Top 10 Reasons our Kids Leave Church

/
Rarely have I read an article that sounds exactly like the one that was formulating in my head-only better! This is an accurate (and sobering) appraisal of what's going on in many "Evangelical" churches today. (I put Evangelical in quotes because it's a term that has lost any subjective meaning in the USA in the year 2015.) 
Marc5Solas – Top 10 Reasons our Kids Leave Church

Theopneustos Blog: Temptation To Be Like God

/
This is a GREAT (and short) article that refutes the Bill Johnson/New Apostolic Reformation/Word of Faith heresy: 

Theopneustos Blog: Temptation To Be Like God

What I find is that false teachers like Bill Johnson, are teaching the same old heresy that's been around forever; but they are so good at putting a new spin on it, and making it sound so spiritual... it's really sickening. If you're reading this information for the first time, you're likely thinking, "well, there must be some kind of middle position-all those preachers can't be completely wrong..." Yes, they're completely wrong-get over it. Consensus does not equal truth. God's Word is Truth (no matter what the "Super Pastors" say).

Bill Johnson's Scripture Twisting

/

Here are some good articles about the false teaching of Bill Johnson and Bethel Church: 

"Herescope" is one of the blogs that does a very good job of dissecting his confusing and anti-biblical ideas: Herescope: BILL JOHNSON: Squandering Our Spiritual Inheritance

Here's an excellent and scholarly article by Bob DeWaay about Johnson's book "When Heaven Invades Earth:" http://www.cicministry.org/commentary/issue124.htm

Here's a brief article about the temptation to "be like God" from Pastor Curtis Leins: http://curtisleins.tumblr.com/post/77906264683/temptation-to-be-like-god

Here's an article that shows how Bill Johnson not only misuses the Bible, but language itself: https://notunlikelee.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/learning-etymology-with-bill-johnson-a-new-age-repentance/

Here's a brief article about the Word of Faith teaching from Kris Valloton: http://crossencountersmin.com/general-info/kris-vallotton-just-another-word-of-faith-false-teacher/

Here's an article about Bill Johnson's and Bethel's New Age connections: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=15508

 

 

 

"The Church Growth Movement: Innovating like it’s 1894" from Discern.org

/
GREAT article!!  Please read this:

The Church Growth Movement: innovating like it’s 1894 | discern.org

On a side note: as a former (very committed) "praise band/worship team" member, I would like these mega-churches to stop using musicians as props to lure people in; and I would like Christian musicians to think more carefully about how they might be simply "entertaining the crowds" at church, all the while thinking that they are doing God some great service. If our main goal is simply to "get people in the door" than we're Messed Up, indeed.

Super Pastor Perry Noble departs Christian orthodoxy, announces he’s staying put ← Pajama Pages

/
This is an amazing example of the state of affairs in the "seeker friendly" church. If a super pastor preaches false doctrine (which is what this guy does) we are all supposed to ignore it and "move on, because we've got people to reach for Jesus..." 

Noble departs Christian orthodoxy, announces he’s staying put ← Pajama Pages

Is Your Church Worship More Pagan than Christian? by Todd Pruitt – Worship

/
Very good (and short) article on this very important topic:

Is Your Church Worship More Pagan than Christian? by Todd Pruitt – Worship

Btw, I stopped playing in a modern worship band at a large Charismatic church because of many of the issues brought up by this author.

Smooth Talk and Flattery (White Horse Inn)

/

This is SO GOOD!! I just listened to it twice! The White Horse Inn is always a great listen, but this particular show packs in an amazing amount of enlightening truth (and a little humor) in just 36 minutes:

Dallas Willard and John Ortberg-Very Confused Men...

/

I tried reading an "important" book by Dallas Willard once; all I remember about it is that it was very hard to understand (and I never bothered to finish it). As I listened to this interview with John Ortberg I realized that he is very confused himself. These two confused "Evangelical experts" are schooled by video teacher Bezel333:

Self Piety and Easy Pickings in the Church

/

This is a quote from the book "No Place for Truth" by David F. Wells:


     "The sort of Christian faith that is conceived in the womb of the self is quite different from the historic Christian faith. It is a smaller thing, shrunken in its ability to understand the world and to stand up in it. The self is a canvas too narrow, too cramped, to contain the largeness of Christian truth. Where the self circumscribes the significance of Christian faith, good and evil are reduced to a sense of well-being or its absence, God's place in the world is reduced to the domain of private consciousness, his external acts of redemption are trimmed to fit the experience of personal salvation, his providence in the world diminishes to whatever is necessary to ensure one's having a good day, his Word becomes intuition, and conviction fades into evanescent opinion. Theology becomes therapy, and all the telltale symptoms of the therapeutic model of faith begin to surface. The biblical interest in righteousness is replaced by a search for happiness, holiness by wholeness, truth by feelings, ethics by feeling good about one's self. The world shrinks to the range of personal circumstances; the community of faith shrinks to a circle of personal friends. The past recedes. The Church recedes. The world recedes. All that remains is the self.

     What remains is, in fact, a paltry thing. But what is being destroyed is not paltry and insignificant at all. Simply put, the psychologizing of faith is destroying the Christian mind. It is destroying Christian habits of thought because it is destroying the capacity to think about life in a Christian fashion. It is as if the topsoil were being washed away, leaving the land barren and incapable of being cultivated. It can no longer sustain the bountiful harvest of being able to discern between good and evil, to think about all of life in terms of God and his purposes, to construct a way of being that accords with his Word, and to contest the norms of cultural plausibility. All is lost. 

     And when people are no longer compelled by God's truth, they can be compelled by anything, the more so if it has the sheen of excitement or the lure of the novel or the illicit about it. The heretics of old, one suspects, would be sick with envy if they knew of the easy pickings that can now be had in the Church."  

(This amazing book was written in 1993)

"The Beast Gets Healed-And So Can You!" Jentezen Franklin

/

This is, perhaps, the most blatant and blasphemous thing I've ever heard from a false teacher. How bad does it have to get before people wake up?? Just watch the first five minutes-I dare you: