Peter SmytheA Different Kind of Word Preacher

What? The banner? Well, I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t included in the list of six prominent preachers being investigated, so I thought I’d do a little more self-promotion. Just kidding.

Actually, our theme change is a little more deeper than that. Some months ago I asked our readers for topics that they’d like to hear about. We received an email about “spiritual coverings.” Those of you in Full Gospel, charismatic, Word, or Pentecostal circles are probably familiar with the term. Under this teaching, everyone is supposed to have some kind of spiritual authority over him or her, e.g., “everyone has a spiritual head, I, even I as a pastor, have a pastor over me.”

Being a natural iconoclast, the subject matter intrigued me. If I’m supposed to have a spiritual covering, just who exactly is this guy? So I hit the Word on the subject and found that the teaching of “spiritual covering” is not only error (otherwise we’d all be Catholics wouldn’t we?), but it’s actually repugnant to New Testament Christianity.

We’ll explore it later on the blog (probably after the start of the year), but once you realize that Christ is your only head and you are not beholden to the established order whether it be Roman Catholicism, the Southern Baptist Convention, some Presbyterian synod, or even a Word preacher (who’d have thunk?), it opens your thinking up to all kinds of possibilities. For instance, why does a ministry site have to have some kind of kitschy Christian name or phrase to it? Who says that ministers have to have nice, creamy colors to make folks feel warm and fuzzy? In a word, why act so moronic about the “established” order of what we might call institutionalized Christianity if we don’t have to (compare a dozen or so ministries sites and you’ll see that’s there not too much difference between them)? Some of us aren’t actually enamored with Republic National Committee types.

So, after thinking about it for some time, we decided to ditch the “Real Faith” moniker. It sounded nice, but we started to find ourselves thinking more in terms of a corporate idea of ministry - protecting a name brand. Real Christianity goes with the guy (can you imagine Elijah setting up “Fire From Heaven” Ministries?). The present theme fits in with this idea.

So why the huge “Peter Smythe” at the top? Good question. I’m sure some of my critics will say that 130-point font for a preacher is heretical. I played with a lot of different kinds of styled and colors and none of them really fit right. While playing around with them, I spied Sebatiao Salgado’s Workers on the table and noticed that a lot of my photography books carried the same kind of bold graphic design. 130-point font is something I like.

As Christians, we’re not supposed to lose our personalities and become part of a mindless Borg heeding the voice of some “spiritual covering.” Actually, it should be quite the opposite. The born-again spirit of the Christian should enliven his personality and his soul.

Instead of striving to become just another penguin in the cold environment of corporate churchianity, we’re going the Elijah route.