NOTE: This post is part of a Series on the G12 Model
In Part I, I introduced my plan to investigate the local G12 church in SLO, and to find out if it was a cult or not.
However, right off of the bat, let me say that overall, my wife’s and my experience at Mercy Church was overwhelmingly and mostly positive, and the presence of God, as well as real energy and excitement, were there. And the bible teaching was good as well. But I did have some hesitation. But more on that later.
Below, I describe the first part of the service we attended.
The photo to the right is very similar to the one used in Part I, except that you’ll notice that the lyrics are in Spanish.
1. My Prep Work
Before I attended Mercy Church, I took advantage of their audio archive (cool flash-based site, btw) to listen to many sermons, most by the Sr. Pastor, Terry Page. I have to say, the preaching, though not the greatest expositing I’ve ever heard, seemed biblical, balanced, and had few if any signs of charismania or cultlike control or cajoling. So I was set for a cool experience.
2. First Impressions
My first impression was that they had about 8 parking lot attendants, young guys in reflective vests, guiding the cars into the lot around the buidling, which was a new-looking warehouse out by the SLO airport (right next to the runway!). ‘Hmmm,’ I thought to myself, ‘these guys are way too cheery and gung ho at 10AM, cult flag #1.’ (NOTE: I am not a morning person).
However, ‘they could be just a really good church with positive people in leadership,’ I thought. My wife and I entered the front doors, passing by the friendly greeters – ‘no handouts,’ I noted as we passed into the dimly lit sanctuary, worship already in progress (it was 10:05, late again).
3. Worship
Approvingly, I noted the attractive but simple stage lighting, the dual overheads, the low sanctuary lighting, and the really excellent worship team. I noted that ALL of the members of the worship team and most of the congregation were very young – mostly college students. This too gave me pause – homogeneity in age is often a sign of one sort of church sickness or another – all old people, probably a dead church. All young people, perhaps a controlling cult that more experienced people leave quickly.
However, the worship was fantastic. I noted that they sang many songs in both Spanish and English. My wife (Mexican) and I looked at one another approvingly – this was cool. But a little thought ran through the back of my mind – were they singing in Spanish to be multicultural, or because they were tightly tied (read ‘under the control of’) the Columbian megachurch that started this movement? I knew that G12’s founder, C�sar Castellanos, had spoken at Mercy Church, and my own pastor expressed some concerns when he listened to the audio of Castellanos’ sermon. But high vision guys are always a bit freaky and scary, they’re too excited, if you konw what I mean.
4. Dance Team
If you enlarge the photo above, you may see the four dancers up in front of the band. They came up for a couple of the more exuberant numbers, and they danced in a choreographed and energetic fashion. Traditionalists might find this sort of thing distracting, but my wife and I liked it – it really raised the energy quite a bit, and their abandon and joy were contagious. However, the three college girls dancing (there was also one guy) were a LITTLE distracting (how can shaking butts and boobs of young college girls not be?), though they weren’t dancing sensually. I’m sure college guys were even more likely to be distracted than me!
But I digress. Regardless of your doctrine on dance worship, what was notable about the dancers was:
- The Good – they were skillful, energetic, and really added to the energy with their genuine enthusiasm – these kids weren’t playing church, they were full on worshiping God, both they and the music team. I thought to myself, ‘church haters and religionists would hate this and see this as pure fanaticism, but people looking for genuine strong faith might find this really attractive.’ I remembered reading somewhere that if you are doing something with purity and passion, you will generate polar opposite reactions – strong like, strong dislike, but little inbetween.
- The Bad – It takes guts to dance like hell (excuse the expression) in front of people with all of your heart, ignoring the urge to be self-conscious. I’ve seen this kind of zeal in fanatics – the far-off sparkling eyes, the confidence that goes beyond what might be considered healthy skepticism – but I just put that in the back of my mind for the time being. Excitement in leadership is also sometimes willed a bit – you have to be ON it whether you feel well or not.
The worship AND dancing had been skillfully and joyfully done, and it did enhance our worship, no doubt at all. It had definitely been worshipful, and not overly forced, but rather, confidently and strongly led.
5. The Offering
Some young woman, obviously one of the pastor’s wife’s ‘disciples’ or ’12,’ gave a short message about how God didn’t want our money, but all of our heart. She was genuine, though her valley girl intonations made me cringe constantly, esp. when she read the scripture – somehow I can’t hear God speaking that way. There was just a slight tinge of fanaticism when she exposited the calling of Peter and Andrew, explaining how ‘this was the first time they heard Jesus, and they just left everything.’ Most expositors do NOT think that Peter and Andrew were meeting or hearing about Jesus for the first time when they were called.
However, despite this small error, she did not leverage it into some heavy handed manipulation about giving it all, including your wallet to God, and the plate was passed summarily and normally (I hate that ritual, though, and like what my church does better – we have an offering box in the back. Now if we could only add Paypal to our web site, that would be good).
6. Encounter Video
As I’ll explain next time, G12 has a highly structured set of steps, including a couple of retreats where they ‘consolidate’ your decision to follow Jesus. For one of their upcoming Encounters, they had a homebrew video of one of their young guys trying to get initiates to attend the next one. It was professionally and humorously done, but the ‘you need it’ plug was just this side of manipulative. However, ‘what do you want them to do instead?’ I asked myself. I noted that same strange zeal, but as I’ve discussed, it’s hard to tell healthy excitment from cultlike zeal. For now, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt, esp. in light of the great worship and decent speaking so far.
NEXT:
In Part III, I will outline a bit more of the G12 model, and the progress and stages a person goes through. In Part IV, I’ll discuss the various Programs and Events that make up the training of the G12 model, and what concerns me in these programs. In Part V, I’ll briefly discuss the sermon and my discussion w/ the pastor. In Part VI, I’ll render a conclusion.
thanks for linking to my blog in the first part… ;) i would like to say that if you experienced worship that seemed in any way "simple" you were either at the wrong church or it was an off sunday for them…. i have a video on my blog of what worship is normally like if you are interested. skylana.blogspot.com then search 'the end of an era' and there is a link in that blog under 'idea'. i do think they are a lot like a cult, and i went there for 5 years, and have been back since… but people are people and we're jacked up when it comes to religion. because we dont understand god and we try to too hard… that's when everything always seems to get out of control. anyway… i dont think its the healthiest environment but they're good people.
oh and the reason the whole church is college age is because terry, when he changed to a g12 church, made a point to only go after college age people. he said they were more 'formable'. which is true. but that's the reason.
>> SKY: i would like to say that if you experienced worship that seemed in any way "simple"
I just said that the lighting was simple but professional. Nicely done. Of course, they did have the kind of laser lights that move and are controlled during a concert, so you are right, they weren't that simple.
>> SKY: i do think they are a lot like a cult, and i went there for 5 years, and have been back since.
I would like to hear more about your experience.
I attended this church for several years, at the suggestion of one of my best friends. Although it has been about two years since I have been back, here are some of the observations that I made in the time that I was there:
1. There was a heavy emphasis on tithing. Pastor Terry would often spend twenty minutes in the message discussing how we needed to tithe 10%. This was "Ten percent off the top," meaning that we needed to tithe 10% of our gross income, before taxes. If parents were supporting students, he would tell them that they needed to give the church 10% of what their parents gave them, before paying housing and tuition.
2. They were also very controlling of your time. At the time that I attended this church, I was a full time grad student, working full time to put myself through school. If class or work got in the way of my attending worship, cell group, early morning prayer session, or becoming more involved in the church, they would tell me that I did not put my faith in Jesus and this was a sin. The term "rebellious spirit" was used a number of times.
3. When members would leave to attend another church, or leave (because, often they graduated college), cell leaders would often ask us to pray for the people who fell away from the Lord. Pastor Terry would also mention that his vision was for everyone to remain in the church. This meant that single members needed to look for their spouse within the church, that students needed to look for jobs in SLO after graduation to stay with the church, etc.
4. As I mentioned in #2, members' time is often controlled heavily by the leaders of the church. My friend who brought me there was heavily involved in the Worship and dance team, even after I stopped attending the church. She actually quit her full-time job to give more time to Mercy Church, and even then she felt pressured to give more. She finally hit her breaking point and stopped attending this church. This is the friend who led me to Christ 8 years ago. While I have found a new home church, she completely despises organized religion, "Christians", and any kind of theology.
I hope that this information helps you to make an informed decision, and I do apologize for the long-winded response.
Runner,
Thanks for the input, very interesting, not rambling at all. I suspected that such *could* happen. Do you think the church might have changed since then? The one time I attended, Pastor Terry did not talk about tithing at all. Some cultlike churches grow out of it into grace.
As far as the tithing thing goes, I know that at the time that I left, tithing primarily occured within cell groups. Cell leaders were responsible for enforcing that their members tithed at meetings. Whether or not this is the case now, or if this explains why tithing was not discussed on Sunday I do not know.
I think that it is entirely possible that a cultlike church can grow out of it into grace. And, as I said earlier, I have not been back to Mercy in several years, so I cannot really say. At the time that I left, they had broken off from being the "Burn Vineyard Church", and seemed to be moving toward more cultlike behavior, rather than away from that. I am sure that in the past few years, the church could have changed.
to runner lets just say they are still doing what u were saying from above posts.