Category Archives: Church

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Popular Author and Speaker Beth Moore Announces That She is No Longer a Southern Baptist!

Hello World,

Quite honestly, I don’t know much about popular author and speaker Beth Moore, but I do know that she is an influential Christian leader. That’s why I was surprised to learn that she is no longer affiliating herself with the Southern Baptists. See the article below…

“Bible teacher Beth Moore, splitting with Lifeway, says, ‘I am no longer a Southern Baptist’” by Bob Smietana

For nearly three decades, Beth Moore has been the very model of a modern Southern Baptist.

She loves Jesus and the Bible and has dedicated her life to teaching others why they need both of them in their lives. Millions of evangelical Christian women have read her Bible studies and flocked to hear her speak at stadium-style events where Moore delves deeply into biblical passages.

Moore’s outsize influence and role in teaching the Bible have always made some evangelical power brokers uneasy, because of their belief only men should be allowed to preach.

But Moore was above reproach, supporting Southern Baptist teaching that limits the office of pastor to men alone and cheerleading for the missions and evangelistic work that the denomination holds dear.

“She has been a stalwart for the Word of God, never compromising,” former Lifeway Christian Resources President Thom Rainer said in 2015, during a celebration at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville that honored 20 years of partnership between the Southern Baptist publishing house and Moore. “And when all is said and done, the impact of Beth Moore can only be measured in eternity’s grasp.”

Then along came Donald Trump.

Read the rest at religionnews.com.

Wowza! Right?

Any

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Why I Don’t Have a Huge Problem With the ‘Sexist’ Sermon By the Missouri Pastor Who Tells Wives to Look ‘Pretty’ & Lose Weight…

Hello World,

Pastor Stewart-Allen Clark of First General Baptist Church in Malden, Missouri has been all over the Internet for a sermon he delivered last month in which he addressed a variety of ways that wives can remain attractive to their husbands! His sermon has caused so much controversy that apparently he is on leave from his church!

I’m not sure that I saw the entire sermon, but from what I saw, Pastor Clark begins by complimenting former First Lady Melania Trump. “Now look, I’m not saying every woman can be the epic — the epic – trophy wife of all time like Melania Trump. I’m not saying that at all. Most women can’t be trophy wives, but you know … maybe you’re a participation trophy.” As he said this, a photo of Melania Trump appeared on the screen behind him as he spoke. Politics aside, I do believe that she is attractive. He went on to say that men are “visual” and that many wives let themselves go. I agree that men are visual. Statistically speaking, I don’t know that many wives let themselves go, but I’ve heard it joked about by many comedians that they do… He went to say, “You should take great pains to look like the woman he fell in love with.” So far, I don’t see anything controversial about that. We all age, but aging is not synonymous with being unattractive.

And my mother told me that my grandmother told her at one point, after not seeing her for a while, that she should take better care of herself as a married woman. She advised my mother to step it up in terms of her looks and not take my father’s attraction for granted. My mother said she began scheduling more regular hair appointments after that conversation. My mother told me this years before I got married, but I definitely remember that conversation as a married woman. And truth be told, I like to be attractive for my husband, but I like being attractive for me even more. I stay tryin’ to “preserve the sexy” for my own sake.

The next topic, the most controversial one, he brings up is weight control. Now I must say, as he was speaking, I could not help but take notice of his protruding belly that was neither camouflaged nor slimmed down by his black shirt.  He mentioned that his wife managed to lose at least 30 pounds after each of the three children that she had. He said he even went to a Weight Watchers meeting with her, and then he said that his wife said, “Food never tastes as good as skinny feels.” Now when he said this, I thought for sure he would say something about his weight at that time but he didn’t. Weight is a personal matter, but for the sake of our health, we all know that we have to manage our weight. I believe that men are attracted to women of varied sizes, but if our weight is impacting our health or even our happiness, it needs to be addressed. And that is true for men as well. His biggest mistake when it comes to this topic is that while he was addressing the wives, he should have made a point of addressing his weight. He mentioned 1 Corinthians 7:4 which addresses that the bodies of a married couple belong to each other so it would have made sense to discuss himself just a bit since the sermon was geared to wives.

He also talks about the importance of wearing makeup, attractive hairstyles, age-appropriate flattering clothing, sexual intimacy and allowing husbands to be their wives’ “knight in shining armor.” None of his advice took me by surprise because I’ve either heard it from other people before. Yes, there were some biting jokes that were included, but sometimes people are too easily offended.

I would say more, but I don’t have the time. Check out the sermon for yourself here…

And I will also say this: I hope there was a female pastor or speaker who addressed husbands because husbands can do various things to remain attractive, externally and internally, to their wives as well….

Any thoughts?

 

 

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Urban Ministries, Inc. Announces the Death of Dr. Melvin E. Banks, Sr., Founder of the Largest Black-Owned Christian Publishing Company

Hello World,

As a black writer who has written for UMI (Urban Ministries, Inc.), I’m particularly sad to share this news…

UMI (Urban Ministries, Inc.) announced today that its founder Dr. Melvin E. Banks, Sr., died on Saturday, February 13, at 86. Dr. Banks launched UMI in 1970 to provide African American churches and individuals with images reflecting their congregations and relatable, Christ-centered content from an urban perspective.

“Dr. Banks was a revolutionary publisher and giant for the African American church and community,” said C. Jeffrey Wright, CEO of UMI. “He was the first to create contextualized content that portrayed positive images of African Americans in the Bible. Because of his innovation, UMI has reached millions of Black churches and individuals with the Gospel.”

For the last 50 years, under Dr. Banks’ leadership, UMI has developed Christian education resources, including Bible studies, Sunday School, and Vacation Bible School curriculum, websites, magazines, books, and videos for its 40,000+ strong customer base. He wrote a number of books and devotionals and hosted a two-minute daily podcast called Daily Direction. In 1995, he brought on Mr. Wright as CEO to take on the day-to-day management of the company. Many evangelical organizations have recognized his pioneering work, including the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), which presented him with its inaugural Kenneth N. Taylor Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

Read the rest HERE.

My church has used UMI Sunday School and Vacation Bible School literature for years but I remember before we used this literature. I did not see images of little boys and girls who looked like me so sometimes it was difficult to connect to what the Sunday School and VBS teachers were trying to teach me. But when the church started using UMI literature, it was so empowering to see images that reminded me of me which helped to solidify the valuable lessons in my mind and heart.

Check out this wonderful video about the start of UMI.

I considered it a high honor when I began writing for UMI, specifically for its blog UrbanFaith.com. Below is an excerpt of an article The Real Preachers’ Wives of Atlanta that I wrote the website.

I’ve got to admit I do watch The Real Housewives of Atlanta just about every Sunday night. And now that True Entertainment, the company that produces the raucous reality show, is producing a new reality show about Atlanta “first ladies,” I will probably be watching that show when it debuts Tuesday, Jan. 1, at 9 p.m. ET on TLC. The Sisterhood features five preachers’ wives: Christina, DeLana, Domonique, Ivy, and Tara. From the trailer many saw of the show, these preachers’ wives are not the circumspect, stand-behind-your man type of women that many would expect preachers’ wives to be. In the trailer, Domonique is a former drug addict and shows the other preachers’ wives a home in Miami where she used to smoke crack; Tara is a fitness buff with a penchant for getting tattoos and convinces Domonique to get one too; Ivy is shown getting handcuffs as a gift from her husband Mark, pastor of Emmanuel Tabernacle Church, and proceeds to share about their relationship. In fact, the trailer is so controversial that a petition to get the show off the air was initiated on change.org.

Read the rest HERE.

Dr. Banks certainly heeded his call to, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it” Habakkuk 2:2.

And I will close with this verse: “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.'” Revelation 14:13

Any thoughts?