Porn and paper pastors. Who is really your pastor?
“Now, some professed Christians sin outright, by never physically attending an actual, in-person church. We’ve talked about that, and they aren’t our focus. But others do attend a church — physically. They come in, they sit down. They sing, they may give financially. They may look at you, Pastor, as you preach.
“But you know their heart belongs to another.
“Their real pastor isn’t you. It’s Dave Hunt. Or it’s John Piper. Or it’s John MacArthur, or Ligon Duncan, or Mark Dever, or David Cloud, or Joel Osteen. Or it’s Charles Spurgeon, or D. M. Lloyd-Jones, or J. C. Ryle. Or Calvin, or Luther, or Bahnsen, or de Mar, or R. B. Thieme, or J. Vernon McGee.”
Poly/Econ
On his first visit to the Vatican since his divorce with Diana, Prince Charles will be receiving facsimile copies of petitions to annul Henry VIII’s marriage. For those who are not familiar with that story, it was the point in religious history where Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation era.
Since we talked about it at one point, this professor at Brigham Young University thinks brick-and-mortar universities will be obsolete and replaced by pre-made, recorded content (such as podcasts).The Quiet Coup: Former IMF chief economist discusses the US economy:
The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.
More Police
Tempe pastor: Border Patrol beat him at checkpointNo Cause for Arrest
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Interesting article about one’s relationship with one’s pastor. I appreciate the point the author is making–did he include all those smooth-talking TV preachers in the list, too?
On the other hand, the kind of relationship he is aiming for isn’t really possible unless one attends a fairly small church, small enough so that the pastor actually does know your name and doesn’t have to spread himself impossibly thin. (The blog’s author calls it a “manageable-sized church.”) I think the relationships in many “small groups” (aka home groups, cell groups, fellowship groups, etc) is where most of that caring and accountability happens. At least that’s been the case for me.
Agreed.
I agree with you guys, but I think the point he makes is quite valid. I used to attend a very large church where there were literally thousands of members. Although I didn’t know the pastor personally, he did know who I was. And I became familiar with him as a spiritual leader. This same pastor now has a television program. (He didn’t at the time I attended.) If someone were to watch his television program and read his books, yet never faithfully attend his church, that would be quite different from being a member of the church in regular attendance, even though it is very large.
I would assume most large churches like this do have cell groups, and although they may not have personal interaction with the pastor, ideally the cell groups would share the same vision as the pastor.