Some Christian behaviour smacks of the bizarre and is simply a caricature of true ministry. J Lee Grady (contributing editor to Charisma) highlighted this when he wrote “A few years ago a popular charismatic preacher spoke at a meeting I attended at a church in Orlando, Fla. After his message he asked all ordained ministers to run to the platform so he could lay hands on them. Immediately this man’s team of beefy bodyguards began grabbing people, dragging them onto the stage and holding them in place until the evangelist could pray for everyone. I felt queasy about this spectacle. It resembled a charismatic version of World Wrestling Entertainment: lots of smacking noises, falling bodies and cheers from the excited crowd. We Christians seem to love a good show, even if it is staged.”
Such excesses are not limited to the United States however, and they can easily influence the way we pray for the sick. I remember one evangelist, who claimed a healing ministry, confidently assuring two distraught parents that their dying daughter would fully recover. She died a short while later, and yet there were still those who were disappointed when I said that he would not conduct “a healing crusade” in any church for which I was responsible.
Having said that, though, I am convinced that God can, and does heal people, and that we must do all we can to ensure that the Advertising Standards Authority doesn’t stop us shouting it from the rooftops, as it seems to have done with Healing On The Streets in Bath.
