American-style pastors invite the sick to be cured (From Bournemouth Echo)

American-style pastors invite the sick to be cured

8:00am Tuesday 27th July 2010 in

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I recently saw a woman “healed” in what some would call a miracle, others a travesty.

I was in the congregation at Kinson Community Church in Bournemouth to witness the first of three healing sessions.

The climax came when an elderly woman was supposedly cured of her leg problem and became a living “testimony” to other people.

The two-hour event was a small-scale version of the sort of thing you see in America.

Pastors worked themselves up about how we should return to God, there was plenty of music and singing and cries to the Lord.

The Unlimited Fire Gospel Church International was at Kinson Community Church for three sessions of miracle healing over three days.

Most of the 20 or so people scattered around the benches were young, smartly dressed and black.

At the start we were told it was important to shout and sing, because when you are tired, then you will allow God into your heart.

The main pastor was a thin African man with glasses, who jerked about the stage in a suit.

To warm people up he began a slow version of Alleluia, Praise the Lord.

A drummer kicked in and the pastor began to shift his arms in time with the beat, looking like one of the dancing villagers at the end of the film, The Wicker Man.

The atmosphere became infectious.

I found myself clapping along towards the end, and – when the pastor had “cured” the woman – he beamed his near permanent grin around the room, and I found myself grinning back.

During his main address, he said we must ask ourselves: ‘Why am I here?’ “Man is not just here to eat, sleep and go on holiday,” he cried.

“We have come from somewhere and we are going back!”

He told a story about a man who came into his Bournemouth office and was cured of sickness by a solemn prayer.

“The Lord is going to do the same thing for you today!” he cried.

We were invited to the front and the pastor began laying his hands on people’s heads, two at a time, and speaking in a loud voice, occasionally using a strange language.

I could not tell if this was an African language, or if he was speaking in tongues.

He chopped the air with his free hand, shouted out references to “demonic attacks” and at one point cried out: “In the name of Jesus Christ, any sickness in your body, I destroy today!”

Two women collapsed on the floor.

Another man began spinning on the spot, then stood there, alone, twitching, after the pastor moved on.

After this mass demonstration the pastor asked for anyone with a specific problem to come forward.

An elderly white woman spoke to a church assistant and was helped to the front.

She sat calmly on a chair at the front and said in a quiet voice she had some kind of leg or hip problem.

The pastor told her if she believed, she would be healed.

Two pastors placed their hands on her and went through another loud set of cries and appeals to God.

The woman sat quite calmly and at the end was asked how she felt.

The pastor looked delighted and shouted: “Did you hear what she said? OK for the moment! That means OK forever!”

The lady was helped back to her seat. To me she looked unconvinced, and had an air of resignation.

The pastor also appealed several times for anyone called Sophia, then dropped the idea when no one came forward.

People were invited to put cash offerings in envelopes, and the pastor told a story of how a man had given everything he had on him, then came home to find someone had bought him a new car.

He appealed for testimonials and one woman stood up.

She came to Britain from Ghana in 2001, fit and healthy, but was diagnosed with high blood pressure.

She took a “step of faith” and told her GP she would stop taking drugs. “Jesus has healed me,” she said.

Before the service she had began to once again feel pain, but after a prayer, she now felt strong.

I left shortly before the end.

But if I still needed help there was always the next day. The pastor told us near the end: “Come early tomorrow and receive your miracles.”