The lights in the auditorium were dimmed.The Kansas City School of Prophets took the stage.These “prophets” claimed God had given them a special ability to prophesy future events in people’s lives.The audience had been instructed to write their names on a piece of paper, and then each paper was placed in a large wheel onstage, much like a lottery wheel on TV. The host then began randomly pulling names out of the wheel and calling on a prophet to prophesy over that name. I knew I should not be there. I knew this was kooky.Yet, I was so desperate that I remained open to the possibility that I could find some message from God there. You might be wondering how a girl from a Lutheran school background could find herself in such a situation. Believe me, I was wondering myself! Surprisingly enough, I was a good Bible student.When I was in grade school, I followed the vicars around, asking them questions. I made plans to become a deaconess, but I left college before finishing the degree. Instead, I ended up on Christian radio. Once there, people began to question my faith. Was I “Born Again”? Did I really “Know Jesus”? I was told that my faith was
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only “head knowledge”, and that I needed to “ask Jesus into my heart”. One of the women I worked with was the wife of a pastor who had a very large non-denominational church in town. She invited me to visit their church. I found the music there so compelling. I had been raised in a LCMS church that had introduced me to contemporary Christian music (CCM). In fact, even as early as 6th grade, I was helping to lead the congregation in this type of music. But I found this church’s music to be much better! There was a great band, songs that moved me, and to top it all off, everyone, including the pastor, wore jeans! This church was all about “altar calls”. While music played, you walked to the front of the church and made the decision “to follow Jesus”.They told you to “stop playing church” and “give your heart to Jesus”. The problem was the emphasis was not on the cross. In fact, I don’t remember ever hearing that you should come to the front because Jesus died and saved you from your sins. Instead, the promise was that God would make your life full and happy. Long speeches focused on modern man and how lonely and empty he is. Loneliness could be eliminated if you come down
in the
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