I know many of you naysayers out there were betting that I wouldn’t get to a report on the Standup conference in Newark New Jersey before the end of the month. Well, I worked extra hard to make sure you lost the bet.
Before I go on, I must commend Tim Butler for making the entire event possible. Most, if not all of the cost of the event came right out of his pocket. And he did it with a smile and a welcoming attitude (click here) .
The jet I used to get to the conference is pictured above. Pay no attention to the markings on the tail. It’s purely coincidental that Continental Airlines has a symbol that is so similar to my own. I bought a used stair system and I never got around to removing Continental’s logo.
I actually got to Newark on Thursday, 29 November. Once I got to the hotel, I connected with Saiko Woods and his wife. The three of us, using a van graciously supplied by Tim, drove to the Standup radio studio and participated in the broadcast.
The next day, several of us ended up in the hotel restaurant for lunch and coffee. While there, we were joined by Matthew, a fairly recent escapee (a refugee if you will) from Fast Eddie’s church. Here’s a photo of the gathering. Matthew is on the left, then it’s Shawn Scott, Tyris Horton and Saiko Woods, one of the speakers at the conference. Saiko is also an assistant pastor for a church in Houston.
The conference started on time that evening. Sean did a presentation of the fear of God, and I have to say it was awful. Instead of making me feel good about myself, Sean’s presentation encouraged me to examine myself, my behavior, my attitudes and commitments. He never promised me a breakthrough of any kind. At the break I walked out of there feeling as though I had to be holy just because God is holy.
Saiko gave an excellent presentation on the sovereignty of God. I believe one of the best remedies for the Word of Faith crap out there is a strong, true teaching on the sovereignty of God.
The next day, John Coleman out of California () presented a lecture on the Diaprax. This sounds like a very boring topic, but you have to understand, the Diaprax is at the heart of the methods used to promote the heresies and promote the pimpings that we see in the mega-churches.
John Coleman
I spoke with many of the people attending the conference. One of the interesting aspects of the people is that most of them were escapees from some of the very churches I discuss on the site.
I also got pictures of me with many of the speakers and Standup Ministry participants. Click here to see a picture of Shawn Scott and me.
Unfortunately, the fellow who took the photo wasn’t very good at using a camera. He ended up cutting off over half my face.
I have to say that I was (if you tell anyone I said this I’ll deny it) really blessed by what I saw and what I heard from the people who attended. I have to admit that sometimes I feel like I’m spitting into the wind. They made it clear that I am making at least a small difference with Pulpit-Pimps.
Man Mel…………you have no idea how much I would have loved to be there with you all. I’m gonna start sowing seed now for next years Conference.
Melvin, I must admit I was one of the nay-sayers…I apologize.
Can I carry your Bible for you?
Brother Melvin, I know sometimes the journey is rough and paved with huge potholes but never fear that you are just “spitting into the wind”. Reading the posts and your view points on this site and visiting Pastor Johns website and listening to his webcasts have caused me to take notes and dust off my bible. While I must be humble and admit I really dont understand everything that is said or written on your site or Pastor John Colemans website, at the very least it challenges me to think and ask questions. Keep up the great work and thank you for doing what you do! -Mark
lol @ melanie.
Melvin that is a nice eye shot. I hope you had a great time.
You are not spitting in the wind Melvin. Actually before i even heard of John Coleman, your site brought much confirmation for me that I was not losing my mind.(back in august of 2006) I did not even know you were a brother until i spoke with John Coleman. Your site has been a tool that God has used to clear up a lot of the confusion for many of us while we were coming out of the Matrix. Keep up the work brother!!! The only thing I would say would be that sometimes for the new people coming out of this mess, they may not know that you are a sarcastic dude and sometimes the comments on here by other people don’t come of as Christ-like. I love you brother and keep doing what you do. In Christ Alone!!!
On a more seriouse note, I understand that sometimes we can be cynical (sp?) about conferences being life-changing. But in a sense this event was life changing for me.
Melvin, you are not spitting in the wind.
Get this, I found your website, I don’t know how long ago, but I wasn’t seriously reading the posts. I just thought to myself, this guy is a trip in a half.
A few weeks ago, a guest preacher was at my church talking about how we all must follow our man of god, blah, blah. I was disturbed to say the least. I look back on it now and I should have just walked out in so doing stood for truth like my brother in Christ Deacon Tim Butler. Now after listening to that message I was sort of agitated so of course when I am feeling sort of militant I go to your website.
Lo and behold “it just so happens” that you just posted the flyer for the Stand Up for Conference. Hey I don’t believe there are coincidences in God. Because I was still in my militant mind set I said to myself that I need to go to this conference. And when I got there—lookey here, lookey here. I heard REAL preaching from the Word of God by men of God– Sean Isaacs, Saiko Woods, Bob Miller….and then Pastor John Coleman. Some of what Pastor Coleman said went over my wee brain but it pushed me to think. ( I assume the chart that Pastor Coleman showed us was the Diaprix?) That whole thing about the first cause was challenging but caused me to realize that hey I see this at work at all the time. (Back in my old Pentecostal days, I would have gotten up and did my little dance.) Wow! Praise God.
I am soooooo thankful that there are true men of God out there and black at that. Sometimes you don’t know when someone is hanging on by a thread and God uses people like you, Melvin, to encourage a black woman from Floridy who is crazy about God’s word to continue to stand for truth.
Now the conference was a blessing but what do I do now? This is the website for my church. To anyone, click on ‘Our Beliefs’ and tell me if you see anything missing? I go to church because I feel that I should be a member of some church based on that scripture in Hebrews. The down side for me is that I was already not getting anything out of the messages preached at church but now I am in danger of being out and out bored. I feel that I should be doing something but I have no one to talk to who is like-minded to tell me if I have gone too far in the things I think that God is calling me to do. I guess I’ll use this blog for that opportunity…..Thanks Melvin!
welcome to the truth. You will come to realize, if you haven’t already it is a never ending journey. I recently switched churches myself (I feel ya pain sister). I’m in orlando florida visit me at cryloud.com. I see you’ve already gotten on board with the sacarsm, but you’ll have to wait in line to carry his bible.
Cryloud,
Gotten on board with the sarcasm? Sarcasm is like breathing air for me…so natural. But at times I realize that folks may not realize my motives are pure (well sometimes).
Longtime reader first time commenting. Bro Mel, I would like ask how to make sure that I’m preaching and teaching the Word of God with power and conviction (Prayer and Guidance on the Holy Spirit are already involve) not only in preaching but mainly in Pastoring. A Faithful Melvinite (lol)
(MN: I’ll answer the question with the obvious caveat of “I’m not a preacher.”
I say there are three things a person can do to make sure they are preaching and teaching the word and not simply preaching their own opinions and pet topics.
1. Don’t make topical preaching the norm. If you do, you will be sorely tempted to preach only what you know, against things that irritate you, and for things you like. Preaching through books (ALL of Matthew, ALL of James, ALL of Hebrews, etc) forces you to either cover topics and ideas you are not familiar with or be very obvious in your ignoring them. If you cover them, you will have to study, very hard. You will have to actually understand what the writer meant. Then you will have to work out the applications. And the more books you cover, the more you have to work with later on.
2. Be willing to have God show you how the section you are studying applies to you. It’s mighty easy to read something and say “Sister Esther needs to read this.” It’s a lot more difficult to seek God on what you should do with it. If the sermon has an impact on you (and you seek to conform yourself to that which God has presented to you) I can guarantee you that it will have an impact on the listeners.
3. Preach the text with the intent of edifying the congregation, not impressing them with how well you can put words together or how well you can sing a sermon.
It seems to me that the men who have done this have had lots of meat to present. I know I have certainly benefitted from their presentations. And those who don’t end up spending most of their time telling a story, repeating themselves, or trying to get people excited.
I suspect preaching is as much an acti of faith for the preacher as walking as a Christian is for the rest of us. It all takes a working out of our salvation on a day to day basis.
Obviously the list is not definitive. I’m sure some of the folks out there who do preach and pastor can add a lot to it. But since I get to see all the questions before anyone else, and I really would like to see better preaching, I get to answer the question first.
As far as pastoring, remember I’m a benevolent dictator. I don’t so much pastor as push and harangue, browbeat, and nag folks into submission. When I wash them with the water of the Word, they usually end up losing their top layer of skin. )
Hey bro. Mel and preacher preacher preach, it’s been a bit since I said anything, but I felt the need to speak up on this one. Mel, I totally understand the point you are making when you say,
“2. Be willing to have God show you how the section you are studying applies to you.”
However, I would like to re-word that for you if that’s ok. I have seen too many people preach messages on what God is saying to “them”. The point shouldn’t be so much on what He is saying to “them”, but on what He is saying. I fully concur that preaching expositionally usually relieves the preacher of the ability to say, “God said this to me” (often causing the Word to be rendered useless because it came from some preacher’s personal word from his own mind). Instead, exposition fosters the understanding that “God said this” (the Word being effectively communicated from the scripture obliterating any isegesis.) Simply put, I must not make the scripture say something that isn’t there and unverifiable by further scripture study. I must restrain myself from making the scripture speak something for the sake of say something. Furthermore, every preacher is responsible for rightly dividing the Word, not perverting what is written for whatever gain the preacher deems profitable.
YES Melvin!!! THose three things are so important! I am in search of hearing a preacher/teacher who understands the same values and carries the ideologies. I’m still searching, but I’ll find one soon…
I agree with you Melanie. The conference was designed for that reason-to challenge the believer to “think biblically” about the word of God and who is teaching them. Too many times we [black folk] get caught up into the man instead of listening to the message. And that is where the pimps and pimpettes get you. I’m glad to have met all of you that attended the conference. Even the Q&A was “interesting”! We are in the process of planning for the ‘08 conference so those of you who wanted to come out but couldn’t, don’t worry, just start preparing for next year. Pray that God will be glorified again as we continue to stand up for the truth in an age of deception.
P.S. Of course all of us know that it takes $ to do ministry, so there will be a reasonable fee for registration to buffer the cost to host the conference at the hotel again. I hope you guys don’t think that “God is gonna make a way”. Yeah He does. It’s called “Giving”. For my brothers/sisters who may disagree, peep out (1 Cor. 9:1-18; 2 Cor. 9:6-7; 1 Tim. 5:18).
I know we don’t want to associate ourselves with the pimps, but let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water either. Just because I’ve had food poisoning dosen’t stop me from eating. Peace. See you Lord willing at the ‘08 conference.
Pastor S.
I am looking forward to ‘08 conference as well, and hopefully I would be able to bring others with me who may be a slave to false doctrines.
Hey Melvin, what is John Coleman’s website. it would be great if you could provide this information for me. Thank you!!!
(MN: click here or click on the link to the right under blog links. )
DID MY EYE DECEIVE ME!!!! I was channel surfing and came across my former idol in the ministry(I was young then so I did not know) Frederick K.C. Price. I stopped to see if his teaching has changed or how it has changed and what did I see? A little girl walked up to him while he was teaching and handed him what I first thought was a note. But it kept happening and then I thought, “WAS THAT A CHECK?” NAHHHHH, that was probably a note of importance that needed his attention. BUT IT KEPT HAPPENING AND HE KEPT SAYING “THANK YOU!!!!” Then my perception became a reality when the last person walked up to him and handed him A WAD OF MONEY FOLDED UP!!! I was like, “WHAT?!!!!” He then goes on to say, ‘Hey, I didn’t ask them to do that, I am just here teaching the word, I didn’t say, GIMME YOUR MONEY OR I’LL(fixating himself as he was holding up someone).
If you all don’t believe me, check him out this sunday as I am sure he will Air on sunday morning. I think he still reboradcast his friday TBN message on sunday morning on whatever station he is on. MY GOODNESS!!! My thought immediately reverted back to what Pastor John has been saying all along. Y’all Check it out for yourselves. Or am I late on this?