Corporate Religious Experiences are a Result of God s Involvement Discuss with Reference to the Toronto
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A corporate Religious experience is a form of charismatic worship and tends to be contemporary in style, the worshippers are encouraged to clap, sing and dance, thereby becoming involved in worship. A group norm is established where religious values of the group are recognized leading to group cohesion, enabling smooth running of the group in worship. A set of acceptable and unacceptable rules are devised and this then maintains distinctiveness about the group. However these norms that are established with in the group can lead to grounds for opposition against there being Gods involvement in the experience, and it consequently being just a manipulative and an intimidating event controlled by influential people.
The Toronto Blessing was a form of religious worship which originated from 1994 at the Toronto Airport Vineyard church. Randy Clark as the preacher performed his sermon and after finishing members of the audience was overcome with uncontrollable laughter and unusual behaviour. This charismatic movement is rooted in the Pentecostal church which supports the view that the movement is emotionally driven rather than rational and is influenced by the Holy Spirit. However the Toronto Blessing was not isolated incident news of the manifestation spread and people traveled from all over to the vineyard church to experience the blessing. The movement claimed to have carried on spreading to Europe, Asia and Africa, and more than 30,000 visitors had joined to become regular members of the church. This fame nevertheless could be argued to be the result that the church were seeking for, as the church was continuously growing in membership, it asks the question are the Toronto blessing a publicity stunt?..