Respond and Engage! TALK TO PAUL ON-AIR: 313.272.5600
Michigan Reformation Conference
Paul will be speaking at the 16th Annual Michigan Reformation Conference in Flint, Michigan on Saturday, October 26th (10am – 4pm). More information and free registration.
Democrats are coming for churches who oppose LGBTQ+ agenda
Respond and Engage! TALK TO PAUL ON-AIR: 313.272.5600
Michigan Reformation Conference
Paul will be speaking at the 16th Annual Michigan Reformation Conference in Flint, Michigan on Saturday, October 26th (10am – 4pm). More information and free registration.
In most of these sessions, the work of deconstructing one’s faith was balanced by figuring out what — if anything — to replace it with. “I think our faith is evolving now, because we are waking up to the reality that that faith — that twisted, malformed faith that spoke human hierarchy into the world and reinforced it — we’re finally waking up to it and saying ‘no,’” said activist Lisa Sharon Harper during the final session. “But now we have to figure out what it’s supposed to be. What is the vision for what it’s supposed to be?”
During the opening session, Christian author and journalist Jeff Chu, who joined Sarah Bessey and Held Evans on the Evolving Faith team after the 2018 conference, welcomed a long list of groups ranging from introverts to the disabled, from the “frozen chosen” to the pansexual, from “you who do sex work to pay the bills,” Chu said, “and (to you) who are clutching your pearls because I just said ‘sex work.’”
“You who doubt, you who struggle, you who feel lost, you are loved.” Chu continued. “Atheists, agnostics, seekers, you are loved.”
The conference also offered a POC lounge for people of color as a place to “sit and rest, have a drink and something to eat, or find some company,” according to the event’s program booklet. “While gatherings like this one can challenge all of us, they are often especially exhausting for people of color.” A care team and several Evolving Faith speakers had “office hours” in the lounge.
The doubters were well supported with pastoral elements. In addition to the POC lounge, Evolving Faith also offered an Art Area with craft supplies — “for those who would like something to do with their hands as they listen to the speakers” — prayer request boxes where attendees could submit written prayer requests, and a “Spiritual Friend,” Dr. Grace Y. Kao, who was available for conversations to help “process all that you’re feeling.”
Rachel Held Evans on LGBTQ+
Dan Evans, husband of the late Rachel Held Evans posted a article written by Rachel just before she died in which she said this (and THIS is NOT the gospel):
“If you’re a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer reader, I hope you already know you don’t need my affirmation to live whole and joyful lives, just as God made you. You are beloved children of God, and there is nothing I or any other Christian writer or church leader can say to alter that. I hope you know, deep in your bones, that there is no height or depth, no angel or demon, no denomination or church or pastor or parent who can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ. My heart grieves over the ways this truth has been obscured and denied by the Church, often in destructive and deadly ways, and I apologize for years of complicity in that.”
“Today’s noise pollution, which includes both sonic noise and visual noise, is a hazard to our entire health, according to the World Health Organization. As such, we find ourselves in desperate need of quiet spaces both in our personal lives and also in our corporate life together as the church. The inclusion of silence in worship, then, is not just a matter of our physical well-being, it is also a matter of well-being before God.”
“[One] case involves fired transgender funeral home director Aimee Stephens. She lost her job when she told Thomas Rost, owner of the Detroit-area R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, that she had struggled with gender identity issues almost her whole life. She was planning to exchange the dark suit and tie she had worn to work for nearly six years as an embalmer and funeral director for a conservative dress or skirt that was required for women who worked for Rost.
“Rost told Stephens her plan wouldn’t work and let her go. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued on her behalf and, after losing in a district court, won a ruling in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.”
Respond and Engage! TALK TO PAUL ON-AIR: 313.272.5600
Michigan Reformation Conference
Paul will be speaking at the 16th Annual Michigan Reformation Conference in Flint, Michigan on Saturday, October 26th (10am – 4pm). More information and free registration.
“[One] case involves fired transgender funeral home director Aimee Stephens. She lost her job when she told Thomas Rost, owner of the Detroit-area R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, that she had struggled with gender identity issues almost her whole life. She was planning to exchange the dark suit and tie she had worn to work for nearly six years as an embalmer and funeral director for a conservative dress or skirt that was required for women who worked for Rost.
“Rost told Stephens her plan wouldn’t work and let her go. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued on her behalf and, after losing in a district court, won a ruling in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.”
In most of these sessions, the work of deconstructing one’s faith was balanced by figuring out what — if anything — to replace it with. “I think our faith is evolving now, because we are waking up to the reality that that faith — that twisted, malformed faith that spoke human hierarchy into the world and reinforced it — we’re finally waking up to it and saying ‘no,’” said activist Lisa Sharon Harper during the final session. “But now we have to figure out what it’s supposed to be. What is the vision for what it’s supposed to be?”
During the opening session, Christian author and journalist Jeff Chu, who joined Sarah Bessey and Held Evans on the Evolving Faith team after the 2018 conference, welcomed a long list of groups ranging from introverts to the disabled, from the “frozen chosen” to the pansexual, from “you who do sex work to pay the bills,” Chu said, “and (to you) who are clutching your pearls because I just said ‘sex work.’”
“You who doubt, you who struggle, you who feel lost, you are loved.” Chu continued. “Atheists, agnostics, seekers, you are loved.”
The conference also offered a POC lounge for people of color as a place to “sit and rest, have a drink and something to eat, or find some company,” according to the event’s program booklet. “While gatherings like this one can challenge all of us, they are often especially exhausting for people of color.” A care team and several Evolving Faith speakers had “office hours” in the lounge.
The doubters were well supported with pastoral elements. In addition to the POC lounge, Evolving Faith also offered an Art Area with craft supplies — “for those who would like something to do with their hands as they listen to the speakers” — prayer request boxes where attendees could submit written prayer requests, and a “Spiritual Friend,” Dr. Grace Y. Kao, who was available for conversations to help “process all that you’re feeling.”
“A surprisingly large number of American adults perceive their engagement in politics as having negative effects on their social, emotional and even physical health,” said lead researcher Kevin Smith, chair of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
More than one in 10 people felt politics had adversely affected their physical health.
Nearly one-third said they’d been driven crazy by media outlets that promote views contrary to their personal beliefs.
Three in 10 Americans said they’d lost their temper over politics.
A quarter of people said that politics has led them to hate some people, and to think seriously about moving away from their community.
About 22% said they care too much about who wins and who loses.
About 15% said they wish they would have restrained themselves more in political conversations or have posted things online that they later regretted.
“Today’s noise pollution, which includes both sonic noise and visual noise, is a hazard to our entire health, according to the World Health Organization. As such, we find ourselves in desperate need of quiet spaces both in our personal lives and also in our corporate life together as the church. The inclusion of silence in worship, then, is not just a matter of our physical well-being, it is also a matter of well-being before God.”
This afternoon on The Paul Edwards Program, Paul offered several characteristics or behaviors of those men within a congregation who present themselves as godly, kind, and caring “shepherds” but in reality are wolves pretending to be shepherds so that they might destroy God’s church:
Their outward righteous appearance (Matthew 23:27) is a covering for insidious evil. In Matthew 7:15 Jesus is not warning us against wolves dressed like sheep, but rather wolves who wear the clothing produced by the sheep – “sheep’s clothing” – which every one of Jesus’s first century hearers would have understood to mean “the clothes worn by shepherds” which were made from the wool produced by the sheep.
These are wolves who alter their outward appearance in order to present themselves as wise, loving, caring shepherds of the sheep, but “inside they are ravening (extortionist) wolves. In Matthew 23:25-28, Jesus – as the Word of God which “discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12-13) tells us precisely what is hidden beneath the outward righteousness of these ravening wolves pretending to be caring shepherds:
Extortion: plundering Excess: lacking self-control Dead Men’s Bones: exactly what you would expect to find in a grave Uncleanness: the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living Hypocrisy: acting a part Iniquity: contempt for the law
They insidiously undermine the God-ordained legitimate authority of the true shepherds.
They present a competing vision against the vision of the God-ordained legitimate shepherds.
They divide the flock over non-essentials: “Why are we singing THAT kind of music? Why is the pastor preaching from THAT translation? Why are we not meeting mid-week? Why did the pastor cancel the regular Sunday Evening service for one week?”
They bring unsubstantiated accusations against the pastor or the elders in order to plant the seed of doubt and to sow discord.
They circumvent the biblical process for appointing leaders by pushing themselves forward as the one who can truly protect the flock.
They have a history of causing division in previous churches.
The Bible warns us to be on the lookout for these kind of men – and even some women – within our churches who seek to “draw away disciples” after themselves and who “love to have the preeminence,” working against the God-ordained legitimate leadership of God’s church (See Acts 20:38-31).
Respond and Engage! TALK TO PAUL ON-AIR: 313.272.5600
Michigan Reformation Conference
Paul will be speaking at the 16th Annual Michigan Reformation Conference in Flint, Michigan on Saturday, October 26th (10am – 4pm). More information and free registration.
Wolves Among the Elders
The pastors are charged with caring for God’s flock and guarding it against doctrinal error and moral danger, but who guards the pastors against the wolves who are ever ready to creep in among them to destroy and scatter the sheep?
Today Paul will examine the Scriptures which tell us how to identify the wolves among us, as well as how to set the proper boundaries to protect the eldership of your church from men who hide evil intentions behind a spiritual demeanor.
Many American Christians love their pastors – but are totally unaware of the financial pressures they face.
90 percent of pastors feel financial pressure.
50 percent make less
than $50,000 per year while serving their churches 50-60, or more, hours per
week.
Nearly 60 percent of pastors do not receive retirement or
healthcare benefits from their churches.
3 out of 10 pastors have student loan debt averaging
$36,000.
An earlier NAE survey by found that half of pastors have salary/housing packages under $50,000. When it comes to benefits, most receive no family health insurance (59%) and no pension or retirement funds (62%).
A 2016 study of clergy compensation similarly found that Protestant clergy income (including salary and housing allowances) amounts to just over $46,000 annually on average.
