Avivamiento I attended the 7:30 AM service at Avivamiento here in Bogotá yesterday. This is definitely the largest church I have ever seen! It is a mega church in the Pentecostal tradition. I could not believe how large of a space I walked into when I entered. Chairs stretched as far as the eye could see literally. My little camera cannot capture the size of this enormous warehouse converted into a church sanctuary. Huge screens are set up mid-way and farther back so that people sitting in the back can follow along with whats going on up on a stage so far in front that you can barely see it. The service opened with a merengue-style song, and then a salsa-style song. Then there was a segment of healing when people were called forward for healing. They even had a guy in a doctors coat on stage to confirm the supposed miracle of the healing of the person who went forward. I am a little skeptical of that. Soon after that they collected the offering, preceded by some inspirational discussion along the lines of the prosperity gospel--one cannot deny that a plain reading of Malachi 3:10 gives some support to that theology: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. The music, lights, display graphics, coordinated movements by the choir and the recording and projection via live cameras of the stage and the audience was incredible--a really professional production. They had a boom camera that sweeps over the audience, cameras with close ups of people in attendance reacting to whatever the pastor was saying, or singing or praying. Toward the end of the pastors message, people started walking very fast toward the front. There was no prompting for this; nothing that I noted in the pastors message that invited people to come forward. But the whole area in front of the stage filled up quickly. The service ended with the pastor praying a blessing over the people, and reaching out to touch the raised hands of some of the people closest to the stage. This cult of personality demonstrated by people seeking the pastors blessing (instead of having faith in Gods blessing, even if youre sitting all the way in the back) was not something I agree with, but the entire experience was unforgettable--a phenomenon in Bogotá that attracted thousands of people to participate at 7:30 AM on a Sunday morning.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 14:36:09 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015