You can listen to (or download) the full interview here.

You can browse our entire “Talkback with C. E. Moore” library here.

About Zoe Ferraris:

Zoë Ferraris moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. She lived in a conservative Muslim community with her then-husband and his family, a group of Saudi-Palestinians.

In 2006, she completed her MFA in Fiction at Columbia University. Her debut novel,Finding Nouf (published as Night of the Mi’raj in the UK) is now being published in twenty-five countries. A follow-up novel,City of Veils, is coming August, 2010.

She currently lives in San Francisco.

The Culture of “Churchianity”

So the Kingdom of God is within us and we are God’s ambassadors. What does that imply? First, it means that we are called beyond being pew-sitters in church toward being disciples of Christ. In my last article, I began by noting that the church doesn’t always do a good job of training a Christian after he’s been converted – that is, modern evangelicalism focuses too much on the future will-be and never discovers that it already has in part. Because we don’t fully comprehend that we are already in the Kingdom of God, we never reach our potential to be mature in our faith.

In the religion of American Churchianity, conversion happens like this: You respond to an altar call and walk the sawdust trail to make Jesus your personal Savior. You make a confession of faith and are baptized, sign a statement of church membership, then return to your pew. You are now a child of God, have secured eternal life, and have increased your church’s weekly attendance.

I want to stress that this is not always the case, because I do not want to commit the crime of caricature, but all too often it is true – this is where real Christian training stops in most churches. We are not fulfilling the Great Commission. Jesus did not say “Go and make me converts!” He’s really not interested in whether or not you show up at His place for an hour a week; He’s more interested in you living for Him all 144 hours a week. He said, “Go and make disciples.”

Modern American Christianity mistakes Christian sanctification for Church busyness. Want to be a better Christian? We got small groups on Wednesdays, softball on Saturdays, bowling league on Thursdays (Church bowling leagues are always on Thursdays. I have no clue why). You can listen to Christian music, read Christian books, shop in Christian stores, go to Christian schools, the list is endless. And while all these things are not bad in and of themselves, they cannot serve as a substitute for being trained as a disciple of Christ.

Christian discipleship is not just for those going into the ministry; it is something to be undertaken by all Christians. I work as a gymnastics coach. In order to be an effective coach, I have to be able to know the difference between a Tsukahara and a Kasmatsu, which is the better one to teach for that individual gymnast, and then know how to teach it, train it, and spot it. (Have I lost anyone yet?) You probably haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, but that’s ok. It’s my job, not yours. But if we are expected to be proficient with our earthly job, how much more proficient should we be with our heavenly job? And the majority of Christians aren’t proficient in their faith. There are not spiritually mature. They profess Christianity but do not live lives that are Christlike. The list continues on.

The church is planting seeds and growing tiny baby Christians but never providing them a root system to make their foundation sure. Jesus once told a parable about something exactly like this. A farmer sowed some seeds and some seeds landed on shallow soil. They grew quickly – just as new believers are often very enthusiastic – but because they didn’t have enough soil, they couldn’t grow roots and died. That’s exactly what is happening to Western Christianity. We get converts, but when trouble comes or Satan tempts or something shinier passes by, we lose the plant. And those we keep are sickly and small. Their roots are grounded, but in the regulations of religion rather than the freedom of spiritual maturity. Amid their religion, they’ve lost sight of Jesus. And in the process we’ve created a culture of Churchianity rather than Christianity.

It’s a harsh indictment, I know, but through my own observations and experiences, I see it to be true. Gandhi allegedly once said “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” The church needs to set aside its religion and pursue Jesus, and as a result of that begin to gather together in community to build others into spiritual maturity.

As disciples of Christ, we have been given gifts to aid in the advancement of spiritual maturity. Paul wrote that we are to use those gifts to build up our community in mature Christian belief. – “Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching… Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” (Eph. 4:15-16)

This blog entry was written exclusively for TheChristianManifesto.com. Please do not post elsewhere on the internet or quote extensively without prior written consent from TheChristianManifesto.com. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of The Christian Manifesto. All views expressed are solely those of the blogger.

You can listen to (or download) the full interview here.

You can browse our entire “Talkback with C. E. Moore” library here.

About Kerrie Roberts:

Kerrie began writing her first songs in high school, performing one during her own graduation. When the time came for college, Kerrie chose to get her degree in Studio Music and Jazz Vocal Performance at the University of Miami. “Little kids have dreams. For me, it was ‘I’m going to be a singer.’ And I never grew out of it,” she says with smile.

As she finished college, Kerrie began the long, aching pursuit of doing music professionally. Always proactive, she continued writing, performing locally, and even toured for a year as a background singer with legendary icon Engelbert Humperdinck, all the while establishing new relationships in the music community.

While living in Florida, she financially enabled her music pursuits by teaching elementary school and working as an accountant. In 2008, she relocated to New York with two suitcases in hand, moving into a tiny apartment with almost no furniture. Working a desk job by day, she pursued her musical dream at night. But the dream frustratingly did not materialize into reality.

She wasn’t desperate for a record deal… she was desperate for the right situation. She walked away from several offers until she was in the right place to make a commitment. But Kerrie is grateful for the professional journey that led her to the Kerrie Roberts debut release. “The thing I’m so thankful for from all those heartbreaking years is realizing how much those experiences have prepared me for where I am now,” she says.

Given the compassionate family and ministry that molded who Kerrie is, it is no surprise that her debut album displays as much heart and intellect as breathtaking talent.  Or that, thematically, it explores the raw nature of faith, hope and love. These are songs for the broken—and truthfully, that’s each of us.

The album launched with a performance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, a Billboard cover feature and an American Music Award trophy. In addition, the album yielded two GRAMMY nominations in song categories plus the live version of the album, Live Revelations: On Stage, Off Stage, Backstage, also certified Gold, took home a GRAMMY for Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album earlier this year.

The announcement caps a productive summer for the band, as the four-man rock unit finished production, alongside producer Paul Moak, on its upcoming 11th studio release MOVE, set to release on October 19.

“Lift Up Your Face,” the anticipated album’s first radio single, showcases the unmistakable vocals of The Blind Boys of Alabama. The song is not only poignant but is proving its potency as well. Already a multi-format smash, “Lift Up Your Face” is garnering undeniable attention on both the AC and CHR charts with 91 stations spinning by its Aug. 13 add date and touting the most increased spins the weeks of Aug. 9th and Aug. 16th.

Already No. 12 at CHR and No. 15 at AC Monitored, the song is seeing more than 3.5 million weekly impressions and is well on its way to reaching the benchmark set by the band’s previous 27 No. 1 singles. “Lift Up Your Face” is a song of encouragement, and beyond the early radio success, it is a small taste of an album that was written to provide hope for those in the midst of desperate times such as these.

Third Day will finish the summer and enter fall performing at select major festivals throughout the country, leading to the start of the World Vision/AEG Live-sponsored “Make A Difference Tour 2010.” The tour, which also features Michael W. Smith, tobyMac and New York Times best-selling author Max Lucado, launches September 30, and will hit arenas in 20 cities through the end of October. (For updated tour dates please visit www.ThirdDay.com.)

The dynamic pairing of writer Ron Marz (Witchblade) with the art team of Michael Broussard (The Darkness), Rick Basaldua (The Darkness), Sal Regla (Magdalena) and Sunny Gho of IFS (Velocity) delivers one of the most accessible and engaging event series to date.

”The rapid sales velocity on Artifacts #1 has been incredibly gratifying and a testament to the fantastic work that the entire creative team of Ron Marz, Michael Broussard, Rick Basaldua, Sal Regla, and Sunny Gho have been doing,” commented Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik, “We’ve never gone to a third printing, but this is our biggest event to date and we want our retail partners to know that we are fully behind it.”

“Obviously I’m thrilled we’re going go to a third printing of Artifacts #1,” said Marz. “Huge thanks to the readers and retailers for supporting the book. The most gratifying aspect to the whole thing is that a lot of new readers are trying out Artifacts, finding it absolutely accessible, and using it as their gateway into the Top Cow Universe.”

Bringing together a number of plot threads from all over the Top Cow Universe the past few years, Top Cow’s first foray into a universe-tying event has been well-received across comic book and pop culture communities, including Comic Book Resources, Newsarama, Comic Vine, iFanboy, Techland, USA Today and many, many more taking notice.

Artifacts #1 3rd Printing, a 32-page full color comic book for $3.99, will be in stores September 22, 2010. The saga continues with Artifacts #2 arriving in stores the same day.

Listen to (or download) Episode #6 of “On The iPod” here.

Browse the full TCM Audio Archives here.

About On The iPod:

On The iPod is the brainchild of TCM Contributing Editors Charles Peters and Brian Hall. The short program is dedicated to giving audio thoughts on new albums and music, as well as snippets from albums being reviewed. On The IPod is a weekly program that will alternate between the two editors and, from time to time, may feature guest spots. Episodes range from 7 to 15 minutes in length.

All music used by permission.

From marching in drumline and being in awe of Led Zeppelin IV, drums have always been a huge part of the life Mark Nicks from Nashville-based band, Cool Hand Luke.

“When I heard Sunny Day Real Estate that really changed the game for me,” he told me as we discussed the many bands that graced his record player in his formative college years. From Pearl Jam to the wasted indie talent of Sub Pop Records to Guns N’ Roses, Nicks was well versed in heavy sounding and heavyhearted rock music when he left high school.  At this juncture of Nicks’s life he joined with some friends Brandon Morgan and Jason Hammil, whom together (with their backs to the crowd) started pounding out hard, fast punk rock.

After three full length albums the band went on hiatus but Nicks breathed new life into the project with new members and new approaches. “As time went on, I started messing around with piano, so when I had a melodic idea I could share it.”
In 2007, Floodgate Records went under leaving Nicks with a finished record that had been recorded in Glow In the Dark Studios, Atlanta, GA.

What was the process of recording The Sleeping House like for you ?

“It seemed like a really long process,” Nicks told me. “We recorded for about a month with Matt Goldman in Atlanta and that was a great experience. I love Matt. He’s a really great producer and a really great guy. And I’m not from Atlanta so I spend the nights in the studio, so for a month that was my life. After we did the main tracking we shopped the record around and no one was interested in it. From there it took about a year and a half to put the record out. I went into the studio about a year after we recorded it to just tie up some loose ends and a few parts in here and there.

“I don’t know I’m proud of the record but it was such a headache getting it out that sometimes when I think about it doesn’t seem like a positive thing. It was very taxing actually.”

When did you decide there would be an end to Cool Hand Luke?

“I don’t know; I still don’t know when the end of Cool Hand Luke is [laughs]. At the end of 2004, when we were touring together, we weren’t getting along all that well. It was clear that none of us were really enjoying it, it had just become like a job for us. So we decided to just take a break. In that interim is when I played drums with the Chariot.

“Then we came back together [after six months] and I wasn’t satisfied thinking that Cool Hand Luke had just fizzled out because it was so important to me and I think to a lot other people. Also I had our manager calling me constantly with tour offers and the label wanted to know what I was doing. I wanted to keep doing music. But I wasn’t sure whether to call it Cool Hand Luke or not and I felt almost pressured into doing that. For the past year I haven’t had a band it’s just been me playing solo and it makes sense now to call it Cool Hand Luke because I’m playing mostly CHL songs. When I put my next studio record out it mostly likely won’t be called ‘Cool Hand Luke’. I’m actually working on ‘Of Man’ and there another record that’s just kind of, you know whatever songs. But ‘Of Man’ is what I’m trying to focus on, so I can hopefully get that out this year.”

“Of Man” has been poised to be the last Cool Hand Luke record. From what he told me the amount of music he’s taking ranging from classical, to gospel and older music. “[laughs] I still listen to Mastodon.” Thematically are very distinct from one to the next. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersections of theology, faith and art. I feel kind of let down that there’s nothing more engaging out there in Christian rock or pop.” There’s a lot of hope in what he’s saying, from the way he said it, it seemed like a catalyst in him to make a better record than what is on his horizon.

As for what’s next for Cool Hand Luke, it’s all up in there for Mark Nicks. He is filled with a burden to attend seminary and finish Cool Hand Luke with excellence and poetic justice.

With the start of school happening, many children in an area known as “Hard Bargain” would have been wearing slippers to school, possibly until winter; however, thanks to Katinas Missions Ministry and Outreach, 200 children will have new sneakers on their feet.

Partnering with 10 Day Franklin, a division of Bethel Church Franklin, the two adopted the area providing sport camps, field day, creative arts and dinner nightly for 10 days.

“Our prayer is that the church of America will begin to have the same compassion for areas like Hard Bargain as easily as we would have for third world countries,” said John Katina. “You don’t have to look far to realize that there is need everywhere!”

The boys and girls who attend the Kids Kamps also received a Bible, Biblical Foundations book and at the end of the evangelistic outreach, a carnival was brought in to wrap up the week.

The Katinas consist of five brothers, James, Jesse, Joe, John, and Sam who are from the Samoan Islands and have been touring and recording for the past 20 years. To find out more about the Katinas or their Katinas & Friends Cruise, visit their website at http://www.thekatinas.com.

In support of Superchick’s latest release, Reinvention (April 20, 2010), the tour will feature reinventions of popular songs from the band’s more than 10-year career. Opening with a concert in Hobbs, N.M., the tour will visit mainly West Coast and Midwest cities, supported by Superchick’s latest radio single, “Still Here,” currently impacting both Christian AC and CHR.

“‘Reinvention’ is a word that means change, and that is what we expect on this tour: GOD to show up like never before and change our lives forever,” says Superchick bassist Matt Dally. “We want your life to be different when you walk out of the show; I want my life to be different as well. Come and see God transform us all to be closer to Him. Oh and it’s going to rock your face off too!”

A complete tour itinerary follows this release. For tour updates, visit www.superchickonline.com

Inpop Records’ sister-fronted band Superchick comprises Tricia Brock (vocals) and Melissa Brock (vocals, guitar), Matt Dally (bass, vocals), Dave Ghazarian (lead guitar, vocals), Max Hsu (keyboards/DJ), and Chase Lovelace (drums). With six albums to date, Superchick has sold upwards of 750,000 albums and celebrated multiple record-breaking No.1 singles at radio, including the standout tracks “We Live” and “Stand In The Rain.” Superchick’s songs have been heard in more than 100 films, television shows and video games, making Superchick one of the most licensed bands in the Christian music industry. Superchick’s 2008 release, Rock What You Got, turned out the group’s highest ever first week sales numbers and has received significant licensing placements on MTV’s “The Hills,” ABC television spots for “True Beauty,” and the Style Network’s reality series “Running In Heels,” to name a few. The album additionally received a 2009 GRAMMY nomination for Best Rock Or Rap Gospel Album and produced the Top 5 radio hit, “Hold.” Its latest project, Reinvention, released April 20, 2010, touches on significant lyrical themes that have resonated with Superchick’s fans over the last decade. Heavily influenced by the band’s television and film exposure, it is a soundtrack album for a world filled with fast car chases, giant fighting robots, teen romance and bad guys walking in slow motion. Three new songs accompany nine reinventions pulled from every album in the band’s discography. For more information, visit www.superchickonline.com.

Over the past seven years, Chris Greenwood has used the moniker Manafest to organically build his fan base playing hundreds of shows on three continents. Manafest dropped his fourth studio project, “The Chase,” in 2010 to much acclaim including the hit song “Avalanche,” currently Top 5 at CHR. After his other three records that received international acclaim including huge success in Japan, Juno nominee Manafest released “The Chase” as his most aggressive and sonically evolved record to date. In 2006, Manafest released “Glory” from which the rock anthem “Impossible,” featuring Thousand Foot Krutch’s Trevor McNevan, became a global hit. This release dramatically increased his record sales 5x over. In 2008, Manafest followed up with “Citizens Activ,” which catapulted success garnering multiple TV placements and his overall presences in the US and internationally.

Me In Motion broke out on the national Christian music scene the beginning of this year with the release of their single, “Losers,” from their debut self-titled album on Centricity Music. The song peaked in the Top Twenty on the CHR Christian chart and the accompanying video world premiered on the Air 1 website, besides garnering airplay from several video outlets that included the Gospel Music Channel and Godbeat TV. Their second single, “The God I Know,” is currently at #18 on the Christian CHR chart and still climbing. Me In Motion, which is comprised of Seth Mosley, Brian Dexter and Tim Wilson, is becoming a favorite on the touring circuit with their high energy performances and song lyrics that are connecting with fans across the country. Due to the early success and incredible talent of Me In Motion, the group was asked to appear on three high-profile tours earlier this year with newsboys, RED/Pillar and Sanctus Real.

With a new range of vocals, talent and tour experience, Bread of Stone hits the mark with their highly anticipated, long awaited third album, “Saturate.” The bands goal is to share what God has been doing in their lives personally and as a group. The pop/rock 5 song EP features “Beautiful,” which was inspired after a recent trip to Indonesia. Lead singer, Ben Kristijanto said “we spoke with a recent convert named Abraham and he told us that when we heard about the Gospel of Christ, he was in awe of how Someone so great would come down for someone like him and turn it in to something beautiful. Bread of Stone has toured with some of the top names in Christian music including the newsboys, Stellar Kart, Decemberadio, Petra, Building 429 and many others. For more information, visit http://www.breadofstone.com

Pianist/vocalist/songwriter Fitzgerald began leading worship at age 16.  The Pennsylvania native and current Tampa Bay, FL resident says, “It is my heart’s desire and calling to expose God’s presence through my music, whether writing with friends, leading corporate worship or just singing around the piano in our home. The foundational purpose is to let our sprit, soul and body give Him our praise.”

That vision and the resulting music has resonated with worship music fans:

“This album is absolutely amazing! All the songs are fresh and flow nicely… Great for leading in a church or just for listening too! This album is a true offering of worship, and one that will become a hallmark in the generations of worship music!” saysiTunes customer, Zeager.

“Amazing is an understatement. Probably the best worship album you will ever purchase. Buy it NOW & go soak in the presence of God!” says iTunes customer, CDeHart.

“Dave truly carries a heart of worship and highest praise for the Lord. This album is full of fresh sounds that release the atmosphere of Heaven on earth and encourage worshiping in spirit and in truth. I highly recommend this entire album and would encourage anyone to purchase who wants to worship and encounter God in a new way!” says iTunes customer, beardyy.

“I hear a lot of praise and worship artists, but this artist is filled with God presence in every word…This album is a MUST TO HAVE,” says NewReleaseTuesday’s edwerd.

“I love this worship leader!…there is just so many great songs: Highlight: ‘Burn’ and ‘Sweeter’!” says NewReleaseTuesday’s justink.

To hear the opening track on Hope of Heaven: Live at Bethel Church, “Burn,” as well as see images from the live recording, go tohttp://www.youtube.com/davefitzgeraldmusic.

The full Hope of Heaven: Live at Bethel Church track listing follows:

01.   Burn

02.   Hope

03.   My Praise Goes On

04.   Good

05.   We Are An Ark

06.   Still Saving Me

07.   Heaven

08.   Fall On Me

09.   Shine/ We Wait

10.  Sweeter

Having served on staff as a worship leader in various churches, Fitzgerald now travels the world leading worship at revivals, special events and conferences.  He and his wife Christy currently reside in Tampa Bay, FL.  More information on Fitzgerald and Hope of Heaven: Live at Bethel Church can be found at http://davefitzgerald.com/.