Rev John Dickinson crowd surfs into retirement – and takes his church’s credibility with him

“God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.” Psalm 89:7.

Rev John Dickinson and Carnmoney Presbyterian Church must not have bothered to read this particular verse of the Bible as he ‘crowd-surfed’ his way into retirement.

Whilst stood on a stool on the stage of his terribly modern church, Rev Dickinson then clambers on to the congregation, who pass him back through the church to the exit.

The fear of God in the assembly of the saints was sorely lacking, while reverence in God’s presence seemed to be altogether absent.

Rev Dickinson is fulfilling the role of a pop star rather than a minister of the gospel.

It was pointed out in a Belfast Telegraph article on the affair that a rock singer called Iggy Pop is credited as the inventor of the crowd surfing act. Iggy Pop is known for being a drug abuser in the past, having previously been arrested for possession of marijuana and undergone treatment at various points for heroin addiction.

He is also responsible for some delightfully named singles including ‘Lust For Life’, ‘Some Weird Sin’ and ‘High On You’, much of the lyrics of which are inappropriate for repetition here. We haven’t looked in to any more of his lyrics, but doubt they are a great deal more wholesome.

Iggy Pop also apparently performed “such stage theatrics as rolling around in broken glass and exposing himself to the crowd”, according to Wikipedia.

Quite the role model, then.

The actions of Rev John Dickinson and his congregation do nothing but bring disrepute on the church and Christianity in general.

Church services are not meant to be concerts, although quite often these days they are.

Hebrews 12:28 says: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

Very little godly fear was on display in Carnmoney Presbyterian Church on Sunday night.

An apologist for this act of eejitry said that Jesus “loved having fun”.

Jesus loves to see sinners coming to repentance, He loves to see faith in His followers (Matthew 8:10).

He wasn’t interested in frivolities such as crowd-surfing.

1 Timothy 1:15 says “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, it doesn’t say He came into the world to “have a laugh” or for “good crack” or to “act the eejit”.

This is an utterly disrespectful action for an ordained minister who has clearly not taught his congregation respect for the church building, where God is supposed to meet with His people, although he clearly doesn’t practice that respect himself anyway.

It is a most shameful way to end a career in the ministry and, if it is similar to the nature of his ministry, he will certainly be no great loss.