A couple readers sent in this article about a man who is suing his church after he got "slain in the spirit".
Now he wants Lakewind Church to pay $2.5 million for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering.
Matt Lincoln is suing after the church's insurance company denied his claim for medical bills, he said.
The 57-year-old has had two surgeries since the June 2007 injury but still feels pain in his back and legs.
He said he was asking God to have "a real experience" while praying.
Lincoln said he has fallen from the force of the spirit before but has always been caught by someone.
Lawyers for the church said other congregants saw him on the floor laughing after his fall. They said he failed to look out for his own safety.
I'm sure this will settle out of court, but this is one case I would love to see go to trial. First person I would call to the witness stand would be the pastor, and ask him to explain his power to "slay people in the spirit". And remember sir, you're under oath.
Objection. Calls for narrative, assumes facts not in evidence, and is argumentative.
LoL. True. True. Ahhhh, that’s why I’m not a lawyer. I suck at it.
I thought they had catchers?
[Comment ID #33779 Will Be Quoted Here]
To quote my favorite lawyer, Judge Elihu Smails, “the world needs ditch diggers too.”
I’m Matt Lincoln and after reading over 300 comments on some of these blogs I felt that I had to say a few things. First, the report that I was on the floor laughing that night is false. On several previous occasions I had laughed with the joy of the Lord. Sometimes I would weep under the power of the Lord. Sometimes I would lie quietly. But on this night in question I laid on the floor unable to move for over 20 minutes. Next, this case was never intended to be a lawsuit. When I found out from the Neurosurgeon the approximate costs, I made a claim on the church’s insurance for $200,000, the minimum amount of the surgeries. To date the cost for the first two has exceeded $175,000. The claim I entered was only for the medical costs. I wanted no extra money nor did I ask for any. But the insurance company refused to award me anything so I retained an attorney to negotiate with the insurance company on my behalf, which he did and they refused him also. He told me that we would have to sue to get the money. I agreed and he wrote up the papers and called me when they were ready to sign. We never discussed the amount, nor did we ask that my wife be included. These matters he decided. When I went to his office to sign the papers I was surprised at the figure and also that it included my wife. But being that we were 35 hours from the one-year deadline to file suit, I agreed to the terms that he had drawn up. There was no time to change everything; I just agreed. Now that I have read so many condemning, negative and hateful comments I have dropped the lawsuit. I told my attorney that out of over 300 comments there was only one that agreed with me and the rest of the comments claimed that I was everything from a liar, a charlatan, a thief, under the influence of Satan, was going to go to Hell, needed to repent, didn’t have faith, got what I asked for, and on and on. I have never experienced such hatred towards me, and my wife. And such judgment. I have been tried and convicted in so many people’s minds. So I told my attorney that I didn’t see how he could find an impartial jury because 99.7% of the comments I read were against me, and from people who don’t even know me. They judged me by a semi-correct account of the incident that started on The Smoking Gun. My attorney agreed that it was a complicated case and there were obstacles to overcome. So I dropped it. By the way, the surgeries that I’ve had so far are one on my left wrist for the carpal tunnel syndrome that started after the injury. That was minor and ineffective. The major surgery was putting two titanium steel rods, their holders, a “cage”, and bolting it all to my tailbone and to the next several vertebrae. The injury caused by my fall was a fractured vertebra at my waist (not my neck), and this vertebra was also knocked out of the spinal column, and 4 discs were ruined. I am now in constant, intense, horrible pain and can’t work much at all. After an hour or two of any activity, even just sitting, I close down in pain spasms. Where I used to be a very active person, now my favorite activity is lying on a heating pad. My life, as well as my family’s life, has been completely ruined. And now, because of all of these horrible comments on the Internet, my reputation is all but ruined. Anybody who knows me personally knows that I am truthful, generous, and willing to help anybody in my business. I would go the extra mile for anybody who needed me to. I’m nothing like what these comments have portrayed me as. And as for those “Christians” who have judged me and told me to repent of my sin, read Matthew 7:1. As for those who told me that if I had “ought against a brother take it up with the saints of the church”, well, I did. I called the Pastor several times. What he offered me was to buy me an order of groceries since I was hurt and out of work. This is a Pastor to whose church my wife and I had tithed and offered almost $60,000 in the 12+ years we were members. My wife taught at their school for a year for no pay whatsoever. Not even gas money. I taught their Bible College part-time for a year with no compensation. I also went to band rehearsals 1&1/2 hours early every Sunday AM and again on Sunday PM for 10 years. We helped out on many events and occasions. We truly volunteered our lives to serve God through this church. And when I talked to the “saint” about my injuries, he offered me a bag of groceries. Didn’t even offer to pay one bill, or even to give me one dollar. So that’s what happened when I “took it up with the saints”. Also, on one blog I read where the preacher that prayed for me that night denied it and called me a liar. There are several people who go to that church who gave statements to the insurance investigator that they did see him pray for me and did see me fall. The insurance investigator told me that. There are witnesses to the entire event. But it’s over now. I’ve dropped the lawsuit. All I ever wanted was for the medical bills to be paid. But that’s something that I have to do alone. I’m also unable to afford the other two surgeries, one for the right wrist and one for the neck for a bulging disc caused by the fall. This is the injury that aggravated a “pre-existing injury”, which was a neck fusion done in 1994. The injury to my lower back is the worst kind of pain and I think that’s why my attorney asked for such a large amount in the lawsuit. He knew that I would never be well again. But the mental pain is almost as bad. Now, thousands of people hate me, hate my wife, and the church “family” I had for so many years never even visited me once, either before the lawsuit was filed or since. I just wanted to state the facts and attempt to clear my reputation. Thank you for reading this.
Matt,
Wow! That is quite a testimony. I hope your condition improves and you are able to move on with your life.
The American charismatic church seems to be about 1. Paid ministries. 2. Building projects. 3. Programs instituted to support #1 & #2. You as a member are supposed to pay in to the system to keep it going. The system isn’t about people or the love of Christ, it is about 1, 2, & 3. You tried to reverse the flow of $$$, and suffered the consequences of confronting the religious system.
Now you are ‘outside the camp’, and in a position to really hear the voice of Christ. The shepards who were out in the fields the night Christ was born were outside the system. So was the Samaritan woman at the well, but the Father in Heaven sent Jesus to her specifically, so she could enter the Kingdom of God.
I’ll leave you with Matthew 11:28-30. Don’t give up on Christ! Listen for Him in prayer, and do what He says.
Matt,
Nobody is going to read your comments unless you use paragraphs.
I guess I’m a nobody then, RP.
Hey Matt – sorry you were injured and that you had to find out about the real nature of “the church” the way that you did. That mob action towards you is pretty typical of anyone who dares question / challenge “mother church” …
Jesus faced the mob, more than once … but I’m reminded of the first time – when He went to the synagogue and read from Isaiah 61 concluding “today, this passage has come to pass in your hearing” … at first the people just grumbled amongst themselves and then they formed a mob, effectively dragging Jesus out of the synagogue to throw him off a cliff …
So, it looks as if you’ve gotten the “Jesus treatment” … not that should make you feel better, but, it lets you know you are “outside the camp” of the religious where Jesus is (Hebrews 13:13-14), where you can expect to be persecuted – even “crucified with Christ” at the hands of the religious elite …
About being “slain in the spirit” – I have been brought to my knees/’slain’ by the word of knowledge/prophecy a few times, but more often than not, as I’ve viewed it, being ‘slain’ is more physical/emotional. A few years ago, at a conference in KC, I sat in the front row to the extreme right of the podium and witnessed the ‘evangelist’ shoving seekers to the floor with an open hand to the forehead (if it had been a closed-fist, I’d have called it a ‘punch’ – such was the force the evangelist used) – he also shoved them with one or both hands to the chest.
If you want a real eye-opener, do some reading about the ‘child evangelist’ Marjoe Gortner – here’s a youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSdI8ag1k0A – there’s a series and Marjoe even did a movie exposing the false faith/religious movement – see “Marjoe” at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/
‘Scrupe
Hi Matt;
I’m so saddened to read your story, and about how you’ve been (mis-) treated and judged — especially at the hands of those who really should have known better.
Sometimes we just can’t see why our God allows us to go through terrible things. But, we do have the assurance that He goes through them right there with us. And like ‘Scrupe says, they did the same thing to Jesus. And although I can’t provide a verse for it, I’ve often thought the most painful thing for Him to have had to bear (this side of the Cross, that is) was to be so misunderstood by His own people.
Rest assured the Father has seen what you’ve gone through, and remember He promises in His Word to take up the cause of those who are forsaken and oppressed.
I just feel led to leave this passage with you, one that has helped me through many a dark hour, as I’m sure it will you:
There’s just something about the way that reads from the King James.
Be encouraged, brother.
-joe
Matt— the paragraph comment was a joke.
Sadly.. I am not too surprised your church of injury responded to you with such lies. It seems to be an emerging thread in many churches these days. All I can think about is how grieved God must be at what people are doing in “His name.”
Suffice it to say, albeit no comfort for the actual physical pain you have and are suffering, good luck in piecing your life back together and reclaiming the joy in Jesus that once was abundant!!