306 thoughts on “Awkward Promo Videos”

  1. I had to google Crown College, and I discovered there are two of them, one in Minnesota and one in Tennessee. Which one are you referring to?

    2. Crown Tennessee – Independent Baptist
      Crown Minnesota – Christian Missionary Alliance

      Totally not the same thing – on any number of levels

    1. I’m intrigued by this. Is it because no one can truly be authentic? Do they think that asking for prayer would be admitting weakness, and they can’t show anyone that they have a need because they have to put on a confidant mask at all times?

  3. Why do people say “I covet your prayers.”, when the bible says not to covet? What the heck does “I covet your prayers”, even mean!?

    2. BTW my fave from the same guy, like the next sentence is “We have our eye on the sky”, a distinct way of announcing we are intentionally ignoring the debris of filthy humanity we feel we are surrounded by (other than to hand them a tract maybe).

      1. What happened to being the salt and light OF THE WORLD, when they believe anything and everything in the world is sinful!? Except, of course, fast food. Gluttony is a relative term after all, right? Weighing in at 350 and eating a pig steaming pile of nachos everyday is not worldly or selfish, but God forbid you listen to that flesh gratifying CCM

        2. I agree. It’s so hypocritical to say that CCM indulges the flesh when they indulge their flesh in other ways. Mote and beam — again!!!

          And I had to laugh at your typo! 🙂

    3. Good question!

      Paul does say twice TO covet though….

      1 Corinthians 12:31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
      and
      1 Corinthians 14:39 Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.

      and the word isnt evil necessarily….alot like the word pride…almost always bad in the bible, but not bad in and of itself

    1. Hmm. Did the guys in that video post that on YouTube, or did their worst enemies do it?

    2. Ack! Evansville! That’s an hour away from me! BLEH!

      I particularly loved “in obedience to our Lord’s command! Sacrilege much? I don’t recall “soul winning” being on par communion or baptism. I can think of a parable about going out & compelling them to come. I can think of Jesus commissioning His followers to go into the neighboring towns to tell the story. I can’t think of any “Lord’s command” to go soul winning like this.

    3. 39th anniversary…

      SFL: Each and every one of the pastor’s anniversaries is always cause for a major churchwide celebration with special tracts, guest speakers, and in some cases, even a cruise to Alaska (Lancaster Baptist Church’s pastors 21st anniversary).

    4. You just have to love the white socks with dress pants, shirt and tie @ 2:25. Such a cliche.

  5. If I was casting this for a movie:
    MC guy – William Shatner
    his wife – Gloria Gaither
    trumpet guy – Stanley Tucci

    4. the “trumpet guy” is Mike Shrock. He was my singles’ pastor in Schaumburg, IL before he decided to leave after getting reprimanded by the senior pastor for allowing 20 year old singles to wear shorts on a trip. 🙄

      His trumpet CDs are available through Majesty Music, so you know where he stands…

  6. Wait – when Satan was cast out of heaven he fell into the choir loft? I’m hoping this was a poor attempt at a joke? I thought it was sarcasm but he seemed dead serious when he said Christians need to be “reminded” of this.

    3. There exists in most churches an ego struggle over the spotlight of who is allowed on the stage. Which professional xians are good enough to perform in front of the audience, err, congregation.

  7. I love at the end when he asks his wife to speak.
    “Can you say Amen?”
    “Amen”
    “Very good.”
    What we didn’t see are the years of him using one of those dog clickers to train her to speak on command, and the beggin strip she got when the camera was turned off.

    1. I feel that I must be admitting something terrible about myself, but I laughed out loud at this comment.

    2. I read “beggin strip” entirely the wrong way the first time. I thought you meant she would beg him to strip and I started to tell you that she really didn’t look that “covetous” of him. And I am not ashamed to admit that I laughed out loud when I read that.

  8. 1Ti 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
    1Ti 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

    Hay-men?

    1. I believe these verses to be true, of course, but in their proper context of 1st century church problems, not universal decrees of subordination.

      1. Yes, exactly. Paul was giving real-time advice to specific churches about how to deal with specific local problems. Some of that advice applies universally, and some of it doesn’t. Otherwise, why would Paul elsewhere recognize women as leaders in the churches?

  9. Good ‘ol Clarence Sexton. With my own ears I heard him tell another preacher to “sweep under the rug” the immorality, embezzlement, and fraud committed by a preacher friend of his. 👿

      1. When I was a kid/teen, our church was pastored by a Hyles grad. We had Clarence Sexton in for preaching conferences. They were buddies. My senior year of high school, it was revealed that our pastor had embezzled all kinds of money and committed fraud and immorality. He also committed statutory rape but we didn’t find out about that until later and the victims didn’t want to testify in court. Anyhoo, the original case never went to trial because the D.A. was a friend of our pastor and it was an election year.

        After high school graduation, some of us teens were on a college survey trip and stopped at Crown. Clarence Sexton met us and the pastor who was with us told him about our former pastor so that he would be informed and not have the guy in for any preaching engagements. Clarence Sexton said, “Just sweep it under the rug; don’t make any waves.” 🙄

        4. @ibs – I’m sure you’ll be sitting there at that great white throne judgment wringing your hands with glee as everyone you met that wronged you is “proved” wrong, and then pointing “I told you so liar”.

          Something to look forward to hey?

        5. You know, Free, I am grateful to IBS for posting to long-ago link, because if it had not shown up in the side thingy, I would have never seen it. It brings back an overflowing cesspool of Clarence Sexton memories.
          When I was single and teaching in an IFB school, CS was in Paterson, NJ. My pastor was infatuated with him, and we had him at our church too many times. One time, CS rebuked a man in front of a large crowd, for saying, “Amen, Thank You Jesus,” etc. He humiliated that poor man. The man was African American, and I always wondered if CS were a racist. No one else who was hollering got rebuked.
          Then he was interested in hiring my now late husband on his staff. They wined and dined us, ( metaphorically speaking) until we made it clear we were NOT a package deal. Our first child was six weeks old, and I was not Lea ing him with strangers in a new city, to go to work. The deal was OFF as soon as CS found that out.
          As far as his wife goes, back then, I had the impression that he was pretty committed to her, and even that she may have had HIM on a short leash. But that was a long time ago, and there does seem to be some sort of tension, to say the least, in this video. CS had OCD issues, back then, I always thought. He also defended Wendell Evans to me, after all the HAC scandals broke out, by asking me where else would Wendell Evans ever get the power and prestige he was getting at HAC? 🙄
          Doubtless no one will ever see this post, since it is attached to an oldie, but it sure felt good to vent it. :mrgreen:
          I still have a book he gave me, A TALE OF THREE KINGS, after the late racist Bob Kelley put us through the wringer in Murfreesboro, TN. In fact, CS was actually compassionate, and worried that I was suffering more than my husband, because, he said, the wife hurts so much for her loved ones. When my husband died, one of his underlings, who is no longer there,, called and asked me to allow them to move me there, so I could teach there and be cared for. I did not accept, having already turned my back on fundamentalism, but he was sort of a complex character. 😕

  11. RobM – Make sure to point out my “fundiness” but not a word about Big Gary’s lies and hatefulness toward, perhaps one of the most influential, giants of the christian faith in modern times. ok

  12. “One of the most admired men in Americuh.” There the fundies go AGAIN. Assuming people know who their tiny and ineffectual circle’s leaders are! When I was in the Fundyland I never saw pretty Fundygirls though.

  13. Man, what I couldn’t stand (aside from Shrock–when he appeared at the very beginning, I nearly punched my computer!) was how the MOG kept saying what a “great job” the other MOGs were doing, from having a great voice to preaching well, etc. It was ALL ABOUT the men, and not at all about God! 👿

    And what about being a missionary kid makes that MOG’s wife something special, huh? What kind of special virtue does she bring to her husband? I’M a missionary kid, and I actually feel kinda sorry for my husband–I’m constantly homesick (and never really know which country I should be homesick FOR), and I dislike America a bit, having lived in the greatest country in the world before being shipped off to college in the States.

    Honestly, though, serving God in another country isn’t any more special than serving God in this country. I hate it when people elevate missionaries and missionary kids to idol status.

    1. Yes, Hannah, I know. I was on the mission field for a number of years. I cringed every time I heard the phrase, “We have some real, live missionaries here with us today” and all the variations of such. Real live missionaries? Really? As opposed to fake, dead missionaries, or what?

    1. New script for Blazing Saddles: Did he say “The sheriff is near? No, “The End is near!”

    2. Hmmmm. Talk to me about this on May 22. Better yet, on October 22, 2011.

      It doesn’t seem to bother these folks that their prophet (the same one who figured out these dates) previously said the world would end on September 6, 1994. He says he’s got better (Biblical) data now.

      1. Hey, setting erroneous Doomsdates is an old religious tradition. Look up the “Millerites” sometime.

  15. I finally watched the video. I couldn’t bring myself to do it for a while. If I was to put a comment after it it would have been simply;

    “Just Perfect”

    Sharp, slick, everything in it’s place. Everyone is happy, wholesome and strong. This is the way everyone should be. This was marketing at its best. This is how to build a facade, only show the bright side. I guess that’s okay but when you watch the video and see some you know and some of the pain they have gone through in fundamentalism it makes one shudder. They are still hanging in there.

  16. I finally watched this–with the sound muted. Just sad. Very, very sad. I feel very sorry for Clarence Sexton’s wife. She obviously doesn’t matter very much to him any more.

  17. I couldn’t load this for a long time, so I amused myself reading the comments before watching. Wow, did this inspire some opinions.

    So, why not throw in my three cents! Or, more like 2 1/2.

    1. Irritating/Unbiblical/Foolish/Weird
    A. “He’s doing a great job for the Lord.”
    B. Can you have an official meeting of “Independent” people?
    C. “Even a lay person can do something…” What a revelation!
    D. Satan and the choir loft. Profound misunderstanding of music from a music director.
    E. “We’re just accepting a brother for who he is in Jesus.” Really? So if one hadn’t shown up in a fancy suit with a pocket handkerchief you would have treated him just the same? And what about a sister?
    F. The touching thing. In my observation, this is a power thing, though not just a simple “big dog/little dog” deal. It’s very acute here in Asia. Whenever I’m forced to attend a party where IFBers will be, I see the MOgs (of which there are only a few) follow an established pattern:
    1. Enter, disregarding host and hostess completely if they are Chinese.
    2. Head straight for another white MOg and talk to him only.
    3. If not other white MOgs are present, white men will do.
    4. If forced to, or if all the white men are busy, they may condescend to chat to a white woman.
    5. If there arms are twisted, they may speak to a Chinese person, but only if they can find a way to make it “ministry.” As in, they will question them about anything they say. Ch: “Hi, how are you?” MOg: “I’m blessed by the Lord. How is your spiritual life? Are you reading your Bible, praying every day and growing, growing, growing?” Ch: “Huh?” (The MOgs only preach in Chinese, and then only when they have to. This is one reason they still have churches: no one can understand a word they’re saying. They don’t use Chinese in social situations if they can help it.) So, all that to say, this guy’s grabbing and hugging all the pastors while barely looking at his wife seems typical to me.

    2. Other Stuff

    While I did notice all those things and was a bit sickened by some of the leaders, I also noticed some lovely people who seem to have really had a good time and seem to be trying to serve God to the best of their knowledge. As for the African and Downs gentlemen, I didn’t think of them as token. For one thing, if those two men had spoken on Day 6 and the highlight video DIDN’T show them, we’d all be screaming even louder. In that sense, it’s a “damned if they did, damned if they didn’t” sort of thing. For another, I think they were just showing who spoke that day. Those men spoke, so those men were shown. Finally, while the discussion of a lack of racial diversity in the IFB movement in general may be one that should take place, the fact that there just aren’t that many disabled or racial diverse preachers for this little gathering to call upon isn’t the fault of the organizers or attendees.

    1. On the “layperson” thing, I agree completely. The group I am with, we don’t even have clergy. Everything–all the speaking, all the organization, all that sort of thing–is shared by the “laypeople”. There’s missionaries and preachers “commended” from different groups, of course, but to us, that only means that that’s their full-time job. They’re not any different from any other Christian, and they certainly aren’t the only ones who are allowed to speak.

      I believe one-man ministries aren’t Biblical anyway, but it drives me particularly crazy when pastors condescendingly agree that, all right, so maybe it’s POSSIBLE that you lesser laypeople might be able to contribute to the church somehow. 🙄

  18. all the talk of the expense involved in preparing for the conference immediately brought back memories of when conferences were held at our fundy church growing up… when that happened, i mean all the stops were pulled out. the choir sang, the children’s choir sang, the handbell group performed, the full orchestra accompanied every song in every service… on and on. i remember actually getting caught up in that whole spirit of trying to impress all the visiting pastors and missionaries. what a joke.

  19. I’m friends with schlock on facebook, mostly for sh*ts and giggles. One time I posted a video I made set to music by Chris sligh and schlock says re song has terrible style and is hard Rick and is nor fitting for Christ. So I decide to post a video of slipknot on his wall to differentiate between real hard rock and perceived hard rock. Schlock, however, has a masters in music and he made that very clear. He also made clear that since he has a masters he is the authority on what genre all music is. This whole group us a bunch of pathetic droid pooh.

  20. Mike Shrock was the singles pastor when I went to Bethel in Schaumburg. I liked him, even though I totally disagreed with the whole music thing.

    He ended up leaving Bethel when Pastor Bumpus reprimanded him for allowing 20+ year olds wear shorts on a trip. And we had to change the name of our group from “Roaring Twenties” b/c it had a bad connotation. (Some old farts in our church complained.) And then Pastor Bumpus told him that the singles had to refer to him as pastor and not just “Shrock” like we were. It was all a bunch of hooey.

    For the most part, I do have good memories from going there. But I was a non-conformist. 😀

  21. Mike Shrock’s views on music are kooky. :mrgreen: Mike Shrock preaches against Christian contemporary music. 😛 He is so racist that he teaches that all jazz music is sinful, even though he seems to have had no problem at all playing jazz music while he was a trumpet performance major at Boston University. 🙄 Shrock is a graduate of Bob Jones University, a college that is losing a lot of students and support because it does not hold SACS regional accreditation. Bob Jones University taught for many years that it is sinful for a white students to date black students. Bob Jones University has such a racist past that at one time African American students were not even allowed to attend.

Comments are closed.