Protestia

Author: Staff Writer

  • Andy Stanley Suggests Defending ‘Gay Rights’ is a ‘Moral Value’ the Gospel Set Loose

    Andy Stanley Suggests Defending ‘Gay Rights’ is a ‘Moral Value’ the Gospel Set Loose

    With the news that Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church has become a cesspool filled with LGBTQ+ affirming pastors, leaders, ministries, guest speakers, and conferences, it’s unsurprising that as more stones are overturned, more deviant theology emerges.

    We’ve been covering this extensively over the last two months, revealing that not only is Stanley gay-affirming according to multiple testimonies from his pastors and leaders, but that multiple pastors and leaders within his church are gay-affirming, and that the church is hosting pro-LGBTQ+ conferences and family ministries, as well as recommending LGBTQ+ resources to families.

    Gay Man with a ‘Husband’ Scheduled to Speak with Andy Stanley At His Church’s Family Conference
    ALMOST ALL Speakers at Andy Stanley’s Upcoming ‘Christian’ Conference are LGBTQ+ Affirming!
    Celebrating Transgenderism?! North Point Church Staffers Rejoice After Man Comes Out as Woman
    Audio: Gay North Point Church Leader Says Andy Stanley Affirmed Him in His Homosexuality

    Did a Pastor at Andy Stanley’s Church Just Out Him as Gay-Affirming?! Read the Excerpts
    North Point Leader Recommends All-LGBTQ+ Queer Counseling Collective For Struggling Gay Kids
    Contemporaneous Text Messages from 2019 Support Gay-Affirming Charges Against Andy Stanley Andy Stanley’s Children Ministry Overrun and Led by Pro-LBGTQ+ Activists

    North Point Hosting Conference With Founder of World’s Largest LGBTQ Christian Advocacy Org
    Andy Stanley’s Church Hosts and Promotes Pro-LBGTQ+ Ministry
    Surprise Surprise, Another North Point Church Leader is Gay-Affirming and Wildly Liberal

    During his March 26, 2023, he favorably quotes gay-affirming author Phillip Yancey. In a case of “one of these things is not like the other” Stanley says that when people say things like “we need human rights” and ostensibly gay rights “they’re actually leveraging the teaching of Jesus, whether they know it or not.”

    I love this quote by Philip Yancey. I‘ve shared it with you before, I will probably share it with you forever. This is from his amazing book he wrote years ago, called Vanishing Grace. Here’s here’s what he writes. He says, ‘Those Who condemn the church for its blind spots’ and of course we have blind spots. The amazing about the church- we’re going to talk about this in about two and half months- is that the church has a self-correcting mechanism on the inside. But from time to time, church is and the church says crazy things. He says ‘There are those who condemned the church for its blind spots. They do so by gospel principles.” In other words, the very principles that people outside the church use to hold the church accountable are actually principles that came from Jesus. “Arguing for the very moral values that the gospel originally set loose in the world.”

    In other words, when people say “we need Justice and we need human rights and we need, we need” they’re actually leveraging the teaching of Jesus whether they know it or not. Here’s what he goes on to say. And there’s so much evidence for this. I’ve shared some of that with you before. He writes “human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, minority rights, gay rights, disability Rights, animal rights- the success of these, modern movements,”- these are all modern movements, “the success of these, modern movements, reflect a widespread empathy for the oppressed that has no precedent in the ancient world.”

    Again, what is intuitive to us is not intuitive. We learned it. What is self-evident to us about the dignity that other people deserve, it is not self-evident. We learned it. And it we learned it, it was launched by the teaching of Jesus. He goes on he says this “classial philosophers considered mercy and pity to be character defects.” To be generous to somebody who didn’t earn it was a character defect. To show compassion for someone who doesn’t have anything to do with you and you can’t get anything from them, and there’s no benefit for showing compassion, that was considered a character defect. Nobody celebrated you for that. “Contrary to justice, not until Jesus”-this is so documented- “not until Jesus did that attitude change.”

    Full Yancey quote.

    “Those who condemn the church for its blind spots do so by gospel principles, arguing for the very moral values that the gospel originally set loose in the world. Human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, minority rights, gay rights, disability rights, animal rights—the success of these modern movements reflects a widespread empathy for the oppressed that has no precedent in the ancient world; classical philosophers considered mercy and pity to be character defects, contrary to justice. Not until Jesus did that attitude change.

    When the rest of the world criticizes us for our failings, we should respond with humility and repentance, qualities that lobby groups and activists don’t typically display. Christians know that the church in 2100 will look back on the church of 2000 and shake its head in sad incomprehension. How could we have missed what will seem so obvious to them?

    Our challenge as Jesus’ followers is to align ourselves with the true gospel, and to reclaim the force it has released to a world in desperate need.”

    ~ Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News? 

  • Greg Locke to Counter sue after County Serves Him Lawsuit : ‘We Will Not Be Bullied’

    Greg Locke to Counter sue after County Serves Him Lawsuit : ‘We Will Not Be Bullied’

    Days after Wilson County Director of development services Tom Brashear filed a lawsuit against Greg Locke and Global Vision Bible Church, claiming a host of zoning violations, including excessive music and building without a proper permit, Locke told Church leaders that he would counter sue the county, claiming “we will not be bullied.”

    Readers of Protestia will recognize Locke as the foul-mouthed, spouse-abandoning, Tennessee “pastor” who notoriously divorced his wife of two decades and quickly married his secretary, claimed that “Illuminati hand signals are controlling Mitch McConnell,” threatened a Dunkin’ Donuts worker with kicking his teeth down his throat, and recently said that if you deny the existence of tunnels under the White House or Capitol Building that were uncovered by the military and used to house both live and dead children, you’re just as complicit in the abuse as “crack-smoking perverts.” 

    Locke has been elbows deep in ‘deliverance ministry’ after a bunch of witches supposedly have been harassing his church and has partnered up with crackpot Isaiah Saldivar to help him get the problem under control.

    Rather than a brick-and-mortar structure, Locke and his megachurch congregation meet in a large outdoor tent, and have received over noise 90 complaints over it. The suit reads:

    “The complaints have increased in number and the frequency from neighbors who suffer from the excessive noise, drainage from the property, and other issues…(GVBC must…) remove all buildings from the property and be permanently enjoined from placing any other buildings on the property until there is full and strict compliance with the Wilson County Zoning Ordinance and the Wilson County Strormwater Regulations.”

    Lock told CR “

    “Not only is this lawsuit unconstitutional, it’s flat out not true. We have done everything we can to be in compliance. We’ve even had a Tennessee State Inspection applaud us on our progress and give us areas that have needed attention….There is no noise ordinance, and we’ve gone above and beyond to minimize the sound, a nd now that we’ve done that, they have to find some other trumped up nonsense to violate us on.

    …Let me be plain: we will counter sue the County. We will keep having services. We will not be bullied and we will continue to do all we can to minimize sound, be good neighbors, and serve the community.”

  • Hillsong Leader Phil Dooley Announces ‘Significant Moment’ to Address ‘Very Serious Allegations’

    Hillsong Leader Phil Dooley Announces ‘Significant Moment’ to Address ‘Very Serious Allegations’

    With Hillsong Church currently being exposed for the mammon-loving cauldron of false teaching and excess that it is, courtesy of the recent Hillsong Trove documenting that leaders were routinely spending thousands and tens of thousands of dollars on meals, flights, luxury clothing, and concert tickets, Global Senior Leader Phil Dooley announced during today’s service that they would be having a church-wide meeting on Thursday to discuss the allegations.

    Hillsong Leader Expenses $40,086.05 in ONE MONTH (One Meal Was $6156.64)
    Countdown: Top 10 Luxury Hotels Hillsong Leaders Expensed to the Church (Spoiler: The Cheapest is $8457.42)
    What is ‘Hillsong Family’, and Why Do Some Churches Pay $100K a Year to Join It? Ft. Judah Smith
    Hillsong’s Compassion Contract Details Revealed: What $1,000,000 Really Gets You
    Hillsong Church Salaries, Royalties, Benefits Revealed. $1.9M, $ 1.7M, $1.5M, $876K, $540K

    Dooley told the audience.

    The things that we have been facing, some allegations that are very serious, very concerning. But we want to speak to those and we want to take time to do that appropriately and properly and help you to be well informed about our church and about what we’re doing and where we’re going. It’s going to be dealing with things and talking about things honestly, but it’s also about where we’re going in our future. Because we have a bright future as a church and we’re excited about that.

    God stirred a misison in our hearts that we are very clear on, that we’re going after. And so, I would love you to come if you can on Thursday night where I think it is going to be a significant moment for us as we move forward into our future. So that would be 7 p.m. and it’ll be happening here at the hills and a number of our other locations. All right, we ready for the word of God. Come on, let’s stand.

  • A Gallery Of The Faithful Gathering For Church. Album 33

    A Gallery Of The Faithful Gathering For Church. Album 33

    The thirty-third in this year’s series showing our brothers and sisters in Christ gathering for church service as faithful believers.

    While going to church does not make one a believer, refusing to faithfully attend a local church should seriously call that faith into question. This is a glimpse of what the global church is up to, and will feature images in chronological order, week to week, of the men and women being obedient to the scriptures. As always, click pictures to enlarge them.

    Album #1, Album #2 Album #3 Album #4 Album #5 Album #6 Album #7 Album #8 Album #9 Album #10 Album #11 Album #12 Album #13 Album #14 Album #15 Album #16 Album #17 Album #18 Album #19 Album #20 Album #21 Album #22 Album #23 Album #24 Album #25 Album #26 Album #27 Album #28 Album #29 Album #30 Album #31 Album #32

  • Hillsong Leader Expenses $40,086.05 in ONE MONTH (One Meal Was $6156.64)

    Hillsong Leader Expenses $40,086.05 in ONE MONTH (One Meal Was $6156.64)

    George Aghajanian is the General Manager and Director of Hillsong Church and was a board member from 2016-2021. As their General Manager, he’s responsible for Hillsong’s administrative, governance, and operations affairs.

    He also expensed the church $40,086.05 in a single month, nearly all on hotels and food. 

    According to released documents from the Hillsong trove, senior leaders within Hillsong had personal, corporate church credit cards that they regularly used to buy luxury goods on the church’s dime, which were paid by the congregant’s tithes and offerings. These expenditures were separate from their salaries, where most senior leaders at Hillsong made well over six figures (some making nearly $2,000,000 a year.)

    Countdown: Top 10 Luxury Hotels Hillsong Leaders Expensed to the Church (Spoiler: The Cheapest is $8457.42)
    What is ‘Hillsong Family’, and Why Do Some Churches Pay $100K a Year to Join It? Ft. Judah Smith
    Hillsong’s Compassion Contract Details Revealed: What $1,000,000 Really Gets You
    Breaking! We Have the (Literal) Receipts. Hillsong’s Brian Houston Routinely Spent $1500+ on Meals, $5000/night on Hotels

    Per their internal policy, church corporate cards could “only be used for work/ ministry-related expenses properly incurred in the performance of your duties” and holders should ask themselves:

    Am I spending this money with the same care that I would show if I was spending my own money? Am I being mindful to steward the church’s money? Is the expense really needed?

    They never did.

    May 2019 started out pretty quiet. Aghajanian spent a mere 300$ at Peterson House Hunter Valley Wineries, and then nothing for a while. At the end of the month, he spent $3,984.13 for one night at the Carneros resort and then an eye-watering $8,060.65 at La Toque restaurant. The next day, he dropped $492.67 at a steakhouse in New York City, expensing to Hillsong congregants $13,129.47 for the whole month.

    Unlike the previous month, June started with a bang. Aghajanian spent $6165.64 at the Bouchon Bistro in Yountville, which is known for its wine selection. He also spent the night at the Soho Grand Hotel, charging congregants $2079.97 for that good night’s sleep.

    Add a couple more nights at the Soho Grand Hotel, $2,809.75 and $3066.04, respectively, a $277,52 meal at Two Hands restaurant, and another $1,225.08 to stay at the Ritz Carlton. Finally, he spent a blistering $22,662 at the Hotel Archur in Napa.

    In total, he expensed $40,086.05$ for that single month in 2019

    The last month to look at is November 2018. Aghajanian spent $883.53 for a night at Capri by Fraser Hotel in Berlin, and $443.73 for a meal at the Barceloneta.

    Then Aghajanian went wild. He spent $2,808.53 on gift cards and $1,199.74 on food at The Grille. The next day he paid $2,676.90 for a night at the luxurious Rydges Lakeland Resort in Queenstown and another $1743.89 at The Grille.

    Leaving Rydes, Rydges Resort, Aghajanian tried out the Hotel St. Moritz in Queenstown, spending $3178.07, then had a meal at Jack Point Clubhouse for $3,044.37. Finally he expensed another $3679.08 at the Rata Restaurant and $1818.36 at the Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa.

    That’s only three months. Extrapolate that to the decades Aghajanian was at Hillsong, then extrapolate that to the dozen other long-time leaders with personal charge cards.

    For example, four years earlier, he spent $80,035.15 in September of 2015. Among his bigger ticket items, he spent $8,372.90 to stay at Trump Hotel in New York, and took a $13,674.38 flight to Paris .

    In early 2021, after Carl Lentz and the gang at Hillsong NY imploded, then Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston was indignant at the mere accusation that there was financial impropriety happening at the church, writing a letter to members to rebut these claims:

    I am writing to you today because of several stories circulating online alleging a serious abuse of trust — the misuse of church funds by Hillsong Church employees…

    We are particularly grieved that, in many cases, inaccurate accounts in these stories have been reported as if they are true. Hillsong Church strongly refutes that our culture casually allows for such gross misuse of church funds. In fact, these stories are especially troubling since Hillsong has a record of excellence in financial accountability globally and an unwavering commitment to financial integrity…

    Hillsong has been lying for a long time, and they deserve nothing less than to be utterly and completely destroyed.

  • Website ‘ShowMeTheToes.com’ Launches After Woman Claims Amputated Toes Slowly Regrown During Bill Johnson Sermon

    Website ‘ShowMeTheToes.com’ Launches After Woman Claims Amputated Toes Slowly Regrown During Bill Johnson Sermon

    That’s a weird headline.

    Anyway. A woman attending James River Church’s recent service is facing scrutiny and skepticism after releasing a video claiming that three of her toes that were previously amputated were miraculously regrown during a healing service. According to reports:

    The services were part of the church’s “Week of Power,” which included services by guest pastors Bill Johnson Of Bethel and Randy Clark. 

    During the March 15 livestream, (pastor) Lindell said that during a service hosted by Johnson, “prayer team members” prayed over Kristian Dines. Lindell said Dines had three toes amputated after her then-husband shot her in 2015. In 2021, Stephen Thompson was convicted of shooting and killing Carissa Gerard and critically injuring Dines…

    “As the ladies prayed for Krissy over the next 30 minutes, all three toes grew, and by that point, were longer than her pinky toe. Within an hour, nails began to grow on all the toes,” Lindell said in the livestream.

    The video where Dines shared her testimony about her toes growing back has since been removed from Facebook, but still exists on Twitter. In it, Dines said that she had three toes amputated in an accident, but after attending a service at James River Church where women prayed over her feet, she witnessed the amputated toes re-forming.

    “Tonight, I can stand on my tippy-toes. Listen, do you understand?” Dines said in the video. “I can stand on tippy-toes. No, I couldn’t do that because I didn’t have toes to tippy on.”

    One attendee described the event this way:

    In Kristina’s own words:

    Despite the toes taking 30 minutes to grow back, slowly, slowly, sloooooowly forming blood, bone, and cartilage, no one thought to take a video, which would be the first time in the history of the world this would be caught on tape, and would undoubtedly provide almost irrefutable proof of the miraculous.

    Following this news, the website ShowMeTheToes.com lauched, citing Luke 17:14: “And when (Jesus) saw (the lepers), he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed” and urging anyone involved to show proof that this actually happened.

    In a subsequent service, Pastor Lidell says he has no interest in talking more about it or providing proof to doubters, saying, “(I’m) protecting sheep who are vulnerable…that’s my first concern, it’s for her. So, you know, if that bothers you, I’m sorry.”

  • Greg Locke’s Neighbors File Lawsuit Against Church for Zoning Violations

    Greg Locke’s Neighbors File Lawsuit Against Church for Zoning Violations

    A week after Greg Locke reached ebullient highs after his strange and bizarre deliverance film “Come out in Jesus Name” made nearly a million dollars at the box office, Wilson County Director of development services Tom Brashear filed a lawsuit against Global Vision Bible Church, claiming a host of zoning violations, including excessive music and building without a proper permit.

    Readers of Protestia will recognize Locke as the foul-mouthed, spouse-abandoning, Tennessee “pastor” who notoriously divorced his wife of two decades and quickly married his secretary, claimed that “Illuminati hand signals are controlling Mitch McConnell,” threatened a Dunkin’ Donuts worker with kicking his teeth down his throat, and recently said that if you deny the existence of tunnels under the White House or Capitol Building that were uncovered by the military and used to house both live and dead children, you’re just as complicit in the abuse as “crack-smoking perverts.” 

    Locke has been elbows deep in ‘deliverance ministry’ after a bunch of witches supposedly have been harassing his church and has partnered up with crackpot Isaiah Saldivar to help him get the problem under control.

    Rather than a brick-and-mortar structure, Locke and his megachurch congregation meet in a large outdoor tent.

    Following a raft of excessive noise complaints, nearly 90 lodged against them, he erected a new tent designed to have better sound isolation. Still, neighbors say there is scarely any dampening and want him to build a building or go away. So far, over 1800 people have signed a petition requesting that the County knock him for noise complaints. 

    Locke said he’s doing his best, but it’s not so easy, telling WKRN: “Every week, people will start to notice the sound getting less and less. To give a people an idea, we’ve literally grown 1,000 people per year every year the past three years…We grew so fast that a tent is really the only option. Even if we broke ground today, we would still need to be in a tent for two to three years.”

    Neighbor Griff Akins, wants them to get on with it, declaring: “It’s been horrible. They only really care about themselves. It’s been a noise issue for the past two or three years….just build a building. There is plenty of land out here; he can move to where he is not bothering anyone and be as loud as he want.”

  • Megachurch Pastor Who Abused 14 Girls Released From Prison After Serving 25-Month Sentence

    Megachurch Pastor Who Abused 14 Girls Released From Prison After Serving 25-Month Sentence

    Former megachurch youth pastor Robert Shiflet has been released for good behavior after only serving 25 months in jail, eight less than the 33 he was initially sentenced. Though accused of abusing 14 girls, he was only convicted of two. The first, he lured a 15-year-old girl from her youth group during a church camping weekend and sexually assaulted her, and the second, he had sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl on a bus trip. According to reports:

    Shiflet was convicted in June 2021, and an Arkansas district court sentenced him to 33 months in federal prison, which was less than the suggested 41 to 51 months and below the statutory maximum of 10 years on the first count and 15 on the second.

    A transcript of the sentencing states this was because of a sentencing range miscalculation. If Judge Lee Rudofsky had not accepted the plea deal, Shiflet could have withdrawn his guilty plea and gone to trial.

    Rudofsky accepted the plea agreement because while Shiflet’s victims had agreed to testify, they were worried Shiflet would be acquitted if the case went to trial and be able to reenter society with no restrictions. The judge said he wanted to ensure they received justice, even if it was not what he believed to be an appropriate punishment.

    At his sentencing, the judge said he wished he could have sent Shiflet to prison for longer, calling him a threat to society:

    “You are a terrible person. I don’t believe that you are sorry in the slightest. I don’t believe you have rehabilitated yourself. I believe you haven’t been caught again, but I don’t believe you have rehabilitated yourself.”

    “I don’t think you are a good person, and I don’t think you stand a chance of becoming a good person. If it was up to me and you had been found guilty after a trial, I would have sent you away for 25 years.”

    Following the revelations of the youth pastor’s behavior, the church admitted that they failed to stop the abuse and address multiple red flags regarding Shiflet’s behavior.

    “

  • Collection of Memes We Like. The Story of Exodus … in A.I. Selfies

    Collection of Memes We Like. The Story of Exodus … in A.I. Selfies

    This is just fun. That’s all.

    h/t Best Christian Memes

  • Podcast: Discussing the Inner Workings of an Online Discernment Ministry, Russell Moore Joins Enneagram Conference + A Sermon on Sanctification

    Podcast: Discussing the Inner Workings of an Online Discernment Ministry, Russell Moore Joins Enneagram Conference + A Sermon on Sanctification

    On Protestia Tonight, David discusses the inner workings of online discernment ministry versus the caricature of discernment pushed by naysayers, and then talks about Russell Moore being a guest speaker at an Enneagram conference.

    On Bible Bashed, this week’s episode is a sermon from Ephesians 2:11-13 by Pastor Tim where he discusses the importance of understanding your identity in Christ for sanctification.

    Search for either Protestia Tonight or Bible Bashed on any podcast app.