"Encounter" and "Going Deeper"

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

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[theresearchpersona]

Sorry about so many posts...but I have to ask, is anyone else disturbed at the kind of names the GC leadership gives to events? I remember older Churchmen giving warnings about anyone promising any "secret", or specifically about "going deeper"(!) than x, and y, and z because of them...but GC promises things like "this will be an 'Encounter' with God!" or other junk and people think doing these things someone how are that...personally I think God will be encountered the way He ordained (led by His Spirit in His Word) and in the witness of His sheep being transformed therein...I'd take more heed to a 5-year-old reading aloud his bible than the often poor (though not always) teaching with wrested scripture from the minds of these men. I still bring up, and can't get over, how often they'll read a passage...and then co-opt it for their purposes and wrest it, rather than preaching (as Spurgeon put it) "The Burden of the Text". And this ain't a joke...GC leadership I knew would probably get vicious if you point-out errors and crack jokes the next service about how nit-picky people fault them for not being perfect...but of course the Apostle Paul, for instance, tells Timothy to hold to the form of sound words, Peter warns us that men take Paul's words wherein there are some things hard to understand...and wrest them to their own destruction (that's right GC, destruction...not "I'm just imperfect and God will have grace if I mislead his flock"...that's why early teachers in the 1st and 2nd centuries were so freakin' terrified!...yet they appreciated the threats too because they thought it helped keep them in-line...and I wish that had been more of a reality than it actually appears when they themselves are taken and examined by scripture).

There's a lot of "come meet God"...haven't those in Christ already met Him, and not only that, know Him? (According to Jesus!) They're fully able to do that...without these men, after all Jesus said to go into the storeroom and close the door. It's GREAT to gather in God's name...if according to God's instruction.

[Immortal_Raven]

I always thought the problem was not the name of Going deeper or the advertisement of an "encounter with God".  It was trying to force the encounter.  I went to one of those type of events and was trying so hard to have a moving experience and ended up pretty disappointed that I didn't.  But that was the thing, I tried to force it.  It reminded me of the story of the Prophets of Baal trying to get their God to light an offering on fire.  They tried to force their god.  That showed me that you really can't force a relationship with God, an encounter with him, or anything of that nature.  He will decide what and when it is best for you, not you.  

-Immortal_Raven