Bishop Wooden On Holiness, Kim Burrell's Outfit, Access 80k & Byron Donalds In Church

A pastor in Florida did something unusual. He personally called both candidates for governor and invited each of them to address his congregation. One said yes. The other refused. Pastor Arthur Jackson III told his church exactly what he’d done — called both, offered both the same platform, and asked for a debate so the members could hear from each man directly rather than from sound bites. One candidate agreed. One declined. So Congressman Byron Donalds showed up. And what he said wasn’t a stump speech. He talked about watching the baptism that morning and walking over to tap the last church mother on the shoulder — because 26 years ago, that was him. He got saved at a Cracker Barrel off I-75 in Fort Myers. He was baptized in the Gulf. He talked about opening youth services for seven years, taking a week of vacation from work to do it. About moving to Florida thirty years ago with a trunk full of clothes. About the 2001 recession, and his wife working a weekend job through Kelly Services while six months pregnant. And about the Lord redeeming him from what he calls a lot of very dumb mistakes at 18 and 20 years old. His line: I’m not here just to represent Republicans. I’m here to lead Florida, and that will be for everybody. It created a firestorm. John Amanchukwu’s position is the one he applies to his own show: when politicians come, you give them respect regardless of party. A candidate for Wake County sheriff was welcomed on this program the same way. If a pastor extends the invitation to both sides, the complaint doesn’t hold. He also addresses one critic directly — and the contradiction is in her own words. She objected to the congressman using the word Negro. Then she called him a coon. The pastor reached out personally to hear her out, and she hasn’t returned the call. Earlier in the show: Bishop Patrick L. Wooden Sr. on modesty. He preached Romans 12:2 this past Sunday without naming anyone, and the line everyone is quoting is this: if you shed a few pounds, that’s a good thing. But don’t lose your senses. Don’t shed chastity. His point isn’t against fitness. It’s that losing weight doesn’t change what Scripture says about modesty — and that some things are meant to be shown to your husband and nobody else. His own standard, for himself: it is not my goal or intention when I come before you on Sunday to look sexy. I want to look like a man of God. Then Romans 12 proper. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Wooden’s application is that the renewed mind is how you discern between alternatives — this or that, this way or that way — in every area. Whether a job offer is right. Whether a relationship is right. Whether an outfit is right. And the segment this episode ends on. Phillip Anthony Mitchell filled AT&T Stadium with roughly 50,000 people for an hour of corporate prayer — free admission — and went on national television the next morning to talk about it. His argument: Christianity was born in the East and has largely disappeared there, and the West should take that as a warning rather than a given. His new book is Contend. John’s response to the criticism Mitchell is getting: the Lord sets up one and takes down another. You don’t have to tear another man’s work down to build your own.