Angela Lee Price Goes One-On-One with Pastor Gary Gilley

On Saturday, June 24th, Gary Gilley, Senior Pastor of Southern View Chapel Church spoke with me on 1350 WLOU Radio from Springfield, Illinois about his concerns with the movie, The Da Vinci Code. We also discussed the market-driven church and emergent church movements. Gary Gilley is the author of several books including This Little Church Went to Market. Gary Gilley's articles on aberrant and heretical trends within Christianity can be found on a number of websites and blogs on the internet. These include The Da Vinci Code Deciphered, The Market-Driven Church: A Look Behind the Scenes, and The Purpose Driven Life: An Evaluation, and Church Discipline and Church Growth. These, other articles and radio interviews can also be found at svchapel.org.

Gary Gilley will be speaking Thursday morning, June 29th at 9:00 a.m. here in Louisville, Kentucky on the Emergent Church at the IFCA International Convention at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center, 9700 Bluegrass Parkway.

June 24th Interview - Part 1 - The movie, The Da Vinci Code

June 24th Interview - Part 2 - The Market-Driven & Emergent Church Movements

June 24th Interview - Part 3 - The Emergent Church Movement

Related Articles on This Blog:

Da Vinci Code Deciphered, May Archives
Church Growth: Is Bigger Always Better?, April Archives
The Emergent Church, March Archives
Radio Responses to the 50 Most Influential Christians In America, March Archives
The 50 Most Influential Christians In America, February Archives
Are You Letting Yourself Down?, February Archives
Prophetic or Pathetic?, February Archives
Ease On Down the Road...to Heaven?, January Archives

Remember, it is not Mohummad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Ages that saves. Jesus saves!

Gary Gilley Interview and Da Vinci Code Feedback

Be sure to join me Saturday afternoon, June 24th, between 12:00-2:00 p.m. on WLOU Radio-1350 AM. I will be speaking with Rev. Gary Gilley, Pastor of Southern View Chapel, Springfield, Illinois in a 10-minute phone interview. He has written extensively on aberrant and heretical trends within Christianity. Pastor Gilley will be speaking in Louisville next week on the Emergent Church at the IFC Conference. The May and June editions of Jesus Saves Newsletter references his article, The Da Vinci Code Deciphered. Make plans to join us as we discuss the movie, and the Purpose Driven and Emergent Church movements.

On Friday morning, June 2nd, I asked WLOU radio listeners if they were concerned that doctrinal errors were being depicted as truth in the movie, The Da Vinci Code. I also asked if they were going to see the movie, and if they knew whether or not their church was planning to discuss the subject. Below are responses from three listeners.

Jason, Bates Memorial Baptist Church:

Charise Taylor:

Arthur Bivens, First Baptist Church of Jeffersontown:

Related Articles on This Blog:

Da Vinci Code Deciphered, May Archives
Church Growth: Is Bigger Always Better?, April Archives
The Emergent Church, March Archives
Radio Responses to the 50 Most Influential Christians In America, March Archives
The 50 Most Influential Christians In America, February Archives
Are You Letting Yourself Down?, February Archives
Prophetic or Pathetic?, February Archives
Ease On Down the Road...to Heaven?, January Archives


Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Ages that saves. Jesus saves!

Church Growth From An African American Perspective: A Book Review

By: Angela Lee Price



I highly recommend the 146-page new book, Church Growth from an African American Perspective, by Donald Hilliard, Jr. available at Donald Hilliard Ministries.

After taking his congregation from 125 members to its current membership of 7,000, Bishop Donald Hilliard, pastor to Cathedral International in Perth Amboy, New Jersey shows church leaders how to grow spiritually healthy congregations. A significant focus of the book is on developing spiritual maturity as the means to church growth. Hilliard states, “Many churches are lopsided in their preaching, focusing only on a ‘prosperity’ message or a ‘faith’ message or on ‘signs and wonders.’ Balanced biblical preaching takes in the entire biblical revelation and helps promote the development of biblically balanced believers in the church.” In the section, “Measuring Church Growth,” Hilliard states, “Increases in numbers and wealth may make a church bigger, but apart from spiritual growth and relevant outreach, they do not necessarily make a church better.

Church Growth From An African American Perspective consists of two parts, "Fundamentals for a Growing Church," and "Practical Dimensions" and is comprised of the following 11 chapters:

1. Understanding Church Growth
2. Preparing for Growth
3. Foundations for Healthy Church Growth
4. Principles of Healthy Church Growth
5. Purposeful Prayer
6. Prophetic Preaching
7. Powerful Worship
8. Pertinent Ministry
9. Practical Christian Education
10. Growing A Church Through Multiplication
11. The Church At Its Best
    

I appreciate Church Growth From an African American Perspective for a number of reasons. It is not another Rick Warren and Bill Hybels spin-off. Hilliard does not endorse a lot of non-Christian experts the way Warren does in Purpose Driven Life, nor does he use the Message Translation. Only a handful of names, other than those in the Bible, are mentioned in the book, highly respected pastor Gardner C. Taylor, and William Carey, a Baptist shoemaker for England, and one or two others. The preface is written by renown African American theologian Henry H. Mitchell. Most scriptures appear to be from the New Revised Standard translation.

I appreciate Hilliard's gentle plea throughout the book for pastors and preachers to remain committed to preaching the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and not pat scriptures and "feel good" messages. I appreciate Hillard bringing the mega church phenomenon into perspective. He encourages pastors who are stressed out by all the hype to realize that mega churches account for a small percentages of all churches nationally. Pastors with small and midsize churches will gleam insight from the Catherdal International model. Hilliard provides action steps throughout the book to help pastors and leadership work together to present a unified voice to their congregations. For the busy pastor, this book is a quick read, and well worth the investment.

Related articles by Angela Lee Price:

Noel Jones: Word of Faith Theology is Crippling the Black Church, May post
Church Growth: Is Bigger Always Better?, April Archives
Radio Responses to 50 Most influential Christians in America, March Archives
The 50 Most Influential Christians In America, February Archives
Are You Letting Yourself Down?, February Archives
Prophetic Or Pathetic, February Archives
Follow the Yellow Brick Road...to Heaven?, January Archives

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Ages that saves. Jesus saves!

Interpreting the Pauline Epistles: A Book Review

By: Angela Lee Price

Interpreting the Pauline Epistles by Thomas R. Schreiner, originally published in 1990 is a book written to help college religion majors, seminarians and pastors interpret the Pauline letters. It is one in a series of seven books written by various scholars aimed at providing principles and methods for New Testament exegesis. Schreiner employs methods distinct to interpreting the Pauline Letters, the Letters Genre, while other scholars utilize principles and methods of interpretation distinct to each of the three remaining New Testament literary genres, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse in The Guide to New Testament Exegesis series based on Gordon Fee’s introduction to New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors written in 1983.

Interpreting the Pauline Epistles is divided into nine chapters wherein Schreiner addresses the following topics:

· Understanding the Nature of Letters
· Doing Textual Criticism
· Translating and Analyzing the Letters
· Investigating Historical and Introductory Issues
· Diagramming and Conducting a Grammatical Analysis
· Tracing the Argument
· Doing Lexical Studies
· Probing the Theological Context
· Delineating the Significance of Paul’s Letters

Interpreting the Pauline Epistles by Thomas R. Schreiner is a power-packed book. It not only provides instruction on proper exegesis of the Letters Genre, it also provides a wealth of resource material on the subject. Thomas Schreiner list over one hundred books pertaining to New Testament history, culture, primary and secondary sources, sociology and psychology, including dictionaries, encyclopedias and commentaries to aid Bible students, seminarians and pastors in the exegetical process. Some people may find this book to be a valuable resource, particularly if they are interested in stocking their library with information on interpreting the Pauline letters.

The book offers over one hundred sources to aid the Bible students in interpreting the Pauline letters, however, I could not find one recognizable African American scholar listed among its many recommendations, nor could I find one recognizable female author. I would not recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the African American perspective on biblical interpretation, nor would I recommend it to female preachers and pastors of color, particularly if they have not read books on the same subject by African American scholars.

Finally, I feel very strongly that African American scholars are not being supported through the purchase of their books as they should. Dr. Forrest Harris, president of American Baptist Bible College in Nashville made this point eloquently his November 17, 2005 sermon, “Preaching Freedom Today” while at Simmons College of Kentucky for the school’s Founder’s Day observance. He stated in the evening address that, “We are too busy gobbling up material by people like Robert Schuller, Steven Covey, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, Charles Stanley and others as if black theologians and black poets haven’t written anything.”

I agree with Dr. Harris. When African Americans purchase materials by white authors exclusively or in preference to African American contributions, we not only deny the critical abilities of people of color, but also contribute to the proliferation, to use Dr. Harris’ words of Rick Warren’s work, “non-prophetic discourse” prevalent today.

(An abbreviation of an book review assignment originally submitted to Dr. Stephen K. Awoniyi, Professor, New Testament Survey 1, Fall Semester 2005, Simmons College of Kentucky.)

An excerpt from Dr. Forrest Harris' message, Preaching Freedom Today, Simmons College of Kentucky, Founder's Day observance, November 13, 2005.

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Ages that saves. Jesus saves!

The Case Of The Church Vs. Mere Man

By: Minister Michael Lee

1 Corinthians 3:1-15 (NIV)
1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.
2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

I understand that there is a trial going on here today. Oh yea, I have it on good authority that someone is on trial here today. And you came here today to be witnesses in this trail. Is that right? Well, there is a trial here today, and if you would permit me, I would like to present, The Case Of The Church vs. Mere Man.
In chapter 3, we find that the consequences of the divisions in the body have led to the stunting of the Corinthian’s spiritual growth. Paul says I could not talk to you as spiritual, but I had to talk to you as worldly. This is because you, Oh Corinthians, were mere infants in Christ. I could not feed you the meat of the Gospel because your stomachs was not ready for it. I had to give you milk, that is, the most elementary understanding of the Gospel.

In verse 3 Paul levels a serious indictment against the Corinthian believers. He charges them with acting like natural men, with acting like mere men. He charges them with acting like men and women who do not even believe in Jesus Christ, yet they carry the name Christian. They met together on a regular basis like Christians and perform many of the same duties as Christians, but something was seriously wrong. It is Mr. and Mrs. “Mere Man” who are on trial today.

First , as I’ve mentioned, Paul charges the Corinthian church with acting like Natural man. Paul says in verse 3 that they are still worldly. The word used here is the Greek word, “sarkeekos.” This word means “fleshly,” under the control of the animal appetites. It means “fleshly,” or “carnal,” one who is more inclined to fulfill the desires of the flesh than deal with spiritual things.

If your 8-month-old child is crawling on the floor with a pacifier in his mouth, and pulls up on a chair or something and tries to walk, and has one or two words that he knows and coos at you when you wave at him, then that’s cute. However, if you come back four or five years later and that same child is still crawling and cooing and saying those same one or two words, then that’s not cute at all. Something is wrong! That child is seriously retarded. He is “developmentally challenged” for the politically correct crowd. And if his parents have not already been to see about that child, then something is seriously wrong with the parents. They keep talking him being a late bloomer, when something is seriously wrong!

There is nothing wrong with loving our leaders. Nevertheless, Mere Man needs to understand that you don’t have to knock down one to build up another. All of our leaders are gifted with certain strengths and talents, and all of them can be beneficial to our growth in whatever stage of development we find ourselves.

In verse 9 Paul says that they, the Christian leaders, are fellow workers with God, working on the same building. But he stresses in verse 11 that no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. It’s not Peter, it’s not Paul, it’s not Apollos, it’s Jesus. It’s not denominations nor organizations, it’s Jesus. It’s not the Greek letters you wear nor your political affiliations, it’s Jesus. It’s not where you were educated nor how many degrees you have, it’s Jesus.

Mere Man doesn’t understand that God loves all of his children, even the ones that you can’t stand, even the ones that get on your last nerve, and even the ones that make you sick. Well, God loves them. God wants to save them, and God wants to use you to help do it!

It seems that Mere Man doesn’t understand that while he’s majoring in the minors, our minors are being taken captive by the insidious lures of this world. It is partly because they don’t see an authentic Christianity being lived in their homes.

Our adversary has been using the divide-and-conquer technique since the beginning. He knows that while there is strife and arguing and petty jealously working in the body, the church becomes less and less effective, the people of God become spiritually weak, and ineffective, or even worse, fail to develop through their normal stages of spiritual development.

You wind up with a bunch of baby chicks sitting on pews waiting for another dose of chewed up, half-digested pablum Sunday after Sunday, with no power to change anything, not even their own minds.

(An excerpt from my brother's, Minister Michael Lee's trial sermon delivered to Joshua Tabernacle Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky, April 23, 2006.)

Remember, it is not Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Ages that saves. Jesus saves!