A couple of months ago, my dad got tickets from a friend to go to Christian concert. He asked if any of us sisters would like to go with. I had never been to a Christian concert before and since I LOVE listening to my Wow Hits CDs, I said "ME ME ME!" Here is my horrific, but definitely a learning, experience.
I was so excited to go to this concert. I had never really heard of this group before. Didn't really know any of their songs. And that right there should have been a sign. Like I said, I listen to a lot of Christian music and Christian radio stations online. Once in a while, I go to other churches that sing praise and worship songs, so I know a lot of different artists. But this one, I didn't know anything about. But I thought, Dad is taking us so they must be good.
HA!
On the way there, I was in a horrible mood. I was so grumpy. I figured I will feel better once I get there.
We found our seats. The band came out. A lot of flashing, blinding, hypnotic lights. The music began. I waited patiently for the band to start singing...but they just kept playing. What felt like half an hour later, they started singing. And they sang the same words, over and over and over and over and over again. then there was an instrumental part. I am not talking a small 2 minute instrumental part, I am talking like 10 minutes. Then they sang again. Same words again again again. I didn't know the song but by the end, I was pro.
As I said, I frequent other churches and I can usually, more often then not, get really into those praise and worship songs. I can feel the presence of God in my heart. I can usually be brought to tears. But it wasn't happening. I started to get mad at myself. What is wrong with me? Am I in such a bitter mood that I cannot even open my heart to God today? I prayed silently. God, open my heart. Help me to praise you! Still something wasn't right.
People were swaying and arms were raised. Do not be worried. I have zero problem with this. I LOVE seeing people praise God with their whole heart. I love seeing people raise their hands when they sing to Him. I find it beautiful. But this was different. It was trance-like.
We sang a couple more songs. And I still felt no different. Then the speaker came out. He was a funny guy. I smiled at his jokes. He began to speak about their ministry. He talked about how the Holy Spirit worked in their congregations. Nice, nice.
Then he said, "While you guys were singing, I was praying to God to show me a sign. To tell me about this group. And what I saw before me was a picture of a spider on the back wall. And that picture was telling me that there is poison in the lives of these people. Raise your hand if you have poison in your life right now." Some people raised their hands. "Alright everyone, we will get that poison out of your life today! But first I want to deal with something else. Raise your hand if you struggle with migraines or headaches. Raise your hand if you have headache right now!" A couple people raised their hands.
"We are going to heal you! If someone around you has their hand up right now, put your hand on them. While we pray, I want you to touch their head like your pulling a spider web out of their hair and I want you to pray that God takes that headache away." HUH?! The people did as they were told. "Now raise your hand if your headache is gone." All those people raised their hands. Everyone cheers. This is the moment where my right eyebrow went up. If you know me, you know this face. And I mean wayyyyy up.
This just wasn't feeling right. I have never really seen a prayer work quite that fast. But wait, it gets worse.
"Now, does anyone here struggle with a crooked spine, or scoliosis, or maybe one leg shorter than the other? If your one leg is shorter than the other, please come up here. We are going to heal you today and we are going to watch your leg grow out on stage!" About 5 people walk to the front. I look at my dad and my sisters with pure look of confusion. Are we really buying this? I'm the kind of person that gives things a chance. So I told myself to just wait and not to judge.
The speaker told the people in the front rows to come forward so they could see the legs grow, up close. These people put their hands on the short legs and prayed, "Jesus Christ, I command you to heal this leg right now. Right here before our eyes." Yes, command.
We heard a couple cheers and clapping. The speaker began to talk about what he was seeing. People's legs were "actually" growing out. "I wish we had a camera so I could show all of you what is happening right now!" He said. Meanwhile there were probably 5 video cameras on him as he said this. He invites a young guy up on stage to share what he saw, "WOW! That was crazy, man!"
"What did you see?" asks the speaker.
"I just saw that girls leg grow!"
"How much do you think it grew?"
"Like 2 whole inches!" said the young guy.
"WOW!"
Cheer cheer cheer.
At this point, I started to have a mini anxiety attack. I have anxiety on a regular day. But this was full blown anxiety coming on. I could feel my heart rate rising. I had a permanent frown in my brow. This cannot be right.
As the night went on, we sang some more. Well it wasn't really singing. I couldn't sing. It was more like a moaning, droning on. I don't know how to sing like that. The speaker talked some more about the instant conversions that they had done. He told testimonies of people in the ministry who walked up to people with guns and instantly brought them to Christ. He talked about people doing crazy miracles in the the name of Jesus.
I was so confused. I wondered why my dad's friend gave him these tickets. I wondered if something was wrong with ME. I wondered if maybe I was wrong, and that this was actually okay and possible. But I felt so sick to my stomach. I was shaking like a leaf.
When we got to the car, I was still grumpy, if not grumpier, than when we left. My brain hurt. On the drive home, none of us really talked. When we got home, I didn't talk to anyone. I got my things ready for school the next day and went to bed. Later my mom would tell me that she knew something wasn't right with me. I was not myself.
While lying in bed, I tossed and I turned. What was that? Was it me? In the middle of the night, I woke up. Unable to fall back asleep, I checked my phone. I had a facebook message from one of the sisters that came with to this concert. When we were at the concert, she had checked us in on facebook. One of her facebook friends had seen what concert we were at and had felt the need to message Shayna and let her know what he knew of this band. Shayna had forwarded me this message. The relief I felt when I got that message is indescribable. He said he was not judging us for going because maybe we didn't know, but this band was something dangerous. He sent Shayna a link to a blog that spoke about them. His exact words were that they had "some sketchy stuff going on."
In the morning, I checked that blog. Sure enough, this band was practically a cult. They had testimonies of raising people from the dead. They believed in trance-like, hypnotic worship. After checking the band's website, I saw that they were really all about "me, me, me." If you were to read their "About Us", its all about how "we do this" and "we did that." They believe in connecting with "the spiritual fathers and mothers." They are all about the supernatural: healing (and I mean like commanding God to heal), speaking in tongues and resurrecting the dead.
I googled them some more. I looked deep into it. I got passed all the blogs that were in favour of it all, and found the ones that talked about other opinions. One man talked about when his wife got sucked into this cult. He said she went from being a loving, caring, wonderful wife and mother, and turned into a self-centered, antagonistic, miserable woman.
When I got home from work, I talked to my dad. I told him I wasn't too sure about this thing we had gone too. It seemed really wrong. Dad had felt the same thing and had checked it all out before he went to bed. So it turned out, I wasn't crazy. And my heart was not locked up that evening. I guess this was God telling me that this was not right.
It was a learning experience, that is for sure! Don't get me wrong, I am not condemning these people. I am not judging them. I pray for them, that they see the truth.
The moral of this story is, if you know nothing about the band, do your research BEFORE you leave for the concert! ;)
This is just part 1: the "Christian" concert experience. Stay tuned for part 2 where I experienced a Christian concert--the one with the happy ending.
-Jenna
P.S. If you are wondering why I did not post the name of the band, it is because I do not want to judge people. I know some people who really like their music and I do not want them to feel that I am condemning them personally. If you are really curious, feel free to message/email me and I will tell you the name.
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