I wasn't able to recognize it at the time, but I once sat under the "Prophet Allen Davenport" who lead revival services in the central IL area for nearly a year. One day he just vanished. The church that the revival services started at ended up splitting as a result. He had a habit of saying "Now that have been from God, or I may have just been the pizza from last night."
It's amazingly obvious that he was one of these vagabonds in hindsight. But, like you said, they're common in Charismatic circles.
Nice post. We get this quite a bit on discord. One common point I've noticed is that they like to talk and talk for hours but never actually get to the point they are trying to make, then when you ask them point blank, they deflect and deflect. I think they are trying to build credibility with partially true claims, pointing out "see this is Biblical" and then throwing up a bunch of heresy.
Good point about having a church. Often we hear "there are no true/good churches in my area" which is true for those online more often than it is true for those in real life, but it's still pretty rare. And if they are not searching for a church at all...that's a huge flag.
I've experienced similar things with Lone Ranger Christians who live out of their cars, drive around the state or country, do street ministry/abortion sidewalk counseling, etc. but are not in membership a local body accountable to local elders anywhere.
I'm always leery of folks who barge into a group, quickly dominating the conversation. There's a similar type who show up at a church, and soon have the pastor's ear. The greater danger is it's all too easy for them to become an intermediary between the pastor and much of the congregation, where he starts to depend on that one person for much of his information.
There's a great saying from Admiral Hyman Rickover, which leaders of all kinds should keep in mind: "Always use the chain of command to issue orders, but if you use the chain of command for information, you’re dead."
I wasn't able to recognize it at the time, but I once sat under the "Prophet Allen Davenport" who lead revival services in the central IL area for nearly a year. One day he just vanished. The church that the revival services started at ended up splitting as a result. He had a habit of saying "Now that have been from God, or I may have just been the pizza from last night."
It's amazingly obvious that he was one of these vagabonds in hindsight. But, like you said, they're common in Charismatic circles.
Nice post. We get this quite a bit on discord. One common point I've noticed is that they like to talk and talk for hours but never actually get to the point they are trying to make, then when you ask them point blank, they deflect and deflect. I think they are trying to build credibility with partially true claims, pointing out "see this is Biblical" and then throwing up a bunch of heresy.
Good point about having a church. Often we hear "there are no true/good churches in my area" which is true for those online more often than it is true for those in real life, but it's still pretty rare. And if they are not searching for a church at all...that's a huge flag.
This was great. One of my biggest red flags is when people come in with very little interest or care for the people who are already there.
I've experienced similar things with Lone Ranger Christians who live out of their cars, drive around the state or country, do street ministry/abortion sidewalk counseling, etc. but are not in membership a local body accountable to local elders anywhere.
I'm always leery of folks who barge into a group, quickly dominating the conversation. There's a similar type who show up at a church, and soon have the pastor's ear. The greater danger is it's all too easy for them to become an intermediary between the pastor and much of the congregation, where he starts to depend on that one person for much of his information.
There's a great saying from Admiral Hyman Rickover, which leaders of all kinds should keep in mind: "Always use the chain of command to issue orders, but if you use the chain of command for information, you’re dead."