Category Archives: Church

Why I’m Looking Past the Blood Moons (and you should too)

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BT_blood_moon_final

CAUTION–Darren will rant in 3…2…1…

Fellow Christians, am I the only one a little tired of hearing about Shemitah, Blood Moons, Red Heifers, Pale Horses, Black Horses,Yellow Brick Roads, Little Green Men, Yellow Submarines, etc. (and of those making gobs of money on these things)? It doesn’t make you a prophet to say judgment is coming, and you don’t need signs in the heavens, Jewish dates, or troubling headlines to proclaim it. Yes, judgment is coming. Judgment has ALWAYS been coming. This is NOT brand new information!

If you’re a Christian, don’t get overly caught up in the headlines, or the stars, or the moons. Don’t rush out to buy the books that focus on these things. All we need is found in the book we already have–THE Word. Are all these things in that Word? Kind of, although Apocalyptic Literature is deliberately open to interpretation, which is why prophecy preachers can use the same scriptures over and over again for brand new headlines. But where they appear, they are just SIGNS. Continue Reading →

5 Reasons I Haven’t Left the Church

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crop headshotMy article today on charismanews.com:

I recently read Frank Viola’s thought-provoking article, “10 Reasons Why I Left the Institutional Church in Search of the Ekklesia,” and for that reason, I suppose I should give a description of what I mean when I say “church.”

When I use the term “church” I mean that thing we do when we sit down with other believers weekly and typically stare at the back of everyone’s head, except one—the orator—whose face we get to see for 30 minutes. (60-90 if you’re Pentecostal or Charismatic like me.)

And since Mr. Viola had 10 reasons and I only have 5, I guess that makes his argument twice as effective as mine.

It’s widely popular to talk about how young adults, from my generation on down, (I’m 35, ouch, that hurts to write) are leaving the church. It’s a mass exodus of immense proportions (is that redundant?). I’ve recently seen many talk about their reasons for walking away from church, so I thought I’d share the other side of the coin: 5 reasons why I haven’t walked away from church. (For the rest of the article, CLICK HERE.)

A Response to Rachel Held Evans – “Why Millennials Are Leaving The Church” p. 1

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nomoreexcuses

I’m a fan of Rachel Held Evans. Mostly because she speaks her mind, even when she knows it won’t be popular. We live only a few miles from one another in the heart of the Bible Belt. Her opinions on many topics—the Bible, God, church, social justice, homosexuality, etc—are opinions that I hear often from countless friends in our age group.

I recently read her article for CNN, “Why Millennials Are Leaving The Church.” If you haven’t read it yet, click here.

Rachel said she’s 32. I’m 34, so we were both raised on Saturday morning cartoons, cordless phones with extendable 4-foot antennas, and Pop Rocks and Coke (they don’t kill you!). She wrote that although she has one foot in Generation X, she tends to side with Millennials on church stuff. On some topics, I could very easily say the same.

I liked her article. She’s analyzing the dilemma quite well as she often does. My dilemma has nothing to do with what she wrote. The problem is I’ve heard this argument countless times over the last several years.

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