Todd Wilhelm’s Captivating Twitter Videos

Tod is also an accomplished underwater photographer, and this is my way of trying to convince him to share his talents in this realm. pexels.com

A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life. William Arthur Ward


Dee thought that TWW readers might like to see some of the work that Todd is doing on Twitter. He is adept at finding videos and editing them to make a point. I hope to make a blog section into a permanent record of his projects.

The theodudes dislike the bloggers.

Matt Chandler’s 7 years of hell on earth: his marriage!

The church discipline of Matt Chandler.

Please note the timeline in Todd’s tweet. Ryan Kwon: Acts 29 Board Member speaks on church discipline in July. Chandler steps down from both TVC and Acts 29 in August. Coincidence?

Center Church, former of Sovereign Grace, appears to have an attendance problem.

The next has no sound. It shows how many people are in attendance on Sunday at Center Church.

Pastor Richard Jolly seems to have a memory problem.

Todd plans to write about this at some point. He often looks at “what pastors say” or, rather, pastors who “forget what they said.

An internet prophet and a toilet. (Funny)

He also goes after internet “prophets.” This is where I start giggling.

A pastor is calling for the execution of gays n America. ( Dead serious.)

I became deeply concerned when I saw this and am thankful to Todd for keeping track of these people.

Rick Warren’s humblebrag

The following is Todd’s commentary on Rick Warren’s “humblebrag” speech at the SBC convention. If you wish to hear that, here is a link. I prefer Todd’s version.

— Todd Wilhelm (@ThouArtTheMan) June 19, 2022

Happy Labor Day to all. Thank you for the work that you do.

Comments

Todd Wilhelm’s Captivating Twitter Videos — 29 Comments

  1. Richard Jolly doesn’t have a memory problem. He has a perspective problem. In order to speak of one’s “entire adult life “, one has to have an entire adult life to talk about. Jolly doesn’t look old enough to have one of those yet.

    To be fair, I don’t think this is a particular characteristic of bragging evangelical pastors. I’ve noticed people currently in their 20s speaking about “their career” after only 1-2 years of doing something. I think it’s silly but as a linguist I also know this can signal a change in language happening in front of our eyes. Similar to the use of “they “for someone who does not wish to identify as male or female, or the use of the present tense when talking about historical events in order to make the narrative feel more immediate and dramatic.

  2. I think it’s telling in the Stetzer/Darling interview the only thing they think worth calling out is bad theology. Theology my foot. The devil has great theology. Even the demons know the truth… and they shudder. Knowing truth and preaching it is not the same as walking in it.

  3. Todd’s video compilation can be summarized: Stay away from watchblogs or you might experience sweet discipline, see your church membership drop drastically, forget what you said, end up in the toilet, encounter hate speech, or humbly puff yourself up.

    🙂

  4. I’m putting together Chandler’s 7 years of hell with this years timeline, so
    Feb- Chandler confronted…
    End of Feb -/ uses 7 awful years of bad marriage as sermon illustration-/ marriage is now splunderously wonderful. Uses “stupidity” “foolishness” while avoiding any biblical terms like “sins” “transgressions” or “iniquities”
    End of Aug -/ wonders whether “difficulty of the last 6-7 years” might have caused his unhealth. Uses “stupid” and “foolish” while avoiding any biblical terms like “sins” “transgressions” or “iniquities”.
    I suppose the “difficulty” began with Karen Hinkley.
    Is this when he started cussing to this other woman? “Them %^%€€£! bloggerz! Their foolish moms have to clean up the Cheeto crumbs after them in the basement! And them *%{#£!! idiot elders couldn’t even push that )$&@7{}! under their care right! All the Village elders walked into a bar. I told them to raise the bar. But they’re so stoopid none of their sorry assets would be qualified anymore… hahaha.. you’re the only one I can talk to -/ my wife doesn’t understand me… remember the 7 years of marriage hell that effenb put me through?”

  5. Fisher,

    I agree… and I am disgusted by these types of “messages”..
    I have seen what happens when bad behavior is “swept under the carpet”.
    As I have posted before, almost 50 years ago now, my 7th grade teacher, at my fundamentalist school, was “groming me”.. forunately I was not molested..
    How do I know he was “gromming me”??? Several years after I left his class, he was arrested, and perp walked out in handcuffs from my school.. and he left.. it was all hush hush..
    About 7 years I looked this teacher up, and found out he had been a “guest” of the State of California prison system… I then went further, and when in San Diego, I got his court records… Yup, he molested a NUMBER of boys… (Note my school is/was in a suberb of San Francisco), and the perp was just “transfered” down to S. Cal to continue his proclivities..

    So, my point… I am not on a “Watchdog” blog to get my “jollies”… I want to do my part to prevent future abuse… clearly my fundy school failed, and a number of people suffer from my pedo teacher (I know, because court records said boys did not want to relieve the abuse…..)

    but then, remember, I am just a “pew peon” and should keep my mouth shut and simile and say how great evangelical leaderships is!!!

  6. drstevej,

    Now I’m convinced drstevej, you really are like one of those poor devils in the dayroom in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

  7. Quick look at Ryan Kwon who per this post recently preached on “Sweet Discipline” at The Village Church (TVC). Here’s the transcript of another guest preaching appearance at a church:

    https://www.orchardhillchurch.com/blog-post/2021/10/18/second-message-ryan-kwon

    There seems to be a focus on “Christian Hedonism“, which happens to be a term attributed to John Piper:

    https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-christian-hedonism

    The guest preaching blog post contains this biography:
    “Lead Pastor of Resonate Church, Fremont, CA. Originally from Los Angeles, CA. Ryan was called out of his hometown to plant Resonate in 2010.
    “He is passionate about gospel-centered preaching and has the vision to see churches in the Bay Area partner with cities to be a tangible benefit to them. A sought-out speaker, he is actively involved with Exponential and The Gospel Coalition. He also serves on the board for Acts 29.”

    Speaking of boards and such, here’s the staff page of his church:

    https://www.resonatemovement.org/staff/

    Not only is he listed as “Lead Pastor”, but he is also listed under “Elders”, along with two other listed pastors. The “Elders” section has this subheader:

    “Elders should be peacemakers, prayer warriors, teachers, leaders by example, and decision makers. They are the preaching and teaching leaders of the church as found in 1 Peter 5.”

    There does appear to be membership, but when you go to the tab that says “baptism and membership“, rather than provide the details on the site about whether something needs to be signed and what that might look like, it goes here:

    https://www.resonatemovement.org/classes/

    “MEMBERSHIP CLASS
    “Members of a local church function as the primary missionaries of Jesus to the culture. We are called corporately as ambassadors of Christ to share and live the Gospel before the watching world.
     
    “A covenant represents a greater commitment to Jesus and the local church body. Because of this, we take time to hold membership class. If you call Resonate your home church, then come take your next step in committing to this community”

    Again, they assert that “a covenant represents a greater commitment to Jesus”. Last I read, isn’t the new covenant one that unilaterally depends on God to keep it rather than man, this distinguishing it from the Mosaic law / old covenant? The sufficiency of the new covenant notwithstanding, wouldn’t the quoted claim depend on a specific covenant, including whether such a covenant is even biblical or not?

    What of the record of many organizations concentrating on extracting written commitments that may involve financial transactions / unpaid or low paid labor and other requirements / restrictions / indemnifications? Has that record sometimes included the use of the absence of people being able to examine such written commitments at arms length and with the aid of third parties, which may be manipulated to unwise and unhealthy advantage? Would an organization that describes whatever covenant that has been offered up as representing “a greater commitment to Jesus“ be likely averse to using similar language and tactics in a potential bandwagon atmosphere (perhaps coupled with a “we know more than you do — and have the rule over you cuz Biblical“ rationale for signing whatever they say to sign), such as in a “membership class”?

    Would such a commitment potentially involve a regular baseline financial commitment number / percentage and perhaps the ceding of all sorts of financial and personal information to the particular body that would be receiving this? Might the consistency of giving be enhanced under whatever penalty of covenant breach would be threatened — rather, lovingly exercised, perhaps via sweet discipline cuz Biblical? Are there any examples in Acts 29-affiliated churches that might give us insight as far as overall competence of those in leadership as well as priorities of accountability, transparency, oversight, and basic consistency on matters of discipline?

  8. JDV:
    Would such a commitment potentially involve a regular baseline financial commitment number / percentage and perhaps the ceding of all sorts of financial and personal information to the particular body that would be receiving this? Might the consistency of giving be enhanced under whatever penalty of covenant breach would be threatened — rather, lovingly exercised, perhaps via sweet discipline cuz Biblical? Are there any examples in Acts 29-affiliated churches that might give us insight as far as overall competence of those in leadership as well as priorities of accountability, transparency, oversight, and basic consistency on matters of discipline?

    Concerning some of the above questions, it might be helpful to have a look at where Resonate Church was just a few years ago, which was meeting in a high school:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20160917213153/http://www.resonatemovement.org:80/connect/contact-us

    https://web.archive.org/web/20190723190011/http://resonatemovement.org/locations/fremont/

    There are now two church locations, and they evidently worked with a group called “Christian Investors” to secure a building and construction loan:

    https://christianinvestors.org/case-studies/resonate-church

    https://vimeo.com/613872868

    “Being in their new building now for a year, Resonate sees its facility as a “key tool to inviting [people] in to hear the Gospel,” Doyle said.”

    There are multiple “church plants” on the page that contain the “case studies“. How many times do the main priorities and apparent non-negotiables for new churches, “plants”, or just new staff seem to be staff compensation and having others pay for facilities under control of the staff / leadership?

    How many times have you seen willingness for staffs to not go to that route and have what they are really big coercive methods to get others to pay off those debts — especially if the project just happens to go over budget? How many staff budgets for such startups reflect the faith that the winsomely-sheared sheep are encouraged to have over going into debt for facilities controlled by staff?

    How can there not be a great deal of concern that a key driving force behind such a consistent pattern of significant debt and finance allocation for building assets may be part of Christian Industrial Complex networks acting on behalf of seminarians — and arguably, entrepreneurs — in order to provide them well-compensated positions of authority and potentially establish alliances with affiliated power brokers? Also, if hirelings and grievous wolves wanted to feather their nest above every other consideration, how different would the prevalent church plant / new church startup / outreach entity model really look from much of what has emerged?

  9. I think it is VERY important that videos, like these are presented like this and saved….
    I have had, and I am sure many of TWW readers have had “supports” deny that their favorite “celebrity preacher” said such and such..

  10. “The flushing has begun.”

    Watched this video while still having The Village Church video/situation in the back of my mind.

    HILARIOUS juxtaposition.

  11. Todd, the pope is not a reference point: you are joining yourself and anyone rational in condemning that from Dillon Awes / Stedfast. They know the word “gay” doesn’t have a particular meaning and are out to trick listeners into thinking a moral policy is being proposed (which won’t matter to powerful prelates or their connections).

    Dave A A,

    Jeffrey Chalmers,

    Blankface Patterson types, and the losers they pick on to front them, like to bend the envelope of rationality and attract derision on purpose, for the drama it causes. They hope to attribute the derisiveness to me and you. Mud doesn’t make them writhe because they are monsters and mud belongs on them. We writhe because mud doesn’t belong on us because we’re not monsters; the strength of the message (treating us as if we are the reptiles) is body language (surface) based. If it’s moving, loathe it. If we are the ones that point anomalies out, they more powerfully project anomaly on us. This is core scammer, politician and commercial method, but sanctified.

    Retiring the untrained Chandler solves nothing because Blankface Patterson is going to inflict an allegedly “contrasting” regime. According to K K Du Mez and Timothy Gloege what we call “christianity” worldwide is an invention of the Gilded Age so what we need to criticise isn’t a system with parts gone wrong. Moody Bible School was run by the inventor of premium oats by “establishing” that all other oats were contaminated. Ordinary oat growers and ordinary believers were too interested in growing and believing to be able to mount a mass campaign to undermine the malicious liars.

    Scammers such as Moody, Blankface Patterson and some powerful prelates / corporations weaponise the real thing against itself to give place to themselves and proxies.

  12. Fisher: Even the demons know the truth… and they shudder. Knowing truth and preaching it is not the same as walking in it.

    This is something that a lot of people who call themselves Christians overlook . . . openly, ‘skipping’ the warnings of Our Lord in sacred Scripture about ‘the sheep and the goats’ and how He will determine the difference on the Day. . . .

    very strange, some of the ‘beliefs’ that are out there that seem to be ‘made up’ in order to ‘fit’ some of the man-made substitutions for the actual words of Jesus Christ as written in the four Holy Gospels of the New Testament.

    I keep wondering if this anomaly is behind all of the new ‘Christian Dominionism’ that is sprouting up under the trumpist banners . . . (?) They ‘make it up’ as they go along, it looks like . . . scary stuff!

  13. Ken F (aka Tweed): TGC is just now discovering the pitfalls of the celebrity culture in Christianity:
    https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/celebrities-jesus-beaty/

    Soooo … TGC doesn’t have celebrities within its ranks? What about Piper, Mohler, Dever, Platt, and a host of others? The young reformers idolize some of these guys: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/about/council/

    TGC, T4G, Desiring God, Passion Conference and other such events are not stages for NeoCal celebrities?!

    When you point a finger, three others point back.

  14. Max: Soooo … TGC doesn’t have celebrities within its ranks? What about Piper, Mohler, Dever, Platt, and a host of others?

    “Celebrities” are Secular. Of The World and Of The Flesh.
    Piper, Mohler, Dever, Platt, and a host of others are Mighty MenaGAWD. Of The Spirit.

  15. Headless Unicorn Guy: “Celebrities” are Secular. Of The World and Of The Flesh.

    Christian celebrities are also of the world and of the flesh. You will never hear them preach this about Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). They love to increase in power, prestige and pocketbook and use Jesus (in name only) to get there.

  16. Language is just not an adequate tool for restricting humans—no matter how often a new “forever” Bible edition comes out.

    TWW comments recently talked about the decades-long scandal of calling women Ms. The public actually felt entitled to know a woman’s marital status, and this whole, “Ms.” thing—whoa, Nellie! At the time, Miss Mary Williams was a young or old spinster, Mrs. John MacDougal was a wife or widow, and Mrs. Mary MacDougal was either divorced or impervious to rules (perhaps both). And yes, this was a topic, and women were hassled about Getting It Wrong.

    Men, of course, sailed through life as “Mr.” with no comparable discussion.

  17. Headless Unicorn Guy,

    Max,

    I think that Judaism has a much more sane and rational approach to ‘the flesh’.
    It (the flesh) doesn’t take on the bogey-man connotation that it does in some circles of Christianity.
    In Judaism, it (the flesh) is celebrated in the Song of Songs.

  18. Friend,

    “Master Smith” was (at one time) the eldest son under 16 while “Master Robert Smith” was a younger son under 16. Dudes became “Mr” at 16 while ladies didn’t stop being “Miss” unless they married.

    Spanish and Iranian ladies retain their original surnames and bear the same title married or not (am not sure from what age).

    The “Anglo-American” system (and its copycats) should beware of thinking itself a norm, especially in trading in souls and bodies.

  19. Max: Soooo … TGC doesn’t have celebrities within its ranks?

    None. Not one. The correct term for them is “dignitaries.”

  20. Friend: And yes, this was a topic, and women were hassled about Getting It Wrong.

    Were? I still get hassled about choosing Ms, though usually its people at churches or blue collar workers doing work on my house. Why does my plumber need to know? Why do any of my business colleagues need to know my marital status? Why does the University my intern is applying to need to know (when I am asked to write recommendation letters)? Or their scholarship board? And why do I need Ms. Professionally and Mrs. for church and the plumber (and apparently my college???? who changed my form input from Ms. to Mrs.). Just make it all one.

    I personally think we should all just shorten it all to M. I started feeling that way when I was applying for my first job and found myself calling receptionists to ask the gender of the person to whom I was applying, because they had a name from a different language and I could not tell from looking at it. That is absolutely irrelevant.

  21. Michael in UK:
    Friend,

    “Master Smith” was (at one time) the eldest son under 16 while “Master Robert Smith” was a younger son under 16.Dudes became “Mr” at 16 while ladies didn’t stop being “Miss” unless they married.

    Spanish and Iranian ladies retain their original surnames and bear the same title married or not (am not sure from what age).

    The “Anglo-American” system (and its copycats) should beware of thinking itself a norm, especially in trading in souls and bodies.

    Even within the Anglo-American system, a woman could attain the title “Mistress” ie Mrs. whether or not she was married from making it to a certain point in her career. So the housekeeper in a large British house? Mrs. and most likely not married. It was fundamentally understood that not all Mrs.’s were ever married.

  22. ES,

    I’m sorry that is still happening. How galling, that someone would change your courtesy title against your wishes.

    In emails and letters, I don’t mind seeing just the first and last name without courtesy title, including “Dear Martha Weaver:” salutation.

    Out loud it does startle me when total strangers call me by my first name, so a courtesy title is welcome. Other people have different preferences.

    It’s not that hard to remember preferences or accept a calm, polite correction.

  23. Max: Christian celebrities are also of the world and of the flesh.

    No, Max.
    They are Far More Spiritual Than Thou (and always reminding you of that fact – “TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED!”)
    So Spiritual that they have ceased to be human.
    Sucks to be us Mere Humans of Flesh.

  24. Michael in UK: Moody Bible School was run by the inventor of premium oats by “establishing” that all other oats were contaminated.

    Just like REVEREND Welch who was the inventor of pasteurized NON-ALCOHOLIC grape juice which had a long shelf life (just like wine). Also a “Dry” preacher, REVEREND Welch got rich selling his Welch’s Grape Juice to Drys too CHRISTIAN to touch “beverage alchohol”. Too bad he didn’t invent near-beer and corner BOTH Dry CHRISTIAN markets.

    Back then “Dry” was a Litmus Test of your Salvation. One of the reasons for The Altar Call was to get ’em up front where they could sign the Dry Pledge after Saying the Words.

    P.S. “The Gilded Age” is also called “The Age of Robber Barons”, where the gap between rich and poor in the US was greater than at any other time in history — until today.