IFCE #34 | Did Jesus Fart? - EkklesiaDetroit

I am unable to vote cause my hubby already voted… so let this comment be my vote. Awesome video Ekklesia!!! I have to say it even challenged me and stretched me to go beyond my own “box”. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up!” Galatians 6:9. Awesome job!!!!

Shanon

My name is Ken Skinner and while this was a team effort and only through the grace of God this video was made, many would consider me to be the person largely responsible for the ‘Did Jesus Fart’ video.

I do not say this to be prideful, but to also not hide behind a curtain when I am so very encouraged by this video. Through this video I have been able to witness to a Catholic woman kicked out of her church, a man who walked away from God (and whom I believe to soon be returning), a buddhist, a new age believer, and this video has led to multiple occasions wherein conversations about God and Christians were sparked up at my work place.

Also it has led to at least five people coming to Ekklesia. I don’t know their backgrounds, nor would I repeat them if I did, but this video is reaching people.

I won’t be naive to say that this video is for everyone. If you don’t like it, then its not for you. If it is a stumbling block, then my sincerest apologizes. Please do not watch this video if that is the case.

I could argue valid reasons why this video is good until I turned blue as I’m sure people could present valid arguments on why this video is bad. But it wouldn’t accomplish anything good. I thank everyone for both the negative and positive comments.

First and foremost, I am a Christian. Second, I’m an entertainer. I thank God for this opportunity to use the gift I have been blessed with to show non-Christians a side of us they might not be accustomed to.

For the record, I will not respond to any negative comments my post will generate. If you would like to talk to me, go to my website and in the ‘about’ page you will find my e-mail. Be warned though, I will simply tell you that I love you and to remain strong in your faith in Christ.

As for all you ekklesians, please follow chris’ lead, who is following Jesus’ lead, and lets turn the other cheek from this point forward.

For you non-Christians, I apologize if all this in-fight has left a nasty taste in your mouth. Just like any family we have our arguements, however, at the end of the day we love each other and we especially love you.

God bless,
Ken Skinner

Ken, I appreciate your sincerity and if you don’t want to respond, no problem.

But I have to comment with regard to your last point. Your church has done something knowing full well it would create controversy within the church and it has. Your pastor acknowledges this in his very first comment!

We all know that controversy in the church is always going to spur argument and in-fighting which present a picture of disunity to the world and a bad witness as a result. Given that, how do you gauge, and how would you balance, how much of a negative impact and a turn-off this video may have had on an unmeasurable audience versus the few “successes” you mention in your post?

The truth is, God has used and can use so many things as a starting point for Christians to engage non-believers in discussion. There are countless options that are neither controversial nor disunifying, so why use a method that is both?

Given all that, why would God call a church to do produce something like this?

I am in the yahoo pool league and always talking with some guys from India and Thai and some from Cali. (none Christians)
I shared the video with them and they thought is funny and they didnt think it was disrispectful towards Jesus. Actually opened ways to talk about life, religion and soul from a different perspective.
Ifart rocks!
God bless.

I haven’t heard a good knock knock in a while. Thanks Coupe!

Way to go guys!

WOW SA VA FIE RUSINE VOI LUATI NUMELE DOMNULUI IN DESERT NU VA FRICA CA VA TRUSNI DOMNUL IN VOI SA VEDE CA VOI NU INTELEGETI CE INSEAMNA SA FII SFINT POCAITI VA VOA VA TREBE POCAINTA MULTA SHAME ON ALL OF U FOR MAKING FUN OF JESUS YOU ALL NEED JESUS LISTEN TO PAUL WASHER MAYBE YOU GUYS MIGHT GET SOMETHING OUT OF IS PREACHINGS

Everyone needs to see this video. I can’t stop watching it. You guys are great!

and by the way NICHOLAS they are not great……… its blasphemy to the lords name .
WHATS SO GREAT ABOUT IT?? Its pathetic
You guys are sad excuses of christians. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LAUGHABLE OR FUNNY ABOUT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Everyone,
I wanted to let everyone know that not everyone who attends Ekklesia supports or likes the video. I attend Ekklesia and when a few of us saw the video, we were so ashamed that this video was put on the internet (or even made at all). We had no idea this video even existed. If you weren’t invoved in the making of this video, you didn’t know about it. I apologize as an attendee of Ekklesia for this video. I believe that the video does disrespect the Almighty God. Note: I do know this was NOT the intention. I am sorry for the reactions (attacks & put downs) given to you on this blog if you disagree w/ the video. You are not an unbeliever if you disagree, you are not making a religion of your opinion, and you do not need to lighten up. I know how you feel, b/c those comments were directed at me too. I apologize if you feel that your opinion about the video is not taken seriously. I apologize to the world if this has in any way hurt the name of Jesus. Most importantly, I am sorry to God if we have made light of His Son.

I will reveal myself when the time is right.

Coupe: “No matter what your standards are for ‘Jesus’!”

I think that quote really reflects the confused thinking of the supporters/makers of this video. They don’t seem to realize it’s God who is in charge, not us. You see, WE don’t make standards for the Lord, HE makes standards for us. That includes the standards of awe, respect, honor, and reverence He demands of us. These are clearly revealed in His Word. If those standards had been followed, this video would not have been created.

I like your scripture verse, although it is an odd choice since it contradicts your point of view. The pastor of this church and his “iFart ministry” staff are clearly too proud of themselves to recognize their irreverence of God, and they have produced this video in an “in your face” manner to their brothers and sisters in Christ; brothers and sisters who believe Jesus does deserve our highest reverence. And so they demonstrate to what extent they adhere to the admonitions of that passage from Romans.

This attempt by Ekklesia is certainly drawing a lot of heat. However, overall, the criticism has been good for us, because it has allowed us to stare serious adversity directly in the face and say “I’m gonna take whatever you can throw at me Satan, cause making disciples is worth anything you can dish out!” By adversity, I don’t mean people, I mean the spiritual forces of evil that inspire the chaos. Not all the criticism towards this attempt is motivated by evil. Some is genuine and healthy. However, some of the evil-inspired criticism has caused a few of our people from Ekklesia to question this strategy. For their benefit, I feel led to share a few thoughts. This is not a rebuttal to any angry bloggers.

#1 We prayed and fasted about this video. We fast nearly every single Wednesday as pastors, and we repeatedly invite everyone connected to Ekklesia to do the same. Today I didn’t fast cause I’m fighting off some kind of sickness. I would appreciate your prayers

#2 Some people think farting is funny. Some don’t. Some don’t care. This is a cultural and personal preference. Period. There is nothing universally moral or immoral about it. Period. This is an extremely important point. I believe there is no solid argument against this point, and combating it displays a person’s passionate commitment to their own bias. No one has effectively disproved this. If someone can, I want to hear the response. By the grace of God, I am very open to correction.

#3 I’m not biased towards people who like farting, people who don’t like farting, or people who don’t care about farting. This isn’t important to me. I want to reach people in each of these categories.

#4 I personally know many people who think farting is funny.

#5 Let me name some people, people who like farting, but I do not know personally: the people who use the iFart application and the people who want to watch iFart videos. Most of these people like farting, and they think it is funny. These are the people the video was designed for.

#6 If a person doesn’t like this video, they shouldn’t watch it. The title tells them what it’s about. They don’t have to hit play, unless they want to.

#7 It is important to do things that offend people’s cultural biases, because those cultural biases can limit the spread of the Gospel. Acts 10 is a clear example. No Jews were reaching Cornelius and his companions with the Gospel. Why? Because of their false cultural beliefs about what foods were clean and which were unclean. Peter had to break this beloved practice in order to make disciples. If anyone is mad about iFart, their anger probably has nothing on the anger of the people against Peter in Acts 10-11. However, look at how the church responded in Acts 11 when Peter told them the good news that disciples were made. They said, “YEAH!” “This is awesome!”

Others from Ekklesia, what do you think about these thoughts of mine?

Hey Chris I thought about asking you in person but I think it might be beneficial if everyone heard your answer. I think it’s pretty clear that the actual farting is based on a cultural bias as being irreverent. What about the claims that having Jesus selling a product or promoting a product is irreverent? I’m not talking about the iPhone because I believe having an iPhone can be used for gods glory. I know I personally read the bible more than I ever did since I put the Bible app on mine. But specifically the ifart application.

I’m pretty sure I know what your response would be but could you respond to this aspect of this controversy?

P.s. What’s with the Romanian in caps lock? You realize that caps stresses shouting in Internet l33t speak. Va iubesc

I want everyone to know that despite what some may think, I do not feel that I “publicly degraded” the authority/leadership of Ekklesia. The question was asked on this blog and the Ekklesia blog, “Some say we are making fun of Jesus, what do you think?” “Do you think we took it too far” All I did was say what I thought. I was not under the impression that if I disagreed w/ Chris that I was to have my comments screened first. I will never reveal myself now that I have been “publicly attacked, humilated, scorned” for simply saying what I thought. I do not feel that my post here was disrespectful or derogatory in any way. It hurts me to know that my comment, my opinions, and my sincere dislike for the video is ridiculous. Is that love? I am sorry that you feel it was unacceptable to answer the questions asked from the website/blog with honesty. I also want you to know that it hurts that i’m supposedly making my own religion out of my dislike for the video b/c that was directed at me as well.

I do know that everything we say or do should be done to glorify God. Does this video bring honor & gloriy to God? The Bible says that everything we do should glorify God and we should never do anything that would offend the church of God, the Greek, or the Jews. The house of God is also members outside of Ekklesia and attendees of Ekklesia.

I Cor. 10: 31-32 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God.

Deci, fie ca mincati, fie ca beti, fie ca faceti altceva: sa faceti totul pentru slava lui Dumnezeu. Sa nu fiti pricina de pacatuire nici pentru Iudei, nici pentru Greci, nici pentru Biserica lui Dumnezeu.

Let us be humble in the sight of the Lord and may be be blameless on that Great Day!

God Bless You!
Domnul sa te binecuvinteze!

I think we all need to be very careful about how we address people here as we are blogging away.

Personally speaking, if someone were to address me first on a blogging site before confronting me about an issue, I would be deeply hurt. Do you understand this happens everyday with our youth? They say things that are mean and hurtful as they are blogging and when they see the respective person, they pretend that nothing happened and would not confront them to their face. People take their lives for things like this!

It is easy to bash someone and disagree with someone when there is no accountability behind the screen. But if we were to confront someone face to face, I definitely think we would think twice, three times before a word came out of our mouth.

It is ok to disagree. There is nothing wrong with that. But if you have access to the person and you know the person, instead of posting a blog would it not be better to confront the person right on? Ask the questions in a loving manner and maybe then there can be some understanding.

This is what I told someone when talking about the issue at hand. “If this issue is so troubling to you and you cannot get passed it, this church is probably not for you”. Ekklesia, I don’t think, is a “seeker friendly” church, but a “seeker oriented” church. It is a church that is taking the statement of Jesus, “Go and make disciples” literally. They are reaching out to people and making diciples. It is a church that I am proud to be a part of. It is a church that goes out of it’s way to make sure that people are loved and cared for in a tangible way. The people at Ekklesia walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

I stand behind them all the way!

I love you all and want only the best for everyone here.
God bless!!

Anonymous: Amen to everything in your post! God bless you for standing up for the truth of the matter, which is that the Lord God deserves far more honor and glory than what is depicted in this video. I hope you will disregard Dana’s characterization of your thoughtful and appropriate comments as “bashing.”

Unfortunately, it is very apparent that there is a significant matter of stubborn pride invested into this video by the church leadership and some of its members. The supporters of this video claim to be all for the truth, when what I am observing is that the real truth is the “pastor” and his supporters just want to squelch any disagreement coming from the Body of Christ…that is why Anonymous’ questions go unanswered at Ekklesia’s blog site and opposing viewpoints are routinely deleted by the “pastor” there. Here he doesn’t have that control. No doubt he is very frustrated that he can’t control the debate, which is why he lashed out at Anonymous’ objective viewpoint.

I have also not missed the fact that Mr. Lambert is shying away from answering Jon’s legitimate question about whether using Jesus as a marketing tool is not alone an act of irreverence.

Dana, has it occurred to you that your church has fostered an environment where sincere and honest criticism, even if privately given, is not welcome? You reflect that by arrogantly suggesting that Anonymous leave. Further, if Anonymous is speaking the truth, who cares if a private meeting with the pastor took place first, or is it just that you are all so worried about the image of Ekklesia being tainted?

You might want to take a step back and objectively consider whether your attitude is a good thing for a moment. Some thin-skinned pastors and church leaders don’t take constructive disagreement well. I have been at churches like that before and believe me, it is not only unhealthy, it is cultish.

Jesus did say “Go and make disciples” but that doesn’t mean he was sanctioning an “ends justifies the means” approach to evangelization. Making disciples also means that church is a place for believers to be fed with solid food so they can go out into the world and spread the message…as opposed to church being a place of entertainment that is just there to bring in bodies that remain in a state of perpetual spiritual adolescence.

Your boast of Ekklesia as the ideal church doesn’t jive with the “walking the walk” I have seen represented here. Regretfully, my sense is that some of you Ekklesians give more glory to your church and your misguided human efforts than to God Himself.

Arturo’s Confessions:

I am not sure I can write today.
The words coming out not my way.

I look in the mirror not sure who I see.
Never the person I wanted to be.

I wanted to set out to conquer my dreams
Mostly I feel blasted from everyone it seems.

Running away from my problems a nice escape.
Returning to them is hard to take.

I feel like no one really takes the time to see.
I should be happy shouting for glee.

Everyone thinks I am a riddle or puzzle.
Maybe from here on out I will put on a muzzle.

Most of the time I am seen as a drama queen.
Maybe so but I only scream to be seen.

I am a completely a total fraud playing a part.
I write romance I feel in my heart.

I love so hard sometimes I feel like I could die.
At least my end would be a worthy sacrifice.

Loving would be easy without feelings.
I do feel deeply I must admit, my mind reeling.

I think all the time maybe I should no longer write.
Then I would feel like I could no longer fight.

Take my pen and paper from me.
I will eventually cease to be.

Makes sense…

Mr. Lambert:
Please get real. You come across just like a political spin doctor. The whole point of this contest is to create an advertisement in order to promote and sell a product. At one point in the video, “Jesus” holds up the iPhone with the application, mimicking the stereotypical commercial salesman. Your silly point about “Jesus” just happening to be in the video and using the product could be applied to ANY person in ANY commercial!

That argumentation is beyond disingenuous, it is clearly a dishonest attempt to make excuses for your blatant irreverence for the Lord.

Ben: I suggest you speak for yourself if at all possible.

I HATE EKKLESIA AND HERE IS A WEBSITE THAT PROVES IT!!!

http://www.SatanHatesEkklesia.com

totally disrespectful!!!

Ken you suck!

As Ekklesia’s fifteen minutes of fame draws to a close, I am struck by a couple of ironies:

One is that iFart Mobile, just like Apple, has more sense for what is socially appropriate than a church claiming to be Christian (see post #49).

Two, that in addition to Ekklesia thinking irreverence of God is an appropriate evangelizing tool, they also resort to dishonesty. I don’t know why “Satan” would hate Ekklesia when “Satan” is obviously a member of that church. The fact that this church uses Satan and lies to attempt to draw others toward itself just provides further testimony of its lack of sound leadership.

“Ekklesian Coupe”, you have a pure heart. I know you very well. You are the man. However, you know I don’t like some of the comments you’ve made here. You and I have already talked about this, but because of the nature of online blogging, let me make it publicly known.

For the future, if anyone from Ekklesia is going to criticize someone else’s actions, we always need to make known our first and last names. No pseudonym criticisms. That is not Ekklesian

Keep blogging Coupe! Keep blogging!

Arturo, I apologize for this type of action on our behalf. I hope to meet you personally one of these days. We have free food after our services. It’s ridiculously delicious too! I like you so much I’ll make sure you get it half price.