Stranger than fiction

i saw this pretty amazing video on a blog that i read occasionally.  i strongly recommend you check it out before you read the rest of my post.  in case you don’t have time (or just want me to do the work for you), it’s a video of a guy singing this incredible song called “healer”…a song he wrote right after he found out he had cancer.  the video is shot at hillsong, australia.

the song is powerful and his testimony is moving.  the song has become an instant worship anthem around the world.  churches and worship pastors have pushed it to the top of the charts, and worshippers are extoling it as an “anointed” song…a gift from god to the church…in anticipation of more miraculous healing as people come to god through this song.

to be honest, the song (and accompanying story) moved me.  it was very good.  but something didn’t feel right about the whole epic…worship…healing…spectacle in the video.  good song…maybe we could use at north point sometime in the future…but i wasn’t rushing to get it in the rotation.  

didn’t really give it another thought.  until tonight.  when i read this.  again, you really ought to read it yourself.  but for those of you who want the reader’s digest version, it has just come out in australian newspapers that the guy who wrote and sang the song is a liar.  he never had cancer.  he just did it to promote his ministry…and make a ton of money on video and dvd sales.  hope its not true, but it looks bad for him…and the church…and the cause of christ.

got a lot of different feelings about this one, but the big one i’m having right now is just how deceptive and intoxicating the big stage is.  men (i can’t speak for women) who preach and speak and sing and lead from high profile platforms…on pedestals…being looked up to by their devoted followers are constantly at risk.  the lure of big and more and expansion and power and influence and signs and wonders and miracles…all of it…can be like drugs to an addict for a leader.  

(those of us on small stages and leading in relative obscurity are subject to the same deceptions.  but because the platform of the bigger and more highly visible ministries are so captured by the public eye, it has been my experience that the leaders of these churches  and ministries are much more vulnerable to these kinds of problems.  just my opinion.)

we should be praying for high profile, influential church leaders to be protected from the toxic expectations of the world, and more importantly, from the church.  as the church, we need to guard ourselves from placing unrealistic expectations on these leaders and their leadership.

on a personal note, i would also appreciate your prayers for the strength and determination to keep from climbing up on my home-made, ministry leadership pedestal…not that my circle of good friends don’t do a good enough job of smacking me off of it pretty regularly!

#healer #leadership #miracles