Thread by @TaylorMatthewD

I know I'm being *that guy* who takes a truly funny TikTok video & turns it into an explainer thread on Charismatic-Pentecostal worship practices… 1st, please enjoy the clip in all its hilarity! 2nd, this clip comes from a service at The Storehouse church in Jasper, AL. 1/

https://twitter.com/ChristnNitemare/status/1622941401427152897

That church was founded by Wayne & Jennifer Lee who came out of the International Church of Las Vegas (web.archive.org/web/2022052006…). In my Charismatic Revival Fury podcast series (icjs.org/charismatic-re…) I describe how Donald Trump visited ICLV a few weeks b4 the 2020 election. 2/

That day (10/18/20) at ICLV, Apostle/Pastor Paul Goulet held up an Appeal to Heaven flag to present to Trump facebook.com/DutchSheets22/…, & Prophet Denise Goulet prophesied over Trump that God would give him a “2nd win” and a 2nd filling of the Holy Spirit. youtube.com/live/nwcDqIbr2… 3/

The Goulets & ICLV were part of C. Peter Wagner’s Int’l Coalition of Apostles starting about 2004 & they were part of Global Spheres, Wagner’s own apostolic network web.archive.org/web/2010112608…. Meaning they are firmly within the #NewApostolicReformation strand of Charismatic Xty. 4/

The #NewApostolicReformation is a very politically radicalized wing of the wider Apostolic-Prophetic movement, a form of church ldrshp by apostles/prophets that has taken over huge swaths of the Independent Charismatic sector of the American & global church in the past 25 yrs. 5/

And ICLV & The Storehouse were very much a part of the mobilization of NAR/Indep. Charismatics around Trump. Here’s the Lees posting photos of Denise Goulet posing with Trump facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10…, and posting prophecies from Chuck Pierce about Trump facebook.com/chuckdpierce/v… 6/

Returning to The Storehouse: this church appears to be part of the Goulets’ apostolic network. Here’s Denise Goulet helping ordain new leaders there a couple days before January 6th. The church calls Wayne Lee its apostle & says it believes in “Apostolic/Prophetic Leadership.”7/

The worship practices we see in the video (speaking/singing in tongues; shofar blowing; using physical props like swords, shields, & bells to signify spiritual warfare; etc.), though comically exuberant, are all pretty mainstream within Apostolic-Prophetic churches. 6/

One interesting dimension to The Storehouse is that it appears to identify strongly with the Messianic strain of Charismatic theology. Messianic Judaism is largely a Charismatic movt, & you can see this church following the Hebrew Calendar & observing Jewish holidays. 7/

These Xn appropriations of Judaism are deeply tied to an Indep. Charismatic theology that interprets Ephesians 2 about God making “one new man” out of Jew & Gentile as an eschatological prophecy of the unity of Messianic Jews & Charismatic Christians. facebook.com/watch/?v=49303… 8/

The vast majority of people (75-80%) who attend Messianic Jewish congregations are not Jewish by any definition but are Pentecostal/Charismatic-background Christians who are identifying with Messianic Judaism & ad hoc adopting (& also inventing!) Jewish practices & symbols. 9/

This Charismatic-Messianic Jewish alignment around Trump & the 2020 election led to 2 Messianic rabbis (Jonathan Cahn & Curt Landry) speaking at the Dec 2020 Jericho March & another arrested for entering the Capitol on #January6th. wjla.com/news/local/mic… 10/

This is also why we see so many Christians outside of the #January6thInsurrection blowing shofars, wearing tallit (Jewish prayer shawls), & carrying Israel flags. Messianic Judaism & Charismatic Christian Zionism today go hand in hand. 11/

So, yes, there’s a funny TikTok video of people acting absurd in worship, but it’s also the tip of the iceberg of a radicalized #NewApostolicReformation / Messianic / Indep. Charismatic spirituality that is increasingly at the center of right-wing/Republican politics today. 12/