Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Are You Offended?
This is a pretty interesting and powerful message targeting American Christianity. In my opinion, we need more preachers like this in the world, who really point out the severity of the situation! My goodness, we have a pandemic in this country if 70% of it claims the name "Christian" and we kill over 4000 babies a day!(just as an example) Are you kidding Me!? I hope your not offended, but if you are, start some personal reflection.
"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you, unless, of course, you fail the test?"
(2 Cor 13:5)
Peace!
Moellerd
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at least that guy isnt sad...i think you like him just because he looks like you
ReplyDeleteon a serious note though...my issue with him is 4 fold:
ReplyDelete1. I don't believe his statistics - he claims around minute 12 that "at least 99.9% of the people in your town claim to be christian" that is simply not true and I also know from experience that many people in church care about holiness, serving, scripture, ect and while there are times where you need to exaggerate to make a point, there comes a point where your message loses credibility when your stats are bad! and in his case they are
2. I am uncomfortable with his statements against the American church: I think he is painting with too broad of strokes and his generalization leads to fallacy. It is ok to say "some churches" or "many people believe" ect but it isn't fair to the hundreds of good choices who are sold out on his word when he generalizes the "american church" as one entity
3. The intro to his sermon is completely self focused and borderlines prideful: "i am going to preach as if i will never preach again", "I am going to tell you things you will not understand", "I am going to say things that will make you angry", "It is dangerous to preach"- all these comments serve not purpose but to boost his ego...Preachers don't say anything, the Word of God speaks through the preacher along with the holy spirit, I don't know why you would ever preface anything that way, let scripture speak for itself
4. most importantly, it seems to me he is using scare tactics with a bunch of kids in youth group. From his disposition on stage to his pointing at the audience to his message, his whole point is to scare kids who don't want to go to hell... now there is a time and place for reflection and all christians should be sober about their walk with God and they should examine themselves...HOWEVER if this preacher truly believed what he was saying shouldn't he be joyfully presenting the gospel of hope...that is what the gospel is, which is why the disciples did it so boldly and joyfully, it was not about them but about the power of christ to change lives...not about being sad and scaring kids into a prayer that they may or may not understand...there has to be a more effective way of sharing the gospel than to just use scare tactics, people should be motivated to love christ because of who he is, what he has done, and because we are lost without him...not because we dont want to go to hell.
this man has done a disservice to the poor kids listening to him
He does look like me!... scary.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts! I do agree with you Calvin 100% on all four of your points. However, the Lord even spoke through Balaam the false prophet to get His point across. I think that though this guy's rhetoric probably wasn't the best for a group of youth group/highschool students, the message about "evidence of faith" is an important one for the church in America. I would bet and agree that his stats are probably way off, but you and I both know people who talk the talk but do not walk the walk. This message is for a person like that. Washer's over-generalization of his audience listening is his downfall, but I still appreciate the message. "You can't expect me to believe that you had an encounter with a 15 ton logging truck and stand here talking to me right now..... God is bigger than a logging truck and if you aren't changed by your encounter, was it just an emotional flux?"(paraphrased)
I agree that the gospel should be shared as a gospel of hope, not a fire and brimstone prevention gospel, but I think Washer does have a lot to say to those who we both know who are stubborn in the sense of "i'm saved cause i said a prayer, now lay off about this sin thing, cause i want to live my life the way i want to... I SAID THE PRAYER, so what's the big deal?!"
Those people are Washer's correct audience who need a kick in the butt.
You're the man! Thanks for posting
Moellerd