This blog examines, reviews and discusses how worship is being lived out in culture and in the church. We tackle everything from songwriting techniques in corporate worship, to interviewing worship leaders and pastors, to reviewing the last big rock concert.
After all, why on earth would a church built in a city that’s beneath sea level with rivers surrounding it held back by man made levees need flood insurance? Fortunately for the church our federal government stepped in and provided $252,000 in a federal disaster loan. Unfortunately for the church they had a thief for a pastor and he went and bought himself a car and took an additional $35,000 from the fund for play money.
I guess what do you expect when you name your church after land stealing pilgrims! I’m sorry, I’m part Indian and I’m still a little sensitive to all of this, my people suffered greatly. That reminds me, I’ll have to ask my dad who my people are again.
Michael Guglielmucci’s father released a statement in efforts to explain the recent news that Michael’s terminal cancer was faked. I can’t begin to understand what his family is going through. It really is a tragic situation all around. The statement really reads like a movie script, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if this became a movie at some point, it’s just that crazy. Not so surprisingly Michael was sick, but instead of addressing the root sin he tried to cover it…
In September in 2006, Mike had an accident and went to hospital. It was at this time, because of his torment of living a double life, Mike thought he could escape the pain by creating a diversion from his addiction to adult pornography, so he created the cancer scenario.
If you’ve been in church leadership longer than a week you’ve no doubt dealt with the destruction of pornography in your body. The lengths men and women go to hide this from their family never ceases to amaze me, although this certainly takes the cake. This hammers home the point that leadership, particularly male leadership, has to challenge their men on this. Talk about it, expose it, disciple through it, counsel through it. The aftermath of this sin is so destructive as is clearly seen here. Here’s Michael’s own words on his addiction…
“This is who I am … I’m addicted to the stuff, it consumes my mind,”
I admire the courage XXXChurch has shown in tackling this tough issue. Many take issue with how XXXChurch operates, and I may not agree with every tactic they use, but surely they are wrestling and taking on an issue most churches ignore. And for that they should be commended and supported and prayed for.
This has been a rough couple weeks for the church. First we have Todd Bentley stepping down due to marital problems and now his sexual sin being exposed. I have not posted anything on Todd Bentley, not because I don’t have strong feelings about it, but because I want to frame it in context to worship. I don’t want to write another piece on how messed up the whole Lakeland “outpouring” situation is, that’s been done. I’m working on a post so stay tuned on that front.
Now comes news that Michael Guglielmucci totally lied and made up his story of terminal illness. I don’t know where Hillsong goes from here, but I think they have to obviously take a long hard look at how the evaluate those whom they put on their biggest stage. A story of terminal illness can’t be that hard to checkout unless he had a team of doctor’s in on the lie.
I haven’t really gathered my thoughts on this yet, I’m just currently very disappointed, saddened and frustrated for the hurt this has caused. I hope you join me in praying for Michael and his family, Hillsong church and the thousands of those who have been impacted by this song. I’ve heard from several worship leaders who will continue to play this song in worship and I think that’s a wonderful thing. This song isn’t a story about Michael’s sickness or lack thereof, it’s a story and proclamation of God’s power. Perhaps this situation will make it even more evident in this song of our need for God’s healing power.
Noah Thomas plead guilty to stealing his church’s hurricane Katrina relief funds and has been sentenced to 17 months in prison. Noah’s church, Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in New Orleans, was completely flooded during the hurricane and unfortunately the church had no flood insurance. Doh!![[del.icio.us]](http://www.ourrisingsound.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
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This has been a rough couple weeks for the church. First we have 
Now comes news that