After Fairhaven was featured in a poor light on CNN for their discipline practices they apparently thought that this would be a good way to relate to the community:
They’re lovely people, I’m sure.
Category Archives: Church
NASCAR Redux
The man in this video is pastor Joe Nelms who apparently ministers at the Family Baptist Church in Lebanon, TN. He apparently is also a fan of Ricky Bobby.
The church website contains a lot of interesting things not the least of which is this tidbit from the missions page
We currently have five missionaries that we are only able to prayer support at this time. Our desire it to be able to financially support them as we have in the past. Once we are able to meet all the needs of our pastor and our local church, we will prepare to assist these missionaries and others around the world. We want to be a part of their ministry that the Lord called them. However, we must first take care of our Man of God.
Joe Nelms is quite a colorful fundamentalist character to say the least.
Being Completely and Totally Different From Those Crazy Fundies Who Are Nothing Like Us At All (Not even a little bit)
Bob Jones and Hyles Anderson College are nothing alike. They’re so completely different and separated and not at all the same that Bob Jones III is going to be preaching at the same conference as Jack Schaap and Mike Norris this summer.
I guess as long as they’re on different nights then it’s all good and nobody should get all confused and think that maybe they’re not as different as they’d like people to think that they are.
Update 1: Multiple sources have now confirmed to me that Rick Arrowood has dropped out of the conference upon learning that Schaap was attending. Further updates as they become available.
Update 2: Apparently BJIII has decided to bring Dr. Eric Newton (Dean of Students at BJU) with him as the second speaker.
Friday Challenge: Truth in Nomenclature
Today’s Friday challenge is a fairly simple one. Think about some fundy church you have known and give it a name that better reflects that congregation’s realities.
And…go.
A Small World
Although Baptist fundamentalists make up less than 1% of the overall population of America, you’d never know it to hear them talk. How many pastors have we heard introduced as “one of the most influential men in America”? How many times have we been told that some church of 300 or 500 people is at the forefront of the battle to bring the entire nation back to God? Yet somehow with all this influence, the powerful fundy church with its amazing pastor can’t even manage to get the liquor store down the street to go out of business.
The accolades of power and prestige that both fundy churches and pastors heap to themselves range from the ridiculous to the outright hilarious.
– “Adviser to the Governor and State Legislature” (He met them once at a fundraiser along with 632 other members of the clergy.)
– “Books and Tracts have influenced Christianity greatly” (Except that nobody who doesn’t shop at the church bookstore has ever bought a copy of any of them. The missionaries who received complementary copies in lieu of Christmas presents have long since used them for kindling.)
– “One of the most dynamic and powerful churches on the West Coast.” (Also one of the most oblong and unceremonious. I mean if we’re just going to throw around meaningless adjectives let’s go for broke.)
– “Reclaiming their town for Christ.” (And they’re doing it one zoning board battle at a time. Take that, heathen politicians!)
Most fundamentalists just seem to have no clue that the average non-fundy has never heard of their church, its pastor, his alma mater, and their preacher’s fellowship. And as long as they are refusing to have any meaningful relationship with non-fundamentalists, it’s going to stay that way in perpetuity. Delusions of grandeur would seem to be a requirement to be a somebody in fundyland.