Modern day revolution

Modern day revolution

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 08, 2006

Undermining Fathers

By Chris Ortiz (continued)

The point here is that if the local church as an institution seeks to facilitate the broad spectrum of needs it stifles the incentive of individual Christians to solve these social issues. This has been the problem with the federal government since Franklin D. Roosevelt. For decades the overgrown state has sapped the initiative of the individual's creativity. This plight is now compounded with teh bloated mega-church and an incrasing number of smaller churches adopting the pattern.

The messianic state has always sought to undermine the authority of the family. Now a negligent undermining is taking place as conservative church leaders neuter the religious role of Christian fathers. The quasi-liberalism in conservative Christian churches is more than a mere contradiction -- it is a "house divided against itself." Only with a complete return to the Biblical responsibilities of preaching, discipline, and the right administration of the sacraments can the church retain its purity. It's only when the church seeks to equip the family rather than assumes its role that a true balance of Christian government can be established!

posted by The WorldView Christian at HYPERLINK "http://revolutionchristian.blogspot.com/2006/11/undermining-fathers.html" \o "permanent link" 8:33 PM HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=23427770&postID=116304703439750396" 0 COMMENTS HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=23427770&postID=116304703439750396" \o "Email Post" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_email.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=23427770&postID=116304703439750396" \o "Edit Post" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 08, 2006

Super Church

By Chris Ortiz
(continued from previous 2 posts)

In a recent story on ABC News, reporter Oliver Libaw places the phenomenon of the mega-church alongside America's obsession with SUVs, big-screen TVs, and superstores. This reveals how the church's view of the congregant has changed. Church members are seen more as consumers who must be catered to with a smorgasbord of amenities and less as covenant family members in need of faithful preaching. Libaw highlights the full "buffet" being offered by some of today's mega-churches:

"Beyond their physical resources, mega-churches offer a broad spectrum of small groups clubs, and programs for members and sometimes also the community at large. The list of activities can sound like th offerings at a Club med or a small liberal arts college: poetry workshops, creative writing, singles groups, job fairs, vocational training, musical lessons, and even auto repair clinics."
( HYPERLINK "http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/megachurch01613.html" http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/megachurch01613.html)

Citing a particular example Libaw describes the 10 year expansion project of a Los Angeles suburb mega-church whose building plan includes a "4,000-seat worship center, an artificial lake, food court, coffee house, and recreational attractions including a rock-climbing wall and jumbo video screens." This venue can baffle even the most progressive among us!

posted by The WorldView Christian at HYPERLINK "http://revolutionchristian.blogspot.com/2006/10/super-church.html" \o "permanent link" 6:04 PM HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=23427770&postID=116035620090883093" 0 COMMENTS HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=23427770&postID=116035620090883093" \o "Email Post" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_email.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=23427770&postID=116035620090883093" \o "Edit Post" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2006

Semi Liberalism

By Chris Ortiz
(continued from 9/19 post)

What I find interesting are the many ways this ecclesiastical approach is similar to contemporary liberalism. First, these local churches are adapting the liberal social grid of the "class system." Instead of addressing the local assembly as the corporate body of Christ, consisting of covenantal households, these Christian innovators segregate the congregation along the social demarcations of children, youth, singles, men, women, and various other special interest groups.

Second, by providing programs for these diverse groups the local church becomes a micro welfare state. This can only confuse the already befuddled ministry responsibilities of the family.

For instance, most churches feature a weekly women's Bible study that without proper oversight can easily compete with the husband's role of "cleansing his wife with the washing of water by the Word" (Eph 5:26). When the spiritual responsibilities of men are being taken over by the church, is it any wonder men feel no need to be godly?

Third, administering this vast array of Christian social programs requires the two-fold liberal strategy of bureaucracy and taxation. Volunteer communities and salaried department leaders must be raised up to facilitiate each respective ministry department. Along with this goes the budget increase to pay for these multiple programs. Since the church is non-profit it must "tax" the congregation in tithe and offerings to finance the bureaucracy.

posted by The WorldView Christian at HYPERLINK "http://revolutionchristian.blogspot.com/2006/09/semi-liberalism.html" \o "permanent link" 3:45 PM HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=23427770&postID=115931115497500720" 0 COMMENTS HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=23427770&postID=115931115497500720" \o "Email Post" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_email.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=23427770&postID=115931115497500720" \o "Edit Post" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2006

Super-Church: Is the mega-church undermining the family?

by Chris Ortiz

If there is anything George W. Bush has accomplished in his tenure as president, it is reinforcing the acrimony of the Left towards conservative Christendom. Much of the political Left regards Bush's re-election as a "free ride" on the fiery chariot of the religious right. There is some merit to this gripe, but the Left may be surprised to discover just how liberal we "Christian conservatives" can be.

Although I may be accused of painting with a broad brush, I assume that most conservative pastors voted Republican in this last election. The reason for this assumption should be obvious: most conservative Christians consider abortion, welfare, extortionate taxation, and big government unbiblical and unsavory. Yet this distaste for political liberalism doesn't stop many Christian leaders from swallowing a double standard in the way they operate the local church.

This double standard is most apparent in the ecclesiology (i.e. view of the church) of the burgeoning mega-churches. Working from the premise that the consumer is king, these super warehouses of worship entice attendees with a myriad of programs targeting the community's felt needs. They do this because they see results; and results are measured by increased attendance. But has anyone paused to consider the implications of offering a "Sears Catalog" of special programs?

It is more like practical liberalism than innovative Christian praxis when churches assume more responsibility then is Biblically permitted. By substituting "big federal government" with "big church government," mega churches create an undue social dependency in Christian families. Nowadays parents want a dynamic and fun ministry for their children, and they expect the local church to provide it. If not, parents will simply shuffle their young ones to the church down the street.

By caving in to this pressure, pastors are doing more harm then good. What began as a vision to minister to children soon becomes a welfare program that sapps the initiative from Christian fathers. When the church is providing a separate service for children, a man can easily abdicate his daily responsibility of "bringing up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph 6:4). Why should a man bother catechizing his children when he can simply drop off his little ones each Sunday to receive the gospel "at their level?".....
_____________________________________________________________
Rev. Christopher J. Ortiz is the Editor of Faith for All of Life and the Director of Communications for the Chalcedon Foundation. For 15 years he has labored to bring true reformation to the Charismatic church community. He can be reached at HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]" [email protected].

©2006 World Centre Ministries. All rights reserved. No part of this publiciation may be re-prodced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part including electronic or mechanical or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the senior editor. To request a complimentary copy of The Worldview Leader, to be added to the Revolution Christian newsletter mailing list, or to request further information, please write: World Centre Ministries P.O. Box 41010 Minneapolis, MN 55441 or log on to HYPERLINK "http://www.worldcentreministries.org/" www.worldcentreministries.org.

posted by The WorldView Christian at HYPERLINK "http://revolutionchristian.blogspot.com/2006/09/super-church-is-mega-church.html" \o "permanent link" 7:24 PM HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=23427770&postID=115871983525366156" 0 COMMENTS HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=23427770&postID=115871983525366156" \o "Email Post" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_email.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET HYPERLINK "http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=23427770&postID=115871983525366156" \o "Edit Post" INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2006

The Gospel of NOW. The loss of tomorrow

Everything about the mission of spiritual reform boils down to one pivitol question. WHERE DO YOU FIT? You have bought all of the books, tape series, anointing oil, and glow in the dark plastic Jesus figures from your monthly partner contributions. You have attended the mega events, given the miracle offerings, shouted and cheered at the latest hot button gospel concepts. And more importantly you have funded in some small or large way your piece of the plush mega-complex you call a church.

And when all is said and done, and you are left with nothing more than a promise of all of the glory hallelujah awesome things that are to come. Mixed of course with your eager anticipation of when is the next ride coming along to take me around the same endless track of the same recycled gospel.

And you still know very little about you. Very little about where you fit into a long term plan of spiritual reform of your family, your industry, your city and your world. You know your Pastor or your favorite Christian celebrity, but you don’t know you. You know the vision of everyone you support… you just don’t know the vision of you.

And you are left to continually be exploited from the pulpit with a constant barrage of "me theology", that does nothing much beyond obsesses you with your own pain, your own debt your own misery and your own personal injustices. This all by using a gospel message comprised of whatever spiritual fads and band-aids you can grab onto NOW! to get some relief. A now word for a now time so you can hurry up and fund a now project and attend the next now event. A message, that at the end of the day, offers you no blueprint of what the mission of the twenty first century Church is called to achieve, and what your long term role is in any of it.

This would explain why that never before in the history of the American church have we had such a mass of people who know where they fit inside of their spiritual concepts, but are clueless as to where they fit inside of the role of changing church history. This generation has become one where we equate the gospel with a personality. It’s as if we cannot trace a word from God back to where we applied it as much as we can trace it back to the person who said it. And unless we embrace the mission of architects more than salesmen we will go down in history as the church known for what it sold more than what it revolutionized.

TIME IS SHORT!!! No, not because Jesus is about to return, but because a generation is about to die in the midst of spirit filled consumerism, and anointed profile building. A generation is dying and all the majority of its high profile Christian television celebrities want to do is create awareness of an event or a project.

We are not leaving the earth, at least not in this manor. We're leaving a generation. If we were leaving the earth, then why would I need another book of manna loving principle's that soothe temporary problems that I was not even created by purpose to be consumed with anyhow? We need answers….not principles.

I mean how many Christian telethons can I watch in one lifetime, or conferences can I sit in where I am given holy hyped promises of "this is going to be the year God does the most for me etc…"

Or the con of "what God is about to do that is somehow too big to describe. So just take our word for it and sow a seed right now?"

We need answers, not hype. And it is time to stop supporting the leaders who do not have any.
Besides, if Jesus is really coming back soon, then your money will not be missed that much any way.

Spending money like there is a tomorrow

You know how you can tell the end is not so near? Or at least the Bible prophecy decoders who keep telling you that it is do not really believe it, like one would assume they would? By how, we are spending money. The billions of dollars you have given and likely are still giving your portion into, to build mega-million dollar sanctuaries and mega-profile personality driven ministry.

I mean come on! If we really believe that time is short, then why aren’t we putting the same billions into a message that can prepare a people, instead of just leave them too in love with themselves to even think about leaving earth. Why aren't we sitting in fields, under tents, in houses, or any space we can get our hands on? Or on folding chairs in unfinished warehouses if we have to because the bulk of our money is going to a preparation of a generation to meet Jesus rather than a preparation to build Jesus and His white horse the most plush technologically impressive stable in town.

The answer is that we're not. The bulk of the money you give on a weekly and monthly basis, is going to fund the churches competition with modern technology and all the bells and whistles that church growth experts have allowed you to become addicted enough with, to exploit human convenience and our love for presentation, instead of spiritual conviction. No I am not anti-prosperity, or anti-a functional house for worship. But the message of the 21rst century church is not lining up with the mission. We have become masters of institution more than revolution. People know how to check their children into the children's church of the future, or the X-Box youth complex, but they just have no clue of what the next twenty years of their life holds or them. So at the end of the day we have become so progressive that we are ineffective.

And where is the message of radical long-term change? Oh that's right; first of all we don’t have a message like that. A message that would elevate the people, instead elevate a leader while the people sit in awe. A message that would clean the house, instead of just re-carpet it or at worst case, just build a new one so we don’t have to deal with what the old one was.

Secondly, we really are not willing to go out on that big of a rapture limb to say what kind of time we have left since after all, it took us a few years to tame the sting of the Y2K catastrophe that never happened.

So...we have to ask questions. Questions provoke awareness. Awareness provokes restlessness. Restlessness provokes change!

So ask yourself... "Are you part of what could be a spiritual revolution to shake the American church - or are you just a Christian consumer who is funding the continual increase of big-business, man-exalting Christianity?"