I have been following your blog with much excitement since my wife (HA alumni-99) told me about it several months ago. Although I never attended the Honor Academy, I religiously attended ATF’s through out high school and also went on two TM mission trips. In fact, I talked my wife into going to the Honor Academy! In a small town in North Central Florida, a message of purity and holiness sells real well in our rural churches so naturally, I picked up what TM was throwing down-and I picked it up big time. I was a fire-breathing “world changer” until I met an Anglican priest who had the audacity to look me in the eye and say “Listen Super-Boy, this ain’t about you.”
I lived a life for many years with Ron Luce as my model for what a Christian should be and Teen Mania as the family I wanted to be in. For a high-school kid trying to be a good Christian, the Teen Mania thing can be so enticing. Throw in a multi-million dollar budget, a full fledged touring infomercial with all the bells and whistles trying to recruit you to a near self-sustaining giant compound in the middle of nowhere in East Texas – and you have yourself a bona-fide religious sect which I was proud to be a part of!
As a recovering pharisee, it is so comforting to the see the healing ministry of the Father at work in so many people, from all over the country, from all walks of life, all who have been delivered from the bondage of religion and pharisism. I say this not as a dig at TM or any other ministry, but it is what it is. I look at all the mega-ministries and giant corporate churches today and I see how they try to brand Jesus and sell him like the newest fad. Like he needs some sort of marketing campaign with a “Captain-America” spokesman in order to recruit more followers to “The Call” here in the 21st century. How sad and unfortunate because nothing can be further from the truth. Christ came and turned the religious world upside down when he said its the poor in spirit who inherit the kingdom of heaven and that it’s the not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick, Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. To a world that places its value in looks, status and overall sex appeal, this message is confounding. Sadly, it appears this message eludes the HA to this day. In essence, TM’s message boils down to “be good and try harder,” and it couldn’t be more opposite from the comfortable words of our Lord: “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-ladened and I will refresh you. Take my yolk upon you for my burden is easy and my yolk is light.”
Because of the world we live in and the rules that society drills into our brains from the beginning, it’s only natural for us to strive and try to earn. But when I read all of these stories from these folk’s days in the HA, it’s almost like we’re back in the days of Jesus and the Pharisees with the religious leaders tying us up with burdens and heavy loads – rules and expectations to satisfy the natural craving we have as humans to earn what we have. I believe the Father’s heart is filled with such sadness because his children aren’t experiencing the freedom that he sent his son that we might receive. Unfortunately to a world filled with broken, wounded and hurting people, much of what we’re preaching today is neither good, nor news.
My prayer for the folks still involved with Teen Mania is they have the grace to chew the grass and spit out the sticks. And for the folks, who like me, due to their woundedness may be tempted to find their identity in the TM culture, I would pray the Holy Spirit grant them a sobering clarity. Because when the arenas are emptied and the sound and lighting rigs get packed up, after all of the staging and video walls are stored to give way to another summer of drive-by evangelism filled with the purest of intentions, that all the noise give way to the scandalous message of the Gospel which truly is too good to be true: Its not about what you do or don’t do. It’s about believing and receiving the full benefits of Christ’s death and passion. As Jesus put it when asked what must we do to do the works God requires, Jesus simply answered: “the work of God is this, to believe in the one whom he has sent.”
Keep up the good work RA. I believe you’re being obedient and I commend you for attempting to graciously point out to the leadership of this ministry some of the bumps and bruises many have received, even with the purest of intentions I’m afraid. Though I’m not an alumni of the HA, I was a follower of its message for a very long time until I experienced the true meaning of the incarnation as foretold in Isaiah and then fulfilled with the Lord’s ministry:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”
8 comments:
totally love this post…thanks for sharing rick! 🙂
Myndasays:July 13, 2010 at 8:20 AM
Rick! Well said.
“Listen Super-Boy, this ain’t about you.”
This needs to be said and said often (to myself) every day!
Thank you for putting it so plainly yet so eloquently. The TRUTH is simple, yet beautiful.
Moriahsays:July 13, 2010 at 9:16 AM
Beautiful piece of writing Rick.
Thank you for sharing.
Picture Perfectsays:July 13, 2010 at 10:48 AM
I really appreciate this post, Rick.
This part especially:
“Unfortunately to a world filled with broken, wounded and hurting people, much of what we’re preaching today is neither good, nor news.”
I think many Christians today are too busy making points and pointing fingers that we step all over the hurting a broken, the very ones we are called to love.
I have said this as an Anonymous but I’ll say it again. The Lost will know us, Children of GOd, by our Love one for another.
Great words, Rick! Reminds me a bit of one of my pastor’s favorite sayings:
“The Gospel is the Good News, not the Good Advice. It’s the story of what God did, not something we have to do.”
Sweet.
Lisasays:July 13, 2010 at 7:29 PM
Word.
Chrissays:July 14, 2010 at 9:30 AM
great post, God really is yearning for us cast our burdens at His feet for He cares for us.