107 thoughts on “Sermon In Song”

      1. Your error was in typing a complete sentence! A complete thought takes longer and while you type, another person posts! I speak from experience!

    2. Some of us wake up very early 😀

      Thanks Twitter!!! I’m good now and have gotten in my quota.

    1. That was close for first.

      Typical fundy bluster. Of course you are either saved or a drunk and a drug addict who spends all the family money in a bar.

      1. Yeah. I’m surprised having a drink or two on the weekends hasn’t yet caused Satan to drag me straight into hell.

  4. We’ve had sermons in the invitation, but sermons in the middle of a song? Wow! 🙄

  5. I too have seen them take place in the invitation, particularly if no one has yet come forward after the beating that was the sermon. I’m wracking my brain, but can’t think of any time I’ve seen this happen. They must be getting bolder!

  6. The girl in the lavender dress is cracking me up. She is so obviously restless and wondering when this guy is going to stop yelling. A few times, it looks like she is going to faint or throw up. Wonder if it is hot in there…Old Yeller keeps wiping the sweat from his face.

    1. By the end of the “song,” even the most cheerful of the choir members look pretty flabbergasted.

    1. Win. That is exactly what I thought the minute the video started. I didn’t even make it to his warped logic and bad theology.

      1. Does he ever consider that the poor people in the choir have spent their free time practicing these songs and are now standing behind him ready to lift their voices to Jesus, all the while he is babbling on and on? Maybe Jesus is waiting for him to shut up so he can hear people praise Him.

        1. Yeah, it really is a self-absorbed rant. Ironic, though, because most IFB’ers accuse CCM singers and music of being all about the show and self-absorption.

          Makes you think…

        2. Why would he consider the choir when he doesn’t even consider our Lord Jesus Christ and His work which alone saves us? He is very concerned with his own work and no one else’s. As a preacher of the Gospel myself, I am disgusted at this self-indulged, Christ-less clanging cymbal. A preacher does his best when he decreases so that Christ may increase. Its not about you!

  8. The kids in the choir crack me up. They all look bored, and none of them are paying him the least bit of attention. Apparently this guy must do this often.

  9. That song isn’t even applicable for children. WTH? And I couldn’t listen to that pastor sing or preach. I think the choir could have finished the song, left the platform and he wouldn’t have even noticed. Clearly, he loves the sound of his own irritating voice. 😡

  10. Transgressions are our outward sins and Iniquities are our inward sins? Is that true? I tried to find that definition but couldn’t anywhere.

    1. I caught that, too. Classic fundy over-literalization and misunderstanding of a Hebrew writing style called parallelism – a two part statement in this case essentially saing the same thing for emphasis:

      “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities”

      A hefty dose of over-literalization in reading the Bible has led to all kinds of..er..interesting…fundy doctrines.

    2. Transgressions and iniquities are the same thing, dude. And here, “wounded” and “bruised” also mean the same thing. It’s known as re-stating for emphasis.

      1. I know, right Big Gary? This is a pet peeve of mine in fudyland. In this case not too troubling, but by doing that that they miss the intent of verses.

        That verse should not be read like this:
        “he was wounded for our TRANSGRESSIONS, he was bruised for our INIQUITIES.”

        but like this:

        “HE was wounded for OUR transgressions, HE was bruised for OUR iniquities.”

        Big difference.

        1. Yes, JSmith! Such an excellent point. So often IFB churches focus on the rules and whether we’re keeping them instead of on Jesus and that He took our punishment for falling short and in Him we are forgiven!

  12. I’ve seen a song leader inject a comment a time or two … but this? This, quite frankly, is uncalled-for.

    Whatever happened to the IFB “idol” of everything being done “decently and in order”? Isn’t that one of the hammers they use to hold sway?

    I trow it is.

    1. “Decently and in order” is a Presbyterian thing. I’ve NEVER heard it applied to IFB. All the videos of running down the aisles and jumping, shouting Hay-men, etc., would give evidence to the contrary.

      1. I’ve heard it applied in IFB all my life. It’s the reason that services must be EXACTLY 60 minutes long, must follow the same, exact process every time (forget about what the Holy Spirit might want) and you have to sing three hymns, at two verses each (first and last, can’t change them up that wouldn’t be decently and in order).

        1. It’s the reason that services must be EXACTLY 60 minutes long

          That would have been an improvement for my ex-church. The sermon would always go way over time, the only question was by how much. I maintain that “spirit led worship” that involves “30 minute” sermons that ramble on for over an hour, or poorly thought out unplanned song changes that go wrong and are then blamed on the tech people (who clearly weren’t listening to the Holy Spirit and didn’t get the memo) are just poor excuses for not listening to the Holy Spirit earlier in the week when the service was being planned.

        2. Oh, and I should clarify: I’m not at all against longer sermons. Just don’t tell us that we’ll have a 30 minute sermon and be out at noon, when you know full well that you’re probably going to go on approximately five lengthy tangents and follow it up with an extended invisermonal, after which we’ll be let out at 12:45.

        3. My fundy church would sometimes change the service around depending on how the Holy Spirit was moving (or how many people were shouting “Amen”). We would occasionally have services with NO preaching, just singing and testifying. And it wasn’t planned, either. They just decided to go a different direction. They tried to keep things “decently and in order”, but would allow the schedule to change. Judging from what I’ve read on this site, my IFB church is quite different then a lot of the ones mentioned here, though it does have it’s problems (obviously).

        4. We would occasionally have services with NO preaching, just singing and testifying.

          I’ve seen this at a few IFB churches in the south. It seems to be a cultural remnant of revivalism.

        5. My church subscribed to fundy rule #66: “The only emotions allowed to be displayed in a church service are anger, guilt, and sorrow. All others are likely to be caused by latent charismatic tendencies.” Although we did have singspiration nights on some Sunday PM services, they certainly were not unplanned and the testimonies were not spontaneous or joyful but often felt a bit coerced! (“Isn’t there SOMEONE here who wants to share what God’s doing in their lives?” the songleader would plead. “No, don’t raise your hand to request a song right now. We’re only taking testimonies. Anyone?”)

        6. @darrell – you should check out the excerpt i posted on revivalism on the forum

          [/shamelessselfpromotion]

      2. Different stripes of IFB are way different in this area. The services at the church I grew up in are basically a free-for-all. As long as you don’t interrupt the sermon, anybody can pretty much say or do anything they want. Other IFB churches’ (particularly of the Bob Jones stripe) services are very regimented. The church in the video is obviously not the Bob Jones stripe, as they have a choir trying to sing a Southern Gospel song.

      3. Decently and in order was essentially the chorus tune of my 20 years in IFB land. You wanna use a guitar or drums? We do things decently and in order? Women wanna speak at the business meeting? That’s not decently and in order…

    2. My church growing up was one of the “decently and in order types.” It was used as a hammer to pound out any creativity or flexibility.

  13. If my church had a choir I would be really tempted to do the same thing during our service tomorrow

  14. I stood three minutes of it and that was all I could take. I used to witness this sort of thing in some evangelical (non-IFB) Baptist churches. It wasn’t as bad, but it did help make me realize that I wanted (and needed) to escape that whole subculture.

    BTW . . . Why on earth is there a phone behind the pulpit?? The only other place I’ve seen a phone on a speaker’s platform is in a legislative chamber.

    1. I went to a huge church that had a phone on the platform. I guess it’s more timely and less disruptive than having someone walk up there?

    2. A lot of older churches have that system. Usually, the sound booth is in the choir loft. I think the phone is less disruptive than using hand gestures or semaphore. Also, some old, Southern churches use them to call the kitchen and tell the “ladyfolk” when it looks like the service will be over so they can start cooking.

    3. My current church used to have one of those. One time, when a smaller Lutheran church in our area was using our building for a wedding, our pastor told their pastor that we had a direct line to God. 😉

  15. Wow. I consider myself pretty calloused in this area, but that was tough to watch. He obviously was only singing the solo because he was the pastor. Not from any actual singing ability. And his complete disregard for EVERYONE else in the room made him look like the biggest jerk EVER! Each time they thought it would be over he would chime into the song (as if he just remembered they were still singing) and then go off again.
    When my husband and I got married I told my mother I did NOT want our music director to sing a song at our wedding because he had a tendency to talk during the breaks in the songs and it bugged me when he did it. She insisted that it would be an insult NOT to ask him to sing at our wedding so he did. And of course he preached throughout the whole song. I was really angry because I asked him ahead of time not to but he just couldn’t help himself. Of course what was I thinking? It wasn’t MY wedding or anything. Bitter bitter me.

    1. My former pastor gave a 45 minute “challenge” to my sister and her husband. 🙄 It’s too bad you gave in. Concentrate on the good parts of that day as much as you can. 😉

      1. I didn’t really have much say-so in any part of that wedding. I figured I was at least lucky to be getting to marry the guy I wanted to marry. I just treated the day as something to be endured. I got to enjoy helping my own daughter plan HER wedding though and didn’t do ANY of the awful things that were done to me. We had a great time and it more than made up for mine.

    2. Actually, he isn’t the pastor. The pastor is Sammy Allen. Yes, I have too much information!
      I grew up attending this church’s campmeetings. They pretty much let anyone sing who desires to.

      1. You mean Bro Sammy Allen of Resaca Ga? He sweat all over my little brother at a camp meeting. Brother Sammy was perched like an angry vulture on the back of the pew, glaring us all into righteousness.

        twitch

        1. Sharon, you’re crackin me up. It’s hot under those lights for us big guys.

          And you’re not really preaching unless you get a good sweat up. That’s how Paul did it.

      2. I went there too. I actually came to Christ at that camp meeting.
        I felt bad for the Choir Director Clint in the video. He is a nice guy.
        However, that kind of thing is not unusual down there, there is always a competition on who is the most spiritual, and for some reason everyone wants to be Phil “Karate” Kidd

      3. My wife’s family used to go to Sammy Allen’s camp meetings on quite a regular basis. She has told me about them and my BJU background gets chills just thinking of that happening in a service. I used to think Greenville’s Tabernacle was quite charismatic, then she shared her youth and the camp meetings.

  16. SFL=Logic failure.

    “Today I went back to the place I used to go……….I don’t come here anymore.”

    No. Your motives for going there may have changed but because you are there it is obvious that you still go there. 🙄

    1. i have known this song for 20 years and that never occurred to me, brilliant!!!

    2. I think fundies think they are saved from having to be around people/places they consider despicable. There’s a lot of passive aggression that comes from thinking the problems is all those people out there, and all those sinful places.

      1. That goes back to the sin is something external that has to be fought against by physical “doing.”

        You know the Billy Sunday approach to sin. http://persifler.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/your-favorite-fighting-fundy-as-the-black-knight/

        “I’m against sin.

        I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot, and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist.

        I’ll butt it as long as I’ve got a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth.

        And when I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition!”

  17. Good grief, I was only able to get about 3 minutes into this, because I thought he was going to have a stroke.

  18. I know I’m a glutten for punishment but I watched snippets of their choir videos. Everyone including the Pastor’s wife talks during a break in the music. Sing or say it we definiftely dont need to hear it twice!

      1. Seriously! I couldn’t listen to that for long. If I had actually been present for that, I don’t think I would have been able to resist the urge to run out of the room (maybe screaming).

  22. OMG!! He never shuts up! He keeps saying the same stuff over and over again. We got it the first time.

  24. The old copy editor in me was about to say that word is spelled “waist,” but in this case, you probably do mean “waste.”

  25. I’ve heard the word “Jesus” pronounced with three (or even more) syllables before, but I think this is the first time I’ve heard someone pronounce “live” with three syllables.

  26. This is almost punk rock, Sounds like Southern Culture On The Skids.
    I like the cow poke delivery.

    1. ROFL. I put up a Southern Culture song on the forums just yesterday 😆

      It sounded like an old saloon piano if you ask me

  27. Oh my gosh that was so funny. I’m afraid I’ve been guilty of laughing when the preacher just doesn’t know when to stop. I would have been belly laughing like the lady in the purple was courageously fighting the urge to do towards the end.

  28. I couldn’t hear any Amens. He seemed to be only reving up himself while everyone else waited for him to calm down so they could finish the song.

  30. I thought the choir singing was pretty bad, but at least they were trying to honor the Lord with the talents they have. Then that guy started up and–wow, just wow. His ranting about all the drinkin’ made me almost start to long for a good shot of whiskey. Almost.

  31. This may sound awful, so forgive me.

    But, at one point when he was on a roll, my thought was, “The only difference between him and Eminem is the music.”

    1. As an Eminem fan, I’m rather offended! Mathers at least is in touch enough with his own psyche to understand what his anger is at, and honest enough to vent it appropriately..

      (IMO, although there’s many many music critics that agree, so I can’t be all wet).

      1. Oh thou, Brother Rob, be not offended at my comments. It was a passing thought and not to be taken with much thought.

        My sincerest apologies, Brother Rob.

        2. NNNNOOOOO!!!!! DON’T GO!!!!

          *grabbing Rob’s ankles and making him trip*

  35. I feel genuine sympathy for the poor souls who have been deluded into thinking that they have to endure this utter nonsense because theirs is the ONLY church that preaches the TRUTH! All of us here probably feel comfortable exercising our freedom enough to leave a church that was that irritating and seek another, but I bet there are plenty of people sitting in that choir and congregation that fear that to leave that church would be to leave Jesus entirely. 🙁

    1. I actually felt that way for the longest time. Fortunately, I realized several months ago that you don’t have to be an independent, fundamental, separated, old fashioned, soul-winning, KJV-only, dress-and-suits only, piano-only, Republican Baptist to be a good, “true” Christian. Now, my biggest obstacle is that ALL my friends are at the church, and I’m involved in almost every ministry at the church. I was actually going to visit another church today, but I had to teach Sunday School this morning and I have to go to a meeting tonight.

      1. I’m enjoying my freedom in Jesus! I hope you eventually can find just the right church where you have Gospel preaching, Christian liberty, and friends.

      2. Ditto Perry,
        Not only my friends but my whole world was wrapped up in this system. I and all my family as well. DON’T let that keep you. The hardest part of the process for me was sitting in a church for 3 years knowing what you know and not doing anything about it. Freedom is sweet. Freedom in Christ Jesus is sweeter. 🙂

      3. Perry, When we realized what you have realized we left it all behind. My husband’s job, all our friends, some family members, any “good standing” that we had built up in our church community. I have never once regretted that decision though. We were lonely and broke for a while, but God brought us through it and we are in a BILLION times better place now. (Not even measurable the difference because it is like measuring apples and oranges.) Anyway, I will pray for you and your family because I have a feeling you won’t be able to stay much longer now that your eyes are opened.

  36. He may not have to be Pumped, primed and coerced to get to the house of the Lord… but by gid he’ll spend all day pumping, priming and coercing others to git down to the Old Fashioned altar! Hay-men!

  37. Reminds me of my church… the pastor would start preaching DURING the singing. He also interrupted the choir/soloists and would preach between verses and stuff… It has always REALLY, REALLY REALLY annoyed me. Some people actually want to enjoy the singing without your input! You have a whole hour to talk, can’t you wait until after the song is over? Goodness. 😐

  40. As a choir member myself, my first thought was that the sermon was an act of mercy.

    Of course, if it actually happened to me, I’d be looking for heavy, pointy objects to throw after about 2 minutes.

    1. “OOooops – didn’t mean for that hymnal to fly out of my hand and richocet away…”

      1. “Ooops! I just can’t imagine why the State Trumpet started malfunctioning! But it did make quite the noise, didn’t it?” 🙂

  41. 😯 Dear God in heaven! That was an indescribably awful experience!

    It makes me grateful to be Episcopalian, and to be employed as organist in a church where it would be unthinkable to interrupt the choir’s music for any but the most urgent of emergencies.

  43. Does this guy know that this song was done (originally, I believe) by Doug Oldham who was never ifb and spent his last years singing at Thomas Road and Liberty Univ.??? Should he not be practicing ecclesiastical separation even in his song choices??? I’ve never understood when it becomes ‘legal’ for ifb churches to sing a song written or sung by an ‘nonfundy’ musician. I’ve seen Jack Schaap’s choir sing a song written by Carol Cymbala (Brooklyn Tab). I’ve heard Pensacola Christian sing a Steve Green number. (Dear God forgive them.) I know when I was at Hyles-Anderson, the ‘specials’ for chapel had to be written before 1970. NO, I’m not lying. Just made me want to scream. This clip is ultra embarrassing. Venting, venting, venting. Good for the soul.

  44. Started out as a piece of Americana, including the preacher-man making comments in-between verses of the hymn.

    Then he started dragging on and on.

    Then he started yelling.

    And kept on yelling.

    And kept on yelling…

    And it wasn’t a piece of Americana any more.

  45. Despite his long-windedness, all he really said was “I’m saved”, “I go to church”, and “I’m not drunk”, and then restated it over and over and over and over… 🙄 And of course, no respect what-so-ever for the choir trying to use their talents for the Lord. Why can’t preachers like this see that they are only drawing attention to themselves, not honoring God?

    I stopped listening to the ranting pretty fast, but I cracked up watching the kids in the background! 😆

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