Hummers from Heaven?

Now, Religion in the News—a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the St. Petersburg Times, January 10, 2005, with the headline: “Church’s Hummer Prize Too Worldly?—Rodney Howard Brown’s Revival Ministries International, will give away a yellow 2003, H-2 Hummer during its winter camp meeting, which began Sunday and runs through January 16. ‘I think it’s an excellent idea,’ said Randy White, televangelist and senior pastor of Without Walls International Church, one of the fastest growing congregations in Tampa with 18,000 members. ‘If this were MTV or any other secular market or organization, there wouldn’t even be anything written about it. I applaud Rodney.’

“White said that his church has given away homes and paid electric bills for a full year to those attending his services. ‘It’s a bait on the hook to get people in to hear the message,’ he said.

“The camp meeting at the river will double as a celebration of 25 years in the ministry for Howard Brown. He began pastoring in his native South Africa when he was 18, and calls himself the ‘Holy Ghost bartender.’ Howard Brown is known for his spells of holy laughter, where followers are so drunk with the Holy Spirit they fall on the floor in hysterics.

“White said, ‘Churches in the Tampa Bay area have to compete with nearby amusement parks and beaches. Concerts offer million dollar pyrotechnics,’ he said. ‘We don’t have a candle,’ White said. ‘It’s just sad where the church hasn’t stepped up.’

“White plans to have rhythm-and-blues songstress Mary J. Blige, at Without Walls for the super Sunday service on Super Bowl Sunday. White says he is working to get hip-hop stars Usher and Mace to also attend the service. Churches, he said, should be on the cutting edge. ‘What would Jesus do?’ asked White, pausing to recite a Bible text from John 14: ‘If you live right, you get a mansion. That’s a pretty good incentive! It’s better than a Hummer.’”

Tom: Dave, you know, I almost feel bad about following your quoting Amy Carmichael with something like this, but this is reality. This is, you know—we are grieved at this, but this is where much of the church is—professing church, at least. Now, this is consumerism. This is a mentality of making—whether it be, supposedly the lost, or even people within the church—turning them into consumers, having that mentality, that perspective. It’s just grievous.

Dave: Tom, it isn’t even rational. He says, “If this were MTV, or any other secular market or organization…” okay? So, in other words, there shouldn’t be any difference between a church, the body of Christ, and secular organizations. Well, I mean, if this was an adult movie or, you know, we’ve got naked dancing girls running around, they do it there—why couldn’t you do that in the church? In other words, there’s no distinction.

That’s the problem, because as soon as you begin competing with the world, then what are the guidelines? It’s not the Holy Spirit who draws people in; it’s not Christ who is the Savior…

Tom: It’s not the truth…

Dave:  Yeah! …but we’ve got techniques now, and we’ve got incentives. And then he ends by saying, “If you live right, you get a mansion.” Now where do you get that in the Bible? Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you.” He’s going to take us up there, but you don’t get a mansion in heaven by living right. So, the man is getting confused by the world’s standards, and he says, “Well, they give away all kinds of things—it’s bait on the hook to get people in to hear the message.” Well, you put bait on the hook, you know—you like a free house and you want your electric bill paid for a year? Okay, come on, who wouldn’t want that? But that doesn’t mean that they are going to believe the gospel— we’ve talked about that in the last segment.

Tom: Dave, I don’t know why he doesn’t say “bait and switch.” There’s no good connotation about that, but that’s what is taking place here. You are drawn in on the basis of something that you lust for, and you’re supposedly given now another message that if it’s true to God’s Word, it’s going to be the antithesis of that, it’s going to condemn that.

Dave: Exactly, Tom! It’s a very poor example used, bait on the hook. I don’t think a fish feels very good about being deceived, and you throw out some of these plastic crawdads and all that kind of stuff, Tom, you are really deceiving the fish.

Tom: Dave, let’s not get personal about this—come on! (laughing)

Dave: Right, but the church should not resort to that sort of thing, right? Come on—so we’re going to bait a hook and we’re going to tell them, “You do this—why you got it.” No, that is not the way to bring someone to Christ.

You know what I have often said, when people would coming running up to Jesus, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go!” Jesus didn’t say, “Okay, it’s going to be great—I’ll give you all kinds of prizes, and there’s a new promotion this month to pull you in,” and so forth. Jesus said, “You’re sure you want to follow me? Foxes have holes, birds have nests—I don’t have anywhere to lay my head.”

Now, I don’t think you are going to build an 18,000-member church with that tactic. In fact, after a number of years on this earth calling to disciples—I mean, Jesus healed everybody that came to Him. What He did was beyond miraculous, you could say. Nobody else could do this, and yet, at the end of His life, what did He have? About 500—and they weren’t all His true followers either. So, I don’t think you can make Christianity popular, not true Christianity. It’s popular—I mean, I love the Lord, I love Christianity, but He changed my heart. But I don’t think the world is going to go for real Christianity—if you have to put a false promise, a bait on the hook, to get them in, then you haven’t really got their hearts.

Tom: Dave, I don’t know if I heard it from you, something that you wrote or I read it somewhere else, but I have it in the back of my mind reading about the early church that the standards were so high that people were fearful. I mean, they didn’t want to get into the church because, as you mentioned in the earlier part of our program, it was God’s standard, and they didn’t want that, so…

Dave: So, you get that just after Ananias and Sapphira are knocked dead because of lying. And then it says, “And no man dared to join them.” The fear of the Lord was upon them.

Tom: It’s a deterrent.

Dave: If you’re not a real Christian, if you do not really know the Lord, if He is not really living in you, and you don’t really want—100 percent want—what He wants for you, and to glorify Him, you are not going to come running up to join the true church. You may join a church that offers prizes, but that’s not going to get you to heaven.