Where It Went
Too Far

Yesterday, I told you the evidence is real

Today, I need to tell you something harder. Some of what we did cannot be defended. Some of what we celebrated was embarrassing. And some of what we believed was wrong.

This is not easy to write. It is not easy to read. But we cannot honor what is real if we are not honest about what was broken. And there was brokenness. A lot of it.

The exaggerations that made us a joke

Let me start with the exaggerations. Because they were real, and they cost us credibility that we may never get back.

There were healing testimonies that turned out to be exaggerated or false. There were prophetic words that were specific and dramatic and never came true. There were miracle claims that could not be verified and some that were eventually debunked. And every single one of those made the world laugh at what might have been real.

I understand the pressure. When you are in an environment that celebrates miracles, there is a temptation to see one where there was not. To claim a healing that was just recovery. To report a prophecy that was just hope. And when those exaggerations are found out, they stain everything else.

We did that. We celebrated things too soon. We claimed things too loudly. And we gave the skeptics ammunition that they use to this day.

The weirdness that pushed people away

Then there is the weirdness. And I say this with love, because I was there, and I did some of it.

There were things in our meetings that made sense in context and looked ridiculous out of context. Holy laughter. Being slain in the Spirit. Prophecies that sounded like nonsense. Worship that looked like a performance. And some of it was genuine. But some of it was also performative, and we could not tell the difference.

I remember being in meetings where people were doing things I could not explain, and I did not know if it was the Holy Spirit or emotional manipulation or just mass hysteria. And looking back, some of it was probably the latter. Not all of it was from God. Some of it was just strange.

And that strangeness pushed people away. People who might have been curious. People who might have come to know Jesus. They saw the weirdness and they ran. And I cannot blame them.

The false prophets who hurt real people

Let me be direct. There were false prophets. Lots of them. And they hurt real people.

People who claimed to speak for God and did not. People who gave words that seemed specific and dramatic and were wrong. People who told others that God was telling them things that God was not telling them. And when those words did not come true, the people who received them were left confused, hurt, and sometimes in financial or relational ruin.

I knew people who quit jobs based on prophetic words. I knew people who moved across the country based on prophecies that were never fulfilled. I knew people who believed they were supposed to marry someone who had no intention of marrying them, because someone said God told them so.

That is not prophecy. That is manipulation. And it happened in our circles more than we want to admit.

The abuse that was hidden

Now let me say something that is even harder. There was abuse. Hidden in the movement. Covered up by the culture of honor. Enabled by the celebrity status of leaders. And when it came to light, it was devastating.

We had leaders who were abusive. Leaders who used their position to manipulate and control. Leaders who preyed on vulnerable people. Leaders who were protected by the very community that should have held them accountable. And when it all came out, it broke our hearts and it broke our faith.

I do not say this to attack anyone. I say this because it happened and we need to name it. The movement we loved had dark corners. And we need to be honest about that.

What we should have done differently

Here is what I wish we had done. I wish we had tested more. I wish we had held things more loosely. I wish we had been as committed to discernment as we were to faith. I wish we had protected the vulnerable as fiercely as we protected the leaders.

I wish we had listened when people raised concerns. I wish we had not treated every question as doubt. I wish we had built systems of accountability instead of personality cults. I wish we had been as serious about character as we were about charisma.

But we did not always do that. And the cost was real.