Worship Broadcasts Down on Corner of L&M

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Worship Broadcasts Down on Corner of L&M

 

Despite being an adjunct professor of homiletics spiced with liturgics at two seminaries, I've never ever watched or listened to myself messaging on cassette, video, radio, television, Facebook or, uh, anything anywhere at anytime.

 Two reasons.

 1. I did watch a recording of me being interviewed by a television station in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania about one of my non-best-selling books.  It was an apocalyptic moment for me.  I realized why my books don't sell and haven't written another since.

2. Maybe it was Virginia Damon.  She was an acting coach for some of "The Honeymooners" and taught a speech class that I attended while trying to pick up another worthless degree.  She was tough.  We called her VD for short.  After my audition, she said, "Well, you're not a basket case."

 So I didn't know our worship broadcasts have been down for over two weeks until I got a note saying they must have been sabotaged by the unholy trinity, mainliners, sideliners, and former members that hate me for praying and laboring to take "their" small c church away from them and give it back to Jesus with Revelation 18:4 in mind for those that continue religiously in innocuous to apostate assemblies because Jesus doesn't really matter that much to 'em.

 Seriously.

 Still, I was kinda ticked yesterday.

 My mom and dad wanted to watch.

 They're in their 90s and have to stay home now; unlike the folks who say they can't but still make it to the salon and saloon...or still swallow that, uh, hyperbole, hysteria, and histrionics about the CCPC19.

 Yeah, I thought the message was more inspired than indigested - more prophetic than pablumatic that ain't palatable for the lukewarm that show up to feel good about themselves with faith only coincidental to Jesus by the book.  Some people just go through the motions like mindless drones being anesthetized by professional actors that say nothing yet say it eloquently; especially if they had VD to train 'em.

 Pero there are some really gifted remnantal communicators of the gospel around like Adam, Braun, Brian, Chuck, Dan, David, Doug, Jim and so on that, like yesterday during the message, I've been recommending to people that hate me in a Christian kinda way but, moretheless, still need to be in worship and about soul-winning, discipling, and Matthew 25 ministries (existential and eternal).  So I feel really good about those that have switched channels to 'em because we're not broadcasting anymore.

 They'll stay.

 Fine with me.

 As anyone that actually tunes in when I'm in the saddle knows, I always pray increased attendance for faithful churches while, psst, also praying that the ones that aren't disappear because of their Matthew 23 infection rates.

 What really ticked me off yesterday was my mom and dad and a handful of others missed out on the most beautiful and moving and faithful music that I've heard since I've been on the Corner of Lincoln and Main.  

 Totally awesome!

 Music at His best aligns hearts with Him and HIs.

 Anybody that made it to worship on 12/19 was aligned.

 I also feel badly for Anthony, Brian, Kenny, and Wayne that have been trying so hard to get us back on line, Facebook, YouTube, or whatever site broadcasting our never-locked-out-never-cancelled-in-person worship.

 Pour moi, I'm a Romans 8:28 kinda guy.

 There's gotta be a good reason and blessing in store for the Corner of L&M because it's been reborn over the past two years and increasingly populated by people that really get it/Him.

 So I don't know when, if ever, we'll be back broadcasting.

 All I know, as this time of the year reminds us, It's more about incarnation anyway.

 One more thing.

 "If you want to stand strong, stand with Jesus!"

BLESSINGS AND LOVE!

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Annual Report 2021 “More or Less”

 KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Annual Report

2021

“More or Less”

       A pastor’s annual report reminds me of those annual state of the union addresses in DC.

Blah.  Blah.  Blah.

Can you define euphemistic?

When I write my annual report, I think about my book sales.

I’ve written 6 non-best-sellers with a 7th never even published and I’m running about a trillion to one in sales behind the toothy guy with Euro-Sheen from Texas.

Humiliating.

So I don’t expect anybody to read my annual reports because of my reputation for writing less than compellingly; besides, like my books, I’d know if anybody actually read what I wrote because…

If I have to explain that to you, you’ve never read any of my books.

It’s O.K.

Nobody else has read ‘em either.

Annnnnnd don’t kid yourself.

I don’t know many that are going to read yours; or as a friend once said to me in writing his, “I’m just going to use last year’s annual report and see if anybody notices.”

Paper airplanes, anyone?

If you think that’s cynical, uh, you’re right.

Cynicism born of empiricism.

Anyway, here goes.

In no special order, here are some rambling reflections and inspirations/indigestions – You decide! – on/from life and ministry on the Corner of Lincoln and Main in Belvidere, Illinois within the context of, as James Brown used to sing, “Living in America, I Feel…Good…Bad…Whatever.”

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2021 kinda reminded me of 2020.  We lost two elders and some others because I refused to be anybody’s nanny and suggest deportmental mandates based on the CCPC19 that is unprecedented, fluid, and incrementally unfolding with diametrically opposed “experts” on its magnitude and duration.  In other words, nobody knows what the anything but heaven is going on and I have never pretended that I do…though some people keep pretending that they do when everybody knows they don’t.

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Now that I’m only running behind Dr. Turner in tenure and should pass him if the roll isn’t called up yonder before then, I can say worship is more authentic and faithful over the past two years than the previous…

We have so many new family members – I mean real-deal-Jesus-loving-and-Bible-believing people – that reinforced the faithful remnant that worship is much, much, much more intense, intentional, and together with less dissonance because the plastois (a transliteration from Greek worth looking up) are gone and our praise and thanks and proclamation and prayer are punctuated by an increasing passion for soul-winning, nurture, and Matthew 25 missions (existential and eschatological).

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Because our worship, life, and ministry together are so much better than ever because of our pruned and reinforced membership, I have often confessed to feeling badly about not feeling badly about people that left since the CCPC19 because the people that came have made things so much better.

Just as I continue to pray our Lord’s comforts and consolations for everybody that suffered over the past two years, I know our Lord has used the past two years in a Romans 8:28 kinda way on the Corner of Lincoln and Main.

Certainly, I “wish” we never had to go through the past few years generated by the hyperbole, hysteria, and histrionics of a manufactured virus used as a tool of fear to manipulate and intimidate to control and move from a republic to a socialist slave state; yet I am so thankful for what He is doing on the Corner of Lincoln and Main in sprinkling salt and generating light to leavenate and heavenate.

So I feel badly about not feeling badly about our addition by subtraction.

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With enthusiasm for worship and even attendance increasing slowly, steadily, and solidly, we have four very strong adult Sunday School classes with another one about to be added and two uncommonly well-attended Bible studies on Tuesday mornings with our Senior Pastor Peder Carlson and Tuesday evenings with Leslie Kopp.

Though our Midweek programs for youth should grow with persistence and patience and an extraordinarily caring and competent staff and team increasingly augmented by the new families that are trickling in, we are praying for more children so we can keep our baptismal promises.

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Our local (Compassion Closet) and global (Build a Dream in Mexico) missions continue to love Jesus by loving like Jesus with grace, mercy, and forgiveness wrapped in agape.

As we like to say on the Corner of Lincoln and Main, we’re a lot more into saving souls and feeding bodies than pushing paper and fueling bloated bureaucracies.

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If you haven’t watched Alabama sophomore QB Bryce Young’s acceptance speech in winning the 2021 Heisman Trophy as America’s most outstanding football player on 12/11/21, Google or YouTube it.

What he says says so much about what we are experiencing together.

Here’s an excerpt: “First and foremost, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Without Him, I couldn’t be here.  Through Him, all things are possible…I’d like to thank my dad…my mom for always having my back…[keeping baptismal promises]…my family…my teammates…for protecting me and allowing me to win an award like this.”

Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 come to mind.

It’s happening in confessional, repentant, and, ergo, faithful churches like ours

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Thom S. Rainer’s recently released The Post-Quarantine Church: Challenges and Opportunities That Will Determine the Future of Your Congregation offers this compelling counsel for all churches that claim to love Jesus: “The pandemic was a wake-up call like none other.  The post-quarantine era is an opportunity to make the necessary positive changes to move our churches forward…Our churches had busied themselves trying to do too many things that were not essential to the core mission of the congregation…Focus on those areas that are primary to the church’s mission and eliminate everything else…Focus and eliminate…Healthy churches in the post-quarantine era will be focused churches.  They will do few things well!”

I especially like Rainer’s guiding principles for churches: “Here is what is not changing in the post-quarantine church…The Bible is still the Word of God…Christ is still the only way to salvation.  Prayer is still vital.  Evangelism is still a mandate.”

Again, our foci are worship, soul-winning, nurture, and Matthew 25 missions (existential and eschatological).

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The really good news on the Corner of Lincoln and Main is Jesus not Caesar is Lord and Savior.

He is our foundation, focus, and filter for all we say and do.

We are praying and trying to build on the best of our past for a better future and we are abandoning the idolatries of longing for the way things never were or maybe were but are no more.

We are looking to the future rather than our behind(s).

It’s a Philippians 3:12ff thing for us.

Look it up.

Look Him up.

Lock heads, hearts, and guts together in/through/for Him.

Churches that are more about Jesus and less about anyone/anything else live happily ever after.

That’s our highest goal, greatest ambition, and most fervent prayer.

More, more, more about Jesus!

Less, less, less about those idolatries that distract us from the allegiance and affection due Him alone.

If you want to stand strong, stand with Jesus!

BLESSINGS AND LOVE!

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KOG Virus Update on Saving America Before It's Too Late

Get Vaxed

Before It’s Too Late!

 

Patient: America

 

Disease: Disbelief and Disrespect

 

Symptoms: Disobedience, Ingratitude, Fear, Cowardice, Laziness

 

Cure: Jesus

 

 …and don’t forget the boosters: Worship, Bible Reading, Sacraments, Matthew 25 Ministries (existential and eternal), Revelation 18:4

BLESSINGS AND LOVE!

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Why I Preach

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Why I Preach

I don’t preach so people leave at 11 and say, “I don’t know what he said but he made me feel good about myself.”

No, I preach to remind everyone and especially me that He is Lord and deserves our worship in gratitude for everything He has done for us in time and forever by grace through faith in Jesus.

If I didn’t really love people instead of wanting their fickle favor, I wouldn’t bother to tell them with Buechner that they’re going to hell without Jesus: “A prophet’s quarrel with the world is deep-down a lover’s quarrel. If they didn’t love the world, they probably wouldn’t bother to tell it that it’s going to hell. They’d just let it go.”

I don’t want people to feel good about their insults to His holiness and injuries to His family.

I want people to want to get better and love Him by loving like Him with grace, mercy, and forgiveness wrapped in agape.

I’m with Luther when he said, in effect, “If you can show me that I’m wrong by Jesus, Holy Scripture, and common sense enlightened by the Holy Spirit who never contradicts Jesus by the book, go for it. If not, then you can go to hell.

Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God save me.”

Jerry is right! I really care or I wouldn’t tell the truth according to Jesus by the book. If I didn’t care, I’d just push for the superficial and disingenuous “like,

like” kudos of posers polluting pulpits, pews, and politics that are making people twice as fit for hell as they are themselves with any connection to Jesus by the

book being coincidental.

Yes, I really care.

That’s why I preach.

Or as I tell my fuma friends, “Life is too short to smoke a turd!”

“If you want to stand strong, stand with Jesus!”

BLESSINGS AND LOVE!

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Idolatries are Killing America with 45 and 46 Idolaters as the Poster Children

 KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Idolatries are Killing America with 45 and 46 Idolaters as the Poster Children

God doesn't like idolatry.

Anything/anyone that distracts or distances us from our affection and allegiance due God alone is verboten.

That includes political, ecclesiastical, social, economic, denominational, fraternal, sorority, religious, ideological, and...idolatries.

Start with the Decalogue for more on that.

In short, 1 John 5:21.

As America's statist idolaters increasingly assault the Judeo-Christian values of our Constitution with our Bill of Rights rooted so deeply in Holy Scripture, freedoms and opportunities are being removed through manipulation and intimidation to dominate/control.

Anyone who does not see how the CCPC19 has been used as a fear-generating tool to manipulate through hyperbole, hysteria, and histrionics with extra-Constitutional intimidation to pave the way for increasing statism and decreasing liberty reminds me of a conversation between Moe and Curly of The Three Stooges.

"Moe, Moe, I can't see," cries Curly.

Moe asks, "What's the mattah?"

Curly snaps, "Nyuk!  Nyuk!  I've got my eyes closed."

Historically, freedoms and opportunities removed are rarely restored.

The Bible warns us.

Some don't/can't/won't see or hear.

Of course, Colonel J was right about idolaters: "You can't handle the truth!"

45 was in your face.

46 is behind your back.

Generally speaking, that's about right for what's wrong with America these days.

Just saying; and just wondering which style of leadership is more threatening to the republic's survival.

Matthew 5:37.

Blessings and Love!

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Round 2 of CCPC19 and Worship on the Corner of Lincoln and Main

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Round 2 of CCPC19 and Worship on the Corner of Lincoln and Main

Preface.

Here's what we know and don't know about CCPC19.

It's unprecedented, fluid and incrementally unfolding with diametrically opposed experts on its magnitude and duration.

I keep thinking of the bureaucrat that scolded me for never cancelling worship with her trump card being she is following the science.

I asked, "Which one?"

She said, "The right one!"

Uh, O.K.

In other words, no one knows what the anything but heaven is going on.

Frankly, or Shirley if you prefer, I've still got academicia in my noodle despite Paul's 1 Corinthians 1 counsel; searching for intersecting truth from diverse and often contradictory sources via newsfeeds from CNN, Fox, Newsmax, the major networks, rags like the NYT, WP, WE, CT and even the RRS.  When they agree, I think I've found  truth.  When they disagree, I think I've found opinion.

In other words, nobody really knows what's going on and and so there's been no consistency when it comes to appropriate antidotal deportment.

Of course, that hasn't stopped know-it-alls from the left, right, up and down and all around from pretending they know-it-all as they move into the intensifying mask, vax and keeping-each-other-at-arms-length wars.

It reminds me of Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Baptists, MSLs, RCs and other religious bigots that have cut Matthew 15 and 23 out of their Bibles discussing who's "more saved" with any connection to what Jesus said being coincidental with a Methodist playing mediator.

That's why I refuse to get into tinkling contests with the know-it-alls because I don't know-it-all as I focus on worship in gratitude and evangelism in mercy.

I don't know who's "more right" on this and I don't trust a lot of the players (scroll down or keep reading til ya get there).

So I'm gonna stick to what I know for sure in a John 3 and 14 kinda way.

Simply, if you want to stand strong, stand with Jesus!

Review.

We never cancelled worship on the Corner of Lincoln and Main.

We never locked down.

We never cowered in fear with Psalm 20 and 1 John 4 in mind.

It was never on our radar to cancel or lock down.

Jesus is Lord not Caesar on the Corner of Lincoln and Main.

Read Exodus 20:1-8, Isaiah 58:13-14, Acts 5:29 and Hebrews 10:19-25.

Forecast.

Now that those mask, vax and keeping-each-other-at-arms-length wars are heating up again, we will keep on keepin' on and not cancel worship or lock down.

The office will remain open.

That's a personal choice by our administrative assistant et moi.

We wear big girl and boy pants.

We know the risks of not knowing the risks and have decided we will serve above self because we're trying to follow the One that we say is Lord and Savior.

For over a year and a half, we haven't told anybody what to do and we're not about to start now.

We are just going to be available to people who need/want/expect us to be available.

Personal Note.

How can I trust people that enable or wink at killing babies to be concerned about my health?

How can I trust people that lied about the origin of CCPC19?

How can I trust people that don't have God on their radar and make decisions apart from Jesus by the book as their foundation, focus and filter?

How can I trust people that want to limit the world's population to under 500 M?

How can I trust people that abandon evil's prey in Vietnam, Afghanistan and...?

I mean, really, can you trust those kinda people with your life?

BTW, if you're curious, I'm fine.

I'm protected.

Unless I'm sick or something with more than the sniffles or head cold or another cyst or something that can't be handled by Advil, B&B or Drs Dwight and Steve, I'm not going to be tested.  

Why?

I mean if I'm not sick, why would I be tested?

To add another stroke to the tally to rationalize whatever is being rationalized?

Fini.

We never cancelled worship.

We never locked down.

We never sued to stay open.

We didn't fight with anyone.

We're not going to fight with anyone.

We ignored 'em and we'll ignore 'em if they...

If you want to stand strong, stand with Jesus!

Blessings and Love!

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