The Right Reveredn Doctor Jamal-Harrison Bryant is getting bigger and bigger. Pretty soon he will be as popular (and as empty) as T. Dexter and the rest of the Big Dogs. Heck, he may even give Joel Osteen a run for his money. I can see the day when Empowerment Temple buys…oh wait - Baltimore doesn’t have a basket ball team. Does it?

The Baltomore Sun did a story on McBryant and one paragraph stood out in particular. I suspect this is why the dude is doing so well with the youth and other people who who “…never joined a church.”

This paragraph seems to sum the whole thing up (click on the paragraph to go to the article) :

Megachurch ministers such as Bryant have all but abandoned structured, liturgical worship. Many churchgoers find their personal-fulfillment approach more appealing than traditional preacher’s discourses of original sin and redemption through God’s grace.

They don’t preach about original sin, personal holiness, and God’s grace. They preach about our power to achieve, anointing to accomplish anything, and you have a right to be happy. Die to self (1 Cor 15:31)?!?! No way.

The people are breaking the doors down to get in. But they’re starving to death while they’re there.

It’s almost like watching a bunch of tribbles consuming quadratricacaley, always eating and still starving to death. 2 Tim 3:6,7 comes to mind. The pimps are always telling their patsies that their breakthrough is coming. But it never does. And the only thing that goes to the next level is the pastor’s income. But like the Tribbles, those harmless little fuzzballs that kept eating and eating and eating, but starved to death, the people keep feeding on McBryant’s words and still starve to death. If nothing else, think about Sheneka (she made a couple of postings today - shouted the whole time) and imagine how her life will be three or four years from now if she keeps going the way she’s going.

If you know anyone who goes to any of these bozos’ churches, talk to them. Be their friends. Pray for them. And try to get them out of those pits. Remember, the prayers of the righteous are effective (James 5:16).

And thanks to Anthony B for the heads up on the article.

Pulpit Pimps | 8 Comments »

One of my favorite characters is Zathras, the fix-it humanoid from Babylon 5 (The greatest Science Fiction series ever, by the way). And one of my favorite quotes from him was: “Zathras has had a hard life . He will probably have a hard death. At least there is symmetry.”

Apparently, like Zathras, the pimps are into symmetry too.

As you know, The ‘Mess 2006 finished up a couple of weeks ago on the East Coast , down in Atlanta as a matter of fact. Well, in Riverside California, we just finished with “The ‘Mess 2006 , West Coast.” Okay, they didn’t really call it MegaFest. They called it Koinonia 2006. Perhaps we should call it Coin-o-mania 2006.

It’s almost like the folks want to make sure the West Coast gets a taste of the same things the Easterners have to put up with , I mean… get to experience.

T. Dexter was there. Juanita Bynum and her cohort Jamal (I’ll-Preach-Anywhere-I-Can-Get-Publicity) Bryant were there. Then there were the usual “gospel” singers, more than willing to ply their trade for a couple of shekels and some exposure than really praising God (and yes, I know I can’t see into these men’s hearts).

Here’s the line up. As I said: It was the usual suspects, saying the usual things, trying to attract the usual dupes and separate them from their money. It obviously is not as developed as the Eastcoast version. But give it a few more years and they should be drawing folks from as far away as Michigan.

Click on the image to see the full sized web page.

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. These people think you are nothing more than a market, a source of easy income for them while they prance around on the stage trying out new slogans. T. Dexter can almost copyright “Get ready! Get ready! Get ready!” I can almost see the rest of them struggling to come up with a phrase they can use to milk you of ever cent they possibly can without having to think too hard or come up with new things too often.

Pulpit Pimps, T. Dexter Jakes | 34 Comments »