Things are getting bizarre on the stages of churches across America, as pastors from all backgrounds are coming up with new ways to get their congregations to pay attention in church.
No ideas are too far-fetched as some of the stunts in church include powerlifting; getting a shave and a trim; and shockingly, punting the Bible like a football.
Here are three stunts performed for church audiences in recent days:
Bench-pressing For Jesus
Megachurch pastor Perry Noble of Second Chance Church in Anderson, South Carolina, used weight lifting as an illustration during his sermon on the need for community and not isolating oneself from others.
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He used his attempt to lift 400-lbs to highlight his need for others to help him achieve this goal.
“This represents the weight that all of us carry in life,” said Noble alluding to the weight set. “Every single day that we wake up, we carry weight, whether it’s spiritual, emotional, psychological weight. Everybody in this room is carrying a certain amount of weight.”
When pondering the possibility of lifting these weights in life by oneself Noble came to one conclusion, “Ain’t no freaking way.”
A Shave and a Haircut
Similar to Noble’s demonstration, fellow megachurch pastor Michael Todd of Transformation Church in Oklahoma set up a barber’s chair on stage and got a trim from his long-time barber according to The Christian Post.
The point Todd was trying to impart upon his congregation was that if you want the fruit of God’s blessing, your going to have to be willing to be cut and reduced in the process.
“I just came to tell somebody that the church has … done a bad job in this last season of emphasizing how comfortable serving God would be,” Todd says to the congregation.
“I need to say this to you, like ‘just come to God and all your fears and all your tears, and He bottles them, and He’s going to coddle them.’ And we make you feel like when you come to God, then somehow it gets easy. … I just want to let you know that our desire for comfort has made us despise His cut.”
Punting the Bible Like a Football
This act of disrespect towards God’s Word admittedly goes far beyond the previous two non-traditional sermons. There is nothing outright heretical about the demonstrations, even though many will argue over the appropriateness of them in church.
But to kick the Word of God in an effort to “make church fun” crosses many lines a pastor should never even consider doing, it makes a strong case that such a person should not be a pastor at all.
Sadly, this is what happened when a video of Crossroads Church, located in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, and the teaching pastor Allie Patterson performs a kickoff to lead pastor Brian Tome using the Bible as a football in their 2020 Super Bowl service.
Ohio Megachurch pastrix Allie Patterson punts the bible off stage and into the crowd during a Superbowl-themed church service. See the story at https://t.co/l4z64pKOjU pic.twitter.com/Q8Xsybw77q
— Protestia (@Protestia) February 12, 2024
There is no message that can be given which justifies this treatment of the holy Bible, which holds inside of it’s pages the life-saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and what He did for all of us on the old, wooden cross.
Below, you can see an older video of the reaction of Chinese Christians receiving their Bibles under the CCP’s communist regime, and the shear joy and reverence shown to such a holy book.
This is how Chinese Bible school students reacted when they received Bibles.
The power of God’s Word – and its importance for persecuted believers – is why we’re launching a Bibles campaign. Join us here: https://t.co/JYelm91udI pic.twitter.com/btBoZP5yl3
— International Christian Concern (@persecutionnews) March 19, 2019
Perhaps the door to events like this was opened by less-infuriating demonstrations such as haircuts and bench-presses in church, but what others do in no way justifies this treatment of a book that millions have died for over the course of Christianity’s history.
As churches seemingly push the line further and further into what they are willing to do to create that “shock value” to grow their attendance, things will only get worse. By choosing entertainment over holiness, many churches now lack the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to start the transformative process in their congregations’ lives that is a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
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