That’s right. I’m a Dirty Baptist or DB. I’m not ashamed of it. Frankly, I’m proud of it.

So what is a DB?

You might be a DB if… (you answer NO to these)

1. You must wear a suit on Sunday (and you like it).

2. Sitting in your pews makes you smell like old person (and that’s a good thing).

3. You put Charismatics in the same category as Mormons (because they’re both a cult)

4. The sound of pipe organs makes you feel at home (let us turn now to hymn 3732.34b).

5. You have used the term “Turn or Burn” in the course of evangelism (it’s truth people need!).

6. You’ve used a bible as a weapon to bludgeon a non believer (sword of the spirit baby).

7. You pronounce Jesus with four syllables (J-huh-eEEEE-Sssussss!).

8. You hold to traditions, but have no idea why you do them (it’s what we’ve always done!)

So as a DB what do I personally stand for? Well, I believe in the biblical model of a church (Acts) and not a set of traditions set in motion 70 years ago or ones by chubby Buddha Ricky Bobby Warren. I believe that God is living and you have to move and change to keep up with Him. I believe that we’ve sold the danger of the Great Commission for the comfort of the American Dream. I believe that we need to engage, pursue, and love the dirty people (i.e. the ones we don’t want sitting next to us on a Sunday morning because you know they sin - like we don’t). I believe that the biblical model of a believer and follower of Christ is a dangerous thing that the world fears (but rarely sees).

So what officially makes me a Dirty Baptist? Well, it’s the looks of disapproval I garnet from the other Baptists as I move outside the box (or sanctuary).

So don’t get me wrong, I love Baptists. It’s just I enjoy being a dirty one.

So what about you? Are you a DB? Or a Dirty ________ (insert denomination)?

[revised from '06]

I read some shocking news on a prominent evangelical blog that was insinuating that to unite the Christian right many churches were coming together in unity to elect their own Pope! This action is in hopes to make one large evangelical “mother church” that can rule as one. So far the United Methodist, Southern Baptist, and Seventh Day Adventists have come together in agreement.  There’s even word of a pact with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Purpose Driven Churches.

So far they’re calling themselves Churches Reuniting Amongst People. And someone close to sources in the organization has commented about a new Christian Pope ”I think someone like Jerry Falwell in a big hat [and robe], driving around would inspire people.” Even Dobson chimed in on his daily broadcast, “I think this could be what we need to mobilize the right.”

Jerry Falwell the new Pope!?! Now, I’m all for unity, but this sounds crazy or some sort of sign of the end times.

Any thoughts?

“Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it.” says Terrie Berenden, a pet shop owner in the southern Dutch town of Zelhem, who created a beer for her Weimaraners made from beef extract and malt.

Um. Wow, this is wrong on so many levels.

This raises a deep theological question: What is the SBC’s (Southern Baptist Convention) stance on dogs drinking beer? I mean there’s no place in the Bible (quick! prove me wrong) that says your dog can’t kick one back. Is there?

So what do Southern Baptists do when Fido want’s a cold one?

Any thoughts?

Read more here.

If any of you have about 45 min to burn… check out the message I gave at our church this Sunday.  

“Called to a Journey” Mp3

Check it out here

Recently several publication, both Christian and secular have noted the growing erosion of youth from the churches. Many things are blamed on this, but there is a general disgust and frustration amongst adult Christians towards the youth because of this. There is a belief that there is something wrong with the youth culture today or that they are just simply broken.

Many factors contribute to this problem, break down of the family unit, our culture, liberalism, and George Bush (why not him, he’s blamed for everything else going on in the world today?). But I believe it is this simple fact: the church has become so consumed with itself as an organization/institutional/business that it has forgotten why it even exists.

The youth of today (as well of any age) have a keen sense of weather or not you’re BS’ing them. They don’t see it’s purpose. They don’t see that it has anything to offer them. They see it as a system of ritual and tradition all of which does not connect with their hurts, problems and struggles. The church becomes distant from the youth because they don’t openly beg to be apart, after all, if you deny the church you’re denying Jesus… Aren’t you?

What the church has forgotten is that its sole purpose for existence is to spread the message of hope and redemption in Christ to the lost world. Does the world still need Christ? More than ever. Does the world still need the church (in it’s current institutionalized state)? That’s yet to be determined.

This generation is no different that the past. Still born into sin. Still have a Christ shaped hole in their hearts that only He can fill. So if this is still the same, then has the church changed?

[continued in part 2]