Monthly Archives: February 2009

The ‘Clergified’ Church

Posted on February 25, 2009 by Michael| 4 Comments

I found this quote today in the MinistryToday magazine. It is right on target with what I posted yesterday:

“We have to recognize that we’ve created the system that we loathe. I don’t think the reason 15 percent serve is because 85 percent are lazy. We’ve created a system that glorifies the clergy and marginalized the laity. We got the outcome we created programs for. We’ve become ‘clergified.’

There’s a three-tiered structure: laypeople, clergy and missionaries. … All religions tend to create a class of people who are above others so 1) they can revel in that and 2) the rest of us can say it’s their job.

Christianity was started without any of those structures, and ended up like so many false religions do when they create a ministry caste structure. When we see real movements of God take off, they happen when people are free.”

-Lifeway Research director Ed Stetzer [rev.org, 2/09] *Top

Posted in American Church, Ministry, Word for the Church

A Word for the Church: “Everyone Gets to Play”

Posted on February 24, 2009 by Michael| 1 Comment

In the last post- “God Will Supply” -Dr. Bill Hamon gives his testimony about how God did supply what they needed. At the beginning he gives a short word for the church in 2009:

“As we continue to press through in 2009, I encourage you to listen to what the Lord is saying to you individually and to the body corporately. This is a year to “Arise and Shine to Align for Reformation.” God began a reforming process in the church in 2008, and He continues to mold and shape us into the vessel that He needs us to be to see His kingdom manifest in the earth.”

I really do believe that the Lord is beginning to remold and reform the American Church. At least the part that is faithful and trying to response to his Holy Spirit. This is a word that keeps coming back to me since the first of the year.

One of the issues that I believe that He wants to deal with is the huge gulf that exists in the American Church between Pastors/Preachers and so-called Laity or regular members. So many Christians have become just spectators in a Sunday morning show put on by professional musicians and professional ministers. This is particularly true in the huge mega churches in America and around the World.

The first Reformation brought the cookie jar down from the top shelf and made the Bible available to all members in their own language, not just the educated clergy.

One of the major issues of this current move I believe is to emphasize the “Priesthood of all Believers”–we are called to become the ‘Kingdom of Priests’ that was foretold in the scriptures–a Kingdom that manifests his presence on the earth:

“He has anointed me all of us-the entire Body of Christ-to preach the Gospel of Jesus and to heal the broken hearts, and to cause the blind to see, to cause the captives to be free, to proclaim the coming of the Lord.”

It is time for the whole church to be taught and trained to go into the world making disciples where we work, healing folks in the malls, providing for the poor, teaching in our homes, and praying for sick and sharing our testimonies in our neighborhoods.

As my old Pastor John Wimber used to say: “Everyone gets to play!”

(More later) *Top

Posted in American Church, Word for the Church

God Will Supply!

Posted on February 21, 2009 by Michael| Leave a comment

Here’s a wonderful faith generating story from Bill Hamon and his wife Evelyn telling of some tough times during the early years of their ministry in 1958 when all they had were 8 pennies and they prayed for the 8 pennies to somehow be turned into $8 so that they could go down the road to their next ministry assignment:

“In the early years, my wife, Evelyn—”Mom”—and I traveled in ministry with our son, Tim. When he was a year and a half old, we were in Muskogee, Oklahoma, doing meetings in a small country church. The congregation didn’t have a pastor, and every night after I would minister they would place a basket on the altar and say, “We know you’re all poor and you don’t have anything, but if you could find something to give to the minister, that would be a blessing.”

After about two weeks of ministering there, paying for our own food, gas and other needs, we were averaging about 50 cents per night in the offering. Even in 1958, 50 cents was not very much money. …”

<<Read the whole story>>

Side comment: Now some of you younger folks may not realize how much the worth of a US dollar has changed over the years. I can remember going to lots of Saturday matinee movies at the picture show in the mid 50′s as a kid with my 50 cents allowance which not only got me in the door but also a small coke and a popcorn–and I got to see 2 movies, a couple of cartoons, plus a newsreel to help you get seated! So much for the good ol’ days. *Top

Posted in -Provision, Christian Living, Faith, Praise Report, Prayer, Revival Economy

-A Revival in Dubai?

Posted on February 19, 2009 by Michael| 7 Comments

(-Picture of Dubai by Qba from Poland via Flickr)

In most Middle Eastern Muslim dominated countries, Christians are persecuted and seldom allowed to build new churches or even remodel the ancient ones they do have. However, in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, the government has given land and favor to Christians to build churches (Over 30).

Consequently, Dubai is home to the largest Evangelical church in all the Middle East- King’s Revival Church International which has some 7,000 members, 24 pastors, and conducts 14 services for a week, 3 in English and the rest in a variety of different languages. Most of the members are expatriates that came to the country for work and a better life.

Pastor Dr. V. Dilkumar says that their outreaches are mostly to foreigners since it is still illegal even in Dubai to proselytize Muslims and those who do convert away from Islam face harsh penalties.

Signs and Wonders

According to Pastor Dilkumar amazing miracles and healings take place at the church every week:

“That’s one of the main reasons the church has grown very much, in fact practically in every main service of ours we get people healed instantly.”

The church even publishes a monthly magazine documenting their healings, including cancers being cured, the lame walking, and the blind seeing.

Pastor Dilkumar said that it all began as part of the calling that God placed upon his heart many years ago:

“He has anointed me to preach the Gospel of Jesus and to heal the broken hearts, and to cause the blind to see, to cause the captives to be free, to proclaim the coming of the Lord.”

The church also sponsors extensive charity work and supports more than a 170 pastors serving throughout the Middle East and Asia. Praise God! *Top

Posted in Harvest, Healing, Miracles, Revival, Signs & Wonders

Tagged Dubai

John Wimber: “When do we get to do the stuff?"

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Michael| 4 Comments

I ran across one of my favorite John Wimber quotes reading this article about his daughter-in-law Christy. I personally heard John tell this story on a number of occasions when I attended Vineyard CF Anaheim while Wimber was the head pastor:

"A professional musician who played the Las Vegas circuit for 5 years, John later signed with the Righteous Brothers. When John was gripped by God in 1963, he was a “beer-guzzling, drug abusing pop musician, who was converted at the age of 29 while chain-smoking his way through a Quaker-led Bible Study.”

He soon became a voracious Bible reader and after weeks of reading about life changing miracles in the Bible and attending boring church services, John asked a lay leader:"

“When do we get to do the stuff? You know, the stuff here in the Bible; the stuff Jesus did, like healing the sick, raising the dead, healing the blind – stuff like that?”

He was told that they didn’t do that anymore – only what they did in their weekly services. John replied, “You mean I gave up drugs for that?”

Response: "Doin’ the stuff" became the marching orders at the beginning of the Vineyard movement.

Another famous Wimber quote: "Everyone gets to play"–which meant that all the members participated in "doin’ the stuff" not just the pastors and preachers. Those two quotes became part of the guiding foundation of the Vineyard Movement in the early years.

Posted in -John Wimber, Signs & Wonders, Spiritual Gifts, Vineyard Movement

"Has Our Passion For Revival Waned?"

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Michael| 3 Comments

This question was asked by ‘The Seeking Disciple’ in an article posted on Arminian Today. Here at least one significant quote:

"I know that for many of us we can easily grow tired of hearing about revival. We have seen "revivals" come and go. We have seen "revivals" orchestrated by the flesh and sustained by the flesh. …

True revival brings glory and honour to Christ alone. True revival is much like repentance in that it alters our hearts and minds to conform to Christ and His Word. True revival sparks passion for missions, for evangelism, for crying out to God to spare His wrath from the souls of people. True revival is not about one man or one woman, one church or one movement. True revival focuses all the glory and attention on the Lord Jesus and His kingdom."

Amen. <<Read the whole post>>

Response: Has our passion for revival waned? Yes, I think it has in some ways. So many have become wary of revival because of all the fleshly stuff that passes for it today.

Even when there is a genuine move of God lately, the enemy and the flesh sow tares in the midst of the harvest bringing the whole event into question and to a premature unsatisfying end. *Top

Posted in Revival

Atheist Entertainer Teaches Us About Evangelism?

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Michael| Leave a comment

(-View time-5:12)

In the video, entertainer Penn Jillette talks about a Christian guest to his show who gave him a Bible and how impressed he was. He is an atheist but says that if he himself really believed in God and the hereafter he would proselytize for sure. Here’s an incredible quote in the video from Penn the atheist:

"How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize, how much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them? …"

Response: Wow! How come an atheist gets it but most Christians don’t? Hey, Penn puts me to shame for sure! The 5 min. video is well worth listening to and it should cause all of us to do a little soul-searching and repentance. *Top

Posted in Christian Living, Evangelism

End-Times: Two Sides of the Coin

Posted on February 8, 2009 by Michael| 4 Comments

(-Jerusalem via Wikipedia)

There are two articles that I read this last week which address an ‘end-times’ scenario from entirely different perspectives.

The first is an article I found today on WorldNetDaily: "Zero hour approaches" by Hal Lindsey.

Hal does what he is best at identifying how events in the Middle East are quickly progressing towards an end-time scenario. Iran is on the brink of having nuclear weapons and Hal cites the beginning of an Ezekiel end-time coalition with Russia and Iran in the lead against Israel.

Oh by the way, Hal didn’t mention this, but did anyone notice that Iran just this week put its first satellite up in space using its newest rocket? No I didn’t think so! This story should be as big as ‘sputnik’ was in the 50′s, but the news media is downplaying it and the possible implications for weapons delivery.

The Ezekiel 38-39 battle scenario now is beginning to fall in to place and coming at a time when we have a new administration that might blink when it comes to a possible confrontation with a nuclear power like Russia. Hal always does a great job at scaring the heck out of me!

The second article was published a couple of weeks ago but I just got around to reading it yesterday. It is the second part of a prophetic message for 2009 that I posted on in January: "The Last Days Anointing" by Loren Sandford.

The message that Loren Sandford brings is the flip side of the coin. While the world is literally going to hell, it is time for the church to rise up and finish the task–the gospel is to go into every nation with signs and wonders demonstrating the Kingdom of God.

While Lindsey and Sandford present two different perspectives, I find inspiration in both of them. After over 35 years of studying eschatology, all of the scriptures, and reading 100′s of books having to do with the ‘end-times’, I am of the opinion that no one has it completely nailed down.

I can find holes in every traditional approach–amil, postmil, premil: pretrib, midtrib, postrib, I like premil/prewrath probably the most. The point is, if it is published somewhere in some book than I am convinced that it is probably wrong in some way.

There are surprises ahead for the church in the last days, one of the reasons that God is raising up prophets again is to give vision to the church in these chaotic times. I know, what passes for prophecy and prophets today is imperfect and not always edifying. But just wait, a new generation of prophetic ministry is on the horizon.

I believe that the Second Coming will be similar to the first in that every single learned scholarly ‘Messianic’ expectation of the first century was proved to be wrong. The church is entering a new era when we will need to rely more closely on the Lord and it will no longer be good enough to continue doing things the way we have done them in the past. *Top

Posted in -Bible Issues, American Church, Christian Living, Eschatology, News Commentary, Prophetic Message

The Rejected Pro-Life Super Bowl Commercial

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Michael| Leave a comment

(-Image via Wikipedia)

View the Rejected Pro-Life Super Bowl commercial that NBC refused to show-view time 41 seconds. It was too wide for this site so had to take it down. <<click here to view>>

Response:—Powerful! *Top

Posted in -Pro Life, News Commentary

A Word for the Church

Posted on February 3, 2009 by Michael| 2 Comments

A Word for the Church from Nicki Pfeifer, co-founder with her husband, Mark, of Open Door Ministries in Chillicothe, Ohio (opendoorohio.com):

"This year, God has given me what my husband, Mark, and I believe to be five strategic keys for 2009. … Now more than ever, it is imperative that we hear God and follow His word. Never before have we found ourselves at such a crucial stage in history! It seems that everything is changing so fast. Indeed, the overwhelming outcry of our nation has been for change. The recent election certainly can attest to that.

Our newly elected leader, President Barack Obama, stated on his Inauguration Day, "The world has changed, and we must change as well."

I believe that our nation has made a drastic change. There has been a major shift in both the natural and the spiritual realms. … As we watch the news and listen to celebrities, we see that the spirit of this nation has swung from godliness to unrighteousness.

In 2008, God gave us the option of going through the gate and making our way back to Him. Sadly, as a nation, we continue to slip further and further away from the principles that this nation was founded upon. We have chosen to do what seems right in our own eyes.

Life will never be the same from this point forward! Change has come, and we have entered into a new season. …"

<<<Read the rest>>>

Response: As with any prophetic word discernment is always in order. The statement above does reflect almost exactly what I believe the Spirit has been saying to me since the beginning of this new year. In fact it closely parallels What I said a few days ago in my article- "American Church at the Crossroads: "Change" .

At the end of the word are "Five Strategic Keys":

1. Strengthen key relationships
2. Create a covenant community of believers
3. Demonstrate love through compassionate outreach
4. Learn to operate in the supernatural
5. Get your finances in order

There is a lot of Godly wisdom and direction here for believers. *Top