Category Archives: Church

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Relationships, Inspiration & Holy Ghost Tent Revivals: NEW BOOK ALERT!

Hello World!

Jay Bakker (right) with Matt Debenedictis, Atlanta, Georgia...This is an illustration from Tess' book as she is also a gifted illustrator...

Well, I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of Thanksgiving food. It’s time to back away from that fattening dressing and throw them stanky collards out although I was so thankful to gather with family and friends…But now, it’s officially time to celebrate the Christmas season…YAY!

It’s time  to “make that list and check it twice.” Yes, it’s time to make that Christmas list and budget. If you’re anything like me, a good book is always a good Christmas gift, and most books are reasonably priced too..And if you are looking for some good books, consider the ones I will tell you about below…

1. Southern Cross: True Stories of miracles, visions, voodoo, snake handling, civil disobedience, and my search for existential answers along the back roads of the Bible Belt by Tess Gadwa. (Full disclosure: My friend Tess designed my blog for me, and yes, I am completely biased about her work.) This is a book chronicling Tess’ spiritual journey to various towns, locales and cities in the Southeastern part of the United States. In fact, I met Tess when she stopped in Atlanta for a convention. We were both trying to convince Anne Lamott, the featured speaker, to take a look at our works in progress, get us a book publishing deal and make us famous…Well, maybe Tess did not want that, but that was my master plan…As it turns out, as far as we know, Lamott did not even peruse our work, but it’s all good…Tess & I are friends for life…

Below is an excerpt of her interview with Jay Bakker, son of Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker…If you haven’t heard of them, a quick Google search will get you up to speed. Basically, Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker, were the quintessential televangelist and wife team of the ’80s who preached prosperity for the masses, but it all call came down due to scandals of sex and money…In spite of it all, though their son Jay lost his faith in God, he found a new faith in God and began a very different type of church than the one he grew up in….

Eventually, Jay returned to the ministry he had founded. But his anger at the church still shows.“The best is when you’re on top and they love you. They treat you well, and they care about you, and they make you feel that you’re important. And when you’re on the bottom, they kick you when you’re down,” he says with resignation.

“I’ve sat in churches and watched preachers preach against my dad, not knowing
that I was in the congregation. I went to a youth group, and this youth pastor started
making jokes about my parents, and I was just so brokenhearted, trying to give church a
chance.”

It’s easy for me to shrug and think to myself, well, your dad was a convicted
criminal. He exemplified a lot of the worst traits of Christianity. Of course other church
leaders are going to want to distance themselves. I think I first read about the PTL scandal in the Bloom County comic strip, when I was 10 years old. I remember a joke about the characters scrounging their savings to keep Tammy Faye in eyeliner a few weeks longer.

How weird would it be to have your mom and dad be the butt of these jokes? You
might not have seen too much of them back in the era of the private jets and round-the-clock
bodyguards, but they would still be your parents.
“I hate legalism, man,” Jay says. “I hate when people’s lives are hurt by the
church. And they think it’s Jesus, or they think it’s God. And that’s why I’m angry,
because I lived through it.”

You got to check out this book…and it’s free on her website! As my friend is a talented writer, this work is literally a steal…

2. 30 Days to a More Powerful You: Inspired Sistah Style by Tangie Henry. This is a daily devotional book that focuses on critical areas in self-development from self-examination to self-acceptance…A registered nurse and certified life coach, Tangie Henry is also the founder of Inspired Sistah LLC, a faith-based company dedicated to “Inspiring Women to Live on Top of the World.” Below is an excerpt from the book…

At Tangie's book release party!

From Day 29

Run Your Own Race

“…And let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” -Heb. 12:1 (KJV)

While watching an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show one day, Sean “Diddy” Combs was the guest. Their discussion led to Mr. Combs talking about running the NYC Marathon. He made a statement to Oprah that was along the lines of running as fast, in the amount of time, that she did. Her response to what he stated was that he should run his “own race,” because there would be a time where he would “hit the wall.” She was implying that essentially, he needed to have his own motivation for running.

For the rest of devotional, you must by the book. You can find and buy the book at her website.

3. And if you are a woman and ready to meet and marry the One, you need to check out Dr. Alduan Tarrt’s latest book, The Ring Formula: How To Be the Only One He Ever Needs. This is Tartt’s second relationship book  in which he further expounds on what was presented in his first book, The Ring Formula: How to Meet, Date & Marry Mr. Right. Below is an excerpt…

First, these women do not misinterpret He who findeth a wife, findeth a good thing to mean sit around and wait on a man…Here’s what I want you to do. Do some homework and strategically position yourself at places where your caliber of man is likely to frequent. Be sure to select events where the male to female ratio is almost certain to be in your favor (i.e., Chamber of Commerce meetings, business networking events, fraternity and male conferences, sports bars, political fundraisers, sporting events, men’s
ministry, etc.).

Find a reason to be there that makes you feel comfortable and initiate operation F.L.I.R.T. Why can’t a woman network and exchange business cards? You have business about yourself too. What’s wrong with volunteering at fraternity conference or two? Why can’t you watch the game, get more informed about who’s running for office in your community or become more active in the male mentoring campaign at the church?

To buy Dr. Tartt’s book, which is available in e-format and traditional format, please go here.

Any thoughts?

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Got a Question for God? There’s an app for that…

Hello World,

The temperature has finally gone down in the A…”from 96 degrees in the shade” to about 87 degrees in the rain, but I guess I won’t complain…

Anywho…Know what? Although I have a blog and a Facebook account, I am woefully behind on and insecure about emerging technology…I mean I am only on my second cell phone, and my parents bought my first one for me a few years back because they correctly deduced as a reporter I needed one…plus I was the only one  in our immediate family that did not have one…nearly unbelievable huh? but it’s true…

Thankfully, however, God has placed people (including my parents)  in my life who have made sure that I have slowly but surely acquainted myself with the latest technology – people like my friend Tess Gadwa who designed my beloved blog for instance…Well about two months ago at the Faith & Fiction Retreat in the A, I met someone who actually designed an iPhone application! Isn’t that impressive?! Who does that? Catherine Helzerman’s app is cleverly named, Ask God.  I knew she had to be featured on this blog…Read on for my exclusive interview!

1. For those who are not technologically savvy or current (me), what is an Iphone app?

An iPhone App is simply any application that is made specifically to run on Apple’s iPhone.

 
2. What is “Ask God?” Why did you develop the application? 

 Ask God is an application developed for iPhone that allows users to easily find Bible scripture on a variety of topics.  The application is designed to offer a fun introduction to those new to the Bible, as well as give Christians a quick way to get a Word on a topic, such as work, faith or marriage.  Favorite verses can be shared on popular social networks such as Twitter or Facebook. 

 I wrote Ask God because I wanted to give people a fun way to get relevant scripture from the Bible.  Too often, Bibles online can be intimidating or not interesting to the new or non-Christian.  My app has fun features such as shaking your phone for verses and sharing them with friends.  Many users who are sharing God’s Word through my app do not even consider themselves “religious.”

3. How did you develop this application? Please tell me all of the nitty-gritty “techy” details. How long did this process take?

 I’m not sure how long it took because I was working on it in my spare time, but the process was somewhat unique.  I felt drawn to develop an application for those needing quick access to Bible scripture.  With no experience in iPhone programming, I purchased a book called “Program for the iPhone in 24 hours,” and I was on my way.  Fortunately my husband and some friends helped with some of the more technical aspects of the program.

4. How does one get access to Ask God? How much does it cost? Have you made any money? Please describe as it think it would inspire people:)

Ask God can be purchased on your iPhone. Go to the App Store and search for Ask God or Bible verses or on iTunes.  You need to have an iPhone for it to work.  It will not run on Blackberry and other phones because the software is not compatible.

Right now, Ask God is free.  I’m working on an upgrade that will enable the application to work on iPad and also give it a new look and feel.  At some point I might charge 99 cents, but for now,  it is free to anyone who wants it.

For a while I did charge 99 cents.  It did not make a lot of money; however, I think part of the reason was that I was holding back on doing a lot of publicity until I got the software right where I wanted it to be.

5. How are you getting the word out about Ask God?  Have you gotten any feedback from “subscribers?” Is that the correct word for people who download the application?

Feedback from users has been great.  Some encourage me to add more technical features –and they’re right.  Much of this has already been done and is available in the version out now.  Many times I will post a scripture to Facebook and get a comment that the Word was “right on time” and what that person needed to hear.  I love moments like that.

Once I have the version out that works on both iPhone and iPad I will promote the software more to get the word out.  I’ll do this through a press release, Twitter, Facebook and targeted publications that cater to the Christian community.  I’ll also ask pastors to share the word about the application if they’re comfortable in informal settings such as weekly men’s and women’s groups, volunteer and outreach groups, etc.

Any thoughts?

Catherine Helzerman has worked in the high-tech industry since the early ’90s for companies including Gateway, IBM and her current company McAfee  In addition to her responsibilities as a communications director at McAfee, Catherine is active in her church Bible Way Christian Center in San Jose, California, particularly in homeless and low-income outreach.  Catherine also enjoys programming and is the co-founder of Snark Software.  Catherine is working on her first book, a Christian fiction novel that will explore how God orders our steps in a way that makes events that are seemingly unconnected and sometimes painful work toward our good.

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The Outsiders…

Hello World!!!

I hope you have found a way to keep cool during what feels like the heat wave of my 36 years! I ran yesterday morning and during the last mile or so, I felt I like I was gulping oven air…

So on to the topic of today…It all started when I about six years old…At least that is as far back that I can remember feeling a certain way…At that time I lived in a black neighborhood just off Camp Creek Parkway…but I went a white private elementary school miles away….and on top of that, my parents had thick Jamaican accents…I was an outsider without question…So what did that little girl do…A lot of the time I found myself by myself…By the time I got to the sixth grade, I convinced my parents to send me to public school…but they chose a white public school miles away from our College Park neighborhood…in fact, it took over an hour for my brother and I to get to our schools in Sandy Springs…and because I was black and from way across town, I was an outsider there too….And by the time I got to high school age and actually convinced my parents to send me to the neighborhood high school, nothing had changed…I was still an outsider there too because I was ridiculed for “talking white” and because they hadn’t known me since elementary school…

But by then, it was all good…I had gotten accustomed to my outsider status, and I relished hanging around other people who felt like oddballs too…people who didn’t have the best clothes, people who had strict parents, people who were “lames,” people who weren’t the prettiest or the most popular, people who dressed in all black and wore skull jewelry, people who rode skateboards and hung out at Little Five Points – those were the people that I wanted to be around…

That’s why there is a part of me that totally gets famous author Anne Rice’s (author of “Interview with the Vampire”) recent announcement via Facebook…

As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

While I don’t agree with all of Anne’s views, I get where she is coming from…I have literally been going to church all of my life, and I became an official Christian myself when I was about 13 years old…But I have struggled with what has been widely perceived as Christian — at least in the South…Yeah, I’m blessed and highly favored as a Christian but I’m not always going to say that because it’s just weird…And even if I never get  filthy rich, I still feel that I am prosperous…And sometimes the people that say that they are sanctificed all of the time seem like they are just fakin’….I could go on but this is the Internet…

But I love, love, love Jesus…And He was the ultimate outsider….He didn’t care for the religious people of the day either…He preferred the prostitutes, the liars, the poor, the humble….Although Jesus was blessed and highly favored, He didn’t always say that…And Jesus was not rich while He was on earth and didn’t seem to be into material goods that much either…and He chastised the religious people of the day for acting like they were God’s favorite while their thoughts betrayed them…

I don’t know what God thinks of Anne Rice’s Facebook announcement, but I don’t have to…I do know that if she is sincere in her faith in Christ, He will lead her to His truth…

Any thoughts?

This song reminds me of my outsider childhood…