Here is the explanation of the events leading up to this call to repentance.

Here is the explanation of the aftermath.

Here is commentary related to events following the immediate aftermath, including our response to the pair of KOCO hit pieces.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sadly, the vast majority of those who have done so, when asked their reasons, give an explanation that reveals they still don’t understand the ideology all that well. When they decide to take a path that would lead first to public dissociation from us and later to saying that we have “an antichrist disposition toward the local church” and that we are “antichurch”, well, it isn’t easy. We would like to take this time to reply to some of their critiques of abolition and demonstrate the areas in which they err, for the benefit of others (and, we pray, for the benefit of the critics themselves, that they may err no longer). And we would like to ask you, the reader, to understand that these actions and words have greatly grieved us. We pray for repentance of those who have wronged us, that we may work together as brothers in the work of the kingdom of God.

Also, we are responding on our blog. See the articles here.

We abolitionists in North Idaho say the RCRC is a “faith based” pro abortion organization that takes comfort in the fact that all members are arm-in-arm with likeminded “religious” people bound for the pits of hell as they support the dismemberment of small human beings made in the image of God.

Before we call for a “church” that claims the name of Christ to repent for a wrong position on the current holocaust, we always contact the pastor of a local assembly and verify that they indeed subscribe to the pro death position of the parent organization.  In this case, we email Andy Kennaly the following message:

Hello Mr. Kennaly,

I am under the impression based on the RCRC’s website (www.rcrc.org) that PC USA supports the RCRC and abortion through the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

Do you have a position on abortion for First Presbyterian Church Sandpoint?

As God-fearing, Bible-believing, born again Christians we believe the issue of abortion is fundamental to Christian truth. Christians cannot be neutral on this issue any more than black slavery was an issue of “religious tolerance” for Christians in the 19th century or that “the Jewish Question” was a matter of theological diversity for German Christians in the 1930′s. How we regard our neighbors … our disposition to the innocent – orphans and widows – is the essence of “pure religion” James 1:27. The Bible declares that man is made in the image of God – Jesus Christ came incarnate in the womb of a woman – a pregnant Mary carrying Jesus Christ is described as “with child.”

I would be interested in hearing your perspective and discussing the topic. Let me know if you are open to meeting and talking about your position on abortion.

Respectfully,

Jeremiah Smedra

To which, Mr. Kennaly replied:

Hello Mr. Smedra,

I received your message inquiring about the position on abortion at First Presbyterian Church. We are a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and you have seen correctly that one of our main, historic doctrines is that God alone is Lord of the conscience. This shapes our mission, and as such, we leave choice involved in the area of abortion, even as we celebrate life and value incartional (sic) ministry. 

I am not really interested in meeting to discuss this topic, as your mind and “position” is already set. But thank you for the invitation.

Peace,

Pastor Andy 

Pastor Andy Kennaly
First Presbyterian Church
417 N. Fourth Ave.
Sandpoint ID 83864
When a church says that a person’s decisions regarding abortion are a matter of personal conscience, that is code for “we support abortion”.  They are a member of RCRC (rcrc.org), and if you review that web site, they advocate for legal abortion using language like:

“Celebrating 41 years of reproductive justice”

It has been 41 years since the Roe v. Wade decision that opened the floodgates for the current abortion holocaust. Their “Reproductive Justice” is a lie from Satan himself. Justice is the deliverance of the preborn image bearers from death (Proverbs 24:11-12).

The RCRC also says:

“For too long, the public debate on these issues has been dominated by strident voices who want a monopoly on religion. It’s time to tell the truth: that most people of faith in this country – like the majority of Americans overall – want families and individuals to have access to contraception, sexuality education, and reproductive healthcare including abortion.”

After our initial correspondence with Andy Kennaly, by email we offered another opportunity to talk, and Andy did not respond. We went to the sidewalk adjacent to the “church” to exhort church members to reject the church’s support for abortion. Not surprisingly, many church attenders told us they were “pro choice”. We were called “off base”, “idiots” and were told to “shut up”. By women in their 70’s!

We will continue to preach at this “church” to urge it to repent of its wickedness in supporting child sacrifice.

Here is some video documenting how we approached the people of this “church” and some of the interaction we had there.

-Abolitionist Society of North Idaho

While about 48% of Americans describe themselves generally as “pro-life”, over 60% of Americans actually support legal abortion in the first trimester, and 80% support legal abortion in cases of rape and incest. In the great spiritual battle against child sacrifice, the battlefield is the hearts and minds of our neighbors. The battlefield exists wherever our neighbors are, not just at the killing centers themselves, the so called abortion “clinics”.

There are scientific reasons for opposing abortion, but there is only one source that is black and white, no shades of gray, from which humans can discern that it is ALWAYS wrong to murder a pre-born human being. That source is the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit, the Bible, which declares itself as the offensive weapon in the spiritual warfare of every Christian (Ephesians 6:17).

The bible is also “powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12).  “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul” (Proverbs 19:7).

There is only one people group on earth that has belief in the bible and that can hope to wield it in spiritual warfare effectively, and those people are born-again Christians. Since they are the only equipped warriors against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places, then it is right to ACTIVATE these warriors against the great evil that is human abortion.

That is what Church Repent is all about. There are essentially three major kinds of born again assemblies of believers – 1) those who are actively engaged in being salt and light and are engaged in loving their neighbor and combating the sin of child sacrifice 2) those who hold the correct opinion that the preborn are made in the image of God, and no person may murder them (Gen 9:6), yet take no action to deliver the pre-born from death and 3) God forbid, those who claim the name of Jesus Christ and actually support the wicked practice of child sacrifice.

Church Repent is designed for the latter 2 groups. Those that hold the right opinion but do nothing, we provoke to love and good works (Heb 10:24), and those who support child sacrifice, like the United Methodist Church at large and that of Sandpoint, Idaho we preach the word, being instant in season, out of season; “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim 4:2). We “rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:13). We command them to repent, in the manner of the Apostle Paul in Acts 17, and we declare the judgment of God (Acts 17:30-31).

The manner in which we conduct ourselves is to first approach an assembly privately (we believe this follows the spirit of Matt 18:15-17), typically through the elders, discerning their position and activity in relation to abortion, verifying what their position actually is in relation to abortion. This can be with phone calls, letters, emails or meetings. We did this with the United Methodist Church over a period of several months through emails with their pastor, Stan Norman, in which he declared he supports the United Methodist position as declared in the Book of Discipline, page 112. Specifically, he stated “I believe the church’s position is appropriate at this point in time”. The Book of Discipline leaves open a wide door for the practice of abortion, and we were able to further determine from the website at umc.org that the church has resolutions (see http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=4&mid=9239) in support of their participation in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a vehemently pro-abort “religious” organization, of which the UMC is a founding member (rcrc.org).

While pastor Stan denied any knowledge of the RCRC, he said “I am not interested in a debate, but a discussion. If there is some flexibility in your position and sound theology to back up your feelings, then we could meet for coffee”. In our subsequent emails, we (meaning two men of our abolitionist society) challenged Pastor Stan on the church position by specifically quoting Matthew 28:20, and Psalm 139 and invited him to meet. He declined our invitation.

This past Sunday, we went to the street to declare to the rest of the local church the position of the UMC Sandpoint, which is a position in support of sin. Our initial assumption was that though the church leadership and organization supported legal abortion, the members would have not known that, and my expectation was that we would find church members who differed with the UMC position on abortion.

Sadly, that was not really the case. In fact, most of those attendees that we engaged were in full support of a woman’s so called “right to choose” the murder of her pre-born baby. After urging them to repent, we will let them be as “a heathen man and a publican” (Matt 18:17).

Here is a video documenting some of our engagement with UMC Sandpoint.

-Abolitionist Society of North Idaho

This excuse is typically used across the board for any “ministry” or gospel command that makes the one offering the excuse feel uncomfortable, whether it be the believer’s responsibility to proclaim the gospel to the lost or whether it is to stand on the sidewalk in front of an abortuary and plead for the lives of children about to be slaughtered. But is this a legitimate reason or excuse for not fulfilling the Great Commission? Unfortunately for the “timid”, it is not an excuse!

Are you a professing Christian? Then you are called to evangelize the lost and to abortion ministry! Really? Just look at the Great Commission as given in the Gospel of Matthew 28:18-20:
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

Now notice what is explicitly stated in this passage:

1. That all authority belongs to Him (Christ)! Not to the local authorities, not to Congress, not to the President of the U.S., and not to your local “pastor/elders”, but to Him!

2. Now Jesus, the One who possesses this authority, tells you, the believer, to GO!!!! To go and make disciples.

3. But now is where it gets sticky for some, because look at what this omnipotent Messiah states these disciples are to be taught — “…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Christ leaves no “wiggle room” for those that are tempted to say, “That’s not my calling”, but rather commands that all believers are to observe all of His commands! In other words, no “pass” just because you lead a “small group” or teach a Sunday school class.

OK, so what are His commands? Well, below you will find a small sampling of His commands:

1. Mark 16:15 — “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.’”
In other words, every believer has a responsibility to the proclamation of the gospel, at least to some degree.

2. Prov. 24:11-12 — “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weights the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?”
And consider Prov. 31:8-9, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are sons of passing away. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

So are you a “believer”? Do you name the name of Christ? Then don’t wait! People are really dying and going to Hell, to the tune of 150,000 people a day, and babies are really being ripped apart, limb from limb, to the tune of 56 million in our country in the last 41 years! If you are a believer, then don’t wait! You don’t need the local police department’s permission, nor do you need to get permission from your local “pastor/elder”. Just go! You have already been commissioned by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! It is He that possesses all authority in heaven and on earth!

So stop listening to naysayers that say that you shouldn’t go, or that you aren’t qualified — your King has commanded it! Be a Peter and John, who “were uneducated, common men…” (Acts. 4:13) but when they were commanded by the local “rulers and elders” and charged not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus,” they simply replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:18-20). Simply tell them, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). So what are you waiting on? GO! OBEY ALL HE HAS COMMANDED! And don’t be cowardly — “But as for the cowardly…their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8).

–By Don Simmons

The LifeGroup this member wanted to start would have been affiliated with with the Northwest Expressway campus of Life.Church, which is located a mile away from abortionist Naresh Patel’s killing center in Warr Acres, OK.

Given the fact that thousands of Life.Church members and visitors meet for worship down the street from a place where their neighbors are being regularly destroyed by abortion… and given the fact that Life.Church possesses the talents and resources to address this issue effectively and willing people wanting to tackle this “love your neighbor” issue with the approval and commendation of their local church, the denial of this members was absolutely shocking.

(To read more about Naresh Patel and how he has made a long practice of destroying image bearers of the living God and ripping apart our pre-born brothers and sisters (Matt 25) within the wombs of abandoned women (James 1:27) and has murdered thousands upon thousands of babies down the street from multiple churches (including Life.Church on NW Expressway) and lied in wait for blood (Proverbs 1:11) with little to no opposition from the Christians living and worshiping in Oklahoma City, please go here, and here.

Disillusioned by the response of his local pastor, this Life.Church member shared the emails he received with his friends and fellow abolitionists; members of the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma (a group dedicated to exposing the evil of abortion and helping women caught up in its destructive path here in Oklahoma). These emails clearly documented the fact that Life.Church’s pastoral staff opposed engaging in any ministry work regarding the “controversial” “political” “issue” of abortion going on within their church. Please read more about these emails here (and if you would like to read them in full please contact us here).

After some time ministering to women and men at the abortion clinic down the street from Life.Church and viewing Life.Church stickers on the backs of vehicles patronizing the “clinic” to get abortions themselves, The Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma decided to contact Life.Church by phone and email in hopes of figuring out whether Life.Church even held “prolife” position on abortion, or ever preached against it as sin. We had thought they were a “pro-life” church, but began wondering whether or not they had ever taken any action against abortion and started considering the possibility that “Life”church embraced a policy of avoiding Life issues altogether when it came to unpopular topics like abortion.

We found this to be the case.

After multiple efforts and run around phone calls with Life.Church staff stationed all over Oklahoma we were finally able to talk to a staff person over the content and scheduling of all LifeGroups meeting in the Northwest Expressway area. She told us that Life.Church did not publicly address the hot button issue of abortion from the stage, that Pastor Craig had never preached on the topic as far as she knew (and she had been “going to Life.Church for a long time”), that LC.TV had no misitries dealing with abortion or crisis pregnancy situations, did in fact deny member initiatives to start LifeGroups dealing with abortion, considered abortion too political to address as a church and while they saw it as a sin didn’t consider it a sin different from the sin of gossip. This Life.Church staff member also informed us that Life.Church members and staff were entitled to their own opinions regarding abortion, that it was not preached against from the stage, and that she knew devout Christians at Life.Church who had chosen to get abortions who were in no way placed under church discipline or asked to repent for this sin (She stated that she could not judge these situations as she had not walked a mile in their shoes, etc etc).

You can listen to our phone call with this Life.Church Staff member here.

We were appalled by this response and determined that we needed to email them a letter offering to help them get involved in the work of abolition and spiritual and physical assistance of women facing the temptation of abortion or suffering under the guilt of having had an abortion. You can read our email offering assistance to Life.Church here. We did not receive an answer by email or by phone and after prayer, and much thoughtful consideration, debate, and counsel, we determined as abolitionists, to go to the congregation meeting in the Life.Church building on Northwest Expressway and exhort them to love and good deeds regarding their pre-born neighbors in the knowledge that their church leaders were purposively keeping the issue of abortion off the stage and out of the church’s curriculum and small groups.

After all of this, we decided to publicly exhort Life.Church’s Northwest Expressway campus in Oklahoma City for ten weeks, standing outside their building with signs and passing out handouts and fliers regarding the seriousness of the sin of abortion and abortion apathy calling on believers at this church to rise up and shine as lights in the midst of the darkness of abortion taking place along the roads they took to church (We take seriously the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 11).

To listen through over twenty video recordings of our conduct outside life church and watch some life church members actually go from hating us to appreciating our presence in their parking lot, please visit our youtube page. Please watch through the video playlist “AHA Talking with Life.Church Members” and honestly assess our behavior and message .

While we had many great conversations with individual attendees of this mega church organization and have born some fruit engaging people in the parking lot exits and entrances on Northwest Expressway, we haven’t heard a word from Life.Church’s staff, elders, pastors, or CEO. We thus determined to call it good, dust off our feet and focus our time and energy elsewhere .We do not exhort churches because we find it fun to agitate people and we are not so stubbornly committed to casting pearl after pearl before people who are determined to be disinterested or blindly led astray by their guides who disciple them to neglect justice and ignore prophetic calls (Matt 23).

Please watch this video message to Life.Church leadership filmed at the end of our final day exhorting the Northwest Expressway Life.Church location.

Three days after we called off our public exhortation of Life.Church, abortion abolitionists were standing outside an abortion “clinic” in Norman, Oklahoma pleading with women to hold them back from the slaughter of abortion and ran into a long time member of Life.Church who was taking his daughter to get an abortion. This father told us not to judge, explained that he was a Christian, and that abortion was not the evil we thought it was. This is the fruit of a ministry that refuses to take a bold stand against abortion and fails to instruct their hearers about the sin of child sacrifice.

Past Craig Groeschel, this is your fruit.

We will have one more post documenting our final exhortation of the main campus of Life.Church later this week and we pray that Pastor Groeschel makes some response to our call to repentance and perhaps sits down with us to explain our errors in dealing with him and his flock or maybe even considers what leading his church in repentance of abortion apathy might take and in turn look like.

Please pray for Pastor Groeschel and the Church he has been entrusted to shepherd.

I have long ago thrown away my last copy of “How To Win Friends and Influence People“, as I have come to an understanding of Pro. 29:25, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.”  But that being stated, I also know that we are to “pursue peace with all men,” and so there must be a careful balance to always check my spirit and to make sure that I’m not being unnecessarily controversial or divisive in my verbal and written correspondence.  That being said, I would like to address an issue that has brought me to searching out the Scriptures to come to a knowledge of the truth, so that I can lead my family and my congregation in the way they should go!

There has been much debate in the last few months between Abolish Human Abortion and their detractors, most notably the Babies Are Murdered Here group.  I have been told that one of the opponents of AHA was even quoted as saying, “no pastor in America would endorse this project,” in reference to the Church Repent project.

So, let me state at the outset, that I, as a ‘pastor’, a street evangelist, a sidewalk counselor, and as a husband and father of seven blessings, fully support this project and why I think it imperative that other ‘pastors’ follow suit.

I need to be clear at the outset, lest anyone think that I am being deceitful in calling myself a “pastor”, that I am a layman.  My primary “tentmaking” skill is dentistry, and I am currently in my 27th year of practice.  I run a large dental practice, and use this skill to finance my real love–that of glorifying God, so that I can enjoy Him forever!  Since God took away my “heart of stone” and gave me a “heart of flesh”, I have been passionate about demonstrating my gratefulness to Him by loving and obeying Him, and by a desire to love my neighbor as myself.  In March of 2009, as a tangible means of demonstrating my love for Him and my neighbor, I attended Way of the Master’s Ambassadors Academy, and from this point on, I became passionately involved in both street evangelism and sidewalk counseling outside of the Little Rock Family Planning Clinic.

Just in case it hasn’t been obvious to my readers, I have consistently placed the word “pastor” between quotation marks.  My reasons for doing so are manifold, but the primary purpose of doing so is because I think the word “pastor” is used out of the intended Biblical context in far too many instances today, and in reality I know of very few real “pastors”, at least those that meet the Biblical definition of “pastor” or “elder”.  But for the purposes of this article, the members of my church would refer to me as and look to me as their “pastor”.  The church that I “pastor” is Liberty Community Church in Little Rock, AR, and after serving as their pulpit supply on an “as needed basis”,  the two remaining “elders”, Mr. King, an 83 year old gentleman, and Tim, who had been their previous pastor for 10 years, called and asked me if I would be willing to serve in this capacity to “help them out”.  I discussed this matter with the pastor and the associate pastor of the church that my family and I were attending at the time, and after much discussion, they were in agreement that I should go and help this church, though they acknowledged that it would be a great sacrifice on the part of my family.  On the Sunday night before we started “pastoring” Liberty Church, the pastor and associate pastor of the church body that we had been a part of,  along with our entire church family, called us to the center and laid hands on our family and sent us out to serve.  Now to be clear, I don’t think this makes anyone a “pastor” any more than sitting in my garage would make me a car, but I know that for some naysayers, this information will be vital.

So, with the preliminaries out of the way, what are the reasons why I support AHA’s Church Repent project and why I think you and your church should also?  There are a multitude of reasons, but here is the short list:

1. Because our “New Birth” demands it!

Take a minute and read through 2 Cor. 5, specifically, verses 9-20.  2 Cor. 5:17 states emphatically, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold the new has come.”  Does this describe you?  Are you really a new creation?  Has God given you “one heart, and a new spirit”?  Has He removed the “heart of stone”,  which is hard and calloused to Him, His Laws, and others, and truly given you a “heart of flesh”?  If so, Ezekiel goes on to state that this is so that you “may walk in My statutes and keep My rules and obey them” (Ezek. 11:19-20). If this truly describes you, then 2 Cor. 5:18 tells you your duty: “…and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” And verse 20 goes on to state that, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.”

And what does this have to do with AHA’s “church outreach program”?  2 Cor. 5:10-11 states, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.  Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”  You see, we as “born again” Christians, know that one day, each and everyone of us must appear before Christ and give an account of our stewardship for everything done in the body, whether good or evil.  And in light of this fact, Paul goes on to state, “Therefore, knowing the fear of The Lord, we persuade others.”  Do we have an obligation to persuade other “professing Christians” of their lack of “works” in the loving of their preborn neighbor?  I believe this passage would say that not only should we, but we have a moral obligation to do so!

2. Because it is in keeping with the two great commandments!

When Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?  And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mat. 22:36-39).

Now I realize that all of us fail miserably in the fulfillment of both of these commands, but ask yourself if this is the true desire of your heart–to love God with everything within you, and to truly love your neighbor as much as you love yourself?  Keep in mind that He “will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart” (1 Cor. 4:5).  Think about how much you protect your body from harm–and how you protect those that are your own flesh and blood from harm (your children)!  Would you, or better yet, could you sit back and know that your own child is being ripped apart, limb by limb, by a child molester, while you sit comfortably in your church pew?  I would think not!  And yet, week after week, “professing Christians” and even worse, “professing pastors” drive within miles of killing centers around our country and close their ears to the cries of the unborn!  I would hardly say that this is even an attempt at “loving your neighbor as yourself”!  And so I would say that “stirring up one another to love and good works” for those “meeting together” that lack the aforementioned “love and good works” should hardly be frowned upon.

3. Because living out #2 mentioned above, requires action, otherwise you have proved yourself to be the “priest” or the “Levite” in the Parable of the Good Samaritan!

In Luke 10:25-37, we read a parable which demonstrates how this is to actually be lived out. In other words, in this parable, we move from the abstract to the practical. This is typical of the writings of Luke, the one who wrote earlier the words of John the Baptist, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:7b-8a).  And before they could begin making excuses for their lack of action (including their “selection by God”, John goes on to state, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.  Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  And Luke records that when John was asked, “What then shall we do?” he proceeded to give them some very practical guidelines for checking to see if their repentance was genuine, such as sharing your tunics with someone who has none, etc.  And so in Luke 10, it is no surprise that Luke’s retelling of the parable of the Good Samaritan would include a practical outworking of their professing “neighborliness”!  Read the account yourself, but the only one who proved to be a neighbor was the lowly Samaritan–one who was hated and despised by the religious establishment of the day!  The Priest and the Levite were both guilty of proving that they were “fruitless” when it came to helping their neighbor and coming to their aid when they perceive that they are in danger.

4. Because we are to follow Christ’s example!

1 John 2:5b-6 states, “By this we may know that we are in Him:  whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.”  I once heard a sermon which made the point, “You will serve the God that you see”.  How do you see Jesus? Do you see Him as a “baby in a manger” or “God hanging on a cross”?  Do you see Him weak and impotent?  Then this is the God you will serve!  Or do you see Him confronting the religious leaders of His day, those that had no compassion for the lowly, and were being deprived of justice and mercy (see Matt. 21:12-13) by “overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.”

Was this simply a one-time event, in which Jesus lost His temper?  Not hardly.  Just read in Matthew’s account of Peter’s confession of Jesus as being the Christ–”Jesus…asked His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Mat. 16:13-14).  Look at this all-star line-up with which they compared Christ–John the Baptist (a man who lost his head to stand up to the king), Elijah (who rebuked and taunted the prophets of Baal), and Jeremiah.  Listen to Jeremiah’s condemnation of the religious leaders of the day:

    For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.
Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich;  they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?
An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; My people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes? (Jer. 5:26-31)

Notice the words of verse 28, “…they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy…”.  One of the definitions of “needy” is “those subject to oppression and abuse”.  In the New Covenant, the same principle is stated by Christ in Matt. 23:23-24, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” Notice what was close to Jesus’ heart here–”justice and mercy and faithfulness”.  And also notice who was condemned and the “Woe” pronounced upon–those who did not administer justice.

Returning to the Jeremiah passage, what was God’s instruction to the prophet? Chapter 7, verses 1-6 tells us:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm…”‘”

Where was Jeremiah, the one that Christ was compared to, to go and stand and speak?  In the gate of the Lord’s house, the Temple! And what was the message Jeremiah was to preach (outside the Lord’s house)?  Repentance! That’s right, repentance for their apathy in delivering justice — “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice…or shed innocent blood…”

Christ commanded us to be “Christ-like”; to be like Him. And though the charge has been leveled against AHA, that “AHA is a parachurch organization that has no biblical precedent, command, or authority to rebuke or ‘exhort’ the local church”, I believe that this is a false claim, as we have One who is much greater than a “local church eldership” giving the believer permission. We have the authority of our King!  We have been given the command to go to a brother or brothers that are caught in sin (Matt. 18; Gal. 6; James 5:19-20, etc).  And if he or they don’t repent, then we are to take along two or three others and then to the whole church.  This is what AHA is doing–they are first attempting contact with the local leadership, and when and if the admonition is spurned, they then go and exhort as necessary.

5. Because the Gospel commands it!

In what is often referred to as the “Great Commission”, we read:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Notice what is stated here in regard to the command and by whose authority we are commanded to GO–”And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me“!

Notice this passage doesn’t say, “All authority has been given to the elders, or pastors, etc.”  The authority, the one worthy to be given the command is His, and we need no man’s authority to tell us whether we should obey or disobey this command. Read Jeffery Fish’s question to Ray Comfort and Ray Comfort’s response regarding going out and street preaching and sharing the gospel, which many of the BAMH contingency insist must be done under the authority of the local eldership:

Q from Jeffery Fish: When you decided to go and share your faith and then to proclaim the gospel in the city of Christchurch in the city square, did you go with permission and under the authority of the elders of your church or did you go out on your own?

A from Ray Comfort: …Boy, I think it was just on my own; but the church was involved and was absolutely thrilled, because they were evangelistic.  A church ‘I started in my home’ and we moved into an empty Presbyterian Church, and asked an elder from a local church to become our pastor and to set up an eldership, but they were very evangelistic…this was over 40 years ago…they were thrilled…who could disagree with “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to every creature”…they were delighted…If I were in a church that said I couldn’t go and preach the gospel, I would change my church! …the Great Commission is so obvious…the 1980′s has something called the Shepherd Movement, where had to get your pastor’s or shepherd’s permission /nod to eat oatmeal for breakfast…almost like that…and it got out of hand…each of us have a walk with God and we preach the gospel and love to have the pastor’s blessing and the pastor should actually go out there with you if he is a pastor that is worth his salt.

Now granted, Ray Comfort is not the ultimate authority, nor is any man regarding our obedience to Scripture–God is!  But it is important to note that many of these “open-air” preachers that are now so-called authorities on who and when and under whose authority we can go and preach were mentored by Ray Comfort.  And to be fair, Ray was not advocating the Church Repent project here. My point of including this is that many, if not all, of those that are condemning the AHA brethren are being inconsistent.

An example of condemnation:

AHA claims to be under the authority of the local church, yet the church many of them are a part of is not a local church ruled by, led by, taught by, or equipped by elders, which Jesus Christ has appointed to shepherd His Church realized in the local church (Hebrews 13:7, 17; 1 Peter 5:1-11; 1 Timothy 5:17). Nor is this a church plant that was established under the authority of another local church, nor are the members at Door of Hope (note: a church in Oklahoma whose membership includes many of AHA’s founding members) sent out to do any work of the ministry they claim to be doing. This is where their orthodoxy affects their orthopraxy in a negative way. They are in no way “subject to the elders” (1 Peter 5:5) and in no way can they “obey their leaders” (Hebrews 13:17) because they have no leaders (elders).

This same detractor goes on to state:

Ultimately, AHA is attempting Gospel ministry and it is attempting ecclesiastical ministry, but it has no attachment to the local church under the authority of God-appointed elders.

This is the real crux of the issue with AHA’s main detractor, Babies Are Murdered Here - ecclesiology – that of the “elders” ruling the flock, not leading the flock.  In 1 Cor 11:1, Paul states:
“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”

John Wesley wrote thusly about this passage: “he will follow no man any further than he follows Christ.” And that is Biblical. This is simply a matter of Acts. 5:29 - “We must obey God rather than men.”

Yes, we are to be conciliatory and follow our leaders in the local church, but not at the expense of disobeying the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4).  And the Chief Shepherd has emphatically stated that we are to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” The illustration that has been used by many to help us understand our duty to go and share the gospel and to convict us that it would be “unloving” to do otherwise is that of a burning building with people inside playing games, unaware that the building is on fire.  The illustration goes on to state that it would be unloving to walk past, saying to ourselves, “they really seem to be having a good time, I wouldn’t want to disturb them”, and how this would really just demonstrate our lack of love for our neighbor.  This same illustration is used for going to rock concerts, amusement parks, on the streets, etc., to proclaim the gospel; but what is different about going to something that even by their own admission, these same men would call a “Six Flags Over Jesus” event?  Most of the “sheep” in these ‘churches’ aren’t even aware that there is an abortion mill down the street from their church, and have never been taught their obligation to go.  So are we to simply sit by and watch?

The Apostles routinely went into the synagogues and proclaimed the true gospel to some of the most religious, yet cold-hearted people of their day.  The only difference is our modern day synagogues allow for no dialogue, no freedom of speech, except by the local “pope” or his invited guest.  And many of these men, far from being Biblically qualified to lead churches (read 1 Tim. 3:1-7 and Tit. 1:5-9), are simply men who have been appointed by the “good ole boy’s association” and have no real love for God’s flock, but are rather “hirelings”.

And so, we are to go, under the authority of our King, who has already given us the marching orders, to “obey all that I have commanded you”–which would certainly include:

Proverbs 31:8-9:

Open your mouth for the mute,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy.

And Proverbs 24:11-12:

Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?

And not only are we to do this, we are to “make disciples” who will do this also!  And so, will you go?  Will you speak up for the “mute”, for “God’s heritage”?  Will you even go to the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the religious hypocrites of our day?  Or will you “faint in the day of adversity”?

I want to share with you our heart on the matter of the Church Repent Project.

As abolitionists begin to focus their attention on exhorting the church, it is important that we clarify some things that could be easily misinterpreted.

Our first message is that we come to you in a spirit of love and humility. We come to you as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Our message is one of exhortation, motivation, and inspiration about what all evidence proves to be an extremely urgent matter. While we come in a spirit of patience, we also want to be clear that we are calling brothers and sisters in Christ to act now.

We also understand that each of us are sinners in need of God’s grace. And we call for a change in the Church not with an attitude of self-righteousness or of complete infallibility, but with an attitude of one brother awakening another to a stark reality that has been hidden, causing many Christians to miss it. Most of us have personal stories of truths to which we were once blind; thankfully God reached us through a fellow brother or sister who was willing to risk persecution and friendship because they loved us enough to share hard truth.

Our attitude and mindset could be likened to that of a fellow teammate at the highest levels of competition. We are urging, encouraging and perhaps rebuking a fellow teammate in love to do what we know they capable of doing, and to raise their commitment and zeal to the level that God desires. We are on the same team and we are pushing you to go harder so we can defeat this foe of abortion together by God’s grace.

Our heart on this matter is that we view the greatest evil in this fight not as the abortionist who dismembers children for pay. Nor is the greatest evil the abortion rights spin masters who deceive and lie about abortion, calling it good when it is in fact a great evil. Nor is the biggest foe in this fight the politicians who care more about the next election than they do the children who are being murdered at the rate of one every 30 seconds in America. We believe the greater evil is the apathy of God’s own children toward coming out against this mass child sacrifice.

We believe that what grieves God’s heart more than the baby being murdered is that His own people are doing little or nothing to stop it. We believe this fight will be over when the people of God repent of their apathy toward abortion and come against this evil in a serious way.

The church today is not unlike Saul’s army, which arrayed itself against the Philistine army yet did not engage. Abortion is the giant that comes out every day and mocks God by taking image bearers of God, ripping them to pieces and throwing them in the trash. But instead of the mocking going on for 40 days, it has gone on for 40 years. God is waiting for His faithful to step up and risk everything and trust Him completely so that all will know who He is (I Samuel 17:46).

We believe that God’s people should come against abortion in a zealous and uncompromising way and that God will give His people the victory and put an end to this vile injustice.

The Pro-Life movement has spent the last 40 years focusing its resources on calling the culture to stop killing its children. The Pro-Life movement continues to spend mass resources promoting legislation or political candidates that have produced little or no fruit. The Pro-Life movement continues to make big news highlighting what has been known for decades: that the abortion industry is out of control.

But little or no energy has been spent calling Christians who have an obligation to love their neighbor as themselves to come against this evil. Most efforts of the Pro-Life movement are aimed at the sin of abortion itself rather than the sin of abortion apathy.

Our heart and hope on this matter is that very soon the big news in the abortion issue would not be the extreme evils of an abortionist who kills children, but rather would be that God’s people have awakened to this true Holocaust and are coming against it like never before.

The Church Repent Project is distasteful to many and uncomfortable for most. Identifying the appropriate source of this discomfort is challenging.

We believe the distastefulness is less about what is biblical or unbiblical and more about AHA’s break from normal conflict management patterns.

Conflict Patterns

Conflicts tend to follow a few typical patterns. One pattern is to completely avoid or ignore the issue. This is the mutual recognition that neither party wants the negative experience associated with the conflict.

Another pattern is to try and resolve the conflict, and then bury the issue or quit the relationship. If the disagreement is significant and important to one or both parties, the discussion and debate takes place. If one side is not won over, the topic becomes passé and/or the parties may limit their relationship.

For either party to persist in the disagreement after a certain undefined point is culturally and socially unacceptable. We would agree that this persistence sometimes does not meet the standard of love to which Christ has called us.

AHA’s Conflict with the Church

We have a disagreement with born-again Christians at large. Rather than just state the disagreement and go away, we are compelled to persist in the debate and discussion. If we were debating an issue with lesser consequences, we would go our separate ways – we do this every day. We are not in the business of attempting to call the church to repent over every problem and issue we see.

But abortion is very different. We believe the cost is too great … the consequences of such magnitude … that we must persist, even if that makes you uncomfortable. Even if we are accused of lacking love.

We are violating instinctual cultural patterns and that makes you uncomfortable.

Framing Fallacies

Our differing perspectives on the issue of abortion are largely a matter of how the problem is framed. It is not my choice of ministry focus versus your choice. It is not my choice of tactics versus your choice of tactics. It is not focusing on society’s ills versus preaching the gospel. All these are framing fallacies.

Here is how we frame the issue of abortion.

If the Samaritan finds ONE beaten traveler in the ditch and ministers to him, he has rightly obeyed God’s call. But if the ditch is full of beaten travelers and the Samaritan cannot possibly minister to all of them, he returns to his brothers – his community – and pleads for them to also help in ministering to the beaten travelers. This is what we are doing.

Who would commend a church for establishing a soup kitchen to feed the homeless while individual members in their meeting went without food? It is not that feeding the homeless is wrong; it is that this choice neglects the more obvious need.

Your church is engaged in good acts, but you are neglecting the more critical need. Child sacrifice is happening in our cities, towns, and communities at staggering levels in this country – not some far away place. But the American church is more concerned with youth camps, ministry trips to South America, poverty in foreign lands, and the persecuted church in another country. All of these are righteous pursuits, but you make a mockery of them when you refuse to minister to your most immediate neighbors who are taken to the slaughter every day.

The church’s apathy on the issue doesn’t just harm the church; it neglects orphans and perpetuates the killing. It makes the members of the church, the body of Christ, guilty of failing to fulfill the greatest commandments: failing to love their neighbors, and failing to rightly live as true Christians in a society that practices child sacrifice.

Church Wake Up!

We do not presume to take the role of the Holy Spirit moving men to action. But we are convicted that we must do more to wake up the apathetic American church that has chosen to largely ignore child sacrifice in their communities. We will continue to minister to our modern beaten travelers – the preborn babies that are being mercilessly slaughtered – but we will also persist in calling our fellow brothers to actively join the fight – not just in word, but in deed!

Will you continue to ignore the greatest evil of our day or will you take action to resist the evil of abortion in your community today?

Click here for a detailed list of specific actions you can take in the fight against abortion.

After several attempts to contact LifeChurch.tv representatives regarding not only their position on abortion, but what they do for the least of these, we determined to take this conversation to their front porch. Efforts to contact them were made by (now former) members of LifeChurch.tv and representatives of the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma. Multiple emails were exchanged and multiple phone calls were made. Only after discovering that this was an issue that the staff and leadership have avoided, as though avoiding the topic were official policy, did we decide to reach out to their congregation the only way we could – from a public easement in front of their church building. For a thorough breakdown of the actual Church Repent Project, please check the other pages on this site.

During the exhortation, a member of the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma spoke with one of the directors of LifeChurch.tv, Bobby Gruenwold. Here is a video recording of that conversation:

After the exhortation, a leader of Abolish Human Abortion emailed Bobby to clarify a point. This is the correspondence that ensued:

Jeremiah Smedra’s Initial Email

Hello Bobby,

I am Jeremiah Smedra. We spoke outside Lifechurch NW yesterday during our exhortation. I think you may have been confused regarding the signs that were used at your church. The sign that says “This Church Supports Child Sacrifice” was only at Grace UMC. We distinguish between pro-choice “churches” that support abortion and pro-life churches. The messages are different. This is more completely explained at the attached link. I did appreciate our conversation. May the Lord give you and the leadership team wisdom as you consider how to respond.

Respectfully,
Jeremiah

______________________________________________________________________

Bobby’s Response

Jeremiah, I thought I saw that specific sign as I came in through the entrance in the front, but perhaps I saw it up the road. After looking at your site I really believe this is a massive case of your group severely misunderstanding our views and actions on this issue and some unfortunate misunderstanding and communication from a brand new team member on our staff. I had tried to communicate with your group and take your concern seriously, but then today we recieved a hand written postcard from a member of your group. In the postcard it said “Your church will be vomited out of God’s mouth on Judgement Day”. Perhaps this was sent to the wrong place? I believe that somewhere down deep inside of you and your group believe you are doing the right thing., but I can’t reconcile that with the actions of your group. If your goal was to help our church be aware that there was an abortion clinic in our backyard… You have succeeded. If your goal was to correct the church in love or sincerely call the church to repentance… You’ve failed. We will continue to take a strong and unashamed position that abortion is a horrible and immoral thing that should never happen and will reinforce that with new team members and our church at large. Additionally, we will continue to preach the Gospel and show love to our neighbors who are lost and hurting including those who may be considering the unthinkable act of abortion. But I’m honestly not interested in having further dialog with your group as I don’t think it would be productive. I think your group’s actions toward our church family and people who weren’t believers who were coming to church for the first time this past weekend sadden the heart of God. I also struggle to understand what fruit can come from your effort when your group self-righteously casts judgement in such a hateful way on our staff and church…the Bride of Christ.

I am sure you could argue that one comment in a postcard or one protester yelling at a young family coming to church for the first time doesn’t represent your group as a whole or what you really believe… Perhaps you could have applied the same grace and understanding to our staff and church before condemning us all to Hell.

I know that you believe you are doing the right thing…and I will pray for you personally. Please prayerfully consider changing your approach before you bring more hate and harm to another church that is trying desperately to reach their community with the life changing truth of the Gospel.

If you choose to post this response to your website please be sure to do so in it’s entirety.

Bobby

______________________________________________________________________

A response/analysis of Bobby’s email to AHA

The main thing to take away from this interaction with Bobby is that he firmly believes LifeChurch.tv to have a “strong and unashamed position that abortion is a horrible and immoral thing.” This is by far the most important point because it is his main justification for dismissing our call to repentance. The problem with this justification is that it does not bear itself out in reality.

Firstly, a member in good standing who had led other lifegroups and mission trips, in good standing for 12 years, sought to start a life group focused on the issue of abortion and was denied.

He was not merely denied by a new staff member. He was denied by the campus pastor who has been with LifeChurch.tv for a very long time. You may say, “Thats a weird topic for a lifegroup. I understand why they turned him down.” The problem with this is that there are lifegroups that have as their themes everything from watching sports, to fellowshiping around bacon (yes, a bacon lifegroup), and addressing sex trafficking.

Secondly, we spoke with at least three secretaries from LifeChurch.tv who did not know if the church had a position on abortion

Thirdly, we spoke with a staff person over  lifegroups at the NW Expressway campus who told us that abortion is “not something they talk about from the stage”.

The bottom line is that though LifeChurch.tv unashamedly professes to be against abortion, apparently many of their staff didn’t get the memo. This is more than just miscommunication. LifeChurch.tv’s position is avoiding the discussion of abortion at all costs and discouraging members from exposing its evil or loving their pre-born neighbors in any approved ministry capacity.

If Bobby were to take our call seriously and recognize that this level of “miscommunication” between leaders and staff is evidence of actual sin, the sin of omission, instead of a mere mistake or misunderstanding, he would not ignore the pre-born in his summary of LifeChurch.tv’s obligations. He basically says that they will continue to preach the Gospel and show love to their neighbors, including abortion-minded women. Notice he did not claim that they will love their pre-born neighbor. He actually just reasserts their position: The very thing we were not there to talk about, as numerous of our signs made clear.

We were more there to call LifeChurch.tv to repent of not doing anything and discouraging members from participating in this work, than calling them to repent regarding their position on abortion.

When Bobby suggested he could no longer take us seriously, he actually revealed his heart on this matter. It’s actually demonstrable from the interaction we had with him on Sunday and in this email that Bobby never intended to dialogue, nor did he ever try to take us seriously. If Bobby tried to take us seriously and actually read the website, he would know that he is simply talking past us. If Bobby had ever been interested in dialogue, he would have read the website. The reason we know he didn’t read the website is that even after Sunday, he persists in making this about LifeChurch.tv’s position rather than their actions.

If you watch the video of the interaction with him on Sunday and then read his email, you will notice that he didn’t really say anything new. This is a clear indication that he made up his mind before he spoke to us on Sunday and hasn’t changed it since then. You may say, “Perhaps he made the right judgement and is sticking to it.” What you fail to grasp when you make this objection is that this man claims to love his neighbor, even us. If he actually thought we were brothers and he actually loved us (like he claimed on Sunday), he would make some effort to understand why were there. If he loved us he would, at the very least, try to dialogue, the very thing he refuses to do.

Bobby claims that the point at which he stopped taking us seriously was when he received a postcard from “a member of [our] group.” The previous paragraph demonstrates that he never tried to take our concerns seriously, but nevertheless we must deal with this “conversation killing” postcard. It is disappointing that Bobby chose to go by this rogue postcard that was not sent to him by Abolish Human Abortion or the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma, instead of engaging with the website that we spent months developing for the purpose of explaining our motives and methods.

We do not know who sent the postcard. We are also skeptical whether it was someone even affiliated with Abolish Human Abortion. Some crazy folks might even say they doubt the existence of the postcard, but that is beside the point. Bobby’s message seems to indicate that one part (not the whole) of the postcard read “Your church will be vomited out of God’s mouth on Judgement Day.” At first glance, we may revolt and think, “Wow, that was really unhelpful.” If we think about where the quotation comes from, we should begin to realize that this is very close to the words of Jesus to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3. What could be more appropriate for this church that is rich with many goods and yet refuses to love their pre-born neighbor, the least of these? It should be noted that the quotation is not an exact rendering of the passage in Revelation 3. That particular passage that the sender had in mind actually refers to Christ judging (removing their lampstand) churches in the present, rather than at Judgement Day. Perhaps the postcard should have said, “All the things you do not do for your pre-born neighbor, you do not do for me.”

The point we are trying to make is that Bobby somehow views this statement as a last straw when he really should view it as someone loving him and his church enough to call them to repentance. He shouldn’t merely think about the motive of this claim either; he should rather think deeply about the substance of this call. Bobby’s response to the message given him can be boiled down to this: “Telling someone to repent is a conversation killer and if someone told me I was lukewarm I would stop talking to them.” We wonder if Bobby would react the same way to Jesus.

We are delighted that we helped LifeChurch.tv be aware that there is an abortion clinic in their backyard. We are disturbed that they had no idea it was there. This is also proof of their apathy in that if they bothered to obey the commandment to love their neighbor they would eventually discover that their preborn neighbors are being torn apart down the street every day for $500. You might think, “Sheesh guys, they just didn’t know.” What if we told you that there was a house in OKC that rented out children to be molested for $1000 per day and that that house was advertised in the yellow pages and that the practice of renting children out to be molested was protected by law? Then imagine going to a church in OKC and telling them about this and they basically say they didn’t know it was there. You would berate them. Any response from them that tried to minimize their guilt you would view as callous and an attempt to shirk responsibility. Why is legalized abortion any different? Why are they off the hook for their ignorance? Because of the widespread apathy?

We are not sure what it means to say that we “failed to call the Church to repentance.” If anyone has ever called a brother to repentance and saw that brother not take it very well, they recognize much of the things that Bobby is saying. “You didn’t do it in love,” is one of the most popular complaints of someone who is being called to repent who is refusing to do so. Bobby believes that the postcard he received was unloving. He believes that our approach was unloving. Instead of defending the approach let me ask the reader to just watch the videos of our interactions with two LifeChurch.tv leaders. If we were not successful in calling the church to repentance, why is Bobby responding to us like we called him to repentance?

Interactions with LifeChurch and its members have indicated that this church is not of one mind on this very important topic. We had a number of people leave LifeChurch.tv on Sunday and tell us that they were disappointed in how their leadership responded to our call. All this does is confirm our hypothesis that there are many true Christians attending LifeChurch that will repent when warned.

Bobby then went on to use several words to describe our approach: self-righteous, hateful, judgmental, and not loving. Bobby used these words for a couple of reasons.

1) Ignorance. He associates holding signs and direct confrontation with the mentioned negative attitudes. The reality is that holding signs and being direct are not directly correlative to being judgmental. They indicate urgency and seriousness, but they do not automatically indicate hate or self-righteousness.

2) Public effect. By this we mean that the general public associates certain attitudes with holding signs and public confrontation, so if someone who communicated with us personally claims that we were judgemental and hateful, then in the public mind it must be true.

This is where we will ask you again to watch some of the videos of our interactions at LifeChurch.tv last Sunday, including our conversations with Bobby and the campus pastor. You will not see hate or self-righteousness; you will see heartfelt pleading. You will see a group of individuals doing something they feel compelled by God to do that is completely contrary to their flesh.

One final note on repentance: Repentance for Bobby and LifeChurch.tv looks very simple.

Bobby, the Leadership at LifeChurch.tv, and the entire congregation must admit their guilt in this matter. They must admit that they have been apathetic. They must admit that they haven’t been clear or bold about their position, to the point that there seems to be no meaningful consensus among staff, at least at the NW Expressway campus, about their position on abortion. The most important aspect of repentance for LifeChurch is acknowledging that they have not done a thing for their pre-born neighbors and turning from that sin to love their neighbors in deed and in truth.

If you watch the conversation that Bobby had with Josh, one of the things that you can hear Bobby say is, “What should we do? Talk about it every weekend?” This is telling, and it is a sign that major things will have to change with LifeChurch.tv’s view of the church if it is going to repent and do the works that the Church should do, i.e. love their neighbor.  Bobby’s suggestion that the only thing they can change is how frequently they talk about abortion gives away his ministry model in dealing with issues in the culture. He essentially views the Church as an institution that talks and doesn’t necessarily do anything.

For LifeChurch.tv to repent, this will have to change. We are not asking them to do something specific. We are not asking them to give us money. We are asking them to obey Christ, and that does not have to involve us. We are asking LifeChurch.tv to examine herself and truly ask if she is using her talents to love her pre-born neighbors. We are asking LifeChurch.tv to truly fulfill the Great Commission by not making disciples merely of herself but by making disciples of Christ who are encouraged to obey the greatest commandments.