the crowd was large then surely God was blessing the ministry. Churches were built by demographic studies, professional strategists, marketing research, meeting "felt needs" and sermons consistent with these techniques. We were told that preaching was out, relevance was in. Doctrine didn't matter nearly as much as innovation. If it wasn't "cutting edge" and consumer friendly it was doomed. The mention of sin, salvation and sanctification were taboo and replaced by Starbucks, strategy and sensitivity.

Thousands of pastors hung on every word that emanated from the lips of the church growth experts. Satellite seminars were packed with hungry church leaders learning the latest way to "do church." The promise was clear: thousands of people and millions of dollars couldn't be wrong. Forget what people need, give them what they want. How can you argue with the numbers? If you dared to challenge the "experts" you were immediately labeled as a "traditionalist," a throwback to the 50s, a stubborn dinosaur unwilling to change with the times.

All that changed recently.

Willow Creek has released the results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of ministry. The study's findings are in a new book titled Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. Hybels himself called the findings "earth shaking," "ground breaking" and "mind blowing." And no wonder: it seems that the "experts" were wrong.

The report reveals that most of what they have been doing for these many years and what they have taught millions of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ. Numbers yes, but not disciples. It gets worse. Hybels laments:

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn't helping people that much. Other things that we didn't put that much money into and didn't put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for. - - - -


Read Full Report Posted on the
Be Alert! Weblog


13) Bishop Paulk pleads guilty, is fined $1,000
80-year-old preacher charged with lying under oath in sexual misconduct lawsuit

THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION [Cox Enterprises] - By Chris Quinn - January 15, 2008

Bishop Earl Paulk pleaded guilty to felony perjury in Cobb Superior Court Wednesday.

Judge Frank R. Cox, chief judge of Magistrate Court, sitting in as assisting Superior Court judge, said he fined Paulk $1,000 and put him on probation for 10 years. He ordered Paulk to pay $32 a month in probation fees.

Paulk, formerly a prominent minister, was charged with perjury for lying during a deposition last year in a sexual misconduct lawsuit against him. He turned himself into Cobb County authorities at 8 p.m. Tuesday and was sentenced about 18 hours later.

Cox said District Attorney Pat Head and Paulk's attorney arranged the sequence of legal events.

Louis Levenson, the attorney for the couple suing Paulk, said the plea should serve as a warning.

"I hope that people will take a page out of this book and see that whatever their religious beliefs or philosophical beliefs that there is no excuse for speaking untruthfully in court," he said.

Levenson represents Bobby and Mona Brewer, former staff members at what was known as Chapel Hill Harvester Church, which Paulk built into a nationally known ministry. Their suit claims Paulk coerced Mona Brewer into a sexual relationship and used his influence to hide that and other improprieties.

"Earl Paulk was the architect of an entire scheme to protect the kingdom," Levenson said.

He defined 'kingdom' as the church and system of influence Paulk built.

In a deposition taken in the suit, Paulk said Mona Brewer was the only woman he had sex with outside of marriage. A DNA test last year showed Paulk fathered a child by the wife of his brother, the Rev. Don Paulk. That discovery led to the perjury charge.

Paulk claimed in the past that Brewer initiated the relationship.

A staff member at the church referred calls to Joel Pugh, Paulk's criminal defense attorney.

Pugh did not return calls.

Paulk's religious celebrity peaked in the 1980s and 1990s with TV appearances and more than 10,000 church members. He was nationally influential among independent charismatic churches.

His fame turned to infamy as he faced a series of allegations of sexual misconduct with many women. Though he no longer leads the church, now called the Cathedral at Chapel Hill. He still participates, speaking briefly. Attendance has dropped dramatically.

The Rev. D.E. Paulk, the Bishop's son by his sister in law, leads the congregation and speaks openly about his familial and church problems and about forgiveness.



14) A Return to Tradition
Emerging Apostasy:
A new interest in old ways takes root in Catholicism and many other faiths


U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT [NY Daily News/M Zuckerman] - By Jay Tolson - December 13, 2007

Worshipers come to St. Mary, Mother of God in downtown Washington, D.C., for various reasons, but many say that a big draw is the Tridentine Latin mass that is said here every Sunday. Soon, St. Mary may be less well known for that distinctive liturgical offering than for the number of big-name government and media types that occupy its pews. Now that Pope Benedict XVI has loosened the restrictions on churches that want to observe the pre-Vatican II rite, more parishes are availing themselves of the option. Call it part of a larger conservative shift within the church-one that includes a renewed emphasis on such practices as personal confession and reciting the rosary as well as a resurgent interest in traditional monastic and religious orders.

But this shift extends beyond the Roman Catholic Church. In Richardson, Texas, the congregation of Trinity Fellowship Church participates in something that would have been considered almost heretical in most evangelical Protestant churches five or 10 years ago: a weekly Communion service. An independent, nondenominational church of some 600 members, Trinity Fellowship is not the only evangelical congregation that is offering a weekly Eucharist, saying the Nicene or Apostles' creeds, reading the early Church Fathers, or doing other things that seem downright Roman Catholic or at least high Episcopalian. Daniel Wallace, a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, which trains pastors for interdenominational or nondenominational churches, says there is a growing appetite for something more than "worship that is a glorified Bible class in some ways."

Something curious is happening in the wide world of faith, something that defies easy explanation or quantification. More substantial than a trend but less organized than a movement, it has to do more with how people practice their religion than with what they believe, though people caught up in this change often find that their beliefs are influenced, if not subtly altered, by the changes in their practice.

Put simply, the development is a return to tradition and orthodoxy, to past practices, observances, and customary ways of worshiping. But it is not simply a return to the past-at least not in all cases. Even while drawing on deep traditional resources, many participants are creating something new within the old forms. They are engaging in what Penn State sociologist of religion Roger Finke calls "innovative returns to tradition."

You see this at work quite clearly in the so-called emergent communities, new, largely self-organizing groups of young Christian adults who meet in private homes, church basements, or coffeehouses around the country. So free-form that many don't even have pastors, these groups nevertheless engage in some ancient liturgical practices, including creedal declarations, public confession, and Communion. They may use a piece of a bagel as the body of Christ, but the liturgy is a traditional anchor in services that may include films, skits, or group discussions of a biblical topic.

More Hebrew. The return to traditional forms and practices is occurring not only in the big tent of Christianity. In Judaism, too, in addition to a small but detectable surge in the Orthodox denomination, the most observant branch of the faith, even the moderate Conservative and the progressive Reform denominations are shifting toward the older ways, including the use of more Hebrew in the services or stricter observance of the Halakha (Jewish law). Many young adults who are joining the Jewish equivalent of the Christian emergent communities, the independent minyanim (plural of minyan, the quorum required for communal worship), are drawn in part by the commitment to traditional liturgical practices and observances. Reform may still be the largest Jewish denomination in America, but much of the faith's vitality is devoted to recapturing those traditions that modernizers dismissed as relics.

The state of traditionalism in Islam is more difficult to capture. On one hand, more young Muslims are embracing outward symbols of their devotion-women wearing head scarves, men growing beards. Many are also more observant of the duties of the faith, whether saying the five daily prayers or fasting during Ramadan. But it is hard to say whether all of this signals a return to traditional Islam or the embrace of a highly puritanical reformist Islam associated with Wahhabi and Salafist teachings-teachings that many Islamic scholars find contrary to the deeper traditions of the faith. Indeed, Ali Gomaa, the grand mufti of Egypt, and some Islamic scholars in America argue that an informed understanding of sharia (Islamic law) is the best antidote to extremism and fundamentalism. The uncertainty, of course, is whether their views will find a wider following among contemporary Muslims.

In all faiths, the return to tradition has different meanings for different people. To some, it is a return to reassuring authority and absolutes; it is a buttress to conservative theological, social, and even political commitments. To others, it is a means of moving beyond fundamentalist literalism, troubling authority figures, and highly politicized religious positions (say on gay marriage and contraception or abortion) while retaining a hold on spiritual truths. In short, the new traditionalism is anything but straightforward.

And that is one reason it is so hard to quantify. Mary Bendyna, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, laments the lack of hard data on traditionalist developments in the Catholic Church but plans to launch a large study on sacramental life in January. Even without the numbers, though, Bendyna is confident that a change is afoot. "There has been a renewed interest in traditional life, in traditional devotions, even among young Catholics," she says. (Bendyna doubts, though, that the Latin mass will catch on in a big way. "There just aren't that many priests who are prepared to celebrate it," she says.) More broadly, Bendyna wonders whether a renewed interest in traditional devotions or religious orders correlates directly with conservatism on such matters as papal infallibility, contraception, or the exclusively male and celibate clergy. Determining that relationship, Bendyna says, is one of the greater investigative challenges.

"Hype." Some liberal Catholic clergy are completely skeptical about the scope and meaning of the traditionalist turn. "It's more hype than reality," says the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and political scientist at Georgetown's Woodstock Theological Center. Reese thinks the church should focus less on the Latin mass than on the three things that draw most churchgoers: "good preaching, good music, and a welcoming community." He is equally dubious about all the attention being devoted to the habit-wearing Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia and a few other traditional religious orders that have enjoyed an uptick in younger members. "I have no problem with their habits," says Reese. "On the other hand, if the church ordained women, we'd have thousands more women coming forward."

But Sister Patricia Wittberg, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, sees more substance in the new traditionalism. "I think churches that can articulate what they do and what they stand for tend to grow better." To that extent, she says, the conservative turn in the church makes sense. But she points out that there are two kinds of conservatives. "One group," she says, "would like to take things back to the [16th-century Counter- Reformation] Council of Trent, but I don't think the future's with them. I think the future is with a group that is interested in reviving the old stuff and traditions in a creative way. Sisters in traditional orders may wear habits, but they often live in coed communities." Sociologist Finke agrees: "Members of traditional religious orders want to be set apart, to have a more active spiritual formation and a strong community life. But while they are obedient, they are less submissive to authority and want to make more of their own decisions and be active professionally in outreach activities. It's a structured life, but it's a structure they are seeking and not simply submitting to authority."

Contradictory? To be sure. And it becomes no less so in other denominations and religions. That may be why George Barna, whose Barna Group does extensive polling on religious life in America, does not identify neotraditionalism as one of the four "megathemes" in his most recent survey of the American scene. But one of those themes, "Nouveau Christianity," speaks to the conditions that some say are giving rising to it: "'unChristian' behavior by church people, bad personal experiences with churches, ineffective Christian leadership amid social crises." Such factors have led, the Barna Group reports, to new spiritual practices that embrace diversity and tolerance, emphasize conversations and relationship, blend all forms of art and novel forms of instruction, and foster new spiritual communities. But how do tradition and orthodox practices enable attempts to build a stronger spiritual life?

Talk to Carl Anderson, the senior pastor of Trinity Fellowship Church, and you get an idea. "Seven or eight years ago, there was a sense of disconnectedness and loneliness in our church life," he says. The entrepreneurial model adopted by so many evangelical churches, with its emphasis on seeker-friendly nontraditional services and programs, had been successful in helping Trinity build its congregation, Anderson explains. But it was less successful in holding on to church members and deepening their faith or their ties with fellow congregants. Searching for more rootedness, Anderson sought to reconnect with the historical church.

Connections. Not surprisingly, that move was threatening to church members who strongly identify with the Reformation and the Protestant rejection of Catholic practices, including most liturgy. But Anderson and others tried to emphasize the power of liturgy to direct worship toward God and "not be all about me," he says. Anderson also stressed how liturgy "is about us-and not just this church but the connection with other Christians." Adopting the weekly Eucharist, saying the Nicene Creed every two or three weeks, following the church calendar, Trinity reshaped its worship practices in ways that drove some congregants away. But Anderson remains committed, arguing that traditional practices will help evangelical churches grow beyond the dependence on "celebrity- status pastors."

Something of a celebrity ex-pastor himself, Brian McLaren, the popular author and a founder of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Md., recently left the pastorate to talk and write about the emergent movement and other developments in Christianity. While at Cedar Ridge, which catered specifically to previously "unchurched" seekers, McLaren instituted a Eucharistic liturgy and contemplative prayer retreats. And he appreciates the role of tradition in the new self-organizing communities that are sprouting up around the country. "Protestantism has been in a centrifugal pattern for so long, with each group spinning away from others," McLaren says. "But now there is some kind of pull back to the center."

Like McLaren, Tony Jones, author of The New Christians: Dispatches From the Emergent Frontier and national coordinator of Emergent Village, talks about the postmodern aspects of the new traditionalism. People of the postmodern mindset- particularly 20- and 30-somethings-question the hyperindividualism of modern culture. They search for new forms of community but tend to be wary of authority figures and particularly of leaders, Jones says, who take divisive liberal or conservative social- political positions-one reason why the emergent groups tend to be antipastoral. "The problem is not the issues," says Jones, who belongs to an emergent church, Solomon's Porch, in Minneapolis. "The problem is how we talk about issues. We are going to live in reconciliation with each other, and traditional practices are what restore us and hold us together."

The young neotraditionalists also have an almost intuitive attraction to liturgy, ritual, and symbol as forms of knowledge that complement the dominant rational, scientific one. "There is a certain kind of postmodern sensibility that loses confidence in the rational explanation of everything," McLaren says. For him, Jones, and others, "doing church" in traditional and innovative ways is a form of theological reflection that leaves behind the fundamendalists' need to make all religious propositions into pseudoscientific statements, to turn Genesis, for example, into a geology textbook.

Pushing limits."I would argue that people are looking for a dialectic," says Avi Weiss, senior rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in Bronx, N.Y., and founder of a new rabbinical school that trains Jewish leaders in the approach of what he calls Open Orthodoxy. "People are looking for a commitment that is grounded but not one that is stagnant," Weiss says. "The other part of the dialectic is an openness but not without limits."

So in Weiss's synagogue, you will see things that push the limits of orthodoxy to encourage a more open and accepting community. There is the traditional divide (mehitza) between women's and men's sections, for example, but it is a low one that runs down the middle of the central worship space, rather than a high mehitza that sequesters women in the back or on the sides. Opposing many less flexible Orthodox scholars, Weiss argues that it is correct within Jewish law for all congregants to touch the Torah and for women to lead their own prayer groups- practices that he allows. Most important, while he wants congregants to follow as much of the Halakha as they can, he opens the door to all Jews and indeed all people who want to explore the path of Orthodox Judaism.

The success of his approach, including his encouragement of participatory leadership, can be seen not just in Riverdale but in the synagogues led by his associates and former students. When Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, once an assistant rabbi at Riverdale, took over Ohev Sholom almost four years ago, the northwest Washington, D.C., synagogue had dwindled to about 15 families. Today, with some 300 families (and bearing the additional name "the National Synagogue"), it buzzes with energy and enthusiastic congregants. "Most come from nonspecific affiliations," says Herzfeld. "They find authentic spiritual life and tradition. Some make the full, radical transformation into the Orthodox life. Some even sell their homes and move so they can walk to shul on the Sabbath." Jill Sacks and her husband, Tom, formerly members of a Conservative synagogue who lived in Bethesda, Md., for 26 years, are one couple who moved to be closer to Ohev Sholom. They were drawn by Herzfeld's self-deflecting but charismatic leadership, the traditionalism, the vibrant community, and the commitment to social outreach. Sacks's former synagogue was a very egalitarian one, she says, and she read the Torah and the haftarah there. "I had that option," Sacks says, "but I am very happy with this synagogue."

The appeal of traditionalism across all Jewish formations-including the some 80 independent minyanim that researchers have identified in the United States and Canada-has some scholars wondering whether the biggest middle-ground formation, Conservatism, may not soon be absorbed by a Reform denomination that is more orthodox and an Orthodox denomination that is more accommodating. A new regard for tradition may be rearranging Judaism's organizational landscape.

In all corners of Judaism, as in all parts of Christianity, traditions are being adapted in strangely innovative ways. Ari Y. Kelman, a professor of American studies at the University of California-Davis, describes what he finds at the Mission Minyan in San Francisco, a group of about 100 mostly youngish Jewish adults who convene for davening (praying) at the Women's Building in the artsy Mission District. "The service is traditional," he says, "from the right end of Conservatism and the left end of Orthodox. It's all in Hebrew, with no instruments or instructions on when to sit or stand. Most of it's mixed seating, but there's also a separate men's section and a separate women's section-a sort of tri-hitza. Women lead the first part of the service, which is not officially prayer, and men lead the second part."

Limits and openness: Welcome to the new, and sometimes bewildering, world of religious traditionalism.


* Emphasis Added


15) Mixing Jesus With Java
The appeal of new religious communities

U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT [NY Daily News/M Zuckerman] - By Jay Tolson - December 13, 2007

The transition from a casual, coffee-shop gathering to a Christian worship service is almost imperceptible. In a cozy space at Jammin' Java, a cafe in a Vienna, Va., shopping center, 18 young adults sit and chat, refill their mugs, or prepare the area for the coming service. A projector screen is set up; candles are arranged; a basket of rolls, a chalice, and small glasses of grape juice are set out. At 10 o'clock, systems engineer Deanna Doan steps up to the mike, and the group finds itself celebrating the second Sunday of Advent.

The Church of the Common Table, as the group calls itself, is part of a nationwide emergence of small, self- organizing religious communities. And to people who follow the world of contemporary religion, they are among the most interesting things going. The Rev. Frederic Burnham, a retired Episcopal priest and senior fellow at the Sims Institute for Servant Leadership in Hendersonville, N.C., draws on chaos theory to study how these spontaneously generated groups manage to walk the line between freedom and order. "Holding the balance is what the emergent church is dealing with," says Burnham.

Team leaders. One way Common Table does so, explains Michael Stavlund, a graduate of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill., is by spreading the leadership role among three members of a team. Though he is the only paid staffer, Stavlund and the other team members try to stay in the background, encouraging everybody to take a turn leading services and activities. But is the steadying presence of a person like Stavlund necessary? "It would be different without him," says Kate Maisel, a newspaper editor. "He is one of the essential parts."

The service itself walks that fine line bordering chaos. A PowerPoint presentation of an Advent calendar and a talk on the difference between Roman and Christian conceptions of peace, followed by a freewheeling discussion, are typically innovative offerings. But the worshipers come together quietly for the confession and the Eucharist-a movingly simple ceremony that ties them to the oldest practitioners of their faith. Some chafe at certain practices, including saying the Nicene Creed. But others don't. "A core of tradition keeps us pointed in the right direction," says John Bozeman, a university administrator. "It keeps us from being just an encounter group."



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