Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

Christian men are yearning for a more macho alternative to traditional worship and the message in some churches of a gentle robed Jesus, say organizers of a new style of men’s spiritual event called GodMen coming to Nashville this weekend.

At the daylong GodMen event, men will be able to cuss, smoke cigars, watch videos of football pileups and car crashes, listen to specially composed Christian rock songs such as “Testosterone High” and attend workshops on how to fight pornography addiction.  Read about it here.

I think any event that helps people in their walk with Christ is great.  I just wonder about some of this event.  I don’t mean to be a prude, but why does cussing make you a man?  Just wondering?

What do you think?

New groundbreaking research based on a database of over 300,000 churches across America indicated that overall the population is growing faster than the church. The director of the American Church Research Project, Dave Olson, spoke to nearly 170 national church, ministry, and lay leaders on the closing day of the Mission America Coalition (MAC) conference last Thursday. Olson, who has been working for years to record actual attendance of churches across the country, said that overall church attendance is virtually unchanged from 15 years ago despite the fact the U.S. population has grown by 52 million people. Read the story here.

Even in the southern states, nicknamed by some the “Bible Belt,” has seen a greater population growth than the church.

“We live in a world today that is post-Christian, post-modern and multi-ethnic, whether we realize it or not,” Olson said.

He told the leaders present that in order to reach this “new world” with the Gospel, the Church must change. Olson emphasized that the world simply acts the way it is supposed to – as unbelievers.

Interesting article. The above quotes were Olson’s, not mine. What do you think?

I want to express my appreciation to my lone miniterial staff member, Gene Boatwright. I know when I was a staff member the appreciation shown was less than it is when I’m the Lead Pastor.

Gene has been at our church for over 18 years. He has been the glue that has kept our church going. He has been supportive of me and has bent over backwards to minister to people in our community.

Thank you Gene for your service to God and DMBC. I appreciate you.

Amid debates over whether Christians should tithe to their local church, a Christian author says churches that teach tithing as a mandate is a “growing scandal.”

In his new book Should the Church Teach Tithing?, Russell Early Kelly insists that biblical tithing was never commanded as an eternal moral principle of the New Covenant to the Church. Although he supports freewill-offering, he clearly stated that a mandatory 10 percent is unscriptural. Read about it here.

I guess I should have read this book before I start my series called “THE MONEY PIT” this Sunday. 
What do you think?