They were a happy average couple, always smiling and laughing. They were good parents to their son Michael, my daughter’s best friend.

There was no excessive drinking, no fighting or arguing (we lived next door). They displayed love and affection toward each other, with healthy displays of physical attraction. Brian showed no interest in any other female, young or old. Meeting them at the pool in our complex was an almost everyday occurence.

Maybe it was accidental, and Brian panicked in trying to cover it up. Bottom line is he did admit to it and is serving his time. As far as sexual addiction, he’s no different than a lot of men. A lot of good men who have found internet porn an attractive vehicle. And, who knows if the incident with the police officer was the first or if it was coerced, and it doesn’t matter and has no bearing on the outcome of a typical alcohol-fueled argument between spouses. Whatever Brian’s sexual preferences were, that part of this matter is nobody’s business. Again, alot of good men find any reason to look at the perversions found on the internet, married or not.

I would put my energies toward supporting the rest of the Golden family, and supporting yourselves and try to be good people. No throwing stones – 98% of American households have atleast one computer.

I am currently in the Army and a graduate of the same school Brian Golden attended. I can tell you that both the Army and the ministry cannot filter those who are conflicted in their hearts from joining up, but life events will eventually shake out those that are not serving with a steadfast heart; like chaff. Three of the main problems that I see with those that enter the ministry is that there is a severe lack of mentoring, financial support, and that many serve in ministry functional areas that they have no business being in. The military sometimes draws people who are searching for an established disciplined way of life. The same goes for many who are “called” into the ministry. They were really looking for a purpose and a disciplined way of life. In both cases, it is relatively easy to be promoted to the first echelon of responsibility. For Eric Golden, he met the requirements for the Army to be a first line supervisor or Sergeant (Non-commissioned officer — NCO). Then he changes to another complete cultural lifestyle and vocation and commits to the ministry, where he is provided the position of Youth minister — a first echelon of responsibility in the Church.

To answer your question, I will ask another question: Why do we put inexperienced ministry leaders in charge of our youth, who are the most conflicted group of people needing guidance?

“One of my favorite sidebar links is Blog Rodent. Rich is an Assembly of God minister who provides discussion of Biblically related topics taken from current events, somehow remaining able to maintain a Christ-like spirit in his hosting of the whole affair. It’s not all that easy to meet anger with an ear to listen. Much simpler to bring out the big guns and return fire. Nonetheless, I’ve often witnessed him remain calm in the middle of the storm, regardless the subject matter concern heresy or “sin in the camp”. We, ourselves, do not agree on everything; but, finding within our friendship freedom to talk knowing we can agree to disagree, gives me confidence to approach a recent bit of dialogue he and another brother had about the Church’s failure to produce “the real deal” on either side of the pulpit. That’s my own translation, anyway, of their conversation; but you can read it for yourself here…”

Does this message promote godly sorrow:
Come to Jesus and He will give you the abundant life. You will find your ultimate satisfaction in Him. You will find your purpose and your place in this world. Just come to Jesus to taste what life was meant to be. Just pray this prayer with me and you will begin to find meaning in this life.

This is the hype. This is the appeal. But is it the Gospel? What would cause godly sorrow from this type of message? Does this message communicate the dark, wicked, rebel nature of the human heart?

God has given us the Truth. Jesus magnified the Law in the Sermon on the Mount to show us how our transgressions have separated us from the Holy God.

As I reflect on the character and nature of God revealed in the Holy Scriptures, I see the God of creation revealed in great power and majesty. His Word causes me to tremble and to pray for mercy. Praise be to God who has showed us His mercy through His Son Jesus. Godly sorrow comes as we reflect on God’s standard of righteousness and our total rebellion toward that standard. A proper response to this reveletion is, “God have mercy on me a sinner.”

This is what transformation is: when we see that we are wicked rebels before a holy God, and He offers recouncilation through His Son, and we respond in worship–complete surrender that dies to self-centeredness and lives for the glory of Jesus Christ who has redeemed us from the power of sin and death.

We see many today in our fellowship who believe in Jesus, yet they are self-centered & materistic. Belief is simple. God is. A fool says, “there is no God.” Surrender and trust to the Lord of Lords is transformation.

God bless you,
Greg

What I see in the NT is a call to personal transformation. Far too often we call for a decision to accept Christ and his Lordship without informing seekers what it is they are really deciding to do. In fact, Christ’s Lordship is too frequently left out of the picture altogether. We are doing nobody a favor by promoting what is colloquially called “Easy Believism.”

The condition of the Church today (all churches, not merely the A/G, other Pentecostals and Charismatics, or Evangelicals–the whole Church), as I see it, is this endemic failure to promote spiritual transformation. We bring people to believing faith and seem to leave them there, without completing the circuit and bringing them to believing obedience as well. Paul tells us that we are to be living sacrifices, that we are to transformed and our minds renewed. We fail to absorb and meditate on the Scriptures. We fail to seek his face. We fail to respond in obedience and we fail to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. We come to faith and are then left to our own devices with our spiritual sustenance coming from mass media rather than the Word–which is no sustenance at all.

How can a church culture which is not transformed hope to recognize and ordain ministers from within our ranks who are transformed? Once we have accepted spiritual blinders ourselves, we cannot but pick and ordain fellow blind-men to lead us. Popularity, networking skills, good looks, and well-received communication style become the top indicators of ministerial “talent” rather than selecting godly men and women full of the Holy Spirit.

In Bible College, I recall the top concern many of my peers had about the girls they were romantically interested in: was she interested in marrying a minister or not–”What’s your degree?” was the litmus test for finding a ministerial complement to their own plans. Concerns about faithfulness, spiritual disciplines, prayer, devotion, and Biblical literacy were far off the radar. If a girl could sing, she was golden. Who cared if she could pray?

A sure recipe for disaster.

Thanks for posting.

Rich
BlogRodent

I’ve been looking into the emergent church stuff, and came across this weblog.

I have deep concerns about the emergent movement and the A/G’s involvement in this. I bring this up here, because many of the failures we see should not be a surprise to anyone who will look into the scriptures to see the problem with mankind. The heart of man is wicked, without exception. God will judge the world in (His) righteousness. God will destroy all workers of lawlessness by casting them into the Lake of Fire. Jesus taught this often when He preached. Unless we repent of our rebellion towards the Almighty God, and trust in Jesus Christ we all will perish. As a movement, we have in general moved away from the simple Gospel message.

Why are there A/G ministers who are adulterers, homosexuals, murders, liars, and thieves? Did I mention blasphemers (Dan Barker)?

I submit we have moved away from the Truth. We ignore the Word of God, and give ourselves to emotional experiences that are really rooted in self-centered pleasures. The Gospel that brings life calls to the wicked sinner and says, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” God hates sin! And He doesn’t separate sin from the sinner (you know the saying, hate sin… love the sinner). God is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Remember the days of Noah? Only eight (8) people lived through the flood. God hasn’t changed. He will destroy sinners with intense heat. How many of you have heard your A/G pastor preach that lately? Yet, there is good news. The Father gave His Son. The Bible says it pleased God to crush Jesus. It pleased Him, because Jesus died to save wicked sinners! Salvation is found only in Christ Jesus alone.

Yet, we are concerned with adopting a message to reach a perverted culture. Our zeal for multicultural, yuppie appeal has lead to compromise in “our” Gospel message. We so much want to be the cutting edge Pentecostal – Protestant – Mega-church that we dumb down the message and with arms wide open we embrace the love of money. I submit God hasn’t changed and the message hasn’t changed, but we have. We have moved away from the Truth, and have perverted ourselves with humanism.

Again, I am an ordained A/G pastor. I am 29 years old. I graduated from Trinity Bible College (an A/G College). And I am asking what are we going to do?

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Rich

That is exactly what I am trying to get across, and you put it so well.

I really had a hard time understanding Grace this way for such a long time because I was so taught in the A/G philosophy of backsliding. But, when I read Romans and Galatians especially the last 2 chapters of Galatians, it is the only way that Grace can be understood.

The thing about Grace is…it is not a get out of jail free card. You can’t just use it to do whatever you want. If the Spirit is in you, you will try to be moral and you will want to follow the law, but the truth is that you cannot follow it. Some people find it hard to grasp that we, as humans, think once you have “been saved” you don’t sin anymore. This is because they are still trying to earn their salvation. Our salvation is not earned, it is a gift, and it is hard to accept gifts without feeling as though you need to return the favor or do something in exchange.

When it doesn’t work out, as in Mr. Golden’s case, we automatically assume that a person has lost favor in God’s eyes. But, he was struggling with his flesh, as we all do, and only God knows if he was ever a believer at all. If he is a believer, he is probably in the worst place he could possibly be right now because he probably thinks he is no longer worthy of God’s love. What he must realize is, that he never was worthy of God’s love. None of us are. We are all in the same boat and it is a sinker. If he was never a believer, he is in the worst place right now because he is probably in a huge pit of despair. The thing is, now that it is done, there is nothing anyone can do to change it. But it is out and he is broken and that is just where God meets us…when we are broken. There is no pride left. There is no facade. There is no reputation. He is probably really alone and God can work wonders in those situations.

It is a sad thing that he murdered his wife. It is a tragedy. We live in a tragically fallen world. But Jesus came to save the murderers, the liars, the cheats, and the adulterers. It is much easier for Him to save those who recognize their sin. The people I worry most about, are the people who think they are alright, good, upstanding citizens. Deacons fro 25 years with a perfect life (on the outside). They think they are alright. They do not recognize their sin and therefore cannot be forgiven of it. They hide it from themselves, others and Jesus until, as in Mr. Golden’s case, it blows up in their face. I have seen it a hundred times. I have lived it and it is a vicious cycle. You think you are alright for a while and then BOOM…you murder your wife because it is all out of control.

When the church decides to stop being so Pharisaical…when the church decides to realize that it hurts as bad as Joe Sinner…when the church begins to love in this sort of fashion and put aside its pride and understand when its brothers and sisters fall…God will really move in the church. Real ministers will move into ministry because all of the people will see that the ministers are sinners too. Congregations will recognize that the ministers are being forgiven and the people will find forgiveness too. Love will prevail.

I don’t expect that this will happen because the church is made up of people, hurting sick people. People who are blind to the truth that they are in just the same hole that Mr. Golden is in. When we realize that…we find true freedom in the Gospel because we become once again, the people who realized that we needed something to save us in the first place. That state of being is not going to change until we are Glorified and feasting at the table with the Father Himself.

Sorry to be such a windbag,

Josh