The Babylon Bee Locked Out of Twitter for Calling Transgender US Assistant Secretary for Health ‘Man of the Year’

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March 21, 2022

babylon-bee-twitter — Screengrab via Twitter (L) @TheBabylonBee (R) @SethDillon

The widely popular Christian satire news site The Babylon Bee was told on Sunday, March 20, 2022, that their Twitter account has been locked because it violated the social media giant’s rules against “hateful conduct.”

The Babylon Bee’s CEO Seth Dillon posted the news on his personal Twitter page with a screengrab of Twitter’s allegations, saying, “I just received this notice that we’ve been locked out of our account for ‘hateful conduct.’”

The humor site posted an image last Wednesday, March 16, 2022 of U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine with the title “The Babylon Bee’s Man of the Year Is Rachel Levine,” with a link back to their article, which has since been removed. The tweet has received over 13,500 likes and almost 2,500 retweets.

The Babylon Bee’s post was made a few days after USA Today’s announcement that Levine was named one of their “Women of the Year.”

Levine is an American pediatrician who was born in 1957 and later transitioned from a man to a woman in 2011. Levine was nominated by President Joe Biden as the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health in 2021 and was officially appointed the role after being confirmed by a Senate vote on March 24, 2021—making Levine the first openly transgender person to receive the Senate’s confirmation to an office.

The article, which is intended as satire, calls Levine a “boss” while repeatedly referring to Levine as a man and uses the pronoun “he” multiple times. The article even calls Levine a “dude.”

The article also called out Levine’s pre-transition name, an act referred to as “deadnaming” in the trans community, going to to say, “Who cares? Who says a dude as accomplished as this can’t be named ‘Rachel?’ This king doesn’t care what people think about him! He often wears a dress, which some people think is weird—but he doesn’t care one bit. Come on! Men in India wear dress-type garments, don’t they?”

The Babylon Bee said Levine is “breaking barriers” and showing us all what the meaning of true “courage” is.

“We applaud this precious and perfectly made child of God for all his accomplishments and hope he stays true to who God made him to be,” the article said.

At the conclusion of their article, The Babylon Bee wrote, “UPDATE: Since announcing this award, we’ve been told that Levine actually identifies as a woman. We have still chosen to give the award as his self-identification has no bearing on the truth. Congratulations, Rachel Levine!”

In a Twitter thread, Dillon shared with his audience that The Babylon Bee was told by Twitter that their account would be restored in twelve hours, but they first had to delete their “The Babylon Bee’s Man of the Year Is Rachel Levine” tweet.

‘I Thank God for This’—Churches Give Away Thousands of Dollars Worth of Gas to Those in Need

By

Jessica Mouser

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March 21, 2022

Mount Zion Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C. gave away free gas, cleaned windshields and checked tire pressure for 200 cars on March 19, 2022.

Soaring gas prices across the United States are prompting churches throughout the country to meet the needs of their communities by giving away free gas. Many churches are also using these opportunities to encourage and pray for those who show up.

“We see what’s going on in the world,” said Odell Watson, senior pastor of Payne Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in West Palm Beach, Fla. “The war in Ukraine, we’re coming out of a pandemic, and there are so many hurting.”

Payne Chapel will give away $20 worth of gas per vehicle at the Wawa gas station here Tuesday, March 22, starting at 10 a.m.

Watson said that meeting the needs of the community is one the purposes of the church. “Jesus, he not only met spiritual needs, but he met physical needs as well…Just helping someone with gas reminds them we’re in this together. at the end of the day we’re all Americans, and when someone is in need, we should be willing to help and do what we can.”

Free Gas and More: US Churches Meet Needs

Another Chance Church in Chicago gave away $50 worth of gas per vehicle Sunday, March 20, handing out $27,000 in gas when all was said and done. Another Chicago church, New Life Covenant Church Southeast, raised $5,000 at one time when Senior Pastor John Hannah asked for 200 people to donate $25 each so that the church could provide free gas to people in need. The church did its gas giveaway on Saturday, March 19. Prior to the event, Pastor Terrance Wallace said, “There will be traffic control pumping the gas, encouraging people, praying with people, just really trying to bring hope to the community.”

On that same Saturday, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C. gave away free gas, cleaned windshields and checked tire pressure for 200 cars. One hundred fifty cars had lined up by 4 a.m.

“Lots of people are hurting,” Joe Frierson, the church’s young adult pastor, told the Greensboro News & Record. “Lots of pain that’s not their fault. It’s the responsibility of those who have been blessed to bless others.”

Ousted Pastors Sue Fla. Megachurch, Deny Financial Misconduct

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Stephanie Martin

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March 21, 2022

A bitter financial dispute at a Florida megachurch has gone public, prompting the current pastor to assure congregants they’ll “weather the storm” together. During worship services yesterday, Tim Timberlake, who has been senior pastor of Celebration Church in Jacksonville since last September, told members, “Your church is okay,” adding that bylaws and trustees are in place to protect the body.

Celebration Church, founded in 1998 by Stovall and Kerri Weems, was previously one of America’s fastest-growing churches. Last month, the couple sued the church for injunctive relief, alleging that a trustee billed the church improperly and, in the process, orchestrated the ouster of Stovall Weems.

The church, in response, has filed a motion to dismiss the injunction, alleging various financial improprieties and “abuse of power” by the couple. On May 20, a civil court hearing is scheduled in the case. No criminal charges have been filed.

Stovall and Kerri Weems: ‘We Have Nothing to Hide’

According to the injunction, in 2018 church member Kevin Cormier told Stovall Weems he was donating $1 million of “in kind” maintenance and construction services to Honey Lake Farms, a non-profit mission of Celebration Church. Eventually, Cormier became a church trustee, a CFO switched roles, and Tim Timberlake took over the responsibilities of the senior pastor.

Then Cormier’s companies began billing Celebration—to the tune of about $700,000. Cormier, the injunction alleges, reneged on his pledge without informing Weems, and in the process told lies and “was setting the scene to oust Pastor Stovall from the very church [he] built.”

In January, immediately after Weems removed some trustees, the church notified him that he was suspended due to “possible improper financial practices and/or failure to fulfill duties and responsibilities.” Now Weems and his wife are seeking back pay, as well as restoration of their base salary and benefits. Stovall Weems also wants to be reinstated as the church’s CEO.

In a statement last week, Stovall and Kerri Weems write, “We could never have imagined that the church we started and nurtured for nearly 25 years would be seized by individuals whom we believe are prioritizing their individual interests in power and money ahead of their duties to Celebration Church and its mission.”

They add, “We have nothing to hide. We are being retaliated against and have been denied a proper investigation according to long-held church by-laws.” The couple, who says they’ve been threatened with arrest if they enter church property, adamantly denies “the utterly baseless and false allegations made against us.”

Christian Artist GAWVI Breaks Silence on Being Cut From Reach Records; Ex-Wife Accuses Him of Lying, Infidelity

By

Dale Chamberlain

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March 21, 2022

Last week, Christian hip-hop artist GAWVI broke his silence regarding the events surrounding his being cut from Reach Records. Shortly after, his ex-wife publicly accused him of lying about the details of their marriage in the statement.

During his time at Reach Records, GAWVI released four albums and won a Dove Award for best rap/hip-hop song. His latest record, which was released in March of 2021, was titled “Noche Juvenil,” and featured songs exclusively recorded in Spanish, including the track “Dicen.”

GAWVI was released from Reach Records on January 31 of this year after being accused of sending unsolicited, explicit photos to multiple women. The accusations against GAWVI came to light days earlier after he announced that he and his wife had divorced in 2020. After GAWVI remarked in his announcement that there was “no scandal to gossip about” with regard to his divorce, visual artist Cataphant publicly alleged that GAWVI had sexually harassed multiple women, including one underaged girl.

“Due to behavior that is inconsistent with our core values, we have ended our professional relationship with GAWVI,” Reach Records said in a statement released on January 31. “This was a tough decision for us because of the level of complexity and because we invest in our artists not just for their talent, but also as brothers and sisters in Christ. This is something we have been processing for over a year and have wrestled with what would be the right way forward.”

Fellow Christian artist Lecrae, who co-founded Reach Records, expressed grief following his label’s decision to cut ties with GAWVI, saying that the situation had “rocked our community.” In an interview with Relevant, Lecrae said that while the label knew GAWVI had been experiencing marital issues, they had been unsuccessful in getting him “to just be transparent with us.”

“We had already stopped putting out his music and stopped doing stuff…but this was the hammer that drove the nail in,” Lecrae said.

On Wednesday (March 16), GAWVI released a statement to Instagram, which read, “Dear everyone, I have been spending time reflecting on these past couple of months and the years before, having meaningful conversations with God, my counselors, family, friends, and myself, about the mistakes I’ve made and the man I want to be on this earth.”

“A few years ago, my marriage began to fall apart. Instead of leaning on God and facing the situation, I acted outside of the boundaries of my marriage,” the statement went on to explain. “I began communicating and exchanging inappropriate photos with several women on social media.”

Denying the accusation that he had sexually harassed an underaged girl, GAWI wrote, “These were conversations between adults, and even though I never met any of these women in person, it was inexcusable, and wrong. I regret these mistakes, I take full accountability, and I apologize to everyone I have hurt by my actions.”

“Now as I continue to reflect and wrestle with the choices I’ve made, I ask that God may continue to use this period of my life to show me things that I have needed to learn, so I can become the man he has called me to be,” GAWVI wrote. “I am using this time to work on myself, grow in faith and continue to be present in my children’s lives.”

Following GAWVI’s statement, his ex-wife, Brianna Segura, released a statement of her own.

“I have kept my silence for years in order to protect my family and marriage. I have been focusing on my healing but I no longer want to sit back as the dishonesty continues. The lack of full ownership and true apology has been extremely hard to stomach,” Segura wrote. “I was in a marriage where I fought for it with every ounce of me. Was I perfect? Absolutely not. What was done in my marriage I did not deserve.”

How Putin’s Invasion Became a Holy War for Russia

By

Jack Jenkins

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March 21, 2022

Putin Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill applaud during the unveiling ceremony of a monument to Vladimir the Great on the National Unity Day outside the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 4, 2016. President Vladimir Putin has led ceremonies launching a large statue outside the Kremlin to a 10th-century prince of Kiev who is credited with making Orthodox Christianity the official faith of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

This story is published in collaboration with Rolling Stone magazine.

(RNS) — Two days before he launched a bloody invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin sat alone in front of a camera and delivered a rambling, hour-long address. It outlined the ideological justification for what would ultimately become his “special military action” in Ukraine — an invasion that, as far as Putin was concerned, had more than a little to do with religion.

“Ukraine is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space,” he said.

Two days later, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, spoke to military leaders and published a statement in honor of Defender of the Fatherland Day. The cleric congratulated Putin for his “high and responsible service to the people of Russia,” declared the Russian Orthodox Church has “always striven to make a significant contribution to the patriotic education of compatriots,” and lauded military service as “an active manifestation of evangelical love for neighbors.”

Within hours, bombs began to rain down on Ukraine.

This religious ramp-up to war was the culmination of a decade-long effort to wrap Russia’s geopolitical ambitions in faith — specifically, the flowing vestments of the Russian Orthodox Church. Fusing religion, nationalism, a defense of conservative values that likens same-sex marriage to Nazism and a version of history that seeks to define Ukraine and other nearby nations as mere subsets of a greater “Russkiy mir” (Russian world), the partnership of Putin and Kirill laid the ideological and theological groundwork for the current invasion.

But as explosions continue to rock Ukraine, some in the church are beginning to resist the religious appeals of Putin and Kirill, pushing back on efforts to recast naked Russian aggression as something that sounds a whole lot like a holy war.

The partnership of Putin, 69, and Kirill, 75, began around 2012, when the politician was reelected for a third term. It was then that Putin began embracing the Russian Orthodox Church — not necessarily as a point of personal conversion so much as a mechanism for political gain, something foreign policy experts often call “soft power.”

The relationship between the president and the prelate escalated rapidly. Kirill, allegedly a former KGB staffer like Putin, hailed the Russian Federation president’s leadership as a “miracle of God.” Meanwhile, Putin worked to frame Russia as a defender of conservative Christian values, which usually meant opposing abortion, feminism and LGBTQ rights. The pitch proved popular among a broad swath of conservative Christian leaders, including prominent voices within the American religious right: In February 2014, evangelist Franklin Graham offered cautious praise for Putin in an editorial for Decision Magazine, celebrating the Russian president’s decision to back a law barring dissemination of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” — a statute which, activists argued, effectively banned children from accessing media that presents LGBTQ identities and relationships in a positive or normalizing light. Graham would travel to Russia the following year, where he met with both Kirill and Putin, and told local media that “millions of Americans would like (Putin) to come and run for president of the United States.”

By 2017, Politico was already describing Russia as “the leader of the global Christian Right.”

The impact of this religious diplomacy was even greater in eastern European nations that once belonged to the Soviet Union, where the Russian Orthodox Church and its allies still enjoy outsized influence. When Moldova sought stronger ties with Europe, Orthodox clerics operating underneath the Moscow patriarchate campaigned against it, with one bishop telling the New York Times in 2016, “For me, Russia is the guardian of Christian values.” Things were similar in Montenegro, where the Serbian Orthodox Church has a close relationship with the Russian Patriarchate; priests there advocated against the nation’s plans to join NATO, and last year Russian Orthodox leaders lambasted Montenegro’s leaders for supporting “eurointegration.”

Kirill has long perpetuated a version of history that insists many countries that made up the former Soviet Union are one people with a common religious origin: namely, the 10th century baptism of Prince Vladimir I of Kiev, known as St. Vladimir. It’s often paired with a geo-political (and geo-religious) vision hundreds of Orthodox theologians and scholars recently decried as a heresy: a “transnational Russian sphere or civilization, called Holy Russia or Holy Rus’, which includes Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (and sometimes Moldova and Kazakhstan), as well as ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking people throughout the world.”

It’s a Russian world with Moscow as its political center, Kyiv as the spiritual heart, and Kirill as its religious leader.

Across Europe, Ukrainian Exiles Pray for Peace Back Home

By

Kirsten Grieshaber

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March 21, 2022

BERLIN (AP) — Alona Fartukhova has been coming to Berlin’s Ukrainian Orthodox Christian community every day since she arrived in Germany five days ago from war-torn Kyiv. The 20-year-old refugee has been attending daily prayers for peace and helped organize donations for her compatriots back home.

On Sunday, Fartukhova joined dozens of other Ukrainian worshippers at a red brick stone church in the German capital who sang together, lit candles, and received blessings from the head of the community, Father Oleh Polianko. Later they put medical crutches, sleeping bags, diapers, big boxes of gummi bears and countless jars of pickles — which were piling up everywhere inside the church — into big cardboard boxes to be send to Ukraine.

“It’s some help for our army, and it is … a lot of things for children” said the university student, who fled by herself and is now living at a hotel in Berlin, as she stacked boxes onto the church pews. “It is so good that a lot of people support us, we really appreciate it.”

Across Europe, Ukrainians gathered for church services on Sunday to pray for peace in their war-torn country. Newly arrived refugees mingled with long-time members of Europe’s 1.5 million-strong Ukrainian diaspora at houses of worship all over the continent from Germany to Romania to Moldova.

Since Russia attacked Ukraine more than three weeks ago, over 3.38 million people have fled the country, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Altogether, 10 million people have fled their homes — more than 6 million of them have been displaced internally, the UNHCR said on Sunday.

Most have escaped to neighboring Poland, Romania or Moldova, but as the war continues many are moving further west.

Germany has registered more than 200,000 Ukrainian refugees but the real numbers are expected to be much higher as Ukrainians don’t need a visa to come to Germany, and federal police only register refugees entering Germany by train or bus. Ukrainians coming to Germany from Poland by car are normally not registered.

Members of Germany’s Ukrainian immigrant community, which counts around 300,000 people, have not only been raising money and collecting donations, but also driven the goods to the border and beyond and on their way back to Germany have taken along refugees. Families already living in Germany have squeezed together to accommodate refugees and are helping them find jobs and get their kids into schools.

The diaspora Ukrainians’ religious communities — mostly Christian Orthodox, but also some Catholic and Jewish communities — have been leading refugee initiatives and have also become an anchor for those worrying about their families back in the war.

Polianko, who heads the 500-member-strong Orthodox Christian community in Berlin, held some one-on-one prayers on Sunday with worshippers who were especially distressed. He then gave blessings “for the souls of our soldiers who are fighting in Ukraine, and also for the souls of our soldiers who have died in Ukraine.”

Scholars, Activists Brief Lawmakers on Role of Christian Nationalism at Insurrection

By

Jack Jenkins

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March 21, 2022

Christian nationalism Jan. 6 — Supporters of President Donald Trump overtake the inauguration stage in front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Members of the Congressional Freethought Caucus met with a group of scholars and activists on Thursday evening (March 17) to review a new report detailing the role Christian nationalism played in the insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The meeting was a rare instance of lawmakers openly addressing the prominence of religious expression during the attack, which was evident on Jan. 6 but has not been a central focus of public discussions on Capitol Hill.

California Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman, who said he first discussed the role of Christian nationalism and the insurrection with some of the panelists last summer, hosted the meeting for a slate of lawmakers that included Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a co-founder of the Freethought Caucus who also serves on the House Select Committee investigating the attack.

Raskin opened the virtual briefing by noting that while a variety of ideologies were represented among insurrectionists, Christian nationalism “clearly figured highly in the events of the day,” and was “a unifying theme for many of the factions that assembled on January 6.”

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Video screen grab

His words were echoed by an array of panelists who presented findings from a recent report they helped author with backing from the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Among other things, the 66-page study documents in painstaking detail the prevalence of Christian nationalist symbols and rhetoric at the insurrection and a series of events that led up to the storming of the Capitol.

Amanda Tyler, head of the BJC, told lawmakers the report faced “defensive pushback” from some conservative Christians after it was unveiled last month but has been embraced by Christians who see opposing Christian nationalism as a religious call.

“Let’s be clear: Christianity does not and cannot unite Americans under a national identity,” Tyler said, adding that Christian nationalism “debases Christianity.”

Samuel Perry, a University of Oklahoma sociologist and co-author of “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States,” told lawmakers he and others who study the ideology often use the more specific term “white Christian nationalism,” because data indicates Christian nationalist sentiments appear to “perform differently when white Americans affirm them as opposed to non-white Americans.”

He was followed by Jemar Tisby, a historian and head of Black Christian collective The Witness, who contrasted white Christian nationalism with fusions of faith and activism among Black Christians.

“In contrast to white Christian nationalism, Black Christians have historically tended to embrace a kind of patriotism that leads to an expansion of democratic processes, the inclusion of marginalized people and a call for the nation to live up to its foundational ideas,” he said.

Andrew L. Seidel of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a chief author of the report, closed out the briefing presentations by outlining the way Christian nationalism operated as a “permission structure” for activists, arguing it gave them “the moral and mental license they needed” to participate in events such as the Million MAGA March and the Jericho Marches in the months prior to the insurrection, as well as to attack the Capitol.

“(There were) other motivations and drivers of this attack, but this Christian nationalist permission structure — doing God’s will, fighting for God’s law, returning the country to its Christian roots — pervaded a lot of those other obvious drivers of this attack.”

People shelter in the House gallery as protesters try to break into the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Lawmakers appeared largely convinced by the report, peppering the panelists with questions over the course of the hour-long briefing.

There’s No Such Thing as ‘Good Enough’

By

J.D. Greear

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March 21, 2022

My family loves the movie The Greatest Showman. It’s the (highly embellished) account of P.T. Barnum’s rise to success. There’s a moving scene where his prospective father-in-law tells Barnum he’ll never be good enough for the man’s daughter. He says, “She’ll see that and one day come back; she’ll grow tired of the poor life you are able to give her.” That played to a deep insecurity Barnum had, one that we all have. No matter how successful he was, he was never satisfied. Barnum’s wife begged him to realize he was good enough, but he just couldn’t shake it.

Most of us live our whole lives plagued with the question, “Am I enough?” So we try to prove to others—and ourselves—that we are. Am I strong enough? Hard-working enough? Smart enough? Pretty enough? Skinny enough? Good enough?

The point of just about every advertisement we see on TV is that we’re not enough: You’re not a good enough mom unless you use this brand. You’re not a good enough husband unless you buy this jewelry for your wife. You’re not a good enough person unless you take this cruise. You’re not good enough unless … (whatever they convince you that you need so that you can buy their product and line their pockets with your money so they’ll have enough). We hear it: all day, every day.

And even if you are enough right now, you live with the fear that one day you won’t be. Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player of his generation—and, for those with eyes to see, of every generation. But one day he’ll be forgotten. Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian alive, but that distinction won’t last forever.

This is the trouble with trying to become “enough.” Either you can’t make yourself great (so you feel like a failure), or you do make yourself great (and you are terrified of losing it).

We need an identity that isn’t founded on questions of “enough.” We need an identity that isn’t a matter of what we’ve done—because that’s never going to feel like enough.

Identity, simply defined, is your self-definition of who you are, your value, and the role you are here to play. I’ve always found Pastor Clayton King’s definition of identity helpful: Identity is what the most important person in your life thinks about you.

Who is that for you?

The American College Health Association has noted the rising anxiety in this generation of students entering college, and they say it’s because the primary message children receive is that they had better be the best at everything or they won’t make it. It’s made exponentially worse by social media, because everyone is creating a fake “best” version of themselves to compete with everyone else’s fake version. They’re afraid to reveal their inadequacies and insecurities.

The Apostle Peter tells us we can stop this frantic race to the top: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession” (1 Peter 2:9). Because Jesus is our foundation, we have a new identity. God chose us to be in his family.

What’s more, we are “a royal priesthood.” In the chosen nation of Israel, there was a specially chosen line of royalty, the line of Judah, and a separate, specially chosen line of priesthood, the line of Levi. In Jesus, we are both of these. We are the chosen of the chosen of the chosen.

And, we are a people for God’s possession. The King of Kings has set his affection on us.

What more do you need to be “enough”? You are not enough because you are more remarkable than someone else or because you made it to the top. You are enough because the most important person in your life—Jesus Christ—loves you, stands behind you, and has put you into service.

You will never win enough to feel like you are enough. Thank God, you don’t need to.

Jesus won for you. He values you and promises he has a plan to use you for good. That is enough.

This article originally appeared here.

Does Your Team Have a Trust Deficit? These 10 Questions Will Tell You

By

Charles Stone

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March 21, 2022

Trust: the belief that someone is reliable, good, honest or effective (Merriam-Webster). Healthy ministry teams make trust building a priority. Patrick Lencioni, one of today’s best writers on leadership, believes that absence of trust is the biggest problem among dysfunctional teams (see his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team). Stephen M. R. Covey wrote an entire book that shows how teams can build trust called The Speed of Trust. So, how do you know if your team has a deficit? This post answers that question.

Honestly answer these questions to gauge if you have a trust deficit in your team.

Does a spirit of suspicion lurk in team members’ minds?
Do team members overly rely on email in lieu of talking?
Do team members often wear facades?
Is there too much “happy talk” which masks true problems?
Are team members reluctant to share their honest feelings and opinions?
Do team members resist meeting together?
Has the team lost enthusiasm?
Has grumbling and complaining become the norm?
Is the leader inconsistent?
Do some team members intentionally withhold information from others?

How did you do? If you answered yes to more than one or two questions, your team may be facing a trust deficit.

So how do you rebuild trust?

In the posts below I suggest a few ideas on building trust. Here’s what I suggest as a first step, though. Get the book The Speed of Trust for you and your team and read it. It’s a great read. Here’s a summary of the book to get you started.

What other behaviors have you seen that may indicate lack of trust in a team?

8 Bible Characters Who Should Be More Famous

By

Tamara Chamberlain

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March 21, 2022

My children don’t have difficult names, but I guess they are slightly unusual. For me and my husband, we were excited to name our boys after influential people in the Bible. Yes, we are that family.

When people I know who have no biblical background do their best to hide their real opinion of my boys’ names and simply say, “Oh, that’s an interesting name,” I don’t even think twice about it.

But when Christians ask how we came up with the names Silas and Titus, I’m a bit shocked. Not that I expect every Christian to remember every name of every person in the Bible. But I thought Silas and Titus were a bit more familiar. I’m surprised at the reality that my son’s names are incredibly foreign to just about everyone we meet, Christians included.

Not that this bothers me enough to change the names of my children, but it made me understand that there are far more influential people in Scripture that will never make the top 20 biblical names list.

Of course, we know Paul and the many ways he influenced and paved the way for the early church. But we don’t equally know Silas, who was with Paul for just about all of his ministry. There are many other noteworthy people who were worth being mentioned in the Bible that we just forget about.

Here are eight Bible characters I think we should pay a little bit more attention to and learn from.

Josiah: 8 Going on 80

We really don’t expect much out of kids. But God does.

The first noteworthy person on the list of people you may not know about in the Bible is King Josiah.

Quick refresher on the timeline of the kings: so there was King Solomon (David’s son), the guy who started off really strong but then fell into idol worship after being influenced by his literally hundreds of wives. After Solomon died, the kingdom split into two opposing nations: the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah). Sixteen kings later, our boy Josiah makes it onto the scene.

Josiah became king of Judah after his father, Amon was killed.

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years…He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. (2 Kings 22:1-2)

For as young as Josiah was, he ruled better than 70 percent of the rest of the kings throughout the history of Israel and Judah. Somehow, some of the Books of the Law written during the time of Moses were misplaced. Josiah found them, read them, and began a reformation in his kingdom. The bible actually says that Josiah grieved and was angered by the way his ancestors had disobeyed the laws of God. At this time, he was about 27 years old and leading the people of Judah back towards who they were always meant to be—the people of God.

As young as Josiah was during the time of his kingship, he led with a sense of boldness and humility. I don’t see many Christian leaders twice the age of King Josiah leading themselves or those following them with the same sense of passion and conviction for righteousness. King Josiah was not flawless, but he goes down as one of the very few good kings to lead the nation of Judah.

The Daughters of Zelophehad: Five for Justice

It’s no secret that the infrastructure within many societies has not been good at supporting or empowering women. Whenever change is made, it is because of the hard work and courage of women to make things right.

That’s exactly what happened for the daughters of Zelophehad. Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah were brave women, especially for their time. In biblical culture, women were seen as second class citizens without any rights or power. There were no laws or social structures to protect them from abuse or abandonment. There was certainly no opportunity for them to pave their own way to even survive, let alone succeed, apart from a husband or father.

Ed Stetzer: Churchleaders Must Face The Future of Music in the Church

By

Ed Stetzer

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March 21, 2022

It may be a generalization to say the church today has three generational expressions, but I think church leaders can work with it, especially with respect to music in the church. You can walk into most churches and recognize quickly what generation it falls into. Most of today’s churches fall into one of these categories related to worship style.

Three Types of Churches

First, there is a traditional format.

Believers who worship in a traditional church will dress up and carry themselves in a more conservative fashion. In general, they will be more concerned about reverence in the church compared to others. The music for these churchleaders will be traditional hymns. Anything more recent than Jack Hayford’s “Majesty” might be suspect.

A traditional format will be very similar to a church service conducted in the 1960s or 1970s. This reflects my parents’ generation. (Remember, these are generalizations, but still predictable.) Interestingly, it is also what my daughter prefers!

Second is the contemporary church.

It tends to be comprised of the Boomer generation and younger churchleaders. Christians who are part of a contemporary church will usually be more relaxed in their approach. They dress more casually when they go to church. Men wear jeans more than khakis. More women will wear pants than dresses. Their order of service is casual, but probably more intentional than in many traditional churches. As for the music in the church they will often have a blended musical style, or lean toward contemporary. Ease of singing and passionately expressive lyrics are expected in the songs.

Third, some more emerging eclectic approaches.

This approach is a bit harder to describe. Some of these churches are intentional about not being predictable or appearing to come from a traditional mold. Their band may have an electric guitar, but it might have a cello and clavichord, too. While they don’t dress up per se, there is almost an unstated expectation that you will dress to reflect the culture they are trying to reach. (There will be suspenders!) The music in the church may include a mix of modern worship songs. Many older hymns will have been updated. Theological depth is expected in the songs.

Now, I get that there are a thousand variants of music in the church. My concern is more with the implications than the descriptions, but it is worth noting that we are the only generation in recorded history that can list its worship style by generation.

Hence, the point …

Developing Worship Night Ideas for Your Church

By

David Santistevan

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March 21, 2022

A time to step aside from the everyday rush and connect with God. An unhurried, uninterrupted night of worship. Believe it or not, it can be rare for a church to have times of extended worship. It makes sense, particularly for a larger, growing church. Multiple services and full programming make it difficult to linger for too long. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need it. Our hurried hearts are starving for peace. Our scattered minds are longing for rest. Our weary souls are desperate for Jesus. That’s why it’s essential that you work worship night ideas for your church. But knowing how to plan them can be daunting, to say the least.

An hour of music? For some people in your congregation, that’s enough to make them shudder. For others, it’s a breath of fresh air. How do you plan an evening of worship that is engaging? We’ve all been to worship services and prayer meetings we wish we could beam out of.

8 Tips for Developing Worship Night Ideas

I recently planned a night of worship for our church’s live recording. Here are some worship night ideas I learned that you can apply to your next worship night:

1. Hold a Creative Brainstorming Meeting (three months ahead)

Your church’s worship night should look different than mine. You have a unique team of people with unique giftings and ideas. Gather those people together a few months before your worship night.

Brainstorm what could be possible. Write down any and all ideas. Pray together. Dream together. Plan a life-changing night for your people.

2. Develop & Execute a Promo Plan (two months ahead)

Begin to promote your worship night two months before the event. Make sure you have a detailed plan.

Create videos for social media. Set up a Facebook group. Email a “save the date” announcement. Have a specific plan for each week leading up to the event. Get intentional.

3. Pick a Balanced Setlist

When choosing songs, don’t just pick your favorites. Balance familiar and new, hymns and choruses, simple chants and theological declarations.

Meet your congregation where they are and ensure they will be engaged with your songs. The last thing you want is a room full of people watching you perform worship. Make it easy for people to enter in.

4. Plan Engaging Prayer

Prayer should be huge priority in your worship night. There’s nothing like the unified prayer of a local church. The problem most of the time? We don’t plan our prayer moments.

8 Warning Signs Your Church is Drifting from God’s Mission

By

Sam Rainer

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March 19, 2022

God’s mission is clear: He seeks and saves the lost. A church excited about the gospel is a church with a laser focus on making disciples. Churches with purpose pour collective energy into one direction.

Churches without purpose tend to drift. Like the flotsam and jetsam in the sea, a church adrift does little more than float along as aimless debris. I have yet to see a church drift towards God’s mission. The current of apathy always pulls away. It’s obvious to point out drifting churches as lacking purpose. But what causes this drifting from God’s mission? What are some early warning signs of an unraveling in a congregation? Let’s look at eight practical indicators.

The chatter is all about people and not Jesus. Not all chatter is gossip. People talk—it’s part of being human. Conversations in the church can be about any number of things. Not all of them are bad. However, when people start talking about themselves without any mention of Christ, your church is not only drifting, the congregation is dangerously inward.
You no longer celebrate God’s mission in a worship service. When people go, the church should celebrate. When God sends, the church should erupt in praise. A lack of a celebratory spirit over God’s mission is one indication a church is drifting.
The percentage given to missions out of the budget is shrinking. One clear way to determine a church’s priorities is the budget. If your church is giving less and less to missions each year, then it is likely drifting.
Church leaders do not speak about the lostness of the nations. Do your church leaders call attention to the billions that don’t know Christ? Is your church broken over people who have never heard the gospel? Worse yet, sometimes church leaders rant and rail against other nations as if they don’t deserve the gospel. Mission drift often occurs when people believe cross-cultural sending doesn’t apply to their congregation.
New believers are perceived as disturbing the peace of the body. If a small group or Bible class would rather not deal with the messiness of assimilating a new believer, then it’s drifting from God’s mission. The messiness of new believers should be seen as God’s beautiful work, not as a disturbance to the status quo.
There is more of a focus on the older generation than the younger generation. All generations are important. In fact, a church full of just one generation—young or old—is disobedient. Every church is called outward to reach others unlike those already there. However, the reality is most people are saved at a younger age, not older. The church should resource the ministries with the greatest fruit. Additionally, children don’t often get to voice their preferences or concerns. Therefore, sometimes in churches, the older generation’s concerns trumps that of the younger generation. A church drifts when the older generation is willing to sacrifice the souls of the younger generation in order to cling to their preferences.
Few care about the persecuted church. Your church should be acutely aware of what is currently happening to Christians all over the globe. And your people should be praying. Often.
It takes more to win less. It is possible for a church to grow numerically and do less kingdom work. People can gather for worship while personal evangelism is drying up in their lives. Praying for lost friends does not happen haphazardly. Sharing your faith is not accidental. When a church grows numerically while having fewer conversions, it’s potentially drifting without purpose.

No church is perfect. No person bats 1.000 spiritually. Everyone will drift at some point. Every church will struggle for a season with finding a purpose. The problem comes when people seek the status quo rather than seeking the lost. The problem is exacerbated when whole churches become comfortable drifting from God’s mission.

This article originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

5 Myths About Hell

By

Mark Jones

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March 19, 2022

This article is part of the 5 Myths series. Author Mark Jones debunks these myths using Bible verses about hell.

Myth #1: Jesus wasn’t concerned with hell.

Christ spoke a great deal more about judgment and hell than many might care to admit. Not only that, but he speaks of hell in a number of different ways to illustrate its endless, horrifying torment. For example, he uses a “parable” in Luke 16 to describe the place called “Hades” (Luke 16:23), which has a “great chasm” (Luke 16:26) fixed by God to prevent crossing from hell to heaven and vice versa. He speaks of the “hell of fire” (Matt. 5:22); the danger of the “whole body” being “thrown into hell” (Matt. 5:29); it is the “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43); the impenitent are “thrown” there (Mark 9:45), “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).

Jesus, the Son of man, with his angels, will send all “law-breakers” and “throw them into the fiery furnace” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:41-42). Jesus called it a place of “outer darkness” (Matt. 25:30). In the end, there is little doubt that our Lord did not shy away from discussing a place of endless torment, often using evocative language to make his point in order to warn sinners of the coming judgment (Matt. 3:12; Matt. 7:22–23; Matt. 10:28; Matt. 11:23; Matt. 13:30, 41–42, 49–50; Matt. 23:16, 33; Matt. 25:10, 31–33; Matt. 26:24; Mark 8:36; 9:43–48; 16:16; Luke 9:25; 12:9–10, 46; John 5:28–29).

Myth #2: The Old Testament wasn’t concerned with hell.

Like most doctrines, the doctrine of hell is not fully developed in the Old Testament, but that does not mean it is not present. For example, in Isaiah, the godless should tremble since they are threatened with “the consuming fire” and the “everlasting burnings” (Isa. 33:14). Isaiah frequently speaks of God’s wrath (Isa. 10:16–18; Isa. 29:5–6; Isa. 30:27, Isa. 30; Isa. 33:14).

This culminates in the final chapter where he speaks of the Lord coming in fire “to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many” (Isa. 66:15-16). Finally, at the very end, the righteous “shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against [God]. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh” (Isa. 66:24; see Christ’s use of these words in Mark 9:48). This language is mirrored in Daniel, too, where we are told of the final judgment that “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2).

Myth #3: Hell is not an endless place of punishment.

The New Testament is clear that hell is a place of “everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46); it is an “everlasting fire” (Matt. 18:8) that can never be quenched (Mark 9:45), where their worm never dies (Mark 9:48). Sodom and Gomorrah were punished for their sins by “undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7). False teachers have a place reserved in hell where the “gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever” (Jude 13). In Revelation 14:11 the suffering of the wicked is described: “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night. . . ” (see also Revelation 19:3, Revelation 20:10, “forever and ever”). As William Shedd says, “Had Christ intended to teach that future punishment is remedial and temporary, he would have compared it to a dying worm, and not to an undying worm; to a fire that is quenched, and not to an unquenchable fire.”

He adds that other words and metaphors could have been used to describe a long, but not endless, punishment. Indeed, if hell is not endless, the New Testament writers “were morally bound to have avoided conveying the impression they actually have conveyed by the kind of figures they have selected” (Shedd). In the New Testament, the same word used to describe “everlasting life” is also used to describe “everlasting punishment.” Thus in Revelation 22:14–15 we see that the existence of the righteous in heaven is coterminous with the existence of the wicked “outside” heaven (i.e., in hell).

Myth #4: Hell is merely separation from God.

Hell is a place of punishment by God; sinners who have committed treason against an infinite God will remain in the place of torment where they shall only be able to continually hate the God they hated in their previous life. The idea that hell is mere “separation from God” is misleading and wrongheaded, though it certainly includes the idea of separation from Christ (Matt. 25:41). Rather, it is the opposite: a God-hating sinner, who does not have a mediator, remains in the presence of a holy, righteous, and powerful God.

Hell is a place, not a metaphor to describe some inner thought processes. The rich man in hell calls it a “place of torment” (Luke 16:28). Judas went to “his own place” (Acts 1:25). Just as there is a “place” for the righteous after death, so there is a “place” for the wicked after death. Gehenna refers to the Valley of Hinnom, outside Jerusalem. This place has a horrible history, with Israelites and kings of Israel, at one time, burning their children as sacrifices to false gods (i.e., Molech; see 2 Chron. 33:6; Ahaz did much of the same—see 2 Chron. 28:3). Gehenna may not be a reference to a burning trash dump, but it is actually far worse: a place where the most horrible things take place, such as the willful sacrifice of children. Evil at its worst is associated with Gehenna. Hell is a place of pure evil, a place as scary as it is destitute of all hope.

Rather than being mere “separation from God,” hell is, as the Puritan Thomas Goodwin said, a place where “God himself, by his own hands, that is, the power of his wrath, is the immediate inflicter of that punishment of men’s souls in hell.” God’s power will be “exercised” as his wrath towards those who cast away from the presence of God’s blessedness. In other words, those in hell will receive the opposite of those in glory, but they will still be in God’s presence. For those in heaven, they have a Mediator; for those in hell, they have nothing between them and an avenging God.

Myth #5: Hell is simply giving people what they want.

This is only partly true and open to possible misunderstanding. In one sense, hell is an endless (suffering) existence whereby the wicked do not commune with God. In this sense, their life in hell mirrors their life on earth. They did not want Christ on earth and they will, therefore, be without him in hell. However, nobody desires to suffer at the hands of God, especially forever. Nobody wants their despair to increase as well. As the creature in hell realizes more and more that they are suffering forever, the despair of eternal judgment can only increase. Those in hell have no promises, and thus no hope, but only increasing despair.

According to Goodwin, the “wretched soul in hell . . . finds that it shall not outlive that misery, nor yet can it find one space or moment of time of freedom and intermission, having forever to do with him who is the living God.” The wicked will despair because there is no end to the wrath of the living God. Therefore, the concept of ever-increasing despair for all eternity, whereby the creature damned to hell can do nothing else but blaspheme a living, eternal God, gives us all the reason in the world to persuade sinners to put their faith in the one who experienced hellish despair on the cross.

True, many do not want to worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we need to convince people that hell is not people ultimately getting “what they wanted” as if there were some victory for the wicked, or possibly in an attempt to “sanitize” the doctrine to somehow make it palatable to unbelievers. In one sense, the wicked are going to get the opposite of what they wished for (and often experienced) on earth. We all want happiness, and as such we should all come to the fountain of blessedness, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that he can give to us all that we really desire: joy unspeakable.

Content adapted from Living for God by Mark Jones. This article first appeared on Crossway.org; used with permission.

Alexa, Do Not Hypnotize Me

By

James Emery White

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March 19, 2022

The use of hypnosis is gaining more acceptance from the medical community to alleviate anxiety, ward off pain, and inhibit various fears. But get ready for it to go viral.

Literally.

A new generation of hypnosis programs and apps are making the practice available digitally, hoping to popularize hypnosis in the same way as meditation. The dilemma is that people “either think it’s ridiculous or dangerous,” says David Spiegel, a clinical psychiatrist and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and co-founder of Reveri Health that offers self-hypnosis through Alexa.

He’s right, people do think it’s dangerous. And they should, and for reasons they are probably not even thinking about.

Hypnosis is the practice of placing someone in a “relaxed, highly focused state that makes them unusually susceptible to suggestion, typically through verbal cues and mental imagery.” The use of hypnosis ranges from the treatment of pain to conditions such as “anxiety, phobias and sleep disorders, and to help stop behaviors like smoking or overeating.”

So how does it work?

As one California hypnotherapist explains it, “hypnosis gets the conscious mind out of the way.”

That’s the problem.

The spiritual concern with hypnosis is how it opens someone to influence, and that influence can come from any source, including the demonic. Franz Anton Mesmer, sometimes referred to as the “father of hypnotism” and from whom we get the word “mesmerize,” was also involved with the occult.

In the hands of a well-qualified Christian professional, there can be benefit to the use of hypnosis. As an article posted on the Focus on the Family website details,

Under the careful supervision of a well-qualified Christian professional, it can sometimes be beneficial. Before submitting to hypnosis, however, it is critical to know the administering therapist and to be familiar with their credentials, background, worldview, value system and personal beliefs. In the wrong hands, hypnosis has the potential to create confusion and to cause more problems than it resolves.

It’s worth adding that hypnosis, like any other therapeutic technique, should be rejected out of hand when it takes on questionable spiritual overtones—for example, when it becomes occultic in nature or is clearly connected with the tenets of Eastern religion or New Age philosophy.

In proper, medical hands hypnosis may be of some value. Turned loose and offered on demand through Alexa is terrifying. To have your conscious bypassed – for any reason – is a serious affair. As one person who went through self-hypnosis sessions at home for a month and successfully ended their craving for cigarettes said, “This hypnosis is some crazy-a** voodoo.”

Yes, it is. Which means proceed with caution.

And tell Alexa to keep her hypnosis to herself.

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.

Woman Who Set Fire to Church, Synagogue Was ‘Worshiping Santería and Witchcraft,’ Says Former Friend

By

Jessica Mouser

-

March 18, 2022

kimorah parker — L: Kimorah Parker via News 8 R: Screenshot from Facebook / @Kimorah Arroyo

A woman in New Britain, Conn., has been arrested in connection with two fires that were set at a church and a synagogue the evening of Friday, March 11. Former friends of Kimorah Parker, 30, have suggested her actions were related to her pursuit of witchcraft and demonic rituals.

“She [started] worshiping Santería and witchcraft and all that stuff and that’s what she’s practicing,” Luis Malave, who said he’s known Parker for 15 years, told WFSB News. “And that’s what she is putting in her home. She is taking elements from our streets, breaking them and using them as part of rituals. She said that it’s time for the world to change.”

Kimorah Parker’s Bond Set at $260,000

Around 8 p.m. the evening of Friday, March 11, someone set fire to Congregation Tephereth Israel, a synagogue in New Britain. About 45 minutes later, another fire started at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, which is less than a mile away from the synagogue. Following those incidents, the burglar alarm at St. Joseph’s Church went off due to a break-in.

On March 12, New Britain mayor Erin Stewart posted on Facebook that authorities had arrested a suspect in the case. She said:

Below is a message from the Federal Bureau of Investigations regarding the incidents of last evening:

Please be advised that the FBI is coordinating with the Connecticut State Police and New Britain Police Department (NBPD) with regard to the break-ins, one possible attempted break-in and/or fires that recently occurred at multiple different denominations of houses of worship in the City of New Britain, Connecticut.

Local police have arrested a suspect well-known to them and retain the lead over the ongoing investigations. No other incidents have been reported since the arrest. The FBI will continue to coordinate with local law enforcement and, pending further evidence collection, will determine whether federal charges are appropriate.

The FBI is unaware of any specific, credible threat to the religious community stemming from these incidents.

Stewart then said that the suspect was Kimorah Parker and that Parker had been charged with Arson 3rd Degree and Burglary 3rd Degree. Parker has a history of vandalizing other houses of worship, as well as of committing assault and larceny.

Parker, who has been put on suicide watch, was in court Monday, where the judge said that she posed a “significant risk to public safety” and set her bond at $260,000. The FBI is considering federal charges against Parker; she will return to court on March 28.

No one was injured in the fires, but it is not yet certain whether the synagogue can be rebuilt. The repairs needed at St. Matthew’s are not extensive, but will be time-consuming. Pastor Mark Valigorsky said, “It is a hate crime, if you will, that someone would do this.”

Ed Stetzer Asked Pastors Share Their Most Embarrassing Baptism Experiences—The Responses Will Bring You to Tears 🤣

By

Jesse T. Jackson

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March 18, 2022

Outreach Magazine’s editor-in-chief Ed Stetzer asked pastors and church leaders to share their most embarrassing baptism experiences on his social media channels earlier this week. His followers replied with numerous stories that are guaranteed to have you rolling on the floor.

North American Mission Board’s National Next Gen Director, Shane Pruitt, shared one funny baptism stories from when he was a youth pastor.

“One of the students that took a long time to reach—[he was the] prankster type—but completely fell in love with Jesus. Once he was saved, he was on fire,” Pruitt said. “I was in the baptism water—talking to the crowd—and about to bring him out. I turn to the side and he is standing at the top of the steps, where the crowd can’t see him with arm floaties and goggles on.

Pruitt said that he “lost it [and] no one knew why. He took them off quickly and I baptized him.”

Dare2Share Ministries founder Greg Stier reached out to ChurchLeaders and told us about a time when he announced to everyone on a cruise to gather around the pool to witness the baptism of his 10-year-old daughter—it wasn’t a Christian cruise.

“When my daughter was 10-years-old I took my family on a cruise to Alaska for my wife and I’s 25-year wedding anniversary,” Stier explained. “On the cruise I was convicted that I should baptize her because she had put her faith in Christ. In the early church they baptized in public settings, not hidden away in a church building. On the cruise ship’s main deck—in the middle of the day—where everybody was out, and right in front of the bar they were drinking and partying.”

Stier said, “I got in the water with my daughter and I made an announcement at the top of my lungs. ‘May I have your attention please. Everybody stop what you’re doing right now,’ and they did.”

“People gathered up. They didn’t know what was going on. I said I’m about to baptize my daughter and that she had put her faith in Christ.” Stier then explained what baptism was, and some people looked concerned. He then told them “not to worry because I am a licensed professional. I gave the gospel and asked my daughter if she had put her faith in Jesus Christ. She responded, ‘Yes,’ and I baptized her. Everyone that was gathered around cheered. Then I told the crowd, ‘If you heard that gospel message and you’ve put your faith in Christ and would like to make that public, come on in the water is fine,’—Nobody responded.”

“People were congratulating my daughter and I got in the hot tub. This guy who was also in the hot tub said, ‘What the [bleep] was that all about?’ I told the guy that I’d baptize him right now. 🤣”

Those who say that God doesn’t have a sense of humor may change their mind after reading some of these experiences below.

Pastors’ Most Embarrassing Baptism Experiences

“One time we baptized a guy who was a semi-professional runner. After he gave his testimony, he pulled off his shirt (which was already unexpected) and then ripped off his snap-away pants and was just wearing those short runners shorts underneath. Then he just jumped in the tub—he didn’t seem to think it was odd at all that he was basically standing there in his underwear in front of our whole church.”

Vladimir Putin Quotes the Bible During Pro-Russia Rally in Moscow

By

Stephanie Martin

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March 18, 2022

In a speech at a packed Moscow stadium Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that the “special military operation” in Ukraine is an effort to “save people from genocide” and to “demilitarize and denazify” the country.

During his appearance at the pro-Russia rally, which marked the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Putin also quoted Scripture. “There is no greater love than giving up one’s soul for one’s friends,” he said, paraphrasing Jesus’ words from John 15:13.

Vladimir Putin’s Pro-War Rally Focuses on Russian Patriotism

According to Russian officials, more than 200,000 people gathered Friday in and around Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 81,000. Attendees waved Russian flags marked with the letter “Z” and listened to patriotic songs, in an atmosphere one reporter called “very Wrestlemania.”

The rally celebrated what Russia labels the “reunification” of Crimea, which it officially annexed on March 18, 2014. But Putin also used the occasion to praise Russia’s brave soldiers and to justify last month’s invasion of Ukraine, which continues to intensify.

“We know what we need to do, how to do it, and at what cost,” Putin told the cheering crowd. “And we will absolutely accomplish all of our plans.” The 69-year-old Russian leader repeated his justification that the “main purpose” of the operation in Ukraine is to “save people from suffering and genocide.”

In Ukraine, Russian soldiers are fighting “shoulder to shoulder,” Putin said, adding, “We haven’t had such unity in such a long time.” He also promised to “bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Putin’s speech was briefly interrupted by what a Kremlin spokesman later called a technical glitch. Russian state television later rebroadcast the leader’s entire five-minute message.

Some People Say They Were Forced to Attend the Rally

A BBC reporter who spoke to Russians waiting to enter the stadium says many described being pressured by employers to attend. “I think most people here don’t support the war; I don’t,” said one man, a state worker who indicated he was forced to attend—and would stay only “for a while.” Some students told the BBC they were told they could go attend “a concert” to get a break from classroom lectures.

Brian Houston’s 2022 Sabbatical Result of Disciplinary Action for Inappropriate Behavior Toward Two Women, Alcohol Use

By

Dale Chamberlain

-

March 18, 2022

In January of this year, Brian Houston announced that he would be stepping aside from his responsibilities as Hillsong Church’s global senior pastor for the remainder of 2022, in order to focus on defending himself in charges brought against him in August 2021 for allegedly concealing his father’s child sex offenses.

A statement released by the Hillsong Global Board on Friday (March 18) has now revealed that there was more to the story. According to the board, Houston’s year-long sabbatical is also the result of disciplinary issues related to Houston’s moral indiscretions.

“When he stepped down in January this year, the reasons he gave were genuine,” the statement said, referencing the personal toll Houston’s legal battles had taken on him. “At the time of his announcement, the Hillsong Church board did not make a public statement because we were still working through a number of issues privately with Pastor Brian.”

The statement went on to say that now that these issues have become public, the board wanted to address them directly. According to Crikey, Hillsong staff members had previously been informed regarding these issues in an 800-person all staff meeting led by interim global senior pastor Phil Dooley.

In that meeting, Dooley informed Hillsong staffers that after a conference at Qudos Bank Arena in Homebush, New South Wales in 2019, Houston had drinks at the hotel where Hillsong leaders were staying with a group including a woman who was not on Hillsong’s staff. At the time, Houston was taking anxiety medication and had taken more than the prescribed dose.

After becoming disoriented and unable to unlock the door to his hotel room, Houston knocked on the door of the woman who had been drinking with the group and entered her room.

“The truth is we don’t know exactly what happened next,” Dooley told Hillsong staff members. “This woman has not said if there was any sexual activity. Brian has said there was no sexual activity. But he was in the woman’s room for 40 minutes. He doesn’t have much of a recollection because of the mixture of the anxiety tablets and the alcohol. This woman had also been drinking, so her recollection is not completely coherent.”

After the Hillsong Global Board learned of the incident, they appointed a task force to investigate the matter, after which they concluded that Houston had breached Hillsong Pastor’s Code of Conduct and should take three months off from both ministry and alcohol.

Following the incident, Hillsong refunded the woman for her conference ticket and a donation she had made. Houston then reimbursed the church from his own pocket. However, Houston did not entirely adhere to the terms the board had established for him in the months to come.

Alleged US Anglican Abuse Victims Break With ACNAtoo and Support Bishop

By

Kathryn Post

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March 18, 2022

Alleged US Anglican Abuse Victims Break With ACNAtoo and Support Bishop — Booking photos of Mark Rivera. Photos courtesy of Kane County Sheriff’s Office

(RNS) — At least four self-identified survivors of abuse by Mark Rivera, a former Anglican Church of North America lay minister, spoke out against ACNAtoo, the anti-abuse advocacy group that has advanced charges against Rivera since last year, saying in a statement released Saturday (March 12): “ACNAtoo does not speak for us. We would like to be heard for ourselves.”

Shared via a new Twitter account called BelieveUsToo, the statement asked ACNA’s archbishop and College of Bishops to reinstate Bishop Stewart Ruch III of the church’s Diocese of the Upper Midwest, who began a leave of absence in July after saying he made “regrettable errors” in handling the allegations.

The BelieveUsToo statement said Ruch and the Upper Midwest Diocese have been unfairly blamed for Rivera’s abuse, and also claimed ACNAtoo co-founder Joanna Rudenborg is “unfit” to be a victim advocate.

ACNAtoo launched in June 2021 as Rudenborg made rape allegations against Rivera, who had already been charged with multiple counts of felony child sexual abuse and sexual assault. The group accused Ruch of delaying public disclosure of the allegations and asked for an independent investigation into the diocese’s handling of the case. In January, a designated response team named a law firm to lead it.

But days later, three members of the response team in charge of victim care — and who were not employed by ACNA — resigned, saying the team had “downplayed” abuse survivors’ needs. ACNA proceeded with the investigation and announced a parallel investigation into abuse of ecclesial power through a separate firm. At least five survivors have declined to participate in the investigation after the denomination refused to waive attorney/client privilege or disclose its contract with the firm.

ACNAtoo responded to the BelieveUsToo statement in a statement of its own on Tuesday, saying “We believe you, #BelieveUsToo,” adding, “We’re grieved at the trauma you’ve experienced from Mark Rivera’s abuse and we are heartbroken by the ways you are still suffering.”

ACNAtoo went on to note that abuse survivors often disagree about what justice ought to look like. “One of our core principles is that we refuse to treat other survivors as adversaries, no matter what. When survivors publicly fight, abusers win,” the ACNAtoo statement said.

In an email to Religion News Service, Andrew Gross, spokesperson for ACNA, said ACNA was “thankful for the courage of the BelieveUsToo survivors who chose to go public last week and for all survivors who are working to build up the Body of Christ.”

The new group alleged that Rudenborg “abetted Mark Rivera in the abuse of a member of Church of the Resurrection” by allowing him to use her apartment for “sexual encounters” with one of the alleged victims who signed the BelieveUsToo statement and by affirming Rivera’s sexual relationship with the victim as “good and acceptable.”

Free Gas and More: US Churches Meet Needs

Stovall and Kerri Weems: ‘We Have Nothing to Hide’

Josiah: 8 Going on 80

The Daughters of Zelophehad: Five for Justice

Three Types of Churches

First, there is a traditional format.

Second is the contemporary church.

Third, some more emerging eclectic approaches.

8 Tips for Developing Worship Night Ideas

1. Hold a Creative Brainstorming Meeting (three months ahead)

2. Develop & Execute a Promo Plan (two months ahead)

3. Pick a Balanced Setlist

4. Plan Engaging Prayer

Myth #1: Jesus wasn’t concerned with hell.

Myth #2: The Old Testament wasn’t concerned with hell.

Myth #3: Hell is not an endless place of punishment.

Myth #4: Hell is merely separation from God.

Myth #5: Hell is simply giving people what they want.

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