Friday, October 16, 2009

Misrepresentations Make My Blood Boil

Thank God for this periodic clearing of the cloudy mist when I feel the urge to speak up, speak out, into the clamorous sea of voices. Another detox friend and I were just discussing that there's alot of noise out there and the last thing we want is to add to the cluttered din. On the other hand, we must exercise our voices in order to be heard even if it is just for eventually. In between these times of freedom to speak out, there's alot of simmering going on, but I'm never compelled to say anything until enough angst accumulates into a serious perculation. What usually happens is I erupt and boil over if I don't give way to some form of communication. But then again, the erupting IS the communication so I guess this is catharthis.
It's usually brought on by some injustice recently within the church at large or by catching wind of another audacious happening at the infamous 'church' across town. It blows our minds that it somehow manages to keep going especially since their greatest 'fruit' seems to be using the ministry money to live an elitest lifestyle amongst their middle class tithers that gladly enable the mismanagement of money with their weekly tithe installments.

Ok, something that made my simmer perculate a bit yesterday was this. I got an email from a worship magazine that is hosting a one-day songwriting seminar called 'song discovery in the round' which would be fine if that is what it was going to be. What they are doing is hosting a group of well-known established Christian worship leaders who will teach on songwriting. They are borrowing from the concept of 'songwriters in the round' which is when a bunch of songwriters take turns singing their songs in public so they can be heard. As far as I can tell, it's just another teaching on how you should write your songs and make them just like ours so we will choose your songs. So why borrow this lovely music world concept and proceed to misrepresent what it is? It makes my blood boil when the church at large continues to elevate the hopes of the Unrecognized Gifted with false advertising. Oh, by the way, the one-day conference costs the aspiring song-writer $99 not to mention plane fare, meals and lodging it would cost to go. An afterthought: I wonder if they don't get enough attendance at the 3-day conferences they host so decided on the shortened version?

Another blood boiler I can't resist talking about since we are talking about false advertising:
A church that hosts what they call a "Town Hall Meeting" where the senior pastor bellows on for 78 minutes about all his plans to build an empire with no forum for questions or comments from anyone. That's a lecture not a town hall meeting. Isn't a town meeting supposed to be a platform for people in towns or organizations to voice their concerns with the opportunity to ask legitimate questions? I shouldn't be surprised by the bogusness of the town meeting title because this particular misrepresention is the brain child of KGW (k.g.dubbaya) pastor of the infamous church across town - yes, my former wac world. He was never too keen on questions asked in any forum. But to use this wonderful concept of a Town Hall Meeting and then twist it into his version of it makes my blood boil!

5 comments:

Provender said...

That was some "town hall" meeting! I would like to know how much deception is involved in the "church growth movement" I'm just learning about this "movement." Turning people into "giving units" is only one dehumanizing factor, but I'll bet there are others. Know anything about this industry? I'd be curious to have your take on it, speaking of misrepresentations.

NoJoke said...

Hi Provender - thanks for stopping by.

We haven't really studied the church growth movement. We HAVE studied The Latter Rain Movement and the Dominionistic philosophy that comes with it. You can read up on those subjects on Deception Bytes and Let Us Reason, both found in our blogs to detox by list. (Speaking of, do you care if we add your Provender Search to our list?)

But I agree with you, labelling people as units or 'giving units' is degrading. I doubt that God would ever be so callous as to refer to any of his creation as units!

Anonymous said...

I went to church Sunday. I hadn't been for about three months. They had a guest speaker and he spoke on honoring your pastor and getting behind his vision.Blah Blah Blah. You know the one. Don't speak against his vision. Get behind him. Don't gossip.You wouldn't do any better if you were in his place in fact you'd do worse because God has not called you! So don't complain and murmur. I kept waiting for my blood to boil but it never happened! In fact all I felt was bored and wished I hadn't even bothered to go. Ha Ha Ha I think I'm cured.

Anonymous said...

I think if you google "church growth
movement" you will find articles.
As I recall, there are some serious
problems with the philosophy/theology
behind the movement. (I'm not implying that everyone involved in it is
deliberately malicious). I know that
one of weirder ideas of the Latter
Day Rain/Dominionist beliefs is that
the church (the true overcoming
believers) will become Christ, in
other words, actually BECOME the
second coming of Christ on Earth,
or something similar to that.
I mean, who wants to stand in the
way of God, or question God
Himself?

The constant controlling and
guilt producing mantras heard
almost everywhere about "don't
question the Sacred Leader (ie
pastor) and don't question the
Holy Vision" are dangerous control
mechanisms (spiritually abusive).

In fact, the Word of God tells us
to test everything. I like one
sermon I heard: question every
speaker, every sermon, every miracle,
etc to see if it lines up with
the Word of God, accurately
interpreted in line with the
character of God and with the
entire Word (not out of context).

People who cannot be questioned
are setting themselves us as
"god". Sound familiar? That's
exactly what satan has been trying
to sell us from the very beginning.

Test the fruits, also....test
the character and whether the
motives appear to be God's love.

Leaders are to serve for the benefit
of others not DEMAND to be served
for their own needs and desires,
even if it's immaturity, hurt or
unconsciously.

If you cannot question, cannot
think for yourself, cannot set a
boundary, cannot decide....
because "God" is like a malicious
evil dictator dictating your
every move, how will you
protect yourself from abuse?
You won't.

God isn't promoting a cult like
robotic mentality. That isn't
what faith means.

Question everyone, including the Pope, every religious leader.

Free At Last said...

Anonymous --Welcome to Detox --we are so glad to hear your voice here! It is so good to see someone else out there who truly gets the Latter Rain/Dominionist theories -we often feel there only a few of us who have made the connection! We're hoping God is lifting the lid off this thing and people will discover that so much of the bad fruit in the church in the last 40 yrs. can all be traced to this movement.
We're hoping to give out more information on this soon as it took a ton of research for ourselves to even find out what the Latter Rain movement was! It shouldn't be that hard.
In fact we attended a Latter Rain Church and didn't even know it! Now why is that ---did they teach all of the theology --yes! But when I asked about it once at a meeting everyone got uncomfortable except for one person who went on to tell me all about the original "revelations" that were given at some meeting in the 1940's. Now that we've put it together we hope to share with others so they won't have to go to the work we did just to figure out where all the "weirdness" has come from and why weren't we told ''we belonged to a Latter Rain Church and didn't know it!