I’ve seen church splits, but how often is it that the leader of a large ministry resigns and launches another ministry?

In the same town.

With the same name.

And with the same mission.

The Orlando-based Billion Soul Initiative has been started by James Davis, who was, until January, president of Global Pastors Network and its Billion Soul Initiative. According to each of their “about” pages, both organizations have the goal of reaching 1 billion souls in the next 15 to 20 years. Both have pastors conferences scheduled for January ’08 (GPN’s in Orlando and Davis’s in Atlanta). And both trace their lineage to Bill Bright.

GPN’s chairman John Maxwell attempted to clear up the confusion with an e-mail sent to GPN’s constituents (and also posted on GPN’s site) stating:

James O. Davis resigned as president last January and has no role with GPN or our Billion Soul Initiative. He does not represent GPN in any capacity.
…
I fully endorse and pray for and will continue to support GPN and its Billion Soul Initiative. Dr. Bright, who coined the words “Billion Soul,” had a special calling from God to see the great commission completed.

I’m not privy to the details surrounding Davis’s resignation and the obvious conflict behind who will carry Bright’s torch to reach 1 billion people. However, a cursory observation of the speakers lined up to speak at the organizations’ events in January makes me wonder whether there was a difference of opinion related to conference style and theological DNA.

Following the GPN tradition of having 30 to 40 speakers per event, Davis’s event features pastors from Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, leaders in the word-faith movement, a handful of evangelicals and–for good measure–legendary mountaineer, Sir Edmund Hillary. In contrast, GPN’s list of speakers is surprisingly smaller and represents a cross-section of the mainstream evangelical world.

I’ve been to several GPN events and wondered how long the “scatter-gun” approach it utilized would be effective. Do people still want to sit in a large auditorium while speakers come from the green room to the platform one at a time, speak for 12 minutes about the aspect of ministry they’re passionate about and hop on a flight home?

Call me pomo, but I’ve always enjoyed the smaller, more intimate events where three or four speakers share their journeys and interact with attendees in between sessions. On that note, I appreciated National Community Church’s Buzz Conference precisely for the fact that it was small, focused–and the speakers were accessible.

I’ll admit it: academic credentials impress me a little. It took some blood, sweat and tears for me to earn my degrees, and I feel a certain camaraderie with people who’ve felt my pain.

So, when I heard about Jamal-Harrison Bryant, an up-and-coming thirtysomething preacher from Baltimore who was said to have have earned a Ph.D. in theology from Oxford, I took note. A brief search revealed that his church Website and various colleges for which he’s given commencement addresses made the same claim–although sometimes referring to it as a doctorate in ministry or a Ph.D. in religion. I was further intrigued. What raised my eyebrows, though, was when I heard his preaching–an odd mishmash of health-wealth, allegory, new-age hooey and liberation theology. I’m not suggesting that Oxford is a bastion of conservative theological scholarship, but Bryant was saying things that would make an Oxford don tear his robe–whether liberal or conservative.

However, I had no real proof … Until now: Interestingly, The Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana, has a document on its site that lists a Jamal-Harrison Bryant in their 2005 graduating class as having earned a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.). If you visit the link and then do a word search for “jamal,” you’ll see the class of ’05. Of course, this is not Oxford, but a look at the foundation’s Website will indicate that students at GTF can visit Oxford for a summer seminar, after which they get a certificate and a lapel pin.

Did he go to Oxford? Maybe for a few weeks in the summer during his D.Min. studies. But he wasn’t given a degree by Oxford. Does he have a Ph.D.? No, he has a doctor of ministry from an unaccredited online school. Big difference. Just a bit too greasy for my palate …

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has apparently left the Mormon faith and converted to Christianity. The Traditional Values Coalition‘s Lou Sheldon has endorsed Romney for the 2008 presidency.

“He reads the Bible regularly. He has said — and I asked him — that he has received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior,” the pastor declares. “He believes that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, only Son of God divine, and was crucified, buried and raised from the dead for our behalf. So, I think as he addresses those issues, that’s certainly going to ignite good feeling [among Christians].”

Unless, of course, Sheldon has never had a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints knock on his door and make similar claims, insisting that Christianity and Mormonism are completely compatible. Obviously, it’s what Romney didn’t say that draws the distinction between him and his orthodox counterparts. Let’s take another look at the quote, with that in mind.

“He reads the Bible regularly [as well as the Book of Mormon and The Pearl of Great Price as aids in interpreting it]. He has said — and I asked him — that he has received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior [From what? As long as Romney wasn't one of the 'sons of perdition', he didn't have anything to worry about to begin with ... as long as he tithes and all.],” the pastor declares. “He believes that Jesus Christ [along with his brother, Lucifer] is the [uh ... make than an 'a'] divine Son of God , only Son of God divine [if, by 'God divine' you mean someone with flesh and blood like you and me who was once like you and me and like whom we will someday be], and was crucified, buried and raised from the dead for our behalf. So, I think as he addresses those issues, that’s certainly going to ignite good feeling [among Christians] [Yep, this pretty much sums up what gets Christians to the polls].”