2 Things I hate: A thief and a liar

"There are two things I hate: A thief and a liar."

Mr. Padilla, my highschool P.E. teacher, recited this throughout my academic career to various trouble makers. The words stuck with me and I've tried my best to stay off his list of people he hates.

A couple of months ago we brought in to our church an up and coming traveling minister who does the PowerTeam sort of format for youth. Travels to schools, tells his life story, then hypes up a big event at the church.

We had this guy in 2 years ago. He did a great job, so I guess we figured we'd have him back.

He did another great job for us, but I was sadly disappointed by his newsletter I just received. He spoke to the adults on Sunday morning saying that he was a "real" guy and couldn't stand inflated numbers. He made the comment that he'd been on TBN's program and seen how they make it look like they have way more people receiving salvation than they actually do. This made him sick he said. He didn't ever want to be like that, was the impression he left with you.

At the event we had over 1100 people come. It truly was amazing for a town of 8500. We had around 550 salvations / committments to christ made. Even though it was a lot of peer pressure to stand for the decision and I question the accuracy because they were told they would get a free gifts from the church if they did, that is still a lot of people, so it was kind of cool.

However, the newsletter said:
"When I finally arrived - I saw a huge crowd of teenagers and I quickly learned that nearly 1,500 of the 1,70 kids I talked to in the schools had showed up to the church. As I concluded my message with the familiar salvation altar call 'Every head up, evey eye open, everyone staring at you. If you're here tonight and you want to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, stand to your feet.' There was no hesitation as just over one thousand youth stood unashamedly to accept Christ!"

I'm sadly disappointed, but not all that surprised. Let down again by the evangelist claiming to be more than he really is for who knows what reason. At least he's not a thief.