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1st impression after visiting their church group in Santa Cruz last Sunday night....
I got there at 6pm for the service, as it was posted to start at that time. The name of the church is "The Santa Cruz Church"
I came in and sat down for about 10 min and nothing was starting, so I got up and walked out the side door for about 5 min...
Went back in and sat down for another 10 min... during this second sitting a middle aged man came up and smiled and told me his name, shaking my hand and asked for my name...I said it's Charley...the band was warming up pretty loud, so he asked again, and I repeated it louder...He smiled and went on to another.
about 2 mins later a middle aged lady came up and said hi, giving her name and shaking my hand, she asked for my name, I said Chuck, forgetting that I am going by Charley these days. She smiled and asked "how did you find out about us" I said "The Internet". I asked how long they had been in the building? She said about a month. I asked how long will they be there, she said till June, because the School was going to need the gym area at that time.
They rent from place to place, not having a building of their own as yet.
It was now about 6:45 and the service was about to start. About 50 people were there, including the praise team on stage and the children. There were some middle agers and one two or older couples...with one of the older ladies showing some orange earplugs in her ears...I would soon find out why.
The Music started in full swing and volume...being as loud as a rock concert should be. So loud and poorly mixed that the vocals were hard to make out and thus the words to the songs were muddled, but I got the gist of the chorus...Basically we want more of your Love and Spirit poured out....Fill me up...I want to drink...that sort of thing.
People were encouraged to come up front and dance and they all did, but for a few who praised standing in the seating areas.
Benjamin Dunn was a bit late coming in, but was soon dancing and hugging during the praise session which went on for about 1 hour, and at one point I saw Benjamin laying on his back on one of the bench seats, making motions with his hands as if to be pulling the Spirit into his belly or some sort of thing like that...he was definitely gearing up for something, is what impression I was getting.
He then wondered up on stage and was giving some instructions to the Guitarist, Drummer, Bass, and Keyboard player....The song went into a long repetitive "flow jam session" And Benjamin was on a cordless mic.
He began to sing spontaneously as the band played and at times he would get into a rhythm and go with it for a space, then go off into another direction and this cycle was repeated about 5 times and he was at times coaching the praise team on what direction he wanted them to go...
It looked like to me that they were somewhat knew at this. But they were very good if not very loud....Benjamin's mic was set much hotter than the regular singers mics were, and his voice was so loud that at times there was bad distortion going on with the smaller speaker system...They really need a good sound tech on board.
As the music got more and more intense there were a few people getting wild in their dancing and twirling...two gals falling on the floor and doing some wrestling moves on the floor...three other young gals were hanging onto each others shoulders in a three person line looking high or drunk, kind of wobbly like and glazed eyed...but I noticed one of them seemed to be just going along for the ride as she would look at the other gals from time to time with a straight face to see what they were doing, then go back to her drunk looks and actions.
Others were jumping up and down and laying their hands on people, I guess imparting "the Spirit" they thought.
Anyway...pretty much a wild concert type atmosphere...without the beer and weed...but they were acting like they were on something. Mayne they were...
After it calmed down, Benjamin talked for a while about their conference that just ended up north in Arcata, CA. where his other half, John Crowder was teaching a three day event called School of the Mystics...or something like that, where he goes into all the supernatural manifestations of the past in recorded church history....trying to make the case for their "Ecstatic" type of expression being valid.
There were some drug talk illusions being compared to the manifestations of The Holy Spirit, while Benjamin was talking, with one line being "God does not want you strung out on Prozac, but on Isaac...." which drew big laughs...He also made a reference to "Huffing" the Bible...which is akin to inhaling toxic fumes to get high...putting his nose to the Bible and sniffing its pages...
He also talked about making a trip to some garbage dumps where they go into third world countries to preach to poor kids who live in them and try to make a living from the junk they find there....He said if anyone wanted to go with them to let them know...and not to worry, they would not have to live like the poor kids at the dump, but in "the best hotels" saying, "we don't want to promote poverty, but promote prosperity and hope to them..."
Then when he was done speaking, he gave the mic to Lilly Crowder, John's wife, who then gave some of her thoughts as she read Psalm 86...saying that she had earlier been to the "86 steps" in the Capitol area, and thought of Psalm 86 to teach on that night. Her message basically was very disjointed and tended to revolve around the Ecstatic experience that they feel they are called to bring to the Body of Christ.
I left about 15 mins into her talk, having pain in my back from doing the lawn and washing my car earlier in the day...as they had hard uncomfortable bench seats that were killing me. Plus I could not get into her study, which was from the text of The Message Bible off her iPhone...as she strained to see the text and read through the chapter...It was just too much pain all around.
My over all impression, is that these are well meaning, though immature, naive and misguided young people, who believe they have tapped into a new move of God and who are trying hard to work the work they believe they are called to do, in bringing this new "Ecstatic" experience to The Body of Christ, who have been in dry religion and thus stagnate...
I have seen all this played out before a number of times over the last 15 years since at least the Laughing revival days...in 1994, even being a part of some of it at my church from 95 to 98, where I saw people like this encouraging us to get drunk in the Spirit and shed all our inhibition and get loose and crazy in worship. I understand the desire, but the methods seem wrong and misguided and in some cases maybe even blasphemous.
Saying that you are "smoking the blood of Jesus" and "Huffing the Word of God" and the Holy Spirit being called "Shoobie Doobie Juice"...seems to me to be wrong.
I plan on returning for another round next Sunday night, when John Crowder will be leading the group, and Benjamin is off on another conference trip. They seem to be taking over every other weekend or so at their church on Sunday nights.
There is also another side to all this and it is that they are teaching what they call the "Finished work of the Cross" and teach that we are to lead sinless and evil free lifestyles...It seems they believe they are tapping into this truth and it is the source of the "wine" or "blood" of Christ that they are drinking and smoking and huffing, and being shot up with....
Here is a recent video of their group administering "Communion"....You be the judge if this is from The Holy Spirit.
Click on these links to view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzJVVr4c ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEySjCMX ... re=related
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