In light of the recent debacle now known as Lakeland, I was wondering and thinking about where the church will go next in terms of a ‘movement. In my thoughts, this came to mind:

Will we swing from the excessive charismatic/prophetic back to the excessive over-repentance / hyper-holiness mentality?

I believe that if we are not careful enough, we can get ourselves in grave danger of heading in this direction of an ‘over-repenting’ and ‘hyper-holiness’ type of Gospel where the legalisms widely known within fundamentalist and ole-time pentecostalism can take form. To combat the mess cause by the one extreme, we end up solving the problem with the other extreme.

What do I really mean by an ‘over-repenting’ and ‘hyper-holiness’ type of Gospel? A Gospel where we over-interpret to where we are constantly ‘repenting’ for something other people (Identificational repentance) did more than our own individual sins (personal repentance). A Gospel where we take things that are normally okay and try to re-define them as ’sin’ in order to ‘repent’ for something to brag about how we are ‘repenting’ and becoming ‘humbled’. A Gospel where we value the skirt-length, the starched dress shirt, the wide striped ties, no jewerly (except for wedding bands), no makeup, southern-Gospel (for Pentecostals) or ‘trumpet’ music (for fundamentalists), the 1/4 inch hair rule away from the ears, a ‘poorer the purer mentality’, etc. where we render the garments and hold back the hearts. I could go on and on…….

But most astutely, an ‘over-repenting’ and ‘hyper-holiness’ type of Gospel where we are constantly repenting thinking if we stumble upon the right repentance, God opens up the windows and can suddenly hear us again and all our social ills are suddenly eradicated to where our Christian utopia can ‘be restored’. A quazi-mixture of word of faith dominionlism combined with the Christian Reconstructionalism theories of R.J. Rushdoony.

There are two significant events that can easily swing the other extreme into action…

(1): The Lakeland disaster where we saw the extremes of a warfare dance, an evangelist who kneed people to be slain in the spirit, a revival decoder ring, and a pro-wrestler, Hells Angel biker, rockstar wanna be (Bam-Bam Bentley) run rampant on a podium only to end on moral failures known by the ’super-apostles’ called the ‘revival alliance’ {aka the ‘really rottens’ (a “Laff-A-Lympics” reference), new millenium style’ - put them all in black t-shirts with a capital Letter “R” in white letters on the front and take a group picture} months in advance.

(2): The election of Barack Obama to the White House this November.

Number one has taken place and there is a very high possibility that number two will also happen.

If we look at the trends of televangelism, you will notice that when the Republicans are in office, the teachings turn towards a health, wealth, and prosperity slant where sending them money is supposed to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise. When the Democrats are in office, the teachings turn towards an ‘over-repenting’ and ‘hyper-holiness’ type of Gospel where we are repenting, calling our congressmen, forming theo-political action committees and sending them money is supposed to stamp out the DEMONcrats and also act like indulgences and ‘provide forgiveness’ of our sins.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are at the “Crossroad of Crisis” within Christianity. There is a huge mess called Lakeland that needs to be dealt with and cleaned up to the point where this could take years to recover from. Now is the time where we need to bring forth a balanced Christian doctrine where a truly balanced work of the Holy Spirit and truly balanced operation of Spiritual Gifts plus a truly balanced doctrine of personal holiness, repentance, and “Go, And sin no more….” takes place.

If we do not choose at this time to enact the balanced doctrine of a lifelong process of dying daily to the flesh opting for the reactionary overkill of ‘over-repenting’ and ‘hyper-holiness’ for a ‘quick fix’ to ‘look good’ in the eyes of the world, we can expect another disaster called “personal moral failure of a leader (SIN)” in the same exact way the Lakeland disaster came forth.

Same mess, same beginning zeal, same ending result, but from the opposite extreme.

We need a balanced Gospel and we need it NOW! before it’s too late and we repeat the cycle.