Where does the profanity come from?

According to NewSpring’s creative pastor, Perry Noble’s pulpit profanity comes from God’s leading and Jesus’ example.

Perry uses a lot of strong words in his sermons…how does he get away with that?

never confuses sermon prep with his quiet time. in his quiet time whatever he’s studying God will speak into him something that is for perry first and often times for the church…

it’s used to get people’s attention and do away with what church people think is supposed to be said and seen. cuz that’s what jesus did.

You’ve got to be careful that you don’t do anything that those “church people” would think is appropriate.

What does the main man say about his profanity?

Q [from a senior pastor]: I wish I could say balls and things that are that daring.

A: If you want to say balls SAY BALLS!

In other words, just do it.

By the way, could a senior pastor possibly ask a more pathetic question? Imagine the church marquee:

Visit our church: We say balls.

What counts as holy?

A line from Noble’s sermon this afternoon:

God couldn’t give a crap about your happiness when it comes to his holiness.

If God is holy, what does he give a crap about?

Should the holiness of God have any effect on how we talk about him?

Do words really matter?

If you follow the comments to any of these posts (they’re usually more interesting than the posts themselves), you’re aware that there’s a bit of a discussion emerging about the propriety of claiming to be jacked up about the Gospel. The word is commonly defined as either being broken or being under the influence of drugs. I and a few others have taken the position that it is not an appropriate term to describe one’s reaction to the preaching of the Word, and others are saying that emotions trump whatever words we choose to describe them. In other places on this blog, we’ve looked at how the modern church is frequently promiscuous in its use of language.

Does it really matter? Should Christians be so careful about the words we use?

Absolutely.

We follow a Savior who described himself as the Word. God created and sustains us and everything we see by the power of his word. Words are powerful and meaningful. If we assume we can take liberties with the words we use (Bamf, jacked and BangORang to describe God’s work, for example), then we strip words of all their meaning, usefulness and power.

When God told Timothy to study, what was he supposed to study (2 Timothy 2:15), if not words? When Peter tells us that some of Paul’s teachings are difficult to understand (2 Peter 3:16), it’s the words that hold the key to their meaning. When God wanted his prophetic message to be clearly expressed in Habakkuk 2:2, what did he use? Written words. What would make Solomon judge a word as fitly spoken (Proverbs 25:11), if not an excellent match between a word’s definition and its application?

When we want to understand the precise meaning of Scripture, we go to the original languages to research the definitions and usage of the words we’ve translated into English. In knowing God’s revelation, precise and unchanging meanings are crucial. If we treat words as being infinitely malleable, we give ourselves the liberty to treat the Bible cavalierly and read our own meanings into it.

Words are so important, God would rather us not use them at all than to use them carelessly, which is one of the important lessons Job had learned by the end of his book.

The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him. (Habakkuk 2:20)

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty with your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2)

I would expect that there’s a very high correlation between leaders who carefully watch their language and who preach God’s Word faithfully, insightfully and effectively. If you don’t treat the definitions of words seriously, how can you possibly study the Bible?

Find a preacher with a loose tongue, and you’ll probably also find a preacher with loose doctrine.

Great quotes from Perry’s latest sermon

Noble’s sermon from last Sunday apparently moved a few people here, so I decided to give it a listen…

You didn’t honestly think I was gonna listen and not comment, did you?  Here’s what he has to say:

Jesus called it the Great Comission, not the Great Suggestion.

Sure about that one, Perry?

I’m too concerned about the people living in the environment to be concerned about saving the envirionment.

Does this even make sense to anyone? First, I think when God gave man dominion over the creatures of the earth (Gen. 1:26), he expected us to take care of them. Also, (Gen. 1:31) when he looked at all he had made and thought it was very good, I think that shows that God cares about the environment.

Plus, just plain common sense would say that if you really care about a person living in an environment, you would want to do your best to make sure the environment was safe for them.

If you’re a church shopper, I want to help you. You say” I’m looking for a church that meets my needs”. You see, I could give a crap about your needs. No, you don’t understand how much I don’t care.

Perry has apparently found some new definition for Pastor that I haven’t seen. The word translated as pastor, is also translated as shepherd. They mean the same thing.  In other words, a pastor’s job is to care for God’s sheep. Consider this passage from John 17:

¹⁵When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”
      ”Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
      Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”
      He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
      Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

 ¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
      Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

    Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”

Isn’t it odd that Jesus made it clear to Peter, that if he loved Him, Peter would take care of His sheep? Do we see this kind of concern anywhere in Perry’s ministry? Has he even read this passage of Scripture before?

I’m sick and tired of, “I just want a small church. We’re not gonna reach anyone, but we’re gonna study the Bible and love each other.” That would be great…but it’s not commissioned in Scripture.

1. I’m sure you’d never hear a church say “We’re not gonna reach anyone.”
2. There is plenty of scriptural evidence that we should love one another and study God’s word.

In the church world today, we’re not fisher’s of men, we’re keepers of the aquarium.

Actually, a keeper of the aquarium isn’t a bad image for the biblical picture of a pastor.

It’s our commission to piss church people off as often as possible, because that is a way to make sure we are preaching the gospel.

I have nothing to even say about this. One of you with the special decoder ring will have to tell me what he’s talking about here. And please, point me to the passage of Scripture where he gets this idea.