I cannot see how any man deserves to be called “holy,” who willfully allows himself in sins, and is not humbled and ashamed because of them.
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Author: Pilgrim
Man Retreat 2009.
Maranatha Chapel is planning their Man Retreat 2009 for this May, and they needed a really cool theme. I can only imagine the planning went something like this:
(The following exchange is purely fictional, but sadly, the end result is not)
Hip and Relevant Pastor: We need something to attract the men to our summer retreat. Something manly that men like. Any ideas?
Church Marketing Team: Football? Powertools? Cars? Wrestling? Cable television? Action movies? Lawnmow–
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Wait, what did you say?
Church Marketing Team: Lawn mowers?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: No, before that?
Church Marketing Team: Action movies?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Before that.
Church Marketing Team: Cable tv?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Um, no, I believe it was before that too.
Church Marketing Team: Wrestling?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Bingo!
Church Marketing Team: I think the Catholics have the market cornered with Bingo, sir, and besides that only attracts old people who like hymns and stuffy stuff.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: No, I meant ‘bingo’ as in that’s it!
Church Marketing Team: What’s it?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Wrestling!
Church Marketing Team: Wrestling?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Yes. Men love wrestling.
Church Marketing Team: Uh, sir, with all do respect, many men are not fond of wrestling.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: This is true, but the kind of men that we want to attract and keep do.
Church Marketing Team: True.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: So we need to somehow incorporate ‘wrestling’ into our theme for our upcoming men’s retreat.
Church Marketing Team: How about we slap a scripture verse on it somewhere?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Excellent idea! Quick, someone get a concordance and look up the word “wrestling.”
Church Marketing Team: Here! Ephesians 6:12.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Perfect fit. Now we need to provide a whole array of fun things to do because after all, men who are attracted to wrestling can’t possibly have depth to their personality nor that long of an attention span.
Church Marketing Team: Uh, you do realize that you just insulted the very core group our marketing strategy is targeted at, don’t you?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: I’m just making a point that if we’re going to keep these men we have to feed them with what we baited them with, mainly shallow entertainment.
Church Marketing Team: Point taken. Do you have any ideas of what activities we can have at our church men’s retreat to keep them entertained?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: How about wrestling.
Church Marketing Team: Duh, why didn’t we think of that one?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: And food, gotta have lots of food ’cause men like to eat.
Church Marketing Team: Archery?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Good idea. What about horseback riding?
Church Marketing Team: Are you serious?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: I’m the pastor.
Church Marketing Team: Copy, horseback riding it is.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Men like shooting stuff don’t they?
Church Marketing Team: They certainly do. Let’s have paintball!
Hip and Relevant Pastor: I was thinking more along the lines of skeet shooting.
Church Marketing Team: Who says we can’t have both? After all, it’s our church isn’t it?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Right you are.
Church Marketing Team: Well I think that this will be great. We’ll slap some image of a wrestler on the ad (preferably from a popular Hollywood movie) and our church men’s retreat ad will be perfect.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Well, as a pastor, I think we need to Christianize the ad just a little more.
Church Marketing Team: What do you suggest?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: How about something that has to do with church?
Church Marketing Team: Hmmmm.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: [Silence]
Church Marketing Team: [Silence]
Hip and Relevant Pastor: How about something along the lines of salvation?
Church Marketing Team: Good idea.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: But nothing too preachy.
Church Marketing Team: How about “Come learn about God’s salvation, found in none other than Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death on the cross.”
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Are you kidding? Do you not want people to show up to this retreat or not? Do you wanna lose church members and watch attendance go down?
Church Marketing Team: Uh, no.
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Than don’t suggest such and narrow, close-minded, uncool idea.
Church Marketing Team: Ok, how about “Because we wanna talk about salvation ‘n’ stuff“?
Hip and Relevant Pastor: Now you’re talking. Don’t make that part too big either.
And there you have it.
Happy birthday DefCon.
Yesterday, April 15th, marked DefCon’s one-year anniversary.
Since changing from Reformation Nation to DefCon one year ago, we’ve had over 370,000 views and our top three posts are:
Taking a closer look at Todd Bentley . . . literally.
John MacArthur on Mark Driscoll.
Thank you to all our readers for the support and encouragement we’ve received over the last year and thank you for your faithful and continued readership.
Ten more (very) quick Questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
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(Also for LDS)
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(Also for LDS)
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To see the first ten (very) quick questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses, click here.
Ten more (very) quick questions for Mormons.
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(Also for JWs)
2
(Also for JWs)
3
4
5
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(Also for JWs)
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Sermon of the week: “Conquest and Compromise” by Brian Borgman.
Your sermon of the week is Conquest and Compromise from the book of Judges by Brian Borgman of Grace Community Church. He shows how in the wake of great triumph, the Israelites (much like us with the world and culture we are in) begin “living with” the Caananites and “tolerating” their wicked practices, and soon begin to adopt the Caananite way of life to the detriment of their faith and in open rebellion of God’s clear commands.
Judgment.
Quotes (516)
Answering a student’s question, “Will the heathen who have not heard the Gospel be saved?” thus, it is more a question with me whether we, who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not, can be saved.
Charles Spurgeon
Debates: Walter Martin vs Bishop John Spong.
The late Christian Apologist Dr. Walter Martin takes on the heretic Bishop Spong in this fifteen part debate on the topic of morality, homosexuality, and other sexual ethics. The first four videos set the tone for the debate as Spong denies the physical resurrection of Christ and His deity.
C. J. Mahaney sermon jam: The Cup.
You can download the entire sermon from this post.
Quorum of the Twelve Apostates.
Sometimes you can find the truth about Mormonism in the most unlikeliest of places.
Joy to the world, He is risen!
The problem with American “Christianity” can be summed up by this church ad.
One of the biggest problems with American “Christianity” and the impetus behind all the entertainment-driven, fad-driven, purpose-driven marketing found in the professing church today can be seen in the tag line of the above church advertisement for Capital Christian Center for this “Easter” weekend.
Albeit subtle, notice the emphasis is not on the Lord Jesus Christ (His death, burial, and resurrection), but it’s on that other god that man loves to worship . . . self.
In this church ad, husband and wife pastoral team Stan and Connie Friend ask, “What needs to be resurrected in your life?”
Huh? What needs to be resurrected in my life? Do those attending church this Sunday need a man-centered, self-improvement info-mercial and a self-help course?
No, no, no! What they need is the professing church to get a backbone and proclaim the Good News to all men that God the Father made Jesus the Son, who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf, and that it was the only way that an infinitely holy and righteous God could redeem a perpetually depraved and sinful people.
The perfect, spotless, unblemished Lamb of God, Jesus Christ the Savior, was killed, was buried, and was raised again on the third day to rescue sinners from the wrath of God that we so rightly and justly deserve.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.
He’s alive!
Questionable associations: Here we go again.
It started with John Piper cozying up with and endorsing Mark “The Cussing Pastor” Driscoll. But as the dust is beginning to settle on that controversy, here comes another one.
I opened my mail today and saw a flyer for the 2009 Reality Check Conference put on by Anchored in Truth with speakers Paul Washer and his pastor Jeff Noblit scheduled for June 29th – July 2nd. Imagine my surprise, though, when I beheld one additional speaker scheduled for the conference: It was none other than Paul Tripp (not to be confused with Tedd Trip who wrote Shepherding a Child’s Heart).
Who is Paul Tripp? Well, for those who are not familiar with him, allow me to direct you to the video on this post from Steve Camp in which he uses rather “colorful” language relating an “amusing” story in which he and his children began using profanity in various “humorous” ways (viewer discretion is strongly advised). Ken Silva also addressed Tripp’s use of profanity in this post as well as Ingrid Schleuter in this post.
This compromising drift in evangelicalism to the lowbrow, and the endorsement thereof, begs the question: “Why?”
Now, I know at this point all the defenders of smut, gutter, and profanity will begin their usual relentless attacks on me for daring to even address this situation, but it must be addressed.
Why does Jeff Noblit and Paul Washer feel the necessity to align themselves with and publicly endorse the latest “Cussing Pastor” by having him speak at their conference? Are there no other pastors, preachers or teachers available in all the land that could fill their need?
Much like how Mark Driscoll’s adorning of himself in t-shirts that mock Jesus betrays all the (wholesome) words that come out of his mouth, will not Washer’s endorsement of Paul Tripp betray all the sermons that Washer’s preached on holiness?
There appears to be a disturbing trend afoot. The associations of those who are considered the leaders—if you will—of evangelicalism are endorsing some very questionable characters as of late. Once respectable men, instead of standing up for truth and refusing to compromise, are endorsing very questionable characters in American Christianity. What is going on?
I take my hat off to such men like Phil Johnson who not only resists this trend of talking like the world, but publicly denounces it (see this post).
It is becoming more and more uncommon today to find preachers whose orthodoxy and orthopraxy are aligned solely to the Scriptures. It is a sad state of the times.
What is the sermon topic at your church going to be for Resurrection Sunday?
It’s a sad sign of the times that a question like that even has to be asked, but such is the way of life in Laodicea, USA.
If you thought last year’s Easter sermon series at New Spring entitled Sex, Money and Power reached a new low, brace yourself for more evangelical apostasy, because nothing says ‘Ichabod’ like the following examples of scheduled sermons to be preached across the tattered landscape of what was once American Christianity.
– If you go to New Spring in South Carolina, this year you’ll be subjected to AC/DC’s Highway to Hell.
– If you go to SOS Church in St. Louis, you will see the message of the Gospel mocked as Jesus is depicted as an extreme cage fighter. They even boast “For the kid fighters, join us in the ring for your own Easter smack down (infant to 12 years)” on their website.
– If you go to North Point Church in Springfield, Missouri, you’ll hear the first sermon in a series entitled “God at the Movies” about the film Slumdog Millionaire in which you’ll get to experience Easter in 3-D.
– If you go to Crosspoint in Alabama, your sermon will be Rockstar: Live Famously.
– If you go to Eastlake in California, your sermon will be something about a man dressed in a rabbit costume singing “I like big butts . . .”.
– If you go to Cross Roads in Indiana, you can “ditch church” this Resurrection Sunday for a party.
– If you go to Discover Church in Ohio, you can enjoy a day filled with an Easter egg hunt, free food, a prize drawing, and you can even meet the Easter Peep.
*** CLARIFICATION: The Easter egg hunt, free food, prize drawing, and the Easter Peep, will all be part of the fun and frivolity on Saturday, not Sunday, at Discover Church. The sermon on Saturday will be about The Cross where you can, “Find out some eye opening facts about the cross and how it is affecting our culture today.” ***
– If you go to Mecklenburg Community Church in North Carolina, you may be asked to ponder this simple question: “What if . . . we make an Easter promo video that excludes any mention of Jesus Christ?”
– If you go to Momentum Church in Georgia, you will be subjected to a mockery of Jesus Christ and a man in a bunny suit punching people for eating chocolate . . . all in one video (which is a complete rip-off of the 6th video in this post)
– If you go to Christ Church in Montgomery, Alabama, you’ll be subjected to this juvenile idiocy.
– If you go to Calvary Church in Irving Texas, you can be involved in this stupid pastoral stunt.
– If you go to Converge Family Church in California, you’ll get a dose of potty humor.
– If you go to Revolution Church in Canton, Georgia, you can learn all about “Jesus” the rebel (and perhaps what the risen Savior has to do with motorcycles).
– If you go to The Gathering in Tennessee, your Easter sermon will be Wimpy Jesus Has Gotta Go.
– If you go to Granger in Illinois, your Easter sermon will be Sync: Your Life in Rhythm.
– If you go to The Orchard in Illinois, the sermon will also be all about you: Livin’ Venti, complete with a helicopter Easter egg drop.
– And finally, if you go to Velocity Church in Powder Springs, Georgia, your Resurrection Sunday service sermon will be a series entitled Beer, Babes, and Baseball.
The God-mocking hirelings are out of control and the goats are loving it!
Maranatha, Lord Jesus!
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 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. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.– 2 Timothy 4:1-5
That time has come!
Your Sermon(s) of the week: “The Cupp” and “The Resurrection of Jesus” by C.J. Mahaney.
For this Wednesday’s sermon of the week you will not receive the usual one sermon, but two! In honor of Resurrection Sunday I have chosen to post the following two powerful messages by C.J. Mahaney on Jesus’ suffering and resurrection.
Quotes (512)
It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.
– Hudson Taylor
1832 – 1905
Film review: “Fireproof”
I never imagined I’d watch this film let alone actually like it enough to recommend it. My wife procured this movie well over a month ago and it sat collecting dust that whole time until last week. We finally sat down and watched it and I must say I was quite impressed. The story was engaging, the acting well done, and it contained a decent Gospel presentation. Overall it was truly inspiring, encouraging, and challenging for couples in their marriages to be better husbands and wives to their spouses. The film also drove home the concept of doing what’s right no matter the odds, resistance, and obstacles. I wholeheartedly recommend this film.
Here’s a clip from the movie:
Quotes (511)
Few things are so distasteful to the proud human heart as the truth that God does as He pleases, without consulting with the creature; that He dispenses His favors entirely according to His imperial will. Fallen man has no claims upon Him, is destitute of any merit, and can do nothing whatever to win God’s esteem.
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
Christ Alone Wyoming 