Most Influential Christians

I have received some rather interesting postings regarding the Most Influential Christians in America listing in the January issue. I have reminded those critical of the choice of President Bush that the readership was soley responsible for the nomination of these people. I will give you a sample of something I received just yesterday:

Your cover with George Bush on it offends me and the thought of him as the model Christian offends me! He lied to the country about the war, continues to kill innocent Iraqis and our own young people, and claims, oh so piously, that he is fighting terrorism. What nonsense to anyone who is a thinking person! I do not believe Christ would have agreed with the invasion of Iraq. In fact, his followers wanted him to rise up against Rome militarily and his message was one of love, not conquest. If we were to take the billions of dollars spent on this useless, sad, immoral war and spend it instead on humanitarian aid to help Iraqis and others around the world, what better good we would do! I find George Bush arrogant, stubborn, and unable to consider any opinion other than his own, evidenced by his firing of those who speak the truth to him and keeping those who fictionalize current events! Do NOT send me another issue of your ridiculous magazine!

I left off this person's name, but I certainly find it interesting! If you have differnet opinions that you would like to share, please feel free to post them here. I would like to hear your feedback.
I also received an intersting note from the December issue about the Marketing column on the 40 Days of purpose article that I thought you may find interesting:

Editor, I received this magazine at a church I work at. We teach through the Bible here, we don't use some author's 'best-seller' to dictate what people want or need. The whole idea of the Church being a place where people can find what they need may include the radical idea that they really don't know what they need because they are blinded by a life of sin and living for self. The Church is -or should be- peculiar, set apart, even unloved by the world; and still a rescue mission for those who are lost and dying! It's for those who seek to find the treasures of Jesus and eternal life through the vehicle of the cross and repentance from dead works.
The Bible speaks to the radical notion that we as humans are sin-sick and need a Saviour, not a best-selling author like Rick Warren. I am appalled and angered by statements like those of Maurilio Amorim "Lessons From the 40 Days of Purpose" - Jan 05) that ''Suddenly, we have the entire church reading the same book together, (so do we; it's called the Bible), listening to messages that relate to their daily reading (so do we, it's called the Bible), and discussing in small groups the same content (so do we, it's called the Bible). I hope to heaven that 'cutting-edge churches' will NOT adopt this model, even though I know in this Biblically- illiterate world that will NOT be the case; it's already too late. We here do remember our Pastor's last message; we DO look forward to the next one and we know where he is going to be teaching each week because it follows an order in the Scriptures. We are too sharp here Biblically to be pulled in to the latest fad blowing through the church to soothe those 'itching ears'. Shocking as this may sound, not everyone is interested in turning their precious fellowship into a 'corporate model'.
His comment at the beginning of the article about the God factor is woeful. It only proves what I already know; that this purpose-driven drivel is a work of the flesh and if we have to talk about some ethereal 'God-factor' and whether or not the phenom can be re-created is further proof of my point. I predict the purpose-driven marketing trick has a shelf life AND an expiration date. And I have no idea where he gets those statistics at the beginning about a "20 percent increase in worship" and "102 percent increase in group attendance" for purpose-driven churches. Some scientific data is warranted here, don't you think?

I am looking for the voice of reason in the midst of this movement. I am looking for someone to stand up and say this is the arm of the flesh, not a work of the Spirit. I am looking for a voice in the wilderness who might just have a complete thought outside of this bandwagon and declare that there is a much more insidious force at work here. May I suggest you and your staff read "Deceived on Purpose" by Warren Smith and think about the dangers of this movement in which the church is fast becoming humanistic and dead when it thinks its alive!

mary

PS. That list of the top 50 Christians is suspect too; is Mel Gibson a Christian? Is Jesse Jackson? Is this list just a media popularity contest? And why is Chuck Smith at #38, when there are well over 1000 Calvary Chapels birthed as a result of his work. No mention of that at all; no one else I can see on your list comes close to that.

I found this to be very interesting, but way off base.

Until next time,

Jason T. Christy
Publisher/Editor in Chief