Wednesday 3 September 2008

Healer

Back in mid July I bought my wife the latest Hillsong DVD, This is Our God. It included one of the most powerful songs and one of the most powerful peformances I have heard for a long time.


The song was entitled Healer. The performer was someone I'd never heard of before, Michael Guglielmucci. What helped make it so powerful was his testimony about his struggle with cancer and how he was on oxygen as he peformed. It was, forgive the pun, breathtaking.


What was even more breathtaking was the revelation that the performer wasn't actually ill. He had pretended for two years that he was terminally ill with cancer. He faked the symptoms, the doctors' appointments, the lot.


I couldn't believe it when I heard that it was all an act. Staggered.


I don't want to use this blog as a platform to pass judgment on others' ministries or actions. However Healer and to some extent the circumstances surrounding Todd Bentley's difficulties reveal so much about life in the twenty-first century Western world. It tells us much about the context in which we do ministry and how ministry can be affected by our culture.


I intend to submit another post on this. Before I do, I want to commend both MG and TB for holding up their hands and seeking the healing that they sung and preached about so passionately. For some, the preceding statement will be too lacking in severity. However, let's not allow disappointment to obscure our vision of God's redemptive objectives for damaged people. And, after all, that's what we all are.

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