Church Services

Going Bapticostal

98 Comments

It never ceases to amaze me that fundies love to bash Charismatic churches for their outpouring of emotion and unintelligible worship utterances when truth be told you really can’t figure out much of what is being said or done in some “camp meeting” style Baptist churches either.

The caption to this video reads: “It got on in Sunday School and never slowed down! Glory to God!”

What exactly is “it”? Anybody want to venture a guess?

98 thoughts on “Going Bapticostal”

  2. You might be a fundy if.. you’ve used the word “Bapticostal” in a sentance javascript:grin(‘:shock:’)

    3. Wow! That’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced (thankfully!) We were a rather staid and stolid group in our circles!

      1. We heard all the time “Let everything be done decently and in order.”

        Behavior like this would have been eschewed as being disrespectful, disorderly, and too close to Pentecostal.

  4. Grandpa wondering around reminds me of the people at the nursing home I went to every Sunday afternoon my last few years in the IBF. They had massive memory loss and just wondered around babbling incoherent things.

  5. nobody has said first yet.. even thought I’m not first, can I claim it*?

    *claim in in the normal sense, not in the “in Jesus’ holy name” sense.

  6. To think I paused Billy Joel to listen to this nonsense.

    Whatever “it” is, I hope it’s not contagious.

    1. The Spirit points us to Christ. So, if Christ is being preached, if the sacraments are being administered (which are visible proclamations of the gospel) – the Spirit is “on.”

  10. My cat did not like this video. She was curled up on the desk beside me until the loud “Wooooo” noises started. She stomped off with her ears laid back. I will probably have to purchase forgiveness with a treat now.

    1. Oh, are you in trouble now! Always remember: Cats were worshiped as gods in ancient Egypt. Cats have never forgotten this. 😈 >^. .^<
      Better make it a full can of tuna. 😀

    2. My kitty had only 5 little kitty treats left in the bag. She gave my hubby a mad look today when he went to give her a treat and then only had the 5 little pieces! Guess I have to go to the store… 😀

  11. My best guess was the visiting preacher was getting too much attention, so the Mog jumped up and started prancing around for his normal spot in the spotlight.

    It pains me to remember that I once thought that was an actual form of worship. I do believe we should get excited about God, but nothing there looked like excitement. To me it looked staged and not well acted.

  12. My wife and I attended a Christmas concert at a local church last night. My “spirits” were on thanks to the remembrance of God’s plan for salvation through Jesus Christ (and also the guitars and drums), but the IBF would consider it hieratical to worship God that way. But it’s okay to worship God by running all over the place and babbling. What?

  13. We have a number of birds and see simular behavior. Put them together in the same room, and it gets very loud.

    1. That’s exactly what I was thinking! Whatever “it” is, seems to produce bird-like behaviour.

  15. Looking at this, I don’t know what IT is, and I do not want to know. Ever. Let’s just hope IT isn’t catching.

    1. I’ll tell you what “It” is…”It” is a maximum double-digit IQ. The reason that a lot of Fundies mock scholarly pursuits is that the typical fundy MOG is intellectually challenged. Seriously, have you ever met a very educated MOG? This is why they all bestow “doctorates” on their buddies…they won’t – or, more likely, cannot – do the work necessary to earn a real degree. In turn, they shun education (and educated people). Therefore, the result is a seriously uneducated, ill-informed, low-IQ flock. No wonder they yell and dance around like imbeciles. Care to guess how many MENSA members are in that video?

      1. So true, Bro Bluto! The ‘Pope’ of Fundamentalism, Dr. Jack Hyles himself, belittled from the pulpit all preachers that he refered to as ‘deeper’ thinkers of theology and expository preachers. My ex-fundie pastor got one of those honorary doctorate degrees. If they all go to the same fundie colleges, get the same fundie education,well,there IT is!

        1. Fundifled: I think you hit the nail on the head — Jack Hyles apparently knew many intellectuals that had grown cold hearts that he wrongly attributed it to the intellectual side, and mocked it and avoided it all of his life. Unfortunately, due to his numerical success, so many copied everything he did blindly, and did not test in by the Bible.

    1. I’ve seen Dinner on the grounds in bulletins before, but it always turns out to be on tables, never on the ground. With the execption of the invariable small child who either drops his plate or holds it at such an angle his food falls off of it, of course!

  17. Watching it without sound leads me to believe IT was in whatever beverage they served in Sunday School. (And hopefully said beverage was NOT given to the kids!) 😈

  18. Wow…sounds like Ric Flair Church of God…whoooooo

    I’ve been to my share of ifb, ib, and church of Gods/pentecostal churches and that sounds like a pentecostal church in some respect (sans tongues and all). However, if they were watching a COG video, i’m sure it would be condemned but they can do it! Remember, its okay if you wave your bible in the air.

      1. If I could paraphrase the Nature Boy: the typical MOG is a Bible-thumping, tithe-collecting, flock-trashing, hypocritical son-of-a-gun! To be the MOG, you have to beat the MOG! Wooooooooooooooo!

    1. “It” appears to be natively on FB, and the links at the end of the video to “go to video” or “share+” aren’t working on my macbook at a training center internet connection to try to get a direct link. If you have FB blocked that’s probably why it won’t play.

  21. If they get “it”, then the teacher/preacher doesn’t have to worry about studying for a lesson or message. But what am I saying?? Have I ever heard a fundie preacher who studied the Bible? Ha.

  22. Does this church hail from the Hyles’ camp? Reason asking, my ex-IFB church did and the pastor preached that IFB churches should show no resemblance to formal denominations such as Lutheran, or Episcopalian, etc….so loud Amen’s, Hallelujah’s and Bible waving was acceptable, but no hand raising in praise or worship! Too Pentacostal!

    Typical of IFBdom, setting their own acceptable standards of how much emotion is “Godly”!

    Doesn’t matter if the point of the message is understood, as long as the people get excited enough to come forward at altar call and make those commitments to work harder at their Sunday School ministries, attend more faithfully, get involved, or give more $$$. That’s true IFB Bapticostal results from this kind of preaching/theatrics!

      1. …and Pew racin’

        – “BULL GIPP” Bustin’

        – Ladies Calves coverin’

        – Cowbell Preachin’

        And much much more!

    2. so someone stepped in “IT” during Sunday School and it was on… their shoes throughout the rest of the service

  25. A mostly empty church full of old white people. I give them five years before the sell the building to a group of Latino Christians.

    1. Sorry. This must be Sr. Adult class, because I know this church. They are building and growing. Reaching mostly folks 35 years (the pastor’s age) and younger.

  26. Thank god “it” was Lord’s supper at FBC Hammond!
    It got on…..and never slowed down 😯

  27. I have never seen anything like this in any IFB church. The most I have ever seen is someone standing up and waving a hanky. In most of the churches I attended, anything more than an “Amen” was out of place.

    I’ve only seen this in two churches. One belonged to a very small denomination that, as far as I can tell, only exists in Western Maryland and north central West Virgina. It is more or less Methodist with some mountain holiness thrown in. The second was a black Baptist congregation that was dually aligned with the SBC and NBC. That service was emotional beyond anything I’d ever experienced and yet oddly there was an order to it. While the musicians played during the sermon and the pastor needed feedback to keep going, it really didn’t come across as showmanship in the same way that white holiness church services do.

    1. Heritage Baptist in Grand Rapids would get “it”. Last time I sang there there were people waving hands, shouting, and one guy even ran two laps around the auditorium. Maybe my song was just so bad they wanted my to sit Dow.

      But it was an exciting place to go. The pastor was a great orator… Unfortunately he was just sentenced to up to 20 years for embezzlement…..

  32. ‘It’ is what happens when natural sexual desires are consistently denied and get stuffed so deep they

    ‘It’ is the natural, vocal response to call-and-response shouting.

    ‘It’ is a pep rally in Jesus’ name.

    ‘It’ is groupthink at its most bare.

    I’ve been in one of these services in East Tennessee, a hype meeting disguised as a revival. It was put on by a fellow student who I knew passably well, and knew to be a Southern Baptist.

    Folks were ‘getting saved’ during the singing service, there was a good ol’ bluegrass band from college, Justin was screaming himself red-faced –

    It was a travesty of Christianity.

    1. No it’s not. People get wild over football games. People get wild at concerts. Even your most staid church people will often burst out in tears, clapping, and shrieks of joy on the Sunday nearest July 4 when the American flag comes out and patriotic songs are played.

      People have a need to get happy every once in a while. Unless 98% of the population is mentally ill then I’d say most of these people are more or less normal, healthy human beings. They just express it in a context most of us are trained to find offensive.

      1. That being said, I agree with whoever it was above that said the old preacher who walked down the aisle was jealous that the guy behind the pulpit was getting all the attention.

        I actually think the pastorate draws a higher than average number of crazies to it.

  35. Somehow The auditorium interests. It looks fairly new and a tad upscale. I saw that there was only four or five people doing the shouting and you could definitely notice when they were getting tired but then they would try and get the excitement back.

  37. Sounds like IT was some milestone met or unexpected good news — sounds the carrying on I’ve heard in some churches.

    If I walked in on such a service as a lost man, I wouldn’t be thinking that these people are godly or holy… I’d be thinking that they are at best, weird or, at worst, a cult group.

    1. Hey, that would be worth watching! Why not let some of these guy grow out their hair for a few months, all in the name of the LAWD of course, can’t suffer enough for the LAWD, and then they could have at each other comes the time to shear it off! 🙄 😈 :mrgreen:

  40. Good Lord. Anybody who has just seen this needs to attend a service at, say, Riverside Church in New York, First Baptist Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, or the First Baptist Church in Washington. There are Baptists and then there are Baptists.

  42. They sound either like hog callers or screaming drunk truckers in a honky tonk. They claim it’s the “Spirit of the Lord”; I say it’s that crushed fundamentalist mentality finally blowing up into a childish church display.

  45. This is either a church in the process of going charismatic…or a deacon board who secretly worship professional wrestler “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
    WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  46. Dear SFL Reader:

    Duck! These folk are apt to start throwing hymnals when they get blessed …

    Christian Socialist

  47. Who are the fundies now, calling people you don’t know insane or child molesters for worshiping exuberantly. I tend to think how you react to group worship is largely conditioned by culture. That doesn’t make exuberance wrong.

    1. Having experienced several of these religious orgies in the IFB bunkers I have known, I will say it is more about the individual and their spiritual orgasm than it is about worshiping God.

      The whooping and the hollering, the shouting, the running the aisle, and being “moved”…. it’s all about the experience. The IFB addict needs these experiences like a junkie needs his next fix. It is the experience that gets them from Sunday to Wednesday to Saturday visitation to Sunday again. The Ultimate “Experience” is Revival where toes are stomped on and guilt is induced until the altar is full of folks weeping, praying and bowing down at the pulpiteer’s feet.

      In these services if someone is running the aisle and you don’t shout “Hey-men!”… then, “you just need to get down to the altar and repent! You need to get right with God,” that way you can be moved by the Holy Spirit as well… but being Baptist, BEWARE!! Beware of speaking in tongues or doing something really charismatic.

    2. Tim,

      You could be right…

      if this were genuine exuberance. But watch. It is the least joyful exuberance in human history. I don’t see any real joy or excitement. It appears to be completely contrived. Yelling for the sake of yelling.

      1. Look, I belong to a religious group where something like this happens sometimes. I have never run the aisles, and I can remember two times when I shouted in church (other than Amen). It’s not my personality, and it’s not how I react to anything. But I am moved in church, sometimes to the point of tears, at God’s goodness, at the truth being presented, sometimes in repentance. (And, yes, it happens in private, too. Actually, more often in private.) I don’t want to get in bondage to not responding to God emotionally anymore than I want to go somewhere where I HAVE to appear “blessed.”

        1. They aren’t saying to keep your emotions under wraps. Heck, I’ve gone to dancing in the aisles Pentecostal churches; the church I go to now is Baptist so it’s a little calmer, but we do clap, sway to the music and lift our hands. It’s just that some of this depicted here seems to be more than a little contrived.

        2. Sounds to me like we are in agreement.

          I don’t even shout at a ballgame, which doesn’t mean that the happenings (at the ballgame) or the truth being presented (at church) can’t move me pretty deeply.

          These people, on the other hand, appear to be in bondage…required to yell to show how full of the Spirit they are. Which brings us back to Darrell’s original point. Indy Fundies will criticize the Charismatics pretty harshly, but then they will act just like them. The only difference, as far as I can tell, is that the Charismatics seem to be genuinely be enjoying themselves, whereas the Indy Fundies seem to be angry, stalking around with a chip on their shoulder, chin jutting out, shouting to show how ready they are to go to war (with other Christians, anyway).

          It’s kinda pathetic, from where I sit.

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