I wept openly when I read the e-mail statement issued by the pastor of the Australian mega-church Planetshakers regarding one of their own, singer/songwriter Michael Guglielmucci :
“Michael Guglielmucci has informed us that he does not suffer from cancer, was never diagnosed with cancer, and has never suffered from the disease. This admission has come as a great shock to everyone including his wife and family who had no knowledge of the matter. We know this will shock and hurt many of you and we offer you our support and prayers… We are all saddened by this revelation and our prayers are with the Guglielmucci family.”
I wept for the family and friends of Michael Guglielmucci who have been subjected to the lie that their loved one was fighting for his life after having been diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer. They stood beside him, agonizing & pouring out their hearts in prayer for healing even as he crafted the now famous Hillsong melody Healer that is identified with this fabricated illness.
I wept for all those who have suffered and died with cancer as well as for those who are currently battling this insidious disease. The image of a man of God proclaiming in song…while wearing oxygen and dependent upon a cane to walk…that God is his healer mocks those who genuinely suffer.
I wept for the church of Jesus Christ that will most certainly face increased persecution and cynicism at the revelation that another “church giant” has fallen. The world laughs and scorns each time the Body of Christ receives a black eye. They’ll no doubt use this reprehensible incident to point to the fraud that so often plagues “Christianity”. And they will be justified.
I weep for the lost who stand in desperate need of the HEALER while questioning the veracity of the One who truly Heals. This world is sick and its inhabitants stand on the threshold of eternal death. God tells us that He is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. It is only by His grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we will ever be whole though certainly not in this fallen world, not in a life lived in this flesh. But to those who repent, there is hope and true healing.
Finally I weep for the “believers” who have born witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ but who lead lives of apathy, believing their own lies that it’s acceptable to be lukewarm in the faith. As hurtful as Michael’s behavior was and is, he is no different than any other believer who hears the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and marginalizes it. We will all be judged for the sins committed in our bodies and everything that is hidden will be revealed. A just God will deal harshly with ALL who lead others astray.
The good news is that God’s message is not altered by those entangled in deception…and that is ALL of us. Hypocrisy is nothing new. There have been false leaders before, there will be again. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is unshakable and unstoppable. The moral infirmity of the writer of Healer does not diminish the power of the lyrics. Our Healer still walks with us through fire and heals our disease. He continues to calm the raging storms of our lives. He holds our world in His hands. He remains our portion. And He is more than enough for a sick and dying world. God IS the Healer. He IS ALL.
You can view the song HEALER performed live at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JLbjqcG4OT4
Look upon the faces of the worshipers as they proclaim the truth in one chorus “Nothing is impossible for You” and believe that God is still the Healer of the sickness of sin in all mankind.
Livin4Jesus 
God is just and all we gotta do is pray for his family
I have just heard about this nonsense and find it absolutely disgraceful. I know we are supposed to forgive but for this hoax and the damage Mike has caused the Church worldwide he should be cast out. Genuine sufferers will be appalled. It just goes to show that even those in the Church need to to be subject to greater scrutiny.
So, about the term church giants,
Who are the real giants? are they the preacher/singer/songwriters who are seen by tens of thousands? or are they the toilet cleaners, the feeders of the poor, the people who hang out with the unlovely, the children who love the “unlovable”.
how woudl you feel if you were someone who was close to Mike? Close to god because of Mike’s testimony?
how would you feel if you were Mike?
Lets pray for him and his heart, that he would not become bitter or led astray. Lets pray for his mentors and leaders and followers. May we all learn from this and not let it happen in our own life.
What about weeping for us so called “mean spirited heresy hunters” that have tried to warn these false leaders for a very long time. Because we love them we warn them, only to be shot down in flames.
The false leaders and the gulible hearers that validate these pop preachers are to be blamed.
Psychiatric processes don’t forgive, only Jesus forgives and I am yet to hear the word REPENT from them.
From a Pentecostal believer
@ Stephen…I’m not even coming close to excusing his behavior…simply checking for the plank in my own eye. I can relate to what you wrote about wanting to cast this man out in disgrace. I even bent down to pick up some nice big stones. But then I saw something Jesus had written in the dirt…it almost looked like my name.
I’m very saddened to see this story, but not at all surprised. In a setting like we saw in that video, a musician is almost being set up to fail. Look at that stage, that crowd, that giant screen behind them displaying their own larger than life images.
Every musician, no matter how safe and holy they think they are, can and will be tempted with pride. The greatest worship leader Heaven has ever known swelled up with pride at his beauty and abilities, and he FELL. That person, once known as Lucifer, is now our enemy, Satan. And he knows how to tempt God-loving musicians to exalt themselves in pride. Misery loves company.
This man, Mike, whose story I never knew until yesterday, obviously was tempted to do something he knew was wrong in order to grab that shining brass ring of fame toward which the devil (and probably some well-meaning people around him) urged him. If “lust of the world” and “the pride of life” were not such powerful desires for humanity, Satan wouldn’t have bothered to tempt our Lord, Jesus, with them in the wilderness.
I sincerely hope that musicians can see this as a warning (most have already gone through these pride issues while coming along as musicians who serve in the public eye), and I hope that their pastors will become vigilant in guiding and guarding the hearts and minds of their musicians and singers. I hope they will talk about how easy it is to fall because of pride that has sneaked into them and grown unnoticed. I hope worship leaders will examine their own motives, and that their pastors will listen for their musicians’ hearts when they hear them pray in small prayer group settings.
This thing called fame is dangerous. People have to be prepared for it, or else run from it if they are not ready. And few are ready.
Friends, God is still at work and we don’t have to choose sides anymore since the Holy Spirit is our keeper. We see plainly that broad is the way that leads to destruction, narrow the path that leads to Life. So what else is new? Certainly not suffering and it’s good end.
Joseph when confronting his selfish brothers took a great weight off their shoulders by stating that what they meant for evil, God meant for good.
We truly are not responsible for what people do to us but what we do to them.
If any action by anyone can hurt the Church that we are members of, then it truly isn’t victorious and Christ her head hasn’t risen to His throne on the right hand of the Father nor are we seated with Him in the heavenlies.
Church as we know is not a glorified social club nor do we join because we have a bussiness going and stand to profit by our presence. If we need someone to be angry at for their actions in the bucket that we carry… there are plenty of singers gone wry. Less stuff in our bucket… “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” comes to mind.