Tags
c3 church, charlattan, Christian City Church, con job, Derren Brown, emotional manipulation, manipulate, manipulation, Phil Pringle, Presence Conference 2014
Jesus says,
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24
Have you ever heard Phil Pringle talk about preparing an “atmosphere of faith”? Have you seen Pringle interview people in his church claiming they like C3 because they “feel God” and “His” presence? When people have been “prepared” through the music in C3 “worship”, have you heard Pringle say things like “God is going to come in here, touch our lives in this incredible atmosphere”?
What is alarming with the way Pringle constructs his “church” services is how emotionally manipulative they are. Even one of C3’s leaders have noted the emotional atmosphere in C3 services.
C3 Leader: Move Away From The “Emotional Moment Of A Service” To Give Money
However, this emotional manipulation is far more evident in Pringle’s deceitful Presence Conference events. Even the Presence Conference 2014 brochure says the following about C3 creating an “experience” for their customer,
“The entire experience has been created with you in mind […]” [Source]
Now meet Derren Brown. We would like to hear your thoughts on Derren Brown’s experiment in how he converted people to believe in god.
What are some parallels to Phil Pringle’s techniques? What sets Pringle’s apart from Derren Brown? How is his god different to Brown’s “god”?
C3 Church Watch 
Would you please do not send any more news to us.thank you
Sent from my BlackBerry®
powered by Sinyal Kuat INDOSAT
You need to unsubscribe from our blog.
Many years ago, when I was ‘escaping’ from my own cultish church experience, I came accross a small communal church down in NSW, situated near Taree. This group was run by a couple who were ex COC pastors, who had left that movement and had ‘gone out on their own’, no doubt being led there by the ‘spirit’…
After having visited their small commune twice, I became suspicious about their behaviour and enquired as to how the place was actually run. I got no answers at that time and felt that I had been “stonewalled”. Years later, I had a letter from a lady, whose sister had to ‘escape’ from that particular commune too.
In the course of describing to me how things worked, she mentioned the following:
“Church services were rigged and regimented. Those who were to be involved on Sunday morning, had to turn up for ‘practice’ on Saturday afternoon. or they wouldn’t be allowed to participate. Now, you would normally think that ‘practice’ would be just band practice – picking the songs, practicing them and then going home after coffee and a chat – right? WRONG!
“Practice, was in fact, ‘practicing’ everything! Who was going to ‘lead’ songs, who was going to “prophesy” (and who those ‘prophesies’ would be direct to – people with money and influence…) – who was going to fall over, who was going to pick them up, who was going to talk about money (the ‘sermon’) etcetera…
Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit wasn’t allowed to participate on Sundays any more – because He kept “forgetting” to show up on Saturdays – for ‘practice’…
If such events can be manipulated in a small church in a rural setting, imagine what can be conjured up by entertainment professionals, whose high standards of living depend on putting up a great sideshow for the masses…
I point out an instance of musical manipulation in the comments of the Kong Job thread. It’s very obvious if you can stand back and just observe.
I also mentioned musical manipulation in on Hillsong CW and “Gordy” got quite defensive about it, and I can guess why!
Music aside, I do have some working knowledge on how susceptible people are to “suggestion” or “persuasion”, where conscious or unconscious. Guys like Derren Brown here have mastered the techniques and make a very good living out of it. It’s not rocket science, it’s taking advantage of the fact that the human brain is extremely powerful, but over-reliant on short cuts (e.g. “rules of thumb” and heuristics a lot of the time, because “thinking” is a slow and effortful process. These shortcuts mean that humans can filter a lot of information, make complex decisions and take action very quickly. However it also means they can be quite easily manipulated.
For a future story It might be an idea to for example tape a whole C3 Oxford Falls service, stand back and analyse it in that light. I’m sure you’ll be able to identify a number of techniques used by NPL practitioners and the like. The techniques can be used for a myriad of purposes, but not surprisingly the key audience for NLP seminars are sales people who are promised their total sales will increase dramatically using them…
Hi Icarus – I remember that one – the one where ‘Gordy’ equates the accusation of using music to manipulate the congregation, with “accusing Jesus of being of the demon Beelzebub” or words to that effect – in order to shut any detractors up? Is that it?
Well I can see now that Gordy has in fact been to Babble School because only a doctrinal twit could dredge up such a foolish comparison. Strange isn’t it, how the sheep can come to a correct understanding/interpretation of the situation, but not him? Maybe the goats are myopic and can’t see much past their own noses…
Along with the above deception, the other sister (Jean and Marie were their names – both deceased now,) told of various rorts, the despicable treatment of pensioners and people on the dole who lived and/or worked on the commune.
They were treated more like slaves than church members, while rich visitors who paid to stay at the communes’ accomodation block were treated like royalty – and I could go on…
This false ‘spirit’ which controlled the pattern of the ‘meetings’ also controlled the everyday lives of the members – it wasn’t just about Saturdays and Sundays – it was deception 7 days a week!
True worship is a daily act unto God and not the so called Sunday happy clappy get together or celebration as the charismatic calls it. Ro 12:1 tells us to offer ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is our spiritual service and worship. The next verse tells us not to be conformed to this world but yet instead many adopted the concert culture and entertainment in their so called Sunday celebration, all in the name of ‘cross over’ and being relevant.
If worship is as in Ro 12:1 , then each Sunday as we gather together it is merely an outward expression of what is already present in us. True worship then is driven from within by the substance that is already present in us, a natural outflowing or expression of what is already in us, a music from a heart that is full of thanks giving and praise unto our God and Saviour as the Holy Spirit leads us. External ingredients such as music is a mere accompaniment to our worship and not the driver.
If a ‘worship’ requires the creation of some right ‘atmosphere’ and driven by some charged emotions and driven by some pulsating beat from a band, then it is more like some youth entertainment concert or celebration. A ‘worship’ dependent upon and driven by music and orchestrated emotions and stage lightings and props is a far cry from the true worship of the NT church. Don’t fool yourselves. God is not present in a man made external atmosphere. But He will surely be present where the atmosphere in the heart of worshippers are right.