In regards to Global Revolution Church, I'm not surprised it's pulling this stunt.  As it turns out, they're a typical "non-denominational" New Apostolic Reformation/Joel's Army/Elijah's Army/(insert branding of the month) church.

Among other things, the calendar in its events shows the linkages, including describing itself as the "Bridegroom Company" (an NAR buzzword often used as a newer alternate phrasing for "Joel's Army" or "Elijah's Army"), and one of their pet causes is anti-abortion stumping.

Like a number of other NAR groups, they are very Christian Zionist and lead "Bible tours" which are often held for purposes of (illegal) recruitment of Israelis (missionary activity is technically illegal, but "Bible tours" often are used as a method of "evangelising").

The group is unusually open in its promotion of NAR theology.  Among other things, their "vision statement"--and particularly the full version thereof--notes a number of NAR buzzwords about "spiritual revolutions" and so on.  

The pastor's story itself is also a bit of a story--apparently he was recruited from a UMC church, possibly via a failed steeplejacking (seeing as NAR groups as well as the IRD have heavily targeted mainstream Methodist congregations, this can't be discounted).  Interestingly, this split seems to have been precisely over prosyletising to other "people of the book"--specifically Jewish people in Israel and Moslem people in the Middle East.  It's entirely possible, of note, that his wife may have been involved in the recruitment.

The recruitment (and possible steeplejack) of what would become GRC does have very strong links to Assemblies of God-linked NAR groups via their youth pastor (in fact, this may be an indication that GRC may be operating as a "stealth Assemblies" congregation, which is also a dead giveaway we are dealing with an NAR group).  The "Southeastern University" in question is an Assemblies of God "Bible College" with some liberal arts training, and ordination standards in the Assemblies are so low that one can become an ordained minister merely by going through a "Bible college" and working for two years with a "youth ministry".

The group runs a plethora of front businesses and recruitment fronts including not one but five separate fronts targeting women's clinics and their clients (including not only "pregnancy counseling centers" but various protest orgs--some of which are linked to groups like Operation Save America--and groups promoting "post-abortion syndrome" bogosity) as well as a "theophostic counseling" clinic targeting "spiritual illnesses" (I've written extensively on the dangers of these groups and their similarities to Scientologist practices here and multiple frontgroups targeting inner-city youth and families.  The group also has confirmed links with Campus Crusade (recently confirmed to be an NAR group itself, and which co-authored the "Seven Mountains" strategy along with coercive NAR group Youth With A Mission).

Another strong indicator (in fact, a probable proof) of this being a hardcore NAR church is the partnerships section including linkage to the confirmedly NAR "International House Of Prayer" as well as a group working at steeplejacking UMC churches in Zambia, a "Messianic Jew" group promoting emigration of Jewish people to Israel, a dominionist TV station (WACX-TV, an Inspiration Network affiliate whose programming can be best said to be "All NAR and "Prosperity Gospel", all the time).

So...yeah, this would almost, to a veritable T, match the general profile of a group that would LOVE to recruit a "tame ex-Moslem convertee".  

by dogemperor on Sat Aug 15, 2009 at 04:17:07 PM EST

According to the timeline presented in his bio, apparently Lorenz left the UMC in 2008--24 years after he earned his ministerial credentials in 1984.

I was able to find out via Googling that apparently his church as of 2007 was Pine Castle UMC of Orlando and that he was head pastor--and it was already considered a megachurch within that denomination of nearly 2800 members as of 2006 (pp.17 of document); this would also match info on his ZoomInfo profile (and the article itself obtained via Internet Archive confirms that he was a pastor at this point in the church working in foreign missions).

Pine Castle, which is a UMC church with some potentially worrisome promotion of "small groups", but otherwise seems to be a typical if somewhat evangelical UMC group) apparently split with what would become GRC at that point, possibly as recently as when a church elder at Pine Castle UMC condemned speculation over whether Obama was the Antichrist during the 2008 elections.  (Ironically, the bit that sparked this was seeing multiple students at Southeastern University (of A/G) with shirts on stating "Kerry Is A Liar".)

Very interestingly (and further pointing out the time period in the split) is a mocking post from "Blake", possibly J. Blake Lorenz:

You shud reelly pruuf reed your bloggs be4 posting them. I agree we should pray for our leaders though. And i saw you wearing your Obama is liar t-shirt the other day you closet Obama hater.
Comment by Blake August 29, 2008 @ 3:38 am

The impression I get--especially after looking at Internet Archive pages dating back from 2007 of Pine Castle UMC's site--are quite possibly of Pine Castle's present membership being the remnants of a church that tried to fight off a steeplejack and split in the process; the Pine Castle website at the time even had an early version of the "God's Vision" statement now at GRC and shows Lorenz as head pastor.

The period where the attempted steeplejack of Pine Castle UMC occured can be dated at least to December 2003 per Internet Archive; before that, Pine Castle UMC's page was one of non-steeplejacked UMC groups promoting "open doors, open minds" (aka the moderate faction).   The actual act of steeplejacking may have been going on before this, however.

Among other things, the December 2003 archive indicates Lorenz was only pastor of Pine Castle UMC since 2000 and was only properly ordained in 1987 (so he's actually telling porky-pies on how long he's been a minister).  Kirkman Rd. UMC was the first church he was head minister of--and it is apparently so small as to not have a website (though there are some links to Pine Castle as being possibly a "home church").

The "patient zero" here (to borrow an epidemiological term) seems to have been through a Sunday-school course, now discontinued, called Spiritual Formation; this is also the point where Pine Castle UMC started having "small groups" meetings, and generally both cell-church groups and "Adult Sunday School" courses have tended to be where NAR infections spread outside of neopentecostal churches.

Looking through Internet Archive copies of the website, one can see how Pine Castle UMC was led further and further down the primrose path; a 2006 archive shows the church had become nearly NAR-neopentecostal in practice, promoting "Holy Spirit Encounters" and had replaced the UMC Statement of Faith with a series of NAR "Values"; Lorenz also at this point had published a book called "Visits to the Gate of Heaven", a typical neopentecostal "conversion story" of the "former sinnin' star loses it all and finds God in the process and NOW HE'S A PREACHER" variety (yes, these are so common you can pretty much group them as genres of folklore; the "Ex-(insert Group Of Evil Here) Converts And Goes Into The Ministry" is another, and likely what the Sri Lankan-American girl is being groomed into).

By December 2007 the church's literature is pretty much indistinguishable from that of GRC; this is also the last page available via Internet Archive.

So, in short, GRC is likely a very young NAR congregation resulting from a failed steeplejack (or, more likely, a successful one in which a substantial part of the church body took things back a la the foiling of the AWARE steeplejack).

Unfortunately, Pine Castle UMC would be but one of a number of UMC churches under heavy attack by NAR steeplejackers in particular (as Archaeobob on here can describe firsthand).  Another church showing signs of steeplejack of this nature is Asbury UMC, presently under target from a "steeplejacking period" Pine Castle UMC ex-youth pastor with association with the Campus Crusade frontgroup Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  

In addition to Campus Crusade (which maintains links to GRC today), Pine Castle (during Lorenz' stint as pastor) was confirmedly infiltrated by Youth With A Mission as well.


by dogemperor on Sat Aug 15, 2009 at 05:09:18 PM EST

Far more likely are attempts by parents to lock kids up at home, or less drastically, to let kids go to school but then sequester them at all other times. For teenagers, merely being grounded for a week or month can be an occasion for drama.

This girl is 17, a cheerleader (so the parents can't be too strict about dress code or public behavior), is non-white, goes to public school in an outer suburban district NE of Columbus OH, a suburb likely to be as overwhelmingly white and as oriented to megachurch religiosity as the rest of suburban and rural mid-Ohio. It wouldn't be too surprising if she did something that would reassure her that she was not an outsider.

Too bad she's fallen into a situation where the adults won't help her reconcile with her family.

by NancyP on Tue Aug 18, 2009 at 10:47:20 AM EST