Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
Every generation has its wild eyed enthusiast who grabs hold of the coat tails of a principle and swings the tides of history. Wow! Can I ever stop blushing after hearing what Steven Furtick has ushered into evangelicalism? Yup, even Charles Finney would not have come up with such an ingenius idea. The best Finney did was to leave us with introduction of altar calls. (Okay yes, plus crumbs in decisional regeneration in his classic sermon “Sinners bound to change their own hearts”). But this goes even further. Spontaneous baptisms! My jaw dropped down to my ankles in amazement when I read that…
At Elevation Church in the summer of 2011, we saw one of the most audacious acts in the history of this church.
We believe in baptism at Elevation Church, and we believe every person who has made a decision to follow Christ should be baptized. And to give as many people the opportunity to get baptized, we decided to spontaneously baptize people. We provided an opportunity to get baptized… on the spot.
We baptized 2,158 people over 2 weekends. It was unbelievable. It was audacious.
If you’d like to find out more of what we did to make the baptisms a success, we’ve made everything available to you to download for free right here.[Editor: Link removed by a hater! Possibly a Calvinist!]
We want to share with you everything we did, so you can host your own spontaneous baptisms with your ministry. We want to share what was in our baptism bags, the logistics of preparing for hundreds of people to change their clothes, we’ve even included the transcript from a message Pastor Steven preached on baptism to help you out if you’d like to use it.
We’ve tried to provide everything we could think of to help you experience God doing the impossible through your ministry. Please take advantage of these free resources and let us know how it goes.
Now who says we cannot whip people into a revival and dunk them before they change their minds? If more churches can only learn this simple technique guess how many wet converts we can make in one week, two weeks or even one year? It’s that easy! Anybody can pull this off!
Get the kit! Get the kit! Remember don’t let them think about what they are about to do…just dunk them! For the Lord of course! Questions about their salvation, repentance and faith can be asked later.
Thanks Steve your pragmatic and purpose driven idea anointed ideas have surpassed Charles Finney’s! That’s my compliment to ya!
Wait a minute. Now comes the hardest bit-keeping them saved and interested in reading the bible and the things of God. Yikes! Now I wish the sun could really stand still.
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 
And to think that James McDonald believes this guy is a great man of God… People fall for this stuff because they don’t know their Bible from their banjo.
Shhh….they might hear you. 🙂
Here’s what I find sad about this post and the people who run in your circle. You guys try to come off as the defenders of the faith, but you sound like you don’t even know your Bible or have done your homework. Remember that one time when it says in Acts 2 that 3000 believed and were baptized on the same day? Apparently all of your evaluative “questions” are extrabiblical.
And have you even done any good investigating and listened to the sermon Furtick preached that day? I have, and he spends at least 5-10 minutes explaining that baptism is for those who have already believed.
Do those of us who have legitimate criticisms a favor and don’t post stuff like this. It makes you look like right-wing Christian conspiracy hacks and makes it harder on the rest of us to voice concerns and actually be heard.
Go back to square one and read your Bible. Then actually go and hear and read stuff from the source – all of it, not just clips or fragments. Then post something legitimate.
Peter (if that is truly your name) I will publish your question/ answer so that I can read it over and over. Then at the right time I will answer you lovingly with scripture. I do believe you genuinely are looking for an answer and you deserve a comprehensive one.
I mentioned Finney in a recent post too. I think he’s getting too much recognition. Although I wonder how big our blog readership is. Now go read your Bible.
Jeff
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It should alarm and inform anyone who comes this way when those who graciously and accurately appeal for fidelity to sound doctrine (please cf. Titus 2:1) are called “haters” – I suggest you watch the You Tube Clip of Furtick by this title. Talk about hate! It oooooozzzes from his every pore.
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As we thought and understood from the holy scriptures, nothing like converts class existed but when the person believed with their heart and confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus, they were baptized. Look at the examples of Paul, the house of Cornelius and acts chapter 2 etc.