Newsletter Archive Home
Blazing Grace Newsletter, March 2007
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* The Meeting
* Porn to Grace Conference in Colorado Springs, May 10
* The Blazing Grace Radio Show
* New Content, and More Reading
* The Numbers – Is Ted Haggard an anomaly?
* Upcoming Interviews
* Ministry Needs
* Final Words
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The Meeting
By Mike Genung
They walked down the long corridor, in a building below the main complex. The walls and doors of the hallway were painted charcoal gray, with twenty doors on either side, each of which provided entrance to a conference room. They strode silently passed black doors with white signs with titles such as FINANCE, GLOBAL STRATEGY and THE OCCULT, until they entered their room, which was marked SEX.
The meeting room was long and narrow, with just enough space for the black conference table and its accompanying chairs. Each side of the table was encompassed by five chairs, with one large executive unit at the far end. Six banks holding four fluorescent bulbs each provided ample light.
There were ten of them; each of whom wore black shoes, black trousers, and black suits. Most wore black ties, (making themselves look like the proverbial “men in black”) while a few showed creativity by going with red. They sat down at the table, placed their black daytimers in front of them, and waited, silently.
A few minutes later, EvilOne charged into the room. This was his first of many meetings that day, and he had a schedule to keep. He sat down in the executive chair, looked at Hester, who was seated to his left, and said: “Progress on the primary goal.”
In his hoarse, rasping voice, Hester began: “Acceptance of porn and sexual perversion in every segment of the population continues to progress at a rapid pace. Worldwide sex industry sales in 2006 were nearly 100 billion1. U.S. Revenues increased to 13.3 billion, up from 12.6 billion the year before. New STD cases are holding steady at 330 million worldwide2. There’s a plan in place to broadcast live sex acts over the internet and television to take porn to the next level. Child porn is exploding with triple digit growth3. We continue to take out large numbers of marriages every week; amazingly, most of this is still flying under the radar of our opposition.
EvilOne nodded; “Youth.”
Razor cleared his throat: “Corruption at the early ages is going well. As you know, our first front is always to keep parents in bondage to lust themselves. When this isn’t an option, we keep ‘em distracted from their kids with money, trinkets, and the pursuit of more. It’s not hard to keep them quiet about it. Just this past week, we had a twelve year old kid get hooked right in front of his father at a grocery store. When he saw his kid staring at a cover of Cosmo where one of our models was dressed in the usual garb, i.e. as naked as possible, we hit Daddy with a wave of shame and embarrassment. “It’s just this once, it won’t happen again,” we whispered, and he didn’t say a word. His kid is starving for more!”
Razor put his sunglass on for effect. “Most kids see porn as cool now; it doesn’t take much with those raging hormones. One look and you’re cooked, I like to say. We’re got porn clubs, sex clubs, and gay clubs going on in schools everywhere. Cybersex is exploding in the universities, with 87% of youth hooked4.Our propaganda division has done an excellent job promoting our “There is no truth” campaign, so it’s easy to take these kids down our path to sexual freedom.”
EvilOne smiled. “How are teen pregnancies doing?”
“Uhhh, not good,” Razor said. “In 2006 it was a record low5. The opposition has made a few inroads with their abstinence talk in the schools, but our safe sex campaign has had far more impact. 95% of Americans have had premarital sex6. Even better: we had a record number of unmarried women who had children in 2005. Our ‘have a family your way’ motto is going over big!”
EvilOne stroked his chin… “I’ll sacrifice a few teen pregnancies for that. What are you doing about this abstinence stuff? I don’t want it catching on.”
“Our first line of attack is on the kids who might spout the abstinence line in schools. We have plenty of Christian teenage girls who are willing to, shall we say, do the Delilah thing7. Most churches ain’t saying a word about sex or porn at the junior high level, so we’ve got free reign there. Second, we’re working hard to isolate Christian kids from their peers, stir up conflict, distract them from The Book, whatever it takes. Of course, there’s nothing like a little tension with Mom or Dad to help out. Since no more than 15%8 of youth believe The Book is true, it’s not hard to keep their ranks small.”
“Wonderful! Sounds like things are going our way. Let’s move on to our enemies. Wraith, you’re up.”
Wraith cleared his throat. “As you know, we’ve taken a lot of ground in the church. Massive numbers of men are sex or porn addicts; at least 50%, and so are many women; as a result we’re tearing up Christian families left and right9. Our propaganda team is doing a fabulous job keeping churches quiet about sex, even when a threat arises.”
“For example, three weeks ago one of our sentries discovered that a pewsitter got the courage to tell the pastor at church 73564 they needed to do something about our little porn epidemic; he told him the statistics, even that he struggled with it. Then we went to work. Our team attacked the elder board members with the usual stuff: ‘he’ll offend too many people if he talks about sex; the statistics can’t be that high, especially not in our church; no one’s asking for help with this so it can’t be that big of a problem; what if someone gets offended?’ By the time the pastor met with the elder board, it was game over.”
“Even when a pastor talks about sexual sin, we’re usually able to walk away with minimal losses. Some nut from a support group for so–called sex addicts got into the pastor’s head from church 21701, and he decided to do a sermon on lust last week. His staff barely prayed about it, and we were able to minimize the impact of his sermon by antagonizing everyone in his congregation who’s into lust with shame, doubt and fear. Only one guy called for help, and the issue was dead by the following week. Slam dunk.”
EvilOne roared with laughter. “Awesome! Keep this up, and there’s a promotion in your future. What about the anti-sex and sin ministries? Number 35 has been a thorn in my side lately.”
“We’ve had 35 in our sites. We’ve sacrificed a few casualties to them, but the right moment is now at hand. We’ve been blowing ego into the director’s sails, whispering about how great he is and how God’s going to use him more than anyone else, giving him plenty of glorious visions of people fawning over him for his awesome ministry, telling him how great he is; the works. He took the bait; hook, line and sinker, and man, oh man, has his ego gotten fat. You should see what he thinks about himself now; we don’t even have to prompt him anymore. He looks down on other anti-sex and sin ministries, and envisions his as “the chosen one.” The guy barely prays or reads The Book anymore. Now that he’s in full flesh mode, we’re going to hit him hard next week with a couple of choice babes who just happen to need counseling from someone as smart as he is, then follow up with a few porn popups on his PC. At the same time, his wife is going to get in a big fight with a friend of hers at church, which will help stir the pot at home. I can’t wait!”
“Keep me posted; I want that ministry taken out. Any problem areas I should know about?”
Wraith shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Uhhh, yeah. We’re having major problems in city 642. Two months ago, anti–sex and sin ministry 17 got hold of the pastor of church 7354 and spilled the beans about everything we’re doing. We’ve had a lot of problems with this pastor in the past, and like before, he went all out, mobilizing their prayer chain and asking some of his people to fast. Almost overnight, the homes of this guy’s pewsitters were flooded with angels, keeping us from going in unhindered with the propaganda team. His staff backed him up with more prayer, and he attacked with both guns blazing on a Sunday morning. They had several men get up and share how God had supposedly set them free from lust, and then they broke the place open with a half hour of prayer and confession time. They have a group set up for our porn addicts, and now they’re praying for the city.”
“Have you attacked the pastor?!!” screamed EvilOne.
“Yeah, and it blew up in our face. We sent a prostitute his way one night, and he turned her to the other side. I almost lost my lunch when it happened. Now she’s running around telling everyone about Jesus, as if we needed another one doing that. This guy’s bad news; he ain’t biting on pride and he’s got a strong wife who backs him up with prayer every night.”
As his veins popped, forming a miniature roadmap, EvilOne swore.
““It gets worse. They’ve upped the prayer artillery, and now there are all these people from this guy’s church who were previously ours who are blabbing all our sex–secrets to other pastors in the city. At least four churches are now thinking about doing a repeat performance of what our boy at 7354 did. These people are a bunch of fanatics. They don’t care about their reputation, comfort, or material things like a lot of the others do. If this keeps up, we’re going to lose a lot of ground in city 642.”
“We can’t afford to let these nuts plug others into the main power line of the enemy,” EvilOne said. “We may not be able to stop them, but we can contain them. Let’s get our people in the local media involved. Find someone who will trash this pastor and accuse him of something, maybe an affair.”
“Under normal circumstances I’d say that would work, but I’ve been around this guy long enough to know he doesn’t care about his reputation, and would take it as a signal to press in harder. What I suggest is—“
SNAP! There was a massive electrical short, and all 24 of the fluorescent bulbs exploded, bursting the light covers apart, showering the participants with glass and leaving the room in darkness.
After a few moments of silence, there was a loud sigh.
“I hate it when they fast,” mumbled Wraith.
Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
Acts 19: 18-20
…and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Matthew 16:18
1. http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html#anchor1
2. http://www.life-zone.org/statistics.html
3. http://www.wsoctv.com/24hours2/8082589/detail.html
4. February 16, 2006, Toronto, Ontario Canada Reuters reported that “of more than 2,500 university and college students polled across Canada, 87 percent of them are having sex over instant messenger, Webcams or the telephone.”
5. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_44853.html
6. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-12-19-premarital-sex_x.htm
7. On the January 7 & 14, 2006 segments of the Blazing Grace radio show, one young Christian girl told us that teenage girls in the church are training each other on how to “walk and talk to catch the boy’s attention.”
8. In his book The Last Christian Generation, Josh McDowell quotes statistics that:
A. 33% of churched youth say that the church will play a part of their lives when they leave home
B. Somewhere between 69 - 94% of young people are leaving the traditional church after high school, with few returning
C. 85% of youth that attend a public school do not embrace a Biblical worldview, while 6% of students attending Christian Schools embrace a Biblically Theistic Worldview.
9. In an American Academy Divorce lawyers meeting in 2003, two thirds of the 350 divorce lawyers in attendance said that porn contributed to more than half the cases they handled.
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From Porn to Grace Conference in Colorado Springs, May 10
We are holding a conference called From Porn to Grace for men, their wives, and ministry leaders who would like to minister to the sexually broken on Thursday night, May 10 in Colorado Springs. There is no cost to attend, but we ask that you register so can anticipate the number of persons coming. Childcare will be provided up to age 12.
Topic covered will include:
* How the sexually broken can break free from the bondage of sexual addiction through the power of God's grace.
* How wives can heal from the pain of their husband's betrayal.
* The Biblical imperative for the church to deal with sexual sin, and how your congregation can effectively minister to the sexually broken.
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The Blazing Grace Radio Show…
…Is Jayson Graves of Healing for the Soul and Mike Genung taking on the porn epidemic. Jayson is a Christian therapist who specializes in helping those who struggle with sexual addiction.
Here’s our March lineup:
March 3: How pride affects the recovery processMarch 10: Porn in the military
March 17: The blessing of suffering
March 24: A former senior pastor shares his story
March 31: TBA
You can download mp3s of the broadcasts without cost at the radio page, or listen to them in streaming audio at Oneplace.com.
The broadcasts are available as a podcast through Itunes. If you have the Itunes software, the shows are listed under “Religion and Spirituality/Christianity.”
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New Content Added to the Blazing Grace website, and More Reading
New Content:
Recovery from Homosexuality, by Jayson Graves
The Destructive Force of Adultery
More Reading:
On dealing with porn/sex addiction in the church:
How Many Porn Addicts are in Your Church?
How Your Church Can Take on the Porn Epidemic
Getting to the Roots of the Porn Epidemic
How Your Church Can Help Those Who Struggle with Porn or Sex Addiction
Confronting Jezebel
On getting help for porn/sex addiction:
It’s Just a Little Porn; I’m no Sex Addict
Masturbation
Sexual Sobriety isn’t Enough
The Answer
Winning the War in the Mind
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The Numbers – Is Ted Haggard an Anomaly?
Internally, I think most evangelicals will not tie what happened with Ted Haggard to the National Association of Evangelicals," said Anderson, senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn. "They will understand that if there are 45,000 churches [affiliated with NAE], that 44,999 of them have leaders that did not misbehave and that one person misbehaved and that that is an anomaly.
The above is a quote from the man who took Ted Haggard’s place as interim president of the National Association of Evangelicals, as quoted by Christianity Today on November 7, 2006 at:http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/novemberweb-only/145-22.0.html
Could Ted Haggard really be the only evangelical pastor out of 45,000 churches who struggles with sexual sin? I’ll let The Numbers do the talking:
* In a 2000 Christianity Today survey, 33% of clergy admitted to having visited a sexually explicit Web site. Of those who had visited a porn site, 53% had visited such sites “a few times” in the past year, and 18% visit sexually explicit sites between a couple of times a month and more than once a week.
* Out of 81 pastors surveyed (74 males 7 female), 98% had been exposed to porn; 43% intentionally accessed a sexually explicit website
National Coalition survey of pastors, Seattle. April 2000.
* In his book, "Men's Secret Wars", Patrick Means reveals a confidential survey of evangelical pastors and church lay leaders. Sixty-four percent of these Christian leaders confirm that they are struggling with sexual addiction or sexual compulsion including, but not limited to use of pornography, compulsive masturbation, or other secret sexual activity.
* In March of 2002, Rick Warren’s (author of the Purpose Driven life) Pastors.com website conducted a survey on porn use of 1,351 pastors: 54% of had viewed Internet pornography within the last year, and 30% of these had visited within the last 30 days.
Something’s seriously wrong when the head of the NAE states that sexual sin is an anomaly in the pulpits of today’s church. It almost sounds like he’s trying to prop up a phony reputation to the outside world.
Our reputation should be that of a people who struggle with lust, fear, pride and selfishness, just like those who don’t know Christ. We offer hope to those who don’t know the Lord (and a reason to listen to us) when we boldly admit our brokenness and point the lost to the answer, which rests at the foot of the cross. Jesus’ reputation was destroyed as a failure while blood streamed from his torn, naked body; He was shamed for our sin. If He can do that, we should allow our reputation to be crucified as well. Anything less is a pathetic attempt to make ourselves look good and steal His glory.
We look like fools to the outside world when we try to pretend we’re something we’re not, or make our reputation more important than the truth. We are part of His work to “go into all the earth and make disciples” when our focus is on glorifying Christ, no matter what the cost to our reputation.
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Upcoming Interviews
I will be a guest on the following radio shows to discuss the problem of sexual sin in the church:
3/17/07 - We Talk Back, KMLB 1440AM Monroe, LA - 11:00am CT www.kmlb.com
3/23/07 - The Matter at Hand with Larry Weidman, WGRC 91.3FM, Lewisburg, PA. 11:00am ET. www.wgrc.com
3/26/07 - Dominos, KCXL Radio, Liberty, MO - 1:00 CT www.kcxl.com
3/31/07 - We Talk Back, KMLB 1440AM Monroe, LA - 11:00am CT www.kmlb.com
4/18/07 – Harvest TV, 9:00am ET www.harvest-tv.com
I appreciate your prayers for wisdom, boldness and grace as these are live shows, some of which may have call-ins. Please pray that the Lord would be glorified, that His churches would be encouraged and challenged to speak out clearly about the problem of sexual sin in the church, and that the sexually broken would reach out for help. Realizing that silence about this issue is one of Satan’s greatest weapons, please also pray for protection for technical and any other issues that might keep these interviews from happening.
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Ministry Needs
We are in need of:
1. Women to join our national prayer team. We have a group of ladies who pray for the ministry together by phone conference call once a week. Please email us if you are interested in joining them.
2. Women to join our local prayer team here in Colorado Springs. If you live in the city and would be interested in participating, please email us.
3. Your prayers, whether you join the prayer team or not. No ministry in this arena will survive long without the prayers of God’s people to protect and use it mightily.
4. Women who are willing to serve by emailing other wives for support. Please email us if you’re interested in helping out.
5. Financial support. God is opening more doors for the Blazing Grace ministry. We are working on setting up a team and website in Germany, plus support is needed for the radio show, website, billboard, and other costs to promote the message to men and women in the territory God is giving us.
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Final Words
Do I measure my faith by whether or not I am able to get God to follow my plans, or on whether or not He is able to get me to follow His? Do I measure my effectiveness by whether or not people are following me, or whether or not I am following God?
Oswald Chambers: Faith, a Holy Walk.
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Blazing Grace is a 501c3 non-profit corporation whose purpose is to minister to the sexually broken and equip the church to effectively deal with the porn epidemic.
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Past newsletters are archived here.
I enjoy reading your feedback.
May God’s grace abound to you.
Mike Genung
All material copyright 2007 Mike Genung
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