The first time I saw this, I thought:
“Wah-wah.”
I don’t think you can get much cheesier than this, can you?
You be the judge:
Pastor Rod Parsley Zip Line Entrance
[tentblogger-youtube m9yEPMYvfOg]
Upon further review, imagine being there yourself.
Imagine it’s your pastor. It’s your church. It’s your family.
What do you think, now?
I think somethings are best left “in person” and not meant for YouTube.
Thoughts?
Eric J says
Video has been removed by its user.
Eric Dye says
Updated! Thanks Eric. 🙂
J R A says
Here is a link to another video of it …since the original has been removed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEZLCQA1PHI
Eric Dye says
🙂
John says
You don’t really want my thoughts on this.
Eric Dye says
Ah, but I do! 😛
Jason says
Call it what you will. “Entertainment”. “Creating an experience”. “Capturing the attention of an audience with the typical modern short attention span”…
Has church jumped the shark?
Understanding that I don’t have the full background on why this was done, I won’t speculate on anything else. It could have been a dare. When I was growing up our super small church, our minister preached on the roof of the building as a result a dare or something (I don’t remember the reason, only the act). Did it change my perception of what church was for? Nah. But it certainly meant that nobody was going to get anything out of church that day except for a memory of that event. Use these “shananigans” sparingly, and don’t let the message fall by the wayside.
Eric Dye says
I think this was done for the sermon series titled, “Mission Impossible.”
Jumped the shark? Good call.
Eric E. Kidwell says
Look in the Bible and you see that God had his people Celebrate… ALOT!!!!!!!!!!!
There are so many feasts, but if you don’t believe me, google it 😀
God wants us to have fun and to celebrate. I see no problem with capturing the attention of people to speak a word in their life that they may go out and live it. And it obviously went with the sermon series, so it is a great way to start and grab the attention of the people.
Will some people only remember the zipline, sure! Will people remember the points in the sermon better if it was tied to the illustration of the zipline, yes! But do you remember one thing from the sermon three weeks ago? one week ago? Maybe not.
People can get caught up on how the gospel is presented, but unless you’re going to go do a spiritual audit at their church and then go do an audit at some other more traditional church to see which is actually following Christ, then why not instead focus on what God has called you to do. (ps it’s not nit picking)
Eric Dye says
I love your enthusiasm! Thank you, Eric. 😀
Lance King says
God has called pastors to preach the word in season and out of season, not to entertain us. If I want a James Bond “experience,” Hollywood does it bigger and better. The evangelical world in American has largely lost the under 30 crowd, and it’s not for lack of “relevant” preachers. Gimmickry is not going to bring them back.
Peter says
My personal opinion is that it’s just for show and this is entertainment at its best. I think that there should be a certain element of holiness in church and doing stuff like this completely removes that.
I could go on for quite a while but you get the gist 🙂
Thanks for posting Eric
Eric Dye says
I hear you, Bro.
Lann says
Wow.. When I read that title I couldn’t even believe that those words could be put together in a real sentence (in my mind he was at least always kinda classy).. I feel sick to my stomach..and heart broken all at the same time. I don’t listen to his preaching anymore now that we have come out of the Charismatic Movement two years ago ..but I never in a million years thought it would sink to this.. Sooo very sad 🙁