It's not a permanent goodbye, but it will be a long time. For those that do not know, Stephen "Spot"Hampshire has officially been sent to Iraq...He is in the Army and will probably be away from internet access for a long time.
Occasionally depending on his internet access he will blog on here of his witness encounters overseas.
That being said please contact us and let us know if you know where you can get any Gospel Tracts in "Arabic Languages" we will gladly send them to him.
Keep him in your prayers as he works to spread democracy and freedom in an area that needs it the most, his fight for our freedom ultimately helps the Gospel Advance to all places in the world.
There is a Big Comfy Chair waiting for you when you get back...
I think sometimes, we forget how significant our focus on sharing the Gospel with media should be. Sometimes I get discouraged with working a real job, I wonder if I am wasting my time on this rinky dink ministry. I mean honestly, it's not like our little videos we place on YouTube actually do anything....
Well I could say that hogwash, but I have to be reminded that we can never keep tabs on the growth of a ministry or it's Impact, so discouragement comes and God always has a way of lifting us up, letting us know we are on the right track, and right where God's wants us to be. The following is in absolutely no way meant to fluff any feathers, it is simply to show how God is being glorified through this crummy ministry...
Since our first YouTube video went up in August of 2006 a little over a year ago, we have had a total of 45,280 views. Now that being said, it is not a lot at all. In fact the point of YouTube is to get that many people to view your video a day... So in that sense we have failed at attracting the masses, but it's not so much how many people watch, but who watches. Some of our highest viewed videos has been linked on Pastor Resource Sites and blogs. We have even been linked on one of the most far radical atheist groups in the Country, Rational Responders.
However, a lot of people can see you, but the question is how many people are impacted by the Message that is brought. Well the answer is "We have no idea" ina ll honesty, probally very very few. Yet every now and then, we get a little hope. A little spark that encourages us to keep going.
Enter the random e-mails. Nothing is more encouraging then waking up in the morning to see a new e-mail from a viewer who not only liked our video, but thought it was substantial in message to let us know how it impacted him.
Meet Jason.
I'm 19 and have been thinking about how I can be used most by God in my lifetime, particularly because I've been deciding what to study in college. I've noticed, as you have, the power of technologies such as the Internet, iPods, and videos and their ability to share the gospel or to present short, insightful, encouraging truths from God's Word....Watching your videos, I think it'd be wise for me to take a few video editing classes and make short clips as I travel from place to place. Jason - 19
Yet it's not so much the encouraging news of knowing that the Lord has uses us to inspire people to train and develop in media, it's also amazing how God has used this ministry to encourage people to learn about Christ.
I saw your witnessing video on YouTube in Norfolk. I've been interested in personal evangelism but I can never seem to get up enough nerve to share my faith. Any tips or maybe I could hook up with you guys and see how you witness. Mike - 20
Praise the Lord. That's really what it is all about. In fact it has nothing to do with this ministry at all. It really all comes down to God's Grace that he would even use us to do something as serious as sharing His gospel of Salvation.
What about the writings, the Blogs, the endless hours typing to what seems to be no one.
I just wanted to thank you for writing your article "Numbers and the Church." I loved it! You are right on! Thanks again from a Sunday school teacher just preaching the Cross... Andrea.
I hope you continue to pray for our ministry, that we may not only continue to develop quality media that shares the Gospel, inspire and encourage artist, and encourage others to share their faith. Pray for us in other areas as well.
1. Time. We really want to spend as many hours as possible working on this ministry, however it is impossible while working a full-time Job. So pray that God provides the needed funding to allow us to spend and devote massive amounts of time to his kingdom, and that when we do have it we will be able to use it wisely. Like finishing up and working on the Creation Museum Project
2. Funding We really do not want to be that televangelist stereotype...SEND MONEY SEND MONEY. Instead we want to provide valuable resources that will support other ministries in amazing ways. We already have our first Stock Photo Collection and you can also by request order all our videos on DVD. Oh yes...Did I mention that we also have a Store...By cool stuff by clicking here...
3. Team Development As this Ministry grows, God is already working on the lives of those who will one day join us. Pray that God leads us people who are willing to lay it all down to go after something much bigger then themselves, or us. Pray that God's sends us Creative people who are sold out to His Kingdom.
4. Creativity. Pray the we can break the mold in Video Evangelism. We not only want God to be glorified in the sharing of his Gospel, but we want to have him glorified in everything we do. Pray for Ideas and that every creative work we work on will show the Creator of Such creativity...
So those are our four major hurdles we need to overcome in the next few months. So pray for us as we continue on our mission to give Glory to the God who saved us, and continue to be a light for those who are not.
Another review of Rob Bell's Tour...See I am not the only Crazy one...
The following is an Article by Jon Speed about the Rob Bell fiasco...
Rob Bell’s “The Gods Are Not Angry” Review
I must admit that most of my exposure to the teaching of the Emergent Church has been limited to a few brushes with Christian student organizations on college campuses while doing open-air preaching. However, the predominant philosophy of the movement, unbelieving post-modernism, is as common as American pennies to anyone who has done any amount of evangelism amongst college aged students.
When Rob Bell came to Dallas, TX for a stop on his “The Gods Are Not Angry” tour, we went primarily for the purpose of passing out Gospel tracts after the event let out. God had other plans and we ended up getting free tickets to the event.
Bell’s presentation was very basic in terms of the medium that he uses to communicate. The stage was empty with the exception of a large model of an altar. While Bell does not use a half hour diatribe with three points beginning with the letter “p” to communicate his position (something he criticizes in his presentation), the listener has to be prepared for a two hour diatribe with no point at all.
The crowd that came out to hear Bell was as entertaining as Bell himself. Apparently the Emergent movement is not beyond that bane of popular American Christianity: idol worship. It was amazing to see so many of the men dressed like Bell, many even sporting the same dark rimmed glasses.
Bell’s thesis follows this line of reasoning: 1) mankind has offered sacrifices to various conceptions of God because he must in order to keep receiving blessings (harvest, children, etc.) or because he has offended God and must earn back the favor of whatever deity he or she is worshipping. 2) The sacrifice concept was developed in primitive “caveman-like” eras over lengthy periods of time, which assumes the accuracy of Darwinian evolution. 3) The story of redemptive history in the Bible is not about sacrifices dealing with the issue of sin, but showing that God’s true character is not like that of the angry, vengeful and demanding pagan deities (he uses one of the feasts in Leviticus to make this point). 4) That Jesus Christ’s sacrifice has done away with not only the Old Testament sacrificial system, but also all pagan sacrificial systems (through a poor misrepresentation of Hebrews). Thus, he comes to the conclusion that Christ died to prove to the human race that God is not angry with them, that He loves them pretty much as they are, and that there is no need to repent. This is what leads many critics of the movement to conclude that Bell and others are Universalists. 5) The effect of this brand of “Christianity” (using this term loosely) is that people who have been impacted by this message do good things for others.
The errors in Bell’s “doctrine” are apparent to anyone who bothers to take the time to examine his teaching on even a cursory level. While sociologists may conclude that godless cultures instituted sacrificial systems as a lame attempt to deal with their guilt as well as an attempt to coerce deity to bless their work, the Bible does not teach anywhere that the sacrificial system of the true God was designed to correct the errors in popular pagan thinking. In fact, it does teach that these cultures developed these systems as a deviation and perversion of the truth. It teaches that they rebelled against the truth and in a manifestation of (gasp!) God’s wrath, they became more and more degenerate (Romans 1:18-32). It teaches that their problem was sin, which is why the biblical sacrificial system was instituted in the first place, even as far back as Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21).
Bell’s handling of the texts in Hebrews can be characterized as either: 1) theological revisionism or 2) woefully ignorant. In light of Bell’s years in ministry and training, it’s probably best to characterize the teaching as the former rather than the latter. To suggest that Hebrews 10 teaches that Christ’s sacrifice had anything to do with pagan sacrificial systems is ludicrous. That text compares the sacrifices of Yom Kippur with Christ’s perfect sacrifice and speaks of the superiority of Christ’s work to that of the Old Testament sacrificial system. In order to come to the conclusion that Bell comes to, it is necessary to ignore both the immediate context of Hebrews 10 and the entire book of Hebrews. For a general exposition of Hebrews 10, click here: http://www.countrysidebible.org/media/s1c1070916a.mp3.
Bell mangled the definition of repentance, stating that repentance is not turning from sin. Rather, he says it is a “celebration” of life in Christ. He further stated that anyone who tells you that you need to repent is not talking about Christianity. If he is right, then John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2), Peter (Acts 3:19), Paul (Acts 20:21) and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 4:17; 9:13) weren’t preaching Christianity. In order to come to this conclusion, Bell has to ignore all of the Old and New Testament evidence that repentance is turning from sin and turning to Christ alone in faith. He has to ignore the Jewish conception of repentance (which was not lost on the Jewish believers of the early church) which was turning from sin to turn to God (Ezekiel 18).
So, to summarize, Bell has reduced the death of Christ to an act of God intended to demonstrate that God is not angry with us. There was no mention of Christ’s substitutionary death for our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), a revision of repentance, and no mention of a need for true saving faith in Christ alone for salvation. In short, in two hours of diatribe, there was not a mention of the true Gospel and an elaborate, witty presentation of a false one.
After the event was over, we went outside of the theater to pass out tracts. We could do it confidently, knowing that we belonged there because the tracts gave the missing and accurate information. Whatever Rob Bell is teaching, it is not orthodox Christianity. If those in the “Emergent Conversation” are to have any hope, they will have to turn from their questioning of everything biblical and admit that the Bible has the answers.
Over thirty years ago, the great philosopher Paul McCartney asked, “What’s wrong with silly love songs?” Having given this over three decades of serious consideration (OK, at least several months), I have Sir McCartney’s answer.
It depends.
If you want to fill the world with silly love songs, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to fill the church with them, I say, “Stop it!”
Tune into your “get you through your day” Christian music station and you will hear grown men, whining like love sick puppies, “Nothing else can take your place, or feel the warmth of your embrace.” Who are they singing to? The One who holds the universe together by the power of His word, or a chick?
Take the Quiz
Here are six phrases from six contemporary songs. Can you pick which phrases belong to secular songs and which to the sacred?
1. All I need to do is just be me, being in love with you.
2. My world stops spinning round, without you.
3. I never want to leave; I want to stay in your warm embrace.
4. I’m lost in love.
5. Now and forever, together and all that I feel, here's my love for you.
6. You say you love me just as I am.
The first three are from a popular Christian band called Big Daddy Weave, the second half are from Air Supply.
More and more of our Christian music is sounding one note: Jesus loves you soooooo much. Do I doubt for a second that Jesus loves His children? Nope, but it depends on what your definition of “love” is.
God “agape” loves His children. Agape love is not an emotions based, warm and fuzzy kind of love. Agape love is a self sacrificing, “I will help you despite how I feel” love.
William Tyndale was the first translator to use the word “love” for agape. Prior to the 16th century, the word “charity” best described agape. Leaving that debate aside, since Tyndale’s time, the English definition for love has expanded. Our modern day use of love ranges from a love for an object to physical love/sex (eros love). I love that new car. I love that girl. I love that God. That God loves me.
Not only do we use “love” in romantic ways to sing about God, we have added other romantic phrases to our Christian music repertoire: hold me, embrace me, feel you, need you. This criticism is not new, in fact, it has existed since Godly men began endeavoring to sing anything but the Psalms.
John Wesley considered an “amatory phrase” to be language that was more feelings based love than self-sacrificing agape love. John deleted “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” from one of his brother Charles’ collections because it was too romantic sounding.
Amatory Phrasing
Not only are musicians guilty of writing amatory phrases, but they are singing with amatory phrasing. Christian men sing with such romantic longing and neediness it makes me want to scream, “Man up!”
Christian women are singing with such throaty breathiness you would think they had just run from their home to the studio. To whom exactly are they singing? Brad Pitt or the Savior?
There are two consequences to this “Jesus is my boyfriend/girlfriend” music. Needy, emotional women continue to need more counseling, self help books and conferences where they can spread their wings and soar. Men simply are not showing up for church. It is my belief they simply can’t stand the mood manipulating worship times designed to help them “feel the Lord’s embrace.”
Musical Mermaids
Without theology in music, we are offering fluff that will not comfort when bridges collapse and test reports are negative. Songwriters could provide true hope if they would write about the sovereignty of God rather than crying about “how safe I feel when Jesus is holding me.”
Charles Spurgeon had the same criticism of “Hymns for Heart and Voice” published in 1855. He condemned the hymns as being “little better than mermaids, nice to look at but dangerous because they cannot deliver what they promise.”
Is there anything wrong with being reminded that our God is our help from ages past? Of course not, the Psalms are loaded with promises of God’s comfort. But unlike the Psalms (and theology based hymns), contemporary music is void of the reason why we should not worry. We do not worry because someone purrs that we shouldn’t fret, but because God is our shelter in the stormy blast and our eternal home. Our comfort comes from knowledge, not caterwauling.
If you enjoy a silly love song now and then, knock yourself out. But leave them where they belong, in the world or in the bedroom, not in the church.
NOTICE: It has come to my attention that Jesse Morrell teaches Open Theism and Kerrigan Skelly with Jesse denies Man's sinful nature at birth. They are firm believers in Pelagianism which is a heresy and is not supported by Transplant Ministries. At the time of this article these views were not known, and Transplant Ministries has since distanced themselves from OpenAirOutreach and PinPointEvangelism. (Tony who is also mentioned in the article runs seedshakers.net and is still a good friend)
Rob Bell, Universalism and Nigerians.
I was fortunate enough to be able to go and see Rob Bell speak at an event he calls "the gods arn't angry". I went with my brother, my brother insisted on the way there that I was making a big deal out of this whole Rob Bell thing...I stated it was more serious then he thought.
So after three hours of driving to Raleigh, NC we managed to get to our destination at a concert hall. Upon parking in the Garage we ran into a Nigerian named "Friday". He was a Parking attendant . Friday saw my brothers T-Shirt, my brother the radical Christian had a shirt that said "Jesus Loves me and my Tattoos", it also contained a small tattooesque skull and bones. Friday went up to him and in a very deep African accent pointed and said that Skull and Jesus do not belong, my brother said wow, I never even noticed that on there really. Friday then looked at me and my shirt. It was an Iron-On Transplant Ministries Promo Shirt. It said on the front "REPENT! It's a dirty word, but Jesus used it!", Friday scolded me to in his thick accent he said..."No No No...Repent is not a Dirty Word. It is Beautiful, If you tell someone to Repent it means "I Love You!", Me and my brother both amazed at the depth coming from his broken English thanked him and continued on our way...
The crowds were building outside and I met my former pastor from Lynchburg. As we were let in the first thing me and my brother noticed were the Mini-Bars allowing people to buy Pepsi, cookies, beer and hard liquors.My former pastor said "Well you never know it is Rob Bell" My first impression was that must be for the ballet people across the hall in the theater to the left of us...I was wrong. People were lining up and we saw someone walk into the hall with a cup of beer in hand. My brother who regularly sees the damaging effects of alcohol was greatly disturbed by this, (He is a designated driver for his friends)
But that's not the centrality of the issue. Because ultimately beer is a non-essential to the Doctrine, the doctrine has to be above all things.
I want to say that as I knew going into this that I should be on guard, I wanted to take the advice of a friend of mine who said "Just enjoy it" so honestly that was my plan, well it was until he started speaking.
Rob Bell came out to a applause, not greeting the audience or introducing himself but immediately sucking you in to his incredibly brilliant and captivating story telling methods. He started out telling stories of tribal god's and he built you up in history till we got to Abraham, there were several implications of how he got to God, he implied that our God was a result of thousands of years of other god's and how radical our God was from the others of the time, to an extent true however our God did not form from other god's and societies and cultures, Our God was always there and the other false gods were results of him, he discussed the History of how people started making sacrifices as a way to "Please God" and how they gave God offerings for fear of Judgement, until Abraham, then people gave offerings for Blessings. "Our God wants us to be blessed...This was radically different."
Prosperity preaching aside, it is wrong. Sacrifices were done not as a result of other god's but because God commanded it, it did not start with Abraham it started with Cain and Abel.
After he got up to the point of sacrifices he made it to Leviticus where he discussed that the point of Leviticus was to know where you stand with God. This is true to some extent, he talked about the peace offerings and how God wanted us to be at Peace..He mentioned being at peace a lot.
From Leviticus he came upon the Sadducee's, Rob Bell said these people profited off of the Guilt of mankind..."Imagine that" he said to robotic, worshipping laughter from the audience. This was a direct stab at fundamental Christianity and I would like to propose it was even more directly an attack of the Way of the Master evangelism process.
Then Jesus came, Jesus Christ entered the temple with a bull whip not because he was "Angry" but because that's how you made statements back then, you wrecked something in guerrilla form as a way to show significance. He was telling them that the temple was not needed anymore that they would destroy it and in three days it would be rebuilt.
He then went into what I feared was universalism and the attack on Guilt. Now upon reading this please keep in mind it is late and my memory is not as fresh. One thing is clear, Rob Bell is heavy on universalism.
You see According to Rob Bell Jesus died to save us not from hell, but from guilt so we can have peace.There is no need to be guilty with Christ's sacrifice and he is Right, The death of Jesus Christ takes away the weight of the Law. However he did not die on the cross to do make us feel better he died to save us from Hell and God's Judgement. Because well God is angry at Sin. Love, Joy Peace Patience are results of salvation not the reason to be saved. Man's greatest need is saving from the coming Judgement. Jesus took the wrath of God on his shoulders for us...We just need to do something to receive it.
Repent and place our trust in Christ.
This is where Rob Bell failed. Besides the night being so dry and shallow spiritually, Rob Bell hung the Good News from everyone like a cheesecake just out of reach of a dog. He never told us how to receive the Grace of Jesus Christ. He failed...it was a tragedy.
What was the worst thing Rob Bell said? He declared that repentance was "A Celebration" when you repent, you celebrate. This is so not true. I would argue that Repentance is the exact opposite of Celebration. Celebration is done after you repent, once you receive assurance of eternal life. But repentance is a Holy time between the sinner and the savior where the Sinner humbles himself before the God of the universe and says. Save me I have wronged you, Please do not let me wrong you again. This is no time to celebrate, it is a time to weep to be humble and to pray. Rob Bell never said we need to repent because according to him "It was already done", We already have it. Universalism.
It was just wrong...The whole story, the entire speech was terribly twisted with truth and deception that my brother caught onto his round about post modern speaking style in the first fifteen minutes and said that this guy is really off base and said he was sorry he doubted my opinion to begin with.
Afterwards there was one of the saddest standing ovations I have ever seen. It really is solom to see people just follow a leader off a cliff with no idea what they were about to do. Every Word Rob Bell said was clung to, every thought, every walk across the stage...
As we left outside there were two guys doing exactly what Rob Bell spoke against in NOOMA 009. They were open air preaching. My brother ran to them and sat between them among the steps, we waited for them to finish and shook their hands, for an hour and a half we watched them preach. The most arrogant, self righteous "Christians" came and mocked them, one of them stood right on top of the same stand and side by side with Jesse the open air preacher screamed "PEANUTS, Get your PEANUTS"
Me and my brother were in shock, these were people that were coming from the Rob Bell event, standing laughing at him who was mocking in a very "Christian" like manner.
As Rob Bell would say...And...everyone...was...laughing.
Then from nowhere I heard a deep African accent. It was Friday. He heard the preaching and came to listen, he Even was allowed to get off work for a few minutes. His smile was contagious and me and my brother greeted him as if we knew him for years. As the heckler Got down Friday went up to him and his posse and said "Why do you Mock a man who preaches the Word of God...Do you know that God is Authority?" He pointed where Rob Bell was, "God was not there tonight...God was out here", he pointed to Jesse.
I guess the accent of a tall African man humbles the proud for a minute because he quickly left. I talked to Friday and asked if people Open Air Preach in Africa, he said all the time. Open Air Preaching is only rare in America because we do not do it. Friday was not embarrassed of the Word being preached in the public square, he ran to it, and sat down anxiously getting off of work to listen to them. Friday was starving for the Word.
Afterwards while talking to Jesse and Kerrigan and Tony, a Rob Bell fan came up to us and asked us questions regarding pragmatism and Open Air Preaching, he was really humbled and Jesse and Kerrigan did a great Job of showing him the transformation of a regenerate sinner. Please pray for him,. Visit OpenAirOutreach.com for more information of Jesse and Kerrigan. They love the Lord, and want his Gospel preached everywhere, they truly have a heart for the Lost. If only everyone else did. If only Rob Bell did.
OK, so maybe the word choice was poor but starting in two weeks, November 18th to be exact.
We will be starting something radical.
TransplantMinistries.com has a few goals as a Ministry.
1. Spread the Redeeming Gospel of Jesus Christ using Creative high quality media. 2. Train and equip the Church on methods of proper evangelism and use of new media technologies to bring Glory to the Savior. 3. Encourage Christian artist to use their talent for God's Glory, and not Mans, while staying true to unwavering sound biblical doctrine.
As a way to unite all three fields me and my brother Michael Pittman have set some steps in motion to start Malachi. Malachi is going to be a traveling, drama and media team that combines all sorts of Christian Art and theatrics into one show.
The name comes from the First chapter of of Malachi, where God demands the best for his worship and sacrifices.... So Malachi is going to be just that. The Best.
This means that every skit will be original. Every Actor will be superb. Every expectation, will be impossibly to high. Every performance/act/scene/script/etc/ will give Glory to God. The Gospel of how Jesus Christ died to rescue filthy sinners from the depths of Hell will be preached without fail everywhere we go.
So thats the plan.
So are you interested in volunteering your talents and Sunday afternoons to creatively giving glory to God and sharing the Gospel?
For more information the first meeting will be held on Sunday November 18th, 2007 at 4pm at Riverside Baptist Church, in Newport News, VA. There all questions can be asked and answered. Come ready to show the talents God has given you...
It's not a permanent goodbye, but it will be a long time. For those that do not know, Stephen "Spot"Hampshire has officially been sent to Iraq...He is in the Army and will probably be away from internet access for a long time.
