Because I wrote about GLOO last night on social media and engaged in related internet searches, this morning I awoke to see the following ads in my Facebook newsfeed. It was a surprising amount that Facebook quickly used its algorithms to flash before my eyes.
I expanded a number of them and did screenshots, and I will insert some commentary on some. I really could have kept scrolling and gathering more quite easily but I figured this was enough to make my point: the Church is being targeted by these interconnected networks.
Just a look at the number of likes and shares on some of them gives a glimpse into response. When someone likes or shares something, then it is likely their set of friends will somehow be exposed to it down the line. On and on…it is how these things work.
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The first advertisement in my newsfeed that caught my eye was from GLOO itself advertising what appears to be pre-constructed Christmas sermons.
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One can visit Pushpay’s website to read what their goal is and see some of the churches advertised as using this service. It appears at first glance largely a financial tool. Notice their ad statement about “converting visitors” to active congregation members; traditionally the idea of conversion has to do with accepting Christ.
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Of all of these ads, this one from the “Global Center for Religious Research” with its 3.1K followers is high up there in terms of secular and demonic agenda to twist-and-assault the following of the Christian faith. For the Church-interested, it warrants a click and a deeper reading to get a sense of this propaganda and indoctrination aimed to train and inform our clinicians (and it also says on the site, “spiritual leaders”). Which of course goes hand-in-hand with their training toward pushing children and young adults into so-called gender affirming medical treatment. This is all quite concerning and of course these days, all one has to do is cry the words “toxic” and “trauma” to have immediate, unquestioned credibility within the worldly system. And my point here is, that this ad appeared today alongside the ones pressing the Church into a globalized network and related messaging. Notice this “trauma” site labels itself as Global.
I am going to copy/paste the “symptoms” of “toxic religious indoctrination” from this site; you be the judge of the agenda and spirit:
“RELIGIOUS TRAUMA,
LET US COUNT THE WAYS.
Faith-Based Distress Can Look Like…
❧ Deep or chronic shame about being a sinner and not living up to expectations
❧ Feelings of unworthiness, being unlovable, or bad in some way
❧ Fear of rejection by God or the faith community including being publicly shamed, ostracized, guilt-tripped and demonized for any minor infraction
❧ Lack of self-compassion
❧ Lack of personal autonomy – an ingrained belief that one’s life is for God’s sole purpose, leading to challenges making decisions, creating personal boundaries and providing intentional consent
❧ Feeling that they can’t trust themselves, their body or their emotions
❧ A Fixation on Purity Culture where individuals experience shame, guilt, and anxiety surrounding their sexuality, and feel pressured to conform to strict moral standards of abstinence and modesty.
❧ Growing up with chronic fear or anxiety around salvation, rapture, Hell, Satan, or demons
❧ Feeling personally responsible for Christ’s death
❧ Superstitious beliefs about what will lead to positive and negative outcomes in life
❧ Perfectionism or hypervigilance – fear of making mistakes
❧ Extreme dualistic thinking – judging every individual thought and action as “good” or “bad”
❧ Spiritual bypassing – denying the presence and validity of mental health issues due to a belief that those feelings come from Satan or a lack of faith and if they just pray hard enough then God will take it away
❧ Difficulty with experiencing pleasure
❧ Feeling bad or wrong for having sexual thoughts or feelings, or having physical reactions to sexual situations such as crying or feeling a disconnection from the body
❧ Denying one’s sexuality or gender identity
❧ Marginalizing or stigmatizing the LGBTQ+ community
❧ Lasting trauma from conversion therapy
❧ Religiously-based OCD, scrupulosity, or superstitious habits”
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The messaging in “Backstory Preaching” also leaves me quite annoyed.
Serving the body of Christ as a clergy person or teaching elder is a holy calling, and there are qualifications set forth in scripture. I’m not sure why any minister of the gospel would have basis to seek this kind of “help” to make the task more pleasant, fun, less time-consuming or whatever.
It’s fake. A congregation selects and calls people to preach, teach and Shepherd a congregation with trust. If I were in a congregation and learned that my trusted leader was cheating in this way by abdicating his own responsibility to search the scriptures, hear from God concerning the particular message his flock needs to hear, and be able to form and communicate it, I would be quite uncomfortable.
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What on earth is an “entrepreneur evangelist?”
I mean, is it what is sounds like?
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Of all the ads here, this one almost sounds reasonable. There is an art to giving a sermon, and perhaps some preachers out there might benefit from something such as this. However, given the overall situation with the Church, I am doubtful the actual content is biblical or truly helpful.
Notice the “attract more people to your church” part.
I think a Shepherd should be concerned about those in his flock, rather than simply growing “his” church.
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Well, I don’t think there is anything wrong with a church filming or recording their sermons and putting them online. This can be done with fairly simply equipment usually.
Notice it says “fuel your mission.”
“Give people what they need to feel closer to your church” is offbase. Why are we now thinking that getting our church onto people’s phones, laptops and otherwise so they can experience the gathering of God’s people alone and remotely makes them “feel closer.”
If one wants to feel closer to their church and especially be feel and be closer to Jesus, one should physically show up if at all possible.
My alarm over the rise of these so-called Christian networks is not for nothing. In the talk I linked to last night, these men (CEO and Board Members of GLOO) envision “online church” consisting of millions of “members.” At one point, he refers to the prayer of Jesus “that they all may be one.”
This is a bastardization of what Jesus intended in His prayer; and the agenda, methods and ideology they are teaching do not align well with principles and specifics of scripture. Jesus told us that He had the words of Life; God does not need us to create (through AI and otherwise) an “Artificial Jesus” with a gangrenous, spreading “artificial reaching” to the whole world.
This morning I listened to parts of the book of I Timothy. We must ask ourselves how these networks and spiritual alliances of churches are being held accountable for any false teachings. And additionally, how are these parachurches guarding themselves from being political and social justice pawns? False theologies are being quickly spread through vapid, low or false worship music content, as well as a plethora of books and other messaging disseminating through these networked alliances. When these networks offer church leaders to obtain templated, pre-crafted sermons (for a fee), it should be raising red flags. When these parachurch networks use similar linguistics to worldly cultural and political trends, it should be raising red flags.
We should trust our local church leaders to be personally connecting to Jesus, the Vine, and delivering messages to us that are primarily suited to our own local, spiritual community/family. How would we know if our Pastor/Minister/Elder/Bible Teacher was utilizing someone else’s sermons, and, that these same messages (or the templated essence thereof) were being replicated on a mass scale?
And by whom or how are these seemingly streamlined migrations of core values, beliefs, linguistics and mission being proselytized through the Church–with a self-identified global, missional view? Like critical theory and other re-education agendas, the Church has been slowly getting itself re-educated away from biblical truth, teachings and mission.
I must ask, how is this re-education process arising seemingly from within the Church when it so follows the world? Since at one point, I began embracing ideas, teachings and linguistics that I now see in retrospect led me off course in aspects of my Christian faith, perhaps I more easily recognize the slip-slide and tactics that draw people into WOKE Christianity. I have repented and done a 180 on many things, and now, I need to be as vocal (if not more) about what I’m able to see/link/identify as I was five years ago and before when I was in the thick of a lot of it.
I do sometimes listen to/follow certain online Christian preachers/teachers/commentators. However, I do this with a constant awareness of my need to weigh their messages against scripture. While no human vessel speaks/leads/teaches/understands/communicates with 100% perfection (and certainly we want to give grace and space for others in ministry, who may have varied insights/vantage points/theological understandings), some reveal enough of their unbiblical leanings/methods that we should recognize it as such and avoid.
I believe that the changes have taken place so insidiously over the past 20-30 years that many (especially the young) are not grounded enough in substantive Christianity and the bible to be able to recognize or discern. I believe young people and families (all generations, now) are suffering deeply and the local church needs to get back to the basics of knowing Christ and walking faithfully with Him and toward our families first, and our communities and other realms next.
I was at a Christian social event awhile back and a middle-aged woman who seemed heavily in some type of Global Parachurch Mission Training organization (I won’t name it here) was animated and vocal in casual conversation with me that the Great Commission was for “every every every everybody!” I was listening to how exhausted she was from all her related training and commitments. I couldn’t help but wonder how this activity affected her marriage and her family and the basic, everyday responsibilities God calls us to. I felt so strongly about this because I was put off by her inference that “everybody” who names themselves in Christ should be doing this. For me, I would be far off course in my sense of what God asks of me if I did that.
It made me wonder how much of this great push to expand and reach (think “mega church” and “global Church pizazz”) is actually contributing to the breakdown of marriages, family and youth. I don’t know, but, it’s worth consideration. When a Shepherd is more concerned with growing his “flock” than tending the flock–teaching and facilitating and strengthening individuals, couples and families–something is not quite right, in my opinion.
I think we might learn a lot from Christian communities such as the Mennonites in this sense. It is obvious how they love and care for their own families and those in their immediate community. This is very scriptural. In fact, so much so that the qualification for shepherding God’s people as an elder/pastor (found in I Timothy 3) involves being able to first manage your own household well: being a faithful husband and having children who obey.
And this, reminds me of watching a documentary recently on the “Making of a Minister: The Story of Pastor Steven Furtick.” I’m pretty sure it was in this film that the rap video made by his 16-year-old son was mentioned possibly toward the end, and the couple’s seemingly accepting response to it. I later saw a commentary with parts of the video here (it may have been in this one that the commentator brought up the response of Furtick and his wife, which included a very bizarre responsive rap video made by this Pastor entitled “Hey Haters.” Apparently they received criticism for the ungodly content in their son’s rap video and this was how he chose to address things. Steven Furtick is the Pastor of Elevation Church, which has around 27,000 members and 20 locations.
The video is linked next and I find the spirit of it very disturbing.
Back to these current trends that are drawing in to a form of Christianity that is questionable; I question whether those who are being sucked in as promotors or followers of these interconnected movements are being taught the foundational truths from scripture and are being united to other believers in a way that will enable them to cling directly, as branches to the Vine, to Jesus, and to bear the good fruit of the Holy Spirit into their immediate families and realms.
And I question how many leaders and well-known names within Christianity have moved from being grounded in the bible 20-40 years ago to where they have currently been persuaded (or inclined to spearhead?) these insidious theological changes and methods.
This nebulous call to “reach others” and “advance the kingdom” must be met with the question of what exactly are we advancing, and with what are we reaching?
Something is really off base, and we need to keep sounding our alarm.
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