I used to be obsessed in a very unhealthy way with politics. It consumed my thoughts, my actions, my social media, my discussions, my arguments…it very literally consumed everything. I spent many years expressing my views about all things political, and it was exhausting. It’s Election Day 2019, and here are some of the thoughts running through my mind on the matter.
Music: “Special Place” by Ketsa
Read More BONUS: Election Day WoesIn case you’ve been living under a rock or out of the country for the last month, let me just tell you…it’s been a busy couple of weeks for the American Church.
Read More Kanye, MacArthur, and Moore – Exposing the Division in the American ChurchIt’s been an interesting couple of weeks in Western Christianity as we saw the freak out over John MacArthur telling Beth Moore to go home and then a week later Kanye West dropping his gospel album “Jesus is King”. In the middle of the commotion an interesting thing was revealed about the state of the American Church…we don’t get along. In fact, we’re pretty divided along some unfortunate lines.
Music: “Special Place” by Ketsa
Read More BONUS: Kanye, MacArthur, and MooreThe church is a two-sided coin. On one side you have church leaders, and on the other side you have church members. Both sides think they ARE the coin, when in reality they are but one side of the SAME coin. As a result, unity is missing from many of our local churches. Sure, pastors have been guilty of beating the sheep, but the sheep have been guilty of biting the shepherd as well. In this episode, the Angry Christian crew discusses the abuse of church leaders at the hands of the sheep. [Hebrews 13:17 and Ephesians 4] Be sure to check out the accompanying blog post [https://eagerfortruth.com/2019/10/21/dont-bite-the-shepherd/].
Intro Music: “Angry Dance” by Simon Panrucker
Outro Music: “Yours” by Brad Bates
On one side you have the pastors and church leaders (the shepherds), and on the other you have the church body (the sheep). For decades (if not centuries) there has always been a tension between these 2 sides of the coin, which results in church splits, hurt relationships, broken testimonies, people being turned away from and turned off of the church, and a whole lot more. Each side of the coin seems to think they ARE the coin not realizing that they are but one side of the same coin….that there is another side.
Read More Don’t Bite the ShepherdBeing the leader in a church is hard work. Church folks can be some of the most frustrating and difficult folks to work with. But, despite their flaws (and our own) and the amount of stress and frustration we may face as church leaders, beating the sheep should never be an option. God doesn’t take kindly to it, and we put ourselves in great danger when we ignore this fact and abuse the sheep for personal gain. Unfortunately, it happens more often than we may realize as beating the sheep isn’t just a physical act. In this episode we introduce another host of the Angry Christian Podcast (Robert Platt) and explore how easy it is to fall into the angry trap as a church leader. [Ezekiel 34:1-11]
Credits:
Intro Music – “Angry Dance” by Simon Panrucker
Other Music as it appears – “Oh Yeah” by Yello, “Sweet Georgia Brown” by Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard and Kenneth Casey, “Would Jesus Wear a Rolex” by Ray Stevens, and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” by Fred Rogers
My particular rod of choice was my tongue. I was (and still am) quick witted and could conjure up snarky unkind responses at the drop of a hat. All a church member had to do was corner me, or hit me up before the church service was beginning to complain about something, and the rod (that was my tongue) would get whipped out and promptly applied to the head of the unsuspecting sheep.
Read More Don’t Beat the SheepRecently, I started a podcast with several friends called The Angry Christian Podcast, which explores the topic of anger as it relates to being a Christian. We talk through various topics and questions and scriptures trying to explore and understand better the concept of anger in the life of Christians. Our first episode explored the […]
Read More Is Being Angry a Sin?What is the place of anger? Is there ever a moment when anger (especially by Christians) is ever acceptable? Divorce? Abortion? Terrorist attacks? Car accidents? Self anger? We talk about these questions and more on Episode 002 of The Angry Christian, “The Place of Anger”. [Ecclesiastes 3]
Intro: “Angry Dance” by Simon Panrucker
Outro: “Yours” by Brad Bates
All other production: The Angry Christian Team
Have you ever been displaced? Perhaps physically by a natural disaster? Or spiritually and/or emotionally by your circumstances? In this episode of the Angry Christian Podcast we explore the topic of being displaced through stories (Brian shares his story of being displaced by Hurricane Katrina), scripture, and our own brand of fun. We also briefly touch on Pastor Jarrid Wilson and the American Churches sad response to suicide and mental illness.
Intro Music: “Angry Dance” by Simon Panrucker
Outro Music: “Yours” by Brad Bates
Sermon snippet from Pastor Jason Hampton of Refuge Church in Indianapolis, Indiana concerning Jesus and anger. A powerful though around grief and anger.
Read More Mini Episode 003 – Jason Hampton – Jesus and AngerInterview with Angry Christian Podcast co-host, Michael Ledford!
Read More Mini Episode 002 – Michael Ledford – InterviewInterview with Angry Christian Podcast co-host, Brian Baldwin!
Read More Mini Episode 001 – Brian Baldwin – InterviewIt’s the Lord’s Day, y’all. You know what that means. It’s one of the days believers gather to hear exegetical preaching and teaching to edify and sanctify our souls. That’s a lot of Christian talk for being refreshed by the Word of God. Today, one of our elder candidates preached about the light bulbs going […]
Read More Be Quiet and DriveWe have all been there before. Someone (or perhaps even it is us) is trying to communicate something very important but the delivery of the message is conducted in such a way that it immediately causes the hearer to throw up walls, tune them out, or flat out reject the message. It doesn’t matter if what is being communicated is true, important, or eternally impacting…the delivery is simply abysmal and causing more harm than it is helping.
Read More The Importance of Communication Cannot Be Over CommunicatedIt was his sixth grade year and the boy was not only in a new school, but he was in a new city and a new state as well. Every aspect of the life he once knew had been uprooted and planted firmly in the middle of the state of North Carolina in a small town called Wake Forest.
Read More Angry Christian Chapter 1: The Beast UnleashedDiscovering The Enneagram Recently, I’ve been doing a book study with a number of close friends of mine (and even some new friends I never knew I had!). The study is through the book titled, The Road Back to You by Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile. To summarize, the book is an introductory journey through […]
Read More Angry Christian: A Destructive Journey Toward a Growing Compassion (Introduction)There once was a man who was in the market for a car that was really good on gas mileage, was cheap, and was small (he worked in a downtown area where parking was minimal). This man found a 2002 Mini Cooper with 56,000 miles on it for a darn good price. He took it […]
Read More The Parable of the 2002 Mini Cooper: A Lesson On Getting HelpKnow this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. James 1:19-20 ESV For a very long time…too long really, I’ve gotten this scripture backward. Very backward. I was REALLY quick to speak and REALLY […]
Read More Be Quick to Speak and Slow to Listen…No…Wait!I’ve always struggled a bit with my temper. OK…scratch that…I have always struggled with getting angry ENTIRELY too quickly. Just ask my wife…my kids…people who have served along side me in ministry…people in traffic…Let me just be real for a moment…more often than not, my fuse was (and sometimes still is) shorter than the line to the men’s restroom at a Backstreet Boys concert.
Read More Angry Christian: So Much for that Whole “Truth in Love” ThingI used to be pretty critical about those who didn’t “go to church”. Clearly, they lacked something I didn’t because they didn’t want to be AT church. Clearly they weren’t as committed to God and the Church as I was…I who was on staff and being paid by the church to be there. That is…until […]
Read More Don’t Just Judge, Judge Rightly: An Inconvenient TruthChristians and those of you so-called, you need to check your circle. Who’s encouraging you in the faith? Who’s reminding you of gospel implications in your every day struggles? Who has your ear, your head and your heart when difficulties arise or when drastic decisions need to be made? Take a look at the people […]
Read More Smiling FacesChris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Robin Williams, Kurt Cobain and the list goes on and on. Two people that helped shape me went out the same way that they did. There was a point in time when I could have joined this list. Not intentionally, but because of reckless abandon. A good friend of mine held […]
Read More Don’t Go AloneIf you peruse this blog site for any amount of time, you will probably find a number of articles pertaining to the subject of moving on. And that’s probably because, personally, I have had a lot of stuff over the course of my life that I have had to try and move on from. Even […]
Read More Getting Uncomfortable In Our Misery: The Art of Moving OnBehold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. […]
Read More A Beautiful MessToday felt lively. The local church showed up in great numbers and there were prominent voices in the abolitionist movement present. Joseph Spurgeon, R.C. Sproul Jr. and Rusty Thomas were among the more widely known voices pleading for the lives of the unborn among us. Solidarity is important and I think it’s something worth discussing. […]
Read More Murder Mill Musings #003Sometimes I have to process things really slowly, especially when those things involve people I was close to. For instance, I have been working through processing a couple of events that took place in the last couple of months that seemed rather unnecessary and petty, but came from the least likely sources. RECENT EVENTS For […]
Read More The 3 R’s of Moving OnBeing called a Spiritual Son or hearing someone call themselves my Spiritual Father (or mother) was something I wasn’t used to growing up in the Southern Baptist Church. Which is odd, because there is certainly this type of relationship displayed throughout the Bible.
Read More A Word of Caution to the Spiritual Fathers of this WorldQuestion: Why do you believe the bible? Answer: Because it’s a reliable collection of historical documents written by eye witnesses during the lifetime of other eye witnesses that reported supernatural events in fulfillment of specific prophecies. Finally, they claim that these messages are divine rather than human in nature. “Thus says the Lord”, and variations […]
Read More DivinityRecap: God has something to say about knowledge. The bible is a reliable collection of historical documents. It was written by eyewitnesses in the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. Continuing that thought, these witnesses reported supernatural events in fulfilment of specific prophecies. I emphasize specific, because that’s just what this is. These are not some vague Nostradamus type […]
Read More ProphecyIn case you missed it, the third entry of this series on apologetics was about eye witnesses to Jesus’ ministry. Consider this entry part two of entry #3. This is also going to be about eye witnesses, but from a different vantage point. You see, those that claim that the disciples just “made up” the […]
Read More The MartyrsRecap: In the previous entries on apologetics, I’ve shared the emphasis God puts on knowledge and the unique composition of the the bible. In this entry, I’ll share the next reason I believe what the bible says and why I think you should too. The bible was not written in a vaccuum. No one just […]
Read More Eye Witness TestimonyIn part one of this series of entries about why I trust the authority of scripture, I explained how important wisdom is. God doesn’t want us to be uninformed about the legitimacy of His claims, who He is or the implications all that has for our lives. This time, my goal is to show you […]
Read More The Reliability of ScriptureNotice: All of the answers you’re looking for are in the bible. I, a pastor, or any well educated theologian can tell you all about what we believe, why we believe it, and what we know about history that corroborates with it, but you have to know Jesus and place your faith in Him as […]
Read More Apologetics Intro – Bearers of Truthau-thor-i-tar-i-an /əˌTHôrəˈterēən/ adjective: favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government at the expense of personal freedom showing a lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others; domineering; dictatorial. noun: an authoritarian person Nothing is more unattractive to me than a church who has leaders and a pastor who […]
Read More 6 Signs of an Authoritarian Church LeaderTHROWING UP THE WALLS Since I’ve begun my foray into examining and critiquing modern Church practices and settings in hopes to find what the Church really should look like, I have found that from the moment I began I have been met with a whole bunch of seemingly unnecessary defensiveness from other believers. The walls […]
Read More Obese Church VS Keto ChurchSometimes, I scroll through my timeline and wonder if a lot of people have any original thoughts of their own. The NPC meme sums them up in a tragicallty comical way. They have preset phrases they use to engage most issues and do not respond – AT ALL – to new information. The absolute WORST […]
Read More Facts > Feelings ICLEARING THE STAGE AND THE AIR Jimmy Needham put out a cover of the song “Clear the Stage” back in 2012, but I was only introduced to it a year or 2 ago by my former pastor. It is a song that challenges the notion that worship may, in fact, be more than a song […]
Read More Worship Is More Than a SongOn January 20th, 2013, my life changed drastically in an instant. In the span of maybe an hour, I went from looking for trouble at the bar to being distraught at the realization that I was at the mercy of a God I didn’t know. All that is a story for another day. For now, […]
Read More Identifying a True ChristianNo Dave Grohl, but I’ve got a confession to make. I’m a procrastinator. I waste a lot of time on mindless entertainment. I work hard at my job and building my relationship with my life, but I can be flat out lazy with other aspects of my life. I waste A LOT of time. Honestly, […]
Read More Stewards of Spirit & Time
