The ongoing legal standoff between pastor John Gray of Relentless Church and Redemption Church leaders Ron and Hope Carpenter, who are seeking to evict Relentless Church from property they own in South Carolina, is really “a fight over church members,” lawyers for Gray argue in court documents filed last Friday.

“In essence, this is not a dispute as much about leases and occupancy of church buildings, as much as it is a fight over church members. Pastor Gray has come into Greenville at the urging of Ron Carpenter, even moving to be here before school was out for the summer for his children, because Carpenter said he had to leave immediately for California,” lawyers for Gray argued in a response to Carpenter’s lawsuit to evict him and his Relentless Church from Redemption’s properties in Greenville.

“Now that the Grays and their staff have greatly increased attendance, increased giving, made $500,000.00 in repairs to buildings that have never been transferred as promised, cut expenses, tightened up accounting controls, reduced accounts payable by over 75% and even paid bills for Redemption that Relentless had no obligation to pay, Carpenter now wants to come back because the ministry is now in much better financial condition,” they added.

Gray was given until the end of 2019 to take his church elsewhere amid allegations that he had been “shady” and “dishonest” in executing a transition agreement with the Carpenters after they passed the reins of their Redemption Church campus to him in 2018.

The Relentless Church pastor agreed in part, according to court documents, to rebrand Redemption Church in Greenville as Relentless Church and assume all of the Carpenters’ debt obligations while they moved to San Jose, California, to officially become the new pastors of the 14,000-member Jubilee Christian Center, which they renamed Redemption.

“As an implicit part of that understanding, the GSC Ministries’ mortgage debt on The Properties would continue to be serviced by the GSC Ministries under Gray’s leadership and as rebranded by Gray,” the Carpenters argued in their lawsuit against Gray.

The Carpenters reportedly carried a debt of $8,715,250 on the church sanctuary used by Gray with a monthly mortgage of $69,994. They also carried a debt of $3,720,649.48 on The Imagine Center gym. The monthly interest-only mortgage payment would be $18,603.25 with an annual principal payment of $500,000.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

From the time our eldest child, Caleb, was just an infant (and possibly even before), I knew that I wanted to do something significant to mark the point when our children would come of age. I reject the whole notion of a “teenager,” a modern construct invented by pop culture, and instead wanted to reinforce with our children that adolescence is a critical time in which a child grows into adulthood.

“Coming of age” ceremonies are not unique in the history of humankind, of course. Various communities around the world and throughout time have marked the transition of a child into an adult with rituals and ceremonies, possibly the most well-known of these being the Bar Mitzvah in Jewish communities. Historically, age thirteen is when a child comes of age and enters a period of training for adulthood. For Christians, this can be a wonderful opportunity to stimulate a young man or woman toward Christian maturity.

Well, Caleb just turned thirteen, and after posting on social media about the manhood ceremony we held for him, people began to ask for more details of what we did. So here it is.

First, we have created anticipation with our children from the time they were young concerning their thirteenth birthday — This is when you will begin to leave childhood behind and prepare for adulthood, I’ve told them repeatedly. They know that their thirteenth birthday will be a special time.

A couple of years ago, I began to intentionally read with each of our older children books I felt would help them cultivate godly disciplines, deal with struggles they’re facing, or simply grow in their knowledge of Scripture, personal holiness, and love for Christ. I usually read with them each once a week in the evening, and with Caleb we’ve read Disciplines of a Godly Young Man by R. Kent Hughes, The Talk: 7 Lessons to Introduce Your Child to Biblical Sexuality by Luke Gilkerson, and Core Christianity by Michael Horton, among other things. These have been wonderful opportunities to have significant conversations.

Then over the past six months or so, I began to specifically talk with Caleb about his thirteenth birthday, and started planning what we would do to mark the occasion. Ryan Martin has done something similar with his three eldest boys, so I talked a lot with him about what he did. Additionally, I benefited from reading Raising a Modern-Day Knight: A Father’s Role in Guiding His Son to Authentic Manhood by Robert Lewis.

In particular, as we neared his thirteenth birthday, I stressed with Caleb one of the key points Lewis makes in the book about the contrast between Adam and Christ as representatives of men. From this contrast, Lewis helpfully defines biblical manhood as one who rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously, and expects God’s rewards. He also articulates key biblical character qualities of a Christian man with which I challenged Caleb on the evening of his manhood ceremony including loyalty, servant-leadership, kindness, humility, purity, honesty, self-discipline, excellence, integrity, and perseverance.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Scott Aniol

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From Haiti with Love is the only free burn clinic in the country, and Haiti desperately needs it.

Last Thursday, a fire burned an orphanage in Haiti, killing 15 children. Not only was the orphanage unprepared for the fire (the living conditions were cramped and dirty, and candles were used for lighting), but firefighters took 90 minutes to respond. When they did arrive, they lacked the equipment necessary to save any of the children, such as bottled oxygen.

This tragedy only highlights the danger posed to Haitian citizens by fire and burning, and ongoing unrest in this poverty-stricken country doesn’t help.

Eve DeHart from From Haiti with Love points out that every burn is unique, and that many burns result from people falling off overcrowded motorcycles (these vehicles are used as taxis.) Others result from house fires. Children are often burned from falling or reaching into pots of cooking food.

Because burn victims need bandage changes, the small clinic treated almost 600 people by themselves in January. “So for a relatively small organization, that’s a lot of gloves. That’s a lot of bandages. That’s a lot of tape. That’s a lot of masks. That’s a lot of burn cream. That’s a lot of antibiotic cream for the cuts.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Kevin Zeller

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A few years ago I visited a region in East Africa where the people had experienced a severe drought for several years; most of the water wells in that region were dry. Living Water International had drilled a deep well there about eight years earlier, and it was one of the few productive water wells in the entire region.  I was told that 30,000 people were getting water from that one well, and in addition to the people, the livestock and wild animals also got water there. The local people called it “The Miracle Well.” A missionary who was serving in that area told us that if it were not for that one well, there would probably be 30,000 dead people in the region.

The Transforming Power of Water and the Word

The water committee for the well was made up primarily of Masai pastors, who managed it and took turns going to get fuel for the generator. They had worked out a system so the people could come to the well every other day. Many would walk several hours to get water. We were told that 80% of the people in the region had come to Christ since the well was put in. Being there with those dear people caused me to think in a new way about one of LWI’s tag lines, “Saving Lives and Changing Destinies.” That experience was a great demonstration and reinforcement of the transforming power of water and the Word.

Community Transformation

At a reception of government, business and ministry leaders in Africa, I was approached by a young man who said to me, “I am alive today because of you.” When I asked what he meant, he told me a story of how Living Water International had drilled a well in his village when he was a little boy. He shared how the well had transformed the entire community. Access to clean water was used to improve the health, the educational opportunities, the economic development and the spiritual and social life in the community.

Encountering the Storms of Life

When we hear people’s stories of the problems, difficulties, pressures and crises in life, one of the stories we use in our Orality Training Workshops takes on great meaning. Learning the story of “Jesus Calming the Storm,” from Mark chapter 4, helps people relate to the storms of life, which we all experience in one form or another. Storms of life might be financial crisis, living in a war-torn country, experiencing genocide, extreme poverty, persecution or some other difficulty.

The Power of Asking Good Questions

Not only is this story a great teaching tool, it’s a great story to introduce the Good News of Jesus. We ask people, “How would you like to hear a story that will help you know how to deal with the problems, pressures and difficulties in life?” That question, followed by telling the story and some post-story discussion, can lead to sharing the gospel in a very relevant and effective way.  A man who attended one of Living Water International’s Orality Training Workshops, and learned this story, told about his experience traveling to an East Asian country and how he used it in sharing Christ. Since that experience, he has continued to use the story of “Jesus Calming the Storm” to introduce the Gospel and share Christ in various settings.

Words with Grace — Seasoned with Salt

The man who told this story in East Asia was amazed at how it captured the attention of the people there. A lady who heard the story began to ask questions. She asked how she could get to know Jesus and have a relationship with Him. When our speech is with grace, seasoned with salt, it will create a thirst for people to want to know more.  God’s Word has always had power to change things and change people. This is a great lesson we can build upon from the story of “Jesus Calming the Storm.” Furthermore, when we consider the application of that principle, we can have confidence that the words we speak can have power to change things and change lives.

SOURCE: Assist News

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A federal Court of Appeals ruled that the World War II-era 78-year-old Bayview Cross in Pensacola, Florida, does not violate the U.S. Constitution and will remain standing. The appeals court noted it has become “embedded in the fabric of the Pensacola community” and that removing it could “strike many as aggressively hostile to religion.”

In 1941, the National Youth Administration placed a wooden cross in Pensacola’s Bayview Park to be the focal point for the annual Easter sunrise service. The sunrise service was held annually by the Jaycees. In 1969, the original wooden cross was replaced by a 34-foot concrete version.  The cross has been a popular gathering place for over 75 years and is one of over 170 displays in Pensacola’s parks commemorating the city’s history and culture. In 2016, Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sued the city, claiming that the cross is an “offensive” breach of the U.S. Constitution’s separation of church and state and should be torn down.

In 2017, in Kondrat’yev v. City of Pensacola, a panel of judges on the court of appeals ruled that the cross must come down, with two of the three judges saying that the outcome was “wrong” but that their “hands were tied” because of the so-called “Lemon Test.”

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the appeals court to reconsider its earlier ruling in light of its decision in the American Legion case that the “Peace Cross,” a 40-foot cross honoring those who died during World War I, can remain standing in Bladensburg, Maryland. In its 7-2 decision, the High Court made it clear that the so-called “Lemon Test” was not useful for cases involving ceremonial, celebratory or commemorative monuments that include religious imagery. Instead, the Justices adopted a “strong presumption of constitutionality” for longstanding monuments. The ruling recognized that “a government that roams the land, tearing down monuments with religious symbolism and scrubbing away any reference to the divine will strike many as aggressively hostile to religion” which the Constitution does not require. The Supreme Court said that although “the Cross is undoubtedly a Christian symbol. . .  the Cross does not offend the Constitution.” The High Court told the appeals court to apply these same principles to the cross in Pensacola.

Yesterday, the federal Court of Appeals specifically noted that the Supreme Court in the American Legion case expressly disregarded the so-called “Lemon Test” in religious display cases. The opinion states that American Legion “jettisoned Lemon v. Kutrzman — at least for cases involving religious references or imagery in public monuments, symbols, mottos, displays, and ceremonies – in favor of an approach that focuses on the particular issue at hand and looks to history for guidance….American Legion makes two things clear: (1) Lemon and its much-maligned three-part test no longer govern Establishment Clause challenges to religious monuments and displays, and (2) history and tradition play an important role in Establishment Clause analysis.”

In addition, the appeals court wrote, “American Legion’s clearest message is this: Lemon is dead . . . at least with respect to cases involving religious displays and monuments.”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The Court of Appeals made a common sense ruling that the Bayview Cross does not violate the Constitution and affirmed that the courts must abandon these unworkable manmade tests. Though the High Court should have relegated the ‘Lemon Test’ to the dustbin of constitutional history, its initial step of scrapping it from religious monument cases is a welcome first step and has paid off in the ruling for the Pensacola cross,” said Staver.

Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics. Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.

SOURCE: Liberty Counsel

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

Who can think of the person at work, or at your school who is always looking for ways to get out of work? It doesn’t seem to matter the job or the assignment, they will be the first one who possibly even pulls you aside and says “Hey if we just do it this way, it will take half of the time!” I think we all agree we either know somebody like that or once knew someone like that in our lifetime.

In my years of ministry, I have been given several different titles. The most often misinterpreted is “evangelist”. “Revivalist” is the most misunderstood. Interestingly, it is not listed in the Bible. Over and over in the last thirty-five years He has taught me how to seek His heart and how to be able to clearly hear what He is saying. I understand my calling and job before God to be someone who promotes revival. This means my job is to revive someone from near spiritual death back to life again spiritually. One by one, the Lord opens my eyes while I am praying to conditions that exist in the church today. Then He shows me how the conditions developed. Next He will show me the best way to fix them.

This article deals with one of those things the Lord revealed to me actually several years ago but brought it back up during my prayer time at church recently. Over the last several months God has called me to go to my home church and spend time with Him alone in prayer each night. As I was walking one of the rows of chairs recently praying for my church family and for the church in America as a whole, this thought came clearly. “My people are praying Christian prayers but they are not praying disciple prayers.” The understanding of what that meant soon followed.

Just like those people that we either know or have known who are always looking for easy ways to get out of work, God’s people have been doing those same things for thousands of years.  Someone at some point in history, no doubt inspired by Satan himself, came up with the thought, “Well, not everyone is a disciple. Some are disciples and the rest are Christians who are born again.” This is kind of like someone saying, “Not everyone is in the military. Some are in the military and some are civilians.” While we realize that the second statement is obviously true, the first statement has absolutely not one scriptural reference to support it. However, the Lord clearly showed me that literally millions of church-going attendees in America have either been taught by misguided leaders, perhaps to better fill their sanctuary, or else lukewarm believers have just chose to believe it on their own.

Do you know that Jesus never once called anyone to go and win converts to Christianity?  What He did say in Matthew 28:18,19 is: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)  The word disciple means one who teaches while one is being taught. It’s an interesting word but it suggests a steady flow.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Nolan Harkness

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Dr. Robert Spence, former president of Evangel University, died yesterday, Feb. 19. He was 84.

Spence suffered a stroke on Feb. 16, 2020. According to a statement from Evangel’s current president, Carol Taylor, Spence passed away peacefully, surrounded by family.

A public memorial service will be held on Sunday, Feb. 23, at 3 p.m. at the university. The event will be livestreamed at evangel.edu. Before the service, a visitation will be held between 1:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.

“The family has asked me to extend its gratitude to you for your love and support,” Taylor said. “Please continue to keep the Spence family, and especially Dr. Spence’s beloved wife, Anne, in your prayers.

“… President Spence lived his life with great integrity and dignity in service of the King of Kings. His service to Evangel and Springfield cannot be overstated. I am reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 25, in which He says: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ While we mourn his passing, let us also remember that he is now rejoicing with our Lord and Savior.”

SOURCE: Charisma News

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Officials at Brigham Young University in Utah said Thursday that the school’s policy on “homosexual behavior” had not changed despite reports that a recent update to their Honor Code signified students would no longer be disciplined for engaging in same-sex relationships.

“Just know that the Honor Code remains the same and as we have [done] so often in the past, we handle the questions that arise on an individual case by case basis,” a representative from BYU’s communications office told The Christian Post Thursday.

In a brief statement released Wednesday, BYU officials said the updated Honor Code was published to be “in alignment with the doctrine and policies of the Church” reflected in the recently released general handbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The updated Honor Code applies to all Church institutions of higher education. As in the past, each campus maintains its own dress and grooming standards. The updated Honor Code continues to be a principle-based code that reflects the moral standards of the Church. It allows each campus to support and guide its students on an individual basis according to the principles outlined in the Honor Code,” the school said.

The updates to the code, however, show that the school had removed language classifying “homosexual behavior” among violations of the Honor Code  that “may result in actions up to and including separation from the university.”

“Brigham Young University will respond to homosexual behavior rather than to feelings or attraction and welcomes as full members of the university community all whose behavior meets university standards. Members of the university community can remain in good Honor Code standing if they conduct their lives in a manner consistent with gospel principles and the Honor Code,” the old language for the Honor Code noted.

“One’s stated same-gender attraction is not an Honor Code issue. However, the Honor Code requires all members of the university community to manifest a strict commitment to the law of chastity. Homosexual behavior is inappropriate and violates the Honor Code. Homosexual behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings,” the now-deleted language in the code noted.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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