G12 Churches: cults or discipleship with a plan? Part III
NOTE: This post is part of a Series on the G12 Model
In this part, I discuss the G12 model in detail, discussing the various roles and stages that a person can progress through in the G12 system.
Most of what I have documented below is from The Ladder of Success, written by G12 founder Cesar Castellanos.
As you will see, the G12 model is a complex, well-developed and thoughtful model on how to create and reproduce mature believers. But there may be a dark side.
What Michael Jackson’s life really teaches us
Greg Stier over at the Christian Post has a nice article entitled Michael Jackson's Real Legacy. Here's the shortened list, modified by me:
- He taught us all how to dance
- He taught us all that money and creative success don't make you happy
- He taught us that cultish and outward religion doesn't make us happy (Jehovah's Witness)
- He taught us that cosmetic surgery can go really bad
- He taught us that abusive parenting can mess you up for a lifetime
But probably, if you know and live with Biblical values, you don't have to end up like MJ, who in my estimation, though an influential and creative genius, was not really successful by spiritual measure. King Solomon explored the many possible routes to happiness even more than MJ, and like a good scientist, recorded it all in the book of Ecclesiastes. His conclusion?
Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink,
and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the
few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. (Ecclesiastes 5:18)Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 15:13-14)
The history of anti-abortion violence? Negligable
Political Math tried to find and visualize the amount of violence associated with the pro-life movement in America. I mean, these people are a menace, right? Give me a break. As PM remarks, a proper description of the Tiller murder would be this:
This incident has shattered an eight year lull in anti-abortion related
shootings, an activity that spiked to record levels in the 90’s.
Obamanomics in the real world – deficit
The CBO brings a little reality to the Hope and Dreams machine (HT: James).
Obamanomics in the real world – Unemployment
Perhaps we would have been better off WITHOUT the 'recovery' plan, eh? (HT: James)
Through a glass darkly
Here's the latest from Diversity Lane – but I have to admit, we all have the tendency to look through our ideological lenses instead of seeing the truth, but I think that the exaggerated panic and alarm mentality of the left makes this cartoon really appropriate. If you just believed the liberal MSM, you'd think that:
- We are on the edge of environmental collapse (Global Warming Alarmism)
- We live in an incredibly racist society (Racism under every Bush, er bush)
- We have a healthcare crisis that is about to plunge us into the dark ages
- We have a financial crisis that necessitates huge government spending and debt
I think their priorities and viewpoints are way out of balance. I see our priorities as:
- Our government is too large and overspending
- Our banking system lacks oversight, but needs to allow market forces to return it to sanity
- We have an abortion problem – 3000 children killed a day
But that's me. Enjoy the cartoon. Click to enlarge.
Study: Divorce damages long-term physical health
Much can be debated about the emotional impact that divorce has on the participants and any children involved, but physical results are much more difficult to explain away. A new study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that divorced people have 20% more chronic illnesses than those who are continually or never married.
Palm Pre v. iPhone in Short Sentences
There
have been lots of blog posts across the inet comparing these two
industry leading phones. I had to compare them before I finally bit
the bullet and dove in. Here's my short version comparing the two.
Spot the “controversial” nominee
Two men were nominated by President Obama for prominent scientific positions in the federal government. One was dubbed "controversial," they other … not so much.
Nominee #1 is pro-choice, pro-ESCR, believes in evolution, campaigned for Pres. Obama and was the geneticist who led the effort to sequence the human genome. However, he is an admitted *gasp* evangelical Christian, who even wrote a book about his scientific work called "The Language of God."
Nominee #2 published a book in which he and his coauthors argued that because of the ever increasing population of the Earth, governments could take drastic measures like forced sterilization especially those who "contribute to social deterioration" and national governments could be superseded by a "Planetary Regime." The book argued [wrongly in spectacular fashion] that unless some draconian laws were implemented our civilization would not reach the 21st century, as we stood then.
Isn't it obvious which nominee should be described in newspapers articles as controversial and should have straw man riddled NY Times Op-Eds written about the dangers of his appointment? It just be just as obvious that the other man has simply been "drubbed by conservatives as overstating environmental perils."
Obama’s Liberal Socialism – stupidity, fear, greed, or conspiracy of evil intellectuals?
The American Thinker has published a very interesting article entitled Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis, in which the author examines what amounts to a liberal socialist conspiracy started by radical socialist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.
This strategy, now known as The Cloward-Piven Strategy, is what The American Thinker is accusing Obama of being a pawn of, and perhaps to some extent, a pawn that knows what he is doing.
As the image to the right outlines, the links between Cloward and Piven, the many modern socialist thinkers, the founders and activities of corrupt organizations like Acorn, and Obama are too numerous to ignore. This is not just some kookie conspiracy theory, this is how the power of ideas corrupts higher education and government, and can lead to a nation's downfall.
And to me, it in part explains why liberals can so enthusiastically buy into the social and scientific negligence of Global Warming Panic and the absurdity of the astronomical debt of Obamanomics. It is an exercise in mass brainwashing, and like watching the Communist revolution all over again as if we never saw it happen before.
The People’s Cube Strikes Again…and again, and again
I haven’t picked on President Obama lately, but my most favorite wickedly funny conservative site, The People’s Cube, has not been laying down on the job in order to get Federal monies.
You gotta love, for example, a portion of the copy that attends the picture to the right:
Did you ever ask yourself is your economy big enough? Do you feel
insecure about the pork in your portfolio? Do you want to stop your Dow
Jones from shrinking at the most embarrassing moments? It is finally
possible with the only economy enlargement product that works. You can
become a lean, mean and fierce economy-stimulating machine in just
days! Satisfy your community’s dream of having a representative with a
massive Stimulus Package. Enhance, enlarge and upsize the economy
today! Stop settling for second best, get your huge bailout here!
Each image below links to a PC article with more funny images, and text for those of you who read. Enjoy.
Timely marriage
When I hear that one of the news magazines has done a cover story on marriage, I imagine a repeat of Lisa Miller's shoddy Newsweek essay on why Christians really don't know what the Bible teaches about marriage. However, Time's most recent cover story by Caitlin Flanagan details why the institution of marriage is vitally important to the health and sustainability of our society, while asking the inevitable question: Is there hope for the American marriage?
Is memory a characteristic of personhood?
Obviously, in and of itself, being able to remember does not make on a person, as animals can remember. However, for most of those who believe that personhood is a separate idea than humanity, the idea of consciousness and mental abilities often play into their equations, for lack of a better word, for determining personhood.
Repeatedly, science has shown us the complexity of an unborn human. The more we study them, the more advanced we find them to be. A recent study found that fetuses at the 30 week mark had short term memory. Those at 34 weeks could retrieve remembered information four weeks later.
Knowing this, is there anyone who still wants to defend the legality and morality of partial-birth abortions on late term babies? The abortion debate will not be solved presently, but can we not move forward to eliminate those procedures which are the most brutal and focus on individuals which can remember and experience pain?
G12 Churches: Cults or discipleship? Part II
NOTE: This post is part of a Series on the G12 Model
In Part I, I introduced my plan to investigate the local G12 church in SLO, and to find out if it was a cult or not.
However, right off of the bat, let me say that overall, my wife’s and my experience at Mercy Church was overwhelmingly and mostly positive, and the presence of God, as well as real energy and excitement, were there. And the bible teaching was good as well. But I did have some hesitation. But more on that later.
Below, I describe the first part of the service we attended.
The photo to the right is very similar to the one used in Part I, except that you’ll notice that the lyrics are in Spanish.
G12 Churches: Cults or discipleship? Part I
NOTE: This post is part of a Series on the G12 Model
My wife and I spent our 6th, and best anniversary so far, in the San Luis Obispo area (SLO) last weekend, and enjoyed reconnecting with one of my missionary buddies from 15 years ago (YWAM). We had a great time talking about life, faith, losing faith, and to a lesser extent, the problem with ‘church’ as it is practiced in evangelicalism.
While I was down there, I was asked by a friend to check out the local G12 church named Mercy Church because they were concerned that the church was exercising a little too much control over one of their friends who was attending.
So I checked it out, and here’s what I learned. And that’s an actual pic from the worship (click to enlarge).
Part II: How Christianity changed the world – Life, Sex, Marriage & Status of Women
Dr. Alvin Schmidt was interviewed in a series on the excellent Lutheran podcast Issues Etc regarding his new book, How Christianity Changed the World. I am blogging through the interviews because I think their content are a great introduction to what appears to be a great book that re-revises history in an effort to fix the errors of modern anti-theists, as well as the dominance of anti-Catholic and anti-theist spin among the enlightenment historians.
Just imagine if all of these evils done away with PRIMARILY by Christianity were still prevalent. Oh sure, "Christianity is evil." Wake up from ignorance of history. The evils of the Catholic Church and such misrepresented events such as the Crusades and the Inquisition, while important, pale in comparison to the substantial, if not critical impact of Chrsitianity on the west. Advances which paganism, humanism, and atheism had naught to do with, except sometimes as OPPONENTS to such advances.
Here's the audio, and I have brought out some points below.
Part I: How Christianity changed the world by Alvin Schmidt – Introduction
Alvin Schmidt has written what may be one of the definitive books on the positive influence of Christianity in history, entitled How Christianity Changed the World.
Others, like Rodney Stark, have written similar 'revisions' of history, needed to correct the anti-Christian and anti-Catholic misinformation of enlightenment and liberal historians. While us Protestants are glad to discuss the historic errors of Catholicism, and to a lesser extend our own, liberals tend to overblow these mistakes and misrepresent them in their retelling of history.
For example, they refer to the Crusades as a religious pogrom against Islam and Judaism, rather than a response to 400 years of Muslim aggression and brutality, which unfortunately digressed in some cases to antisemitic behaviors due to an "if you are not with us you are against us" mentality which was condemned by the Church.
However, I just came upon a fantastic multi-part interview with Schmidt regarding his book on Issues Etc, the great Lutheran podcast (see Best Podcasts for Christians). And so I'm gonna do a series explaining the amazingly positive impact of Christianity on history.
Growing anti-gay environment in the UK due to mutlicultural slumber regarding Islam
One of my favorite humorous cultural podcasts, Shire Network News (“Protecting the Anglosphere through satire”), has created a great show this week, including an interview with Bruce Bawer, the Oslo-based US author of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within and Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom.
Bower talks about his experiences as a gay man in what he thought would be a more tolerant European society, and what happened when he ran into radical Islam on the streets of Amsterdam one night.
Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves
ID the Future has a nice two part interview with Dr. James Le Fanu, author of Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves. Le Fanu, a scientist and science writer, discusses the inability of evolution to even come close to explaining the complexity of humanity. He doesn’t reject evolution, he only explains that its explanatory power is vastly inferior to the problems presented.
This book appears as much science as philosophy of science, but another thoughtful book considering the limitations, perhaps even the fallibility of evolutionary origins.
