Category: ministry

Posted in beth moore, biblical womanhood, feminist, ministry, priscilla shirer

The moth-eaten SBC and the women who did it

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. (Hosea 5:12)

Privately, however, Moore has never cared much for the delicate norms of Christian femininity. ~The Atlantic

I published an essay, part 1 of 3, in 2011, eight years ago as of this date. It was about how the secret feminists laid the groundwork for a later open rebellion. That rebellion has now occurred. They are openly touting egalitarian principles. The takeaway-

  • These rebellious women live for their work, which is usually a corporation, but called a ministry,
  • These women are the main and sustained breadwinners, and the husband supports the wife by adopting the wifely role,
  • These women actively reject rebuke and correction from elder men, thus fulfilling the feminist’s more famous line, ‘A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.’

They are feminists.

In my 2011 essay I had focused on how Beth Moore, grandma of the Christian feminists, was Exhibit A in laying a devilish groundwork of feminism in the evangelical church. Worse, she was producing spiritual children to follow in her example, like Priscilla Shirer, Christine Caine, and Rachel Held Evans, and others.

Back then I called them secret feminists because these women hid their private ambitions from the public, and they used complementarian language even though they privately disbelieved in it. But discerning women and men were not fooled, these women’s lives were forward. The recent Atlantic Monthly interview of Beth Moore (Oct 2018) with the above quote proves their private ambitions were there all along.

At the time, I warned that the groundwork being laid in their feminist ministry and the examples they set would have dire consequences. As God promised the Israelites that He would be a moth to them, it seems that God has used Beth Moore and her spiritual daughters to eat away the garment. Its sturdiness and functonality has rotted. For church leaders and especially the SBC not to have plugged those holes ensured that the complementarian garment would rot. It has.

But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. (Hosea 5:12)

We can look back and see…where we were and where we’ve ended up, and why.

“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was the feminist motto of the 1970s. The implication was that women didn’t ‘need’ a man at all.

In 2012 when I wrote about this last, there were a number of popular Bible teachers/preachers who traveled widely, filling arenas, marketing their books, selling their products, and leaving the husband at home to take care of the kids. These women had assumed the lead role in the marriage and are the main breadwinner, and the husband is the helpmeet, usually having set aside his career to work in his wife’s corporation ministry. While these women call what they are doing “ministry,” I call it “feminism”.

This is the new crop of what I called Christian secret feminists- but they aren’t as secret as they were in 2012. They live a feminist life inside of Christianity but call it ministry. They are openly rebelling now.

One woman who has much to answer for about this new role is Beth Moore. She was the one who broke new ground in the Southern Baptist Convention, a most conservative denomination, in how far a woman could go in attaining celebrity status, living for her career and not for her home, and promoting gender role reversals.

She showed us how to be the main and sustained breadwinner of the family. She showed us that she could preach in a church and teach anyone in the world, uncensured. Mrs Moore, while speaking conservative values cloaked in all the right Christianese, has lived a very feminist life. You will see more details on this below.

A spiritual daughter of Mrs Moore in this generation of Christian feminists is Christine Caine. Mrs Caine’s language is less cloaked (more open) in her declarations of what women can or should see as their roles in Christian home and work life. Mrs Caine is an ordained minister and part of Hillsong Church in Australia.

For example, in an interview (now deleted from Youtube) from 2010, Caine reassured Pastor’s wives that despite Caine’s visible usurpation of the traditional husband-wife roles, that their stay-at-home role is still viable:

“Predominantly I might teach a little bit and I step out into what would be the more classic leadership gift, so a lot of people say ‘I’m not that, so therefore I must not have a role to play…'”

It’s no wonder that woman are confused when they see peers taking on the ‘classic leadership gift’. And that is one way they cloak their rebellion in Christianese: it is not a role or a job, it is a ‘gift‘. Ultimately, women would not need reassurance from other women that their biblical role is still viable if they themselves were not setting it aside.

Christine continues in the interview by acknowledging that there are “women who are gentle and loving and nurturing”, and there are other “women who come along side and do a bit more “non-gentle prodding help people go to the next level.” But that in “no way diminishes your role.”

Really? Sure it does. It sets up women to be discontent. By justifying herself in the leadership role as a gift from God (and who can argue with that?) and acknowledging that there are ‘levels’ and women need to get to, but at the same time saying it is important to stay at home and be nurturing…she had completely confused any listener as to the clear guidelines of the notion of what Biblical womanhood is. She says one thing (and not too clearly, either) but does another.

Discernment tip: one way to detect if a person is in the Word is to see if what they say and what they do match up over time. If what they say and what they do are different, run away. Beth Moore is a good example of that, see below.

Mrs Caine’s reassurances use a neat scriptural twist. If objecting to a woman’s taking on home or ministry leadership roles, simply acknowledge that the women feel weak or unsure in them, but get around it by assuring them that all they need to do is have courage to step out and let Jesus work through their weakness, citing 2 Corinthians 12:9 out of context (“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”). That’s how Caine works it.

Discernment tip: Once a women steps out of the biblical role assigned to her by God, reasoning becomes confused, because God is the author of clarity and it’s satan who sows confusion. A discerning person will really listen to what she is saying, listen to how she is saying it, and look at the life she is leading to make a decision on whether this teacher is someone to learn from. Is what she is saying clear and easily confirmed by the Bible, or is it confusing?

In that same interview, Mrs Caine said, “The only way I was able to continue in my role is that my senior pastor’s wife stepped into her role and chose not to be threatened or intimidated because the giftings were different.”

Oh, I get it. Women are now complementarians to each other. It’s the height of irony that unwittingly, Mrs Caine acknowledges that these new ‘roles’ set up discontent. It’s so nice that in her situation at least, the pastor’s wife wasn’t jealous of her fabulous gift. A good portion of the middle of the interview is Caine’s description of how women are to be complementarian of each other in church settings. One takes the wifely nurturing role so that the younger ones coming up can step out, so to speak. That’s not complementarianism, that’s rebellion.

Now, female support between and among ministries is a good thing, and it is biblically commanded. (Titus 2:4) but the description in Titus is for elder women to teach the younger is in their biblically defined helpmeet role, not to be a helpmeet to other women who step out into classic male roles.

Priscilla Shirer is another of these new Christian feminists whose life is more forward than their spiritual mothers.

“The NY Times article notes that Mr Shirer spends much of the day negotiating Priscilla’s speaking invitations and her book contracts. In the afternoon it’s often Mr Shirer who collects the boys from school. Back home, Priscilla and Jerry divide chores and child care equally.

“Jerry quit his job to run his wife’s ministry. Priscilla now accepts about 20 out of some 300 speaking invitations each year, and she publishes a stream of Bible studies, workbooks and corresponding DVDs intended for women to read and watch with their girlfriends from church. Jerry does his share of housework and child care so that Priscilla can study and write. He travels with his wife everywhere. Whenever possible, they take their sons along on her speaking trips, but they often deposit the boys with Jerry’s mother.”‘

If you delete the name Shirer and substitute Gloria Steinem, and change ministry to job you have a description of a life that any feminist would be proud of.

By 2019 Beth Moore is one of the elders in this realm. Moore has been “on the ministry circuit” for almost 30 years. Thus, her rebellious example has been long in view for many women who have watched her since they were an impressionable teen. Later comers arriving on the scene such as Priscilla Shirer or Christine Caine have learned from the best of the Christian feminists in Moore.

Meanwhile, despite the Bible’s instruction to women to be gentle, meek, quiet, and industrious, tending to their homes and children, Moore has become culturally confrontational. Political. And since my essay was first published in 2011, we have a helpful confirmation of exactly what I had written about back then regarding the man left at home to tend to the kids while the wife wins the bread, but was vigorously denied and refuted by Moore’s followers. As the lengthy article about Moore in an October 2018 article in The Atlantic reveals,

Privately, however, Moore has never cared much for the delicate norms of Christian femininity. Her days are tightly scheduled and obsessively focused on writing. She spends hours alone in an office decorated with a Bible verse written in a swirling font (“I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven,” Luke 7:47). Though she often performs domestic femininity for her audience, in her own life she has balanced motherhood with demanding professional ambitions. She traveled every other weekend while her two daughters were growing up—they told me they ate a lot of takeout. Like other Southern Baptists, Moore considers herself a complementarian

We know she never cared for the Bible’s command to live a quiet life at home. If she did, she would not preach to men. Or leave her children behind. Or obsessively focus on her career. She SAYS she is a complementarian, but she IS a feminist. She always has been.

For example, deliberate misrepresentation:

Beth Moore said to Christianity Today in 2010 that her man demanded a regular home life so she only travels every other Friday and comes right back home the next day.

“We walk the dogs together and eat out together all the time and lie on the floor with pillows and watch TV,” Moore says. “My man demanded attention and he got it, and my man demanded a normal home life and he got it.”

Aww, isn’t that nice. But it’s disingenuous in the extreme. The reality was that Mrs Moore was gone from home at least 20 times per year on her Living Proof tours, which is a lot if you have kids and a husband. Mrs Moore appeared weekly on the Life Today television show, traveled for weeks on book tours, where she expounded on the burning question all women in America are apparently asking, “How can women find validation without a man’s affirmation?” and which her book So Long, Insecurity apparently attempts to answer.

She also spent extended private time for weeks in a cabin by herself in Wyoming to write her book (as stated in the preface to “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things”). She is the President of her own company that in 2011 brought in 4.1 million dollars, with an excess after expenses of 1.3M, stated working hours of 40/week. If you think all she does is lay around on pillows gazing adoringly at her man then all I can say is look at what she does, not what she says.  Beth Moore is a Christian feminist because for years she has lived that way, no matter what she disingenuously told Christianity Today.

It’s no wonder women are confused when they see Beth Moore telling us that you can have a corporate career and still be a Christian woman, if you call it ministry. Or like Christine Caine- just call your career ambitions a gift. (c.f. Joanna Gaines).

Feminists like Moore simply misrepresented her life to interviewers and used acceptable language to fool undiscerning readers. Caine twisted scripture to do it, claiming her rebellion is a gift from God that must be used. RHE used the tactic of saying it was all an accident.

Ms Evans also claimed to be an accidental feminist, writing on her blog, “Most of all, if these critics knew me, they would know that it isn’t feminism that inspires me to advocate gender equality in the Church and in the world; it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“God surprised me with this ministry” Priscilla Shirer said, as if the big oops was all out of her hands nor will she be morally and spiritually culpable on the Lord’s day of Judgment. And I can assure you ladies reading this, that despite what Mrs Evans said those years ago, Jesus did not deliver the Gospel by His blood so she could use it to promote a different role for women than He has already ordained.

Do not be fooled by what they say. Look at their life. Paul advised Timothy to guard his doctrine and his life. he meant to live the precepts, not just know them or utter them. The old saying from the 70s, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was the feminist motto. Now the only difference for today’s Christian secret open feminist is the logo on her purse.

 

Posted in advice, encouragement, ministry, women

Advice for online Christian ministry women

Posted on by elizabethprata

I try to maintain a social media presence only to the extent that it serves me posting things about Jesus. That’s my main focus. Occasionally I become aware that there are other venues out there besides Facebook, Blogger and Twitter for social media engagement, There’s LinkedIn, which I haven’t used, new things like Snapchat, Periscope, and Meerkat, but those platforms have content expiration dates, which defeats the purpose of having a long-term stable platform onto which a person can find my material years later. There’s Instagram, but I don’t have a mobile phone. There’s Peach, Kik, YikYak, Bebo and lots of new, trendy platforms coming along now. The wheel is getting bigger all the time, even as they claim the world is getting smaller.

Just as you do when starting a business, I think that incorporated Christian bloggers or even lone Christian bloggers with a particular mission in focus need to have at least a mental “business plan.” Personally I am gearing up to incorporate simply because I want to sell an eBook or two and being incorporated is the safest way to go when it comes to tax time.

However, I only investigate using a new social media to the extent that it prayerfully seems to serve my two purposes, which are, make Christ and His glories known; and to offer credible resources that connect new Christians, mature Christian women, and seekers, to quality content that will help them grow. That’s my ‘business plan’. Those two. Every once in a while I reassess to make sure those are still two viable goals and if I am still tracking in them. It’s easy to drift in ministry, even online ministry. Especially online ministry!

It is so easy to wander into a Jen Hatmaker or Glennon Melton or She Reads Truth blog and think one is reading about Christ, and thus the new Christian babe gets confused from the start. I’ll always be grateful that after a false walk with Joel Osteen my first months out of the gate after the cross, I landed at John MacArthur’s Grace To You radio program and there I am still. Who MacArthur quoted, I read. Who he mentioned, I followed up with. And so it expanded from there to Phil Johnson, Don Green, Justin Peters, Boice, Barnhouse, Shepherds Conference speakers like Mohler, Lawson, Begg, Pennington, Sproul, etc, and you see how the circle expands from there.

Get lumped in to a Voskamp blog or study and you wind up with Angie Smith, Shauna Niequist, Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer and the rest. The circle goes both ways. It is wise not to get drawn-in to a bad one. Those kinds of circles shrink around you like a boa constrictor, attempting to squeeze the life from you.

It is also very easy to become distracted from whatever is the main, online goal you have set before you. The Lord has allowed me to organize my life in a way that I have a stable, fulfilling job which salary sustains me in a reasonably frugal way yet not left wanting, and leaves me energy afterward to do my real work, which is write. I employ the gift of the Spirit of edification and discernment in my writing and this serves me in my local church, in and among the women with whom I work, and in online-only relationships. Those are my three spheres. I look at my life as one of service where my 9-5 job is not my real job but only the vehicle that allows me to study, worship, attend church, charitably support, and minister. Like Paul’s tentmaking. (Acts 18:3-4).

It is good for a Christian woman who maintains an online presence occasionally to ask herself some questions. Just as we are to test ourselves occasionally to see if we are in the faith, (2 Corinthians 13:5), so too, like careful stewards of the “Father’s Business Plan” we need to make sure we are still on His point.

1. Am I still in the center line of His will? Years ago if you’ve started a blog, or an online endeavor of some kind, like a newsletter, or an online course etc, if it does not seem to be working any more it is OK to reassess. We usually maintain the same gifts throughout our lives but sometimes He might want you to concentrate on one of your other gifts entirely, or use the same gift in a different way. See below regarding Benziger and Lesley.

2. Am I still effective at this? I am not thinking of results. Results are the Lord’s. I’m thinking, it is still a joy to perform the online ministry? Do you approach it with dread? Prayerlessness? Bitterness? Habit? Or does it still fulfill you spiritually? Bring tears to your eyes for the small mercies and quiet triumphs? For even one lost or questioning soul connected? Do you still have an awe or fear of the Lord when you perform it?

3. Does it seem like the Lord is moving to allow time for your online endeavor, or is it taking away from the family? Have the number of family complaints increased lately? Have other more important or more local things suffered as you’ve devoted time to the online world? When you’re on the online world, do you drift away from the ministry and become unfocused and waste time? Are you staying up late to hurriedly finish because you’ve wasted time online during the day instead? Do you feel the quality of the work is still good enough to lay at the Lord’s feet?

4. Have I compromised? Have I succumbed to neediness or wanting acceptance so I have linked to blogs that are not as edifying, or quoted a few popular females in the dazzling Christian celebrity world, simply to get attention or hits? It’s easy to do that. Compromise is always incremental. you don’t wake up one day with a blogroll full of Raechel Myers’ or Jen Hatmaker links, it happens slowly, then all at once. Have I avoided hard topics because I don’t ant controversy or am I still writing or ministering without fear of favor, throughout the entire Bible?

These are just a bare few ideas about us women maintaining an online ministry. Tim Challies wrote a while back about conservative women’s blogs that have gone cold. It might be worth a re-read. Several male bloggers, podcasters, and other online presences have recently announced they are taking time off, or redirecting their energies elsewhere for a while. Sometimes that happens. As I said, when one becomes unfocused and “diversifies” in one’s ministries too quickly. Sometimes it happens because other life events simply come along. It is OK to let it go, as the overused saying, well, goes. It is OK to reassess and prayerfully decide to take a step back.

Or perhaps the Lord is moving you in a direction that will stretch you and magnify Him even more!

Sometimes even more joyfully, reassessment means to take a step forward! Blogger Erin Benziger announced she was starting Equipping Eve, and twice monthly radio show under the auspices of No Compromise Radio/Pastor Mike Abendroth. That led to an opportunity to lead a discernment talk at the Answers for Women: Discern Conference. Michelle D. Lesley announced in January of this year a slow-down in daily blog writing and a restructuring of the blog’s content in order to focus on a book project. Recently she also announced she was organizing a conference for women. She also began to solicit guest bloggers. Even a bit further back Tim Challies allowed for sponsorship of his blog and the guest posts that come with it, in order to aid him in a restructuring of content and his own daily tasks.

Our lives in service are fluid and at His behest. If you’re a woman reading this, your first point of service is your own devotion to Jesus in reading the Word, prayer, and home. Then faithful worship and service at church, and to the saints there. And then online activity/ministry.

Stay prayerful and intentional with your online ministry. Try not to diversity too fast. A while back an offer came along but I humbly declined it because I felt I was not up to the task. And that is the crux of it. We don’t do this for ourselves.We don’t do this even for the sisters. We do this for Jesus. I want this to be my best work, all the time. Because He is worth my best efforts.

Posted in church life, marriage, ministry, single ladies, singleness

Joy in singleness, though you’d never know it by Christian social media or church life. Part 1

Posted on by elizabethprata

 Joy in Singleness, part 2: Gifted to live singly for Jesus
Joy in Singleness, part 3: Famous biblical singles
Joyful in Singleness part 4 conclusion: Personal Note and Opinion

I am currently reading through and studying 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul outlines responsibilities of life to marrieds & singles, and mentioning young men, virgins, and widows. It is a great chapter. Paul is specific, loving, and clear, focusing on marriage, lust, and conjugal duty.

Marriage is the foundation block of society, procreation is strongly urged, (Genesis 1:28, Genesis 9:7, Psalm 128:3, Proverbs 31:27), and divorce is considered a violent act, (Luke 16:18; 1 Corinthians 7:15; Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:6,8; Genesis 2:24). As a matter of fact, unauthorized divorce prohibits men from serving in leadership capacity, (1 Timothy 3:2) so it is no wonder that churches spend a good deal of time preaching to and discipling marrieds. There are many marriage retreats, books, Sunday School curricula, and sermons given over to the subject. This is a good thing.

Marriage, the Bible tells us from the beginning of the Book of Genesis, is a divine institution. That is, it is something established by God. It is a covenant that is given by God and for that reason it is traceable to him. It has also been consecrated by him, for he has blessed the marriage relationship. And, of course, it’s the means of the preservation of the human race. ~S. Lewis Johnson, Marriage Counsel, part 1

 However oftentimes so much attention is given to married couples and their issues, that an overly myopic focus descends upon any given church that leaves the other half of the population out. There are young unmarried men and women, honorably divorced folks, and widows and widowers. Because of the excessive focus on marriage and married Christians’ concerns, one would be led to believe the entire church was composed of couples. But it is not so.

Census data from 1970 show that 70 percent of American households contained a married couple. The 2006 report from the Census Bureau disclosed that fewer than half of American households are now maintained by married couples. Eye on Unmarried America

In this series I’ll focus on singleness, its joys, benefits, church life, and ministry and civic opportunities. There are several kinds of singles: singles who are frustrated in the waiting for what they know will be God’s gift of marriage to them, or who have had that gift and are now widows or widowers and are grieving the loss. Some in today’s world are temporarily single also by the fact that their spouse is serving overseas, working far away, or are incarcerated. (Yes it happens). For these singles, a different kind of ministry is needed. Many of these people desire comfort and love and support as they yearningly await a change in their marital status.

Those aren’t the singles I am discussing. I’ll address the fact that even if some singles are acknowledged and gasp! ministered to, not all singles are in a waiting room for marriage. Some, like me, know they will be single forever, and are happy with that gift. Yes, gift. Rarely is the gift of singleness discussed in the church, or even preached about, looked upon as an enhancement to the Body, let alone acknowledged as a normal segment of the family He is creating.

Churches are so committed to the idea of a family-centered church that they’re just not sure how to handle rising rates of singleness. “Are Single People the Lepers of Today?”

Further, I’ll reject the subtle cloud that usually attaches to a discussion of singles: depression, sadness, longing. There are singles out there which God has granted a life of joy and fulfillment, with nary a search for the soul mate in sight but only having eyes for the Groom.

For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it. (Matthew 19:11)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Joy in Singleness, part 2: Gifted to live singly for Jesus
Joy in Singleness, part 3: Famous biblical singles
Joyful in Singleness part 4 conclusion: Personal Note and Opinion

Posted in encouragement, ministry, teachers, women

Add one more good woman teacher to the list: Chapter 3 Ministries

Posted on by elizabethprata

I recently finished a series on rebellious women who claim to be Christians, and the final entry extolled the virtues of many different women’s ministries. I presented a list of good women teachers with a synopsis, and said that in my opinion these are profitable for women to follow. There are many teachings among these women’s ministries that are currently safe in which to indulge.

Many women despair of finding a female teacher of substance who study the word with care and create solid curricula for us to use in bible study, Sunday School, or personally. Beth Moore is a false teacher. Joyce Meyer is also. Christine Caine,  Bobbie Houston, and many others are false teachers too. Well, thanks to some time spent researching, I shared a list of good female teachers.

Just after I published the list, I became aware of another woman that should definitely be added to the list. I’d like to introduce Sharon Lareau, of Chapter 3 Ministries.

Her web ministry is is aimed at women and is founded on 1 Peter Chapter 3:1-6 & 15. She is married with two children, is a member of a local church along with her husband, and has homeschooled both children from kindergarten to college, over the course of 18 years. Mrs Lareau has health issues that keep her homebound most of the time. She wrote on her “About” page,

In my life as a Christian, I have been led by a desire to minister to Christian wives in the spirit of Titus 2:3-5. I have been blessed with many different opportunities to serve in that way through the years. I have taught classes at our church as a part of Women’s Ministry, I have been involved with different online support and outreach endeavors, and I have sought to fulfill the call of Titus 2:3-5 on a one on one bases.

Her foremost prayer is that the ministry brings glory to God. In addition,

The circle of my ministry expands to all women whether they are married, single, divorced, or widowed. Though I know I am not well equipped to minister to all in some ways, my heart is open to learning. I hope and pray to be an encouragement along the way.

Mrs Lareau ministers to women in matters of Christian marriage, apologetics, and faith. I found her discernment essays regarding Beth Moore to be humble, discerning, and biblically solid. She participated in a BM simulcast in September 2014, and reviewed them. Part 1 of 3 parts is here.

At the website you can expect to find essays on subjects ranging from the Sovereignty of God, analysis of “The Message” bible, marriage & family, discernment and more. Mrs Lareau believes that Christian women are called to the defense of the faith just as much as men. We have no less need to be equipped.

I hope you enjoy her website. I’ll add others as I discover them. For every Beth Moore out there, chanting mantras and proclaiming prophecies based on the deceptions of her own mind (Jeremiah 14:14), there are twice as many women in all corners of the United States and in other nations, persevering in the faith, ministering, laboring, loving fellow sisters through Christ.

Posted in actionjones, chris powers, donation, idolatry, ministry, patreon

Chris Powers’ next animation: Idolatry!

Posted on by elizabethprata

I am so excited for Chris Powers as he is being used by the Lord in creating so many beautiful animations, studies, tract development, and essays at his blog. This young man is full of passion for Christ, but it is oriented rightly, upward. He is humble and Christ-exalting, with a good head on his shoulders and doctrinally solid.

He is in seminary and also attempting to expand his ministry. To that end, he signed on with Patreon, (Deja vu? No, I wrote about this topic earlier in the week). Patreon is a way for people to contribute to a project, in his case a ministry of videos and tracts and curricula to give away for free. He needs support, and Patreon is a way to do it. You can give as little as $1 per month, up to $50 per month. I am supporting him and I pass this video along to you so you can see what he is about. This is the second Patreon video he produced. The first at the link above explains his overall vision for the next phase of ministry. This video focuses on the project he is working on now, a video about idolatry.

If you have a few minutes, please take a listen. The first 2 and a half minutes he discusses his art work, the second half after 3 minutes his verve and passion shines thought as He praises Jesus and explains his hopes for what the video will accomplish. It’s his doctrinal love for Christ that got me, and yet he is putting his life on the line to accomplish it. He has courage. Prayerful, considered, biblical courage.

Why am I writing about a young animator twice in one week, and asking for you to prayerfully consider donations no less?

Because…we bemoan the youth and how they are going astray. Here is one who’s not. They need support for their lives and their projects. John MacArthur is 75 years old and on the occasion of his 75th birthday, a brother in the faith posted, Will the Next john MacArthur Please Stand Up? I don’t know if Chris is the next great preacher for our times of course, but as one generation of Christian influential elders passes, we naturally look to the next generation for whence they will arise. With so much fluff and falsity in this foolish youth generation, here is one man who does not teach fluff and he is not foolish. These young men need support, prayer, and encouragement.

Titus 2:1-6. 1 Timothy 5:1.

Thank you!

Posted in actionjones, chris powers, encouragement, full of eyes, ministry, patreon

Chris Powers AKA Action Jones, and his ministry Full of Eyes

Posted on by elizabethprata
screen shot from newest video

You may already be well aware of this extraordinarily talented young Christian man, Chris Powers. He is an animator and graphic artist who labors to bring visual theology to the people, for free. His videos, essays, and tracts are wonderful. I’ve been following him (under his working name ActionJones) for a while now. I wrote about him last July, here.

I’ve never seen anyone (except maybe Chris Koelle) bring abstract concepts such as regeneration or justification to visual power as Powers does. He uses contemporary songs for his videos, and being young, connects with the youth. He is a tremendous artist and a strong Christian, who is in seminary also. His ministry is called Full Of Eyes from the Ezekiel 10:12 verse “the wheels were full of eyes all around.”

I wrote about him a year or so ago. I bring him to your attention again now. Mr Powers is stepping out in faith to up his ministry. He has worked part-time on his video animations and since it has been part-time, output has been slow. He has been praying and is going full-time.

Because he still needs to support his family, he has signed up with Patreon, an online pledge-support mechanism to support content-creators in the music and art industry.

As we know from last week’s blast from Weird Al Yankovic’s successful transition from the old model of signing contracts with record labels to freelance flexible online platforms, the music and art industry is changing. But one thing never changes, artists still need to be supported. To that end, several different pledge funding platforms have sprung up. One is Kickstarter, described by Wikipedia here:

Kickstarter is a global crowdfunding platform based in the United States. The company’s stated mission is to help bring creative projects to life. Kickstarter has reportedly received over $1 billion in pledges from 5.7 million donors to fund 135,000 projects, which include films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, and food-related projects.

I recently read that the unbiblical upcoming movie “The Holy Ghost” raised a third of a million dollars on Kicksarter.

A screen shot from “The Gospel Song”

The other crowdfunding platform is Patreon. Wikipedia again explains,

Patreon, based in San Francisco, is a crowdfunding platform created by musician Jack Conte and developer Sam Yam. It allows artists to obtain funding from patrons on a recurring basis or per artwork. Artists set up a page on the Patreon website, where patrons can pledge to donate a given amount of money to an artist every time she or he creates a piece of art, optionally setting a monthly maximum. Alternatively a fixed monthly amount can be pledged. This is different from other crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, where artists obtain a single sum after a successful campaign and typically have to start over for every new piece. Similar to other platforms however, artists will often provide rewards for their patrons. Patreon takes a 5% commission on pledges.

Patreon is growing rapidly both in patrons and creators, with 10000 artists expected to use Patreon by the end of February 2014. While the website initially targeted musicians, established webcomic artists such as Jonathan Rosenberg, Zach Weinersmith and Paul Taylor are successfully using it.

Chris Powers has gone with Patreon, and is asking prayerfully for pledges. Here is his Full of Eyes Youtube page, for you to view his work.

As a stellar example of his work, here is a 5-min animated video of an imagined missionary martyr set to the song “All I Have Is Christ.” It is so powerful to me, I always need tissues when I view it, as I do most of his work. I also enjoy “The Gospel Song” an animation which uses the song of the same name by Drew Jones and also includes a short excerpt of the biblical Gospel, in words, by John Piper. Powers’ intent is always evangelism, not entertainment. Many of his videos and tracts have been translated into other languages for use overseas.

Please, if you have five minutes, view the All I Have Is Christ video. I also ask you to prayerfully consider supporting Mr Powers. We have so many Charismatic false teachers drawing our youth away into unorthodoxy. We have people instantly pledging up to $350,000 for an unbiblical Holy Ghost movie. And yet the solidly orthodox and brilliantly talented ones like Powers labor obscurely to present their biblical and edifying work for free. I pledged a monthly gift. If you feel led, I hope you will too.

Posted in beth moore, biblical womanhood, feminist, ministry, priscilla shirer

How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 1

Posted on by elizabethprata

There are some books coming out today that focus on the concept “biblical womanhood” written by a new breed of Christian women who call themselves Christian feminists. And there are some celebrity woman Bible teachers today who say that they live a life of biblical womanhood but their lives show something different. Biblical womanhood seems to be the next big fad, and that is for a reason. So let’s take a look at what the new Christian feminism is and what biblical womanhood is.

“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was the feminist motto of the 1970s. The implication was that women didn’t ‘need’ a man at all.

Readers of the blog already know that I am not a fan of feminism. I wrote an essay called “The Eternal Discontent of Feminists“, in which I looked at the hypocritical standard secular feminists themselves apply to other women who are perceived as not doing feminism right. That, more than anything, lets us know that feminism is not about equal rights for women, it is about satan’s sowing of discontent among women and causing a division away from the Godly roles He has set up.

I also wrote a three-part series on the rise of the “Feminist Theologians” who attack the notion that Jesus was really a male. I am not making this up.

Feminism has encroached into Christianity. I think most people are still slumbering because I haven’t seen a hue and cry against it. Granted, it is subtle, especially in the women who claim to be evangelical but life a feminist life.

Source

There are now a number of popular Bible teachers/preachers who travel widely, filling arenas, marketing their books, selling their products, and leaving the husband at home to take care of the kids. These women have assumed the lead role in the marriage and are the main breadwinner, and the husband is the helpmeet, usually having set aside his career to work in his wife’s corporation ministry. While these women call what they are doing “ministry,” I call it “feminism”.

As with so much in evangelical Christianity, the waters are increasingly muddied on what should be clear. What is biblical womanhood? In today’s world is it the Bible preaching, sometimes ordained woman, traveling cross country, her husband at home helping with the kids, often having quit his job to help his famous wife perform her ministry?

Or it is a woman with a terribly flawed view of the Bible who sits in a tent when she has per period as a practice for what it was like to be a woman of the Bible for one year?

Or it is a new feminist who is open to women being ordained, to preaching, and/or to acceptance of gays into leadership positions while touting the rising up of women from subjugated roles?

There is new crop of what I’ll call Christian secret feminists. They live a feminist life inside of Christianity but call it ministry. One woman who has much to answer for about this new role is Beth Moore. She was the one who broke new ground in how far a woman could go in attaining celebrity status, in workplace and homelife gender reversals, in being the main and sustained breadwinner of the family, and teaching in a church and in the world. Mrs Moore, while speaking conservative values cloaked in all the right Christianese, lives a very forward life. You will see more details on this below.

A spiritual daughter of Mrs Moore in this generation of new Christian secret feminists is Christine Caine. Mrs Caine’s language is less cloaked in her declarations of what women can or should see as their roles in Christian home and work life. Mrs Caine is an ordained minister and part of Hillsong Church in Australia.

For example, in an interview reassuring Pastor’s wives that despite Caine’s visible usurpation of the traditional husband-wife roles, that their stay-at-home role is still viable: “Predominantly I might teach a little bit and I step out into what would be the more classic leadership gift, so a lot of people say ‘I’m not that, so therefore I must not have a role to play…'”

It is no wonder that woman are confused when they see peers taking on the ‘classic leadership gift’. And that is one way they cloak their rebellion in Christianese: it is not a role or a job, it is a ‘gift’. Ultimately, women would not need reassurance from other women that their biblical role is still viable if they themselves were not setting it aside.

Christine continues in the interview by acknowledging that there are “women who are gentle and loving and nurturing”, and there are other “women who come along side and do a bit more “non-gentle prodding help people go to the next level.” But that in “no way diminishes your role.”

Really? Sure it does. It sets up women to be discontent. By justifying herself in the leadership role as a gift from God (and who can argue with that?) and acknowledging that there are ‘levels’ and women need to get to, but at the same time saying it is important to stay at home and be nurturing…she had completely confused any listener as to the clear guidelines of the notion of what Biblical womanhood is. She says one thing (and not too clearly, either) and does another.

Discernment tip: one way to detect if a person is in the Word is to see if what they say and what they do match up over time. If what they say and what they do are different, run away. Beth Moore is a good example of that, see below.

Mrs Caine’s reassurances use a neat scriptural twist. The way satan works with any woman’s objection to women taking on home or ministry leadership roles is to acknowledge that the women feel weak or unsure in them, but to get around it by assuring them that all they need to do is have courage to step out and let Jesus work through their weakness, citing 2 Corinthians 12:9. But the reason women feel hesitant about it in the first place is because this is not the definition of biblical womanhood. In Mrs Caine’s world of the new Christian secret feminist, a women needs courage, not meekness. Yet in the same breath she says women need to be weak… so is that the courage to be weak, or strength to be courageous, I’m confused.

I hope by now in using Mrs Caine’s example you’ll see how, once a women steps out of the biblical role assigned to her by God, satan sows confusion in their reasoning on why it is all right to rebel. A discerning person will really listen to what she is saying, listen to how she is saying it, and look at the life she is leading to make a decision on whether this teacher is someone to learn from.

In that same interview, Mrs Caine said, “The only way I was able to continue in my role is that my senior pastor’s wife stepped into her role and chose not to be threatened or intimidated because the giftings were different.”

Oh, I get it. Women are now complementarians to each other. It’s the height of irony that again, unwittingly, Mrs Caine acknowledges that these new ‘roles’ set up discontent and that she is glad that in her situation at least, the pastor’s wife wasn’t jealous of her fabulous gift. A good portion of the middle of the interview is Caine’s description of how women are to be complementarian of each other in church settings. One takes the wifely nurturing role so that the younger ones coming up can step out, so to speak. Now, female support between and among ministries is a good thing, and it is biblically commanded. (Titus 2:4) but the description in Titus is for elder women to teach the younger is in their biblically defined helpmeet role, not to be a helpmeet to other women who step out into classic male roles. It is another twist of using the Bible to justify what is not proper.

One last quote from Mrs Caine.

Mrs Caine said, “You don’t have to accept anybody else’s decision about what you should be, this is how you should act, well, you’re the Pastor’s wife, I mean that’s the worst thing, that you would bow down to what someone else thinks. But that you would take the challenge of saying, God, for my house, how can I best lead, and what does that look like?”

Do you see how the incremental attack by satan has moved from the more cloaked feminist language from Mrs Moore’s generation to the new crop who just plainly state it? I keep bringing this generational difference up because of the verse in Revelation 2 I will be looking at in the next part of this examination.

Priscilla Shirer is another of these new Christian secret feminists whose life is more forward than their spiritual mothers. I’ve posted this before but it bears repeating:

“The NY Times article notes that Mr Shirer spends much of the day negotiating Priscilla’s speaking invitations and her book contracts. In the afternoon it’s often Mr Shirer who collects the boys from school. Back home, Priscilla and Jerry divide chores and child care equally. “Jerry quit his job to run his wife’s ministry. Priscilla now accepts about 20 out of some 300 speaking invitations each year, and she publishes a stream of Bible studies, workbooks and corresponding DVDs intended for women to read and watch with their girlfriends from church. Jerry does his share of housework and child care so that Priscilla can study and write. He travels with his wife everywhere. Whenever possible, they take their sons along on her speaking trips, but they often deposit the boys with Jerry’s mother.”‘

If you delete the name Shirer and substitute Gloria Steinem, and change ministry to job you have a description of a life that any feminist would be proud of.

By now Beth Moore is one of the elders in this realm. Moore has been “on the ministry circuit” for 15 years. Thus, her rebellious example has been long in view for many women who have watched her since they were an impressionable teen. So is Sheryl Brady and Joyce Meyer. Those women were the trailblazers for women in male leadership ministry. Newcomers arriving on the scene such as Priscilla Shirer or Christine Caine have learned from the best of the Christian secret feminists. For example:

Beth Moore said to Christianity Today in 2010 that her man demanded a regular home life so she only travels every other Friday and comes right back home the next day.

“We walk the dogs together and eat out together all the time and lie on the floor with pillows and watch TV,” Moore says. “My man demanded attention and he got it, and my man demanded a normal home life and he got it.”

Aww, isn’t that nice. But it’s disingenuous in the extreme. The reality is that Mrs Moore is not only gone from home at least 20 times per year on her Living Proof tours, which is a lot if you have kids and a husband. Mrs Moore appears weekly on the Life Today television show, travels for weeks on book tours, where she expounds on the burning question all women in America are apparently asking, “How can women find validation without a man’s affirmation?” and which her book So Long, Insecurity apparently attempts to answer.

She also spends extended private time for weeks in a cabin by herself in Wyoming to write (as stated in the preface to “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things”). She is the President of her own company that in 2011 brought in 4.1 million dollars, with an excess after expenses of 1.3M, stated working hours of 40/week. If you think all she does is lay around on pillows gazing adoringly at her man then all I can say is look at what she does, not what she says.  Beth Moore is a Christian secret feminist because for years she has lived that way, no matter what she tells Christianity Today.

It is no wonder women are confused when they see Beth Moore telling us that you can have it all, and still be a Christian woman, if you call it ministry. Enjoli.

Rachel Held Evans “is one of the better known Christian writers in mainline and progressive circles these days. Her new book examines what it would mean to live life as a woman according to the Biblical laws for a year. It’s in the vein of books like AJ Jacobs’ “The Year of Living Biblically” and other “human guinea pig” projects. The book is funny, thoughtful and empowering for women seeking to understand where they fit within a faith that has largely been controlled by men for centuries” writes Patheos.

Ms Evans says she is an accidental feminist, writing on her blog, “Most of all, if these critics knew me, they would know that it isn’t feminism that inspires me to advocate gender equality in the Church and in the world; it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

That seems to be another approach to justifying Christian feminism, “it was an accident”, or “God surprised me with this ministry” as Priscilla Shirer says, as if stating that since it was all out of their hands they are not nor will be morally and spiritually culpable on the Lord’s day of Judgment. And I can assure Mrs Evans that Jesus did not deliver the Gospel by His blood so she could use it to promote a different role for women than He has already ordained.

We have looked at some of today’s most popular Christian secret and open feminists, the old guard and the new pups coming up. I offered you some examples from their own statements of how their lives in reality more match the secular world’s view of a strong feminist woman rather than the biblical helpmeet.

In the next part I’ll look at two things, both biblical. One is the book of Revelation’s condemnation of the church at Thyatira and the spiritual adultery rampant there due to a false prophetess, and the other is the biblical role of women as outlined in Proverbs, Titus and other books.

The old saying from the 70s, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was the feminist motto. Now the only difference for today’s Christian secret feminist is the logo on her purse.

Christian feminists part 2
Christian feminists Part 3