By Jeremy

As with almost everything in life, there needs to be a balance between the depths of experience (emotions) and education (what God knows / “demands” of us). We cannot discount that the very essence of the Gospel is very emotional and experience based, so it is no surprise.

(as a casual observer of this ministry, I want to preface the following by acknowledging that I am speaking from my experience with the church in general, NOT in response to the vision/ministry of Scarlett City):

Where we tend to lose those who are only interested in the emotion/experience of it all is helping them achieve balance without indirectly discouraging the experience side of it. In other words, it seems we tend to focus on the educational aspect of Christianity as soon as conversion takes place for various reasons and while we say that we do not want to discount the experience, we do not allow much time, room, energy and focus on it other than a few songs on Sunday and some personal prayer time. There is so much more to experience and feel than just these moments. It is why the pentacostal / independent charismatic (whatever other label you want to use) movements grew so fast. In contrast, these churches tend swing out of balance the other way.

People are looking for something real that engages every part of their being: heart, soul, mind, and body (sound familiar?)… If any elements aren’t engaged, they’ll gravitate towards the area that means the most to them to over compensate. As we learn and/or teach followers to align it all, the balance doesn’t swing so violently.