Name It And Claim It Heart and Soul, BBC Listen
"I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. " John 10: 10
Prosperity Theology emphasises God's promised generosity in this life, rather than waiting for riches in the next. It's an idea that's growing in popularity in the United States and has spread through the Pentecostal wing of Christianity across Africa. Heart and Soul examines "the Word of Faith, Health and Wealth". Followers argue that it inspires believers to get better jobs and to fulfil their potential; critics that it equates faith with money, and has directly contributed to the current financial crisis.
As the world recession deepens, and debt and unemployment increase in the United States, Richard Coles ask what happens to a belief system that puts so much emphasis on the philosophy that God wants his followers to be wealthy
Pastor Jamal Bryant at Empowerment Temple  |
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SO YOU SHALL REAP
Director: Darryn de la Soul
 So You Shall Reap came about accidentally when I worked as an 'outsider' sound engineer for an 11-day evangelical Christian church conference in London. The preaching style of the International Super-Star Preachers, their obsession with material wealth and their ability to extract massive amounts of cash from the 8,000-strong congregation was both so amazing and amusing, I felt compelled to record as much as possible.
Filmed largely on my cell phone, this guerrilla documentary follows both my own experience of the event as the days passed, and exposes some very questionable teachings and tactics.
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Our Entertainment Worship Culture
"We are not producing worshipers in this country. Rather, we are producing a generation of spectators, religious onlookers lacking, in many cases, a true encounter with God, deprived of both the tangible sense of God's presence and the supernatural relationship their inmost spirits crave."-Sally Morgenthaler, Worship Evangelism
The state of worship in our churches concerns me. Specifically, the emphasis on entertainment in our corporate worship gatherings concerns me, especially as it pertains to music. Recently, I attended several churches where I felt more like a spectator than a worshiper. Like Sally Morgenthaler, I fear we are cultivating an unhealthy entertainment worship culture.
The Danger of Entertainment
Entertainment is often defined as something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement. Whether we attend a sporting event, rock concert, or movie, we go to be entertained. We are spectators of a performance. In some churches, a visitor could easily confuse a worship service with a rock concert or theatrical performance. Why, then, do we engineer that kind of atmosphere in many of our worship experiences?
We can all agree that in order to be relevant to our culture we must speak the language of our culture. The apostle Paul made this argument in 1 Corinthians 9:22 when he said he willingly became all things to all men so that some may be saved. As much as our churches need to speak the language of our culture, we must remember that relevance is not our highest purpose.
Joe Horness, a former worship leader at Willow Creek Community Church, writes in Exploring the Worship Spectrum, "We can easily gear our worship times around what we think is hip or cool and forget that our primary calling is to serve our congregation and help them meet with God." If we are entertaining our congregations with songs from the Top 40 charts rather than engaging them with truth and drawing them to God, are we really fulfilling the purpose of our gathering?
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 "We have endured 25 years of health, wealth and prosperity preaching, and the prophets should have told us that we were going to be in this kind of situation and circumstance since they have such 'prophetic' words. What happened is the church has capitalized the gospel and we have preached Americanism for gospel, and ultimately we ended up crashing because there is no credulity and authenticity in the whole presentation. The only people who were making any real money were those who were expostulating the theology that left the psychology that debilitated the minds of those who were involved. The debilitation is that everybody expected to bring an offering in church and just get rich though nobody participated and partnered with God. Because at the end of the day nobody receives a check in an envelope postmarked from heaven. It's your participation that makes it happen. ... The ministry and the preachers have taken so much money from the church and lived lavish lifestyles. We need to put something back. We need to equip our people. As James puts it, very explicitly, 'Faith without works is dead.' We co-create, we perpetuate God's creation by functioning responsibly. So what everybody was talking about as God's blessing was people living on credit. And the Bible says that the borrower is subject to the lender. So Christian America simply joined the capitalistic bandwagon and-in the name of God-articulated a theology that has no credulity."
-Bishop Noel Jones, pastor of City of Refuge in Los Angeles, offering his take on the American church's condition during the current economic recession. Jones' 17,000-member church, like many other predominantly African-American megachurches, has seen its membership increase while offerings have decreased. [theweeklychallenger.com, 5/19/09
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Why is everyone leaving the church?
Talk about a string of bad press! In addition to a write up in the Christian Science Monitor [The Coming Evangelical Collapse], a cover article of the Newsweek Magazine entitled "The End of Christian America," a more readable and short article popped up last week on ABC News entitled, "Young America Losing Their Religion."
While these articles aren't great news, I must be a bad pastor because the news of this supposed major decline of Western Christianity aren't really freaking me out. In fact, I'm as hopeful than ever before. Why? News like this has the potential to awaken a slumbering church and forces us to re-examine the question: "Who is the church and what is our mission?" In addition, it confirms to me that while folks might be turning away from institutional religion as we know, all of these articles point to my conviction that people are still very spiritual and looking and searching for a deeper understanding of life, truth, and meaning.
The institutional 'C'hurch may be struggling but may not necessarily mean the body of Christ is struggling. Might even be the contrary. Think about this from a commenter:
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Fellow Kinetics Faith & Justice Network member, Dr. Eric McDaniel, is researching the degree to which churches actively discuss various health issues ranging from heart disease to domestic violence. The survey will ask questions in regards to the actual activities of the church, such as programs or message sent to the congregation or community. It will also examine pastor's attitudes towards these issues and their perception of member attitudes.
We are looking for 800 pastors who would be willing to participate. The survey will be made available via the internet this coming Fall. If your church is interested in participating in this survey please email me at info@kineticnet.org . Please include name of church, pastor, and your contact information.
Please support this valuable research and our brother. In love & service,
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About Us
... You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (Isaiah. 58:12)
Kinetics mission is to develop new ideas that work to strengthen social movements within the African-American community; providing them with the tools and skills to pursue justice and better address the needs of those whom they serve.
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