We’re still working on our analysis of the second half of Pastor Smith’s (a pseudonym) sermon. We hope to post it either later today or else tomorrow. But in the meantime, here’s something that’s been on my mind, as I’ve spent more time lately listening to Living Word Church (another pseudonym) on iTunes.
And that is…even now, nearly a year after we quit attending Living Word, it still puzzles me that we (and lots of other educated long-time Christians) willingly set aside a lot of things we knew to be true and willingly put up with a lot of manipulation and other bad behaviors from the Smiths. What WAS it that hooked us in and drew us back week after week?
As I listen to Pastor Smith preach, I find myself being reminded, just by the sound of his authoritative yet raspy voice, of all that I used to love about the place. And most of that, I think, comes down to how I FELT when I was there, in the sanctuary. There definitely WAS something almost tangible, something that you could FEEL, during many of the services.
Pastor Smith has another sermon available on iTunes, his latest in the series about ”The Anointing.” I doubt I’ll take the time to transcribe this new one, but I did listen to it, and as I heard many of the things that Smith said, I couldn’t help but feel some of the same emotions I used to feel back when we went to church there. As Smith talked about “the anointing” in this second sermon, he gave several examples of feeling the presence of God.
And despite all of my wariness, all of my cynicism, all of my “been there, done that” attitudes about Living Word, I found myself remembering that yes, I really did used to believe that the emotional rush I felt when I was at church actually WAS the “presence of God.”
The best way I can explain it is, it felt like a cold blast of water to a thirsty place deep within me. Sometimes it felt like a blast of cold air. (Of course, sometimes that was probably because we often sat near the gigantic air conditioning vents…) Sometimes I would feel waves of emotion, almost to the point of tears. And I’d sit and just shut off my brain and let my thoughts flow from one thing to the next, and pretty soon, I’d glance at my watch and realize that Pastor Smith had been preaching for an hour…when here it felt like time had practically stood still!
And whatever this feeling was, it was quite addictive. Pastor Smith mentions “hungering and thirsting for the presence of God” in both of the “Anointing” sermons. When I went to church there, I would have thought I knew exactly what he was talking about – which was my continual desire for more of what I just described in the above paragraph.
So I guess what I’m wondering is this: WAS that almost-tangible “something” in Living Word’s atmosphere the presence of God?
I’m honestly not sure.
I now lean toward thinking that of course it wasn’t.
I know, as a commenter once pointed out, that no church is perfect, and that even the most sanctified and consecrated pastors are going to have sins, struggles, and problems. I know that God continues to use and work through all of us, sinful and utterly fallible though we are. And I’m very grateful for that.
But…would God choose to manifest Himself in a special, tangible way at a place that is such a hotbed of questionable teachings, unbiblical practices, greed, haughtiness, false prophecies, and manipulation? And if not, then what WAS that feeling that I used to feel, that special “buzz” that I’d get from going to church there?
I think this is a very important question, because I believe there are a lot of people out there in Charismania who are hooked into it by this very thing. Now that I look back on it – and now that I hear Pastor Smith’s teachings on the presence of God – I realize that the entire congregation at Living Word probably also believes that that thing that they FEEL when they’re there at church is indeed God’s presence. And that by desiring that feeling, they are “hungering and thirsting” for God.
I don’t really have any way to wrap up this blog posting…it’s more of an open-ended question. What do YOU think? If you were ever involved in Charismania, do you remember that certain feeling that I’m describing, that certain unique wave of emotion? If so, what do YOU think that it was?
I’m still puzzled.
There are some excellent articles on Herescope regarding the “Dopamine-Driven Church”:
Part 1: C’mon God, Light My Fire
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/04/dopamine-driven-church.html
Part 2: Touch It with the Match
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/04/touch-it-with-match.html
Part 3: 40 Days of Shared Emotions
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/04/40-days-of-shared-emotions.html
Part 4: Customer Evangelists
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/04/customer-evangelists.html
Part 5: What is Your LifeTime Value?
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/05/what-is-your-lifetime-value.html
Part 6: The Goals for Coals
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/05/goals-for-coals.html
Part 7: “God-Branding”
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/05/god-branding.html
Part 8: Las “Vegas in a can” Religion
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/05/las-vegas-in-can-religion.html
Here are some quotes from the articles:
“Replacing the Holy Spirit with a dopamine high: this is the agenda of the New Apostolic Reformation. If people can be trained to be ruled by their senses, they are more malleable, easily manipulated, and ready to be driven from one new lustful fad to another.”
“The more you know about how this psycho-social manipulation process works, the better you can resist the temptations that are daily thrown your way from every sort of media, whether it be secular or religious.”
——————
I have been involved with charismatic churches in the past years. One thing I noticed was that the people keep coming back for their fix of “good feelings” and high emotions, the heady elation of “I am encountering what everyone else is, so I must be spiritually okay.” How does one know it is not of God? Just remove the music and the sing-songy “preaching”, and what do you have left? Nothing but emotion.
Those are some interesting links. Thank you.
As I said, I’ve pretty much concluded that whatever “it” was that I felt at Living Word, it almost couldn’t have been the presence of God. Yet it seemed good and spiritual. We were taught that it was God. I know most people at Living Word would certainly say that it was God.
I suddenly realized one day that we sang a LOT of songs that declared, in one way or another, that “God is in this place.” In fact, a number of the songs were written in-house by Pastor Smith’s son Tommy. A few of his titles:
“There Is Healing In This Place”
“God Is In This Place”
“In Your Presence” (the theme of this song was that there’s some “secret quiet place” where God’s presence is manifested, and then you can be set free…it was actually the best song Tommy ever wrote)
We also sang Byron Cage’s “The Presence of the Lord Is Here” a LOT.
I began to wonder why so many songs seemed to be worshipping a PLACE and a PRESENCE rather than focusing on the Lord Jesus and what He has done for us. Then I began to grow suspicious that maybe this was all intentional, done deliberately.
We’ll never know for sure (and in one way, it’s hard to believe that Pastor Smith would be this calculating), but, if you consider how he preaches SO MUCH about needing to be in the presence of God (“needing the Anointing”), and if you consider how much effort they put into telling the congregation, week after week, that “God is in the house,” even to the point of having us sing about it, maybe it IS something that they deliberately manufacture.
I’ve even been suspicious of how the giant air vents would whoosh on at opportune times. We’d sing songs about how the Spirit was moving, and there’d be these breezes…
Now I’m just sounding paranoid…
But still, I can’t help but wonder. Pastor Smith, in his own relatively small world, has a great deal of power, money, and renown. He’d have every reason to want to create the impression that he somehow had “God on tap” at his church…and HIS church alone.
I don’t think you’re being paranoid.
I was on-staff at two churches and those types of scenarios were well-planned at the staff meetings. The pastor would coordinate his sermon with the worship songs, telling the worship leader which songs to sing. He also made it clear what atmosphere or mood he wanted by the end of worship time.
On another note, a “secret place” and “finding God’s presence” are buzz words for contemplative spirituality/spiritual formation. They may not mean that in your former church, but it is something to watch out for.
I have made a list of “christians” who are into metaphysics/spiritual formation. A lot of them are charismatics. Metaphysics and charismatics go hand-in-hand.
http://SimplicityInChrist.org/list.html
also
http://SimplicityInChrist.org/metaphysics.html
Hmm, Susan B. –
Interesting stuff!
Sometimes I think that, rather than being so diabolically manipulative that he deliberately manufactures a FALSE something that he then tries to pass off as the “presence of God,” Pastor Smith is actually just as hooked on the sensation (what ever “it” is) as the rest of his audience.
He’s probably deliberate in how he wants the service structured, and in the kinds of music he tells his son to choose. But I think he and his family do genuinely believe that whatever it is they “stir up” in people actually IS “the anointing,” or the presence of God.
Probably the fact that they believe they CAN dispense God’s presence is one of the reasons they’re able to hold themselves above everybody else. I mean, if you think you’ve got God Himself at your disposal, you’re going to feel pretty superior. And you’ll actually begin to believe that you NEED bodyguards and that you DESERVE all the best things.
If the Smiths genuinely believe this – that they somehow “have God on tap” – a lot of the crazy stuff at Living Word would make more sense. Such as the birthday offerings they’d take for themselves. I always wondered how they dared to have the nerve to TELL PEOPLE to give them gifts. Who do they think they are, anyway?
But I think I may have inadvertently explained this to myself here. They think they’re the keepers of God’s presence. That’s GOT to be some heady stuff! No wonder they do all the arrogant, insensitive, and prideful things they do. It all suddenly makes sense.
If we believe that the presence of God dwells within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, then no one person has God “on tap”, right?
I’ve been really thinking about all of this lately because I was a worship leader and my main focus was to ‘usher people into the presence of God’ through the music. But really, is that right? We HAVE the presence of God living and abiding in us all the time if we are believers in Jesus Christ. Jesus said if two or three of us gathered together in His Name, He would be there. (Matthew 18:20) It’s not that we have to invite Him, I think that we just have to become aware and sensitive. That’s what music does, for me anyway, and I think in worship services. All these people are together with pretty much the same intent, they start singing, turn their minds off and ‘tune in’ to the Spirit of God that is inside them. Sometimes, that produces a tangible feeling of peace, release, even euphoria. I believe that that feeling is the comfort of the Holy Spirit that is talked about in scripture.
As for why God allows that in the same place that manipulation is going on…we’ve also asked ourselves that question many times. I believe God helps people in SPITE of the charlatans because He loves us. He’s looking on each heart of each believer and His interest is in comforting, leading, and loving each person individually, regardless of the ulterior motives of others. I think if we’d really listened, He was warning us and others like us all along.
I believe the Holy Spirit is trying all the time to lead them (manipulative people)as well.
My prayer is that they see and hear the truth before they hurt more people and before their consciences are so seared, they can’t find a place to repent.
D,
What you’re saying makes sense.
My greatest fear in all of this is that I don’t want to be disrespecting (blaspheming) the Holy Spirit…if indeed it WAS the Holy Spirit at work at Living Word.