Preacher of Tent Revival arrested and fined

Fort Payne, Alabama



An Oklahoma preacher, Dwayne Blue (I wonder if Wade Burleson knows this guy) was arrested and fined for violating the town's noise ordinance during a tent revival. Read about it hereand here.

Here's a quote of what Mr Blue had to say:

"Blue said he’s upset with the arrest. “I’m upset because this is a free country. And when you can come and interrupt somebody praying for revival, praying for our nation, naturally you’re going to be disturbed because you feel like your religious rights are being violated."

“We weren't being radical, we were just praying, and it wasn't a loud prayer. It was just praying closing the services,” he said.

Read about one of the city councilman's reaction and comments here.

I can understand there was a PA used and it was 10:30 at night, but they arrested him during the closing prayers, the revival was wrapping up.

What's next? Are we just going to outlaw tent revivals and on-the street witnessing altogether because somebody might get offended?

What are your thoughts?

Family faces eviction for loud prayers

A family in Germany faces eviction for keeping their whole building up with their loud late night prayers. Read about it here.

A quote from the story:

"I really don't want to disturb the neighbors but the high volume is needed in the battle against the devil," Pierre D., the 42-year-old father of the Christian family, told Bild newspaper.

Where is that in the bible that the volume is what is effective against the evil one? My bible says that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess Jesus Christ as LORD. The there is no name under heaven that is greater than Jesus.

What do you think?

Morgan's First Day of School

IMG_1246
Originally uploaded by Rob_Slagle.

This is my stepson Morgan Burch, with his teacher.

He started kindergarten yesterday, he did great according to his teacher. He said they had pizza for lunch and they learned about kimono dragons in science class.

I'm proud of him, he tested ahead of 350 other kids to get into his school.

Sunday School Class

I'm in a new class that just started up called 'The Way of Jesus'
and a question was posed that I would like the readers of my blog to answer.

What does evangelism and discipleship look like and how would you define those terms without the usual baggage and barnacles those terms usually carry?

What are your thoughts?

I've been tagged

Alan Cross has tagged me, this tagfest has been making its rounds thru the baptist blogs recently.

1. One book that changed your life: Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson, I know how corny that may sound, but reading this book activated faith I needed at a difficult time early in my walk with Christ.
2. One book that you've read more than once: A Man After God's own Heart, Jim George. Good stuff about living life as a man.
3. One book that you'd want on a desert island: No intellectual or witty answer here, The Bible
4. One book that made you laugh: I'm drawing a blank on this one, I usually read for serious reasons, not to get a laugh. (I don't read much, I'm more of a visual/relational learner)
5. One book that made you cry: Never cried reading a book that I can remember.
6. One book that you wish you had written: Primary Purpose, Ted Haggard-- awesome book about being intentional with evangelism
7. One book you wish had never been written: Your Best Life Now, Joel Osteen. No need for a comment.
8. One book that you are currently reading: Waking the Dead, John Eldridge
9. One book that you've been meaning to read: Getting Things Done by David Allen - great organization system I've been researching lately.

Here's been tagged now, The Meat Man-Wesley, Kiki Cherry, Fran McCorkle, Robert Crowell

A story of redemption

A Montgomery, Alabama church has bought a venue known for explicit rap shows and drug dealing, to be remodeled and used as their new sanctuary.

You can read about it here.

I think this follows the model in the Bible of how Christ comes and restores what is broken and make it beautiful and useful again.

What do you think?

News of the weird and crazy

According to Lucille Pope, her red oak tree has been mysteriously gurgling water for the past 3 months. Check out the article here.

There are claims that the water might have healing properties, like healing spider bites and painful ankles.

Weird or what?

testimonies from Promise Keepers 2006

In addition to my experience here is some links across the blogosphere

Headgamer

Kerry Woo

Moore News live

Saturday at Promise Keepers

We found out first thing that 299 decisions were made for Christ on Friday night, Praise God! I'll definately pray for followup and discipleship for these men.

Saturday morning was a time of teaching by Bishop Joseph Garlington.

He spoke about our hearts and our talents in God's eyes. You can find the notes/outline here.



He urged us to find out what God's will/dream is for us.

He had us ask ourselves 3 questions

What would I do if I had:

1) the time
2) the money
3) no limits and no boundaries???

To be honest I couldn't answer that on the spot at that time, it is something I am still praying and thinking through for God to show me.



He started the 2nd morning session speaking about our talents.

His defination struck me--- that a talent is the God-given ability that a man can steward and multiply.

Other nuggets/things that hit me were:

Fantasies are from the mind and that dreams are from the heart.

A fantasy is a false vision of an impossible goal, that will eventually lead me away from my eternal purpose and waste my God-given resources and talents.

A God-given dream is a positive statement of a future reality in which I can place my confidence and will require me to invest my talents to achieve it.


We had lunch PK style, it is something to behold -- feeding thousands of men in such a short time. We ate outside -- it was warm, but not too bad.


Mark Schultz led us in worship after lunch, he sang one of my favorite choruses - All in All.

Rick Kingham was the 1st of 2 speakers for the afternoon session.

Rick spoke about Power: Relying on God's Spirit to Empower my Life

He defined power as the ability beyond myself to do God's will.

He pointed to John chapters 13-17 (no he didn't read all of it) as the model that I have the opportunity to live as Jesus did.

He described the experience by the 3 E's:

Encounter that leads to humility - we come face to face with God

Engage - community is the training ground of the Spirit to from the likeness of Christ in us

Express -- the credible witness of the reality of Christ to the world


The final afternoon session was led by Dan Seaborn from Winning At Home, he challenged us to live out what we learned this weekend at home and in the workplace.

One of the things that he said that stood out to me was I don't have to be a pastor to be a minister. Hmmmm that's one to chew on too...

Overall, the weekend was great, the emphasis was to go to God as our source and to team up with a small group of men to encourage and hold accountable.

Next year Promise Keepers returns to Mobile June 29th and 30th, so mark your calendars now.