This week I stumbled upon another perfect example of exactly the kind of lies and diversion tactics of so-called charismatic churches that I have been referring to.

Given their failure to grow numerically in a way that God had allegedly promised, now the leaders have found the latest exciting project for which the church’s naive members will keep on giving excessive amounts of their income. And it comes with yet another promise of great blessing. The church will be like Joseph, providing food for the poor, and then the Lord will mightily bless us. Such blatant misapplication of the Bible always has selfishness at its core.

As I have said in a previous blog, the history of the last three decades of such churches has included “prophetic” promises of revival, then a call to buy large buildings, then Kidz Klubs to reach out to working class children, then planting new churches, then multiple services. None of which produces any tangible church growth, let alone the revival of the masses. It is still hard to believe that the members of such sects never seem to pause and ask: “But why have we not grown after all these projects from God? Where is the revival? Why is the nation in a much worse condition now that all these Christians are influencing things for the better? Is God a liar? Have our leaders and prophets lied? Is no one going to apologise and face up to the failure, deception and disappointment?”

But I guess that’s in the nature of how sects work: you become blind by cultural deception. In any case, challenging authoritarian leaders is a waste of time and will lead to you being bad-mouthed and ostracised. Believe me, I know, because I was once was of those leaders.

Back to the latest idea. If you watch the video, you will see that it involves another costly building project which will pay for a reduction (!) in the size of the church auditorium  and the construction of a warehouse to store food for a food bank to provide food to poor people.

First of all, this is a blinding new idea since it cleverly lets all the church members off the hook with regards to personal evangelism. The thought is: “Thank God! Now I no longer have to feel guilty for having no non-Christian friends; no longer feel guilty about my pathetic inability to share my faith convincingly and authentically with non-believers; no longer feel guilty about the fact that I have not seen one close friend become a Christian in the last decade. Now I can give my money in significant quantities towards another God-given  project, this time to feed the poor. Phew!”

Just a few years ago, when I was leading the church, we received a prophetic word in which an apostle prophesied to us that we had to organise our diaries around reaching the lost. I wonder what happened to that divine instruction? Maybe it’s less increasingly in our DNA!?! (sic)

Secondly, the food bank itself contains masses of animal produce: meat, fish, cheese, milk and even coffee that breaks all guidelines of fair trade with developing nations. Why is it that the church does not pause to ask God the question whether its members should stop being fanatically sadistic to animals and live a vegan lifestyle? If you’d like to see why this point is so important, I recommend you watch this life-changing video presentation by Gary Yourofsky.

Thirdly, providing food for poor people as a project is definitely not, according to Jesus Christ, the role his church! Jesus is clear that the poor will be with us always and that helping the poor is something that individuals do to other individuals. For example, through private hospitality, creating also an opportunity to share one’s faith. But of course inviting a smelly, sick alcoholic who lives on the streets into my home is too great a challenge. A project is much safer, more palatable and does not invade my precious, personal space.

Food bank  projects are the responsibility of politicians and governments. Certainly not the church. Increasing poverty in Britain is a direct responsibility of failing government. And Brexit is about to make it a whole lot worse.

Jesus did  not deal with Rome by becoming a social project manager. He dealt with Rome by creating a dynamic community of joyful radicals who unashamedly lived out their bold, counter-cultural faith one-on-one with the family, friends and community members surrounding them, pumped with faith in a God who could feed body, soul and spirit.

Keeping it boring, neat and tidy is the death knell of a church movement. Mark my words.

“If Jesus came back and saw what was being done in his name, he’d never stop throwing up.”  Woody Allen.