Wise move imo...Josh wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 12:10 pm We had a few in our church circles in the 1950s; the young people used to say, “The world has Elvis Presley but we have Elmer Sommers Sr. and [some name I forget]”. They have very fiery tent revival sermons and attracted many followers.
Our church took a turn away from this kind of personality and preaching after the 1950s and hasn’t really returned to it since, as it didn’t seem to produce good quality fruit in the long term.
Since I'm around / closely adjacent to a few people (church) who are attracted to / gravitate towards hyper charismatic religiosity, and from observing revivalism now for a number of decades... It seems to me that part of this populist thing always seems to also entail big public gatherings with hoopla of some sort or another... most often led by a figure on a stage...
And it also seems that christians attracted to this kind of thing must believe that the best way to be discipled or to encounter God or hear from Him or grow more in faith or more like Jesus is to through a big public group (therapy?) session that also must be intense / dramatic in some way. And for a few highly emotive, social (extrovert?) types maybe this works well for them. But for the rest of us? Hmmm. These kinds of things, especially if we're being pressured to do something, may be traumatic if not abusive.
But other than maybe Acts 2 (but only if you read it as prescriptive), there doesn't seem to be much Biblical support for this kind of "discipleship" method. (I'm pretty convinced that most charismatics, from mild to hyper/faith healer/prosperity types believe it's the ONLY method of ministry/discipleship...)