Tag: religion

Cold Hard Cash Church… BOOYAH!

If you’re a follower of Jesus, and this video doesn’t make you angry, one of these two things are true: Either you are WAY more patient than I am, or you are a goon. I’m guessing most of you are just way more patient than I am.

Usually this sort of thing just makes me say, “Oh man, there’s another one of those fake pastors peddling another fake gospel. So lame…“. But this one got under my skin for a couple reasons:

First, I can’t stand gimmicks in the Church. Hey pastors, I love you, and I want you to succeed. I want 6 billion people coming to church on Sundays (or Saturday nights). So listen: If you’re living out the way of Jesus, you don’t need to give away an Xbox. (Side confession: I’ve given away a few in the past, so I’ve got my own gimmicky sins to repent of).

The gospel has made it a long way without gimmicks. The Good News IS ACTUALLY GOOD NEWS, and it doesn’t need your sprinkles on top. If it’s the gospel, the real gospel, then people will rip a hole in your roof to join you. All sorts of people. Poor people, rich people, dirty people, clean people, presidents, peasants, and even teenagers.

Second, I can’t stomach this guy because he’s a false prophet. He’s worse than guys who promise temples that never show up… He promises hope where it can’t be found because HE WANTS YOUR MONEY. The downside for the “lottery winners”: next month’s bills are on the way! What is their hope built on? Winning again? Oh, and their church’s attendance is growing- so their chances of winning are decreasing, but that won’t stop them, will it…

And this is the garbage that CNN picks up to cover?

Jesus is enough.

Fell free to poke holes in my philosophy, I welcome it. But I needed to vent this one.

teenage crap detectors

Love this video from “Billy Madison”. The moderator was the only one in the crowd who wasn’t fooled.

One of the things I love most about high school students is that they are skilled “crap detectors“. They are horribly difficult to persuade, especially when it comes to religious matters.

If you’re lying to a high school student you better expect their crap detector to kick into gear. Faking it? Consider yourself detected. Embellishing? Misconstruing? Manipulating? Guessing? Their crap detecting capabilities will catch you in the act. Using the same old out-dated methods to reach and teach them? They’re not having it. Putting God in a little itty-bitty box based on your understanding of Him? Not gonna fly.

The challenge for me and my team is to:

  1. Remain 100% transparent.
  2. Listen.
  3. Never ask them to do anything we aren’t doing ourselves.
  4. Abandon all teaching methods that are dead.

These are just some initial thoughts I’ve had as I’ve evaluated the crowd at Calvary these past six months.

Side note: “church kids” are the most effective crap detectors around. They don’t wear hand-me-downs for very long unless they really like the way they fit!