I honestly thought this was a joke when I saw the advertisement. I thought someone is making fun of some fundamentalist theologians that they don’t like. I thought, nobody would really use a cheesy Sopranos look-alike logo and call it Pulpit Crimes. Nobody would really call their ministry event that. And I thought, there is no way anybody would ever really host a series of lectures on the topic of Christian discernment and do it out in the middle of the ocean on an expensive cruise ship while hungry people starve to death. I was wrong.

It’s true! For as low as $579.00 you can spend eight days on a luxury cruise eating shrimp, while these disciples of John MacArthur tell you everything you need to know in order to “discern” the “pulpit crimes” of Catholics, charismatics, the emerging church and anyone who holds to an egalitarian rather than a so called “complementarian” position regarding “the role of women” in the home and in the Church. Don’t worry, if you can’t make the cruise, maybe you can make the two day conference kick off in Disney World.

So who are these guys? Phil Johnson does the editing for John Macarthur’s books. He is a public speaker and has a semi-famous blog where he pontificates about his issues with charismatic and emergent types. David T. King is a Reformed/Presbyterian pastor and anti-Catholic who I guess “has exposed the many errors and massive historical revisionism in which popular Roman Catholic apologists engage on the issues of Scripture and tradition” blah, blah, blah.

I am curious what exactly will be said at the Disney event, during the seminar “prostitution: Using the Gospel for Financial Gain.” Maybe they will talk about over-paid ministers who go on expensive cruise-resort retreats. My guess is probably not (incidentally, one may notice that the topic is not on the agenda for the cruise).

It is obvious that I take issue with the theological perspectives of Dr. White, Mr Johnson and Mr. King. But I do not wish to make that my primary concern here. There are more than enough “watchdog” blog sites out there from all different perspectives all hollering sola scriptura.

What I do wish to ask is this: why do Christians of all different types with all different kinds of ministries think that we need flex the almighty buck to make any ministry good or memorable these days?

As has been pointed out on other blogs the discernment crew at “sovereign cruises” are not the only folks wasting copious amounts of money on Christian retreats. There are pastoral conventions, wives of pastors conventions, Reformed retreats, Methodist assemblies, Emergent seminars and youth rallies of all sorts. The latter which I have sat through many.

Please do not get me wrong, some of these youth events which I was a part of when I was a youth minister were not all completely bad things. There were times when teens lives were touched and lasting Christian commitments were made. In fact I had a life changing experience at one back in 1990 when I was a high school student. However (and this is an important “but”) God can meet us anywhere and we must not confuse our descriptive stories to be prescriptive. I still believe life changing experiences can happen without the lights, pro-wrestlers and emotionally charged music. If I don’t than what is the Gospel for?

Please think about these things.
Shalom,
Wayne