Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

More and more I see this, and the kicker is that often the false prophet really doesn’t’ know that they are. Isn’t’ that scary?

They’ll defend themselves rather than be open to or allow correction. They’ll argue, debate, become angry, sometimes even to the point of threatening or becoming violent. Yet they remain blind to their ignorance.

These false prophets go beyond the pulpit, although most associate a false prophet with the one behind the pulpit, they can be anywhere. Might be an elder, a deacon, that nice little old lady that’s at church every time the door is open. Might even be members in the band.

The point? Beware!

Too Hollywood Part 2?

On a different but similar note, the other night I went to an event at a small local church. I was so disappointed that I was praying for guidance, as I thought maybe I was being too harsh in my discernment. What should have been uplifting was at best discouraging.

First, and I’m seeing this way too much, I arrived about thirty minutes before the start of the event. The band was playing, and they were pretty good. I thought how great that the band was playing this early.

Then suddenly, they stopped. The lead singer stopped the music so that she could complain to one of the other band members about something. They were having a band practice right before the start of the event. This went on until about 5 minutes before the start of the event. Had it not been for one thing, you would have been hard pressed to know where practice ended, and the event started.

What’s this one thing you ask? The band went into full entertainer mode. Well at least for a couple of them. Arms wailing, the “entertainer strut”, the jumping, the full court press worship leader get em’ fired up mode. We’ve all seen and heard it a thousand times, it’s showtime!

I know that my view of this won’t be popular, but I feel that this behavior should have pastors having sit-downs with their musicians, or at least with their worship leaders. In a recent 1^st Cup radio show I discussed why a church shouldn’t be an entertainment venue and bands not used as part of that entertainment (1^st Cup Show #4).

If your church has centered its service around its entertainment value rather than Jesus, you are headed down a very dangerous road. 1^st, you are allowing your church to conform to the world. The concert type light shows, having entertainers instead of church leaders, creating emotions rather than having Christ centered Biblical faith.

This type of church is creating a customer rather than follower of Christ. These customers eventually will expect to always be entertained, not worship, not learn, not grow in the Lord. When this transformation occurs, you have a church that see’s it’s pastor, musicians, and others that lead the service as stars of the show. The focus is now on the entertainment not Jesus.

As I stated earlier, I’ve seen this going on for a while now. First on TV and in the mega churches, now in small town America. Is this your church? If so, and you know if it is or not, at the least you know if it’s headed in that direction, keep 2 Corinthians 11:14 in your head…

“For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness…”

Until next time God Bless… talk soon.

Michael