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The following articles are compiled by:

Leo Wong

Leo@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

 

Emergent church and Beer

Source: STLtoday.com

 

February 6, 2007 -- Theology at the Bottleworks is run by a wildly successful congregation of young St. Louisans called The Journey. The Schlafly program is part of the church's outreach ministry. And it works.

 

Every month dozens show up at the brewpub to drink beer and talk about issues ranging from racism in St. Louis to modern art controversies to the debate about embryonic stem cell research. First-timers are invited to check out the church on Sunday, and Journey leaders say many have. Theology at the Bottleworks is just one of The Journey's ministries, but it has helped the church grow from 30 members in late 2002 to 1,300 today.

 

The Rev. Darrin Patrick, The Journey's founder and lead pastor, says its nontraditional approach is aimed at those who are not likely to attend church.

 

"We want to go where people are," he said. "We don't expect them to come to us."

 

For nearly two years, the beer ministry has brought new members to the church. Now it's being called unbiblical. The Journey defines itself as an interdenominational church, but it has a working relationship with the Missouri Baptist Convention. That confederation of Baptist churches is the state arm of the largest Protestant denomination in the country, the theologically and socially conservative Southern Baptist Convention.

 

In 2005, The Journey borrowed $200,000 from the Baptist organization to help buy and renovate a former Catholic church in St. Louis. In December Baptist leaders began questioning the church's methods of attracting worshippers, specifically its use of alcohol.

 

At last year's annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, members overwhelmingly reaffirmed their traditional stance on alcohol by passing a resolution that expressed "our total opposition to the manufacturing, advertising, distributing, and consuming of alcoholic beverages." Baptists within the denomination who oppose such a strict view of alcohol use argue that the Southern Baptist position is based on denominational tradition, not Scripture.

 

The Journey is part of what sociologists of religion call the emerging church movement.

 

"Emerging congregations offer a radically different style of worship that appeals to certain kinds of young folks," said Scott L. Thumma of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

 

The Rev. Bill Edwards, chairman of the Missouri Baptist Convention's church planting subcommittee, said he had received a number of calls from Missouri Baptists complaining about The Journey's website, some pages of which depict or suggest drinking beer and wine. Last month, the organization's executive board formed a committee to investigate The Journey and assess the Missouri Baptist Convention's position on the emerging church movement.

 

Kerry Messer, a member of the Missouri Baptist Convention's executive board, said that he had attended The Journey's December Theology at the Bottleworks program and that what he had seen worried him.

 

"Beer being served as part of a church presentation sends mixed messages to the community and causes confusion," Messer said. "Had we known about this before the loan was approved, I would have openly spoken out against a financial relationship being established."

 

The Journey, he said, represents "a movement that compromises the positions, beliefs and doctrines of the Baptist church in order to attract people to theirs."

 

Comments:  Proverbs 20:[1] Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.  In today’s modern world, Christians are going to where the unsaved are with the Gospel message and that’s great.  However, to blend in with their environment could cause some believers to trip up.  I’ve read where a male Christian would pay a prostitute a stated amount of money and then instead of her delivering the usual service, he just wanted to talk to her about her soul.  Yes, she can be reached that way, but he’s subjecting himself to potential harm.  What if he takes a shine to her and falls in love with her?  What if when he came out of the brothel house, he’s witnessed by passerbys who know him?  Would they think to themselves, “Hmm…that dude said he was a Christian, but here he just availed himself of the services of a hooker. My oh my.”  Yes, Jesus did go to preach to the prostitutes, but He’s God.  We aren’t.

 

These young believers of The Journey drank beer with the unsaved.  What’s the big brouhaha you say?  Well, under the influence of alcohol, the hearers of the Word may not fully comprehend what’s being said.  Demons have been known to possess imbibers.  Brain cells swirling with mind altering chemicals aren’t exactly primed for true repentance of sins and receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord.  After the few beers and effects have left the bodily system, what’s the state of that person’s soul?  Genuine salvation or merely a public acknowledgement of “go with the flow conversion” that a bottle or two beers have produced.  A person needs to be in the right mind to receive the Gospel of God.  Alcohol dulls one’s senses. Beer and Christians shouldn’t mix. Romans 3: Let us do evil, that good may come?  Luke 8:[35] Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

 

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Mayor converts to Islam from Christianity; wants name change

Source: Macon.com 

 

February 6, 2007 -- Macon Mayor Jack Ellis has converted to Islam and is working to legally change his name to Hakim Mansour Ellis.

 

The mayor, raised as a Christian, said Thursday that he has been studying the Koran for years and made the religious switch at a December ceremony in the country of Senegal on the western African coast. Ellis is now a Sunni Muslim, having chosen a religion he said was originally practiced by his west African ancestors before they were brought to America by slave traders.

 

Ellis said his decision was a personal one, though he understands his elected position breeds public interest in his choice. It was not something he decided overnight to do, he said.

 

Comments:  For someone to claim that he had converted from Christianity to some other religion, let me say that he may not have been saved to begin with.  He’s most likely a reprobate, someone who was enlightened at one time by God’s Word, but has turned his back on God and is living so very dangerously.  His fate will be the Lake of Fire.  We’re reading of more and more professing Christians who have tossed aside their garment of pretense and are showing their true colors of allegiance.  So be it.  It’s better to be upfront than continue in one’s hypocritical ways.  Jesus tends to divide people right down the centerline into sheep (believers) and goats (Satan’s own).

 

Mayor Jack Ellis has turned from darkness unto light and now back to darkness.  He has spurned Jesus who alone is the Savior for sinners.  No matter how moral some of Islam’s teachings are, the bottom line is that the prophet Mohammed and Allah cannot bless Mr. Ellis nor can they grant him everlasting life.  If Mr. Ellis had envisioned an afterlife replete with 70 virgins, then he will be sorely disappointed.  He’ll need to be a martyr for that to happen according to the Koran.  A name change won’t change his destiny either.  What he needs is a soul transformation, i.e. a new creation in Christ  He has already rejected that solution which he knows so well.  God might now leave Hakim Mansour Ellis to his own desires.  How utterly sad.

 

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J.K. Rowling marks spot of 'Potter's' end

Source: CNN.com

 

February 6, 2007 -- J.K. Rowling marked the spot where she finished the final "Harry Potter" book.

 

"J.K. Rowling finished writing 'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows' in this room on 11 Jan 2007," read the message on an antique-style statue at Edinburgh's five-star Balmoral Hotel.

 

The writer announced on Thursday that the seventh and final installment in the series, which tells the story of Harry during his final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, will be published July 21.

 

As a single mother on welfare more than a decade ago, Rowling used to sit in cafes near the Balmoral while writing her first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." (The book was renamed "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States.)

 

Since then, Rowling -- who lives in Edinburgh with her husband and children -- has seen her books sell more than 325 million copies in 64 languages.

 

Four hit movies already have been adapted from the Potter books. The fifth film, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," is scheduled to come out July 13, eight days before the release of "Deathly Hallows." That film is a production of Warner Bros., like CNN a part of Time Warner.

 

Comments:  As a famous opera song says “Don’t cry for me, Argentina”, shed no tears for Ms. J.K. Rowling, Satan’s fabulously wealthy obedient servant.  (Some say she’s even wealthier than Queen Elizabeth and Martha Stewart.) The fictional Harry Potter may have come to an end with the final installment of the series of books and videos about magic, witchcraft and wizardry (which the Bible condemns), but the demonic influence of Harry Potter will continue until Jesus’s return of Earth.  Who, but God, knows the extent of the spiritual damage done to billions of souls as a result of Ms. Rowling’s works which came straight from the pit of Hell.  Countless children and adults (even professing Christians) have been duped by Harry Potter. Hurting God’s little ones will garner Ms. Rowling a greater degree of punishment in the Lake of Fire. Luke 17:[2] It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Harmless witchcraft they assert.  No worse than Walt Disney’s fare or The Lord of the Rings or even The Chronicles of Narnia.  What’s the harm with a little bit of fantasy?  Adults know it’s not real. Why do I hear demons laughing in the background?

 

We’re indeed living in the last days prior to Jesus’s return to Earth as evidenced by the increasing fascination with the occult. Satan’s intent is to deceive the masses and he’s doing a darn good job at that.  Revelation 18:[23] And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

 

 

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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