This video echos the mantra of so many people today.  Saying, “I hate religion, but I love Jesus” doesn’t say what people think it does.  What people don’t understand is that as soon as you say you believe in something…like Jesus…you have dogma which means you have religion.  Jesus was not anti-religion, he was anti-bad religion.  There is a difference and it is worth pointing out.  Instead of bashing all religion we should be defending good and true religion.  James 1:27 says, “ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Republican may not mean Christian, but neither does Democrat.

Religion may have started some wars, but not all religions are equal in this way.  Some religions seem to be more violent than others.  For instance the Crusades were to defend Jerusalem against the Muslims.  In the last century more people have been killed in wars that were based not on religion but ideology.  Communism and Naziism are non-religions ideologies responsible for very bloody wars.  In reality non-religious ideology has cause more death and war than religion…so it seems that as a general rule religion is less bloody than non-religion.  To read more about this, click here.  When you begin to consider the good done by religious organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, International Justice Mission, Compassion International, and many, many others it seems religion and especially Christianity does not start wars but instead ends unjust wars and protects those who are in need of protection.

Religion does build churches, but most of them are not huge.  Even the huge churches often do feed the poor or support organizations that do.  This platitude sounds good, but is simply untrue.

Our church along with many others has a ministry specifically to help those who have gone through divorce to heal.

Some religion is behavior modification, but not all.  If he is talking about Christianity, he needs a theology lesson.  Salvation (justification) comes by grace, but that is not license to sin.  Sanctification is the process of becoming more holy.  Sanctification does include behavior modification.  If Christians go on sinning they are called hypocrites, but if they don’t then they are legalistic.  It’s a no win situation.

“I aint judgin, I’m just sayin quit puttin on a fake look”  That sounds like judging to me, he seems to be claiming that many are being hypocrites.

“I love the church, I love the Bible, and yes I believe in sin.”  Apparently the church is not part of a religion…I’m confused.

Jesus and religion are not opposite.  Jesus is the work of God, but the church is the Bride of Christ not a man made invention.

“Religion says do, but Jesus says done.”  Let’s not forget the Bible says do and so does Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount among other places.  There are plenty of commandments in the Bible and if I’m not mistaken there are ten written by the finger of God himself (The Ten Commandments).  It is true the actions of Jesus accomplished what the law could not, but that does not give us reason to ignore the commands of God.

Let me end this post by saying this guy gets the gospel right and I am thankful for that.  My concern is that he seems to group the church and religion together and he does a pretty good job of bashing them both.  The church is the Bride of Christ, the chosen vehicle to deliver the gospel to the world.  Though the church needs to be corrected from time to time, we should defend, cherish, and love her.  Christianity is a religion in spite of of this popular platitude.

This is an excerpt from a message John Byrne did at Launch a leadership conference for students. The title of the message was “What is the Gospel?” Feel free to check out the Launch web site www.launch2012.com

It is difficult to create momentum in ministry.  In this video John Byrne talks about what he is doing to create and maintain momentum.

This is part two:

John Byrne talks about youth ministry models, what they are, and how we use them.

Is youth ministry Biblical?  If so, how does the Bible speak about it?