More think'o'loud - C. Peter Wagner et. la.

[tke316]

I've got myself loosely connected to a very small, semi-informal group of Christians who think C. Peter Wagner, Lou Engle and Global Harvest Ministries is the cutting edge of the 21st century church. They make frequent pilgrimages to Kansas City to hang out at the International House of Prayer, and think Mike Binkel has a lot of great stuff.

I have heard a lot of good "teaching" (I always feel like I am speaking somebody else's jargon when I say that, and I guess I am). But I have also seen a lot of weird stuff done in the name of worship and praise.

I hear a lot about "the-five-fold" this-and-that and apostles and prophets. It is presented as the "next stage". They present that when the apostles and prophets get rolling the church will move forward by leaps and bounds. Sounds good.

They present all this as the answer to all the problems with the institutional church. It sounds good.

There seems to be some conection to the mega churches and the whole "purpose driven" stuff. It sounds good.

It sounds good but reminds me of a joke.

I went to a couple meetings of one of the moderate sized groups in the area. I got the impression that these meetings go on pretty much the same every week, or several times a week. A guy (the pastor) tells us all the blessings we are going to get. Then they imagine a pool in the middle of the room that we all are supposed to step into to get this blessing. He goes on and on about when the Spirit gets poured out all the great blessings and healings are going to happen. On and on and on as people step into the pool and look ridiculous.

The joke is the software salesman's wife who shows up to the marriage counselor a few weeks after her wedding. The counselor asks what's the problem. She says that all the salesman ever does is sit on the edge of the bed and tells her how good it's going to be.

The pastor reminds me of the software salesman. Everything is in the future. Whenever we get around to the next release or when the bugs get fixed, and on and on, says the salesman, then things will be great.

Another thing that's got me nervous is what I perceive to be a link to Benny Hinn and that whole wing.

Where does the good-real-stuff-from-the-Holy-Spirit end and the "crap" mixed in by the bad-dude start?

I know there are no experts in theology here and we are all just trying to discern. I think we all struggle and can get disillusioned with all of it because it so hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Thanks for enduring my whining about "how hard it is" to discern.