| Poster | Thread | SimpleLiving
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Joined: 2008/1/11
Posts: 375
Minnesota, USA
| | Entertainment in the Pulpit | | There are a series of five, short video clips on You Tube about entertainment in the pulpit. This link leads to [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn0vVzEbF1s]Clip #1.[/url] They're done by a group called White Horse Inn. (I'm unfamiliar with them.)
I expected the clips of today's churches doing things like this, but then they go back to classic preachers and show how the church helped bring this trend of entertainment in the pulpit about. Even then, I wasn't surprised... until I got to [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-npT3c_zpDg&feature=related]Clip #2[/url] where they lay into Charles Finney, saying that he came into town the same way the circus did and was quite a showman. So much so that churches started to mimic his "performances."
Being new to this, I wanted to know what others thought of these clips. Who is "White Horse Inn"? Are these things true about Charles Finney? I just have a really hard time grasping this.
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Keith
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|  2008/2/15 22:55 | Profile | tjservant
Member
Joined: 2006/8/25
Posts: 1658
Indiana USA
| | Re: Entertainment in the Pulpit | | Quote:
Being new to this, I wanted to know what others thought of these clips. Who is "White Horse Inn"? Are these things true about Charles Finney? I just have a really hard time grasping this.
Have not watched clips, but...
The White Horse Inn is a nationally syndicated radio talk show hosted by Michael Horton, Rod Rosenbladt, Kim Riddlebarger and Ken Jones. On the air since 1990, the show features a regular roundtable discussion of Christian theology and apologetics.(taken from site)
Highly regarded
especially among the Reformed theological crowd.
As for Finney...
He catches a lot
from a lot of people. Im sure others with far more knowledge than I will have something to say about him.
Grace and peace brother
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TJ
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| | 2008/2/15 23:14 | Profile | ginnyrose
Member
Joined: 2004/7/7
Posts: 7534
Mississippi
| | Re: Entertainment in the Pulpit | | Keith,
Thanks so very much for posting this link! I had no idea entertainment in popular churches is this bad...it just about makes me sick. Presently, I am too upset to post any more rational thoughts on the subject.
Hope this info gets a broader audience and perhaps in the process convict some...
Blessings,
ginnyrose
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Sandra Miller
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| | 2008/2/16 11:52 | Profile |
| | Re: | | Quote:
I had no idea entertainment in popular churches is this bad...
It's really bad. A recent trend lately is to give "sexual satisfaction" center stage, and this is meant to attract people to come to church.
Ask my wife... I'm not a prude when it comes to marriage, and a God honoring relationship between a husband and a wife... but what is happening in the church today is way out of line.
For instance:
CHARLOTTE SOUTH FELLOWSHIP IN MATHEWS, NORTH CAROLINA, featured a five week series in February 2007 called "Sex Crazy." Two of the messages were "Single and Sexually Satisfied" and "Raising Sexually Satisfied Kids."
In February-March 2007 EASTLAKE COMMUNITY CHURCH IN KIRKLAND, WASHINGTON, had a "Thank God for Sex" campaign. Sermons titles included "Sex is Good" and "Learn Some New Moves."
ROCKY RIVER COMMUNITY CHURCH IN CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA, had a "Desperate Sex Lives" campaign in February-March 2007. They fretted that "the only time most churches talk about sex is when they speak against it" and promised to "bring sex out of the dark and into the light."
REVOLUTION CHURCH IN CANTON, GEORGIA, also got into the sex campaign business. To accompany the sermon series they used secular rock, including "Feel Like Making Love" by Bad Company and "Your Body is a Wonderland" by John Mayer. In his message on "Creative Sex" Pastor Gary Lamb said things that cannot be quoted here.
GRANGER COMMUNITY CHURCH IN GRANGER, INDIANA, had a "My Lame Sex Life" campaign featuring billboards with two pair of feet in a very suggestive configuration. One sermon title was "The Greatest Sex You'll Ever Have."
CORNERSTONE CHURCH IN CHANDLER, ARIZONA, had a "Bringing Sexy Back" campaign in August -September 2007. One of the sermon titles was "Greatest Sex Ever."
THE GATHERING IN SEVIERVILLE, TENNESSEE, had a "Red Hot Sex" campaign in October 2007. It claimed that a "red hot sex life empowers every part of marriage." One sermon title by Pastor Gene Wolfenbarger was "God has designed you for sex and how to make it hot."
REVOLUTION CHURCH IN LONGBEACH, CALIFORNIA, kicked off their "God Loves Sex" campaign in July 2007 with a "sex party." The web site explained, "Nothing dirty or weird--just an opportunity to celebrate God's gift of sex and intimacy." The advertisement said, "God wants you to have great sex," and one of the sermon titles was "Leather, Whips and Whip Cream."
OAKLEAF CHURCH IN CARTERSVILLE, GEORGIA, had a "Your Great Sex Life" campaign in March 2007. The advertisement complained that "the church either ignores sex or brings down a judgmental hammer." (On December 23 this "church" is featuring "A Rockin' Christmas Eve Eve.")
Brothers and sisters, this is carnal and foolish and wicked. Bible-believing churches have always taught God's people what the Bible says about sexual relations, but there is no place for this type of thing. What about the single people who attend these campaigns? What are they supposed to do when the church focuses on great sex! In spite of the churches' claims to the contrary, these campaigns are not holy and are not faithful to God's Word. The Bible never deals with this issue in a shocking or lascivious manner.
"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4).
Krispy
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| | 2008/2/18 9:16 | | Nellie
Member
Joined: 2004/4/5
Posts: 952
| | Re: | | May God be merciful to these people.
I didn't realize these things were being taught in Ga., but realized long ago that we aren't the Bible belt, as some would say.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
God Bless all.
Nellie |
| | 2008/2/18 10:53 | Profile | enid
Member
Joined: 2006/5/22
Posts: 2680
Nottingham, England
| | Re: Entertainment in the Pulpit | | There is a church currently having a 30 day sex challenge.
Don't ask for links. I didn't watch the video, I just read the headline. That was enough for me.
God bless. |
| | 2008/2/18 11:14 | Profile | crsschk
Member
Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA
| | Over the rails | | Tell me this isn't true ... Have re-written this a handful of times, it seems almost like something out of some fantastical imagination wanting to bring reproach on the faithful ... If only it were so!
I am just stunned, staggered ... tear the robe, sit down in dust and ashes ... weep between the porch and altar ... Oh God
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Mike Balog
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| | 2008/2/18 11:22 | Profile |
| | Re: Over the rails | | Sadly it is true. Our local news here in Asheville even did a piece on that church mentioned over in Sevierville TN, and the one in Charlotte. The church in Sevierville made the news because they went so far as to mail fliers out to everyone in town and rented a billboard... and people complained about it because their children saw it in the mail and on the billboard.
Isnt that pathetic? The world has to tell the church when they have crossed the line of public lewdness.
Krispy |
| | 2008/2/18 11:45 | | SimpleLiving
Member
Joined: 2008/1/11
Posts: 375
Minnesota, USA
| | Re: | | I'll be honest with you, I'm not shocked by this at all. I did, however, come out of the Word of Faith movement which is all about emotions and self. Yes, it's horrible, and yes it's wretched, but what else can we expect from the world? Even a worldly, deceived church? What I've always found particularly disgusting is how the entertainment-driven church has come to embrace the world's insults by labeling [i]themselves[/i] "Jesus Freaks." If they only knew whose name they were attaching the world "freak" to! These people are lost.
What I was hoping someone might know a bit about, is how these video clips addressed Charles Finney. In Clip 2 (previously linked to) and [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B18xXCo-TJk&feature=related]Clip 3[/url] They go into how he was quite wild and was very much a showman in his days, likening him to a circus.
This is part of what this series of clips is about: How some of the early churches helped usher in this age of entertainment in the pulpit. They talk about Aimee Semple McPherson, but I've already read about her background. If she were alive today, she'd surely be in the Word of Faith movement. But it just shocked me about Charles Finney because of his writings. When I read Finney's writings and then hear this background about him, it doesn't compute in my head. It's like two completely different people.
This post is long enough. I'll leave it with my question about Finney. I have another question that I'd like to bring up in the next post.
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Keith
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| | 2008/2/18 12:43 | Profile |
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