Day: May 8, 2005

CITIZEN-TIMES.com: East Waynesville Baptist Church pastor says nobody ousted for political beliefs
this is absurd – just in case you haven’t heard about this click the link and read the article. there seems to be some dispute concerning whether or not the pastor of this church kicked members out of the church because they voted democratic. yet to me it is blatantly obvious that there was a republican agenda was pushed within the church.

first statement – why do they always have to be baptist?

every time i hear a news report concerning CHRISTians doing something stupid all i can think is “please don’t let them be baptists!” i don’t really want any CHRISTians getting bad press (or more particular doing anything stupid in the first place) but it just seems like my denomination has more than it’s share of bonehead moments.

second statement – when are we evangelicals going to be more concerned with doing what GOD wants within politics rather than just being pawns of a political party – republican or democrat?

it simply blows my mind to think of how we american CHRISTians have sold ourselves to political parties instead of standing up and speaking prophetically to all involved within the political process.

stop the insanity!

today i got the chance to go worship at the church i went to in college. i loved that church and still do. it was an incredible church of people who loved each other and it still is. it is a fantastic church and i am incredibly thankful that i’m not there. about four years ago i seriously talked with the pastor about interviewing with the church to become their youth minister. i really liked the pastor. he was a great guy to talk with and i knew that i liked the church. yet, pam and i felt that it wasn’t what GOD wanted for us and therefore we ended the conversations with the pastor (the youth minister there now is a great guy who came over and did our disciplenow for us at parkview).

when i went to the church today all i could think of was how thankful i am to be at parkview instead of the church from my past. i have been in baton rouge for four and a year years and pam and i have grown in some new directions since being here. my ideas on social justice and worship have changed dramatically during my time in baton rouge. these were both concepts that i had been dealing with before coming to parkview and in fact i would not say that the staff or church have been major influences within the shifts in my thinking. yet it has been here in baton rouge that my view of what worship is and a growing emphasis on social justice as an important part of CHRISTian faith have developed.

while i was visiting the church from my past i just kept on thinking what i would be like if i had ended up there.