Thanks to Scot McKnight for bringing this to my attention.
The Hartford Institute for Religion Research has come up with a report about the people who attend Megachurches.
One thing that stood out to me was the reasons people initially attended the churches:
1. The worship style
2. The senior pastor
3. The church’s reputation
The reasons people continued to attend?
1. The senior pastor
2. The worship style
3. The church’s reputation
I find that quite scary. What a burden to lay on the senior pastor for one thing. What a sad list of reasons for another. And where is Jesus in all this? I didn’t hear one mention…
That headline sounds like a fantastic business model, doesn’t it?
McDonalds has near achieved world domination using these concepts. It strikes me as a problem, though, when followers of Jesus use those same values.
OK, this isn’t new. But I’ve been reading a novel over the past couple of weeks by Francine Rivers, called And the Shofar Blew. It’s a fantastic novelisation of the slow change that a pastor goes through from on-fire young man to CEO of an empire. So much of it is very true, both in my own experience and the experiences of good friends.
Then I read this today from the Sydney Morning Herald:
SYDNEY, London, Kiev, Paris, Cape Town, Stockholm, Moscow … and now Brisbane.
The languid Queensland capital has become the latest stop in Brian and Bobbie Houston’s odyssey to franchise their pentecostal Hillsong Church around the world.
Mr Houston has resigned as president of the Australian Christian Churches, a position he held for 12 years, to focus on the “multisite” expansion of Hillsong. And that, coupled with the controversial move interstate, has prompted speculation that Hillsong is ramping up its domestic network of churches, ready to pounce on churches struggling amid the global financial crisis.
Garden City Christian Church on Brisbane’s southside will be renamed Hillsong Brisbane Campus and the Houstons installed as senior pastors there on May 24, after 79 per cent of Garden City members voted in favour of the takeover.
An information document circulated before the vote said the Houstons had chosen to move into Brisbane because “it is a fast growing area with great potential for the Gospel”.
….
Garden City’s senior pastor for eight years, Bruce Hills, was forced out before the arrival of the Houstons. Garden City Christian Church announced Mr Hills’s resignation in December, amid criticism that the church was not growing enough. Yet in an address to a Christian conference at Easter, Mr Hills revealed he had a nervous breakdown last September. “Emotionally I just imploded,” he said.
When he returned from eight weeks’ leave, Garden City Christian Church elders told him: “We’d rather have more of a CEO leader than you. We’d like you to resign.”
Describing it as “the deepest, darkest experience I’ve ever been through”, Mr Hills said he was “really angry about what these people had done”.
Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’ve become far too cynical. But doesn’t this ring some alarm bells in anybody? What is wrong with our churches when this is normal and seen as a healthy move into the future?
Man Burning In Hell Wishes He Hadn’t Snickered At Religious Leaflet
AUGUST 16, 2000
LAKE OF FIRE, HELL–Eternally tormented soul Brent Woodson, who is currently being pressed between white-hot slabs of iron, expressed “profound regret” Monday that he had laughed at the Jack Chick anti-homosexuality tract Doom Town, handed to him by a street evangelist moments before he was fatally struck by a bus. “I guess I shouldn’t have cracked up at the cartoon drawing of gay guys as burly, hairy bikers with lipstick and pompadours,” said Woodson, his charred entrails spilling out onto the rocky floor of the Netherworld while barb-toothed demons gnawed at his extremities. “I’m not laughing now, that’s for sure. That Jack Chick guy is no kook.”
Yes, the Deconstructed Christian blog has added a second year to its short life already. How time flies!
Thank you all for another amazing year. I have appreciated your input into my life immeasurably. You have become friends, family, community and I am so grateful for that.
We have had an amazing lead up to Easter this year. Each day with our children we have read part of the Easter story, done an activity and added a charm to the girls’ “Easter Necklaces”. By tomorrow they’ll both have the full story of Easter to wear around their necks and to proclaim to the world that Christ is risen.
Yesterday we attended a local inter-church Stations of the Cross at a small football ground. Walking around to each station, singing a capella and pausing to reflect on each part of Jesus’ journey was an important time for us. Although I’ve never been brought up with liturgy as part of my church experience I really enjoyed the time of reflection. It was one of those times that gave me “new eyes to see” in a way, without music blaring or slick preachers or any kind of professionalism it felt like pilgrims walking together, worshipping together and spending time in prayer together.
Tomorrow we will be celebrating Easter knowing full well why we are doing so, and I think both my girls now understand that it’s not about the chocolate. We will be attending an Easter Party with some families from our church community too, following some traditions from around the world and exchanging blessings from one family to another. I’m really looking forward to having time to stop and reflect again rather than rushing through our Easter day with eggs and gifts and meals and easter cakes and more meals. Not that there’s anything wrong with those things, but it leaves out an important part – the worship.
After all, that’s what we’re here for.
To all those celebrating the Risen Christ tomorrow I pray blessings on your and your families.
The Cat Empire sings a song called “The Crowd”. As often happens, God speaks to me through this what some people I know would call “secular” song.
Here are the lyrics, or you could go watch it on Youtube.
Lord unchain my hands
Let me sing inside the crowded trams
Let me dance among the traffic jams
We’re going to sleep on the St Kilda sands
Lord unbind my feet
Let me mingle with the good people we meet
Water rising up into the street
Unbind my feet
‘The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet black bough
Ezra Pound found the formula
Our houses are rectangular
But life is curved not angular
So when things start to strangular
Remember rain still falls on the halls of power
New babies being born every hour
And the eagle keeps watch on the old clock tower
Over me…
Lord unchain my hands
Let me sing inside the crowded trams
Let me dance among the traffic jams
We’re going to sleep on the St Kilda sands
Lord unbind my feet
Let me mingle with the good people we meet
Water rising up into the street
Unbind my feet
On the train I refrain from sitting with head and shoulders bowed
They told me time is of the essence, no wandering allowed
But then I saw a pretty girl whose features stood out in the crowd
Went ten minutes past my stop waiting for her to look around
I’m just another clown kicking around in Melbourne town
Cooling out, relaxing watching the world go round
So if you ever have the time and you want to go drink some wine
I’d rather greet you with a smile than greet you with a frown…
Lord unchain my hands
Let me sing inside the crowded trams
Let me dance among the traffic jams
We’re going to sleep on the St Kilda sands
Lord unbind my feet
Let me mingle with the good people we meet
Water rising up into the street
Unbind my feet
This song has so much of my cry in it. Why are my hands chained and my feet bound? What is it that makes me pause instead of sing and be “sensible” instead of dance? I want to mingle with the people I meet and greet them with a smile and be free to share life with them. I want to dance among the traffic jams rather than scream in frustration when things are going wrong.
Lord, unbind my feet. Help me free myself to sing and dance and live and love and worship.
Sorry for getting bad 80s music in your heads (actually I’m not really that sorry), but I thought I’d let you know I’m off on holiday (that’s vacation to you US peoples) for a week with little or no internet acces. Hence there shall be no blogging.
In case you were wondering where I’d got to, we’re going with our little family to Phillip Island, which is a little island sitting off the bottom of Victoria. Not Tasmania, that one you can see on world maps – a teeny weeny one with penguins and koalas and beautiful beaches and stuff.
Looking forward to it! Now I must go finish washing and start packing…
Women have an inherent strength. I don’t know what it is, but it’s the basis to what we are and why we can do so much. Men have a different coping mechanism – I’m not about to be down on them. I’m no feminist, I believe both men and women have very different but very complementary strengths, weaknesses and views of the world.
When women marry and have kids we tend put ourselves last so much – get our kids rugged up but forget to take our jacket on the way out the door, buy new clothing for everybody else while walking around in our old jeans, take the smaller portion, the bigger responsibility, and when we’re offered help we say “Oh, that’s OK, I’m fine” while simultaneously making a meal for somebody we deem more in need than ourselves. OK, I know that’s a generalisation – the same as “women like shoes” (I don’t!) – but there really are a lot of us who do that.
I used to think it was a bad thing, and it can be when it goes too far and we forget about our actual needs and become doormats for the world, but some of it I think is part of who we are and how we’re made up.
Jesus showed these “feminine” traits so much, these aspects of the feminine side of God. He showed grace rather than vengeance and peace rather than swords – in fact, he almost never showed his outward “masculine” strength. But most of all he showed the first as the last and lifted up the last to be first. It works exactly the same with us. The phrase “If Mum isn’t happy, nobody’s happy” is very true. The one who forgets her jacket and shivers through the kids sport practice is the one who also holds things together. The one who cries for her children is the same woman who will show unbelievable strength when fighting for the justice of another. There is no weakness in her. I believe it’s God’s way of showing us, every day through normal life, this basis of the Kingdom of God.
The Old Testament women were the same. Look at Ruth, Miriam, Rahab, Esther and so many others. They changed their worlds and many of them created the lineage of Christ, they showed absolute strength and determination and fought for justice. And yet they never once picked up a sword to do it.
The last shall be first and the first shall be last.
We are blessed to be the evidence of that, and our inherent strength is what allows us to be so.
And one last word in honour of International Womens Day:
This post is part of a Synchroblog for International Womens Day which was suggested by Julie.
What on earth is going on when we’re getting earthquakes in Melbourne???
I thought it was an explosion at first – much more likely around here. Apparently it was a 4.7 about 70 – 80km from here – would have been about 3.5 by the time it got to us. Nothing serious, just gave me a jump and made some pictures swing a bit on the walls. Just wondering what’s happening when we get record-breaking floods in Queensland, record-breaking fires in Victoria and now an earthquake.
Yesterday we listened to U2’s new album No Line on the Horizon. I’m still undecided as to how much I like it, but a few of the lyrics jumped out at me – most especially some from a song oddly titled Stand Up Comedy:
I can stand up for hope, faith, love
But while I’m getting over certainty
Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady
Out from under your beds
C’mon ye people
Stand up for your love
That one line, the imagery of helping God across the road like a little old lady, made me stop and think. How much do we water down a powerful and strong God to fit into our own circumstances and life? How much do we negate his power by our attitudes and actions?
His love isn’t just some little thing – it has the power to turn the world on its head, to set people free of the chains around their lives, to make our lives some small reflection of himself.
Yet because of our own inadequacies, fear and doubt we make it less than it is. There is nothing wrong with the fear and doubt, but there is everything wrong with it controlling us. We help love across the road instead of just letting it be as it is, and we hide under our beds. I’m squashed in there myself. Lord, help me to stand up, and to understand what love really is. And to do it.
My eight year old daughter Stephanie has decided to enter a photography competition for primary school aged kids. I let her loose in the backyard for half an hour, then together we sifted through the photos. She came up with some amazing shots and we’ve shortlisted it to three – but she’s only allowed to enter one. Now she wants me to show them to “everybody” to see what they think. So here they are:
Hay guys Ceiling Cat doeznt like us makin favrits. If a cat comes an haz liek a cookie an other cat only has veggiez Dont sayz to cookie cat “Hay ur ma favrit lol” and to veggie cat liek “U haz veggie soz I don’t like u.” That means u is judgin an thatz bad k?
Ceiling Cat totally sed cats with no cheezburger on urth haz lots of cheezburgers in ceiling if they luv Ceiling Cat. But u iz mean to cat wit no cheezburger. Cats wit cheezburger and cookie is the onez who are liek mean to u. Thay dont like Ceiling Cat and so they iz the bad ones k?
If u luvz other kitteh as much as u luvz urself, thats good. But if u iz like “I like this kitteh moar than that kitteh” u iz breakin’ the ruls. Even if u iz like good most of teh times, but one time is like “oh noes, I brake a rule” then itz like u brake all the rulz. Ceiling Cat sed “Dont liek hurt each other k” but also “Dont take each otherz cookie k”. So if u iz liek “Im in ur kitchn takn ur cookiez” but doesnt hurt other kitteh, uz is still brakin’ rulz.
So do wat tha ruls say cos Ceiling Cat will b rly hard on cat who haz been mean to other kitteh. Luv winz.
Its no use if cat is liek “Hay Ceiling Cat I believe u is in mah ceiling” but cat dusnt do good things. Kittehs belief iznt gonna halp. Srsly. If ur friend is teh hungriez and u is like “I want you to eat” but iz not giving him a cheezburger, u r useless. So liek thinking Ceiling Cat iz in ceiling is useless if u r not halping other kittehs.
Between Lucaslabrador posts. I know some of you cringe, and feel free not to press play on the video if you can’t bring yourself to, but this was so bordering on hilarity I just had to post it.
In this video, dripping with the intellectual wit and understanding he is famous for, BroJustin (formerly Lucaslabrador) tells us these gems:
“After divorcing his wife, after her adultery [Heather's note: brought on by the fact that he got "soundly saved" and turned into a mini-Lucaslabrador] got himself another girlfriend. Nice girl. Church girl. And this church girl, attractive, pleasant enough, you know, suitable, marriage material perhaps you could say, this soundly saved young man took this girl to a meeting of a few people I know, who are also soundly saved, to Bible studies. And she immediately started kicking up and there was a problem. Not in the meetings, you understand. She was too clever for that. The friends who go to this group said there’s no way she’s saved. She’s just a church girl. And our friends told me that this soundly born again chap is now saying there’s a distance between them because she didn’t like his friends, i.e. this soundly saved, real christian group… This young man and this group have prayed that this young woman would disappear and leave this young man alone because she is not born again, and under no circumstances are you to ever marry someone who is not of the same spirit.”
Fantastic. Way to break up a marriage in the name of God! They may just as easily have said “She doesn’t like us because we question her salvation and believe her to be tantamount to a man-grabbing whore, so <i>obviously</i> she doesn’t have the spirit of God in her”. With friends like these… Geez.
“Unsaved church girls are absolutely everywhere, and they are desperate to get their hands on a genuinely saved man, and because the spirit that is within them will destroy you if you marry her.”
Oh, absolutely. They have their talons out ready to devour “genuinely saved men”. Honestly, if the man is anything like old Lucaslabrador any normal woman would run a mile! Especially if he has “friends” (term used loosely) like those above.
“I am totally against interracial marriage.”
Of course he is. Want to hear his full and total justification of this?
“It looks wrong, it is wrong, it feels wrong, and everybody knows it’s wrong.”
Yep, there goes that logic and sound reasoning again. Amazing, isn’t it? The guy should apply to Mensa.
I have been getting so wasted on Jesus lately. It’s so awesome. Even as I’m trying to type, I can barely keep
my eyes open. Some people ask what being drunk in the Spirit is all about. Some call it “toking the Ghost”, “Mainlining Jesus”, “Taking a ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ tab”. But that may not be your language. If you have come from a drug culture you would understand when someone says that God will peace you out better than marijuana, that Jesus is better than ecstasy. But you may not understand, if you didn’t come from a drug culture. So, from one who has never drank or done drugs at any point in my life (unless you count when I was 5 years old and my neighbour offered me a drink of his strange pop), let me try to explain it.
When I behold Jesus in his glory, the radiance of it penetrates me, and I fall into myself, meeting the Spirit on the way down, who overwhelms me with his love, joy, and peace in a most exquisite way. It shakes me to my core and makes me feel like I can fly (to heaven). It is a most intense peace, a radical love, and a most joyous reveletion.
If that sounds intense and a little crazy. It is!! Ecstasy is to become so focused on something to the exclusion of all other things. Ecstasy is supposed to be the regular state of man; to, as the song says, “Turn our eyes upon Jesus and the things of this world will grow strangely dim”.
You know what, it’s just too hard to explain it You have to experience it. So here is your homework, give yourself at least 30 minutes to enjoy the ecstasy of God and keep asking God “I want to know the ecstasy of your love.” over and over again. Get stirred up, and then suddenly stop (after a few minutes) and let God fill you. repeat until thoroughly drunk
No, I certainly didn’t write that. But somebody else did, and posted it on their blog.
Do that homework and you’ll certainly start feeling something. Not God, most likely, but something called Critical Paranoia. Here is an exercise from a website devoted to that phenomenon, otherwise called Self Induced Psychosis:
Exercise 2: Focused concentration until the bathroom floor rises to your occasion.
Find a bathroom with tile floors and subdued fluorescent lighting.
The bathroom tiles one half inch by on half inch are preferable.
The tiles with the speckles are preferable.
Find an empty stall and sit on the toilet.
Sit so you are comfortable.
Stare at the floor in front of you through the bottom edge of the closed stall door.
Stare until columns of tiles oscillate rapidly back and forth, chaotically at first, but more rhythmically in passing.
Move your eyes towards your feet to perceive rows of tiles moving against the columns.
Observe the speckled patters for insights as to the flux of images now ready to be accepted upon your retina.
No, that’s not God either, but it works regardless.
Now as a finale watch this. Embedding is disabled so you’ll have to click through to Youtube to see it, but this one is worth watching. It’s an atheist magician/psychologist who manages to convince a room full of atheists that they are having something very similar to a “conversion” experience, with falling down Benny Hinn style. The rest of the parts are worth watching too.
I have wondered for a while how many of our experiences really are God-induced and how many are simply self-induced or from mass hysteria. I’ve blogged about it before, but it still bugs me. We are highly suggestible beings, but I wonder where the line of belief and gullibility fits together.
I want God and only God – not a bunch of manufactured experiences. But sometimes it’s difficult to figure out which is which.
The media are treating this fire as if it were over, but it’s not. There are still huge dangers and the CFA is working non-stop to try to contain the fires.
Despite what you hear on the media, not a single one of the major fires are even contained, let alone controlled. They have a few days respite to backburn and try to build some containment lines before the heat and wind picks up again on the weekend.
Prayer is still needed. It’s not over until every one of those major fires is controlled. It could take weeks. Until then, communities will still be in danger and any twist of the wind could be disastrous.
The current official death toll is 181, but people are saying it will definitely rise to well over 200 and possibly up to 300. They believe one in five Marysville residents died – at least 100 people, but they are still searching for bodies in that area.
Talk of arson is very high in the news. They think that perhaps the Marysville fire was deliberately lit, along with others.
The photograph is one taken near where I used to live in North East Victoria, and in the area of the Beechworth fire where several of my family members still live. It’s scary seeing the hills on fire like that.
The small town of Marysville an hour and a half East of here is gone. There are three houses still standing solitary reminders of what was once a beautiful tourist town.
Kinglake, another town a similar distance away is also gone, swallowed up by fireballs.
Whole chunks of Whittlesea and even parts of the city of Bendigo and Narre Warren, a suburb half an hour from us, are also no longer. Narre Warren! It’s a suburb of Melbourne, for God’s sake! You’d think in Narre Warren you’d be fine.
The death toll as of this moment is 84. It’s climbing rapidly. By tomorrow morning it will probably be over a hundred. Over 800 houses are confirmed lost – that too will rise.
The fire in the North East of Victoria where many family members live is still not even controlled. Those towns that disappeared could have been the one where my sister lives, where my parents in law live. I am physically shaking just thinking about it.
They’re calling it Black Saturday, worse than Ash Wednesday in 1983 and Australia’s worst ever bushfire disaster. The video on the news looks like something out of a warzone. They are interviewing sobbing people who ran for their lives from a fire that swallowed up their homes in moments. Children look around them, traumatised and blackened with ash. Grandmothers are mourning the loss of the homes their children and grandchildren grew up in. One grandmother was looking after her grandchild – she escaped but the child didn’t. That woman will live with guilt for the rest of her life. Thousands of people will never be the same.
Such is the state of Victoria today. I am numb with disbelief. I don’t know what to think. I don’t even know what to pray any more. I keep saying “God….” and I just can’t get any further.
This is a screen dump of today’s weather in Melbourne and surrounds from the Bureau of Meteorology’s website. Yes, it really was that hot. The hottest temperature ever recorded in an Australian city. Scary stuff.
It’s finally cooled down now, as you can see from the current temperature – but that high temp over on the right is off the charts. 46.4. That’s 115 F. Seriously insane. I was out for only minutes at a time today, and the moment I stepped outside I could feel my skin burning. Instant suntan stuff. Needless to say I didn’t hang around!
But to other things – half of Victoria is on fire. 14 are confirmed dead and they are expecting that number to rise to at least 40. Over a hundred homes have been lost, and that’s only so far. I just heard that a good friend’s mother was driving to escape a fire front and witnessed a family of five’s car flip over and burst into flames. There was no help because the firefighters are elsewhere. When they announce on the radio (as they did on my way home tonight) a list of communities are under threat but can not expect fire trucks to be in attendance because there are just not enough to go round it’s a very grim picture.
What is with the weird Googling lately? Usually it’d be longer between these kinds of posts, but there have been so many bizarre search terms I had to share.
the lord loves a snappy dresser – Of course – who doesn’t! Pity about the homeless guy though. The Lord doesn’t think quite so much of him.
hymns that go with suffering – Like a good merlot and a slice of brie.
macaroni and cheese deconstructed – Hey, that’s what my daughter used to do when she was two!
my boyfriend isn’t christian – Oops! Better dump him quick before the evil rubs off.
christian baggage talk – “Suitcases, briefcases, gym bags…”
mark of the beast and mentality – Um, huh?
how to come out of the feeling of repentance – Go do something bad again. That always works!
how to leave the feeling of repenting – See above.
reasons why christian goes to church – The coffee.
short hair for women is unchristian – Absolutely!
mark of the beast may 2009 – Yep, that’s when it’s going to happen. We have a few months left of freedom before the branding irons come out.
let love my boyfriend come to me lord – No, you need that angel with the bow and arrow thingy.
“life model” genitals - Ew! *side note – how on earth did this search end up here???!*
guy dancing naked to you spin me right round – Ew again! If that’s on Youtube I so don’t want to know about it.
A four year old child had her life taken from her this week. It was a tragedy, probably one of the biggest my city has ever seen, and one that has swept the globe because it’s so heartbreaking.
I am just a spectator from the sidelines. I listened in shock to the news filtering through talkback radio and watched the news several times that day and the next to try to make sense of it. It has effected me more than I thought it would, as it has the thousands of others who didn’t know this child but have mourned her nonetheless.
But my brother Josh was not just hearing news filter through. He was there, one of the police officers called to the scene.
Please read his blog post about it, and please pray for him as he tries to make sense from the senseless and process the unthinkable.
And pray for the family too. This child had two brothers, a mother, grandparents – and a very disturbed father who probably needs our prayers more than anybody.
Thanks to Scot McKnight for bringing this to my attention.
That headline sounds like a fantastic business model, doesn’t it?
Man Burning In Hell Wishes He Hadn’t Snickered At Religious Leaflet
Yes, the Deconstructed Christian blog has added a second year to its short life already. How time flies!
We have had an amazing lead up to Easter this year. Each day with our children we have read part of the Easter story, done an activity and added a charm to the girls’ “Easter Necklaces”. By tomorrow they’ll both have the full story of Easter to wear around their necks and to proclaim to the world that Christ is risen.
The Cat Empire sings a song called “The Crowd”. As often happens, God speaks to me through this what some people I know would call “secular” song.
Sorry for getting bad 80s music in your heads (actually I’m not really that sorry), but I thought I’d let you know I’m off on holiday (that’s vacation to you US peoples) for a week with little or no internet acces. Hence there shall be no blogging.
Hay guys Ceiling Cat doeznt like us makin favrits. 
You have to experience it. So here is your homework, give yourself at least 30 minutes to enjoy the ecstasy of God and keep asking God “I want to know the ecstasy of your love.” over and over again. Get stirred up, and then suddenly stop (after a few minutes) and let God fill you. repeat until thoroughly drunk 
The media are treating this fire as if it were over, but it’s not. There are still huge dangers and the CFA is working non-stop to try to contain the fires.
The small town of Marysville an hour and a half East of here is gone. There are three houses still standing solitary reminders of what was once a beautiful tourist town.
What is with the weird Googling lately? Usually it’d be longer between these kinds of posts, but there have been so many bizarre search terms I had to share.
