My church is in need of serious prayer. A few issues have come up specifically over the past couple of weeks that are so concerning to me.

First of all if you have read any of my website you would know that I do not feel that most of CCM is appropriate and even more specifically that the majority of CCM directed towards the youth is at best a stumbling block or at worst a false gospel. There are very, very few people in my church who agree, but those who don’t have been unable or unwilling to show me where my research is wrong according to Scriptures.

The sum of the response to the CCM music was “We’ll have to agree to disagree.” I hate that phrase; it is a copout to end a discussion without having to backup one’s point. No one was concerned about En Fuego and I hardly mentioned it at church due to the previous rejections concerning music.

Then two weeks ago, we had a special study on prayer. I must admit I was skeptical at first, expecting some of the “new,” old prayer like contemplative. It was not bad and actually had some good points, especially the stress on holiness, but pretty much Christianity 101. Since the pastor had talked for 1 ½ hours the youth pastor did the evening service.

The service consisted of YouTube video clips. (We are not talking about Paul Washer, either!) The first was of some movie character, Medea, misquoting scripture, which in the fleshly sense was humorous. The youth minister laughed about the movie and mentioned that the pastor had thought the movie was funny also. Pretty much gave a recommendation to watch it. Then he added that it wasn’t for young children, 14 and up, due to being “too deep” for young children. The whole time I just felt so intently that – this is wrong, this is bad….with no real explanation for why other than it being an inappropriate setting. I started to walk out but walking out with a handful of children is complicated. If I knew what I know now I definitely would have.

With such a glowing recommendation from the youth minister (and an implied second from the pastor), I felt compelled to check out the movie. I knew nothing about it other than the name Madea. For all the trash that is on the internet, it can still be a source of great information if you chose your sources wisely. Plugged in Onlineis a source I use for movies, music and videos. They are rather liberal, in that their praise of a movie’s possible good points tend to be allowed to over ride the bad, essentially more plusses will cancel out any negatives.  I am not sure which movie the clip was from, but it doesn’t matter both Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea’s Family Reunion are terrible and when you watch one movie, you tend to watch the sequels. 

I shared with the pastor that we had spent 1 ½ hours praying for Spiritual Cleansing. Each of the phrases below were used as guides to direct our prayers.

1)    Patterns of immorality?  Do I view or glance at programs featuring uncleanness?  Am I guilty of a wandering eye?  (Do I dress such as to encourage a wandering eye?)

2)    Have I spoken bitter, harsh or hurtful words?

3)    Crude or evil words / Misuse the name of the Lord

4)    Treating others harshly

5)    Setting poor examples for others

Below each point I listed how those movies were against everything we had prayed about. I won’t list them here, you can follow the links if desired but warning the descriptions are graphic. I also disagree that the movies are suitable for 14 and up, SIN is not suitable at any age! We cannot have our sin and Jesus, too.

This was the response I received.

“Thank you for your e-mail. I think I have read it all including the reviews you referenced. I am aware that we will never find common ground for agreement and I deeply regret that. I know that you are completely committed to your convictions and I respect that greatly. We see things differently…”

My reply was our common ground for agreement is the Scriptures.  I then begged him to show me where I was wrong but received no response.

See A Church In Need of Prayer – (Part 2)