THEY SAID WHAT?the unusual, unbelievable, & unconscionable attributed to Christianity

Before I begin with this post, I want to personally thank Stephen Hesselman for his very kind caricature that he did of me (now featured as part of the permanent graphics at COT). I am extremely honored to be a part of his "hall of fame" drawings. I told him that there was only one problem with this, it looks much better than I do in real life. :-). Thanks Stephen for blessing this ministry not only with your talent, but with your theological insights as well. You will be seeing more of his excellent work here in the future.


-Mega-churches Cancel Christmas Morning Services:
You’ve heard about this already—several well known Mega churches (Willow Creek—Chicago area, Mars Hill Bible Church—Grand Rapids area, Fellowship Church—Dallas area, Southland Christian Center—Louisville area, etc.) are canceling their Christmas Sunday Services to allow some quality family time around the tree.

"At first glance it does sound contrarian," Willow Creek senior pastor Gene Appel told the Tribune. "We don't see it as not having church on Christmas. We see it as decentralizing the church on Christmas—hundreds of thousands of experiences going on around Christmas trees. The best way to honor the birth of Jesus is for families to have a more personal experience on that day."

Skubalon.

But, as Ted Olson of CT points out, “if that holds true for Christmas, doesn't it hold true for every other Sunday? Why not decentralize the church every week by telling families ‘to have a more personal experience on that day’”? I fully agree with Ted's keen insight here. In reality what they are doing is not canceling Sunday Christmas services, but they are actually canceling The Lord’s Day. I’m telling you folks; this is a prime example that their arrogance knows no boundaries. Family trumps worship in their foolish, faddish, fabricated, fallacious, fatiferous, façade of fanciful, factious, and falchion brand of faith. (Sorry, my “inner-blog” needed to vent and feels much better now).

People have been in an uproar about this… but I want to encourage you with a slightly different take on this unfortunate happening.

I think this is great; a step in the right direction—answered prayer possibly. Have you noticed something of a common denominator here? The churches canceling their morning services are seeker-sensitive or emergent in nature. So be of good cheer! At least one Sunday out of the year, we should be grateful that those churches won’t be spreading their usual dumbed-down, self-focused, trying to be culturally relevant, non-biblical, skewed theology to their attendees. This is a blessing in disguise, trust me. Now, if we could only just find another 51 reasons for canceling their services… it could really have a positive spiritual impact on our nation and evangelicalism-at-large. Until then, thank the Lord for this small, but early Christmas gift in the form of an ecclesiastical stocking stuffer, if you please.

Sermo-mercials… in the Land of Narnia, Anything is Possible
Walt Disney Pictures in marketing to churches with the hopes of turning out sustained comers for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, that it's offering a free trip to London - and $1,000 cash - to the winner of its big promotional sermon contest. I’m not joking—.

The only catch is that the sermons must mention Narnia, based on the hugely popular children's books about four British children who walk through an uncle's magic armoire into an enchanted kingdom. (Don't emphasize God’s Word, but you must mention Narnia. Maybe someone from the "Boars Head Tavern" will enter?).

"Sermo-mercials" is what the promoters hired by Disney and its production partner, Walden Media, are using to peddle LWW . (I saw the movie; I liked it; but please…) Disney knows they have an blockbuster on their hands that works both as religious fairy-tale/analogy and secular fantasy. Can Narnia appeal to both groups? Disney hopes that the box-office receipts will be the winning combination of The Lord of the Rings with The Passion of the Christ.

“Tacky or not” as one journalist noted, “this is Disney's goal to create that kind of buzz among Christians - especially evangelicals - that made Mel Gibson's Passion such a box-office smash in 2004, with more than $600 million in worldwide ticket sales.” "Invite your community to explore the inspirational truths found in Narnia" reads a promotional magazine sent recently to tens of thousands of Christian congregations.

It gets worse: Disney is also encouraging churches “to paint lion faces on their preschoolers; show preview trailers to their congregations; discuss Narnia in Sunday school, and develop Narnia-themed Christmas pageants.”

If Lewis were alive today, even he would acknowledge that this is not "Mere Christianity."