Jesus Camp. This report leaves more of a boot camp aftertaste in my mouth as opposed to the summer camp feel the program initially had in mind. I couldn’t help but think I would hear or did hear the English translation or transliteration for Jihad amongst those little campers. If those kids would have been speaking another language (as opposed to English and “tongues”), one could easily have envisioned a future suicide bomber in their midst. I thought the report made the whole evangelical, but especially the Pentecostal and Charismatic compartments, come across has VERY CREEPY. It made me want to pull my kids out of children’s church and avoid every future Kids Camp our church may be involved with. Footage like this Saving Holly piece makes Christians in general seem so narrow minded, intolerant and brainwashed into robotically saving souls. It doesn’t depict most Christian’s normal day to day life having conversations with non-Christians about something other than their eternal destination. Now, while maybe I always introduce myself by saying, “Hi, my name is Juan, if you died tonight where would you go… Heaven or HELL.” Then closely following up that rhetorical question with “Why would my Jesus let you in to His heaven?” that doesn’t mean every Christian follows my example of living la vida loca.
On another note, being a youth pastor, I was also slightly offended, yet found myself chuckling, at how my colleagues or should I say peeps were portrayed. Youth Pastor is equivalent to skate parks, rock concerts, and being a republican if you actually think about politics beyond the abortion and homosexuality issues. I would love to put my two pesos in and simply say that the evangelical movement can include and indeed does include, youth ministries that read books written by NT Wright, discuss abortion and homosexuality as moral issues and discuss political issues knowing full well you can be a democrat and go to heaven and that many republicans are going straight to hell. I will be doing a follow up documentary about this movement’s other gathering; when Christians aren’t brainwashing kids at some charismatic, George Bush worshipping camp, they seem to be putting up a front as if they had some critical thinking skills by putting together conferences like this one…
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I was already bothered that more people were reading The Purpose Driven Life more than they were the Bible. It was nauseating to see how excited people were about some book, and not The Book, about the words of Warren and not the Word of God. It seemed Purpose was more important that the Gosple. It now seems as if Purpose, or at best faith is more important than Jesus.
At least it seems to be for Rick Warren (I know he give 90% of his income).
I can see it now:
Purpose Driven Mosques
Purpose Driven Mahabodhi Temple
Purpose Driven Wards
Purpose Driven Shrines
And already we have Purpose Driven Synagogues. The purpose isn’t found in Christ. It doesn’t matter if you reject him as Messiah and Savior, as long as you find your purpose… according to Mr. Warren. He went as far to say that there are too many of those individuals that accept and proclaim Christ as The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
“Warren told Wolfson his interest is in helping all houses of worship, not in converting Jews. He said there are more than enough Christian souls to deal with for starters. ”
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16029
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Not sure if Mr. Hinn could actually rip Ravi's brains out, but Benny will certainly draw a larger crowd… unfortunately. (BTW even if Benny did rip Ravi's brains out, he probably wouldn't use them…unfortunately)
I must be out of my mind… or at least not using it. Why is it that I covet and become even jealous about "all" those who will be in attendance at the upcoming National Conference on Christian Apologetics and at the Contending for the Truth 2007 National Conference Orlando, Florida March 15-17, 2007? Maybe its because I can't be at all of them at the same time. Yet, you can add those in attendance at both of these conferences and even those of similar nature and in an entire year they will pale in comparison to the amount of people in attendance at just one of these conferences .
This is a sad but true fact. I have been to various conferences and it never fails; I can never find a seat at some charismatic conference but it shocked people and ended up being a borderline spectacle when I took a group of youth to the Biblical Discernment Conference in St. Louis several years ago.
Conferences that focus on nourishing and nurturing the mind are so poorly attended and publicized by our churches that they are barely even scheduled, much less conveniently located across the nation. I currently reside in the Seattle area, and if I don't vomit the next time Casey Treat has another huge gathering, I will at least do a one man boycott. Yet, I took about a dozen teenagers to a Worldview Conference where there were just over a couple hundred people; and that's only because Doug Geivett , Gary Habermas , Greg Koukl and Jason Carson (son of a D.A. Carson not cofounder of the former Supertones) were in attendance. <– I'm sure Jason loves that I have to give that parenthetical statement.
Nevertheless, those at this Worldview conference were thrilled with how many had come out to attend. I guess I should just give up and think in similar fashion: "Wow, what a great attendance, a whole 200 people;" which I'm sure T.D. Jakes will have more show up for his "Golf with the Bishop " fundraiser this September.
I recently suggested to our congregation that instead of wearing Shawn Alexander jerseys we should wear Ravi Zacharias ones instead -so far, someone made me a Ravi Zacharias pillow for my office. And even though its a nice start to Ravi 's celebrity status, unfortunately, Benny still has him beat.
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