{"id":1410,"date":"2010-07-02T14:10:34","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T18:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=1410"},"modified":"2013-06-17T17:21:08","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T21:21:08","slug":"too-much-bull-on-the-fourth-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=1410","title":{"rendered":"Too Much Bull on the Fourth of July"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American church’s fascination with gimmicks and shows is well documented as well as deeply distressing.\u00a0 Too much effort is given to having the biggest\/greatest\/neatest show and too little is given to actually living out the gospel in healthy relationships where people know one another and hold one another accountable under the word of God.<\/p>\n

This all comes back to mind with some of the things that will take place this weekend.\u00a0 One church’s plans for “special shows” this weekend<\/a> illustrate this well. The site states:<\/p>\n

During the five performances of the Independence Day Celebration at Cornerstone Church, thousands will gather to celebrate America’s freedom with Nashville’s largest indoor fireworks display, state-of-the-art laser light show, and–new this year–an IPRA-sanctioned professional rodeo… all held within the confines of the church sanctuary!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are two videos on this webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the first one with the basic info:
\n<\/object><\/p>\n

4th of July Rodeo Commercial<\/a> from Cornerstone Church<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is it appropriate to describe your church as “the most dynamic”\u009d in your city? Is this verifiable? Is it intended to a factual statement about this church in contrasts to hundreds of others in the city or is it just promotional jargon?<\/p>\n

Here is the second video giving a little more background:
\n<\/object>
\nThis video refers to these performances as shows but then lists as one of the shows the meeting at 10am on Sunday.\u00a0 This “show” taking place during the time of corporate worship will be a gathering “to celebrate America’s freedom.”\u00a0 The promotional poster<\/a> says this will be “a legendary salute to the greatest Country in the World.”\u009d<\/p>\n

We need to give up on the flashy shows and embrace simple gospel ministry.\u00a0 We also need to be clear about the distinction between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American church’s fascination with gimmicks and shows is well documented as well as deeply distressing.\u00a0 Too much effort is given to having the biggest\/greatest\/neatest show and too little is given to actually living out the gospel in healthy relationships where people know one another and hold one another accountable under the word of God. …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Too Much Bull on the Fourth of July’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2784,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions\/2784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}