Jim and Casper's Church Visit #2: The Dream Center

I had never heard of the second church that Jim and Casper visited, although I remember studying in some class in college (which I graduated from fourteen years ago sometime this month - yikes) the founder of The Dream Center (also known as Angelus Temple), Aimee Semple McPherson as well as the Azusa Street revivals. I had no idea that this McPherson person had that large of a congregation, but it's still going strong.

This chapter brings up several interesting questions, in my opinion. The first question is "How much money that comes into a church should go towards things for the church, and how much money should go to impact the community?" Matt Casper seems to struggle in this chapter; on one hand, he loves the fact that the Dream Center used a lot of its offerings to start programs for the poor and needy in Los Angeles. On the other hand, he bemoans the fact that obviously a lot of money was spent on what seems (to an unchurched mind) to be frivolous items, like a camera crane and fog machines and stuff. I thought it was interesting that Casper struggled with these items, because most churches would think that the opposite is true: that to really reach the unchurched person in America today who is used to high quality "entertainment", that you have to spend oodles of money to try and imitate high quality, at least the best you can. I personally think this is an incorrect viewpoint for a church to have. I'm not sure that the average unchurched person really cares about all the bells and whistles that churches try to copy - I think they care more about how they are treated when they are at church and if anything is authentic and relevant to their lives. It also reminds me of a statement I heard when I was a youth minister: if you win someone with , that's how you have to keep them. If your ministry is all about entertainment and that makes someone join your church, then that's what you will continue to have to do in order to keep them at your church.

Another interesting question that is brought up in my mind in this chapter is the balance between what I call orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right behavior). There is a lot about Pentacostalism that I don't agree with, although I am probably closer to the center than most people like me who have grown up in the Christian Church movement when it comes to the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. There are things about The Dream Center that I certainly don't agree with theologically. And I'm a little creeped out by the founder and some of her stunts. Yet they are serving the poor and needy in their community. They are doing what Jesus has called us all to do - and yet some of their theology is kind of whacked. What's more important? Is it more important to know all the right things (or at least think you know all the right things) yet not really act upon what you know, or is it more important to act, even though you may be kind of wrong theologically? To me, Matthew 25 and the parable of the sheep and goats goes a long way to answer the question for me, but I still struggle with this.

The last question that I have is found at the very end of the chapter, where Casper talks about the good and bad of the message. He liked the message (it was Father's Day) because he felt that it was very applicable for him, since he was a Father. But he didn't like the "on cue" emotionalism that was displayed by the minister at the appropriate times. I've always wondered what is more important: the substance of the message or the delivery of the message? I still don't know, but from what I remember, this area is discussed some more in the upcoming chapters.