John Shrader 17: Boring Poems and I know it was you, Fredo

[formergothardite]

Things with Brother Theo must have gone spectacularly bad. John mentioned he was coming, didn't mention when he came and the only way we knew he was there was because he showed up in a video. 

[EyesOpen]

6 hours ago, picklepizzas said:

Oh hmm you’re definitely right, I had assumed Daniel was the guy at the pulpit but I clicked on the name and Daniel is definitely Beardy. Hopefully theophil ran on home. 

I mean, never another word after praise G*d he’s coming here right?? Where is the poor boy and why do his ‘followers’ never ask these questions?

[Howl]

Quote

We are going to the prison today, please pray that God continues to open that door for us

The thought of prisoners trapped and listening to John drone on hour after hour...it's painful. 

[gustava]

13 hours ago, Howl said:

The thought of prisoners trapped and listening to John drone on hour after hour...it's painful. 

Especially when he doesn't speak the language.

[Georgiana]

This ministry doesn't even have fake fruit anymore.  How the heck are John-boy and his dear old dad persuading people to keep supporting him? 

[lilith]

19 hours ago, gustava said:

Especially when he doesn't speak the language.

The narcissism that could make him think that it’s useful to go all the way to a Zambian prison to drone on about his own special interpretation of Jesus, in a language his audience can’t understand, is mind boggling. Forget supporting the local Christian communities in their prison outreach, only white American John, his magic accordion and his very particular biblical revelations will do! 

[Rik_Bik]

17 minutes ago, lilith said:

The narcissism that could make him think that it’s useful to go all the way to a Zambian prison to drone on about his own special interpretation of Jesus, in a language his audience can’t understand, is mind boggling. Forget supporting the local Christian communities in their prison outreach, only white American John, his magic accordion and his very particular biblical revelations will do! 

This is what I don’t understand about missionaries in general! I run into missionaries in the capital city here all the time. Do they ever speak Russian or Romanian? Nope!! Romanian is very simple to learn for native English speakers, especially if you know another Romance language (and a lot of these guys have their M.Div’s so presumably studied Latin like my cousins with theirs did). Nobody understands them!! You’re not doing any good! Your cheap toys and English Bibles just end up in the trash or burned in the soba during winter. 

Edited April 13, 2019 by Rik_Bik

[Ozlsn]

14 hours ago, Georgiana said:

This ministry doesn't even have fake fruit anymore.  How the heck are John-boy and his dear old dad persuading people to keep supporting him? 

According to his prayer letter he has 6 converts, or near converts! He's cooking with gas here!

Basically he bluffs them by always talking about opportunities, glossing over results and studiously avoiding mentioning failure in non-positive terms 

[thoughtful]

I just found out that a beverage was banned in Zambia because it contained viagra. I wonder if John has any in his snack stash.

More here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47654020

 

[Ozlsn]

So john's last four posts are a youtube link to a song, a post comparing Hillsong variety churches to brothels, a shared post claiming the Notre Dame cathedral was built by the heretical Catholic church on the blood of murdered Baptists (John knows they weren't KJV only, right?) and a description of his sharing the Lord's Table with his very small church. Apparently it went for over two hours and all of them including John confessed to things and asked others to pray for them. I am.. kind of curious as to how long it will take for any confessed irritation with John's leadership to rankle enough that he throws them back at the confessor and splits his already quite small church... again.

Edited April 18, 2019 by Ozlsn

[FloraKitty35]

On 4/12/2019 at 2:50 PM, Georgiana said:

This ministry doesn't even have fake fruit anymore.  How the heck are John-boy and his dear old dad persuading people to keep supporting him? 

With the threat of his return if they don't. 

[lilith]

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

So john's last four posts are a youtube link to a song, a post comparing Hillsong variety churches to brothels, a shared post claiming the Notre Dame cathedral was built by the heretical Catholic church on the blood of murdered Baptists (John knows they weren't KJV only, right?) and a description of his sharing the Lord's Table with his very small church. Apparently it went for over two hours and all of them including John confessed to things and asked others to pray for them. I am.. kind of curious as to how long it will take for any confessed irritation with John's leadership to rankle enough that he throws them back at the confessor and splits his already quite small church... again.

I wonder what John confessed? It all sounds very Catholic to me.....

[subsaharanafrica]

22 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

a shared post claiming the Notre Dame cathedral was built by the heretical Catholic church on the blood of murdered Baptists (John knows they weren't KJV only, right?) 

Not only that but the specific group he’s talking about believed in reincarnation and that there were two gods (specifically that the god of the Old Testament and the god of the New Testament were separate and distinct beings in combat with one another). 

Gotta love the IFB need to claim any group since Christ that has used a baptism ritual outside of the church as their own to try and get around their problem of no one going to heaven for (arguably nearly 2000) years since theirs is the only correct theology whereby you may be saved. In reality, if these people were living today with their same belief set John would be trying to convert them. 

Edited April 19, 2019 by subsaharanafrica

[nastyhobbitses]

On 4/13/2019 at 9:55 AM, Rik_Bik said:

This is what I don’t understand about missionaries in general! I run into missionaries in the capital city here all the time. Do they ever speak Russian or Romanian? Nope!! Romanian is very simple to learn for native English speakers, especially if you know another Romance language (and a lot of these guys have their M.Div’s so presumably studied Latin like my cousins with theirs did). Nobody understands them!! You’re not doing any good! Your cheap toys and English Bibles just end up in the trash or burned in the soba during winter. 

Even in English-speaking countries, I don't really see how missionaries accosting people on the street are converting anyone. Yes, I totally want to change my worldview to be like yours after you annoyed me on my way home from work. 

[PopRox]

On 4/11/2019 at 6:46 PM, Howl said:

The thought of prisoners trapped and listening to John drone on hour after hour...it's painful. 

Guess you could call that CRAPital punishment!

I dunno, if I was one of those prisoners I'd be begging for solitary confinement.

(I'm kidding, but only a little).

(Yes, I'm watching a L&O marathon right now; how did you guess?)

[Aine]

On 4/19/2019 at 1:45 AM, nastyhobbitses said:

Even in English-speaking countries, I don't really see how missionaries accosting people on the street are converting anyone. Yes, I totally want to change my worldview to be like yours after you annoyed me on my way home from work. 

My best friend lives across the street from a Mormon family (in the Deep South) and that family have young Mormon men and women on their missions here over for dinner 1-2 nights per week and through that, she and her husband have struck up friendships with many of them over the past year. Consequently, so have I. My friend comes from a fundie-lite Baptist background and her husband comes from a wealthy and over-controlling family who claim to be super Christian and are politically conservative but in no way live their life like that. As a couple, they have gone through 6 years of reconciling what they have grown up with and the Scripture and what they now know to be true as they have friends that are LGBTIA+ and from many different lifestyles. Both of them and myself like to learn about other worldviews and they generally have some Mormon missionaries to their house every 1-2 weeks for dinner and then they sit and ask questions and we all have long philosophical conversations without the aim of convincing.

And honestly? THAT is the way to convert people. If it wasn't for the fact that I just don't believe in a higher power at the core of it all and that I know how corrupt organized religion is- some of those young people and their views on the future of the LDS church and inclusivity and things make joining sound pretty good and the future there hopeful. I've never met such truly kind and loving people who have never forced a view onto me and they have actually had me explain my views with curiosity and when they didn't have an answer to one of my questions or something they have always said so and then said they would do some reading- and then they come back the next week with what they found and whether they personally agreed with that view.

I don't see how pushy missionaries convert anyone at all now except when they provide services to people in need.

[squiddysquid]

Found the perfect song for Johnny boy - Preachin' Blues;

'I'm gonna' get me some religion, I'm gonna' join the Baptist Church
Going to be a preacher, so I don't have to work.'

Larkin Poe | Preachin' Blues (Official music video)

(My new favourite band - best live show I have seen in years - the recorded version doesn't do them justice - as it should be.)

[Ozlsn]

John's running a conference! And has the worst photoshopped ad ever! (It took me three reads to realise where the date was).

Spoiler

Seriously here 30 men RSVPed? I don't know whether to bet high or low on how many are actually going to show up. On balance I'll guess half, but mostly for the food - listening to John rant on about (probably inaccurate) Baptist history doesn't sound that appealing. 

[Granwych]

26 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

John's running a conference! And has the worst photoshopped ad ever! (It took me three reads to realise where the date was).

  Reveal hidden contents

Seriously here 30 men RSVPed? I don't know whether to bet high or low on how many are actually going to show up. On balance I'll guess half, but mostly for the food - listening to John rant on about (probably inaccurate) Baptist history doesn't sound that appealing. 

Maybe they'll just use his rambling to put them into a comfortable naptime.

[Granwych]

I noticed that John is referring to himself as "interim pastor.". Has this been noticed before?  Maybe he's " auditioning"  a replacement?

[Georgiana]

1 hour ago, Granwych said:

I noticed that John is referring to himself as "interim pastor.". Has this been noticed before?  Maybe he's " auditioning"  a replacement?

We can only hope that John was finally cut off, that he is aware he'll need to move on soon, and that he's trying to play this off like it was all part of the plan rather than him being a spectacular failure.  

[Gobsmacked]

He says that 30 men have indicated that they may attend. I'm bring picky here but I reckon they haven't actually RSVP'd - just muttered that they are thinking about it when questioned by John. That would keep him off their backs and allow them to make escape plans for the conference dates. I'm guessing lots of men are going to suddenly have unexpected work commitments/ sick relatives to visit/ school sport events.......etc.

[Ozlsn]

47 minutes ago, Gobsmacked said:

He says that 30 men have indicated that they may attend. I'm bring picky here but I reckon they haven't actually RSVP'd - just muttered that they are thinking about it when questioned by John. That would keep him off their backs and allow them to make escape plans for the conference dates. I'm guessing lots of men are going to suddenly have unexpected work commitments/ sick relatives to visit/ school sport events.......etc.

I think we should start a sweep. I'm going with 15, not including Shraders.

[gustava]

11 hours ago, Georgiana said:

We can only hope that John was finally cut off, that he is aware he'll need to move on soon, and that he's trying to play this off like it was all part of the plan rather than him being a spectacular failure.  

Could it have anything to do with his visa status?

[Lillymuffin]

12 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

I think we should start a sweep. I'm going with 15, not including Shraders.

I’ll bite. I think ~8, not including family.