Friday News and Notes
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
FEMALE “MINISTER” TO LEAD WORSHIP AT 2022 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION – The Southern Baptist Executive Committee tweeted on May 10 that Abbie Maggio will be leading worship at the Southern Baptist Convention 2022. Maggio is “Worship Arts Minister” at Redemption Church, Saraland, Alabama. At Redemption Church, the male ministry leaders are called “pastors” while the females are called “ministers,” perhaps to avoid the Southern Baptist Convention’s Scriptural ban on female pastors. Regardless of the title, it is not Scriptural for a women to lead a mixed congregation in worship. “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (1 Timothy 2:12). There are two restrictions here: teaching men and leading men. The church also ignores the Bible’s command not to be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2), clearly aping the world’s musical sound and presentation (e.g., music styles, singing styles, front and center focus on singers and musicians, large screen projection of artists, spotlights, sensual moving).
MUSLIM MOB BURNS FEMALE CHRISTIAN STUDENT ALIVE IN NIGERIA – The following is excerpted from “Muslim Mob,” PJMedia, May 12, 2022: “Earlier today, a Muslim mob beat and burned to death a female Christian student in Nigeria. She was apparently accused of ‘blasphemy.’ A brief video clip shows a massive fire against a wall, where the hapless woman was likely driven and cornered, and Muslims jumping around it and crying ‘Allahu Akbar.’ One man, dressed in traditional Muslim attire, triumphantly jabbers while waving around a box of matches–perhaps the same used to ignite the fire. The Christian girl had apparently challenged a group of Muslim students spreading Islamic propaganda, thereby rousing their ire, in a nation where Christians are being purged in a genocide (and where just two days ago, 29 other Christians were hacked to death by Muslims). The incident occurred on the grounds of the Shehu Shagari College of Education. … This is certainly not the first time a Muslim mob burned Christians alive on the charge that they had ‘blasphemed’ against Islam. Most notably, in 2015, a Muslim ‘mob accused of burning alive a Christian couple in an industrial kiln in Pakistan allegedly wrapped a pregnant mother in cotton so she would catch fire more easily, according to family members who witnessed the attack,” reported NBC News.”
CHURCHES FEATURE “DRAG QUEENS” – The following is excerpted from “Naples Church,” The Dissenter, May 15, 2022: “Drag Queen Story Hour has been a perversion plaguing public libraries and schools around the nation for several years, but what about Drag Queen prayer time for children during Sunday morning worship at church? In a recent spate of pulpit perversion, churches have been inviting drag queens to come in to address the children as parents willingly hand their kids over … In December, a church [St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Logan Square, Chicago] hosted a drag queen to have a ‘prayer time’ with children. Earlier this month, another church [Park Slope United Methodist Church in Brooklyn, New York] hosted a drag queen to hold a dance party in lieu of biblical exegesis from a qualified pastor. And a Canadian ‘church’ [St. Mary’s Road United Church in Manitoba] recently hosted an online event with a drag queen posing as God answering prayers. Another church [Naples United Church of Christ, Naples, Florida] will be hosting a ‘Youth Pride Conference’ on May 21 featuring a drag show for ages 12 to 18.” [“Drag queens” are male homosexuals who dress up like women.]
A BIBLICAL MEASURE OF A CHURCH – Instead of “How many members do you have?” or “How many are you running in Sunday School?” or “What’s your Sunday morning attendance?” or “What was the attendance of your last special day?” or“How many kids were at camp this year?” or “How are the offerings?” biblical questions would look like the following: Are we seeing life-changing conversions of sinners? What percentage of those who have professed Christ have gone on to be baptized and to grow in Christ and serve Him? What percentage of our members are real Bible students? What percentage faithfully, enthusiastically attend prayer meetings? What percentage of our homes are holy and separated from the world? What percentage of our homes are effectually raising their children for Christ? What percentage of the husbands are the spiritual leaders of their homes and are modeling a serious walk with Christ, Bible study, prayer, love for souls, ministry in the church? What percentage of the wives are modest and spiritual keepers at home? What percentage of the children in the homes are properly disciplined and biblically educated? What percentage of the church’s youth are on fire for the Lord, meaning surrendered to Christ and separated from the world from the heart and testing their friends, music, and social media by God’s Word and being transformed by the renewing of the mind by being serious Bible students and seeking to prove the perfect will of God according to the path of Romans 12? What percentage of the members are actively seeking to share the gospel and win people to Christ as the ambassadors God has called them to be? Does the church have an aggressive program to reach everyone in the community and beyond with the gospel? What percentage of the members participate? Is the church holding the line against the world’s music and contemporary Christian music? Is the church being properly educated in this important issue? Is the church seeing men called to preach and is it training men for the ministry? Is the church spiritually stronger today than it was 10 years ago? Is the church starting other sound churches? Is it multiplying itself? If these are the type of questions that preachers are asking, they will have different goals, different plans, different programs, different emphases than most churches today. And they will be laying a foundation to avoid the great collapse that we see on every hand. We live in an apostate age, but we don’t have to be apostate. We don’t have to go with the flow.
BEST-SELLING AUTHOR DEPARTING TWITTER, WARNS THAT IT IS “MADDENING US ALL” – The following is excerpted from “Jordan Peterson Announces,” Fox News, May 16, 2022: “Canadian psychologist and bestselling author Jordan B. Peterson announced that he is ‘departing’ from Twitter after finding an ‘endless flood of vicious insult’ on the platform. ‘I recently stopped accessing Twitter for three weeks as an experiment,’ Peterson began in a thread on Twitter. ‘I had some of my staff post video links etc. It was a genuine relief. I started to read & write more. I started using it again, a few days ago, and I would say that my life got worse again almost instantly.’ ‘The endless flood of vicious insult is really not something that can be experienced anywhere else,’ the psychologist added. ‘I like to follow the people I know but I think the incentive structure of the platform makes it intrinsically and dangerously insane. So I told my staff to change my password, to keep me from temptation, and am departing once again. If I have something to say I’ll write an article or make a video. If the issue is not important enough to justify that then perhaps it would be best to just let it go.’ … Peterson, who taught psychology at the University of Toronto from 1999 to 2021, rose to prominence after releasing a series of YouTube videos criticizing Canada’s Bill C-16, which barred discrimination on the basis of ‘gender identity and expression.’ Peterson argued that the bill would make the use of certain gender pronouns ‘compelled speech,’ and tied this move to political correctness and identity politics.”
WHAT’S FIRST: DOCTRINE OR PRAYER? – “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). “Those who would have a false unity and foster a false piety would begin at the tail end of Acts 2:42 and emphasize prayer first, then the communion of the saints second, and third the unity of fellowship in organization matters, and fourth and last the apostles’ doctrine” (Richard Clearwaters, The Great Conservative Baptist Compromise).
THE CRICKET’S SUPER BAT ALARM – The following is from creationmoments.com, December 28, 2020: “The swiftly moving bat cuts almost invisibly through the darkness, silent to all but those who can hear its ultrasonic radar. What chance does a poor night-flying cricket–prized as a tasty bat snack–have? Let’s treat this problem as if you were the Creator, faced with the problem of giving your night-flying cricket a chance against its predator. Of course, you could design the cricket so that it would stay in its hiding place at night, but then you wouldn’t have a night-flying cricket. You could give the cricket the ability to hear the bat’s radar, but that alone won’t help the cricket if he can’t get to safety. The solution our true Creator has invented to help the cricket preserve its life is another example of His engineering excellence. He has built the cricket with a single-celled bat detector that is wired into the cricket’s nervous system. The detector is triggered by the frequency that bats use for navigation. When triggered, the cell fires off up to 500 impulses per second. These impulses automatically cause the cricket to steer away from the source of the ultrasound. The most impressive engineering fact about this bat detector is that it only works if the cricket is in flight and therefore vulnerable to bats. When crickets are safe from bats–resting, hiding, eating or preening–the bat detector cell doesn’t fire any warning at all! The precise elegance that the Creator has designed into the cricket for its protection is a witness to His wisdom in caring for all that He has created. Learn more about that wisdom in the Bible. Author: Paul A. Bartz; ref: Shreeve, James, 1985, ‘The great cricket escape,’ Science85, May, p. 83.”
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
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