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First Baptist Church of Boynton Beach

First Baptist of Boynton Beach

CrossTV

It had to be satire, I thought. I opened an email sent to my in box this morning and this is the press release that greeted me. Absolutely no commentary from me is needed.

Is church irrelevant?

Author and pastor Tim Stevens thinks so.

In fact, he believes that religious tradition advising the church to avoid “worldly” culture for its 2,000 year history is misguided and that instead churches ought to welcome culture into their buildings and services.

Stevens shares his take on culture in the church in a groundbreaking new book released nationwide titled, “Pop Goes the Church.”

Published by Power Publishing, the book outlines Stevens’ philosophy and track record of success at Granger Community Church (GCC), in Granger, Indiana, where he serves as executive pastor.  His church offers a revolutionary perspective on the 21st century church by designing services around movie and TV clips, drama and secular music during informal and quick-paced services.  That has translated into church services built on U2 and Beatles music and sermon topics featuring clips from movies like “Spiderman 3″ and TV shows like “24.”

Around Christmas the church offered a whole series on Beatles music.  “Our tag line was: ‘The Christmas Story According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George and Ringo’ and our overall theme was we want to start a revolution.  We’ve done U2 music and featured Bono sharing about his Christian faith, and we’ve used Madonna’s ‘Material World’ in a series featuring 80’s music.”

But in church?  “Absolutely!” says Stevens.

“Here’s the bottom line.  The Christian message never changes, but methods must,” Stevens explains.  “Studies show spiritual hunger in the U.S. at an all-time high, but church attendance at an all-time low and dropping.  A lot of people feel church is irrelevant-so it’s time to change.  Church can’t meet people’s needs if people won’t come in the front door.”

“People are obviously exploring spiritual things outside the church,” the pastor continued.  “They listen to songs, watch movies, have discussions with friends and try to make sense of the world.  If you listen you’ll hear spiritual issues under discussion-in music, in movies, on TV and among people.  So my contention is that churches should jump in on these conversations already happening in a context people understand.”

“You see,” he said, “songs and movies are talking about spiritual issues in ways that people really do understand.  But too often in churches we’ve talked about things people don’t get.  Language is a big thing.  Church people have ‘the curse of knowledge.’  We are talking about things no one understands.  We are answering questions no one is asking.  The church has lived in a bubble to a certain extent and no one is sticking around that hasn’t been in church forever.  We need to leverage culture to connect to people.”

In “Pop Goes the Church,” Stevens outlines innovative church services conducted at GCC where teachings are on topics carved right out of hot culture topics and TV headlines-money management, relationships and even sex.  In fact, one of GCC’s most effective marketing campaigns centered on the traditionally church-taboo subject of sex.

“We’d been looking for a way to present the topic of sex in the church because it’s definitely something people talk about every day.  The church ought to have something to say about it so we decided to enter the conversation.  After all, sex is God’s idea and is very good in a committed relationship.”

So, GCC put up four billboards around its community and surrounding area of 30o,000 emblazoned simply with the provocative image of entwined male/female feet dangling off of a bed with the words www.mylamesexlife.com.  No other info was included-no church name, no service times.  Nevertheless, within a couple of hours the church phone rang off the hook with interest and local media showed up to interview.  The series was even featured nationally on Fox News.

And, church attendance shot through the roof.  Attendance jumped 2300 people the first weekend, a 50% increase from the previous year and remained up 30% for the five-week series.  Stevens said GCC kept about half of those people over the long run.

“We started off our campaign with attention-getting billboards because if we had said ’sex talk at such and such church’ it would be an immediate turnoff.  Everyone would’ve thought they already knew what the church would say.  So we looked for a creative way to connect with people.”

And apparently the connection is still underway since Stevens says more than 85 churches around the country were inspired by the series and have offered their own sex talks.

Speaking at conferences and churches, Stevens lecturers nationally on the topics of church leadership and pop culture in the church.  Not new to ministry, he worked for nine years at Life Action Ministries prior to his 13 years at GCC.  He and his wife, Faith, are the parents of four children.

For more information about Stevens, his book or video clips of services, visit www.popgoesthechurch.com or the publisher’s website at www.powerpublishinginc.com.

“Pop Goes the Church” is available at any bookstore nationwide or can be ordered through barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, target.com, or directly from the publisher.

The Easter Sunday church horror stories continue to roll in here at Slice. Oak Leaf Church decided that a tattoo parlor theme would be about right for resurrection Sunday worship. Click on Media Gallery and then Tattoo to hear this hard hitting message about, well, tattoos. The church is also doing an “I Love the 80’s” sermon series. This is the same series done at Granger Community Church where they featured Van Halen’s Jump for prelude music.

I have abbreviated the headline so that those with filters won’t have the post blocked. Yes, it’s really that bad now. This morning I was sifting through a raft of incoming news alert emails that detailed the perilous state of the American economy with jobs being slashed across the country, the new terrorism threats, the continuing societal breakdown that has damaged the lives of countless millions of children in America’s cities, and so forth and so on. Enter the Christians. The headline on ABC News this morning read this way:

Christian S-x: Holy and Hot

That’s right. The same type of churches that have brought you Superhero Jesus on Easter Sunday, Hollywood actors in the pulpit, and Van Halen as worship music are making headlines for their hot s-x seminars, books, etc. No wonder Christians are such a laughingstock today in the eyes of the world. We have Pussycat Preacher, Heather Veitch, strutting her stuff for Jesus at porno conventions and issuing press releases to the media about how she’s “reaching” people. (She certainly may be doing that, but it wouldn’t be for Jesus with her sleazy attire and unchanged stripper demeanor.) Now it’s our new Dionysian evangelicals who make headlines for their quest for ever hotter s-x. Hireling pastors who are so lazy, dishonest and biblically illiterate that they have to rip off sermons from Internet sites and download movie clips to keep their goats entertained are now featuring s-x talks on Sunday morning complete with songs like Rod Stewart’s “Hot in the City Tonight” pounding over the loudspeakers at their “churches”.

The Christians in the Roman coliseum who were torn apart by lions apparently died so pastors in 2008 could wave sex toys around in the pulpit and boast about how hot their wives are in the sack. 2000 years of church history and in the West, it comes down to this.

I just watched a video of a secular female radio host addressing the pornification of America before a group of reporters. She preached a better sermon on what’s going on in our culture then most evangelical pastors today are capable, and that is pathetic. In every way, rather than influence the culture around it, the evangelical church has been the one to be influenced by the culture. The pornification of America is now having its effect on the church with the ever more titillating, coarse, sensual and fleshly handling of what God has ordained as holy and sacred. In the name of Christian freedom, licentiousness is now the order of the day, bringing shame on the name and true cause of Jesus Christ.

True believers will run from this, knowing that it will not stop here. We will live to see a day when the growing sensuality of the false church will result in unimaginable immorality, all done in Christ’s name. When God Himself is mocked and blasphemed by those calling themselves believers, He gives such people over to reprobate minds. When flesh is king, and not the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no limit to the depth to which man will sink in his “religion”.

A Christian contacted  Cornerstone Church to ask why they would be featuring Jim Caviezel, a devout Roman Catholic Hollywood actor, in their pulpit for three services. Here is the response from the pastor.

That Jim Caviezel doesn’t believe in the Roman Catholic sacramental system of salvation might come as a surprise to the priest who serves him communion. He may want to inform Rome of his new view and update the numerous biographies which identify him as Catholic. He was a speaker in August, 2005 for World Catholic Youth Day in Germany. I suppose the pastor at Oak Leaf also has no problem with this blasphemous comedy interview from MTV that Mr. Caviezel did.

We are told in the Scriptures that the one true God is thrice holy. In Isaiah 6 we are given an awe-inspiring picture of that holiness as the prophet sees the Lord, high and lifted up, His train filling the temple. Above Him stood the Seraphim, those incredible beings with wings to cover even their faces from God’s brightness, and one cried to another,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory!”

Again and again the Scriptures we are given a sense of God’s fear-inducing holiness that caused people to fall on their faces and cry out at His presence. When exposed to the holiness (separateness) and righteousness of God, a person’s sense of their own sin is magnified. Our own unworthiness and utter dependence on God’s mercy is made plain.

When the character of God, as described in His eternal Word, is ignored in worship and a new god is erected that not only tolerates sinful flesh but celebrates it, you have a false church. Granger Community Church used Van Halen in their worship on March 1 and 2 to set up a sermon entitled, “Tight Like Spandex”. They have posted the video on their website under the “I Love the 80’s” series on this page. To do this is worshiping a golden calf in Christ’s name, blaspheming the most high God and defiling His name with the filth of this world.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

–Romans 8:7-9

No comment is needed here. None.

The evangelical megachurch in Chandler, Arizona, featured below, and I do use the term “church” loosely, is featuring a unique minister in the, um, pulpit on April 20. For “Friend Day”, they are bringing in a devout Roman Catholic as speaker for all services. This “minister” has the additional recommendation of being a successful Hollywood actor. Jim Caviezel, who acted in the Passion of the Christ as well as several other successful movies, will be bringing the message to the assembled evangelical Christians. The woman at the front desk had no problem with the fact that their doctrinal statement claims that the Bible is their authority in all things. When I asked her why they would have a devout Roman Catholic presenting the message in all the Sunday services when Roman Catholics do not believe in Scripture alone, (that’s why we needed the Reformation), she said, “well, I don’t see it that way.” How we see things is what matters now, folks. It’s not what Scripture says. It’s not what we can know from church history and from the testimony of the present Catholic leadership in Rome, or the Council of Trent and the fact that it is never been renounced, it’s how we feel about things. It’s the fact that Jim is a successful, attractive, Hollywood star and that means warm bodies in the church on a Sunday morning. Who cares what message people will hear? Who cares that the man speaking is required to believe that there is no salvation outside the mother Church? Who cares that this is what Roman Catholics sang around the world at the Jubilee celebration of Pope John Paul II:

Long Live The Pope
A Hymn for the Pope

Long live the Pope!
His praises sound
Again and yet again:
His rule is over space and time:
His throne the heart of men:
All hail! The Shepherd Pope of Rome,
The theme of loving song:
Let all the earth his glory sing
And heav’n the strain prolong…

The Pope’s rule is over time and space? Do the pastors at Cornerstone Church in Chandler, Arizona believe that? He is enthroned in the hearts of men? I thought that place was for Christ alone. Why would this evangelical church feature Jim Caviezel who is required to believe these things because he is a “devout Roman Catholic” by his own definition? Are they not troubled by this?

Did all the martyrs who died in the flames and who were otherwise tortured for their faith in Christ alone have to die? Should they have hugged their Roman Catholic tormenters and said, “I guess it doesn’t really matter after all. We all believe in Christ, right? Never mind.” How can evangelicals betray the Lord Jesus Christ this way when our forefathers died in the flames for biblical truth?

When you have Superhero Sunday, and Hollywood actors wowing the congregation instead of preachers faithfully expounding on the Word of God in the pulpit (they don’t have pulpits anymore), this is what happens. A gross biblical illiteracy coupled with a complete ignorance of church history, coupled with a culturally influenced church that lives by its feelings instead of objective truth, adds up to complete theological disaster. This church is living proof of that and there are thousands more just like this one. Weep for what has happened.

The Easter service horror stories continue to roll in here at Slice of Laodicea. Cornerstone Church in Chandler, Arizona decided that superheroes would be a great theme for Easter Sunday, the day when we celebrate in a special way the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and His triumph over sin, death and hell. I think this one has to take the cake for the most offensive, trivial treatment of our holy Lord Jesus Christ and His suffering on the cross.

There is nothing sacred left today within circus-church evangelicalism. That is why when the emergents use terms like “sacred” and randomly pull things from the traditions of the Eastern Orthodox or the Roman Catholics for their services, they are trying to replace the sense of sacredness denied them in most evangelical churches. As much as I disagree with emerging theology that denies the authority of Scripture, I recognize why emerging leaders are attracting young followers who don’t go to church on Resurrection Day to hear about cartoon characters. It’s because the emerging churches recognize that circus church is an empty, American invention that trivializes everything that means anything. They don’t want dumbed down churchianity—these young people genuinely want something deep and meaningful. I would add, however, that doctrine is essential and that we can’t have sound doctrine without the Word of God as our standard for what is sacred and holy.  We only learn of how sacred the name of Jesus Christ is and how important truth is in worship when we read the Scriptures. Sadly, the enemy has produced a false alternative to circus superhero foolishness in the emerging church.

So does your church trivialize sacred things? Does it speak the name of the Lord Jesus reverently? Or is church just an extension of some cable comedy show so that nobody is made to feel uncomfortable. I doubt that it is a “comfortable” thing to come into the presence of earthly royalty.  We would be aware of our conduct and our speech and the way we refer to the earthly monarch. How much more so should we treat the King of all the universe? How much more should we come into His presence with holy awe and reverence because of God’s greatness, His undeserved favor and grace and His incomprehensible power? This is the aspect that is missing from most church services today. I am not just referring to circus church here. I am also referring to any number of fundamental churches as well. The awe and reverence are not just found in certain forms, the right hymn or Psalms sung, etc. They come from the human heart. Worshiping in spirit and in truth is not just a matter of having the right order of service, although a biblical service is enormously helpful in worship. It begins in the heart of the Christian.

A Little Leaven has an excellent post about the media manipulation engaged in by the “sex” series churches. These are the ones who put up deliberately offensive billboards in cities to promote their series of messages on sex. Chris at A Little Leaven sets up the steps these churches follow to get maximum headlines in local and sometimes national media. The more offensive their billboards and promotion materials, the better chance of ending up on national news, which, of course, serves their promotional purposes just fine. The only problem is, where do they go from here? Once the media and the public is accustomed to giant billboards screaming, “God Loves Sex” and so forth, their promotional strategy is going to flop. This is where things will get even more edgy. Pastors are going to have to actually stage something of a sexual nature to draw crowds and TV cameras. “After all, you bluenosed fundamentalists, God created sex, so what’s your problem?”, they will say. I will repeat my previous prediction that we will see this kind of thing within the next 3-5 years if not sooner. We already have a Christian sex magazine for women, it’s only a matter of time. Remember you read it here first.

Kim Riddlebarger has posted photographs of what a new, hip LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) congregation spent money on to promote their church. There’s a battle underway between the old, confessional Lutheran churches and the circus-driven church philosophy which has invaded this denomination with a vengeance under President Kieschnick. The abrupt removal of the popular radio program Issues, Etc. on the Tuesday before Easter has started a backlash from conservative Lutherans that the bureaucracy in St. Louis was wholly unprepared for. Issues, Etc. frequently addressed the problems with the Purpose-Driven, seeker church growth philosophy, the emerging church, the Joel Osteen mentality and other problems invading the Lutheran churches of the Missouri Synod. Because the leadership at the synod very much is embracing both the emerging church ideas and Rick Warren-style church transformation, Issues, Etc. was perceived to be an obstacle to their goal of “bringing the LCMS back to national prominence”. The last time the LCMS was nationally prominent was during the era when you had men of Christian integrity in synod leadership who believed that the preaching of Christ crucified was the only hope of the world. The current compromisers and pragmatists who have built an ever larger bureaucracy in St. Louis are relying on flippant billboard campaigns and “relevant” sermon series to promote their churches. Take down those crosses, dump those hymnals and smash up the organ, they say. Get a rock band up in the chancel and have the preacher preach on sex. That’ll save the denomination.

The Wall Street Journal featured a piece last week on what happened to Issues, Etc. and what is happening in the LCMS in general today. I love the last sentence of the article. It really expresses the hearts of many younger, confessional Lutherans who reject circus church and who want to return to biblical ways.

Mike Huckabee’s church, the Church at Rock Creek in Little Rock, Arkansas, is advertising its 30-minute church service “designed with you in mind”. Remember the time when church services were designed with God in mind? It seems like a long, long time ago. They break the service down for those who might still be hesitant about attending church. For 8 minutes, they promise that you’ll have “contemporary worship with the Rock Creek Band and Singers”, then there’s the 15-minute message which they say is “focused” and “practical” with “life principles you can use now”. Then they allot 5 minutes for “involvement” which means prayer and offerings have to fit in that slot. Why all the hurry? Their advertising says it all. “Have more on your to-do list than time to do it? Need to jump start your week with a high energy focus on God? Your time is valuable. Make the most of it with the Rock Creek 30″.

This is Rick Warren’s church movement in its purest form. Man at the center. The Church at Rock Creek is a Purpose-Driven church showcase. It’s all about you, every bit of it. Your time is valuable. Toss a few crumbs at God. His time isn’t nearly as important as yours. His worship, His honor, His majesty, His power, His mercy, His justice are irrelevant. What’s important is the great god, You. How many of these pastors would treat a modern day monarch in this fashion? Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II invites them to a state dinner that will last two hours. They respond: “Sorry, your, er, Majesty. Our time is important. We have to-do lists and not enough time. We’ll talk to you for five minutes. The rest will have to fit into 25 more minutes and we’re outta there. We just want to jump start our week by hanging around royalty for a minute. Then it’s off to more important things.” Unthinkable. Now imagine treating the King of Kings in this fashion. That’s what they’re doing.

We view idolaters as men and women in grass huts bowing low over a carved figure on an altar. How foolish to limit our ideas of idolatry to that. Man is “God” now. Man the creator, Man the predestinator, Man the savior. Man the beautiful. Man the hope of the world. We love ourselves, pamper ourselves, preen before mirrors to see we have the right look of the moment. We take God and dethrone Him in our minds. We refuse to bow before Him in humility. We will not be bothered to sacrifice even an hour of our precious time for Him. We relegate our prayer time to Him to less than five minutes in “church” services like this and openly admit its because our time is valuable. There is no shame.

As God gives more and more evangelicals over to spiritual blindness because of their rebellion, we’re going to see more and more absurdity carried out in God’s name. Identify it and realize how truly wicked it is to treat the Lord of Heaven in this manner.

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

–Isaiah 44:6

And I thought renting a 9,000 pound elephant for Easter Sunday for the beginning of a “Relationship Rehab” sermon series was over the top. Pastors are gearing up for Easter Sunday sermons and it looks like the circus churches are going to have some doozies. One blog reader at another site noted that his pastor was going to be using a clip from South Park during the Easter sermon. WingClips.com is offering downloads of movie clips for pastors to use in their Easter messages. Here’s their suggested list of movies that “help illustrate what Jesus did on the cross.” There’s Ice Age, X-men: The Last Stand, Fantastic Four 2, To End all Wars, and Most, to name a few.

For the pastor who wants to catch some March Madness on the tube and doesn’t want to spend time preparing a sermon, WingClips. com is offering sermon outlines as well, based on movies like Ratatouille, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Spiderman 3.

I received a press release from Church by the Glades yesterday. They’re starting a sermon series on Easter called “Relationship Rehab” and they want to do it up big. The following was slated, “For Immediate Release”. I quote:

“People who pull on to the Church by the Glades campus in Coral Springs, FL this Easter weekend will be greeted by friendly volunteers, fresh Krispy Kreme donuts, freshly-brewed Starbucks coffee and Judy…a 9,000 pound Indian elephant. It is all part of their new relationship series entitled “Rehab.†The purpose? “Week one of the series is about denial,†said Pastor David Hughes. “Many relationships suffer due to a denial of ‘the elephant in the room’—an obvious misplaced priority or passion that the people involved refuse to acknowledge and deal with.â€

“Here at Church by the Glades, we value creative communication,†Hughes added. He believes that having a real, live elephant there as people enter the property will grab their attention from the moment they arrive. “We are always trying to find fun ways to engage people and start the teaching time from the moment people drive onto our property,†said Hughes.

“History shows that Church by the Glades is in the habit of doing creative things to
draw people to their church. They have used iPhones, iTunes gift cards, Hannah
Montana tickets and Nintendo Wiis to promote teaching series in the past.
Church by the Glades is located on Atlantic Blvd. and Sawgrass Expressway in
Coral Springs, FL. They have eight Easter services scheduled starting Friday, March 21,
2008 at 6:00pm and 8:30pm. Other services are scheduled for Saturday, March 22, 2008
at 5:00 and 6:30pm and Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am and
12:45pm. In recent days, Church by the Glades has experienced explosive growth. Their weekly attendance is up 40 percent over the same weekend last year with over 3,500 people attending each weekend. In addition, nearly 800 children are involved with their KidStuf Children’s Ministry. For more information about the church, visit them online at www.cbglades.com.”

###

(Bold Emphasis mine.)

Let’s see here. I definitely agree that the elephant will grab people’s attention from the moment they pull onto the property. Circus animals at church have a way of doing that. I also agree that it is, indeed, very creative to bribe people to come to your church using “iPhones, iTunes gift cards, Hannah Montana tickets, and Nintendo Wiis”. I also have no doubt about the church’s claim that “in recent days, Church by the Glades has experienced explosive growth.” Circuses do tend to draw crowds. Attendance will stay up as long as you can keep the circus acts coming and the donuts fresh. If the pastor isn’t already aware of these ideas I culled from various other churches across the country, he might consider the following:

1. Sponsor a Halloween-themed service in October and have the church staff stage a Michael Jackson Thriller dance. The Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia did this and even featured a haunted house on stage as a backdrop. If the pastor can’t dance, he may want to consider bringing in a body double. With the lights down, nobody will know. The crowds will love it.

2. Consider a Cirque de Soleil-style Christmas show like Willow Creek Community Church did last year. They hired actual circus acrobats who soared high over the stage and drew gasps of shock and awe. Put that elephant of yours on the high wire over the audience and you’ll really have some shock and awe.

3. Bring in the youth crowds by sponsoring a death-metal battle of the bands. Call the something cute like, “BLOODY CARNAGE ‘08″. Don’t feel pressured to share the Gospel with those kids who are fascinated by death and gore. They’ll simply feel loved because you allow them to eat bats live on stage at your church. They’ll be sponsoring cell group meetings before you know it.

Those are just a few ideas for you folks at Church by the Glades, in case you run out. As for your Easter services, good job on the Relationship Rehab sermon series and avoiding emphasis on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. People are tired of hearing that old, old stuff anyway, and relationship messages are always relevant. Also, with any luck you will double your crowd with that elephant idea. Who would have thought about elephants on Easter anyway?!

They’ll make it worth your while at Anchorage Baptist Temple if you bring the most guests to church on Sunday. I quote from an email newsletter:

“This year, we would like to encourage you to invite friends and family to our various events and we are also offering awards for those who bring the most guests.

Good Friday: The Passion of the Christ Movie
Fri. March 21, 7 p.m.
1st Award: $500.00 Airline Certificate
2nd Award $300.00 Airline Certificate

Easter Morning Service
Sun. March 23, 9 a.m., 11 a.m.
1st Award: $1,000.00 Airline Certificate
2nd Award $ 600.00 Airline Certificate

Easter Evening: The Passion of the Christ Movie
Sun. March 23, 6 p.m.
1st Award: $500.00 Airline Certificate
2nd Award $300.00 Airline Certificate”

How about inviting friends and family just because you want them to hear the Gospel? Is it that hard now to get Christians to actually live the Great Commission without a monetary award system? Why must we be paid per head for doing what were supposed to do as Christians in the first place?

The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed the heart of God regarding the false prophets in his day. His words thunder down through the centuries to the church today because we have the same problem. We have lying prophets, evangelical jesters in the courts of the Lord such as Joel Osteen who do “err by their lightness”, as the prophet Jeremiah said. This video clip shows Mr. Osteen regaling his “audience” with jokes.

Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

–Jeremieah 23:32

The entire chapter of Jeremiah 23 relates to so many on the national and international scene today who prophecy lies in God’s name, jokesters in the pulpit, false prophets with silky, smooth, easy messages of peace and prosperity for all. These are those who say, “God said so!” when God did not say so. They have followers by the millions for their message and promise of personal peace, affluence, and happiness. There is no warning word, no fire and no hammer as God describes His own message in this chapter in Jeremiah. Read the chapter starting at verse16.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?

Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal

The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.

Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD.

And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house.

Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.

Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;

Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence:

And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

“Our idea is that we want to provide Amarillo with an event similar to a fashion show they would see in big cities across our nation.”

–Mike Eminger, Associate Pastor, Victory Church, Amarillo, Texas, sponsor of Fashionably Loud, a church hair and fashion show held Sunday night at 7pm in the church.

Here’s their Channel 10 news blurb.