I've actually just finished up a masters thesis on Pentecostalism and popular culture where I use David Wilkerson (and Jimmy Swaggart) quite often.
I don't actually see David Wilkerson as legalistic or judgmental. I think he feared (quite rightly in many ways) that the American church had become captive to the culture.
It's hard not to agree with him when you turn on Pentecostal/charismatic television and see so much thinly disguised pop psychology and conspicuous consumption. The American church has become obsessed with creating mega consumer churches for all the American consumers out there. It's a sad reality that evangelical Christians consume religion like we consume Walmart merchandise.
Wilkerson warned us many times over the years not to buy into the false idea that economic security could replace the "keeping power of Jesus Christ." He looked at the "seeker-sensitive" church growth movement and saw it for what it was "an American cultural invention" and a "Caucasian, suburban . . . adaptable gospel that is spoon-fed through humorous skits, drama, and short, nonabrasive sermonettes on how to cope." It's a capitulation to what Wilkerson called “gods of sports, pleasure, and lust” that were integral to the American lifestyle.
We need to remember that Wilkerson's ministry was not born out of ministry to middle-class suburbanites but to urban youth gangs and drug addicts. Wilkerson understood that the consumer church was not giving these people what they needed--Christ.
I'm not exactly sure how I feel about all of Wilkerson's prophecies. However, I do believe that whether he was inspired or just speaking from common sense, his calls for the American church to repent before the economic security on which it is built is taken away from it was wise counsel. In this time of prolonged recession, we have already seen a few high profile "prosperity gospel" churches fold and go bankrupt. If they survive long enough, the churches and ministers who hedge their bets on America's mass consumption, mass media driven economy and culture are one day going to reluctantly realize that they have built their ministries on sinking sand.
Quotes taken from a sermon that David Wilkerson preached to the Assemblies of God headquarters chapel service in 1998. The sermon was later published in the January 1999 issue of Enrichment Journal under the title "The Dangers of the Gospel of Accommodation."
And for the record, as I've already stated in this thread, I'm against Pentecostal legalism of all kinds.
I don't actually see David Wilkerson as legalistic or judgmental. I think he feared (quite rightly in many ways) that the American church had become captive to the culture.
It's hard not to agree with him when you turn on Pentecostal/charismatic television and see so much thinly disguised pop psychology and conspicuous consumption. The American church has become obsessed with creating mega consumer churches for all the American consumers out there. It's a sad reality that evangelical Christians consume religion like we consume Walmart merchandise.
Wilkerson warned us many times over the years not to buy into the false idea that economic security could replace the "keeping power of Jesus Christ." He looked at the "seeker-sensitive" church growth movement and saw it for what it was "an American cultural invention" and a "Caucasian, suburban . . . adaptable gospel that is spoon-fed through humorous skits, drama, and short, nonabrasive sermonettes on how to cope." It's a capitulation to what Wilkerson called “gods of sports, pleasure, and lust” that were integral to the American lifestyle.
We need to remember that Wilkerson's ministry was not born out of ministry to middle-class suburbanites but to urban youth gangs and drug addicts. Wilkerson understood that the consumer church was not giving these people what they needed--Christ.
I'm not exactly sure how I feel about all of Wilkerson's prophecies. However, I do believe that whether he was inspired or just speaking from common sense, his calls for the American church to repent before the economic security on which it is built is taken away from it was wise counsel. In this time of prolonged recession, we have already seen a few high profile "prosperity gospel" churches fold and go bankrupt. If they survive long enough, the churches and ministers who hedge their bets on America's mass consumption, mass media driven economy and culture are one day going to reluctantly realize that they have built their ministries on sinking sand.
Quotes taken from a sermon that David Wilkerson preached to the Assemblies of God headquarters chapel service in 1998. The sermon was later published in the January 1999 issue of Enrichment Journal under the title "The Dangers of the Gospel of Accommodation."
And for the record, as I've already stated in this thread, I'm against Pentecostal legalism of all kinds.
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