Saturday, January 7, 2012

Sign Here Please

Sign Here Please


Sign Here Please
 
  One of the foremost priorities in the mind of the pastor is to make certain that you sign the guest book. You will be asked to write down your name, address, telephone number, and sometimes the name of the person who invited you. Many churches ask their guests to perform similiar duties, whether in the form of a book register or a small card placed in the offering plate. They want more than just a record of your visit; they want the opportunity to contact you in the future. There is no real harm in this practice, unless it falls into the wrong hands, and a group as exclusive and aggressive as New Testament Christian Church can be expected to make the most of your information.
 
  The pastor will use the information you provide to contact you via a simple, friendly letter expressing his appreciation and pleasure at your having visited. Then the intrigue begins. Your name will go into a database (varying in depth and sophistication based upon the size and scope of the church), the pastor and his wife will show up on your doorstep “just to say hello, and see how you’re doing”, and then the responsibility for your eternal soul will be placed upon the shoulders of your host or hostess (the person who invited you originally). In this manner, the pastor can pay you a friendly initial home visit relatively free of pressure, while allowing the person who actually invited you to perform the more involved task of encouraging your return. The person who invited you to church has a sincere concern for your well-being, but is almost certainly being pushed by the pastor to keep tabs on you systematically, follow up on you, find ways to get you to come back, and report any and all developments in your case. The pastor is carrying out his primary duty of adding numbers to the attendance, doing so through the labors of those whose lives he claims to oversee in the name of the Lord, constantly pressuring them for more involvement and better results. He is following the philosophy (and reflecting the nature) of the organization’s founder, R.W. Davis, which may be summarized as: Push–and people will move.
 
  Again, as has been stated, you are of no use to NTCC unless you are sitting in the seat staring at the pastor’s lovely face. They will push you for a commitment to return. They will use a variety of techniques until they find the one that works. They will use guilt in the following fashion: You will be prodded about coming to church until you at least commit to attend sometime in the uncertain future. Then if you do not show up soon, they will knock on your door again pouting that you have broken your word. Promises to “visit occasionally” are not good enough. Committing to “come again sometime” will only encourage continued pressure. You are better off to simply say NO THANKS and be done with it. Of course, they will conclude that you are simply a sinner who loves sin and wants to live in sin, because any desire to truly serve God would naturally lead you to them.
 
  Holy Hands
 
  New Testament Christian Church places much emphasis upon the peculiar institutions that set them apart as over against other churches and denominational groups. In those areas where many normal Christians are free to disagree with one another without fear of censure and  condemnation, NTCC has staked off territory and made the claim that they have The Truth, to which others must adhere if they are to be accepted with God.
 
  They will not tell you this, and for as long as you continue to be involved they will couch their beliefs in a series of disconnected claims. But an analysis of these claims, and the simple act of connecting them to form logical conclusions will reveal their basic nature in believing they are the only church  organization on the planet that God is “using”, “blessing”, “working through”, “moving upon”, “using to reach the world”, etc. There may be others, in their opinion, but with two qualifiers: 1) If they exist, they are “JUST LIKE US” and  2) “We don’t know of any.”
 
  The Apostle Paul has written, “I would that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting”. We could analyze this text, but for now it is enough to mention the following: There is no scriptural requirement to lift up one’s hands when praying. Not even NTCC requires the lifting up of hands. But there are times when the pastor is going to exhort the congregation to do just this. Anyone who does not participate will then be marked as uncooperative. You may even be “preached about” in the sense of the pastor simply mentioning, “some of you can’t even lift your hands–well, if you get right with God, you will”. Expect this and do not be afraid or intimidated. Intimidation is what this group is all about. Again the philosophy is, Push–and people will move. If the pastor cannot get willing cooperation, he will gladly settle for the coerced variety. If he cannot inspire you to true spirituality, he will gladly manufacture some for you.
 
  As the service is about to begin (always precisely on time), the entire congregation (be it two people or twenty or two hundred) will rise to their feet and lift their hands in prayer. This is a perfectly good and harmless form of worship, and one that the individual may find very edifying, when performed willingly. The purpose here, however, is to test you to a certain extent. If you do not lift your hands, you will be seen as a sinner, or a merely nominal so-called Christian who does not love God enough to worship him in Spirit and in Truth. The challenge might be given out from the pulpit that you would lift your hands if you did not live such a life of sin. “Are you ashamed to worship God?” the pastor might ask amid all the loud praying and the introductory playing of music, “Jesus said ‘If you’re ashamed of me, I’ll be ashamed of you’, so what about it?” On the other hand, if you are a lady who wears pants or make-up or jewelry or short hair or (God forbid) all four, then if you do lift your hands it only proves what a religious hypocrite you really are. How dare you come fearlessly before the throne of God looking like that! This is where their twisted view of holiness inevitably leads.
 
  Do not expect involvement with NTCC, no matter how limited, to be anything but a no-win situation.
 
  As a visitor, you are newly confronted with the things that set this group apart. If it meets with your approval, then you are considered “tender to the Spirit of God” but if not, you are “hardening your heart” and “filled with unbelief”.
 
  Hymning it up
 
  New Testament Christian Church has difficulty relating to the real world due to the influence of their founder, R.W. Davis. They have come to see him as a modern-day Apostle, fully equal with the twelve who both saw and heard the Lord himself both before and after His resurrection. Desiring to see God “move” again in these modern times by way of miracles and revelation, they begin with the spurious premise that God has spoken to this man and given him a special blessing of revealed insight and a specific plan for the organization. One of the unfortunate manifestations of this error is the “Papal presumption”, the willingness to take everything said by Davis from his pulpit as a direct word from the Holy Spirit. To test or otherwise challenge his words is to demonstrate doubt, unbelief and rebellion. If this seems somewhat incongruous with Christianity, it is no wonder, since NTCC is established upon the personality of this one man. The organization exists primarily as a vehicle for the fulfillment of his personal aim of building a large ministry that ultimately follows his footsteps, answers to him alone, and adores him completely.
 
  Thus it is that everything you will experience at New Testament Christian Church is an unapologetic reflection of R. W. Davis’ personal taste, which is assumed to be in agreement with the will of God. Among these personal preferences is a penchant for country gospel music. It is, in the collective mind of NTCC, not merely good music, and not merely the best kind. It is the ONLY kind. This applies primarily to any special singing that goes on in the church. Anyone who prefers another genre is revealed to be “carnal”, “sinful”, “compromised”, “worldly”, “too contemporary”, “too black”, “too charismatic”, or any of a host of similar put-downs.
 
  In a similar fashion, the singing and music featured during corporate worship are restricted to that which suits the personal taste of Davis. This would include primarily upbeat, traditional revivalist songs and pentecostal choruses. Slow songs are sometimes acceptable, but Davis believes they interrupt the momentum of the service and make people sad. Traditional hymns containing lofty themes and doctrine are shunned for the most part, because to sing them would give credibility to the Presbyterians and other denominations that are the favorite whipping boys of NTCC’s pentecostal exclusivity. The singing of Psalms and other similar ‘Praise’ music so popular in many churches today is considered “charismatic” by NTCC, which in essence makes it an object of ridicule, lacking in masculinity and force.
 
  The thought of “so-called Christians” (who don’t dress properly or believe every doctrinal mandate of NTCC) actually worshiping the Lord and having the nerve to think He receives their praise is a mental image that makes them feel physically ill.
 
  Some would argue persuasively that music need not be rigidly restricted in style, since music used in worship is a matter of giving glory to God through a medium invented by Him. Others would agree, while counter-arguing that this medium, like others, has been corrupted by sin, and should be regulated. Others would note that there is no shame in taking back these corrupted modes for their original purpose, and regulation should be that of the individual conscience. There is no room for this debate in NTCC, where ignorance is encouraged for fear that individual thoughts might run against the grain of the Leader.

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