The Great Pumpkin and Jesus in the House

Nope, not an oxymoron, though 10 years ago, most thought it was.

I could throw some scripture at you, but that is always suspect, since it's always out of context, so instead, I'll demonstrate how this church threw the Gospel at 600 kids and their parents.

Yep, that's right. Over 600 kids and parents showed up from

the community to High Pointe Church's Harvest Party, which had a pretty dead on Gospel presentation, BEFORE they went trunk or treating.

Let me break down the potential good and bad of it as I have seen it or had it explained to me.

Potential Bad   
                              
1)  Halloween is about boiling babies in pumpkins or any of the the other neo-druid rites that are not Godly.
(Historically, there were no pumpkins in England, so this is false from the beginning, but "Druid" rites are pretty much a mystery thanks to Julius Caesar destroying 100% of the druids, and creating these stories in the process to scare his army into fighting harder.)

2) It is going into the world, doing worldly things, rather than trusting the Gospel.

3) If you act like a demon, you invite demons.

Potential Good

1) Halloween is a religious rite that is generally misunderstood and distrusted by the Protestant church because it is a Catholic tradition.  Exploration of the truth is good, and knowing what the tradition is to begin with is also good.  We are all the Church of Jesus the Christ.

2) You get the opportunity to provide a SAFE and NON-DEMONIC atmosphere for both your own children and families but also for those who don't come to church.

3) You get to Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

4) You get to Love on people.

5) It's Fun.

The main building only holds 600 so the overflow was in the smaller building which only hold 200ish, I would guess. There, they sang to Lord, with the High School youth group leading them in the words and hand motions.  No kidding. Everyone SHOWING the gospel, not just reading it.

At 6:15pm, in 40 degree weather, with the NE Patriots beating the tar out of the Broncos, 60 plus cars and not a few ministry groups showed up with simple to elaborate decorations just to pass candy out to kids.  Not even,

necessarily their own kids.  Just kids.

What struck me was that this is a conservative bible thumping evangelical, church building, fire and brimstone preaching baptist heritage church, doing Halloween.  

They laid down their hard earned paradigm about Halloween for the chance to have the pastoral team bring the Gospel, the truth, to 100's of people who never would have come into any church, much less a Conservative one.

That's how much they believe ....  sorry here comes the

scripture ...



Wait for it.....



Wait.....



He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. - Mark 16:15

That's Love.

Since I go to this church, I can assure you that Doctrine is preached, though not everyone agrees with doctrine.  We have people who think many things are sin and many who think all things are lawful.  We have many that think women can preach and we have women who preach, though not in the church. The superintendent of church schools is a women. That's a hard job, one that involves preaching even if it's not recognized as such.  I once held that position in another church so I really know the difficulty.  Very demanding. We have dress arguments and giving disagreements.  We have music discussions about to much show and not enough show. Normal church, except....

No one disagrees that We are to Love the Lord our God and

Love his people, and the best way to do that is preach the gospel. Some do it with words and some with actions, but we all agree;

The truth will set you free, and Grace is more powerful than everything in the world.

So, we do the pumpkin thing, and bring the word to 100's that never heard it and 100's who never felt it.

I Invite Your Comments - I really love learning from other's hard earned view points.  I challenge you to speak out.

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Books that will either add to your conviction, explain other's convictions or bring the light of truth and history to the discussion.  Knowledge sharpens the sword, and it is sharpened well indeed if you are seeking it for the Kingdom of God.

The Conservative Christian View on why Halloween is bad:

The historical view on what Halloween is from a scholarly point of view:

The Crazy S#$%^ Christians Say

A decade ago, I attended my daughter's graduation from a Christian University.  Let me be clear, this is no standard Christian University where you send your child to make sure they learn correct doctrine and are safe from the world. This place insisted that they made their own choice in their faith, understood the concepts and the reason, and got a valid degree in the world.  But they were weird.  We go a letter 6 months into her first year telling us to stop pressuring her to decide what the rest of her life was going to be about.  She had not heard the call yet.  She did not know.  I'm thinking, 100k for this?  She better know what she is doing.  As it turns out, I was wrong. She chose changing lives by using her teaching gifts in karate.  She has changed 1000's of lives already, including my own. Anyway, this university gave her, and me by extension, the tools to see how crazy we Christians can be.

Crazy S#$%^ #1)
 One of the speakers at her graduation was a professor emeritus and a baptist pastor of some renown.  We got up and said, something like, "There are many God damned people in the world."  

There was a gasp.  Indignation.  Then silence.  

Then he said something I have never forgotten.  "Most of you are more worried about me saying 'God Damned" than about those who are damned."

Wait........

What?  

Yep.  He was right.  We judged him on our rules.  Swearing is bad.  Don't do it.  Somewhere in the Bible I can prove it.  For sure, don't use the Lord's name in vain.  Problem is, he was not swearing.  He was stating a fact.

We were more worried about the words he used than the people we have been charged to help.  People who do not know Jesus are damned.  We have been given the tools to help them, so the spirit can work within them.  Yet, we are worried about his words, not their souls.  Odd.
Backwards.   Wrong.

We should shine the light of the Gospel.  Can't shine darkness anyway.

Crazy S#$%^  #2)  I was at an event sponsored by group my wife's and daughter's karate school belongs too.  There was one of the best rated goal setting, sales supporting, uber-speakers in the world today there.  And ... he is know as an out spoken Christian.  Yea.  I listen with awe to his awesome presentation.  Someday I could be a rich and powerful Christian just like him.  We even got to sit with him at dinner.  Pretty cool. 

I told him Crazy Story #1 above, and he said, with perfect posture and aplomb, that this professor was wrong, and misleading young minds.  No one should ever take the Lord's name in vain.  He missed the point.  The great commission was about sending us out to bring the Word to the lost, not spreading rules around and measuring other people.

He really was just a stuffed expensive suit, pretending to be a Christian in order to make money.  He spends his life seeing if other's measure up.

Crazy S#$%^  #3)  God loves praise and worship music, so if you don't do it, your not making God happy.  Really?  I know the verses, but really? 

I'm mostly tone deaf, and my injury makes loud music, heavy metal and reverb an awesome trigger for headaches that put me on the ground.  Ill.  Like I can't describe.  So any church that spends massive amounts of money and time on music, insisting that God demands it, kinda hates my service.  I teach.  That's I how serve.  I have to hang in the bathroom during most of the praise music so I don't get sick.  No kidding. 

Does that mean I'm going to hell?  Plus, I rather hear a flute, piano and Base than a keyboard, lead guitar and a snare drum anyway.  I'm ok with rock and roll; it's my generations greatest gift to the world, but I really prefer classical and country to heavy metal.

Same university.  Sitting at the baccalaureate service in a local church.  (The university does not have it's own church, as they insist that their students attend a local church and get involved in that churches mission.)  One of the speakers, the valedictorian or the dean of students, I don't remember which, talked about the trends in modern churches, and used a phrase.  7 - 11 Music.  7 Verses, 11 times.  I count now, 10 years later.  You know what, he was right.  Most music is 7-11 music in churches I visit.  It's really not praise and worship.  It's marketing.  

Give me amazing grace.  At least I know it won't get me sick, and it causes me to listen to the words.

Crazy S#$%^  #4) Your bible is evil, and by reading it, you're insuring that you're going to hell.

Err.  Hell seems to be nipping at my heels, like a dog. I don't like most praise music. I read evil bibles.  I'm worried about the damned.  Help.  Going down for the last time.

All bibles are translations.  All of them are wrong.  There is no original one.  They are a collection of letters, stories, books and histories, but we don't even have the original collection.  I was actually told, when I asked about this, that "the original ..... have no errors."  What?  How's that?  Worse, they were not written by the hand of God.  They were written by the hand of humans.  However, they were written by inspiration from God.  And, if they are read with the Holy Spirit's inspiration, whatever bible you are reading is both inerrant and sufficient.  If you do not have the Holy Spirit, it's just a book.  Yet, we fight over which one we read. Just as if Jesus spoke the original in English. 

Crazy S#$%^  #5)  My church no longer gives me what I need.  

What?  Church is NOT about your needs, desires or wants.  It's about God.  If you don't get what you want, either change what you want, because it might not be in line with what God wants, or change your Church.  

We, as Christians, are not about swapping sheep or shepherds.

We are about the harvest.  

Go get more sheep.  New sheep.  Times a wasting, and we have already been told what to do.


Crazy S#$%^  #6)  If you were offended by the title, The Crazy S#$%^ Christians Say, S _ _ _ _  -- five letter.  Not  4 .. 

Stuff, people, stuff.  Crazy Stuff Christians Say.

 Put your whip back in the drawer.

Why did I write this?  Because, as it turns out, I know many Christians that spend much time slamming other Christians.  I am more worried about my family members who don't know Christ than I am about those people who attend a church different than mine or who don't follow, understand or agree with my doctrine.

I know that God loves me, and the gay couples I know, and you too. 

I can't control my own behavior well enough to call myself righteous, and I am sure that by calling someone else a sinner, I get no closer to God.  Saul (Paul) did that; then he saw the light.  The light of the Lord.  The Good News. 

I want to live in this time with fellow Christians that are more worried about the damned than they are about the rules.  I want us to be more willing to spend their treasure and their time to bring love to the world than they are to spend time to yell at each other about doctrine. 

I'm tired of hearing about how much God loves guns, the constitution and baseball, and how much he hates Islam, your church, gays and New England.  I'm a conservative born again Christian. Yet, I am worried about those who don't know the Lord.  

The two most important laws, according to Jesus, are to Love the Lord your God, with all your Heart (body, mind spirit, life) and just as important, Love your neighbor as yourself.

Chill out.  We are not supposed to pick up the sword and start smiting the evil one.  We are supposed to love God and our Neighbor.  Stop the hate.  Start the Love.  I'm far to weak to do it on my own, and the light keeps fleeing from my sight.  

One Church.  One God.  Amen.

I Hate this Church

I normally like to bring to these articles a passion for something we believe in before we do it, but this one is different.  I am writing Before the event because by the time it is over, I will have PC'ed it into perspective, and the ability for me to learn will melt like snow, so  to speak.

This is more in the nature of a expose' on what is wrong with how I think about churches (not THE Church) rather than the issues I have run into at a Church, though they are somewhat related, in a  Newtons Third Law kinda world. (Cause and effect.)

So, we are in New York, and since everything that is NOT New York city is Upstate, we are upstate, though we are less than 40 minutes from the center of the earth, near the United States Military Academy at West Point in fact.

We have been running back and forth from home to hospital for a sick and aged family member in NY, and the 3 - 4 hour drive every 4 days prevented us from charging our battery at church.  This day, we can not push the need off any longer, and we are going to church.  As dumb as it seems, these are the things I am worried about and the steps we are taking to decide which church to attend.  (Keep in mind, we do this with absolute certainty that Romans 8:28 is the law of the land.)

Here are the Steps and Issues we at least thought of, and the resolution, if there was one yet:

1) How to pick a church.  We were told to go to the phone book and look for one with a display ad that attracted our attention, but who uses Phone Books anymore.
   Resolved: We drove around until we found a church that "looked" cool.  One of our favorite churches, other than our own, in MA has a sign that tells you, when you leave it's parking lot, "you are now entering the Mission Field."  This church had that sign.  So we picked it.

2) What if they don't believe what we believe?  What if their doctrine is not up to snuff with ours, in other words.
    
Resolved:  We went to the World Wide Web, and looked them up.  The believe what we believe, as in they believe in salvation via Grace.  They also believe in some other stuff, in addition to what we believe, and the Devil is in the details.  So we had a long and theological talk about these additions, and what they might mean to us, if we attended service at this church.



2a) They believe in "Faith Healing."  They believe, in other words, that they Holy Spirit can and does heal people, as in Peter at the Gates of the Temple, Acts 3: 1-9. I know that this is actually a bone of contention with many of my friends.  One of my Pastors, in his quest for his doctorate, has just learned enough about this topic to require further study.  I get it.  Yet.
   Resolved: "Wow, that would be cool."

2b) They Believe in "Speaking in Tongues." 1 Corinthians 12:8-11, for example.  This one is more difficult than the first.  I have actually been in  church where they "teach you how to speak in tongues," as in, they have a class.  Since it is a spirit thing, that kinda gives me the creeps. They don't believe that you MUST speak in tongues, they just believe that it is possible.
   Resolved: "Really? I would like to see that."


3)  What about the dress code?  I only have shorts and Anne only has capris.  What if they want dresses and suits.  What if that is part of their respect to the Lord.
  Resolved: "We will find out."  I will let you know who that turned out, and about the rest.


Why did I leave this note?  Because some of this stuff actually scared me.  Almost kept me from going to church away from home.  I don't want to insult others. I don't want to be taught things I don't think I believe.  I don't want my prejudice on anything to keep me from God anymore, either.  That pompous attitude of "I have the right," and "I already know," is what kept me from Christ for 35 years. 

But it is NOT feelings that matter.  It is action.  Jesus brought the Gospel of Love.  God's Love is NOT a feeling, that I am hooked on.  It is a love that requires action.  He acted, and continues to act on our behalf, and we must live out the Gospel with our actions. 

Off we go.  

Love the Lord.


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The After report:


Have I told you that I have a brain injury?  For me to last through a church service that is longer than 60 - 70 minutes normally involves 3 bathroom trips, an unplanned nap or two, and a ton of loss of focus and perhaps some anger.  Really.  (Working on the anger thing --  called loss of impulse control.  See It Keeps Hitting the Fan for more on anger and God.)


This service started at 11:00am and ended at 1:23pm ... no kidding.  I did not know all that time had past.  There we some moments of challenge and growth, but 2 1/2 hours passed with me being awake, engaged, and not knowing about time loss.


Let me take you through what happened, so you see how weird God's sense of humor, timing and teaching are.


a) We drove in at 10:50am, and saw people leaving, everywhere. Tons of people walking away. So right away we are worried that we have the wrong time. Perhaps a summer schedule change. So we stop, and we ask someone. Again, I have TBI (Traumatic brain injury ), so asking anyone anything is VERY hard for me.  Wet my pants hard, but my wife forgets that or is amused by that from time to time, and this was one of those times. To make it worse, he was huge.  He also wore an affect of "leave me alone," and when I asked him if there was another service, he acted like he did not understand English. So I said it again, with head motions, hand motions and a pleading look in my whole body.  He said, "yea, sure" and kept walking.  Yea.  Feeling good.

b) We get in and sit down.  Place is empty except for those from the last service, and they have two giant screens for multimedia projectors, with events and activities flashing by every 10 seconds or so.  We were ignored. 100%.  No one even looked at us.  Good, I am thinking.  Nor personal interaction, though we still don't know if there is a service or not.

c) Big countdown clock shows up on the screen when there is 5 minutes to go before 11:00am.  Music team shows up.  Keyboards start low key.  Yea, there is a service, and we now know when.

d) The next 5 minutes is jammed with people greeting us when the nearly empty church expands to 200 plus people in no time at all, and none of them know us, so they all say hello.  TBI - Feeling like puking now.  Looking for the way out.

e) Then it starts.  The music minister leads us in about ten 7/11 songs, as my daughter taught me when she was in college.  7 lines sung 11 times.  The place was rocking.  Unreal.  Flags, tambourines,  hopping up and down.  It was like we stepped from the empty church into the set of "The Gospel,"
movie.  I can't hear most music.  (TBI)  Not my favorite part of church.  Yet, this was it.  I had no idea I was hopping around singing until I noticed Anne doing it too.

(a Trailer for the Movie "The Gospel"  -  get it -  Awesome)

f) The Jr. Pastor gets up and makes a plea for money for their college scholarship funds.  100 or so go for it.  Pretty cool, but I hate the collection part, if it comes with a sermon for why you should give.

g) Sr. Pastor gets up, and the clock stops for 90 minutes.  3 lines of scripture covers 90 minutes, starting with  Jeremiah 18:6,  which just happen to address and solve every major issue in my life at that very moment.  Awesome.  Where was this place?  Solid Rock Church in New Windsor NY.  If you want to listen to their sermons, click here.

What did I learn.

God was telling us to go to church.  We are his sheep, so we know his voice.  We went.  I was not happy about it when I got there.  It was NOT what I wanted to see, feel or hear.  I was wrong.  God, surprise, was right.

God Rocks. So Does this Church.  I love this Church. God willing, we will be there next week, and and any Sunday we are in the area in the future.  Wow.  They gave us gifts too.  Two churches have given us gifts when we visited.  This Church, Solid Rock in New Windsor NY, gave us a coffee mug and coffee ...  pictured here.  Temple Baptist Church, in Cherry Valley MA gave us a mug and chocolate .. wow again.  Loved both churches, though the coffee an the chocolate had less to do with it then the word, the feeling , the message and the people of the Lord.