I have known John Chisham, also known as Pastorboy, for almost 7 years. We have a gone a few rounds over the years. Chisham believes he has THE truth. He is certain he is right. He knows it because God told him so. (via the Bible and the Holy Spirit)
Chisham is a disciple of banana man Ray Comfort and at one time pastored the River of Life Alliance Church in Marshall, Minnesota. According to North Central CMA newsletter, the church closed its doors in August 2012. (the new church plant lasted all of 4 years) Chisham is a member of the Christian Collegian Network, a group devoted to evangelizing secular college students.(brochure about Chisham can be found here) Chisham has a YouTube video page that features his preaching videos and he has a Twitter account that is currently in protected mode. His blog, Pastor Boy, is also in private mode and can not be accessed by sinners like me.
According to Chisham’s LinkedIn page, he is an educated man, having received training from Masters International School of Divinity, an online Bible college, St. Paul Bible College, and Crown College. (Crown and St Paul are the same institution) Chisham also operates JC Tentmakers, a business:
…founded for the purpose of, first and foremost, glorifying God, and helping its customers create a web presence all in a one stop shop- from domain names, to site development and design, e-commerce, and hosting.
Of course we know that you can go anywhere and do that.
However, this is what makes our company unique. A percentage of every purchase goes directly to spreading the Gospel-whether in sending missionaries, keeping missionaries in the field, helping people worldwide in distress, or supporting local church ministries.
When you place your business online with us we will work very hard to earn and to keep your business, because your business is very important to us, and we glorify God by doing all things as unto the Lord. So when we are working for you, it is part of our worship towards the God that we love and serve to do our very best for you. We hope that you will give us that chance to earn and keep your business.
JC Tentmakers has no website and its Facebook page was last updated in November of 2011. His personal Facebook page can be found here. Chisham also operates Great Physician Pastoral, Biblical Counseling, Coaching Service.
Chisham has a blog connected with the Great Physician service. In a May 30,2014 post about mass shootings, Chisham wrote:
Psychotropic drugs.
Many people would say that these drugs are also given to those who have mental health issues. These include depression, ADHD, Bipolar disorder- and the list goes on. However, None of the above diagnoses are scientifically based. Psychology is a philosophy, not a science. The philosophy is based not on neuroscience (the science of the brain) or a knowledge of actual brain chemistry. In reality most diagnoses are educated guesses. The education is man centered and evolution based. And this education has overcome much of the world, stating that people who behave badly are not responsible for their behavior, instead, they are sick and cannot help themselves. If they are sick, then they need medicine, and they are not responsible for their bad behavior.
But while psychotropic drugs may help mask symptoms, or even assist in concentration in the case of Ritalin (Ritalin is a stimulant. I would be able to concentrate longer and better if I were on it). These drugs are addictive and become a lifelong reality for those who have been prescribed them. The secret that is hidden by the psychological , educational, and pharmaceutical lobbies is that these drugs can be dangerous. And, as seen below, they can have deadly effects…
…Not everyone who takes psychotropic drugs is going to commit mass murder*. Many people who take these drugs live happy and productive lives. If you are a Christian, and you or a family member have been prescribed and are taking these drugs, you are not being sinful. There is no condemnation- indeed God can use physicians and scientists to bring relief in a fallen world. However, these and other incidences do provide something to think about when it comes to the failure of psychology to cure the people they claim are simply sick. They are not sick- they are sinful. They sin because they are sinful. It is only in dealing with sin appropriately that people are able to get well.
Great Physician Counseling Services does not buy in to the idea that people who have bad behavior or low moods are sick. We agree with the Bible that man is sinful, and that we live in a fallen world. We believe the result of sin and living in the fallen world are bad behaviors. Romans 1:18-32 warns us that ungodliness (denial of God and rebellion against Him) results in unrighteousness (bad behavior). We believe that only in repentance from sin and repentance towards God does fallen man have a chance to experience the abundant life and the inexpressible joy that God promises those who believe on Christ.
Are you feeling low, anxious, depressed, manic? Does your life and behavior seem out of control? GPCS could be exactly what you need..
Evidently, Chisham has training that qualifies him to counsel people and offer professional advice about psychotropic drugs After all, he is a certified Biblical counselor, having received his training through Masters International School of Divinity, an online Bible college.
Chisham became divorced from his wife sometime in the last two years. According to the September 2012 CAM newsletter:
Rev. John Chisham has left licensed ministry for family reasons. Though it is not a disciplinary situation, John and Wendy stand in urgent need of prayer. The district is working with them, alongside counseling professionals, to assist them…
I do not know WHY he and his wife divorced. I do find it interesting, for all his strident moralizing, he couldn’t keep his own marriage together. In late 2013, Chisham remarried a sociology professor at Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU).
Back in my emerging/emergent church days,Chisham was certain that I wasn’t a real Christian. He went to great lengths to prove I was an imposter. I guess, on this count, he was right, since I am now an atheist. Chisham knows the Holy Spirit intimately, so he KNOWS, by the witness of the Spirit, who really is and isn’t a Christian. I suspect that his job someday in the mythical heaven he thinks he is going to will be to check ID at the pearly gates.
In 2010, Chisham made the news as a result of his confrontational street preaching and evangelism at a Twin Cities Gay Pride event.
The Star Tribune reports:
…Another protester at Saturday’s event, John Chisham of Marshall, Minn., attracted far more attention than the Johnsons as he stood on a box with a sign that read “You are an abomination to God, You justify the wicked,” preaching to a jeering crowd. Chisham attracted shouts of disapproval and arguments from passersby. Eventually, Pride attendees stood in front of him with signs that read, “Standing on the Side of Love.”
Chisham, who described himself as a Christian missionary, said he had followed Johnson’s case but had planned to come to Pride anyway. He brought a decibel meter to prove, he said, that he was acting within the law by not being disruptive.
Minneapolis police Sgt. Fred McCormick looked on as protesters argued with Chisham, breaking things up a few times when things got too heated. One man who shoved Chisham was detained by police but released without a ticket.
Chisham was acting within the law, McCormick said.
“The thing is, he’s got the right to be here. He’s been cooperative and is entitled to do this, but we’re not going to tolerate it if it gets too heated,” the officer said. “This is healthy dialogue, but unfortunately it is taking up resources….
In October 2012, Chisham took his gay hating show to the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University. Hannah, a student at the University, had this to say about Chisham’s show:
…On Oct. 6, SMSU’s Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Ally club (SMSU GLBTA) participated in the annual homecoming parade, as they did last year. Their float was modest at best, but their passion for the club, and the current marriage amendment vote they were promoting was clear. Students handed out bags of skittles and vote no pamphlets from Minnesotans United for All Families. Suddenly, along Main Street, two men came out of the crowd, seemingly unaffiliated with each other, and joined the SMSU GLBTA float. However, these men were not supporters. One of the men held a vote yes sign, and reportedly walked in front of the float and alongside it, blocking people from getting pictures of the float. The other man, Pastor John Chisham, walked alongside the float carrying a large wooden cross and a jacket that said, among other things “homosexuals will burn in hell.” Chisham has been asked to leave the SMSU campus several times in the past due to his radicalism….
The students with the SMSU GLBTA float asked local police officers who were assisting with crowd safety to remove the men as they were not a part of the float and they felt threatened. The officers reportedly denied the students help, citing that was not their assigned job…
…Student Activities Director Scott Ewing said he was made aware of the event after the parade when the club filed a report with SMSU’s Public Safety.
“These [other] individuals clearly abused the parade process, they didn’t register with us. If they wanted to be a part of the parade all they had to do was register,” Ewing said…
…Though the protesters were using their right to free speech, the space had been reserved for parade purposes only and neither of the men were affiliated with floats nor had signed up for a spot in the parade, therefore making their actions illegal. Homecoming is a time for SMSU’s students to celebrate who they are as Mustangs and as people, but these students faced backlash for expressing that right in a place reserved specifically for them.
I wonder, now that Chisham is married to a professor at the college, if he still preaches his hell fire and brimstone, gay hating gospel on SMSU’s campus? (here’s another story about Chisham preaching at SMSU and the protesters who later came to his church. Result? The church was evicted from their rented facility)
In 2013, The Independent reported that Chisham was causing quite a stir with his preaching in front of an adult oriented business:
Late Friday evening the sounds of heavy metal music competed with the loudspeaker system of preachers John Chisham, Jake Larson and Eric Espinosa in downtown Lynd.
The preachers stationed themselves outside a building that formerly housed a business known as The Juice Bar, which features nude dancers….
…Inside, about six women were dancing for tips for an audience of less than a dozen people.
Chisham was formerly a pastor at the River of Life Alliance Church in Marshall but said he has resigned. Chisham said he was ordained in the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
“I’m here because of the Juice Bar,” Chisham said. “I heard about it from some friends on the golf course, and I thought it would be a good place to preach. I’m just trying to bring people to Christ.”
Jake Larson, who said he is a pastor at Bethel Fellowship in Minneota, was using the portable loudspeaker system to tell partygoers they were objectifying women.
Eric Espinosa calls himself a reformed sinner.
“I’m out here spreading the Gospel,” Espinosa said. “They’re where I once was. I was a drug user, an alcoholic and engaged in criminalistic activities.”
Espinosa said he was saved six months ago.
“They’re very annoying,” Peterson said. “They bother my guests, calling them names and stuff as they come into my home.”
Outside, Lyon County Deputy Sheriff Adam Connor came in response to a complaint about the loudspeaker from a next door neighbor.
“It’s 11 o’clock in the (expletive) evening!” said the neighbor, who declined to identify himself to the Independent. “My daughter can’t sleep because of the noise.”
Chisham admonished him.
“Hey now, no F-bombs,” Chisham said.
Connor asked Chisham not to intervene and told the preachers to turn of the loudspeaker.
“I can’t regulate the content of the speech,” Connor said, “only the noise level.”
Chisham said he was assaulted by a patron outside the Juice Bar in late November. He said he’ll continue to be in front of the residence most Fridays and Saturdays.
In a post on his blog dated June 22, 2010, Chisham wrote the following:
I have shared with you many times my exploits as an open- air evangelist. I have been harassed by police, I have gotten tickets, I have been assaulted, even knocked out. Here is a very recent illustration from Dearborn, MI of people’s rights as citizens to free speech being removed because of the speech being about Christ. Indeed, as you will see, they were removed not because of what they were speaking, but because of what they were handing out:
Simply put, the world hates us because we are Christians. They hate Christians without cause; they hate Christians because ultimately they hate Christ, and they do not know the Father. However, we are connected to the Vine, and therefore we can withstand the Hatred of the world. We have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working with us and through us, with all of the other branches (other Christians) supporting us and holding us up. As we enter back into the text, Jesus is reminding his disciples that they will be borne up by a strength not of them selves flowing from within- the power of the Holy Spirit.
Note Chisham’s persecution complex. This is what drives him.The WORLD hates Christ. The WORLD hates Christians. So…..the WORLD hates John Chisham. This is THE crucial point to understand in attempting to understand what drives people like Chisham to do what they do. He can not understand that people hate him, not because he is a Christian, but because he is an asshole that goes out of his way to attack and offend people.
I once was just like John Chisham. I was convinced that the WORLD hated everything I stood for. This hatred is what fueled my street preaching, pulpit preaching, and evangelism.The truer I was to God the more the world hated me and the MORE God rewarded me. (with treasures in Heaven) It took many years before I could see that people hated me because I was an asshole for Jesus. It is a sobering moment when you realize how hurtful you have been to others.
Chisham is a Fred Phelps in the making, Never satisfied with the status quo, preachers like Chisham continually seek to be more holy and more sold out for God. Armed with a perfect book, written by a perfect, holy, wrathful God, they enter a world they deem evil and go to war against the forces of Satan. Never mind that it is an imaginary war.
Chisham thinks the world cares about him, his message, and his Jesus. He thinks they hate him. Truth is…the world doesn’t give a shit. Chisham has had his 15 minutes of fame just like I did years ago when I made the front page of the paper. But, when all is said and done and the immediacy of the circus event is gone, the world simply doesn’t care. For all his preaching, screaming, and hating, what does Chisham have to show for it? How many LGBT people have been “rescued” from their “sin?” Not many. So much money, time, and effort invested into demonizing the LGBT community and any Christian that does not believe like he does. And for what? Outside of the approbation of those who think like he does, I doubt Chisham has much to show for his life investment.
I had hoped that Chisham would temper himself and mature as he got older. Surely, family problems and a divorce SHOULD cause any man of to think about the path he is on. Sadly, based on everything I have read, Chisham continues to hate in Jesus’s name. He has a deep-seated hatred for homosexuals, although I am sure Chisham would say he loves what God loves and hates what God hates. (he is a Calvinist)
Like his buddy Ken Silva, Chisham sees red when it comes to homosexuality. I am of the opinion that preachers who scream the loudest over homosexuality and same-sex marriage often battle with same-sex attraction in their own life. I am not saying that Chisham is a closeted homosexual, but I am saying that I do wonder about those who continually rail against this or that sexual practice. Why are they so obsessed with this one sexual sin?
There are two reasons I wrote this post. First, let it be a reminder of what many of us were once a part of. Except for reason there go I. Second, let it be a cautionary tale. Extreme fundamentalism, the kind practiced by John Chisham, often leaves destruction in its wake. Perhaps one day Chisham will see the error of his way. Perhaps he will some day fully understand how many people he has hurt with his hateful preaching. Or…perhaps he will die like Fred Phelps. Alone, with few friends, hated by all.
Notes
Article about Chisham preaching outside the 2012 Super Bowl
Article about Chisham preaching outside the 2013 Super Bowl
Gawker article college students that picketed Chisham’s church
2009 article about Chisham street preaching in Minnesota and South Dakota
Tony Jones wrote an article in 2013 about Chisham’s visit to the St. Cloud State University campus
The post John Chisham: A Portrait of Hate in the Name of Jesus appeared first on The Way Forward.