Leeland and the holy spirit hoedown

So the over all thought for the tech nightmare post was if you can't do it right when you're trying to do it big, then either a) don't do it at all, or b) scale back till you can do it right. One other thing I forgot to mention is the use of punch lights/audience lights as house lights...bad idea.

After yesterday's post on tech I figured I would bring the other side of the 'concert/conference' that made the entire thing just a little more on the awkward side. Gideon's Army was a charismatic organization that had put on the whole thing and frankly from the time we walked in it was kind of an awkward oppressive feeling because we were not part of the group. I kind of wondered what was going to happen when "Gideon" got up to introduce Leeland because intermittently he began saying unintelligible things, which I kind of shrugged off as the fact that I couldn't understand him to begin with.

The music started and people moved forward and all of the sudden people broke loose, dancing in the aisle ways shouting, etc. Now this could have just been an exuberant group of kids...so no condemnation there. Leeland started getting into it and went into a 20 minute rendition of just saying love, love, love or joy, joy, joy. Ok thats cool, but people were hoopin and hollerin like it was 1995. I didn't get it. So that kind of drug on and on and on and then out of no where the guy gets up again and starts praying because this was a "conference" to start igniting the passions of students in their schools. So wait...this was a student rally?

All of the sudden people started walking up on stage, to 'pray'. This girl grabbed the mic and started rambling nonsense then started praying and then back to some gibberish. Then another guy jumped up on stage and started praying and waving his hands. This was getting a little awkward. The pastor grabbed the mic and started praying again and had Leeland start to sing more, but he joined in with them in singing loudly into the mic and dancing on stage. By this point, besides looking like Benny Hin, he had lost all respect from me. This is the look at me mentality. What did Jesus say about the people who do this? They already have their reward.

Let's look at this from the reverse perspective, and this applies not only to this situation but what you do in your own church/life. We're trying to reach the MTV generation. These kids are already highly skeptical view of God, religion and church. You're going to hold a youth rally event, that you're going to encourage kids to bring lost people to. I'd say a lot of the kids have never been to church or, don't want a part of church because of past experiences. How to you expect to connect with them when your media and tech on the face value looks cool, but either doesn't work or doesn't look good? These kids consume exuberant amounts of awesome (production value) media, or go to expensive concerts. They're attention spans for this kind of stuff is short, you have to grab them and hold them, even if it's simple.

A lot of times Christians get pegged for doing cheesy stuff. Watch TBN, a large helping of Christian music videos and maybe a smattering of concerts online and you'll get my drift. Lady with big blue/pink/green hair in high backed gold chairs and fancy set pieces? A sub par music video that looks like a kid did it in his basement on his laptop and hand cam? a hand full of intelligent lights pointed at the ceiling?

I could take a ton of time and talk about speaking in tongues, go read the Bible, it's in there, the apostles did it because there was a need for each person to hear in thier own language, it's a miracle event. Gibberish not included. Can God still preform miracles today? yup, but speaking in a language all your own (and sounding like an idiot) to be more spiritual is not exactly what I'd call a miracle, more like acting like the Pharisee who is standing on the street corner praying loudly so that all can hear.

You expect students to invite their lost friends, who are skeptical to religion, to a place where they are ultimately going to feel extremely uncomfortable and probably become even more skeptical of religion. Imagine, you didn't know Christ, or you may not have to imagine. You walk into a building set up for 700 people and there are only about 200-300 people there. No one talks to you, and because you're an outsider you kind of get looked at funny. The event starts and people start going crazy, not just hey im having fun goofing off crazy but I'm possessed spinning and jumping around, flailing like a dead fish crazy. People start running laps for Jesus, a couple people get up on stage and start speaking in tongues, and the band is singing one word over and over again for 20 minutes. You can't figure out what is going on and by the time the speaker gets up to tell you what is going on you've completely disengaged yourself.

Now this all came with a gut check too. I had to stop and say, because I'm a Christian is it wrong for me not to get into something this much. Can I still say I'm joyful and not express myself outwardly like this. My conclusion is, yes I can. Your faith is expressed through many number of means and it does not have to be show-offy. Then I had to ask myself, is this junk wrong? You can take that in two directions. Personally for them is it wrong(without touching on biblical issues)? no, it is how they express themselves, if they want to dace like a fool go for it. Publicly is it wrong? I might have to say yes on that. Paul says in Corinthians to not cause any one to stumble, Jew, Greek, or the church of God.... Telling someone that they do not have the gift of tongues and there fore are less spiritual, or making someone feel completely out of place and uncomfortable is NOT biblical.

As Christians we are called to be a change agent in the world around us. Not a deter rant for those to believe. We should be providing warm, welcoming, challenging and growing environments for students that does not cause them to leave with more questions or down right rejection because of how we acted. (Not watered down, just being able to bring teenagers in without having them freaked out, the word 'church' is hard enough to swallow for the general public)

So does the holy spirit need to have a hoedown in order to meet us in a place? absolutely not, he's with us wherever we're at. Just be authentic, that is all God asks of you as a Christian. You'll get a better response from people too.