Most of us spend our time chasing after things that have nothing whatsoever to do with Christ or the people being trundled off to hell.

My obsession with the pulpit pimps forced me to tie the following video (I found it at Julian of God’s site) from John Piper and Reach Records to the time the pimps are wasting building up huge congregations, huge buildings, huge homes, and huge stashes of stuff.

Apparently Highland Park Baptist Church in Prince Georges county Maryland has decided to up the ante in the facade race. They are now involved in a multimillion dollar building project. I suspect (though I can’t say for certain) it’s at least partly in response to John K. Jenkins’ memorial and mausoleum built out in Kettering. Here’s a shot of the planned monstrosity.

And of course you defenders of the pimps will say “But it takes money to do ministry!” After all, that’s the same thing you said when I pointed out the $55 million price tag for the Mausoleum on the Kettering (aka First Baptist Church of Glenarden).

But take a look at the following quote from Piper’s site and then let’s revisit the idea of ministry requiring money, lots and lots of money:

This prison is the largest maximum-security prison in America. It is one of the most famous prisons in the whole world. It has only murderers, rapists, armed robbers and habitual felons. The average sentence is 88 years, with 3,200 people in one place serving life sentences. Ninety percent of the inmates will die here. This is a place of hopelessness…

This little narrative describes Angola Prison in Louisiana, former hell hole and detention nightmare.

Here are some words used to describe the environment now:

There is a local extension of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in the prison and about 140 prisoners are enrolled. There are six churches in the prison and they train their own pastors. They send trained “missionaries” to other prisons to plant churches. They do this without using any tax money. But O the money—and lives—it saves!

Violence in the prison is rare. Courtesy and respect is pronounced. The ministry team of women who were visiting at the same time we were said they were treated with more respect from prisoners here, than in many places on the “outside.” Public profanity is not allowed.

Let me draw your attention to a statement in the quote. The PRISONERS send missionaries to other prisons to plant churches.

What is the difference between these men and the pimps who have a church on every corner of the decaying cities? Rather than making a bunch of noise about the need for money, these men are trusting the power of the Holy Spirit to make a difference, both in their prison and in providing opportunities to present the gospel to others.

They don’t have a big building. They don’t have a luxurious and sprawling campus (except to grow their food), and they definitely don’t have Armor bearers (aka inexpensive butlers and drivers). Instead, they have a love for God and a passion to see other men come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

These men do what I keep talking about. They disciple. They tell folks about Jesus Christ and His salvation and then they work one on one with the men who accept the message of life. They don’t try to pack the pews. They don’t come up with inane programs that make the congregation feel good while assisting them in avoiding the task of every Christian - telling others about the good news of Jesus Christ. They even send people to other prisons to tell them about Jesus Christ.

Oh, and if you read the entire article on Piper’s site, pray for GB, he is scheduled to die in January.

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Last week I told you about my encounter with Fred (not his real name) when I visited First Baptist Church of Glenarden on the Kettering. It was heart breaking to listen to him and to watch the men strutting around in their suits, looking religious.

This past Thursday, while taking the metro in to work, I met another of my former associates from FBCGotK. This meeting was even more depressing.

I’ll call this bloke Rufus.

I saw Rufus a couple of feet from me as we traveled to L’Enfant Plaza to change trains. As I positioned myself to get off the train, I called his name (I was actually behind him as we exited) and said hello.

He responded, somewhat politely. I asked if he still worked at the Pentagon and he replied “yes.” He then asked me if I still ran this site and I responded “yes.” Then I mentioned that I assume he hasn’t seen any of the recent stuff since he asked about it.

Here’s where it gets interesting. He told me that he has read it (a curious thing to say since he just asked me if I still maintain it). And he followed that statement with “It’s all just a bunch of bickering!”

Being a fellow who likes to understand the terms being thrown around, I asked him what he meant by “bickering.”

At that point he became very defensive and said “You know what I mean. It’s bickering.” Efforts to clarify or give specifics to the accusation seemed to upset him more than anything else. I pointed out that he had brought up the site, not me. And if he didn’t want to talk about it I was fine with that.

He then asked me where I worship now and I told him the name of the place is Reformation Alive Baptist Church in Temple Hills. Interestingly, his response to that was “What does that part about Reformation mean?”

Being the gracious fellow I am, I proceeded to explain our adherence to the doctrines of grace.

To my amazement, as the train was approaching, he quite suddenly blurted “That site doesn’t read that way. It’s just a bunch of bickering!” At that point, I again explained to him that he brought up the site yet he didn’t seem to want to address specific issues. Like many of the readers who object to what I do here, he simply repeated himself. I didn’t bother to follow him as he entered the rail car. I got on the next one.

Rufus is one of the two types of men who attend FBCGotK. There are the folks like Fred, thoughtless enough to be able to stay in a place that completely disregards the truths of the Bible, having not a clue about doctrine, but friendly, wanting to be your friend.

Then there are the mindless dolts like Rufus who haven’t a clue about true Christianity and get insanely agitated when you actually call the church, and its pastor, to task for wandering from the truth of the Gospel. All they are able to do is make the same inane accusation over and over again, getting more upset when you ask for details.

On the other hand, I can at least respect Rufus. He was upset with me and he let me know he was upset with me. Deacon Featherstone, one of the the less than worthless deacons who allow John K. Jenkins to run amok (second set of definitions), smiled in my face and hugged me the last time I saw him. I was almost tempted to see if he had had his…um…package removed since he didn’t even have the ‘nads to tell me what he thinks.

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I finally figured out what my general attitude is toward the lay men (those who aren’t pastor, assistant pastor, ministers or other position of responsibility) at First Baptist Church of Glenarden on the Kettering. It’s not anger and it’s not frustration.

It’s pity.

My wife thought last Sunday was communion Sunday. That means the evening service would be held in the monument out on the Kettering just off Maryland Route 193. Since she doesn’t drive all that well at night, I offered to take her. About half way there, we both realized it wasn’t communion Sunday, an easy conclusion since it was November 1st. Instead of returning home, we decided to go on over to the old building (at 3600 Brightseat Road) since we were already out.

That’s when I met one of my old students, a guy who has been a part of FBCGotK for at least the last 15 years. Let’s call him Fred since I don’t really want to throw his name out here and he’s not a public figure of any kind. He’s just one of the blokes trapped at FBCGotK.

Months earlier, I had asked Fred if he had any trouble at all with John K. Jenkins bringing in men who deny the essentials of the faith – you know, things like a Trinitarian God versus a Oneness approach to God, a la Noel “Christobabble” Jones and Charles Ellis. Unfortunately, Fred didn’t know what Oneness was. Once I explained it to him, he agreed to go and check on Jones and see if what I said about Jones is true.

He surprised me pleasantly and did the research he said he would do. But the response he gave on November first gave me some major insight into how John K. Jenkins can do and say the things he does and says.

After verifying what I said about Oneness men coming into the church, Fred went on to say that he didn’t have a problem with these men speaking to the congregation from the pulpit – as long as they don’t preach any kind of Oneness doctrine.

My internal theological attack dog’s chain almost slipped from my hand when Fred said this. But I controlled it and instead asked if he would have problems with a Jehovah’s Witness coming to preach to the congregation. He said he would not as long as the JW didn’t preach the doctrines the church disagreed with.

I then asked if he would have a problem if Louis “Calypso Louie” Farrakhan came to preach to the congregation. Fred said he would have to think about it. I told him I would give him a follow up call to discuss it.

Apparently it doesn’t matter what a person believes. It only matters what they preach. It doesn’t matter that Scripture says to stay away from these men and women and to have nothing to do with them. Apparently it doesn’t matter if the person preaching is even saved, as long as they preach the right thing.

John K. Jenkins has apparently spent the last ten to 15 years making sure the men of the church don’t grow spiritually. The ones who have remained there are at precisely the same level of Biblical understanding as they were when I left. To them discipleship consists of attending a class on Saturday mornings, facilitated by men who think Christian growth is measured by the number of activities you participate in around the church building. The idea of gaining a deeper understanding of Scripture and to allow those same Scriptures to begin to transform your mind doesn’t even occur to these men. The thought of standing on doctrine, any doctrine, to filter out the chaff is apparently alien to them. And when you consider the organization’s leadership have pledged to support John K. Jenkins’ vision, all would appear to be hopeless.

The men of FBCGotK, the ones who are on the religious treadmill, are not going to grow in Christ. As long as they remain in the circumstances they are in, they are not going to see anything past that which John K. Jenkins permits them to see.

The church’s motto is “Developing, Dynamic Disciples through Discipleship, Discipline and Duplication.” (sic) I was there when the church developed the catchy sounding motto. And I was the one who immediately questioned it when the catchy motto was being rolled out.
My objection was that it is at best a redundant statement. And at a minimum, the statement appears to indicate the creators have no real understanding of discipleship. If I am going to disciple someone, am I not going to bring discipline into their lives? And isn’t duplicating in another that which I have in my life a part of making a disciple?

John K. Jenkins is, at best, playing at church. And the men following him? They are religious, never coming to understand Christianity in terms of anything other than “shalt nots”. If you keep your willie in your pants, you must be a Christian. If you don’t steal, you must be a Christian. If you don’t do this or that, then you must be a Christian. Having a working knowledge and understanding of the Bible isn’t really something they consider. As one guy put it: “You’re getting too detailed.”

To them, it doesn’t seem to be about the glory of God. They seem more concerned about the opinions of men and the glory of their buildings since it’s the building that indicates whether or not God is blessing them. Ask the Oneness perp T. Dexter Jakes. He’ll tell you. According to him, the buildings we build now are a testimony to our faith. Or you can ask the Mormons, they have a bunch of really neat buildings, one of them right here near Washington DC.
The men at FBCGotK are treading water, going nowhere. They have an opportunity to impact their world for Christ and instead are sitting in a building playing at church. They have an opportunity to grow in Christ and instead are singing in the choir and “getting’ their praayze on.” The deacons are men who have no doctrinal foundation.

Their main qualification appears to be the ability to recite the books of the Bible, in order, and to recite Bible verses that refer to deacons, elders, and pastors. Check the boxes, stay busy and do your homework and you too can be a deacon (as long as you don’t question leadership and display the ability or willingness to actually use Scripture to question.

By the way, my brother bought me an iPod Touch a couple of weeks ago. I took it with me to occupy myself while John K. Jenkins preached. The iPod is wi-fi capable – that is, I can access a nearby open wireless network and get onto the internet using my iPod Touch. I used it to do a little research on the F-100 Super Sabre, a follow on to the F-86 Sabre. I snagged a couple of images. And I did some other Google searches.

I thought it would be pretty neat to do some historic real-time blogging from within the belly of the beast. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered the church IT administrator has blocked Pulpit-pimps.org’s specific IP address. That would explain why all the visits I was getting from FBCGotK fell so precipitously. FBCGotK slammed the door to my site shut. I guess maybe they are paying a little more attention to me than they might want to admit.

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