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NewSpring Church, a five campus megachurch in Anderson, S.C., is canceling its Sunday night services due to the Super Bowl this weekend. Lead Pastor Perry Noble explained the reason in his blog. "I've been in church work for over 20 years and the one thing I can say is that attendance on Super Bowl Sunday night in church has always been awful! (and…the people who are there are pretending to be looking at youversion on their phone…but they are really checking the score of the game!)," he wrote. Noble said the church has always tried to compete with the Super...

Over the weekend, popular televangelist Joel Osteen​ revealed to Fox News Channel​ host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee that he had been contacted by President Barack Obama for his 2012 reelection effort. While this outreach could simply represent the White House's effort to establish a bipartisan coalition ahead of next year's election, it could also signal a political effort to disaffected Christian conservatives. I know. It sounds ridiculous. But it's true. The Daily Caller reported the exchange. "He has reached out to us," Osteen told Huckabee. "And we have done some of the leadership things there at the White...

Televangelist and senior pastor of Houston’s Lakewood Church Joel Osteen explained on Fox News Channel’s “Huckabee” over the weekend that President Barack Obama reached out to Osteen and Lakewood. “He has reached out to us,” Osteen said. “And we have done some of the leadership things there at the White House with him and been able to pray with him — just simple things like that. And he’s been very kind and friendly to our ministry.” A number of Americans still have questions about Obama’s religious beliefs. Whether it is due to his 20 year attendance at the Rev. Jeremiah...

In this video (Run Time 6:49) you are going to hear Rick Warren asking Christians to be as dedicated to his Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan as the Nazis were to Hitler. Warren wants Christians to commit themselves to do 'whatever it takes' to slay the global giants. The problems with this are almost too many to list. But here are a couple. 1. Jesus has NOT commissioned the Church to go and slay global giants (spiritual lostness, egocentric leadership, poverty, disease, and ignorance). Jesus has commissioned the church to proclaim "repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name to all...

Granger Community Church is considered to be one the brightest stars in the Purpose-Driven Church universe and is the 6th most influential church in America. Thousands of churches have purchased, downloaded and preached Granger's sermons. Past and present pastors from Granger are considered 'rock stars' and thought leaders in purpose-driven / seeker-sensitive circles. But how effective are these Purpose-Driven / Seeker-Sensitive methods at making true converts and true Christian disciples? Well, Granger just released the results of their Reveal Now survey and the data is bleak. In fact, Granger and their 'pastoral' staff get an F. Here are some of...

If Warren is not quite today's Graham, who presided as "America's pastor" back when the U.S. affected a kind of Protestant civil religion, he is unquestionably the U.S.'s most influential and highest-profile churchman. He is a natural leader, a pathological schmoozer, insatiably curious and often the smartest person in the room. A shift away from "sin issues" — like abortion and gay marriage — is reflected in Warren's approach to his coming sit-downs with the candidates. He says he is more interested in questions that he feels are "uniting," such as "poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate change and human rights," and still...

Blog Shut Down by 'Christian' Apologist's Threat Contact: Pastor Dustin Segers, Coalition of Concerned Bloggers, ChristianResearchNetwork.com, 336-848-7197 MEDIA ADVISORY, July 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- Pastor Dustin Segers submits the following and is available for comment: How safe are our blogs? That question was raised again when on the evening of July 26, 2008, a popular religious blog was shut down by an Internet service provider. A complaint filed by Christian author and apologist, Richard Abanes, claiming that one article on the religious opinion site, Apprising.org, had slandered him, caused the web host, IPower, to send its publisher, Ken Silva, a...

California mega-church pastor Rick Warren says Christians should not be reticent to work with Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists, and even atheists to cure societal problems. In conjunction with the presidential forum he is hosting next month at Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren will convene an interfaith meeting for 30 Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders "to discuss cooperation for the common good of all Americans." Warren's global P.E.A.C.E. plan is an effort to mobilize churches around the world to combat what he calls the five "global giants" of spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy. But he says he has no...

Easter Sunday is less than a week away and most churches have already laid out their strategies on how to reach the unchurched and non-believers during arguably the most important Christian holiday. Mon, Mar. 17, 2008 Posted: 09:44:22 AM EST Easter Sunday is less than a week away and most churches have already laid out their strategies on how to reach the unchurched and non-believers during arguably the most important Christian holiday. But in case a little help is still needed, C. Michael Johnson, president of Breakthrough Media, suggests 18 factors that can “really” impact a church or ministry’s Easter...

Rick Warren: Mainline Church Problems Need Evangelical Solution Megachurch pastor Rick Warren suggested Sunday that mainline churches need to reconcile with evangelicals to counter its mounting problem of membership decline. Mon, Jan. 28, 2008 Posted: 09:32:12 AM EST WASHINGTON – Megachurch pastor Rick Warren suggested Sunday that mainline churches need to reconcile with evangelicals to counter its mounting problem of membership decline. “The reconciliation is that in a pluralistic world…we (Christians) need to be on the same team because we share the same savior,” Warren contended Sunday, as he spoke with the dean of the Washington National Cathedral, Samuel T....

What is all the talk about an “apostasy” or a “falling away” really about? Hundreds of examples have occurred in 2007 and this year holds the promise of more to come. Let’s examine just a few examples from the very first week of 2008. The word apostasy is derived from the Greek word apostasis which literally means “desertion.” In the last few years of time as we know it the Bible clearly promises there will be a falling away or apostasy in the church and in long held theological principles. If you need to ask if an apostasy or a...

cut …Osteen's message is more blasphemous. Osteen's seven million Christian TV viewers might be interested to learn that Osteen, a college dropout with no formal training, is, literally, a heretic whose message is being called “Satanic," “occult" and “antichrist" by respected evangelical ministers. cut The “Word-Faith Movement," of which Osteen is the unofficial leader, uses God as a Trojan horse to sell the ancient mystic rubbish - picture it and you'll pocket it - that also drives “The Secret." But “The Secret" doesn't pretend to be a tax-exempt religion.

"The love of money," the New Testament teaches in I Timothy 6:10, "is the root of all evil." But what about some televangelists' fondness for major bling — such as multiple, multimillion dollar estates, luxury cars, vacation homes, exotic trips and private jets? Does that make them, in the words of one author, "pimps in the pulpit?" Many outside the evangelical movement are puzzled by the apparent lack of outrage following reports of high-living, tax-exempt religious broadcasters. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been looking into six megachurch pastors and broadcast ministries, requesting financial records. Richard Roberts has stepped down as...

Megachurch leaders such as Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and Robert Schuller have principles like the elastic in an old woman’s drawers: It will stretch to fit almost any shape! They have problems with principle. It seems their ambition has outrun their character. In deciding right and wrong, character does not consider friends or foes, personality or position; family or faith; reputation or riches, but will apply absolute truth that comes from the Scripture. The above three leaders of aberrational Christianity are very careful to never offend anyone with such “barbaric” teachings as personal sin, repentance, judgment, hell and the like;...

One believer is bitter that the money she donated to several prominent ministries didn't bring about the material blessings the preachers had assured would come. "I wanted to believe that God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them," said Cindy Fleenor, a 53-year-old accountant from Tampa, Fla., according to The Associated Press. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't watch anyone on TV hardly." Fleenor wrote checks to Benny Hinn and Paula White - two popular televangelists - and pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, another prominent evangelist. But Fleenor...

In an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, popular televangelist Joel Osteen gave Mitt Romney an endorsement of sorts, addressing the doctrinal issues that many had hoped would be addressed in Romney's "Faith in America" speech. WALLACE: And what about Mitt Romney? And I've got to ask you the question, because it is a question whether it should be or not in this campaign, is a Mormon a true Christian?OSTEEN: Well, in my mind they are. Mitt Romney has said that he believes in Christ as his savior, and that's what I believe, so, you know, I'm not the one...

Dr. Michael Horton will appear on 60 minutes December 23 as CBS reairs their October 14 interview with Joel Osteen. ______________________________________________________________________ The Rev. Dr. Horton is the J. Gresham Machen professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, the host of the nationally syndicated broadcast of The White Horse Inn radio program, editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation Magazine, and a minister in the United Reformed Churches of North America. Dr. Horton is also the author/editor of more than fifteen books, including: Putting Amazing Back Into Grace; Made in America; A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God Centered Worship;...

One of six Christian ministries under investigation by a Senate committee is rebuffing inquiries into its spending, challenging the panel's watchdog role over religious groups, The Associated Press has learned. A lawyer for preacher Creflo Dollar of World Changers Church International in suburban Atlanta has asked Sen. Charles Grassley to either refer the matter to the IRS or get a subpoena, according to a letter from Dollar's attorney obtained Wednesday by the AP. Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent pointed questionnaires in early November to a half-dozen ministries, asking about salaries, perks, travel and oversight. The...

They cut the line off at about 300 people.... Osteen arrived around 11 a.m. for a "meet and greet" with Super Wal-Mart employees. Edwin Del Rosario brought along a copy of Edwin's own self-published book, which he says was inspired by Osteen. The name of the paperback is "Divine Prescription for Your Total Prosperity." Rosario noted that he got only a "30-cent advance" for his book compared to Osteen's $13 million but "it's a start."

In usual conversations, religion is rarely being talked about. To a lot of people, talking about one's personal faith and beliefs is inappropriately perplexing and bizarre. It is as strange as having three holes in your nostrils and your companions persistently asks how in the world did you had that or why. On several cases, I've had discussions on religion, not personal faith, to people of different denominations besides Roman Catholic which almost always ends up to arguments and individual tirades. I was raised a Catholic, but I diverted my faith to a more personal level by accepting the Lord...