Church Visited:	New Zion Christian Chruch - Houston, TX
Date / Time Visited:	Wednesday - 11/29/2006 - 7 p.m.
Website:	www.newzion.org
Halo Rating:
Why?:	A woman testified to seeing the face of Jesus in the sky!
Pictures From Our Visit:	(Taken on a camera phone. Real camera next time!)

It’s Wednesday night in Houston, TX, known to some as “hump” day. For me and about 30 other people at New Zion Christian Church, there was no hump to it. It was church night!

Service was to start at 7:00 p.m., but I decided to show up about 15 minutes early. Luckily, I was in time to watch the church band practice! I got to witness them go through the progressions of one of their slower tunes, working the build-ups and slow downs and systematically planning on just how they would invite the presence of the Lord later that evening. People started showing up around 7:05 and once a substantial amount of people had entered the sanctuary, the “praise team” took the stage.

The praise and worship portion of the service went down as follows:

Song 1 - Holy, Holy, Holy (upbeat Christian rock vibe to get the people moving)
Song 2 - Here I Am To Worship (slower mellow song, heat up then cool down)
Song 3 - Revelation Song (slow, emotional tune really gets the spirit flowing)

The attendees were all raising their hands and singing along with the music in praise to God. During the first song you could see a couple of people on the front row dancing and hopping a little. Once the music transitioned into the slower songs, you could see the people really embracing the idea of praising God. At the end of the last song, the band kept on playing, but with no singers as the evening’s preacher approached the stage. He told the musicians to keep playing and then whispered into the microphone and instructed the crowd to “go ahead and speak to the Lord.” He encouraged us all to “not worry about anything right now and praise Him, holding nothing back.” As the music continued to play, it also began to grow in tone and volume, engaging the crowd as the pastor continued. “Hug Him tonight.” “Let him hug you.” “All the rejection is no more.” “Allow Him to caress you like you’ve never been caressed before.” By this time you could hear murmurs of “thank you Jesus” and “yes, Jesus” coming from the audience. Faint sounds of speaking in tongues could be heard as the din of worship continued.

Then, as the preacher was about to begin his sermon, a woman approached the stage. He smiled and handed her the microphone. She began to cry as she told us that earlier in the day, while driving around town, she looked into the sky and saw the face of Jesus. No, I’m NOT kidding, the FACE OF JESUS, IN THE SKY! She continued by telling us that at first she thought this sign was only for her, but God told her that she needed to share it with others. From her account, she stopped her car in the middle of the road and got out to gaze up at the face of her Lord. She then called her mother and a few people from the church to tell them of her “vision.” She told us that God’s message with this sign was for all of us to remember what this time of year is about (Jesus being born), and that we should grab everyone we know and tell them about the salvation of Jesus, because the Lord is coming back soon. She then began to pray to the Lord, asking for forgiveness for our Nation, because it has turned its back on God.

I have to tell you. When she grabbed the microphone, I would have never guessed in a million years, that she would have proclaimed a physical vision of Jesus Christ. I almost wet myself.

The evening’s pastor, Joe Cantu, then thanked her for her testimony and praised God for his message, confirming in everyone’s mind that indeed, witnessing the face of Jesus in the sky is acceptable as well as perfectly reasonable. I thought that it might be played off politely, but it was reinforced by a church leader, and this disturbed me. I know that under the influence of a heavily religious lifestyle, the mind can do tricky things to a person, but to have crazy visions, whole-heartedly endorsed by the people that are supposed to be watching over the people of their congregation, is insane!

Pastor Cantu’s message for the evening was entitled, “Growing & Going.” There’s not really much to say about this. Imagine a pretty standard “prodigal son meets harvesting the lost souls for Jesus” message, and you’ll get the idea. This sermon was produced from a very “moderate” Christian perspective, as it encouraged the congregation to go out and witness to everyone and accept any and everyone into the church. God could then work on their hearts and deliver them from their sin and personal strife. The message wrapped up by quoting the great commission where Jesus says, “Go ye into all the world…..” Nothing really challenging was presented and it was moderate enough to not really hurt anything, other than perpetuating the ideas of submitting one’s self to the beckoning call of an unproven deity. But what do I expect, this is church!

Overall I give this experience 4 halos, because it’s been a really, really long time since I’ve heard someone crazy enough to proclaim a “physical” vision of Christ.

I swear to you, I am NOT lying!

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This is Dr. Jerry Johnston, and he is one piece of work.

Dr. Johnston is the pastor of First Family Church in Overland Park, Kansas. From the looks of it, FFC is not a mega-church yet, but soon will be with the current ability to broadcast worldwide in many different languages. Once you hear what Dr. Johnston and his ministry have to say, this will be a disturbing idea.

Tonight’s sermon was entitled, “Secrets of the Sabbatical Year.” This message is part of the video archives portion of the FFC website. Since this is the most current topic in the archives, I decided to review it first. You can view the sermon, in its entirety at the following link: http://www.ffc.org/media/Players/TV/JJ/JJ_TV_T06E062_LBL_1.html

If that doesn’t work, you can stream the file here:
mms://69.56.252.12/ffcod/TV/JJ/TV_JJ_T06E062_LBL_1.wmv

Dr. Johnston begins by telling us all that if we “got honest,” we would ask the following questions:

1) “Why have I not experienced God’s blessing in my life?”
2) “Why have I had such a challenge with my finances?”
3) “Why, in my life’s journey, have I not developed any net worth whatsoever?”

Can you guess the answer to all three of these questions? I bet you can. Personally, I sat dumbfounded, anxiously awaiting the answer, that would free me from the trials and tribulations of my “life’s journey.” The answer, my friends, is Jesus… well, Jesus and making sure that you give your money to the church. Don’t forget that second part. EVER.

Jerry goes on to tell us that to truly obtain the blessings of God in your life, and to dwell in the protection and provision that God can provide, you must understand 3 principles.

1) The land was a gift from God.
2) The land was to keep a Sabbath every 7th year.
3) If we disobey God’s command, we will lose his protection and provision for our needs.

I can imagine you are wondering what number 1 and 2 mean. If you listen to the sermon, you will find that Jerry is referencing the biblical promised land that was given to the Israelites when they were freed from the captivity of the Egyptians. Basically Dr. Johnston draws an analogy between the covenant of God and the Israelites for the promised land, and the covenant that the faithful are supposed to adhere to concerning God and their finances.

What is this covenant you ask? Basically, you are to tithe 10% of your total income to God. Dr. Johnston explains that tithe is not just required from one member of a family, but from any person who receives income. If you go to work, give 10% of your income to God. If your husband or wife works, they should give 10% of their income to God. If you receive a monetary gift, 10% of that should be given to God. See the pattern?

I think before we move on, there should be one major distinction that needs to be made. When you give your tithe to God, you are giving your money to the church. Let me repeat that. You are giving your money to the church. Your money does not magically go to heaven, where God blesses it and puts it in the Holy savings and loan to draw eternal interest. I’m sure no one is misunderstood in this fact, but allow me to tell you that much like water into wine, your money will magically be turned into a shiny new SUV, that the pastor of your church will drive up in one day. Now take a look at your commuter-class compact sedan, that has transmission trouble. Maybe you’re not living under the blessings of God? Maybe you should tithe more! March on slave mentality! Let’s continue.

As we move along in the sermon, we find out that the ability to make money is a gift from God. Not only that, but everything great about us is from God. Jerry tells us that constantly, he has great ideas, so many in fact that he keeps a notebook at all times on his person and beside his bed at night. Many of these ideas are beneficial to him, his family and the church. But here’s the kicker. Are these ideas spawned from the crafty mind of Dr. Jerry Johnston? No! They are God’s ideas, and they are given to Jerry by God! So why would anything that Jerry has to say, not be from God? Obviously, a sermon on tithing that is going to heavily increase the influx of monetary donation to Jerry’s religious organization has to come from God, doesn’t it? Think about that for a second.

Finally after all of the building up of the human spirit, by telling us that everything great about us is God breathed, and that we are mighty in the Lord, Jerry brings us back down. “If we disobey God’s command, we will lose his protection and provision for our needs.” Jerry tells us that there is no way that he would ever want to lose the protection and provision of God in his life, and he would never forsake that protection and provision in his children’s lives. Did you catch that? Oh yeah, he says it. Not only are you affecting your own life when you disobey the commandment to tithe, but you are affecting the lives of your family members.

And did you know that there is a devourer in this world that seeks to destroy your life? Indeed there is! Queue the violins and creaky doors! Just like the devourer of the fields, that plagued the agricultural survival of the farming infrastructure of the Israelites, there is a devourer that seeks to keep your life from being fruitful and blessed by God. All you have to do, to defeat this devourer, is accept Jesus into your life as your lord and savior… and… and… and… here it comes…………………… Begin to tithe!

Now, if you reference my last post, you will see that I like to keep the most absurd part of my review for the end. Jerry gives us a shining example of absurdity, that I now pass on to each of you. At the beginning of his sermon, right after Dr. Johnston presents principle 1, he turns to the camera and says the following:

“Let me say to those of you in the Middle East. The land of Israel is Israel’s land. It is not Hamas’ land. It is not Hezbollah’s land. It is the land of God, given to the Israelites, and all of us Christians understand that God’s covenant with Israel is an unerasable covenant.”

Tell me this. What does a fat, white man from Overland Park, Kansas know about the Middle East? What right does he have in the religio-politcal affairs of people half way around the world? He has no right, no right whatsoever. Jerry Johnston has been brainwashed by his own teachings. He actually believes that he can be a mouthpiece for an almighty creator and that his word, because it is given to him by God, is final. In the past I might say that anyone who falls for this type of charade, gets what they deserve, but I don’t believe that anymore. This is a manipulative form of mental slavery, that builds people up and tears them down, only to build them up and tear them down again, because they will never be worthy of the blessings of God. You may feel the blessings of God, but oh no, never be comfortable, because if you mess up, God will strip his blessings from your life in a heartbeat. And what is even worse, is that all of this is backed by a supernaturally absurd pyramid scheme that robs people of their hard-earned money, and gives them absolutely nothing in return other than more manipulative mental slavery and self-loathing to retribution run-around.

You are a charlatan “Dr.” Johnston, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

My rating of today’s performance: 3 halos. (because I had to pause the sermon 3 times to laugh and yell at how ridiculous it was)

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Televangelism or “TV Church,” as I like to call it, has dominated channel flipping since I was a child. Whenever I would visit my grandmother’s house, I could expect that TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) would be present in our viewing at least 80% of the time. Since most of my visits were around holidays, the other 20% consisted of sports. I’ve never sat down to draw up the analagous features of the two, but the presence of ravenous dancing fans who all believe that their side is going to win is mentally stimulating to say the least.

Foregoing any further trips into my personal extended family viewing practices, I flipped across Shawn Boonstra today.

Shawn is the host of a globally broadcast televangelical program called “It is Written.” Can you guess the premise of the show? You got it! With Holy God-Breathed text in-hand, Shawn uses his other hand to walk the ignorant masses across the dangerous intersection of sin and destruction called human existence. And don’t think I’m the one accusing the masses of being ignorant, these are Shawn’s words.

Today’s episode was entitled, “Resisting God.” A full script of this episode can be found at this address:
http://www.itiswritten.com/tvprogram/episode/resisting-god2?pg=all

Mr. Boonstra begins this episode by introducing us to a few power-players of the bible, while favored by God, made mistakes just like you and I, such as: Noah and his addiction to alcohol, Moses and his hot temper which led him to murder, and King David who murdered and was an adulterer.

A highlight amongst these mistake makers was Herod the tetrarch who drunkenly promised the head of John the Baptist to a “pretty dancing girl.” Supposedly, Herod had been influenced by the teaching of John the Baptist and was hard pressed to deliver on his promise. Being a man of his word, he bit the bullet and had John the Baptist beheaded.

Shawn goes on to tell us that reading these passages, one tends to believe that they would never make the kind of mistakes that our bible legends have made. But as Shawn says,

“…the whole point of these stories is that every one of us is prone to making exactly the same kinds of mistakes. You might never be asked to literally serve up someone’s head on a silver platter. But, you might be asked at a board meeting to sacrifice your moral principles for the sake of the bottom line. Or you might be asked to look the other way when you know something wrong is about to take place.”

As the episode moves on, Shawn reveals to us, that no one is born a criminal, or a mass murderer, but if we are not careful, we could all end up that way. He goes on to talk about the Israelites being led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses, and while seeing miracles of God all along the way, they were always falling prey to their weak faith. Shawn’s case is further developed by claiming that “the average human being has a very short memory,” and that without complete devotion to God, we too will walk a path of chaos, misery and strife, much like the Israelites who walked around aimlessly in the desert, because they didn’t obey God. Shawn tells us that if only the Israelites would have had strong faith, and obeyed God, that God would have stood by his plan to set them up in “Palestine, in the crossroads of the ancient world, so that every nation on the face of the planet could see for themselves how good a relationship with God can be.” Yeah… my jaw dropped too.

If you check out the script of this episode, you will see that after this, it is your run-of-the-mill, alter call persuassion, that devoting yourself to God, and accepting Jesus into your heart will allow you to not have to walk around the world with your limited knowledge and perception, but will enable you to follow the plan of God, who can see the big picture and is not limited by a feeble human brain.

So basically kids, what Shawn is doing here is a standard for modern Christianity. Breakdown the individual, by persuading them that they are truly not as good as the ideal you are selling, then give them hope in said ideal, that it will take care of their inadequacy and deficiencies. Here’s the process:

1) Prey on the part of the “masses” that may indeed be “ignorant” to the ideas of morality not being an absolute set of “stone tablet” supernatural law, but a set of daily ongoing choices that one establishes based on case-specific criteria.

2) Reinforce the instability of the individual by reminding them of their past, when perhaps the wrong choices were made. Throw a line in there about how their life might be a wreck, so that you get the attention of people who are currently struggling with their humanity.

3) When you have your audience at their weakest point, and questioning the choices they have made, tell them that there is a path, that will free them from having to depend on their “inadequate” decission making process, and that this choice is a personal relationship with a deity that they will never audibly hear from, nor will they ever physically see. Just don’t tell them about that last part.

The thing about all of this, is that there is an overwhelmingly huge mass of people, who are ignorant to these tactics. To prey on them, is perverse. I am making a judgement here, and perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps Shawn is an example of the effects of this type of predation. Maybe Shawn is a product of the process he is continuing. Whether this is premeditated swindling or not, Shawn is still at fault for participating in broadcasting this type of charade globally.

There was one more thing that stood out to me from this episode and I wanted to save the best for last. Shawn opens the episode with the following:

“On the landscape of great literature, the Bible really stands apart from the crowd.”

“The fact a Book like this could ever come into existence is nothing short of a miracle, especially when you consider its origin. It was written by more than 40 different authors, ranging from statesmen to fishermen, over a period lasting more than 1,500 years, and still the whole Book is in perfect agreement. Now YOU try to get perfect agreement from 40 different people, especially on the subject of religion, and you’ll understand what a miracle that really is.”

Well Shawn, I would hardly call the bible in perfect agreement. For instance, is murder a commandment trespassing sin, or are we to stone our unruly children to death at the edge of town? This is a small example, and we will cover bible inconsistencies in a future post, but I think the bigger point, is that Shawn fails to enlighten his viewers on the more than 1,500 years that the bible has been translated, re-translated edited and re-edited. He makes it out to seem that God-breathed texts were collected once, more than 1,500 years ago, and have held as a collection ever since, and, well Shawn, if you’ve been to seminary you should know better.

One thing I will say about Mr. Boonstra is that he comes across as very well educated and well spoken. He is a charming fellow who seems like more of a big brother than a preacher. Sadly, whether he knows it or not, he is a deceiver.

Sorry Shawn, you’re not fooling us.
My rating of today’s performance: 1 halo.

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