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>>>serious responses only please<<<This was a serious discussion I had with an individual recently that pertained to how church services are/were conducted. I was born and raised pentecostal. I've seen it all.....the good, bad and ugly....I remember being in services where people supposedly had demons in their life and they passed out bags so they would vomit them out. Other incidences maybe not as bad where the music or certain songs were used to elicit emotional responses from yelling, screaming to running down the aisle when the service was not headed down that direction. The list can go on. Ministers today use the background twittle of the organ in the church the preacher makes a point that tend to enhance the congregational response. Rod Parsley case in point. First off, I think he is a man of God and sincere. I just don't like his style. When I do watch him, I ignore the background stuff and focus on the message. Sometimes what he says is very good, while other times...nothing spectacular.....I weed through the background distractions.....That said, I was recently in a service where half way through the service the leader said the Spirit is thick and it opened for prayer time. Was there great excitement? Yes. Were people engaged and excited and worshiping the Lord. Yes.Some said the presence of God was tangible or the anointing was heavy. I have heard that all my life. Yet, I see that it was more about engagement of individuals and unity in worship.My question...what defines and anointed service or one where the Spirit of God fell? This is not an argument but frankly, I'm not sure myself.....

What is bunk?Please define bunk as used in context here.Thanks My definition of Bunk from Casey's post;bags so they would vomit them spirits out. songs used to elicit emotional responses from yelling, screaming Ministers today use the background twittle of the organ in the church the preacher makes a point that tend to enhance the congregational response.

First task would be to provide a Biblical basis for the nomenclature itself. Good question....I guess I am trying to understand what an anointed service is. This might be synonymous to the Spirit of God fell....shekinah glory fell. Since I am at a loss as to it's definition, it would follow that finding a biblical basis for such a term leaves me in the dark.My wife and I had the discussion today. We heard the term anointed and the Spirit being heavy.....etc.....(no dig here). To describe our encounter.....it was energetic, everyone was engaged, frankly the worship team was pretty much on key......it was a good service so to speak.Lets try this.....pastors, preachers, and good faithful church attenders....when/if you use terms like the following.....what do you mean?....The Holy Spirit fell....a Holy Ghost ho down...shekinah glory fell....----The presence of the Holy Spirit was tangible-------our worship ushered in the presence of the Holy Spirit......

Re: Anointed services.....v.......psycho-emotional services...

First task would be to provide a Biblical basis for the nomenclature itself. Good point.I was raised Pentecostal, but I was also raised reading the Bible. IMO, Pentecostals tend to focus a lot more on 'anointing' in the service or an atmosphere of power than the portions of the Bible that relate to our church meetings do.I'm not saying the Bible doesn't talk about or emphasize these things. In the Old Testament, there is the passage about the cloud filling the temple. The power of God was present to heal the sick on one occasion.What does Paul emphasize when he talks about the church gathering. Let all things be done unto edifying. He doesn't say anything about ushering in the presence of God. He does speak highly of all prophesying. Maybe, experientially, we can talk about the need for God's manifest presence for us to prophesy. The Spirit of the LORD came on one of the prophets when a minstrel played. I still think Pentecostals often have too much emphasis on this sort of thing, or at least the

I remember reading a blog post about a former Pentecostal turned Lutheran. He talked about how experience-oriented his former beliefs were. I considered some of his thinking as a Pentecostal to be wrong, something I didn't believe, a lot about feelings during the church service. Then he talked about what an amazing and wonderful thing Holy Communion was as a Lutheran, fellowshipping with the body of Christ.I do appreciate what we might call the manifest presence of God, or God's power being present. But I think there is something to having faith in God that God is working apart from our feelings. Maybe it's only me, but I've been in services where the minister of music or the pastor or someone talks about how intense the presence of God is or the anointing, or however they phrase it, and it didn't feel to me any different than other church services. Has anyone else experienced this? I've probably been in church services where it felt really intense and powerful, but someone who'd had a bad week wasn't feeling it. David wrote and sang about some of his dry spells, where he just wasn't feeling it. In Psalm 42, his soul was downcast, but he responded by praising the Lord. We need to realize that we can praise the Lord when we just aren't 'feeling it.' If I have a rough week and I'm worn out, and then I go to church, I can offer the sacrifice of praise without having to feel a mighty 'anointing.' By faith, I can appreciate fellowshipping with the Lord's body through partaking of communion without feeling goose bumps or an electric shock. I can appreciate the fact that a prophecy, a word of exhortation, or a teaching is edifying without having to feel a certain way or sense something that feels good in the atmosphere.The idea of encountering power is part of Pentecostal heritage. I read something about the founder of the Nazarenes saying something like We may not understand everything in our doctrine, but lets keep the glory coming down. The idea of experiencing glory and the power of God was emphasized in the Holiness heritage, apparently. And there were accounts of people at Azusa Street seeing clouds of glory, fire, and all kinds of experiential stuff.But if we aren't seeing or feeling something spectacular, we should still appreciate the moving of the Spirit

Re: Let me refocus my question....

Two things I'm wonderin bout, Casey:1. Can anybody outside the southeastern USA have a Holy Ghost Ho Down?

Folks, adding an e to the end of the word might be cutting edge when you're talking about pointe, but in this case, it's a necessity. It's hoe as in hoedown. Ho is something else altogether! You most definitely right there, Miss Bonnie. Hey, I just spelled it like casey so he would understand.

I agree.But I have also come to the