Category Archives: black clergy

Kim Burrell As A Preacher

08 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by in altered states ASC, black church, black clergy, Black preachers

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preacher-in-ic2The first sermon that I preached was on 10- 25, 1981. Ironically, the last sermon I preached in the institutional church  was also on October 25th, in 2008. It was from the storefront church that I had started in 1996. I have spoken or uttered since then, but not by taking a text out of its natural context and producing a message from it.

 I estimate that I have preached at least 2000 sermons, perhaps more. The title of my last sermon was “What Do YOU Have To Burn?” Later that  same week, God revealed to me that what I had to burn was the curious art called “preaching” because He revealed that  “sermons are manmade and demonically produced and  manipulated.”

I truly loved to preach. I preached as many as two sermons a week  behind the pulpit for more than 25 years, sometimes more, during revival week and other special occasions. However, once God revealed to me that He does not  empower the man-made art called homiletics, I have not prepared yet  another sermon. Nor is there any desire left in me to preach a sermon, where a text is taken out of its natural context, and a man-made or even a demonic message is worked up from that text.  So you might say that “I burned sermonizing  out of my ministerial life.”

Out of thousands of sermons preached, 3 of them stand out as “getting away from me.”

I remember one in particular, preached on New Years Eve, close to midnight on 12/31/1987 at the church’s watch-night service.  I was not the pastor of that church, I was merely an associate minister, chosen by my pastor to preach  on his behalf.

At that time, I really wanted to shine, to get everybody shouting, dancing  and rejoicing on New Years Eve, but a different spirit came upon me. Looking back, I now realize that the   fallen angel assigned to me was secretly  influencing my life in the romantic area. You see, on December 30th, ONE day before  I preached, a supernatural incident occurred that was so powerful, that I became  deceived  to believe  that after all of my struggles with men, that I had FINALLY found Mr. Right.  So on New Years Eve, I was already emotionally charged up.  Was the supernatural experience of God?  No, it was from the religious fallen angel assigned to me, and I grabbed the bait, hook, line and sinker.  So when I got behind that pulpit a day later, I was already in the hands of the devil, completely unawares.

I had intended that the sermon would be joyful and uplifting, when all of a sudden, similar to Kim Burrell’s style, I began to rant and pace.  My tone became harsh and wild.  I was walking up and down that stage like a crazy woman breathing out fire from my nostrils about the hypocritical Christians who came to church that night, only  to justify  the drinking, drugging and whoring around they intended to do after midnight,  as they exchanged the pew for a  bar stool.   I called for the wrath of God to come upon all hypocrites. The irony is that when I pointed my finger to the sky, all of a sudden the building started to shake and a crack of  lightning served as my background music.  I found out that the building was set in the middle of the traditional New Years Eve fireworks display at midnight. So when I called on the wrath of God, it seemed to all like He answered me from the sky with a quake and a bolt of lightning!!!! LOL

The people were absolutely un-nerved, some frightened  and others  outraged. This was a congregation that loved to party.  They were revelers.  They came to church every Sunday, and sinned 6 days a week and Sunday evenings.  If one of the men had preached in this “fire and brimstone” style, they would have accepted it. From me, this message was totally un-acceptable. One of my favorite members, Ada, looked me in my face and menacingly spouted: Pam  “you spoiled my New Years Eve.”  She did not speak to me for 5 years.

So what happened here? Well, any time a person senses that they are not in control, this is NOT the anointing of God. As an example, Juanita Bynum preaches this way most of the time. So does TD Jakes. On a natural level, the characteristics of “preaching” vary considerably according to style, church affiliation, seminary training, and other variables. Generally, texts of scripture are taken out of their biblical context and are then mixed with what is going on in the preacher’s own heart, mind and personal circumstances. He or she often attempts to adapt the discourse to the wants and needs of the congregation with the use of illustrations, stories, riddles, etc. As homiletics, the art of preaching—the artistic aspects include the degree of eloquence or earthiness, flamboyance, tone and quality of the voice, showmanship, “keepin it real,” the use of images, persuasiveness, an ability to “set it off” wherein the congregation becomes emotional.

Some of the most outstanding “sermonizers” that I have known personally were “down right characters” to put it mildly. The best performers still  remain closet homosexuals, and in some instances, drug addicts, adulterers, child molesters and thieves. What keeps them in the pulpit is the fact that the people love their performances. I can think of one man in particular, Rev. Kealon,  who at the end of each sermon, leaped out of the pulpit like a wild lion. In mid-air, he appeared to be in suspended animation—5 ft above the ground. Within his depiction of the “art,” he could leap a slam dunk yet he died at the age of 33 of a massive stroke. A likeable guy, this man was quite “the pistol” on a moral level. He was brain-dead on a Sunday morning in October,1987.

In fact, I was always around lots of men preachers.  Several services a year for 25 years, I was one of 10 even 20 ministers sitting in the pulpit area at numerous regional worship services. When I was selected as “the preacher of the hour,” various congregants facing the pulpit would inform me at the close of the service that the ministers who sat behind me either had looks of displeasure on their faces, or that they were cupping their hands around their mouths, whispering to each other while I was delivering the message. This too “made me uncomfortable.”

Yet, I became increasingly “uncomfortable” with the method itself because I could see no fruit of a Christward direction in the people, some of whom had been listening to my sermons for 5, 10, even 20 years. So I changed my style once more. No longer sitting at a distance from the congregation, I sat among the people and put the responsibility for the preparation of the sermon on them. I let them ask ME questions and I prepared my sermon from those questions, right on the spot.

Yet, I was still “uncomfortable.”

On a spiritual level, I discovered that something quite sinister has been goin on. I found out personally when it happened to me on June 25, 2007, my last day inside of the denomination’s regional meeting. I write about it in four of my books. I suggest you get one of the books because it would take too long to explain at this juncture. I will simply say that “a power came over me and it was not God.” The preacher in question, now dead,  had been an associate for about 10 years  and he didn’t even know that I was in the congregation because I slipped in un-noticed and sat way in the back. However, a religious demon used him to try to make me rejoin a church that the Lord had led me out of.  I felt invisible hands in my back that pushed me forward at the invitation.  So if you want to know more, I suggest you obtain either book by clicking here.

What I can reveal now is this.

There is a time in most delivery of sermons when like Kim Burrell did, the preacher gets “caught up” in the art of preaching, enters into an altered state of consciousness, and the enemy “walks in” to him or her in order to change the mood or tone of   the preacher in an effort  to “work the crowd.” Not Pharrell, not Ellen DeGeneres, not Shaka Kahn, not even Yolanda Adams knows a dot or a tittle of what I speak.   Kim Burrell was not ranting hate speech.  Everything she said is true. The issue is the tone of the message.

Nevertheless, it was either Kim’s emotions or personal circumstances that no one is aware of that put her in an altered state of consciousness, and her sermon got away from her.  If the congregation she was speaking to   was filled with homosexuals whom  she was trying to convert, her emotions led her down the wrong path with the help of a religious demon. What we are to preach is simple: Christ crucified, dead , buried, raised, ascended and coming back again.  The preacher does not convict ANYONE, not LGBTQ or any reprobate  of sin.  We preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

God allowed it ALL as a message to Kim, probably a true woman of God, “to come out from among them.”

I still preach and utter, but mostly, I teach.  If you would like monthly access to my messages and bible studies, let me hear from you, by  completing the contact form below:

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Does Your Church Have the Power of God?

08 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by in black church, black clergy, Black preachers, churchanity, churchfolk

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Pam Sheppard, Pastor of RESCUE CHURCH ONLINE

 

We all have come in contact with a ministry that we later on deemed as ‘ineffective.’  For those who still attend church…It may have been a church you visited once or a few times.  Or a church where you had ‘membership. You may have encountered ineffective ministry at a conference you paid big bucks to attend. You walked away confused and disappointed.

 

Wherever we were, whenever we came across ‘ineffective’ ministry, we walked away from it feeling worse than what we had when we walked TO it!

A sure-fire way of discerning if you have come in contact with ineffective ministry…i.e. a false prophet, or apostle, is THIS.

WATCH CAREFULLY WHAT THAT CHURCH OR  MINISTRY FOCUSES ON THE MOST.

For example, deliverance ministries are on the rise. There are ministries that focus only on prosperity.  Some only on healing.  Some boast of being strictly a ‘word’ church, or ‘teaching’ church. Most teach about prospering financially and materially.

When you come across ministries that are not focusing on all aspects of the cross: repentance, godly sorrow, the resurrection, false vs true conversions,  I can almost GUARANTEE that they are fake.  Perhaps not purposefully in error but fake and corrupt nonetheless.

You see, the reason is because the enemy does NOT need to be 100% false to be false.  You can have someone with 96% truth and 4% error.    They can operate in all kinds of sensational, flesh-pleasing events. They draw crowds and the folk stand in awe.

It is important to point out that a minister needs not know “everything” to be a true man or woman of God.  The key is that what he does know and teach is 100% correct.

Truly, the question is not how sensational or flesh-pleasing the minister’s  talents are.  The proof isn’t in how many attend a ministry.  The proof isn’t even in how well the leaders perform from the pulpit, nor who endorses them.

The question at the end of the day is   ARE PEOPLE GETTING SAVED…AND DELIVERED?  AND HEALED?  AND PROSPERING IN SPIRIT AND SOUL, NOT JUST THEIR BODIES! ARE THEY BEING PRE

When you come across a ministry that pushes or markets one gift, one teaching, one aspect of truth, more than the nuts and bolts of salvation, knowing God, the enemy and how to grow spiritually in Christ, you have experienced a fallen church.

Do know that there IS a danger in being a part of an ineffective ministry, or one that only deals with one aspect of truth?

How do you EVER expect to be made WHOLE if you keep dealing with FRAGMENTED churches?

RESCUE is a complete church people can grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. Watch this video for true testimonies.

It is time for you to be made WHOLE. if you are not in the USA, send an email to rescuechristiancoaching@gmail.com Those in the USA can also send an email or call 1-888-818-1117 or complete the contact form below.

The IC is A Haunted House Because of Her Curses and Her Plagues

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in black church, black clergy, churchanity, churchfolk, curses

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preacherWe all have been lulled into a semi or fully delusional state where we are drugged into believing something we know deep down inside ‘just isn’t right.’ We just went to church and went along with the programs to get along. We didn’t want to rock the boat, so to speak, out of fear that we would be labeled ‘rebellious,’ ‘unfaithful,’ ‘unteachable,’ or a host of other names leadership likes to place on thinking people who were blessed with common sense AND wisdom to know game when they see it.

When I was a faithful pastor in the IC, I had several memorable dreams that showed me the spiritual condition of the entire IC but I misinterpreted them. I thought the dreams were pertaining to the actual church I saw, when a particular church was only intended to be representative. A symbol OF THEM ALL.

in these dreams, the pulpit and altar area were defiled with menstrual blood, feces and urine. I would also dream about toilets overflowing in the sanctuary. I did not understand those dreams until after I left the IC.

I now know that the defilement represented the plagues. For in the natural, plagues have broken out because of infectious, unclean conditions like rats and such. The unclean natural condition of a house will cause it to be condemned, boarded up. A haunted house is filled with the demons that once inhabited the dead who lived in that house. When the inhabits died, the demons came out and did not have anywhere else to go and reside unless new people rented or bought the house.

I call the IC a haunted house because it is filled with evil spirits who have taken Her  over, because of the plagues. These are the seducing spirits that the Apostle Paul warned Timothy about.  They are fallen angels that specialize in teaching religion.  Jesus called the religious folk of his day, white washed tombs on the outside, contaminated with dead men’s bones on the inside. This is the institutional church today. It is a huge whitewashed tomb. A haunted house.

Don’t let the white washed physicality, Her stained glass beauty fool you. The spirit realm is invisible to our eyes but it still exists. In the spirit realm, every pulpit is covered in unclean blood, urine and feces, no matter how sincere the pastor or how helpful and kind are Her members.

In the last few years, I have not focused on warning people to “come out of Her.”  It could be that since I have not been actively IN Her since 2004, for me its kind of “out of sight, out of mind.” However, I had some dreams this morning that brought my task back into focus.

In the first dream, I received the result of two curses that I wont go into here.  I will simply say that one involved the destruction of property and the other dealt with both a ministerial and a health issue combined in a curse. In the next dream, I found myself in a church.  As I am dreaming, I think “I am not supposed to be in here.”  Anyway, the grand, important purpose I had before I came to this church left my memory and I was given the assignment to do the congregational prayer.

I started to pray but there was a group of women working on a project who were laughing and talking loud, distracting me from my prayer. So I stop praying and I ask them to choose between their project and my prayer.  They were nasty and rude and with venom, chose  their project.  As I was leaving, they stood in the doorway of the church. As they  reminded me of the curses of the previous dream, they boastfully took ownership and responsibility for those curses.  They sneered and jeered at me  and I woke up.

I was overjoyed to awake because it felt like I was in a haunted house, for real!!!

Curses are specific to an individual but plagues don’t discriminate.  A plague takes down both the innocent and the guilty together, insidiously, progressively and consistently. The Lord warned that if you stay, you are a partaker of Her sins and that you will receive of Her plagues. (Rev 18:4)

Don’t say you have not been warned.

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Praying In the Spirit and Whooping by Pam Sheppard

21 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in black church, black clergy, Black preachers, christian mysticism

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I did not mention WHOOPING in the video because I have witnessed those who did not  whoop yet they still  wrecked  a congregation and caused an emotional uproar with either their prayer or their sermon.  Nevertheless, those who whoop a prayer rarely fail to provoke strong emotional outbursts within the church service.

A simple definition of whooping is that it is an oration that will begin to unfold into either a prayer, but most often erupting in  a sermon when the orator’s words and short phrases take on a rhythmic quality that borders on being a musical sort of repetitive chant. A denominational practice among the  Black Baptists, Pentecostals and less often, the Methodists, the orator will begin to rattle between each phrase, rasping and panting like  someone who suffers with whooping-cough. Other antics can accompany the whooping.  He may bang his fist into the podium, run across the platform, break forth with a loud shout or a shrill or scream, start singing or break out into the holy dance, as its called.   As expected, lots of sweating transpires.

In a paper written about the history of black preaching, Henry.H. Mitchell traces what he refers to as “an art” to West Africa. When I think of worship in Africa, one word comes to mind.  WITCHCRAFT.  Though Mitchell is in support of black heritage in general and black preaching styles like whooping in particular, his scholarly work confirms my greatest reservations:

  We turn now to the questions of whence and how the patterns and content of early Black preaching came, and how the tradition has grown from there. Black preaching and Black religion were greatly influenced by the confluence of two streams of culture, one West African and the other Euro-American.  The primary stream was African. Indeed, the Black church was an attempt, born of a cultural and religious nostalgia, to reestablish on American soil the worship practices…… As DuBois said in 1903, this first church was “not by any means Christian,” but “gradually, after two centuries, the church became Christian.” He added, “It is this historic fact that the Negro church of today bases itself upon the sole surviving social institution of the African Fatherland that accounts for its extraordinary growth and vitality.”21 Dubois went on to suggest that the preacher was also a cultural survival, and Woodson agreed, adding, “The Negro ministry is still the largest factor in the life of this race.”

 
It is altogether natural, then, that the Black homiletic should reflect these same African roots. The languages of Africa are manifestly tonal, and all speaking includes such linguistic features. When Marshall preached with sonority, he was carrying on a traditional African musicality. Yes, he preached in English with impressive polish and dignity, but African rhetorical style is always dignified as well as sophisticated. Sonority is not a sign of primitivism, as is so often assumed even today.*

The Lord Jesus made it simpler and plain.  You know a tree by its fruit. Roots represent the  history of a thing.   You cannot expect that any entity will bring forth good fruit for Christ if its history  began with the worship practices of Africa and as Mitchell acknowledges the words of Dubois, the original African-American church  was just that.  It was African and not Christian!!

I  have personally witnessed how whooping in both a prayer and a sermon can cause churchgoers to momentarily lose their minds— from a woman who threw an infant up in the air after a preacher whooped a message called “Dry Bones,” to several others who fell to the floor, rolled  around like snakes and frothed  at the mouth like they were having a seizure, either while the minister was whooping or immediately after he was finished.

In Come Out of Her God’s People,  there is a chapter on the altered state of consciousness which introduces the term “communal intoxication.”   Here is an excerpt which summaries what I suspect occurs:

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Communal intoxication is defined by the founder of sociology, Max Weber as the supernormal ability of magicians, wizards, witches and charismatic religious leaders. With the God concept at its center, such leaders induce altered states in their followers as demonstrated by the congregant’s manifestations of convulsions, trembling and intense effusions of excitement and ecstasy. Does shouting, the “holy dance, holy rollers, holy laughter,  running around the church, barking and making animal sounds,  tongues, neck bobbing and slain in the spirit fall into this category? This is a question to take very seriously. Denominational preachers who ‘whoop” a sermon have been known to set off widespread communal intoxication where the people enter into a convulsive frenzy.

Reference: *http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/pdf/preaching/ABriefHistory_HenryMitchell.pdf

For paperback click book cover and for ebook, click book title.

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SCANDAL and the Institutional Church

22 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by in black clergy, Black preachers, led out of the church, rejection, The African-American Church

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Here is an interesting quote from a blog called Detox From Church For Real, as it pertains to those who have left the
institution called “church.”

“If you’re not careful, keep harping on what’s wrong with church can become YOUR religion. An obsession. An addiction as real as that to crack cocaine…Keeping your spirit’clean’ also means turning away from that which poisons you, that takes you back to that place of being wounded by churchianity. I don’t see recovering drug addicts going back to the crack houses…trying to ‘save’ those who are caught up in the drug scene. SO what’s with religious folks trying to ‘save’ the lost and misguided, the bamboozled, the deceived in church?vThat’s NOT your job anyways…THAT IS THE JOB OF THE HOLY GHOST.” (Wenona Russ)

In ministry while in a denomination for 25 years, I was once  one of the wounded, so I personally know the truth of this quote. When the Bishop manipulated the leadership council to remove my name from the membership rolls  back in 2004, even though I had been shown by God what would happen nine months before the deed was done, I was still both hurt, bitter and angry. The truth is that when you focus on individuals and not the religiously political system that my enemies represented, bitterness and even outrage will naturally surface. I took out my rage on them in a book, where I changed names but I identified the denomination. I re-wrote the book a few years later, with a new title “Come Out of Her God’s People,”  and  without identifying the specific church.  BT,.I no longer market the original. You see,   once a critic stated that I sounded “bitter,” I realized that my literary articulation was being negatively affected by the outrage that I thought I had successfully suppressed.

The truth is that I had allowed “looking back” at their scandals to tarnish my own soul.   I have purposed in my heart to  refuse  to allow any person, place, thing  or entity to shape, or even slightly influence the essence of who I am according to who God created me to be. .

Once the Lord revealed to me the deep truth as to why I was rejected by church leaders, I never again looked back at them or  their SCANDALS.

You see, there was and I expect continues to be much SCANDAL in this particular sect—so much so that I am reminded of the TV series that bears the same name.

SCANDAL

In this regard, as a former pastor among them,   I once knew of loads of COVERED UP denominational  scandals among the religious white- washed tombs of  the persevering hypocrites.  So watching the politicians cover-up of scandals on the TV series  reminded me of  the games religious folk play.

At first, like everyone else, you look at the individual characters to make an assessment as to who is to blame, who is at fault. With the TV series, you wonder if  it is the President or his monstrous Chief of Staff! Or is it his power-hungry First Lady, or perhaps the head of the secret agency called B613? In my “church situation,” , I first looked at the people involved in trying to bring me down in the church. There were three of them.

On the TV series, when you begin to watch each character  lie, plot, scheme, manipulate, and even murder, I noticed that  at the heart of their behavior is their yet naive attempt to be the good guys, wearing the white hat. The characters are able to live with their mess 20140303_185514because they can still rationalize that they did their best to protect the republic. So with all of their political tactics, you have to ask yourself “well! who is the republic?”

And this is the institutional church. . Both politics and religion use the same tactics. Religious folk” kill off”  other churchfolk because they believe they are protecting  their territory within the IC.  Therefore, it is understandable that both politics and religion  have their part to play as Mystery Babylon.

Consider the IC.

By any means necessary, whether a famous mega preacher or the choir director or trustee of a 50 member church, the goal is the same. To protect the IC, which like the republic is a non-human entity. A system. A religious system.

The reality is that the problems and SCANDALS of the IC have been built into Her system for the last 17 centuries. so there is no one in the IC today who is really the originator of any of her present circumstances.

Olivia Pope had an interesting revelation about the republic. As the re-election campaign manager for the sitting President, she came to realize that it really did not matter who wins. All three candidates committed murder. The democrat committed a premeditated murder of his wife’s lover, the independent killed her closet gay husband in a fit of rage and covered it up, and the incumbent President killed a dying woman who was about to release a damnable secret to the press!

In other words, ALL THREE CANDIDATES ARE MURDERERS!!!!!

Upon this realization, Olivia got yet another revelation. Working for the republic at any cost changes who you are because through passivity, you lose yourself. Engulfed in darkness, you can no longer stand in the sun.

Herein lies what happens in the IC. Each individual loses him or herself trying to sustain Her. When a member or a pastor  become a target of destruction in the denomination I was ordained in, the expression was “the Bishop or the  Council killed him or killed her. When a  church scandal has been covered up, the devil comes in and takes over.

That is why, rather than spend my energy bashing Her, I focus on restoring individuals who desire freedom from Her. Seeking freedom? Check out RESCUE at www.aboutrescue.com or call 518-477-5759

What are some other reasons why it is fruitless to continue to look back at HER to expose, criticize or blame?

Well, If she were alive, I know of someone who can answer the question by her own personal experience. God warned those He led out of two decadent cities not to look back at what He was destroying. For to look back is a sign that you want to GO  back.

Let Lot’s wife warn YOU  from her pillar of salt.

The Institutional Church and Gay Marriage

15 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in black church, black clergy, gay marriage

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Have you ever wondered why you have to go to the government through local city halls to have a legitimate marriage? I know of a situation where the pastor deliberately neglected to sign and deliver the marriage license papers to City Hall, after solemnizing a $20,000 wedding in his church, where the bride (his daughter, by the way) and the groom repeated their vows, supposedly in the holy place called “church.” It was not until the happy couple decided to seek a divorce that they found out that their “marriage” never occurred in the eyes of the law, in spite of the vows they made in church. Seems Daddy knew best. However, Daddy Pastor did not anticipate yet another problem. The children conceived of this church marriage without an official license were illegitimate and had no legal rights.

So is marriage a divine sacrament? Not if the state is in control of it!!!

So then, what about God and gays? The first sex act between a same-sex gender couple broke the laws of God, similar to the sex act between heterosexuals, yet the bride wore white! Marriage is ruled by the state and not by the church ceremony. You have to go to the state to be married and to the state to get a divorce. The church is “ceremonial” only. Gays don’t need the church to be married. Let them go to City Hall for both the license and the ceremony for God has nothing to do with ANY of it.

So——- Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. I agree with President Obama but not for the same reasons. I agree with Rev. Jessie Jackson and some of the black clergy, but not nearly for the same reasons. That’s the way of politics. You can come to the same conclusions based upon opposite or non-related reasons.

So be it.

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