Thanks Paul,
Now I have to go back and confess the thoughts I have towards these jokesters. When I think of mistakes and errors I have made in the ministry, I tremble at my accountability towards the Creator… but, with these guys, I almost weep thinking of the amount of deception and gullibility of the people. All I can think is – millstones, millstones, millstones….

I’m speechless…

On a minor note: what a sad thing to do to the hokey-pokey!

Serious question: Is American Lutheranism able to prevent this from occuring in Lutheran congregations? If so, on what basis?

I don’t usually say this, but really… you can’t make this stuff up! Alzheimer’s is not Scriptural? What a clown.

It’s the hokey-cokey! Darn, isn’t anything sacred anymore?!

Isn’t this the same crowd that did the shaking your socks for Jesus as well? In America, all sorts of weird stuff seems to happen…

I think that calling a video of Todd Bentley “Dumb things CHRISTIANS do” is very charitable.

Sigh. And people wonder how I could have possibly returned to the Lutheran Church.

to think my evangelical friends think that our vestments, candles and hymnals are hokey??? Wow

“A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because THEY ARE NO MORE.” – Jeremiah 31:15

If one could demonstrate that the Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey was relevant and meet the felt needs of the unchurched would every “cutting edge” ministry adopt it?

Y’all are making this all sound like it’s a bad thing…;)

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

If this was ever offered as a satire of evangelical Christianity, some would laugh because it was humorous satire and others would be offended because it was over the top. No one would take it seriously. But apparently this is meant to be taken seriously. Really?

This seems to me to be a terrible affront to a holy God. I feel sad beyond words.

And I know that a mild version of this kind of shallow emotionalism where we were going to church is part of why my oldest son is now an atheist. . . .

Janet Mefford of KWRD Dallas played this, to her utter disbelief. She has been very critical of some forms of contemporary worship, all for the sake of it being ‘youth-oriented’. She got alot of grief from youth pastors who called in, which surprised me. If the services are not Word-based, it ends up to be silliness. I personally believe you can have skits as part of the service, as long as they proclaim the Word, and the pastor gives his message as well. I think alot of churches of all denominations need to take a step back, and wonder if they are sacrificing anything in services for the sake of it being ‘youth-oriented’. Most young people crave solid teaching, and want to be part of the community of believers.

Wow! I don’t think I’ve seen people act this “silly” in a bar!

Here is how a friend of mine that I admire (a Roumanian Penticostal pastor in the US) responds to this video clip and this post:

“Being with the Pentecostal/Charismatic Church since 1975 I witnessed all kinds of church manifestation.
I don’t judge people or groups, by the first appearance, until I know who they are, what they believe, and what are their fruits in the Kingdom of God.

I can tell you this much at this point, that personally, I do not embrace or encourage this kind of manifestation ( do to my Romanian orthodox/pentecostal background, I am more incline to the contemplative style and expressions).

It will be good to consider that the American culture is most of the time, gullible, naive and childish, extrovert and non-inhibited…all this can have positive and negative effects…I think the Bible disagrees with mantras, stereotypes, jokes, and false empty expressions…

I wonder how the worship will look or change if people receive a true conversion, and a solid bible teaching trough discipleship, (how everybody will change and transform, and how much they will keep in terms of exterior manifestation)

God’s people sometime may seam strange and their behavior hard to comprehend ( Is the walk with the Lord that interests me)…Think of the desert fathers and their behavior (Simion Stylites, that he decided to spent his life on the top of the pillar …)

Blessings,”

American Evangelicalism has become a hokey pokey religion. Unfortunately it is exported in parts like Africa and Asia and people are buying it.

LPC

I know of a Lutheran pastor who parked his Harley in front of the altar. I know of a Lutheran pastor who dressed his chancel as a duck blind. Hey, some folks like the Hokey Pokey. Other folks like to hunt Ducks.

Then there are those Lutheran pastors who think it important to have access to good coffee and bottled water during worship. Some even feel that the smell of freshly baked cookies wafting over the gathered congregation is an important addition to the worship of the Holy Trinity.

Duck blinds, Harley Davidsons, coffee and bottled water, the smell of cookies, the singing of the Hokey Pokey…..all while marginalizing (if not omitting or removing) the Sacrament of the Altar, the confessing of the Creeds, the praying of the Our Father, crucifixes, fonts, altars, pulpits, albs, stoles, and virtually anything which puts the focus on the presence and work of the Holy Trinity. This is increasingly what is occurring in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Oftentimes the congregations practicing this are praised and offered up as good examples to the rest of us. Perhaps they are good examples. Perhaps they are not.

Now I really do not think we ought to make fun of these folks and the novel activities they are importing into the Divine Service. The people who engage in this are quite sincerely trying to do what is best and most Christian, I am sure. They also have a great deal of zeal for reaching the lost. Good for them. We need more of that.

But I do think that we need to have an extended conversation about these matters. And by conversation, I mean listening and then responding…give and take…for a long time and in an organized fashion. There may or may not be something fundamentally wrong. I will admit my bias toward the former—I suspect there is something fundamentally wrong.

We confess the Church to be “catholic.” Catholicity always involves a vigorous engagement with whatever culture in which the Church finds Herself. But care must always be exercised that She does not lose her identity along the way.

Are we losing our identity?