Local church ads are often amusing to me. Here are two that were not far from each other trying to reach the same people who probably aren’t paying any attention.

First Baptist Church with pastor… is sponsoring a “Friday Night Live” contemporary praise and worship commencing at 7:30 each first and third Friday night. Its emphasis is “A Holy Ghost Takeover: Taking our city for God, one person, one family, one street and one neighborhood at a time!” Call the church office at 452-???? for more information.

Flames of Fire International Ministries’ “Anointed Preaching, Praise and Worship Services,” meet each Saturday at 6 p.m. at 110 Joslin Ave. Flames of Fire International Ministries’ “School of the Spirit” anointed Bible study classes meet each Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 731 N. Water Ave. Bishop…. is pastor.

So the Baptist church is promoting “A Holy Ghost Takeover” of their city …one street at a time. I wonder what the Bishop will think when the Baptist’s get to his street on Tuesdays where it seems the Holy Spirit has a school.

Here is some information about their town.

• Population (year 2000): 23,230, Est. population in July 2004: 25,653 (+10.4% change)
• Males: 11,051 (47.6%), Females: 12,179 (52.4%)
• Land area: 22.0 square miles
• Median resident age: 35.5 years
• Median household income: $34,696 (year 2000)
• Median house value: $104,200 (year 2000)
• White Non-Hispanic (77.0%), Black (17.6%), Hispanic (3.4%), Other race (2.0%), Two or more races (1.3%), American Indian (0.8%).

BTW: There were eight churches and one non-church advertising in the newpaper ad from this small community . The latter states in their ad: There is a Saturday night worship service. It is a unique service — it is not in a church there are no pews. Well that clears it up, if you don’t have pews you can still have a worship service and not be a church. What are these people thinking!

Out of the eight churches, four of them are Baptist. Think about that, in a town of 25,653, there are at least four Baptist churches. Three appear to be independent, and one Presbyterian. The pastor’s names are prominent in six of the eight churches. Of course there is no mention of a pastor in the non-church because they are not a church, yeah right!

The competition must be interesting. I wonder what the non churched residents in this community must think. I wonder if the pastors of these churches ever talk to them outside of the occasional wedding or funeral. I wonder if the pastors actually talk to each other.

I just find this amusing, and sad.

I have mentioned Off The Map in past post. They have hired an atheist off eBay to do church survery. One of the co-founders is Dave Richards who has a great blog about defeating poverty. Check it out!

Last week was interesting for my friend Jim Henderson over at Off the Map. He entered into an eBay auction for the time of an atheist who says he will go to church with an open mind and journal his findings. This is right up Off The Map’s alley. It seems one of their values is to help Christians understand better how they are doing when contacting non-Christians by asking non-Christians how Christians are doing.

Go on over to the Off The Map site and check out their blog and follow Hemant’s journey.

Question
From a question about Speaking in Tongues presented on January 26, 2006.

Continuing Answer
The good news is that you already have the Gift of the Holy Spirit if you have come to believe in Jesus and have accepted him into your life. From that point to the time you leave this world, you will be in the process of being saved according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 1.18. As that process continues you will be actualizing the blessings that God gave you once-for-all in Jesus at conversion. Some of those blessings are the gracelets (gifts) that we receive to give to others. So be ready at any moment for God to send you one of the gifts, within the gift, to open and share with another member of the body.

I believe that the term “praying in the spirit” in Paul’s books is a technical term that includes praying in tongues (what today has often been called “prayer language”). Praying in the Spirit would be open to any believer. I do not believe that this is the gift of tongues that Paul refers to in the Corinthian letters. I believe that it is possible for a person to be used by God with the gift of tongues in a worship service who has never spoken in tongues as a prayer language (praying in the spirit) before and may never speak in tongues again. The text is clear that one who speaks in tongues is speaking to God not to men and women. He or she is not required to interpret only to pray for the interpretation if there is not another who gives the interpretation. I believe that the interpretation of tongues is a Godward message, not a manward message. Tongues and interpretation are not equal to prophecy except in edification value. We must remember that Paul is not teaching the church at Corinth about tongues, he is correcting them in their abuse of this gift “when the church was gathered together.” I would resist talking about “office” gifts. The two lists in 1 Corinthians 12 (as well as other places like Ephesians and 1 Peter) are just lists. There are no more important or less important gifts. Lists in the New Testament are representative not complete. That is to say that the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 (and elsewhere) are only representative of the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit, not a complete list of all the “gifts” that the Holy Spirit will ever or could ever give.