>Jarrid Wilson, a Southern California megachurch pastor and mental health advocate, died by suicide Monday.>Wilson, 30, was associate pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, under Pastor Greg Laurie. He co-founded Anthem of Hope, a mental health nonprofit helping people dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts. https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/september/pastor-mental-health-advocate-jarrid-wilson-dies-suicide.htmlSuicide is terrible and we are not able to know all the contributing factors to his tragic and selfish decision.
That being said, we can point a finger squarely at the seeker sensitive, charismatic, megachurch movement of evangelical Christianity. It is entirely emotion based and manipulative with no sense of tradition, rather than based on a careful systematic theology directly exposited from the text
Harvest church is founded by Greg Laurie, a (literal) boomer "Jesus movement" hippie. He's essentially a motivational speaker who placed himself as the successor to Billy Graham, except he walks around stage in blue jeans at NFL stadiums and gives a pep talk after rap and whiny rock worship music.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OhgGMkRMxZo [Embed]This kind of megachurch is found in every metro area in the US and Canada.
-Weak on theology
-Weak on church history
-Weak on tradition
-No liturgy
-Charismatic (theologically, and in preaching style)
-Youth oriented
-Rock style worship
Jarrid Wilson was a pastor at one such church of 15,000 people and multiple "campuses".
Now I ask this: how can anyone look at this movement and find a lasting sense of meaning or belonging? How is the American consumerist version of Christianity supposed to help and not hinder depression?
This is lowest common denominator Christianity. It's "cool wine aunt" philosophy.