The fastest death rate of churches in America is happening in the Bible belt, said a southern US pastor at a 3-day convention that was held recently, according to Christian Today (CT).

Churches are dying fastest in the so-called Bible Belt/Credit: klsmith77/sxc.hu

At Advance10: Contextualizing the Gospel in the New South, Pastor Tyler Jones of Vintage21 Church in Raleigh, North Carolina said churches are dying rapidly in the Bible belt. He and several other pastors blamed the churches themselves for the decline, CT reported.

According to Jones, churches don’t understand the gospel and how it applies to people’s lives. They are being taught “quaint moralism over the Gospel.” Jones said, adding “Moralism is the greatest form of self worship. It robs us of our need for God,” CT reported.

Jerome Gay, lead pastor of Vision International Church in Raleigh agreed, saying, “Christianity has been presented as a list of don’ts. Don’t go to the club, don’t join the frat, don’t do this, don’t do that.” As a result, people leave the church, disillusioned, without actually knowing Christ as he is presented in the Bible, CT said.

The conference was held by Advance the Church, and co-sponsored by The Summit Church and Vintage21 Church. They seek to help local churches become more responsive to the changing culture without watering down God’s Word, according to the Christian Post (CP).

CP quoted Pastor David Platt of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, who said many churches need clarity on the Gospel. “A lot of people who [grew] up in the church need to hear the Gospel as it’s presented biblically,” said Platt.

Other scheduled speakers were Matt Carter of The Austin Stone; Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle; J.D. Grear of The Summit Church in the Raleigh-Durham area; Johnny Hunt, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention; and Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of evangelist Billy Graham and pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla, according to CP.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia—the world’s largest Christian university–announced recently that they have formed a committee to investigate the background of their seminary president Ergun Caner, the Washington Post reported.

Liberty University is investigating its seminary president, Ergun Caner over allegations that he's not the ex-Muslim he passed himself off to be.

The investigating committee will be headed by Liberty university administrator Ron Godwin.

Findings will be released by June 30.  Ergun Caner distinguished himself as a Muslim expert and is a popular speaker in the university lecture circuit.

Since he became president, he has tripled enrolment in the school that was owned by the late Jerry Falwell, Sr., according to Christianity Today (CT).

The CT said that among the claims that Caner made which have been brought to question are:

• That he grew up in Turkey (when he actually grew up in Ohio).
• That he was raised in a devout Sunni Muslim home (rather than a nominal one).
• That he had been involved in Islamic jihad.
• That he has debated dozens of Muslims about the Islamic faith.  (There is no video or audio evidence).

Caner’s reputation came to task when Mohammed Khan, a 22 year old London based Muslim, posted 17 of Caner’s speeches on YouTube.  Khan interjected portions of the speeches with his own commentary.  Among others, Khan said that several times when Caner claimed to be reciting the Shehada, (part of the Islamic creed), he was actually quoting a prayer from the Qur’an, which Khan said is very different.  Khan disputed Caner’s claim to be an Islamic expert.

This set off a rash of bloggers who commented on the issue.  Christianity Today quoted several bloggers including the following:
Debbie Kaufman, an Enid, Oklahoma Southern Baptist laywoman, who said, “This matters because we are to win people to Christ.”
Gene Clyatt, a Southern Baptist pastor in Superior, Montana, questioned Caner’s claim that he was trained as a jihadist until the age of 15.  In Ergun’s book, Unveiling Islam which he co-wrote with his brother Emir, he said that his parents married in Sweden and the family moved to Ohio when he was a young boy.

In the book the brothers said they recited daily prayers, visited the mosque weekly, and read the Qur’an and Hadith regularly.  They said they were raised to be devout, serious Muslims.

James R. White, director of the Phoenix-based Alpha & Omega Ministries, said “The president of a large theological seminary has created a myth concerning his background that is incredibly self-contradictory.”  White teaches Islam at golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

Sympathy

Some bloggers however expressed sympathy for Caner.

Hussein Wario, also a former Sunni Muslim who converted to Christianity, noted that while Caner had co-authored 17 books, it is only now that he is being criticized because of Khan’s videos.

Wario also said in his blog, Cracks in the Crescent, “I am a Reformed Christian and I am utterly ashamed of Dr. White. In my opinion, he is a disgrace to the Reformed faith—sola scriptura—because of his meddling in this matter and his disregard of the scripture. He is tacitly helping Muslims with their war against Muslim converts to Christianity.”

Roy J. Oksnevad, director of Muslim Ministries at Wheaton College said that the American church tends to pressure ex-Muslims to talk very negatively about their former faith.

Repent

Tom Chantry, on the Christ Reformed Baptist Church blog, suggested repentance on the part of Caner and Liberty University.  Chantry said in his blog that while it is difficult to make restitution in cases of deceit, it can be done, and that Caner can apologize and seek forgiveness.

However Liberty University must do the same, Chantry said, noting that the institution had benefitted from the celebrity culture of Evangelical Christianity and if they had instead put their focus on the Word of God, this may have been prevented.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

As Poland mourned the loss of its president and other dignitaries, who died in a plane crash on April 10, two visiting Baptist preachers said that the answer to the country’s mourning is found in the Gospel.

Southern Baptist leaders Philip Roberts and Jerry Johnson of the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary comforted congregations in Gdansk and Sopot respectively, and shared the gospel in the aftermath of the crisis, during their 10-day trip to the country.

Polish flag with black mourning ribbon

MBTS president Roberts and academic dean Johnson were in the country to attend a conference at the Polish Baptist Seminary in Radosc.  They met with Andrzej Seweryn, president of the Polish Baptist Seminary.

Seweryn said, “For the Christians here, there is a great chance to step up and help the people work through their grief and suffering. Now is a time to help them in answering some of life’s toughest questions, including the ones about eternity that often surface when events such as this occur.”

Among the dead were Polish president Lech Kaczynsk, his wife Maria, the military’s chief of staff and the heads of Poland’s land forces, navy and air force.  Other dignitaries on board the plane included the national bank president, three military chaplains, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, Olympic Committee head, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.  ­

Many of the leaders killed in the crash were instrumental in the Solidarity movement and the return of liberty and democracy to the country.  They were headed to a ceremony to commemorate the World War II slaughter of Poles that had divided the nation for seven decades and galvanized the beginning of the same Solidarity movement.

Pastor Roberts, who preached in Gdansk, the home city of the Polish president, cited Matthew 10: 39 (HCSB) where Jesus said, “Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.”

The MBTS leader continued by adding that “there will be a point when life will end for our physical body on this planet. With this in mind, each of us needs to make sure we are living for the correct reasons and the correct person — Jesus Christ — because He offers the hope of eternal life beyond what we experience in this life on earth.”

Roberts said that the time of soul-searching and reflection on these events presents a great time to share the love of Jesus Christ with the Polish populace.

Some 90 percent of the Polish population is Roman Catholic, with 75 percent practicing.  The second largest faith group is Eastern Orthodox at 1.3 percent, then Protestant at 0.3 percent.   The late Pope John Paul II was Polish.

Sources:

http://www.christiantelegraph.com/issue9447.html

http://www.poland.gov.pl/Churches,and,Religious,Life,in,Poland,397.html

Be Sociable, Share!

•