Our Rising Sound » news

IHOP (restaurant) sues IHOP (prayer movement) over trademark

Kyle — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:25:28 +0000

When I saw the headline “IHOP (the pancake-maker) sues IHOP (the prayer center) over trademark” , my thought was, what took them so long? I mean I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a more clear case of trademark infringement. Let’s look at the names:

International House of Pankcakes (IHOP)

International House of Prayer (IHOP)

Mike Bickle’s ministry has from it’s outset used the acronym IHOP and even borrowed the first 3 words of that acronym. The restaurant chain has been around for 37 years, the prayer ministry….just 10. The article states:

The lawsuit further accuses the church mission of adopting the name International House of Prayer knowing it would be abbreviated IHOP — the intent being to misappropriate fame and notoriety of the food chain.

I don’t think there’s any denying that. I was at the early meeting/conferences of IHOP (prayer) and that was clearly the intention. The domain name is ihop.org after all, with the pancake makers domain ihop.com. The article also states that “the suit was filed only after the church mission refused repeated requests to stop using the trademark.” Now I don’t want to jump to any conclusion as to what Mike Bickle and IHOP prayer movement was thinking, but my question is…were you thinking at all?

If I’m starting a business I would never consider using IHOP, as clearly the trademark is already claimed, nor would any business lawyer advise me to use that name either. I mean it’s so elementary it’s almost silly. But for some reason it seems the church ministry thought they were a special circumstance where trademark law didn’t apply. And that attitude drives me crazy!

My hope is IHOP the prayer ministry would humbly (though they appear they will fight) admit fault and stop using the name. What are your thoughts? Am I missing something?

Hollywood making a movie about Keith Green

Kyle — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:56:01 +0000

Keith Green’s impact on the American church as a whole cannot be understated. He was a man way ahead of his time, his music was like nothing else being played. I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for his humility, love, passion and service to Jesus. I’m eagerly awaiting the release of this movie. You can read more about the movie here. Here’s an expert from the article:

Both Melody and Keith were born Jewish, but the couple began attending a home Bible study in Coldwater Canyon and became born-again Christians.

In 1977, Sparrow Records offered Keith a record deal. The album, “For Him Who Has Ears To Hear,” soon became the biggest debut album in the history of Christian recording. His second album in 1978, “No Compromise,” also rose quickly to the top of the charts. Outgrowing the homes in Woodland Hills, the ministry relocated in 1979 to a ranch near Lindale, Texas.

Keith negotiated a release from his contract at Sparrow and decided to give his albums away for whatever people could afford. The first free album was 1980′s “So You Want To Go Back To Egypt,” which featured Bob Dylan playing harmonica.

A few years ago, Melody learned that more than 100,000 people had gone to serve in other nations since Keith had challenged his fans in 1982 to minister abroad.

“I feel like those who knew of Keith – or find out about his ministry – that something gets ignited in their hearts and they get supercharged to make a difference,” Melody said. “I’m doing my best to do my part. Keith already did his.”

Arizona immigration law causes bands to boycott the state?

Kyle — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:09:51 +0000

As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now Arizona passed what many are calling the nation’s “toughest” immigration law this past Friday. Reaction across the country has been quite heated and I’ve talked to many of my Mexican friends here in Phoenix and most are at the least concerned if not angry. Now there have been reports of random councilmen(women) calling for boycotts over this law passing and now we have the Canadian band Stars starting their boycott saying,

“We love AZ, But until its racist new immigration law is repealed, Stars (and many others) will boycott this state.”

Some local music blogs have expressed concern about the “many others” portion of that tweet(because who cares about the Stars?) and it’s impact on the AZ music scene. I personally find it hard to believe that this music boycott will gain any steam and if it did that it would last for any length of time. But regardless of the boycott’s success or failure, one thing I realized is this is quite an ironic turn of events as it reminded me of the church’s all too common response to mainstream entertainment, and that is to boycott when we disagree.

Whether it’s a Dan Brown or James Cameron movie, or Jay Z talking about “Jesus can’t save you“, the gut reaction of so many in Christendom is to call for a boycott and disengagement instead of a missional engagement in the culture and bringing the truth of Christ to that situation. A boycott is such a shallow, temporal mean to an end and cares nothing of the people involved or any eternal implications that may be at play.

Look bands, if you hate the AZ immigration law that’s fine. But you should come down here and sing about it. Get involved in our culture and hear what people’s concerns are and use your creativity to speak what you feel is true. If you care at all about the “injustice” of it, or those you feel are impacted by the so called racist nature of this law, then you should be down here and playing every club until your message is heard. Right now all I hear is a whiny band from up north, that knows nothing about AZ, that probably had no plans to play AZ anyway and sacrificed nothing of themselves but rather made a superficial gesture to make themselves feel good.

I know this sounds crazy coming from a Christian, but I’m hoping that us Christians have learned our lessons from cultural disengagement and boycotts. So take it from us, if you want change, then get engaged in the culture and impact it from the inside out.

UPDATE: F****** Up’s Pink Eyes says bands should play in AZ now more than ever.

Loops in Worship interviews me

Kyle — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:57:16 +0000

Loops in Worship recently interviewed me about my music background and loop work. I was humbled Will thought I might have something interesting to say or that people would be interested in hearing what I have to say. Anyway, check it out when you get a chance and make sure to browser around the rest of the site. They offer a lot of great resources for those interested in looping.

Leave a comment over there too if you are so inclined and please don’t be alarmed by my paleness in my picture.

When and where you can buy John Mark McMillan’s new cd

Kyle — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:12:32 +0000

The people are growing restless, dare I say angry that John Mark’s stuff has been taken down from Amazon and iTunes. Please everyone lay down your pitchforks, I just spoke with John Mark and here’s the deal.

singles will be released in March and May
Album + bonus tracks available July 6th

He’s on a new label (Integrity) and on tour now so go catch a show and buy one his vinyls. And while you’re at it, buy one for me and send it to me…pretty please. Keep up to date with his blog, website and twitter. And of course stay tuned here for all your JMM breaking news.

What songs should we sing in light of Haiti?

Kyle — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:51:43 +0000

As I prepared for this past Sunday’s worship set I had a very heavy heart. The stories and images coming out of Haiti are truly heart breaking and challenging at many levels. This past week Dennis Miller was asking for Christians to call into his radio show and explain how God allows this to happen. I listened every day as people would call in and espouse 1 of 2 theories.

God had nothing to do with this, this was Satan. or…
This is direct punishment for Haitians sin.

It was frustrating and painful to hear people either run away from God’s sovereignty and appoint the power to call creation into action to Satan, or to run from grace and appoint judgment onto Haiti that all nations deserve and are under. It pains me to hear Christians disavowing the sovereign rule and reign of God over all creation, but it also pains me to hear Christians claiming they know why this happened. What a disgusting measure of pride in both circumstances. If you haven’t read Albert Mohler’s post on “Does God Hate Haiti?” I implore you to go read it.

So all of this is happening in my mind as I pray about what my responsibility is as a worship leader in light of what’s happening. It was a very similar feeling I felt after 9/11 and I remember the feeling that the church had no songs to sing after 9/11 because we tend to overlook worshipping in lament. Though the Psalms are full of worship in lament, our churches are usually void of them.

I felt it important for our church to not run from the gospel and hide in either of the extremes I mentioned above. That in light of what’s happening in Haiti we should respond corporately in a few ways:

1. We should grieve and mourn with those in Haiti

Romans 12:15 spells it out clearly, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Starting out the service with big smiles and happy clappy, dance in the aisles music seemed ill-fitting at best when viewed in the shadow of 50,000 dead with another 100,000 yet to be found. Paul says we should rejoice in our suffering, but doesn’t say we should rejoice in other’s suffering. In fact he says quite the opposite in 1 Corinthians 12:26 when discussing church unity:

“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (ESV)

Before and during our worship set we had a lot of prayer, acknowledging the heartache and suffering. And we mourned with those in Haiti dealing with this devastation first hand.

2. Worship the all sovereign God

The church has to recognize God’s sovereignty in all things. That God’s ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts and he has plans and purposes that we don’t see. I don’t see the number of earthquakes God has held back, the hurricanes he’s calmed or the tsunamis he’s diverted. Matt Chandler said,

“The entire universe is built around communicating to you that you’re tiny and you’re fragile and you control nothing.”

We are tiny and God is great, all powerful, all sovereign and all good. This earthquake as well as all creation should point us to God and illuminate his divine attributes (sovereignty being one of them). Romans 1:20:

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

Our worship set was filled with these songs, every song had this at its core. Our God Reigns, The Solid Rock, Whole World In His Hands.

3. Worship the merciful, loving, good God

God loves Haiti, he loves the people of Haiti and his heart is grieved. At the cross we see God’s perfect justice meet his perfect mercy, grace and love. We live in the aftermath of that collision on the cross and our hearts should be eternally grateful. Ephesians 2:4-7

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

We opened with God of This City, a song I think does an amazing job of communicating God’s sovereign rule, but that things aren’t yet as they should be. That God is still at work.

4. Serve the broken and minister to the lost

If all you have is great context and point of view without your heart being impacted and propelled towards acts of kindness and mercy, then there’s a disconnect with the gospel. My heart is warmed by the tremendous outpouring from the Christian community towards Haiti. There are so many different avenues of service and help happening right now and they all are orchestrated under the mercy, grace and sovereignty of God.

I think it it incredibly important for our worship to not hide from any of these things in this time. Our view of the gospel in our worship needs to be enriched not diluted. We can’t hide from this and we shouldn’t try and cloak God or any of his divine attributes to make it more palatable to the world. I beg my fellow worship leaders to point their churches, their community to the gospel in this season. In devastation and loss their is great opportunity for God to be magnified, for the lost to be pointed to Christ and for the church to be mobilized to show Christ’s love.

One of the songs we did which I really felt God appointed for us in this time is a song by Tim Hughes called “Whole World In His Hands.” I’ll finish with the lyrics to that song.

Verse 1
When all around is fading
And nothing seems to last
When each day is filled with sorrow
Still I know with all my heart

Chorus
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
I fear no evil for You are with me
Strong to deliver, mighty to save
He’s got the whole world in His hands

Verse 2
When I walk through fire
I will not be burned
When the waves come crashing round me
Still I know with all my heart

Video: Matt Chandler speaks before his brain surgery

Kyle — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:00:35 +0000

As I watched this incredibly challenging and encouraging video of Matt Chandler discussing where he’s at with his sudden fight with a brain tumor, I felt such simultaneous heartache and joy seeing this warrior of our faith stand firm in Christ. Matt has had such a huge impact on me from afar, I’ve never met him or even seen him in person, but his impact on my faith cannot be overstated. It’s humbling to hear his words, it’s encouraging to see him live it out and it’s incredibly moving to see the love and wisdom shared through his family.

For those of you who don’t know, Matt Chandler is pastor of The Village Church and fellow member of the Acts 29 Network. According to the latest updates Matt is doing well, is out of the ICU and results should be back from tests on the tumor in the middle of this week.

My church, Life Connection Church joins Acts 29 network

Kyle — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:08:43 +0000

This has been a big week for many reasons, all of which I’ll blog about. But one of the simpler ones to blog about is my church‘s entrance into full Acts 29 membership. The A29 blog just published an article introducing us to the network. I’m really excited to be joining the network, there are so many pastors, worship leaders and friends here that I respect.

As far as worship music goes, we do things differently than most A29 churches I know. That’s fine for us and I don’t expect any issues with that. A29 is a pretty diverse organization with a lot of different kinds of churches. We are a Reformed-Charismatic church, reformed in theology, non-cessationist, holy spirit believing, gift empowered body of believers that sing our guts out to loud, thumping, worship music. We are a creative bunch, that use lots of video, “concert” lighting, text messaging Q&A, twitter to organize our home groups, podcasting, vodcasting, live loops… We’re in downtown Phoenix, in a rough neighborhood that frequently has police helicopters circling our building during night meetings. My point is we aren’t your grandparent’s reformed church.

But then again…we are complementarian, we are firm believers of sola scriptura, we love Piper, Chandler, Driscoll, Keller and many of us are 4.5 point calvanists. (Not a typo, that’s 4 and a half) We practice church discipline, are introducing formal membership, preach the cross relentlessly and by that I mean the rugged cross, penal substitutionary atonement, propitiation and expiation.

We’re a crazy bunch of misfits for sure, but we have deep conviction about what we do and who we are in Christ. We’re excited to team up with the group of A29 churches here in Phoenix and share the gospel with the lost and hurting. I pray this opens new doors for our church and that we’re able to reach more people for Christ.

Father stabs son after he refused to take off hat in church

Kyle — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:21:39 +0000

When I first started leading worship in high school I led worship with a hat on backwards once. It was the nineties cut me some slack, plus I was an idiot. Anyway someone left the church because of that. Now reading that this guy stabbed his own son for just being in church with a hat on makes me feel soooo thankful that all that person did was leave. To add insult to injury, the dad stabbed him in the butt.

Our Rising Sound contributing to TheWorshipCommunity.com

Kyle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:09:32 +0000

If you have not been to TheWorshipCommunity.com now is a great time to go visit and subscribe to their rss feed, twitter feed or via email. Fred McKinnon runs the site and it’s a great resource for worship leaders for training, discussion, encouragement and technical insight. I will be contributing some content there and helping where I can.

You can also join in the discussion at TheWorshipCommunity forums. Enjoy.

Pure Praise study at TheWorshipCommunity.Com

Kyle — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:07:29 +0000

Fred McKinnon runs a great worship resource/community site at TheWorshipCommunity.Com. They are going to start Bible study next week through a book called “Pure Praise” written by Dwayne Moore. This is a great opportunity to gather with like minded worshippers and engage in some great discussion and study. Details from Fred are below.

Hey everybody, I blogged about this a couple of weeks ago, but will be reminding you all over the next week. Join us over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com for a meaningful, in-depth study of God’s Word through “Pure Praise”, a heart-focused Bible study on worship by Worship Leader and Author, Dwayne Moore.

This is a 9-week study that we will begin the week of January 12, 2009. Each day we will share our thoughts on the daily devotional and then participate in the Group Discussions each week – as a group of united worshipers on TheWorshipCommunity.Com in the forums.
(daily and weekly discussion will take place in this thread of the TWC Forums)

“The goal of this study is not to help us fall more in love with worship. Rather, these daily, intimate encounters with God can help us fall more in love with our Father – which is the very essence of biblical worship”. (Darlene Zscheck, Hillsong Church, Australia)

“Dwayne Moore has a desire to see the body of Christ truly understand what it means to honor God with our worship and let our lifesongs sing to God in spirit and in truth”. (Mark Hall, Casting Crowns)

“Dwayne Moore’s ‘Pure Praise’ gets at the heart of true biblical worship. If you’re looking to grow your worship ministry team in it’s understanding and desire to worship our Creator in spirit and truth, this book is for you. The weekly studies are practical, insightful, and full of biblical wisdom aimed at getting the reader to grasp how our Creator designed us to worship. This book is a must-read for any worship ministry team, and I’m glad to recommend it”. (Rick Muchow, Pastor of Worship, Saddleback Church)

“Dwayne Moore has a writing style that makes you feel like he’s right there with you, walking you through each devotional. ‘Pure Praise’ is highly relational and delivered in a way that will minister to you in your personal worship journey as well as find its way into your worship training resource library. This book will help you understand not only the meaning of worship, but also provide you with real tools for leading and ministering in your role as the worship leader.” (Julie Reid, former Executive Editor of Worship Leader Magazine)

Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to study with your fellow worshipers.

Purchase your copy of “Pure Praise” at Next Level Worship’s website here:
http://blog.nextlevelworship.com/pure-praise-worship-study/

Cost is $14.99

Once you get your book ordered, post a response in the “Pure Praise” discussion area of the forums so that we know you’re with us! Be sure to check the box to subscribe to the thread!

Looking forward to our study together starting January 12, 2009.

For the Kingdom,
Fred McKinnon, Founder

MTV “Made” filming in our Sunday service

Kyle — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:34:33 +0000

MTV will be filming an episode of “Made” inside our Sunday service this Sunday. November 16th. They are doing a follow-up episode on one of our interns, Alyssa Williams, who was featured in one of the most popular episodes of Made. It will be an interesting experience having a camera crew filming the service that isn’t our own. They promised to not distract and get up in people’s faces, we’ll see if they stick to that.

But really it’s going to be an amazing opportunity for us to just be ourselves and let our love of Christ be shown to a lot of people. So for that reason I’m really excited. I’ll make sure and give a detailed report in my upcoming Sunday Set List post. If you’re in the Phoenix area and want to visit Life Connection Church, please check us out and introduce yourself to me.

Illinois winning lottery number on election day – 666

Kyle — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:44:41 +0000

My pal Scott has argued for sometime that Obama is not the anti-christ, but actually *a* messiah, not *the* messiah, sort of a midget-messiah. Obama even has his own worship song. That’s pretty good for any US senator I’d say, I’m pretty impressed. But I’ve stumbled across some evidence that may change his mind. The winning lottery numbers in Illinois on Obama’s victory day were 666, no joke. Now excuse me while I go steal some mormon family’s rations out of their bunker and hike my family up into the mountains Red Dawn style.

p.s. no I don’t really think Obama is the anti-christ, that’s silly. But whoever won the lottery with those numbers I’m not so sure about. If it’s Rezko I’m going to flip out.

Subscriber count milestone

Kyle — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:35:15 +0000

A big thank you to all my readers and subscribers. A few weeks ago we crossed the 100 subscriber barrier, a point I had hoped to reach by the end of the year. So thank you to everyone who has subscribed to the blog either via RSS or email and also thank you to our new podcast subscribers.

This success of this blog depends on you guys blog evangelizing and spreading the word. So if you know of friends, family, co-workers that might enjoy the blog please encourage them to subscribe. For all you silent subscribers make sure and comment so I can meet you, hit me up on facebook, stumbleupon or twitter.

Here’s to passing 200 in much shorter time!

Our Rising Sound Podcast launches

Kyle — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:40:04 +0000

This week we launched the Our Rising Sound podcast which will contain all of our video/audio content, this so far includes interviews and worship loops. You can click the link on the right sidebar to subscribe to it in whatever podcast client you use. If you are using iTunes you can subscribe with iTunes. So subscribe if you’d like and spread the word.

Delirious releasing their final single ‘Love Will Find a Way’

Kyle — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:03:18 +0000

Although the title of Delirious’ last single, ‘Love Will Find a Way’, is a bit Bette Midler, what better way to go out than release a new song? Delirious is closing out their final tour in the UK and as previously reported won’t be taking any more bookings.

‘Love Will Find a Way’ hits digital stores November 17th and you can pre-order the release at http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/ . For you brits you can also pre-order an exclusive live version by texting LOVEWILL and your email address to 81088. Pre-orders cost £1.50, UK only (lame).

Our Rising Sound contributing to Worship.com blog

Kyle — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:25:05 +0000

I’m pleased to announced that Our Rising Sound will now be contributing on the Worship.com blog. If you haven’t been over to Worship.com make sure and subscribe to the blog feed, there are a lot of great articles and a wide variety of contributors including, Bob Kauflin, Scot Longyear (I follow your lead) and the Resurgence. I’ll certainly need to dress appropriately and behave myself over there with that crowd. There is no change of content on this site, business as usual here, but now some of the posts will also appear on Worship.com.

Introducing our new Hip-Hop contributor

Kyle — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:49:04 +0000

I’m happy to introduce Brett Ernenputsch (pronounced “Erne-whatever”) our new contributor dedicated to everything hip-hop. Here’s what I know and love about Brett

He loves Jesus
He loves hip-hop
He loves this blog

What else do you need to know? Those are the three elements of a successful, abundant life. In addition to those 3 points he is one of the leaders at our church, is currently going through our Movement Internship program and has a bunch of tattoos which is enough street cred for me. I’m looking forward to Brett’s insight into the world of hip-hop, how it’s impacting or being impacted by the church and our culture.

Thanks Brett for bringing another musical dimension to this blog!

10 Commandments of Blogging: How many do you break?

Kyle — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:47:54 +0000

Godblog recently met and published a set of commandments on blogging based loosely on the 10 commandements to help reign in the craziness. Good luck on that. Let’s see how many of these I’ve broken…

You shall not put your blog before your integrity. (think I’m good here)
You shall not make an idol of your blog. (feeling a little convicted…next one dangit)
You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin. (think I’m clear here)
Remember the sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog. (I do take a day off but not because of the sabbath, I get a half point here)
Honor your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes. (I enjoy promoting other people’s stuff and try to not to nitpick mistakes unless I have serious theological problems and their influence is high enough to warrant a response)
You shall not murder someone else’s honor, reputation or feelings. (murder? no way.)
You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind. (need the humility to say although I’m ok today, this needs constant attention, prayer and accountability)
You shall not steal another person’s content. (if I ever steal I give credit to the person of whom I’m stealing…that’s the least I can do right?)
You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger. (I’d never say something like Scot worships Osteen, or Scot L. once did a Michael Jackson song in worship, or Billy has a tattoo of Carman on his calf….never would I say this)
You shall not covet your neighbor’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content. (well when you say covet do you mean like…ummm….ok fine. Yes I do, I really do. I won’t say who but it rhymes with Tagamuffin)

Well there’s my confession. How many do you guys break?

Pastor jailed for stealing $45,000 from church’s hurricane relief fund

Kyle — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:29:01 +0000

Noah Thomas plead guilty to stealing his church’s hurricane Katrina relief funds and has been sentenced to 17 months in prison. Noah’s church, Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in New Orleans, was completely flooded during the hurricane and unfortunately the church had no flood insurance. Doh!

After all, why on earth would a church built in a city that’s beneath sea level with rivers surrounding it held back by man made levees need flood insurance? Fortunately for the church our federal government stepped in and provided $252,000 in a federal disaster loan. Unfortunately for the church they had a thief for a pastor and he went and bought himself a car and took an additional $35,000 from the fund for play money.

I guess what do you expect when you name your church after land stealing pilgrims! I’m sorry, I’m part Indian and I’m still a little sensitive to all of this, my people suffered greatly. That reminds me, I’ll have to ask my dad who my people are again.

Church sub-culture strikes again, release Christian Guitar Hero knockoff

Kyle — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:01:36 +0000

I guess there’s nothing wrong with this, it’s just really cheesy. My friends and I had joked about a christian version and we should have known it was happen sooner or later. Rocking to Chris Tomlin just isn’t going to have the same feeling as Clapton, SRV or AC/DC. Reports that ‘Guitar Praise’ comes with an acoustic pretend guitar instead of the usual axe, 5 tambourines and streamers are denied by the company. Although apparently there is a prophetic mode for the game where whatever you play, no matter how awful, is rewarded with points in heaven. There’s also rumored to be a “Inappropriate conversion of secular song to worship” mode, aka Rick Pino mode, where you take songs in Guitar Hero and attempt to redeem them by cleverly changing a couple words.

No word on what songs will be on the game. Game goes on sale next month at GuitarPraise.com. Would any of you consider getting this? I won’t make fun of you, at least not publicly…..well maybe I will.

‘Basic Instinct’ author has miraculous roadside conversion

Kyle — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:02:19 +0000

I love hearing stories where God reaches down in his perfect grace and intervenes in people’s lives. Not because they deserve it, or reached some understanding that know makes it possible to receive Christ, but only because God is good and desires us. This is the “Damascus road” story of Joe Eszterhas, author of Showgirls and Basic Instinct, both famously graphic films.

Joe has written a new book called “Crossbearer” as a thank you to God and a message to the world of what God has done for him. Joe recalls that he was going crazy inside, his body beginning to fail and drowning in alcohol. He fell down on the curb and cried, “Please God help me.” At that point he saw a blinding white light, and returned home a new man. Here’s one of my favorite portions of the interview:

“Frankly my life changed from the moment God entered my heart. I’m not interested in the darkness anymore,” he said. “I’ve got four gorgeous boys, a wife I adore, I love being alive, and I love and enjoy every moment of my life. My view has brightened and I don’t want to go back into that dark place.”

Mr. Eszterhas’ love and appreciation for life was magnified even more last year when his surgeon told him he didn’t need to schedule another visit. “He used the word ‘cured,’ a word that oncologists generally don’t use,” Mr. Eszterhas said. “He said I didn’t have to come back for any checks, that my tissue had regenerated to the point where you cannot only not tell that there was ever any cancer there, but you can’t tell that there had been any surgery there.

Update: Michael Guglielmucci “Healer” confession video

Kyle — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:04:21 +0000

Michael Guglielmucci’s father released a statement in efforts to explain the recent news that Michael’s terminal cancer was faked. I can’t begin to understand what his family is going through. It really is a tragic situation all around. The statement really reads like a movie script, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if this became a movie at some point, it’s just that crazy. Not so surprisingly Michael was sick, but instead of addressing the root sin he tried to cover it…

In September in 2006, Mike had an accident and went to hospital. It was at this time, because of his torment of living a double life, Mike thought he could escape the pain by creating a diversion from his addiction to adult pornography, so he created the cancer scenario.

If you’ve been in church leadership longer than a week you’ve no doubt dealt with the destruction of pornography in your body. The lengths men and women go to hide this from their family never ceases to amaze me, although this certainly takes the cake. This hammers home the point that leadership, particularly male leadership, has to challenge their men on this. Talk about it, expose it, disciple through it, counsel through it. The aftermath of this sin is so destructive as is clearly seen here. Here’s Michael’s own words on his addiction…

“This is who I am … I’m addicted to the stuff, it consumes my mind,”

I admire the courage XXXChurch has shown in tackling this tough issue. Many take issue with how XXXChurch operates, and I may not agree with every tactic they use, but surely they are wrestling and taking on an issue most churches ignore. And for that they should be commended and supported and prayed for.

Michael Guglielmucci, author of “Healer”, exposed as fraud

Kyle — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:48:01 +0000

This has been a rough couple weeks for the church. First we have Todd Bentley stepping down due to marital problems and now his sexual sin being exposed. I have not posted anything on Todd Bentley, not because I don’t have strong feelings about it, but because I want to frame it in context to worship. I don’t want to write another piece on how messed up the whole Lakeland “outpouring” situation is, that’s been done. I’m working on a post so stay tuned on that front.

Now comes news that Michael Guglielmucci totally lied and made up his story of terminal illness. I don’t know where Hillsong goes from here, but I think they have to obviously take a long hard look at how the evaluate those whom they put on their biggest stage. A story of terminal illness can’t be that hard to checkout unless he had a team of doctor’s in on the lie.

I haven’t really gathered my thoughts on this yet, I’m just currently very disappointed, saddened and frustrated for the hurt this has caused. I hope you join me in praying for Michael and his family, Hillsong church and the thousands of those who have been impacted by this song. I’ve heard from several worship leaders who will continue to play this song in worship and I think that’s a wonderful thing. This song isn’t a story about Michael’s sickness or lack thereof, it’s a story and proclamation of God’s power. Perhaps this situation will make it even more evident in this song of our need for God’s healing power.

UPDATE: Michael’s father releases statement of his son’s confession.

Presbyterian vs Catholic Church Sign Debate

Kyle — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:05:40 +0000

In the spirit of this political debate season we bring you the first annual Church Sign Debate. We have 5 questions we’ll be asking the Presbyterian and Catholic church, let’s get started. If you want to keep up on other news like this, subscribe to the RSS feed.

1. Do dogs goto heaven?

2. Does God love dogs?

3. Do Catholic dogs have the inside track to heaven?

4. Good point, do dogs have souls?

5. No rocks in heaven? What will we walk on?

Phew…I’m glad we got that all settled.

[via James]

Video: GMA interview with Steven Curtis Chapman and family

Kyle — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:03:14 +0000

Yesterday Good Morning American interviewed Steven Curtis Chapman and family to discuss how they are dealing with the loss of their daughter Maria. They are truly an amazing family and this interview is a testament to the power, faithfulness and love of Christ in their lives.

[via jesusneedsnewpr]

“Blow-up church” to meet lost where they are…at the beach

Kyle — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:46:32 +0000

The Catholic church in Rome are going to meet the lost where they are this summer, and that’s at the beach. They have a 98ft long blow up church that will be staffed with priests ready to take confession. One of the priests who spearheaded the operation said,

“The concept of a beach-convent is something that is appreciated by vacationers and the nuns themselves,” priest Antonio Rungi, who helped spearheaded the initiative, told Italian news agency ANSA.

My complaint on this is an obvious mis-understanding of what the church is. Guys, leave your building and goto the beach, this isn’t reaching out to the lost. It’s trying to make it more convenient for them to reach out to you, the church. Stop hiding in your inflatable building, take off the robes and put on some swim trunks, pop that building and love some people.

Pastor Greg Laurie’s son Christopher passes in car accident

Kyle — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:36:34 +0000

Devastating news out of Hunington Beach CA, Christopher Laurie, son of Pastor Greg and Cathe Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship, died in a car accident this past Thursday morning(7/24/08). He leaves behind his wife Brittany, daughter Stella, brother Jonathan and Christopher and his wife were expecting another baby in November.

This through me for a loop this weekend as I was raised in Southern California and was quite familiar with their church. Make sure and spend some time praying for the Lauries. Harvest Christian Fellowship has established the Christopher Laurie Memorial Fund in lieu of flowers, proceeds will go to Christopher’s surviving family. You can leave a comment for Pastor Greg at his blog.

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[via James]

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