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Posted on 02/20/2014 5:24:30 PM PST by Gamecock
A baptism manual produced by Pastor Steven Furtick's popular Elevation Church in North Carolina, which teaches people how to produce "spontaneous" baptisms among the repentant, is being criticized as "emotional manipulation."
The manual, Spontaneous Baptism How-To Guide, was produced by Elevation Church in 2011 and received its first critique in November from James Duncan, a Christian blogger and associate professor of communication at Anderson University who lives in South Carolina.
"As a church we pray Sun Stand Still prayers all the time. We are constantly asking God to do something that seems impossible and then believing that He is going to pull through," explains the introduction to the guide.
"Most recently we prayed and asked God to lead thousands of people to take a public stand in their faith in Christ through baptism. God blew our minds and in two weekends we saw 2,158 respond and be baptized," it continued.
It then explains in very detailed and strategic terms how the church was able to get "this amazing, Sun Stand Still, only-God-can-get-the-glory miracle."
Among the strategies, according to the manual, is to strategically place people in the worship service who will pretend to respond when pastor Furtick gives the call for baptism approximately one hour into the service.
"Fifteen people will sit in the worship experience and be the first ones to move when pastor gives the call. Sit in the auditorium and begin moving forward when pastor Steven says go. Move intentionally through the highest visibility areas and the longest walk," the manual advises.
In a WCNC report on Tuesday Duncan claims that the tactic as dishonest.
"They had people in the crowd stand up who never intended to be baptized," said Duncan. "They were shilling for Steven and the intent was these shills stand up and everybody else follows."
Duncan highlights one of Furtick's baptism calls in his November critique in which Furtick dismisses the notion that his tactics are "emotional manipulation."
"You know God is calling you, and if you feel that in your heart, let me assure you that is the Holy Spirit of God calling you. It is not emotional manipulation. It's the presence of God drawing you and calling you. So in just a moment, I'm going to count to three. When I say 'three,' at every campus I want you to move into the aisles and go to the exit where the ushers are stationed at your campus," said Furtick.
Duncan, however, argued that it is emotional manipulation.
"Perhaps you could classify this as encouragement for a decision already made, not manipulation. You could, though if this were a decision made with confidence and determination, there would be no need to constantly reinforce that decision. Why I classify these as manipulative comes from the very first action, performed just seconds after Furtick's assurance that he wasn't manipulating them," said Duncan, who claims that people are being used as "shills" to start moving toward the front of the church.
Blogger Christopher Smith noted in his recent critique that the tactics being employed in the manual are a reflection of the McDonaldized Christianity many churches are now driving toward.
"Elevation has almost gone so far as to make themselves a caricature of McDonaldized faith, but I hope that – like all good caricatures – we don't just dismiss them as extreme, but rather, see through their story the desires in our own hearts and congregations that are driving us in a similar direction, even if we are not so ridiculous and extreme," said Smith.
The Christian Post reached out to Elevation Church for further comment on this story Thursday but a response was not provided at the time of publication.
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Sounds kinda Mormon..
It is recognition of emotional reality whether it is manipulation or not.
People respond more readily to something that is seen as socially appropriate. Others moving forward enables them to overcome any social embarrassment.
So, there is an emotional reality being addressed by this strategy.
If it is manipulation, then we need to address the household baptisms in the book of Acts when the leader of the household’s response led to others responding.
It became socially acceptable.
The same with the spread of Christianity when the conversion of the king led to other conversions, Ireland/Scotland/England giving examples.
Is it manipulation to respond to Christ because you have a follower’s mentality, but a friend or family member can be a leader who can enable you to overcome a social obstacle?
“The Christian Post reached out to Elevation Church”
I’m seeing that NewSpeak “reached out” all over the place now. Is that, like, “telephoned for comment”?
More likely, an email.
They attack this Elevation church guy relentlessly on Channel 6 in Charlotte. I think he must have murdered the new anchors dog or something. They literally have 10 minute stories every week.
A couple weeks ago they were putting a noose around his neck because he is selling a new book as buy one get one free to pump his sales numbers up to get on the NYT bestseller list.
I think the elevation guy is a bit of a shyster but I don’t see him breaking any laws. If people want to keep giving him money, that’s their prerogative.
mob psychology
You can’t be serious. When the head of a household led in conversion, it was genuine.
Not theatrics.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Baptism is not to be trifled with.
Check this out:
THIS IS WHAT @STEVENFURTICK IS TEACHING THE KIDDOS!
http://matthewpaulturner.com/2014/02/19/this-is-what-stevenfurtick-is-teaching-the-kiddos/
False teacher!
I am serious. When the head of the household led, others followed? Would they have followed without the first step by the leader?
I’ve always known that Billy Graham had his counselors come down at the time of the invitation. Did that make it easier for others to get out of their seats? And, if it did, did it make ALL such statements of commitment to Christ by these people to be false?
It wasn’t a large percentage that stuck, but I think I remember reading it was over 10%.
Wow, this is scary, I take back my comment above. This guy is a whacko.
I’ve been studying the mind manipulation techniques used in religious settings for over twenty years. They are very common. I trained as a stage hypnotist in order to identify the process and know how to select the most suggestible individuals for demonstrations. It’s very easy to learn. I will never use the techniques and actually teach workshops on how they work and how to identify them.
I was very upset when the New Chapel Dean at Duke University who was formerly a professor of homiletics at Princeton started using these same techniques. I stopped attending his services.
The manipulation techniques are very common in black theology. Rev. Wright, Obama’s pastor is excellent at using them.
The difference between the real born again process and the fake one is the direction of surrender. In the fake process, the person surrenders externally to the suggestions of another individual. In the real process, they surrender within themselves to God.
Emotional manipulation is an excellent description of the process. The secret to trance induction is to first emotionally destabilize a person.
Interesting. Have you ever heard of a deciever named Rodney Howard Browne? He induces trance states also,in the name of Jesus.2 Peter 2
The excellent Tony Miano posted this on his facebook. Quite a terrible thing to hear. It’s the union between “marketing” and “evangelism”, and the output is probably lots and lots of false converts.
Only by the Grace of God am I able to discern the true from the false process. When the process is real I see the Light of the connection and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Light will move with a person as they move around as though there is a spotlight above them all the time. It is unmistakable. There are also definite changes that take place in their soul.
Most spiritual leaders get their energy as parasites from the people who follow them rather than through their Divine Connection. They will never find God by raising themselves on the backs of their followers or by climbing the highest mountain. You can only find God by feeling as though you are falling and their is no bottom, at which time you turn to God in prayer and grab hold as His hand reaches out to you. That’s the real connection.
I just read the story about Tony Miano getting arrested in Scotland for preaching on the street and saying that homosexuality is a sin. It is interesting to observe the battles.
Most of ministerial words fall upon deaf ears as when a person is full of themselves they are not open to the answers. The upcoming economic, political and geographic turmoil will empty a lot of souls, just like the old bottle of wine must be tossed aside. Only then will people open their ears and listen for answers that will truly help them. Too bad satan is going to rush in and try to take advantage of all the fear to recruit people to surrender their souls to him in the interim, but it must happen according to God’s Plan.
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