The only educational institution that I have ever heard of that doesn't graduate anyone is the church. In a church you find someone who has only been a Christian for three weeks and knows nothing about the Bible sitting on the same pew with someone who has been a Christian 40 years and has read through the Bible 30 times. And they are both listening to a dull message about "Christianity 101" by a preacher who almost falls asleep in his own sermons. Does that many any sense?

After somebody has been in church a couple of years and has heard the "Christianity 101" message a few times, why doesn't the church graduate him or her and send them out to prayer walk in their community. Why keep them tied to the building and to the apron strings of the preacher?

Our modern church system produces bored Sunday morning Christians who live like average Americans the rest of the week. Where are the bold, courageous Christian men and women that you read about in the Book of Acts and in church history?

Our American church system doesn't seem to produce that kind of Christian. And if God begins to raise up a bold, courageous Christian man or woman, the preacher is usually threatened by him or her and calls him a rebel, tells him to "get under authority", and pulls him back into the fold of mediocrity.

American churches, let God's people go! Let God raise up bold and courageous Christians before it is too late.

Why are ministry jobs hereditary? Why do so many TV preachers have their kids preaching on their shows nowadays? Just flip across the religious channels and you will see the children of ministers being promoted and given huge TV audiences because of their father or mother's fame and power (oops, I mean ministry). It is sort of a religious affirmative action.

Why should those grown kid preachers be handed such an opportunity for self-promotion (oops I mean ministry) because of who their parents are? When a church or TV ministry needs a new preacher to promote, why don't they make a national search and open that position to the most qualified (or dare I say, to the one God wants for the position) instead of putting their own offspring into it?

The Catholic church dealt with this by requiring preachers to accept chastity (or at least the appearance of chastity / not to marry). This took care of their kids in ministry problem. Maybe non-denominational, independent ministry folks should try that solution.

Have you ever noticed that many church advertisements in newspapers contain the pastor's picture? But what does the pastor's picture have to do with attracting people to a church?

Can you imagine a couple named Bill and Brenda looking at the church ads and trying to decide which one to visit?

Bill: Brenda, let's visit First Church. That pastor looks better than any of the others.

Brenda: No way, Bill! That guy doesn't look attractive to me at all! But look here at Second Church. Now that guy is a hunk! I want to visit that one.

Bill: He is alright, Brenda, but he is not any better than average to me.

Brenda: Ok, Bill, let's compromise. This guy at Downtown Church looks smart. What do you say we check out his church.

Bill: I like a smart looking preacher. Let's do it.

So . . . what does a preacher's picture have to do with choosing to visit a church? And why else would a church include the pastor's picture in the ad?

I can only think of two reasons. 1) The pastor's ego needs. Or 2) Other churches do it so we will to. Can you think of any other reason to include a pastor's picture in a church ad?

I have often wondered why church ads don't have a picture of Jesus. Isn't He supposed to be what it is all about?

Corporations pay big bucks for the naming rights to stadiums. For their money they get a tremendous amount of exposure for their names on huge signs, television broadcasts, newspaper articles, and even word-of-mouth. Naming rights are very valuable and sell for millions of dollars per year.

So, have you ever wondered why people who say they are ministering for the Lord turn around and put their own name on those ministries? They give all that publicity and exposure to themselves instead of to the Lord. In the Bible, God said: "I will not share my glory with any man," and yet our TV sets and radios are full of preachers promoting their own name over God's.

Let's make up a preacher. I'll call her Betty Frump. She starts preaching on the radio and decides she needs a name for "her" ministry. So what does she call it? Well, it isn't very original, but she calls it "Betty Frump Ministries." She promotes herself and her name on what she claims is God's ministry. Is that right? Doesn't that violate God's principle of not sharing His glory with any person? And yet Christians accept, follow, support, and rally around ministries that are named after people.

So what else could Betty Frump have named God's ministry that she has the honor of leading? How about "All Glory To God Ministries" or "Jesus Lives Ministries" or "Making A Difference Ministries" or almost anything besides the self-promotion and personal exaltation of her own name.

Wouldn't it be something if a famous preacher decided he or she was getting too much of God's glory and took his or her name off of God's ministry that she or he leads? Isn't it is time to give ministry naming rights back to God?

Going, going on pBay -- JM, $12.5 million; JE, $14 million; RG, $16 million; MR, $21 million; BO, $25, million, HC, $26 million! What's for sale on pBay?

The Presidency of the United States Of America. You can bid online or you can mail a check to your candidate.

So how much negative advertising does all that money equal? Whew! That's a bunch of political put-downs!

The candidate who goes into the primaries with the most toys, uh, I mean money, wins. pBay? Presidency for sale? Is this the American system?