Charles Finney believed that when it comes to evangelism, the use of extra biblical means on our part to achieve it is also good. To put it rather crassly, the end does justify the means.
Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, is putting this philosophy to work. The Southern Baptist Church has recently been in the news for tremendous growth and large numbers of baptisms. It has come to light, however, that they have been manipulating people to achieve the high numbers.
According to NBC news, Elevation Church published a handbook to help other churches get their numbers up. The guide makes clear that the key to getting people baptized is to have plants in the congregation who will lead the way. The guide explains that, “Fifteen people will sit in the worship experience and be the first ones to move when Pastor gives the call.”
“’They had people in the crowd stand up who never intended to be baptized,’ said James Duncan, a communications professor at Anderson University and critic of Furtick. ‘They were shilling for Steven and the intent was these shills stand up and everybody else follows.’”
NBC News continues, “The guide describes its purpose as to ‘pull off our part in God’s miracle.’ Church leaders have repeatedly referred to the mass response as a ‘miracle.’ But the guide reveals plenty of human staging.”
This technique has long been used by revivalists such as Billy Graham to get people to come forward and “get saved” at the end of a service, but the use of decoys to “prime the pump” and increase the number of baptisms is a devilish new strategy.
We may laugh at all of this and it is a bit humorous, but it is actually a rather sad commentary on Christianity. Churches want numbers, crowds, and success, and their pride drives them to achieve the end by whatever means possible.
But what the Bible teaches us is that true conversion is the work of the Spirit of God, Who works, not through gimmicks and manipulation, but through the Scriptures. As the Apostle Paul teaches, saving “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17) This is not something that we can manipulate or coerce, because as Jesus explained, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
The responsibility of believers is to simply be faithful in sowing the seed of the Gospel, wherever we might be, and to leave the reaping of the harvest to the work of the Holy Spirit.
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