Friday Church News Notes
Volume 20, Issue 5 - February 1, 2019
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
PAUL CHAPPELL SCHEDULED TO SPEAK IN ROCK & ROLL SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH WITH SLATE OF EVANGELICALS (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Paul Chappell, Pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church of Lancaster, California, and President of West Coast Baptist College, is scheduled to speak in May at the One Nation Under God Conference at the hard-rocking First Baptist Church in Villa Rica, Georgia. (For evidence of their rocking, see the church’s youth ministry video clips.) Other speakers include Todd Starnes (former staff writer for the Southern Baptist Press); Robert Jeffress, Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas (Southern Baptist); Tony Perkins, Southern Baptist and president of the Family Research Council; and Emir Caner, President of the Southern Baptist-affiliated Truett-McConnell University. Pastor Chappell is obviously sensing more liberty these days to be what he has long been, which is a conservative evangelical. This is the type of preachers that he has been producing for some time. God said through the prophet Amos, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Am. 3:3). This is a truism, which requires the simple answer, “No, when men walk together it is because they are in agreement.” So who is Paul Chappell walking together with? Todd Starnes, Robert Jeffress, Tony Perkins, Emir Caner, and the other speakers at this conference are conservative evangelicals. They are not theological liberals; they are not on any of the radical sides of evangelicalism; they are not Pentecostals; they are not emergents. They are pro-life. They support traditional family values. Politically, they are fiscal conservatives, constitutionalists, pro-military preparedness. They favor the enforcement of immigration laws and border security. But they are not, by any means, biblical separatists, which means that they are bridges to anything and everything religiously. Evangelicalism renounced “separatism” back in the 1950s and 1960s, in Billy Graham’s heyday. Harold Ockenga, who coined the term “neo-evangelicalism” in 1948, said that the chief difference between “neo-evangelicalism and fundamentalism” is “its repudiation of separatism.” That repudiation has become more hardened with each passing decade. Sometimes it seems that the evangelical (even the most “conservative”) has only one thing that he really and truly dislikes, and that is “separatism,” and only one type of preacher that he renounces with any real vigor, and that is the “separatist.” But to repudiate separatism is to repudiate the clear teaching of Scripture, such as 2 Chronicles 19:2; Psalm 119:104, 128; Proverbs 8:13; Amos 5:15; Matthew 7:15; Romans 12:9; 16:17-18; 1 Corinthians 15:33; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 10:5; 11:1-4; Ephesians 4:14; 5:11; Colossians 2:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; 3:5; Titus 3:10-11; 1 Peter 3:11; 1 John 4:1; and 2 John 8-11. By his own admission, Pastor Chappell has been drinking from the wells of big-tent evangelicals, such as Chuck Swindoll, John Maxwell, Max Lucado, and John Piper, even Peter Drucker, one of the fathers of the emerging church. These are authors on Chappell’s own list of recommended books; not books he reads to critique, but books he reads for profit; not books he reads only in private, but books he recommends publicly on his Ministry 127 blog to influence church leaders (as of the last time I checked, which was January 20, 2019).
https://paulchappell.com/2014/06/23/reading-for-leading-recommended-books/
Another name on Chappell’s list of recommended books is the late Eugene Peterson, one of the most dangerous authors of this generation. And the Peterson book Chappell lists promotes contemplative prayer, which are the most dangerous spiritual waters conceivable. Peterson, author of The Message, is a bridge to anywhere: Romanism, Orthodoxy, the one world church, even female gods (Peterson was a strong recommender of The Shack), universalism, and goddess theology. That is where the author Sue Monk Kidd ended up after beginning to dabble in contemplative prayer when she was a Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher. (See “From Southern Baptist to Goddess Worship” at www.wayoflife.org.) Shame on any man who recommends that God’s people drink from these dangerous waters!
ANOTHER COOL CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY A LANCASTER INSIDER (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Lancaster Baptist Church of Lancaster, California, and its college, West Coast, are producing a steady stream of very cool, slick, contemporary churches. The latest is CityPoint Baptist Church of Tempe, Arizona, founded in 2018 by John Guy. It is a full-blown CCM church with the darkened auditorium and the skinny-jeans-clad preacher delivering motivational, felt-need type messages. This is the model that I saw at an Emerging Church conference in San Diego in 2009, which I attended with press credentials. The conference was sponsored by Zondervan and InterVarsity Press, two of the largest and most influential Christian publishers. Their authors represent the mainstream of evangelicalism today as well evangelicalism’s more cutting edge. Christianity Today magazine was prominently represented at the conference. Andy Crouch, a senior editor, was one of the main speakers and led a praise and worship session. Other speakers included Bill Hybels, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Leighton Ford, Gordon Fee, Shane Claiborne, J.P. Moreland, John Ortberg, David Kinnaman, Scot McKnight, Alex McManus, Christopher Wright, and William Paul Young (author of The Shack). There were roughly 1,500 pastors and Christian workers in attendance. This is the emerging crowd that many young Independent Baptists are emulating to various degrees. CityPoint’s John Guy was an assistant pastor at Lancaster, working alongside Paul Chappell, and helped lead the worship. Guy spoke at Lancaster’s Majesty Music Conference in March 2018. One of the staff members (worship leader) at CityPoint is Mark Rasmussen, Jr., son of Mark Rasmussen, Vice President of West Coast Baptist College. Mark Jr. had a prominent role in the music ministry at Lancaster, and he has been at the forefront of pushing the envelope of music and philosophy. In 2017, Paul Chappell's youngest son, Matt, started a contemporary work called Rock Hill Church in Fontana, California. Paul ordained him for this work on April 25, 2016, and tweeted praise for the new work. Rockhill Church uses full blown contemporary music, including Hillsong, and in typical emerging fashion, everything is dark. The room is dark for the worship service and it is dark for the preaching. It would be very difficult to actually look at your Bible and “search the Scriptures.” Matt’s messages are littered with motivational, positive-thinking language such as “leveraging a new beginning.” The messages are light on sin and holiness and heavy on grace, and it is not a Titus 2:11-15 grace. It is an emerging grace. It is a Chuck Swindoll grace. Matt’s preaching is filled with non-critical references to the pop culture. In his first message at Rock Hill, Matt cited and non-critically referenced a basketball star, rock goddess Taylor Swift, Steve Jobs, the Los Angeles Lakers, and a professional fisherman. What signal does that send to his listeners? When Paul Chappell ordained Matt in 2016, he reminisced online about how that Matt surrendered to preach in the 7th grade and that he is the product of Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College, and we agree with that. (For more on this, see “Lancaster Baptist Church’s Contemporary Fruit” at www.wayoflife.org. Also see the free eBook What About Steven Anderson? for information about another church in Tempe, Arizona, and the free eBook The Emerging Church Is Coming for a firsthand account of the aforementioned conference - https://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/)
NEW YORK GOVERNOR CELEBRATES NEW ABORTION LAW THAT ALLOWS THE MURDER OF BABIES UP UNTIL BIRTH (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “NY Governor Cuomo Celebrates,” The Daily Wire, Jan. 23, 2019: “On Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, delighted that the New York legislature passed the Reproductive Health Act which would allow mothers to kill (pardon me, abort) their babies up until birth, celebrated this legalized murder by ordering that the spire at One World Trade Center, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the Kosciuszko Bridge and the Alfred E. Smith Building in Albany all be lit in pink on Tuesday night. Cuomo chortled, ‘The Reproductive Health Act is a historic victory for New Yorkers and for our progressive values. In the face of a federal government intent on rolling back Roe v. Wade and women's reproductive rights, I promised that we would enact this critical legislation within the first 30 days of the new session--and we got it done. I am directing that New York’s landmarks be lit in pink to celebrate this achievement and shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to follow.’ ... Cuomo has been a long-standing champion of murdering the unborn and contemptuous of those people who are pro-life, saying they had ‘no place in the state of New York.’”
FAST DEAD TREE OIL (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Nov. 21, 2017: “Forestry organizations have a major problem with beetles. The Mountain Pine beetle infests many coniferous trees in the Western United States. Apparently 40 million acres of forest have been damaged by these critters. A fungus can get into the tree with the beetle, and this fungus prevents transportation of water and nutrients. The beetle lays its eggs in the bark, and beetle larvae can also cause the tree to die. If this were not bad enough, forestry companies then have the difficulty of disposing of these trees, before they cause further damage from fire. The timber from the trees, however, is likely to be cracked and damaged, and is often stained by the presence of the beetles and fungus. University of Washington scientists have come up with an ingenious solution. The damaged timber can still be used as a fuel. So the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences have come up with a way of heating this wood, and other organic materials, at very high temperatures, in the absence of oxygen. This treatment creates a type of fuel oil, which is a dark brown liquid. This fuel has been used in some countries for heating buildings, such as hospitals. Different kinds of oil will have different compositions. While there is not necessarily a close similarity between this wood oil, and petroleum oil, the process at least demonstrates that fuel oils do not take millions of years to form. Similarly, petroleum oils need not have taken millions of years, but could have formed in conditions at the time of the Flood. Ref: ‘More efficient way to make oil from dead trees,’ ScienceDaily, May 2, 2017.
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
https://paulchappell.com/2014/06/23/reading-for-leading-recommended-books/
Another name on Chappell’s list of recommended books is the late Eugene Peterson, one of the most dangerous authors of this generation. And the Peterson book Chappell lists promotes contemplative prayer, which are the most dangerous spiritual waters conceivable. Peterson, author of The Message, is a bridge to anywhere: Romanism, Orthodoxy, the one world church, even female gods (Peterson was a strong recommender of The Shack), universalism, and goddess theology. That is where the author Sue Monk Kidd ended up after beginning to dabble in contemplative prayer when she was a Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher. (See “From Southern Baptist to Goddess Worship” at www.wayoflife.org.) Shame on any man who recommends that God’s people drink from these dangerous waters!
ANOTHER COOL CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY A LANCASTER INSIDER (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Lancaster Baptist Church of Lancaster, California, and its college, West Coast, are producing a steady stream of very cool, slick, contemporary churches. The latest is CityPoint Baptist Church of Tempe, Arizona, founded in 2018 by John Guy. It is a full-blown CCM church with the darkened auditorium and the skinny-jeans-clad preacher delivering motivational, felt-need type messages. This is the model that I saw at an Emerging Church conference in San Diego in 2009, which I attended with press credentials. The conference was sponsored by Zondervan and InterVarsity Press, two of the largest and most influential Christian publishers. Their authors represent the mainstream of evangelicalism today as well evangelicalism’s more cutting edge. Christianity Today magazine was prominently represented at the conference. Andy Crouch, a senior editor, was one of the main speakers and led a praise and worship session. Other speakers included Bill Hybels, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Leighton Ford, Gordon Fee, Shane Claiborne, J.P. Moreland, John Ortberg, David Kinnaman, Scot McKnight, Alex McManus, Christopher Wright, and William Paul Young (author of The Shack). There were roughly 1,500 pastors and Christian workers in attendance. This is the emerging crowd that many young Independent Baptists are emulating to various degrees. CityPoint’s John Guy was an assistant pastor at Lancaster, working alongside Paul Chappell, and helped lead the worship. Guy spoke at Lancaster’s Majesty Music Conference in March 2018. One of the staff members (worship leader) at CityPoint is Mark Rasmussen, Jr., son of Mark Rasmussen, Vice President of West Coast Baptist College. Mark Jr. had a prominent role in the music ministry at Lancaster, and he has been at the forefront of pushing the envelope of music and philosophy. In 2017, Paul Chappell's youngest son, Matt, started a contemporary work called Rock Hill Church in Fontana, California. Paul ordained him for this work on April 25, 2016, and tweeted praise for the new work. Rockhill Church uses full blown contemporary music, including Hillsong, and in typical emerging fashion, everything is dark. The room is dark for the worship service and it is dark for the preaching. It would be very difficult to actually look at your Bible and “search the Scriptures.” Matt’s messages are littered with motivational, positive-thinking language such as “leveraging a new beginning.” The messages are light on sin and holiness and heavy on grace, and it is not a Titus 2:11-15 grace. It is an emerging grace. It is a Chuck Swindoll grace. Matt’s preaching is filled with non-critical references to the pop culture. In his first message at Rock Hill, Matt cited and non-critically referenced a basketball star, rock goddess Taylor Swift, Steve Jobs, the Los Angeles Lakers, and a professional fisherman. What signal does that send to his listeners? When Paul Chappell ordained Matt in 2016, he reminisced online about how that Matt surrendered to preach in the 7th grade and that he is the product of Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College, and we agree with that. (For more on this, see “Lancaster Baptist Church’s Contemporary Fruit” at www.wayoflife.org. Also see the free eBook What About Steven Anderson? for information about another church in Tempe, Arizona, and the free eBook The Emerging Church Is Coming for a firsthand account of the aforementioned conference - https://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/)
NEW YORK GOVERNOR CELEBRATES NEW ABORTION LAW THAT ALLOWS THE MURDER OF BABIES UP UNTIL BIRTH (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “NY Governor Cuomo Celebrates,” The Daily Wire, Jan. 23, 2019: “On Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, delighted that the New York legislature passed the Reproductive Health Act which would allow mothers to kill (pardon me, abort) their babies up until birth, celebrated this legalized murder by ordering that the spire at One World Trade Center, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the Kosciuszko Bridge and the Alfred E. Smith Building in Albany all be lit in pink on Tuesday night. Cuomo chortled, ‘The Reproductive Health Act is a historic victory for New Yorkers and for our progressive values. In the face of a federal government intent on rolling back Roe v. Wade and women's reproductive rights, I promised that we would enact this critical legislation within the first 30 days of the new session--and we got it done. I am directing that New York’s landmarks be lit in pink to celebrate this achievement and shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to follow.’ ... Cuomo has been a long-standing champion of murdering the unborn and contemptuous of those people who are pro-life, saying they had ‘no place in the state of New York.’”
FAST DEAD TREE OIL (Friday Church News Notes, February 1, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Nov. 21, 2017: “Forestry organizations have a major problem with beetles. The Mountain Pine beetle infests many coniferous trees in the Western United States. Apparently 40 million acres of forest have been damaged by these critters. A fungus can get into the tree with the beetle, and this fungus prevents transportation of water and nutrients. The beetle lays its eggs in the bark, and beetle larvae can also cause the tree to die. If this were not bad enough, forestry companies then have the difficulty of disposing of these trees, before they cause further damage from fire. The timber from the trees, however, is likely to be cracked and damaged, and is often stained by the presence of the beetles and fungus. University of Washington scientists have come up with an ingenious solution. The damaged timber can still be used as a fuel. So the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences have come up with a way of heating this wood, and other organic materials, at very high temperatures, in the absence of oxygen. This treatment creates a type of fuel oil, which is a dark brown liquid. This fuel has been used in some countries for heating buildings, such as hospitals. Different kinds of oil will have different compositions. While there is not necessarily a close similarity between this wood oil, and petroleum oil, the process at least demonstrates that fuel oils do not take millions of years to form. Similarly, petroleum oils need not have taken millions of years, but could have formed in conditions at the time of the Flood. Ref: ‘More efficient way to make oil from dead trees,’ ScienceDaily, May 2, 2017.
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
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Distributed by Way of Life Literature., publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL. IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
The Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.
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