Victory Churches Response to the WDM Séance Fundraiser
There has been a lot of press over the last few weeks about the Western Development Museum’s fundraiser séance. With newspaper, radio, television and online news there have been a lot of comments and a few potential misunderstandings about Victory Church and its stance on this delicate subject. The following is intended to clarify what our church has done in this regard and why we did it. This is in no way backing down or backpedalling from our stance, it is simply stating what we have done and why we did it. Since we feel we may have been misrepresented or misunderstood, we want it to be clear what our stance on this matter is and has been all along.
What we did:
1. In a group of 14 pastors and Christian leaders in the city who were discussing ways to stand up for what they believed in regards to this event, our pastor encouraged them to make sure they respond to this event with love and kindness and to make sure we do not reinforce any negative views about Christians with our attitudes or actions.
2. Spoke with our own congregation about the event:
a. We read the event announcement from the WDM Newsletter to the congregation and encouraged our congregation to pray.
b. We encouraged our congregation to lovingly and kindly phone or meet with Museum representatives to express concerns. We strongly emphasized “lovingly and kindly”, and believe that those who phoned or met with Museum staff from our congregation did so in a polite and loving manner. We also encouraged our congregation to make sure they speak in favour of the Museum and the city and do what they do out of love and concern. “We want to be known more for what we are for than for what we are against.”
c. When the séance was cancelled, several individuals from our church separately approached us and suggested we find a way to show our support for the Museum with our actions and finances not just with our voice. We felt this was a great idea and decided to do a dinner fundraiser for the Museum in order to show our support and desire to help the Museum and the citizens of Moose Jaw.
Why we did it:
1. We love our city. We love the people of Moose Jaw and we desire what is best for them. We feel that the Museum is a great thing in our city and we support it. We also feel that a séance would not be a good thing for the Museum or our city and so we voiced our concerns about it in a loving way.
2. We believe God’s Word. The Bible clearly teaches that it is morally wrong to communicate with the dead. We believe that attempting to do so with practices like séances involves demonic powers and may open the hearts of people and communities to evil spirits. (Deut. 18:10-12)
3. We believe that God is far greater than evil powers and that people or communities that have been negatively influenced by evil spirits can find freedom and deliverance from all evil in Christ Jesus (Luke 10:19; James 4:7). We have seen many people find and enjoy this freedom. Therefore we have confidence to take a stand in these matters.
4. We believe that it is our responsibility to communicate our concerns. Not only is it a right in our society but it is our responsibility to stand up (in a loving and appropriate manner) for what we believe. As long as we do this in a polite, caring manner we do not see this as intolerant but as being responsible citizens.
5. We believe that we need to put action to our faith. It is not enough to simply state the truth. We need to show the love of God with our actions.
6. For the love and glory of God. We believe that God is loving, good, pure and holy, that we have a responsibility to represent Him as He is and that when we do, He is glorified and people are blessed.
