We’re Selling Indulgences Again and We Don’t Even Notice
A little Church history never hurt anyone. In this case, I think it's critical that we take a look at our past because it has become obvious to me and a few others that the Church has slipped right back into the very practices that necessitated the Protestant Reformation without batting an eye. Namely, the sale of indulgences. If you're not familiar with the concept, in a nutshell, sometime in the 1500s, Martin Luther and others in the Church grew weary and skeptical of the Catholic practice of selling indulgences. Priests would offer blessings, offer to pray for family members
What Is a Ministry, After All?
In light of recent scandals unfolding at places like Daystar Television, and even in the spirit of asking ourselves the tough questions like whether a vocational pastor needs a leer jet, I've begun to ask a bigger question: what is a ministry? And more importantly: what is NOT a ministry? I think we can all safely agree that a church, at its heart, is a ministry. In the 1828 Webster's Dictionary (the more accurate dictionary, let's be honest), we find the proper definition of the word: MIN'ISTRY, noun [Latin ministerium.] The office, duties or functions of a subordinate agent of any kind.
The Lessons We Should Learn from Daystar
In recent days, news has begun to trickle in the Christian community about a budding scandal at Daystar Television Network. For the most part, this news has stayed fairly buried, only showing up on fringe X accounts and lesser-known journalists' websites. I have my suspicions about why that is, but I'll get into that in a bit. In a nutshell, the story that is emerging is a tale as old as time. Jonathan Lamb, son of the late Marcus Lamb, and his wife Suzy have come forward with claims of sexual abuse against not only Suzy, but their young daughter
