(The “Game Changer” in ‘Corporate Worship’)

There are many… (let me super-size this…) MANY, MANY Christians who justify their forsaking of the assembly.  My personal observation is that most in this category either don’t play well with others, avoid personal commitments, or are functionally too preoccupied with themselves to be bothered investing in other people’s lives.  Sometimes it’s the theological perfectionist who can’t find a church that gets it right, so he stays away lest he condone compromise.  Still others play the victim card.

Attendance that DOES occur is rare & typically gratuitous, safely insulated from the commitments of body-life.  Some have skirted the non-forsake clause through simulation, or “phone church” – by simulcast or religious broadcasting.

No matter the reason or how you slice it, this represents a heart of disobedience, biblically constituting a “forsaking” of the assembly.  But beyond the merely relational, there’s a deeper casualty to planned absence – one directly related to the topic at hand: Corporate Worship.  Those who do not gather miss a spiritual occurrence – a mystery of the faith – that the Lord Himself has promised & ordained.

There are 2 primary scriptures (among others) which constitute the theological premise for the coming together of the modern-day church.  The first is Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

Back in old Bible times, there had emerged a legal concept in the Jewish religion (extrapolated from a mash-up of scriptures) known as a minyan – that is, a true congregation did not exist apart from a quorum of 10 spiritually mature adults, upon which God’s shekhinah (His dwelling, settling, or abiding among them) would rest.   Apart from a minyan, corporate worship (mostly certain prayers & rituals) inhabited by the intimacy of God’s presence was simply unattainable.

But Jesus, with one utterance, toppled the notion of a numerical minyan, confessed himself as Deity, and established one of the great mysteries of corporate Christian worship (to the level Jesus talked about in John 4).  “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” Matthew 18:20.

Did you catch that?  Jesus in our midst, when we come together in His name!  His shekhinah among us.  THIS is the ‘game changer!’  This is what compels corporate gathering beyond its social implications to a spiritually indispensable facet of Christian worship.  Apart from the assembly, this remains an unattainable missing dynamic in the worship of the believer.

Wait a minute… if Christ’s Holy Spirit indwells us at salvation, isn’t He always “in our midst?”  Indeed, this poses a great mystery of the faith!  But throughout scripture, there are examples of the ever-present God “coming into” a special manifestation of His presence.  (Lev 9:24; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Ex 40:35, etc.)

Christ’s manifest shekhinah glory is the special essence of corporate Christian worship.  It is not attainable apart from “where two or three are gathered together in my name.”  In a mystery of faith, He inhabits the praises of His people even as His Spirit indwells them.  Assembly, for the church, is not scripturally optional.  But where individual hearts are knit together in authentic Christian worship, amidst them is the power of His presence, as both our object and conductor of glorious worship.  Coming soon, Part 3: The Medical Side of Worship.

Stay tuned… & subscribe→ 

Michael Warner specializes in Worship Team building and ‘re-building.’  Email Michael about an issue on YOUR team at Michael@MichaelWarnerMinistries.com -OR- call (570) 285-5248 to book for seminar/consulting.  www.MichaelWarnerMinistries.com

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(Many Questions of ‘Corporate Worship’)

We employ the term ‘Corporate Worship’ often.  At times, it is used to distinguish our individual worship from the gathering, or to denote a type of offering not achievable for individuals apart from each other.  But is ‘corporate worship’ more mythology than theology?  What ultimate constitutes a gathering as ‘Corporate Worship?’  Consider the following questions:

Is it the fact that people have gathered together in a religious facility?  Or that the gathering has a predetermined religious intent?  Is it higher than that… determined by the spiritual quality of that gathering?

What if only 57% of the people gathered are truly saved (indwelt by the Holy Spirit)?  Is it still corporate worship?  Is it comprised only of those who are saved?

What if 80% of that remainder either don’t understand what they’re singing or are completely disengaged… not singing from the heart, but from rote memorization?  What if the choir is singing “Joy to the World” …but their faces look like anything but!  (VERY typical)  Is it still corporate worship if they aren’t experiencing what they are proclaiming?  Does that make it ‘corporate lying?’

And if people ARE experiencing God, what if not everyone is experiencing the same thing?  What if one person is crying while another is laughing?  And is response the ultimate measure?  If I don’t witness an emotional outpouring – crying-laughing-shouting-hands-raised responses – did the ‘corporate’ body miss God?  Was it any less worship?  And do we blame the worship leader for not taking them to that place?  Or have they not been discipled by their pastor to be able to achieve corporate worship?

What if the gathering is completely disorganized or unstructured?  Or, what if it is highly organized – even liturgical?  Just because it is well planned and rehearsed, does THAT make it any less worshipful?  At what point does corporate worship cross the line from spiritually authentic to entertainment?  Is production the enemy of the Spirit?

Some are content to never scratch below the surface with these issues.  Others wring their hands daily over them.  But much hangs in the balance.  It could alter the way we Worship Leaders lead our congregations, and likewise transform the way our congregations respond to God.  In asking, we seek Truth – anticipating that our knowing will translate to better doing.  In part 2, we’ll examine “The Game Changer” in Corporate Worship.  Stay tuned… & subscribe→ 

Michael Warner specializes in Worship Team building and ‘re-building.’  Email Michael about an issue on YOUR team at Michael@MichaelWarnerMinistries.com -OR- call (570) 285-5248 to book for seminar/consulting.  www.MichaelWarnerMinistries.com

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(Defining Authentic Christian Worship)

Worship is: Flying a plane into a tower.  Pulling the pin in a crowded subway.  Ecstatic whirling.   Formal prayer 5 times daily.  Exhaustive memorization of sacred text.  In brief, a life inextricably woven to God.  Liturgically and sacrificially, Muslims – particularly extremists – seem to exemplify every definition of living worship.  Indeed, ‘Islam’ means “to submit.”

There’s only one problem… it’s false.  It’s not so much that they worship the wrong God (‘Allah’ is actually a form of the Hebrew ‘Elohim’), but a false revelation of God, fatally demoting the Christ from Savior to prophet.

Amidst the religious tussle between Samaritans & Jews, a Samaritan woman inquires of Jesus as to whose worship was more correct.  Shockingly, Jesus leveled BOTH groups with his answer.  He said “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 23-24

Worshiping in Truth
Authentic worship is NOT born of sincerity alone.  The premise of authenticity is truth!  That is, worshiping God in the reality, and not the perception, of who He is.  If Christ is not as the Word reveals Him – God in the flesh, the Word incarnate, the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away sins, the Savior, one with the Father, Creator of all things (and more!) – our worship is a vast and utter travesty.  But if He is, then the reality of His existence and attributes comprise the foundation of authentic Christian worship.  All else – albeit sincere – is false.

Worshiping in Spirit
Like Samaritans & Jews, we Christians persist in debating worship as a correctness of form, as though we still suffer from limited revelation (“vain arguments,” as I believe Paul described them?).  Jesus qualified worship beyond the notion of styles, traditions, and comparative nuance.  We debase it when we return it to such – with ‘form’ serving no better a substitution for “in spirit” than ‘works’ do for grace.  It is the idolatrous flesh which seeks to carve it to a perfected form.

Yet, as outlined in Part 2 of this installment, biblical worship encompasses many forms – work, sacrifice, obedience, fear, & reverence.  We didn’t even cover the ceremonial… dancing, raising hands, singing, prayer, etc.  Which of these forms are approved of God?  Simple: ALL… and NONE!

Jesus did not negate form.  He elevated it.  Form is not the essence of worship – the “spirit” is.  The word spirit is from the Greek ‘pneuma,’ literally meaning “breath” or “wind,” but usually translated “spirit” or “ghost.”  Isn’t it ironic that we labor so over giving form to something which Christ epitomized in its formlessness?

Then how can man authentically worship God “in spirit & truth?”  Apart from the Holy Spirit, who indwells us at faith, it is impossible for man to worship God as Jesus prescribed in John 4.  Thus, it was precisely the coming of Himself and the Holy Spirit that Jesus alluded to when He stated “An hour is coming, and now is.”  It is this reality that enables us to “spirit & truth” worship.

Just as temple sacrifices, though not false, were only substitutionary for the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, so temple worship – in all the glory of its many forms – was only substitutionary for the intimacy of spirit to Spirit fellowship and submission, attainable only through the indwelling.

The Holy Spirit is life to the believer (Romans 8:1-17).  The man who has not the Spirit has not life.  If apart from the Spirit we have not life, how can we have authentic worship?

I forward this:  Authentic Christian worship
is our living response to the reality of God.

Here, the descriptors are imperative:

Authentic – to distinguish between the real and the false.  Authentic worship must exist in perfect agreement with the truths of God and His Word.  It also affirms the purity of our motives and the Spirit-led nature of our offering.

Living – because it is momentary.  Though encompassing events, it empowers no distinction for the believer between an event of worship and a life lived in worship.

Reality – because worship is in response to His abiding and factual presence – the Holy Spirit – which indwells us, animates our life & purpose, and constitutes perpetual fellowship with the ever-present, eternal God.

Every act or attitude – whether eventful or momentary, historic or yet to be – can be folded into this definition.  In short, worship is our very life – and that in momentary submission to God’s Holy Spirit.

This provides an excellent springboard for discussion of corporate worship.  What is it, exactly, that we worship leaders are seeking to accomplish by doing what we do?

I would cherish your comments, perspectives, or clarifications in our Comments section, below…  Stay tuned… & subscribe→ 

Michael Warner specializes in Worship Team building and ‘re-building.’  Email Michael about an issue on YOUR team at Michael@MichaelWarnerMinistries.com -OR- call (570) 285-5248 to book for seminar/consulting.  www.MichaelWarnerMinistries.com

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(Surprising Meanings of Biblical Words)

Instinctively, we all recoil a bit when a long held (read traditionalized) practice or belief is challenged.  Understandable, though not excusable.  But if you understood the meaning of the original Hebrew/Greek words we Englishmen translate as ‘worship,’ would it change anything for you?

Plainly stated, there is no one Hebrew word that means ‘worship,’ as we know it.  It simply does not exist.  The words used biblically are a bit more specific than that.  Translators lump them under one English heading… but that was not the original intent.  Let’s examine:

Work – Hebrew Avad or Avodah – literally, “to work, serve, or tend,” usually in a temple-service context (Ex 12:31).  The same root is also used of Adam ‘tending’ the Garden (Gen 2:15) and of worshiping/serving idols in the Ten Commandments (more literally, to “work for” them). The corresponding Greek is latreia, and literally refers to hired work, but is most often biblically thought of as religious service (Rom 12:1).

Because of this heavy emphasis on work, tending, & service, does this confess that whatever we labor for, therefore we worship?  For the Christian, is it imperative that, though we have a job, it must never become our work?

To Bow – Hebrew Shachah – “to bow down, fall prostrate” (1 Sam 1:28).  The corresponding Greek proskuneó means literally to ‘kiss forward,’” (John 4:24).  This embraces the larger concept of postural worship, although there were lesser-used words for the various types.

Reverence – Hebrew Sebó – “to revere or adore devoutly” (Acts 16:14).  Probably the closest to what most people perceive as true worship today (at least in evangelical circles) merely because it reflects the notion that worship is an issue of the heart.

There are several other terms the English has bucket-labeled ‘worship,’ but originally denoting specific ideas such as kneeling, giving, waiting upon, falling, etc.  We have examined the concepts of work, posture, and reverence as worship.  But what about terms NOT translated under the English rubric ‘worship,’ yet inseparable from its practice?  Do we draw biblical distinctions where perhaps none was intended?  Consider further:

Sacrifice – Hebrew ‘zabach’ – “Samuel replied, ‘Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’” 1 Sam. 16:5

Fear – Hebrew ‘yare’… which, by the way, does NOT predominantly mean “awestruck reverence,” but rather to be “scared out of your boots” – “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Prov. 9:10

Obedience – Hebrew root ‘shama,’ literally “heard,” connotation of “hearing, then doing” – “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” 1 Sam. 15:22

Praise – Hebrew ‘halal,’ literally “to boast” – “Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary…” Ps. 150:1

Love – Hebrew ‘aheb’ – “For I command you today to love the Lord your God…” Deut. 30:16

Interestingly, the Hebrew/Greek words carried no inherently sacred connotation.  They were common words, also frequently used in relationship to men or even false gods.  It was the context that saw them elevated to their highest intent.

So what is the context of the things YOU work for?  The things for which you sacrifice?  To which you give?  What you love?  What you praise?  Who you obey?

Perhaps your fears reveal your worship as accurately as your praises.

Can these disparate notions of ‘worship’ and related responses to God be tied together into a central conclusion?  Yes, they can.  And the key lies with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Stick around for part 3 (conclusion)…  Coming Soon: [A Single Definition for Authentic Christian Worship? Part 3 (conclusion):]  Stay tuned… & subscribe→ 

Michael Warner specializes in Worship Team building and ‘re-building.’  Email Michael about an issue on YOUR team at Michael@MichaelWarnerMinistries.com -OR- call (570) 285-5248 to book for seminar/consulting.  www.MichaelWarnerMinistries.com

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(The Trouble with Words)

Maybe it’s our terminology.  We call our music ministries “Worship Teams” and those who lead them “Worship Leaders” or “Worship Pastors.”  While these terms are not wrong or even incorrect, they do tend to frame the issue – and often it’s a downsizing.

Passively, we glean that worship, therefore, is singing – or perhaps the experience that comes through doing so.  I can imagine this is particularly true for those just beginning in the faith, whose biblical knowledge and perspectives have not yet been developed.  But if singing represents the limits of our worship, then I will submit to you that music is a poor offering to the God of the universe.

I will forward a thesis… that until a pastor, worship minister, or team member can succeed in his mission to ‘lead’ others in worship, he must define it – FIRST for himself; then for others – OR, be resigned to the fact that many under his charge will effectively equate ‘music’ with worship, and leave it on the doorstep of the church on the way out.

So what, then, IS authentic Christian worship?  How does one define it?

Depending on how you count them, there are roughly 250,000 words in the English language.  Biblical Hebrew, however, was comprised of under 10,000 words!   Yet several Hebrew terms with different root meanings are translated to one English word – ‘Worship.’  And here’s where word studies get tricky… conversely, there are several English translations interpreting the same root words differently!

So let’s not deny the tensions of accuracy and consensus that exist between the Hebrew and the multiplicity of English representations – and THAT filtered though our endless denominational practices & traditions!  But does this relegate ‘worship’ as ultimately indefinable?  Does the English do a disservice uniting several distinct Hebrew concepts under one moniker?

I submit to you that it does not.  While defying unification under a single word, worship DOES render beautifully as a singular concept.  And you need to GET this concept if you are to fully worship the God of truth, and be qualified to lead others there in the process.  Coming Soon: [A Single Definition for Authentic Christian Worship? Part 2: (Surprising Meanings of Biblical Words)]  Stay tuned… & subscribe→ 

Michael Warner specializes in Worship Team building and ‘re-building.’  Email Michael about an issue on YOUR team at Michael@MichaelWarnerMinistries.com -OR- call (570) 285-5248 to book for seminar/consulting.  www.MichaelWarnerMinistries.com

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I realize that with one blog I risk alienating up to 90% of Christian teens, parents, and even pastors who watch cheeringly & hopefully as the latest in a litany of Christian singers vies for the top spot on American Idol.  I realize that for many, Idol is … um … ‘sacred.’  I know that many youth pastors have even encouraged their young disciples to watch and “support the Christian.”

But this practice is unwise and potentially destructive – and flawed in its fundamental premises.

The most recent example is Colton Dixon, a 20 year old vocalist from Murfreesboro, TN, who was eliminated unexpectedly a few weeks ago after his performance of Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance.’  In an April 23 MTV.com article by Christina Garibaldi, Mr. Dixon is quoted as saying:

“I’m like, ‘I can metal the snot out of this song,’ ” Dixon told MTV News on Monday (April 23) about his thought process in choosing the song. “I just started getting giddy thinking about it. I saw the smoke and I was like, ‘I’m in!’ and I ran with it.”  [As a side note, I’m curious as to how many of life’s monumental regrets begin with similar momentary thought processes.]

Dixon, although expressing remorse for his song selection, was later quoted as saying “I love her, I do. She’s a great artist and she can sing her tail off and that’s what I love.  She does whatever she can and whatever she has to do to stay on top of the music industry and she does a great job of it.”

Let it be well noted that this article is NOT about Mr. Dixon.  I have no intention of impugning his motives, or speculating about his background, spiritual maturity or condition, etc.  I simply do not know the man.

This article is about YOU.  It’s about YOUR kids, YOUR advocacy, YOUR standards for entertainment in your own heart and home – and the application of God’s wisdom to issues of right and wrong; beneficial and destructive.   Because whatever you permit, you endorse.  Whatever you advocate, you glorify.

Biblically, this comes down to 2 central issues: A) Whether or not Christ ordains sin as a biblically permissible mechanism for expanding His kingdom, and B) What it means to be a Holy people – set apart for Christ.  So let’s examine the biblical premises of why many believe Idol to be a worthy venture for the wannabe Christian recording artist.

Anything for the sake of Evangelism?
I’ve got a plan!  I will commit a heinous crime – SO heinous, that I will be splashed across every news outlet the world over.  And when they interview me, I will tell them that Jesus Christ is Savior.  No one comes to the Father but through Him.  Repent.  Love Him.  Worship Him.  He is worthy.  What a platform!  What an audience!

O.K. – I (and I’m assuming YOU) realize the above scenario is COMPLETELY absurd.  So I issue a challenge to the reader… explain how the underlying premise is any different from going on American Idol, singing sinful lyrics, portraying the attitudes and garb of the selfish flesh, and using that as a platform to expand my ministry – to save people from the very sin that I’m enticing them with?

If Christ validated sin as a legitimate instrument of the Gospel, then why did He bother to cast it out?  Why did He not say to the prostitute “Go, and sin, but now mention ME to your clients?”   Lust as an evangelism tool?  Does it get any more effective?

To be sure, she was challenged to cease from her clientele.  So, to the contrary, Christ – as the Word of God – charges us with 2 messages simultaneously and concurrently:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.”  Mt 28:19   - AND -  “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.  It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea will a millstone tied to his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”  John 17:1-2

 “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God.”  Luke 12:8   - AND -   “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.“   Eph 5:4

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”  Acts 1:8   - AND -   “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.”   3 John 1:11

Is it not the conclusion of scripture that we are to evangelize, but not to compromise with sin as a mechanism to do so?   Yes!  Emphatically, the Holy Spirit – and NOT sin – is the power of evangelism.

So in regard to American Idol & Mr. Dixon, where was the sin?   To be accurate about this, I ventured to look up the lyrics of ‘Bad Romance.’  May I strongly suggest you do not?  They are chock full of profanity, godlessness, promiscuity, and even a reference to an act that is commonly referred to by an Old Testament city.  [NOTE: I am aware that many young people will be reading this.  In the name of their innocence and discretion, I am making every attempt to communicate the message without violating the reader.]

Mr. Dixon said he changed the lyrics in some spots.  But it would have been better to not invite his listeners to this poisoned well.  To learn this song well enough to sing it live on national TV, he had to have listened intently to it over and over again, uncut, with the fullness of its evil portrayal and intent.

To be sure, even the secular community of just one generation ago would have possessed the moral fortitude to rise up in condemnation of this song and others like it, while today it seems a vast majority of even those who profess Christ place little guard over their ear and eye gates (or their children’s).

Pastor – are you taking care that your pulpit is not too weak to address these issues?  Parents – have you allowed the young ones entrusted to your spiritual care to become vulnerable to an immoral cancer that will rot them?  Do you have any idea how many children have had their innocence carelessly & recklessly robbed through the sinful portrayals of film and song?

To be fair, not all of secular music is sinful (obvious examples would be ‘Happy Birthday’ or Beethoven’s Fifth).  But I am also keenly aware that every song is a sermon about something.  If it is not clearly a sacred message, its content must at least not contradict or mischaracterize the eternal truths of biblical love and faith.  But indiscriminate fellowship with the sinful can poison minds that Christ would be about renewing.   I personally know of young ones enslaved to depression, darkness, and pornography first introduced by the media outlets they were allowed to fellowship with.

Mr. Dixon has stated that he wanted to go there as a witness.  Commendable, indeed.  But we were presented with two confusing and even confounding messages.  James 1:8 states “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”  I state this not in application to Mr. Dixon personally, but to expound upon its thesis that, in like manner, so was the ‘double-minded’ message (literally, “having two souls”) that went forth.

A Holy People
Consider the notion of Christians being singular in purpose:  1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

Concerning Christian holiness, there are 2 common misconceptions: A) That it means sinlessness (something the Bible itself describes as unattainable & unrealistic for man, this side of Heaven), and B) That holiness is something we must work to attain – a quasi works-based gospel – and that once we attain it, THEN we’ll be acceptable to God!  Neither of these scenarios are scripturally sound.

The Greek word translated as ‘Holy’ in the New Testament is ‘hagios.’  It means ‘separated for a purpose.’  Properly, it refers to something which is by nature ‘different or distinct’ and the context lends ‘as to the Lord.’  When you believe in Jesus the Christ as your Savior, and His Holy Spirit indwells you, you become saved – set apart from the chains & destiny of sin, and for the purposes of God through your living.  You THEN belong to God.  It is at THAT moment you are made holy.

Holiness is not something we can work to attain; it is imparted!  Yours is to walk in accordance to what you have now become.  That means laying down (dying to & continually deferring) the sinful desires of your flesh so that you can, as 1 Peter stated, “declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” 

It was not sin that Mr. Dixon went to American Idol (although perhaps unwise).  But it was inconsistent with his holiness (separated for a purpose) to have gone there foremost to be a contestant – submitted to whatever they would have him to do for the purpose of winning – when he could have gone there solely as a witness… singing exclusively praises to Christ until they told him it was time to go.  It would have been better (I will even venture to say more missionally effective) to accept elimination than to sing sinful lyrics as a condition of inching toward victory.

Victory becomes our Lord (indeed, our ‘Idol’), and NOT Christ, when we submit to sin in exchange for it.  [THAT’S the deal with the devil.]

History is littered with the blood of martyrs who, rather than compromise for the sake of their freedom, submitted their bodies to torture or even death.  Though their voices be silenced, their witness (for not having compromised) continues to minister volumes to us through the ages.

Matthew Henry, in his Concise Bible Commentary, eloquently states: “[There is] a strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those who are in communion with God must have no communication with the unfruitful works of darkness.”  Henry later goes on to state “For there is more likelihood that the good will be perverted, than that the bad will be converted.”

While we have a biblical mandate to reach the sinner, we enjoy no biblical permission to employ sin as a means of doing so.  Otherwise, just what is it that we are to be ‘separated’ from?

Parents & youth ministers, I leave you with a few questions for your consideration – for the NEXT time you may be tempted to direct your children to watch ‘Idol’ to support the Christian contestant:

1. By viewing American Idol, will your children be exposed to indiscriminately sinful material from other artists?  Will this expose their vulnerable hearts & emotions to things which could prove to be spiritually destructive?
2. When they see the Christian contestant dressing or moving suggestively (like many of the other contestants), will they passively learn that these are acceptable Christian behaviors?  Will they then take to emulating them?
3. Where will your child be venturing to ‘follow’ the progress and news about this newest contestant?  MTV?  Entertainment sites?  TV Gossip shows?  Will you proactively preempt this from happening?
4. Do you personally model for them a commitment to not consume sin for the sake of entertainment?

Have these discussions with your children… (and let me know the outcomes).  Stay tuned… & subscribe→ 

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Statement of Christian Faith

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