Passion 2012, a conference targeted toward
evangelical Christians, is going on now in Atlanta. I’m not there. In fact, I’ve never been to a Passion conference. And I’m OK with that.
That said, I’ve been to my fair share of conferences geared toward evangelicals. When I was a teenager, I attended praise rallies and youth camps on a regular basis. They’re standard fare in the evangelical community. All of that ended when I was a sophomore in high school. I spent my second year at a college week at LifeWay’s Glorieta Conference Center, in New Mexico. That’s when I realized I couldn’t handle conferences such as that anymore.
For those who haven’t been to one of these sorts of events, let me provide a description: Thousands of similarly aged people pack a room that’s far too small for them. After a brief welcome, a praise-and-worship band begins to play, surrounded by state-of-the-art multimedia technology. For a while, it’s a rock concert. The band goes through some classics, as well as some stuff they’ve been working on for the new album. The audience belts out the lyrics as they read them on the HD projections that they see on the walls. People sway with their arms in the air and tears in their eyes. Some are on the floor, kneeling or lying prostrate. After about a half hour, it ends with a prayer. The lights come up, and people find their seats.
“You can be the generation that changes the world!” (or something similar) says the preacher who comes up after the band leaves the stage.
The crowd cheers, and some shout, “Amen.”
At this point, the preacher launches into an hour-long sermon about clinging to the “Truth,” despite all those who try to dissuade. He throws in a little theology and a heavy dose of apologetics and always ends the sermon by challenging the audience to repent of whatever sins have taken over their lives. (More often than not, those are sex, drugs and alcohol.) The band comes back and plays another half-hour set while audience members line the aisles, embracing each other and crying.
It’s the same script, year after year. That was the scene at Glorieta, and, based on this promo video, this year’s Passion conference is no different.
Feeding the addiction
The environment at one of these conferences is one of pure, unadulterated emotion. Everything—from the throbbing subwoofer to the flashing lights—is calculated to elicit the maximum amount of emotional response from the audience. I know this from personal experience: I’ve run sound and lights at small events. I could make people cry with the flip of a switch.
In that way, such events are like drugs: The right combination of ingredients brings about a certain physiological response. And just like a high, it’s temporary. Once the conference-goer gets home, the feeling ebbs, and everything’s back to how it was before.
Well, almost everything. That much pure emotion is intoxicating, and once it’s gone, it leaves a void. So the user goes back, chasing the high once again.
A positive solution
I’m of the opinion that emotionally driven conferences such as Passion and the ones that I’ve attended are destructive to the church. As I mentioned above, they create and feed a feelings-based faith, one that’s big on emotion but generally superficial.
That’s not to say those who participate in them are bad. I think they mean well, but I also think they don’t understand the consequences of their actions. Conferences such as these communicate a lopsided view of Christianity, one that places an inordinate amount of emphasis on “feeling” God. That’s not sustainable, and it leads, in my experience, to painful—and sometimes faith-shattering—withdrawal.
Instead of spending money and time on inwardly focused, emotionally driven conferences, the community of Christ should look outward. We shouldn’t be trying to attract people with flashy lights and trendy music, we should be going to those who are in need, with open arms. We shouldn’t be looking for the next spiritual high, we should be building relationships with Christians and non-Christians and, in the process, developing a deeply rooted faith in God.
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