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What the Lakeland Outpouring taught a non-evangelical…
Current mood: awake
Category: Blogging


Many people know that I like to keep in touch with what is going on in the evangelical world. Call it a whimsy; call it a need to do a "sanity check" on myself so that I can remember the nature of "the beast…"

I have been reading about the fallout from this latest soon-to-be-disgraced "revival" leader, and my heart is conflicted for my brothers in humanity that have fervent faith in Christianity.

On the one side there are the "doctrinally pure" brethren who are relieved that this revivalist has fallen. His antics, shenanigans, and poor cold readings just couldn't hold up to the harsh light of fact-finding, and I guess when you claim thousands of healings and more than 30 resurrections, you've either got to produce or get the hell out of town (no pun intended).

On the other side of the house are the brethren who "believe in the move of the spirit" and are heartbroken at another minister fallen from grace. The desire to see a "great move of god" or "the last day outpouring of the spirit" has been disappointed again, and this has lead to another chasm and division in the "family" of Christian believers.

So what did I learn, as someone who has "left the path" some time ago, as someone who noticed the old man standing in the corner screaming "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?"

Three things:

First-Christianity is in the middle of its own "coca cola-pepsi" war. Christianity has morphed, changed, and split over the centuries, and the wear and tear is showing. How long can this "movement" last? Either one of the "brands" will win out (and make no mistake, my dispensationalist brothers, it won't be Catholicism, because they are their OWN brand and stand alone-but they're showing signs of age too), or people will just start drinking iced tea instead (draw your own analogy to any spiritual ideology here).

Second-people desperately want to believe in a spirituality that they can see. Like Scully on the X-Files, they need to have the visible spaceship and the alien cadavers in order to believe, and when they are tricked they get disillusioned. I'd like to think that all people will come to realize that spirituality is an individual path-no one can walk it for you (even though many would like to provide this service for you-of course for a nominal fee).


Third-and this goes along with the second point. If people would follow their inner guide and a path of peace with others, the "hucksters" that prey on the vulnerable would have a hard time making a living (much less getting rich and skipping town), and we wouldn't feel such a need to manage the spiritual lives of others.

-Dan

So very well put!

We still having "outpourings?" Man, I need to catch up.

Yeah-go figure!