Oh no, John Ellis walks away from CCM!

[separateunion]

Sounds a little similar to Pete Stewart's spiritual journey.

I remember hearing that he had seemingly left the faith, or something similar. What happened with all that?

In short, he got sick of how judgmental Christians were. I'm not sure if you remember Chasing Furies, but Pete Stewart really liked them, and the last straw for him was when some Christians started blacklisting the band because one of the girls had a nose ring.

[brent]

Whatever. Our American females go to church looking like hoochy(sp?) mommas by Germany's standards. Appearance is culture and personal preference.

But come on...turn your back on the one who paid your debt? That person was not in love with God. That person was in love with some euphoric dream that does not exist. I am tellin' you guys. There are TONS of people that are no more saved than a box of rocks in this industry. And that is all it is INDUSTRY. BUSINESS. MONEY. The real people in it for ministry are few.

[guitardude68]

Hey Brent! I like your posts.....Very lively for sure.

Can you enlighten someone like me....Who still listens to Phil Keaggy, Keith Green, Rich Mullins, Steve Camp, and...Of course, Petra?

Who, in your opinion, are the real deals nowadays?

I need some CURRENT Christian music 101 from someone in the know...And you seem like that guy!

Also, have you guys heard Phil Joel's "Deliberate People" CD? I love it and it helped me through the death of my mom...It gave me some additional hope and promise. It's funny, I like him post Newsboys BETTER than when he was WITH the Newsboys. The CD is so intimate and "Real".

Anyway...God bless you all and keep going hard after Him every moment.

Mark

[brent]

That's a tall order.

Maybe I should interview as many of these people as possible and put the transcripts in a book for all to see. Sounds like a mission.

[separateunion]

Whatever. Our American females go to church looking like hoochy(sp?) mommas by Germany's standards. Appearance is culture and personal preference.

But come on...turn your back on the one who paid your debt? That person was not in love with God. That person was in love with some euphoric dream that does not exist. I am tellin' you guys. There are TONS of people that are no more saved than a box of rocks in this industry. And that is all it is INDUSTRY. BUSINESS. MONEY. The real people in it for ministry are few.

I never said I was okay with what he did, but I can feel for where he is/was at. I went through a similar experience and left the faith. Lucky for me, God had the grace to bring me back into the fold.

[brent]

Whatever. Our American females go to church looking like hoochy(sp?) mommas by Germany's standards. Appearance is culture and personal preference.

But come on...turn your back on the one who paid your debt? That person was not in love with God. That person was in love with some euphoric dream that does not exist. I am tellin' you guys. There are TONS of people that are no more saved than a box of rocks in this industry. And that is all it is INDUSTRY. BUSINESS. MONEY. The real people in it for ministry are few.

I never said I was okay with what he did, but I can feel for where he is/was at. I went through a similar experience and left the faith. Lucky for me, God had the grace to bring me back into the fold.

I know man. I was commenting on his reasoning. We can't blame God for the crummy Christians. He is not controlling us like programmed robots. We are humans being. Yet, he supposedly bailed on God because of something he didn't like. Well too bad. What if God DIDN'T like nose rings and Kool-Aid hair? What if God didn't like tattoos? People pick and choose when they want to like God. That is not Christianity. That's BS.

[separateunion]

Whatever. Our American females go to church looking like hoochy(sp?) mommas by Germany's standards. Appearance is culture and personal preference.

But come on...turn your back on the one who paid your debt? That person was not in love with God. That person was in love with some euphoric dream that does not exist. I am tellin' you guys. There are TONS of people that are no more saved than a box of rocks in this industry. And that is all it is INDUSTRY. BUSINESS. MONEY. The real people in it for ministry are few.

I never said I was okay with what he did, but I can feel for where he is/was at. I went through a similar experience and left the faith. Lucky for me, God had the grace to bring me back into the fold.

I know man. I was commenting on his reasoning. We can't blame God for the crummy Christians. He is not controlling us like programmed robots. We are humans being. Yet, he supposedly bailed on God because of something he didn't like. Well too bad. What if God DIDN'T like nose rings and Kool-Aid hair? What if God didn't like tattoos? People pick and choose when they want to like God. That is not Christianity. That's BS.

Sure, but I still empathize with where he's at. And I think it's worth discussing whether piercings and tattoos are Biblically allowed or not. I don't see how that's "picking and choosing" what someone likes about God. Maybe he will come back to the fold one day. You're honestly acting like you're above his reasoning, as if you've never made a drastic mistake because of poor reasoning on your part.

[brent]

Because there are scriptures that say piercing the skin is wrong. Drawing attention to ourselves with jewelry is wrong. People do not like when Christians point that out, and all of a sudden those Christians are judgmental and not loving. Loving does NOT mean accepting bad actions and tolerating living like carnal people. Loving is preaching, teaching, discipling people out of their bad actions that the world tolerates.

The point is, people are hell bent on selecting what they think is acceptable, and they don't want to hear someone else point out their errors. That is a proud spirit, a rebellious spirit, and an unbreakable spirit. We should be willing to completely change how we act, how we dress, what we do to ourselves. Some people want God to love them as they are. He died for all of us before we are as we are. God does not intend for us to remain as we are. THAT is what people are missing. Salvation and servanthood are two different things.

As for making a drastic mistake, you are right. I read the bible. I know who God is and what he has done for me. I know that my faith is in him, not man. That dude put his hope in man. He was living in a dream world where we can all be lovey dovey, and that is crap. That will not happen this side of the rapture. He obviously had no real faith in God. He might have gone through some actions, but he did not have a personal relationship with Christ or else he would not have turned away. He never had it to turn away from.

Again, there are many people in Christian music that do not have a living relationship with Jesus Christ and have studied beyond the milk of the Word. If they had, they would not be making the news about losing their faith.

[corolla1]

I just went through Pete Stewart's website and started reading his blogs. Sadly, it appears that he did indeed leave the faith.

[St_Augustines_Pears]

But come on...turn your back on the one who paid your debt? That person was not in love with God. That person was in love with some euphoric dream that does not exist. I am tellin' you guys. There are TONS of people that are no more saved than a box of rocks in this industry. And that is all it is INDUSTRY. BUSINESS. MONEY. The real people in it for ministry are few.

And this is why I dig Brent's posts so much.

We'd all like to believe that the Christian music industry is all sunshine, flowers, and kittens, but the truth is, most of it's probably more wicked and cutthroat than the secular music world.

Brent's posts are insightful and revealing. The man has been inside the machine. Some people don't like his bluntness and candor...I think it's great.

[brent]

Ha. I don't like my bluntness and candor. I wish I could Joel Osteen it, but I can't. Believe it or not I have tried.

[separateunion]

Because there are scriptures that say piercing the skin is wrong. Drawing attention to ourselves with jewelry is wrong.

Yet our society has no issues with women having ear piercings. Look, the Bible is not clear on whether or not tattoos and piercings are okay, no matter how you argue it. The problem is that certain issues that are treated as if the Bible speaks to them are in fact societal issues in which Christians try to make Scripture say what they want it to. That's why 50 years ago, the Bible was being used as ammo when people argued against interracial marriage, even though it doesn't say anywhere that there is something wrong with interracial marriage.

As for making a drastic mistake, you are right. I read the bible. I know who God is and what he has done for me. I know that my faith is in him, not man. That dude put his hope in man. He was living in a dream world where we can all be lovey dovey, and that is crap. That will not happen this side of the rapture. He obviously had no real faith in God. He might have gone through some actions, but he did not have a personal relationship with Christ or else he would not have turned away. He never had it to turn away from.

It's too bad you can't show the same grace your savior showed you. And it's nice that you speak as if there's no chance God will ever draw Pete back to Himself. You need to get off your high horse.

[CatNamedManny]

Sounds a little similar to Pete Stewart's spiritual journey.

I remember hearing that he had seemingly left the faith, or something similar. What happened with all that?

In short, he got sick of how judgmental Christians were. I'm not sure if you remember Chasing Furies, but Pete Stewart really liked them, and the last straw for him was when some Christians started blacklisting the band because one of the girls had a nose ring.

That sounds like an excuse, rather than a legitimate reason. When Grammatrain was big, there were incredibly popular bands that featured copious piercings and tattoos. I doubt Chasing Furies failed to sell a single record because of a nose ring. If that's really what pushed Pete Stewart over the edge, then it sounds like he was looking for a reason.

I did some Google searching, and came across his blog, which does delve into his personal thoughts on religion. Particularly this thread, aptly titled "god." http://petestewart.wordpress.com/2009/0 ... /#comments

In the comments, he says this:

I used to think a lot of these same things when I was younger, but I reached a point where they didn’t make sense to me anymore. I don’t see how God could have “created the world” and not the murderers, pedophiles or other chaos that is part of it. If he made everything, then he made everything. ...

I am actually not miserable in my spiritual mind at all. I went through a really rough journey of examining what I believed for myself, which involved having to shed some things that had been crammed down my throat as a child and were no longer true to me. That period of my life was probably the most painful and yet most maturing experience I’ve gone through. On the other side of it, I actually now have much more peace inside than I have had in years…including the time before my “faith crisis” when I considered myself a Christian.

Elsewhere in the blog, he calls himself an agnostic and discusses the conservative Pentecostal background in which he was raised. It sounds like, whatever was the tipping point, Pete had a lot of deep-seated issues from childhood, and it took him until he was in the public eye to deal with them (which is probably the worst place to be when you're questioning your faith).

[brent]

Sep....this is not about God's grace towards me.

Let's walk down that path just for kicks. That guy had a head knowledge of God. He has access to the same bibles we do. He has access to God just as we do. He has the ability to hear the gospel, accept the gospel, live the gospel just like we do.

There seems to be a false teaching and gross assumption that "Be ye holy for I am holy" means that people can continue to do what they want with their bodies post salvation. This is not true. You are saying to me that I must accept someone's ungodly behavior. No, I don't. I am biblically mandated NOT to accept ungodly behavior. I am to identify it, steer clear of it, and try to change it if I can. Too many people say, "Pray for them." Fine. Prayer is good. But prayer without action is a bogus excercise in making yourself feel good without doing anything about it. This is the American church's approach: pray for change without engaging the people. It does not work.

I am completely against legalism. Listen to my lyrics and you will realize how much I hate conforming to man's ways. I am talking about conforming to GOD's ways. God himself sent messengers to warn people to change their ways. He sent plagues. He sent war. He sent silence. He sent captivity. He will be sending bowls of wrath. So is God not showing grace? Sure he is.

[guitardude68]

Thank you for your posts Brent. Please don't EVER get all Joel Olsteen on us!!!!! Or I'll get all John Macarthur on you!!!!!