Controversy FAQ Interview Question 16

In terms of artificial physical and emotional stress in the training, can you speak to, for example, the training schedule, which includes very long days?

First of all, the stress isn't artificial. People really do experience stress. If you call someone up and say, "I sent you that report to do, and why didn't you do it?", they will feel stress immediately, because they made an agreement to get the report done and they feel the stress of not having it done. That's real stress. That's what happens in the training room. People are inquiring into what they said they would do in life and if they did it or did not do it and what was going on for them. That can be a rigorous process! Initially, they may think that we're inquiring from a punitive place, because that's what historically, as humans, we've all learned. So the stress can be high, and it's real stress. We're really asking about very real things that are going on, and people are stressed out, partially because we're doing it in front of other people. That brings up stress because we all like to hide in the darkness. The Scripture says "walk in the light," and that's why people experience such powerful and profound breakthroughs in our trainings, because they are presented with an opportunity to literally walk in the light, some of them for the first time in their life.

The freedom of that is exciting, but it can also be frightening. And it can be stressful in the process. Even after people have done that-have walked in freedom--every time they must choose it again anew because we have a tendency to want to crawl back into the dark like Adam and Eve did, because we have a perpetual sense of shame. To walk in the light is always a bit stressful, but there are great rewards in it.

As to the length of days in the trainings (most, but not all, of our trainings) have very full days. The reason for that is that we simply try to pack as much value into the event as possible. At one point, we experimented with having the days spread out further with the content spread out over more days, but we found it made it more difficult for people to be able to participate, so we simply pack as much value as possible into each day. That's the spirit that it's done in, and none other.

Furthermore, thinking about lengthy days…let's talk about Saint Ignatius and some of the great thinkers of Christianity; they all walked in the desert and pressed themselves to the limit, because it's at the limit that people meet God. We certainly don't go to the limit. The Discovery Seminar and Breakthrough Training start at 10 am and get out 11 pm. There's usually two and a half hours of break a day. Participants can leave and stay as they want, they can go to the bathroom when they want, they can eat something outside the room any time they want. It's no different than going to an all-day class for four days, like a retreat. We do recommend they be in the room for as much as the training as possible, but, ultimately, that choice is up to them.

This question, again, is a bit of a straw man argument. It also reveals how little the ones who are asking the question think of people: they think they're weak and that they don't have the character to make it through a three or four day training that's rigorous and designed for people to investigate. It's interesting because no matter how many very well respected scholars come out of the trainings--Keith Matthews, faculty in theology department at Azusa Pacific University, Ryan Bolger, faculty in the theology department at Fuller (both of them saying it was one of the most powerful experiences of their life)-this straw man argument is the same.

Back to Controversy FAQ