The Eden, NC Methodist Church My Grand Dad Clarke Founded

The Mega Church Phenomenon

Lynchburg, Virginia, Ozark, Missouri, San Antonio, Texas--and the Wild West: Is This God's Wellness or Orwellian Madness...? (I do believe that the Mega-Church can offer many good ministries to the community, and in a future addendum to this article will consider the positives.)

After my cross-country trek last Fall, during which I visited several 7000 to 12,000 member churches, I penned in my journal ponderings like, "Will the current mega-church explosion--this ecclesiastical you-can-buy-anything-you-need-here-Walmartization of religion--eventaully implode on itself..or are there sufficient redemptive trickle-downs? Is this just a systemic Pop Culture spasm--or something resonating with Acts 2..?

I do earnestly pray that the Mega-Church can be a mighty ministry for the Lord God, that it truly is a sign of healthy spiritual growth--and not just a phenomenon of "fatness in Numbers" and a barn full of 'spiritual orphans'. The following thoughts are not meant in any way to be condemning, pejorative, or cynical. I am praying that all local churches, large or small, may be spiritually healthy gardens of godly growth.

The Steeple Chaser, as a thoughtful observer, (seeking always to be skeptical but not cynical, satircal but not sarcastic) might wonder: "Is there some part or aspect of mass-movement churchianity--the kind with placating platitudes, defective Christology and Pneumatology, a 'diffenrent gospel' of charismagical health, wealth, and narcissistic Successism, with its barnfulls of herded, passive sheeple perching-up-there-in-the-bleachers--that points to The Apostasy mentioned in Hebrews..?

And/or is this, perhaps in the socio-psychological sense, an eschatological sign that America is ready for fascism..?"

What about the Mega-Church 'atmosphere' and its meta-messages..?

Is jumbo-tron screenism (sometimes even taped elsewhere by an absentee pastor who perhaps enjoys fishing for cookable fish)--which provides unwanted glimpses of uvula and forced inspection of the American-Idol-wannabe vocalist's latest dental prosthesis, and the offering-taker's cheek mark which looks too much like the shape of New Zealand) really just a Big Brother vehicle for the one-way-commuication of a subtle totalism and authoritarianism afflicting itsel on the redeemed community..?

Even though some may laugh at this point, the critical thinker (rare breed that he is) might ask: "Does the nineteen-foot high in-your-face close-up of a speaker's florid 'affect' achieve more of a ('purpose-driven') brainwashing and 'thought reform' goal--than interpersonal nurturing, nourishing pastoral teaching-from-life, and compassionate day-to-day shepherding..?"

Would it rain on the herd-thinkers' parade to ask, "Is the mega-church phenomenon just another corporate takeover--another co-opting, 'benignly hostile' scarfing up of the more meaningful, effective, (and 'nutritious') small church 'mom and pop' operations..?"

But just as it's easier to cop out and move from the accountability of a small town--to hide impersonally and anonymously in the big city and live the 'secret life of Henry Fife'--it's also ("fer shure") easier to slip into the mega-church cattle drive.

Why not? Everybody's doin' it..!

The old saying comes to mind and makes me grin, "Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong." Ha--the reality question is, "Can even one Frenchman be right...?"

(At least you can try, perhaps, to correct their perceptual distortions, impaired insight, impulsivity, and truncated judgment--if you keep them in small groups that is..!)

Please organize a 'panel of experts' who can clear these questions up for me..!

The Christian Leader's Support Group

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“I’m so busy—I have to take the time..!”
The Christian Leader’s Support Group
by Phil Brewer

Your Relational Support System. Ideally, you have a loving family, some good friends you can trust, and respectful regard in your ministerial milieu. But whatever the quality of your support system, you may want to consider organizing a support group of four or five peers. Friends and family are precious treasures and constitute part of our relational wellness. But your own support group, with its focus, accountability, honest feedback, mining of biblical truth, active listening, heartfelt prayer, sincere empathy, and shared vision offers profound benefits. The adventure of a functioning support group run in an atmosphere of courtesy, mutual dignity, and edification awaits you.

Seeking Candidates. Look for persons of like precious faith—who love God, whose lives are dedicated to faithful stewardship of the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 4). Look for men who basically share (or feel compatible with) your world view and Christocentric vision. And homogeneity of gender (all men or all women) seems to work best.

Caveat: Discouragement. A good support group takes time. You must resolve to do some ‘research and development’ before your ‘engineering’ is improved. One or two may drop out, or not show up in the first place. But lay all before God in your earnest prayer for a functional support group, be persistent, and He will bring it to pass.

Caveat: “Clones.” Cloned sameness (while appearing to double strengths) may also double weaknesses. Healthy heterogeneity can enrich the gather-ings: an intelligent youth pastor or dedicated music minister enjoying wisdom of older senior pastors; a first time church planter comparing notes with veterans; a liturgical or mainliner with an independent charismatic or classical Pentecostal. Godly representation from different ethnic and multicultural backgrounds can bless your koinonia and bring valuable perspective. A counselor, a chaplain, or parachurch leader can spice up the conversation.

Seek Wisdom. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance to build a group of men/women who are rational, sensible, mentally healthy, and generally easy to get along with. (Someone who is chronically hostile, contentious, inappropriately suspic-ious, emotionally immature, a crank, a 'concrete thinker' who can't think abstractly, a grievance-collector, has a one-issue theology or simplistic hobby horse--usually needs more in-depth therapeutic ministry than the typical support group can offer.) 'High maintenance personalities' require 'high maintenance engineers' (life coaches!).And pray earnestly that your group will be focused: listening—observing, paraphrasing, understanding.

Transference Issues. Even though a pastor can’t have this luxury in his congregation, don’t build anyone into your support group whom you consistently feel uncomfortable or nervous around—or just don’t like. If you have sincerely brought this before the Lord, you may simply have a ‘transference issue’ and should just pray for that person from a distance. A support group can be chilled by transference issues (which often have nothing to do with his or your spirituality). For example, you may remind him (without realizing it) of a Little League coach he didn’t like, or he may remind you (unconsciously) of that prof who gave you a low grade, or that vicious ‘Diotrephes’ type church boss (cf. 3 John) who sabotaged your last pastorate and got you voted out! The typical support group doesn’t provide an appropriate arena for figuring out why you don’t like someone.

Phase One: Proactivity. Seek the Holy Spirit’s management. Make in-person and phone inquiries. Get Email addresses. Scan or snail mail this support group information to persons who may be interested. Invite four to six motivated persons to coffee. Agree to pray corporately regarding the support group. Stay in contact via Email and/or phone with those showing interest.

Phase Two: Organizing. Get together for an early breakfast discussion with the committed. Suggested maximum is six members per support group. Set the date for your first meeting. In the first support meeting, agree on a standard (albeit flexible for holidays or emergencies) time of the month and day of the week. Choose a ‘round robin’ location at the different homes, off-ices, (or comfortable and private church rooms) of group members. A full breakfast, or just snacks and beverages, may be offered as each member hosts the support group on his particular month. Suggested meeting time is from 8:00am to 1:30pm, one day a month—e.g.: second Thursday of each month. Of course, your group may choose a different schedule.

Phase Three: Management. Over the years several standard questions have proved helpful. Each member should try to manage his time in dealing with each question, while at the same time feeling relaxed enough to express himself candidly and fully. A support group member also has the privilege of deferring on a particular question (perhaps “all is well” in that category or he just may not want “to go there” at this time). One question might take forty-five minutes to go around the circle. Another question might be dealt with in a shorter period of time. In some meetings a particular member may need more focused empathy and time from the rest of the group. If profound issues emerge which seem beyond the scope of a support group, the member may want to talk privately with a qualified Christian consultant. Generally that life coach shouldn’t be in the same group, I think. While the support group has a very healing and encouraging purpose, it may not be able to function as psychotherapy or group therapy. Christian trust, based on absolute confidentiality, of course, is a must. Priority requires a prayerful sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s leading (e.g.: “themes” for the day) and proper orchestration (i.e.: no domination of time by one of the members).

Phase Four: Suggested Support Group Questions.

(“During this past month…)

1. …What has God been saying to you in His Word? (devotional Bible study and prayer-journaling—not just Sunday’s sermon if a pastor)

2. …How have you been using your time? (schedule, pacing, recreation)

3. …How are your relationships going? (family, friends, staff, ministry)

4. …How are things going personally? (stress, motivation, decisiveness, inertia, effectiveness, frustration, worry, anger, thinking, obsessions, perceptions, confidence, creativity, calling, hope, humor, health)

5. …What spiritual leadership principles have you learned--or desire to? (Are you growing in leadership-effectiveness & problem-solving?)

6. …How may we pray with you?” (wellness needs: physical, mental, spiritual, relational, economic, career-satisfaction--ministry, calling)

Support Group ‘peer-feedback’ can help one realize things like…

1. Life (& ministry) is a marathon not a fifty-yard dash (pacing, more time with the 'strong' than 'weak', sabbaticals, 'time-out'--not just 'time off').

2. Clearly defined boundaries, limitations, and 'compartmentalizing'--stall burnout.

3. Religious institutions were made for man (not vice versa) (“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”). Don’t be too 'religiously-pre-occupied'.

4. One must not derive too much self identity from 'role-image: “...have a life.”

5. Idealistic expectations can be blunted and lowered (accurate reality-testing).

6. Creativity, self-care, healthy humor, being flexible—help maintain wellness.

7. Difficult people and problems can be coped with (or seek God and move on!).

8. "The battle is the Lord’s"--become a Satisfied-Satisfier instead of a Frustrated-
Satisfier. (Frustrated-Satisfiers can backslide into Frustrated-Frustraters).

9. Your own handicaps & perceptual distortions may be managed and corrected.

10. Inspiration & encouragement from your group is available during blah times.

11. Support during personal struggles--e.g.:loneliness, alienation, sickness.

12. Build an enduring close friendship or two perhaps from your Support Group.

13. Develop insight re: how you come across to others (e.g.: facial expressions, mannerisms, habits, personal hygiene, communication style). Do you need voice-coaching to help you project properly with intercostal diaphragmatic breathing—because you preach with an effeminate, high, squeaky-squawky voice--torturous to listen to? [Many leaders have no insight regarding how tedious it is to listen to their perhaps good material—because of poor voice projection and lame rapport! Sadly, others may just be boring--blunt 'affect', emotionally cold, with impoverished and uninteresting no listen-no study-no pray lives--droning on-and-on--superficial and self-absorbed--with no depth of rich humor, satire, irony, paradox, or metaphor. Some are judgment-impaired magical thinkers--or secret-lifers*--some feel compelled to be on TV.]

14. Not trying to do God’s work--without God’s power. Like it or not (cf. Acts) the effective Christian leader must walk in the Spirit (as the leaders go--so go the people). The Spirit stops 'policy wonks', 'control freaks', 'toadie collectors', and attention-seekers. The Pneumatic (Spirit-empowered--Zech. 4:6) minister of Christ must not only have a healthy Christology but experiential knowledge and practice of a sound Pneumatology. (Who is in charge here?)

15. An honest Support Group can be an arena for the soul-healing confession--that artificial charm, secular market-driven purposes, programs, and the strange fire of carnal charisma have failed miserably to reach souls in the stewardship of Jesus Christ. My dear minister-Father told me about the deacons in a rural Kentucky church, who, when asked, “What is the anointing of the Spirit?” replied, “We don’t know if we could define what it is…but we sho-do-know-what-it-ain’t…”

EMMAUS
Christian Leadership Assistance Program
Philip C. Brewer, Director
(e) CounselPro@gmail.com
(Online LifeCoaching): http://christianleaderlifecoaching.com

Copyright © 2002-2003-2004-2005-2008 by Philip C. Brewer All Rights Reserved

Analog vs. Digital: The Soren Hypothesis

Life is 'Analog'--not 'Digital'. Surviving and Thriving Depends on Coping With, Defending Against, and Gaining Victory Over--'Digitalization' by inappropriate Religiosity, Idealism, Institutionalism, Socialism, Culturalism, and Totalitarianinsm.

"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live."

Christ is perfection. "...in Him I live and move and have my being" ...in my human messiness and frailty.

In this hypothesis, Human Living--with its problems-of-living and problems-of-loving--is 'analog'--not 'digital'--in that life is 'messy'. Even though digitalized things are fun to read (a novel) or to watch (movies, TV sitcoms, anything with a beginning, middle, and end) one does not live in a novel, a film, a TV show, or a piece of fine art.

Yet, again, we enjoy a painstakingly-crafted sculpture, neatly-worded choral music, or a sermon (from behind a pulpit with three points and a poem), because prepared presentations are 'digital', and really must be so to be logically followed--whether or not in the Western European cultural tradition.

Yet ministry always emerges from life and from community. Folks would rather "see a sermon (analogously) rather than hear one (digitally)."

Christian ideals are 'digital' but the challenge a human seeker of God has in reaching toward these ideals (the daily grind, the lonely apartment, the dead-end job, the reality of aging and loss of function) is 'analog'.

A man tries this door, tries that one. One attempt is analogous to another--analogous-to-some-frame-of reference--or to a past attempt. And, perhaps a pattern is developed. A totem is set up. A taboo is legislated.

Or perhaps a well-intended-yet logical fallacy is inferred from a correllation ("Let's not take Henrietta to the party with us because every time we take her we have car trouble"). Ask any scientist or researcher, correlations and causes are not always neatly paired up.

But the fallable, "researching and developing" analogous human being sweats and struggles in relation to a standard or placement of the bar by biblical plumblines. political pontificators, or pulpit preachments--hoping to 'improve his engineering' some day, to better his 'batting average', or to make par.

Christ's exhortation "Be ye perfect" is analogous to serious 'research and development'--like not freaking out but just relaxing in the bottom of the boat with Jesus next time on the Sea of Galilee when the storm hits--like not denying Him next time. Like casting the recalcitrant devil out this time. Wholehearted devotion. Obediently following Him, taking up His cross--yet, so messily, in such frailness, even in times of human craziness--definitely not in the 'digitalized perfection' that only God can possess.

Analog: the Spirit vs. the Letter of the Law. The righteous person in Christ may well know not to 'touch the Ark'--yet Christ will liberate the 'analogous' human seeker of God and His truth from neurotic anxiety about eating the 'temple shewbread' or pulling his ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath.

The First Century Sadducean/Pharisaical obsessive-compulsive distortions of godliness were an impossible 'yoke', an iron grip of digitalization that neither they nor their religious-systemite 'frustrated-satisfier' victims could bear. Jesus, the Anointed One, the Second Person of the Godhead, Himself divinely perfect, broke into a fascist (Roman ruled) world, and Pharisee-bound world in which the cure's totalitarian (a toxic kind of digitalization to be sure) grid was worse than the disease. Both the paranoid and the obsessive-compulsive--attempts angrily (in a human and social-engineering sense) to digitalize people and digitalize life.

Attempts to (politically or religiously) 'digitalize' human beings minus the Messiah (even trying to moralize minus-the-Messiah) will always backfire, and produce iatrogenic (treatment-caused) problems. Study Judas' moralizing-minus-the-Messiah in his bleeding-heart-liberal-fretting over "the poor" in John chapter 12.

The disciples, for a while, had 'frozen expectations' wanting Jesus to be the Conquering King in their 'now' rather than the Suffering Servant which had to come first in prophecy. They frustrated themselves by pressing the wrong 'prophetic template' over their Savior's mission. He had to go to the Cross first.

"How have the mighty fallen." Perhaps a more proactive approach could be taken to prevent Christian leaders from falling from grace and/or to prevent their messy misconduct from terminally disillusioning their constituents.

This would be to teach the redeemed community the humble realities of human frailty, while cautioning pulpiteers and televangelists regarding excesses of Triumphalism, Entire (instantaneous) Sanctification, and the touting of grandious idealizations, pedestalizations, and an obsessive legalism that belongs only to paranoid psyches and social systems.

Was the Apostle Paul demonstrating this 'analog truth' to us when he confronted Peter or fussed about taking a fellow missionary along after the man had messed up?

What about when he struck out (Acts) initially toward Asia and 'hit the wall?' Paul thought he was supposed to go to Asia but was blocked.

His R&D continued with more dedicated lab work in the Spirit as he then headed toward Bithynia--again only to find his goal frustrated and his 'spiritual engineering' perhaps only slightly improved.

Then God upgraded his 'spiritual sonar and radar' (and included the vision of the man from Madedonia), giving Paul a very clear, graphic visual schematic--better mission-mapping.

Paul's 'analog faithfulness' (I Corinthians 4: "...It is required that a man be found faithful") resulted in improved 'spiritual engineering' and successful goal-attainment as he walked more and more sensitively "in the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).

The Analog Nature of Christian Realism. First Lydia was led to Christ, then on to Philippi to be hosted by being beaten up (an 'analog reception' to be sure) and then thrown in jail (another 'messy' illustration of what it can be like to be smack-dab in the middle of God's will, led by the Spirit's finely-tuned engineering--and with the Pneumatic copability of the Spirit to sing the 'song of the Lord' in a messy (analogous, ordered-chaos) place.

Would not an analog-like faithfulness in serving God function better as the Christian's modus operandi--than trying to find (as one writer puts it) "the mystical dot" of God's perfect will, or the "dot" of perfect, self-consciious and introspective holiness..?

Might the 'digital dot' (as too often may be preached) only exist in the mind of the obsessive or the legalist..?
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Copyright 2007 by Soren et al.

OCD: The Leaven of the Psychological Pharisees: The Stingy Man (Proverbs 23:6-8)

"Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost. "Eat and drink," he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments."

In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul describes the 'fruit of the Spirit' i.e.: the evidence of the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence in the life of the believer. Paul also describes the opposite: the works of the sinful nature.

Ministering to the Obsessive-Compulsive (or 'Psychological Pharisee' (PP). Not too flatteringly has the Obsessive been labeled as 'anal retentive." The PP's concerns focus on Time, Money, Dirt, Control and Order. Ritualistic washing or 'checking' may be his compulsive modus operandi. The psyche of the PP lives and operates 'under the Law'...in the self-imposed (and imposing upon others) iron grip of a soulish legalism.

Living with the obsessive PP (as life with a Paranoid) is a waiting game: it's only a matter of time until you're caught in his grid, until you've messed up or shown your humanness a little too overtly. The PP is watching for color to go outside the lines, controlling for sloppiness or dirt, subtracting the minutes, counting the pennies.

On the other hand, the suspicious Paranoid is different. He is hyper-vigilant--idealizing you, at first, but only for the purpose of eventually kicking you off his artificial, idealized pedestal--playing the cat-n-mouse game described in Eric Berne's classic book, Games People Play, as, "I caught You, You Son of a Bitch." The Paranoid, watching vigilantly and waiting patiently, will inevitably turn against you in one hostile confrontation--while the Obsessive PP will gradually incarcerate you in his thought-policing system.

Sometimes the Paranoid and Obsessive styles combine. Study the cultic leadership style of Jim Jones of Peoples Temple mass suicide notoriety, the criminal behaviors of mafiosi, the hounding officer in Les Miserables, Eco-terrorism, or even harrassment-history of the IRS.

The Paranoid--with his Ideas of Reference, Suspiciousness, Jealousy, Grandiosity, and Persecutory distortions of perception--operates more as active and mobile surveillance--sweeping the guarded territory with floodlights, sensitive dogs, and circulating security.

The Obsessive PP, both prisoner and warden in his own system, acts as more of a passive-but-activated 'digitalized alarm system' in a locked building. You forget to lock a door or shut a window, or cross an alarm-sensor beam--and sirens will scream, horns will blow, and industrial-strength buzzers will whine.

The PP (Psychological Pharisee), as all personality disorders do, gives us a niche-glimpse of that which oppresses and imprisons the human self--of goblins and ghoulies, and long-legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night--and of the worms-that-die-not...in hell.

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty..." But, the PP (Obsessive-Compulsive) lives in mental anguish--a soulish tension between Rage and Fear. The Fear causes dogged Compliance to ritual and convergent thinking--until rage occasionally tips the scales the other way into Defiance.

The Defiance of the PP manifests itself in teeth-gritting control-freaking, hoarding, and resistance: resistance to appropriate change, innovation, creativity, artistic beauty, divergent thinking, and healthy humor.

A primary personality characteristic of the PP is stinginess. This is usually a pathological and extreme brand of stinginess--often acted out (to the embarrassment of others) in public settings: business transactions, purchases, and adding up (and quibbling over) restaurant tabs.

The thought content, style, and cognitive process of the PP reveals a mulling, repetitive rumination--awash in tedious detail and superfluous facts. All non-Christian world religions are obsessively and psychosocially pharisaical. Eastern and Western mystical and metaphysical religions are populated by PP. All occult mysticism courts and produces PP.

Over the years I've become convinced that spiritually sick 'personality disorders' like the Obsessive-Compulsive (PP) may only respond to sound Pneumatology in Christian orthopraxy.

"Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?" If the human personality is 'pneumatic' and created by God to function properly as an 'open system' and not a 'closed system' it must receive the Heavenly Father's gift of the Holy Spirit in order to function according to the Master Designer's schema and morphe.

"Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free." Consider this hypothesis: the Book of Acts, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, First Corinthians, Joel, Zechariah, and other biblical portions were written especially to emphasize the importance of sound, practical Pneumatology among the people of God.

"Be filled with the Spirit," Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:18.

It was the Central Event in the Human Race, when God incarnated into human flesh--Jesus, the Christ--in the authentic form of God and authentic form of Man. And for too long had the obsessives been placing a yoke upon the necks of others they themselves could not wear.

God had long shown His displeasure at Israel's 'new moons, sabbaths, feast days, tithing of mint and cumin, and legalistic talmudic observance--while their hearts were far from Him.

Jesus appreared at a time of theological and psychosocial crisis--a horrific scene of moneychangers in the Temple of God, and people (for whom the Sabbath was actually made) being forced into an obsessive-compulsive sabbath-binding grid.

Jesus had to come and break the obsessive-compulsive 'religiossification' (my term) of calcified totems, taboos, folkways, pastimes, and tribal customs which could strangle the Human Race's opportunity to hear the message of God's love and redemptive plan in history.

The Lord of the Sabbath walked on the scene, the Master, who had to put His house in order, "...Yes, you whited sepulchres, not only can you yank your ox out of the ditch on a holy day, I can heal a man on the Sabbath...My disciples can eat the shewbread of the Temple, and they don't have to be ritualistic handwashers, rhetorical fasters, and public alms-givers...or bleeding hearts with a faux concern for 'the poor'..."

Jesus, at His ascension, bequeathed to His disciples and to us, the (Acts 1:8) empowerment of God, the Holy Spirit. The Upper Room, perhaps the 'delivery room' of Christ's Church, and the experiential-knowledge of Christ there, was crucially important.

Otherwise, the community of the redeemed in the Early Church would have been too critically victimized by personality-disordered 'crazymakers': Schizotypals, Paranoids, Narcissists, Borderlines, Schizoids--and the Obsessive-Compulsives (PP).

Obviously (according to the New Testament narrative) some of the toxic, non-'Spirit-filled', like Diotrephes, Simon the Sorcerer, and Alexander the Coppersmith slipped through the lines and did cause harm.

Today, faux 'pneumaticians' may be like psychosocial viruses in Christendom causing glitches to frustrate sound orthopractic Pneumatology--and understandably have caused thoughtful dispensationalists and cessationists to look with jaundiced eye at any form of Pentecostal belief and practice. Pseudo-charismatic and faux pentecostals who elbowed their way into televangelism poisoned the well of the agora ministry pool.

(In the future we can address 'charismysticsm,' 'charismania,' and 'charismagic' (my terms) and attempt to see where B.B. Warfield and other cessationists may have had legitimate "wildfire" anxiety--even with their skewed research, cessationist dispensationalism, superficial "blink" impressions (cf. the book, BLINK), and an anemic understanding of the critical importance of a sound doctrine of the Holy Spirit.).

The theology, hamartiology, soteriology, and epistemology of the First Century Ecclesia, Marturia, Diaconia, and Koinonia had to be, of necessity, Pneumatic--empowered and guided by God, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus instructed, "Wait...until you receive power."

So many bemoan the awful truth that today's evangelicalism is in reality a '30-story orange juice machine that gives one pint a month'. High-powered marketers are hired to write soulish motivational books that so many 'sheeple' rush out and purchase--or sheeple pastors buy by the truck load and hand out to their congregations.

"...But all the king's horse's and all the king's men..."

B.B. Warfield and The Conspiracy of Silence. I think Dr. B.B. Warfield was 'theologically stingy' and abused his ecclesiastical clout as he sat in the Chair of Theology at Princeton circa 1900.

Warfield wrote his reactionary tome, 'Counterfeit Miracles' and, in my opinion, sabotaged the Evan Roberts Revival in Wales circa 1904, and what even worldwide could have been the spread (without over-emphasis on Azusa Street) of a sane Classical Pentecostalism that avoided Latter Rain excessess and the 'holy roller' image.

Of course, Satan loves a powerless Church. Psychological Phariseeism (PP) must be at the very least dual-diagnosed by the Spirit-guided pastor-teacher.

In its most toxic form, PP requres a triple diagnosis (1. carnality and the works of the sinful nature; 2. obsessive-compulsive personality disorder; 3. and spiritually viral occult-mystical influence.)

As a dual-diagnosis, PP presents as a combination of the Galatians 5 "works of the sinful nature", and obsessive-compulsive pathology of the human personality--melded together.

I wrote much of this Blog a year and a half ago while observing a16-17 year-old young man--over a three-month period--who was going through obsessive washing rituals).

This aritcle is getting more and more attention--some friendly and some upset (because, of course, the 'truth hurt's--ha!)

I actually had applied this article to pastors whom I had observed over the years--to be as obssessive and petty, as compulsive, ritualistic, small-minded, and stingy--as the ancient Pharisees I'd read about in the Bible.
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No person, who has OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) should be in any kind of pastoral ministry--or business, for that matter. The (OCD sufferer) stingy, 'anal retentive,' type should not only--not be in business--but no one should do business with him--or her.

(OCD--along with the other 'personality disorders'-- is a systemic aspect of the unredeemed, non-transformed-in-Christ-by the-Holy Spirit, sinful human nature. So--having a personality disorder--or psychopathology--or especially any form of 'demonization' is a contradictory premise--like trying to serve two masters--God and mammon.)

The OCD is self-absorbed, resistant, (un-'potty-trained' spiritully--ha!!) and emotionally infantile. S/he may blame it on cultural background: "We (Scots, Arabs, italians, etc...fill in the blank) are selfish shylocks--we're crafty, that's just the way God made us..." Yeah, right...!

Read the Old Testament accounts where God was angry as hell and fed up with the Israelites' 'new moons, sabbaths, tithing of mint and cumin--ad nauseum'... and rightly so!

Look at Jesus' righteous anger--the Son of God--turning over the moneychangers' tables in the temple--satirizing the compulsive washings of the pharisees--all their stupid rituals, the pharisees' legalistic, control-freaking, sabbatarian anger at Jesus' healing of the lame man on the sabbath--and petty stinginess.

The pharisees were showing the same poor mental and spiritual ill-health as today's pets-over-people types--"Oh, you poor ox down there in that awful ditch--I know it like be the Sabbath 'n all that--but who care--honey!...daddy be gonna rescue y'all outta that there ditch right now...yeah baby...but, Jesus,...now doncha be healin' up fo-yo self no lame types now y'hear?!!... like it be the Sabbath and all that...like yo know the rules...don't gimme that Son-a-God divine stuff--ain't buyin' it now y-hear..?!"

Spiritually speaking these OCD pharisee-types, of course, were savages--faux-religionists--disgusting to God--and a hindrance to godly people, of no help to the suffering and afflicted, and worthless to the Kingdom of God.

Modern-day Judaizers are failing God--just like the Apostle Peter was momentarily doing in the First Century. (Remember when the Apostle Paul had to rebuke him and set him straight.) But, Peter received Paul's correction--demonstrating that he was teachable--and that he had ears to hear.

(I wish I'd been there to hear Paul, "Peter--get a clue--you're regressing into neurotic, legalistic 'Peter-ville' again--earth to Peter....duh...what're you gonna do next--start cuttin' off ears again too, Peter..? Hey--get a grip--no, that's probably the wrong way to put it--get real, Peter...!")

Today, Paul would say the same (good humor--good pun!) thing to the 'Concision Party' of Judaizers, "I wish they would slice themsleves off (in a certain key place--ha!).

I praise God when I read in the Gospel accounts how Jesus rebuked the pharisees--instructing them that "the sabbath was made for man--not man for the sabbath!"

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit of God--in today's community of the redeemed--is marginalizing, squelching, neutering--ha!--OCD types--and kicking them to the curb..!

Of course, OCD is again--one of the 'works of the sinful nature'...sin...one of the manifestations of the fallenness of Human Nature--and, of course, another reason why every human being must respond to the wooing, calling, conviction--of the Holy Spirit of Truth (John 16)--and be transformed (Romans 12:1-2) by the Holy Spirit--by God's renewing of the mind.

There is no other hope for personality disorders like OCD.

"Let God arise and His enemies be scattered!" --Psalm 68:1

(Excerpt: unpublished mss):
"OCD: the Psychological Leaven of the Pharisees"
Copyright 2008 by Philip C. Brewer (part B) All Rights Reserved

The Crying Place: Shanghai, China

I wonder if anyone can help me research this: in Shanghai, China, I've heard there is a kind of tea room that is called The Crying Place, and the customers pay a fee to go in, sit at a table with a box of tissues, and cry. The establishment is supposedly quite popular and always filled to capacity. I heard a pastor mention this in a sermon a couple of years ago.

How many churches, I wonder, offer a place for someone to come and cry. A place where it would be acceptable to cry--to shed tears of confession and repentance, or tears of sorrow and grief, tears of remorse, or tears of joy..?

My Eastern Kentucky Baptist-turned-Pentecostal-minister Dad told me once he never trusted a dry-eyed, emotionally aloof and cold conversion to Christ.

He would ask,"How could the regenerative and transformational epiphane in the Holy Spirit--being drawn to God, the Father--having the revelation of The Cross of Christ and His atoning blood as propitiation for the seeker's sin--be responded to in an aloof, perfunctory, matter-of-fact, emotionally cold manner..?"

The truly stable and mentally healthy person in Christ will have the liberty (in Christ) to humbly, vulnerably, sincerely weep before God in the wholesome catharsis that expresses the comfort of the Comforter--in sorrow or in joy. And s/he will have the Spirit's empathy in rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep.

Psychopathy, according to Drs. Meloy and Hare, experts in the study, shows its presence in many ways in the human personality. Some symptoms manifest as glibness, superficiality, emotional coldness, and lack of empathy--qualities, by the way, often exalted in the Hollywood Star System and American popular culture.

Perhaps there is just no need for a Crying Place here...

Liberty Christian Fellowship

Top Rating *****

Today was at least my twelfth visit over the past four years to this warm-hearted group of dedicated Christians, meeting on Millbrook Avenue two blocks south of Mckinley Avenue in Fresno, California, who worship and minister faithfully to each other and their community.

Pastors Joseph and Catherine Thornton are always encouraging, listien with focused interest to what you're saying, and are a model of what sincere love and effective pastoral shepherding is all about.

They carefully teach the love and doctrine of God, the Father, Who created the universe, Who nurtures and supplies needs, and Who gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to the sincere seeker in Christ.

They teach a sound Christology (doctrine of Jesus Christ) with no cultic defects, and correctly present Jesus Christ as mankind's Savior Who gave Himself up to be crucified for the propitiation of Man's sin, and Who, in His Resurrection, conquered sin, death, hell, the grave, and Satan. And from Whom, those who cling to Him, receive mental, physical, and relational healiing, and the (necessary for ministry) baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Liberty Christian Fellowship holds to a sound Pneumatology (doctrine of the Holy Spirit). And the pastors, the capable and reverent worship musicians, elders, and all the "brothers and sisters in Christ" (from those just taking their spiritual baby steps--to the spiritually mature) minister in the Spirit's comfort, empowerment, and wisdom.

A banner hangs over the door in the back of the beautiful sanctuary which reads, "This is a House of Restoration."

And I did find this to be an evening of restorative healing. After the service, we gathered in the front and prayed for each other to be healed in body and soul. There was earnest prayer for loved ones who did not know Christ and for healing of family relationships.

The Lord was present. There were tears of gratitude, joy, release, forgiveness, and realization of Christ, the Great Physician's, healing touch.

In my visiting of churches over the years I have often longed for an experience like today's at Liberty Christian Fellowship--often desired such authenticity in sincere kindness, friendliness, empathy, and meaningful ministry.

I pray that any Christian ministry which doesn't enjoy the 'seven characteristics of life' in the Life of the Spirit may soon yield to The Perfect Gentleman, God, the Holy Spirit, and to the breath of spiritual life He brings to any humble and sincerely-seeking congregation.

Copyright 2007 by Soren All Rights Reserved

Soren

Aisle Running Critic at Large & Theological Forum

STEEPLE CHASER. Should there be such a thing as a (respectful and benign yet honest and bold) 'quality control inspector' (a la book reviewer, or theater critic) who goes around to churches and publishes evaluations--based on a fair 100-question-1-10 scale covering areas such as doctrine, hospitality, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit?

Could rapport and friendliness (v.s. non-bonding 'teflonism'), sincere love, empathy, and substantiality (v.s. glibness and superficiality), mental health (v.s. crazymaking), quality of music, creativity and the arts, community outreach, and intelligent conversation--be given a "quotient" rating system by the ecclesiastical critic..?

Could the 'personality' of each local Christian fellowship be observed and experienced? Could this 'church personality' be reflected upon and described in a blog..?

Would this (hopefully fair, friendly--but factual) reportage encourage more internal quality control in the redeemed community by addressing syndromes like "the Emperor's Clothes" and absence of spiritual life, and stimulate healthy corrective discussion within each group?

In my own experience over the years I was often tempted to go back to a church I had visited with a sign around my neck and a paper cup. The sign would read: "Eye Contact--$1.00."

As a counselor in private practice for many years, I've listened to many stories of church experiences--often by people who had stopped going anywhere. Following are some examples of statements made to me over the years:

1. "I was man-handled by a rude usher and forced to sit where I didn't want to."

2. "They seemed authentically interested in me, asked thoughtful questions, and were very friendly."

3. "No one--but a glazed-eyed greeter--even looked at me--much less smiled or said hello."

4. "The pastor gave me a warm handshake, called me later, and after attending several months I've found that he has a true shepherd's heart--as do other spiritual leaders there he has trained."

5. "I've never met so many emotionally cold, ""God's Frozen Chosen," bland and boring people in my life."

6. "The pastor there teaches the Bible truths in a very interesting, practical, and applicable way--with illustrations from his own life experiences--not from a dusty book."

P.S.: Many pastors could spice up their sermon-introductions, I think, by subscribing to SERMONSPICE.com where they can obtain excellent thematic stage-setting 3-4 minute videos to introduce their messages.
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THEOLOGICAL FORUM:
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I would enjoy hearing your thoughts re:

1. The Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) Phenomenon:
...................Would you agree that...
A. Norman Vincent Peale was the Protestants' PMA guy...?
B. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was the Roman Catholics' PMA guy...?
C. Robert Schuller (now his son too) is the Evangelicals' PMA guy...?
D. Joel Osteen (now at 40,000?) is the Mega Church PMA guy...?
E. Hagin & K. Copeland et al are the Latter Rain Pentecostals' PMA guys...?

2. Another question: I wonder if Triumphalism or Word-Faith teaching would fit the Apostle John's experience on the Isle of Patmos--the early Church Christians-to the present--who have undergone persecution, martyrdom, suffering..e.g. Hebrews 11...?

3. Or my hypothesis: Word-Faith, Positive-Confession, and Latter-Rain Pentecostalism is not only out of (and antagonistic to) the Classical Pentecostal tradition of say, the more Wesleyen-based Assemblies of God or Church of God (Cleveland, TN)--but really out of classical Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxy. i.e.: Word-Faith belongs more in the metaphysical Mind Sciences: Religious Science, Christian Science, New Consciousness, and Emersonain Transcendentalism. (?)

4. And another thought: would there be a danger (or would I be too 'theologically paranoid' to worry) that the Emergent Church, in many of its so-called 'paradigmatic-Hegelian-shifts' is perhaps in many cases--or varying degrees--in reality the emerging Apostate Church of the Last Days--a manipulated 'consensus' fostering syncretism in doctrine--and perhaps containing aspects of 'fascism-lite' or a 'totalistic' propaganda-driven nature--as it resonates with the mega-church phenomenon...?

5. And (re: Pneumatology): My Methodist and theologically-educated Mom and my So. Baptist-to-Scottish-Presbyterian-theologically-educated Dad both rejected Latter Rain Pentecostalism (with its holyrollerism: impulsivity, inappropirate pre-occupation with demons(instead of having a scholarly 'demonology'), unstable emotionalism--histrionics, anti-education bias, directive prophecy, non-reflective shallowness, and the kind of splenetic subjectivism one might call 'Charismagical', 'Charismystical', and 'Charismanic'--my terms).

My parents' conviction was that they were non-cessationists: they believed that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit--particularly those listed in Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12, 13--were for today--and did not cease (at the closing of the Apostolic Age--or the completion of the New Testament Canon). Our family experienced divine healing physically as did people to whom they ministered. However, they cautioned me regarding the dangers inherent in not subjecting all experience to scripture and Latter Rain excesses such as 'charismatic clairvoyance' in which, in a William Branhamesque manner, someone on a platform would call out diseases and afflictions or "read a person's mail" by telling people their name and street address.
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Copyright 2007 by Philip C. Brewer