Las Vegas Ex-Pastor, Teacher Pleads Guilty in Child Sex Case

May 5, 2022

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A church pastor and former elementary school teacher from Las Vegas has pleaded guilty to a child sex crime in a plea agreement that avoids trial and is expected to get him two to 20 years in state prison when he is sentenced Aug. 15.

Reynaldo Cruz Crespin, 59, pleaded guilty Monday in Clark County District Court to attempted lewdness with a child under 14, court records show. Several other charges were dismissed.

Crespin also may be sentenced to lifetime supervision as a sex offender, under terms of his plea deal.

Crespin was arrested in February in Albuquerque, New Mexico, more than a week after he was named in a warrant in Las Vegas on multiple charges including sexual assault involving children under ages 16 and 14.

KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reported that Crespin taught second grade from 2016 until this year and was a pastor at New Horizon Christian Church in northeast Las Vegas. The television station said none of the charges related to his students.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Crespin and his wife, Marivic Crespin, founded the church in 2002. She filed a lawsuit in February seeking custody of their children.

A telephone call to the church on Wednesday reached a disconnected number.

This article originally appeared here.

SBC Leaders Pray for Gospel Ministry if Roe Falls

Tom Strode

May 5, 2022

SBC Leaders Pray for Gospel Ministry if Roe Falls — Willie McLaurin, interim president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, was one of several Southern Baptist leaders who gathered virtually for prayer Tuesday (May 3) following the leaked Supreme Court opinion that may signal the imminent overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision. Photo courtesy of Baptist Press.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Southern Baptist leaders asked God Tuesday (May 3) to help Christians recognize that the overturning of Roe v. Wade, if it occurs this term, will be not only a reason to rejoice but to renew Gospel-based ministry to those in need.

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) hosted an online prayer gathering one day after the publication of a leaked U. S. Supreme Court draft opinion that, if it becomes final, would strike down the 1973 Roe decision. Four other members of the high court have joined Associate Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the draft opinion, in support of reversing the nearly 50-year-old ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, according to Politico, the news organization that published the leaked document.

Before it adjourns in late June or early July, the Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision that will determine the fate of Roe, at least for now, in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which regards a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation.

Brent Leatherwood, the ERLC’s acting president, told the audience for the quickly arranged, virtual event “it is totally appropriate that we would enter into a time of prayer together as cooperating Southern Baptists who realize that this is a big moment.”

During the prayer session, Adam Greenway, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said even if Roe is overturned in the Dobbs ruling, “it does not mean that the pro-life cause can celebrate and retire. It means the challenge continues, state by state, location by location, conversation by conversation, Lord, literally person to person.”

He prayed that God “would give us the spirit of endurance to go the distance, to realize that the cause of truth and justice and life never ends [in this world], that even as great of a victory as we may experience through the Dobbs case and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there is still much, much work for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ to do.”

SBC President Ed Litton asked God to “help us to see this potential as not being an opportunity to celebrate but an opportunity to press forward, because girls will still need someone to help them in a very difficult time of decision, young men will need help becoming responsible adults and fathers, and, Lord, the communities will need adoption, will need foster care. Lord, we will still need the hope of Jesus Christ and the hope that the Gospel brings.”

“We do pray, Lord, that You would bring this scourge to a close, but Lord help us to see the opening of a great new opportunity for the Gospel and … for our people to engage,” Litton prayed.

Columnist Dana McCain, vice chair of the 2022 SBC Resolutions Committee, asked the Lord “to equip us to love the vulnerable in our midst in this moment. Lord, help us to see those women and preborn children with the eyes of Christ. Help us to love them with the love of Christ. And help us, God, to see them … with the same kind of grace and mercy that you have lavished on us, Lord.”

“Lord, equip us to offer them real alternatives to abortion, to offer them pathways where You can work in Your sovereignty and in Your power to create families through adoption and provide a way forward where there looks like there is no way forward,” McCain prayed.

She also asked God to “empower us to speak with holy conviction on behalf of preborn children, speaking for them because they depend on us, they have no voice outside of us.”

In introducing the prayer session, Leatherwood encouraged Southern Baptists to pray for the Supreme Court’s justices and clerks, including “for this seeming majority of the court to hold fast for life, for them all to be safe and secure as they continue these deliberations. The fact is [those who so far agree with overruling Roe] are going to come under a torrent of criticism, and we need to be praying for them to have the fortitude to withstand that. “

National Day of Prayer Observances to Feature In-Person Worship, Online Petitions

Adelle M Banks

May 5, 2022

(RNS) — National Day of Prayer observances, which shifted in size and location since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, will continue this year with virtual events and more in-person celebrations.

“With communities being open this year, there are a growing number of people planning in person events in 2022,” Dion Elmore, vice president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, told Religion News Service in a statement. “We are hoping to see numbers approaching what we experienced pre-covid, when there were close to 60,000 local events held from coast to coast.”

The task force will join with Pray.com in presenting a National Day of Prayer Broadcast, a 90-minute prerecorded event that will air at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Thursday (May 5) online and on Christian radio and TV outlets, including the DayStar Television Network and the Christian Broadcasting Network.

With a theme of “Exalt the Lord Who Has Established Us,” the broadcast will feature evangelical speakers such as Anne Graham Lotz, Bishop Kenneth Ulmer and Joni Eareckson Tada, along with musicians Chris Tomlin, Lecrae and Matthew West, among others. Margaret Grun Kibben, chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, will offer a prayer on behalf of government leaders, Elmore said.

The National Day of Prayer, proclaimed by Congress in 1952, has been observed since 1988 on the first Thursday in May, with a more diverse array of participants in recent years.

President Joe Biden encouraged people of different religious traditions to “join me in asking for God’s continued guidance, mercy, and protection” in a White House proclamation released on Wednesday.

“Across our diverse and cherished beliefs, on this National Day of Prayer, no matter how or whether we pray, we are all called to look outside ourselves,” he said. “Let us find in our hearts and prayers the determination to put aside our differences, come together, and truly see one another as fellow Americans.”

SBC Presidential Candidates Share Competing Visions in Church-Hosted Forum

Brandon Porter

May 5, 2022

sbc — Robin Hadaway speaks, as Bart Barber (L) and Tom Ascol (R) listen to his answer at a forum hosted by FBC Keller, Texas for the three announced SBC presidential candidates. (Baptist Press/Brandon Porter)

KELLER, Texas (BP) – In what is being called an “unprecedented gathering,” the three announced candidates for Southern Baptist Convention president spent just under two hours answering questions and interacting with one another in a candidate forum Wednesday (May 4). Tom Ascol, Bart Barber and Robin Hadaway covered topics such as Critical Race Theory, a need for reform within the trustee system among SBC entities and institutions, a call for transparency with SBC leadership and more.

“The heart behind it is to help people who don’t know about the SBC to see a little bit better how it works,” said Joe Wooddell, a member of FBC Keller and co-moderator of the event.

He said he hoped the event would help people gain an understanding of what the SBC president does, “… and to show that we can have a civil exchange in Christian love and goodwill and still adhere to truth.”

Tony Richmond, associate pastor at FBC Keller, helped moderate the forum. Candidates were given five minutes at the beginning of the forum and five minutes at the end to share freely about their personal lives and ministries as well as the topics on their minds.

The candidates were asked what their primary focus would be if they are elected SBC president.

Tom Ascol said he would place an emphasis on spiritual reformation. “I mean, quite honestly, brothers and sisters, I think we have lost the fear of God in our churches and in our convention,” he said.

He continued the call to reformation by saying that there should be a renewed focus on the law of God. He pointed to how the same God who gave the Gospel, gave the law. “If we would do that, then we would not be so confused or easily manipulated on concepts like love and justice, which we are a lot today.”

Ascol also called for structural renovation in the SBC. “We need to train our trustees to understand that they are not unpaid political relations departments for the entities that they serve. They hold the entities in trust for the churches and they need to be given the tools and the understanding of how to do that.”

He also spoke of the need to redirect the work of the Credentials Committee when it comes to churches that affirm practices that are not in line with the Baptist Faith and Message.

Barber said he would use the influence of the role to call people to listen to one another and be kind to one another as they discuss the challenging issues of the day. “If we don’t have civility, transparency and accountability aren’t going to help us very much,” he said.

“I hope to serve as president of Southern Baptist Convention in a way that emphasizes and respects the voice of the messengers, moderates the meeting in a way that that protects their rights, [and] helps them to do the best they can to bring their point of view. But then when we make the decision as the messenger body, we move forward to go with one another and we treat one another with Christian kindness and love and respect.”

Hadaway said his focus would be to call Southern Baptists to remember the mission. “We were founded to support our North American missionaries, our international missionaries, and that’s still our primary task.”

“I want to return the joy and the missions vision to the SBC, all at the same time, doing the things necessary to address the issues that might come up,” Hadaway said.

Around 80 people were in person for the event, including former SBC president and former longtime Lifeway Christian Resources President Jimmy Draper. Around 340 people tuned in online.

The forum can be watched through FBC Keller and through the ACTS 2 app.

Baptist Press will publish a fuller story on the forum soon.

This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.

Deconstruction and Filling the Gap

Mike Leake

May 5, 2022

thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

And the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.” And he divided his property between them. (Luke 15:12)

When I read that verse I think about the space between those two sentences. Dad give me my inheritance…dad gives inheritance. What happened in that gap? Think of all the ways in which the father could have responded.

For one, this request is deeply offensive. This is a rejection of the family. He’s walking away from all the family stood for, all that he had been taught. He is taking his Proverbs 6:20-21 necklace and throwing it in the weeds. Does the father bring out the guilt card in an attempt to get the son to fall into order?

It is also evident that this son is acting in foolishness. Does the father raise his voice and point out the ignorance of not only the son’s request but also his inevitable actions? Does the father sternly warn him of his coming demise—reminding him of all the Proverbs and Sirach 33 and what the elders would think of such a thing? Will he use his power and position as a father to keep the son?

Perhaps the father could be passive aggressive. “Fine, if this is what you want then this is what I’ll give you. But this is not going to go well for you and don’t come running back when you run out of money, because I won’t have any.” I suppose the father could also try to shame the younger son by comparing him to his well-behaved older brother. “Why can’t you be like your brother…”

The biblical text gives us nothing in which to fill that gap. Or does it? Can we not learn something from the father’s response to the son returning? He clearly loved his son. Would any of the above options fit the character that we see from this father? Clearly, not. The silence of that gap is intentional. The father took the risk of letting his son have his rumspringa—a time of ‘running around’. And it seems he did in silence.

I believe the silence of that gap is what encouraged the son to return. Do prodigals return to an “I told you so” father? If they are won back by anger and control are they actually won back?

The Gap and Deconstruction

If you aren’t yet familiar with the term “deconstruction” you soon will be. I could try to define it philosophically and quote people like Derrida—but that’d be nerdy and you’d get just as lost as I do when trying to understand philosophers. Besides, the philosophical concept isn’t what people mean these days when they use the term. It’s basically that a whole generation, because of various scandals, abuses, and political wrangling have begun to question whether the faith they were taught is actually believed by those who taught it. How much of this thing we call “faith” is just excess and how much of it actually has to do with Jesus?

Many are trying to untangle a ton of knots and are doing it in the context of a ton of pain. It may not be entirely accurate to call them prodigals—because many aren’t leaving their father’s home in order to party in the far country. To be a bit more accurate many are exploring the far country because the father who taught them all about the faith didn’t seem to believe it himself. They are often leaving the far country on the search for Jesus. In the parable the father’s house is rightly positioned as the place of truth and love. It wouldn’t be accurate to slide evangelicalism neatly into that spot.

Using this parable may not be exactly a one-to-one correspondence, but I do believe there is much to learn. I think we can learn from the older brother as well as the father. Many of the responses I outlined earlier are typical of how someone might respond to a person asking for the inheritance and leaving the home of evangelicalism. And those responses, I would argue, have more in common with the older brother than they do the father. The father is the one we need to learn from in this parable. And I see two actions the father makes which can help us as we navigate this season of deconstruction.

7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Online Church Experience

Eric Geiger

May 5, 2022

By now we have certainly learned that our online church experience matters! One of my favorite verses about our weekly worship gatherings is found in the Psalms:

Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation! Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving; let us shout triumphantly to him in song. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. (Psalm 95:1-3)

In the passage we see community – “us” coming together. We see intensity “shout triumphantly” and we see intentionality – as people are invited to come together and to “enter His presence.” In other words, gathering together should not be passive. And it should not be something we take for granted or something we mindlessly approach as if we are “just going through the motions.”

There have been, for many years, debates on the merit of “church online.” Admittedly, I fall in the middle of the two sides – of those who view their online church experience as fully church and those who do not stream their services out of a theological conviction. I believe we should use all the tools at our disposal, including technology, to spread the gospel. Which practically means we stream our services at the church I serve as pastor. And at the same time, I believe people miss a lot when they do not gather physically. We don’t hear each other sing. We don’t get to interact with multiple generations and cultures. We don’t get to serve the body as a whole. Which practically means I don’t refer to our online church experience as one of our campuses or as the totality of a person’s church experience.

An online church experience is a shadow of a shadow. Our regular gatherings are a shadow of the eternal gathering, where we will one day worship with people from every tribe tongue and nation in glorious bodies set free from the presence of sin. And our online gatherings are a shadow of our physical gatherings, where we will one day gather together again and hear our brothers and sisters sing. Just as our physical gatherings should help us long for the eternal gathering, I pray our online gatherings will cause us to long for physical gatherings.

We are in a moment where the shadow of the shadow is the best we have. And we should make the most of it. As we are gathering online for worship in the coming weeks, I want to encourage us to approach the worship services actively – not passively. It will take you willfully choosing to be active because the television screen has trained us to be passive.

7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Online Church Experience

1. Be ready, where you will watch, before the service begins.

Don’t have begin your online church experience with the service passively playing in the background. Set the room and make the time of worship the focus of the hour. If you can’t make it on time to online church, you will likely never make it to church when it begins. Which means you miss so much!

2. Put away other electronic devices.

If you are multi-tasking, you won’t be able to fully engage.

3. Pray that the Lord will teach you and encourage you.

Take time before the service begins to ask the Lord to speak to you.

4. Sing aloud. Yes, it feels awkward at first. But go for it!

Some people don’t sing in church because they feel embarrassed by their singing. It is just you or you and people who love you. Go for it!

5. Follow along in your Bible. Take notes.

Don’t be lazy in hearing the message (Hebrews 4:11). Press in.

6. If you normally give in the giving boxes or offering plate, give online.

Your church will not be able to function as she is functioning without God’s people being generous.

7. Reflect on the message or discuss the message with others.

I believe God will use this season to develop in us a healthy longing for our weekly worship gatherings, a longing to participate with one another, to encourage one another. Perhaps God will use this time to develop some of our worship gathering muscles. Perhaps we will grow more comfortable in singing. Perhaps we will get in the habit of being present for the whole service. Perhaps our weekly gatherings will be sweeter on the other side of this chaos.

This articloe about your online church experience originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

The Encouraging Sway of Small Group Identity

Small Group Network

May 5, 2022

Acclaimed by many as having one of the greatest theme songs in the history of television, the show Cheers follows the antics and daily lives of the employees of a Boston bar and its patrons who frequent the establishment. Through the many failed relationships, the changes in management, the transition of characters, and the numerous wacky conflicts that transpire within Sam Malone’s bar, the characters forge a community that supports one another, loves one another, and cherishes the time spent with one another. Now viewed from our perspective in the year 2022, the community and friendship displayed throughout the show Cheers has become more revered and appreciated. Perhaps one of the more appealing elements of the show may be what Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks refer to as the concept of group identity within their book, The Other Half of Church. With group identity, the focus isn’t placed so much on an individual’s beliefs, but rather the positive influence that a group can hold over one another within a community. Stemming from a healthy level of joy and hesed love, they explain that Christian group identity, especially small group identitty, “answers the questions, ‘As followers of Jesus, what kind of people are we? How do the people of God act?” Let us explore three areas of small group identity.

Small Group Identity

1. Small Group Identity that Changes our Behavior

When it comes to changing our behaviors, Wilder and Hendricks help us to understand the science behind our brain’s ability to control our willpower: “Direct willpower has little effect on our character…When we understand how God designed our brains, we can see that willpower is too far downstream to directly influence reflex reactions.” Instead of trying to use raw effort in changing our character, the two authors recommend tapping into a high-joy hesed community that possesses a strong group identity. Within our churches, the small group ministry is an ideal source for this, for the support that is available can help each of us navigate distressing scenarios and can assist us in the creation of strategies that change our daily behaviors.

The commonly known “iron sharpens iron” phrase from Proverbs 27:17 is easily applied within this context as small groups allow us to learn from others who have experienced similar seasons of life. In our last article, it was stated that one of the more dangerous tools that the enemy uses against us is the state of loneliness because he has an easier time to convince us to make poor decisions (actions that we otherwise would not have made if among others). Would Eve have made the decision to eat the apple if Adam was by her side? Would David have pursued Bathsheeba if Nathan was walking alongside of him on the rooftop that night? Group identity becomes a support net for the scenarios in our lives that tempt us to sin or to stray away from holiness. When we are vulnerable and share our hearts, our brothers and sisters in Christ are able to give us meaningful and impactful advice that can lead us to change our behaviors and to become more Christ-like.

2. Small Group Identity that Forms our Character

Another danger of being in a state of loneliness is forgetting our identity in Christ. Yet within a small group that meets on a consistent basis, Wilder and Hendricks explain that more opportunities are available for us to remind each other who we are. They elaborate, explaining that “regular reminders ground our identity in the character of Jesus. We need to tell each other what kind of people we are, not only as a reminder but also to immerse new Christians into their new identities.” Even in Cheers, we see this process as new “outsider” characters like Kristie Alley’s Rebecca, Woody Harrelson’s Woody, and Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier each come aboard in later seasons and become integrated, accepted, and then eventually acclimated into the community. Wilder and Hendricks note that “character is revealed by how we act instinctively to our relational surroundings” and that over time, “the people with whom we share joy, hesed, and belonging change us outside the realm of our direct willpower.” Just as a battery is recharged when electrical current is run through it, our faith can be recharged by spending time with fellow Christians.

3. Small Group Identity that Solidifies our Purpose

According to Scripture, each of us are born with at least one spiritual gift (1 Cor 12:7). Such gifts are not meant to be left idle, but rather meant to be shared with others whom the Lord places into our care. While some use their God-given gifts to go on to minister to the world, others are called by God to use their gifts to minister to the individual standing right next to them. In the eyes of the kingdom of God, each scenario is just as important as the other (Matt 18:10-14), and, in either case, we can discover deeper purpose for each of us here on this earth. By being in a small group, we are greeted with the chance to utilize our spiritual gifts more often and experience the heavenly affirmation that comes with the feeling of being used by the Lord for the benefit of His kingdom. Wilder and Hendricks say, “Our group identity must reflect the multifaceted character of Jesus.” Indeed, when we utilize our spiritual gifts within a joy-filled hesed community that has a healthy group identity, we put on display the image of Jesus and show a glimpse of what He might do if He was still in human form today. Let us foster a community within our small groups that allow us to speak into each other and reaffirm what kind of people we are. Let us make a commitment to be in fellowship so that we sharpen one another and recharge each other’s batteries. Let us pursue a group identity that mirrors the bold image of God for all the world to see.

This article on small group identity originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

Father’s Day Crafts: 20 Fun, Free Ways for Kids to Honor Dad

Christine Yount Jones

May 4, 2022

Father’s Day will be here soon! So check out these 20 Father’s Day crafts that pair your kids’ love for creating and their love for their dads. Some of these crafts are instant. All you need is the free printable and some crayons! Others are a little more involved. But we chose very easy Father’s Day crafts for use in children’s ministry.

Any of these crafts can be adapted for a grandfather, uncle, stepdad, or man who means the world to a child. Be sensitive to children’s different living situations.

20 Best Father’s Day Crafts for Kids

1. Hands-Down Best Dad Craft for Father’s Day

Don’t have a lot of time? Simply trace a child’s hand on this free printable for Father’s Day. Dads will love it! You’ll need just the printable and crayons or markers. Easy!

2. Hand Tie

There aren’t any instructions with this craft. But who doesn’t love a great handprint craft for Dad? All you need is paper, paint, googly eyes, and construction paper. Have fun with this Father’s Day craft for kids!

3. Salt Dough Handprint Ornament (Great for Father’s Day)

You can make these Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments easily from things in your kitchen. And they’re a keeper! You’ll need flour, salt, warm water, and clear glaze finish or Mod Podge.

4. Tie Template for Father’s Day

Not every dad wears a tie to work. But the tie has become an image of “Dad.” All you need is paper, paint, and this free tie template from The Best Ideas for Kids. Then you can turn it into the best handmade Father’s Day card!

5. “My Dad Rocks” Sheet

Not only is this fun to do with kids. But Dads will treasure the way their kids perceived them at this age. So check out this free Father’s Day printable from churchleaders.com. Simply print the pdf and let kids color with crayons or markers. You may need to help kids fill in the blanks.

Bible Lessons for Teens: 12 Resources About Forgiveness

Stephanie Martin

May 4, 2022

The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus died for all our sins so we can live with him in heaven forever. But kids in your youth ministry still may feel the weight of their sins and temptations. That’s why Bible lessons for teens about forgiveness are so important.

Youth ministers and volunteers can frequently remind preteens and teens about repentance and the assurance of God’s complete forgiveness. Check out the 12 ideas below for teaching young people about the free gift of God’s grace. These forgiveness-themed Bible lessons for teens work well for youth group meetings, worship settings, camps, retreats, and more.

Use Scripture to let teenagers know that God not only forgives sins but totally erases them. Also discuss what God’s command to forgive others means for our day-to-day lives.

12 Bible Lessons for Teens on Forgiveness

1. Will God Forgive Me?

Sin leads to guilt, so teenagers may feel weighed down by their words, thoughts, and actions. Help them discover the good news that God forgives us completely and repeatedly. Young people shouldn’t doubt whether God wipes away any of their wrongdoing.

2. Are My Sins Too Big?

All humans are sinners, and in God’s eyes, all sins are equally bad. Although sin leads to death (Romans 3:23), Jesus’ death and resurrection offer justification and redemption (vs. 24).

3. Forgive and Forget?

Teens in your church’s youth group may know that God forgives their sins. But does God really forget them? And does he tell us to forget sins committed against us? Help kids discover what the Bible really says about these key topics.

4. Praying for Forgiveness

An important part of daily prayer involves asking God for forgiveness. Explore how to approach our heavenly Father regularly with a repentant, humble heart.

5. Messy Monarchs

Many Bible lessons on forgiveness for youth come directly from Old and New Testament stories. In this lesson, kids will find out that sin does have consequences, even though God forgives us.

6. Biblical Repentance

Take a deep dive into the concept of repentance. Help teens look at what that concept entails and how they can live it out in practical ways.

Former Deacon at Douglas Wilson’s Church Indicted for Possessing Child Pornography

Jessica Lea

May 4, 2022

Alex Lloyd, a former deacon at Douglas Wilson’s church in Moscow, Idaho, has been indicted in federal court for possessing child pornography. Lloyd, who according to Christ Church was a deacon until January 2022, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Alex Lloyd’s Trial Set for June 21

Christ Church and its pastor, Douglas Wilson, have generated controversy for reasons that include Wilson’s interpretation of complementarianism, his book “Southern Slavery As It Was,” and for how the church has handled allegations of sexual abuse. Christ Church also made headlines in the fall of 2020 for holding “psalm sing” events in protest of Moscow’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Alex Lloyd was indicted on April 19. Court documents state that “On or about the dates of March 22, 2021 through January 12, 2022, in the district of Idaho, the Defendant, ALEX LLOYD, did knowingly possess materials…which contained child pornography.” According to the documents, these materials were on an Apple iPhone 8.

The documents say in part that child pornography is defined as “one or more visual depictions, the production of which the Defendant knew involved the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which involve a prepubescent minor or a minor who had not attained 12 years of age.”

Should Lloyd be convicted of possessing child porn, he will be required to forfeit those materials and “any matter which contains any such visual depiction,” that is, his iPhone. Lloyd has been released on conditions and his jury trial is set for June 21 at 1:30 p.m. in Coeur d’Alene.

An article by the Moscow-Pullman Daily News states that Alex Lloyd was listed as a deacon on Christ Church’s website until April 14, when the church removed Lloyd and updated its list of leaders. The archived webpage linked in the article, however, is dated November 2021, and an archived capture of the webpage dated April 14 does not show Lloyd on the church’s website.

As the news breaks on social media, some are circulating a quote from a blog Douglas Wilson wrote May 18, 2018, titled, “Dirty Omniscience.” The post focuses on the extent to which, in our digital world, people’s private information is not that private at all.

Wilson contrasts this “dirty omniscience” with the omniscience of God and states: “Digital information is highly susceptible to manipulation, and digital information is highly portable. I believe that we should begin the fight to outlaw all such information in court, and we should lead by courteously disbelieving any report made against anyone on the basis of what somebody ‘found on their computer.’”

The quote some are drawing attention to is as follows:

In the old days, if the cops found a warrant for a man’s arrest, and they showed up at his house, and they found the basement full of child porn magazines, this was a scenario in which the biblical standards of evidence could be met (multiple witnesses, etc.). But if the agents cart off his computer, and then late that night down at the station, they “find” child porn, there are too many problems. Was the porn actually there (as it often is), so guilty as charged? Was it placed on the computer via a thumb drive after the arrest? Was it planted on the computer by that man’s enemy before he placed the phone call that led to the request for the warrant?

As a corollary, we should also be extremely skeptical about claims and accusations made on the basis of this kind of thing.

Retired Pittsburgh Pastor Accused of Stealing $357K From Former Church

Stephanie Martin

May 4, 2022

A retired pastor is accused of stealing more than $357,000 from his former church in Pittsburgh. The Rev. Wayne Peck, who led Community House Presbyterian Church for 40 years, faces charges of theft by the unlawful taking and receiving of stolen property.

Peck, who turned himself in Tuesday morning and then bonded out of jail, has a hearing scheduled for May 13.

Retired Pastor Faces Theft Accusations

According to court documents, Peck, 70, allegedly diverted funds from Community House on an ongoing basis after his 2017 retirement. The day before he departed, say investigators, Peck designated himself, his wife, and a member of a defunct nonprofit organization associated with the church as the only authorized signers on the church bank account. (This third individual was not a church board member, as reported by some media outlets.) As a result, no other church members had access to that account.

Afterward, large checks payable to Peck were issued every month from the church account. Then, according to the criminal complaint, he deposited them into a personal account and used the money to pay living expenses. Official say Peck and his wife, Molly, used the funds to pay their mortgage and utilities, vehicles, restaurant meals, and travel expenses.

The memo lines on many of the checks indicated the money was reimbursement for expenses. But Peck, who was hired by Community House back in 1977, reportedly had no further affiliation with the congregation after he retired.

Peck’s neighbors say the retired pastor keeps to himself.

How the Alleged Theft Was Discovered

The Pittsburgh Presbytery, which has financial oversight of local Presbyterian congregations, discovered “irregularities and delinquencies” in the church’s accounting back in 2019. Court documents indicate that the Presbytery’s investigation yielded several red flags, prompting it to then contact police. “Substantial funds designated for the church in recent years were not actually received by the church,” the Presbytery noted.

In a statement, the Presbytery said: “The members of the Commission are deeply saddened by this situation and pray for God’s justice and healing for all who are involved. There are no allegations of wrongdoing against the current pastor or leadership of the church. The Commission will continue to work alongside the church’s leaders and is cooperating fully with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office in its investigation.”

Kanye West Being Sued for Sampling Pastor’s Sermon in ‘Come to Live’ Without Permission

Dale Chamberlain

May 4, 2022

Peter Hutchins from DC, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bishop David P. Moten is suing Kanye West, who is now legally named Ye, for sampling portions of a sermon Moten delivered at Joy of the Lord Worship Center in Victoria, Texas, as reported by Billboard.

Moten is arguing that portions of his sermon comprise roughly 20% of the track “Come to Live,” which appeared on Ye’s 2021 album “Donda.”

Moten’s words, “My soul cries out ‘Hallelujah,’ and I thank God for saving me,” can be heard at the beginning of the track, with samples of other portions of the worship service, including the congregation’s response, throughout the song. Of the roughly five-minute song, Moten argues that the track utilizes the recording from his church for roughly one minute.

Throughout his musical career as a producer and rapper, Ye has often utilized samples of human voices in his tracks, creating unique combinations of sounds to rap over. His creativity has earned him 22 Grammys to date.

However, Moten criticized Ye and and G.O.O.D. Music (the studio behind “Donda”) for “willfully and egregiously sampling sound recordings of others without consent or permission.”

“Defendants willfully and without the permission or consent of Plaintiff extensively sampled portions of the Sermon,” the lawsuit says, referring to Ye’s tendency to do so as an “alarming pattern and practice.”

Moten is demanding a judgment against Ye “for disgorgement of profits, compensatory, consequential, incidental, and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by the trier of fact in this case, plus statutory fines, costs, interest and expenses.”

Ye has recently been the center of controversy on a number of occasions where his faith has intersected with his public persona. In October 2021, Ye featured singer Marilyn Manson at one of his Sunday Service events.

Manson, who named himself after Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson, has long been outspokenly anti-Christian, is an honorary minister of the Church of Satan, and has also been the center of multiple sexual abuse allegations.

More recently, in March of this year, Ye came under sharp criticism for using a public prayer on Instagram to air his grievances with his former wife Kim Kardashian, discussing custody disputes, a confrontation with comedian Pete Davidson, whom Kardashian is currently dating, and even taking shots at Hillary Clinton and “Leftists” for being the ones who put “Black people in prison.”

“You know where to find me, they cannot define me, so they crucify me,” Ye sings in “Come to Life.”

Baptist Press Interviews SBC Presidential Nominee Robin Hadaway

Jonathan Howe and Brandon Porter

May 4, 2022

EDITOR’S NOTE: Baptist Press will be releasing in-depth interviews with each of the known candidates to be nominated as SBC president at the Annual Meeting in Anaheim. We released our interview with Tom Ascol on May 2, Bart Barber on May 3, and Robin Hadaway on May 4. The interviews have been edited only for clarity, grammar and length.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) – Though he’s a busy senior professor of missions at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Robin Hadaway will be somewhat of a hometown presidential candidate when the SBC Annual Meeting takes place in Anaheim this summer. Hadaway and his wife, Kathy, live in nearby Oceanside, Calif., where he pastored before they became International Mission Board missionaries.

“I just felt we need to focus on the mission,” Hadaway told Baptist Press when asked why he would be nominated. He’s been committed to the mission for his entire ministry career, serving for 18 years as an IMB missionary, 18 years at MBTS, and six years as a pastor of a local church.

Hadaway, 73, is calling for the planting of 500 new churches in North America, 2,000 new church plants overseas and a new emphasis on chapters of the Woman’s Missionary Union in churches.

“The Southern Baptist Convention president, he has no pay, no power, but he does have some influence during those two years, and I think he can set the tone for the convention,” Hadaway said.

We sat down to talk with Hadaway on April 27 on the bustling campus of Midwestern Seminary just before the seminary’s final chapel session of the spring semester.

Why are you willing to be nominated to be president of the SBC?

Well, I had never thought about being nominated for SBC president. But when Ed Litton declined to run a second term and the convention was in Anaheim, I thought that I might have the opportunity to serve Southern Baptists in this way.

I have had the honor and privilege of working for the denomination for 36 years, 18 as an IMB missionary and 18 as a seminary professor and counting. Now I’m a senior professor. I did pastor for six years and was very involved in the Conservative Resurgence when I was pastoring.

So, I followed the denominational patterns throughout my ministry, and while I was with the IMB.

I just felt that we needed to focus on the mission. Not that we haven’t been focusing on the mission, but I just wanted to call out the called because I never thought about being a missionary when I was a student at Dallas Seminary and then at Southwestern.

It wasn’t until my wife and I went to Glorieta for Foreign Missions Week that we heard somebody talk about the need for people to leave their pastorates and go overseas. So even though we were already pastoring in a mission field in California, we stayed there four years before we went overseas, we just felt this call to go to an unreached part of the world, to northwest Tanzania.

Alabama Church of ‘Bloody Sunday’ on Endangered Places List

Jay Reeves

May 4, 2022

Like religious congregants all over, the people of historic Brown Chapel AME Church turned off the lights and locked the doors at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic because it wasn’t safe to gather for worship with a deadly virus circulating. For a time, the landmark church that launched a national voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, was off limits.

What members found when they returned was heartbreaking: Termites had eaten so much wood that parts of the structure weren’t stable anymore, said member Juanda Maxwell, and water leaks damaged walls. Mold was growing in parts of the building, where hundreds met before Alabama state troopers attacked voting rights demonstrators on Bloody Sunday in 1965 at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“It’s in horrible shape,” said Maxwell. “It’s a tough time. Because we were closed for a year it exacerbated the problem with water coming in.”

The red brick church, with distinctive twin bell towers and a domed ceiling, tops this year’s list of the nation’s most endangered historic places, according to the Washington, D.C.-based, National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization which works to highlight and preserve sites that are in danger of being lost. Other places on the list include:

— Chicano/a Murals painted on the sides of buildings in Colorado and inspired by the human rights and cultural movements of the 1960s and ’70s.

— The Deborah Chapel, a Jewish mortuary building established in 1886 in Hartford, Connecticut.

— Francisco Sanchez Elementary School, the closed centerpiece of the town in Umatac, Guam.

— Minidoka National Historic Site, where more than 13,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II in Jerome, Idaho.

— Camp Naco, a base for Black Buffalo Soldiers dating back to 1919 along the U.S.-Mexican border in Naco, Arizona.

— Picture Cave in Warrenton, Missouri, which holds indigenous artwork dating as far back more than 1,200 years by the Osage Nation.

— Brooks Park Art and Nature Center, the home and art studio in East Hampton, New York, of James Brooks and Charlotte Park, who were important in the abstract expressionism movement in American art.

— Palmer Memorial Institute, a boarding school built in 1902 for Black youths in Greensboro, North Carolina.

— Olivewood Cemetery, an African American burial ground in Houston, Texas, dating to 1875 and containing more than 4,000 graves.

— Jamestown, the site in Jamestown, Virginia, where enslaved people first arrived in America and where the first publicly elected assembly in the United States met.

Brown Chapel, the first African Methodist Episcopal church in Alabama, was the site of preparations for a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965, when police beat marchers led by the late Rep. John Lewis, then a young activist. Weeks later, thousands gathered there before the Selma-to-Montgomery march led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Maxwell is part of a group of Brown Chapel members serving on a foundation that’s trying to raise money for repairs estimated to exceed $4 million, she said. The church, located in a public housing community, has only a few dozen members in regular attendance, so it’s relying on grants and outside donations to fund the work.

Will the World Council of Churches Expel Kirill? We Talk With Bishop Mary Ann Swenson

Jack Jenkins

May 4, 2022

(RNS) — How should the world’s largest collection of Christian traditions respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

That’s the question being asked of the World Council of Churches, the interchurch grouping of Christian denominations from across the globe formed in the aftermath of World War II. Long seen as the pinnacle of the ecumenical movement, the nearly 75-year-old group has been roiled by debate lately over whether it should suspend the membership of the Russian Orthodox Church after the ROC’s leader, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, voiced support for the war and arguably laid the spiritual groundwork for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

To better understand this global discussion, Religion News Service spoke with Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, a United Methodist in the U.S. who serves on the WCC’s executive committee and works as a vice moderator for the group’s central committee — the body that could decide whether to expel the ROC when it meets in June.

“It’s delicate with the Moscow Patriarchate. We’re going to try our best to be about reconciliation and unity, ” Swenson said. “These next few months really will be critical,” as the WCC executive committee and then the in-person Central Committee prepare to meet.

There are about 352 member churches of the World Council of Churches and 150 members within the Central Committee, which has at least 25% Orthodox members, according to Swenson.

“The Orthodox community is very, very important in the World Council of Churches,” Swenson emphasized.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

There’s been debate around expelling the Russian Orthodox Church from the World Council of Churches. The effort is primarily rooted in frustration with Patriarch Kirill over his blessing — literally or figuratively — for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What are your feelings on those calls to expel the ROC?

Father (Ioan) Sauca, in his role as the acting general secretary (of the WCC), wrote to His Holiness Kirill, saying the whole world was looking for a sign of hope, for a peaceful solution. He encouraged His Holiness to address Putin and to end the violence. He said at that time that letters were coming to him from all different parts of the world — from church leaders and from faithful constituents — asking the World Council of Churches to approach His Holiness, to mediate, to help stop the war and all of the great suffering that was happening.

One time (the WCC) put a church on suspension — the Dutch Reformed Church, because that was the time of apartheid. But on all other occasions — and there have been other occasions, with different wars and countries and divisions and issues of oppression, some really difficult times historically — the World Council of Churches has tried to continue dialogue. It has tried to keep from actually expelling anybody, and really staying in dialogue with people on the very different sides of each other.

But the current situation is really about the Orthodox. What’s happening right now is so painful for so many who are the Orthodox faithful. Yet, we really remain committed to reconciliation and to the theme of our (upcoming) assembly: “Christ’s Love Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity.” At present, the Russian Orthodox Church is a member church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (which broke away from the ROC in 2019) is asking to become a new member church — so we’re beginning to work with that membership. They’re all invited to come to the assembly.

Pope Francis Says NATO, ‘Barking at Russia’s Door,’ Shares Blame for Ukraine

Claire Giangrave

May 4, 2022

Pope Francis NATO — Pope Francis arrives to start his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Francis told an Italian newspaper on Tuesday (May 3) that NATO may be partly to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and he said he hopes to visit Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in hopes of brokering a peace.

Talking to reporters from Il Corriere della Sera, Francis said that “NATO barking at Russia’s doors” may have raised alarms in the Kremlin about the Western European alliance’s intentions in Ukraine. “I can’t say if (Russia’s) anger was provoked,” he continued, “but facilitated, maybe yes.”

In the interview, Francis again recalled his first reaction to the news of the invasion in late February. On the first day of war, he said, he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and then left his apartment on an impromptu visit to Aleksandr Avdeyev, Russia’s ambassador to the Holy See. “I wanted to make a clear gesture for the whole world to see and for this reason I went to the Russian ambassador,” the pope said.

The pope praised Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin for his role in seeking diplomacy options for a resolution to the war. “A great diplomat,” the pope said about his second in command at the Vatican. “He knows how to move in this world, I trust and confide in him a lot.”

Parolin issued a message from the pope to Putin after 20 days of war in Ukraine, Francis said, which stated his intention to visit Moscow. “We have not yet received an answer and we are still pushing,” the pope said, “even if I fear that Putin does not want to have this meeting at this time.”

A gravedigger identified only as Alexander digs a grave at the cemetery of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Referring to a conflict that has already caused almost 3,000 civilian casualties, according to the United Nations, the pope asked, “How can you stop such brutality?” He seemed to compare the violence in Ukraine to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

While expressing his intention to become the first pope to visit Russia, a dream long harbored by his predecessors, Francis said that he will not visit Kyiv for the time being. The pope has sent two representatives, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and Cardinal Michael Czerny, to the Ukrainian border as a show of closeness with the Ukrainian people.

“But I feel that I mustn’t go,” he said. “I must first go to Moscow, I must first meet with Putin. But I am a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. If only Putin would open the door.”

Francis also addressed Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow Kirill, with whom the Vatican has entertained multiple diplomatic efforts and whom the pope met for the first time in Havana in 2016. Since the beginning of conflict, Kirill has been an outspoken supporter of Putin’s claim for hegemony in Ukraine, raising tensions in Catholic-Orthodox relations.

Kirill spoke to Francis via Zoom conference on March 16 since their meeting, originally scheduled March 16 in Jerusalem, had to be canceled due to the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. “Holding a paper in his hands, (Kirill) read me all the justifications for the war for the first 20 minutes,” Francis said.

The Crisis in American Missions and What You Can Do About It

Hunter Farrell

May 4, 2022

My heart broke as I listened to the mission director of a large, evangelical congregation speak of her role as more closely akin to that of a “cruise ship social director” than that of a leader of Christians committed to sharing the Gospel and addressing poverty and human trafficking:

I spend more time entertaining mission enthusiasts than challenging or teaching them—and I am evaluated [by the congregation’s senior leadership] by how much the members enjoy their mission activities, rather than how effective our mission work is. Since when did mission become “all about us?”

There is a rarely discussed crisis in missions as practiced by U.S. congregations. Due to a subtle, yet profound, shift in missions decision-making, many congregations’ missions projects, activities and funding allocations are less impactful because they are designed to satisfy members’ needs rather than make a difference in the world.

Over the past 60 years, the landscape of mission leadership and decision-making in the U.S. has “flattened” significantly. Throughout most of the 20th century, most mission decisions were made by trained and experienced mission agency or denominational mission leaders. That system brought missiological expertise, strategic coordination and cultural proficiency to the table, thus multiplying the effectiveness of what the U.S. church offered in the missio dei—but it also limited the vast majority of U.S. Christians’ involvement in mission to financial contributions, prayer, and hosting the occasional pot-luck supper for visiting missionaries.

Today, the vast majority of decisions (where to send people and funds, with whom to partner, etc.) is made by congregational mission leaders operating in a highly participatory, decentralized system. On the positive side, this change has opened the floodgates for all of God’s people to see themselves as missionaries and to connect with people near and far in God’s mission. There has been a palpable shift in the breadth of mission participation and every congregation today can understand itself to be a mission agency. This is clearly a movement of the Holy Spirit—the result of what the Spirit began at Pentecost.

But our research also shows an unanticipated shadow side to this powerful shift in mission decision-making. Surveys and interviews with more than 1600 mission pastors, mission directors, youth leaders, mission committee chairs and members responsible for mission leadership revealed that most of them haven’t been trained for their work, feel isolated from each other and don’t coordinate their work with other congregations or with long-term missionaries. Most don’t read what mission scholars– or even mission practitioners– are writing about mission trips, cross-cultural communication, or “best practices” in mission. The tragic result is that much of today’s congregational mission practice is less effective and faithful than it could be: we’re reinventing the wheel and repeating many mistakes of the past.

Congregational mission leaders today face two daunting challenges:

Selfie mission—an emerging, “donor-centric” model where mission is based on congregational preferences, rather than context-sensitive strategies; and,
Colonial mission—a top-down model rooted in the colonizers’ effort to conquer and civilize (sic) new worlds, rather than Jesus’ model of a mission grounded in loving human relationships in the spirit of cultural humility.

Tragically, our narcissistic culture and our colonial past have combined to hobble our participation in the mission of God.

Over the past thirty-five years, first as a missionary (Democratic Republic of Congo and Peru), then as a mission leader and professor, I have worked with hundreds of congregational mission leaders and queried them about their perceptions of their work, role, needs, assumptions, hopes and challenges. With my colleague, Balajiedlang (Bala) Khyllep at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s World Mission Initiative, we discovered that congregational mission leaders in evangelical, mainline Protestant and Catholic congregations across the country are seeking tools and strategies to lead their people into more faithful and effective mission. It is for these leaders that we wrote the book, Freeing Congregational Mission: A Practical Vision for Companionship, Cultural Humility & Co-Development (InterVarsity Press). What we present in the book is both troubling and deeply hopeful:

Short-term mission trips: U.S. Christians spend up to $5 billion each year on short-term mission trips. A growing body of evangelical research has raised pointed questions about the effectiveness and faithfulness of such trips. Yet some congregations have found ways to reframe the experience to make short-term mission trips powerfully transformative in both the host community and among those who travel.

Don’t Be an Idiot – Beyond Covid-19, It’s Still Good Advice

Jonathan McKee

May 4, 2022

Dare I write: don’t be an idiot. It’s scriptural.

[Editor’s note: although this article was written a year ago, the principles apply well beyond the current situation]

Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. (I Peter 2: 12)

What does “honorable behavior” mean during these times?

Don’t be an idiot means don’t be the fool who still insists churches keep meeting together during the Coronavirus when thousands of people are dying. This is the wrong hill to die on… and the word “die” might not be too far from the truth.

It’s sad watching the news. The opening news story in my hometown of Sacramento was a church that refused to stop meeting and now congregation members are beginning to get sick. A pastor is sick. If you jump on the church website you can see the choir all sitting directly next to each other.

Beyond Covid-19, Don’t Be an Idiot

Come on brothers, if we practice social distancing in Costco, we can at least practice it at church. And let’s be honest. Pushing a cart around a grocery store and keeping 6 to 10 feet away from people is waaaaaay safer than sitting right next to a person for over an hour singing worship songs.

That’s why this Tampa pastor was actually arrested for holding church in defiance of an order. He cited religious freedom.

Sigh.

This is not the time to claim religious freedom. This is not the time to make the Mayor of New York call you out publicly. This is not the time to demand meeting together.

That’s what Zoom is for. Facetime. WebEx. YouTube your sermon like everyone else. We’re all doing it.

Ask yourself. What should we look like during all of this?

We have an amazing opportunity to shine for Jesus during these times. Shining for Jesus isn’t killing your congregation in the opening news story. It’s doing virtual outreach when we can’t meet in person. It’s Samaritan’s purse setting up an emergency hospital in Central Park (and if you can’t be on the front lines yourself, then you can donate to them).

Let’s be wise my brothers and sisters. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

The advice, don’t be an idiot, originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

Joe McKeever: Worship and the Carnal Mind

Joe McKeever

May 4, 2022

Can we talk about worship? Especially what the carnal mind does not “get” about worship. I’d like to start each section with a fascinating quote. I can’t vouch for the integrity of any of the quotes since they were lifted from the internet. But they are good discussion starters.

Worship and the Carnal Mind

1) From actor Brad Pitt:

“I didn’t understand this idea of a God who says, ‘You have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I’m the best, and then I’ll give you eternal happiness. If you won’t, then you don’t get it!’ It seemed to be about ego. I can’t see God operating from ego, so it made no sense to me.”

There is a reason this makes no sense to you, Mr. Pitt. The Apostle Paul put it this way: “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he understand them, for they are spiritually appraised” (I Corinthians 2:14).

I don’t mean to be harsh in that assessment, but understanding the carnal mind explains why so many on the outside look at Christian worship and shake their heads. They just don’t get it. Let me repeat that: They. Do. Not. Get. It.

2) From a blog in which this guy talks about religion.

Someone asked him why God wants us to worship Him. He answered, “Everyone likes being praised. It’s a huge ego bump, after all. But why does God need it? I mean, what kind of egomaniac needs millions of people all over the world praising his name? Isn’t that a little arrogant?”

Short answer: Yes, it is.

He then proceeded to make a case for God being egotistical. The funny thing is he thought he was being supportive of God. He should spare God the compliment.

Without knowing this fellow, I’d say he’s one more person who just doesn’t get the business of Christian worship.

3) From a Catholic website

“While worshiping God changes us for the better, the primary aim of our worship is not self-improvement. In the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the liturgy used by many of the Eastern Rite Catholic churches, the priest at one point chants, “For to You is due all glory, honor, and worship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto ages of ages.”

“While God doesn’t need our worship in order to be complete, our worship is still a duty—something that we owe to God. But it is a duty that we can perform cheerfully, knowing that, in doing so, we are participating briefly in the life of heaven.”

Okay, this is thought-provoking. But it still seems to imply that we might be “adding value” to Heaven in some way, and that God is somehow diminished a tad when we fail to worship.

4) From C. S. Lewis

I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise…. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game…. I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’ The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.

“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”

By refusing to worship God, we detract nothing from Him. By worshiping Him, we add nothing to Him.

So what is the point of worship? Ah, I’m glad you asked. Read on:

5) From our Lord Jesus

“An hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” (John 4:23). He adds, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Leaked Draft Opinion Reveals SCOTUS Aiming to Overturn Roe; Christians React

Jesse T. Jackson

May 3, 2022

Roe — (L) Salud Carbajal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (R) FamilyMan88, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

According to a leaked draft opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito that was published by Politico on Monday night, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is set to overturn the highly controversial 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which made abortion a constitutional right in America.

Justice Alito’s 67-page first draft was circulated to justices Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett on February 10, 2022 for the Dobbs v. Jackson case.

It is unknown who leaked the draft opinion, which is an outright rejection of Roe v. Wade and the subsequent 1992 decision of Planned Parenthood v. Casey wherein Justice Alito writes that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” adding, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.”

“At the time of Roe, 30 states still prohibited abortion at all stages,” Justice Alito wrote in the draft. “In the years prior to that decision, about a third of the States had liberalized their laws, but Roe abruptly ended that political process. It imposed the same highly restrictive regime on the entire Nation, and it effectively struck down the abortion laws of every single State.”

Justice Alito pointed out that there is no reference to abortion in the United States Constitution, saying, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’”

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Justice Alito continued, calling its reasoning “exceptionally weak,” resulting in “damaging consequences.” The draft said it time to “heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

Politico shared that someone familiar with the court told them that justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett all voted with Alito in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade back in December during a conference the justices held after oral arguments were given.

Chief Justice John Roberts released a statement on Tuesday reassuring the public that the leaked copy of the draft opinion is not a decision by SCOTUS or a final position by any of its justices.

In his authentication of the draft, Justice Roberts revealed that he has directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation to determine the source of the leak. The justice called the leak a “betrayal of confidences” in an attempt to “undermine the integrity” of the Court’s operations. The attempt “will not succeed,” he said, indicating that the “work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”

President Joe Biden released a statement explaining that he wasn’t sure if the draft was even genuine or reflected the final decision of the Court.

“I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental, Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned,” President Biden wrote.

“I directed my Gender Policy Council and White House Counsel’s Office to prepare options for an Administration response to the continued attack on abortion and reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court,” President Biden said after Texas passed a state law banning abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. The law has saved an estimated 15,000 lives since last September.

The Gap and Deconstruction

7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Online Church Experience

1. Be ready, where you will watch, before the service begins.

2. Put away other electronic devices.

3. Pray that the Lord will teach you and encourage you.

4. Sing aloud. Yes, it feels awkward at first. But go for it!

5. Follow along in your Bible. Take notes.

6. If you normally give in the giving boxes or offering plate, give online.

7. Reflect on the message or discuss the message with others.

Small Group Identity

1. Small Group Identity that Changes our Behavior

2. Small Group Identity that Forms our Character

3. Small Group Identity that Solidifies our Purpose

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1. Hands-Down Best Dad Craft for Father’s Day

2. Hand Tie

3. Salt Dough Handprint Ornament (Great for Father’s Day)

4. Tie Template for Father’s Day

5. “My Dad Rocks” Sheet

12 Bible Lessons for Teens on Forgiveness

1. Will God Forgive Me?

2. Are My Sins Too Big?

3. Forgive and Forget?

4. Praying for Forgiveness

5. Messy Monarchs

6. Biblical Repentance

Alex Lloyd’s Trial Set for June 21

Retired Pastor Faces Theft Accusations

How the Alleged Theft Was Discovered

Beyond Covid-19, Don’t Be an Idiot

Worship and the Carnal Mind

1) From actor Brad Pitt:

2) From a blog in which this guy talks about religion.

3) From a Catholic website

4) From C. S. Lewis

5) From our Lord Jesus

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