The Planetshakers City Church in Melbourne, Australia has seen incredible growth since it founded in 2004, believing, as their website says, that "God has the power to transform and revolutionise the lives of all people, propelling them into their God-given destiny." Their services draw thousands. The Planetshakers Band tours internationally, to places like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa, and has released several albums.
And until recently, Michael Guglielmucci was a pastor at the church and part of the Planetshakers band, inspiring his followers, many of them young people, with his brave two-year battle with terminal leukemia.
On August 12, Guglielmucci admitted that he's been faking the illness, fooling not only his congregation, but his parents and his own wife.
What drove Guglielmucci to the deception? An obsession with pornography, that started when he was 12 years old.
This was no amateur attempt at faking. This was a man leading a very convincing double life.
Australia's Herald Sun reports, "The deception included conducting performances with an oxygen tube in his nose and telling audiences he had broken bones and other unexplained symptoms."
Michael's father, Daniel Guglielmucci, released a statement in which he says an accident in 2006 that put Michael in the hospital apparently gave him the idea to fake cancer. He said that he, his wife and Michael's wife had no idea he was faking, and had watched Michael suffer what would have been normal reactions to cancer treatments, including nose bleeds and losing his hair in clumps. Mr. Guglielmucci is a founder of Edge Church International, at Reynella in Adelaide.
Michael Guglielmucci has said that the guilt and shame he suffered over his addiction manifested itself in physical symptoms. He has offered to return any monies that people have donated to him to cover his medical "treatments" and is currently receiving psychiatric care.
The question is: How on earth did people not know that the man wasn't really sick? Didn't someone go to the doctor's with him once in a while? Take him a chemo treatment? Have to pay a doctor's copay or refill a prescription?
And how can a man with a 16 year addiction to porn hide it for that long? Were there really no hints?
And the even bigger question: are we bowing at the altar of the megachurch, rather than the foot of the cross, because it's "culturally relevant?"
I'm all for being culturally relevant and meeting people where they are, but I'm not really a fan of the church-as-commerical-empire movement. I think people end up worshipping the church instead of God.
Did Michael Guglielmucci get lost in the megachurch-worship band-rock star mentality?
Obviously, we need to pray for him as well as for his family.
And I'd love to know what you think!
[8/28/08: I need to do a little update here to clarify. Guglielmucci was at Planetshakers until about 18 months ago. His most recent project was with Hillsong. Sorry for the confusion.]
RELATED POST
A musing, a confession, and the last word (this week) on Christian music
Michael Guglielmucci talks about worshipping God and dealing with cancer on new Hillsong DVD
The commerce of church - when do we cross the line?
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Brother Phillip, I didn't realize I was flipping you off. I certainly didn't mean to do that. I didn't realize you were waiting for a response from me. I have not been agreeing or disagreeing with you; just trying to reign in the comments and convice the admins not to delete them.
Ephesians 5:19, 20 - Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm not exactly sure what you're asking me to comment on in this verse? The Bible says that from the heart the mouth speaketh, so music in the heart obviously pours forth from the mouth.
Colossians 3:16 - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
I think that the music is to be sung with gratitude, and that we're to teach and admonish each other. Again, I don't know what more you're asking from me about these two verses.
Again, I'm not trying to flip you off, but I really don't know what more you are asking of me. You keep posting on the very first post, so I hope you've been following the entire story, including my two very personal musings on the Christian music industry, which may answer a lot of your questions:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/gospelsoundcheck/2008/08/a-musing-a-confession-and-the.html
http://blog.beliefnet.com/gospelsoundcheck/2008/09/a-monday-morning-musing-on-the.html
Thanks!
Joanne
host of the GS blog
Hi,
music music music, who does not love music....!!! but
Can we or - is it easy to - distinguish between emotional vs spiritual worship....?!
Do we really need music to get us into the worship spirit?! since when God needs an emotional worship enhancement drugs!
I wounder also -I say that with the utmost respect to the holy spirit-, but did the healed pastor also speak in tongues?! could that be unreal “fraud” too?! how can you speak(pray) in/by the “holy spirit” in the presence of deception, if we are/he is praying in tongues to edify self, what sort of spiritual edification is that??!!
or how can you lead worship being led by the holy spirit, in the presence of deception...please note that we are in the new testament, not the old testament- so please do not use the example of Elijah, or David, or Samson - and also do not mention (or argue the point of) the difference between the anointing and the integrity...
Please WAKE UP AOG….
THE LORD IS NEAR
and most of what you offer is not for the spirit heart but only for the eye and EAR.
It’s much more than just to cheer,
but it is love after GOD’S fear.
Lots of emotions and tears, and deception year after year!
GOD HELP US the shepherd voice HEAR, AND to the truth ADHERE.
GLORY BE TO YOUR NAME ONLY from a loving heart and sincere!
.
P.S. before judging what I said, I would like to say that I am not against music, I love and adore/listen to music....also I play music in church...
Hi Joanne;
Thank you for your response to my request for input on Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16. You were not exactly sure what in particular I was asking for. This may be because you overlooked my direct questions:
How do we hear the singing from the heart?
And why is the melody to be in the heart, rather than out in the open?
YOU gave the following: The Bible says that from the heart the mouth speaketh, so music in the heart obviously pours forth from the mouth.
And this much I appreciate, and thank you for. However, I was very interested in what you think about SPEAKING songs? And if you knew of any Christian performance, which speaks songs? I believe there is something interesting going on in these verses, which you and I would not see as a normal musical performance.
Thank you in advance for your help.
I'm sorry, you're right. I misunderstood the question.
Are you referring to spoken word performances? Where the lyrics are not sung but spoken to music? I don't actually know off hand any artists who do spoken word, but that is what they call it. I'll see if I can come up with something.
I do think that a lot of what comes out of our mouths is centered around the idea that out of our hearts our mouth speaks, and obviously what is in our hearts is in correlation to what is in our spirits and our minds. So the verses you pointed out do raise the notion that our words, either spoken or sung in my opinion, would be a reflection of our hearts, and I think you'd see that in how many artists' lives and music line up. Then again, our lips are deceitful so you have artists who say one thing and do another ... honestly, I don't have a better answer than that. It's kind of circular.
And you raise an intersting point: if you speak a song, instead of singing it, is it still a song? Or is it poetry?
Spoken word is really outside the box, artistically (I think the Christian music industry tends to shy away from anything "artsy," which is a whole other discussion about arts and the Church throughout history) so you won't find a lot if it in the industry. But I'll see what I can find.
Thanks!
Joanne
host of the GS blog
Brother Phillip,
OK so I've done some googling and as I expected, I don't see a lot out there about spoken word. I think you may find more about spoken word if you look for poets? Or rappers, LOL? Rap is a mix of music and poetry.
I think that the best answer I can give to how we hear singing from the heart is ... I don't know. What comes out of our mouths, I suppose.
I wish I could be more help! I will keep my eyes out for spoken word artists, though.
Joanne
host of the GS blog
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