Since this is technically a holiday, I'm just going to drop in a tell you about something that happened to me this weekend that kind of wraps up last week's discussion about Mike Gugliellmucci, the commerce of Christianity and celebrity-ism.
On Saturday, I stopped in at the local Christian bookstore. While I was there, I asked the clerk if she'd heard anything about Hillsong recalling their product, because some of my readers in Australia said the ministry was recutting the video to remove Guglielmucci's segment talking about cancer. No one at the store had even heard anything about Gugliemucci's confession, and they were concerned that customers should know before they bought the DVD.
Then that afternoon I got a newsletter from a local church that included a message from the pastor about Mike Guglielmucci - using his story of cancer to illuminate the lesson that God always supplies our needs. I then heard about another church that had used the video of Guglielmucci performing with oxygen to lead off a series on the miracles.
Sigh. Again, I'm not sure what happens now. Do these pastors end up with egg on their face? Does the gist of their message change, just because the example they used did?
I got up yesterday with the intent to visit a small church in our town, and at the last minute changed my mind and went back to the supersized church I'd told you about last week. Not sure why, just felt like that's where I was supposed to go. I met my friend Jan and her husband, who have been attending regularly.
I got there a few minutes late, and it took me a minute to find Jan, so the music was already in full swing when I sat down. Jan leaned over to tell me that the band was a guest worship band from the south called Among the Thirsty.
At that minute, they finished a song and the lead vocalist told the crowd that they had performed that song for them, but now it was time to worship. He explained that there was no difference between them and the congregation, and asked the crowd to forget that the band was on stage, and to join together as one to worship God.
Wow, didn't see that coming. But it was the first sign that I was in the right place.
After the worship and before the message, someone came on stage to do the announcements and said that band would have CDs available for sale after the service, and that 10% of everything sold would benefit the church's mission projects.
Didn't love that she talked about selling CDs during the service, but I love that the band was supporting the local church. Didn't expect that, either.
And then, to cap off an already pleasant morning, the speaker - I think he's an assistant pastor - gave a message that paralleled my post on Friday about pride and surrender.
I left feeling like God showed me some things about how to balance my concerns about the commercialization of church with his directive to not forsake gathering together for fellowship.
First, my link in God's chain may simply be to provide a place to exchange information, a forum to debate, an opportunity to learn from each other. I shouldn't feel badly about that, as long as my intentions are to glorify God and do his will, and not seek approval of anyone else.
Second, what can often be viewed as simply commerce can also be a way to help the local church. Trust me, it's a sacrifice for a band to give 10% of their CD sales for a day. Among the Thirsty travels the country in an old vehicle with more than 200,000 miles on it. What they make at one show gets them to the next one. No one in that band is getting rich. But they demonstrated a committment to using their gifts to support the local body of Christ. That works for me.
Third, I think it's possible to attend a large church and not get caught up in the hype - as long as you're making sure to watch out for the hype. The church - the official building, the denomination, the Sunday techno service - is not the same as the Church - the body of Jesus followers. And it's possible to have a body of believers solidly following Christ and serving their community, and still have some fakers in the midst. I mean, at the last supper, no one knew which of the disciples was going to betray Jesus. If they had, would they have stepped in? Maybe no one was supposed to see Michael Guglielmucci's deceit until now because God is going to use it for something that we can't understand.
Lastly, I think you have to keep your eyes open, not to be always distrustful of the church but to be alert to situations where things just don't seem right. I think you have to be Berean, and not follow a church leader with blind faith, but to always be studying, confirming and learning for yourself. I think you have to realize that church will always have some things that are good and some that are bad, and you have to just remember to always follow Jesus, not the church leaders.
Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. I hope you're enjoying this Monday Labor Day holiday!
RELATED POSTS
A musing, a confession, and the last word (this week) on Christian music
Michael Guglielmucci talks about worshipping God and dealing with "cancer" on Hillsong DVD
Planetshakers Michael Guglielmucci admits porn addiction, faking cancer
The commerce of church - where do we draw the line?
My interview with Paul Baloche busts the myth of the millionaire musician
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Thanks, all, for the encouraging comments. I appreciate your patience as I kind of thought this whole thing through out loud, LOL.
As an aside, I heard this morning from the father of one of the guys in Among The Thirsty. Apparently, they thought they might need to cancel that show on Sunday but knew God has something for them there so made the trip. Wow. Talk about God aligning our plans!
Joanne
host of the GS blog
Thanks Joanne,
This may be the best post yet.
Take care,
Dave
I found out about what Mike Guglielmucci had done two weeks ago and i was shocked! however it showed me something and made me learn a lesson. All of us are human and make mistakes, some massive, some small, in Mike's case it was massive.
It showed me that overall, it's Jesus who should be in the centre of our hearts. People that are famous preachers and lead inspiring lives seem to be our heroes but in the end make mistakes.
What i have noticed about this is although the whole time Mike was living a lie, God's grace shone through. I saw Mike at Audacious 2007 and what he said about the Bible was true and the words in 'Healer' are ture as well. Also he came to my church and prophesied and everything he said has come true, God's grace is awesome!
I have been very intersested in what you have written about big churches and the whole topic, thanks
God bless ya x
Discovering that Michael Gugliemucci is a fraudster and a liar has only strengthened my belief in that these mega churches are money making machines. Your comment about them pitching CD sales during a church service, further cements this. I hope that justice prevails and people open their eyes so they are no longer sheep waiting to be fleeced.
God is in peoples hearts not in concrete buildings with theatrics.
It's this kind of hucksterism that makes me glad I'm an agnostic.
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