All you folks at North Point had better get to the bottom of this. It’s not just your Church, it’s your money too.
I am Not, I had the same thing happened to my post yesterday. Thanks for the report. I was especially glad to hear the positives, because this whole thing has just been really hard, especially if you give a rip.
davidlachnicht: Some of us have been working all week to get to the bottom of this and I’m guessing we’ll be working our way through it for a lot more days to come. Like I said before, it’s not a mob mentality that put us all together at North Point. It is a desire to hear the Scripture used accurately and to escape the arrogance so often heard in pulpits. This has especially slammed families—you trust the church with influence in your kids’ lives (unlike the schools) and then suddenly everything changes.
PM, I’ll let you speculate on that whole gospel thing. I’m still working out my own thoughts from this week. A sample: Back on November 30, Obama contacted religious leaders to ask for their help with the Let’s Move campaign—I’m thinking “you were asked last week, or in November AND last week?” Now that “One, Not Everyone” sermon means something different. Now my agitation over that “Americans don’t know what real problems are” statement seems justified. That “Be Bold” sermon seems manipulative. I read an article about how Axelrod advised Ms. Obama to get religious leaders involved as validators. I learn Nixon (Republican) was known for giving religious leaders the royal treatment and then sending them back home to be “mouthpieces.” I read a former Southern Baptist Convention president, who was on Obama’s first faith-based council, said he had to fairly much “check his Bible at the door” and not use it as a reference point in any of the work he was doing. Then I think, so are we going to check the Bible at the door on the obesity issue hosted at NPCC? Who, in our community, has more influence anyway—Andy or the Obamas—well, Andy, so why doesn’t he tackle this issue on his own? Obama certainly can’t do what Weight Watchers has not done, and now we’ve just used up our church’s credibility for absolutely nothing! I read the new faith-based council is about to be selected, so is this what all this was about? On a personal level, the minute this thing hit the news, people were looking at us like we weren’t what we seemed, and I had nada to do with the decision. I’m looking at Andy like he isn’t what he seemed, feeling he certainly, at least, deserved it seeing as he did have something to do with the decision.
Then I listened to the sermon from this past Sunday. I can’t tell you I like the idea any better, I agree with it, or I don’t feel manipulated. But I can say I am as certain as I can be that Andy has not changed. The inaugeration thing did not change him or the leadership. The church’s decision was definitely under the SAME umbrella as the mission statement-SOUNDLY-when you listen to what Andy said in that sermon. There was still that same awful, awful anguish over the unchurched in it all. I can now say, though, that I WILL proudly take the good with the bad on this one.