My thirteen-year-old son could pick out what's wrong with a sermon from Steven Furtick on just about any given Sunday.
I've rarely critiqued a sermon from a man like Furtick because he's such low hanging fruit. In this case, it was an opportunity to showcase the weaknesses of the "mega church model" of "doing church" and to express my hopes that churches like Elevation die right along with Covid 19.
Here I honestly think the Covid 19 shutdown has gotten the better of mega church pastor Steven Furtick.
At my church, we have met and will continue to meet in person because we believe what Christ said about Holy Communion. We were able to do it without breaking the shutdown orders of our state while others were forced to obey God rather than men.
Sadly Furtick and Elevation Church have too much at stake here to risk it.
While a small congregation like ours - where the pastors know everyone and can actually care for them - can meet, for Furtick's some 20k member "congregation", that's impossible.
However, I wonder if the rush of performing before his usual crowds isn't taking something off his delivery. It seems that even for the mega churches, meeting in person might mean something for them.
For us it means the body and blood of Christ.
For them, it's important that they have the normal "crowd effect" in order to keep a man like Furtick on track.
With no crowd to cheer him on in earnest, Furtick and his approach to preaching is worthless.