Do We Have a Chance Against the Musicians and Media (and other false prophets)?

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[blonde]

Do We Have a Chance Against the Musicians and Media (and other false prophets)?

By Brent Knox
Egreen, September 16, 2010

Without question, we live in an anti-Christian society. The message and morality of Jesus is being battered by politicians, movie stars, musicians, and media. Even public education seems to be more and more openly hostile to faith. “Religious freedom” is interpreted as “free to express any religion but keep-yer-mouth-shut-if-you-believe-in-Jesus.”
     
How can the good news of Jesus advance in this hostile environment? How can people come to Christ when they are hearing contrary messages from so many other sources?
     
Jeremiah must have thought the same way. In his day, he was the only faithful prophet of God, among many false prophets in Israel. This was God’s indictment against the many false prophets: “They commit adultery and love dishonesty. They encourage those who are doing evil so that no one turns away from their sins….They keep saying to those who despise my word, ‘Don’t worry! The Lord says you will have peace!’ And to those who stubbornly follow their own desires, they say, ‘No harm will come your way!’ (Jeremiah 23:14,17 NLT)  Doesn’t that sound like a modern day musician? Aren’t musicians the real prophets of the day?

Jeremiah was outnumbered. He was outgunned. He was only one small voice among many. His task was uphill and against the grain. In fact, he often wrestled with discouragement at the magnitude and apparent fruitlessness of his task.  But this is how God encouraged him: “Let these false prophets tell their dreams, but let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference between straw and grain! Does not my word burn like fire?” says the Lord. “Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:28-29,NLT)
     
God’s true word is powerful. God’s word reaches and stirs the soul. All we need to do is faithfully speak it. Speak it to your children. Speak it in your Growth Groups. Speak it at work and in your neighborhoods. And pray for the pastors that we would faithfully proclaim God’s every word. God will advance His kingdom in this city even if it seems we are outgunned and outnumbered!

[Innerlight]

I guess I would ask, why have churches so embraced the world in music, dress and even language?  sometimes there is no difference.  Should there not be a "radical line of demarcation between us and the world" as one noted pastor put it. 

[blonde]

I find it ironic that Brent uses the world's themes and music to reach the world.  Modern music, modern language to reach the people of Bloomington, Minnesota and then criticizes the very vehicle he has been using from day-one!

The seeker sensitive church was way off.

-Blonde

[MarthaH]

I find it ironic that Brent uses the world's themes and music to reach the world.  Modern music, modern language to reach the people of Bloomington, Minnesota and then criticizes the very vehicle he has been using from day-one!

The seeker sensitive church was way off.

-Blonde

I listened to his message at Faithwalkers 2006 or 07 when he spoke on God's magnificence. It was a tremendous message that used tremendous visuals from outer space. The application points were also amazing. A few months later, I got a hold of a dvd from Louis Giglio called 'Indescribable' and it had the exact same pictures and same applications. I don't know if I would call it full plagiarism or not, but it saddened me that the integrity of the messenger was lessened. The message and delivery were still very helpful, but I was under the assumption that the person who had been given the right to go on stage as a "Faithwalker" had met with God and wrestled over his message. Perhaps I will have to listen to them both again, but I felt some acknowledgement should have been given to Giglio.

[askingquestionsaboutGCI]

There was a series done at our church last year (yes, I'm still in a GC church ) which was surprisingly well done.  So much so (including really nice PowerPoint graphics) that after a few weeks I started wondering where the idea for the series had come from.  I ran a search on the web and found it came pretty much directly from www.creativepastors.com.  I'm not saying it's right or wrong to use a help like that without an acknowledgement; but it WAS striking to me that the one series I thought was so far superior to this church's normal sermons came off the internet.  Kind of sad, really.

[EverAStudent]

Without addressing copyright law regarding church presentations (there is wide latitude for such religious use in US law), the generally accepted ethics are more germaine.  Most pastors and authors will tell you they do not mind if another pastor uses their original work in a sermon so long as the user makes a resonable effort to credit the original author. 

Having had my own personal copyrighted work read word-for-word from a pulpit during a sermon in a church service in which I happened to be actually present in the congregation, and not being credited, left me feeling conflicted:  it is wonderful that God's truth was proclaimed (the most important thing) and that I had contributed to that in some way, but also feeling that the speaker had committed a form of theft.  I deemed it best to release the matter entirely.  But I also recognized that it is not something that ought to be repeated by me or others.  It is morally best to credit the authors of original works, even in church.