Christian Leadership

A Pastor is not a dictator to be obeyed without question; he is a leader and a friend whose example should help guide us. A leader welcomes questions because he is confident in his place in the Lord. He understands different people’s points of view and he uses his Biblical knowledge to draw people from all points of view and all backgrounds and all situations to Christ.

Heb 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.

This is the main verse used by so called Christian leaders to suppress any questions coming their way. They want you to think that what they say is absolute and without error and so they try to scare you into thinking that if you question what they say, you are sinning against God. People who demand absolute, unquestioned devotion are in actuality weak minded people who are too frightened to face the questions that may arise from believers.

Let’s look at the Greek version of this verse. Instead of saying “obey your leaders”; it says to” be persuaded by the leaders”. Not to simply obey them without question, but to be responsive to their persuasion. In essence it is saying to not be so set in your ways and so hard hearted that you are not even open to be persuaded by your leader. And instead of saying “submit to their authority” It says to “defer to them” (your leaders) in matters that you do not understand. This means to go to them, ask them about a biblical verse or situation that you don’t understand. This verse really speaks of a dialog here, “Be persuaded” by the leader and “defer” to him when you don’t understand.

At times even Paul had to persuade other believers to go where he wanted to send them. This means that they questioned him. They might have said we don’t feel like going, or we feel God leading us in another direction. But did he scorn them for questioning him? Did he tell them that in questioning him that they are sinning against God? No, he simply went about the business of persuading them that what he wanted them to do was a directive from God and not from himself. That is a leader. When we question our leaders it’s not only beneficial for our own learning, but it keeps them on their toes and keeps them sharp

A Christian leader is not someone who just gives orders and expects us to obey them without question, but a leader is someone willing to persuade us, to convince us, the flock, that what he is saying comes from God and is scriptural and is imparted by the Holy Spirit.

So while one school of thought puts the responsibility on the congregation to just willingly submit unconditionally and without question to the Pastor, The other school of thought puts the responsibility on the Pastor to use his God given ability to persuade the congregation to follow his example and convince them that what he is saying and doing is from God.

True, the congregation has a responsibility, to seek God, to follow His word, to be led by the spirit. But it’s the Pastor’s responsibility to continually convince the prudent believer that his teachings are that of God and that they are inspired by the Spirit of God. When the first school of thought is in place, even good leaders will get corrupted. That’s why Jesus told us to seek. He didn’t say to give over all of our seeking responsibilities to the Pastor.

Always seek, always question if what you hear in Church doesn’t line up with scripture. Always strive for the next level, because there will always be a next level until we are face to face with Christ.

God in a Box

Building, forcing, imposing the walls. ceilings and floors, trapped behind locked doors. Pretty little fortress timed and planned. Gripped tightly with the hands of man. Placed behind the curtain, under the pew, in the basement we hide the truth. Majesty trampled under foot, power dismissed with a shrug, swept under the rug. Confined and struggling to be heard. Bursting at the seams, speaking in dreams. Trying to escape this prison, risen up in a new season. The clock is ticking...our will must weaken and let God out of the box

John 3:16

I made this video based on a word study I did of John 3:16.

Oxymoron - A rhetorical device in which two seemingly contradictory words are used together, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.

Gospel - the teachings of Jesus and the apostles; the Christian revelation. Glad tidings, esp. concerning salvation and the kingdom of God as announced to the world by Christ. The transformation of humanity into the reflection of Christ through His blood.

Gangster - A member of a gang of criminals. A mobster, hoodlum, crook. One who resorts to violence. A cruel or vicious robber, or murderer.

Gospel + Gangster = Oxymoron

Reality Check

This is a new video I just finished. This video has the same basic theme as the first video I made but I've approached it in a different way. It's more focused at getting young people to think about what they are doing and who they are imitating instead of just following the crowd. The media glorifies the rap and hip-hop culture. They make it look as if everyone from that culture drives a fancy car with music booming out of it and that they are all dressed to the hilt with a woman on each arm. My goal in this video was to contrast the media image with the truth of what the Ghetto is really about. Drugs, violence, poverty and slums. Nothing like what people are imitating from the TV.

Sometimes it might seem that I am only picking on the rap and hip-hop culture. The truth is, this message can apply to any number of cultures that are birthed out of hate. Whether it's death metal, goth metal, black metal...what ever you want to call it, if it is birthed out of a culture of hate than it has no place in the lives of Christians. I will be doing videos on other corrupt forms of entertainment soon but the prevalent virus in our society today is the rap and hip-hop culture so that has been my focus so far.

The Great Commission

This is my new video :)

Popular culture and the Church

This is a subject that God has placed on my heart for years now. I've wanted to make a video using video clips, photos and text but just never got around to it. Finely I had the time and will to do it. I had so many years of ideas built up in my head that I could have made an hour long video. But after asking the advice of my wife, she told me to try to think of what you want the video to say and then select the videos, photos and text that would make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time. So I think I've come up with something very impact-full that has a powerful message for the Church, but it not overly long. Some of the content is quite graphic but I really believe that it was necessary to make the point. I don't want anyone to take away from this video that we, the Church, need to be living in the past and only singing old hymns. I believe in singing a "New Song" I just believe that we can be modern and relevant without selling out to the evils of our culture. All statistics shown in the video come from the Barna research group. And the music is from the Passion Of The Christ