Churchianity

Thursday Watchdog: Seeking God, Not Religion

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An Estimated 80,000 Christians Gather in Texas Stadium for Prayer

While much of America’s attention is focused on politics, wars and cultural controversies, here’s what happened Saturday night in Arlington:

An estimated 80,000 Christians gathered at AT&T Stadium for an evening devoted primarily to prayer.

The event, called ACCESS — That Powerful Hour of Prayer, was organized by 2819 Church and Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell.

According to organizers and participants, free tickets were reserved within eight hours. Unlike many large Christian gatherings, the event wasn’t built around celebrity speakers or a traditional concert.

Istead it emphasized collective prayer, worship and spiritual renewal.

The reported attendance is an estimate rather than an independently verified count. Nevertheless, the event’s scale is notable. Last year’s ACCESS gathering reportedly attracted more than 30,000 participants in Atlanta. Christian Post

Wait. Aren’t we constantly hearing that Christianity is dying in America?

Church attendance has declined in many denominations and religious affiliation has weakened, while millions of Americans identify as having no religion.

Yet tens of thousands of people gathered in a football stadium specifically to pray.

So What’s Going On?

Maybe Americans aren’t necessarily losing interest in God, but rather some are losing interest in traditional religious institutions.

While that’s not a conclusion we can draw from one stadium gathering it is a question worth investigating.

Jesus said:

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” — Matthew 18:20 (KJV)

Notice our Lord didn’t say two or three thousand, and He didn’t require a stadium.

Large gatherings like this suggest that substantial enthusiasm for collective Christian worship remains, even as traditional measures of religious participation show long-term weakness.

Saturday Watchdog: Baptist Reversal

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Southern Baptist president reverses course on denomination’s abuse crisis

Southern Baptist Convention President Willy Rice, who previously described the SBC sexual-abuse crisis as more “hoax than reality,” is now calling abuse a serious threat requiring “constant vigilance.”

In his first address to the SBC Executive Committee, Rice told churches to establish safeguards, take every allegation seriously, report accusations immediately to law enforcement and cooperate fully with investigations. He also announced a commission on women in pastoral ministry and proposed adding explicit language about gender, sexuality and marriage to the Baptist Faith and Message. The Roys Report

Give Rice credit for changing direction, but Christians shouldn’t miss the larger lesson. When accusations threaten a church’s reputation, the temptation is:

Protect the church.

Protect the pastor.

Protect the ministry.

Protect the denomination.

That is definitely the wrong order.

So What?

Protect the victim FIRST. A church shouldn’t need lawyers, reporters and survivors dragging it toward transparency.

“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light… But he that doeth truth cometh to the light.” — John 3:20–21 (KJV)

Churches ought to be the first institutions running toward the light, not dragging their feet and covering their eyes from the light.

Thursday Watchdog: North Carolina Church Baptizes 458 People In One Day

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Here’s a story that deserves considerably more attention than another poll showing Christianity declining. Christian Post

Biltmore Church baptized 458 people at an outdoor baptism gathering in Fletcher, North Carolina, setting a record in the congregation’s 137-year history.

The September 13 gathering included families being baptized together and people traveling from outside North Carolina. Church leaders say participants were individually contacted beforehand to confirm that baptism represented a personal decision to follow Christ, and follow-up discipleship is underway.

We’ve spent years hearing that faith is waning and young folks are more and more disillusioned with churchianity. Partly true, church attendance has been declining, and nihilism/atheism is unfortunately still a popular worldview for a lot of people.

But then one day 458 people walk into a lake to be baptized.

So What?

And while that doesn’t prove a national revival is underway it does remind us that Christianity isn’t fundamentally measured by denominations, polling percentages or political influence.

It starts the same way it did 2,000 years ago: with God’s spirit moving and individual people turning away from emptiness and seeking real meaning and light.

That’s worth watching.

Tuesday Watchdog: How Far Does Church Autonomy Go?

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Abuse Survivor Petitions Texas Supreme Court

Cindy Clemishire has asked the Supreme Court of Texas to revive most of her defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church, disgraced founder Robert Morris and former church elders.

An appeals court dismissed most of her claims under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which limits civil courts from interfering with church doctrine, governance and internal affairs. Clemishire’s lawyers argue the court stretched that protection too far because the dispute concerns public statements about abuse—not theology. Morris pleaded guilty in 2025 to five counts involving sexual abuse of Clemishire when she was a child.

Religious liberty is essential, but religious immunity isn’t.

Government shouldn’t decide whether your church believes in predestination, speaking in tongues, the Trinity or Saturday worship.

However, allegations involving sexual abuse, concealment or publicly defaming a victim aren’t theological doctrines.

So What?

Jesus didn’t tell churches to protect institutions, and He had some extraordinarily severe words about harming “little ones.”

Matthew 18:6
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

The Texas Supreme Court now has a chance to clarify where the line between church doctrine and criminal behaviour belongs, and it should be a no-brainer.

Read the latest report on Clemishire’s appeal

Thursday Watchdog: Nightclub Church?

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An American bishop says churches shouldn’t become nightclubs to attract young people

American Catholic Bishop Robert Barron has publicly criticized London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for entering a multiyear partnership with nightclub company Fabric to stage musical events inside the cathedral. New York Post

Barron argues the attempt to attract younger people by making sacred spaces more like secular entertainment venues misunderstands what spiritually curious young people actually want. The controversy follows similar debates over silent discos and other events staged inside historic churches.

Churches have spent decades adding coffee bars, concert lighting, giant screens, skinny jeans and worship music that sounds like Coldplay circa 2008. All of those ‘features’ are part of the reason I personally have no interest in modern churchianity.

So What?

I think young people who are seeking spiritual meaning want something other than the cultural experiences they can find for a dime a dozen anywhere and everywhere. They want something deeper and they’re looking in other places for it, like in ancient liturgy, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Bible study and traditional Christian practices.

The answer isn’t found in making Christianity look more like the culture.

Real Answers To Real Questions: Creed Of The Nons

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There are serious questions that should be asked over and over again until the Poohbahs of Churchianity can answer them with something other than “It’s a mystery we can’t comprehend, brothers and sisters…” nonsense.

The Bible Rebel blog is a free resource for those seeking original and curated content, including news and commentary, on faith, biblical studies and interpretation, and the intersection of politics, culture, and the Bible.

Our Mission

  1. To monitor current news and events related to faith and culture.
  2. To provide an alternative viewpoint to the world’s pervasive climate of darkness, nihilism, and hopelessness for those seeking truth, light, and purpose.
  3. To examine and question the assumptions of religious tradition and provide a resource for information and inspiration for people of faith who have become dissatisfied with an increasingly lifeless and empty ‘churchianity’.
  4. To present the Biblical truths which reveal God’s nature and purposes and proclaim the lifechanging, world-altering, radical message of Yeshua the Messiah – Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior, and to help regular, everyday folks understand the Bible and apply it in their lives.

I do not subscribe to a modern denominational creed or set of doctrines. I don’t think that modern-day Evangelicals, Baptists, Lutherans, or Catholics are going to burn anyone in the town square—it’s just that I don’t trust organized religion.

I’m non-denominational. I’m a “Non.” And there are a lot of others just like me. In fact, more and more folks are fleeing traditional “churchianity” every day. Why? More on that in future posts.

Here’s my one and only creed, which I’m happy to share with my brothers and sisters in the Fellowship of the Nons:

Creed of the Fellowship of the Nons

Our living God is a loving God, and the Bible is His revealed word and will.

Our hope and eternal salvation rely entirely on the work of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Rick Tryon, Bible Rebel

Demand Some Answers From Your Pastor/Preacher/Priest

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How comfortable is your brand of Christianity?

Do you just sit in a pew on Sunday, or do you stand on the Truth every day?

Do you ask hard questions of the pooh-bahs of Churchianity, or do you just accept the doctrinal traditions they are spoon-feeding their congregations?

Questions like these:

  • Does God send kids who don’t “accept Jesus” to eternal torture in a flaming hell?
  • If Grandma is alive and strumming a harp in heaven right now, why should we mourn her death?
  • Why does God allow so much pain, death, and suffering in the world?
  • If God has already decided everything that’s going to happen, why should I pray for my friend to recover from a disease?
  • Where does the Bible clearly and explicitly teach that God is three-in-one and one-in-three?
  • Why did Jesus have to die in order for me to be saved, and what am I being “saved” from?

Those questions, and many others, should be asked over and over again until the pooh-bahs of Churchianity can answer them with something other than “It’s a mystery we can’t comprehend, brothers and sisters…”

Remember, Jesus reserved some of His strongest words not for pagans or politicians, but for religious leaders.

What is Bible Rebel? Fresh content posted daily (except Sundays) for seekers hungry for truth and relevance outside the stodgy, lifeless confines of Churchianity and the dark, empty hopelessness of atheism and nihilism.

Tuesday Watchdog: Vatican Creates Schism

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Photo via Julius Silvers, pexels.com

Vatican Declares SSPX in Schism, Excommunicates Bishops and Priests

The Vatican formally declared the Society of Saint Pius X to be in schism after it consecrated four bishops without papal approval. The Vatican excommunicated the bishops and hundreds of priests involved, making it one of the most significant internal Catholic ruptures in decades. AP

Jesus prayed that His followers would be one (John 17), but unity without truth isn’t biblical—and neither is churchianity dressed up as truth. When religious institutions fracture over authority, every Christian should ask: Is my ultimate loyalty to Christ and Scripture, or to a denomination or tradition?

Traditionalist Priests Say a Future Pope Will Reverse the Decision

Following the excommunications, leaders within the SSPX publicly expressed confidence that a future pope would welcome them back into full communion, signaling that they view the dispute as temporary rather than settled. Reuters

The hope of Christianity isn’t found in the next pope, pastor, or church council—it’s found in our Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. If our confidence depends on the next religious leader fixing everything, we’re royally screwed.

Should we always put Scripture and the Lordship of Jesus over religious tradition and authority? Is the Pope Catholic?

Tuesday Watchdog Alert: The Weak Glow Of Religion

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The World Hates The Light, Burn Brighter

While American Christians argue online about worship styles and coffee flavors, believers in places like Nigeria, North Korea, and Syria are risking prison, kidnapping, and death just for owning a Bible. Recent reports estimate more than 388 million Christians worldwide face persecution or discrimination for their faith — the highest number ever recorded. – Vatican News

Should we assume we’re not persecuted like that for our Christian faith here in America because we’re such great believers? Not on your life!

In fact, we should be asking some serious questions about why our brand of Western churchianity is many times so milquetoast and inconsequential that the Adversary doesn’t waste his time trying to destroy us or even silence our too often watered down message.

Tradition and the doctrines of men disguised as God’s truth are not a threat to darkness. As the world gets darker, people start looking for actual light, not the synthetic, weak glow of religion.

Remember, Jesus never promised that following him would make us popular. He promised truth.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” — John 15:18

Here’s the Bible Rebel reality check:
The modern world offers endless distraction but very little hope. Christians in persecuted nations know following Christ costs something. Many American Christians barely let it inconvenience their Sunday schedule. Ouch.

So What?

Today, pray for persecuted Christians by name if you can. Check your own faith – is it salty and full of light, or bland and ho-hum? Ruffle some feathers, speak the truth, and be a force for God as He moves through this time and place bringing His grand and awesome plan to it’s conclusion.

Tuesday Watchdog Alert: Empty Religion

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Gallup’s latest numbers show what you already feel in your bones: fewer people are showing up, tuning in, or identifying with any religious tradition. Engagement is drifting and labels are fading. The old structures don’t hold like they used to.

But here’s the twist: the hunger hasn’t gone anywhere. People aren’t rejecting God — they’re rejecting churchianity: the noise, the politics, the performance, the plastic spirituality that never delivered.

Because the doctrines of men and religious traditions are empty cisterns that hold no water. So the thirsty start going elsewhere.

If that’s you, welcome. You’re in good company. Jesus built His movement with people who didn’t fit the religious mold. Outsiders. Questioners. The spiritually allergic. The ones who said, “There has to be more than this.”

Scripture puts it simply: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” — James 4:8

Not “draw near to a denomination.” Not “draw near to a system.” Just God. That’s our mission at Bible Rebel.

Maybe the decline in religious engagement isn’t a crisis — maybe it’s a clearing. A chance to rebuild faith from the ground up, without the baggage.