Oddbean new post about | logout
 oh yea, they get plenty of converts. IIRC Pentecostalism and the related charismatic/NAR sects are the fastest growing branch of modern Christianity.

Many of the services are geared towards inducing an emotional response with a lot of upbeat music, promises of healings, blessings or all sorts and general acceptance of all things under the guise of "love". 

In other words, it mirrors the world at large's message of acceptance and diversity couched in feelings and emotional appeals.

Grant it some of the churches withing these denoms are more strict and adherent to more sound doctrine, but that is the over arching theme of them. Especially the charismatic and the newest one on the block, the NAR.

A really really big tell tale sign is some of the buzz lines they commonly use. "Take dominion" "Declare and decree" "Prophetic word" and so on. Some of these wackos who claim to be modern day prophets actually think they can command angels and can "release" God to do something. They think they have some super secret knowledge from God. Some names that come to mind that are obscure but still large are Robin Bullock, Kat Kerr, Timothy Dixon, Hank Kunneman, Kent Christmas among many many smaller ones Julie Green is another one that pops in my head. Then of course you got your high profile weirdos like the Osteens, Billy Graham, Joyce Meyers, Creflo Dollar and all their ilk.


tl;dr yes, and its growing fast.