Renewal Journals Volume 3 (Issues 11-15)

Geoff  Waugh

This book is Volume 3 of four bound volumes of the Renewal Journal (www.renewaljournal.com). This book compiles these Renewal Journals into one volume: Issue 11: Discipleship, Issue 12: Harvest, Issue 13: Ministry, Issue 14: Anointing, Issue 15: Wineskins. Each Renewal Journal contains articles by a variety of authors who contribute to the theme of each issue. All the Renewal Journals (www.renewaljournal.com) are available individually and in these 4 bound volumes. Vol. 1 (Issues 1-5) Revival, Church Growth, Community, Healing, Signs & Wonders. Vol. 2 (Issues 6-10) Worship, Blessing, Awakening, Mission, Evangelism. Vol. 3 (Issues 11-15) Discipleship, Harvest, Ministry, Anointing, Wineskins. Vol. 4 (Issues 16-20) Vision, Unity, Servant Leadership, Church, Life.

Renewal Journals Volume 3 (11-15) Discipleship – Harvest – Ministry – Anointing Wineskins Geoff Waugh (Editor) Renewal Journals Copyright © Geoff Waugh, 2012 Renewal Journal articles may be reproduced if the copyright is acknowledged as Renewal Journal (www.renewaljournal.com). Articles of everlasting value Renewal Journal Publications www.renewaljournal.com Brisbane, Qld, 4122 Australia Logo: lamp & scroll, basin & towel, in the light of the cross 2 Renewal Journals Contents 11 Discipleship Editorial: Make Disciples 1 Transforming Revivals, by Geoff Waugh 2 Standing in the Rain, Argentine Revival by Brian Medway 3 Amazed by Miracles, by Rodney Howard-Brown 4 A Touch of Glory, by Lindell Cooley 5 The “Diana Prophecy,” by Robert McQuillan 6 Mentoring, by Peter Earle 7 Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor 8 The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford Reviews 12 Harvest Editorial: White for Harvest 1 The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence 2 Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas 3 Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup 4 Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick 5 Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick 6 Australian Reports, Aboriginal Revivals 7 Global Reports, compiled by Geoff Waugh Reviews 3 7 9 11 51 57 63 73 79 91 95 99 103 105 107 113 121 131 143 147 171 197 Renewal Journals 13 Ministry 199 Editorial: Anointed Ministry 201 1 Pentecostalism’s Global Language, Walter Hollenweger 205 2 Interview with Steven Hill, by Steve Beard 211 3 Revival in Mexico City, by Kevin Pate 217 4 Revival in Nepal, by Raju Sundras 227 5 Beyond Prophesying, by Mike Bickle 235 6 The Rise and Rise of the Apostles, by Phil Marshall 243 7 Evangelical Heroes Speak, by Richard Riss 249 8 Spirit Impacts in Revivals, by Geoff Waugh 261 9 Primacy of Love, by Heidi Baker 281 Reviews 293 14 Anointing Editorial: Anointed for Ministry 1 A Greater Anointing, by Benny Hinn 2 Myths about Jonathan Edwards, by Barry Chant 3 Revivals into 2000, by Geoff Waugh Reviews 15 Wineskins st Editorial: New Wineskins for the 21 Century 1 The God Chasers, by Tommy Tenny 2 The New Apostolic Reformation, by C Peter Wagner 3 The New Believers, by Diana Bagnall 4 Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, by Lawrence Khong 5 New Wineskins for Pentecostal Studies, by Sam Hey 6 New Wineskins to Develop Ministry, by Geoff Waugh Reviews and Resources 4 301 303 307 311 321 385 393 395 399 407 421 433 447 457 477 Renewal Journals Editor: Geoff Waugh Editorial Board Australian: Drs Irene Alexander,Jerry Amway, Stephen Beaumont, John Meteyard International: Drs Peter Hocking, Eddie Hyatt, Susan Hyatt, Richard Riss, Vinson Synan Original Consultants: Bishops David Cremin, Owen Dowling, Hamish Jamieson, John Lewis, Ralph Wicks, Revd Drs Lewis Born, Dean Brookes, Rowland Croucher, Djiniyini Gondarra, James Haire, John McElroy, Peter Moonie, Tony Nancarrow, Stuart Robinson, Charles Ringma, Norma Spear, Peter Wagner, Colin Warren, Drs Barry Chant, Dorothy Harris, Patricia Harrison, Robert McQuillan, John Roulston, Revs Dan Armstrong, John Blacker, Vincent Hobbs, Ian and Ruth Lord, Cindy Pattishall-Baker, Thomas White. Cover Photo On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them (John 7:37-38). Renewal Journal Logo Ancient lamp and parchment scroll; also basin and towel – anointed ministry, in the context of the cross and the Light of the World. 5 Renewal Journals Great Revival Stories Articles from Renewal Journals Compiled from two books: Best Revival Stories, and Transforming Revivals See Resources at the end of this book 6 Renewal Journals Renewal Journal 11 Discipleship 7 Renewal Journals Contents Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship Editorial: Make Disciples 9 1 Transforming Revivals, by Geoff Waugh 11 2 Standing in the Rain, Argentine Revival by Brian Medway 51 3 Amazed by Miracles, by Rodney Howard-Brown 57 4 A Touch of Glory, by Lindell Cooley 63 5 The “Diana Prophecy,” by Robert McQuillan 73 6 Mentoring, by Peter Earle 79 7 Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor 91 8 The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford 95 Reviews 99 Cover Photo: 11: Discipleship South Pacific revival team prays for people in Australia in a month of mission and discipleship. Now they are lawyers and leaders in their communities and churches. 8 Renewal Journals Editorial Make Disciples “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20). We know the Great Commission well. The closing verses of Matthew give Jesus’ commission to his followers during a resurrection appearance on a mountain in Galilee. Usually we hear it used, and have used it ourselves, as an evangelistic mission mandate. It is that, and much more. The focus is not merely on the task, but on the reason for the task - the reason for the “therefore”. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Jesus announced. “Go, therefore, and make disciples.” This commission concerning discipleship stems directly from who Jesus is as Lord of all. We are commanded to make people his disciples. Not make converts - though conversion is integral to the task. Not make decisions - though life-changing decisions are involved in the task. Not make church members - though incorporation in the church is essential to the task. But make disciples. 9 Renewal Journals Jesus’ disciples are to make disciples from all people groups – ta ethna from all the ethnic groups - from all the nations. They are his disciples, baptized into him, and obedient to him. Jesus’ discipleship commission does not focus on information but on formation; not on teaching knowledge but on teaching obedience: “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Naturally that involves knowing what he taught them but the great commission, the final command, is to obey. That’s breath taking! What did he command them to do? Love God totally. Love others. Repent. Forgive. Serve. Pray. Believe. Heal the sick. Cast out demons. Proclaim the astounding good news of the kingdom of God. The reign of God has broken into this world, shaking everything, transforming everything. The great commission is the strongest evidence against a cessationist theory - that what Jesus did and what his disciples did was only for the establishment of the church or only for the first century. Jesus’ final instruction to his disciples is that what he did and what they did must not cease, but must be passed on to all generations - to the end of the age. Impossible? Certainly it is impossible through our own resources: “Without me you can do nothing.” Hence, the incredible final promise “Lo! I am with you always - to the end of the age.” Disciples of Jesus Discipleship, then, is the total process of making disciples of Jesus who are obedient to their living Lord. That involves evangelism, mission, and equipping those new disciples for obedient mission. This issue of the Renewal Journal looks at a few of those tasks: evangelism, mission, making disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus. I reproduce reports on transformation in the South Pacific in the 21st century. Brian Medway applies lessons learned from revival in Argentina to the 10 Renewal Journals Australian scene. Rodney Howard-Browne talks about God doing what he said he would do. Lindell Cooley describes the impact of revival on his own discipleship and that of others. Robert McQuillan surveys fresh moves of God’s Spirit across England. Peter Earle examines mentoring as it relates to discipleship. Charles Taylor reflects on the meaning of discipleship. Paula Sandford reports on a gathering from among the nations - the ethnic groups - seeking to obey the Spirit in one body. Stephen Milstead provides an overview of John Dawson=s approach to discipling cities, an approach well illustrated in Argentina today as indicated in the first article in this issue. Nothing is so radical as making disciples of Jesus. Jesus and his early disciples proclaimed and demonstrated the reign of God in all of life. The kingdom of God has broken into this fallen world through Jesus, God’s Son, the Anointed One. His life, death, and resurrection change everything. The first are last and the last are first. The least are the greatest and the greatest are the servants of all. This issue of the Renewal Journal only begins to explore such radical changes. The great commission still confronts us all with the implications of Jesus’ authority in heaven and on earth - his total Lordship. As you read, pray with us the prayer Jesus taught us, including, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What can be more radical than that? 11 Renewal Journals Transforming Revivals Community and ecology transformed in the South Pacific Selections from the book Transforming Revivals are included here in Chapter 1 12 1 Transforming Revivals Geoff Waugh Dr Geoff Waugh reports on recent and current revival movements in the South Pacific nations of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, as examples of radical and effective discipleship. Revivals and Discipleship in the South Pacific Discipleship happens in many ways. One of the most effective ways is for us to participate together in ministry and mission. We learn together. We learn from one another. We learn, especially, from our friends in other cultures. Often they follow Scripture more closely than we do, less encumbered by western rationalism, materialism and secular worldviews. This report gives examples of such discipleship. These revivals originated in Pacific cultures, not from missionaries, but from Pacific islanders. They Renewal Journals acknowledge the involvement of spirits in life’s events, including the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome other powers. They live and think communally, not individually as we tend to do. These revivals demonstrate that we can learn vital lessons about discipleship as followers of Jesus from children, youth, and ‘uneducated’ village people. Their childlike (not childish), strong faith, their humble and teachable attitudes, and their application of Scripture to life can challenge and instruct us. Transforming revival continues to spread exponentially. The Sentinel Group (www.glowtorch.org) DVDs report on community transformation around the world, especially in Transformations I and II, and Fiji reports in Let the Seas Resound. This brief update describes recent revivals in the South Pacific islands, representative of revivals multiplying in the twenty-first century. Vanuatu Law School students at their Christian Fellowship (CF) in University of the South Pacific developed a powerfully discipling community through their CF, which led to effective evangelism, mission to many nations, and involvement in revival movements. Peer discipling with committed leaders encouraged personal growth and enabled powerful ministry. The Lord moved in a surprising way at the Christian Fellowship (CF) in the School of Law in Port Vila, Vanuatu on Saturday night, April 6, the weekend after Easter 2002. The university’s CF held an outreach meeting on the lawn and steps of the grassy university square near the main lecture buildings, school administration and library. God moved strongly there that night. Romulo Nayacalevu, then President of the Law School CF reported: The speaker was the Upper Room Church pastor, Jotham Napat who is also the director of Meteorology here in Vanuatu. The night was filled with the awesome power of the Lord and we had the Upper Room church ministry who provided music with their instruments. With our typical Pacific Island setting of bush and nature all around us, we had dances, drama, and testified in an open environment, letting the wind carry the 14 Geoff Waugh message of salvation to the bushes and the darkened areas. That worked because most of those that came to the altar call were people hiding or listening in these areas. The Lord was on the road of destiny with many people that night. Unusual lightning hovered around in the sky that night, and as soon as the prayer teams had finished praying with those who rushed forward at the altar call, the tropical rain pelted down on that open field area. God poured out his Spirit on many lives that night, including Jerry Waqainabete and Simon Kofe. Both of them played rugby in the popular university teams and enjoyed drinking and the night club scene. Both changed dramatically. Many of their friends said it would not last. It did. Later, Jerry became prayer convenor at the CF and Simon its president. Most of the CF leaders attended the lively, Spirit-led Upper Room church in Port Vila, where pastors Joseph and Sala Roberts, Jotham Napat and others encouraged and nurtured them. The University of the South Pacific, based in Suva Fiji, has its School of Law in Vanuatu (because of the unique combination of French, English and local laws in Vanuatu, previously called New Hebrides). Students come from the many nations of the South Pacific Islands to study law at Vanuatu, many being children of chiefs and government leaders. The very active CF at the School of Law regularly organised outreaches in the town and at the university. About one third of the 120 students in the four year law course attended the weekly CF meeting on Friday nights. A core group prayed together regularly, including daily prayer at 6 a.m., and organised evangelism events. Many were filled with the Spirit and began to experience spiritual gifts in their lives in new ways. A team of eleven from their CF visited Australia for a month in November-December 2002 involved in outreach and revival meetings in many denominations and as well as in visiting home prayer groups. They drove 6,000 kilometres in a 12-seater van, including a trip from Brisbane to Sydney and back to visit Hillsong. The team prayed for hundreds of people in various churches and home 15 Renewal Journals groups – as in the cover photograph of this book. They led worship at the daily 6 am prayer group at Kenmore Baptist Church, with Calvin Ziru on guitar. That followed their own 5 am daily prayer meeting in the house provided miraculously for them. Philip and Dhamika George from Sri Lanka bought that rental house with no money and made it freely available. They had recently befriended a back packer stranger who advised them to buy a rental property because Brisbane house prices then began to increase rapidly in value. They had no spare money but their new friend loaned them a deposit of $10,000, interest free, to get a bank loan and buy the house. They sold the house two years later for $80,000 profit, returned the deposit loan, and used the profits for Kingdom purposes especially in mission. The law students from the CF grew strong in faith. Jerry, one of the students from Fiji, returned home for Christmas vacation after the visit to Australia, and prayed for over 70 sick people in his village, seeing many miraculous healings. His transformed life challenged the village because he had been converted at CF after a wild time as a youth in the village. The following December vacation, 2004, Jerry led revival in his village. He prayed early every morning in the Methodist Church. Eventually some children and then some of the youth joined him early each morning. By 2005 he had 50 young people involved, evangelising, praying for the sick, casting out spirits, and encouraging revival. By 2009 Jerry was a lawyer and pastor of a church in Suva and had planted a new church in his village as well. Simon, returned to his island of Tuvalu, also transformed at university through CF. He witnessed to his relatives and friends all through the vacation in December-January, bringing many of them to the Lord. He led a team of youth involved in Youth Alive meetings, and prayed with the leaders each morning from 4 a.m. Simon became President of the Christian Fellowship at the Law School from October 2003 for a year. Pentecost Island In May 2003 a team from the CF flew to Pentecost Island in Vanuatu for a weekend of outreach meetings on South Pentecost. The national Vanuatu Churches of Christ Bible College, at Banmatmat, stands near 16 Geoff Waugh the site of the first Christian martyrdom there. Tomas Tumtum had been an indentured worker on cane farms in Queensland, Australia. He was converted there and returned around 1901 to his village on South Pentecost with a new young disciple from a neighbouring island. They arrived when the village was tabu (taboo) because a baby had died a few days earlier, so no one was allowed near the village. Ancient tradition dictated that anyone breaking tabu must be killed, so they were going to kill Tomas, but his disciple Lulkon asked Tomas to tell them to kill him instead so that Tomas could evangelise his own people. Just before he was clubbed to death at a sacred mele palm tree, he read John 3:16, then closed his eyes and prayed for them. Tomas became the pioneer of the church in South Pentecost, establishing Churches of Christ there. God opened a wide door Pentecost Island (1 Cor 16:8-9). The weekend with the CF team brought new unity among the competing village churches. The Sunday night service went from 6-11 pm, although it had been ‘closed’ three times after 10 pm, with a closing prayer, then later on a closing song, and then later on a closing announcement. People just kept singing and coming for prayer. Another team of four students from the law school CF returned to South Pentecost in June 2003 for 12 days of meetings in many villages. Again, the Spirit of God moved strongly. Leaders repented publicly of divisions and criticisms. Then youth began repenting of backsliding or unbelief. A great-grand-daughter of the pioneer Tomas Tumtum gave her life to God in the village near his grave at the Bible College. Evening rallies were held in four villages of South Pentecost each evening from 6 pm for 12 days, with teaching sessions on the Holy Spirit held in the main village church of Salap each morning for a week. The team experienced a strong leading of the Spirit in the worship, drama, action songs with Pacific dance movements, and preaching and praying for people. Mathias, a young man who repented deeply with over 15 minutes of tearful sobbing, is now the main worship leader in revival meetings. When he was leading and speaking at a revival meeting at the national Bible College, a huge supernatural fire blazed in the hills directly opposite 17 Renewal Journals the Bible College chapel in 2005, but no bush was burned. Pentecost Bible College By 2004, the Churches of Christ national Bible College at Banmatmat on Pentecost Island became a centre for revival. Pastor Lewis Wari and his wife Marilyn hosted these gatherings at the Bible College, and later on Lewis spoke at many island churches as the President of the Churches of Christ. Lewis had been a leader in strong revival movements on South Pentecost as a young pastor from 1988. Don and Helen Hill, Geoff’s friends from Brisbane participated in some visits, Don repairing the electrical writing and supplying needed portable generators and lawn mowers and Helen recording the revival teaching sessions on DVD for internal distribution. Leaders’ seminars and youth conventions at the Bible College focused on revival. The college hosted regular courses and seminars on revival for a month at a time, each day beginning with prayer together from 6 a.m., and even earlier from 4.30 a.m. in the youth convention in December, 2004, as God’s Spirit moved on the youth leaders in that area. Morning sessions continued from 8 a.m. to noon, with teaching and ministry. As the Spirit moved on the group, they continued to repent and seek God for further anointing and impartation of the Spirit in their lives. Afternoon sessions featured sharing and testimonies of what God is doing. Each evening became a revival meeting at the Bible College with worship, sharing, preaching, and powerful times of ministry to everyone seeking prayer. Every weekend the team from the college led revival meetings in village churches. Many of these went late as the Spirit moved on the people with deep repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and prayer for healing and empowering. Another law student team from Port Vila, led by Seini Puamau, Vice President of the CF, had a strong impact at the High School on South Pentecost Island with responses at all meetings. Almost the whole residential school of 300 responded for prayer at the final service on Sunday night 17 October, 2004, after a powerful testimony from Joanna 18 Geoff Waugh Kenilorea. The High School principal, Silas Buli, has prayed for years from 4 am each morning for the school and nation with some of his staff. The church arranged for more revival teaching at their national Bible College for church leaders. Teams from the college held mission meetings simultaneously in seven different villages. Every village saw strong responses, including a team that held their meeting in the chief’s meeting house of their village, and the first to respond was a fellow from the ‘custom’ traditional heathen village called Bunlap. Those Bible College sessions seemed like preparation for revival. Every session led into ministry. Repentance went deep. Prayer began early in the mornings, and went late into the nights. Chief Willie Bebe, host of most revival teams, asked for a team to come to pray over his home and tourist bungalows. Infestation by magic concerned him. So a prophetic and deliverance team of about six prayed there. Mathias reported this way: The deliverance ministry group left the college by boat and when they arrived at the Bungalows they prayed together. After they prayed together they divided into two groups. There is one person in each of these two groups that has a gift from the Lord that the Holy Spirit reveals where the witchcraft powers are, such as bones from dead babies or stones. These witchcraft powers are always found in the ground outside the houses or sometimes in the houses. So when the Holy Spirit reveals to that person the right spot where the witchcraft power is, then they have to dig it up with a spade. When they dug it out from the soil they prayed over it and bound the power of that witchcraft in the name of Jesus. Then they claimed the blood of Jesus in that place. Something very important when joining the deliverance group is that everyone in the group must be fully committed to the Lord and must be strong in their faith because sometimes the witchcraft power can affect the ones that are not really committed and do not have faith. After they finished the deliverance ministry they came together again and 19 Renewal Journals just gave praise to the Lord in singing and prayer. Then they closed with a Benediction. Village evangelism teams from South Pentecost continue to witness in the villages, and visit other islands. Six people from these teams came to Brisbane and were then part of 15 from Pentecost Island on mission in the Solomon Islands in 2006. Pentecost on Pentecost Grant Shaw accompanied Geoff Waugh to Pentecost Island in Vanuatu in September-October 2006. Grant grew up with missionary parents, saw many persecutions and miracles, and had his dad recounting amazing, miraculous answers to prayer as a daily routine. They often needed to pray for miracles, and miracles happened. From 14 years old Grant participated in mission teams travelling internationally in Asia. Then he attended a youth camp at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship which has had revival since 1994. He then worked there as an associate youth pastor for 18 months before studying at Bible College in Brisbane. So he is used to revival - all his life! In Vanuatu he was getting clear words of knowledge, and seeing people healed daily in meetings and in the villages. That inspired and challenged everyone. In Port Vila Grant and Geoff attended the Sunday service at Upper Room. That night pastors Joseph and Jotham were away in Tanna Island on mission so the remaining leaders felt God sent these two visitors to preach that night! Great warning! It was fantastic, with strong worship and waves of prayer ministry for healing and anointing. Raised from the dead At sharing time in the Upper Room service Leah, a nurse, told how she had been on duty that week when parents brought in their young daughter who had been badly hit in a car accident, and showed no signs of life - the monitor registered zero – no pulse. Leah felt unusual boldness, so commanded the girl to live, and prayed for her for an hour - mostly in tongues - and after an hour the monitor started beeping and the girl recovered. The mission trip continued on South Pentecost once more, based in the village of Panlimsi where Mathias was then the young pastor. The 20 Geoff Waugh Spirit moved strongly in all the meetings. Repentance. Reconciliations. Confessions. Anointing. Healings every day. The healings included Pastor Rolanson's young son able to hear clearly after being partially deaf from birth. Rolanson leads evangelism teams, and helped lead this mission. South Pentecost attracts tourists with its land diving – men jumping from high bamboo towers with vines attached to their ankles. Grant prayed for a jumper who had hurt his neck, and the neck crackled back into place. An elderly man no longer needed a walking stick to come up the hill to the meetings. Grant prayed for a son of the paramount chief of South Pentecost from Bunlap, a heathen village. The son was healed from a painful groin and the chief invited the team to come to his village to pray for the sick. No white people had been invited there to minister previously. The team, including the two Australians, trekked for a week into mountain villages. They literally obeyed Luke 10 – most going with no extra shirt, no sandals, and no money. The trek began with a 5 hour walk across the island to Ranwas on the eastern side. Mathias led worship, with strong moves of the Spirit touching everyone. At one point the preacher spat on the dirt floor, making mud to show what Jesus did once. Marilyn Wari, wife of the President of the Churches of Christ in Vanuatu, then jumped up asking for prayer for her eyes. Later she testified that the Lord told her to do that, and then she found she could read her small Bible without glasses. Glory in a remote village The team trekked through the ‘custom’ heathen village (where the paramount chief's sons lived), and prayed for more sick people. Some had pain leave immediately, and people there became more open to the gospel. Then the team trekked for 7 hours to Ponra, a remote village further north on the east coast. Revival meetings erupted there! The Spirit just took over. Visions. Revelations. Reconciliations. Healings. People drunk in the Spirit. Many resting on the floor getting blessed in various ways. When they heard about healing through ‘mud in the eye’ at Ranwas some came straight out asking for mud packs also! One of the girls in the team had a vision of the village children there 21 Renewal Journals paddling in a pure sea, crystal clear. They were like that - so pure. Not polluted at all by TV, videos, movies, magazines, worldliness. Their lives were so clean and holy. Just pure love for the Lord, especially among the young. Angels singing filled the air about 3 am. It sounded as though the village church was packed. The harmonies in high descant declared "For You are great and You do wondrous things. You are God alone" and then harmonies, without words until words again for "I will praise You O Lord my God with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name for evermore" with long, long harmonies on "forever more." Just worship. The team stayed two extra days there - everyone received prayer, and many people surrendered to the Lord both morning and night. Everyone repented, as the Spirit moved on everyone. Grant's legs, cut and sore from the long trek, saved the team from the long trek back. The villagers arranged a boat ride back around the island from the east to the west for the team’s return. Revival meetings continued back at the host village, Panlimsi, led mainly in worship by Mathias, with Pastor Rolanson organising things. Also at two other villages the Spirit moved powerfully with much reconciliation and dancing in worship. Some people in the host village heard angels singing there also. At first they too thought it was the church full of people but the harmonies were more wonderful than we can sing. The two Australians returned full of joy on the one hour flight to Vila after a strong final worship service at the host village on the last Sunday morning, and reported to the Upper Room Church in Port Vila on Sunday evening. Again the Spirit moved so strongly the pastor didn't need to use his message. More words of knowledge. More healings. More anointing in the Spirit, and many resting in the Spirit, soaking in grace. The Upper Room church continues to move in the Spirit and has seen strong touches of God in the islands, especially Tanna Island. They planted churches there in ‘custom’ villages, invited by the chiefs because the chiefs have seen their people healed and transformed. During missions there in 2006, many young boys asked to be ‘ordained’ as evangelists in the power of the Spirit. They returned to their villages and many of those young boys established churches as they spoke, told Bible stories, and sang original songs inspired by the Spirit. 22 Geoff Waugh Solomon Islands As revival spreads in the Solomon Islands, it also generates peer discipling, supported by mentors. Many leaders of revival are very young, and they appreciate mentoring as they seek to move in the anointing and power of the Spirit. Local pastors have not provided effective mentoring because they tend to follow traditional evangelical church patterns, and may oppose revival phenomena such as prophecies, revelations, removing tribal fetishes and witchcraft artefacts. Discipleship in these islands has involved understanding New Testament patterns of church life and applying them in revival movements. The Lord poured out his Spirit in fresh and surprising ways in New Georgia in the Western District of the Solomon Islands in 2003, and touched many churches in the capital Honiara with strong moves of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit moved powerfully especially on youth and children. This included many conversions, many filled with the Spirit, many having visions and revelations. In spite of, and perhaps because of, the ethnic tension (civil war) for two years with rebels armed with guns causing widespread problems and the economy failing with wages of many police, teachers and administrators unpaid, the Holy Spirit moved strongly in the Solomon Islands. An anointed pastor from PNG spoke at an Easter Camp in 2003 attended by many youth leaders from the Western Solomons. Those leaders returned on fire. The weekend following Easter, from the end of April, 2003, youth and children in the huge, scenic Marovo Lagoon area were filled with the Spirit, with many lives transformed. Revival began with the Spirit moving on youth and children in village churches. They had extended worship in revival songs, many visions and revelations and lives being changed with strong love for the Lord. Children and youth began meeting daily from 5 pm for hours of praise, worship and testimonies. A police officer reported reduced crimes and that former rebels attending daily worship and prayer meetings. Revival continues to spread throughout the region. Revival movements brought moral change and built stronger communities in villages in the 23 Renewal Journals Solomon Islands, including these lasting developments: 1. Higher moral standards. People involved in the revival have quit crime and drunkenness, and now promote good behaviour and cooperation. 2. Christians who once kept their Christianity inside churches and meetings now talk more freely about their lifestyle in the community and among friends. 3. Revival groups, especially youth, enjoy working together in unity and community, including a stronger emphasis on helping others in the community. 4. Families are strengthened in the revival. Parents spend more time with their youth and children to encourage and help them, often leading them in Bible readings and family prayers now. 5. Many new gifts and ministries are being used by more people that before, including revelations and healing. Even children receive revelations or words of knowledge about hidden magic artefacts or ginger plants related to spirit power, and remove them. 6. Churches are growing. Many church buildings in the Marovo Lagoon have been pulled down to be replaced by much bigger buildings to fit in the crowds. Offerings and community support have increased. 7. Unity. Increasingly Christians unite in reconciliation for revival meetings, prayer and service to the community. Western Solomon Islands A team of law students from the University of the South Pacific CF in Port Vila, Vanuatu, visited Honiara and the Western Solomon Islands in mid 2003. Sir Peter and Lady Margaret Kenilorea hosted the team in Honiara. Sir Peter was the first Prime Minster of the independent Solomon Islands, and then Speaker in the Parliament. Dr Ronald Ziru, then administrator of the United Church Hospital in Munda in the western islands hosted the team there, which included his son Calvin. The team had to follow Jesus’ instructions about taking nothing extra on mission because the airline left all their checked luggage behind in Port Vila! They found it at Honiara after their return from the western islands. The team first experienced the revival on an island near Munda. They took the outboard motor canoe with Rev Fred Alizeru from Munda. 24 Geoff Waugh Two weeks previously, early in July, revival started there with the Spirit poured out on children and youth, so they just want to worship and pray for hours. They meet every night from around 5.30 pm and wanted to go late every night! The team encouraged the children to see school as a mission field, to pray with their friends there, and learn well so they could serve God better. At Seghe and in the Marovo Lagoon the revival spread since Easter. Some adults became involved, also repenting and seeking more of the Holy Spirit. Many outpourings and gifts of the Spirit have emerged, including the following: Transformed lives - Many youths that the police used to check on because of alcohol and drug abuse became sober and on fire for God attending daily worship and prayer meetings. A man who rarely went to church led the youth singing group at Seghe. Adults publicly reconciled after years of old rifts or strife. Long worship - This included prophetic words or actions and visions. About 200 youth and children led worship at both Sunday services with 1,000 attending in Patutiva village where the revival began. They sang revival songs and choruses accompanied by their youth band. Visions - Children saw visions of Jesus (smiling at worship, weeping at hard hearts), angels, hell (with relatives sitting close to a lake of fire, so the children warned them). Some saw Jesus with a foot in heaven and a foot on earth, like Mt 28:18 - “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” One boy preached (prophesied) for 1½ hours, Spirit-led. Revelations - especially ‘words of knowledge’ about hidden things, including magic artefacts and good luck charms. Children show parents where they hid these things! If other adults did that there would be anger and feuds, but they accept it from their children. One boy told police that a man accused of stealing a chain saw (and sacked) was innocent as he claimed, and gave them the name of the culprit, by word of knowledge. The accused man returned to work. Spiritual Gifts – teaching sessions discussed traditional and revival worship, deliverance, discernment of spirits, gifts of the Spirit, 25 Renewal Journals understanding and interpreting visions, tongues, healing, Spirit-led worship and preaching, and leadership in revival. Many young people became leaders moving strongly in many spiritual gifts. These effects continued to spread throughout the Solomon Islands. Solomon Islands Mission A different team of 22 visited the Solomon Islands for a month, in November-December 2006, most coming from Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, on their first international mission. The rest came from Brisbane – an international group of Bible College students (from Holland, England, Korea, and Grant Shaw who grew up in China) plus Jesse Padayachee, an Indian healing evangelist originally from South Africa, now in Brisbane, who joined the team for the last week. Jerry Waqainabete and his wife Pam (nee Kenilorea), participated in Honiara. Rev Gideon Tuke, a United Church minister, organized the visit. In the Solomon Islands the revival team of 15 from Vanuatu and 6 from Brisbane visited villages in the Guadalcanal Mountains, three hours drive and seven hours trekking from Honiara, and held revival meetings in November 2006 especially to encourage revival leaders. They walked up mountain tracks to where revival is spreading, especially among youth. Now those young people have teams going to the villages to sing, testify, and pray for people. Many gifts of the Spirit are new to them. The team prayed for the sick and for anointing and filling with the Spirit. They prayed both in the meetings and in the villages. Revival in Guadalcanal Mountains Revival in the Guadalcanal Mountains started at the Bubunuhu Christian Community High School on July 10, 2006, on their first night back from holidays. They took teams of students to the villages to sing, testify, and pray for people, especially youth. Many gifts of the Spirit were new to them - prophecies, revelations (e.g., about where magic stuff is hidden) healings, and tongues. South Seas Evangelical Church (SSEC) pastors Joab Anea (chaplain at the high school) and Jonny Chuicu (chaplain at the Taylor Rural and Vocational Training Centre) led revival teams. Joab reported on this revival. 26 Geoff Waugh We held our prayer in the evening. The Spirit of the Lord came upon all of us like a mighty wind on us. Students fell on the ground. I prayed over them and we were all praying for each other. The students had many gifts and saw visions. The students who received spiritual gifts found that the Lord showed them the hidden magic. So we prayed about them and also destroyed them with the power of God the Holy Spirit. The students who joined in that night were speaking and crying in the presence of God and repenting. We also heard God calling us to bring revival to the nearby local churches. The Lord rescues and released many people in this time of revival. This was the first time the Lord moved mightily in us. Pastor Jonny Chuicu teaches Biblical Studies and discipleship at the Taylor Rural and Vocational Training Centre. He teaches about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and is using the book: Understanding Our Need of Revival, by Ian Malins. Some of the people (who are all students) have gifts of praying and intercession, worship, healing, preaching, and teaching. Choiseul Island Gideon, Grant and Geoff participated for five days in the National Christian Youth Convention (NCYC) in the north-west at Choiseul Island - 2 hours flight from Honiara. Around 1500 youth gathered from across the nation, many arriving by outboard motor canoes. The group coming from Simbo Island in two canoes ran into trouble when their outboard motors failed. Two of their young men swam from noon for nine hours in rough seas to reach land and get help for their stranded friends. The following day they arrived with a repaired outboard motor minus their food which they had to throw overboard in the rough seas. The Friday night convention meeting saw a huge response as Grant challenged them to be fully committed to God. Most of the youth came out immediately so there were hundreds to pray for. The anointed worship team led the crowd in "He touched me" for nearly half an hour as prayer continued for them, including many wanting healing. 27 Renewal Journals Here is Grant’s description of that youth crusade night: We were invited to speak for their huge night rally. Geoff began and God moved on the young people in a special way. Then he handed it over to me at about half way and I gave some words of knowledge for healing. They came forward and we prayed for them most of them fell under the Spirit’s power and all of them testified that all the pain left their body. After that I continued to speak for a bit and then gave an altar call for any youth who choose to give their lives fully to Jesus, no turning back! Most of a thousand youth came forward, some ran to the altar, some crying! There was an amazing outpouring of the Spirit and because there were so many people Geoff and I split up and started laying hands on as many people as we could. People were falling under the power everywhere (some testified later to having visions). There were bodies all over the field (some people landing on top of each other). Then I did a general healing prayer and asked them to put their hand on the place where they had pain. After we prayed people began to come forward sharing testimonies of how the pain had left their bodies and they were completely healed! The meeting stretched on late into the night with more healing and many more people getting deep touches. It was one of the most amazing nights. I was deeply touched and feel like I have left a part of my self in Choiseul. God did an amazing thing that night with the young people and I really believe that he is raising some of them up to be mighty leaders in Revival. A young man healed that night returned to his nearby village and prayed for his sick mother and brother. Both were healed immediately. He told about that the next morning at the convention, adding that he had never done that before. The delegation from Karika, in the Shortland Islands further west, returned the following Monday. The next night they led a meeting where the Spirit of God moved in revival. Many were filled with the Spirit, had visions, were healed, and discovered many spiritual gifts including discerning spirits and tongues. That revival has continued, and spread. 28 Geoff Waugh Transforming Revival An unusual pattern of discipleship has emerged in whole villages in the South Pacific during the 12st Century. Applying the principles of 2 Chronicles 7:14, complete village communities have experienced not only revival but ecological and social transformation. Mentors and leaders from among their own people have led them into radical repentance, reconciliation, and communal commitment to Jesus as Lord in all of life. The following stories of community transformation from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu come from pages 58-70 of A Manual for Healing the Land by Vuniani Nakanyaca and Walo Ani, 3rd edition, 2009, published by Toowoomba City Church, Australia, reproduced by permission. Reports by Harry Tura from Vanuatu are added here. Fiji The twenty-first century has already seen many village communities transformed. Rev Ratu Vuniani Nakauyaca describes community transformation in Fiji. The most powerful events in this ongoing revival are the direct results of repentance, reconciliation and unity, One of the first instances of this occurred in 2002, when Chief Mataitoga of Sabeto village (between Nadi and Lautoka) had a dream from the Lord. The village had a lot of social problems as well as enmity and divisions. As a result of the dream, he called his people together to pray and fast to seek God for answers and healing. Over a period of two weeks, many of the clans spent time with the Chief to sort out their differences. They had meetings every night and God brought about reconciliation and unity in the church and village, many relationships being healed. There had only been one church in the area until the Pentecostal revival of the 1960s which spread across the cities and towns and into the rural areas during that period. Because of the rejection of the Pentecostal experience by some people, many villages had two churches, one Methodist and one Pentecostal. This caused division between friends and family, with many people not communicating and carrying bitterness and resentment for decades. 29 Renewal Journals When Ratu Mataitoga directed his people to come together as one, there was a move of the Holy Spirit with real repentance and forgiveness, and unity in the village was restored. The long term results of this action were only revealed with the passing of time. Productivity of the soil increased and long absent fish varieties returned to the reef. Mangroves that had died and disappeared have begun to grow again. The mangroves are very important for the ecology, providing shelter and breeding grounds for all kinds of fish, crabs, etc. all of which were part of the staple diet of these villages. Healing the Land The Healing the Land (HTL) Process, as it is now officially recognized, was really started on the initiative of Pastor Vuniani Nakauyaca. For him it was a personal journey that resulted from an accumulation of various events. The Pacific Prayer movement had a desire to see that prayer, repentance and reconciliation were carried out where necessary on location - where missionaries had been killed or where tribal conflict had taken place. These were all based on a bottom up or grass roots approach to bring healing and reconciliation. Vuniani had visited Argentina and seen the beneficial results of reconciliation with the British over the Faulklands war. He also visited Guatemala to see the Almolonga transformation (see Transformation Series DVD/Video). This was a singularly dramatic community change. Jails and public bars closed, land fertility increased and crop production levels had to be seen to be believed. What he saw brought a deeper desire in his heart to see this happen in Fiji, to give room for God to bring about community and national transformation in similar ways to what he had seen overseas. He saw the need to appropriately respond to the circumstances and use the spiritual tools available to see the nation transformed. This is his first hand report. 30 Geoff Waugh Nuku Village After returning to Fiji, he called some people together to seek God for solutions. They felt they should begin at Nuku, and this took place 1-10 April, 2003. Nuku is about 65 kilometres north of Suva, on the main island of Viti Levu. The inhabitants of Nuku had been suffering feuds, infertility, mental illness and social problems for decades. The water of the stream that flowed through the village had been polluted since a day 42 years previously, the water and banks being filled with slime. At that time, children were swimming in the stream when the water suddenly turned white and they all ran for their lives. Fish died and grass died. Vuniani, as a child, was swimming in the river when this happened, so he knew the background story. It was believed that the polluted water caused blindness, infertility, madness and even death. Vuniani and the team went up to Nuku to activate the Process. The key Scripture they went with was 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land”. They had two weeks of prayer meetings, the Methodist, Assemblies of God and Seventh Day Adventist churches being represented. They spent time studying Bible references on defilement and Healing the Land. This lead them to repent and confess their sins and the sins of their forefathers, in the same way as Nehemiah did. These included killing and cannibalism, idolatry, witchcraft, bloodshed, immorality They went to the high places in the area to cleanse them of the sinful acts that had taken place there. The elders confessed sins of their forefathers. Reconciliation first took place within families, then clans and finally within the tribe. The chief of the area led a corporate prayer of repentance with the whole tribe. On the third day of the Process, some women came running and shouting into the village, announcing that the water in the stream had become pure again. It is still pure today. 31 Renewal Journals Nuku village had been heavily populated, but because of feuds and disputes, people were chased out or just left and went to live in other villages. Deputations were sent out to these to apologise for the past offences. A matanigasau (traditional apology) was sent to two villages, inviting the people to return if they wished. The whole community now count themselves as very blessed. The productivity of the land has increased. The stream water is pure and since that time shrimps and fish have returned to the waters. The fertility of the banks and agriculture has radically improved. Some people have even reported that the water has demonstrated healing properties. Nabitu Village, East of Nausori, Viti Levu What occurred in this village was very much a follow on from what was happening around the country at the time. There was a split in the tribe and there were a lot of unresolved issues. During a business meeting in the local church, which was situated right in the middle of the village, a fist fight broke out. There was always a heaviness in the village, like a hovering dark cloud. This affected people negatively and there were not a lot of jobs available. On the advice of chiefs, the people came together on their own initiative for a time of corporate repentance. A lay preacher in the Methodist Church facilitated the Process. There was instantly a change in the atmosphere. The heaviness that had been there had lifted and everyone could feel it. The division in the church was healed. The lesson learned from there is that satan’s hold over people and places is tenuous to say the least. It only takes one man to lead many into forgiveness and healing. Satan has to leave, along with the oppression and curses. Vunibau (Serua Island) in the mouth of Navua River The HTL Process in this place was scheduled over a 14 day period. During the Process the mixture of elements was poured out onto the sand on the beach. Later that day, an elderly lady and her son went fishing on the beach. They cast the net out but when they tried to haul 32 Geoff Waugh it back in, it seemed to be stuck. They thought that perhaps it had been caught on a stump or rock, but they found that the net was actually so full of fish that they could not pull it in. They started walking back to the village to tell everyone, and the lady was following her son walking along the beach. Wherever his footprints were in the sand a red liquid appeared. As she walked in his footsteps she was healed of migraine, knee ailments and severe back pain, all of which she had suffered for many years. This healing has been permanent. As soon as they returned to the village she told the whole community what had happened. All the people rushed down to the beach to see this phenomenon, including the HTL team that was still there at the time. To their amazement, right on the spot where the elements had been poured onto the sand, there was blood coming out of the sand and flowing into the sea. A backslidden Catholic man gave his life to the Lord on the spot. Photos were taken. Vuniani was called from Suva (about an hour away) and he also witnessed the blood coming out of the sand. This actually happened twice. It was understood to be a confirming sign from the Lord that He was at work in the reconciliation and healing Process. 1 John 5:6-7, “There are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood.” This was similar to the miracle of the healing of the waters in Nuku, which was also recognized as a sign of God’s cleansing and healing that was taking place amongst the people. God is authenticating what He is doing. At Vunibau many other signs quickly followed. Large fish returned to their fishing grounds. On one occasion, considerable quantities of prawns came ashore so that people could just pick them up. Crabs and lobsters have also returned, and they have been able to sell the large lobsters for up to $25-$30 each. After this sign of the blood, Pastor Vuniani recalled the scripture in Acts 2:19 where the Lord had spoken through the prophet Joel that “I will grant wonders (signs) in the sky above, and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire and vapour (pillars) of smoke” (NASB). He wondered what would come next after the sign of the blood and felt that the next 33 Renewal Journals sign would be fire. Nataliera, Nailevu North In Nataliera village there were four churches. There was no communication between their members, affecting even closely related families within the village. Traditional witchcraft was still being practised and there were about eight sorcerers there. In addition, there had been many more deaths than would be normal. After forgiveness and reconciliation, the members of these four churches would meet every Wednesday for prayer and fasting. On the first Sunday of every month, the four congregations would combine for one large gathering. An Eco Lodge, previously closed, is now prospering after the HTL Process. For many years the fishing on the reef had become lean. Large fish were very scarce and for many years the catch had only ever comprised “bait fish” – the very small ones. Much of the coral reef was dead and what was left seemed to be dying. After reconciliation, on two separate occasions fire was seen to fall from the sky onto the reef. After this, large fish returned in abundance. The coral is now regenerating and new growth can be seen in abundance. When stormy weather strikes and the boats can’t go out, the women pray and large fish swim in close to the shore and become trapped in a small pond so that the women are able to just wade in and catch them. When women from neighbouring villages heard of this, they tried praying for the same provision, but without the same result. 34 Geoff Waugh Draubuta, Navosa highlands, north of Sigatoka Vuniani’s son, Savanaca, was working with two teams in the highlands. While they were there, pillars of smoke descended on the villages. This was seen by many neighbouring villagers who described it as thick bloodstained smoke. This sign was seen at almost exactly the same time as fire was seen to fall on the reef at Nataliera. In this area there were many marijuana plantations. The Nadroga council had been trying to prevent the plantings. During the HTL Process, a deputation of marijuana growers approached the team and asked what the Government would do for them if they destroyed their crops. They had a list of demands which they presented to the team. The marijuana crop was large, and estimated to be worth about $11 million. There were 9 growers involved. The team leaders told the farmers that it was their choice, that they should obey God and trust Him for their livelihood, without any promises from anyone to do anything for them. If they could not, then they should not participate in the Healing Process. By the time the Process had finished, the people had destroyed the crop as part of the reconciliation Process. After the HTL ministry, a total of 13,864 plants were uprooted and burnt by the growers themselves. There were 6,000 seedlings as well. These are a few of the many miraculous events that have occurred in Fiji since 2001. Every week, more such events are happening as the forgiveness, reconciliation and HTL processes are being experienced. Papua New Guinea Rev Walo Ani and his wife Namana describe community transformation through Healing the Land in Papua New Guinea. Karawa Village It was a very exciting week in August 2006 where we saw the Lord move mightily in the lives of the village elders, chiefs, church leaders and the people. A group of dedicated young people's prayer ministry 35 Renewal Journals team started praying and fasting from 1st of July for the HTL Process. We witnessed repentance, forgiveness and reconciliations between family and clan members, and between individuals. The Lord went ahead and prepared the hearts of people in every home as we visited. They were ready to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness from each other and reconcile. In some homes, members of families gave their hearts to the Lord. Visitation of homes took two days. On the third morning, after the dedication of the elements of salt, oil and water, the village elders and chiefs publicly repented as they identified with sins of their forebears; and each of them publicly gave their clans to the Lord. Three dinghies and a big canoe with people all went in different directions up several rivers and along the nearby coast to anoint specific places for cleansing that were defiled through deaths and killings in the past. That night there was a time of public confession and renouncement of things that were a hindrance in the lives of the people around a huge bonfire. It was a solemn night; the presence of the Lord was so powerful that people were coming forward and burning their witchcraft and charms publicly. No one could hold back, even the deacons and church elders, village elders, women and young people were all coming forward. Young people started confessing their sins and renouncing and burning drugs, cigarettes and things that were hindering their lives from following Christ. A young man, who had murdered another young man about 11 years ago, came forward and publicly confessed his sin and asked for forgiveness from the family of the murdered man. That was a big thing; there was a pause and we waited and prayed for someone from the other side to respond. Only the Lord could do this. The younger brother of the man who was killed came out finally, and offered forgiveness. We could hear crying among the people; it was a moving moment where God just took control. Mothers, brothers and members of both extended families became reconciled in front of the whole village. We could sense the release upon both families and village. It was an awesome time; the meeting went on into the early hours of the next morning. At the end of all this at about 2am the pastor stood up and said the prayer to invite Jesus into the community. 36 Geoff Waugh The village is not the same; you can sense the release and freedom of Christ in the lives of the people. The Holy Spirit is still moving in people's lives and they are coming to their pastor for prayer. Recently, a young man surrendered two guns to the pastor. News of what God has done and is still doing has spread to neighbouring villages. God birthed a new thing in our area and I believe that many more villages will see the transforming power of God because they are hungry and desperate to see change in their communities. Update, February 2007 Walo did three nights of HTL follow up in Karawa village and reported that the meetings in the village were packed. He spoke on the bow and arrow concept – reliable bows enable reliable arrows to hit the mark (reliable parents are like the bows). The people were asked to bring their bows and arrows. They brought their bows but interestingly no one had any arrows. That was really a challenge and eye opener to everyone. The HTL prayer team have taken on board the bow and arrow concept and they are going to do house to house visitation to explain this concept. Three widowers and several widows were rededicated to the Lord. They were anointed with oil and prayed that untimely death will not occur in the village any more. Walo reported that there were a lot of testimonies arising 7 months after the HTL Process. Two water wells which had a salty taste were anointed with oil and now have good fresh water in them. One of the rivers that was anointed and prayed for now has fresh water instead of salty water half way up the river. Alukuni, one of the villages which experienced their pigs being stolen by the Karawa young people over the years testified that since HTL in Karawa none of their pigs had been stolen so far. Righteousness is rising up in the village. The king tides in January to March usually caused floods in the middle of Karawa village dividing the village in two. After the HTL Process last August, the 2007 king tides have not caused any flooding. Praise the Lord! A barren woman conceived after one of the visitation teams dealt with the generational curses holding her in bondage for sixteen years. Nine 37 Renewal Journals months after the Karawa HTL Process she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Simon. There is abundance of fruit and garden food and two harvests of fruit on the orange trees have been observed so far. A hunger for prayer has risen among the young people. Straight after HTL Process young people from one of the clans started a prayer group which is still going on. Two other clans started prayer groups after a lot of struggle to get going over the years. The HTL team was the main support behind “Kids Games” which were held December 2006 in the neighbouring village of Keapara. The studies were on Joseph and when they came to the section on forgiveness the Lord moved in a powerful way and revival started among the children. They stood and asked for forgiveness from their parents. There was crying and reconciliation between children and parents. The Lord is arresting the hearts of the young, the old and the children and there is no holding back. One Year Thanksgiving, October 2007 Karawa is still experiencing the blessings of God with abundance of crabs, fish and garden produce. The economic life of the village is growing stronger. There have also been some challenges. A week before we arrived there had been a murder of one of the Karawa men who was living in his wife’s village nearby. He went missing for three days on his fishing trip. All the Karawa people prayed during this time and search parties went out to look for him. On the third day they found his body and thanked God, as in the past people missing on fishing trips were never found. The testimony from this is the Lord kept all the Karawa young men calm although the urge to take the law into their own hands was there. They testified that if it had not been for the transforming work of the Lord in their lives since the HTL Process, they would have caused trouble in the nearby village. One of the things prayed for was good education for their children, especially the smaller ones who do elementary schooling and did not have proper classrooms. Nine months after the HTL Process, Karawa which was the second last on the list of applications for school funding, 38 Geoff Waugh was brought up to second priority and their application was approved. A semi-trailer loaded with building materials for two classrooms worth K75,000 (Kina, about AU$35,000) arrived in the village. The classrooms have now been built and the children are using them. Only the Lord could have done this. Makirupu Village Makirupu is about 2 hours drive east of Port Moresby, with a population of about 600. The United Church was the established church there and CRC and AOG have also planted churches there in recent years which caused a lot of offences between families. In March 2007, we had eight days for the HTL Process, two teaching sessions in the mornings and one at night. From 2-5.30pm for four days the prayer team did house to house visitation of all of the 126 homes in the village. The HTL team of seven and the prayer team all fasted and prayed for those eight days. The teaching was done in the language people understood very well. The Lord moved in a mighty way convicting people of land disputes, immorality and fornication, fear of witchcraft and sorcery (fear was at its peak when the HTL Process began), lies, gambling, stealing, marriage problems, witchcraft, sorcery and charms and many other issues. Miracles of healing started from day one; people who were deaf began to hear, their ears were healed. From research I had done we discovered that the mission land was defiled by three previous pastors who had ministered in the village and who had committed adultery and fornication in the last 30 years, the last one about 18 months ago. This involved the last pastor and a young girl in the church behind the pulpit areas in the church building. That pastor was suspended from ministry. There was a court case between the family of the young girl, (who defended her saying she was innocent) and the deacons of the church. There was actual physical fighting as well. This case involved the whole village; almost all the young people left the church. Because of this, the life and attendance of the services were affected. The life of the church was slowly dying away. This issue was never resolved properly; it was like a dark shadow hanging over the whole village. Our first focus of prayer would be the cleansing of the mission land. 39 Renewal Journals On the second night of prayer this evil manifested itself in a snake that lay across the doorway of the current pastor’s house. The prayer team killed it on the spot. The next morning I spoke on Roots and Foundations and how curses come into communities and defile the land and people. That night we had a time of identification repentance and the current pastor came forward and repented on behalf of the three former pastors of adultery and fornication. Something happened in the heavenlies. A deacon came forward and repented on behalf of the deacons, followed by a women’s leader all repenting of the same sin and their involvement in it. More people came out and confessed. The presence of the Lord was very heavy in the church. I asked if there was anyone to repent on behalf of the young people and the young girl who had committed fornication and adultery with the last pastor came forward, trembling and crying, confessing, repenting and asking for forgiveness from God and the whole village. The people were amazed at what God was doing. Only He could do that. The girl who had denied outright what she had done 18 months ago was arrested by God’s presence and could not hide any more. A Sunday School representative came forward and repented and asked for forgiveness. A former deacon could not hold back. He came forward and confessed that he had been the messenger boy for the pastor and the girl and he said sorry to the Lord for denying Him. Because of this incident 18 months ago, all the young people had left the church but when the air was cleared, the next day all the young people came and the church building was full to capacity. The fear of the Lord entered the hearts of the people. That same night the anointing elements were mixed and the mission land was anointed, cleansed and rededicated to God. It was an awesome time. The AOG pastor also asked for forgiveness from the United Church for leaving the church and causing division. He and his wife and all his church members were part of the prayer warrior team right from day one of the Process. A couple of days later the CRC members started joining us and by the end of the Process all three churches were united to see change in the community. The prayer warrior team grew from 7 to 40. Praise God! The next day news of what had happened had reached everyone in the village and the nearby villages and more people came for the meetings. They were hungry to hear the Word of the Lord. The next few days 40 Geoff Waugh people were seeing signs and wonders, something they had never experienced before. Revival had started and the fear of God came upon the people. Also on the third day the village chief invited Jesus into the community. On the last day the whole village gathered at the spot where the village was started some five or six generations ago. Anointing oil was mixed and all the chiefs and village elders were anointed and reinstated. After that, groups of people and prayer team took oil to certain places defiled because of bloodshed in the past on garden land. They anointed these places while deacons took oil to the boundaries of the village and the beach and dedicated the land back to God. After lunch everyone came back to the village and started a bonfire. Church deacons and leaders were the first ones to come forward with confessions of adultery, immorality and witchcraft. Families with land disputes came out and reconciled with people they had taken to court. Young people came out with charms and magic and burnt them in the fire. A mother came out with her ten year old daughter and confessed she had handed down her sorcery and magic to her and said she was sorry, asking for forgiveness from God. Both were prayed for. Husbands and wives reconciled, artefacts of magic and idolatry were burnt. God was doing His cleaning up in the lives of the people. The next day we had a time of celebration and you could see the release and freedom in people’s lives, singing was coming from their hearts and joy was bubbling over. The Lord had again touched people’s hearts and His presence was so evident that the people did not want to stop celebrating, although it was getting dark and there was no light. The land and the people are being healed. The day after the Process a couple of men went crabbing and caught bigger and more crabs than usual. A week later a lady went to her garden to find that the bad weed which had been a problem to most gardens had started to wither and die. She went back to the village and told everyone. The fear that had gripped the hearts of the people had also been broken in prayer and now women are going to their gardens on their own – something they could not do before. A few days after the HTL Process, men began to go fishing and to their surprise they were catching more and bigger fish than before. 41 Renewal Journals There has been a case of instant healing of a patient with a stroke after the AOG pastor and his wife shared with her family about Roots and Foundations and how curses come into lives. The whole family confessed, repented and reconciled with each other. The pastor’s wife had some of the oil that was mixed in the village the week before and began anointing the lady while they prayed. To their surprise, she was healed instantly. She began to speak and eat on her own. The pastor said he had never experienced anything like this before. The presence of the Lord was so great they all started worshipping Him and time was not an issue any more. Praise God for this miracle! During the Process, the pastors of the AOG, the United Church and an Elder of the CRC church, standing on behalf of the pastor, all repented of all the offences and misunderstandings between them in the past. So now the three churches have decided to have a combined service once a month in the middle of the village. The young people from all three churches are already having combined prayer meetings and they are in the process of building a big shelter in the middle of the village for the combined church services. Update 6 months after the HTL Process A couple of months after the HTL Process a security firm from the city turned up in the village and recruited all the young men who had been stealing and causing problems. These young men had been stealing pigs and other things and then reselling them in the city. One of them could not fit into city life so he went back to the village. He stole a pig and when his family found out they chased him out of the village. He went to stay with relatives in another village and in the process found the Lord there! The villagers reported there has not been any stealing since the men were employed. There has also been increase in their garden produce, fruit and nut trees. The people are able to see their own produce come to maturity and sell it, whereas in the past it would have been stolen. Makirupu and one of the nearby villages are known for getting floods during heavy rains. One month before we got there, it had been raining heavily but the Lord has kept the floods away. This is an answer to the people’s prayers. However, the other village got the floods and we got 42 Geoff Waugh to see some of the houses still surrounded by flood waters when we were there. It surely is amazing! Kalo Village Reconciliation Process – Protocol discussion with the chiefs of Poti Clan, February 2007. Kalo is the village where about 126 years ago in 1881, four Cook Island missionaries and their families were killed. The killings were led by the chief of one of the clans. Walo had three meetings with the clan leaders and the history was told and confirmed. Since the killings this particular clan has been under a curse and the whole village is also affected by it. The leaders and the people of this clan know that they are under a curse and they are desperate to be freed from it. There have been unexplained deaths, not many of their children go beyond high school; those that go to work in towns don't last long and they lose their jobs. The outcome of the talks is that the leaders of this clan called all their families together, from far and near to come and start the repentance and reconciliation Process. This was supported by the pastor and all the Church and clan leaders of Kalo. It was a moving occasion and the leaders agreed to proceed with the HTL Process and a bigger reconciliation event with the relatives of the Cook Island missionaries present in the near future. Every year at their Church anniversary the Kalo people used put on the play of the landing of the Cook Island missionaries and their killings but straight after putting on this play, someone always dies. They cannot explain it and they don't put it on any more. After talks with Walo, they have decided to do the play again but this time including a time of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation after the play. Please pray that God will visit the Kalo people at this time! HTL in Vanuatu Pastors Walo Ani and Harry Tura report on transforming revival in Vanuatu. 43 Renewal Journals Hog Harbour, Espirito Santo The island was named Espiritu Santo because that is the island where over 400 years ago in May 1606 Ferdinand de Quiros named the lands from there to the South Pole the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit. After hearing about the Healing The Land stories of Fiji, Pastor Tali from Hog Harbour Presbyterian Church invited the Luganville Ministers Fraternal to run a week of HTL meetings in Hog Harbour village. In April 2006 the Fraternal, under the leadership of Pastor Raynold Bori, conducted protocol discussions with the Hog Harbour community leaders and explained to them what the Process involves. In May 2006 six pastors from Luganville did the HTL Process and God’s presence came on the people that week. Here are some of the stories of Healing the Land in a village of 800 people:  Married couples were reconciled.  Schools of big fish came to the shores during the reconciliation.  A three year old conflict, bloodshed and tribal fighting that could not be stopped by the Police, ended and reconciliation was made.  The presence of the Lord came down on the village.  In June of 2006, 12 pastors from the Luganville Fraternal were invited by the Litzlitz village on Malekula Island to do the HTL Process there. These Pastors spent three weeks teaching and doing the Process during which many instances of reconciliation and corporate repentance were witnessed. Village Chiefs and the people committed their community to God. One year later the President of Vanuatu re-covenanted the Nation to God on the island of Espiritu Santo. Pastor Harry Tura, the pastor of Bombua Apostolic Church in Luganville the main town on Espiritu Santo Island, also reported on transformation in Vanuatu. I wish to indicate to you what God is doing now in Vanuatu these days as answers to your prayers, and ask that you continue to pray for us. 44 Geoff Waugh Litzlitz Village, Malekula Island I went to Litzlitz village community on the island of Malekula on Sunday 4 June, 2006, and the Transformation activities started on the same day. The study activities and the process of healing the land closed on the following Sunday 11 June. The presence of the Lord was so real and manifested and many miracles were seen such a people healed, dried brooks turned to running streams of water, fish and other sea creatures came back to the sea shores in great number and even the garden crops came alive again and produced great harvests. Miracles happened three days after the HTL Process:  The poison fish that usually killed or made people sick became edible and tasty again.  The snails that were destroying gardens all died suddenly and didn’t return.  As a sign of God’s transforming work a coconut tree in the village which naturally bore orange coconuts started bearing bunches of green coconuts side by side with the red ones.  A spring gushed out from a dried river bed and the river started flowing again after the anointing oil was poured on it when people prayed and repented of all the sins of defilement over the area.  A kindergarten was established in the village one week after the HTL Process took place.  Crops are now blessed and growing well in their gardens. Vilakalak Village, West Ambae Island On Tuesday June 20, 2006, I flew to Ambae Island to join the important celebration of the Apostolic Church Inauguration Day, June 22. After the celebration I held a one-week Transformation studies and activities of healing the land at Vilakalak village community. It began on Sunday June 25 and closed on Saturday July 1, 2006. A lot of things had been transformed such as people's lives had been changed as they accepted Christ and were filled with the Holy Spirit for effective ministries of the Gospel of Christ. The Shekinah glory came down to the very spot where we did the process of healing the land during the night of July 1. That 45 Renewal Journals great light (Shekinah glory) came down. People described it as a living person with tremendous and powerful light shining over the whole of the village community, confirming the Lord's presence at that specific village community area. On the following day people started to testify that a lot of fish and shell fish were beginning to occupy the reefs and they felt a different touch of a changed atmosphere in the village community. I flew back to Santo after the healing of the lands on Tuesday July 4. The lands and garden crops then started to produce for great harvests and coconut crabs and island crabs came back in great abundance for people's daily meals these days. The people were very surprised at the look of the big sizes of coconut crabs harvested in that area. I went there a month later to see it. You can't believe it that the two big claws or arms were like my wrist when I compared them with my left wrist. That proved that the God we serve is so real and He is the owner of all the creatures. We started the Transformation studies and activities at my church beginning on Monday July 17 and closed on Sunday July 23, 2006. After the Transformation studies and activities had completed, we did the final process of healing the land on Sunday July 23. As usual the Shekinah glory of the Lord's presence appeared the following night of Monday, July 24. The people were amazed at the scene. That confirmed that God is at work at that specific area. A lot of changes are taking place at our church base and its environment - the land, the sea, and the atmosphere above us. People experience the same blessings as the others had been through. On Sunday August 13, 2006, I took a flight to West Ambae again because the Walaha village community had requested me to carry out the Transformation studies and activities and healing of the lands at their area. The Transformation studies started on Monday August 14. Again the presence of the Lord came down (Shekinah glory) on the whole village community early on Wednesday night and they all witnessed the scene the following day. They were very excited and began praising God all over the place. I took a flight back to Santo on Tuesday August 22. The revival is now taking place at that particular community and lives 46 Geoff Waugh are totally changed and people turned out to be experiencing a mighty difference of atmosphere and have been transformed to people of praise and worship. All sorts of fish are coming back to the reef and garden crops came green and are now beginning to produce a great abundance of harvest at the end of this year by the look of it now. This is all the hand of the Lord who does the work which is based on the transformation key verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14, which reads: "If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land." Lovanualikoutu, West Ambae Walo Ani and a team also conducted the HTL Process in Vanuatu. In 2004 Walo was invited by a pastor in West Ambae to do the HTL Process there. It wasn’t until May 2007 that a small team consisting of Pastor Walo Ani, Deryck and Nancy Thomas of Toowoomba Queensland and Tom Hakwa from Lovanualikoutu village (who then worked for Telekom Vanuatu in Port Vila) flew to West Ambae to do the HTL Process. The protocol was done by Tom some months before the team’s arrival and a prayer team was already praying and fasting a month before the actual event took place. Deryck and Nancy coordinated the home visitation teams and saw many miracles of people restored to the Lord and witchcraft destroyed. The Chief said the sinner’s prayer on behalf of the community one night and they all surrendered their lives to the Lord as he invited Jesus into the village. In the morning of the last day one of the teams was trying to pray down a stronghold in the bush when a bone fell through a hollow tree, taking them by surprise. They all jumped back but then stepped forward and dealt with it once and for all. Many taboo (sacred) places were demolished and items of witchcraft and idolatry were burnt in a bonfire as reconciliations flowed till after midnight. Also on that morning a team of people swam out to sea with the anointing oil to worship there and dedicate the sea and reef back to God. The day after the team’s departure from the village a pastor who went out spear fishing saw a large migration of fish. He in fact reportedly speared two fish together at one stage. When he reported this to the Chief there was dancing and rejoicing under the cocoa trees where the Chief and some young people had been working. 47 Renewal Journals During the reconciliation when the Chief began to speak, a light shower fell from the sky. There were no clouds but only a sky full of millions of stars. Surely God was in this Process! The prayer team continues to see visions and witness miracles of more reconciliation and repentance. Harvests from sea and land have begun to be more abundant than ever before witnessed. Healing the Land Process Essential requirements for Healing the Land, used by HTL teams, include these practical steps, as explained in A Manual for Healing the Land. 1. The Protocol. Discuss protocol, select a “man of peace” to lead, form a council of elders, a community leader invites Jesus into the community, assess the needs of the community, and recognise and work with the men or women of peace. 2. Teaching on Healing the Land Six days of teaching concerning commitment to the land, dealing with sin the church, and dealing with hidden agendas in the community. This involves teaching about the land belonging to God, fallen stewardship, defilements of the land (idolatry, immorality, broken promises, and bloodshed), bow and arrow concept (Psalm 127), roots and foundations of curses, salt of the earth, forgiveness and healing, healing and transformation from Jesus, inheritance and consecration, obedience to the word of the Lord for the community, men and women of peace, and unity in the Body of Christ. 3. Activities of the HTL Process Have Protocol discussion, form a council of elders, sinners prayer and invitation of Jesus, research and assess and profile the community, teach the Word of God, lead into corporate repentance, allow repentance and forgiveness and reconciliation to flow, develop a prayer team for the village, cover the village in prayer and fasting, organise teams for home visitation, prepare the anointing oil, final day activities (may involve oil, water, and salt), anoint and reinstate community chiefs and village leaders, public worship after anointing the land, and public repentance, reconciliation and burning of witchcraft items. 48 Geoff Waugh 4. Celebration Celebration may be in dancing, feasting, singing and in taking the Lord’s Supper together as the climax of the week. 5. Allow God to Continue the Process of HTL Prayer teams stay active, a mid-week united prayer service sustains transformation, share testimonies, share with others usually in teams. 6. Follow-up Ideas These include recognising those who made new commitments to God (as in baptisms or prayer for them), and on-going review each three months, with a thanksgiving event a year later to celebrate the goodness of God on the land and the community. 7. Warnings! Four strong powers always at work are lies, fear, shame and secrecy. Possible attacks include people speaking discouraging things against transformation – usually from outside, opposition by the devil, criticism by other Christian leaders, complacency, unbelief, and lack of prayer to sustain the transformation. People interested in the Healing the Land manual may contact Toowoomba City Church for further information. See www.tcchurch.com.au or email tccemail@tcchurch.com.au . The reports of transforming revival confirm that God’s purposes for us include far more than personal, family, or church renewal and revival. They also include community transformation, including social and ecological renewal and revival. These accounts of transforming revival continue to multiply in the twenty-first century, calling us all to deeper repentance, reconciliation, renewal and revival. 49 Renewal Journals Dedicating the ocean to God Burning idols Celebrating with a feast 50 2 Standing in the Rain Reflections on the Argentine Revival Brian Medway Pastor Brian Medway is the senior pastor of Grace Christian Fellowship in Canberra. It’s hard not to get wet in Argentina. You can’t help being affected by the climate of revival. It may take a paradigm shift or two, but if you are open to God, you’ll definitely get soaked by the revival rain. It’s hard not to get wet in Argentina. In Australia it is relatively easy to stay dry. I’m not talking about the weather, but about the effects of Holy Spirit revival. In October and November of 1996 I was one of twenty-five Australians who attended the International Institute conducted for the last seven years by Harvest Evangelism. Ed Silvoso, the Founder and President of Harvest Evangelism has visited Australia a number of times during the past five years and has introduced a strategy for reaching cities, regions and the nation called, “Prayer Evangelism.” Argentina has been experiencing a revival for the last eleven years that Renewal Journals has increased in impact each year. The struggling evangelical churches in Argentina prior to the revival would rejoice if one or two new converts were added to their churches in any single calendar year. These churches were always small and very segregated. They were generally hated by the Catholic Church and were often persecuted by the pro-Catholic governments. This was the established status quo. These evangelical/pentecostal churches had their share of dedicated and gifted leaders with every brand and emphasis in the protestant spectrum. They had good examples of everything: the right message, examples of fine theology and healthy spiritual ethos. Mission organizations from many nations had sown faithfully and persistently. But there was little power to impact the ruggedly proud and fiercely independent Argentine hearts. The cities and provinces remained seemingly impervious to their efforts. Now things have changed. In more than sixteen city regions of the nation, the church overall is seeing consistent growth after the proportions of the parable that Jesus taught about seed and ground. Each year they are seeing “a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matthew 13:23). It is now customary for the whole church in a city to see an increase in people being added to the church of 100% per year. We spent fifteen days in Argentina for three major reasons: a) to attend the International Institute, a gathering of Christian leaders from every part of Argentina and most nations of South America, b) to receive a commitment from wonderful South American Christian pastors and leaders to pray for a million hours for revival in Australia c) to visit with leaders in some of the cities and gain some understanding of the practicalities of reaching whole regions for Christ. Factors leading to revival Our expectations were exceeded on every count. What I wanted to know was, “How did a fragmented unattached bunch of small churches ever begin to see revival?” There are probably many reasons: sovereign ones and human ones. I can’t do much about the sovereign 52 Brian Medway matters, except be fully committed to them. I wanted to see what identifiable human factors may have led to the church in a nation seeing revival. Here are three that were observed. 1. Unity through relational networks has given the ministry of the church greater authority. It’s hard to know who’s who in Argentina. Just looking at people in a crowded room would not give a clue as to who were the most anointed leaders, nor which “tag” they wore. I’m not implying that it was an insipid example of people striving to find their “lowest common denominator.” It was fiery and focused. It’s just that you couldn’t pick the Baptists from the Pentecostals. It seems that they have made a strong commitment to proclaim absolutes, not interpretations, when they come together. As Ted Haggard says, “Inside the walls of our churches, let’s teach and practice the full menu of what we believe. .... outside the church we must focus on the absolutes. ... The result is that the non-Christian community hears the same basic absolutes from ... a variety of churches.” What is similarly encouraging is that because the major leaders have not bought the western cultural value of status and importance, they have less to protect and therefore more to give away. We had the great joy and benefit of receiving and receiving. “Recibe! recibe! recibe” was often heard. The other result is that the key leaders around the nation love each other enough to form a very strong relationship bond. They can give leadership to the church and help to acknowledge what God is saying and doing because they can speak with a voice that comes from being one in heart and soul. In the cities, the pastors talk collectively about the church in the city. They actually think of themselves as one church even though they form different congregations with sometimes very different flavours. They give leadership to the church in the city from the perspective of a very jealously guarded unity. The pastors of the larger churches don’t dominate and operate independently and the pastors of the smaller churches don’t feel threatened. We saw it, heard it and felt it. It was the kingdom of God right enough. 53 Renewal Journals This unity is not just for enjoyment value. It has given the church in a given locality greater authority. It is not to be measured in political or social terms, but spiritual. The powers of darkness have little power to blind the minds of unbelievers when the church operates in unity. 2. Uncompromised commitment to evangelism has created a sharper focus Whatever the strategies to be used, the underlying strength comes from a heart to reach the people who are lost from God. There are meetings in the churches just about every night. There is very little emphasis on home groups and home group structures. Mostly people come to the meetings: teaching, prayer, evangelistic. The message is preached like any regular evangelical pastor would preach it in Australia. It would be more demonstrative of course as reflecting the culture, but there is no “secret” message associated with the revival. People in Argentina are coming to Christ in one of two main ways: They come in thousands to the altar rail of Carlos Annacondia crusades. This little dynamic Argentine exudes a measure of faith that has nothing to do with presentation, and everything to do with heart - from spending a lot of time in the presence of God no doubt. People are also coming to Christ through the prayer supported lifestyle of the average members of the churches. So much of it is one to one. If anything this seems to be the growing edge. As the pastors and intercessors knock out the enemy missile launching sites, the regular soldiers are able to take captives with much greater frequency; I wouldn’t say ‘automatically’, but I would say ‘more readily’. They can do this not because they have a level of faith much in excess of that of the average believer in Australia, but because they are focused on evangelism. It is their chosen lifestyle focus. This focus allows all the activities of the church to be measured more objectively. We tend to measure programs on how they will affect the members. They tend to measure programs on how they will affect the non-members. The ministry of evangelism gets the first second and third bite of the cherry in Argentine churches. People will sacrifice anything. The pastoral staff of a church all sold their cars at one time in order to make possible a particular evangelistic ministry. They mean business. That’s the bottom line. 54 Brian Medway 3. A commitment to the harvest has uncovered important principles of prayer and spiritual warfare South America in general and Argentina in particular have become synonymous with prayer and spiritual warfare. Sometimes this has been a bit controversial in its expression. I discovered something in Argentina that helped me to put this in a clearer context. Basically the principles of things like “spiritual mapping” have come from the experience of evangelism, not from a study of spiritual warfare. No finer example of this process could be found than the experience of Baptist leaders Victor Lorenzo and his father Eduardo. They had begun to evangelize and found that they have had little impact in some places. A typically ‘Australian’ conclusion would be to say that it was a ‘hard place’. These men would be more likely to say that ‘no harvest’ was not an option. When they looked for the reason for no harvest they began to find that the hardness was due to the exercise of some form of demonic power or influence. They would give themselves to dealing with the powers as the Bible describes those encounters. As a result, hundreds and even thousands of people were saved and added to the church. There were places where successive attempts to plant churches had totally failed. When they began to deal with the spiritual forces of darkness that held these areas in bondage, the same attempts were successful. This evidence was compelling, but the process was even more enlightening. The spiritual warfare comes out of a bold commitment to preach the gospel, not out of a textbook on spiritual warfare. This is the emphasis of the New Testament of course. Spiritual warfare is not a department of the church where people hive off and play with demons. Evangelism and spiritual warfare are the same thing. It’s just that they have discovered that evangelism is more than communication, it is warfare. The evangelists must be committed to the intercessors and the intercessors must be committed to the evangelists. The apostles and prophets must work together with the pastors and teachers and they must all work together with the evangelists. God is raising up these ministries within regions. Not only in South America, but on every continent. 55 Renewal Journals Conclusion: Not exactly new, but very, very different ! There were some compelling conclusions for me. The first was the realization that there is really nothing there that’s mysterious or new. It is different but not new. The difference will be found in the measure.  While we tend to fill our shelves with books and tapes on prayer, they tend to fill heaven with bowls of incense (Rev. 5:8; 8:3,4).  While we tend to spend our time reading “fishing” magazines, they tend to spend their time boldly proclaiming the kingdom of God.  While we tend to skirt around the edge of our community picking up the few “strays” and adding them to the church, they tend to focus on “binding the strongman” (Mark 3:27) and robbing the whole house.  While we tend to languish in our cultural and ecclesiastical baggage, they tend to take seriously the matter of finding every way they can to become one, so that the world will know. That’s exactly what is happening. The difference in Argentina is that they are so much further down the same road. They have put in the effort, and paid the price. They have very little excess baggage. They set aside non-essentials. They have more energy for the main event on the program. The result is that the kingdom of God is coming not only to Argentina, but to the rest of the world. As they continue and as they pray for the nations of the world, their “faith is being reported all over the world” (Romans 1:8). It’s hard not to get wet in Argentina. You can’t help being affected by the climate of revival. It may take a paradigm shift or two, but if you are open to God, you’ll definitely get soaked by the revival rain. In Australia we are still looking to the sky for rain. Our main danger is that when the rain comes we are just as likely to take out two umbrellas, a full length driz-a-bone and some gumboots just in case we might get wet. Wet theology and wet and crinkled church traditions are so messy. I wonder what the weather man will say on TV tonight? Praise the Lord ! Reprinted by permission from New Day, February 1997, pages 18-20. 56 3 Amazed by Miracles Rodney Howard-Brown Dr Rodney and Adonica Howard-Brown are pastors and revival evangelists. Critics focus on the rip-roaring style of his revivalist “camp meetings”, but this US-based South African evangelist says all he’s interested in is God touching people’s lives. ______________________________________________ The Holy Spirit wants to touch the lives of real people. I don’t spend much time wondering about God’s ability to do what he said he could do. I just trust him. ______________________________________________ On previous visits to Australia, Rodney Howard-Browne has attracted both crowds and controversy. But vigorous debate about his methods and the “phenomena” seen at his meetings has not kept thousands away. ... The US-based South African evangelist spoke with Rob Buckingham about spiritual power, the simplicity of faith, and how it feels to be surprised by God. Buckingham: Things took off for you number of years ago. Can you tell us what took place at that time? Renewal Journals Howard-Browne: We’d moved to America in December ‘87 and travelled wherever the doors opened. One pastor in upstate New York asked us to have two meetings a day and invited the whole congregation. So in April 1989 we went to [a town called] Clifton Park to a church with about 250 members. I was amazed to see people so hungry for the things of God. On the Monday morning 60 people came to the morning service. This was amazing, especially in America at that time - there had been some major set backs with different major ministries crumbling, and people were disillusioned. Next day we had 100 people at the service - nearly a third of the church coming out on a Tuesday morning! While I was teaching, just like I normally do, the praises of God just filled the room, and people started falling out of their seats. It looked like someone was sitting in the balcony and shooting people with an invisible gun. Some were crying, some were laughing, others were rolling on the floor. It took a little getting used to. The presence of God literally filled that place. We saw an outbreak of a revival that now, this April, is nine years old. It’s gone around the world, touched the lives of millions of people, an it hasn’t subsided or stopped. It’s been a great adventure. Buckingham: What are your reflections now on what took place back then? Howard-Browne: I see it as an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s not like we weren’t expecting it. We were crying out to God to come and move; we just didn’t know how or when it was going to happen. So when it happened the way it did it totally took us by surprise. Buckingham: Is there any change in what took place then compared to what’s happening now? Howard-Browne: It’s just multiplied many times over. In the beginning it was 100 people and now it’s thousands. Whether we’ve been in China or Japan, Holland, Germany, Russia or the islands of the sea, it’s the same. People are the same and they have the same needs. The Holy Spirit wants to touch the lives of real people. There are many 58 Rodney Howard-Brown religions in the world, but religions will leave you empty because it’s man’s vain attempt to reach God. But Christianity is God reaching man through the person of Jesus Christ. Buckingham: There are reports of physical healings at your meetings. Do these happen in every country? Howard-Browne: It happens everywhere. We look at it this way. When people come to a meeting where the Holy Spirit is moving, whatever their needs are God will touch them at that point. Healing is just one of these. People come with cancer, arthritis, different diseases, and the presence of God touches them. Some are healed in their seat without even having hands laid on them, and it’s only later they find out that they’ve been healed. Dolly, a little Alaskan native lady, came to our meetings in a wheelchair. She’d had arthritis for 18 years, the last five confined to a wheelchair and the final two years bedridden. She came as a last resort, asking God to please touch her. We laid hands on her, but we didn’t really pray that she’s be able to get out of the wheelchair, just that she’d get some joy and that God would touch her. I said, “Lady, what do you want to do?” She responded, “I want to get out of this chair.” So I said, “Well then, go ahead.” Then she climbed out of the chair and walked around the building and was totally healed of crippling arthritis. This happened back in 1991 and we’ve seen her subsequently. She’s still totally healed with no trace of arthritis in her body. Buckingham: That’s physical healing. What about emotional healing? People can carry a lot of baggage around inside. Howard-Browne: There are many examples. One is about a woman in North Dakota who was raped by a so-called friend. She contracted two venereal diseases, the worst the doctor said he’d seen. He told her that she’d never be able to have children. This woman came to the meeting pretty traumatised - this had only happened weeks before. The power of God touched her, she fell on the floor and as she was lying there she felt like there was a fireman standing over her with a big fire hose washing her clean. For about 59 Renewal Journals two-and-a-half hours she felt this water washing her clean. When she got up she could remember the rape but it was like it happened to somebody else. God had totally removed the hurt from her. When she went back to the doctor there was no trace of the diseases. That was over five years ago. Today she’s married to one of the pastors of the church. They’ve had children with nothing wrong. Buckingham: What about other stories? Howard-Browne: An executive-type lady came to a meeting with a lot of deep hurt in her heart. About 20 years ago she’d had an abortion, and every time she was around things of God she felt guilty and condemned with thoughts like “God’s never going to bless you because of what you did.” We prayed for her and she was overcome, lying there filled with joy. Laughing hysterically. Later she told us it was as if she was taken up to heaven to see a little girl dancing around, with Jesus standing to the side. The little girl said, “Look Jesus, Mummy’s laughing”. When that happened, she said it felt like a hand reached down inside her and pulled out all the hurt. When she got up from the floor she didn’t feel guilty any more. She knew that God had forgiven her and everything was all right. Buckingham: Are these incidents isolated events? Howard-Browne: No. People are healed from depression, a lot from fear, even from wanting to commit suicide. There’s so much pressure on people today. People feel like they can’t make it. So they come to the meetings. God touches them and sets them free. It’s wonderful to see. Buckingham: Australians are quite different from Americans, and you minister in America a lot. How do you respond to that difference in your meetings when you come to Australia? Howard-Browne: Because I’m a South African, I think it’s probably easier for me to respond than it would be for an American. I find the Aussies very direct, which I like. There’s no airs or graces, nobody’s pretending. I think maybe that’s why we’ve had such a great response 60 Rodney Howard-Brown in Australia. Buckingham: You travel extensively around the world. That must be draining on you. How do you handle the pace? Howard-Browne: Actually, I find the travel exhilarating, so that by the time I get to a new place I’m refreshed. We travel 46 weeks of the year, and it’s awesome to see people’s lives touched and changed. That’s the thing that’s refreshing. When we get tired, we try to take a break for two or three days. Buckingham: Rodney, how do you describe your own relationship with God? Howard-Browne: I would describe my relationship as very, very simple. I don’t understand some people when they always want to complicate God. I just see him as God - nothing is impossible to him. I have a very childlike faith that God honours his word. I don’t spend much time arguing about it or wondering about his ability to do what he said he could do. I just trust him. Buckingham: How does your relationship with God impact your life personally? Howard-Browne: Well, because nothing is impossible for him, I always want to believe him for big things. When you think that he made the heavens and the earth, then everything we come up with after that is really so small. I just think sometimes people make everything so difficult when there’s nothing too hard for God. Buckingham: What about your relationship with others? How does your faith impact that? Howard-Browne: I want God to do for them what he’s done for me. I’m not anything special or different. I’m just an ordinary person. But I know that if he can do great things for me, he can do great things for them. Buckingham: How does your faith impact your care for the world around you? 61 Renewal Journals Howard-Browne: When I see a need, my wife has to calm me down; she says, “You can’t do everything.” God leads you into areas where you can minister effectively to touch the needs of people. We all want to reach out and feed the poor or help those less fortunate than we are, yet because I’m busy doing what I’m doing, I can’t do it. So I try to find other ministries and get behind them. I don’t have to do what they’re doing: I just finance and support them. Buckingham: What can people expect at your meetings this year? Howard-Browne: Pretty much like two years ago, we’re going to focus on he person of Jesus - people being touched by the Lord and coming back to their “first love”. Buckingham: What do you mean by “first love”? Howard-Browne: “First love” is the love you have when you first give your life to Christ - the joy that you’ve just met him, that he’s set you free from sin, that all the guilt and condemnation is gone. It’s like a young guy and a girl; when they first fall in love, they’re just beside themselves. It’s so easy as a child of God to get caught up in the daily grind, trying to please God, caught up in rituals and traditions. You end up losing that joy and peace. Revival is about people falling in love with Jesus all over again. Anything can happen when people come back to their first love. This is an edited version of an interview conducted by Rob Buckingham for use in On Being ALIVE and his weekly radio program “Rob Buckingham and Friends”. It was originally broadcast on 3MP on 29 March, 1998. Reprinted with permission from On Being ALIVE Magazine, No. 4, May 1998, pages 30-34. 62 4 A Touch of Glory Lindell Cooley John Kilpatrick and Lindell Cooley at Brownsville AOG Renewal Journals Lindell Cooley wrote as the worship leader at Brownsville Assemblies of God in Pensacola, America, a church in revival since 18 June 1995. This article is from his book A Touch of Glory (Revival Press, 1997). ___________________________ True revival comes when God descends in His glory ____________________________ One of the most important things I can tell you is that true revival comes when God descends upon man in His glory. That’s it. There is no formula or religious dogma to memorize and implement at your church. There is no “12-Step Revival Plan in a Can” that you can purchase at some expensive church growth seminar. Extraordinary things happen when the Extraordinary God shows up among ordinary people who long for more of Him. That is a summary of what happened at Brownsville Assembly of God on Father’s Day in June of 1995. When I moved my mountain of boxes to Pensacola, Florida, and began to lead worship there, I quickly realized that I had come to an ordinary Assemblies of God church. Pastor John Kilpatrick was a wonderful pastor and a skilled teacher of the Word, but he struggled with the same problems every other pastor has to deal with. He worried about motivating and training workers, finding time to handle his counselling load, and balancing his roles as administrator, family man, and spiritual leader of the flock. He worried about the welfare of the sheep in his care, and he was fervently praying for revival. It was a church that wanted more because it didn’t have it yet. I inherited a great worship team and a talented group of musicians, but like anyone else I struggled with rehearsal schedules, motivation problems, and the constant need to learn new songs and resuscitate the old ones. The congregation was a normal mix of young, old, and in-betweens, representing almost every musical taste you could think of. In the midst of the normal challenges, we desperately wanted to see revival spark in our services and we were frustrated. Brownsville 64 Lindell Cooley Assembly of God was like most of the medium-sized Pentecostal and Charismatic churches scattered across America. We wanted something that we didn’t have, and we were pressing in by faith to see it come to pass. I was scheduled to return to the Ukraine for a short missions trip in June, but before I left I began to teach the worship team, the choir, and the music team some Vineyard worship choruses. I had done away with most of the hard-driving, lively praise songs I favoured before. I didn’t want to do anything that smacked of hype or emotional manipulation. I just wanted to go directly into worship and bypass praise altogether. The congregation seemed to enjoy some of the choruses and was indifferent to others. Something was still missing. Revival! I went to the Ukraine in June of 1995 to help conduct a short choir tour and planned to return the week after Father’s Day. I was getting ready to leave the Ukraine when revival came “suddenly” to the Brownsville congregation on Sunday, June 18th. At the end of the Father’s Day service, the visiting evangelist named Stephen Hill gave an altar call. He had just delivered a normal sermon during a normal Sunday service, but everything changed when the Spirit of God suddenly descended on the congregation. Many people who were present, including Pastor Kilpatrick, literally felt a wind sweep through the sanctuary during the visitation. A thousand people rushed to the altar that day to confess their sins, repent, and commit themselves to the Lord without hesitation or compromise. At this writing, the revival has continued week after week for two years and 125,000 souls have been added to the Kingdom by conservative count. The Lord continues to visit us with ever-increasing power and glory month after month. I flew into John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Tuesday the 20th after reluctantly bidding my beloved Ukranian friends good-bye. I found a phone and immediately called Pastor Kilpatrick. “Hey, John what’s going on?” “Lindell, It has happened!” “What has happened?” 65 Renewal Journals “Revival is here.” I had waited to her those words for a long time. My heart leapt in my chest because I knew it had to be real or the man on the other end of the line wouldn’t say it like that. I wanted to get back to Pensacola just that much quicker, but I knew I couldn’t make it until Wednesday. During the flight from New York to Florida, my mind kept taking me back to those “gentle laid-back moments in God’s presence” that I had embraced since April. When I arrived, John and Brenda Kilpatrick picked me up at the airport, and he began to share with me what God was doing. It sounded wonderful, but I was very tired, and felt disconnected. I didn’t realize it then, but that disconnected feeling would stay with me for about two weeks. There was no doubt that God was in the house, but I was having trouble entering in. I ran headlong into a major disappointment because I was expecting “Toronto”. Breaking Old Dislikes First there was this Stephen Hill character. I had never met him before the Wednesday night service after Father’s Day, but this evangelist seemed to be just a little “too hyped” for me. Pastor Kilpatrick assured me that he was okay and said that he had known Steve for years. My daydreams of a ‘gentle’ move of the Holy Spirit that morning were jolted back to reality by Stephen Hill, a dynamo with an unquenchable passion for souls. He was far from gentle. I thought he came across like a speeding freight train that first night. He had us sing one chorus for 30 minutes straight at a clip of 90 miles an hour, and I felt like I had stepped back into my old Pentecostal roots again. All the wonderful things that the Lord had done for me suddenly seemed to disappear and my own heathenistic self came out again. I thought, I am not going to do this! Sorry, but I’ve been there, done that. I don’t want to do this! I want that gentle sweetness that I had. After the service I was pretty hard on Steve Hill once we were alone. I said, “Steve, I am not going to get up there and do all that hype stuff. If you want it, then get someone else to do it, because I’m not doing it.” Frankly, I had a rotten attitude. Do you know what Steve did? He 66 Lindell Cooley totally disarmed me with his answer. He said, “Well, brother, that’s all right. Whatever you want to do.” I had to repent to him shortly after that because I was so mean to him. He could have been angry with me but he wasn’t. The battles in my heart would continue for a while, but we were on the way to becoming close friends with one heart. I knew that my reaction to Steve was rooted in my dislike for the old pattern of wanting to be worked up by powerful music. After my breaking in April, I was so moved by the revelation of just loving the Lord that I could be moved to worship at any time by the slightest breath of the Spirit. All I have to do is say from my heart, “Lord God, all You want is my worship. All You want is my attention. You are like a Father to me.” I don’t need a lengthy time of praise to crank my flesh up to speed. At the mere mention of His name I am ready to fall to my knees and worship. He has touched me so deeply that I must respond. I didn’t realize it, but God was also out to break my deep-seated desire to be somebody important. (Everyone I’ve ever known has had this desire too.) I was just floating along on a cloud of simply loving Jesus and hungering after the Lord, but there was some hidden poison still lurking in my heart and God wanted it out. It was the glory of God that finally destroyed the yoke around my neck. Before God touched me, I always thought that God had called me to a greater grace and a higher calling than to just be somebody’s “flunky musician.” I thank God for His mercy and grace in forgiving my arrogance. Just when I was convinced that God wasn’t doing anything in me, He brought all my wrong motives to the surface. In the first few weeks of the revival, any time Stephen or Pastor Kilpatrick would interrupt one of my songs or stop the worship service to say something, I would be totally offended. I wouldn’t say anything or change my actions, but in my spirit I was offended. My face might have been smiling but my heart and head were shouting, “Doggone you, get away from the microphone. I don’t interrupt your sermons, do I? Now stay out of my hair - I’m trying to lead worship here.” (I am not interested in being “politically correct” in this book; my goal is to speak the truth in love so that you and others can avoid the mistakes I made and move directly into God’s best.) It was wrong, but I felt like these godly men were invading my territory. 67 Renewal Journals Musicians seem to have an old link to lucifer the first rebellious worship leader - they have a pride that is never satisfied. They jealously guard what is “theirs” and then wonder why they don’t have what the pastor or evangelist has too. God would be using me mightily in worship, and then this “old ugly” would come out. Right then and there, in the middle of an anointed Brownsville Revival service, I would feel my hidden spiritual pride, piety, and ego rise to the surface. I’d catch myself thinking, I’ve been in this thing a long time, and here is some old drug addict [Stephen Hill] preaching a sermon. Dear God, he just said he got saved in 1975! I was rolling on the floor and speaking tongues in 1975. Why, I’ve been in church all my life and never veered from the path! (Sounds like the older brother of the Prodigal son, doesn’t it?) God never let me get away with it. He would just zap me and say, “Stop it. If you want Me, humble yourself.” Yes, you thought you had that jealousy under control, but I brought that out to show you that you don’t. Repent of it, and let it go.” One of the greatest joys of working with Pastor John Kilpatrick and Stephen Hill is the fact that they are transparent. They prefer direct communication. I told Pastor John one night after service, “You know, God has brought out some really ugly stuff in me, and I’ve had to repent.” I don’t think he was surprised, but I do know he was pleased. When the Spirit’s work was complete in the area of my calling and self-worth in Christ (He has so much more to do in me), I had a totally different attitude. Now any time those brothers need to say something or interrupt for any reason, I think, ‘That’s fine, brother. I trust your judgement. Go ahead and do anything you want to do. If you want to prophesy, if you want to stop me in the middle of my favourite song, that’s fine.’ Yes, the musician in me will still occasionally grumble a little bit when I’m interrupted, but now I have a tolerance for it. I just tell myself, Oh well, what is the big deal? The guy is trying to follow the Lord here. Relax. Pastor Kilpatrick, Stephen Hill, and I have great confidence in one another today. We trust each other. We’ve cried and wept in each other’s arms, and we are soldiers. We’ve been in the fox hole together, we’ve watched out for each other’s back, so all of the small differences 68 Lindell Cooley and irritations just don’t bother us now. New Things - Even in Revival Once my eyes were opened to the incredible work God was doing in me those first two weeks of revival, I became content. I realized, for the first time in my life, that I wasn’t “somebody’s” piano player - I was God’s piano player. (My mother had been saying it for decades, but I guess I just wasn’t listening close enough.) If that was what God wanted me to do for the rest of my life, than praise His name; I would be content. I had to pass that hurdle before the other gifts within me could be released to grow. If I had failed to pass that test, my selfish ambitions would have tainted all the other gifts and callings in my life. Very early in the revival we began to notice some supernatural occurrences in the worship service that let us know God was personally involved in this revival - even in areas not related to the hundreds of souls won each night and the filled altars. I looked in my personal journal and found an entry dated August 17, 1995 (about two months after the revival began.) This is what I wrote down after I got home that night: August 17, 1995 The service tonight seemed to be pretty average until the very end. As I was about to leave, I talked with Richard Crisco, the youth pastor, and he questioned me about a particular worship chorus we had sung toward the end of the service. It was an ad lib thing that just came out of the air. He wanted to know how I was able to cue the sound track tape to come in as precisely as it did. I told him there was no tape, it was just me and the keyboard - there weren’t even any singers, but he didn’t believe me. He said that he had heard at least three voices and several instruments. As Richard spoke, I remembered that I too had heard a third voice singing a beautiful counter melody, but was so caught up in the presence of the Lord that I didn’t see who was singing, or who it might be. I knew I was singing, and I assumed it was Jeff Oettle [one of the worship singers at the time] or someone who had felt inspired and grabbed the mike to join in. As Richard talked, I remembered two things: First, the third voice was 69 Renewal Journals exceptionally clear, and the counter melody sounded rehearsed. Second, when we had finished singing, I went to sit by Pastor John who was a little lost in the Spirit (in other words, he was out like he always is), and he told me in slurred speech, “That new chorus you just did was wonderful. Could you do it again tomorrow night?” Later on, Benny Johnson (the sound guy) and Van Lane (the children’s pastor) told me that they had heard it too. They were at the sound board, and were trying to find out what channel the third voice was on. [It wasn’t going through the sound board at all!] My conclusion, that the third voice was definitely not of this world, wow. Later that week I asked Jeff Oettle, “Were you singing with me?” “No, but I was standing on stage.” Then I asked him, “Did anybody else sing with me?” I already knew the answer - no. All this happened during a Thursday night service, and I remember that the entire worship team was exhausted because early in the revival we used to sing for hours at the end. Somewhere close to midnight the band started to really sound bad and the singers were nearly out of it, so I dismissed them so they could get some rest. I punched in a piano program with a breathy sound on my electronic keyboard, and I just started playing a chord with a monastic Gregorian chant style. I clearly remember hearing a backup voice and a third voice come in that was singing a perfect counter melody to my song, except that it wasn’t repeating what I was saying - that would have been impossible anyway. I was making it up as I went. Yet this voice was singing at the same time I was singing in perfect counter melody with an incredibly clear voice. I was making up the melody and words as I went and the other voices were singing right along with me while putting in these little moves in their melodies. I was kind of thinking, “That’s cool, whoever that is.” Two girls from Puerto Rico who had backgrounds in witchcraft came to the revival that night. When I started singing this song, hundreds of 70 Lindell Cooley people were still being prayed for at the altars, and it is normally pretty loud. When I started to sing, “Ha-ha-hallelujah...” accompanied only by the keyboard, everything became totally quiet. The song (with the heavenly voices) was so impressive that everyone stopped to listen. This went on for probably two or three minutes. (Everybody I questioned that night heard it.) When I stopped singing, one of the Puerto Rican girls sitting to my far right released a blood-curdling scream and I thought, How rude of you to interrupt. But it was almost as though a demon had left. The girl told one of the intercessors who was working with her that she had tried to get deliverance from the witchcraft that she had practiced for years, and she’d never been really free of it. Once the angels started singing, that demon left her, and that was that. It Comes Full Circle Once I allowed my insecurities and religious pride to be broken, God began to speak into my life again through prophecy. A prophet named Michael Ratcliff prophesied in the revival in 1995 that the Lord was giving me an anointing of “imperialism”. At the beginning of the prophecy he said that I had laid down the anointing to speak the Word because I felt it was inappropriate, but that God was commanding me to open my mouth, and that I would be used as a spearhead to pierce the darkness. He said that when I or my music went to Taiwan or mainland China, God would give me eight different currencies to work with, and that He would begin to bless me financially. I was to give and be free with it, and the people would be touched, as well as the officials. He also said God would give me a song that would be sung around the world, and that the Lord was giving me a ministry to heal marriages. The song would be about the Lord and His love for the union of marriage. Some of the marriages healed through the song would be the marriages of heads of state in many countries and I would sing and speak the Word of the Lord to them. Ruth Heflin prophesied early in 1966 that because I had embraced the harvest, the Lord would make my path flat. I should take no thought, and I should not worry about the things that others do, because God 71 Renewal Journals would provide all that I needed - houses, food, and clothing. She also said that the Lord would move me from harvest to harvest. Anywhere in the world that there is a harvest, I would have a portion of it. The Lord said that there was a generation that would follow me, though they’re incomplete, but the Lord would raise them up, and they would follow. These prophecies closed a prophetic circle in my life by fully confirming the prophecies spoken over me long ago. Some of them have come to pass already and others are in process. Since they were in full agreement with what God had already put on my heart, I embraced them with joy. From time to time I remind the Lord about His promises to me and stand on His faithfulness. As a young man not yet in his 40’s, I am hardly old enough to publish an autobiography of my life, but I am obligated of the Lord to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the path of obedience. For reasons known only to God, I have catapulted to a place of national and international exposure, and I am well aware that thousands of leaders and would-be leaders are watching me. I am writing this book from the things that I know and have experienced, and I will leave other subjects to those better qualified than I. ... The glory of God has fallen on Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, and it has also fallen in significant measure in Toronto, Ontario and at Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London, England. At this writing literally thousands of reports are flooding the offices of Brownsville Assembly testifying that God’s glory is falling all across the globe. ... If you have abandoned the old landmarks that God established in your life years ago, then it is time for you to hurry back to those landmarks. Clear away the brush and debris that hide them and once again cherish the word of the Lord over your life. Protect those things that are holy and cleanse those things that are unclean. Used with permission from A Touch of Glory by Lindell Cooley (Revival Press, Destiny Image, 1997), Chapter 8, pages 119-132. 72 5 The “Diana Prophecy” Where the Flowers Were Laid Robert McQuillan Renewal Journals Dr Robert McQuillan wrote as editor of The Australian Evangel, the national monthly magazine of the Assemblies of God. __________________________________ a powerful fresh move of God sweeping through many churches _______________________________________________ “When Princess Diana died, and particularly the weekend of her funeral (September 6, 1997), this nation found its soul,” Wynne Lewis, general superintendent Elim Pentecostal Churches (UK), told me when I was in England recently. “There came a realisation of the stark reality that a heroine had gone - tragically - and life and materialism are very uncertain. It has become easier to preach salvation and the need to trust God.” Indeed there has been a powerful fresh move of God sweeping through many churches, including mainline and the various pentecostal streams as well as the historic AOG and Elim movements. A Significant Sign Many Christians and leaders spoke of the so-termed ‘Diana prophecy’ received in two parts by a Sheffield lady as being highly significant to the nation. In case you missed it, the following is an extract: (16/5/97) “I am at work in the heart and the spirit of the people of this nation. I am doing a work which, at the moment, is unseen. Things are happening much more quickly than you think. And as a sign there will be a day very soon when the whole nation will mourn and put flowers in the cities.” (31/8/97) “When that day happens the sign is this: the speed at which the heart and the spirit of the people of this nation can be affected, that is the speed at which I will work among this nation. Do not think that what you see and hear of are small, insignificant happenings. Do not despise the day of small things. For I tell you, when you see this sign¼ I am on the move in the cities of this nation and where flowers are laid, my Spirit will be moving faster than those flowers are removed. 74 Peter Earle “For I am bringing the power of my Spirit to bear on the cities. As fast as that mourning went through the nation, joy will go through this nation. And I tell you that you will know the miraculous entering your lives. You will see changes in areas where you never expected to see, changes. You will see relatives you never expected to see coming into the kingdom of God. You will know areas in your life where you’ve battled and battled and never overcome - you will overcome in a day, says the Lord. For I am at work in this nation and I will bring (it) to its knees before me and they will know the joy of their salvation in the mighty risen Lord Jesus. “Therefore, rejoice. And do not let that spirit of mourning pervade your own spirit. Do not let that spirit of mourning grasp at your heart. For you have joy inexpressible in your hearts. Therefore, let the rivers of living water flow from within you and know that you will have many opportunities from this point to speak of my grace, to speak of my love, to see in action my Spirit at work. Know that I will be with you in that and you will see the miraculous, says the Lord.” God is Moving There are several major spiritual initiatives and thrusts occurring in the UK. In particular concentrated prayer, as in other European nations and the States, has become a top priority with many leaders and churches and is bringing amazing results. London especially has become a main target for prayer. Powerful prayer meetings and conferences are calling for the nation and Christians to repent before a holy God. Church services see people repenting at the altar and even where they’re sitting. Ken and Lois Gott’s Revival Now Ministries’ great October prophetic conference was no exception when God’s Spirit ‘blew in’ a wind of repentance and forgiveness regarding snobbish attitudes between people ‘representing’ the north and the south of England. Then individuals from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Jamaica, Germany and South Africa also came to the altar to similarly apologise for their countries’ wrong attitudes towards the British. Tears flowed openly and prayer for the nation was powerful. Humbly recognising afresh that Jesus is the answer to all human needs, other nations were also prayed for. 75 Renewal Journals Pioneer People’s Gerald Coates unadvertised Sowing the Seeds of Revival meetings in the rotunda Emmanuel Centre, Mawson Street (close to Westminster Abbey) five nights a week attracted over 40,000 people in a matter of months. Around 150 full of faith Chinese Christians purchased the former Christian Science building for only £2.6 million instead of the asking price £6m. Allowing the Pioneer Team to use the church has resulted in hundreds saved, many on their knees and in tears, and lives changed. Personalities from Parliament and Buckingham Palace have visited and been touched by God. Dustbin loads of surrendered pornography, illegal drugs and weapons, masonic jewellery and clothing and personal effects have had to be dumped. London’s Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) and Queens Road Baptist continue to hold significant revival meetings with hundreds of attenders hungry for God. Many AOG and Elim churches are moving in revival and planting more churches. There is a greater openness to networking to gain more meaningful results, and many noteworthy conferences are held across the nation. More and more churches are taking HTB’s Alpha program on board and seeing converts and stronger disciples of Christ. Over half a million people have embraced the course. Reaching Out The AOG of Great Britain and Ireland has increased by 250 churches in the past four years. General Superintendent Paul Weaver sees the need for strong churches effectively communicating the gospel locally. With 650 fully accredited churches and several probationary, the AOG in the UK is determined to play its role in impacting the nation, and reaching thousands for Christ. Their general conference this year Impact 21, affecting change in the power of the Spirit - should prove historic in inspiring and releasing leaders. Christian Channel Europe, headed up by Rory and Wendy Alec, was finding good response from the UK and Europe when based in Crown House. Miraculously God arranged for the Alecs to be given a top class TV studios nearby. Despite a presently limited time slot, CCE has been reaching as far away as the Baltics. Now, with the greater facilities, the channel will ‘hit Europe and the UK in a bigger and more effective way.’ 76 Peter Earle Kensington Temple, England’s largest pentecostal church, has tapped into the incredible potential of satellite TV for its churches and teaching courses. These programs reach Europe as well as the UK. Praying and open-air preaching by KT youth at Leicester Square has seen thousands saved. Over 2000 people now attend KT’s Sunday night services in the new ex-BBC warehouse auditorium in North Acton. A whole month of ‘unprogrammed’ meetings Wednesday through Saturday saw hundreds of lives dramatically changed, healings and signs and wonders. On the Saturday nights the church took to the streets and saw hundreds saved. Sense of God’s Time Many believe strongly that God is at work in the nation and exerting his influence as Sovereign Lord over churches and Christians. Leaders are becoming more challenged and sensitive to allowing the Holy Spirit to have his way. Ken Gott virtually echoed Wynne Lewis’ words when he stated, ‘Britain found its soul when people prayed along with the Archbishop of Canterbury, “Our Father, your kingdom come.” Princess Diana’s death deeply touched the nation spiritually. There is a searching going on!’ He then told of a man in a London pub who went over to two other men who were sitting quietly having a meal. He was searching, desperate for answers, and ‘somehow knew’ they were Christians. ‘Sir,’ he said to one, ‘I perceive you are a man of integrity. Do you have something to say to me?’ ‘Yes, Jesus loves you.’ ‘Do you have anything else to say?’ ‘Yes, you’re dying.’ It was a sure word of knowledge. The man was dying - from AIDS. He had been walking all day around London praying to the God he did not know personally and saying, ‘If you’re real, God, reveal yourself.’ God did and the man got saved! There is a definite awareness of God’s time for the UK. Prophet Paul 77 Renewal Journals Cain has declared that God has targeted Great Britain for harvest. I sensed it deeply in my own spirit and encouraged many to believe for God to raise their nation on a powerful ‘next wave’ that will exalt the Lordship of Jesus, see thousands come into the kingdom, the nation turned around and, as in years gone by, again touching other nations especially the Continent. A deepening hunger to know God more intimately and to redeem the time is also prevalent. As Fulton Sheen put it: ‘Every moment comes to you pregnant with a divine purpose; time being so precious that God deals it out only second by second. Once it leaves your hands and your power to do with it as you please, it plunges into eternity, to remain forever as you made it.’ Hope and Expectation The flowers have been laid and lifted and God is moving! Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that Britain would be a compassionate nation, a giving one and one on the cutting edge. I personally believe that will also happen spiritually and we’ll be receiving wonderful exciting reports of the power, grace and favour of God at work in Great Britain, with an emphasis on the ‘Great.’ Hope and expectation would aptly describe the present state of many Spirit-filled believers there. Australia may not have been as deeply affected by Princess Di’s death as the UK and even Eire, but great expectation and strong hope in Christ, accompanied by serious prayer, laying aside personal priorities and even church programs, and getting right with God, lead to amazing accomplishments in taking Jesus to any nation. May it be so in Australia as the Holy Spirit seeks to, and is allowed to, dig new wells in places not yet familiar with the sounds of the river of God’s refreshing and his saving grace. Reproduced with permission from The Australian Evangel, February 1998, pages 47-48. 78 6 Mentoring Peter Earle Pastor Peter Earle wrote as the Principal of the Brisbane Christian Outreach Centre School of Ministries and Associate Pastor of the church. Mentoring is the empowering of one person by another through personal life, prayer, conversation and example. It is the making of disciples to go into the entire world who will in turn reproduce others to do the same. Mentoring is the latest buzzword whether it is in business or church. The dictionary defines mentor as ‘a wise or trusted advisor or guide’. The word first appeared in Greek mythology when Ulysses asked a wise man named Mentor to take care of his son Telemachus while Ulysses was fighting in the Trojan Wars. Mentor was in charge of his household and was advisor to the young boy, ‘not only in book learning but in the wiles of the world.’ Renewal Journals Mentoring has been common in society. On the farm, boys and girls were mentored by their parents or by extended family members. Fathers taught their sons the skills of farming. Mothers taught their daughters how to keep the home and the finer points of being a wife and mother. Apprentices were mentored at the side of craftsmen for a number of years while they learned the skills of the trade. In early universities students learned in the home of the scholar. Mentoring also occurred in the church. Early Monastic practice had a spiritual director whose task it was to help discern the will of God for the trainee monk’s life. The focus of the relationship was not so much on teaching as on prayer. Eighteenth century New England pastor Jonathan Edwards, and his wife Sarah, usually had one or more ‘disciples’ living in their home. This gave ample time for the learner to observe the quality of a marriage, personal spiritual dynamics, and the vigorous pursuit of pastoral activity. The present interest in mentoring highlights the impersonal attitudes and individualism that can be seen in society. Much of today’s spiritual and theological training is done in classes. Many apprenticeships have become more class-orientated rather than one-on-one traineeship. Classes require less personal and relational contact. They make fewer demands on the lecturer than does mentoring. Mentoring is an endeavour to bring back a personal touch in an impersonal, individualistic and spectator society. Is mentoring biblical? The Bible demonstrates a number of mentoring situations. Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Naomi and Ruth, Elizabeth and Mary, Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Timothy, Pricilla, Aquila and Apollos, and of course, Jesus and His disciples. The word mentoring does not occur in the Bible but the concept of mentoring does. This concept is best described by the term discipleship. The Greek term for discipleship, mathetes (found in the Bible 262 times) is most frequently used to designate one of Jesus followers. Discipleship is a central theme of both the Gospels and Acts. The term 80 Peter Earle disciple is scarce in the Old Testament and the word mathetes does not occur in the Epistles and Revelation. However, there is abundant theological expression of the concept of discipleship everywhere in Scripture. The roots of biblical discipleship are found in the concept of God’s calling, as in the recurrent promise ‘I will be your God and you shall be my people’. The ideal form of discipleship for Israel was the nation in covenantal relationship with God. The nation was called to a relationship in which God was with His people. This Old Testament theme finds its explicit fulfillment in Jesus with His people. Jesus was Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. The dynamics of Christ’s discipleship Although discipleship was a voluntary initiative, as with other types of master/disciple relationships in the first century, with Jesus discipleship lay with his call, and his choice of those who would be his disciples. This call demanded a response, an obedience to his call, and the counting of the cost of following him. Disciples of Jesus were to follow, but unlike other disciples of their day Christ’s disciples were to remain followers of Him all their life. To be a mentor, or discipler, one must first be a disciple. This was and is the heart of the great commission in which Jesus told His disciples to go into the world and make disciples. The goal of Christ’s discipleship was fourfold: To become like Christ. Love and servanthood towards others. Good stewardship of God’s kingdom and his gifts. Make disciples of all nations. Jesus’ primary focus in teaching his disciples was not to help them master the skills often associated with the making of leaders and leadership such as setting goals, formulating strategies, and evaluating the results. Jesus gave them an example of how they were to relate to God, and the 81 Renewal Journals type of people they had to be. He showed His disciples how to follow, how to obey, how to respond to authority and to the call of God. He set them ministry tasks allowing them to fail, and correcting them where necessary. Jesus’ ministry and mentoring demonstrated that the disciples must first learn to be faithful followers before they could be leaders. He taught them attitudes of humility, self-sacrifice, and servanthood. He knew what the destructive attitudes of pride and ambition could do among the community of disciples. He taught them to love one another and serve one another rather than be over one another in authority. He encouraged them to continually abide in the vine in order to gain fruit, and that when he left another Comforter would come and be a mentor of the same kind. Jesus ordained his disciples to be with him. His mentoring was with prayer, example, word, deed and touch. The Book of Acts is a great testimony to the effectiveness of his mentoring. Confusion over discipleship in the church. In evangelical circles today discipleship is often confused with the development of younger Christians, as in discipleship classes or courses. This is not a clear biblical position. The word disciple is a common word for every believer in Acts. A disciple can be a mature believer or a younger Christian. A believer is always a follower of the Lord. He remains a disciple even though he might hold an office as an apostle or pastor. Mentoring and discipling should be considered synonymous terms. There is no better example in the Bible of this than Christ. He did not have classes with exams at the end to test the students like many teachers today. He spent time with His disciples, lived and traveled with them. He prayed with them. He loved them and warned them of impending dangers. He taught them, imparting his own life to them. He was the way, the truth and the life, to his followers. He was the good shepherd who was training his disciples to follow him and do likewise. He showed them what a true shepherd was so that they would be able to shepherd others. It involved both relationship and discipline. The heart of Jesus’ discipleship was relationship yet He 82 Peter Earle disciplined His disciples. Mentoring will become weak without discipline or relationship. Both are needed. Drawing distinctions between discipleship and mentoring creates confusion and unbiblical mentoring. For mentoring to be successful it must be kept to its biblical foundation of discipleship. Discipleship should be predominately Christ-likeness, love, servanthood, stewardship, the development of the individual, and the fulfilling of the great commission. Mentoring Dynamics The key to mentoring is the relational process. Christ called His disciples to relationship with himself. As mentors we must not only draw people into relationship with Christ but also into relationship with each other. Trust and love must be central to this mutual relationship not the authority of one over another. No better example of the problems that can ruin mentoring can be given than the ‘discipleship movement’. In the 1980’s a discipleship movement formed in the charismatic church. Its heart was to mentor people in their spiritual growth. After much hurt and great controversy the movement was disbanded in the late 1980’s with public apologies being made by many of the leaders. This movement demonstrated the excesses and dangers that can potentially happen in mentoring by sincere leaders. The discipleship movement had a strong emphasis on spiritual authority. Much of its biblical basis was taken from Watchmen Nee’s book of the same name. It was this excess of authority that caused much of the hurt in what was a sincere movement. Had they based their emphasis on building better relationships with love and trust, rather than spiritual authority, and obedience to those in authority the movement would still be in existence. They would have avoided much of the hurt they caused. Relationship is to be at the core of mentoring, not control. These distinctions will help avoid the excesses of the discipleship movement of the 1980’s. Stanley and Clinton also believe that mentoring is a relational experience between two people with varying degrees of involvement 83 Renewal Journals and intensity. They believe mentoring is able to be organized into three categories and placed on a continuum ranging from being more deliberate (with more depth and awareness of effort), to less deliberate involvement. The three categories are: Intensive: Discipler, spiritual guide and coach, Occasional: Counselor, teacher and sponsor, Passive: Contemporary models and historical heroes. Since mentoring is a relational and empowering experience not all people will qualify for intensive mentoring. Factors such as time, proximity, needs, shared values, and goals will affect the relationship. However everybody can be passively mentored through the biographies and autobiographies of contemporary and historical people (e.g. David Yonggi Cho, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, John Wesley, William Carey, Jonathon Goforth and others). In passive mentoring the mentoree has control in the mentoring process. They choose the mentor and can learn from their life at will. The draw back is that there is no real relational process. They can learn and be inspired but they miss out on the personal process, the prayer, love, care and specific encouragement and direction. The more active the mentoring process the greater the relational dynamic. Stanley and Clinton further suggest that there are three vital dynamics to building a mentoring relationship: Attraction: This is a necessary starting point in relationship. The mentoree is drawn to the mentor for various reasons: perspective, certain skills, experience, values and commitments modelled, perceived wisdom, position, character, knowledge, and influence. The mentor is attracted to the mentoree’s attitude, potential, and opportunity for influence. Responsiveness: The mentoree must be ready and willing to learn from the mentor. Attitude is crucial for the mentoree. A responsive, receptive spirit on the part of the mentoree, and attractiveness on the part of the mentor, directly speed up and enhance the empowerment. 84 Peter Earle Accountability: Mutual responsibility for one another in the mentoring process ensures progress and closure. Intensive mentoring builds upon these three dynamics. Attractiveness is the spark that ignites the relational process. It provides the desire, which initiates and fuels that relationship. Not every mentor needs to be a super-star to attract mentorees. A genuine concern for others, sincerely valuing the mentoree, and a desire to develop the other’s potential, are qualities that many crave for in today’s world. However no matter how attractive and great the mentor is, it will be of no avail unless the mentoree responds. Response is the glue that provides the cohesion for the relationship to continue. Even though mentoring relationships continue there is still no guarantee of successful outcomes. It is only when goals are mutually set and both parties are held accountable to their individual goals there can be any achievement of a hopeful outcome. These goals will need to be continually evaluated and adjusted to ensure maximum progress and closure. Mentoring and leadership development Mentoring is an important tool in developing leaders. Although leadership is a popular topic today, effective leadership is acknowledged to be sadly lacking. There is an explosion of leadership books and programs. The most important question to be asked about any training program is, ‘Are they producing leaders?’ J. A. Conger addressed this topic in his book Learning to Lead, outlining four common approaches in leadership programs today: Personal Growth: this focuses on the development of the leader’s character. Conceptual Understanding: these programs highlight the difference between management and leadership and include skill-building procedures. Feedback: this approach assumes that those who want to be leaders already possess certain skills. The program helps participants to identify strengths to build on and weakness that need attention. 85 Renewal Journals Skill building: this emphasis believes that leadership can be broken into a set of behaviours that can be learned. Congor’s conclusion is that an effective leadership training approach must incorporate core elements of all these four approaches. He contends that each of these elements builds upon the others creating a synergistic outcome. He also sees the primary value of these programs as awareness building, and affirming that ultimately developing leadership depends upon the gifts and desire of the individual and the receptivity of the leader’s organisation. Congor also advocates realism. Even if a leader changes for the better, that transformation may threaten superiors and followers who want stability. These organizational principles apply to churches. However, many churches and organisations are simply not prepared for leadership. Often conformity is more important to them than changing their vision and risk-taking. All of these approaches identified by Congor apply also to mentoring. The first is Personal Development. It is in this area that mentoring is unequalled. Mentoring by its nature is very personal. The mentor can address very specific and personal issues in the mentoree’s life. These issues can encompass every area of their life (marriage, family, vocation, social, spiritual and ministry life). The mentor should be concerned with developing Christlike attitudes and habits in the mentoree. Character is foundational and no one can escape it. The higher one rises in leadership the more stress one receives. Mentoring is therefore needed at all levels of leadership. The second approach is Conceptual Understanding. Everybody wants to be led but few want to be managed. This creates tension as most people tend to be either task oriented or people oriented. By natural preference they gravitate to task or people and so they tend to be better at management or leadership but both areas must be developed. One can not be an effective leader without acquiring the skills of each. Mentors must understand these principles themselves or they will not be able to develop the person adequately. The third approach to leadership is Feedback. Since feedback assumes that everybody already possesses certain skills and gifts. Mentors 86 Peter Earle must spend time with the mentorees in order to evaluate, recognise and develop their skills. Feedback also helps the mentoree gain a proper perspective on issues. The mentor can encourage his protege to be a risk taker and so avoid falling into the rut of conformity, or they can help the mentoree understand and manage threatened superiors and followers. All these are issues that often require an outside perspective. The last approach is Skill Building. Skills are personal and can be developed quicker in a mentoring situation than in a class. The mentor must take on the role of a coach who provides motivation, skill building, and who teaches the application of these skills in order to meet a task or a challenge. No other training system can provide better skill building than mentoring. The Mentoring Process Mentoring is an empowering process that is not without difficulties. Not everyone will be a good mentor, or mentoree, but realistic goals will help to avoid many disappointments. Commitment is important to the process and builds a climate of trust. This commitment is not only to each other, but also to the lifting of the mentoree to a higher level. If both parties work at Godly relationships and avoid hidden agendas then growth is inevitable. The stronger the relationship the greater the empowerment. Listening is a must as it is in any relationship. When relationships are truly established then mentorees are open to sharing all of their heart, the good and the bad. This is a powerful climate for growth. Some mentoring situations will be more effective than others, but all can gain if these suggestions are implemented. Conclusion Mentoring needs to be biblically based. It is to be founded upon God’s call to be his people, true disciples. Mentoring is the empowering of one person by another through their personal life, prayer, conversation and example. It is the making of disciples to go into the entire world who will in turn reproduce others to do the same. Mentoring can take deliberate to less 87 Renewal Journals deliberate forms. Relationship is at its heart. Attraction, responsiveness, and accountability are important to the working of that relationship. Effective mentoring must take the person out of the classroom and provide that person with growth in Christ-likeness, real-life situational training, understanding, skill building, and feedback. From ancient days to present times mentoring has proved invaluable and essential in the training of people. Let us continue to foster a climate for its renewal and development. Bibliography Bennett, D.W. Metaphors of Ministry. Carlisle: Paternoster, 1993. Clinton, R.J. & Stanley, P. D. Connecting. Colorado Springs: Navpress. 1993. Congor, J. A. Learning to Lead. Cited in Barna G. (ed.) Leaders on Leadership. Ventura: Regal. 1997 Engstrom, Ted W. The Fine Art of Mentoring. Tennessee: Wolgermuth & Hyatt. 1989. Ford, L. Helping Leaders Grow. Cited in Barna G. (ed.). Leaders on Leadership. Ventura: Regal. 1997 Wilkins, M. J. ‘Disciple, Discipleship’ cited in Walter E. Elwell (ed). Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker. 1996. 88 Peter Earle A Mentor’s Letter from Prison I write this to you, Timothy, the son I love so much. All the best from our God and Christ be yours! Every time I say your name in prayer – which is practically all the time – I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors. I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful goodbye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion. That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith – and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed – keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible. So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Saviour, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus. This is the Message I’ve been set apart to proclaim as preacher, emissary, and teacher. It’s also the cause of all this trouble I’m in. But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground – the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end. So keep at your work, this faith and love rooted in Christ, exactly as I set it out for you. It’s as sound as the day you first heard it from me. Guard this precious thing placed in your custody by the Holy Spirit who works in us. I’m sure you know by now that everyone in the province of Asia deserted me, even Phygelus and Hermogenes. But God bless Onesiphorus and his family! Many’s the time I’ve been refreshed in that house. And he wasn’t embarrassed a bit that I was in jail. The first thing he did when he got to Rome was look me up. May God on the Last Day treat him as well as he treated me. And then there was all the help he provided in Ephesus – but you know that better than I. 89 Renewal Journals So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me – the whole congregation saying Amen! – to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets tough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals in the market place. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain. Fix this picture firmly in your mind: Jesus, descended from the line of David, raised from the dead. It’s what you’ve heard from me all along. It’s what I’m sitting in jail for right now – but God’s Word isn’t in jail! That’s why I stick it out here – so that everyone God calls will get in on the salvation of Christ in all its glory. This is a sure thing: If we die with him, we’ll live with him; If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him; If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us; If we give up on him, he does not give up – for there’s no way he can be false to himself. Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. … You’ve been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, troubles, sufferings – suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there’s no getting around it. Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They’re as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse. But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers -– why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Eugene Peterson, The Message. Navpress, 1994, pages 527-530, from 2 Timothy. Used with permission. 90 7 Can the Leopard Change his Spots? Charles V. Taylor Dr Charles V. Taylor is a well known Australian linguist, Bible teacher, author, and Christian magazine contributor. His doctoral studies researched the Nkore-Kiga language of Uganda in Africa where he served as a missionary. Can the Ethopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? _______________________________________________ Can the leopard change his spots? This, and the question about the Ethiopian’s skin, is found, surprisingly enough, in Jeremiah 13:23. I used to think it was in Proverbs. The text is appropriate to the subject of discipleship, because the second half of the verse says literally: ‘Can you also do good, you who are discipled to do evil?’ It seems we can be under false discipleship as well as the healthy version. The English word ‘disciple’ comes from Latin and means a learner. The corresponding Greek New Testament word mathetes comes from manthano, ‘to learn’, so it’s the same idea. In fact, even ‘mathematics’ originally meant something learned, a science. Renewal Journals The Hebrew word for ‘disciple’ is found only six times in the Bible. This word, limmud, is translated in the old King James Bible as ‘taught’, ‘learned’ (twice), ‘accustomed’, fused’, and ‘disciple’. Originally it meant ‘goaded’. Do you remember how Gideon promised to ‘teach’ the men of Succoth in Judges 8:16? He taught them with thorns and briers. They were goaded into knowledge. In some such way, may not God sometimes goad us into the knowledge of the truth? Whether you accept that or not, the idea of being a learner is associated with ‘coming into line’, or as we also say, ‘being disciplined’. That’s why the biblical reference translates limmud as ‘accustomed’ or ‘becoming used to’. In Jeremiah 13:23 the leopard can’t change his coat. He’s grown quite used to it. True, he didn’t have to be taught, but he’s marked for life. A Christian should be marked for life. A Christian should, without being forced, stand out in the world as somebody different. Whether some sort of badge is worn or not, the world should be able to recognize the Christian, and the Christian should attract others, not to him/herself, but to Christ. When someone is converted to Christ, the first thing should be to say so, as Romans 10:9-10 explains. All churches worthy of the name should also offer baptism of some kind or other, and the Christian can also be distinguished by ‘going to church’, which in this mobile age is unfortunately not so universal as it used to be. The home churches are wonderful, but without cover and discipleship they can give the impression that Christians are all ‘separated by a common faith’, just as many of my linguist friends used to say that Britain and the United States are ‘separated by a common language’, referring to misunderstandings that can occur from the two sorts of English. The outsider wants to see at least some resemblance to a united front, to submission to the Gospel, to some sort of discipline and discipleship. Isaiah 54:13 says we should all be children taught (discipled) by the Lord. Jesus said that to be converted we had to become like little children. 92 Charles Taylor A process of uniting Christians So I see discipleship as a process of uniting Christians, while not making them all identical. All leopards don’t have the same spot patterns. When I lived in Ethiopia for two years I found that all Ethiopians were not the same sort of black. And if you (rightly) tell me that ancient Ethiopia is today’s Sudan, well, the same thing holds there too. God isn’t stamping us all with an identical mould. But he does want us to be basically recognizable, and truth is one and indivisible. In Isaiah 50:4 the prophet says God gave the Servant of the Lord the tongue of the learned, that is, of the discipled. With this tongue we can sustain the weary. In Isaiah 8:16 the law must be sealed up among his disciples, which seems to mean that they alone will really know the Lord’s mind. If this is so, may it not be that it reflects the fact that the true disciple or learner from God is able to understand spiritual things which those outside just can’t understand? Isn’t it true that when a Christian speaks of things that move him/her most, outsiders are just puzzled? That’s a sure sign that a person has been born again through the Holy Spirit. The reason for this is not that the Christian lives in a sealed case, but that, living openly in the world, the Christian is sealed ‘with that Holy Spirit of promise’ (Ephesians 1:13) and so is often a mystery to friends who are not themselves learning from Jesus. The basic idea of a disciple is one who learns along with others. It was unusual in the ancient world to find single disciples of one leader. What is more, the disciple is not the slave of his leader. He is only a learner, following an example or following some counsel. John 15:8 indicates that discipleship with Jesus is manifested by bearing fruit, by a life modelled on the disciple’s teacher, or at least on his teaching. We bear fruit by staying in the vine. Now if a teacher has a number of disciples, it is more likely that needs will be met. One of the benefits of preaching is that in a mixed multitude, the listener cannot usually say the speaker is directing the message at him/herself alone. For this reason, a listener, and in the same way a disciple, is more likely to take to heart what is said and imitate what is done. 93 Renewal Journals You might sum up discipleship as loyalty, first to Christ and then to Christian leaders that we learn from. But, as with everything else in life, loyalty must not become inflexible, or it becomes merely a new slavery. To guard against this we should look at Galatians 4:2, where Paul is telling us about tutelage. We shouldn’t always be learning and never coming to the truth (2 Timothy 3:7). Some people lean on others beyond the stage where they should become distinctive and free in themselves. We can get into bondage to people as well as to rules. So yes, be loyal to those who are over you in the faith, but let your first loyalty be to the unseen Jesus, manifested in the word of God. As Paul even challenged Peter, who was before him in the faith, let’s all pull together and stand firm in the freedom in which Christ has made us free. And of course, like-Paul, let’s do everything in love. 94 8 The Gathering of the Nations Paula Standford Paula Sandford is a founding leader of the Elijah House ministry and co-author with husband John of books on emotional and inner healing. The glory and fear of the Lord will be known all over the world I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids; until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob. … Let us go into his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O LORD, to thy resting place; thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy godly ones sing for joy. Psalm 32:4,5,7,8,9. Renewal Journals Though we are one body, as seen in Ephesians 4:4-6, we in the church have come together with many individual agendas. This generation of people has often been called the “bless me” generation. We need healing, comfort, wisdom, spiritual and emotional nurture, material provision, protection, ability to overcome problems in our lives, power to defeat the enemy, answers to our questions, direction, a place to belong, an opportunity to serve in a way that would somehow make a difference, and much more. We also come to worship and praise the Lord. But how diversified our expectations and priorities can be! How disappointed, critical, and angry we can become when our personal agenda is not fulfilled. The Lord is returning for His Bride, the Church. That’s us. A husband should be able to rest in His wife’s heart. He laid down His life for us – and we wear His robe of righteousness. But He also called us to lay down our lives for one another. Only as we let Him purify our hearts can we come into unity and the kind of harmony in which the Lord Himself can rest in us, individually and corporately. Many in the Body of Christ are beginning to change their focus, repenting of self-centred seeking, and consciously choosing to seek God’s presence and to bless the Lord for His sake. The Lord is doing something that even goes beyond those personal choices, and blessing a new kind of “fellowship” in Him. From June 27 through June 30, 1996, I attended The Gathering of the Nations, at the Memorial Arena in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. More than 2,000 people from many nations, races, cultures, and denominations came together to worship and seek the face and glory of the Lord, to tune into His heart, to listen to His voice, and to respond to His leading. A meeting without an agenda Personal agendas were set aside. No musicians were appointed beforehand to lead worship, no speakers invited, no topics chosen, and no projects planned. A group of “fathers in Christ” and other leaders met daily to pray for session-by-session direction. They also reviewed and discerned which words should be shared from the larger body. Musicians were chosen who were young and old, native and white, representing varieties of cultures. Speakers were appointed on very short notice, and the order and content of their messages were built 96 Paula Standford well, one upon another, always with exhortation to focus on the Lord: “We are here to bless the Lord and to follow His direction.” By divine direction, the Holy Spirit indicated at a 6 p.m. leaders meting that He wanted communion served to the entire gathering; it was done in reverence and order less than two hours later. A chief of the local indigenous people gave a gracious welcome to the assembly. He was not a Christian, but he spoke appreciatively of the spirit he felt in the worship, unlike what he had experienced before in Christian meetings. Prayers of blessing were said for the Indian children, and people who chose to give for the education of Indian children – including the restoration of native language – came to tables at the front of the auditorium to leave gifts totalling nearly $27,000. A crowd of teenagers sat on the concrete floor in front of the stage, attentive and prayerful during 2- and 3-hour sessions. When the Indian member of the Canadian parliament greeted the gathering, the young people came up on the stage to pray blessing for him, and he prayed blessing for them. The teens then prayed for the babies in the congregation. The days progressed with repeated encouragement to drop agendas, focus on the Lord Jesus, and to seek the face of God in preparation for the return of the Lord. There was strong emphasis on humility, trust, honour, and the glory of the Lord. Anointing was increasingly powerful, and I think that some half-expected a cloud or pillar of fire to appear, or a heavenly bomb to drop, leaving nothing but ashes. In a sense that did happen on the final day. During the final evening session, two pastors spoke on fathering. I also spoke, but on the topic of mothering, with emphasis on nurturing, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, freeing young people to become all they can be, and what it is to honour parents. Two powerfully anointed teen-age boys stood to repent on behalf of the teens for rebellion, and to express forgiveness toward parents. Fathers and mothers all rose to repent publicly for sins against their children. Then the Lord broke people open wide, and repentance was spoken for all manner of sins. Gut-level weeping and wailing was heard all over the auditorium. Some were on their faces on the floor, while many were praying for one another. Then parents prayed blessing for their children, and children for parents. This continued until after midnight. After prayers of forgiveness and healing, the musicians began to play 97 Renewal Journals celebration music, and when I left with others to go to bed there were still 500 to 600 people dancing in the ashes of repentance for joy in the Lord. The agenda of the Lord’s seemed to be fulfilled, without our help at all! May He continue to do that in all of our lives, and wherever His Body gathers together. Gems from the last day of The Gathering of the Nations  Maturity comes from discerning the Spirit of God and walking in a healthy fear of God.  The Lord is taking us into a revelation of who He is.  Our emotions must be brought into the purpose and will of God.  We need a teachable heart, ever growing, and listening, and welcoming correction.  Counsellors must lead to the centrality of Jesus.  You can’t function in authority if you carry a spirit of rebellion. Repent for your generation.  The enemy hits you in the area of your anointing.  Whatever your abuse or wounding, the Lord will transform it into your power.  The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  The glory and fear of the Lord will be known all over the world. The world will not take note of who you are, but when the Spirit moves they’ll know God Used by permission from Elijah House News. 98 Book Review Taking our Cities for God: How to break spiritual strongholds by John Dawson. Word, 1989. Reviewed by Stephen Milstead. Taking Our Cities for God explores history, geography, demographics, and spiritual warfare as part of an overall strategy in wining a city for Christ. John Dawson gives sound biblical foundations illustrated with examples of his own experience in dealing with spiritual powers and principalities. Floyd McClung notes, “Occasionally a book comes along that is more than a good book, it is indeed a word from God. This is such a book” (p. 11). People face a multitude of problems and opposition by spiritual forces on a daily basis. John Dawson identifies certain keys and spiritual insights into how we may overcome these obstacles, which may be instrumental in a overall strategy to winning any city in the world for Christ. He covers topics such as studying the spirituality of a city’s history; discerning the spiritual strongholds which work against a city; the power of intercession for a city; planing and gaining God’s strategy in breaking strongholds and restoring a city for God; and gaining understanding of the weaknesses of the spirit realm over a city. The book has a thirteen lesson study guide which includes an application for daily living. Renewal Journal Taking Our Cities for God has five sections. Section 1: Battle Stories Besides the biblical and personal examples of spiritual warfare in missions and evangelism, Dawson devotes part of this section to teaching Scriptural principles. He describes the work of the Holy Spirit in the gift of discernment of spirits, and reveals the importance of acting from obedient will and faith. He brings clarity to a very touchy subject for many Christians. His dependence on God, and insistence of working with the Holy Spirit is evident, and brings this crucial situation to the door step of the reader, in any city. Dawson combines his theory with experience. An interesting example occurred in Argentina when a group of Youth With a Mission workers came against the city’s spiritual stronghold (Pride) and humbled themselves by kneeling down with their foreheads on the ground praying. All over downtown Cordoba, Youth with a Mission workers preached to attentive audiences and a harvest of souls began (pages 19-20). Section 2: Deliver The Dark City Over half the world population lives in urban centres (p.34). In developed nations like the U.S. the percentage is much higher, e.g. 91% of California’s population live in cities. He examines the historical issues of today’s modern cities, taking into consideration some of the changes that have taken place. For example, Los Angeles has four and a half million Hispanics, is the second largest Chinese city outside Asia and second largest Japanese city outside of Japan (p35). Since the fall of communism in Russia the remark that Marxist cities are closed to the gospel is no longer applicable. Dawson compels the reader to ask “Why is this town here?” (p43) and gives examples of God’s purpose in the location of a city. For example Omaha was once the place where pioneering wagon trains were provisioned for the arduous trail into the western wilderness. “We believe that we are still to equip the pioneers,” one pastor told me. “This time it is to support world-wide missionary work.” Now that’s a vision worth living for (p44). 100 Review Dawson realised the benefit of examining how a city will grow and change over the next twenty years. He develops an argument from an historical view of how relationships have changed with the modern city’s growth. Section 3: Discerning The Gates Of Your City Dawson’s main thrust in this section is to know the city’s history and what has brought about change. “When you look into the history of your city, you will find clues as to what is oppressing the people today” (p77). He calls upon the prophets, intercessors and spiritual fathers to be the “watchmen” over the city, with the emphasis on repentance, reconciliation and prayer, alert to current and future trends. Uncovering these trends will help the church to advance. Dawson studies the concept covenant over a city. He cites good examples such as the Azuza Street Revival in Los Angeles, and Wilber Chapman and Aimee Semple McPherson in Denver. He encourages the reader to seek God and find out what point of entry evil had to gain entrance to a city or nation. He lists twenty questions ranging through religious divisions, wars, poor leadership, economic corruption and racial practices. Section 4 : Learning To Fight Dawson concludes that we must fight because through Jesus we have regained our stewardship of the earth (p.158). He provides the reader with the foundational traits of spiritual warfare by taking spiritual discernment a step further. He has demonstrates the realities of the two kingdoms – God’s and Satan’s rebel province - and includes a biblical background on angels and their origin and functions. He reveals the tactics of spiritual warfare by first focusing on Jesus, the giver of the spiritual gifts. We are provided with the power of the cross and with the truth of Scripture . 101 Renewal Journal Section 5: Into Battle - 5 Steps To Victory Dawson divides this section into worship- the place of beginnings, waiting on the Lord for insight, identifying with the sins of the city, overcoming evil with good, and travailing till birth. Part of his strategy involves the importance of waiting on God, and allowing God to reveal the situation in the spirit. We need to come to him with repentance and humility. Dawson gives practical advice about overcoming evil with good by resisting temptation and taking positive action through prayer and fasting. Again the emphasis is on ministry in the opposite spirit, such as overcoming pride with humility or violence with turning the other cheek. Dawson combines his theology with practical experience in the front line of spiritual warfare. His examination of the historical and geographical nature of a city provides an excellent understanding of how the demographics of a city will effect an outreach. His examples of the size and nature of various ethnic groups within Los Angeles demonstrates the problems a local church may face in the mission field. His consideration of trends was also an interesting revelation, as most churches do operate with a catch up mentality. Dawson gives examples of occasions when he got it wrong, and also when he got it right. He maintains a balance, observing that although he has given the reader very good keys to the taking of our cities for God, it is necessary to seek God for ourselves. 102 Renewal Journal 12 Harvest Renewal Journal Contents Renewal Journal 12: Harvest Editorial: White for Harvest 105 1 The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence 107 2 Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas 113 3 Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup 121 4 Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick 131 5 Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick 143 6 Australian Reports, Aboriginal Revivals 147 7 Global Reports, compiled by Geoff Waugh 171 8 Reviews 197 Cover Photo: 12: Harvest Reinhard Bonnke has been leading vast healing evangelism crusades in Africa and globally. The cover photo is part of the crowd of 400,000 in Ogbomosho, Nigeria in November 2010. 104 Editorial White for Harvest This issue of the Renewal Journal focuses on a little of the enormous harvest currently being reaped around the world. Much of this harvest is being reaped at great cost in personal sacrifice and even martyrdom. Often, the most faith-filled and faithful church is the church suffering persecution, precisely because of the persecution. We live in a time of harvest. The fields are white, ready for harvest. One aspect of this growing harvest is the increase of revival around the world. Revival has many expressions, and varies from culture to culture. The constant elements of revival, however, remain the same everywhere, as summarised in 2 Chronicles 7:14 - God’s people getting humble, praying, seeking God, repenting, and God moving in grace, forgiveness and power, bringing multitudes into his kingdom and healing brokenness in people’s lives and in the community. God can do in a moment what we can never do with all effort. As we look on the harvest we can all participate in vital ways: We can ask God for a great harvest as we pray. Often. Alone. Together. We can believe God. He is able to do far more than anything we can ask or even think about. We can commit ourselves to God who is the Lord of the harvest. 105 Renewal Journal This issue of the Renewal Journal is full of stories of the current harvest. Two teenage girls in China saw astounding results in two years which they recount in their testimony, “The Spirit told us what to do.” The Argentine Revival continues to reap untold thousands right now. Local churches continue to experience visitations of God in increasing numbers, especially where they humble themselves and pray and seek God together and with others. Toronto in Canada, Brompton in London, Sunderland in England, and Pensacola in Florida became well known sparks for global revivals. Thousands have been converted there, and tens or hundreds of thousands filled with the Spirit in new ways, igniting new ministries. Places such as Baltimore, Smithton and Mobile reported similar revivals with lasting impacts of the Spirit of God. Australian reports include stirrings of revival in the Kimberleys, and in the national expressions of reconciliation with Aborigines and the British. Accounts of individual churches experiencing a fresh move of God continue, as with Christian Life Centre at Mt Annan. Global reports continue to tell of the mighty works of God. As he promised, he is pouring out his Spirit on all people. Much of that is very different from our traditional forms of western Christianity! It challenges us to rethink what we do. Essentials are the biblical patterns. Non-essentials include our structures, denominations, buildings, musical preferences, orders of service, and culture Christianity. The church in many countries now looks and sounds rather like the New Testament church, persecution and all, empowered by the Spirit, with regular conversions, healing and signs and wonders. We need to do what Jesus commanded us to do - to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his great harvest. You can pray. We never know how God may answer that prayer - including answering it in and through us! 106 1 The Spirit told us what to do Carl Lawrence Reproduced from the Dawn Report, August 1998. Source: Church Planting Canada, the Church Planting arm of Vision Canada. Originally published by Carl Lawrence, The Coming Influence of China. Gresham: Vision House Publishing Inc, 1996, pages 186-192. Two young women set off to plant churches without plans or training because “Jesus said to ‘go.’” After we prayed, the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly what to do. We would keep praying and he would tell us what to do, and we would do it. Then we prayed and then he would tell us what to do. We would do it and keep praying. Several high-ranking church leaders from Europe visited a pastor in Hong Kong. The pastor took them to visit some of the Three-Self churches. They found them inspiring, and uniquely Chinese, but they Renewal Journal wondered aloud if perhaps they weren’t seeing the real church. On the final day of their visit, the pastor hoped to show them what they wanted to see. He knew they would not really be satisfied unless they met a real church planter. As it turned out, they saw something incredibly beyond what they ever expected to find in China. At their last stop, the pastor discovered that two young women had just returned from their mission station for a short visit, so he asked them to come to the hotel late, to meet the visiting church leaders. These young ladies had both become Christians as teenagers while listening to radio broadcasts, and they each had immediately felt the call to be a missionary. The pastor had met with them and attempted to teach them how to witness right where they were. “No,” they insisted, “the Bible you gave us says Jesus said to go to all the world. We want to ‘go.’” “But,” the pastor argued, “you have only been Christians for six months, and you are so young.” They replied, “Pastor, we have read everything Jesus said and nowhere does he ask people how old they are. We want to go.” Smiling, the pastor asked them, “But can you give me an exegesis of the five classical appearances of the Great Commission in the New Testament?” Their disappointed faces made him feel ashamed. “Very well. We need some workers on Hainan Island.” “Hainan Island, we have never heard of it.” The pastor said, “It is an island off the mainland. The people there are fishermen. It is very rough. There are no Christians there. For young ladies it might be very dangerous.” Excitedly they responded, “How soon can we go?” “Well, I have to go back to Hong Kong and make arrangements. There will be . . . ” 108 Carl Lawrence They interrupted him, “Oh no, no, we must not wait. Our Lord said ‘go,’ not sit around and plan. We will go to this place - what did you call it?” “Hainan. Hainan Island.” They looked at each other, “Hainan, yes Hainan. That is where the Lord wants us to go.” They had been there for two years and were now back for a short period of time to try to get Bibles and other literature for their new churches. The pastor had not seen them since the day they insisted that they ‘go now’! After the arrangements were made, he went to the lobby at the appointed time and waited for the ladies to arrive. He watched the bellboys in their crisp, tailored uniforms, and the tourists who attempted to be casual in their designer clothes. Then he spotted the two young women. Oh no, he thought as they walked in. Their black pyjamas and broad-brimmed fishermen hats stood in stark contrast to the appearance of the sophisticated hotel receptionist making her way towards them. The pastor moved quickly to intercede. “It’s all right, they are here to see me.” Several people stood staring as he greeted them as politely as possible without drawing too much attention. “Come, we will go to my room to meet some people from Europe.” Once in the room, the two European church officials graciously greeted them. He proceeded to ask the young ladies questions, interpreting for his guests as he went along. “Pastor, ask them how many churches they have established on Hainan.” The women put their heads down and answered, “Oh Pastor, we have only been there two years . . . yes, two years. Not many. Not very many.” Their voices were apologetic. “How many?” 109 Renewal Journal “Oh, not many, not many. We have only been there a short time. The people were not very friendly. . . Sometimes they became very vicious. Yes, sometimes they told us they were going to drown us in the ocean . . . several men threatened us . . . . Oh my, and because we were so young, even some of the other ladies did not like us. Yes some even called us terrible names . . . so not many churches . . . no, not many. . . .” The pastor interrupted and slowly repeated the words, “How many? How many?” There was a moment of silence, then one of the women looked up with embarrassment and anguish, as though confessing to a crime, “Only . . . thirteen. ” The pastor looked astonished and interpreted for the guests, “Thirteen.” One of the guests repeated the number, “Only thirteen, only - my goodness. I haven’t planted that many churches in my lifetime.” One of the pastor’s assistants interrupted, “No, Pastor, she did not say thirteen. She said thirty.” The pastor looked at the two young women and asked, “Thirty?” “Oh, yes, not many, we have done very poorly. Only thirty . . . .” The two guests could only mutter, “Thirty churches in two years . . . my word. . . .” Again the women began to apologize when the pastor interrupted to ask another question, “How many people are in the churches?” “How many? . . . Oh, not many. . . . ” Again both heads went down, apologizing for their failure. “Not many. ” The process repeated itself until, again, the pastor looked like he was ready to shake them and practically yelled, “How many?” 110 Carl Lawrence “Only two hundred and twenty people. Not many, no . . . not many. ” Quickly multiplying in his head, the pastor said, “Two hundred and twenty in thirty churches?” “Oh, no, in only one, but that one is a very small church, very small. There are bigger ones. . . .” As the pastor interrupted he heard the numbers repeated by his guests: “Two hundred and twenty is small? Dear Lord, I wish I had some that large.” “Ask them how many are in the big churches.” The process began, but with a more reverent inquiry: “And how many in the big churches? You know, the biggest one?” “Oh, not many . . . .” “I know, ‘not many.’ But, please, ladies, how many?” “Oh, less than five thousand. Only four thousand nine hundred . . . . Yes, less than five thousand. We have just started.” From behind the pastor came the sound of weeping: “Dear Lord, forgive us.” “What did they do? How did they do it? Ask them what they did?” When asked, they looked astonished. “What did we do? Why nothing. Yes, we did nothing, nothing.” “You did nothing? You have thirty churches - the smallest with two hundred and twenty people, the largest with almost five thousand new Christians! And you did nothing?” “No, nothing. We just prayed.” “I know you prayed, but what else did you do?” 111 Renewal Journal “After we prayed, the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly what to do. We would keep praying and he would tell us what to do, and we would do it. Then we prayed and then he would tell us what to do. We would do it and keep praying.” “Dear Lord, they just prayed . . . and the Holy Spirit told them exactly what to do and they prayed. . . . ” The pastor laid his hands on the shoulders of the two sisters. Behind him his two guests, on their knees weeping, joined as they ‘just prayed’. 112 2 Argentine Revival Guido Kuwas Guido Kuwas, editor of Global Revival News, compiled this report in November 1998 thousands are getting saved and God’s miracle power touches people ______________________________________ Argentina has been basking in Revival for almost 15 years. And I don’t mean the type of Revival where 3 people or even 30 people get saved in one meeting. I am talking about a Revival where thousands are getting saved and where God’s miracle power touches people. Charisma Magazine has reported that during the last decade, the population of Latin American Protestants grew from 18.6 million to 59.4 million. That represents a 220 percent increase, nine times the growth rate of the general population. Secular researchers calculate that 400 Latin Americans convert to evangelical Christianity every hour. The revival is transforming the religious landscape. In Peru, a Renewal Journal Protestant church is planted every eight hours. In Rio de Janeiro, one new congregation is born every day. Brazil’s largest denomination, the Assemblies of God, has grown tenfold since 1980, to 15 million members and 90,000 local congregations. The fastest growth has been among Pentecostal and charismatic churches. Less than 2 percent of the Protestant population at the end of World War II were in Pentecostal churches. Today, about 66% of Latin American Protestants attend a Pentecostal church. Claudio Freidzon 1. Change of Plans Claudio Freidzon recounts: In 1985 I had a vision of God in my room. It must have been two or three in the morning. I was asleep. Suddenly, God woke me up and showed me a vision on the wall, right before my eyes. I saw the picture of a public square in the district of Belgrano (within the same city of Buenos Aires). In the vision, the square was filled with people who were celebrating in an evangelistic campaign similar to the ones that Carlos Annacondia held. And the Lord said to me: “This is your new field of work.” God showed me that he wanted me to reveal his glory in that place, and that he wanted to move us away from the place where we had worked for so many years. When I mentioned this to my wife, she did not understand it immediately. Now that things were beginning to go well in Parque Chas, ought we to move to another district? Nevertheless, I was sure of what God had showed me. It was a difficult situation, and a highly challenging one. While my heart was pondering over these things, hundreds of men and women whom I had never seen before (but whom I would meet later in that square) walked around lost, hopeless and without God in this world. Daniel Perotti and Sergio Marquet (called “the Frenchman”) were among them. At present, thanks to the tremendous change that God operated in their lives, they are two of my associate pastors. I went and had a look at the public square I had been shown. A sign said “Plaza Noruega”. There was a crowd of drug addicts sitting around on the floor. I began to take measurements of the place, and to find out where I would get electricity for my evangelistic campaign. Someone 114 Guido Kuwas in the neighbourhood watched my movements, came up to me and said: “Look here, I don’t know what you are going to do, but I hope you will clean up the square, because here we have the worst of them. This is the meeting place of the worst kind of drop-outs in Belgrano. Last week they killed a man...” I prayed to the Lord silently: “Father, are you sure this is the square you showed me?” The man went on: “This is the territory of “El Francés” (the Frenchman), a dangerous man.” A violent battle raged within me while he spoke. On the one hand I had the comfort of my little flock which was beginning to multiply, and on the other the great challenge of the unknown. There were also difficulties in finding an evangelist willing to preach in that public square. All the preachers I invited were unable to accept for various reasons. God wanted me to do the job of an evangelist! That evangelistic campaign in February 1986 was historical. Great signs and wonders followed the preaching of the Gospel. That is how the “King of Kings” church was born in the Belgrano district. I have never repented of having obeyed that vision! 2. A New Time 1992 marked a new era for Claudio Freidzon’s ministry. In that same year he received a visit from Pastor Werner Kniesel, who was well respected by him. Actually Kniesel is a Pastor in the city of Zurich (Switzerland) in the church called “Christliches Zentrum Buchegg” (Christian Center Buchegg) having one of the largest congregations in Europe. He knew Claudio from their student days at the Seminar. When Claudio told him of his many ministerial activities, this man asked him: “How much time do you dedicate to listening to the Holy Spirit?” That question would change his life. He suspected that God had something else in mind, for him and he needed to know God more intimately, a new relationship with the Holy Spirit. Pastor Ibarra, a great man of God with a great sensitivity to things related to the Holy Sprit, was always a great blessing for Claudio, even though they didn’t see each other very often. In those days he shared the great blessing that the book Good morning, Holy Spirit by Pastor Benny Hinn of the Christian Center in Orlando had been for him. 115 Renewal Journal Claudio Freidzon reports: God greatly blessed me through that book, so I decided to visit the United States in order to share a time of prayer with brother Benny Hinn. Pastor Benny Hinn’s testimony, and his relationship with the Holy Spirit, were a great inspiration for my own life. Betty and I went to the Christian Center in Orlando with great expectations. The atmosphere of that worship service was charged with glory, and worship went up to God in a deep and magnificent manner. I did not want to miss the smallest detail of that moment. All I longed for was to be with the Lord, to meet him and to get to know him. When Pastor Benny invited me to pray with him on the platform, I was amazed. He did not know me personally, but the Holy Spirit guided him to pray for me in a marvellous way. It was all part of a plan from above. God had planned new times for my life and ministry. As the years went by, Pastor Benny and I have cultivated a beautiful friendship. I love him and respect him. Whenever we meet together we feel the affinity of being united by this same passion: “to know the Holy Spirit more and more, and to be guided by Him.” While seeking after him, the Holy Spirit came upon Claudio in an extraordinary way. A glorious atmosphere surrounded the services, and the presence of God began to manifest itself in the church as never before. Without inviting anyone nor promoting what was occurring, it began to be known that something was happening at 2547 Olazabal Street, in the “King of Kings” Church. Pastors came on their own to receive the fresh anointing that transformed their lives and taking them back to their first love. The Holy Spirit came with such power that many laid on the floor under the presence of God for hours, others rejoiced in the Spirit, others cried when the Holy Ghost touched them and others left “drunk” in the presence of God. God led Claudio Freidzon to recognize his powerful and sovereign hand, producing fruit in many lives and renewing a devoted life in Christians. The work of evangelism and edification was spread over the radio and on television. In the course of days, hundreds of pastors visited the “King of Kings” Church in large numbers to receive the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. Many came with their whole congregations. For weeks at a time, on occasions, there were lines hundreds of meters long of people waiting to get into the church. Many traveled from far away places by hired buses to receive more from God. 116 Guido Kuwas 3. Large Crusades and International Ministry This situation prompted the church to rent the indoor stadium “Obras Sanitarias” (seating 6,000 people) in order to provide a solution for the lack of space. In addition to the weekly meetings in the Obras Sanitarias Stadium, a crusade was called in the largest indoor stadium in the city: the “Luna Park” stadium. Attendance went beyond the capacity of the stadium. Two meetings were held on the same day; 15,000 attended each, while over 25,000 unable to get into the facility, filled the streets. The police had to cut off traffic on the avenues and streets around the stadium because of the crowds of brothers waiting to get inside. The biggest crusade in Argentina was held on 9 April, 1993. Over 65,000 people packed the “Velez Sarsfield” soccer stadium. Brothers and sisters from all denominations, from many far away places in our country came to seek the face of God on a historic Good Friday. The ministry of Claudio Freidzon began to spread outside the borders of Argentina. Ministers and Christian leaders -even as teams- started to travel from all over the world to Argentina to receive God’s touch. Claudio Freidzon has written a book called Holy Spirit I Hunger for You, which to date has been translated into six languages: English, French, Japanese, German, Czech and American English. Many Christians around the world have been inspired by this book to develop a deeper and more personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. More than a million and a half people to date have been reached by his ministry in a personal way, through crusades, conferences, special events and meetings in churches. Source: Claudio Freidzon’s website at http://www.reydereyes.org.ar/ Reflections on the Argentinian revival By J. Conrad Lampan (missionary pastor from Freidzon’s church to the USA): As I see it there have been three major steps so far in the outpouring of the Holy Ghost in Argentina. The three steps have to do more with the way God wanted to manifest himself to us rather than what we did in order to have revival. We cannot schedule revivals. We just pray and 117 Renewal Journal let him be God! The first step or manifestation was through the ministry of Carlos Annacondia. He was raised by the Lord to a ministry of power with great manifestations of the Holy Spirit in healing and in casting out demons. A highly powered ministry aimed toward reaching the lost. Brother Annacondia says that he is not a good preacher, but the Lord gave him a heart for the lost and also gave him the power to reach them and fill their needs. Now, this first stage of manifestations of God could be seen in Brother Annacondia’s ministry but the church as a whole seemed to be unaffected. I mean he preached to multitudes and thousands were saved and made free and healed but the church was not changed from the inside. The power was not inflaming the church as a whole. It seems that God was telling the church, “See what I can do, this is my power” but at the same time God was asking the church, “What will you do with the thousands that are saved through Annacondia’s ministry? Are you going to take them and teach them your own old ways?” The church as a whole needed to be inflamed. That fire was spread through the ministry of Claudio Freidzon. There was a plan in God’s mind. For that reason he had Claudio get close to Annacondia and later on get in touch with other ministers that imparted him “spiritual gifts” and the fire started. It was not now an evangelist holding crusades or tent meeting; now it was a church that was on fire. The difference I see in this second stage in relation to the first one, is that the Holy Spirit raised Claudio to a ministry that does not have to do directly with reaching the lost but rather to equip the church for the task of preaching the gospel on time and out of time. As Pastor Jose Manuel Carlos used to say: “The shepherd leads the sheep, feeds them, but it is the sheep that have to reproduce. Only sheep can give birth to other sheep” The third stage has to do with holiness. We experienced the power of God in healing and casting out demons and saving the lost through Carlos Annacondia’s ministry. We also experienced an enduement of power within the church, an empowering of his ministers through Claudio Freidzon’s ministry. But God still had something to do with his church. 118 Guido Kuwas It is impossible to have the Holy Spirit moving with power and stirring us up without being holy. The message he gave us through Sergio Scattaglini is that 98% of holiness is not enough. We love to have power. We need his power. But we want to have his power and keep our own ways. He is saying now: “I will give you power, I will use you, I will bless you ... but you must be holy.” The great secret behind this scene is that we should stop looking for power, stop looking for manifestations or miracles. We should stop trying to be holy on our own efforts and stop trying to sanctify people; that is the work of the Holy Ghost. If we start to search for the person, the blessed Holy Ghost, if we come close to him and he becomes our friend and our master, our companion and our Lord, we will have all what he is. Preparation for revival includes prayer and action. This has been true in all revivals. Churches in Argentina prayed for revival and prayed for the unsaved people. God cannot stay inactive when a lost soul is being prayed for! Preparation included other people like Alberto Scattaglini taking some unusual “risks” among evangelical circles inviting a not known preacher. Or people like Ralph Hiatt planting the seed from which many of the most outstanding pastors in Buenos Aires came forth. Or that first “hit” in Argentina back in 1954 with another unknown preacher Tommy Hicks. Can God heal a barren land? About four years ago a group from our church in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Iglesia Rey de Reyes, Pastored by Rev Claudio Freidzon) started a mission work in a Northern province in Argentina among some of the Indian tribes still living in that area. They worked among those people helping them spiritually and materially. Our missionaries preached the Word of God to them and also gave them medical assistance, clothing, food, and seeds. The native people stared at them strangely: Soon they discovered they were intending to have the Indian people cultivate a barren land. Now what would those people do with seeds in a barren earth? Nothing would grow in that earth, only some weeds dare to show up there. 119 Renewal Journal Our missionaries then decided that the best thing to do was to pray to the God that promised to heal the land. They took some handfuls of earth in a bag to Buenos Aires and brought it to the church that have sent them on that missionary work. The church prayed for that earth laying hands on the bag. We prayed that God would heal that land and restore it to produce food for those people. Later on they took back the earth to the missions place and spread it all over the area in the name of Jesus. The next thing the missionaries brought to the church was a basket full of ‘first fruits’, all kinds of crops, from the barren land that was healed by the power of God. Source: Global Revival News, Argentine Revival See also, Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship, “Standing in the Rain: Argentine Revival” by Brian Medway. 120 3 Baltimore Revival Elizabeth Moll Stalcup Elizabeth Moll Stalcup is a writer based in Fairfax, Virginia. She travelled to Baltimore in April 1998 to interview Bart Pierce and Tommy Tenney. If the church will begin to walk in humility and repentance then the world will see God’s glory. Lord, we are desperate for you When Baltimore pastor Bart Pierce cried out for more of God in January 1997, he had no idea the Holy Spirit would change his life—and his congregation—forever. Bart Pierce will never forget the day the Holy Spirit fell at his church in the rolling suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. It wasn’t gradual, nor was it subtle. God showed up during the Sunday morning service on January 19, 1997. Pierce, pastor of Rock Church in Baltimore, and his wife, Coralee, had just returned from a pastors’ retreat in St. Augustine, Florida. Pierce says he Renewal Journal went to the retreat with “a desperate, deep hunger for more of God.” While there, he heard Tommy Tenney recount an event that occurred in a Houston church a few months earlier. Without warning, during the early morning service on 20 October, 1996, God had sovereignly split a Plexiglas pulpit in two before the amazed congregation (see Charisma, June 1997; Renewal Journal #10, page 14; Flashpoints of Revival, page 144). Afterward, an unusual movement of repentance broke out at the Houston church. Tenney, a third-generation travelling evangelist, told the gathered pastors that the drama of the split pulpit was totally eclipsed by the awesome presence of God that filled the sanctuary immediately after the supernatural event. “The revival,” Tenney told them, “was characterized by a deep sense of humility, brokenness and repentance.” While Tenney spoke, many of the pastors, including Pierce, fell on their faces weeping. Pierce spent much of his time at the retreat prostrated and weeping before the Lord. When it ended, he asked Tenney to come back to Baltimore with him for the weekend. On the 18-hour drive home, Pierce, his wife and Tenney had “an encounter of God as we talked about what God was doing and what we believed,” Pierce says. “We would sit in the car and weep,” recalls Tenney. They reached Baltimore on Saturday night, filled with a hunger for more of the Lord. Turned Upside Down The next morning Pierce knew something was up as soon as he got to the church building. “Two of my elders were standing inside the door weeping,” he says. “We started worshiping, then people began standing up all over the building crying out loud.” Some came forward to the altar; others would “start for the altar and crumple in the aisle.” Even those outside the sanctuary were affected. “Back in the hallways, people were going down under the power of God. We never really got to preach,” Pierce says. Tenney and Pierce were supposed to be leading the service, but both were too overcome by the intense presence of God to do anything but cry. “There was a deep sense of repentance that grew increasingly more intense,” Pierce recounts. At 4 p.m. there were still bodies lying all over the church floor. Pierce and Tenney tried several times to speak, but 122 Elizabeth Stalcup each time they were overwhelmed by tears. “Finally,” says Pierce, “we told our leadership team, ‘We’re going home to change clothes.’ We were a mess from lying on the floor and weeping.” The two men went home and changed. When they got back to the church at 6 p.m., people were still there, and more were coming. That first “service” continued until 2 in the morning. Monday night, people returned, and the same thing happened. It happened again Tuesday night. “Many people simply crawled under the pews to hide and weep and cry,” remembers Pierce. “At times the crying was so loud, it was eerie.” Pierce noticed new faces in the congregation. “We didn’t have a clue as to how they knew about the service, because we don’t advertise at all,” he says. When he asked, some of the visitors told amazing stories. One man said he was driving down the road when God told him, “Go to Rock Church.” Another woman said she was sitting at her kitchen table when she got the same message. She didn’t know what a “Rock Church” was, but she found a listing in the phone book. After the service she tearfully confided that she had been planning to leave her husband the next morning. “God had totally turned her heart,” says Pierce. “She and her husband have been totally restored.” For the first few weeks, Pierce says, “every ministry at the church was turned upside down.” The church has always been known for its mercy ministries — its homeless shelter for men, its home for women in crisis, its food distribution program, which moves 7 million pounds of food a year, and its ministry to revive Baltimore’s inner city. But when the revival started, everything took a back seat to what God was doing. Pierce would find his staff lying on the floor in the hallways or hear a thump against the wall and find someone lying on the floor in the next room, crying uncontrollably. People reported supernatural events in their homes, too. One woman’s unsaved husband had a dream in which everyone spoke Chinese. He came downstairs and found his wife lying on the floor speaking Chinese. His son, who was supposed to be getting ready for school, was lying on the floor in the living room, weeping and crying. That day, the man got 123 Renewal Journal saved. One night a boy from a local gang came forward weeping while Tenney was still preaching. “He came to the front, looked up at me and said, ‘You’ve got to help me, because I just can’t take it anymore,’” Tenney recalls. “This type of brokenness is what draws God’s presence,” he says. “God will never turn away from a broken heart and a contrite spirit.” Pierce agrees. He believes the congregation has “opened the heavens somehow by our crying for him. He has become our pleasure.” Both he and Tenney say they have “turned to seek his face, from seeking his hands,” meaning they are seeking to know God intimately rather than seeking him for his benefits. The Power of his presence “We don’t have any agenda,” says Pierce. “We come in and begin to worship, and his manifest presence comes in. It is overwhelming. Sometimes there is nothing any of us can do. We have turned from trying to control the meeting to letting him be the object of why we have come.” Tenney calls it “presence evangelism.” He explains, “We understand ‘program evangelism,’ where you pass out tracts or put on an evangelistic play or host Alpha classes. John Wimber helped us understand ‘power evangelism,’ where people encounter the power of God as you pray for the needs in their lives. “But what happened in Houston and what is happening in Baltimore we call ‘presence evangelism.’ The presence of God becomes incredibly strong to where people are literally overwhelmed. They are drawn to his presence. They aren’t drawn by the preaching; they aren’t drawn by the music; they are drawn by the presence of God. It is hard to talk about without weeping.” The church doesn’t keep figures on the numbers of people who have come to faith in Jesus since the revival started because they encourage people to go back to their home churches. Many pastors bring their people to the services in Baltimore because they know that Rock Church won’t steal their flock. In contrast to the Toronto Blessing services that have drawn people by the thousands from all over the world to the Toronto Airport Christian 124 Elizabeth Stalcup Fellowship in Canada, most of the people who have come to the Baltimore revival services have been from the local area, including pastors from other churches. “On any given night we have 12 to 20 pastors from the Baltimore area,” Pierce says. Still, some do come long distances. One night they looked out and saw 47 Koreans who had chartered a plane to come. Another time a group from Iceland was there. They have had visitors from Britain, Germany, the Ukraine and all across America. Before Easter, the church put on a play about heaven and hell called Eternity. Crowds filled the 3,000-seat sanctuary. Some nights several hundred people had to be turned away because there was no more room. And during one two-day period, more than 700 came forward to give their lives to Christ. The church originally planned to host the play for two weeks, but they continued an extra week because of the tremendous response. A dual pull on the Spirit Tenney believes there is “a connection between what the Rock Church has traditionally done” — meaning the church’s strong ministries to hurting people outside the church — and the way the heavens have opened in Baltimore. “It came to me one day that when Jesus was in Bethany he was always at Mary and Martha’s house,” he says. “Mary cared for the divinity of Jesus, while Martha cared for His humanity. Martha made sure the bed was clean and the food was there.” Mary chose the better part — sitting at his feet — but that didn’t mean Martha’s part didn’t have to be done, he says. A church that does both — sits at Jesus’ feet and ministers to the needs of the hungry and hurting — exerts “a dual pull on the spirit realm,” Tenney says. “There is a special visitation of God that accompanies it. When Mary and Martha called Jesus, he came and raised their brother from the dead.” Today, services in Baltimore are quieter and gentler than they were during the first few months of revival. But the worship music is powerful, and the singing draws the congregation to Jesus. Most of the songs were written by people in the church after the revival began. 125 Renewal Journal After an hour or so of worship, Tommy Tenney takes the microphone and begins to preach. He asks the audience to worship Jesus in a way they never have before — to worship Him the way Mary did when she broke the alabaster jar, poured the ointment on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair. “We have turned our churches into a ‘bless me’ club where people come to get something,” he tells the crowd. “They are always wanting to receive. They fall with their blessing-of-the-month, then get up and continue on as though nothing has ever changed.” As Tenney continues to speak, people begin to cry, most quietly, but some more openly. He invites people to come forward. Almost everyone does, either kneeling or lying with his face on the floor before the altar. “Just for one night in your life, worship Him,” Tenney encourages them. “He wants to manifest himself to his people. For once in your life set aside what you want from God, and give him the glory.” Those looking for dramatic supernatural displays won’t find them here. But they will feel the intense presence of God. The impact of the revival is seen in the lives that have been changed for eternity. There have been physical healings, healed marriages, burnedout people empowered to follow God, prodigals returned and hundreds of people who have found Jesus for the first time. “Extreme celebration can come only after extreme repentance,” Tenney cautions. “The world is tired of us calling them to repentance when we are standing in hypocrisy. We need to repent. “It is not for us to point the way to a lost world. It is for us to lead the way. If the church will begin to walk in humility and repentance, then the world will see his glory.” Reprinted with permission by Charisma, July 1998. Communications Co., USA. 126 Strang Elizabeth Stalcup Resting in his presence Church member David Jehl, an engineer, sent these e-mails reports in July and September 1998. Baltimore: For the last decade the Rock Church in Baltimore has sought to care for the ones nobody wants; the homeless, the hungry, the unwed mother, the prisoner, the sick. In this search to provide hospitality for the unwanted, God has been teaching us how to entertain his presence. Learning to minister to humanity and divinity, like Martha and Mary, will cause Lazarus to come forth. There’s something about the format of Monday and Tuesday meetings in Baltimore that transforms the sanctuary into an entertainment center for the Lord’s presence. The worship team seeks to entertain him rather than a crowd. In the meetings there is no hype but an opportunity for an encounter, no pressure but wooing from God’s Spirit to yours. First time visitors’ expectations are sometimes shocked by the format of the meetings. There are no introductions of speakers or important visitors. The Lord is the one we have come to meet. There is no agenda for the meetings, no announcements, no distractions to stop you from going deeper and deeper into his presence. Tommy Tenney has not preached a traditional sermon in Baltimore, but encourages and facilitates people to a place where they can have an encounter with the manifest presence of God. After a long period of worship, Tommy will quietly take the microphone and begin to explain how to get closer to God. The worship team will sometimes sing the same song for a very long time. This helps the congregation move from corporate praise and worship to a place where each person finds an individual expression of worship and conversation with God in a personal encounter. The meetings have been characterized by deep repentance, changed lives and a strong overwhelming presence of God. Many people report that as they approach their seat, they are hit by waves of His glory and presence. As they stand and begin to sing they become breathless, humbled in His presence. No longer able to sing, they sit down, unloading all the concerns of the day, all the appointments of tomorrow, and now they are swept to a place beyond the church building. Now at the feet of Jesus, the chair melts away and it only seems right to lay prostrate on the ground 127 Renewal Journal before a Holy God. This place of an intimate individual encounter with the manifest presence of God is where Tommy Tenney loves to lead people. It’s a true breakthrough, suddenly people find themselves in the garden of the Lord, in the throne room of God, in the third heaven, or at the feet of Jesus. They don’t get a word of wisdom from Tommy, nor a bless me prayer from the prayer team. They get a meeting with God, an opportunity to worship him and talk to him. This contagious hunger and strong presence of God is not limited to time in the sanctuary, but can be found by those who seek him in prayer time at home, at work, or in the car. Visitors take it with them around the world. It takes repentant worship and sacrifice to sustain it. Here’s a quote from Charles Finney, Hindrances to Revivals, that will be helpful: “A revival will decline and cease, unless Christians are frequently re-converted. By this I mean, that Christians, in order to keep in the spirit of revival, commonly need to be frequently convicted, and humbled and broken down before God, and “re-converted”. This is something which many do not understand, when we talk about a Christian being reconverted. But the fact is, that in a revival, the Christian’s heart is liable to get crusted over, and lose its exquisite relish for Divine things; his unction and prevalence in prayer abate, and then he must be converted over again. It is impossible to keep him in such a state as not to do injury to the work, unless he passes through such a process every few days. I have never labored in revivals in company with any one who would keep in the work and be fit to mange a revival continually, who did not pass through this process of breaking down as often as once in two or three weeks. “Revivals decline, commonly, because it is found impossible to make Christians realize their guilt and dependence, so as to break down before God. It is important the ministers should understand this, and learn how to break down the Church, and break down themselves when they need it, or else Christians will soon become mechanical in their work, and lose their fervour and their power of prevailing with God.” During the 14 July, 1998, meeting, in the midst of glorious worship, Tommy Tenney gave an altar call for “extravagant worship”. Wherever a person stood, there became an altar, each pushing past any visitation they ever had. The dancers danced more, the criers wept more, each one expressing their love in the most extravagant way. The tangible sense of 128 Elizabeth Stalcup his presence was stronger than anytime in the past 18 months of visitation. In past e-mails I have talked about heavenly visitors (angels) to our meetings. This time through powerful corporate worship, we became visitors in heaven. Pastor Bart Pierce, sensing a powerful impartation of intercession asked for all to pray. A powerful birthing process began as each prayed for revival in their city, or for their families. I, being a typical engineer type, don’t understand intercession at all, but I felt the call to prayer in my bones. In Baltimore we spend a lot of time worshipping God, and entertaining his presence, but then we get up from the carpet and go to the worst places in the city to help those in need. We want the revival to go to the streets. Pursuing his presence Baltimore — Psalm 27:4-5: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me upon a rock.” In Baltimore, we spend a lot of time doing one thing, worshipping. To get a hold of the one thing, we are learning to get rid of the other things. Prayer time is spent in repentance, cleansing the hands and heart of the corruption of the day. The next things to cast off are the concerns of the day and the appointments of tomorrow. Turn off the beeper, shut down the cell phone, remove your watch, take off your glasses, change your focus from this world to the next, pass from time to eternity. On Monday and Tuesdays we have a special reservation with the Lord. We spread a table for the Lord and ask him to come. In danger of oversimplification, I would say we spend three hours worshipping, and in the middle somewhere Revivalist Tommy Tenney or Pastor Bart Pierce will spend time encouraging us to be better worshippers. There are no introductions of speakers, no recognition given to famous visitors from, no fancy preaching, no solo singers, no announcements of any kind, no display of a people or their talents. During worship people bring their offering and cast it upon the altar of sacrifice. The worshippers give when they are ready for a breakthrough into radical, intense, repentant worship. During the 29 September 1998 meeting, Tommy Tenney said, “God is 129 Renewal Journal taking away choices till all we have left is one thing. He wants to purify our pursuit till we are after only him. Tonight’s service is about pursuing his presence.” In Baltimore, God is overwhelming us with His Presence. Like Mary, we spend a lot of time pouring our love upon the Lord. The Martha’s might ask, “Do you spend time helping the needy in Baltimore?” The answer is yes. ‘A Can Can Make a Difference’ moves over six million pounds of free food per year to the hungry, assisting 60 food pantries in Maryland. ‘Nehemiah House’ is the only men’s shelter in Baltimore County and assists 300 homeless men per year. ‘The Hiding Place’ is our seven bed home for adolescent girls in crisis or facing pregnancy; 260 babies have been born through the program. Through ‘Adopt-a-Block’, Baltimore pastors, congregations from different denominations, and businesses, gather to reach hurting communities. Worshipping and serving together, pastors joined in unity are learning to pastor the city, not just their own local congregations, forming city wide the church of Baltimore. Source: http://www.baltimorerockchurch.com 130 4 Smithton Revival Joel Kilpatrick Writer Joel Kilpatrick describes revival in Smithton, a small Missouri town. Thousands of lives have been changed How Revival Came Like thousands of pastors across America, Steve Gray was discouraged and disappointed. He was even considering leaving the ministry. For twelve years he had pastored the Smithton Community Church in the sleepy little town of Smithton, Missouri, nestled among the wheat. Steve Gray was discouraged and disappointed. He was even considering leaving the ministry. For more than a decade, Gray felt his ministry was like riding a stationary bicycle. He was pedaling real hard, but he wasn’t going anywhere. He says that all he was thinking about was “out, out, out.” Pastor Gray had even lost hope. He knew he could not continue doing what he was doing and unfortunately he gave God no other options. Steve Gray was ready to quit. Renewal Journal Knowing he had to get away from the church for some “R and R,” he chose revival over relaxation. In March 1996, he drove from Missouri to Florida to visit the Brownsville Outpouring that was then in its 37th week. Gray attended the services each night and spent the days in his motel room, praying and seeking God’s face. During the Tuesday night prayer meeting, while hundreds gathered around the “Pastor’s Banner” to pray for the nation’s shepherds, Gray was praying especially for one pastor, himself. He knew if he continued in the ministry, he had to be restored. After about three days, he felt some recovery and his focus began to change. God was restoring his hope and he found this to be the first signal of his personal revival. Before this change in focus, Gray didn’t even know what to ask from God. Gray says he came to Brownsville not to “get something” but to “see something,” as Moses went to “see” the burning bush. After several more days, Gray was “seeing” again. One night, in what Gray described as a “perfect atmosphere,” God spoke to him and said, “I want you to have a revival.” The very thought was too much to accept. Smithton, Missouri, is not Pensacola, Florida, and Gray could not imagine himself in the role of revivalist. Then God spoke again, “I didn’t say I want you to be a revival, I said I want you to have a revival.” On Sunday morning, 17 March 1996, Pastor Kilpatrick shared part of his personal testimony of how revival came to Brownsville. Gray reached the place of faith and could believe “there is a place for me in revival.” He observed Kilpatick as he was “watching, guiding, and pastoring a truly sovereign move of God that was changing the world.” Kilpatrick’s words and example showed Gray that “revival needs to be pastored and can be pastored.” After Sunday worship, Gray called his wife, Kathy, and said, “I have just been in the best Sunday morning service I have ever been in. Tell our church.” Near the end of his second week in Brownsville, Gray headed for home, repentant and on the road to revival and restoration. While God was working on Gray, he was also working on the members of Smithton Community Church. For two and one-half years the church had held a Tuesday night prayer meeting, but as God prepared the church for revival, the prayers became more intense. Associate Elder Randy Lohman says there was “lots of brokenness” in the months immediately preceding the outpouring. 132 Joel Kilpatrick As the pastor sought God in Florida, the congregation sought him at home. On Sunday night, March 17, Kathy Gray relayed the pastor’s message about the great Sunday morning service in Brownsville. David Cordes, one of the elders, was deeply convicted. Weeping, he asked the congregation, “Why should our pastor have to travel a thousand miles to be in the best service he has ever been in?” He fell on the floor in repentance. Soon he was followed by several other men in the church, repenting for their lack of support and crying out to God to do the same thing at Smithton that he was doing for the pastor in Florida. God continued his work on Wednesday night as a five year old girl prophesied and said, “It’s coming! It’s coming!” The Lord had seen their brokenness. When the pastor arrived on Sunday night, the glory fell. To be exact, at 6:12 p.m. on 24 March 1996 God the Holy Ghost arrived in his awesome power at Smithton Community Church. They will never be the same. Immediately they added services to their church schedule. Now, the outpouring has continued for two years with five services every week. Visitors have come from all fifty states and many foreign countries, often in numbers that vastly exceed the population of the town. Thousands of lives have been changed. Sick bodies have been healed. Visiting pastors have taken the fire back to their congregation. Steve, Kathy, and teams from the church are taking the revival all around the world. As for the future of the revival, Lohman said, “God started it and we are going to let him do what he is doing.” Steve and Kathy Gray When a two-year revival breaks out in any church, the lives of the pastors are forever changed. This is especially true for Steve and Kathy Gray, pastors of Smithton Community Church in Smithton, Missouri. The Grays pioneered this small country church twelve years ago, after seven years travelling the country in a singing, preaching, and teaching ministry. Not only does Gray have the responsibilities of pastoring the church and preaching in revival services that are held five nights each week, but the revival has opened many doors for his ministry. Although he seldom is gone from the Smithton pulpit on Sunday morning, he and Kathy often minister across the country and around the world on his “days off.” They have also appeared on many national and local religious television programs. In the past six months, Steve has travelled to Israel three times. Gray says his travels have had a good effect on the church, 133 Renewal Journal “keeping them nationally and world minded.” To be sure the church shares in the expanded ministry; he often takes teams of four to twenty with him as he travels. According to Gray, “The longer we are in this (revival), the more I realize how badly it is needed. I didn’t realize how sick the church in America is.” The biggest challenge he has had, according to Gray, “Is to keep out the wolves that come to ruin the purity and unity.” The revival has had persecution and critics, but Gray feels that is to be expected. He was surprised, however, that he has had to “mobilize staff” to beware of “others who come to infiltrate and cause division.” Gray realizes that God is doing a great work in many places today and is glad God has raised the level of humility in the church “so we can bless those who are being blessed even if we don’t do it the same way they do.” Despite all the changes and challenges, Gray says the last two years have been “the best years of our lives.” Reproduced from http://members.aol.com/azusa/index.html from The Remnant International, via Asuza. Steve and Kathy Gray 134 Joel Kilpatrick Revival in the Land Samuel Autman wrote this article in the Everyday Magazine, a Sunday paper in Missouri, on 7 June 1998. Tiny Smithton in Missouri has no sidewalk, no coke machines, no gas stations, no traffic lights, no motel rooms, no restaurants. But 100,000 people believe it’s where you go to find the Holy Spirit. And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. Joel 2:28 Under sweltering skies on a late spring Friday evening, more than 500 worshipers are packed into the Smithton Community Church for powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit. For two years now, seekers have driven or flown in from all 50 states and every corner of the globe to this white-frame country church. Easily 100,000 have traveled from as far away as Africa, Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Australia, Korea, Israel, England and Malaysia. This night, not unlike many others, the church will cram in more souls than live in this mid-Missouri town, population 532, seven miles east of Sedalia on Highway 50. The audience is in high gear for another Pentecostal revival meeting. Outside, men in vests, walkie-talkies in hand, circulate through the gravel parking lot, directing traffic. Inside the gymnasium-turned-sanctuary, fathers and mothers clutch their small children. People embrace newfound friends. It’s a yackfest before the holy explosive celebration begins. By 7:30 p.m., a joyful musical roar goes up. Hundreds of bodies bounce up and down in unison, vibrating as if at a rock concert. They clap their hands. They speak in tongues. They dance and they shriek. The volume is deafening. Elderly women and small children alike lift their hands. “Praise the Lord!” 135 Renewal Journal “Hallellujah!” “Thank you, Jesus!” The four-hour Pentecostal service has only begun. Eyes look toward heaven to see the slides projected overhead. That’s where the song lyrics are displayed. In one voice they yell: “Revival is in the land! Come and see what the Lord has done! Revival! Revival! Revival!” Eric Nuzum, 28, a former forklift driver turned associate pastor, leads a full band with drums, guitars and synthesizers on the stage. The music blares. The room reverberates. An hour and a dozen songs later, quiet blankets the room after the highoctane worship. The shouts have ceased. Nuzum leads a one-word chorus slowly of “Hallelujah” on his acoustic guitar. All over the building, they are singing and swaying in unison. After a few announcements, the offering is taken. The music picks back up. The bespectacled pastor, Steve Gray, 46, jumps to the lectern and sings “One More Time” and “Return to the Lord,” two songs he wrote himself. He opens his Bible to Mark, chapter 1, verse 1. “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Gray, is an unassuming man in a 5-foot-8 frame, with ocean-blue eyes and fiery blond hair. He is intent on not becoming a celebrity or drawing attention to himself. He berates what he called the American humanistic gospel, which has taken the focus off Jesus Christ. His oration goes for an hour. “It’s not about us! It’s the gospel about Jesus Christ,” he thunders. “Amen!” the crowd responds. “We are missing the point,” Gray says, raising his voice. “Jesus didn’t say ‘I have come to follow you.’ He said ‘Get behind me. Follow me. Do what I 136 Joel Kilpatrick do. Go where I go. Feel what I feel. Pray what I prayed. Live how I lived and, if necessary, die how I died.’” It’s an old-fashioned message that was spelled out in the book of Acts. Gray sprinkles in comments about hellfire. The ‘Smithton outpouring’ Like many Christian groups, Pentecostal and charismatic Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God; that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, the Son of God; that baptism is accomplished through total immersion. They believe that all people will be raised from the dead to face a final judgment, and then eternal salvation or damnation. What distinguishes the charismatics/Pentecostals is not simply believing in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, but allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest himself through physical behavior such as speaking in tongues, casting out demons and singing in words inspired by the power of the Spirit. Jesus is the center of their religious attention; worship of Him is greatly enhanced by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Throughout the preaching, and in subsequent conversations, Gray stresses that when anyone puts aside self-interest and assumes the interests of God, things happen. He’s not interested in numbers, he says, only spiritual intensity. He believes that God has selected the little church in Smithton to prove that revival can occur anywhere. “These are men and women, that when they pray, fire from heaven falls. When they pray, blind eyes are open. When they pray, lives are changed. When they pray, miracles happen. When they pray, the whole world is stirred up and whole cities are changed,” Gray said. The “Cornfield Revival” or “Smithton Outpouring” has stirred up this Pettis County community, so tiny it barely shows up on a map. There are no soda machines, traffic lights, gas stations or sidewalks in sight. At least seven times a day, trains zip across the track, blocking entrance to the town. 137 Renewal Journal The international attention, the high-octane music and the snarled traffic anger Smithton residents. However, travellers needing food and shelter are welcomed by the motel and restaurant owners in nearby Sedalia. ‘Slain in the Spirit’ Once Gray’s preaching concludes, he turns the service over to trained prayer leaders. The prayer sessions seem violent. Many worshipers pray, weep, tremble and are knocked to the floor by what they consider to be the hand of God. By evening’s end, this room will resemble a battlefield littered with human bodies, many supine on the gray carpet, “slain in the Spirit.” They say they are so overcome by the Holy Spirit, they shake, quake, roll, jerk or even faint. Within minutes, a jubilant energy fills the room, almost like electricity. The faithful believe the Spirit has come with power to heal broken hearts, to transform lives and get them on the road to glory. Tears roll down many cheeks. Cheeks are mostly white, although there are a few black and yellow faces in the mix. Upper and lower income. Young and old. Urban and rural dwellers, all under one roof. The Rev. Robert Clement drove 1,700 miles from San Diego. His own church has been struggling. He has wrestled with fear, rejection and failure. “Each time I go up and get prayer, it’s like layers peeling off,” he said. “Layers of fear, failure and rejection.” Missouri ties to movement Smithton is the third place in North America in the last four years to be engulfed in one of the longest Pentecostal revivals of this century. All three sites have Missouri ties. In January 1994, Randy Clark, pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of St. Louis, Missouri, was ministering at the Airport Vineyard Church in Toronto, Ontario, when the so-called “Toronto Blessing” hit. People in the congregation burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter. Others fell into people’s arms and shook. That revival is ongoing. 138 Joel Kilpatrick On Father’s Day 1995, an appearance by visiting evangelist Steve Hill at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, marked the similar emotional manifestations. More than 1.5 million seekers have made pilgrimages to Brownsville, where the revival is ongoing. Springfield, Missouri, is the worldwide headquarters of the Assemblies of God. As the century and the second millennium of the Christian era draw to a close, Pentecostal revivalists say more is to come. Newsweek magazine said there were 20 million Pentecostals/charismatics in the United States and 400 million worldwide. Revivalism seems to be characterized by an expectation of Jesus Christ’s returning to Earth. At the end of the 19th century, there were similar expectations of some cataclysmic event, and there was revival fever. “There will be a great revival before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ,” said Clark. “This could be the beginning of it, but I am not saying it is.” With revival comes stinging backlash. The California-based Vineyard Fellowship ousted the Toronto organization for going “over the edge.” In a book titled “Counterfeit Revival,” Hank Hanegraaff said revival leaders are duping followers through hypnosis and hysteria. The lightning of the Spirit Steve Gray grew up in Sedalia, a town of 20,000 well known as the site of the Missouri State Fair. He and his wife, Kathy, to whom he’s been married 23 years, spent seven years in a travelling music ministry. Then in 1984, the Grays stopped their itinerant ministry and opened a church in a building that had been closed for four years. The building, now called Smithton Community Church, had been built as the Christian Church in Farmer’s City in 1859. As people deserted Farmer’s City and moved to the nearby “Smith City” because of the railroad, the church moved. In 1873, the building was disassembled into into four parts and pulled by ox cart to what is Smithton today. The Christian Church changed hands a number of times by the time it closed its doors in 1980. By 1996, the Grays’ ministry and marriage had 139 Renewal Journal reached crisis point. They had considered splitting. Gray had wondered whether pastoring in a rural community had been the right choice. “I was ready to quit,” Gray said. Gray drove 1,000 miles to the revival in Pensacola, hoping to figure out a way to dissolve his ministry and maybe to sell insurance or become a teacher. For 10 days, he waited in his hotel room for an experience with God. At night, he went to meetings at the Brownsville church. Ultimately, Gray felt that God wanted him to return to his community and have a revival. He was slightly hopeful. When he arrived back in Smithton, he walked into his church after an evening service had concluded. He took eight steps toward Kathy and the lightning of the Spirit hit him, he said. His hands shot up in the air. The people in the congregation rushed forward and began weeping and rejoicing. As the story goes, the entire congregation of the church at Clay and Chestnut streets in Smithton was transformed by the Spirit. They started to gather day after day to pray. By the third week, the curious showed up. The multitudes followed from outside of Smithton in Missouri and way beyond. Jennifer Dieckmann remembers. Before the revival, Dieckmann, 23, described her life as miserable. Her family had been kicked out of a church in Sedalia in a theological dispute, and she was resentful. “I was happy holding on to anger and bitterness and hate,” Dieckmann said. “When the revival hit, it hit me personally.” Now she talks about forgiveness and loving her enemies. “In an instant, it was like the weight was gone,” she said. “I have forgiven those people who kicked us out of our church.” Linda Byrd, 28, is co-pastor of Jubilee Worship Center in Junction City, Kansas. She and her husband drive down many weekends for spiritual refreshment. 140 Joel Kilpatrick “Most Americans know religion is their effort to find God,” she said. “What is happening here is not just talk about Christ but demonstrations of Christ. He demonstrated that He was the Son of God. He did not say ‘Take my word.’ He proved it through miracles. That’s what this is, demonstrations.” ‘I realized God loves me’ Rhonda Wagner, 44, of Springdale, Arkansas, was back. She had come once before in March. Wagner had attended the Toronto meetings some time ago. “We kept going to the Lord with our problems, but we never actually gave them to him. I can’t tell you all of the dynamics of what happened to me in Toronto, except it was up there I realized God really loves me.” In the process of receiving prayer there, she shook for 12 hours. What made her shake? “The spirit of the Lord is way more powerful than an electric shock. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, our physical bodies will react by shaking, shouting or falling.” Her friend Kathy Johnson, 48, of Amarillo, Texas, has now been to all three revival hot spots. She said a hunger and thirst for spiritual things cause her to travel to revival meetings. “I have realized that I have only just begun to know him who draws me to Pensacola, to Smithton and Toronto. He’s so much bigger than I thought.” Reproduced from the Awakening e-mail, 9 June 1998. 141 Renewal Journal _ The Smithton Outpouring CD 142 5 Mobile Revival Joel Kilparick Writer Joel Kilpatrick describes revival in Mobile, Alabama. After five years of prayer and some dry stretches, God came mightily Cecil Turner was a shy man with a stutter - a pipe-fitter with no Bible college education when God called him to lead Calvary Assembly of God in Mobile, Alabama, in 1963. Even family members questioned whether or not Turner could pastor the young congregation. Now, 34 years later, the church literally overflows with people coming to see what’s been happening since Sunday, 29 September, 1996, when God’s presence came in power during the church’s annual “campmeeting.” “I’ve thought we’d close out a number of times,” Turner says. “But the Holy Spirit says we’re going on.” The church has been in continuous revival from week to week, meeting Tuesdays for intercessory prayer, and Wednesdays through Fridays for services that draw 250 to 300 people. Sunday mornings draw 400, the Renewal Journal maximum number they can pack into the sanctuary. Some services are exuberant and intense; others so heavy all they can do is “lay on the ground.” Sometimes the Spirit is so strong during praise and worship that they throw open the altars. “We come in each night and never know what’s going to happen,” Cecil says, pausing for a moment. “I like it.” The church started praying for revival in 1992, says Cecil’s son Kevin, who has been on staff for 11 years. “At times we wondered if revival would happen,” Kevin says. “But we saw the intensity and the hunger growing.” After five years of prayer and some dry stretches, God came mightily when a travelling evangelist, Wayne Headrick, came to preach. God spoke to Headrick that if they got out of the way, God would make something happen. That “something” keeps on happening. “It seems like it’s accelerating,” Headrick told the Mobile Register in May 1997. “Each service there’s more . . . anointing and more of the power of God.” The Lost Unchurched people are coming in droves to this church that sits at a 3way stop on the western city limit of Mobile. “They may not understand it,” says music pastor Kevin Turner, Cecil’s son, “but they want more of it.” Many come from other denominations: Nazarene, Catholic, Methodist, to name a few. “We agreed from the beginning that this wasn’t an Assembly of God revival - it was for the whole church,” Cecil says. People are saved in every service - and some 150 were saved in the last two months alone, Kevin says. Some say afterwards that they felt a need to come, and several testify that they were drawn in as if to a beacon. One man pulled into the parking lot, not fully understanding why he was there. The congregation prays regularly that people will be drawn by the Lord’s presence. 144 Joel Kilpatrick Stacy Tanton, 26, says that the revival has “totally transformed” her life. Her husband no longer drinks alcohol, and now serves as an usher during weeknight services. Others have been delivered from alcohol, healed, and delivered from demons. Changing “Church” The Mobile revival is redefining Calvary’s concept of pastoral leadership, steering them away from man-generated structure and teaching them to encounter God together. “It’s like God said, ‘I’ve been trying to move. Now get out of the way,’” says Kevin. “It’s liberating for both pastors and the people.” Kevin, who grew up a pastor’s kid, testifies that the move of God now enveloping their church has brought him to a new level of faith. “I’ve always loved the Lord, but this has changed my life,” Kevin says. “I want to be intimate with him.” Revival has also redefined his ministry. Kevin and his 10-piece music team keep a greulling schedule, sometimes singing for 3 hours straight. Before revival began, Kevin would lose his voice after a week of services, he says. But he asked God to sustain him, and has gone 10 months with few problems. Revival has also forced him to be more in tune with the Holy Spirit before leading worship. “I make a song list, but often it gets tossed out,” he says. “Some nights it’s like being held over a cliff. I know God wants to do something, and I’m asking, ‘What is it?’ I’ve had to become comfortable with silence. Sometimes he just says to wait.” The revival is not personality-driven. Headrick is often gone for weeks at a time, and the river continues to flow. The pastors say the move of God keeps changing colours as God takes the church to different places in him. “There have been two or three times when the revival has shifted gears,” Kevin says. “It’s hard to describe, but the intensity goes up a level.” 145 Renewal Journal Churches unite Glenn McCall, pastor of Crawford United Methodist church, frequently takes members of his congregation to Calvary for revival services. “[People] are looking for something, and only God can meet that need in their spirit,” he says. “I feel like it’s a nationwide thing. I’ve heard a lot of testimonies from around the country and the world. There’s some phenomenal things happening in the church world.” McCall believes the fact that Calvary is drawing from other denominations signifies that America is ready for awakening. “I think people are wanting a revival regardless of what the name is on the [church] doorpost. They’re willing to crawl through barriers to get a touch from God,” he says. Reported in the Mobile Register, May 10, 1997 Beth Cumbie, 26, prayed for her daddy all her life. “He was hardhearted,” she says. “A good man, be he never wanted to surrender.” Beth’s mother, a Christian, had endured decades of disbelief, but never put her husband down. “We thought some tragedy would have to push him to God,” Beth says. “Finally we said, ‘God, do it your way.’” In April 1997, while closing his produce store for the night, Beth’s 62year-old father turned to his wife with tears in his eyes and asked for prayer. When they got home he fell on his face and cried out to God to save his soul. After he had received Christ, Beth’s mother came to the revival service where Beth was on the music team, ran down the aisle with the news, and together they wept. “I didn’t care what anybody thought,” Beth says. “That was a long-time prayer answered.” Now the family is at church nightly, and Beth’s father is able to cry, hug his children, and express his love. “In some ways it’s strange, but in others, so natural,” Beth says. “Dad wants to go to the altar every night.” Reproduced from the Pentecostal Evangelist. 146 6 Australian Reports Aboriginal Revivals Western Australia The closure of a pub through lack of customers is big news in Australia. This is what drew the media to a small town called Nullagine in the far north of Western Australia. But the media didn’t know quite how to report the religious revival that is keeping people out of the pubs - as well as the jails and hospitals. Aboriginal church worker Craig Siggins wrote this account of the spiritual awakening that is changing Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. Renewal Journal Faith Comes Alive in the Pilbara Western Australia “Kuurti yarrarni kuwarri ngangka mungkangka” (“Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this place tonight”) is the first line of a song being sung at many Aboriginal communities around the Pilbara. It was composed by Len “Nyaparu” Brooks, also known as Kurutakurru, one of the many leaders God has raised up among the Martu Wangka, Nyangumarta and other peoples of the Pilbara. A spiritual awakening took place in many communities last year, in 1997. Things started at Warralong, where many became Christians and were baptised after being influenced by three Christian Aboriginal leaders. Then just before Christmas, Kurutakurru joined two other leaders at Nullagine, and many from Nullagine and other communities became Christians and came across to the dam at Newman to be baptised. Many communities started having meetings almost every night and prayer meetings every day. Leaders travelled to different communities for the meetings and to encourage people, sometimes holding meetings at night after a funeral service when hundreds of people were gathered. Some meetings went on for eight hours or more as people shared in song, testimony, prayer, Bible reading and preaching. When Franklin Graham visited Perth in early February, over 200 Martu people travelled the 1150 km for his meetings. It was like one long church service all the way there and back. Everyone was bursting to sing and witness to the people in Perth. When we got back there were more meetings and baptisms, even from communities that had previously rejected Christianity. Old people, Aboriginal elders, were turning to Christ and being baptised. Four hundred people gathered at the Coongan River near Marble Bar for three days of meetings, with many more being baptised. Police, hospitals and others have noticed a decrease in alcohol related incidents. The media has begun to take notice. Nullagine, which had 148 Australian Reports the record of being the arrest capital of Australia, became news when the pub went broke, apparently because so many had given up the grog. ‘A Current Affair’ came up and did a television spot at Nullagine. Amazingly, a simultaneous and apparently quite separate revival began at about the same time among the Pintubi people and others across the border in the Northern Territory. A team from Kiwirrkura, just on the WA side of the border, travelled across the desert and joined up with the Pilbara meetings, arriving early for our Easter Convention held in a wide dry river bed near Newman. More than 1000 people from different communities and Christian traditions came together to celebrate. Why the revival? It is nothing more or less more than a work of the Holy Spirit. It has similarities to the revival that spread to many Aboriginal communities in the early ’80s, which reached the Pilbara but never really took hold. Like that revival, people have had dreams and visions. Recently Mitchell, a leader from Punmu, got up and read from Acts 2 about Joel’s prophecy and said it was being fulfilled. Not long ago, people told me they had seen a cross in the sky one morning. And like the ’80s revival, it is the Aboriginal people taking the Wangka Kunyjunyu (Good News) to their own people in their own way and their own language. Aboriginal leaders empowered by the Holy Spirit are leading the revival. These leaders would like to see the revival reaching the wider Kartiya (non-Aboriginal) society. But for these shy desert people to reach out to Kartiya in these days of Mabo, Wik and the struggle for reconciliation will only be by the hand of God. From On Being ALIVE Magazine, No. 5, June 1998, pages 8-10. 149 Renewal Journal Spiritual Awakening in the North-West Craig Siggins gives a more detailed account of the Pilbara revival in this article from Vision Vision, the magazine of Australian Baptist Global Interaction, July 1998, pages 12-15. Beginnings at Elcho Island Revival! In some Christian circles it is like the Holy Grail - something to be sought after at all cost. But perhaps few realise that a revival did come to Australia - or that there is again a revival happening right now. Perhaps few realise this because both revivals began in remote areas among Aboriginal people. In 1979 a revival began on Elcho Island off the Northern Territory. In 1981 it came to the Warburton Ranges in Western Australia, and then spread to many Aboriginal communities around Australia. I was privileged to have been a witness to that revival. In 1981/82 at the height of the revival in Western Australia I was teaching at the Christian Aboriginal Parent-directed School at Coolgardie. All of the students became Christians and there were prayer, praise and testimony meetings most nights. My present work as a pastor/missionary is a direct result of that revival. The revival has been well documented in Ian Lindsay’s Fire in the Spinifex and John Blacker’s Fire in the Outback. The effect of that revival nearly 20 years on is still strong in many communities - Aboriginal Christian leaders, committed Aboriginal Christians and Gospel seeds sown in many places and many lives, including the Pilbara. 150 Australian Reports Resistant people respond My wife, Lyn, and I came to the Pilbara in 1993, settling in the town of Newman. Our vision was to see a strong, indigenous Aboriginal church raised up amongst the Martu Aboriginal people of this area. But we had not expected to see it so soon. We had expected a long, slow struggle before anything of significance developed. Some communities were strongly anti-Christian. At one community we were told by some white Christians not to be too overt in our Christian witness. Two years later Aboriginal leaders from our Parnpajinya Church at Newman baptised many from that community. At another community a clause against teaching Christianity was written into the school constitution. Two years later we were having Christian meetings on the school verandah. Aboriginal people told me how some of the old men had threatened Christians with spears. Some of these same old men have now accepted Christ. Against all expectations we found the Martu people to be really open to the Gospel. The seeds were sown by the 1981 revival, by the witness of the Apostolic Church and by the work of the late Jim Marsh, a gifted linguist with a pastoral heart, much respected by the people. Winter rains refreshing We began our own language efforts modestly, by walking up to Aboriginal people and speaking a few words we had picked up in the Goldfields and then, with practice, gradually expanding our vocabulary. Church also began slowly, but some believed and then were baptised. We thought things were happening too quickly, even then, so we didn’t rush to baptise anyone. Teams of Aboriginal Christian men from the Plibara Aboriginal Church of Roebourne (Apostolic) came over from time to time and helped. Leaders developed. More were baptised. I became committed to taking teams from Parnpajinya (Newman) to various communities. Gifts were developed. More and more became Christians and were baptised, but the revival hadn’t really come as yet. It was like the winter rains refreshing us before the main summer rains came. Communities - too many to cope with - were crying out for visits. 151 Renewal Journal One of our leaders - Kerry Kelly (KK) - had gone to Warralong and teamed up with a couple of other strong Christians. Warralong has a community that had been opposed to Christianity. But the Spirit moved there and many were baptised. We had Christian meetings (the first ever). At one meeting nearly the whole community came forward to dedicate or re-dedicate their lives to Christ. KK, less than two years old as a Christian, became one of the main leaders at Warralong and for the revival. In 1996 I had taken KK over to a Men’s Training Camp in the Northern Territory. This interaction helped solidify KK in his Christian walk. KK often leads at the Lord’s Supper, and when many communities come together this has been a unifying factor. At Parnpajinya (Newman), just before and after Christmas 1997, many people were coming to the Lord and we were having multiple baptisms at the Ophthalmia Dam. This was about the time the revival really took off. People from Jigalong and other communities were also coming to be baptised, including some of the old men. Many nights we were having meetings that went to early in the morning. Some communities were having meetings every night and prayer meetings every day! Some still are. The ‘arrest capital’ of Australia Nullagine, which had the dubious distinction of being called “the arrest capital” of Australia, asked us to come there, which we did. Len (Nyaparu*) Brooks, known as Kurutakururru, Walter Crusoe (Wari) and Billy (Nyaparu*) Landy took up the leadership at Nullagine. Many people there who had become Christians were asking to be baptised. So one weekend I drove the old church bus to Nullagine, picked up as many people as could be squashed into the bus and, two flat tyres later, drove back to Newman. Many were baptised. Our practice is to have two doing the baptising together - usually one who knows the words to say and another who might be a learner. For cultural reasons, we have men baptising men and women baptising women. So we picked out two men and two women from each community. When the baptisms finished, we found out the lady leader from Nullagine doing the baptisms hadn’t been baptised herself, so we turned around and baptised her! 152 Australian Reports After that we travelled again to Nullagine and baptised a number of people there, including people from remote communities and some more of the old men. Parnpajinya, Nullagine, Punmu and Warralong, with some from Jigalong and Parnngurr, were spearheading the revival. I travelled around with leaders such as Alistair (Jaliku) Sammy, Chrissie Sailor, Clarrie Robinson and Lizzie Jones to different communities encouraging the believers and holding meetings that at times went for hours. Sometimes hundreds would stay on after a funeral and all join together for a Christian meeting. In October 1997 1 had taken Clarrie Robinson and Willie Bennett to a Men’s Training Camp in the Northern Territory. The topic was ‘Preaching’. Clarrie came back and began preaching for the first time. Willie went back to Kiwirrkurra near the Western Australia / Northern Territory border. Incredibly, a revival had sprung up at Kiwirrkurra and other Pintubi communities in the Northern Territory at about the same time as the Western Australia revival, but quite unconnected. Willie Bennett became a leader of that revival. A week-long revival Someone heard that Franklin Graham was coming to Perth for a Festival, and the Aboriginal Christian leaders decided it would be good to go to hear him. The only thing was, Perth was 1150 kilometres away! But people chucked in money and somehow over 200 people crammed into 4 coaster buses, 2 mini-buses and a motley fleet of assorted 4WDs and other vehicles and got to Perth (and back!). We were there for a week, but it was like one long revival meeting. We sang and prayed all the way down and had meetings every morning and night where we were camped (when we weren’t listening to Franklin!) Kurutakurru, a gifted singer and song-writer himself, had the idea of singing outside to the crowds waiting to get in the Burswood Dome where Franklin was speaking. So we arrived early each night, gathered in a group and sang away in English and Martu Wangka to the kartiyakaja (white people). They seemed to appreciate it. The style was a bit different to the precision programming that happened inside the Dome, though! 153 Renewal Journal When we got back, some communities had the idea of holding a miniconvention before our main Easter Convention. After some hesitation (over finding a place with enough water for baptisms!) a gorge near Warralong was chosen. Over 50 people were baptised including some old men who had been opposed to Christianity previously. Two old men and an old lady, too crippled to enter the water, knelt down while water was poured over them with a cup (this was after some discussion as to whether such a baptism was okay). It was a stirring witness! Meetings went on morning and night. Even a rain storm and lightning strike one night didn’t dampen the enthusiasm. A pub with few patrons Our Easter Convention (1998) was a wonderful time of celebrating Jesus. Over 1000 people came, including many new Christians from communities that had never come before. The meetings went nearly non-stop over the Easter period. Singing is a prominent feature of the revival. There is a real sense of joy that comes out in song. Many new songs have been written and many old songs translated into Martu Wangka, Nyangurnartu and other languages. Everywhere you go you bear kids singing and tapes playing songs of the revival. So many people were becoming Christians and giving up the grog that the pub in Nuilagine lost a lot of its business and went into receivership. The story made news around Australia. Nyaparu Landy and I were interviewed on Perth radio! A Current Affair went to Nuilagine. But the revival has not stopped. The Martu people themselves are reaching out to other Martu people. Neilie Bidu from Yandeyarra came back, fired up from hearing Franklin Graham, to reach out to his own community. He began a small prayer meeting and then invited Kurutakurru and other leaders from Warralong and Punmu to help him. So they went to Warralong and many there became Christians. Yandeyarra people in turn have reached out to Banjima people near Tom Price. Other communities have also been reached, including some that were closed to Christianity. Some of these communities had turned away Crusade teams from the 1981 revival. Now they have turned to the Lord. 154 Australian Reports Why revival, and why now? Only the power of the Holy Spirit can explain this revival. It is a miracle, an incredible revival happening. Mitchell Biljabu, a leader from Punmu, has likened it to the prophecy of Joel in Acts 2. I asked Milton Chapman, another leader from Punmu what, apart from the Holy Spirit, is bringing about the revival. He replied that it was Aboriginal leaders bringing the message of Good News to their own people. Many have responded to the powerful witness of changed lives. Alistair and Chrissie wrote their testimony for Today magazine and said: "For a long time we were drinking and gambling… We started to think about Mama (Father) God… we gave our hearts to the Lord. We have kept following Mama God right up to now.” The example has had a strong impact on their extended families, nearly all of whom have become Christians. Prayer has been another major factor in the revival. The Martu pray simple and sincere prayers for all sorts of things. The prayer meeting at Nullagine every morning helped keep the believers strong. Some excesses and difficulties But there have also been some excesses and difficulties in the revival. Some still struggle with alcoholism and some have gone back to the drink. Many are new Christians with little knowledge of Christianity. Even the leaders are in the main untrained. Some are illiterate. And other groups have come in with different ideas and practices that have caused division even within families and have led to much debate and argument, some of it bitter. One is a legalistic group that stresses the keeping of the 10 commandments, especially the fourth (keeping the Sabbath). Another is a fairly extreme charismatic group. Then there are issues of a more cultural nature. Some couples who have become Christians are married the wrong way in a tribal (though not biblical) sense, including some leaders. What to do? What to do about some of the tribal laws and ceremonies? Reject them all? Keep some? These are big issues to be worked through. We are encouraging the leaders to read the Bible for themselves and to come to solid biblical conclusions as they struggle through these issues with the help of the Holy Spirit, but it will take time. 155 Renewal Journal Grog replaced by gospel Reports by Mairi Barton Mairi Barton is a reporter with The West Australian newspaper in Perth. These reports were written in April 1998. A religious revival among Aboriginal people in the remote North-West town of Nullagine - once labelled the arrest capital of Australia - has drastically reduced the number of arrests and jailings. Police in Nullagine, 184 km north of Newman (in WA), claim drunken domestic fights which once dogged the community have virtually disappeared and the residents seem happier and healthier. The only sufferer is the local pub, the Conglomerate Hotel, which once kept six staff busy. Last month the lessee went into receivership after the town’s 100 to 150 Aboriginal people turned to Christianity in November. Since then, the Aboriginal community has reduced the number of arrests to just a handful and there have been no jailings. They gave up alcohol and labelled the hotel “the devil’s place”. Instead of going to the bar each night to drink, they sit happily in circles under the stars, pray and sing gospel songs at the Yirrangkaji community on the outskirts of the town. When The West Australian visited last week, they were eager to share their new-found love of God and talk about the positive changes they have made to their lives. said the arrival of religion spelt disaster for his business, but he did not hold it against the Aboriginal people. “I couldn’t sit here and say it was a bad thing,” he said. “If they are better off, then it’s a wonderful thing.” ... 156 Australian Reports The two men believed responsible for their religious conversion - local Aboriginal men who left town a couple of years ago and returned late last year as changed men, keen to share the Christian message - were out of town. Senior Constable Mal Kay, the officer in charge at Nullagine, said the drop in crime could be explained in part by the fact that the population dropped every time big groups from the community left town to attend religious meetings around the Pilbara and in Northam. Most arrests in town in the past have been assaults and woundings stemming from alcohol. Mother sees her life in a new light Mother-of-two Lisa Dalbin used to be a weekly visitor to the Nullagine police lockup for assault, anti-social behaviour or just to sober up. The 26-year-old would spend her pension on alcohol, get jealous over her man and find herself in punch-ups with women who were her friends when she was sober. That was before she found Christianity and gave up drinking last November. “We pray and sing every morning and every night,” she said. “We have church meetings every Wednesday and Saturday.” Miss Dalbiii has worked off her fines through community work, picking up rubbish and working in the children’s kitchen - where the children have breakfast, shower and change into their uniforms before school. Her favourite drink used to he port and she freely admits that it made her act mad. She does not miss it. She is happier, has money in her pocket to go shopping and takes better care of her sons, aged five and eight, now she is sober. She is even studying to get her driver’s license, a privilege which seemed out of reach to her a few months ago. The only time she sees the police now is when they stop to say hello in the street. Her cousin Phillip Bennell, 39, who spent much of his youth behind bars because of alcohol-related strife, has also been sober for about four months since “he saw the light”. 157 Renewal Journal God is his master now, not grog, he says. “To follow the Lord is good, you know. It keeps you away from trouble. Alcohol is a killer for anybody, but especially the Aboriginal people. I was one of the worst blokes, locked up all the time away from my kids. I sp my life in and out of prison.” Mr Bennell said it would be easy for him to turn back to drink, but he did not want to because he had realised the damage it could do. “I had two feet in the grave and what I was doing was adding a final nail in the coffin,” he said. “But when I found the Lord I gave it all away. I didn’t want to die a young bloke.” He said he no longer wanted to drink because he had a 12-year-old daughter and her life was more important to him than alcohol. Mr Bennell said the footpath outside the Conglomerate Hotel had been the site of many arguments and brawls, but now the community held prayer meetings across the road. If they ventured into the pub, it was only to get a cool drink. “There used to be a lot of tough drinkers at the reserve,” he said. “They gave it away because they found a bit of peace and a better way of life. A lot of people here want their health, and their children brought up in a good environment. The West Australian. Used with permission. 158 Australian Reports Kimberleys Ablaze in north western Australia Report by Dr Robert McQuillan, editor of the Australian Evangel, the national monthly magazine of the Assemblies of God. An enthusiastic Max Wiltshire, Australian Aboriginal Outreach (AAO) coordinator, shared briefly at the Assemblies of God Western Australia state conference some of the exciting things God is doing in the Kimberley region in 1998. A number of Aboriginal leaders had accompanied him to the conference, including Kenny Boomer who received his ministry credential. Pastor Wiltshire also acknowledged the role Western Australia Women’s Ministries had played in supplying a bus for the AAO work . ‘ Fire is falling in the Kimberleys,’ he reported. ‘Thousands are being powerfully touched by God in salvation, healing and release. And in many other ways too, some of which are unbelievable. Hundreds of people are falling out - not with each other, but “falling out” under the anointing.’ Affectionately known by Aboriginals as ‘the man in the big hat,’ the AAO coordinator went on to add that so much has happened since their outstanding Christmas meetings. ‘The Kimberleys are ablaze,’ he said. ‘The fire of God in the hearts of his people burns brighter than ever, new churches have been started, others have doubled in size - one leaping from 10 percent of the community to 90 percent in just a few weeks. Further afield in the Pilbara area the move of God has been so intense that the local hotel went into receivership. ‘This move has seen the number of Christians doubled in the area over the last twelve months, which means our conventions are climbing toward a thousand people in the evening meetings. Are the manifestations still occurring as at first in this move of God? Yes, in fact the increase that we are seeing is in direct relationship to the outstanding manifestations of the Spirit. 159 Renewal Journal ‘But - what manifestations are we talking about? The usual? Yes, laughing, shaking, rolling, crying, running and so on continue. However, if these are the normal, what are the outstanding ones? In truth, some would make you cry in awe and wonder. Such as seeing people falling under the power of the Spirit as they give their offering to the Lord. As they have come to the front and put their offering in the containers, they ‘fall out’ there and then as the blessing of giving overcomes them. ‘After a recent crusade, one Aboriginal lady handed a ministry offering to the speaker on behalf of the church, and fell at his feet, again under the power and blessing of giving. ‘We have also seen folks falling out in the opening prayer as the very name of Jesus is mentioned. They just fall from the seats to the floor, not knowing they are meant to wait until the altar call before they let the Lord touch them. Back up singers are unable to stand, also people bringing items are unable to finish them because the anointing is so great. ‘Actually, it’s a case of the mores! We need more buses to pick up more people to receive more of the blessing! Transporting Aboriginals to services is a cultural thing. It shows you care and that the meetings are very important. Provide transport and they’ll be there with open hearts.’ Reproduced with permission from the Australian Evangel, August 1998, page 32. 160 Australian Reports Reconciliation in Australia In March 1998 Jeff Beacham wrote about a special moment of reconciliation in Melbourne. Pastor Roland asked an Australian Aboriginal woman and her son to come forward and together we all asked them to forgive the White man for coming to this land and killing their people and stealing their children. The reconciliation of Native peoples has been a major issue here in Australia as it is in many other nations right now. The Australian Government had refused to issue a public apology to the Aborigine People for past abuses. This woman sobbed so loud and testified that she had been stolen from her natural family. She cried out that she forgave the White people and her adoptive parents who were also white. This was perhaps the most moving service I have been a part of. The whole congregation, from the youngest to the eldest was moved to tears. The resulting release and freedom as incredible. Four hours later, people were still lingering in a persistent presence of the Spirit. Source: Awakening The first National Day of Prayer and Fasting on 6 November was another significant time of reconciliation at the Praise Corroboree in Canberra in 1998, which was ‘a cross-cultural gathering to glorify God’. 161 Renewal Journal British-Australian Reconciliation Report by Brian Mills, team leader from England, on their visit in September and October 1998. We are becoming “hot news” out here. In some of the States even the Premiers know we are here and why, and are being invited to meetings. We have had politicians at some of the key meetings, as well as church leaders. We’ve also been on television and many radio stations, both local and nationwide. Everywhere our visit is being introduced as “Historical”, “Never before”, “The most significant event in the city or state” - It really is awesome! And we continue to be in awe of what God is doing. Still the weeping is going on in almost every encounter - public or more private. The Reconciliation and Prayer journey team from England have been in South Australia and Tasmania. Both are the most English parts of Australia. South Australia is a free-settled state, with large numbers having emigrated since the Second World War. The meetings in South Australia were well-planned and prepared for. At our first meeting in Adelaide nearly 450 people had gathered from across the churches and from aboriginal and white backgrounds. A guard of honour formed to welcome us as a Team into the meeting, at the end of which the aboriginal Christian community greeted us. With shackles around our feet, and conscious of our convict heritage into Australia, we were all overcome with weeping - so unlike the welcome that the early settlers received. Presentations were made to each member of the team, our shackles removed, and an aboriginal flag, overlaid with “Arise Shine your light has come” was unfurled and presented to us. When we spoke the words of apology tears flowed in the audience, as first aborigines came forward to receive our apology, then white Christian leaders. The following morning we were in a church in an “English” suburb. As a result of a word on God’s father-heart, 500 people came forward to pass through the “tunnel of love” in the form of a long white cloth, which we have been using in the light of Acts 19:11-12. As folk passed into the tunnel and came into touch with the cloth, God was giving us as a team direct words of knowledge, and people began falling under the power of 162 Australian Reports the Spirit. The morning service stretched to over four hours! That evening all the main State candidates in the October 3rd federal election were present in the service in another church, and were prayed for publically and some personally. The following days were spent at on-site prayer locations in and around the city. Each was significant and was accompanied by prophetic acts, and the power of God breaking through. We visited an aboriginal land settlement, formerly a home for “stolen generation” aboriginal children, wrested from their parents as infants. There, a “fountain of tears” had been erected as a memorial. As we walked onto the site, we all began to weep, and were on our knees in the dust sobbing over the shame of what our forefathers had done. (Even today 45 per cent of all aboriginal children disappear before the age of two!) Among those who welcomed us was Tessa, a single Mum with her two children. She was one of the stolen generation. The previous night one of the team had prayed with her and God met with her and totally transformed and healed her of all her hurts and problems of identity. She now looked radiant and presented us with two aboriginal paintings. Over the next few days, we met different members of her family who thanked us profusely for coming and for the healing that had come to them. “You’ve done more for our family in one encounter than the Government has ever done”, one invalid brother said! This is typical of how God has been dealing with personal needs, and, in the process, dealing with some of the communal hurts and spiritual bondages. Seven women, brought to Australia as ‘orphans’ after the war, met with us at what used to be their orphanage, (now a Bible college, officially opened last week). It was the first time they had returned to the place that they associate with the worst period of their lives. They were angry, bitter and very critical of the system that caused them to come to Australia as children, away from their family and parents in England! They described the horror of what became like a prison regime - the sexual, physical and verbal abuse, the harsh treatment, the lies and most of all the lack of love and loss of identity (some even had their names changed!). It was a harrowing time as we listened to them, apologised, and then prayed with them. The Tasmanian visit was described by Brian Pickering as “the most 163 Renewal Journal significant part of our whole journey”. Tasmania is also English in feel, with lush green countryside and many colonial reminders in architecture. But that’s where the similarity ends! Tasmania was mostly settled with convicts, with 97,000 passing through the Port Arthur penal colony and 15,000 women through the “Female Factory” in Hobart! Today’s population of the island (larger than Ireland), is a mere four times that number. Port Arthur was the male prison, and also the site of the Dunblane type massacre that occurred in 1996. Thousands of Irish ‘rebels’ had been transported here. It was a place of death, of dehumanising prison rule. Prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, in silence, for months on end. Many went mad or committed suicide. After a poignant tour, we met in the “Separate Prison’s chapel”, where prisoners used to be brought in to the church services with masks over their faces, sat in isolated cubicles, preached at with a Gospel of judgement. There, we reenacted a prophetic picture God had given to an Australian intercessor. Artefacts from the museum - shackles, a whip and a prison uniform were presented by us to the Australians as symbols of the torture we imposed. They then handed them back to us, as we wept before them, saying “we don’t need these anymore”. Over 3,000 boys had been incarcerated in the prison, and many had died and were buried on the “Island of the Dead” - just offshore. What have we done to our offspring? This was our constant cry. It was amazing how God continually orchestrated what was happening, and provided just the right people in each situation - descendants of convicts, of prison officers, of the military, stolen generation aborigines, lost generation orphans. Britain’s economic policy of turning away from Australia in favour of European trading ties caused the collapse of the Tasmanian apple industry. In one year their export output dropped from six million crates of apples to 360,000 crates. We met farmers and their descendants who had been made destitute and bankrupt as a result of this. The pain we constantly found in Christian people over their recent memories and family story was almost overwhelming. Yet each time this pain and anger was confronted, we saw immediate release. All we did was apologise. God did the rest! We met women whose forbears had been in the female 164 Australian Reports factory. 800 children had been aborted there - and their bones were discovered when the church, now on the site, was being built! Who made them pregnant? The majority of people in the congregations in both Hobart and Launceston had been affected in some way by this history. As we spoke at a joint-church meeting in Hobart, people started weeping in their seats - the same has happened in most of the meetings. Note: The team moved through each of the Australian states with official functions in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. Media attention continued. A television documentary is being made of the visit. Please pray for this. 165 Renewal Journal Christian Life Centre, Mt Annan Report by Pastor Brian Shick, a member of the staff at Christian Life Centre Mount Annan, Sydney. Christian Life Centre Mount Annan is an Assembly of God church located on 37 acres of park-like land near Campbelltown on the south west of Sydney NSW Australia. They have been experiencing a sustained outpouring of the Holy Spirit since the 5th of November 1994. History Adrian Gray, the senior Pastor of Christian Life Centre Mount Annan was born again in the mid 1960’s during a period of revival in Campbelltown NSW. This initial experience of the power and work of the Holy Spirit left a distinct impression on his spirit and believing for and working towards full-scale revival has subsequently become a major focus in his relationship with the Lord and in his ministry. Old photos of crusades and sermon titles testify to the fact that his life message hasn’t altered since his early ministry days. Having desired for some time to find a permanent home for the church which Adrian and Kathy Gray have pastored since February 1975, the current property was purchased in 1984 after a prophetic word that was given to them while on an overseas trip to America. Over the years there have been many prophecies over Adrian and the church by people such as David Cartledge, Frank Houston and Dale Sexton from the USA declaring that Mount Annan would become a centre of revival. An outstanding prophetic sign occurred a short while before this outpouring took place when a helicopter flying over the church called the fire department reporting our building on fire. Thirteen fire trucks screamed up the church driveway looking for the fire to extinguish, but there was no fire. When the realisation came that it was a spiritual fire that had been witnessed great awe came upon the church. This happened at the conclusion of ten days of prayer and fasting for revival. At the arrival of the move of the Holy Spirit on the first weekend of November 1994, like the church in Toronto, Canada could only be 166 Australian Reports described as sovereign. Randwick Baptist Church, which is in more central Sydney, experiencing the same outpouring at exactly the same time testifies to the reality of it being a sovereign event. In fact there were numbers of churches around the nation that experience a similar occurrence about the same time. For many months the church had been praying for a visitation of God without perhaps really realising what that meant. An evangelistic crusade with an “end-times emphasis” had been planned for that weekend. The evangelist recently returned from Toronto Canada preached his evangelistic message and called people forward who wanted a fresh touch from God. Immediately over 300 people responded and as the evangelist and pastors prayed the presence of God came. The Father’s heart of love was revealed to the people and as hands were gently laid on them they fell to the floor under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They lay there for a long time and when they got up there were dozens of amazing testimonies of healing and restoration and life changing transformations. The next day, Sunday, the Holy Spirit came again, and then again on Monday and Tuesday and in every meeting held since that time. The anointing was so strong that many people in those first months would fall to the floor as soon as they came through the door. Two weeks later on arriving back from Toronto, Adrian and Kathy and the leadership team, convinced that this was God and the fulfilment of the many prophecies, made a decision to commit the church to revival, hence the church’s logo and motto. This is one of the key elements that has set Christian Life Centre Mount Annan apart from the many other churches in Australia that have experienced this move of the Holy Spirit. Renewal did not just become an appendage to the existing program, it became the entire program. The Holy Spirit is free to move however he wants in any of the services. While most pastors would say that this is the case in their churches, many have actually limited the style of meeting that is characteristic of this current move, to one or two services a week and the other meetings are “normal”. Mid week services were started almost immediately and have continued now for four years. These are held Wednesday 10.30 a.m. and 7.30 p.m. 167 Renewal Journal and Friday 7.30 p.m. On Saturday nights there is a youth service at 7.30 p.m. There is also the Waves of Power International Ministry School at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday nights. These services and the ministry school attract many people from other denominations much like the renewal/revival meetings around the world. Every occasion that the church gathers is a revival time. Because of the numbers of people just visiting, it is hard to actually determine how many people in each service actually belong to the church. There have been approximately 200,000 people pass through the church doors since the outpouring began. The official membership has grown from 300 prior to renewal to 700 at present. With all the services added together, 1,200 people are ministered to per week with many more during conferences. Strengths One of the main strengths at Christian Life Centre Mount Annan is team and body ministry. Since that first weekend in November 1994 the staff alone has grown from three to nineteen full and part-time members. The church also has a prayer ministry team of approximately 120 members who are trained to pray for people at the five services each week and the many conferences that have been held. The ministry style as such has not changed dramatically, as the church had always been a team environment. However the numbers of people actively involved in some form of ministry have radically increased. The pastoral care team for example has now has 60 members and the worship team has over 90. The youth group attendance has grown from 25 to 90 with young people coming to Christ every week. A recent baptism service saw 33 people baptised. Marc Dupont, prophesied that the church would be overrun by people, but that God was also going to send in many strong leaders. The staff is continually surprised by the quality of people that God is joining to the church. There is now very strong leadership at all levels in the church. Christian Life Centre Mount Annan held their first conference in February 1996. They invited leaders from all over Australia to come and hear Val Dodd from the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship lay down some 168 Australian Reports foundational principles that they had learned with regard to maintaining and pastoring the move of God. Essentially these were “not putting anyone’s name on it” and “walking in God’s love and giving it away”. These were two principles that Christian Life Centre Mount Annan was quick to embrace. It is hard to promote something without having a name associated with it and the leadership of the church has been humbled by the way the profile of the church has been lifted by the Lord these last four years. Pastor Adrian Gray in particular is very careful in this regard. The second principle of “walking in God’s love and giving it away” has been another key to the maintaining of the move of the Holy Spirit at the church. Though the church very definitely has a local commission, they also recognise a national and international call. They see themselves as a well or a resource centre for revival in the nation. To this end they are constantly releasing teams to travel out to fuel the movement of the Holy Spirit all over the Asia/Pacific rim. They have also hosted approximately 20 conferences over the last four years, bringing world class revival speakers within the reach average believers here in Australia. The Scriptures teach that those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed and often it is while teams are out ministering that those in the church recognise a lifting in the level of anointing. Through these conferences, speaking engagements and various inquiries, the Christian Life Centre has set up the Revival NOW! International Pastors and Leaders Network. This is not a new denomination, but a gathering together of key men and women across the nation to collectively pursue national and global revival. It is a great privilege in this to work alongside many great man and women from all denominations. Another strength found at Christian Life Centre Mount Annan is the worship. Not only is there a great team of musicians and singers, but the congregation themselves are great worshippers. In February 1998 the church released their first live worship album. Two national wholesalers have already picked up the album and rights to it have also been given to two distributors in Asia. One of these has lyrics translated into Thai. This worship is having a profound impact on churches all over the nations. 169 Renewal Journal The future Adrian Gray is a strong visionary leader and so the future is full of challenge and blessing as the church seeks to fulfil its destiny in God. There are plans already under way for church planting both locally and overseas. A campus of the Waves of Power International Ministry School is opening in Thailand shortly and in January 1999, a Christian primary school called Mount Annan Christian College will be starting on the church’s property. Everything is on the increase since the arrival of renewal/revival. What is most exciting is that the wave of souls being saved has already begun and at almost every service people are being drawn supernaturally to salvation. It is Revival NOW! Other Australian Reports Issues of the Renewal Journal have these Australian Reports. # 1 Pentecost in Arnhem Land - Djiniyini Gondarra # 2 Local Revivals in Australia - Stuart Piggin # 3 Renewal in a College Community - Brian Edgar # 3 Spirit Wave - Darren Trinder # 4 Sounds of Revival - Sue Armstrong # 5 Renewal Blessings - Anglican reports # 6 Revival Worship - Geoff Waugh # 7 Times of Refreshing - Greg Beech # 7 Catch the Fire - Dennis Plant # 8 The ‘No Name’ Revival - Brian Medway # 9 Building a Better World by Dave Andrews - Dorothy Mathieson # 15 The New Believers – Dianna Bagnall # 19 Redeeming the Arts – Sandra Goodie 170 7 Global Reports The end of the 20th century saw revival exploding across the globe, along with accelerating persecution and poverty. Here are a few reports from the end of the century. Thailand An entire village in Thailand became Christians after a prayer for rain was answered, according to Sowers Ministry. Lun Poobuanak, a Thai missionary among the Buddhists and animists in Kalasin Province, said a village leader interrupted a Christian service, promising that if the Christian God would bring rain to save their crops, all 134 village families would become Christians. Lun and the other Christians prayed and fasted for three days, and on the fourth day, an intense cloudburst flooded the canals and rice fields. Source: IRN News, January, 1998 Renewal Journal Revival in an Indian Village Report from Dr Paul Pilai, Founder of Indian Inland Mission. One of our mission stations in a village in central India, named Tarti, was under the grip of fear of an evil spirit that destroyed the crop every year. Three families came to know Christ and a small church was established in a hut. The church prayed for the safety of the crop and no damage took place last year. The whole village is turning to Christ and a great revival is taking place there. Most of the villagers wanted to receive Christ as their Lord and God. They stopped all the animal sacrifices to the evil spirits and the demons. None of the evil spirits attacked the crop or the villagers. They are learning Christian songs and pray loud to Jesus to make the demons know that the true God is in the midst of them. The Lord’s presence in the midst of them is known everywhere. How meaningful it was when Elijah prayed before the Baal worshippers “let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant, and that 1 have done all these things at thy word” (1 Kings 18:36). We praise the Lord that our ministry started in that unknown village at God’s word and command. He proved to His servants that He is the Lord God Almighty, the only true and living God, yesterday, today and forever the same. Indian Inland Mission Newsletter, July 1998, pages 3-4. 172 Global Reports 30,000 decisions for Jesus in New Delhi Christ for all Nations were in New Delhi from 25 February to 1 March, 1998. New Delhi is a city of ten million people and is the capital city of the nation of India, as well as the political nerve centre for the whole country. In addition to this, it is known as a Hindu stronghold, a fact that is made even more significant by recent advances in the national political arena for the Hindu political party. The CfaN team headed to this city only two weeks after the end of national general elections, to hold a Gospel outreach in the huge Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. The event was billed as “The Good News Festival.” The Festival was launched with a VIP banquet that was held the night before the stadium meetings began. Two hundred and fifty local and international dignitaries attended, among them a number of ambassadors from other countries. Reinhard Bonnke preached a direct and clear Gospel message and many leading citizens were seen to respond publicly to the salvation call. 250 churches participated Pastors and churches from across the city joined together to host the event and Pastor Robert Jeyaraj was appointed as chairman of the event, overseeing the activities of the two hundred and fifty participating churches. It was also planned that running simultaneously with the evening meetings in the stadium, pastors and church workers from the region would be invited to attend a Fire Conference, which would be held each day during the week. An idea of the excitement generated by the whole event can be gauged by the fact that over four thousand delegates registered for the Fire Conference, many travelling considerable distances to be present. Reinhard Bonnke, Peter van den Berg and Brent Regis handled the Fire Conference sessions. On the final day, this particular event culminated with Reinhard Bonnke personally laying hands on the four thousand delegates before they each received a complimentary copy of the book Evangelism by Fire. There is power in the prayers of the righteous! 173 Renewal Journal Despite restrictive security measures at the stadium entrances and unseasonable cold weather, tens of thousands of people flocked to the meetings nightly to hear the Good News of the Gospel as Reinhard Bonnke preached. The meetings were characterised by an amazing attentiveness among the large crowd, transfixed by the Word of God as the Gospel message rang out across the vast arena. Each night the power of the Word was seen as thousands upon thousands responded positively to the invitation to receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour, to the exclusion of all other gods. The two thousand counsellors were kept very busy, sometimes late into the night, handling the many respondents. By the final meeting, over thirty thousand decision cards had been handed in, and these were immediately funnelled into the follow-up system to be incorporated into the local churches. The follow-up material was available in both English and Hindi, the predominant local language. Healings After the presentation of the Gospel message each night, a public prayer was offered for all those who were sick. The crowd was amazed at the testimonies that followed as people pressed forward to report what God had done for them. Of the many hundreds healed, only a small number could be interviewed publicly due to time restraints, but the crowd shouted with joy as each person, together with witnesses, gave glory to God for their healing. A young man by the name of Mr. Patel came with his father to report that his right eye, which had been totally blind for five years, could now see perfectly. Everyone rejoiced as he correctly imitated the preacher by lifting his fingers to the sky. A woman with tears in her eyes reported that a cancerous lump in her right breast was now completely gone. The crowd erupted in a shout of praise. Miss Naidoo, a young Hindu woman, was brought by her relatives to show that despite the fact that she had been deaf from birth, she could now hear very clearly. Reinhard Bonnke demonstrated this by whispering into her ear and she was able to shout out the reply. Fanatics opposed to the Christian message were so incensed by the miracle testimonies, that they printed out special handbills denying the validity of what was happening inside the arena each night. These they proceeded to hand out to the thousands who were standing in line at the stadium entrances. What the people thought about it all was graphically 174 Global Reports illustrated at the close of each meeting by the fact that while thousands of the handbills lay discarded on the ground, not a single follow-up booklet was picked up by the cleaners! When the time finally came for the CfaN team to leave New Delhi, the general feeling of all involved could be summed up in the words of the Festival Chairman Rev. Robert Jeyaraj. AWe have seen the power of the Gospel in action during these days in Jawarhal Nehru Stadium, and we will reap the benefits for many months to come.” Only the Lord of the harvest knows the full extent of the harvest. You, our Missions Partners, are a vital part of this harvesting team and we praise God for each and every one who is faithful in prayer and financial support. He is the One who sees and He is the One who rewards. To God be the glory! Source: Asuza, Global Revival News Tibet Responses to Words of Hope’s radio outreach efforts to Tibetan Buddhists nearly tripled in 1997. Vice President for Broadcasting Lee DeYoung told Mission Network News on 23 February, 1998 that his group received over 700 letters from Tibetans in both 1995 and 1996. Last year that number jumped to over 2,000. Source: Global Revival News, March 1998. Syria A Christian ministry in Syria, known in the USA as Syrian Evangelistic Educational Development, reports that a great revival has broken out due to prayer and fasting by the believers of that ministry. As a result, many Muslims have accepted Jesus as their Saviour. Additionally, for the first time in recent history, the government has allowed this ministry to print and distribute thousands of New Testaments. To help, contact <info@christianaid.org>. Source: FIA News, 5 March, 1998 175 Renewal Journal Cairo, Egypt Last night they wouldn’t let me into church! The service was supposed to begin at 7 pm, and in Egypt this meant that most people would arrive around 7:30. So you can imagine my surprise when I arrived on time only to find dozens of people walking away from the church! Hundreds of people were in the street trying to make their way through the gate into the church and were being told that there was no more room. It was very difficult to fight my way through the crowds into the church courtyard which was packed full of people watching the service on a very large screen. I finally went into the church and found one seat saved for me by a friend. The place was absolutely packed and the worship time was in full swing even though it was only a few minutes past 7:00 pm. I knew that every Sunday school room and meeting room in the church as well as the parking lot at the back had closed circuit television screens transmitting the service to them. It was the first night of the Luis Palau revival meetings in this church, which is the largest Protestant church in the Middle East. Probably more than 3000 people were packed into the compound! In Egypt, Christian meetings have to be held in Christian facilities so it was impossible to consider renting an auditorium or stadium for this event. But as the pastor was introducing the American Argentineanborn Evangelist, he reminded the audience that Luis would have a nightly hearing of more people than would fit in the large Cairo soccer stadium! How was this? Through an ingenious program developed by this particular church, the complete service is video taped and after the service dozens of people work all night to make hundreds of duplicate videos. Early the next morning, couriers travel to all parts of Egypt to deliver one or more tapes to the 570 churches that have agreed to take part in this outreach! It is expected that around 150,000 participated each day. Pray for the tens of thousands of people in hundreds of churches across this country. Also pray for God’s protection. Source: FIA News 176 Global Reports Sudan Despite the harsh Arabization and Islamization policy by the government, the Christian Church in Sudan is growing fast. In the slums of Khartoum a revival has started. Small churches, often built of clay, mushroom everywhere. The Jesus Film is shown every night in another church. Twenty years ago only 5 percent of the Sudanese population was Christian. Ten years ago this number had grown to 10 percent. Now about 20 percent of the people in Sudan is Christian! The Anglican Church has grown from 4 congregations in 1984 to 280 now. Because of the arabization policy a strong Arab speaking Christian Church is arising which has the fire to spread the gospel even to other countries in the Middle East. These Christians risk severe persecution and even death. Sudanese Muslims receive dreams Many Muslims come to faith in Jesus through God-given dreams. Like an influential Nuba Muslim in Sudan. One night he received a clear dream. He saw himself getting baptized in a Christian church, while the believers sung a beautiful hymn in Arabic. He remembered the last part of this song very well: “Receive Jesus and you will be happy.” Then the door of the church opened and he woke up. “I noticed that the door of my dormitory was open, but I know for sure that I had closed it the night before.” He shared his dream with his wife and she couldn’t sleep that night. The next morning his son of 13 told him that he had had a similar dream. “I was in a dark room when suddenly there appeared a light. Then I saw daddy with a cross in his hand, where this light came from.” When the Nuba man heard this, he decided the get baptized. His whole family is now receiving Bible lessons. These kinds of stories come in from all over Sudan. More freedom of religion in Sudan While in South Sudan a civil war is going on and the rights of Christians are trampled, Christians in the North speak of more freedom of religion. According to an evangelist in Khartoum, the constitution was changed recently and now guarantees freedom of religion, freedom to evangelize and freedom to plant churches anywhere in the country. He tried this out immediately: in March he held a street evangelism campaign of a few days in the north of Khartoum. The population is mainly Muslim there. 177 Renewal Journal About 3,000 to 5,000 people showed up at the campaign that included a showing of the Jesus Film. “People were even standing on the roofs to be able to see the film,” according to the evangelist. “The gospel was not hindered at all. This is a miracle of God and a fruit of your prayers for us. Just because of the war many Muslims come to faith in Jesus.” Source: Joel News, 25 April, 1998 Zambia “Please ensure that Bibles are distributed in all corners of this country to give every Zambian the opportunity to have the Scriptures in their respective local language,” was the challenge issued by State President FTJ Chiluba on the occasion of the Bible Society of Zambia’s (BSZ) Annual General Meeting held on Saturday March 7, 1998. The President continued: “The Word of God has life and power that can shape families and society. As people search for truth they need to experience the liberating power of the Gospel.” He pointed out that the Society’s work of translating, printing and distributing the Scriptures was of vital importance and that there was a pressing need for an increase in local fundraising. The President said it was “embarrassing” for the church in Zambia to always rely on external assistance, and he pledged 100 million kwatcha (US$60,000) to the Bible Society to be made available during the current budget year. He challenged all Christians in Zambia to contribute generously to God’s work. Lack of giving to the work of God was the reason that many people failed to balance their budgets, the President said. “You can only expect to receive God’s blessing if you give back to him from what you have earned,” he added. The Rev Peter Ndhlovu, National Chairman of the Bible Society in Zambia, commended the Government for its commitment to the Bible cause as he thanked President Chiluba for such a challenging message. Source: ChristianNet, 18 March 1998. 178 Global Reports Uganda Charles Carroll reports: One of my favorite verses is Habakkuk 1:5, where God says, “Look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” I want to give you a beautiful illustration of this. In January someone sent me a copy of a speech given recently by Y. K. Museveni, president of Uganda. Reuters news agency says Museveni has emerged as one of the most articulate champions of change in Africa (21/1/98). I think you will find this speech both amazing and encouraging. Remarks by President Museveni Thank you, Your Excellencies, for the opportunity to share some thoughts about the spiritual condition of the peoples of Africa. As I observe the tribal differences, religious divisions, poverty and disease, lack of sufficient educational opportunities for our children, political upheaval and racial strife, it becomes obvious that the principles of Jesus Christ have not penetrated Africa enough! It may seem strange for some of you to think that I would say this about Christ, because I know many of you may think this is too religious and not a very practical solution to the problems I have just mentioned. Furthermore, I know that most of you do not think of me as a very religious man - in fact, I do not think that about myself. My wife is a much better believer and prayer than I am, and those who have known me through the years know that I have had problems with religious people. As I have grown older, I realize that all of the problems have not been theirs, but I do think that those of us who claim to love God ought to love one another - this is one of the most basic attributes of a follower of Christ. As the years have gone by, however, even though I have not become a member of any special religious group, I have decided to follow Jesus Christ with my whole heart. I find in him the inner strength, the precepts and the lifestyle that can help me and all the people of Uganda to solve the problems we face individually and as a nation. It is one of the interesting facts about Jesus Christ that people in every nation of the 179 Renewal Journal world regardless of religion, whether one is a believer or a non-believer, consider Jesus the greatest authority on human relations in history. His views on that subject have transcended all religions and cultures. It is remarkable that the person of Jesus Christ is accepted by everyone - even when they are not attracted by institutional religion. With that in mind, I want to stress at least three significant precepts that Christ taught and modelled, which if practised, will help Africa: forgiveness, humility and love. Forgiveness - Jesus Christ is the only person ever to come up with the idea of unconditional forgiveness, even of one’s enemies. He went so far as to say, if you don’t forgive, God won’t forgive you. In countries where animosity and division go back for generations and even thousands of years, how can peace come to a person, a group of persons or a nation if at some point we do not forgive and let God take the vengeance on our enemies - if that is what he decides to do? It has also been discovered that if we do not forgive, in the final analysis, it hurts us more to hate than it does those we hate. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the message of Christ on forgiveness is the only practical solution to healing a nation’s wounds and bringing unity. Humility - This is one of the most important attributes necessary to become a good leader. When you observe leaders at all levels of society, throughout Africa and I suppose throughout the world, you find them being overcome by power, greed and self-interest. Somehow, after they have attained the prominence and positions of trust, they forget the people, their poverty and need. They forget that they could become a great instrument to help their country, and instead they begin to live like little kings and dictators. Only with a humble spirit, one which recognizes that we who have been given opportunities greater than most are in fact servants of God and the people rather than masters, will we be able to help our countries move from Third World status and lead the people to a new day. As the Scripture says, God resists the proud and gives help to the humble. If you have time to pray for me, please pray that God will give me the strength, wisdom and sense to be a humble servant. Love - It has been fascinating to me to discover that for centuries people who have been the most thoughtful, the most respected, and who have 180 Global Reports made the most lasting contributions to the human race have all agreed that the highest and greatest purpose for their lives has been to seek to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. These are people like Moses - the great lawgiver; Abraham - the man of faith and father of nations; William Wilberforce - the leader against the slave trade; Mother Teresa - and on and on. Jesus Christ said the sum of all the law and prophets is to love God and love one another. If love for God and one another were the rule and the prevailing attitude in our nations and communities, all problems would move gradually to resolution. Even when love is not the rule for most of the population and only exists among the few, great things happen that give hope and life in a world starved for love and caring. Today, as we meet together, let’s resolve to take Jesus Christ out of the religious setting in which we have imprisoned him and walk with him along the dusty roads of Africa where he feels much more at home. Source: Awakening, 18 March 1998 <ccarroll@singnet.com.sg>. Healings in Uganda Bishop Grivas K. Musisi, a Ugandan Christian leader claimed in an interview in the USA in April 1998 that “God has healed 223 people from AIDS” in his country. Each one of these healings,” he says, “has been confirmed medically.” Bishop Musisi, senior pastor of the Prayer Palace Church in Kampala, Uganda, and who oversees of 75 other charismatic non-denominational churches throughout the country, stated that he believes that God can do the same for people who are HIV positive or have full-blown AIDS in the United States. Musisi stated: “I believe that the solution is to come back to God. If a person can turn to God, God is willing to heal that person. He did it to the people with leprosy and he can do it with those with AIDS. God has been kind enough to confirm it through his Word. It has become a calling to everyone at the church to preach and pray for the sick and see people get healed, not just from AIDS, but from many other diseases as well. Daily, over 500 intercessors cry to God for healings at the Prayer Palace Church.” Source: Dan Wooding via IRN News 181 Renewal Journal South Africa Pastor Aré J. Van Eck reports: Our Congregation is called Nuwe Lewe Christensentrem, that is the Afrikaans for New Life Christian Centre. We are in no way a large congregation, with attendance seldom more than 80 and normally around 35 - 45. Part of this is due to the fact that we are in a rural area, which is church-riddled, but mostly because we are multi-racial. Most of our attempts to try and work with other congregations fail, because we love souls more than skin colours! What I want to share about is the way in which God is visiting us. As for most preachers, I also went to local conferences (not being able to travel abroad) and had people like Benny Hinn, John Arnott, Rodney Howard-Browne and Randy Clark, pray over me and my wife, but always without any real manifestations. There was the occasional “going under” but not laughing, crying or being drunk for days - just to get back home and to find that God comes and touches his people anyway. Imagine an Afrikaans scene with Afrikaans speaking to coloured farm workers, normally the poorest people you can get, sitting cramped in a 3 roomed house (no, not 3 bedrooms, but only 3 rooms) some totally illiterate, about 16 in the one room singing Vineyard and Hillsongs which they have been taught and of which the words have been properly explained to them. Minutes later, they themselves start to pray, reading spontaneously out of the Word and laying prostrate under the power of the Holy Spirit, small children laughing in the Spirit, mom & dad repenting freely of hurts and sin. Praise be to God alone. I am no person of wealth, charisma or above average education. I was a policeman for almost 18 years; it is all of God. We are near a black residential are as well. Now there are small black kids that run away from home to attend church. Some of them got spankings because of it, but they keep coming. I am talking children from 6 years up to about 14 years of age. When I first ministered to a very small one who reacted on an altar call, I was annoyed to found that he did not even understand Afrikaans or English. All he said was “Jesu, Jesu.” The moment I started to pray for 182 Global Reports him, that little heart broke. He wept, fell under the power, and while lying on the ground, started to pray in his mother tongue, Xhosa. I asked one of his older friends to interpret. He was praying for a drunken mother and a father that left them on their own. An elderly black man got saved, and asked prayer for his child that has vanished more than three years ago. The police had closed the case as they had no leads to follow. We prayed and within two weeks she surfaced in a town 300 kilometres from us, after being taken away by somebody who promised her a job. They had her delivered to her parent’s house, and we had the privilege of leading her to the Lord as well! Is God good or is he good? Source: IRN News, 5 February, 1998 <aveck@intekom.co.za> China Neil Anderson reported in March 1998. We have just returned from a very fruitful trip to the northern provinces of China. People are on the move, and political and spiritual changes are occurring in the country. The meetings with the believers had to be secretly held at night, because as you know in China it is against the law to meet in homes for church services. In these houses, the rooms are very small. In every place we went they were packed to the limit, so much so that the people were practically sitting on each other. But it didn’t matter as the people sang and worshipped the Lord. There were some new people there who were coming to a meeting like this for the first time. At the end of the meetings all of them gave their hearts to the Lord. People heard the Word with much interest and excitement. Every night we prayed for people to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to be healed. All who were prayed for received the Holy Spirit, and spoke in tongues. We were able to minister to many of the church leaders in China and listened to what God is doing in their lives and ministry. Brother Bi, one of the key leaders of many of the house churches based in the northeastern part of China has a total of 20 full time workers working with him in 50-60 different churches in the area. He told us this story: 183 Renewal Journal In January a sister name Lan was going to see her brother, along with her little nephew. On the way to this place, it got dark and there was no light on their path. It was cold, foggy and nothing could be seen more than a foot in front of them. Suddenly a bright light shown before them. It was about 5 meters wide and this light led them all the way to her brother’s house. As soon as they stepped in to her brother’s house, the light disappeared. After they told this news to their family, five of them gave their lives to Jesus. Source: Hong Kong & China Report. Inner Mongolia Churches in Inner Mongolia are experiencing phenomenal growth. The region, located along China’s northern border, had 2,000 Christians in 1984, Lee DeYoung of Words of Hope radio told Mission Network News. Today there are 150,000 believers and at least 40 large churches, he said. DeYoung, who visited the capital city of Hohhot recently, said there is no explanation for the growth other than the work of the Holy Spirit. Source: Global Revival News, March 1998. Japan The light of Christ is beginning to dawn in Japan. Christians say they sense “a new beginning” as churches cooperate in prayer and evangelism, Paul Ariga of the All Japan Revival Mission told Religion Today. About 1,000 churches participated in the All Tokyo Revival Mission 18-27 September, 1998. Charismatic, evangelical, and Pentecostal congregations worked together to plan the event. Almost 20,000 “prayer warriors” — some from other countries — logged hours of prayers in preparation. About 1,000 people conducted evangelism outreaches in the months before the crusade. It was the first time that Japanese Protestants of all denominations worked together. Workers delivered Christian literature to 3 million homes in Tokyo in preparation for the crusade. Well-known Japanese Christian writer Ayako Miura wrote the tract, called “From 184 Global Reports Discouragement to Hope”. Another one million tracts were distributed at street meetings in the city. The crusade drew more than 120,000 people to 24 meetings. About 56,000 non-Christians attended 10 evangelistic services at the Nihon Budokan, and almost 6,000 made first-time professions of faith in Jesus Christ, Ariga said. Two outreaches were held for women and children. About 60,000 Christians attended revival services intended to deepen their commitments to Christ and inspire them to spread their faith. The number of responses is high for Japan. About 2.5% of the population is Christian and most churches average 30 members, Operation World says. There are 3,000 Protestant churches in Tokyo, a city of 30 million, and 7,700 Protestant churches in Japan. Some cities and towns do not have a Christian church. Most Japanese claim no personal religion, but follow the customs of traditional religions including Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. About 100 New Age style offshoots of those religions spring up every year. Those influences, and Japan’s history of offenses during World War II and other eras, have created a “spiritual bondage” that hinders people from receiving God’s grace, Ariga said. It takes the “spiritual warfare” of prayer, fasting, and confession of sins to break that bondage, he said. About 19,000 people have been praying for Tokyo since 1992. More than 1 million hours of prayer have been offered on behalf of the city in five years. To prepare for this year’s crusade, leaders asked the people to add 377,750 hours — one for every square mile of the city. About 3,000 people took part in a 40-day fasting chain prior to the event. Ariga and other leaders have visited other nations to confess Japan’s sins against them. He has visited Australia, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan in the past two years to ask forgiveness for the country’s brutal behavior in occupied territories. Christian leaders in each of those nations accepted his apology and pledged to mobilize people to pray 1 million hours for Japan. Reconciliation among Christians “breaks the bondage and the power of darkness and makes it easier for people to receive the message of Christ,” Ariga said. “We drew so many people—more than expected— 185 Renewal Journal from all over the island.” Before the revival, seven of Ariga’s eight relatives in Tokyo were not Christians. “Now I have eight relatives in Tokyo who are believers -- that is the result of prayer.” Source: Baptist Press, Religion Today; Joel News, 16 October, 1998. Russia In the Soviet Union, in 1989, there were 550,000 evangelicals. Ten years later there were 2.3 million in Russia alone. By the end of the century 80 million (mainly Russian Orthodox) claimed to be Christian in Russia, the fourth largest number of ‘Christians’ in a country after USA, Brazil and Mexico. Source: Hands for Christ; IRN News. Ash, Russell. The Top 10 of Everything, DK Publishing, Inc.: New York (1997), pg. 160-161! Arctic Areas Slavic Ministries and YWAM Norway are launching an initiative to reach the unreached living at the world’s extremes. The Arctic, Siberia and the Caucasus are rugged regions where numerous still-unreached indigenous peoples live. The Arctic is home to more than 20 indigenous nomadic & mostly unreached people groups. A School of Foreign Missions (SOFM) at Borgen, YWAM’s northernmost base, in Norway’s far north, was be led by the mission’s pioneers among the nomadic Nenets in April, 1998. Siberia, the ultimate godforsaken territory where thousands of political prisoners were sent to the gulags, and the Caucasus region, with the greatest concentration of unreached peoples in Europe, are the two other target areas of this thrust. Source: Europe NOW, Mon, 16 February, 1998. 186 Global Reports Bible in 2197 languages The Bible or portions thereof has now been printed in 2197 languages, 30 more than in 1996 reports the German Bible Society in Stuttgart. This grew to 2,400 by 2005 (United Bible Society). The Bible is not only the most sold book in the world, but also the most translated. The complete Old and New Testament is available in 363 languages by the end of the last century and 438 languages by the end of 2007. Source: Hope for Europe, February, 1998, and updates. France Pastor Marc Lebrun from France reports: Our visit to Toronto in 1995 has changed our lives and put our ministry in such a dynamic that we couldn’t expect before. When we came back the power of the spirit fell in the place and hit our little church in such a power that it is a wonder it remained. We organized soon renewal services and many people from around the Paris area and even further visited the church. Many were healed up, refreshed, with a new love for Jesus. The church grew and we needed twice to move our facilities. Our revival meetings draw around 200 people and the power of the Holy Spirit is increasing toward the revival outbreak we expect to come soon. Intercessory prayer, fasting, gifts of the spirit, have grown up and have become a normal way of life now. The prophetic anointing is tremendous. Lately during a four days revival with David Herzog (David is an American evangelist missionary to France) a word of knowledge revealed that some people in the crowd had a spirit of suicide. We had a call for those people to come forward, the spirit resisted, nobody came, but when we rebuked the spirit of death, several people were hit and fell onto the ground, screaming. Some of our people went into intercession. Then seven people came forward and the power of death was broken. At the altar call 13 people gave their lives to Jesus. Some were children, youth and some adults. A young boy was delivered from a spirit of violence and death, he saw a vision of angels, his mother says he is completely changed. When Naomi, a 13 187 Renewal Journal month old baby girl with second degree burns was healed through prayer, it resulted in the healing of all other children that were next to her in hospital. Please pray for us. We expect revival to explode and touch many people and churches around. If you have France on your heart, please pray with us and let us know. Christlum@aol.com ; http://members.aol.com/christlum/homecln.html Source: Awakening Holland Tessa de Ruiter from Elim Pentecostal Church in Hilversum, Holland, reports to have seen and heard angels: On 8 March 1998 during the worship-singing I heard voices singing that I had never heard before in church. These voices were the most beautiful ones I had ever heard, clear and pure. I knew that the voices did not come from the congregation for I know those, who are close to the platform, very well. After the preaching, when the invitation was given, my eyes were continually attracted to the platform, then I saw an angel on either side of the platform. I closed my eyes quickly and was thinking: “Lord, this cannot be real...” A voice within me said: “Look once more.” I looked and they were still there, beautiful, with gold-blond hair, clothed in white. In their hands they had a large golden horn, full of pure oil. I asked the Lord what they were doing and the answer was: “I have send them to serve and to anoint with my oil.” I asked him what they were waiting for and the answer was: The sign to start. “But, Lord, who will give that sign?” The reply: “You. When you will go to the front and tell the people what you see, then they will begin to move.” As a result many came forward, there were tears and Jesus touched everybody deeply - the anointing was powerful. Source: Joel News 188 Global Reports Ireland Youth unity initiative in Ireland Protestant and Catholic young people joined forces in a marathon prayer walk round the borders of Northern Ireland, seeking peace for the long-divided communities. While sectarian marches have frequently sparked violent clashes during the years of “The Troubles”, organizers of The Reconciliation Walk-Northern Ireland hoped that linking young Christians from different traditions in the trek would serve as a symbol for a united future. The Reconciliation Walk was for Christian young people, between the ages of 16 and 25, who wanted to walk together with other young people and pray for reconciliation, unity & peace in Northern Ireland. The 600-mile journey started in Belfast and basically followed the border of Northern Ireland, taking participants through former trouble spots like Londonderry and Eniskillen - sites of some of the worst violence during the years of conflict. Local youth events focusing on peace, reconciliation and unity were staged along the way. The event was promoted by Youth With A Mission, whose Northern Ireland leader Mike Oman hopes to see up to 1,500 young people taking part - some for one week and others for the entire route. He said that the walk was intended to build on the fragile sense of hope for the future that had been building in Northern Ireland over the past couple of years - which had largely seen an absence of violence. Report by Diarmuid O’Neill What happened in Ireland with the peace agreement on Friday the 10th of April, 1998, was something I never thought I would see in my lifetime, it was and is something amazing. It is a wonderful opportunity that God has given the people of Northern Ireland and the people on the island of Ireland as a whole, for peace, healing and restoration. This healing and restoration is also needed for the church of Jesus Christ in Ireland, to be a whole body the way Jesus intended it to be. God has done an amazing thing and I hope that he will richly bless each 189 Renewal Journal one of you who has been praying for however long for peace in Ireland as an Irish man I am so grateful to you and praise God for all he has done through your faithfulness. But it’s only the beginning. Its the dawn of a new day, the ushering in of a new era, that is if we continue to cry out to God for grace and mercy to be given out in abundance to all those involved. God has blessed us with leaders in the political realm who were prepared to take risks and lay down some of their own ideals, aspirations, agenda’s and pride. The church needs to learn from these men and women so that the church will do the same and will be prepared to stick its neck out and take risks and stop trying to be always politically correct. Let us pray that from within the church will come the role models for every stratosphere of community life, especially for the up and coming generation who have known nothing but trouble and violence. 65% of the population in the South of Ireland are young people looking for answers. New Age and alternatives to Christ flood the market place. These young people need your prayers that the Christians in the North will share with them their new life. God can powerfully use leaders and Christians who are prepared to say “your will - not mine be done”, and they are the type of people the island of Ireland needs right now. Pray that God will give leaders favour with their people, so that they will be able to persuade them to vote in favour of the peace deal. God is without a doubt blessing Ireland (North & South) in many ways during this time and he has said much about how he will bless Ireland in the future and how he will use the people of Ireland to bless again nations all over the world. Pray that once again revival will sweep the land, remembering that it was the people of this island who kept the gospel alive while the rest of Europe was being over-run by Vandals, Barbarians and such like. God used Irish people powerfully to bring the gospel all over Europe, may He do it again as continental Europe now, like then, sits largely in darkness and is in desperate need of Gods love and grace. We need to keep praying that all of these things will come to pass. That the people of Northern Ireland will be healed of all the pain and be 190 Global Reports restored. We also need to be prepared to go and just listen and be alongside them, we need to take risks and be brave and go and face the powerful emotions of hatred, anger, loss, mourning, fear, bitterness and many more besides. This process of restoration is not just for the people of Northern Ireland, but for the people of the South of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England and beyond. The eyes of the world are watching and God will use all that this troubled land and people have learnt through this torrid, terrible time to bring restoration and healing between peoples, churches, Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gentile. We need to keep praying too that nothing else will fill the void left by terrorism and intimidation by all paramilitaries. Since the first ceasefire in 1992 the drug scene in Ireland has become drastically worse. Believe it or not: because of the vigilante tactics adopted in the North by paramilitary organisations, the crime rate in Northern Ireland has been one of the lowest in Europe. So please, please keep praying for Ireland North and South and all the people in it, that people’s fears of this being yet another failed attempt will not be realised. Rather that this will be what we have been hoping and waiting for for nearly 30 years and then maybe we will be able to heal all the other wounds which stretch back over centuries! We want to challenge the church to keep praying and fasting for this crucial time in the history of the island of Ireland - don’t stop praying, in fact pray even more. Diarmuid O’Neill & Amaury Braga Source: Joel News, 22 April, 1998. England ‘Sowing the Seeds of Revival’ has continued over the last five months, four nights a week at the Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, Westminster on Wednesday to Saturday nights since the 1st of June, 1997. Well over 55,000 people have been through the building and over 6,000 have come forward to ‘Get right with God’. Twelve dustbins full of pornography, illegal drugs, weapons, Masonic jewellery, clothing and personal effects have been collected. Scores have been converted 191 Renewal Journal to Christ and dozens baptised. Some have been so overcome by the Holy Spirit they have been unable to get out of the pool. Members of the House of Lords, House of Commons and staff at Buckingham Palace have been present as well as the homeless and hungry off the streets of London. Over 500 bags of food have been distributed to the hungry and homeless over that period of time. -Gerald Coates. Source: IRN - revivalnet.com Canada Vancouver David Culley reported from Glad Tidings Assembly in Vancouver, Canada. “And it shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh ...” We are seeing it! For the past months Glad Tidings in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has been experiencing the same renewal that is happening all over the world. Yesterday, we crossed over into full blown revival. The morning service started much like any other. The worship was annointed as usual, and we had a visiting revival minister as we often had before. The thing that was different was the sea of turbans and saris in the building. Vancouver is a multi-national city with a large Sikh population, and over 200 had come to our morning meeting. Our guest minister, Charles Ndifon from Nigeria and New York, had been in Victoria, British Columbia, for some meetings a few weeks ago, and a young Sikh woman, who had been invited by her Christian husband was healed of blindness and deafness. She went back and brought her favorite uncle, Charnjit, who was dying of cancer, and he left the meeting healed and saved. Since then Charnjit has been witnessing to all his relatives, and when Charles Ndifon came to our church in Vancouver, this man invited his whole extended family. Yesterday, after watching many people be healed of asthma (as an example of how simple it is for God to heal anything), and a 90 year old woman receive a new ear-drum, about 200 Sikhs came forward to give their hearts to God. And it’s real. They had 192 Global Reports already heard the Gospel from Charnjit, and to make sure, the altar call was translated into Punjabi. After the service, the people were so excited to have found Jesus, and to be so accepted by these white people. At the evening service another 104 Punjab Sikh people responded to the altar call. We saw many miracles. A 14 year old boy born blind saw his mother for the first time, deaf ears were opened, cancers were healed. But the greatest miracle of all was that God now seems to be bringing in the Sikh population that we have been so unable to reach for all this time. Culleyd@pmc-sierra.bc.ca 26 October 1998. Source: Awakening. British Columbia Bob Brasset from Victoria, Canada, writes about the move of the Holy Spirit in British Columbia: The outpourings continue. In fact, it seems to be getting stronger. We now meet four nights a week. The response of the pastors in the area is simply an overwhelming gratitude for the goodness of God for deigning to visit us in such an awesome way. There is an amazing, astounding hunger in North America right now. People know that we are on the edge of not only Revival but a genuine Awakening: perhaps the greatest since the day of Pentecost. This Awakening, I feel, will be characterized by the very kabod (Hebrew for weighty, laden down with treasure, riches, glory, and wealth), glorious presence of God coming and abiding in a room, a church and even a city, or a whole region (as in Charles Finney’s revivals). The worship in our services now continues and flows for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, unabated with spontaneous songs of the Lord from worship team and congregation. Bodies lie on the floor, prostrate in worship. People report seeing angels. Visions, mighty, inspiring ones, are plenteous. Healings happen during the preaching of the word or worship without anyone praying or laying on hands. We are not advertising this. People are just coming. Salvations are happening in each service - even when we don’t give specific calls. We now have reported healings of fibromylagia, diabetes, cancer, chronic pain, ears opening, many necks and backs healed and severe allergies. Source: Global Revival News, Bob Brasset. 193 Renewal Journal Arkansas, USA Revival is breaking out in the Lee County jail in Arkansas. In just one year, chaplains and volunteer staff oversaw 161 services in the chapel and 118 services in the jail itself. As a result 1,459 people made decisions for Christ. Currently, 218 inmates are enrolled in Bible studies and some 6,900 individual Bible studies have been distributed. “There is a hunger for God inside me that is more powerful than any hunger I have ever known,” said AOG Chaplain Patrick McCowan. “The Lord is teaching me so many things in these days about servanthood,” McCowan said. Source: The Assemblies of God News Service Hampton, Virginia Ken Lawson reported: Bethel Temple Assembly of God has been experiencing a move of the Holy Spirit since April 1996. Church membership is 2,200. Revival meetings are held Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. In April of 1996 the Sunday 7:30 am service started and did not end till 3:24 pm which bypassed the 10:30 am service. Church members were repenting, numerous people converted to Christ, and many were delivered of evil spirits. Hampton, Virginia is the oldest English speaking settlement in America. Bethel Temple Church is racially diverese: 40% African-American, 50% white, 10% Hispanic and Asian. In 1996 the Senior Associate Pastor, Don Rogers, had an open vision of the Holy Spirit coming to Hampton. He saw the Spirit of the Lord coming like a storm and it blew into their church. In his vision when this happened it blew out a glass window in the church. Fourteen months later, in June of 1997 the Sunday service at Bethel Temple was starting. Senior Pastor Ron Johnson was praying and asking God to come “like a pent-up flood”. Suddenly Pastor Johnson looked at his hands and oil was dripping from his hands. The pastor began to tell 194 Global Reports the congregation of what was happening to his hands. The head usher told the pastor the front window of the church just blew out. The pastor began telling the congregation of what happened. People ran to the altar. Many publicly repented of sins. God’s manifest presence filled the building. Marriages are being restored, sexually broken people healed, myriad conversions to Christ, and many being filled with the Holy Spirit. The vision was beginning to be fulfilled. Part of the interpretation of the glass breaking signified the Spirit of the Lord blowing into Bethel church and blowing out. The mission of Bethel church is to proclaim God’s glory to the nation. The breaking of the glass window is a prophetic symbol of God’s power to release the church to carry the gospel to the nations. Also that week, several “signs and wonders” happened. An unexplained earthquake tremor and circular rainbow 360 degrees appeared over the city. Unity of churches in the Hampton area is growing. Twenty churches gathered for Easter Services this year in the town’s coliseum. According to Pastor Don Rodgers it’s unprecedented to get twenty churches to lay down the most important service of the year. Eleven thousand people attended. Source: Awakening, 13 April, 1998 Greenville, Alabama By Ken Owen, Senior Pastor of First Assembly of God Greenville, South Carolina. In April 1995 a first wave of revival began to crest over the congregation at First Assembly of God, Greenville, South Carolina. Nightly meetings were held for a month with Ed Nelson. Since then a number of waves have rolled in, building into what is now a sunami of revival. In August, 1997, the tide began to significantly deepen. I called Ed - a director of a mission work to unreached peoples - to return immediately. On October 11, 1997, Ed returned to us from Asia. The 195 Renewal Journal Sunday morning service flowed like a mighty river -- hundreds came forward to repent of sins. The meeting carried on through the day till 4:00 pm. With an hour break, it began again at 5:00 pm with a large prayer meeting and evening service. Since then there has been no let up, only an increase. More than two thousand people have repented of sins, converts being baptized weekly. Many miracles and healings are accompanying the revival. People from a variety of church backgrounds and denominations are driving to the meetings from several cities and states as momentum continues to strengthen. There has been almost no promotion of the revival, but word-of-mouth has brought thousands of people to the meetings. Source: IRN - http://www.revivalnet.com 5 February 1998. These sample reports from the end of the 20th century could be multiplied thousand of times. Revivals and fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit multiply in all the earth. Only a few examples are recorded, and only a few of them become known. We can all believe more fully, and obey more fully as God continues to pour out his Spirit on all flesh. 196 Book Review 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity by Eddie Hyatt. Dallas, Texas: Hyattm 1998. 224 pages, paperbnack. Reviewed by Dr. Vinson Synan, Dean of the School of Divinity, Regent University, Virginia. From the Foreword. Eddie Hyatt’s new book, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, is Hyatt’s most important work to date. It is a fine historical survey of the charismatic history and nature of the church. His treatment of the origins and fate of the cessation of the charismata theory is well researched and convincingly presented. As the subtitle suggests, this volume is indeed “a 21st century look at Church History from a Pentecostal/Charismatic perspective.” Of particular value and interest are Hyatt’s sections on Charles Fox Parham, the formulator of Pentecostal theology, and the crucial part played by followers of Alexander Dowie who left Zion City to found important Pentecostal movements around the world. Hyatt’s work is another in a stream of scholarly works that are driving nails in the coffin of the Warfield theory of the cessation of the miraculous signs, wonders, and miracles after the end of the apostolic age. He writes well and convincingly. I feel that this book brings together the most recent research on the subject and presents it in a popular way that any reader can understand. I commend 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity to all who look for deeper understanding of the modern Penteconal/Charismatic movements that have exploded in the 2Oth Century to become the second largest family of Christians in the world. Renewal Journal 198 Renewal Journal 13 Ministry Renewal Journal Contents Renewal Journal 13: Ministry Editorial: Anointed Ministry 201 1 Pentecostalism’s Global Language, Walter Hollenweger 205 2 Interview with Steven Hill, by Steve Beard 211 3 Revival in Mexico City, by Kevin Pate 217 4 Revival in Nepal, by Raju Sundras 227 5 Beyond Prophesying, by Mike Bickle 235 6 The Rise and Rise of the Apostles, by Phil Marshall 243 7 Evangelical Heroes Speak, by Richard Riss 249 8 Spirit Impacts in Revivals, by Geoff Waugh 261 9 Primacy of Love, by Heidi Baker 281 Reviews 293 Cover Photo: 13 Ministry Jesus washing Peter’s feet, bronze sculpture by Max Greiner.. 200 Editorial Anointed Ministry Our ministry is the ministry of Jesus - in us and through us. He said, "You will do greater things that these, because I go to my Father" (John 14:12). The “greater things” include the ministry of the risen, glorified Jesus in and through us, millions of us, by the presence and power of his Holy Spirit. The Gospels have only two references to the word “church” – both in Matthew, and both giving Jesus’ comments on ministry in his church and how he will build it. Peter’s bold confession that Jesus is the Messiah - the Christ - the Anointed One - the Son of God - sounded like blasphemy then. For many people, such as Muslims, it still does. A great prophet, yes. A great teacher, yes. A great leader, yes. But the Messiah - the Son of the living God? C. S. Lewis brilliantly points out that Jesus does not leave open for us the option of regarding him as only a great prophet, teacher or leader. He is unique – God’s only Son – fully human but fully divine also. That declaration, made in the fertile northern hills of Galilee, marks a turning point in the gospel story. From that time on, Jesus began his final journey to Jerusalem and his gruesome death. He kept explaining Renewal Journal to his disciples the meaning of that revolutionary declaration, but they could not understand, especially as it involved his execution. Acknowledging the inspired truth of that bold declaration, Jesus reminded his followers that the basis or rock-solid foundation of his church was that very reality. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is building his church and even hell’s gates cannot withstand the onslaught of his church, empowered by his Spirit. We live in that reality right now. Jesus has given his church the authority to bind and loose - an amazing claim (Matthew 16:13-19). The second use of ‘church’ by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel makes that same claim. Where disputes arise, Jesus requires the church to address the problem if it cannot be solved personally or in a small group. Again, he pointed out the church has authority to bind and loose (Matthew 18:15-20). In that passage we have Jesus’ promise to be personally present where even two or three gather in his name in unity. Gradually we are rediscovering the truth of those claims. Gradually we are learning to live together in unity and in love. Gradually we are learning to use the authority given to the church - not to condemn (John 3:17) but to free people. Jesus’ ministry is ours also. He is building his church and is doing a truly marvellous job of it. He involves us in his ministry, by the power, unction and enabling of his Spirit. This issue of the Renewal Journal tells a little more of that story of how Jesus is building his church today through anointed, powerful ministry. Walter Hollenweger takes a scholar’s look at the astounding growth of Jesus’ church in the power of his Spirit with 500 million now involved in the Pentecostal/charismatic stream of the church. Stephen Hill tells how he has seen the Lord anoint ministry before and during his ministry at Pensacola where over 100,000 have indicated their commitment to Jesus Christ as their Lord. 202 Editorial: Anointed Ministry Kevin Pate describes powerful ministry in Mexico City. Raju Sundras, Nepalese pastor and evangelist, tells of strong moves of the Spirit in Nepal. Mike Bickle gives guidance in the use of the prophetic ministry gifts of the Spirit. Australian Phil Marshall points out the emerging rise of biblical apostolic gifting in ministry. Historian Richard Riss shows the close parallels between ministry issues in former and current revival movements, and I give an overview of the charismatic impacts of the Spirit in evangelical ministry in revivals. You can read more about that in my books Flashpoints of Revival (2nd ed., 2009) and Revival Fires (2011). See further details on renewaljournal.com. Heidi Baker wrote a challenging article on the Primacy of Love in all ministry and mission, now added to this 2nd edition of this Renewal Journal 13: Ministry. Anointed ministry is simply the ministry of Jesus in and through us by the anointing and empowering of his Holy Spirit within us. This is available to us all. Without him we can do nothing. With him, all things are possible. 203 Renewal Journal Renewal and Revival I make all things new 204 1 Pentecostalism’s Global Language Walter Hollenweger Dr Walter Hollenweger was Professor of Mission at the University of Birmingham. His books The Pentecostals (1972) and Pentecosalism (1997) are landmark volumes. It’s not tongues but a different way of being a Christian Why is Pentecostalism so popular? It is now over half a billion strong worldwide, and has been and continues to be the fastest growing Christian movement in the world. It has made inroads not only in third-world regions like Africa and Latin America, but it also continues to attract huge followings in the United States and Europe. Walter J. Hollenweger is the leading expert on worldwide Pentecostalism, which he has been studying for more than 40 years. Having grown up in the Pentecostal church, he later became ordained in the Reformed Church of Switzerland. From 1965 to 1971 he was executive secretary of the World Council of Churches, then served as professor of mission at England’s University of Birmingham for 18 years. His seminal book The Pentecostals (Hendrickson, 1972) was Renewal Journal followed by Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide (Hendrickson, 1997). What is a Pentecostal? Worldwide there is so much variety that about all one can say is that a Pentecostal is a Christian who calls himself a Pentecostal. Though Americans tend to focus on the gift of tongues, overall Pentecostals emphasize that God has given several gifts – not just speaking in tongues but also healing and the so-called rational gifts like organization or building a school. Diverse gifts to diverse people. It’s not a strictly theological definition but a phenomenological one. Why is speaking in tongues the focus in America? There are many reasons, of course, but one is that American and other middle-class cultures, as in Switzerland, find tongues an extraordinary phenomenon, so these experiences get a lot of attention. In Africa or Mexico, on the other hand, speaking in tongues and healings are not considered extraordinary – they can even be found in some indigenous pagan religions. (Speaking in tongues is not even “supernatural,” as many Pentecostals have found out.) Tongues aren’t even spoken in a lot of third-world Pentecostal churches. Instead, third-world Pentecostals focus on corporate worship, singing together, and Christian education. American Pentecostals don’t seek education as much as an experience of the supernatural. What have been the key changes in Pentecostalism? First, more and more young Pentecostals are becoming scholars through reputable universities. It’s true for Pentecostals in Europe, North America, and Latin America. It’s also true for Africa and for Asia. There are now several hundred young Pentecostal scholars with doctorates, and that, of course, changes the breadth and depth of Pentecostalism. Most of them have maintained their roots in Pentecostalism, so they are now bilingual. They can speak in the university language, in the language of concepts and definitions, but they can also speak in the oral language of Pentecostalism, and I think that is an extremely important part of their success. 206 Walter Hollenweger Second, this increase in education has led in many places to more ecumenical openness. In the past, nobody wanted to talk to the Pentecostals, and the Pentecostals didn’t want to talk to any of the other churches because they saw them as a lost cause. Now, for instance, there is a worldwide dialogue between Pentecostals and Roman Catholics that has been going on for 20 years. There have also been many contacts with the World Council of Churches, and the latest example is a global dialogue with the Presbyterian churches. David du Plessis, a pioneer in ecumenism, has been instrumental in both these changes. He went to the Catholics. He went to the World Council of Churches. He went to all the universities. And the fact that he was a reasonable man and also a Pentecostal astonished many people. They thought Pentecostals were all a little crazy and could not think properly. But when they got to know him, they realized that it is possible to speak in tongues and be a critical scholar. Another change, of course, is the worldwide explosive growth to nearly half a billion adherents [1998. Now over 600 million. Ed.]. Why is Pentecostalism so popular? Some scholars think it has to do with its theology and doctrine. But Pentecostal theology is not homogeneous. Others think it’s because of Pentecostals. aggressive evangelism. That is partly true because a real Pentecostal is by definition an evangelist, whose faith is as infectious as the flu. The most important reason is that it is an oral religion. It is not defined by the abstract language that characterizes, for instance, Presbyterians or Catholics. Pentecostalism is communicated in stories, testimonies, and songs. Oral language is a much more global language than that of the universities or church declarations. Oral tradition is flexible and can adapt itself to a variety of circumstances. Can’t oral tradition drift off into sub-Christian and even heretical beliefs? Certainly, but overall there is a basic evangelical consensus among Pentecostals. They are similar to the early church in this respect. Early Christians didn’t have a formal, written confession of faith, as Presbyterians and others do today. They had the stories of Jesus. Even 207 Renewal Journal Jesus didn’t spell out doctrine; he gave his followers stories of miracles, and taught through proverbs and parables. The earliest church was united, but not as much through their theology as through the Lord’s Prayer, Paul’s collection for Jerusalem (his theological “enemies”), baptism, and the Eucharist. Their statements of faith were simple, and the simplest was “Jesus is Lord.” It was a very different way of achieving togetherness, and it was achieved through these oral forms. Ironically, when the ecumenical confessions came later, they did not unite the church. They divided it, as propositional theology always does. But across divided theology, it is possible to pray together, to sing together, and to act together. That’s what Pentecostals do at their best. Is it fair to say that when you convert to Pentecostalism, you are converting not to a certain theology but to a new experience of faith? Yes, and that has important evangelistic consequences for Pentecostals. In many circles, when you become a Christian, you talk about gaining a new understanding of the Lord’s Supper and baptism (they are either more or less sacramental), but other people are not terribly interested in that. When you become a Pentecostal, you talk about how you’ve been healed or your very life has been changed. That’s something Pentecostals talk about over and over, partly because people are interested in hearing that sort of thing. Pentecostalism today addresses the whole life, including the thinking part. More mainline forms of Christianity address the thinking part first and that often affects the rest of life, but not always. Yet it seems most Pentecostals are far more right-brained and intuitive than left-brained and rational. Indeed, the “orality” of Pentecostalism – the singing, the dancing, the speaking in tongues – accents the intuitive. But a mature Pentecostal will try to connect the intuitive and the rational. Always emphasizing the analytical will destroy faith. But only emphasizing the intuitive leads to chaos. A challenge of the Pentecostal movement is to combine rational thinking with its spontaneous emotional side. 208 Walter Hollenweger This is the challenge for all Christians, really. The rationalist needs the Toronto Blessing and has to be slain in the Spirit to realize that. It sometimes seems silly to me, but you’ll notice that it is rationalists and intellectuals who fall down. People who have a balanced emotional and intuitive life don’t need that. True, some rationalists dance, sing, go walking in the mountains, or play a musical instrument, but then they go back to their science, to rational lives, and the two are not connected. What most concerns you as you think about Pentecostalism in the coming century? First, Pentecostalism must confront its tendency to segregate and separate into countless denominations. It’s happening all the time, and it really is a scandal. The other challenge is common to all Christian churches: What do we do with the ecological threat to the world? What do we do with the threat of hunger and the plight of refugees? It’s a challenge that will hit Pentecostals harder than any other churches because their largest churches are on the poor side of the world. But as Christians, we have a contribution to make — not just in money but in prayer and in developing solutions that politicians cannot. But Pentecostals are not known for their social activism. That’s true in some ways, but it is a misconception in others. Many of Martin Luther King’s marchers were black Pentecostals. In Brazil there are many Pentecostals sitting in parliament. And in many third-world countries, Pentecostals are trying to develop new ways of gaining political influence without the game playing we have in the West. In Latin America, for example, they try to work with sectors of the Catholic church to get water or a school or a new street for a poor district. So there are quite a number of places where Pentecostals take up the structural issues, but they do not take them up by founding political parties. They start from the local needs and the local misery people experience every day. Copyright 1998 by the author of Christianity Today, Inc./Christian History Magazine. Spring 1998, Vol.XVII, No. 2, Page 42. Used with permission. 209 Renewal Journal Church on Fire Australian Reports 210 2 Interview with Steven Hill Steve Beard Steven Hill was the evangelist in Pensacola at Brownsville Assembly of God in Florida, America, where revival has continued from Father’s Day, 18 June 1995 with over 100,000 people making commitments to Christ there. Steve Beard wrote this interview for his internet page. What prepared you for this revival? I was saved out of the drug culture. My background has helped me with the soul-winning aspect. Early in my Christian life, back in 1977, I got around David Wilkerson’s ministry. He had an academy in Texas called Twin Oaks, a two-year leadership academy. Leonard Ravenhill taught on prayer. Nicky Cruz taught evangelism. It was a school where you were held responsible for what you learned. And if you did not learn, they would kick you out. They would teach us on evangelism and then put us in a van, drive us to the streets of Dallas to a dope party, dump us out and say, “Go into that dope party. We’ll pick you up at four in the morning.” It was just hard-core evangelism. Instead of teaching the Four Spiritual Laws, they’d say, “Get out there, learn from experience.” When we came back, Renewal Journal we’d talk about some of the hindrances we’d had, the bad experiences, and what we would change about our approach. Then they’d send us out again. You know very quickly whether you’re called to evangelism. I graduated from that school, and went into church ministry. Then it was when I took a group of young people to Mexico God called me to the mission field. I went to Argentina, and the very first meeting I went to was a Carlos Annacondia meeting out in the middle of a soccer field. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. I saw fifteen to twentythousand people craving God. I mean, going after God. I had Carlos lay hands on me one night, and I feel that from him came a real evangelistic anointing. I’ve had the evangelism desire all my life, but I watched him – he’s led over two million people to Jesus. At one o’clock in the morning he’s still praying with people. At two o’clock in the morning, he’s still laying hands on people. He’ll go night after night. He’s so common, so loving. All he cares about is that one little boy, that one grandpa, that one uncle that’s coming to Jesus. I hung around that for seven years, and you absorb it. How did you end up at Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London? I read in Time magazine how God was moving. I had been to London several times, and I thought, “I’ve got to see this. I’ve got to see God moving in the Anglican Church because I can’t imagine it.” The article said they were laughing, they were falling, and I had a very critical spirit about it. I went to the bed and breakfast that we stay at when I’m in London; it’s owned by a Christian couple. I asked them where God was moving, and they said, “It’s in our church.” They went to Holy Trinity Brompton. I said, “I need to make an appointment with the pastor.” They said, “Steve, he’s the busiest man in Europe. All of Europe comes here to get prayed for by him.” I said, “Call him up and ask if he has time to pray for a Texan.” I wanted a little private visit with this guy (Sandy Miller) to see what was going on. 212 Steve Beard interviews Steven Hill I went there at two o’clock that afternoon and there was a conference going on. I walked into the stately Anglican church in downtown London right by Harrod’s, the richest area of town, and stepped over about 500 bodies, people shaking all over the place. I had seen things like that before, but I’m an evangelist, so I’m after souls. If I can’t see hundreds and hundreds of people getting saved, then I’ll leave. The Lord spoke to my heart and said, “You don’t need to talk to Sandy Miller. Just have him pray for you.” I walked up to him and said, “My name is Steve.” He says, “Oh my, we have an appointment at three o’clock, but look what’s happened in my church.” I went up to him, he laid his hands on my head and it was over. I mean, I went down under the power of the Holy Spirit. How do you channel revival fire? That’s the most frustrating part to pastors because you can only live so long in this renewal. The first week after this broke out, I spoke a message on how to benefit from a divine refreshing.  The first point was get all you can get.  The second one was mix vegetables with the honey. Make sure you keep your feet on the ground.  And the third one was let your stall get dirty. Where there are no oxen, the stall is clean. Get out there. You’re bubbly, you’re all on fire with the Christians, but let that happen at the workplace. And that’s what they started to do. And people started pouring in. What is the relevance of it beginning Father’s Day? I believe that was just a real special divine appointment. We didn’t really think about that. It was just totally spontaneous. The Father, he showed up on Father’s Day the way he did, and just loved on us. And you know, everybody got back to work. They got back to work in the fields and going after God, because they felt the nearness of the Lord. What is the most important thing God has taught you through this revival? 213 Renewal Journal What I’m convinced of more than anything else is the urgency of the hour – the urgency of the hour and the necessity of right now. This is not a coliseum; this is not a secular place. This is night after night sinners are coming to a church. Why? They’re hungry. People are hungry and God has sent the famine. The Bible says in Amos, that God will send the famine. The famine for truth. So he’s going to do his part; we’re the feeding station. We’re the ones with tractor-trailer rigs full of food. We’re laden down with everything these people need but they come into our churches and what do they get? Nothing. They don’t get fed. They need to hear about hell. They need to hear the full gospel. But they don’t get it. God is doing his part, we need to do our part. How do you keep track of what is taking place at the altar? We’re seeing a thousand people saved a week, but we are very conservative with the figures. To me, when someone comes up and has backslidden, that’s a salvation. They are a prodigal. They’ve been living in sin. He came back, crawled on his face and he said, “I’m not worthy. I can’t even be under your roof.” And the Father received him. That’s why Charles Finney and Jonathan Edwards preached about backslidden conditions. Our country was back-slidden. When we give that altar call, there are a lot of people that are saved for the first time. A lot of people that come down that have never known the Lord, but there are also a lot of people that are backsliders and prodigals that are coining back to the Lord. After they come to the altar, what happens to them? How do you follow up with so many people? There are a lot of people that are coming from out of state. I had never seen anything like this. We have fathers and mothers bringing their unsaved children from Minnesota. They bring in van loads from Birmingham and have four or five unsaved people in the van to be prayed for healing. They come down here and they get saved, and so we encourage them to get involved in the local church. We do our very best to link them with people who have brought them, or we tell them about local Methodist churches and Baptist churches. Several pastors have gleaned people from this revival. But its an unusual type of situation because so many people are coining in from 214 Steve Beard interviews Steven Hill other areas that it is literally impossible for us to keep tabs on everybody that is coming. But another beauty of this is that a lot of people who get saved keep coming back because this is not a one week thing. So this is also like a discipleship process. What do you make of the physical manifestations? The Lord is welcome in this place to do anything he wants. But there is a balance here. They receive the gospel, they receive the cross, the blood. When the manifestations come, I welcome the manifestations, but I don’t major on the minors. This last days awakening – mark these words, I’m not a prophet, this is not a prophecy, but this is what is going to happen. This awakening is going to shake this country, the power is going to come down. I’m also a youth evangelist, and we are dealing with a culture that may not be demon-possessed, but they are possessed by demons. They are consumed with demonic warfare twenty-four hours a day. They have seen the power of Satan at work. You watch any rock concert: the frenzy, the fire, the pull, the enthusiasm that’s there. We talk about our God, and the power of God. We sing, “All Hail the Power of Jesus. Name,” and they’re going, “Where is it?” They want to believe, but they see mom and dad are limp, weak, and they respond, “Where is the power? Mom, you’re popping valium and prozac and everything else and you’re talking about the power of God? Give me a break, Momma.” And so they come into this meeting. The punkers come in here. Every age, every kind of person in the world comes into this meeting and they are hit by the power of God. Undeniably swept off their feet by the power of God and by the hundreds they basically say, “What must I do to be saved?” Does everyone respond so positively? There will be folks here tonight, who are skeptical and critical – they hate this revival. They don’t want anything to do with it, but they are out there tonight, and they are going to get saved. They are going to fall to the ground under the power of God, they’re going to be back next week with their friends. Why? They’re out here because they’re curious, they’re out here because Aunt Mabel was healed of cancer, they’re here for a million different reasons. 215 Renewal Journal Are you overwhelmed by the historic nature of this revival? What is phenomenal about this is the fact that when I look upon the people I see all the hunger. They come from the corners of the globe. They don’t come for the beaches. They come for this meeting and yeah, that blows me away. And I’m beginning to see how this could affect the nation. People are attracted to the fire. John Wesley said it: “I set myself on fire and the people come to watch me bum.” Used with permission from http://www.thunderstruck.org/hill.htm. 216 3 Revival in Mexico City Kevin Pate Kevin Pate, a member of a Vineyard ministry team, now with Global Advance Marketplace Mission since 2007, reported in April 1998 on their visit to Mexico City with Pastor Wes Campbell, including a weekend mountain retreat with 18,000 Mexicans. Kevin Pate on mission in Ghana The week and a half that we spent in Mexico City ministering to the people there I would have to say was the most amazing time of my life. I know that is a pretty dramatic statement but I hope that you will understand as you read the rest of this account. But first a little background. Monte Maria’s history The following history is as best as I understand from what was shared with us while we were there: The church that we went down to help out is called Monte Maria. The history of the church is quite interesting. Back in about 1979 a Catholic priest in Mexico City by the name of Father Gilberto was at a point in his life where he was very dry and seeking God intensely. One time in prayer he was overcome by the Renewal Journal presence of God and started weeping greatly for the lost and hurting of the world. This weeping continued on for a year! During this time as he would perform mass, interesting things would happen – people who were in the congregation as normal were healed of a variety of sicknesses and infirmities. News of this sort travels quickly and soon people were bringing their sick relatives and friends to the church and many of them became healed too. Unfortunately, some people in the church and surrounding area complained about the increased number of poor people tromping through their neighborhood and church (riffraff they felt) and soon Father Gilberto was told by the higher-ups at his diocese that he was no longer welcome at that church. So, Father Gilberto went down to the local city dump and started to perform mass there and minister to the poor. There was in essence a city of poor people at the dump because this was the only place where many of them could live (they were very poor!) and could get stuff to survive on (food scraps, clothes, etc.). The healings continued and many came to belief in Jesus Christ as their saviour. Simple church building So many people came to Father Gilberto for ministry that he then started another church in Mexico City. I believe that he bought a dump (obviously he could get it cheap!), cleaned it up, and constructed a church. The church building is a very simple concrete structure — basically just concrete walls and floor, and sheet metal roof with insulation (to keep it from being an oven in the summer), folding chairs for the folks to sit on, and simple platform at the front. The air conditioning is a bunch of open windows. This church building holds about 3,000 people. There is also an outdoor area that can seat 5,000 people – the outdoor part is used for Sunday morning services because the building is no longer large enough to hold everyone. The prayer mountain Monte Maria has also planted about 12 other churches in the Mexico City area; each church plant has about 100-200 people. Monte Maria has home groups during the week to help the people bond together, get discipled, and minister to each other. More recently they also received 293 acres of land outside the city in a mountainous area (donation 218 Kevin Pate from someone) – they call this “The Mountain”. They use this for monthly (7 times per year) meetings where people from all over Mexico City and surrounding area gather for a time of worship, listening to preaching, and to receive prayer ministry. The truly poorest of the poor come to this. Many of them band together and chip in a few pesos each and rent a bus to get there. They camp out in a variety of ways – in tents, under tarps, or just sleep under the stars. The weekend we were there, there were about 20,000 people at the Mountain; in the past there has been as many as 50,000 people. Father Gilberto has now changed his name to Pastor Aurellio Gomez since the Catholic church has told him he can no longer minister in the Catholic church. Pastor Aurellio has taken a very strong stand on preaching against idolatry (which permeates portions of the Catholic church) and this has not be popular amongst the Catholic leadership in Mexico. Pastor Aurellio has been very much a proponent of church reform and ministry to the poor but with this frequently comes much criticism from the establishment. Wesley Campbell and team A couple of years ago, Wes Campbell travelled down to Mexico to see what God was doing down there. Wes was the pastor of a Vineyard church in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Back in 1984 his church was strongly touched by God and has been in moving powerfully since then. Wes promised God that if this same sort of touch would come to the church in general around the world, he would do everything he could to fan the flames of renewal and revival. Wes and his wife Stacey met Father Gilberto and found a very hungry Mexican people who were in the midst of revival – many thousands of people being reached with the gospel, many being healed of all sorts of infirmities, and many set free from the power of the demonic enemy. Father Gilberto invited Wes and Stacey to come back with a ministry team to help out at their monthly gathering meeting at the Mountain and to help out at meetings at their church in Mexico City. The ministry team that was assembled was about 30 people from Westside Vineyard in Tigard, Oregon (including Arlan Askew the senior pastor), 5 from the Albany Oregon Vineyard, and 5 from the San Diego California Vineyard. Prior to going on the trip, I shared with some friends here that I hoped to be able to see and experience first-hand what I have heard was going 219 Renewal Journal on down there and elsewhere in the world. The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and many people are reached with the gospel of Christ. Well, I am not exaggerating when I can now say that we indeed did see and experience first-hand all of this! As the Mexicans would shout – “Gloria a Dios!” (Glory to God!). And the best part was that we got to participate in what God was doing in the people – we were the prayer ministry team who were privileged to be able to pray for people for these types of healings and lead them to the Lord! Prayer ministry The first weekend we were there we went to the Mountain. When we got there we were very warmly welcomed by the people. After a bit of orientation, we got to work… praying for people. There were literally thousands of people ready and waiting for prayer — lined up desiring a touch from God. It was a staggering feeling. But we all just plunged in and started praying for them one at a time, knowing that it wasn’t just a crowd, but it was individuals who deserved individual attention because God loves each of them equally. So one by one we ministered and started to see an awesome move of the Holy Spirit. Nearly everyone we prayed for was visibly touched in some way – overcome by the power or presence of God and couldn’t stand anymore, touched by a physical healing, or even some deep touch in their emotions and spirit evidenced by tears streaming down their face. Young and old, men and women, almost all were touched! It was astounding to me to see so many people so touched by the Holy Spirit! It had to be partially due to their great hunger for God. These are the poorest of the poor and really don’t have any other options. They are too poor to be able to seek a doctor for their sicknesses and infirmities; God is their only hope. It certainly wasn’t due to any great faith that most of us had – I was rather nervous going into the trip. It was really God’s work. Essentially all of us were able to pray for all types of problems in the people’s lives – blindness, deafness, lameness, and countless other problems. In many, many cases we were able to see immediate improvement and in many cases complete healing of the people. We had some translators available to help us communicate with the people while we were praying for them which helped immensely. At other times we had to wing it on our own without a translator. 220 Kevin Pate The meetings at the Mountain started at about mid-day Saturday and lasted until late Sunday afternoon with only a two or three hour break in the middle of the night Saturday night to Sunday morning. We prayed for the people during the worship and prayer ministry time, but did not pray during the preaching time since the people needed to focus on that. Wes preached about the revival occurring all over the world, and more specifically about what God was doing in their midst there in Mexico. Arlan preached about receiving the Father’s love, intimacy with God, our relationship with God made possible by Jesus Christ and his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, and how this relationship/intimacy is the most important thing that we must seek. Everything else in our life and ministry will flow from that. Healing and deliverance During the week we were also able to minister at three days of meetings at their church. These meetings were more focused on teaching and training, receiving God’s love, intimacy and relationship with him, moving in the prophetic gifts relative to ministering to people, and praying for healing for each other. In the evenings we sometimes had opportunity to gather together as a team and share what experiences we had during the ministry times during the day. The following is a short listing of some of the testimonies that I was able to write down. There were many more that I didn’t write down or hear, and of course there was much more that God did that we don’t even know about: * Woman had ears healed (was hearing a fuzz or static that was interfering with her hearing), after praying for her she could hear clearly; in addition, a pain she was having in her chest was gone too. * Lame man who had pain in his legs healed and could walk without any pain. This was kind of a humorous incident. After praying for a while, the pain in his legs was gone and the man just sat in his chair happy that the pain was gone. The person doing the praying then reminded the man that he might now be able to walk. The person looked surprised since he had been confined for so long in his chair that he hadn’t even thought to try walking. He did and was overjoyed to find that he could indeed now walk! 221 Renewal Journal * Another person in a wheel chair walked. The person had suffered an embolism 3 years earlier and was paralyzed on one side of the body. While being prayed for, the paralyzed leg and arm started shaking significantly – the power of God was evident! After a while the person was able to get up out of the wheelchair and walk. * A man who had cataracts (obvious by clouding in the lens of the eyes) was prayed for. Gradually the clouding disappeared and the man ended up being able to see clearly. * A woman had a tumor on one side of her body that could be felt from the outside was healed — no more tumor detected. * A little boy who was blind in one eye, after prayer began to see, then sneezed three times and could see perfectly. * A young boy who was controlled by a demonic spirit (thrashed about quite a bit), the demon finally acknowledged its name was the “god of hatred”, the boy finally denounced the demon, accepted Jesus into His life, and was delivered and filled with the Holy Spirit. * More deliverances of people bound by demons. * Woman with paralysis on one side, limped seriously, couldn’t speak, arm wouldn’t work. Interviewing determined the woman had very poor self-esteem (because of the stroke). After spiritual counselling and prayer for healing, she was overcome by the presence of God and went down on the concrete. After a little while the woman started screaming with joy, leapt up and found that the paralysis was gone and she could speak clearly. * Woman’s eyes healed to perfect seeing. – Woman’s knees that were in severe pain, couldn’t walk well at all. After prayer felt heat in her knees, then was able to get up and walk without pain, and even was able to jump up and down. She was very excited about this since she wanted to be able to dance during worship. What joy on her face! * A woman with hurting feet was improved. 222 Kevin Pate * A woman with hurt shoulder was healed, could move it all ways without pain. * A woman with bum knees, after prayer got up very happy, joyfully hugged the person praying for her and said she could now bend her knees without pain, has not been able to do this for years. * Woman with bulge and pain in her stomach (didn’t exactly know what it was all about), after prayer the bulge and pain disappeared. * Woman who was being prayed for started throwing up (a common manifestation of someone releasing a demonic spirit), continued praying for her and asking God to fill and cleanse her with His Holy Spirit, she then started weeping and then praising God. Very visibly changed. * Many people were led to Jesus Christ and prayed to receive Him in their heart. It certainly helped having translators available to help in this communication. It was awesome to be able to participate in what the Lord was doing. I was particularly happy to see the four teenagers who were part of the ministry team get right out there and pray for the people. And they saw and experienced every bit as dramatic move of the Spirit amongst the people they prayed for as any one else on the team! What a lifechanging experience for them (and the rest of us of course)! Life changing experience With the extended prayer times that we had, I found that due to tiredness I would sometimes sort of lose focus on the person I was praying for and get distracted by other things and people around me. I would then look back at the person I had my hand on and found that there were tears streaming down their face – God was moving and touching them in spite of my tiredness and lack of focus. It was also neat to see the next person in the line that I was working down get visibly touched by God prior to me even getting there to pray for that person. It reminded me that it wasn’t really me who was doing the work in their life: rather it was all God. It was astounding how the prayer lines would never end. As people would leave after being prayed for, others would step in where they 223 Renewal Journal were standing and ask for prayer. We’d be walking amongst the people and many would come up to us requesting prayer for themselves, or one of their family or friends. It was a joy to bless them since they were so hungry for God. We couldn’t get tired of that. During some of the preaching sessions, Wes and Arlan asked who desired to accept the Lord Jesus Christ into their life. It was awesome to see hundreds and hundreds of hands raised and hear them pray to ask Jesus into their lives. On the last teaching session at the church Arlan taught about praying for healing. For the ministry time, he told all the people to break up into groups of about eight people and form a circle. He then told each group to put one of the people in the centre who needed physical healing and to pray for them. He asked the prayer ministry team (us) to go around and coach and pray for them. It was so neat teach them how to stepwise go through the healing prayer — 1. first the interview to find out what was wrong; 2. then seek God for guidance, dealing as necessary with any underlying issues such as the need to give and receive forgiveness; 3. then soaking prayer for healing; 4. after a while interviewing the person to see what was happening and whether there was improvement; 5. if there was, blessing and praising God for what he was doing and continuation of prayer for complete healing. I just went around, coached, and blessed what each person and the Holy Spirit was doing. It was exhilarating to see essentially everyone they prayed for in the circle receive healing! It was great to be able to tell all of them that the same Holy Spirit that is in us (the prayer ministry team) was also in them and that they could continue do this kind of ministry with each other, their families and friends, and the lost around them. It was wonderful to know that this 224 Kevin Pate and other teachings and anointings were truly imparted to them and that they will continue to grow after we’ve left. The worship One of the things that impressed us so much was the way these people worship. Mexican people have Fiesta (party!) in their blood and in church they integrate it into their worship. Once they get the worship going, you can’t help but be up and dancing along with them. Picture thousands of people dancing their heart out before God. The church didn’t have a choir. The whole church was the choir. They had a wonderful dance/worship team which consisted of about a dozen beautifully dressed women with tambourines with streamers, and another dozen with flags and streamers. Their synchronized dance/worship was truly beautiful! It’s also the first time I saw toilet paper used as a worship aid. They would tear off a lengths of it and pass it around to everyone and they would wave it in the air as a streamer and praise God. It reminded me of a football game, but of course it was unto God! Oh, we can learn so much from their joy and worship! The culture Mexico City is a huge city; I believe the biggest city in the world – 27 million people. I heard that the entire metropolitan area is about 80 miles x 100 miles. The pollution is quite bad — Mexico City is at about 6,000 feet and in a mountainous basin which traps the air pollution in an inversion layer much of the year — quite a brown layer of smog over the city. The traffic and roads are also interesting — very congested and very bumpy. Hard to complain about our traffic and roads after being there! Our visit to Mexico City was most interesting from a cultural standpoint. The food was of course a wonderful experience! I found the language barrier a fun challenge. The people of Mexico were VERY warm. They have a gift of hospitality that we have rarely encountered. After a few days with them, it was very difficult to leave them. When we were departing, some of the people gave us little gifts that in themselves one might say they had little value, but considering how 225 Renewal Journal poor most of the people are, were of utmost significance to us because we knew how much of a sacrifice it was for them. For all that our God is doing in Mexico and all over the world – “Gloria a Dios!” and “Mas Senor!” Source: Global Revival News 226 4 Revival in Nepal Raju Sundras Pastors Raju and Samita Sundras founded Hosanna Church in Kathmandu, Nepal in the mid-nineties, now a large church in Nepal. Raju is active in planting churches in Nepal and Tibet and caring for a growing network of pastors and leaders. Raju spoke on government national television in a service celebrating the first declaration of Christmas Day as a public holiday in Nepal from 2009. Two young pastors who had been away at Bible School in India for three years returned to West Nepal in November 1998, were arrested, accused by Maoists of being spies, and shot. Many pastors have been threatened or imprisoned. They pray for the sick and cast out demons constantly. They expect miracles, and see many. It is the book of Acts lived today. Churches continue to multiply. Here Raju reports on some revival meetings and ministry at the turn of the century. Renewal Journal Christmas in West Nepal We all are lifting the name of the Lord Higher and Higher. Thank you for your prayer regarding my trip to west Nepal. It was the greatest time for us. I had opportunity to speak the Word of God at three places. Events at the first meetings were unexpected, for me. Four hundred people were gathered to listen the Christmas Message. I shared on “Why are we celebrating Christmas?” While I was closing the message, for 10 minutes one 18 year old boy wept loudly and said, “My both eyes are closed – I’m blind.” We were all filled with awe and fear and we were praying constantly. The Lord told me to bring him to the front so I did. I asked him, “Why are your eyes are closed?” He was walking on the Bibles and on the song books on the floor. [In most churches there everyone sits on the floor]. Then he said, “Forgive me, forgive me, Lord for what I have done.” He confessed and said to the Lord, “I have fallen into sexual sins for many months and I lost my witness too.” When he was confessing to the Lord, his eyes were opened again. Praise the Lord! All of us started to pray. The Spirit of God came upon the people and one pastor went to another pastor to ask forgiveness about things in their past. Then 50 people were healed. Among them was one girl who is 17 years old who had not talked for the last three years. She prayed like this, “Jesus save me.” Another girl who was suffering from headache for the last seven years said. “I was touched, touched. One hand came. God extended his hand to my headache and told me in my spirit, “From today you are healed and you will be healing many people.” When she laid her hands on others, the people were healed on the spot. Many people started to be healed. I was experiencing something as if the roof of the church building was not there because people were talking to God like saying, “How are you?” just as people talk to each other. While all the participants were weeping more people started to come. All the windows were packed. 228 Raju Sundras All the churches were packed. I don’t know how so many people came and wept, saying, “I want to accept Christ as my personal Saviour. Help me. Help me.” Three strong people who had been giving trouble to Christians accepted Christ, all of them praying and weeping. I told the people we had to stop the meeting because we had started from 12 o’ clock noon and it went to 6 o’clock. Then I went to speak at another meeting. That meeting started from 7 o’clock. I did not say anything to them about what happened at the other churches. I just spoke for ten minutes and the Spirit of God came onto the people. The meeting went up to 12 o’clock midnight. I only slept for five hours then people came to me saying, “Let’s pray.” And they told me, “You must still go to other churches to speak.” That was first time in my life I spoke at a meeting that was started from six o’clock in the morning. The same things happened there also. So we came back home on the 24th Dec and I spoke to my church at Kathmandu on 25th Dec. I just shared what had happened and that meeting went up to 4 o’clock at afternoon. Among the four hundred people, 70 people were repenting of their sins to the Lord. A boy who was not even able to walk for two years danced to the Lord. We had baptized 35 people in the first week of December. Now within one week 45 people accepted Christ and 15 people are ready to take baptism. Praise the Lord for doing all this greatest work even though lots of persecution is going on. At the same time we have been seeing the great work of the Lord. I want to say very, very much thank to you for your prayer. From the beginning the devil wanted to stop us from going to visit West Nepal. After we rode 40 kilometers we were in such accident that my wife and I fell down from our motorbike. We both were badly injured. Her hand and right eye were damaged, and my wife is still in treatment. I still have a problem in my knee. Our bike which helped us to go to minister in all parts of Nepal has been totally damaged. Now we are without a bike, but praise the Lord we didn’t feel any pain during the meetings. On the way to the meetings after that accident I told my wife, “Let’s not go to West Nepal, but let’s go back to home.” She said to me, “The Lord 229 Renewal Journal told me we need to go to speak anyhow.” So we obeyed and went. So we have seen the mighty work of the Lord. So I want to share my prayer requests with you. Thank you for your prayer and for your cooperation. Hosanna Church, Kathmandu Warm greetings to you in the highly exalted name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. After 144 hours non stop prayer in our church in January I went to Tibet for two weeks from Kathmandu. Praise the Lord I had a wonderful time in Tibet and there were many ministry opportunities. We have been visiting Tibet each month. But this time we had a golden time to share the gospel and easily I entered inside to handout the tracts. Praise the lord even an 80 years old man also accepted Christ. Just as I was ready to leave to home from the bus park, one 18 years old boy was standing with me. The Holy Spirit told me to give Gospel tracts to him. That boy told me things like ‘Where is the Jesus I have been waiting for from three years.’ On the spot we went on the mountain and spent two hours together. After that he accepted Christ. Whatever Geoff shared during his visit in Nepal is coming true now. You know when our people are watching the video tape [taken during the mission trip] after that our people were inspired to pray. That’s why we conducted 144 hours of non stop prayer. After that our people have a vision to share the gospel to the king also. So there is lots of persecution going on but it’s no problem. People are enjoying the blessings. Today was a historic church day in our Church. We requested to them to do what they can do for the Lord. We have seen in the offering box lots of watches, a gold ring, even a pen and pencil also. Praise the lord that Saturday Rs 8567/- was in the box [a huge amount in a poor country]. If the Lord leads you to assist this independent work in Nepal, India or Sri Lanka, we can send your message on to them. The Renewal Journal brings you information and inspiration concerning renewal and revival around the world. See renewaljournal.com. 230 Raju Sundras Raju (right) with their worship leader and some of the team at road works on the trip to West Nepal Easter in West Nepal Kathmandu pastor Raju Sundras reports on meetings around Easter 2000 with an Australian mission. Greetings in the name of our Almighty God Jesus Christ from the land of Himalayas! The Lord continues to do great things in this land, we have not much to do but to praise Him and thank Him for every good gift raining on us from Him and only Him. It was a great blessing from the Lord to send us a team from Australia mid April. The fellowship, the Word from God, the mighty touch of the Holy Spirit, the love of Christ flourishing from our Australian brothers and sisters, the awesome presence of the Lord throughout the rushing schedule of conferences, trips, visits and etc., all were overwhelmingly expressing the great love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards this nation. During the short stay of about two weeks with the team of eight people we had the privilege to see the ministry of the Holy Spirit through them in several occasions. 231 Renewal Journal On 18 April some of the group along with me had a short trip to the Tibetan border. We started early morning and arrived there about noon time. The towns of Liping on the Nepali side and Khawsa on the Tibetan side are practically connected through a bridge on Bhotekoshi river and right in the midst of the bridge is the border white line showing the boundary of each country. At the end of the bridge on Tibetan side is the entry gate which is controlled by Chinese guards and immigration officials. After praying on the bridge we approached the Chinese officials to get a permission to enter Tibet. The first official refused but the second one nodded approvingly, taking the four Australian passports from my hand as security. The official received them and let us go free of charge! This could happen only by the supernatural intervention of our Almighty God, Hallelujah! We had good prayer inside Tibet specially on those individual shopkeepers whom I would grab and pray on without any resistance from them! On 21 April all the 8 of Australians and I had a trip to Gochadda in west Nepal and held a three days conference over there at Easter. While driving toward the destination I shared the Word with the driver of the private bus and during the inauguration of the conference he approached the altar and accepted Christ as His personal Savior. On the same day a Christian brother whose hand was sort of crippled for six years was touched by the Holy Spirit and healed absolutely, shaking in his whole body and raising his hands, even the crippled one already healed, praising the Lord with all his strength he glorified the Lord for His greatness, Hallelujah! Out of about two hundred participants in the conference by the grace of God a hundred of them were baptized in the Holy Spirit praising the Lord, singing, falling, crying, and many other actions as the Holy Spirit would prompt them to act. About ten of them testified that they had never experienced such a presence of power and love of God. Some other testified being lifted to heavenly realms by the power of the Holy Spirit, being surrounded by the angels of the Lord in a great peace, joy, love toward each other and being melted in the power of His presence. Many re-committed their lives to the Lord for ministry by any means through His revelation. On the second day of the conference the trend continued as the people seemingly would fall down, repent, minister to each other in love of Christ, enjoy the mighty touch of the Holy Spirit, singing, prophesying, 232 Raju Sundras weeping, laughing, hugging and all the beauty of the Holy Spirit were manifested throughout the congregation by His grace and love. One woman of age 65 testified that she never had danced in her life in any occasion even in secret but the Lord had told her that she should now dance to Him and she was dancing praising Him with all her strength. For hours this outpouring continued and the pastors of the churches were one by one testifying that they had never experienced such a presence and power of God in their whole Christian life and ministry. Some sixty evangelists from Gorkha, Dhanding, Chitwan, Butwal declared that they were renewed in their spirits by the refreshing of the Holy Spirit and they are now going to serve the Lord in the field wherever the Holy Spirit will lead them to be full fledged in His service. In the last day of the conference while praying together with the congregation and committing them in His hands, many prophesied that the Lord was assuring them of great changes in their ministry, life and the area, while the power of God was at work in our midst three children of 6-7 years old fell down weeping, screaming and testifying about a huge size of hand coming on them and touching their stomachs and healing them instantly. After the prayer all the participants got into the joy of the Holy Spirit and started dancing to the Lord, singing and praising Him for His goodness. Before leaving Gochadda while we were having snacks in the Pastor’s house a woman of high Brahmin caste came by the direction of the Lord to the place claiming that she was prompted by a voice in her ear to go to Christians and ask for prayer for healing of her chronic stomach pain and problems and that is why she was there. We prayed for her and she was instantly healed and we shared the Gospel, but she stopped us saying, “I need to accept Christ as my Saviour so don’t waste time!” And she accepted Jesus as her personal Savior being lifted in spirit even the body as she said she wouldn’t feel anymore burden in her body, and spirit, Hallelujah! On 25 April we held another conference in the Nazarene Church in Kathmandu, pastored by Ringi Lama, where ten churches unitedly participated in the two days gathering where about 100 people participated. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit continued in this conference refreshing many in their spirits and bringing much of recommitment. Some cases of healing were testified, and in one case the brother testified that he had received healing from the Lord and his 233 Renewal Journal swollen feet and the high Uric Acid had disappeared from his body, confirmed by the Holy Spirit. We showed the Transformation video brought from Australia! All committed themselves for constant prayer to bring transformation to their cities too by His power. On 27 April we held a one day conference in Hosanna Church where the touch of the Holy Spirit was tremendous and people blessed by the Holy Spirit and His might were manifesting His power and presence in the place. While people were worshipping and praising the Lord a prophecy came and the Lord said, “What happened to the vision given to you six years ago? You have forgotten to pray about it but I have not forgotten what I have promised to you through the vision!” And I was reminded by the Holy Spirit that I had seen a vision where I was taken over the highest mountains in this country with few of my foreign friends and some of our evangelists and as we put our step on the top of the mountain it started shaking and melting and my friends and the evangelists started disappearing, then I cried out, Lord where are my friends? And He said open your eyes and see, and I saw all my friends and the evangelists were scattered all over the mountains and they were coming towards me with multitudes of people behind them. I started weeping and with a feeling which words cannot explain I was thanking the Lord for His goodness, I was laughing in the Spirit for the repetition of the vision which I could see again. Hallelujah! I have to thank the Lord for His great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and I have to thank the Lord also for my Australian brothers and sisters who took all the burden to come over to this place and minister to our people. 234 5 Beyond Prophesying Mike Bickle Pastor Mike Bickle of the Metro Vineyard Fellowship in America leads a church with a strong prophetic ministry. Being prophetic is essential to the very nature and mission of the whole body of Christ Traits of a Prophetic Church When Holy Spirit activity happens among fallible flesh and blood like us, tensions are bound to arise. Our church, Metro Vineyard Fellowship in Kansas City, has made many mistakes during our journey toward becoming a prophetic church. A few years ago, David Pytches wrote a glowing report of our church’s prophetic history in his book Some Said It Thundered. I appreciated the book, but also thought there was merit in someone’s suggestion that I write a follow-up book revealing all our past mistakes in prophetic ministry. He said I should call it Some Said We Blundered. The term “prophetic” is typically used to refer either to the fulfillment of end-time biblical predictions or the speaking forth of current revelatory messages. But beyond these areas, the church is to be a prophetic servant community in a much broader, multi-dimensional way. Being prophetic is not to be the exclusive domain of Renewal Journal “charismatics”; it is essential to the very nature and mission of the whole body of Christ. Those whose prophetic ministry includes supernatural dreams and visions need to view what they do in the larger context of the church’s calling as a prophetic servant community. Prophetic manifestations such as dreams and visions do not comprise the prophetic ministry in its entirety; they are really only one expression of a community that is prophetic in at least eight distinct dimensions. 1. Revealing the heart of God The angel of God told the apostle John, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). The spirit (purpose) of prophecy is to reveal three aspects of Jesus’ testimony: who he is, what he does, and how he feels. Passion for Jesus will inevitably result from this prophetic revelation. Such holy passion is the highlight of the prophetic church. The prophetic ministry is to be stamped and sealed with an affection for and sensitivity to the heart of God. It is a ministry that passionately feels and reveals the divine heart. Prophetic ministry involves not only receiving and communicating information; it also includes, in some measure, the ability to experience the compassion, grief and joy of God. As we experience God, we will be given insight into some of his future plans and purposes. If you “desire earnestly to prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:39) by merely seeking information from the mind of God, you have bypassed the cornerstone and the essence of prophetic ministry – the revelation of his heart. The apostle Paul said, “Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love [for God and people], I am nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2). The message and ministry of Old Testament prophets was often prefaced in terms of the “burden” of the Lord. Habakkuk 1:1 speaks of “the burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.” The word “burden” 236 Mike Bickle implies emotional and heartfelt issues are at stake – not just abstract truth. So then, one prophetic dimension of the church’s ministry is to proclaim, reveal and call to remembrance God’s affection for his people. That includes his jealous longing for us and His intense grief over our sin that separates us from him. Often I have shared at our church that our passionate affection for Jesus can only come from an ever-increasing revelation of his passion for us. Though I rarely voice a revelatory prophetic word in our church, I seek to contribute to the mission of the church as a prophetic servant community by teaching on the passionate heart of God. 2. The fulfillment of biblical prophecy For hundreds of years the prophets told of the Messiah who would come and the kingdom he would establish. Jesus sometimes spoke of the kingdom as if it had come with the advent of his public ministry, and at other times as if the kingdom was “not yet.” In whatever sense and to whatever extent the kingdom has already come, those to whom it has come are the living fulfillment of what the prophets spoke. Jesus said to Peter, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). He also described the kingdom of God as being like a mustard seed that inevitably grows (Mark 4:31-32). Throughout the last two millennia all the powers of hell have been unable to eliminate the gospel or the church. The church has only continued to grow. The survival and growth of the church is a continuing witness to prophecies fulfilled – a prophetic voice of what will come in the future. All that the church does to make herself ready as the bride of Christ worshiping, celebrating communion, witnessing, casting out demons, healing the sick, being peacemakers – is a prophetic trumpet to the world. These prophetic acts declare not only the gospel, but also the relationship of Christ to his church and to the fact that he is coming again to reign over all the earth. 237 Renewal Journal The next time you are sitting in a church service, remember that even though we are almost two thousand years removed from the firstcentury church, the very fact that you are gathering with others in his name is a both a prophetic fulfillment and a prophetic statement to the world. 3. The prophetic standard in the Scriptures Scripture is the ultimate trumpet of God’s heart, purpose and will. Fortunately, while our church has grown as a prophetic community we have had several gifted Bible teachers as part of our leadership. As experts in exegesis, hermeneutics, systematic theology and the history of the church, these teachers serve as a balance and plumb line to the prophets and exhorters among us, who sometimes want to apply a scripture in a questionable way. Sound teaching not only makes the Bible come alive, it gives the church a sense of connection with those who began the race. The church as a prophetic community must realize that we are a continuation of what they began. The torch has been passed so many times, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we are running the same race they started. Their leg of the race has been completed, and they have now gathered at the finish line to cheer us on. The church is the living testimony of the prophetic purpose of God in history. It is also a prophetic community which is to preserve and accurately proclaim the Word of God. 4. Moving when the cloud moves The fourth way the church must be prophetic is to discern the current move of the Spirit – the “present truth,” as respected church leader Dick Iverson calls it. Just as the children of Israel followed the cloud through the wilderness, the church needs to move when the Holy Spirit says to move (Deuteronomy 1:33). And the Spirit is continually doing a “new thing, with the church as a whole and with each individual congregation” (Isaiah 43:19). While the scriptural truth the church preserves and proclaims is unchangeable and immovable, the relationship that exists between the church and the Holy Spirit is not static. The Ten Commandments given on Sinai are forever true and unchangeable, but the people of Israel 238 Mike Bickle were changing locations constantly as they moved around in the wilderness. The kind of moving I am referring to is the changing emphasis placed on elements of truth, structure and strategy. We are, so to speak, moving around within the boundaries of the unchangeable truth of God’s Word. Several recent examples of people sensing the Lord’s instruction concerning the means and methods of the church’s prophetic expression can be cited: * A renewed emphasis on small groups and cell-based churches; * The public expression of worship, now known and practiced worldwide as The March For Jesus; * The refreshing of the Holy Spirit as experienced in Toronto and many other places; * A new movement towards prayer, spearheaded by people like C. Peter Wagner, Dick Eastman, David Bryant, Wesley Tullis and Larry Lea. The leaders of such movements are not necessarily those who exercise the gift of prophecy as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, yet they can clearly sense the direction the cloud is moving. They might be compared to the sons of Issachar who “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Church history is filled with examples of how part of the body of Christ discerned a current emphasis of the Holy Spirit as it related to a particular element of structure, strategy or biblical truth. Unfortunately though, some have followed the cloud to the next place in God, then never moved again. After camping around a certain structure, strategy or truth for a period of time, they shift from being a prophetic community to being a prophetic monument to something the Holy Spirit did long ago. This doesn’t mean we should abandon all the older traditions with every new move of the cloud. The greatest expression of the church as a prophetic community is in those congregations or denominations 239 Renewal Journal that move on with the cloud, but carry with them all the wisdom, experience and maturity of their history. 5. Demonstrating the power of God Elijah was a mighty prophet who called down fire from heaven as a sign of God’s power. In the New Testament, though, attesting miracles were not limited to the prophets. The Holy Spirit now distributes the gifts “individually as he wills,” one of those being the gift of miracles (1 Corinthians 12:10-11). As in the days of Elijah, miracles attest to the truth of God’s Word. But this doesn’t mean the church no longer needs miracles, since we have the written Word. If attesting miracles were needed when the apostles personally testified within a few years of the resurrection, how much more are miracles needed today to confirm the veracity of their written accounts. Attesting miracles are also valuable as a dimension of the prophetic community because, more than anything else, they make people aware that God is actually present with them. Without an up-to-date awareness of his presence, the church sometimes takes on the air of a society only gathered to venerate the memory of Jesus and his death two thousand years ago. Miracles jolt our sensibilities and make us joyfully (or frightfully) aware of the fact the he is in our midst. A hundred sermons on God being with us will not awaken our hearts as much as a personal encounter with the manifestation of his presence through the miraculous. This in no way diminishes the power or authority of the written Word. It simply means that in the miraculous the living God of the written Word shows up in a powerfully personal, intimate and tangible way. Through the miraculous, the church prophesies and proclaims that he is alive! 6. Prophetic dreams and visions God gives certain people the ability to see and hear things that most people do not see or hear. The term “seer” carries with it some very negative connotations because of its modern-day, non-Christian 240 Mike Bickle applications. Consequently, when referring to someone as a “seer,” one must be careful to qualify and define this term in the light of Scripture: * “Formally in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: ‘Come, let us go to the seer’; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer” (1 Samuel 9:9). * “And Samuel answered Saul and said, ‘I am the seer’” (v. 19). Prophets like Ezekiel and Zechariah saw profound visions of God but are not known for demonstrations of power such as healing the sick or raising the dead. Often this type of prophetic person is not gifted with great demonstrations of miraculous power, yet they regularly see things by the Spirit – things such as future events, the secrets of people’s hearts and the calling of God on people’s lives. Like Ezekiel’s visions, the things prophetic people see are sometimes baffling. 7. Crying out against social injustice The church has the responsibility to be a “prophet to the nation” concerning the injustice and unrighteousness that eventually cause a nation to incur the judgment of God. One of the more stellar examples of this was the prophetic outcry against slavery from William Wilberforce (1759-1833) and, prior to that, from Lord Shaftesbury (1621-1683). Many times prophets to the nation speak from a secular platform. Joseph and Daniel were two biblical examples of people who represented God in a position of secular power. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, likewise, prophetically stood for justice and righteousness in America’s social order. The church must be careful as it carries out its prophetic ministry to the nation. Although many believers will hopefully be active in civil government and even in party politics, the church and those who speak for it must understand where to draw the line. 241 Renewal Journal If and when Christians enter politics, they do so as godly individuals, not as representatives of a church’s pastoral staff. The church itself should be as a prophet standing for the advancement of righteousness – but without indebtedness to political party affiliations. 8. Crying out for personal holiness and repentance Throughout the generations, God has raised up prophets to cry out against the sins of his people. This outcry is similar to the prophetic cry against social injustice, but different in that it is specifically addressed to the people in the church. It is less like Jonah prophesying against Nineveh and more like Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesying to Israel and Judah. Leaders such as Billy Graham, Charles Colson, John Piper, David Wilkerson and A.W. Tozer have been effective prophetic ministers raised up to cry out against unrighteousness in the church. Their words have been anointed by the Spirit to awaken hearts to holiness and passion for Jesus. God uses such prophetic voices, just as he used John the Baptist, to prick the conscience of believers and bring them to revival. The church is the prophetic expression of the kingdom of God on earth. It is called to represent, preserve and proclaim the truth of God to this world. Although not every member of the church is a prophet, all are called to participate in God’s ongoing prophetic plan and purpose. Those particularly gifted with dreams, visions, prophecies and revelation need to be careful not to think of themselves too highly, as being the prophetic group. They serve only one dimension of the church’s greater calling as a prophetic community. My prayer and eager expectation is that God will work mightily in our generation to help the church live up to its prophetic calling among the nations of the earth. The proclamation and demonstration of the Word of God through a Spirit-filled church is the only true hope for humankind. May the Holy Spirit come upon us in unprecedented measure for the glory of God and Christ Jesus! 242 6 The Rise and Rise of the Apostles Phil Marshall Rev Dr Phil Marshall wrote as the Evangelism Consultant for the Uniting Church in NSW. He served as a Minister in local congregations in South Australia and Queensland, Australia The leadership gifts of Ephesians 4:11-12 are critical to churches that are discipling people in the post-modern Western world We are in a time where we are witnessing the rise and rise of the apostle in the church around the world. As with the recovery of other spiritual gifts, the Pentecostal churches are leading the way, but in time, the affirmation of the gift of apostle will happen across much of the church. This gift will play a critical role in the missionary expansion of the church into the 21st century. It is important to take a fresh look at the apostolic gift in the New Testament so that the gift can be more readily discerned and affirmed. Much interest has been shown in spiritual gifts in recent decades and particularly the leadership gifts listed in Ephesians: “It was he (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12 NIV). Renewal Journal Neglected gift Out of the five gifts listed by Paul in his letter, the gift of the apostle has been the most neglected particularly by mainline denominations. Historically, little interest has been shown in the gift of apostle, as classical evangelicalism has associated it with the twelve apostles and Paul, limiting it to the first century. The Roman Catholic Church has tried to link itself to the ministry of the early apostles, through an unbroken succession of ordinations called ‘apostolic succession’ but this theory is rarely of interest to those outside the Roman Church. Pentecostal churches that have been willing to affirm the gift and acknowledge individuals as apostles, thereby starting a process, which in time will help many churches from different traditions, recover this gift. I suspect that in the 21st century we will see more and more evidence of the apostolic gift, and be increasingly willing to acknowledge this gift in individuals. This will happen in the same way that we have seen the restoration of the healing ministry this century. It was initially recovered by Pentecostals, then embraced by the charismatic movement and is now accepted as a normal part of most mainline denominations. Diverse Definitions of the Gift of Apostle Although we are seeing greater acceptance of the gift today, New Testament scholars have debated apostleship for the last hundred years. Lightfoot began the modern discussion when he included in his commentary on Galatians a section on “The Name and Office of an Apostle” (Kevin Giles, Patterns of Ministry Among the First Christians, Melbourne, Australia: Collin Dove, 1989. p. 152). He argued that more people in the New Testament than the twelve apostles and Paul were called apostles, and that in post apostolic writings the title of apostle was used quite widely with the commission of apostle being life-long and for the sake of the Gospel. There have been diverse opinions about the definition of this gift in recent years. In the 1980s spiritual gifts were studied in great depth. During this time the gift of apostle was variously defined as general leadership, the same as the missionary gift, or as a teacher who was able to pass on the apostolic tradition of the church (Robert Hillman, 27 Spiritual Gifts, Melbourne, Australia: JBCE, 1986. pp. 22-23). There 244 Phil Marshall are hints of the importance of the gift but it remains on the whole undeveloped. The Marks of an Apostle The meaning of the Greek word apostolos literally means ‘a person sent’ (Giles, p. 153). The concept of the apostle acting in an authoritative way for the Lord was basic to the use of the term. The study of a single word is not sufficient in itself because it can not fully explain the nature and function of an apostle. Paul, the most influential apostle, had to argue fiercely for his own claim to be an apostle when disputing with opponents in Galatia and Corinth. The marks of Paul’s apostleship were: 1. Intimacy with the Risen Lord. To have seen the risen Lord was foundational to Paul’s claim to be an apostle (Giles, p. 162). It is not an essential mark because in 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11 it is implied that anyone can be empowered for the work of apostle. The important factors for Paul was intimacy with Christ, being gripped by the calling of Christ and having the conviction that he was sent with an authority from the risen Lord. 2. Leadership in Church Planting. To have brought a church into existence is another mark. Paul appeals to the fact that the Corinthians were the result of his work in the Lord (1 Corinthians 9:1). In defense of his apostleship Paul claims that the church which he founded was “the seal of my apostleship” (1 Corinthians 9:2). Here the planting of new churches is confirmation of the apostolic gift. 3. True to the Gospel of the Early Apostles. To be a church planter is not sufficient in itself. Paul argues that a genuine apostle must proclaim the one true gospel. In 2 Corinthians, chapters 11 and 12, Paul condemns those who call themselves apostles but preach another gospel. A mark of an apostle is that their theology and message centre upon the proclamation of the early apostolic 245 Renewal Journal period as recorded in the New Testament (George Hunter, Church for the Unchurched, Nashville TN: Abingdon Press, 1996. p. 152). 4. Suffering for Christ is more Important than Signs and Wonders for Christ. Paul only speaks once of the signs of a true apostle by writing, “The things that mark an apostle – signs, wonders and miracles – were done among you with great perseverance” (2 Corinthians 12:12 NIV). The context is that Paul has to contend with the Corinthians who thought an apostle should be a more impressive figure than he was. The Corinthians seemed to have argued that a ‘super-apostle’ should be able to boast of visions and miracles. Paul puts his case in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 that he has known visions and miracles but prefers to boast of his sufferings in the service of Christ (Giles, p. 163). The marks of an apostle include signs, wonders and miracles but even more important is enduring suffering for Christ. The case Paul makes for his own apostleship can become a sound foundation for how we build apostolic ministries today. I am not advocating a rigid checklist, but marks that distinguish the gift of apostle. These marks will then help the leadership in the local church recognise the gift and encourage the ministry. The Character of an Apostle The gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit can never be separated in a person’s life. The manifestation of the gift of apostle and the character of the apostle are inseparable. Cannistraci offers a general definition of an apostle that includes a person’s character: An apostle is one who is called and sent by Christ to have spiritual authority, character, gifts and abilities to successfully reach and establish people in the kingdom truth and order, especially founding and overseeing local churches. (David Cannistraci, The Gift of Apostle, Ventura California: Regal Books, 1996. p. 29). Not enough can be said about the importance of character and the fruit of the Spirit. There have been a number of examples of high profile Christian leaders with influential ministries ‘falling from grace’ because of moral failure or fraud. An apostle never acts alone because the gift is exercised within the context of the body of Christ. The character and 246 Phil Marshall relationships of an apostle are just as important as the effectiveness of their ministry. Cannistraci rightly argues that apostleship begins in a person’s heart and character, and then culminates in action and the work of the kingdom of God (p. 96). Christian character remains an essential element to the exercise of any ministry and there needs to be tangible evidence of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) before there can be an affirmation of the gift of apostle. Conclusion. The leadership gifts of Ephesians 4:11-12 are critical to churches that are discipling people in the post-modern Western world and it is exciting to see the restoration of the gift of the apostle. This has already happening in some Pentecostal churches but this restoration will have a widening influence in a variety of churches across the world. The apostolic gift will find a variety of expressions but its enduring marks will be: 1. Intimacy with Christ. 2. Leadership in Church Planting. 3. True to the Gospel of the Early Apostles. 4. Suffering for Christ. All these characteristics are undermined and therefore become irrelevant if they are not confirmed by the fruit of the Spirit in the character of the apostle. Those denominations that embrace the restoration of the apostolic gift will see an increase in new Christians and new churches. 247 Renewal Journal Living in the Spirit The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life 248 7 Evangelical Heroes Speak Richard Riss Historian Dr Richard Riss’ doctoral research included studies on the current revival awakening. The Holy Spirit IN US is one thing, and the Holy Spirit ON US is another - D. L. Moody Many Evangelicals, especially those who doubt the genuineness of the current awakening, look to people like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles H. Spurgeon, and Dwight L. Moody as exemplars of true Christianity or genuine revival. However, these figures, and others to whom they look, such as G. Campbell Morgan or D. Martyn LloydJones, do not at all conform to the preconceptions of late twentiethcentury Evangelicalism. Critics of today’s move of God complain that it is inappropriate to spend time soaking in the presence of God; rather, we must be about the Father’s business, seeking and saving the lost. But such an idea would have been completely foreign to Dwight L. Moody, who believed that to be effective for God, people must first wait upon God for His power and anointing. Renewal Journal Here’s what he said: “Some people seem to think they are losing time if they wait on God for His power, and so away they go and work without unction; they are working without any anointing, and they are working without any power. . . . The Holy Spirit IN US is one thing, and the Holy Spirit ON US is another; and if these [first-century] Christians had gone out and went right to preaching then and there [at the time of Christ’s ascension] without the power, do you think that scene would have taken place on the day of Pentecost? Don’t you think that Peter would have stood up there and beat against the air, while these Jews would have gnashed their teeth and mocked him? But they tarried in Jerusalem; they waited ten days. What! you say. What, the world perishing and men dying! Shall I wait? Do what God tells you. There is no use in running before you are sent; there is no use in attempting to do God’s work without God’s power. A man working without this unction, a man working without this anointing, a man working without the Holy Ghost upon him, is losing his time after all. So we are not going to lose anything if we tarry till we get this power” (Secret Power. pp. 44-45). Critics have raised objections to the laughter that has characterized the present move of God. They have said that weeping, not laughter, is appropriate for revival, since it is appropriate to weep over one’s sins in coming to a place of repentance. But Charles H. Spurgeon has said otherwise. In his Autobiography (Zondervan, 1946. pp. 124-125) he writes, “I do believe in my heart that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry, and that, sometimes, to laugh is the better thing of the two, for I may weep, and be murmuring, and repining, and thinking all sorts of bitter thoughts against God, while at another time I may laugh the laugh of sarcasm against sin and so evince a holy earnestness in the defence of the truth.” “I am not so afraid of excitement as some people” – D. L. Moody Rodney Howard-Browne was severely criticized for his comments to the effect that he would rather have some form of life in his meetings than no life at all, implying that it would be worth it, even if there were a risk that the life was of the flesh. Yet one would be hard pressed to see how Rodney’s comments along these lines differed from one of Moody’s sermons, “Revivals,” in which he said essentially the same thing: “I am not so afraid of excitement as some people. The moment there comes a breath of interest, some people cry, ‘Sensationalism. 250 Richard Riss sensationalism!’ But I tell you what, I would rather have sensation than stagnation any time. . . . Don’t be afraid of a little excitement and a little ‘sensationalism.’ It seems to me that almost anything is preferable to deadness. . . . Where there is life there will always be a commotion” (Moody’s Latest Sermons. pp. 111-112). Critics claim that John Arnott opens people up to deception by quoting Luke 11:11 in order to calm peoples’ fears about the current move of God. Yet this is precisely the language that Moody used when he said. “I believe that if we ask God for a real work. He won’t give us a counterfeit. If we ask God for bread, He isn’t going to give us a stone” (ibid.. p. 114). Still other critics complain that, in an age of Microwave ovens, we are far too accustomed to the instantaneous. Because we are not satisfied unless things are done immediately, the quick fixes that we see in today’s revival are suspect and won’t last. On the other hand, Spurgeon’s outlook was just the opposite. He believed that revival and its results are instantaneous. In a sermon entitled “The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit” (June 20, 1858), he said, “There is no power in man so fallen but that the Holy Spirit can raise it up. However debased a man may be, in one instant, by the miraculous power of the Spirit, all his faculties may be cleansed and purged.” “Follow the guidance of the Spirit” – Evan Roberts Some people criticize the idea of the leading of the Holy Spirit during a church service as too dangerous or too subjective. Rodney HowardBrowne has often been severely criticized for claiming to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit during his meetings. This may be problematic for many twentieth-century Evangelicals, but it was most decidedly not a problem for Evan Roberts during the Welsh revival. G. Campbell Morgan, in his sermon, “Lessons of the Welsh Revival” (December 25, 1904) said of one of the meetings that he attended in Wales that all the while there was “no human leader, no one indicating the next thing to do, no one checking the spontaneous movement. . . . Evan Roberts is no orator, no leader. What is he? I mean now with respect to this great movement. He is the mouthpiece of the fact that there is no human guidance as to man or organization. The burden of what he says to the people is this: It is not man, do not wait for me, depend on God, obey the Spirit. But whenever moved to do so, he speaks under the guidance 251 Renewal Journal of the Spirit. His work is not that of appealing to men so much as that of creating an atmosphere by calling men to follow the guidance of the Spirit in whatever the Spirit shall say to them.” Charles Spurgeon also believed that the leading of the Holy Spirit was absolutely essential in all of his church meetings. He said. “I have constantly made it my prayer that I might be guided by the Spirit even in the smallest and least important parts of the services. . . . I might preach to-day a sermon which I preached on Friday, and which was useful then, and there might be no good whatever come from it now, because it might not be the sermon which the Holy Ghost would have delivered to-day.” “A blessed fanaticism . . . a heavenly enthusiasm” – C H Spurgeon Some people assert that today’s awakening cannot be a genuine work of God since there are clear problems within it, and many indications that it is tainted by the work of the flesh. Such people do not realize that every awakening of history has been a mixture of the good and the bad. Here’s what Spurgeon wrote of the awakening of 1857-58: “We have received continually fresh confirmations of the good news from a far country, which has already made glad the hearts of many of God’s people. In the United States of America there is certainly a great awakening. . . . There may be something of spurious excitement mixed up with it, but that good, lasting good, has been accomplished, no rational man can deny.” Along similar lines. Jonathan Edwards, in The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of The Spirit of God, wrote of the Great Awakening that critics who “wait to see a work of God without difficulties and stumbling blocks . . . will be a like the fool’s waiting at the river side to have the water all run by. A work of God without stumbling blocks is never to be expected.” In a sermon entitled “The Great Revival” (March 28, 1858), Spurgeon said that revival is like a hurricane, bringing chaos wherever it goes: “The mere worldly man does not understand a revival; he cannot make it out. Why is it that a sudden fit of godliness, as he would call it, a kind of sacred epidemic, should seize upon a mass of people all at once? What can be the cause of it? It frequently occurs in the absence of all great evangelists; it cannot be traced to any particular means. There have been no special agencies used in order to bring it about – no machinery supplied, no societies established; and yet it has come, just 252 Richard Riss like a heavenly hurricane, sweeping everything before it. . . . When there comes a revival, the minister all of a sudden finds that the usual forms and conventionalities of the pulpit are not exactly suitable to the times. . . . And there are sobs and groans heard in the prayer meetings. . . . And then the converts who are thus brought into the church, if the revival continues, are very earnest ones. You never saw such a people. The outsiders call them fanatics. It is a blessed fanaticism. Others say they are nothing but enthusiasts. It is a heavenly enthusiasm. . . . It is not orderly, you say. . . . You may try to stop us, but we will run over you if you do not get out of the way.” Spurgeon was decidedly in favour of revival but he was opposed to some of the more controversial manifestations. Nevertheless he acknowledged that the manifestations that he disliked had taken place under the ministry of George Whitefield: “In the old revivals in America a hundred years ago, commonly called ‘the Great Awakening,’ there were many strange things such as continual shrieks and screams, and knocking, and twitchings at the services. We cannot call that the work of the Spirit. Even the great Whitefield’s revival at Cambuslang, one of the greatest and most remarkable revivals that were ever known, was attended by some things that we cannot but regard as superstitious wonders” (ibid). Spurgeon is certainly not alone. One of the greatest bones of contention during the important revivals of the past has been controversial manifestations of this kind: such as people falling under the power of God, shaking and trembling, experiencing speechlessness, drunkenness in the Spirit, or holy laughter. In a 1959 sermon. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said with respect to revival that “Under the influence of this mighty power, people may literally fall to the ground under conviction of sin, or even faint, and remain in a state of unconsciousness, perhaps for a considerable time. . . . Then there are people who seem to go into trances. They may be seated or they may be standing, and they are looking into the distance, obviously seeing something, and yet they are completely unconscious and unaware of their surroundings. They do not seem to be able to hear anything nor to see anything that may be happening round and about them.” Lloyd-Jones lamented that “there are people who dismiss and denounce the whole notion of revival because of these phenomena” (Revival. pp. 134-136). He also said (pp. 136-144) that for many years 253 Renewal Journal people had attempted to explain revival in terms of brainwashing, mass hysteria, mesmerism, hypnotism, or demonic activity, but that all of these attempted explanations leave many questions unanswered and fail at major points. “A kind of ecstasy” - Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards had to deal with criticisms of the Great Awakening because of phenomena of this kind. One of his critics, Charles Chauncy, insisted that because these things were integral to the Great Awakening that it could not possibly be a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In his several works in defence of the Great Awakening, Edwards repeatedly pointed out that the presence of these manifestations neither proves nor disproves that God is at work. In our own day. critics attempt to argue that Edwards, especially in his later works, was against the manifestations. But any careful reading, even of his Treatise on Religious Affections (1746), will indicate that his viewpoint was always that while the manifestations do not indicate that a work is of God neither do they indicate the opposite. According to Edwards the true sign as to whether a work is of God would be the positive effects in people’s attitudes and behaviour or the fruit of the Spirit in their lives and character. Nevertheless. the writings of Edwards do demonstrate that the manifestations were a component of the Great Awakening. He made clear references in The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of The Spirit of God to “tears, trembling, groans, loud outcries, agonies of body, or the failing of bodily strength.” He wrote that “some who are the subjects of it have been in a kind of ecstasy wherein they have been carried beyond themselves and have had their minds transported into a train of strong and pleasing . . . visions, as though they were rapt up even to heaven and there saw glorious sights. I have been acquainted with some such instances and I see no need of bringing in the help of the devil into the account that we give of these things.” “Outward signs . . . accompanied the inward work of God” – John Wesley George Whitefield also played an important part in the Great Awakening. At first, Whitefield did not believe that the manifestations 254 Richard Riss should be encouraged. On June 25, 1739, he wrote a letter to John Wesley about them saying. “I cannot think it right in you to give so much encouragement to those convulsions which people have been thrown into under your ministry. Was I to do so, how many would cry out every night! I think it is tempting God to require such signs. That there is something of God in it, I doubt not. But the devil, I believe, does interpose.” But about two weeks later, John Wesley had a talk with George Whitefield about these matters and Whitefield changed his mind. On July 7, 1739, Wesley wrote of him in his Journal. “I had an opportunity to talk with him of those outward signs which had so often accompanied the inward work of God. I found his objections were chiefly grounded on gross misrepresentations of matter of fact. But the next day he had an opportunity of informing himself better: for no sooner had he begun (in the application of his sermon) to invite all sinners to believe in Christ, than four persons sunk down close to him, almost in the same moment. One of them lay without either sense of motion; a second trembled exceedingly; the third had strong convulsions all over his body but made no noise unless by groans; the fourth, equally convulsed, called upon God with strong cries and tears. From this time, I trust we shall all suffer God to carry on His own work in the way that pleaseth Him.” “God manifested Himself much amongst us” – George Whitefield As can be seen in George Whitefield’s own Journal, from that time onward the manifestations were one of the components of Whitefield’s ministry. On August 3, 1740, he wrote, “Before I had prayed long, Br. B. dropped down as though shot with a gun. Afterwards he got up and sat attentively to hear the sermon. The influence spread. The greatest part of the congregation were under great concern. Tears trickled down apace and God manifested Himself much amongst us at the Sacrament.” The following day Whitefield wrote, “I asked what caused him to fall down yesterday?’ He answered, ‘The power of God’s Word.’” Whitefield wrote that during the same year in New York, on Sunday. November 2, “After I had begun . . . the Spirit of the Lord gave me freedom and at length came down like a mighty rushing wind and carried all before it. Immediately the whole congregation was alarmed. Crying, weeping, and wailing were to be heard in every corner; men’s 255 Renewal Journal hearts failing them for fear, and many were to be seen falling into the arms of their friends.” Similar things happened two days later in Staten Island: “Oh, how did the Word fall like a hammer and like a fire! One poor creature in particular was ready to sink into the earth. His countenance was altered till he looked, as it were, sick to death. At length he said. ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ Others were dissolved in tears around him; and one of my fellow-travellers was struck down and so overpowered that his body became exceeding weak. He could scarcely move all the night after. God, I believe, was working powerfully in his soul.” Whitefield wrote that a day afterward, in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, “I had not discoursed long when in every part of the congregation some one or other began to cry out, and almost all were melted into tears. . . . Most of the people spent the remainder of the night in prayer and praises.” The following week, on Saturday, November 15, in Philadelphia, “the Word seemed to smite the congregation like so many pointed arrows. Many afterwards told me what they felt; and in the evening I was sent for to a young woman who was carried home from meeting and had continued almost speechless.” Whitefield said that a week later at Fagg’s Manor, “God’s presence so filled my soul that I could scarce stand under it. I prayed and exhorted and prayed again and soon every person in the room seemed to be under great impressions, sighing and weeping. At last I was quite overpowered.” Whitefield couldn’t move and a friend had to help him go to bed that night: “A dear friend undressed me. The Lord gave me sweet sleep and in the morning I arose with my natural strength much renewed.” There is an interesting quotation in The Biography of Barton W. Stone (1847) with respect to the manifestations of the Great Awakening and its aftermath: “Mr. Benedict, in his Abridgment of the History of the Baptists, on page 345, speaking of the great revival that began among them on James River in 1785, says, ‘During the progress of this revival, scenes were exhibited somewhat extraordinary. It was not unusual to have a large proportion of the congregation prostrate on the floor and in some instances they lost the use of their limbs. . . . Screams, groans, shouts, hosannas, notes of grief and joy, all at the same time, were not unfrequently heard throughout their vast assemblies. . . . It is not unworthy of notice that in those congregations where the preachers encouraged them to much extent, the work was more extensive, and 256 Richard Riss greater numbers were added. . . . Among the old fashioned Calvinistic Baptists of the Old Dominion these strange bodily agitations obtained; and many of the preachers ‘fanned them as fire from heaven,’ and the excitement and confusion that pervaded their vast assemblies wellnigh fills Mr. J. L. Waller’s measure of a “New Light Stir” in Kentucky.’” “He never saw a more glorious sight” – Barton Stone According to Barton Stone (pp. 360-361), not only did George Whitefield encourage such things but Charles Hodge wrote about them in his History of the Presbyterian Church, pages 85 and 86. Stone also wrote that “the manner in which Whitefield describes the scenes at Nottingham and Fagg’s Manor, and others of a similar character, shows he did not disapprove of these agitations. He says he never saw a more glorious sight than when the people were fainting all around him and crying out in such a manner as to drown his own voice.” In his Journals and in his sermons. George Whitefield alluded frequently to the new wine of the Spirit. In New Hampshire on one Friday and Saturday in March of 1745, “All [were] seemingly hearty friends to and great sharers in the late blessed work of God. Their accounts of it were very entertaining. Every time the Lord was with us, but he seemed to keep the good wine till the last, for on Saturday many of God’s people were filled exceedingly.” In these cases he is speaking with specific reference to God-given joy and preached about it at considerable length in his sermon, “The Kingdom of God,” in which he said, “I have often thought that if the apostle Paul were to come and preach now he would be reckoned one of the greatest enthusiasts on earth. He talked of the Holy Ghost, of feeling the Holy Ghost; and so we must all feel it, all experience it, all receive it, or we can never see a holy God with comfort. . . . The apostle not only supposes we must have the Holy Ghost but he supposes as a necessary ingredient to make up the kingdom of God in a believer’s heart that he must have ‘joy in the Holy Ghost.’ There are a great many, I believe, who think religion is a poor melancholy thing and they are afraid to be Christians. But, my dear friends, there is no true joy till you can joy in God and Christ. . . . We are told that ‘Zacchaeus received Christ joyfully,’ that ‘the eunuch went on his way rejoicing,’ and that ‘the jailer rejoiced in God with all his house.’ O, my friends, what joy have they that know their sins are forgiven them! What a blessed thing is it for a man to look forward and see an endless eternity of happiness before him, knowing that 257 Renewal Journal everything shall work together for his good! It is joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Bibliography Curnock. Nehemiah. ed. The journal of the Rev. John Wesley. vol. 2. London: Charles h. Kelly. n.d. Edwards. Jonathan. The distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God. In Goen. C. C.. ed. Jonathan Edwards: The Great Awakening. pp. 213-288. In Smith. John E.. ed. The works of Jonathan Edwards. vol. 4. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1972. Fuller. David Otis. ed. C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography. Grand Rapids: Zondervan publishing house. 1946. Goen. C. C. ed. Jonathan Edwards: The Great Awakening. In Smith. John E.. ed. The works of Jonathan Edwards. Vol 4. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1972. Lloyd-Jones. D. Martyn. Revival. Westchester: Crossway Books. 1987. Macfarlan. D. ed. The Revivals of the Eighteenth Century. Edinburgh: Johnston & Hunter. 1847. Repr. Wheaton: Richard Owen Roberts. 1980. Moody. Dwight L. “Enthusiasm.” In D. L. Moody. To the work. to the work: exhortations to Christians. pp. 67-80. Chicago. New York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1864. Moody. Dwight L. “Revivals.” In D. L. Moody. Moody’s Latest Sermons. pp. 106-126. Chicago. New York. Toronto: Fleming H. Revell. 1900. Moody. Dwight L. “Secret power – ‘in’ and ‘upon’” In D. L. Moody. Secret Power. or the secret of success in Christian life and work. pp. 145. New York. Chicago. Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1881. Morgan. G. Campbell. Lessons of the Welsh Revival. New York. Chicago. Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1905. Rogers. John. The Biography of Eld. Barton Warren Stone written by himself with additions and reflections by Elder John Rogers. 5th ed. Cincinnati: published for the author by J. A. & U. P. James. 1847. 258 Richard Riss Smith. John E.. ed. The works of Jonathan Edwards. 4 vols. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1972. Spurgeon. Charles H. “The Form and Spirit of Religion.” In The New Park Street Pulpit, containing sermons preached and revised by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, minister of the chapel during the year 1858. vol. 4. pp. 161-168. London: Alabaster and Passmore. 1859. Spurgeon. Charles H. “The Great Revival.” In The New Park Street Pulpit, containing sermons preached and revised by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, minister of the chapel during the year 1858. vol. 4. pp. 161168. London: Alabaster and Passmore. 1859. Spurgeon. Charles H. “The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” In The New Park Street Pulpit, containing sermons preached and revised by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, minister of the chapel during the year 1858. vol. 4. pp. 161-168. London: Alabaster and Passmore. 1859. Wesley. John. The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley edited by Nehemiah Curnock. Vol 2. London: Charles H. Kelly. n.d. Whitefield. George. Journals. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust. 1960. Whitefield. George. “The Kingdom of God.” In The Revivals of the Eighteenth Century. D. Macfarlan. ed. Edinburgh: Johnston & Hunter. 1847. Repr. Wheaton: Richard Owen Roberts. 1980. Whitefield. George. Letters of George Whitefield for the period 17341742. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust. n.d. This unedited version of this article was first written for the Destiny Image Digest. 259 Renewal Journal Revival Fires History’s Mighty Revivals 260 8 Spirit Impacts in Revivals, Geoff Waugh Dr Geoff Waugh. founding editor of the Renewal Journal. wrote Flashpoints of Revival (2nd edition 2009) and Revival Fires (2011) which give fuller details of these impacts of the Holy Spirit in revivals. The charismatic impacts of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament have been repeated continually in evangelical revivals. Specific examples of Spirit impacts in revival frequently occurred in the Great Awakening and evangelical revivals of the eighteenth century as in the ministries of Zinzendorf, Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards. and Brainerd; in revival movements of the nineteenth century including those associated with Finney and Moody; and in revival and charismatic movements of the twentieth century. Many historians have either overlooked or minimized these charismatic impacts of the Holy Spirit in revival. The charismatic movement now involving over 600 million people has grown from its description by Princeton’s Henry Van Dusen in 1955 as ‘the third major force in Christendom’ to a major tradition alongside and as part of the Catholic/Orthodox and Protestant traditions. This article concludes that revival offers a paradigm in which differing denominational perspectives on charismatic Spirit movements may find common ground in evangelism, equipping of Christians for ministry, and in social reform. Renewal Journal Baptised in the Spirit Jesus’ final instruction and promise concerned being baptised in the Spirit and receiving power (dunamis) to be his witnesses (Acts 1:4-8). Does the charismatic impact of Pentecost recur? This paper affirms both the relevance and importance of specific charismatic impacts of the Holy Spirit, demonstrated biblically and historically as in evangelical revivals. It also affirms the significance of Jesus’ instruction in the ‘great commission’ that his followers throughout history ‘to the end of the age’ would obey everything he taught his first disciples including charismatic ministry such as healing, deliverance and miracles. That position disagrees with Benjamin Warfield’s “cessationist” theory (1918), popularised by notes in the Schofield Bible. Baptism in the Spirit and charisma (gracious gift/endowment) in the New Testament find expression in the charismata described by Luke (Luke/Acts) as anointing with spiritual power (Luke 3:16-22; 4:1. 1419; Acts 1:1-8), and by Paul as empowering for ‘body ministry’ with a diversity of spiritual gifts in the unity of the body of Christ (Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:1-16). Different Christian traditions emphasize different dimensions of being baptised in the Spirit. Rather than regarding these perspectives or emphases as mutually exclusive, they can be regarded more comprehensively as inter-related and integrated. The evangelical emphasis on conversion (Dunn 1970), the Episcopal/Catholic emphasis on initiation (Green 1985. McDonnell & Montague 1991), the Reformed emphasis on covenant (Williams 1992), and the Pentecostal emphasis on empowering (Prince 1995) can be integrated within a dynamic paradigm of Spirit baptism. These perspectives are essential, inter-related facets of being immersed in God. So charisma here refers to the multi-faceted impact of God’s gracious endowment in the personal and communal life of believers, especially as empowering for mission (Acts 1:8). God’s grace imparts abundant life (John 10:10). Believers are incorporated into the Spiritempowered community in which God is faithful to every promise of the new covenant. 262 Geoff Waugh Just as conversion is appropriated by repentance and faith, so are Spirit-empowering and Spirit-gifting. Conversion, anointing. Empowering, and ministering in spiritual gifting may be appropriated over time, slowly, rapidly. or instantaneously. Complex variables affect that appropriation, including faith, knowledge, personality, tradition, environment (supportive or hostile), boldness, and God’s sovereignty. Biblical witness Biblical terms describing charismatic impacts of the Spirit vary greatly. They include: the Spirit was given -- Numbers ll:17; John 7:39; the Spirit came upon -- Judges 3:10; Acts 19:5; the Spirit took control -- Judges 6:34; 1 Samuel 11:6; 16:13; the Spirit poured out -- Joel 2:28-28; Acts 10:45; the Spirit came down -- Matthew 3:16; Luke 3:22; John 1:33; the Spirit fell (or came down)-- Acts 10:44; 11:15; the Spirit received -- Acts 8:15-17; 19:2; baptised in or with the Spirit -- Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; filled with the Spirit -- Acts 2:4; 9:17; Ephesians 5:18. The specific nature of these charismatic impacts is significant, as is the varied nature of subsequent ministries resulting from these impacts. Jesus experienced the impact of the Spirit at his baptism, which he explained in terms of anointing with power for his ministry (Luke 4:18-19). The followers of Jesus were baptised in the Spirit at Pentecost with immediate empowering for ministry (Acts 1:5; 2:1-4). producing explosive church growth. Converts from Philip’s evangelism in Samaria ‘received’ the Spirit when Peter and John laid hands on them and prayed for them (Acts 8:17). Saul of Tarsus was filled with the Spirit and healed three days after his Damascus road experience when Ananias laid hands on him and prayed for him (Acts 9:17-18), an encounter which included prayer, fasting, visions, prophecy and healing. The Gentiles in Cornelius’ home in Caesarea ‘received’ the Holy Spirit while Peter preached to them (Acts 11:44-47), with radical cross-cultural implications for mission. The Holy Spirit impacted believers in Ephesus when Paul laid hands on them and prayed for them (Acts 19:6). 263 Renewal Journal These charismatic impacts of the Spirit empowered people for ministry. That ministry involved a wide range of charismata including anointed preaching and prophecy, healings and miracles, tongues and trouble. Historical witness Significant charismatic impacts of the Spirit of God have continued through history. These may have been overlooked or minimised for reasons such as these:  Many historians wrote from the perspective of the established government or church, which often opposed and suppressed charismatic movements.  Strong impacts of the Spirit constantly initiate new movements which threaten the established order, so these movements were opposed and their writings destroyed.  Charismatic movements may be regarded as heretical, and their leaders killed, as with Jesus, the early church, and throughout history.  Accounts of charismatic impacts of the Spirit have been systematically destroyed, often burned as heretical.  Excessive enthusiasm and fanaticism in charismatic movements may bring those movements into disrepute.  Leaders and adherents of charismatic movements have often been occupied with more pressing priorities than writing history. such as ensuring their own survival. However, where such records have survived, mostly after the invention of the printing press, the charismatic impacts of God’s Spirit consistently reveal similar patterns to the biblical witness. Evangelical revivals provide evidence of these charismatic encounters. I give a brief selection here including first person accounts. They indicate the charismatic nature of impacts of the Spirit of God which became the empowering force in revival. 264 Geoff Waugh Wednesday. 13 August. 1727 - Herrnhut. Saxony The Spirit of God fell on 300 refugees in Germany in 1727, mostly Moravian exiles given asylum on the estates of Nicholaus von Zinzendorf. One of them wrote that “the thirteenth of August, 1727, was a day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We saw the hand of God and his wonders, and we were all under the cloud of our fathers baptized with their Spirit. The Holy Ghost came upon us and in those days great signs and wonders took place in our midst. From that time scarcely a day passed but what we beheld his almighty workings amongst us” (Greenfield 1927:14). Within 25 years they sent out 100 missionaries, then by 1782 they had 175 missionaries in 27 places, and in their fist 100 years of missions sent out over 1,199 people, including 459 women, all supported by round-the-clock ‘hourly intercessions’. Both John and Charles Wesley were converted through their witness. Their English missionary magazine, Periodical Accounts, inspired William Carey. ,He threw a copy of the paper on a table at a Baptist meeting. Saying, “See what the Moravians have done! Cannot we follow their example and in obedience to our Heavenly Master go out into the world, and preach the Gospel to the heathen?” (Greenfield 1927:19). January. 1735 - New England. America Jonathan Edwards reported on a revival movement which developed into the Great Awakening as it spread through the communities of New England and the pioneering settlements in America. Converts to Christianity reached 50,000 out of a total of 250,000 colonists. Early in January, 1735 an unusually powerful move of God’s Spirit brought revival to Northampton, which then spread through New England in the north east of America. And the work of conversion was carried on in a most astonishing manner, and increased more and more. Souls did, as it were, come by flocks to Jesus Christ. … Those amongst us that had formerly been converted, were greatly enlivened and renewed with fresh and extraordinary incomes of the Spirit of God; though some much more than others. according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Stacy 1842. 1989:12-13). 265 Renewal Journal Monday. 1 January. 1739 - London 1739 saw astonishing expansion of revival in England. During the evening of 1st January the Wesleys and George Whitefield with 60 others. met in London for prayer and a love feast. The Spirit of God moved powerfully on them all. John Wesley described it: About three in the morning. as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his majesty, we broke out with one voice, “We praise Thee. O God. we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord” (Idle 1986:55). This London Pentecost contributed powerfully to revival, which spread rapidly. In February 1739 Whitefield started preaching to the Kingswood coal miners in the open fields near Bristol because many churches opposed him. accusing him and other evangelicals of ‘enthusiasm’. In February about 200 attended. By March 20,000 attended. Whitefield invited Wesley to take over then and so in April Wesley reluctantly began his famous open air preaching. which continued for 50 years. Thursday 8 August, 1745 - Crossweeksung. America David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians from 1743 to his death at 29 in 1747, tells of revival breaking out among Indians at Crossweeksung in August 1745. Concerning 8 August, 1745, he wrote, “The power of God seemed to descend on the assembly ‘like a rushing mighty wind’ and with an astonishing energy bore all down before it. I stood amazed at the influence that seized the audience almost universally and could compare it to nothing more aptly than the irresistible force of a mighty torrent ... Almost all persons of all ages were bowed down with concern together and scarce was able to withstand the shock of astonishing operation” (Howard 1949:216217). The ‘Great Awakening’ which had begun a decade previously now impacted Indian settlements with charismatic outpourings of the Holy Spirit, producing both conversions and significant social improvement. 266 Geoff Waugh Sunday 25 December, 1781 - Cornwall. England Forty years after the eighteenth century evangelical revivals began, the fires of revival had died out in many places. Concerned leaders called the church to pray. Those prayer meetings included outpourings of the Spirit in revival. On Christmas day 1781, at St. Just Church in Cornwall, at 3.00 a.m. intercessors met to sing and pray. The Spirit was poured out on them and they prayed through until 9.00 a.m. and regathered that Christmas evening. Throughout January and February the movement continued. By March 1782 they were praying until midnight as the Holy Spirit moved on them. The chapel which George Whitefield had built decades previously in Tottenham Court Road, London, had to be enlarged to seat 5,000 people, the largest church building in the world at that time. Baptist churches in North Hampton, Leicester, and the Midlands, set aside regular nights devoted to prayer for revival. Methodists and Anglicans joined them. and revival spread. June-July, 1800 - Kentucky. America Presbyterian James McGready organised camp meetings in Kentucky, an area nicknamed Rogues Harbour populated with fugitives from justice including murderers, horse thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters. On the last day of the first camp meeting, held in June with around 450 people, ‘a mighty effusion of [God’s] Spirit’ came upon the people, ‘and the floor was soon covered with the slain; their screams for mercy pierced the heavens.’ At the next camp meeting held in late July 1800 an enormous crowd of 8,000 attended, many from up to 100 miles away. McGready recalled: “The power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly. Toward the close of the sermon, the cries of the distressed arose almost as loud as his voice. After the congregation was dismissed the solemnity increased, till the greater part of the multitude seemed engaged in the most solemn manner. No person seemed to wish to go home - hunger and sleep seemed to affect nobody - eternal things were the vast concern. Here awakening and converting work was to be found in every part of the multitude; and even some things strangely and wonderfully new to me” (Christian History. No. 23. p 25). 267 Renewal Journal August, 1801 - Cane Ridge. America (Barton Stone) Presbyterian minister Barton Stone organised similar meetings in 1801 in his area at Cane Ridge, Kentucky. A huge crowd of around 12,500 attended in over 125 wagons. At that time Lexington, the largest town in Kentucky, had less than 1,800 citizens. Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist preachers and circuit riders formed preaching teams, speaking simultaneously in different parts of the camp grounds, all aiming for conversions. Methodist James Finley, wrote: The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human being seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. … At one time I saw at least five hundred swept down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens (Pratney 1994:104). The Rev. Moses Hoge described it: “The careless fall down, cry out, tremble, and not infrequently are affected with convulsive twitchings ... Nothing that imagination can paint. can make a stronger impression upon the mind. than one of those scenes. Sinners dropping down on every hand, shrieking, groaning, crying for mercy, convulsed; professors praying, agonizing, fainting, falling down in distress for sinners or in raptures of joy! ... As to the work in general there can be no question but it is of God. The subjects of it, for the most part are deeply wounded for their sins, and can give a clear and rational account of their conversion” (Christian History. No. 23. p. 26). These frontier revivals became a new emphasis in American revivalism. They included the ‘saw dust trail’ laid down to settle the dust or soak up wet ground over which penitents moved to the ‘altar’ at the front. Revival early in the nineteenth century not only impacted the American frontier, but also towns and especially colleges. One widespread result in America, as in England, was the formation of missionary societies to train and direct the large numbers of converts filled with missionary zeal. Wednesday, 10 October, 1821 - Adams. America Charles Finney had a mighty empowering by God’s Spirit on the night of his conversion on Wednesday 10 October 1821. Convicted by the 268 Geoff Waugh Spirit that morning, he surrendered to God in the woods. That night he was filled with the Spirit: I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit. Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any memory of ever hearing the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can remember distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings. No words can express the wonderful love that was spread abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love. I literally bellowed out the unspeakable overflow of my heart. These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after another, until I remember crying out, “I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.” I said, “Lord, I cannot bear any more,” yet I had no fear of death (Wessel 1977:20-22). Finney continued for the rest of his life in evangelism and revival. He founded and taught theology at Oberlin College which pioneered coeducation and enrolled both blacks and whites. His Lectures on Revival were widely read and helped to fan revival in America and England. Sunday, 22 May, 1859 - Natal. South Africa Revival began among the Zulu and Bantu tribes in South Africa before it spilled over into the Dutch Reformed Church. Tribal people gathered in large numbers on the frontier mission stations and then took revival, African style, into their villages. On Sunday night, 22 May, the Spirit of God fell on a service of the Zulus in Natal so powerfully that they prayed all night. News spread rapidly. This revival among the Zulus of Natal on the east coast ignited missions and tribal churches. It produced deep conviction of sin, immediate repentance and conversions, extraordinary praying and vigorous evangelism. In April 1860 at a combined missions conference of over 370 leaders of Dutch Reformed, Methodist and Presbyterian leaders meeting at 269 Renewal Journal Worcester, South Africa, they discussed revival. Andrew Murray Sr., moved to tears, had to stop speaking. His son, Andrew Murray Jr., now well known through his books, led in prayer so powerfully that many saw that as the beginning of revival in those churches. October, 1871 - New York D. L. Moody, converted in 1855, led powerful evangelistic campaigns in America and England. While visiting New York in 1871 to raise funds for churches and orphanages destroyed in the Chicago fire of October that year, in which his home, church sanctuary and the YMCA buildings were destroyed, he had a deep encounter with God. He wrote, “I was crying all the time God would fill me with his Spirit. Well, one day in the city of New York – oh, what a day! - I cannot describe it. I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths; and yet hundreds were converted. I would not be placed back where I was before that blessed experience for all the world - it would be as the small dust of the balance” (Moody 1900:149). Monday, 31 October, 1904 – Loughor, Wales Evan Roberts, a student at the Methodist Academy in Wales, experienced a deep work of the Spirit at meetings on Thursday 29 September, 1904, after Presbyterian evangelist Seth Joshua closed the 7 a.m. meeting crying out in Welsh. ‘Lord ... bend us.’ Roberts agonised in prayer that day. He wrote. “It was the Spirit that put the emphasis for me on ‘Bend us.’ ‘That is what you need’ said the Spirit to me. And as I went out I prayed. O Lord, bend me” (Evans 1969:70). Impelled by the Spirit he returned home from college on a week’s leave and spoke nightly from 31 October to increasing crowds as the Spirit moved powerfully on them. From the following week he led teams by invitation across south Wales, sparking the Welsh Revival which reported 70,000 conversions in three months and 100,000 within a year. Crime rates and abortions dropped. Many taverns went 270 Geoff Waugh bankrupt. Some judges had no cases to try, and police had so little to do in many towns at the height of the revival that they attended the meetings while still on duty. Friday, 30 June, 1905 - Mukti. India Pandita Ramabai established a compound for widows and orphan girls during severe famine in her area near Pune (Poona) just south of Bombay, and called it Mukti (Salvation). By 1901 she had 2,000 girls and women and from January 1905 she began teaching about the need for revival. Soon over 500 people met twice daily to pray for revival, mostly women and girls. Thirty of her ladies ministered in teams in the villages. They met daily to pray for the endowment of the Holy Spirit. On Thursday 29 June the Spirit moved strongly on many of the girls. On Friday, 30 June, while Ramabai taught from John 8, the Holy Spirit fell on them all suddenly with great power. Everyone there began to weep and pray aloud, crying out to be baptised with the Holy Spirit and fire. Revival spread through their mission, and into many surrounding areas. Regular school activities gave way to confession, repentance, and great joy with much praise and dancing. Many spoke in tongues (including English!), and were filled with zeal for evangelism and social care. Saturday, 14 April, 1906 - Azusa Street. Los Angeles Charles Paraham conducted a Bible College at Topeka, Kansas where on 1 January 1901 Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues when Parham laid hands on her and prayed for her to be baptized in the Spirit. That month Parham and half of the 34 students also spoke in tongues. Those events have been seen as the beginning of Pentecostalism in America. William Seymour, a Negro Holiness pastor, attended Parham’s short term Bible School in Houston, Texas early in 1906, then by April was the leader of The Apostolic Faith Mission at Azusa Street, Los Angeles. Meetings began there on Easter Saturday, 14 April 1906. About 100 attended including blacks and whites. The Spirit of God moved powerfully on that little mission. Many were baptized in the Spirit with speaking in tongues, prophecies, and healings. Its centrifugal influence ignited Pentecostal mission across America and overseas. 271 Renewal Journal Sunday, 4 July, 1909 - Valparaiso. Chile Minnie Abrams, who worked at Mukti in India during the 1905 revival there, sent an account of it in 1907 to Willis Hoover, Methodist missionary in Chile. Those Methodists began praying for revival which burst on them on Sunday 4 July, resulting in their church growing from 300 to 1,000 in two months. Willis Hoover wrote: Saturday night was an all night of prayer. during which four vain young ladies (three of them were in the choir) fell to the floor under the power of the Spirit. … From that time on the atmosphere seemed charged by the Holy Spirit, and people fell on the floor, or broke out in other tongues, or singing in the Spirit, in a way impossible in their natural condition (Frodsham 1946:177-178). 1914 - Belgian Congo. Africa Africa has seen many powerful revivals such as the Belgian Congo outpouring with C. T. Studd in 1914. “The whole place was charged as if with an electric current. Men were falling, jumping, laughing, crying, singing, confessing and some shaking terribly,” he reported. “As I led in prayer the Spirit came down in mighty power sweeping the congregation. My whole body trembled with the power. We saw a marvellous sight, people literally filled and drunk with the Spirit” (W.E.C. 1954:12-15). Monday, 7 March, 1921 - Lowestoft. England Douglas Brown, a Baptist minister in South London, saw conversions in his church every Sunday for 15 years to 1921. He felt the Lord convict him about leaving his pastorate for evangelistic mission work. Although reluctant. he finally surrendered. “Then something happened,” he wrote. “I found myself in the loving embrace of Christ for ever and ever; and all power and joy and blessedness rolled in like a deluge” (Griffin 1992:17-18). After that 2 a.m. encounter, he embarked on itinerant missions commencing on 7 March in Lowestroft, East Anglia, with immediate responses in large numbers. Within eighteen months he addressed over 1700 meetings, and saw revival in his evangelistic ministry in England. 272 Geoff Waugh 1949 - Hebrides Islands, Scotland Following the trauma of World War II, spiritual life reached a low ebb in the Scottish Hebrides. Church leaders prayed for revival. They invited evangelist Duncan Campbell to lead meetings. At the close of his first meeting in the Presbyterian church in Barvas the travel weary preacher was invited to join an all night prayer meeting! Thirty people gathered for prayer in a nearby cottage. Duncan Campbell described it: “God was beginning to move, the heavens were opening, we were there on our faces before God. Three o’clock in the morning came, and God swept in. About a dozen men and women lay prostrate on the floor, speechless. Something had happened; we knew that the forces of darkness were going to be driven back, and men were going to be delivered. We left the cottage at 3 a.m. to discover men and women seeking God. I walked along a country road, and found three men on their faces, crying to God for mercy. There was a light in every home, no one seemed to think of sleep” (Whittaker 1984:159). His mission continued for five weeks. Services lasted from early morning until late at night and into the early hours of the morning. The revival spread to the neighbouring parishes from Barvas with similar scenes of repentance. prayer and preaching. People sensed the awesome presence of God everywhere. Sunday, 26 September, 1965 - Soe. Timor Revival burst into unprecedented power in Timor in 1965. This revival spread in the uncertain days following the attempted army coup on 30 September, 1965 in Indonesia. Four days previously a visitation from God had begun in Soe, a mountain town of about 5,000 people in Timor in the Reformed Church on Sunday 26 September. That night, as at Pentecost, people heard the sound of a tornado wind, and flames on the church building prompted police to set off the fire alarm to summon volunteer fire fighters, but the church was not burning. Many were converted that night, many filled with the Spirit including speaking in tongues, some using English who did not know English. By midnight teams of lay people had been organised to begin spreading the gospel the next day. Eventually. about 90 evangelistic teams were formed which functioned powerfully with spiritual gifts. 273 Renewal Journal The Reformed Church Presbytery on Timor recorded 80,000 conversions from the first year of the revival there, half of those being former communists. They verified that 15,000 people were permanently healed in that year (Koch 1970). Tuesday, 3 February, 1970 - Asbury College. Wilmore, Kentucky A revival broke out in Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, on Tuesday 3 February, 1970. God’s Spirit moved on the regular morning chapel commencing at 10 o’clock. Students came weeping to the front to kneel in repentance. Others gave testimonies including confession of sin. They prayed and worshipped spontaneously. The staff cancelled lectures for the day as the auditorium filled with over 1,000 people. Few left for meals. By midnight over 500 still remained praying and worshipping. Several hundred committed their lives to Christ that day. By 6 a.m. next morning 75 students were still praying in the hall, and through the Wednesday it filled again as lectures were again cancelled for the day. The time was filled with praying, singing, confessions and testimonies. Almost half the student body of 1000 formed teams witnessing about the revival. In the first week after the revival began teams of students visited 16 states by invitation and saw several thousand conversions through their witnessing (Coleman 1970). Sunday, 23 August, 1970 - Solomon Islands Muri Thompson, a Maori evangelist from New Zealand, visited the Solomon Islands in July and August 1970 where the church had already experienced significant renewal and was praying for revival. During the last two weeks of those meetings the Holy Spirit moved even more powerfully in the meetings. On Sunday morning 23 August on the island of Malaita Muri preached powerfully, then he said, ‘If anyone wants to come forward ...’ and immediately the whole congregation of 600 surged forward in repentance. Many saw visions of God, of Jesus on the cross or on his throne, of angels, or of bright light. Some spoke in tongues. Some were healed. Most came into a new experience of God with a deep awareness of the need for humility and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. The following Thursday, 27 August, at another village on Malaita when the 2,000 people bowed in prayer, they heard a growing sound. ‘I 274 Geoff Waugh looked up through an opening in the leaf roof to the heavens from where the sound seemed to be coming. It grew to be roar - then it came to me: surely this is the Holy Spirit coming like a mighty rushing wind. I called the people to realize that God the Holy Spirit was about to descend upon them’ (Griffiths 1997:175). Many people involved in that impact of the Spirit sparked similar revivals throughout the Pacific (Waugh 1998:69-75). Wednesday 14 March, 1979 - Elcho Island. Australia Djiniyini Gondarra, Uniting Church minister in the settlement of Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island, returned from holidays on the late afternoon Missionary Aviation Fellowship flight on 14 March. 1979. Aboriginal Christians there had been praying earnestly, and met that night in his home for another prayer meeting. He reports, Suddenly we began to feel God’s Spirit moving in our hearts and the whole form of our prayer suddenly changed and everybody began to pray in the Spirit and in harmony. And there was a great noise going on in the room and we began to ask one another what was going on. Some of us said that God had now visited us and once again established his kingdom among his people who have been bound for so long by the power of evil... In that same evening the word just spread like the flames of fire and reached the whole community in Galiwin’ku. Gelung [his wife] and I couldn’t sleep at all that night because people were just coming for the ministry. bringing the sick to be prayed for, for healing. Others came to bring their problems. Even a husband and wife came to bring their marriage problem, so the Lord touched them and healed their marriage (Gondarra 1991). Teams from Elcho Island took revival movements throughout Arnhem Land, Northern Territory and Western Australia. At Warburton, then regarded as having one of the highest aboriginal crime rates in Australia, the mission team saw many converted and powerfully changed. Sunday 15 May, 1980 - Anaheim. America John Wimber led the evangelical Vineyard Fellowship at Anaheim from 1977. On Mother’s Day. 15 May, 1980 at the evening service a young 275 Renewal Journal man spoke. That night, after he gave his testimony, Lonnie asked the Holy Spirit to come and the repercussions were incredible. The Spirit of God literally knocked people to the floor and shook them silly. Many people spoke in tongues, prophesied or had visions. Then over the next few months, hundreds and hundreds of people came to Christ as the result of the witness of the individuals who were touched that night, and in the aftermath. The church saw approximately 1,700 converted to Christ in a period of about three months. This evolved into a series of opportunities, beginning in 1980, to minister around the world. Thus the Vineyard renewal ministry and the Vineyard movement were birthed (Vineyard Reflections. May/June 1994). Thursday 14 June – Brugam, Papua New Guinea In the Sepik lowlands of northern Papua New Guinea revival touched the South Seas Evangelical Churches at Easter 1984, sparked by Solomon Island pastors. It was characterised by repentance, confession, weeping and great joy. Stolen goods were returned or replaced, and wrongs made right. Australian missionary Ray Overend’s report includes comment on revival beginning at Brugam, the church headquarters. on 14 June: “About 200 people surged forward. Many fell flat on their faces on the ground sobbing aloud. Some were shaking - as spiritual battles raged within. There was quite some noise... The spiritual battles and cries of contrition continued for a long time. Then one after another in a space of about three minutes everybody rose to their feet, singing spontaneously as they rose. They were free. The battle was won. Satan was bound. They had made Christ their King! Their faces looked to heaven as they sang. They were like the faces of angels. The singing was like the singing of heaven. Deafening, but sweet and reverent” (Overend 1986:36-37). The whole curriculum and approach at the Bible School for the area changed. Instead of having traditional classes and courses, teachers would work with the school all day from prayer times early in the morning through Bible teaching followed by discussion and sharing times during the day to evening worship and ministry. The school became a community, seeking the Lord together. Christians learned to witness and minister in spiritual gifts, praying and responding to the leading of the Spirit. This included discernment of spirits, deliverance, 276 Geoff Waugh words of knowledge, tongues, prophecy, healing and boldness in evangelism. Thursday 4 August, 1988 - Kambaidam. Papua New Guinea Johan van Bruggen, a missionary at the Lutheran Evangelist Training Centre at Kambaidam near Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, reported in his circulars on the beginnings of revival which produced powerful evangelism, deliverance where whole villages publicly burned fetishes, and healings and miracles: What were the highlights of 1988? No doubt the actual outpouring of the Holy Spirit must come first. It happened on August 4 when the Spirit fell on a group of students and staff. with individuals receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit on several occasions later on in the year. The school has never been the same again. As direct results we noticed a desire for holiness, a hunger for God’s Word which was insatiable right up till the end of the school year, and also a tremendous urge to go out and witness. Whenever they had a chance many of our students were in the villages with studies and to lead Sunday services. Prayer life deepened, and during worship services we really felt ourselves to be on holy ground. ... We have been almost left speechless by what God is doing now through our students. We realize that we have been led on and are now on the threshold of a revival (Waugh 1998:96). 1988 - Madruga. Cuba In 1988, revival broke out in a small church in Madruga, Cuba. “People would begin to weep when they entered the church,” said their pastor. More than 60 churches experienced a similar move of the Spirit among the 10 million people of Cuba. The revival produced more than 2,400 house churches. Although open evangelism is still outlawed, teenagers were joining the children and adults to witness boldly in parks, beaches, and other public places, regardless of the risk. There is a “holy and glorious restlessness” amongst the believers. said one pastor. “The once defensive mood and attitude of the church has turned into an offensive one, and Christians are committed to the vision of ‘Cuba Para Cristo!’ - Cuba for Christ!” (Open Doors, Australian Report, September 1993). 277 Renewal Journal 1989 - Henan and Anhul, China The persecuted church in China lives in constant revival. This is merely a sample account. In 1989 Henan preachers visited North Anhul province and found several thousand believers in the care of an older pastor from Shanghai. At their first night meeting with 1,000 present 30 were baptised in the icy winter. The first baptised was a lady who had convulsions if she went into water. She was healed of that and other ills, and found the water warm. A 12 year old boy deaf and dumb was baptized and spoke, “Mother, Father, the water is not cold - the water is not cold.” An aged lady nearly 90, disabled after an accident in her 20s, was completely healed in the water. By the third and fourth nights over 1,000 were baptised. A young evangelist, Enchuan, 20 years old in 1990, had been leading evangelistic teams since he was 17. He said, “When the church first sent us out to preach the Gospel, after two to three months of ministering we usually saw 20-30 converts. But now it is not 20. It is 200, 300, and often 600 or more will be converted” (Balcombe 1991). Dennis Balcombe reported in a newsletter on 27 August 1994: “This year has seen the greatest revival in Chinese history. Some provinces have seen over 100,000 conversions during the first half of this year. Contemporary Witness Unprecedented revival continues in China especially in house churches, in Africa especially in independent church movements, in Latin America especially in evangelical/pentecostal churches such as currently in Argentina, and in proliferating revival movements throughout the world. All of these now involve powerful charismatic impacts of the Spirit of God and increasing awareness and use of the charismata. Renewal and evangelism increased through the nineties into the 21st century, even in the West. Focal points for renewal and revival have included Toronto in Canada, Brompton in London, Sunderland in England, and Pensacola in America. However, reports continue to multiply of renewed churches, empowered evangelism, and significant social involvement (such as crime rates significantly reduced in 278 Geoff Waugh Sunderland and Pensacola). David Barrett’s global research indicates that pentecostal/charismatic membership has grown from small beginnings around 1900 to over 460 million by 1995, over 500 million around 2000 and now over 600 million (Synan 1997:281; Hollenweger 1998:42, Burgess & van der Maas 2002). In Australia, the 1991 National Church Life Survey indicated that two thirds of church attenders were then involved with or sympathetic to charismatic/pentecostal Christianity. Charismatic congregations, whether denominational, independent or Pentecostal, continue to multiply, evangelize actively, and many have significant social caring programs. These indicators suggest a massive shift in global Christianity, which increasingly acknowledges and rediscovers charisma in revival. It holds enormous promise for “the reshaping of religion in the twentyfirst century” (Cox 1995). Charisma in revival offers a paradigm in which differing denominational perspectives on charismatic Spirit movements may find common ground in evangelism, equipping of Christians for ministry, and in social reform. References Balcombe. D. (1991) “Hong Kong and China Report.” Hong Kong: Revival Christian Church. Coleman. Robert (1970) One Divine Moment. Old Tappan: Revell. Cox. H. (1995) Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century. New York: Addison-Wesley. Dunn. James D. G. (1970) Baptism in the Holy Spirit. London: S.C.M. Evans. E. (1969) The Welsh Revival of 1904. Bridgend: Evangelical Press. Frodsham. S. H. (1946) With Signs Following. Springfield: Gospel Publishing House. Gondarra. D. (1991) “Pentecost in Arnhem Land” in Waugh. G. Church on Fire. Melbourne: JBCE. pp. 14-19. 279 Renewal Journal Green. M. (1985) I Believe in the Holy Spirit. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Greenfield. J. (1927) Power from on High. Reprinted 1950. London: Christian Literature Crusade. Griffin. S. C. (1992) A Forgotten Revival. Bromley: One Day Publications. Griffiths. A. (1977) Fire in the Islands. Wheaton: Shaw. Howard. P. E. (1949) The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. Edited by Jonathan Edwards. Reprinted 1989. Grand Rapids: Baker. Hollenweger. W. J. (1998) “Pentecostalism’s Global Language.” Christian History. Issue 58. pp. 42-44. Hyatt. E. (1997) 200 Years of Charismatic Christianity. Tulsa: Hyatt. Idle. C. ed. (1986) The Journal of John Wesley. Tring: Lion. Koch. K. (1968) The Revival in Indonesia. Grand Rapids: Kregel McDonnell. Kilian & Montague. George. eds. (1991) Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit. New York: Paulist. Moody. W. R. (1900) The Life of D. L. Moody. New York: Revell. Overend. R. (1986) The Truth will Set you Free. Laurieton: S.S.E.M. Pratney. W. (1994) Revival. Lafayette: Huntington House. Stacy. J. (1842) The Great Awakening. Reprinted 1989. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth. Synan. Vinson (1997) The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Warfield. Benjamin (1918) Counterfield Miracles. Carlile. PA. Waugh. G. (1991) Church of Fire. Melbourne: JBCE. Waugh. G. (1998) Flashpoints of Revival. Shippensburg: Revival Press. Wessel. H. ed. (1977) The Autobiography of Charles Finney. Minneapolis: Bethany Williams. Rodman (1992) Renewal Theology. Grand Rapids; Zondervan. Worldwide Evangelization Crusade. (1954) This is That. London: Worldwide Evangelization Crusade. 280 9 Primacy of Love Heidi Baker Roland and Heidi Baker are the founding directors of Iris Ministries, based in Mozambique, East Africa, from 1995. Iris Ministries has planted thousands of churches, mostly in Africa, and cares for over 10,000 children daily. 1 Corinthians 13 serves as a significant reminder of what is most important in missions. If we speak the local language fluently, operate in signs and wonders and willingly sacrifice our possessions and even our lives for the gospel, it is still worth absolutely nothing without love. When we are deeply rooted in the Father’s love for us, our love for him and for people will overflow in Spirit-empowered ministry that brings transformation to individuals and nations. - Heidi Baker The Primacy of Love “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” —I Cor 13:1-3 NIV Love in not a concept or theory, or even an important part of missions, Renewal Journal but the center of everything we do and why we do it. It is the very heartbeat of our movement. So what does love look like? Love has a face. It looks like something. It looks like someone. When we are motivated by love and are confident that “the God of the impossible” lives inside of us, we can do anything and go anywhere, and nothing will be too difficult. This is the great mystery: that God has chosen to inhabit and posses little jars of clay with His lavish love so that we can spread His fragrance to the darkest ends of the earth, and to every person we meet each day. When we know how extravagantly loved we are by the Father, we are able to lay down our lives in obedience with great joy. As ministers and missionaries, this is the life of joy to which we have been called. The Father’s Delight “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” —1 John 4:18 As a missionary I have been beaten up, stoned, shot at, shipwrecked, had knives to my throat, been thrown in jail, slandered, mocked and ridiculed many times over, but I’m not afraid. I am not ashamed of the Gospel. I have known persecution and suffering, and counted it all joy! I have walked into the middle of gangs armed with guns and knives and told them to stop what they were doing, in the name of Jesus, and they dropped their knives and said sorry! They were surprised to see that I wasn’t afraid of them. From where does that kind of confidence come? One day I had a vision of the Father and He was smiling at me. I saw that He took great delight in me and His smile undid me. He picked me up and danced with me all around a field. He loved the dance. We pirouetted. We leaped across the field. He danced and smiled at me. I was completely undone by His love for me! I know that I am totally loved by my Father. This is the place from which my confidence flows. My fearlessness comes from knowing Him and knowing His delight in me. When the Father tells you that He thinks you’re awesome, you’ll go to the ends of the earth without hesitation. We are also willing to hear his discipline when needed because we know He loves us. Likewise, a wife who is in love will obey her husband. It’s hard for a wife to obey a mean, grouchy husband, but when a woman is in love, she doesn’t have to be told to submit. She will do anything to please the one with whom she is in love. Obedience 282 Heidi Baker comes out of knowing you’re loved. When you know you’re loved, you will go anywhere He sends you and do anything with joy. Happy Missionary People often say to me that it must be a huge sacrifice to work with the poor, to spend time in the slums and be exposed to malaria, cholera and dysentery. My response is to laugh. To me there is no sacrifice at all! It is a joy because I have given my life for the One I love. I find joy in being a missionary and doing what I am called to do. I am a happy missionary! To me, the poorest villages where I minister are simply wonderful! They are the most glorious place on earth because Jesus is there. When you get a revelation of the Father’s heart for you, you love whatever He tells you to do and obedience is joyful. He rips away your fear and you are able to do things that you wouldn’t normally do. And things that would usually bother you no longer do, because you’re moving out of love. I Will Not Leave You as Orphans As a ministry God has called us to take care of orphans and widows, but we never call our centers orphanages because the Father never leaves us as orphans (John 14:18 NIV). He adopts us into His family and we become sons and daughters. Sometimes people come to visit us and they expect to see ragged misery, but instead they are surprised to meet hundreds of happy children. They wonder how an orphan can carry so much joy. Our children know that they have been adopted and are no longer alone. They are in a family and live lives full of love and joy, knowing that they are sons and daughters. In fact, they get to minister the Father-heart to our visitors. These are kids that the world says are cast-off orphans. And yet, generally they are a delight to be around. Jesus pours His extravagant love through them. Access to Heaven Every weekend some of our children come over to our house for a sleepover. One day I was watching them as they ran in to our house, opened up the fridge and dumped the ice trays out all over the kitchen! 283 Renewal Journal We don’t always have electricity, so when it’s on it’s very exciting because that means we all have ice. It is such a delight for the children to have ice, and they get very excited about it. My children didn’t come in and ask politely if they could have some ice. They simply knew that they had access to the fridge! They weren’t even that sweet or tidy about getting it. They made a huge mess. As I watched them eat the ice I was thrilled because I knew that they were confident that this was their home and that they had access to the things in our house. The Spirit of adoption had healed their orphan hearts. Like them, I am starting to understand that we have access to heaven’s resources. Whenever I preach the Gospel in the bush of Mozambique, I always ask if there is anybody deaf or mute in the village. When they bring the deaf-mutes to us for prayer, we are always confident that we have access to their healing because we know that we are co-heirs with Christ and that we are seated with Him in heavenly places. We want to take that which God says is ours and release it in this world. As I lay my hands on them, they begin to hear and speak, and the village starts to come to Jesus. When you understand who you are, then you will start taking risks. But if you have an orphan spirit, you will be too afraid to try in case you fail. Sons and daughters are able to flow in great humility and great authority at the same time. They are confident that they have access to the Father’s house. They know that they are His so they are able to suffer without fear. I have watched our children preach the Gospel when they were being stoned, while visitors locked themselves in a truck! They are mostly unafraid because they know they are children of the Most High God, loved and accepted. They often fearlessly lay their hands on the blind and their eyes open up. They take hold of crippled legs and the cripples start to run! We cheer them on as we watch them move in Kingdom power. We even cheer them on when they fall short of the Kingdom. The Father wants to embrace each one of us and tell us who we are until we believe Him and begin to move in unstoppable boldness. Ministry and missions have to flow out of this place of confidence because we can only change the world when we understand who we are and who He is in us. When we really understand that we are sent out as sons and daughters and not just servants and workers, it will 284 Heidi Baker change the way we minister and do missions. We will flow out of radical love and fearless confidence. We will move out of a place of rest rather than striving, and we will go long-term, without burning out. We will finish well. Abiding in Love “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” —John 15:5 NAS How do we bear abundant fruit? How do we birth revival and see whole cultures transformed, and nations bow at the feet of Jesus? We can’t make revival happen. We cannot create it. We cannot force fruit to grow, just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself (John 15:4). The only way it’s able to bear fruit is by remaining in the vine. We cannot bear fruit that lasts unless we learn how to abide in Jesus. It’s as we worship Him and enjoy His love that He creates the fruit. We cannot create fruit, but we can live in intimacy! A tree produces fruit by simply abiding, not striving. Many of those who come to visit our ministry ask about our method and strategy for growing thousands of churches within a few years. My husband, Rolland, and I start laughing because we know that we cannot produce anything ourselves. We do not have a ten-point plan on how to bear fruit. Fruit only comes from the One who is altogether perfect! Our desire in life is to live inside of the heart of Jesus and to love Him. We don’t love Him to get fruit, but fruit always flows when there is intimacy. When we abide in Jesus, the true vine, it just happens (John 15:1). Our goal is not to be the leading church growth movement on the planet. Our one desire is to be in love with Jesus, to love Him well and to abide in that love until it flows from us and touches every man, woman and child we meet each day. We are on the mission field primarily to learn how to love. That’s it. It’s so simple that it scares people. We don’t have anything else. We didn’t just come here as teachers, but also as students of love, desperate to know how to reveal the heartbeat of Jesus to this dying world. We are just starting to learn. My daily cry to God is, “More love, Lord!” 285 Renewal Journal Our national brothers and sisters often lead the way. They teach us what love and generosity look like. Pruning the Vine “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” — John 15:2 NAS Abiding in Jesus also means we allow Him to cut off every branch in us that bears no fruit. Out of His great love the Father cuts away everything that isn’t fruitful in our lives. Sometimes it hurts, but the pruning is so that we will bear even more fruit. When I was in Toronto once, I was on the floor seven days and seven nights under the power of the Holy Spirit. I was unable to move in my own strength. I couldn’t even lift my head, and I had to be carried everywhere, even to the restroom! I couldn’t eat or drink by myself. It was almost like being a quadriplegic. The Body of Christ had to take complete care of me. When I was thirsty, the Lord had to speak to someone to come and pour water down my throat. This was really difficult for someone as active as me, and I felt like I was going to die. The Lord told me that’s exactly how He wanted me! Dead. He would then raise me from the dead. During this time God was wooing me deeper in to His heart and showing me how I could do nothing without Him, and I could do nothing without His Body. I was learning about dependence on Him and inter-dependence in His beloved Bride. We were all created to be in family and can do nothing without each other. On day three, as I was lying on the floor at church, I felt a hand on my chest and liquid love pulsated through me. I was completely undone, as I had never felt love like this before. It was like a rolling river going through me, over and over again. I thought that the person who had his hand on me was the most anointed person on the planet. Later Rolland told me that no one had been anywhere near me during that time. The hand on my chest had been the hand of the Lord Jesus Himself! He was teaching me about His burning heart of passion. 286 Heidi Baker Fruit Flows from Intimacy At that time we only had three churches. One of them was for our children and staff, so attendance was mandatory. But after being stuck to the floor for seven days under the heavy, weighty glory of God, when I got up and went out, revival happened! A team grew up around us. After that experience of intimate love, fruit just started happening through our little lives and through our Mozambican and missionary family. I began to see every miracle I had ever dreamed of. Then the Lord spoke to me and told me He wanted more of my time. He had to chop away the things that were not important to Him. Where I minister in Africa, we face many pressures and long queues every day. The needs seem overwhelming at times, so we have to contend for time in the secret place. Without the Presence none of it means anything. His Presence is what we live for, and ministry only makes sense when it flows out of this place of abiding. I determined to give Jesus even more of my time and not give in to the constant pressures around me. I am learning that in the anointing we can produce more fruit in a day than a lifetime of striving and trying. This is a place I must contend for daily. Hearts Full of Passion and Compassion Even though I had been a diligent missionary for twenty-nine years and preached the Gospel for thirty-three years, He still had to prune many things in my life to take me deeper into the secret place of His heart. Some of my favourite times are walking and snorkelling with Jesus. Just Him and me. Fruit comes out of a laid-down love affair with Jesus. God is not just concerned about how much we can sacrifice for Him by being on the mission field. He is not impressed by how miserable we can be. It doesn’t earn us brownie points in heaven! He is concerned that our hearts are full of passion for Him and full of compassionate love for our neighbour. A heart that is full of passion will do anything, go anywhere and withhold nothing. This is how Jesus wants to send us out into His harvest field: full of passion and compassion. He wants to captivate our hearts with love until they burn with holy fire and we walk the earth as the fragrance of Jesus. I won’t go for any reason other than love. 287 Renewal Journal What Does Love Look Like? To be the love of Christ to those around us, we have to ask ourselves this question: What does love look like? What does it look like, specifically, in the culture we are called to reach? In my nation, Mozambique, where there is much suffering due to clean water shortage, loving a village looks like drilling a fresh water well so that people no longer have to walk for hours in the blazing heat to get a cup of clean water. Loving those who are hungry and dressed in rags looks like food and new clothes. However, this wouldn’t be a good demonstration of love to those living in London or Seoul, where there is clean water running out of taps constantly and most have wonderful clothing. Most people in the first-world don’t lack severely in a material way. They’re not malnourished, barefooted and dressed in rags. We need to ask Jesus to give us eyes to see what their needs are. And reach out to them with His heart in their poverty. Even though they may not be literally hungry, they may be starved of love and acceptance. To the lonely and rejected, love looks like acceptance and friendship. It may look like a hug or a word of encouragement. In the busy cities of the world, like Hong Kong, love may look like taking the time to sit with someone long enough to hear their story so that they know they matter. Love may look like you sharing a meal with them in the middle of a busy day. This should be our daily question: what does it look like to manifest the love of Christ to those that I meet today? Teach Me How To Love! “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay our lives down for our brothers.” - 1John 3:16 NIV When we lived in London, we spent a lot of time on the streets ministering to the homeless. During this time I met a dying alcoholic named Patrick. Nearly every day for two years I would tell him that I loved him and that Jesus loved him. And nearly every day he would get really close to my face, look straight in to my eyes and tell me to go to hell. I kept bringing him food and telling him that I loved him, and I kept crying out to Jesus to teach me how to communicate His love to this man. One of my constant prayers is for the Lord to teach me to love. I don’t want any other thing but to live inside the heart of Jesus 288 Heidi Baker and to manifest His love to a dying world. Nearly every day for years, I would visit Patrick and tell him about love. Often he would spit at me. Sometimes he would take my food and sometimes he would throw it away. Reduced to Love “Let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” — 1John 3:18 NIV One day as I was out on the streets again, a woman I was ministering to began to beat me. She was a very angry and broken person. She had been raped sixteen times and had spent a year in the hospital with a broken pelvis. She was a lesbian and dressed like a man. I often told her that I loved her and that Jesus loved her as I held her, fed her and ministered to her. One day she was very drunk and stoned. She was beating me and pushing me, but all I could feel was overwhelming love for her. When I looked at her she was beautiful. Jean had a broken bottle and she said she was going to rip open my face and throw me in the river Thames. I told her how amazingly beautiful she was! I knew that she too was called to adoption and was predestined to be a daughter of God. As she told me that she was going to kill me, all I could see in her was beauty. I told her I loved her. After some time I began to feel very tired and thought I would either faint or die. I told God that whatever happened I wanted His love to be known in that place. Patrick was watching all this happen, and eventually he said he was calling the police. I told him not to because I didn’t want Jean to go to jail yet again. Then that man, who for two years had told me to go to hell, came and rescued me from her! For two whole years I had loved him, but he couldn’t see, understand or feel that love because there was too much pain in his own heart. Patrick grabbed me away from Jean, started sobbing on that street, and said, “For years you told me Jesus loved me. Now I’ve seen His love and I want Him.” We just held each other as he fell apart. He held me and I held him. In his dirty clothes and his scabies, lice and alcoholic state, I just held him. He met Jesus that day because He saw love. I believe we have complicated the Gospel. Jesus wants to reduce us to the simplicity of love. My cry is to be hidden inside God’s heart so fully 289 Renewal Journal that I manifest His glory and never touch it. I want to be wholly hidden inside Him and love like Him; manifesting His love tangibly to the lost, the dying and the broken. I want to be His fragrance everywhere I go and love, not just with words, but in action and truth. A week after Jean tried to kill me, she came to my house with a dozen roses and said, “I’m sorry I tried to kill you. I want Jesus.” What a wonderful day! She got set free from all her anger and pain. That day she came home to the Father’s house. Tenacious Love Often we want plans and strategies to reach the multitudes. But love looks like something and revival has a face. Sometimes it looks like stopping for the same person, every day, for years, even if they keep telling you to go to hell. Love looks like laying down our lives for our friends and believing that they are lovely even when they don’t seem lovely. Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than to lay our life down for our friends. In love He stretched out His hands on the cross and gave Himself freely. He longs to fill His church with this same kind of love. Love that compels us to lay our lives down for our friends, so that we love them, even when they spit on us, reject us and persecute us. We love them when they are nice to us and when they are mean to us. And we keep loving them, whatever it costs, and never give up! If we love we cannot lose! This is how we reveal God’s heart to this broken world. Jesus wants to transform His Bride until she so radiates His tenacious love that no one can resist it! I will not say that this is not difficult. There are many days I don’t’ feel like loving at all. I have failed many times. But He keeps on showing me the point. He keeps on forgiving my shortcomings and drawing me to His heart. We often hear about revival in terms of multitudes, but I believe that the face of revival is stopping for the one that God puts in front of us every day. If each one of us stopped long enough to see the brokenness of the one in front of us, and ministered the love of Christ to them, it would look like the revival of love and power we are praying for and longing to see. 290 Heidi Baker The Church That Loves “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” —John 15:12-13 NAS One of our pastors in Mozambique, Pastor Sithole, ministered the love of Jesus tirelessly in many villages day after day. He would walk and pray and pour out his life for love. This angered some people of another faith. They hated him for spreading the Good News. So one day they came to his house and told him that he would no longer spread the name of Jesus. They chopped off His tongue and cut off his lips so that he would no longer speak of His name. They chopped off his feet and told him that he would no longer walk and preach this message. They chopped off his hands and told him that he would no longer feed people. His wife and six children watched as this terrible thing was happening. Then they chopped off his head. In our movement hundreds of people have been raised from the dead, but Pastor Sithole wasn’t. His cousin, Pastor Surpresa Sithole, one of our international Iris directors, called us. The two of them had been very close. Together we cried and prayed on the phone. As we wept we asked God what love looked like in this situation? After we talked, Pastor Surpresa got in his truck and drove all day and all night with a huge sound system to the village where his cousin had been martyred. The police had caught one of murderers, so when he got there he asked for the murderer to be let out of jail. Next he called the whole village together and said, “You may cut off our tongues, but you will never stop us from speaking about this message of love. You may cut off our feet, but hundreds will run behind us. You may cut off our hands, but we will still cry, ‘We love you, we love you, we love you!’ Because Jesus reached out His hands and He died for love.” Pastor Surpresa shared this radical, ceaseless, endless love with the whole village, and with the very man that had tortured and murdered his own cousin. The police said we were a crazy church and a crazy movement. But they also said that we were the church that loves. And thousands of people from another faith bowed their knee to Jesus that day because of love. Radical fruit can only flow out of a radical life of obedient love and intimacy with Jesus. What would you do for love? Where would you go 291 Renewal Journal for love? What would you give for love’s sake? Wholehearted lovers will do anything and pay any price. Nothing is too difficult for them because they are totally abandoned. Not all of us are called to die for Jesus, but all of us are called to live for Him. Even if just one person reading this really understands what I am communicating, they would become a nation shaker. I am only a baby on this journey, but I know where I want to go. If we would really live a life that is so radically obedient for love’s sake that there is no “No” left in us, there would be so much fruit that whole cities would be turned upside down. Possessed by Love As missionaries our primary job is to love. I always tell our staff that it doesn’t matter what we do or how much we achieve in a day. What matters is how we went about it. Did we go through the day loving those we met? Did we treat the beggar asking for money with dignity? Did we take the time to hear what he had to say? Did we treat the children with patience when they misbehaved? Did we stop long enough in our busy day to see those in front of us and look into their eyes? If missions is just about programs and projects, then we need to stop, because what we do will be like a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If missions is about anything other than love, we need to stop and have more time in the secret place with Jesus. Many of you may wonder who you are and what your purpose and calling is. My prayer for you is that you move deeper inside God’s heart and become fully inhabited by love, because love is our highest calling and our greatest gift. We can spend ourselves in service to the poor and give our lives to missions, but if we have not loved we have gained nothing. But if each one of us stops to love the one in front of us, each day, we will see the revival of power we long for spread to the ends of the earth. Reproduced with permission from Supernatural Missions, edited by Randy Clark, Global Awakening, 2012, pages 249-262, “The Primacy of Love in Missions with Power.”. 292 Book Reviews Fire in the Outback by John Blacket (Albatross, 1997) From the Foreword by Alan Maratja Dhamarrandji of Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island. As a Christian aboriginal, it’s a great privilege for me to acknowledge in this book some of the great things that God has done in our time. In 1979, we had revival that began at Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island and it affected the whole of Arnhem Land. It spread south-west to Warburton Ranges, and then north-west to the Kimberleys. We also had teams going to north Queensland to minister and spread the revival. This has set a course for the church at Galiwin’ku to become an outreach church. Ever since that revival, we have been going to places and sharing what God has done and what he is still doing. I am one of the products of that revival and I’m not the only one. There are a few of us still on fire for the Lord. Every year, on March 14, we celebrate that spiritual awakening and pray for a fresh touch from God through the power of his Holy Spirit. These are exciting times for the church in Australia. We must repent more and more so that times of refreshing will come to our churches. Since 1977-1978, I have had the privilege of working as community worker with John Blacket. He is one of the Balanda (white man) staff who witnessed that revival from the very beginning. My perception is Renewal Journal that John is a different man now since the revival. John is one of those people who can communicate to an Aboriginal person anywhere, because he has learned to listen and understand Yolngu (Aborigines), then takes the time to share with them. I admire him for this task and particularly for his endurance and patience with people. Now God has given him this important ministry of reconciliation and bridging of Christian Balanda and Yolngu in Australia. We want to see unity come to the church of God right across the land, then we will see revival come to the whole of this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. This book is a milestone for that revival. I would like to commend John in his careful efforts in documenting and compiling these anointed stories. I’m sure you are going to enjoy reading this book and will be blessed by the Lord. Chapters in Fire in the Outback 1 Gathering firewood: The background to the aboriginal revival 2 Lighting the fire: The Arnhem Land Aborigines and Christianity to 1970 3 A strong wind fans the flame: The preparation for the revival during the 1970s 4 Creating a hot fire: The Arnhem Land Revival, 1979 5 Sustaining the hot fire: The Arnhem Land Revival, 1979-1981 6 Igniting the tinder-dry desert: Revival spreads to Central Australia 7 Lighting many new fires: The rapid spread of renewal in Central Australia 8 Fuelling a raging bushfire: The crusades across Western Australia 9 Stirring the smouldering embers: The first years after the Aboriginal revival 10 Fighting and lighting fires: The late eighties and early nineties in the Aboriginal church 11 The coming of rain: The legacy of revival in today’s Aboriginal church 294 Reviews The Making of a Leader: Recognising the Lessons and Stages of Leadership Development. By J. R. Clinton. Colorado: Navpress. 1988. Reviewed by Andrew Staggs Dr Robert Clinton has done the body of Christ a great service by researching and writing The Making of a Leader. He skilfully deals with questions like: where do leaders come from?; what does it take to be a leader?; and when does leadership begin? Clinton believes that leadership is not confined to position, title, or training, nor is it limited by experience. It can be these things that sometimes the cloud the real issues of leadership. In The Making of a Leader Clinton identifies the patterns God uses to develop a leader. By studying hundreds of historical, biblical, and contemporary leaders Clinton has determined the six stages of leadership development and had established checkpoints for people to clarify where they are in the process. By examining Clinton’s principles and case studies the reader will begin to recognise that the ministry of leadership flows from a person’s being, and that being is moulded by God throughout a lifetime. Clinton’s book, as a result, is a book about spiritual dynamics. The book has a focus on identifying those with leadership characteristics, directing the development of maturing leaders, recognising where people are in the development process, and counselling those who are experiencing periods of trial and frustration. Clinton states that “leadership is a dynamic process in which a man or woman with God-given capacity influences a specific group of God’s people toward His purposes for the group.” He also explains the use of the preferred term of “leadership development”. Development 295 Renewal Journal includes all of life’s processes not just formal training. Leaders are shaped by deliberate training and by experience. “Leadership development” is a much broader term than leadership training because leadership training refers to the narrow part of the overall process focusing primarily on learning skills. Leadership development includes this and much more. Leadership development theory does what a good map is supposed to do. It is a set of well integrated ideas (p 24) to help:  organize what we see happening in leaders’ lives  anticipate what might happen in future development  understand past events so as to see new things in them  better order our lives Clinton summarizes his leadership development theory (p 25) as follows: "God develops a leader over a lifetime. That development is a function of the use of events and people to impress leadership lessons upon a leader (processing), time, and leader response. Processing is critical to the theory. All leaders can point to critical incidents in their lives where God taught them something very important." A time-line is an important tool for analysing the life of a leader for it reveals the overall pattern of God’s work in a life. A time-line is a linear display along a horizontal axis that is broken up into development phases. A development phase is a unit of time in a person’s life, and they are not absolutes. They are helpful because they force one to analyse what God is doing during a given time in a person’s life. Clinton identifies five significant units of time labelled as sovereign foundations, inner-life growth, ministry maturing, and convergence. Sometimes, though rarely, there is a sixth phase called “afterglow” or “celebration.” In real life, the development of Phases III, IV and V often overlap. In Phase I God providentially works foundational items into the life of the leader-to-be. Personality characteristics, good and bad 296 Reviews experiences, and the time context will be used by God. The building blocks are there, though the structure being built may not be clearly in focus. Character traits are embedded. These same traits in mature form will be adapted and used by God. Many times personality traits will be seen to correlate with the spiritual gift-mix that God gives. Usually the boundary condition between Phase I and Phase II is the conversion experience (or an all-out surrender commitment) in which the would-be-leader aspires to spend a lifetime that counts for God. In Phase II an emerging leader usually receives some kind of training. Often it is informal in connection with ministry. The basic models by which he or she learns are imitation modelling and informal apprenticeships, as well as mentoring. There can also be formal and academic training. Closer analysis reveals that the major thrust of God’s development is inward. The real training program is in the heart of the person, where God is doing some growth testing. In Phase III (Ministry Maturing) the emerging leader reaches out to others. The emerging leader gets into ministry as a prime focus of life. He is beginning to experiment with spiritual gifts even though he may not know what this doctrine is. He may get training in order to be more effective. Ministry is the focus of the rising leader at this stage. Many of his lessons will zero in on relationships with other people or on the inadequacies in his personal life. God is developing the leader in two ways during this time. Through ministry, the leader can identify his gifts and skills and use them with increasing effectiveness. He will also gain a better understanding of the Body of Christ as he experiences the many kinds of relationships it offers. Ministry activity or fruitfulness is not the focus of Phase III. God is working primarily in the leader, not through him or her. Many emerging leaders don’t recognise this and become frustrated. They are constantly evaluating productivity and activities, while God is quietly evaluating their leadership and ministry potential. He wants to teach us that we minister out of what we are. During Phase IV the leader identifies and uses his or her gift-mix with power. There is a mature fruitfulness. God is working through the leader using imitation modelling (Heb 13: 7-8). That is, God uses one’s life as well as gifts to influence others. This is a period in which giftedness emerges along with priorities. One recognises that part of 297 Renewal Journal God’s guidance for ministry comes through establishing ministry priorities by discerning gifts. During Phase V convergence occurs. The leader is moved by God into a role that matches gift-mix, experience, temperament, etc. Geographical location is an important part of convergence. The role not only frees the leader from ministry for which there is no gift, but it also enhances and uses the best that the leader has to offer. Not many leaders experience convergence because often they are promoted to roles that hinder their gift-mix. Further, few leaders minister out of what they are. Their authority usually springs from a role. In convergence, being and spiritual authority form the true power base for mature ministry. During all the developmental phases God processes a person by bringing activities, people and problems into his or her life. These are called process items and include integrity check, isolation, prayer challenge, power encounter etc . The list is numerous and refers to providential events, people, circumstances, special interventions, inner life lessons and/or anything else that God uses in the leadership selection process of a person to indicate leadership potential, to develop that potential, to confirm appointment to ministry role or responsibility, or to move the leader toward God’s appointed ministry level for realised potential. A key process item is an integrity check which tests inner character for consistency. A successful integrity check results in a stronger leader able to serve God in a wider sphere of influence. Integrity and faithfulness are preludes to success and giftedness. Clinton identifies two of the major lessons of leadership development as follows: 1. effective leaders recognise leadership selection and development as a priority function; and 2. effective leaders increasingly perceive their ministries in terms of a lifetime perspective. These must be deliberately actioned for a leader to function effectively. One of the striking characteristics seen in an effective leader is their drive to learn. They learn from all kinds of sources. Effective leaders, 298 Reviews at all levels of leadership, maintain a learning posture throughout life. They also have a dynamic ministry philosophy that evolves continually from the interplay of three major factors: biblical dynamics, personal gifts, and situational dynamics. Clinton believes that it is the ability to weave lessons into a philosophy that makes leaders effective. One strong indicator of leadership is a learning posture that reflects itself in a dynamic ministry philosophy. Leaders must develop a ministry philosophy that simultaneously honours biblical leadership values, embraces the challenges of the times in which they live, and fits their unique gifts and personal development if they expect to be productive over a whole lifetime (p 180). One significant feature of the book is a comprehensive glossary of terms used by Clinton in his insightful leadership development philosophy. These have been summarised in Appendix A. For example, giftedness set describes the influence capacity elements of a leader. These include spiritual gifts, natural abilities and acquired skills. The focal element in a giftedness set refers to the dominant influence capacity elements, either spiritual gifts, natural abilities or acquired skills, that dominates the ministry efforts of a leader. For some leaders, spiritual gifts will dominate ministry; for others, natural abilities or acquired skills will dominate. The Making of a Leader can be a great encouragement to lay, professional and future leaders as they begin to see the direct hand of God in their development. They will learn of the providence of God and will sense a continuity of God’s working in their past to develop them as a leader. There will also be a high degree of anticipation of what is going to do in the future. The insights gained from this excellent resource will cause people to perceive themselves and others differently, and will cause people to be more deliberate in using these insights for the development and training of others. 299 Renewal Journal Great Revival Stories Two books in one volume: Best Revival Stories and Transforming Revivals 300 Renewal Journal 14 Anointing Renewal Journal Contents Renewal Journal 14: Anointing Editorial: Anointed for Ministry 291 1 A Greater Anointing, by Benny Hinn 295 2 Myths about Jonathan Edwards, by Barry Chant 299 3 Revivals into 2000, by Geoff Waugh 309 Reviews 373 Cover Photo: 14 Anointing Healing evangelist Benny Hinn preaching to over a million people in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. 302 Editorial Anointed for Ministry Jesus explained his ministry in terms of being anointed by the Holy Spirit. He took his charter text from Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me Because he has anointed me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-2) He empowered his followers to do the same, in his name and authority. Our anointing for ministry stems wholly from who Jesus is – the anointed Christ, the Son of God. By his death and resurrection he conquered sin, and is both Saviour and Lord. Our ministry is the ministry of Jesus in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus, so he anoints us. A quick look at any concordance affirms the significance of that anointing: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him (Acts 10:38). Renewal Journal He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God (2 Cor. 1:21). You have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things (1 John 2:20). The anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in him (1 John 2:27). One stupid application of that teaching, is that we don’t need teaching because the Holy Spirit teaches us everything. First, John is not saying we don’t need teaching. He is teaching in his writing! The purpose of his letters includes teaching. Jesus taught. Often. He spent three years teaching his followers. Every preacher teaches. If all we needed was the Holy Spirit on our own, we should stop preaching and teaching. A clue to understanding the anointing is to know God. Knowledge can teach you about God, but you may not know God. You may know God as a distant consultant, available for a crisis. Or you may know God as a daily point of reference. Or you may know God intimately. Or, as is most likely, your knowing God ebbs and flows with the currents of your life. Often when we feel most overwhelmed or in need, we know God much more deeply, for then we depend on him. We come to him with deep longing and with the cry he is so quick to answer. On the other hand, when we are busy and very competent we often know God dimly, not realizing how easily we depend on our own God-given abilities rather then on God himself, and how easily we quench or grieve the Spirit. 304 Editorial: Anointed Ministry Jesus, on the other hand, lived in the full knowledge of God – not just intellectually, but totally and intimately. He explained his relationship with God, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do … I can of myself do nothing” (John 5:19, 30). Then he said the same of our relationship with him, “Abide in me … without me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5). The anointing of God on your life is linked with how you abide in your Lord, and he in you. This issue of the Renewal Journal gives examples of a fresh anointing touching many people now with new intimacy and grace for powerful ministry. Benny Hinn uses the life of Elisha to highlight principles for a greater anointing. Barry Chant clears away some myths about Jonathan Edwards whose sharp mind and anointed writing still impacts people. I give an overview of many places and people experiencing deep encounters with God in the nineties. 305 Renewal Journal Fruit & Gifts of the Spirit Personal and Group Bible Studies 306 1 A Greater Anointing Benny Hinn Healing evangelist Benny Hinn leads crusades world wide. This article is reproduced from his pamphlet Seven Steps to a Greater Anointing. Many people pray like Elisha, “Lord, give me a double portion of Your anointing.” Yet they do not realize the preparation that is involved for such a miraculous thing to occur. Here are seven things that happened in the life of Elisha before God allowed him to receive “the double portion” anointing. 1. Elisha faced the spirit of the enemy. Elijah and Elisha confronted the same enemy - the spirit of Jezebel. Elijah faced a demonic spirit through this woman that once caused him to flee for his life (1 Kings 19). Who Is Jezebel? The Lord told the church at Thyatira, “I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls Renewal Journal herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20). It is clear from this portion of Scripture that Jezebel is the spirit of filth and fornication which we still fight even today. Only by the anointing can that spirit be overcome. 2. Elisha relied on God. Before Elijah was taken up into heaven, Elisha declared his loyalty and devotion to God by repeating these words: “As the Lord lives” (2 Kings 2:2, 4, 6). You’ll never receive God’s anointing until you learn to totally depend on the Lord. Elisha had a wonderful role model in the prophet Elijah the one who stood before the 450 prophets of Baal and declared: “Lord God of Abraham, lsaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and, that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word” (1 Kings 18:36). That’s when the fire fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice. 3. Elisha learned how to serve. Young Elisha was plowing in a field it was seed time - when he was called to become the servant of Elijah (1 Kings 19:19). He came from a well-to-do family - after all, they had ‘twelve yoke of oxen’ (v. 1 9). And Elisha was obviously a hard worker since his family could have hired a servant to do the same job. Plowing and praying go hand in hand. Scripture tells us to “break up your follow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord” (Hosea 10:12). The moment he committed himself to Elijah, he became his servant, not his slave. Do you want the anointing? Get involved in a church or a ministry and start serving. When you serve you are sowing your life as seed for an anointing that one day will be yours. Just before Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind, Elisha vowed that he would not leave the prophet’s side. He declared, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you” (2 Kings 2:4). He was saying, “As long as you remain anointed, I will not depart from you.” 4. Elisha was a man of faith. In the final days before Elijah’s 308 Benny Hinn departure, Elisha - over the prophet’s objections - stayed with him as he journeyed to four places: Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan. Each has a special meaning. Gilgal is the place where faith begins. That’s where the manna ceased and the children of Israel had to learn to live by faith and not by sight (Joshua 5). For forty years they had seen a cloud by day, a fire by night, and manna on the ground. Then it was over. And so it is with us. The anointing will not come on our lives until we begin to walk by faith. 5. Elisha knew what it meant to be tested. Next, they travelled to Bethel - yet Elisha still would not leave the prophet’s side. Bethel is the place of trials and tests. That’s where Jacob fled when he was running away from his brother. He lost his family and his comfort - and was sleeping there with a rock for a pillow. It was at Bethel that Jacob made a vow that if the Lord would allow him to “come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God” (Genesis 28:21). And so also, will we be tested before God will entrust us with His anointing. 6. Elisha knew how to wage warfare. The two men of God journeyed to Jericho - the place of warfare. The place where Joshua had fought his greatest battle (Joshua 6). Elisha became a man of war in the spirit. He understood the power that belongs to every believer, that can unlock chains and open doors. We need to realize that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). When the demons of hell come against you, stay strong. Declare, “I will not let this thing bring me down; I’m staying until the anointing comes.” 7. Elisha had a vision. Finally, they journeyed to the banks of the river Jordan where the Lord tested Elisha’s vision. Was it of man, or of God? The prophet said to the servant, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you.” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me (2 Kings 2:9). 309 Renewal Journal Elijah responded, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you.” (2 Kings 2:1 0). In other words, “If your vision is clear, and your eyes are on things above, you’ll receive it!” Habakkuk 2:2 declares “write the vision and make it plain.” There are 3 keys to seeing a vision fulfilled. 1) It must be plain, meaning a vision cannot be cloudy or full of questions. 2) You must run to receive it, meaning your prayer life must intensify. Walking is prayer - running is intensified prayer. 3) The vision is for “an appointed time.” Wait for it. Never give up. Your faith is vital for the vision’s fulfilment. Suddenly, the prophet was raptured - caught up into the heavens! A chariot of fire appeared - yet Elisha could see clearly enough to pick up the mantle that was left behind. He walked to the same river where he had seen the prophet Elijah use the mantle to separate the waters. He said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” - and the waters of the Jordan were again miraculously parted (2 Kings 2:14). Please prayerfully read in context the Scriptures I’ve shared. I pray this teaching creates a hunger for a deeper walk with the Lord and that you will receive God’s precious anointing as you apply the Word to your life. Reproduced with permission from the Benny Hinn’s Partners in Ministry newsletter, November 1999. 310 2 Myths about Jonathan Edwards Barry Chant Dr Barry Chant, founder of Tabor College in Australia, is the author of many books on Pentecostalism and revival. Over recent years, the name Jonathan Edwards has cropped up frequently in articles and reports about revival. People who had never heard of him ten years ago, are now familiar with his name. In the process of popularisation, some stories and impressions about Edwards have emerged which stray from the truth. This article considers a few of them. There is little doubt that Edwards was one of the great evangelical ministers of modern times. His commitment to Christ, his profound insights into Scripture, his balanced analysis of revival phenomena, his understanding of the ways and works of God — all these are as significant today as ever. His Books Edwards was a prolific author. He wrote on many subjects ranging from theology to revival to eschatology. When discussing his views on revival, most people quote mainly from his earlier writings. It is important to realise that he wrote four books on this subject and that Renewal Journal his last work — not his first one — best reflects his position. As with most people, Edwards’ views matured over the years, and with the benefit of experience, he was able to interpret with greater wisdom the phenomena he had witnessed. So it is to his Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections, [1] first published in 1746 that we must turn for his ‘final word,’ as it were. Iain Murray says that Edwards ‘never gave closer and more careful thought to anything than he did to this.’ [2] To describe Edwards’ view of revival without turning to this great piece of writing is to do him an injustice. Sarah Edwards On occasions, Edwards’ wife Sarah showed signs of what was then called ‘enthusiasm’. For example, on Wednesday 27 January, 1742, after a lecture by the young Samuel Buell, she and others remained for a further three hours and during most of this time, she recalled, her ‘bodily strength was overcome’ and she was so full of joy and thankfulness that she conversed with those who were with her ‘in a very earnest manner’. The next morning, she was still so excited she found it difficult to complete her daily tasks. When Buell was speaking she felt so grieved at the apparent lack of gratitude among God’s people she sank to the floor. People eased her into a chair and earnestly she shared with them her sense of God’s wonderful grace towards her in redeeming her from hell. During the next hymn, she was so impressed by heavenly truth that she leaped spontaneously from her chair, feeling as if she were ascending to heaven. After the reading of two more hymns, again, she collapsed and was taken and laid on a bed, where she continued to ‘contemplate the glories of the heavenly world’. During this time, she felt ‘wholly indifferent’ to the affairs of the world and to earthly glory and ambition. Her heart was filled with love and she felt so exhausted by emotions of joy that she could not rise or sit up for about four hours. That Thursday night she described as ‘the sweetest night I ever had in my life’. 312 Barry Chant In recounting his version of Sarah’s story, Edwards claims that two things in particular were evident — ‘a peculiar aversion to judging other professing Christians’ and a ‘very great sense of the importance of moral social duties’. Sarah’s strength failed her, he says, because of her great mourning for sin and ‘a sight of the fullness and glorious sufficiency of Christ’. Furthermore, her ‘sense of the glory of the Holy Spirit’ was such as to overwhelm her in both soul and body (I:376f). [3] He concludes — Now if such things are enthusiasm, and the fruits of a distempered brain, let my brain be evermore possessed of that happy distemper! If this be distraction, I pray God that the world of mankind may be all seized with this benign, meek, beneficent, beatifical, glorious distraction! (I:378) One can only say ‘Amen’ to this prayer. Would that more people were so overwhelmed by the wonder of Christ’s sacrifice and love. On the other hand, some popular authors seem to have misread Sarah’s experience. Chevreau, for example, claims that she was ‘out’ for four hours, implying that she was in a comatose state. [4] However, she makes it plain that although during this time she was too exhausted to rise or even to sit up, she spent ‘most of the time’ talking with friends about the things of God. Clearly, she was in full possession of her faculties. Others have described her experience as being ‘slain in the Spirit’. However, when she felt weak at the knees, it was the conscious result of her own insight into the glories of God, not an involuntary reaction to someone else’s ministry or mediation or the laying on of hands. In the past, evangelical writers have attributed too little to Sarah Edwards’ testimony; it is important not to go to the other extreme of attributing too much. Bodily Manifestations In all his writings, Edwards argued strongly for the need for the affections to be stirred. By the affections, he meant both the emotions and the will. Without the affections being moved, he declared, there could be no true Christianity — 313 Renewal Journal Who will deny that true religion consists in a great measure in vigorous and lively actings of the inclination and will of the soul, or the fervent exercises of the heart? Nothing is more manifest in fact, than that the things of religion take hold of men’s souls no further than they affect them. I am bold to assert that there never was any considerable change wrought in the mind or conversation of any person . . . that had not his affections moved. [5] Words could hardly be plainer. Edwards fervently believed that genuine faith touched the whole personality — including the affections. He was careful to point out that such stirring of the affections was always in response to the clear preaching of the gospel of Christ — How can they sit and hear of the infinite height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, of His giving His infinitely dear Son, to be offered up a sacrifice for the sins of men, and of the unparalleled love of the innocent, and holy, and tender Lamb of God, manifested in His dying agonies, His bloody sweat, His loud and bitter cries, and bleeding heart, and all this for enemies, to redeem them from deserved, eternal burnings, and to bring to unspeakable and everlasting joy and glory — and yet be cold and heavy, insensible and regardless! [6] How, indeed! Yet, this does not mean that Edwards gave blanket approval to any and all kinds of manifestations. In fact, he strongly disapproved of extremist behaviour. One of his favourite phrases in The Religious Affections is ‘stony ground hearers,’ by which he means people who demonstrate great emotional fervour, but who quickly fade away through lack of depth. Furthermore, Edwards was not even comfortable with the Quakers who relied on the experience of ‘inner light’ for guidance and direction. He was uneasy about dependency on feelings. He makes particular reference to an extremist Huguenot group known as the ‘French prophets,’ who had migrated to London in the early eighteenth century. According to Knox, when their preacher shouted, 314 Barry Chant people often fell on their backs while he ‘conducted them’ with his hand movements as if they were some kind of orchestra. It was ‘a mark of reprobation if you did not fall when you were told to’. Some drove knives into themselves; others spoke in tongues; most were unconscious of what they did or said while under inspiration. ‘Violent agitations,’ foaming at the mouth and bodily swelling were common. A speaker might lie as dead for an extended time and then begin to tremble violently until his limbs all shook. In at least one case, one person ‘gobbled like a turkey cock’. A contemporary writer refers to people shaking their heads, crawling on the floor, quaking and trembling, drumming, trumpeting, thundering, snuffling, blowing as with a horn, panting, sighing, groaning, hissing, laughing, pointing, shaking, threshing, using childish repetition, howling like a dog and generally acting in a disorderly fashion. [7] While these descriptions all come from their critics, there seems to be sufficient evidence to suggest they are not widely inaccurate. These ‘French prophets,’ caused some embarrassment to John Wesley. Edwards also distanced himself from them. On several occasions, he makes it plain that the experiences of the Great Awakening and these bizarre expressions of ‘enthusiasm’ have nothing in common. Over recent years and in various places, falling, shaking, ‘drunkenness’, crying, laughter, jerking, animal noises, ‘roaring’, catalepsy, writhing, being thrown across the floor, trances and the like have all been reported during revival meetings. [8] Edwards would have rejected most of this. Many years later, when a group of Presbyterians in Virginia entreated Edwards to accept a pastorate there, Samuel Davies, the first permanent evangelical pastor in that colony, wrote this about him — Fiery superficial ministers will never do in these parts: they might do good; but they would do much more harm. We need the deep judgement and calm temper of Mr Edwards among us. [9] Edwards had the remarkable capacity both to welcome genuine expressions of emotional and volitional response to the gospel and yet to reject spurious extravagances. 315 Renewal Journal For Edwards, it was the cause, not the effect that was important. The gospel brought peace, joy and glory, which are ‘the fruits of the true Spirit’. When the Spirit was poured out, ‘very joyful and glorious times could be expected’. He plainly defended ‘bodily agitations’ — but only in response to an appreciation of the glories of Christ, never in their own right. Cessationism The impression has been given by some writers that Edwards believed in the supernatural gifts and powers of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12. For example, Chevreau points out plainly that Charles Chauncy, a strong critic of the Awakening, denied the need for spiritual gifts in his day and in doing so, Chevreau implies that Edwards held the opposite view. In fact, he did not. Edwards was also a cessationist. He plainly believed that the signs, wonders and miracles of the New Testament ceased at the end of the apostolic age. [10] A superficial view of Edwards might yield a different impression. In his earlier writings, for example, he gives a most solemn warning to those who reject revival and in the process uses language which suggests a belief in the supernatural. When ministers stay silent about the work of God, he argues, this is ‘undoubtedly provoking’ to Him. Indeed, ‘let all to whom this work is a cloud and darkness — as the pillar of cloud and fire was to the Egyptians — take heed that it be not their destruction, while it gives light to God’s Israel’. To wait for a pure work is to wait in vain — like waiting at the river side for all the water to pass. There never was a work of God without stumbling blocks: indeed, they were likely to increase, not decrease. The apparent prudence of waiting before acknowledging the work might be to miss the greatest opportunity of blessing that God ever gave to New England. Yet Edwards makes it very plain that, for him, consistent, godly lifestyle is the best argument for a true revival. So he expresses his desire to ‘to apply myself to those who are the friends of his work, who have been partakers of it, and are zealous to promote it. Let me earnestly exhort such to give diligent heed to themselves to avoid all errors and misconduct, and whatever may darken and obscure the work; and to give no occasion to those who stand ready to reproach it’ (II:273). 316 Barry Chant The strongest defence, he says, will be ‘humility and self-diffidence, and an entire dependence on our Lord Jesus Christ’. Some ‘true friends of the work of God’s Spirit’ have done it discredit by yielding more to impressions and impulses than to the revelation of Scripture. The fruits of the Spirit are far greater than the gifts. A man may have extraordinary gifts ‘and yet be abominable to God, and go straight to hell’ (II:274). As there are no supernatural gifts in heaven, the church is most like heaven when it emphasises the fruits of the Spirit. He is quite specific in his stance that the gifts of the Spirit as listed in 1 Corinthians 12 are not to be expected today — The ordinary sanctifying influences of the Spirit of God, are the end of all extraordinary gifts, as the apostle shows, Eph iv. 11,12,13 . . . God communicates his Spirit only in that more excellent way of which the apostle speaks, viz. charity or divine love . . . The apostle speaks of these gifts of inspiration as childish things, in comparison of the influence of the Spirit in divine love. When the church is in an adult state, Edwards claims, it has no need of such gifts. So he plainly says — Therefore, I do not expect a restoration of these miraculous gifts in the approaching glorious times of the church, nor do I desire it . . . I had rather enjoy the sweet influences of the Spirit, showing Christ’s spiritual divine beauty, infinite grace, and dying love, drawing forth the holy exercises of faith, divine love, sweet complacence, and humble joy in God, one quarter of an hour, than to have prophetical visions and revelations the whole year (II:275). Of course, Pentecostal/charismatics dissent from this view. I personally do not agree. Fruit are never to be a substitute for gifts: rather, they complement each other. Nevertheless, if Edwards’ position on these matters is to be quoted, his own position must be made clear. Calvinism and Arminianism The ancient issue of Calvinism versus Arminianism is rarely mentioned today, although the Pentecostal/charismatic movement is plainly Arminian. Popular charismatic theology has it that basically it is our faith and our dedication that makes the blessing of God possible. 317 Renewal Journal ‘Create an atmosphere of faith, by giving opportunity for the Spirit to move,’ writes one denominational leader to his fellow ministers, using traditional Pentecostal terminology. [11] In recent charismatic writings about Edwards, I have found no reference to the fact that he was a convinced Calvinist. Yet not only did he see Arminianism as a different point of view — he saw it as a positive hindrance to the gospel! He was greatly concerned that sound doctrine be the centre of all Christian activity. Revival was a sovereign work of God so there was no room for any Arminian beliefs — And now I would beseech those who have hitherto been somewhat inclining to Arminian principles, seriously to weigh the matter with respect to this work and consider, whether, if the Scriptures are the word of God, the work that has been described in the first part of this treatise must not be, as to the substance of it, the work of God, and the flourishing of that religion which is taught by Christ and his apostles . . . Now is a good time for Arminians to change their principles. I would now, as one of the friends of this work, humbly invite them to come and join with us, and be on our side . . . (I:422f) In this matter, Edwards was at loggerheads with John Wesley, whose Arminianism led him to a very different understanding of the nature of revival. As a Calvinist, Edwards saw revival as a glorious expression of God’s sovereign grace. It was the Lord’s doing and it was marvellous in his eyes. Much of the revivalist phenomena witnessed in the last few years traces its origins to the ‘Faith movement’, whose teachings represent an extreme form of Arminianism. [12] Edwards would no doubt have been alarmed at these doctrinal roots, as he saw Arminianism as seriously deficient. Both he and Whitefield strongly declared their Calvinist stance and were convinced that a drift to Arminianism would kill, or at least seriously maim, the revival. [13] Sadly, in some current renewal movements, theological niceties often appear to be of little significance. In our quest for unity, we often seem to be comfortable with the lowest common doctrinal denominators. It is probably also true that most charismatics would feel uncomfortable to be labelled ‘Calvinist’. 318 Barry Chant Edwards was greatly concerned that ministers were not found wanting. To him, it was intolerable that a minister should stand in the pulpit before God’s people, to undertake to lead and instruct them, when there was ‘nothing in his heart’. No one, he laments, will sink so low in hell as ungodly ministers (I:423). And, in a practical sense, when ‘enthusiasm and wildness comes in like a flood’ how could such men withstand it? It may also be of interest to note that Edwards was a strong postmillennialist. He believed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ was so powerful it would spread throughout the earth and usher in an age of godliness — the millennium. There is no suggestion of the pretribulation, pre-millennial rapture ideology which is so widespread in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement today. For Edwards, revival, not tribulation, would be the climax of the age. Conclusion As a Pentecostal, I do not agree with all that Edwards taught. I strongly dissent from his cessationist position, for example. But Jonathan Edwards was one of those rare persons who could embrace deep and profound theology and at the same time recognise the genuine work of God in revival. His mind was as tough as steel, his heart as soft as clay. He knew how to understand the profound truths of God with the mind — and at the same time to believe the wonderful blessings of God with the heart. When we consider all that he taught on revival, whether or not we agree with all his conclusions, there is much we can learn. ENDNOTES [1] J. Edwards, A Treatise on the Religious Affections Edinburgh: Banner of Truth [1746] 1986 [2] I Murray, Jonathan Edwards, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987, 252ff [3] For simplicity, I have included most of the references to Edwards’ own writings in the body of the text. The first number refers to the relevant volume of The Works of Jonathan Edwards Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1984. The second number is the page reference. [4] G. Chevreau, Catch the Fire. London: Marshall Pickering, 1994:79. 319 Renewal Journal [5] Edwards 1986:27ff [6] Edwards, 1986:52. [7] R. Knox, Enthusiasm London: Collins, 1987, 357ff. [8] P. Dixon, Signs of Revival. Eastbourne: Kingsway, 1994:9ff; J. Davies, ‘Toronto Blessing Reaches Australia,’ ARMA Sydney Newsletter #30 November 1994; W. Jackson, What in the World is Happening to Us? Urbana: Vineyard, 1994:1ff; D. Roberts, The ‘Toronto’ Blessing Eastbourne: Kingsway, 1994:15ff; personal observation and knowledge. [9] Quoted in Murray, 1987:365. [10] Chevreau, 1994:112. [11] A. Evans, Ministers Bulletin, 5. Both Calvinism and Arminianism can go to extremes. One pastor recently told his people, ‘If you don’t fall down when you are prayed for, fall by faith. ‘ Such an approach would have been abhorrent to Edwards who saw revival as a sovereign act of God. Clearly, he would have rejected such ‘enthusiasm’. [12] Roberts, 1994: 61ff, 83ff; A. Morrison, ‘The Genealogy of the “Toronto Blessing”’ Australian Beacon, May 1995. [13] Murray, 1987:213. 320 3 Revivals into 2000 Geoff Waugh Renewal Journal editor Geoff Waugh surveys revival movements in the 1990s leading into 2000. “I have heard more reports of revival-like activity in the last three years than in the previous thirty,” wrote church growth professor Peter Wagner in the Foreword to Flashpoints of Revival in 1998 (2nd ed. 2009). Revival reports have increased, not diminished, since then. Healing evangelists such as Reinhard Bonnke, Benny Hinn, Rodney HowardBrowne and others are known worldwide. This article surveys some revival reports in the nineties as examples of the stirrings of revival at the end of the century. My book Flashpoints of Revival gives further details. This article summarises some accounts from that book, and updates that information with additional accounts. These reports provide signposts or flashpoints of revival. They look like the early waves of a rising tidal wave of revival - Christians powerfully impacted, and large numbers won to the Lord. Some of these outpourings of the Spirit have begun to transform communities, Renewal Journal reducing crime, and some have begun to touch nations. As with previous revivals, the manifestations include a mixture of the divine hand of God, human reactions, and demonic attacks. We thank God for his great mercy and powerful work in individuals, churches and communities. We long for God, especially in his awesome majesty and glory breaking in upon our sinfulness with holiness and grace. 1992 - Buenos Aires, Argentina (Claudio Friedzon) During the 1980s, Carlos Annacondia, a businessman turned evangelist, won thousands to the Lord in mass crusades accompanied by signs and wonders, healings (including filling of teeth) and deliverances. Churches grew dramatically. Other pastor/evangelists such as Omar Cabrera and Hector Giminez won hundreds of thousands to the Lord. All of them have powerful ministries in evangelism with many signs and wonders, healings and miracles. Omar and Marfa Cabrera discovered the power of prayer for deliverance, and now lead a church movement of over 90,000 in 120 cities. Hector Giminez, formerly a drug addicted criminal, lead a church which grew to 1000 in a year and now has over 120,000. Claudio Freidzon, founder of a Buenos Aires church which grew to 4000 people in five years, continues to lead powerful crusades in another wave of revival since 1992. The breakthrough came for him and his wife Betty after seven years of struggling as a pastors with a congregation of seven in a dilapidated building. He reported: Sometimes pastor friends came to visit and would find me alone in the meeting. I felt like dying: I wished I could disappear. I used to walk among the empty benches and the devil laughed and jumped around me, whispering in my ear: “You’re no good; you’ll never make any progress; it will always be like this.” And unfortunately I believed him. One day I thought: “This isn’t for me. I’m going to give up the pastorate. I’m going to resume my engineering studies and get myself a job.” But deep down I knew that was not God’s plan. I went and saw my superintendent for the purpose of handing in my 322 Geoff Waugh credentials. But before I could tell him, he said, “Claudio, I have something to say to you. God has something to say to you. He has something wonderful for you. You don’t see it, but God is going to use you greatly.’ … He went on: “Look, I started in a very precarious house and had no help from anybody. Sometimes I had nothing to eat and I suffered greatly. But we prayed and God provided for each day and we felt grateful. I knew we were doing God’s will. And when I think of you, Claudio, I know you are going to be useful to God and that you are within his will. I don’t know what your problems are, but keep on. By the way, what brings you here today?” I put my credentials back in my pocket and said, “Well... , nothing in particular, I thought I would just come and share a moment with you.” There was nothing else I could say. When I got home Betty was weeping and I said, “Betty, we’re going to continue.” I embraced her tightly and we started all over again (Waugh 2009, 106). Sunday, 2 May, 1993 Brisbane, Australia (Neil Miers) Pastor Neil Miers preached at Brisbane Christian Outreach Centre on Sunday night 2 May. 1993. Darren Trinder, editor of their magazine A New Way of Living (now Outreach), reported: Some staggered drunkenly, others had fits of laughter, others lay prostrate on the floor, still more were on their knees while others joined hands in an impromptu dance. Others, although showing no physical signs, praised the Lord anyway, at the same time trying to take it all in. People who had never prayed publicly for others moved among the crowd and laid hands on those present. “When we first saw it in New Zealand early in April we were sceptical,” said Nance Miers, wife of Christian Outreach Centre International he Holy Spirit move like this here and there over the years. But this was different. In the past it seemed to have affected a few individuals, but this time it was a corporate thing.” Neil Miers himself was physically affected, along with several other senior pastors, early in this Holy Ghost phenomenon. Later he viewed 323 Renewal Journal the series of events objectively. “It started in New Zealand and then broke out in New Guinea, and now it’s here. If I know the Holy Ghost, it will break out across the world - wherever people are truly seeking revival. For the moment this is what God is saying to do, and we’re doing it. It’s that simple.” But despite the informal nature of the events, Pastor Miers, adopting his shepherd role, was careful to monitor the situation. “There are some who are going overboard with it; just like when someone gets drunk on earthly wine for the first time. The next time it happens they’ll understand it a little better” (Waugh 2009, 110-111). Within two weeks this outpouring of the Spirit touched C.O.C. churches across Australia, from Townsville to Perth. People were overwhelmed. Many found release, healing and anointing amid laughter, tears, shaking or stillness. Many saw visions. Some had open-eyed visions such as seeing the glory of God or angels appearing in the building. Many were ‘drunk in the Spirit’ for days or weeks. The result? The churches experienced anointed evangelism and mission. The movement now has over 200 centres in Australia and more than 450 centres overseas. It has powerful crusades in many countries, international ‘global care’ relief outreaches, international church-based Ministry Training Institutes, education from pre-school to tertiary including Christian Heritage College offering degrees in education, arts, business, and also in ministry through the Brisbane COC School of Ministries, and has regular teams involved in mission, evangelism and pastoral care. November, 1993 Boston, America (Mona Johanian) During November 1993, revival touched the 450 member Christian Teaching and Worship Centre (CTWC) in Woburn, Boston led by Mona Johnian and her husband Paul. Revival broke out in their church after they attended revival meetings led by Rodney Howard-Browne in Jekyll Island Georgia, in November of 1993. Richard Riss reported: At first, Mona was not impressed by the various phenomena she observed there, but she was surprised that her own pastor, Bill 324 Geoff Waugh Ligon of Brunswick, Georgia, fell to the floor when Rodney Howard-Browne laid his hands upon him. “Bill is the epitome of dignity, a man totally under control,” she said. The first chapter of her book describes a meeting at her church in which revival broke out while Bill Ligon was there as a guest minister. From the Johnians’ church, the revival spread to other churches, including Bath Baptist Church of Bath, Maine, pastored by Greg Foster. In a video entitled Revival, produced in his church in August of 1994, Paul Johnian said, “We cannot refute the testimony of the Church. ... What is taking place here is not an accident. It’s not birthed by man. It’s by the Spirit of God. ... The last week in October of 1993, Mona and I went down to Georgia. We belong to a Fellowship of Charismatic and Christian Ministries International, and we went down there for the annual conference. And hands were laid on us. And we were anointed. And I’m just going to be completely honest with you. What I witnessed there in the beginning I did not even understand. I concluded that what was taking place was not of God ... because there was too much confusion. ... I saw something that I could not comprehend with my finite understanding. And it was only when I searched the Scriptures and asked God to show me and to reveal truth to me that I saw that what was taking place in the Body of Christ was a sovereign move of the Almighty. And I, for one, wanted to humble myself and be a part of the sovereign move of the Almighty. And I came back. I really didn’t sense any change within me. But I came back just believing God that He was going to be doing something different in our congregation (Riss 1996, 31) . That has now happened in various forms in thousands of churches touched by this current awakening. Thursday, 20 January, 1994 Toronto, Canada (John Arnott) John Arnott, senior pastor at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship told how the “Toronto Blessing” - which they call the Father’s blessing began: In October 1992, Carol and I started giving our entire mornings to the 325 Renewal Journal Lord, spending time worshipping, reading, praying and being with him. For a year and a half we did this, and we fell in love with Jesus all over again. ... We heard about the revival in Argentina, so we travelled there in November 1993 hoping God’s anointing would rub off on us somehow. We were powerfully touched in meetings led by Claudio Freidzon, a leader in the Assemblies of God in Argentina. ... We came back from Argentina with a great expectation that God would do something new in our church. We had a taste of what the Lord had planned for us during our New Year’s Eve service as we brought in 1994. People were prayed for and powerfully touched by God. They were lying all over the floor by the time the meeting ended. We thought, “This is wonderful, Lord. Every now and then you move in power.” But we did not think in terms of sustaining this blessing. We invited Randy Clark, a casual friend and pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in St. Louis, Missouri, to speak because we heard that people were being touched powerfully by God when he ministered. We hoped that this anointing would follow him to our church. Yet Randy and I were in fear and trembling, hoping God would show up in power, but uncertain about what would happen. We were not exactly full of faith - but God was faithful anyway. On January 20, 1994, the Father’s blessing fell on the 120 people attending that Thursday night meeting in our church. Randy gave his testimony, and ministry time began. People fell all over the floor under the power of the Holy Spirit, laughing and crying. We had to stack up all the chairs to make room for everyone. Some people even had to be carried out. We had been praying for God to move, and our assumption was that we would see more people saved and healed, along with the excitement that these would generate. It never occurred to us that God would throw a massive party where people would laugh, roll, cry and become so empowered that emotional hurts from childhood were just lifted off them. The phenomena may be strange, but the fruit this is producing is extremely good (Waugh 2009, 111-112). 326 Geoff Waugh Hundreds of thousands have visited their church since then, most returning to their home churches with a fresh anointing for ministry and evangelism. People were saved and healed, more in the next two years than ever before in that church. Sunday, 29 May, 1994 Brompton, London (Eleanor Mumford) The Anglican Church, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) near Kengsington in London has been powerfully affected by the current awakening and widely reported in the media. The famous Alpha evangelism and renewal course now used worldwide, comes from them. Eleanor Mumford, assistant pastor of the South-West London Vineyard and wife of John Mumford (the pastor and the overseer of the Vineyard Churches in Britain), told a group of friends about her recent visit to the Toronto Airport Vineyard in Canada. When she prayed for them the Holy Spirit profoundly affected them. Nicky Gumbel, Curate of Holy Trinity Brompton, was there. He rushed back from this meeting with his wife, Pippa, to the HTB church office in South Kensington where he was late for a staff meeting. The meeting was ready to adjourn. He apologised, told what had happened, and was then asked to pray the concluding prayer. He prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill everyone in the room. The church newspaper, HTB in Focus, 12 June 1994, reported the result: “The effect was instantaneous. People fell to the ground again and again. There were remarkable scenes as the Holy Spirit touched all those present in ways few had ever experienced or seen. Staff members walking past the room were also affected. Two hours later some of those present went to tell others in different offices and prayed with them where they found them. They too were powerfully affected by the Holy Spirit - many falling to the ground. Prayer was still continuing after 5 pm” (Riss 1995). The church leaders invited Eleanor Mumford to preach at Holy Trinity Brompton the next Sunday, 29 May, at both services. After both talks, she prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon the people. Some wept. Some laughed. Many came forward for prayer and soon lay 327 Renewal Journal overwhelmed on the floor. Cassette tapes of those services circulated in thousands of churches in England. A fresh awakening began to spread through the churches. Nicky Gumbel’s Alpha Course has spread worldwide. Sandy Miller prayed for Stephen Hill just before his evangelistic ministry began at Pensacola. Thousands still pass through “HTB” seeking God, and finding him. Sunday, 14 August, 1994 Sunderland, England (Ken Gott) Ken and Lois Gott founders of Sunderland Christian Centre (SCC) in 1987 in the north-east of England, felt dry and worn out in 1994. Ken Gott and four other Pentecostals visited Holy Trinity Brompton in London. The presence of God among Anglicans humbled and amazed those Pentecostals. Andy and Jane Fitz-Gibbon reported that “stereotypes were shattered as Ken and the other Pentecostals received a new baptism in the Spirit at the hands of Bishop David Pytches. The change was so profound in Ken that the members at SCC took up an offering and sent Ken, Lois and their youth leader for a week to Toronto. Like most of us who have made the same pilgrimage, they were profoundly touched, soaking in God for a week, never to be the same again.” On August 14th, the first Sunday morning back from Toronto, the effect on the church was staggering. Virtually the whole congregation responded to Ken’s appeal to receive the same touch from God that he and Lois had received. They decided to meet again in the evening, although normal meetings had been postponed for the summer recess. The same experience occurred. They gathered again the next evening and the next . . . in fact for two weeks without a night off. Quickly, numbers grew from around a hundred-and-fifty to six hundred. Word reached the region and, without advertising, people began the pilgrimage to Sunderland from a radius of around 70 miles. By September a pattern of nightly meetings (bar Mondays) was established and each night the same overwhelming sense of God was present. That pattern has continued ever since, with monthly leaders’ 328 Geoff Waugh meeting on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon (with usually around 300 in attendance) and a daily ‘place’ of prayer being added. The effect on many churches and on thousands of individuals has been profound (Waugh 2009, 122). The church began two meetings a day with daily afternoon prayer meetings from January 1995. Many former criminals were saved, and crime dropped in the community. Saturday, 5 November, 1994 Mount Annan, Sydney (Adrian Gray) Christian Life Centre Mount Annan is an Assembly of God church located on 37 acres of park-like land near Campbelltown in the south west of Sydney. They have been experiencing a sustained outpouring of the Holy Spirit since 5 November 1994. This edited report is by Pastor Brian Shick, a member of the staff at Christian Life Centre Mount Annan, Sydney. Adrian Gray, the senior Pastor of Christian Life Centre Mount Annan was born again in the mid 1960’s during a period of revival in Campbelltown. This initial experience of the power and work of the Holy Spirit left a distinct impression on his spirit. He believed for and worked towards full-scale revival as a major focus in his relationship with the Lord and in his ministry. An outstanding prophetic sign occurred a short while before this outpouring took place when a helicopter flying over the church called the fire department reporting our building on fire. Thirteen fire trucks screamed up the church driveway looking for the fire to extinguish, but there was no visible fire. When we realised that it was a spiritual fire that had been seen, great awe came upon the church. This happened at the conclusion of ten days of prayer and fasting for revival. The arrival of the move of the Holy Spirit on the first weekend of November, 1994, could only be described as sovereign. Randwick Baptist Church, which is in more central Sydney, experienced the same outpouring at exactly the same time. Numbers of churches around the nation experienced a similar occurrence about the same time. 329 Renewal Journal For many months the church had been praying for a visitation of God without perhaps really realising what that meant. An evangelistic crusade with an “end-times emphasis” had been planned for that weekend. The evangelist, recently returned from Toronto, Canada, preached his evangelistic message and called people forward who wanted a fresh touch from God. Immediately over 300 people responded and as the evangelist and pastors prayed the presence of God came. The Father’s heart of love was revealed to the people and as hands were gently laid on them they fell to the floor under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They lay there for a long time and when they got up there were dozens of amazing testimonies of healing and restoration and life changing transformations. The next day, Sunday, the Holy Spirit came again, and then again on Monday and Tuesday and in every meeting held since that time. The anointing was so strong that many people in those first months would fall to the floor as soon as they came through the door. Two weeks later on arriving back from Toronto, Adrian and Kathy and the leadership team, convinced that this was of God and the fulfilment of the many prophecies, made a decision to commit the church to revival. Renewal did not just become an appendage to the existing program, it became the entire program. The Holy Spirit is free to move however he wants in any of the services. While most pastors would say that this is the case in their churches, many have actually limited the style of meeting that is characteristic of this current move, to one or two services a week and the other meetings are “normal”. Because of the numbers of people just visiting, it is hard to actually determine how many people in each service actually belong to the church. There have been approximately 200,000 people pass through the church doors since the outpouring began. The official membership has grown from 300 prior to renewal to 700 at present. With all the services added together, 1,200 people are ministered to per week with many more during conferences. Sunday, 6 November, 1994 Randwick, Sydney (Greg Beech) Greg Beech, the minister of Randwick Baptist Church in Sydney, reported: 330 Geoff Waugh Many Christians are talking about a significant work of God that is sweeping the church today which has become known as the Toronto Blessing. Hundreds of churches around Australia have already been touched, blessed and changed. Christians are testifying to significant life change, wonderful fruit and a new zeal for God. People are laughing, crying, falling down, experiencing strange body movements. Many who have exhibited these phenomena have never had such experiences before nor, by their own testimony, did they expect to. Services are lasting for hours longer than usual. Many pastors are rejoicing as they observe the spiritual fruit. At Randwick Baptist Church, some of these phenomena have been present in lesser degrees for about nine years. They occurred spontaneously and without prompting or discussion. Late in 1993 and the first seven or eight months of 1994 had been a considerable time of change for us involving difficult decisions, change of staff, relational tensions, loss of some members, and a rethink of the church’s vision. The ‘ship’ of the church had slowed and was making a careful, yet sure change, in direction. The outcome of this process was a greater sense of unity in the church, a growing commitment to corporate prayer, and a desire to get on with the work of the Kingdom. In hindsight, we realise that some of the things we went through were necessary for God to be able to come and move freely among us. Change is never easy and refining is often painful at the time. We are filled with gratitude as we reflect upon how God was working during this time. We recognise and wish to emphasise that the outpouring was not so much a result of anything we did but was a sovereign movement of God. The outpouring seems to have transferred from the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, and is being transferred to churches around the world. We have been thrilled to learn of other churches in Sydney also being touched. While we had prayed for the outpouring of the Spirit, it still caught us by surprise! The sheer intensity and broad sweep of the Spirit’s work has been staggering. At the same time the critics have been quick to respond. Several have 331 Renewal Journal published claims that what they believe is the Toronto Blessing is in fact demonic. Another church has arrived at the conclusion that this is a work of hypnotism. Yet others claim it is just a passing fad for the deluded. The secular media have been intrigued. Newspaper, radio and T.V. have all visited church services to see for themselves. The response of the secular media has been mainly positive. We need to be aware however that the media often seeks sensationalism rather than an accurate portrayal of what is happening. What are we to make of this extraordinary outpouring? What place should the phenomena have in our church? How can we test it to ensure that it is a true work of God? How should meetings be administered where such phenomena occur? Furthermore, what is the fruit of all these things? It is important that we follow the biblical injunction to test all things, and seek to establish biblical foundations for what we see happening. The current refreshing is not some kind of new ‘latest and greatest’ programme which has been introduced to revitalize church services. The ‘refreshing’ is not something that pastors introduce to see if new life can be breathed into their church. We believe what we are witnessing is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. It was with considerable amazement that we stood back and watched God pour out His Spirit in November 1994 at Randwick Baptist Church. We found it difficult to come to terms with the sheer power and intensity of God’s work. We have pastored this movement, prayed for discernment, discussed, theologized, debated with our critics, searched the Scriptures, and carefully watched and examined the fruit. We are convinced this is a true work of God. However, we acknowledge that any work of God which involves a human element, will encounter sinful tendencies, perhaps demonic attack, and therefore must be carefully dealt with. The conclusions and positions we have reached, both in theology and practice, may well be rejected by other churches. We do not believe that ours is the only orthodox position. 332 Geoff Waugh Sunday, 1 January, 1995 Melbourne, Florida (Randy Clark) Five local churches in Melbourne, Florida, invited Randy Clark as guest speaker at the Tabernacle Church on New Year’s day of 1995. Unusual revival broke out including large numbers falling down, laughter, weeping, and many dramatic physical healings. Thousands flocked to meetings held six days a week. Pastors and musicians from fifteen different congregations hosted the meetings in a new expression of co-operation and unity. Randy Clark reported: In 1994 I spent about 150 [days] in renewal meetings. During that time I never was in a meeting which I felt had the potential to become another Toronto type experience. That was until I went to Melbourne, Florida [on] January 1, 1995. Another revival has broken out. Many sovereign things have occurred which indicate this place too will be [the site of] unusual renewal meetings. I shall share some of these. First, what made me expect something special at these meetings? I never schedule over four days for meetings, but I scheduled fifteen days for this meeting. Why? I believed there were things going on which indicated a major move of the Spirit was imminent. The Black and White ministerial associations merged a few months prior to my going. The charismatic pastors had been meeting together for prayer for six years, and pastors from evangelical and charismatic and pentecostal churches had been meeting and praying together for over two years. There was a unity built which would be able to withstand the pressures of diverse traditions working together in one renewal/revival meeting. The meetings are held at the Tabernacle, the largest church in the area. It holds 950 comfortably. This was Jamie Buckingham’s church, now pastored by Michael Thompson. The church sanctuary is filled by 6:15 with meetings beginning at 7:00. About 1,200 are crowded into the sanctuary, another 150 fills a small overflow room, and another 200-300 sit outside watching on a large screen (Waugh 2009, 124125). The revival in Melbourne continues with an astounding mixture of white, black, Asiatic, Hispanic, and American Indian people being touched by God, filled with the Spirit and witnessing to others. 333 Renewal Journal The Christian radio station WSCF, FM 92 at Vero Beach, Florida, an hour’s drive south of Melbourne, interviewed Randy Clark on Friday 6 January. The General Manager of the radio station, Jon Hamilton, wrote a report which shows how this revival can break out of churches into the community. Here are some excerpts from the full version in Flashpoints of Revival: I had agreed to interview a pastor from St. Louis, Randy Clark that morning. … The interview was innocent enough at first. The subject turned to a discussion of the Holy Spirit’s manifest presence in a meeting (as opposed to His presence that dwells within our hearts always). Rather suddenly, something began to happen in the control room. It began with Gregg. He was seated behind me listening, and for no apparent reason, he began to weep. His weeping turned to shuddering sobs that he attempted to muffle in his hands. It was hard to ignore, and Randy paused mid-sentence to comment “You can’t see him, but God is really dealing with the fellow behind you right now.” I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Gregg losing control. He stood up, only to crash to the floor directly in front of the console, where he lay shaking for several minutes. … I had always known Gregg to act like a professional, so I knew something was seriously going on. I did my best to recover the interview under the embarrassing circumstances. I thanked the guest and wrapped it up. (And thought of ways to kill Gregg later!) Before Randy Clark left, we asked him to say a word of prayer. We formed a circle and began to pray for the staff one by one. My eyes were shut, but I heard a thud and opened them to see Bart Mazzarella prostrate on the floor. He had fallen forward on his face. What amazed me most was that Bart was known to be openly sceptical. He simply did not accept such things. Within seconds, another and another staff person went down. Even those that remained standing were clearly shaken. When they prayed for me, I did not “fall down”. What did happen was an electric sensation shot down my right arm, and my right hand began to tremble uncontrollably. My heart pounded as I became aware of a powerful sense of what can only be called God’s manifest presence. 334 Geoff Waugh I thought the atmosphere would abate after a few minutes and return to normal... but instead, our prayers grew more and more intense. The room became charged in a way that I simply cannot describe. After an hour of this, we realized that it was 10:30, the time we normally share our listener’s needs in prayer. I switched on the mike, and found myself praying that God would touch every listener in a personal way. After prayer, with great hesitation I added “This morning God has really been touching our staff, so we’ve been spending the morning praying together. If you’re in a situation right now where you are facing a desperate need, just drop by our studios this morning and we’ll take a minute to pray with you.” This was the first time we had ever made such an invitation. … Within a few minutes, a few listeners began to arrive. The first person I prayed with was a tall man who shared with me some tremendous needs he was facing. I told him I would agree with him in prayer. As I prayed for his need, a voice in my head was saying “It’s a shame that you don’t operate in any real spiritual gift or power. Here’s a man who really needs to hear from God and you’ve got nothing worth giving him!” I continued to pray, but I was struggling. I reached up with my right hand to touch his shoulder, when suddenly he shook, and slumped to the floor. (He lay there without moving for over 2 hours.) I was shocked and shaken. Two others had arrived at this point, and staff members were praying with them. Suddenly they began weeping uncontrollably, and slumped to the floor. This scene was repeated a dozen times in the next few minutes. It didn’t matter who did the praying, whenever we asked the Lord, he immediately responded with a visible power, and the same manifestations occurred. … Fairly early in all this, we ran out of room. The radio station floor was wall to wall bodies... some weeping, some shaking, some completely still. People reported that it was like heavy lead apron had been placed over them. They were unable to get up. All they could do was worship God. Fortunately, our offices are inside of the complex at Central Assembly, so when the crowd began to grow, we moved across into the Church, 335 Renewal Journal leaving the radio station literally wall to wall with seekers. … At some point I looked up and saw a local Baptist Pastor walk in the door. I must confess that my first thought was, “Oh Boy...I’m in trouble!” While I knew this brother to be a genuine man of God, nevertheless I was concerned about how a fundamental, no-nonsense Baptist might take all these goings-on. (Besides, I didn’t have an explanation to offer!) I walked up to greet him. He just silently surveyed the room, and with a tone of voice just above a whisper said, “This... is...God. For years I’ve prayed for revival... This is God.” Within minutes more local pastors began to arrive. Lutheran, Independent, Assembly of God... The word of what was happening spread like wildfire. As the pastors arrived, they were cautious at first, but within just minutes, they would often begin to flow in the same ministry. The crowd was growing and pastors began to lay hands on the seekers, where once again the power of God would manifest and the seeker would often collapse to the ground. It did not seem to matter who did the praying. This was a nameless, faceless, spontaneous move of God. There were no stars, no leaders, and frankly, there was no organization. (It’s hard to plan for something you have no idea might happen!) … Amazingly, unchurched, unsaved people were showing up. I got a fresh glimpse of the power of radio as person after person told us “I’m not really a part of any church...” A few were sceptical at first, and later found themselves kneeling in profound belief. Sometimes people would rise up, only to frantically announce to us that they had been healed of some physical problem. One woman’s arthritic hands found relief. Neck pains, jaw problems, stomach disorders and more were all reported to us as healed. We have received at least a dozen verified, credible, reliable comments from people who told us that when they switched on the radio, they were suddenly, unexpectedly overwhelmed by the presence of God (even when they didn’t hear us say anything). Several told us that the manifest presence of God was so strong in their cars that they were unable to drive, and were forced to pull off the road. 336 Geoff Waugh The “falling” aspect of this visitation was the most visible manifestation, but it was not falling that was important. What was important was the fact that people were rising up with more love for God in their hearts than ever before. They were being changed, and their hearts set ablaze. I have lost count of the numbers of people who told me of the change God worked in their life. … Christian history is full of accounts of those times when God elected to “visit” His people. When He has, entire nations have sometimes been affected. I believe you’ll agree, our nation is ripe for such a revival. For such a time as this, let us look to God with expectancy (Waugh 2009, 125-132). Sunday, 15 January, 1995 Modesto, California (Glenn & Debbie Berteau) Glenn and Debbie Berteau, pastors of Calvary Temple Worship Centre in Modesto, California, from January 1994, strongly sensed the Lord would give them revival there. Early in 1994, they challenged their congregation with that vision. After the ‘vision Sunday’, individuals committed themselves to fast on specific days as the congregation became involved in a forty day period of prayer and fasting. In early January 1995, they had a three day fast. The church building remained open for prayer, and people prayed over names on cards left on the altar. Those able to do so met together daily for prayer at noon. Many pastors in the area began meeting each week to pray for the city. On Sunday 15 January 1995, the church began holding performances of the play, Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames. It was scheduled for three days originally but continued for seven weeks with 28 performances. Jann Mathies, pastoral secretary of Calvary Temple reported in April: As of this writing, approximately 81,000 have attended the performance with 90% each night seeing it for the first time. At time of printing, 33,000 decision packets have been handed out, and of that, (confirmed) 20,000 returned with signed decision cards. Over 250 churches have been represented with hundreds of people added to the churches in our city and surrounding communities in less than one month. People come as early as 3:30 pm for a 7 pm 337 Renewal Journal performance. There are over 1,000 people waiting to get in at 5 pm, and by 5:30 pm the building is full. Thousands of people have been turned away; some from over 100 miles away. ... Husbands and wives are reconciling through salvation; teenagers are bringing their unsaved parents; over 6,000 young people have been saved, including gang members who are laying down gang affiliation and turning in gang paraphernalia. . . . The revival is crossing every age, religion and socio-economic status. . . . We have many volunteers coming in every day, and through the evening hours to contact 500 to 600 new believers by phone; special classes have also been established so that new believers may be established in the faith (Waugh 2009, 133). The play became a focus for revival in the area. Some churches closed their evening service so their people could take their unsaved friends there. One result is that many churches in the area began receiving new coverts and finding their people catching the fire of revival in their praying and evangelising. One church added a third Sunday morning service to accommodate the people. Another church asked their members to give up their seats to visitors. Bible book stores sold more Bibles than usual. A local psychologist reported on deep healings in the lives of many people who attended the drama. That play continues to be used effectively around the world. For example, churches in Australia have performed the play with hundreds converted in local churches. Hardened unbelievers with no place for church in their lives have been saved and live for God. Sunday, 22 January, 1995 Brownwood, Texas (Chris Robeson) Richard Riss gathered these accounts of revival touching colleges across America beginning with Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. On January 22, 1995, at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood, Texas, two students from Howard Payne University, a Christian 338 Geoff Waugh institution, stood up and confessed their sins. As a result of this incident, many others started to confess their own sins before the congregation. On January 26, a similar event took place on the campus of Howard Payne. Word quickly spread to other colleges, and Howard Payne students were soon being invited to other college campuses, which experienced similar revivals. From these schools, more students were invited to still other schools, where there were further revivals. ... One of the first two students from Howard Payne to confess his sins was Chris Robeson. As he testified about his own life and the spiritual condition of his classmates, “People just started streaming down the aisles” in order to pray, confess their sins, and restore seemingly doomed relationships, according to John Avant, pastor of Coggin Avenue Baptist Church. From this time forward, the church began holding three-and-a-half-hour services. Avant said, “This is not something we’re trying to manufacture. It’s the most wonderful thing we’ve ever experienced.” ... At Howard Payne, revival broke out during a January 26 ‘celebration’ service, as students praised God in song and shared their testimonies. Students then started to schedule all-night prayer meetings in dormitories. ... Then, on February 13-15, during five meetings at Howard Payne, Henry Blackaby, a Southern Baptist revival leader ministered at a series of five worship services, attended by guests from up to 200 miles away. On Tuesday, February 14, more than six hundred attended, and students leaders went up to the platform to confess publicly their secret sins. About two hundred stayed afterward to continue praying. One of the students, Andrea Cullins, said, “Once we saw the Spirit move, we didn’t want to leave.” ... After Howard Payne, some of the first schools to be affected were Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth, Texas, Beeson School of Divinity in Birmingham, Alabama, Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee, Ill., The Criswell College in Dallas, Moorehead State University in Moorehead, Ky., Murray State University in Murray, Ky., Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. In each case, students went 339 Renewal Journal forward during long services to repent of pride, lust, bondage to materialism, bitterness, and racism. These revivals continued throughout and beyond 1995. Details are given in Accounts of a Campus Revival: Wheaton College 1995, edited by Timothy Beougher and Lyle Dorsett (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1995). Friday, 24 March, 1995 Pasadena, California (Che Ahn) From January of 1995, John Arnott of the Toronto Airport Vineyard and Wes Campbell of New Life Vineyard Fellowship in Kelowna, British Columbia began speaking for two or three days each at Mott Auditorium on the campus of the U. S. Centre for World Mission. By 24 March people gathered for meetings five nights a week, usually going very late. John Arnott conducted powerful meetings there on Friday-Sunday 24-26 March, hosted by Harvest Rock Church, a Vineyard Fellowship. Then the combined churches in the area continued with nightly meetings from Monday 27 March. Later that settled to meetings from Wednesday to Sunday each week. Then Wednesdays were reserved for cell groups and meetings continued from Thursday to Sunday nights. Che Ahn, senior pastor of Harvest Rock Church wrote in their monthly magazine Wine Press in August 1995: I am absolutely amazed at what God has done during the past five months. After John Arnott exploded onto the scene with three glorious and unforgettable renewal meetings, he encouraged the pastors of our church to begin nightly protracted meetings. My mind immediately rejected the idea. I thought to myself, “The meetings were great because you were here, but how can we sustain nightly meetings without someone like John Arnott to draw the crowd?” The answer to my question was an obvious one. Someone greater than John Arnott would show up each night at the meetings - Jesus. And each night since we began March 27, 1995, God has shown up 340 Geoff Waugh to heal, to save, and to touch thousands of lives. There is no accurate way to measure the impact that the renewal meetings are having in our city. I do believe that we are making church history, and we are in the midst of another move of the Holy Spirit that is sweeping the world. From March 27 to July 27, we have had 99 nightly renewal meetings. We have averaged about 300 people per night, some nights with more that 1200 people and others with a small crowd of 120. More than 25,000 people have walked through the doors of Mott Auditorium, many of them happy, repeat customers. We have seen more that 300 people come forward to rededicate their lives or give their hearts to Jesus Christ. These statistics don’t come close to representing other evangelistic fruit of those who have attended the meetings. For example, two church members, Justine Bateman and Jeff Eastridge, had an outreach at Arroyo High School and more than 60 young people gave their hearts to the Lord! We have seen marvellous healings from the hand of the Lord, many of them spontaneous without anyone specifically praying for the healing. I wish I had the time and space to share all the wonderful fruit I have seen at the renewal meetings. Seeing the need to share what God is doing, I felt that we are producing this church newsletter to share these testimonies of lives that have been impacted by God during this current outpouring of the Holy -134). Sunday, 18 June, 1995 Pensacola, Florida (Steve Hill) Over 26,000 conversions were registered in the first year of the ‘Pensacola Revival’. Over 100,000 conversions were been registered in the first two years. It still continues. On Father’s Day, Sunday 18 June 1995, evangelist Steve Hill spoke at Brownsville Assembly of God, near Pensacola, Florida. At the altar call a thousand people streamed forward as the Holy Spirit moved on them. Their pastor, John Kilpatrick, fell down under the power of God and was overwhelmingly impacted for four days. 341 Renewal Journal That morning service, normally finishing at noon, lasted till 4 pm. The evening service continued for another five and a half hours. So the church asked Steve Hill to stay. He cancelled appointments, continued with nightly meetings, and relocated to live there, where he continues to minister in revival. John Kilpatrick, pastor of the Brownsville Assembly of God Church, reported on their revival in 1997: The souls who come to Christ, repenting and confessing their sin, the marriages that are restored, the many people who are freed from bondage that has long held them captive - these are the marks of revival and the trophies of God’s glory. No, I am not speaking of a revival that lasted one glorious weekend, one week, one month, or even one year! At this writing, the ‘Brownsville Revival’ has continued unbroken, except for brief holiday breaks, since Father’s Day, June 18, 1995! How? Only God knows. Why? First, because it is God’s good pleasure, and second, perhaps because the soil of our hearts was prepared in prayer long before revival descended on us so suddenly. On that very normal and ordinary Sunday morning in June of 1995, I was scheduled to minister to my congregation, but I felt weary. I was still trying to adjust to the recent loss of my mother, and my years-long desire for revival in the church seemed that morning to be so far off. So I asked my friend, Evangelist Steve Hill, to fill the pulpit in my place. Although he was scheduled to speak only in the evening service, Steve agreed to preach the Father’s Day message. We didn’t know it then, but God was at work in every detail of the meeting. The worship was ordinary (our worship leader, Lindell Cooley, was still ministering on a missions trip to the Ukraine in Russia), and even Brother Hill’s message didn’t seem to ignite any sparks that morning - until the noon hour struck. Then he gave an altar call and suddenly God visited our congregation in a way we had never experienced before. A thousand people came forward for prayer after his message. That was almost half of our congregation! We didn’t know it then, but our lives were about to change in a way we could never have imagined. We knew better than to hinder such a mighty move of God, so 342 Geoff Waugh services just continued day after day. We had to adjust with incredible speed. During the first month of the revival, hundreds of people walked the isles to repent of their sins. By the sixth month, thousands had responded to nightly altar calls. By the time we reached the twelfth month, 30,000 had come to the altar to repent of their sins and make Jesus Lord of their lives. At this writing, 21 months and over 470 revival services later, more than 100,000 people have committed their lives to God in these meetings - only a portion of the 1.6 million visitors who have come from every corner of the earth ... If the prophecy delivered by Dr David Yonggi Cho [given in 1991] years before it came to pass is correct, this revival, which he correctly placed as beginning at Pensacola, Florida, will sweep up the East Coast and across the United States to the West Coast, and America will see an outpouring of God that exceeds any we have previously seen. I am convinced that you, and every believer who longs for more of God, has a part to play in this great awakening from God (Waugh 2009, 137-138). Pastors, leaders and Christians have been returning to their churches ignited with a new passion for the Lord and for the lost. The awesome presence of God experienced at Pensacola continues to impact thousands from around the world. Friday, 27 October, 1995 Mexico (David Hogan) David Hogan, founder of Freedom Ministries, a mission to remote hill tribes in Mexico told in a sermon about the outpouring of the Spirit there. This is part of his account: I visited an outlying village. It took four hours in a 4 wheel drive and then two hours on foot, uphill - very remote. There’s no radio, no T.V., no outside influences. I’m sitting up there in this little hut on a piece of wood against the bamboo wall on the dirt floor. Chickens are walking around in there. And this pastor walks up to me. He’s a little guy, and he’s trembling. He says, “Brother David, I’m really afraid I’ve made a mistake.” 343 Renewal Journal I hadn’t heard of any mistakes. I was wondering what had happened in the last few days. He’s got four little churches in his area. He said, “Man, it’s not my fault. I apologise. I’ve done everything right, like you taught me. I pray everyday. I read the Bible. I’m doing it right. What happened is not my fault.” I said, “What happened? Come on, tell me what happened.” He was trembling. Tears were running out of his eyes. He said, “Brother David, I got up in our little church. I opened my Bible and I started preaching and the people started falling down. The people started crying. The people started laughing. And it scared me. I ran out of the church.” That’s what I was looking for. That’s what I was waiting for, when God came in our work, not because somebody came and preached it, not because I said it was okay or not okay, because I was neutral about it. I knew it was all right, but I wanted to see it in our work not because I ushered it in, but because the Holy Spirit ushered it in. And he did. After I had been through all the sections, introducing this softly, it finally came time to call all the pastors together from the whole work. A couple of hundred of our pastors came. I wish you had been there to see what we saw! It was amazing. On the first day, Wednesday, 25 October 1995, there were about 200 pastors there, and the whole church that was hosting us. That made about 450 people. The first day was awesome. God hit us powerfully. There were healings. I was happy. The people were encouraged. The second day, Thursday, was even better. It was stronger. I thought we were peaking out on the second day. I got there at eight o’clock in the morning and left a ten o’clock at night, and there was ministry all day. We were fixing problems, and God was working through the ministry. It was wonderful. But I tell you, I was not ready for the third day. I don’t have words to describe what happened to us when the Holy Spirit fell on us on Friday, 27 October, 1995. We were coming in from different areas. The Indians were all there. I didn’t know they 344 Geoff Waugh had been in an all night prayer meeting. I didn’t know that the Holy Spirit had fallen on them and they couldn’t get up. I didn’t know that they had been pinned down by the Holy Spirit all night long, all over the place, stuck to the ground. Some of them had fallen on ant beds, but not one ant bit them. I was staying about 45 minutes away. I got in my 4 wheel drive and as I drove there I began listening on the two-way radio. Some of our missionaries were already there, and were talking on the two-way radio saying, “What’s happening here. I can’t walk.” As I listened to them on the radio I felt power come on me. And the closer I came, the more heat I felt settling on me. I could feel heat, and I had my air conditioner going! When I got to the little church, I opened the door of the truck and instantly became hot. Sweat poured off me. I was about 300 yards from the church. The closer I got, the more intense was the heat. I could hardly walk through it, it was so thick. I’m talking about the presence of God. That was 7.30 in the morning! I walked around the corner of the building. People were all over the place. Some were knocked out. Some were on the ground. Some were moaning and wailing. It was very unusual. By the time I got to the front of the church where the elders were I could hardly walk. I was holding on to things to get there. I could hardly breathe. The heat of the presence of God was amazing. The people had been singing for two hours before I got there. At 8.15 on the morning of October 27th, 1995, I walked up there and lay my Bible down on that little wobbly Indian table. Hundreds were looking at me. Some were knocked out, lying on the ground. I could hardly talk. I called the nine elders to the front and told them the Holy Ghost was there and we needed to make a covenant together, even to martyrdom. We made a covenant there that the entire country of Mexico would be saved. They asked me to join them in that pact. When we lifted our hands in agreement all nine fell at once. I was hurled backward and fell under the table. When I got up the people in front fell over. In less than a minute every pastor there was 345 Renewal Journal knocked out. We were ringed with unbelievers, coming to see what was going on. The anointing presence of God came and knocked them all out, dozens of them. Every unbeliever outside, and everyone on the fence was knocked out and fell to the ground. There were dozens of them. From the church at the top of the hill we could see people in the village below running out screaming from their huts and falling out under the Holy Ghost. It was amazing. We always have a section for the sick and afflicted. They bring them in from miles around, some on stretchers. There were 25-30 of them there. Every sick person at the meeting was healed: the blind, the cancerous, lupus, tumours, epilepsy, demon possession. Nobody touched them but Jesus. There was instant reconciliation between people who had been against each other. They were lying on top of each other, sobbing and repenting. I was afraid when I saw all of that going on. I looked up to heaven and said, “God what are you - ?” and that was the end of it. He didn’t want to hear any questions. Bang! I was about three or four metres from the table. When I woke up some hours later, I was under the table. When I finally woke up my legs wouldn’t work. I scooted myself around looking at what was going on. It was pandemonium! When some people tried to get up, they would go flying. It was awesome. “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1). I saw that river. I actually saw the river, it’s pure water of life from God’s throne. If I could see it again I would know it, I saw it, I experienced it, I tasted it. We had five open-eyed visions. One small pastor was hanging onto a pole to hold himself up. He was there, but he wasn’t there. He said to me, “Brother David, look at him. Look at him, Brother David! Who is it? Look how big he is! Oh, he’s got his white robe on. He’s got a golden girdle.” It was Jesus. He said, “Brother David, how did we get into this big palace?” I looked around. I was still on the dirt floor. I still had a grass roof 346 Geoff Waugh over me, but he was in a marble palace, pure white. I crawled over to look at him. He was seeing things we could not see. Another of the elders, a prophet from America, who had been working with me for thirteen years, crawled over and we were watching this pastor who was in a trance. It was amazing. The three of us were inside something like a force field of energy. Anybody who tried to come into it was knocked out. It was scary. The pastor said, “He’s got a list, Brother David.” And the pastor started reading out aloud from the list. I was looking around, and as he was reading from the list people went flying through the air, getting healed and delivered. It was phenomenal, what God was doing. And he’s done it in every service in our work that I’ve been in since then. It’s been over a year. It’s amazing. Wonderful. Between 150 and 500 people per month are being saved because of it, just through what the North American missionaries are doing (Waugh 2009, 139-144). Sunday, 24 March, 1996 Smithton, Missouri (Steve Gray) Like thousands of pastors across America, Steve Gray was discouraged and disappointed. He was even considering leaving the ministry. For twelve years he had pastored the Smithton Community Church in the sleepy little town of Smithton, Missouri, nestled among the wheat. Steve Gray was discouraged and disappointed. He was even considering leaving the ministry. Steve Gray was ready to quit. Knowing he had to get away from the church for some “R and R,” he chose revival over relaxation. In March 1996, he drove from Missouri to Florida to visit the Brownsville Outpouring at Pensacola that was then in its 37th week. Gray attended the services each night and spent the days in his motel room, praying and seeking God’s face. During the Tuesday night prayer meeting, while hundreds gathered around the “Pastor’s Banner” to pray for the nation’s shepherds, Gray was praying especially for one pastor, himself. He knew if he continued in the ministry, he had to be restored. After about three days, he felt some recovery and his focus began to change. God was restoring his hope and he found this to be the first signal of his 347 Renewal Journal personal revival. Before this change in focus, Gray didn’t even know what to ask from God. Gray says he came to Brownsville not to “get something” but to “see something,” as Moses went to “see” the burning bush. After several more days, Gray was “seeing” again. One night, in what Gray described as a “perfect atmosphere,” God spoke to him and said, “I want you to have a revival.” The very thought was too much to accept. Smithton, Missouri, is not Pensacola, Florida, and Gray could not imagine himself in the role of revivalist. Then God spoke again, “I didn’t say I want you to be a revival, I said I want you to have a revival.” On Sunday morning, 17 March 1996, Pastor Kilpatrick shared part of his personal testimony of how revival came to Brownsville. Gray reached the place of faith and could believe “there is a place for me in revival.” He observed Kilpatick as he was “watching, guiding, and pastoring a truly sovereign move of God that was changing the world.” Kilpatrick’s words and example showed Gray that “revival needs to be pastored and can be pastored.” After Sunday worship, Gray called his wife, Kathy, and said, “I have just been in the best Sunday morning service I have ever been in. Tell our church.” Near the end of his second week in Brownsville, Gray headed for home, repentant and on the road to revival and restoration. While God was working on Gray, he was also working on the members of Smithton Community Church. For two and one-half years the church had held a Tuesday night prayer meeting, but as God prepared the church for revival, the prayers became more intense. Associate Elder Randy Lohman says there was “lots of brokenness” in the months immediately preceding the outpouring. As the pastor sought God in Florida, the congregation sought him at home. On Sunday night, March 17, Kathy Gray relayed the pastor’s message about the great Sunday morning service in Brownsville. David Cordes, one of the elders, was deeply convicted. Weeping, he asked the congregation, “Why should our pastor have to travel a thousand miles to be in the best service he has ever been in?” He fell on the floor in repentance. Soon he was followed by several other men in the church, repenting for their lack of support and crying out to God to do the same thing at Smithton that he was doing for the pastor in Florida. God continued his work on Wednesday night as a five year old girl prophesied and said, “It’s coming! It’s coming!” The Lord had seen 348 Geoff Waugh their brokenness. When the pastor arrived on Sunday night, the glory fell. To be exact, at 6:12 p.m. on 24 March 1996 God the Holy Ghost arrived in his awesome power at Smithton Community Church. They will never be the same. Immediately they added services to their church schedule. Now, the outpouring has continued for two years with five services every week. Visitors have come from all fifty states and many foreign countries, often in numbers that vastly exceed the population of the town. Thousands of lives have been changed. Sick bodies have been healed. Visiting pastors have taken the fire back to their congregation. Steve, Kathy, and teams from the church are taking the revival all around the world. As for the future of the revival, Lohman said, “God started it and we are going to let him do what he is doing.” Move to Kansas The revival that has brought some 200,000 people from around the world to the small town in the middle of nowhere. Smithton Community Church (SCC) in the tiny town of Smithton, is relocating to Kansas City to allow the almost-four-year “outpouring” to continue to spread. Weekly revival meetings have been held at the church in Smithton - population around 500 - since March 1996. Services last for three or more hours, with intense prayer for visitors. Many have testified of healings and renewal of their love for God. Similar revivals have been sparked in other churches as a result of visits to the Smithton church. Now Steve Gray and his small staff are moving 90 minutes away to take over the former property of Raytown Baptist Church, in suburban Kansas City. The building has seating for 1,400 and other facilities that can better meet the demand for space created by visitors to the Smithton church, who even come from overseas. The last revival services were be held in Smithton on Thanksgiving weekend, with a transition period leading to the first service at the new church in January, 2000. Gray said that many of SCC’s 300 local members are considering making the move to another part of the state. “I don’t have any doubt that the glory of God will show because it’s the same people, same staff, same everything. When we go to another city 349 Renewal Journal or another country it’s not like nothing happens. Something always happens,” he said. “But maybe the city isn’t ready for this kind of commitment. That’s what this is; it’s a revival in your heart.” Gray said he was approached out of the blue by the leaders at Raytown Baptist, wondering if he could use their former property. Revival services will be held Fridays and Saturdays at the new church. Other services will focus on the local congregation. The new property is fitted for a TV ministry, which may follow the radio program “Prepare the Way,” started on a Christian station in the city over the summer. “We feel that we are hopefully getting ready for the next move of God in the United States, which is a great awakening,” said Gray. “We never intended for this to happen, but for whatever reason we feel the lifting and the moving.” Source: http://members.aol.com/azusa/index.html from The Remnant International; Daily News Update from Charisma magazine, 29 October, 1999. Sunday, 28 April, 1996 Hampton, Virginia Bethel Temple Assembly of God has been experiencing a move of the Holy Spirit since April 1996. Church membership is 2,200. Revival meetings are held Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. During 1-6 April the drama Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames drew large crowds with nearly 3,000 responding to the altar call for salvation. Later, 75 were baptized in an outdoor baptismal service. During the week, 22-27 April, several pastors journeyed to Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, to a revival conference. On Saturday 27th, at a Women’s Ministry Outreach, revival broke out in the parking lot and at a meeting. People rested in the Spirit, and miracles occurred with the prophetic gifting of pastor Don Rogers. He opened the sanctuary for a prayer meeting which extended to midnight. On 28 April, the Sunday 7.30 am service started and did not end till 3.24 pm which bypassed the 10.30 am service. Church members were repenting, numerous people converted to Christ, and many were 350 Geoff Waugh delivered of evil spirits. The pastors displayed manifestations similar to those in past historical moves of God. Powerful conviction fell on the people, with many overwhelmed. Hampton, Virginia is the oldest English speaking settlement in America. Bethel Temple Church is racially diverse: 40% African-American, 50% white, 10% Hispanic and Asian. In 1996 the Senior Associate Pastor, Don Rogers, had an open vision of the Holy Spirit coming to Hampton. He saw the Spirit of the Lord coming like a storm and it blew into their church. In his vision when this happened it blew out a glass window in the church. Fourteen months later, on 1 June, 1997, the Sunday service at Bethel Temple was starting. Senior Pastor Ron Johnson was praying and asking God to come “like a pent-up flood”. Suddenly Pastor Johnson looked at his hands and oil was dripping from his hands. The pastor began to tell the congregation of what was happening to his hands. The head usher told the pastor the front window of the church just blew out. The pastor began telling the congregation of what happened. People ran to the altar. Many publicly repented of sins. God’s manifest presence filled the building. Marriages are being restored, sexually broken people healed, myriad conversions to Christ, and many being filled with the Holy Spirit. The vision was beginning to be fulfilled. Part of the interpretation of the glass breaking signified the Spirit of the Lord blowing into Bethel church and blowing out. The mission of Bethel church is to proclaim God’s glory to the nation. The breaking of the glass window is a prophetic symbol of God’s power to release the church to carry the gospel to the nations. Also that week, several “signs and wonders” happened. An unexplained earthquake tremor and circular rainbow 360 degrees appeared over the city. Unity of churches in the Hampton area is growing. Twenty churches gathered for Easter Services this year in the town’s coliseum. According to Pastor Don Rodgers it’s unprecedented to get twenty churches to lay down the most important service of the year. Eleven thousand people attended. 351 Renewal Journal Sunday, 29 September, 1996 Mobile, Alabama (Cecil Turner) Joel Kilpatrick described revival in Mobile, Alabama: Cecil Turner was a shy man with a stutter - a pipe-fitter with no Bible college education - when God called him to lead Calvary Assembly of God in Mobile, Alabama, in 1963. Even family members questioned whether or not Turner could pastor the young congregation. Now, 34 years later, the church literally overflows with people coming to see what’s been happening since Sunday, 29 September, 1996, when God’s presence came in power during the church’s annual “camp meeting.” “I’ve thought we’d close out a number of times,” Turner says. “But the Holy Spirit says we’re going on.” The church has been in continuous revival from week to week, meeting Tuesdays for intercessory prayer, and Wednesdays through Fridays for services that draw 250 to 300 people. Sunday mornings draw 400, the maximum number they can pack into the sanctuary. Some services are exuberant and intense; others so heavy all they can do is “lay on the ground.” Sometimes the Spirit is so strong during praise and worship that they throw open the altars. “We come in each night and never know what’s going to happen,” Cecil says, pausing for a moment. “I like it.” The church started praying for revival in 1992, says Cecil’s son Kevin, who has been on staff for 11 years. “At times we wondered if revival would happen,” Kevin says. “But we saw the intensity and the hunger growing.” After five years of prayer and some dry stretches, God came mightily when a travelling evangelist, Wayne Headrick, came to preach. God spoke to Headrick that if they got out of the way, God would make something happen. That “something” keeps on happening. “It seems like it’s accelerating,” Headrick told the Mobile Register in May 1997. “Each service there’s more anointing and more of the 352 Geoff Waugh power of God.” Unchurched people are coming in droves to this church that sits at a 3way stop on the western city limit of Mobile. “They may not understand it,” says music pastor Kevin Turner, Cecil’s son, “but they want more of it.” Many come from other denominations: Nazarene, Catholic, Methodist, to name a few. “We agreed from the beginning that this wasn’t an Assembly of God revival - it was for the whole church,” Cecil says. People are saved in every service - and some 150 were saved in the last two months alone, Kevin says. Some say afterwards that they felt a need to come, and several testify that they were drawn in as if to a beacon. One man pulled into the parking lot, not fully understanding why he was there. The congregation prays regularly that people will be drawn by the Lord’s presence. The Mobile revival is redefining Calvary’s concept of pastoral leadership, steering them away from man-generated structure and teaching them to encounter God together. “It’s like God said, ‘I’ve been trying to move. Now get out of the way,’” says Kevin. “It’s liberating for both pastors and the people.” Kevin, who grew up a pastor’s kid, testifies that the move of God now enveloping their church has brought him to a new level of faith. “I’ve always loved the Lord, but this has changed my life,” Kevin says. “I want to be intimate with him.” Revival has also redefined his ministry. Kevin and his 10-piece music team keep a greulling schedule, sometimes singing for 3 hours straight. Before revival began, Kevin would lose his voice after a week of services, he says. But he asked God to sustain him, and has gone 10 months with few problems. Revival has also forced him to be more in tune with the Holy Spirit before leading worship. “I make a song list, but often it gets tossed out,” he says. “Some nights it’s like being held over a cliff. I know God wants to do something, and I’m asking, ‘What is it?’ I’ve had to become comfortable with silence. Sometimes he just says to wait.” 353 Renewal Journal The revival is not personality-driven. Headrick is often gone for weeks at a time, and the river continues to flow. The pastors say the move of God keeps changing colours as God takes the church to different places in him. Glenn McCall, pastor of Crawford United Methodist church, frequently takes members of his congregation to Calvary for revival services. “[People] are looking for something, and only God can meet that need in their spirit,” he says. “I feel like it’s a nationwide thing. I’ve heard a lot of testimonies from around the country and the world. There’s some phenomenal things happening in the church world.” McCall believes the fact that Calvary is drawing from other denominations signifies that America is ready for awakening. “I think people are wanting a revival regardless of what the name is on the [church] doorpost. They’re willing to crawl through barriers to get a touch from God,” he says. Sunday, October 20, 1996 Houston, Texas (Richard Heard) Richard Heard led the Christian Tabernacle in Houston in growth from 250 to 3,000 members. On Sunday October 20, 1996, a move of God exploded in the church. During the previous year the church had a strong emphasis on knowing Christ intimately. That August of 1996 Hector Giminez from Argentina ministered there with great power and many significant healings. Awareness of the presence and glory of the Lord increased during October, especially with the ministry of an evangelist friend of Richard, Tommy Tenny, who was to speak that morning. Richard was preparing to welcome him and had just read about God’s promise of revival from 2 Chronicles 7:14 when God’s power hit the place even splitting the Plexiglas pulpit. He spoke about it by telephone in November 1996 with Norman Pope of New Wine Ministries in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, who put the transcript of the discussion on the Awakening E-mail. The following account is an edited selection of Richard Heard’s comments: I felt the presence of the Lord come on me so powerfully I grabbed 354 Geoff Waugh the podium, the pulpit, to keep from falling, and that was a mistake. Instantly I was hurled a number of feet in a different direction, and the people said it was like someone just threw me across the platform. The pulpit fell over that I had been holding for support, and I was out for an hour and a half. ... I could not move. And I saw a manifestation of the glory of God. ... There were thick clouds, dark clouds, edged in golden white and the clouds would - there would be bursts of light that would come through that, that would just go through me absolutely like electricity. ... There was literally a pulsating feeling of - as though I was being fanned by the presence of the glory of God. ... There were angelic manifestations that surrounded the glory and I didn’t know how long I was out. They said later that I was there for an hour and a half. In the meanwhile, all across the building people, they tell me, were falling under the presence of God. That’s not something that has happened much in our church, but people were stretched out everywhere, and at the altar. We have three services on Sunday and people would enter the hallways that lead to the foyer and then into the auditorium and they would enter the hallways and begin to weep. There was such a glory of God and they would come into the foyer and not stop - they would just go straight to the altar - people stretched out everywhere. ... There were all kinds of angelic visitations that people had experienced. And we’ve got professional people in our church - doctors, professors, their bodies were strewn everywhere. When I felt the glory of God lift, I tried to get up and couldn’t. It was as though every electrical mechanism in my body had short-circuited. I couldn’t make my hands or my feet respond to what I was trying to tell them to do. It was as though I was paralysed. ... And we had one service that day, and the service literally never ended - it went all the way through the day until 2:00 that morning. It had started at 8:30, and we decided to have church the next night, and I didn’t want to be presumptuous, but we went on a nightly basis on that order, just announcing one night at a time, and as we got deeper into the week I could begin to see that God was doing something that was probably going to be more extended. There have been numerous healings. The evangelist didn’t speak at all that Sunday. In fact, the entire week he spoke maybe twenty 355 Renewal Journal minutes. There’s been a really deep call of God to repentance. People come in and they just fall on their faces. ... We had a great choir. We’re a multi-ethnic congregation. A Brooklyn Tabernacle kind of sound, if you’re familiar with that. Great worship and praise. Sunday morning there wasn’t a choir member standing on the platform. They were all scattered like logs all over the platform. And we go in - [musicians] begin to play, to lead us into the presence of the Lord, and they play very softly. Because of our background, usually our worship is very strong, very dynamic, a lot of energy. Not any more. It’s like you’re afraid to even lift your voice. … We’ve cancelled everything that we had planned. We have a lot of outside activities. We have 122 ministries within the church that have helped our church to grow, and these ministries were primarily either for getting people here or holding people once they’ve converted. ... I was telling our staff - they were asking, “Are we going to have Christmas musicals and children’s pageants ever?” And we do a big passion play every year that brings in thousands and thousands of people. And I asked them, “Why do we do all of this?” and they said, “Well, we want people to come here so they can encounter God.” I said, “Look at what’s happening. We’ve got people storming in here that we’ve never seen, never heard of, never talked to. And God’s doing it in a way that is so far superior to what we could do that whatever we’ve got going on, we’re cancelling everything.” And that’s literally what we’ve done. ... And there hasn’t been a single objection. That’s what amazes me. I think that this is probably going to end up - whatever this season is that the Holy Spirit is bringing us through in terms of our commitment to Him and the deep searching of our own hearts, it has the feeling at this point like it’s going to - like it’s building toward even a greater evangelistic outpouring. ... There’s a big difference in renewal and revival. I had the same scepticism of the laughter. I was raised in a classical Pentecostal background. I saw that from time to time, but the latest thing - I just - something inside of me just had a difficult time with it. And there are people that are laughing like crazy now, and, I mean, all of this stuff I said that I had reservations about and didn’t particularly care 356 Geoff Waugh to see - I mean it’s just as though God has said, “This is My Church. It’s not yours.” And I see the reality of it now. I think it’s going to end up turning strongly evangelistic. It has that feeling and a lot of people are coming and being saved each night. There are many being saved, and there’s not even really an altar call made that distinguishes between people that are already saved - that just need renewal and those that need conversion [because] it’s just so intense right now (Waugh 2009, 144-147). A year later people were still being converted, often 30-40 a week. Richard Heard commented that everywhere in the church the carpet is stained with the tears of people touched by God and repenting. Sunday, 19 January, 1997 Baltimore, Maryland (Tommy Tenny) Elizabeth Moll Stalcup interviewed Bart Pierce and Tommy Tenny at Baltimore, as reported in Charisma, July 1998: When Baltimore pastor Bart Pierce cried out for more of God in January 1997, he had no idea the Holy Spirit would change his life, and his congregation, forever. Bart Pierce will never forget the day the Holy Spirit fell at his church in the rolling suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. It wasn’t gradual, nor was it subtle. God showed up during the Sunday morning service on January 19, 1997. Pierce, pastor of Rock Church in Baltimore, and his wife, Coralee, had just returned from a pastors’ retreat in St. Augustine, Florida. Pierce says he went to the retreat with “a desperate, deep hunger for more of God.” While there, he heard Tommy Tenney recount an event that occurred in a Houston church a few months earlier. Without warning, during the early morning service on 20 October, 1996, God had sovereignly split a Plexiglas pulpit in two before the amazed congregation. Afterward, an unusual movement of repentance broke out at the Houston church. Tenney, a third-generation travelling evangelist, told the gathered pastors that the drama of the split pulpit was totally eclipsed by the awesome presence of God that filled the sanctuary immediately after the supernatural event. “The revival,” Tenney told them, “was characterized by a deep sense of humility, brokenness and 357 Renewal Journal repentance.” While Tenney spoke, many of the pastors, including Pierce, fell on their faces weeping. Pierce spent much of his time at the retreat prostrated and weeping before the Lord. When it ended, he asked Tenney to come back to Baltimore with him for the weekend. On the 18-hour drive home, Pierce, his wife and Tenney had “an encounter of God as we talked about what God was doing and what we believed,” Pierce says. “We would sit in the car and weep,” recalls Tenney. They reached Baltimore on Saturday night, filled with a hunger for more of the Lord. The next morning Pierce knew something was up as soon as he got to the church building. “Two of my elders were standing inside the door weeping,” he says. “We started worshiping, then people began standing up all over the building crying out loud.” Some came forward to the altar; others would “start for the altar and crumple in the aisle.” Even those outside the sanctuary were affected. “Back in the hallways, people were going down under the power of God. We never really got to preach,” Pierce says. Tenney and Pierce were supposed to be leading the service, but both were too overcome by the intense presence of God to do anything but cry. “There was a deep sense of repentance that grew increasingly more intense,” Pierce recounts. At 4 pm there were still bodies lying all over the church floor. Pierce and Tenney tried several times to speak, but each time they were overwhelmed by tears. “Finally,” says Pierce, “we told our leadership team, ‘We’re going home to change clothes.’ We were a mess from lying on the floor and weeping.” The two men went home and changed. When they got back to the church at 6 pm, people were still there, and more were coming. That first “service” continued until 2 in the morning. Monday night, people returned, and the same thing happened. It happened again Tuesday night. “Many people simply crawled under the pews to hide and weep and cry,” remembers Pierce. “At times the crying was so loud, it was eerie.” Pierce noticed new faces in the congregation. “We didn’t have a clue as to how they knew about the service, because we don’t advertise at all,” he says. When he asked, some of the visitors told amazing stories. One man said he was driving down the road when God told him, “Go to 358 Geoff Waugh Rock Church.” Another woman said she was sitting at her kitchen table when she got the same message. She didn’t know what a “Rock Church” was, but she found a listing in the phone book. After the service she tearfully confided that she had been planning to leave her husband the next morning. “God had totally turned her heart,” says Pierce. “She and her husband have been totally restored.” For the first few weeks, Pierce says, “every ministry at the church was turned upside down.” The church has always been known for its mercy ministries — its homeless shelter for men, its home for women in crisis, its food distribution program, which moves 7 million pounds of food a year, and its ministry to revive Baltimore’s inner city. But when the revival started, everything took a back seat to what God was doing. Pierce would find his staff lying on the floor in the hallways or hear a thump against the wall and find someone lying on the floor in the next room, crying uncontrollably. People reported supernatural events in their homes, too. One woman’s unsaved husband had a dream in which everyone spoke Chinese. He came downstairs and found his wife lying on the floor speaking Chinese. His son, who was supposed to be getting ready for school, was lying on the floor in the living room, weeping and crying. That day, the man got saved. One night a boy from a local gang came forward weeping while Tenney was still preaching. “He came to the front, looked up at me and said, ‘You’ve got to help me, because I just can’t take it anymore,’” Tenney recalls. “This type of brokenness is what draws God’s presence,” he says. “God will never turn away from a broken heart and a contrite spirit.” Pierce agrees. He believes the congregation has “opened the heavens somehow by our crying for him. He has become our pleasure.” Both he and Tenney say they have “turned to seek his face, from seeking his hands,” meaning they are seeking to know God intimately rather than seeking him for his benefits. “We don’t have any agenda,” says Pierce. “We come in and begin to worship, and his manifest presence comes in. It is overwhelming. Sometimes there is nothing any of us can do. We have turned from trying to control the meeting to letting him be the object of why we have come.” 359 Renewal Journal Tenney calls it “presence evangelism.” He explains, “We understand ‘program evangelism,’ where you pass out tracts or put on an evangelistic play or host Alpha classes. John Wimber helped us understand ‘power evangelism,’ where people encounter the power of God as you pray for the needs in their lives. “But what happened in Houston and what is happening in Baltimore we call ‘presence evangelism.’ The presence of God becomes incredibly strong to where people are literally overwhelmed. They are drawn to his presence. They aren’t drawn by the preaching; they aren’t drawn by the music; they are drawn by the presence of God. It is hard to talk about without weeping.” The church doesn’t keep figures on the numbers of people who have come to faith in Jesus since the revival started because they encourage people to go back to their home churches. Many pastors bring their people to the services in Baltimore because they know that Rock Church won’t steal their flock. In contrast to the Toronto Blessing services that have drawn people by the thousands from all over the world to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in Canada, most of the people who have come to the Baltimore revival services have been from the local area, including pastors from other churches. “On any given night we have 12 to 20 pastors from the Baltimore area,” Pierce says. Still, some do come long distances. One night they looked out and saw 47 Koreans who had chartered a plane to come. Another time a group from Iceland was there. They have had visitors from Britain, Germany, the Ukraine and all across America. Before Easter, the church put on a play about heaven and hell called Eternity. Crowds filled the 3,000-seat sanctuary. Some nights several hundred people had to be turned away because there was no more room. And during one two-day period, more than 700 came forward to give their lives to Christ. The church originally planned to host the play for two weeks, but they continued an extra week because of the tremendous response. Tenney believes there is “a connection between what the Rock Church has traditionally done” — meaning the church’s strong ministries to hurting people outside the church — and the way the heavens have opened in Baltimore. 360 Geoff Waugh Today, services in Baltimore are quieter and gentler than they were during the first few months of revival. But the worship music is powerful, and the singing draws the congregation to Jesus. Most of the songs were written by people in the church after the revival began. After an hour or so of worship, Tommy Tenney takes the microphone and begins to preach. He asks the audience to worship Jesus in a way they never have before — to worship Him the way Mary did when she broke the alabaster jar, poured the ointment on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair. As Tenney continues to speak, people begin to cry, most quietly, but some more openly. He invites people to come forward. Almost everyone does. “Just for one night in your life, worship Him,” Tenney encourages them. “He wants to manifest himself to his people. For once in your life set aside what you want from God, and give him the glory.” Those looking for dramatic supernatural displays won’t find them here. But they will feel the intense presence of God. The impact of the revival is seen in the lives that have been changed for eternity. There have been physical healings, healed marriages, burned-out people empowered to follow God, prodigals returned and hundreds of people who have found Jesus for the first time. “It is not for us to point the way to a lost world. It is for us to lead the way. If the church will begin to walk in humility and repentance, then the world will see his glory.” June, 1997 – Kawana Waters, Queensland (Peter Barr) Australian Evangelist Jeff Beacham describes a weekend at Kawana Waters, Queensland, which has been experiencing revival blessing since June 1997: For the last few days I have been ministering at Living Waters Christian Centre, a church that is moving greatly in revival. Revival began here in June 1997 with a visit from Darrell Stott and a team from Seattle, USA. Darrell returned here in September and stayed until Easter 1998. Since October 1997 they have been having extended meetings, sometimes up to 12 meetings a week. 361 Renewal Journal At one point, they were having 3000 come through for several weeks in a row. However, they do have a wise pastor, Peter Barr, who is committed to revival but understands that good pastoring and discipleship need to be maintained and developed if this church is going to get to where it is destined to be. They have guest speakers in every second week or so including some prominent international, national and local speakers that have a heart for revival. People from many parts of Australia have been coming, with awesome testimonies of healing, restoration, reconciliations, re-direction of lives and salvations. Many have testified of a fresh encounter with God and a new personal intimacy with Him. There is certainly no lack of life here. It is not just emotional hype, but a genuine excitement for the things of God and it is a joy to preach to this very responsive audience. The church was full for the first two nights. On Friday night the power of God hit the young people in a big way. I called every one under the age of 25 to the front. Time after time they were all flattened to the floor, all together and without any one touching them. Saturday night was a youth rally and young people came from all over the district. There was bedlam as the leader was introducing me with most of the kids talking or walking around. But by the time I was giving my challenge to them to rise up and be Champions of the Truth, God’s word must have been going straight to their hearts because there was not a sound, and we saw a huge altar call in response. Many visitors came to the services on Sunday, some from as far away as Toowoomba, a large rural city two and a half hours drive from here. Several of the young people publicly testified today about how their lives had been changed and that this weekend had made them more happy and excited about God than they had ever been before. One man in his fifties sent this testimony: “Not only did I have a good time but my life has been forever changed. I realize that you are only the messenger and do not seek earthly rewards but, it is good to know of and sometimes see the results of the Holy Spirit moving through you.” I believe that this church will accomplish much for the Kingdom of God. They have a vision to be a thousand strong by the year 2000, and to 362 Geoff Waugh extend their building to be twice the size that it is now. There is a tremendous enthusiasm, and a great anticipation and excitement about the future. They know where they are going and many will want to go with them. Thursday, 10 July, 1997 Caloundra, Queensland (Ken Kilah) Pastor Ken Kilah, senior pastor at Caloundra Baptist Church on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland reports on a move of God in the church and at Caloundra Christian College: Since February 1995 the Caloundra Baptist Church has experienced several waves of the Spirit as he has sovereignly moved on the congregation. At times people would fall in their seats as the Spirit moved in power. Since that time the church has consistently made altar calls at the end of services with various manifestations occurring. These manifestations increased during and after a ‘Catch the Fire’ conference in October 1996. Guy Chevreaux was the guest speaker. Many people were touched by the power of God and testified to healings, refreshing, release from fears and a whole lot more. On Thursday 10 July, 1997, the Holy Spirit unexpectedly came upon students in a Year 7 class at the Caloundra Christian College. The College is a ministry of the Caloundra Baptist Church. Students began shaking, and falling to the floor. The teacher, well aware of what was occurring took several of the students from class to the prayer room in the church where they were prayed for and cared for by church staff. This caused a strong reaction from certain parents who protested by collecting a petition asking the school to stop what was happening or they would remove their students from the school. The church and school responded by saying we believed that this was God at work. A letter sent to the entire parent body explaining this position. This letter reaches the local press which carried front page articles in the weekend papers. During the next week the TV channels ran news and current affairs reports on the school and the views of opponents. Some 363 Renewal Journal of the major newspapers also ran magazine and news reports, and radio stations called for interviews. Ultimately some parents did respond by withdrawing 30 children from the 371 enrolled. However, new enrolments occurred and schools across the country sent encouraging reports. The most encouraging result has been to see the lives of children changed. The children were not afraid of what God is doing and continues to do in their lives. They were the ones who praised God for his grace towards them, and so do all at the Caloundra Baptist Church and school. Sunday 12 October, 1997 Greenville, Alabama (Ken Owen) Ken Owen, Senior Pastor of First Assembly of God Greenville, South Carolina, reports: In April 1995 a first wave of revival began to crest over the congregation at First Assembly of God, Greenville, South Carolina. Nightly meetings were held for a month with Ed Nelson. Since then a number of waves have rolled in, building into what is now a tsunami of revival. In August, 1997, the tide began to significantly deepen. I called Ed - a director of a mission work to unreached peoples - to return immediately. On October 11, 1997, Ed returned to us from Asia. The Sunday morning service flowed like a mighty river -- hundreds came forward to repent of sins. The meeting carried on through the day till 4:00 pm. With an hour break, it began again at 5:00 pm with a large prayer meeting and evening service. Since then there has been no let up, only an increase. More than two thousand people have repented of sins, converts being baptized weekly. Many miracles and healings are accompanying the revival. People from a variety of church backgrounds and denominations are driving to the meetings from several cities and states as momentum continues to strengthen. There has been almost no promotion of the revival, but word-of-mouth has brought thousands of people to the 364 Geoff Waugh meetings. November, 1997 – Pilbara, Western Australia (Craig Siggins) The closure of a pub through lack of customers is big news in Australia. This is what drew the media to a small town called Nullagine in the far north of Western Australia. But the media didn’t know quite how to report the religious revival that is keeping people out of the pubs-as well as the jails and hospitals. Aboriginal church worker Craig Siggins wrote this account of the spiritual awakening that is changing Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. “Kuurti yarrarni kuwarri ngangka mungkangka” (“Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this place tonight”) is the first line of a song being sung at many Aboriginal communities around the Pilbara. It was composed by Len “Nyaparu” Brooks, also known as Kurutakurru, one of the many leaders God has raised up among the Martu Wangka, Nyangumarta and other peoples of the Pilbara. A spiritual awakening took place in many communities last year, in 1997. Things started at Warralong, where many became Christians and were baptised after being influenced by three Christian Aboriginal leaders. Then just before Christmas, Kurutakurru joined two other leaders at Nullagine, and many from Nullagine and other communities became Christians and came across to the dam at Newman to be baptised. Many communities started having meetings almost every night and prayer meetings every day. Leaders travelled to different communities for the meetings and to encourage people, sometimes holding meetings at night after a funeral service when hundreds of people were gathered. Some meetings went on for eight hours or more as people shared in song, testimony, prayer, Bible reading and preaching. When Franklin Graham visited Perth in early February, over 200 Martu people travelled the 1150 km for his meetings. It was like one long church service all the way there and back. Everyone was bursting to sing and witness to the people in Perth. When we got back there were more meetings and baptisms, even from communities that had previously rejected Christianity. Old people, Aboriginal elders, were 365 Renewal Journal turning to Christ and being baptised. Four hundred people gathered at the Coongan River near Marble Bar for three days of meetings, with many more being baptised. Our Easter Convention, 1998, was a wonderful time of celebrating Jesus. Over 1000 people came, including many new Christians from communities that had never come before. The meetings went nearly non-stop over the Easter period. Singing is a prominent feature of the revival. There is a real sense of joy that comes out in song. Many new songs have been written and many old songs translated into Martu Wangka, Nyangurnartu and other languages. Everywhere you go you bear kids singing and tapes playing songs of the revival. So many people were becoming Christians and giving up the grog that the pub in Nuilagine lost a lot of its business and went into receivership. The story made news around Australia. Nyaparu Landy and I were interviewed on Perth radio! A Current Affair went to Nuilagine. Police, hospitals and others have noticed a decrease in alcohol related incidents. The media has begun to take notice. Amazingly, a simultaneous and apparently quite separate revival began at about the same time among the Pintubi people and others across the border in the Northern Territory. A team from Kiwirrkura, just on the WA side of the border, travelled across the desert and joined up with the Pilbara meetings, arriving early for our Easter Convention held in a wide dry river bed near Newman. More than 1000 people from different communities and Christian traditions came together to celebrate. Why the revival? It is nothing more or less more than a work of the Holy Spirit. It has similarities to the revival that spread to many Aboriginal communities in the early ’80s, which reached the Pilbara but never really took hold. Like that revival, people have had dreams and visions. Recently Mitchell, a leader from Punmu, got up and read from Acts 2 about Joel’s prophecy and said it was being fulfilled. Not long ago, people told me they had seen a cross in the sky one morning. And like the ‘80s revival, it is the Aboriginal people taking the Wangka Kunyjunyu (Good News) to their own people in their own way and their own language. The revival has not stopped. The Martu people themselves are reaching out to other Martu people. Neilie Bidu from Yandeyarra came 366 Geoff Waugh back, fired up from hearing Franklin Graham, to reach out to his own community. He began a small prayer meeting and then invited Kurutakurru and other leaders from Warralong and Punmu to help him. So they went to Warralong and many there became Christians. Yandeyarra people in turn have reached out to Banjima people near Tom Price. Other communities have also been reached, including some that were closed to Christianity. Some of these communities had turned away Crusade teams from the 1981 revival. Now they have turned to the Lord. Aboriginal leaders empowered by the Holy Spirit are leading the revival. These leaders would like to see the revival reaching the wider Kartiya (non-Aboriginal) society. But for these shy desert people to reach out to Kartiya in these days of Mabo, Wik and the struggle for reconciliation will only be by the hand of God. But there have also been some excesses and difficulties in the revival. Some still struggle with alcoholism and some have gone back to the drink. Many are new Christians with little knowledge of Christianity. Even the leaders are in the main untrained. Some are illiterate. And other groups have come in with different ideas and practices that have caused division even within families and have led to much debate and argument, some of it bitter. One is a legalistic group that stresses the keeping of the 10 commandments, especially the fourth (keeping the Sabbath). Another is a fairly extreme charismatic group. Then there are issues of a more cultural nature. Some couples who have become Christians are married the wrong way in a tribal (though not biblical) sense, including some leaders. What to do? What to do about some of the tribal laws and ceremonies? Reject them all? Keep some? These are big issues to be worked through. We are encouraging the leaders to read the Bible for themselves and to come to solid biblical conclusions as they struggle through these issues with the help of the Holy Spirit, but it will take time. Pray for the people and the revival! Adapted from Alive, June 1998 and Vision, July 1998. 367 Renewal Journal Pentecost Sunday, 31 May, 1998 St Helens, Tasmania (Stuart Lumsden) Pastor Stuart Lumsden is the pastor of St. Helens Christian Fellowship in the town of St. Helens, 3,000 population, on the east coast of Tasmania. He wrote this article two months after revival began in their church at the end of May, 1998. Here is a brief report as to what happened on 31 May, Pentecost Sunday, in St. Helens Christian Fellowship. We had Ronnie Fynn, a South African Zulu evangelist, doing a two day ministry, which had been planned during the previous six months. Through prayer and fasting (we were in the latter days of a 40 day corporate fast), the expectancy of what God would do was very high. During the meetings, it was obvious that we had moved to another level in the praise and worship, especially in the areas of clapping and shouting. We really sensed we had broken through by the end of Sunday’s meeting. Ronnie had shared from Isaiah 40:31, pointing out that the word ‘wait’ means ‘expect’ God to be God. This word increased the faith level of the people. As we were closing (well, we thought we were closing), Ronnie was sensing the Lord speaking to him and taking him back to the revivals in South Africa of the mid-seventies, in which he was involved. He saw the same signs that God was about to do something significant and so he was waiting to share that with me, and really felt the urgency as I was beginning to close the meeting. In my heart I felt the same, although at that point I was unaware of what Ronnie was experiencing. I called him over, and as soon as he shared it with me, he asked me, “What are we gonna do?” I said “Go for it!” A word of knowledge came, that as a church we were to go out into the town and get all the sick and infirm who would come. At that moment it was like great boldness fell on the church, as in Acts 1:8 ‘You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ With that, the presence of God was tangible. It was as if heaven had opened up; awesome, but also very gentle. The love of God filled the house. Not long after that, folk started to return with the sick and infirm. Incidentally, all these people that came, were not born again. 368 Geoff Waugh The first lady who came had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was experiencing a lot of pain, especially at night. We prayed for her and not much seemed to happen, although by faith we declared the word of healing over her. She had a brother in the church, and their relationship had been strained over the years. The brother went and asked her for forgiveness, and the moment he did, she felt the presence of God all over her, a warm tingly feeling, and now testifies that although the lumps are still there, the pain has gone. Another lady, a Sister at the local hospital, had a bad car accident a few years ago. She has suffered migraine headaches and energy drain and dizzy spells ever since. We prayed for her and she now testifies to feeling great. Even her countenance has changed; no headaches, dizzy spells or fatigue since Sunday. Another lady who, together with her husband, are well known and well loved in the local community for their work with children and within the local school, was brought in for healing. She has been in callipers and on crutches since contracting polio at the age of ten years. She is now in her fifties. After she was prayed for, she raised her hands above her shoulders, something which she has not been able to do before without severe pain, she also walked without the aid of her crutches, hands above her head, for several metres around the church. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The children particularly were moved with the compassion of God and gathered around her, embracing her and loving her. She testified later that she had never felt so loved in her life. I told her how much she loved children and had given herself for them, and how today she had experienced the true love of God for her, that being a significant reality she had not experienced before. My daughter, Asha, (12 years old), had a vision that the heavens were opened up, and God dropped a mustard seed into our midst. The seed represented an impartation of faith into the body, and I encouraged everyone to partake of it that they would have their own personal burning bush experience. Another child, Rose (12 years old), spoke prophetically and declared with tears and weeping that ‘Revival has begun’. All in all it was an amazing day, and the meeting which started at the usual time of 10 a.m. didn’t end until 5.30 p.m. In the ensuing three weeks, we had meetings every night, with 369 Renewal Journal attendance ranging around 180 - 200 people during the first two weeks, with many travelling from all parts of the State. Again, to this date we have witnessed 48 conversions, that is, first time decisions. We’ve seen numerous miraculous healings, such as curvature of the spine being straightened, ulcers instantly healed; a gentleman with a history of kidney disease testified to being healed, this being evidenced by his constantly yellow eyes becoming white overnight. One man, testified that a constant ringing in his ears, which been there for many years, stopped after prayer for healing. We have witnessed several instant healings from back pain. Another lady, unsaved, received prayer for severe kidney disorder and a stomach ulcer, and was at the time in severe pain from this disorder. She immediately experienced quite a measure of healing, then accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. She testified, the following day, that the pain had returned, however, she stood on the Word and claimed her healing, and had the best night’s sleep she has had in years, and did not need to use her painkillers. She was clearly very much at ease and not in any pain whatsoever. Further testimony concerning this lady is that she is attending church in Hobart and has already been instrumental in bringing another lady to the Lord. A husband and wife, unsaved, who attended one of the meetings, came forward for prayer as the man was suffering from a severe muscular degenerative disease. Doctors told him that he would be in a wheelchair in a couple of months. He had a fused neck, no feeling in his hands or legs of feet and was in constant pain. As we prayed for him, God flooded him with fire, he felt hot all over, his neck was freed and he received feeling in his hands and feet and legs, and was jumping up and down as the pain was released from him. They returned the next night, came forward again for more prayer, and he again experienced intense heat throughout his body as God touched him. They stood together and received Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. On another evening, an elderly couple came. The lady, in her seventies, has had two strokes and could barely walk even with the aid of crutches and her husband’s help. As we prayed for her healing, Ronnie told her to follow him. She began to walk, without her crutches, and as she shuffled you could see her freeing up, she was almost scurrying around after Ronnie. We were told later, that at home, she was actually 370 Geoff Waugh raising her legs higher and lifting her knees above her hips. This couple also, accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Only a few nights ago, a lady in well-advanced stages of cancer came forward for healing. As we prayed for her, Ronnie testified to seeing a ‘lump’ leaving her body, she also testified to a ‘warmth’ flooding through her. She has since testified to being relieved of much discomfort, sleeping better and has turned her heart back to the Lord. We have seen in numerous families, the hearts of the fathers being turned to the children; testimonies of deep reconciliation and forgiveness between fathers and sons. We have witnessed deliverance of addictions, rejection, secret sin being exposed with repentance following. We have been very encouraged by testimonies from pastors and visitors from other churches. Many have experienced personal breakthroughs and have seen God begin to move amazingly among the people in their churches. Praise God! August, 1998 – Kimberleys (Max Wiltshire) Robert McQuillan reported in The Evangel: An enthusiastic Max Wiltshire, Australian Aboriginal Outreach (AAO) coordinator, shared briefly at the Assemblies of God Western Australia state conference some of the exciting things God did in the Kimberley region in the north of Western Australia in 1998. A number of Aboriginal leaders had accompanied him to the conference, including Kenny Boomer who received his ministry credential. Pastor Wiltshire acknowledged the role Western Australia Women’s Ministries had played in supplying a bus for the AAO work . “Fire is falling in the Kimberleys,” he reported. “Thousands are being powerfully touched by God in salvation, healing and release. And in many other ways too, some of which are unbelievable. Hundreds of people are falling out - not with each other, but ‘falling out’ under the anointing.” 371 Renewal Journal Affectionately known by Aboriginals as ‘the man in the big hat,’ the AAO coordinator went on to add that so much has happened since their outstanding Christmas meetings. He reported: The Kimberleys are ablaze. The fire of God in the hearts of his people burns brighter than ever, new churches have been started, others have doubled in size - one leaping from 10 percent of the community to 90 percent in just a few weeks. Further afield in the Pilbara area the move of God has been so intense that the local hotel went into receivership. This move has seen the number of Christians doubled in the area over the last twelve months, which means our conventions are climbing toward a thousand people in the evening meetings. Are the manifestations still occurring as at first in this move of God? Yes, in fact the increase that we are seeing is in direct relationship to the outstanding manifestations of the Spirit. But - what manifestations are we talking about? The usual? Yes, laughing, shaking, rolling, crying, running and so on continue. However, if these are the normal, what are the outstanding ones? In truth, some would make you cry in awe and wonder. Such as seeing people falling under the power of the Spirit as they give their offering to the Lord. As they have come to the front and put their offering in the containers, they ‘fall out’ there and then as the blessing of giving overcomes them. After a recent crusade, one Aboriginal lady handed a ministry offering to the speaker on behalf of the church, and fell at his feet, again under the power and blessing of giving. We have also seen folks falling out in the opening prayer as the very name of Jesus is mentioned. They just fall from the seats to the floor, not knowing they are meant to wait until the altar call before they let the Lord touch them. Back up singers are unable to stand, also people bringing items are unable to finish them because the anointing is so great. Actually, it’s a case of the mores! We need more buses to pick up more people to receive more of the blessing! Transporting Aboriginals to services is a cultural thing. It shows you care and that the meetings are very important. Provide transport and they’ll be there with open hearts. 372 Geoff Waugh Sunday, 25 October, 1998 Vancouver, Canada (Charles Ndifon) David Culley reported from Glad Tidings Assembly in Vancouver, Canada. “And it shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh ...” We are seeing it! For the past months Glad Tidings in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has been experiencing the same renewal that is happening all over the world. Yesterday, we crossed over into full blown revival. The morning service started much like any other. The worship was anointed as usual, and we had a visiting revival minister as we often had before. The thing that was different was the sea of turbans and saris in the building. Vancouver is a multi-national city with a large Sikh population, and over 200 had come to our morning meeting. Our guest minister, Charles Ndifon from Nigeria and New York, had been in Victoria, British Columbia, for some meetings a few weeks ago, and a young Sikh woman, who had been invited by her Christian husband was healed of blindness and deafness. She went back and brought her favourite uncle, Charnjit, who was dying of cancer, and he left the meeting healed and saved. Since then Charnjit has been witnessing to all his relatives, and when Charles Ndifon came to our church in Vancouver, this man invited his whole extended family. Yesterday, after watching many people be healed of athsma (as an example of how simple it is for God to heal anything), and a 90 year old woman receive a new ear-drum, about 200 Sikhs came forward to give their hearts to God. And it’s real. They had already heard the Gospel from Charnjit, and to make sure, the altar call was translated into Punjabi. After the service, the people were so excited to have found Jesus, and to be so accepted by these white people. At the evening service another 104 Punjab Sikh people responded to the altar call. We saw many miracles. A 14 year old boy born blind saw his mother for the first time, deaf ears were opened, cancers were healed. But the greatest miracle of all was that God now seems to be bringing in the Sikh population that we have been so unable to reach for all this time. Bob Brasset from Victoria, Canada, wrote about the move of the Holy Spirit in British Columbia: 373 Renewal Journal The outpourings continue. In fact, it seems to be getting stronger. We now meet four nights a week. The response of the pastors in the area is simply an overwhelming gratitude for the goodness of God for deigning to visit us in such an awesome way. There is an amazing, astounding hunger in North America right now. People know that we are on the edge of not only revival but a genuine Awakening: perhaps the greatest since the day of Pentecost. This Awakening, I feel, will be characterized by the very kabod glorious presence of God coming and abiding in a room, a church and even a city, or a whole region (as in Charles Finney’s revivals). The worship in our services now continues and flows for 1½ to 2 hours, unabated with spontaneous songs of the Lord from worship team and congregation. Bodies lie on the floor, prostrate in worship. People report seeing angels. Visions, mighty, inspiring ones, are plenteous. Healings happen during the preaching of the word or worship without anyone praying or laying on hands. We are not advertising this. People are just coming. Salvations are happening in each service - even when we don’t give specific calls. We now have reported healings of fibromylagia, diabetes, cancer, chronic pain, ears opening, many necks and backs healed and severe allergies gone. Sunday, 14 March, 1999 Hobart, Tasmania (Ian Turton) Pastor Ian Turton of River Christian Church in Kingston, Hobart, reported in April, 1999 on their series of miracle meetings: We have been hearing about what God has been doing overseas filling people’s teeth with gold, silver and platinum, and even braces turning to gold. At River Christian Church in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia we have been believing the Lord for miracles, signs & wonders like we have never seen before for a while now. He led us into a time of intense warfare for a few months and then began to put on our hearts the real desire to see the miracles happen and that souls would be added because of what He is doing like in Acts 4 where the disciples asked the Lord to give them boldness to preach the gospel by stretching forth His healing power and that signs & wonders be done in the name of Jesus. 374 Geoff Waugh On Sunday night, 14th March, 1999, we asked all present to lay hands on their mouths and we prayed that the Lord would fill the teeth with gold. By Monday night we were amazed as we actually saw fillings change into gold before our eyes. Personally gold fillings appeared in my mouth, my wife also and others are getting blown away by their fillings changing before their eyes. God is awesome. … We had a couple of crew from the USS Carl Vincent in port for a few days visit come to some of the meetings. One of them received gold fillings, praise the Lord. What a thing to carry back on board. We prayed that revival would break out onboard that warship. … Jeannette (my wife) was ministering in Richmond at a ladies night (when) ... a whole bunch of them including the pastor’s wife saw their teeth turn to gold. Some of the ladies when they returned home prayed for their husbands who in turn received gold fillings. The pastor apparently didn’t believe what had happened but when the pastor’s wife prayed for him he received gold. One lady had just had her teeth refilled at the dentist last week with white porcelain. They were gold also. She was a little put out by it at first! This is our first - gold dust appeared on people’s faces. One unsaved guy had it and got saved. He shared that his wife has been coming along and has been gloriously healed and her life completely changed, as has his mother in law. His other unsaved family members are coming along and in his own words ‘they are next’. Thanks especially for your prayer; it is so very much needed. Alas there are the knockers and sceptics but let me assure you we have seen more lives changed, more healings and more salvations in the last four weeks then in many previous years. The church continues to experience God’s powerful presence, and from mid-1999 Ian Turton began leading and speaking at meetings around Australia and beyond where similar healings and manifestations have continued. July, 1999 Tacoma, Washington (Bill Wolfson) Aggressive fasting is fuelling hunger for God at a Tacoma, Washington, church that has baptized more than 700 new converts during 90 weeks 375 Renewal Journal of revival. During the first year of the move of God at Bethel Church, members fasted a total of 165 days. The church sets 40 days at the start of each year and four days at the beginning of each month for fasting. “This radical fasting is not normative, and we do not recommend it to others,” said pastor Bill Wolfson, who completed a 70-day liquids-only fast. “But it is what God has for us. Fasting causes unbelief to come out of our lives.” Prostitutes and gang members are among those who have come to Christ at the four-nights-a-week services, which can often last for hours. One man was even reportedly raised from the dead through prayer after CPR failed to revive him. “I can only conclude that he was miraculously revived,” said retired paramedic Cornelius Winesberry Jr., who attended the man. The revival began at the church - recently renamed Church for All Nations, to mark its renewed commitment to interracial outreach after Wolfson travelled to an Illinois church to witness the Smithtonlike revival happening there. Source: News Update from Charisma magazine, Friday, October 15, 1999. July, 1999 Caldwell, Texas (Deon Hockey) Caldwell, approximately an hour north of Houston, has experienced revival also. Revival has hit a small Assemblies of God church in Caldwell. The church has been having nightly services, drawing people from all across the area. All sorts of physical healings are reported, including eyes and backs healed. Deon Hockey was the visiting speaker and because of what is happening there, has cancelled his future engagements and will stay for the time being. The presence of God is so strong that people are being frozen-like against the walls of the church for an hour or more. Praise and worship has continued for two hours at a time. Someone will run to the altar and get on their face before God, and twenty others will 376 Geoff Waugh follow. The power of God will cause twenty or so people to fall out on the floor all at once. People from all around the area are coming to the church. When asked how they found out about it, they’ll say they heard of someone being healed which drew them. We are entering into a period of time in the church of signs and wonders. These will be signs that God is still alive. God still heals. God still speaks. God still loves his children. And God still cares. Church services continued nightly at First Assembly of God. Source: Awakening List via grn@crown-house.com, 16 July, 1999 (Guido Kuwas) Tuesday, 27 July, 1999 Mornington Island, Queensland The following account, adapted from reports by Brian Pickering and Jesse Padayache, gives details of a powerful move of God that has occurred among Aboriginal communities on Mornington Island, Arakun and Weipa in the Gulf of Carpentaria, North Queensland, as well as on Psalm Island north east of Townsville. Mornington Island was a pretty awful place, noted for its drunkenness and violence. Iranale Tadulala, a Fijian Pastor was posted there five years ago. About two years ago, an angel appeared to him and told him that there was to be a revival on Mornington Island and he was to facilitate it. However it would not be easy. He began a 40 day fast from 1st June until 11th July, 1999. A colleague visited Mornington Island when Iranale was 28 days into his fast and was deeply challenged just being with the man. He was so committed, close to tears all the time. During the fast one of the scriptures impressed on him was the similarity between the city of Pergamum (Rev 2:12-17) and Mornington Island. So much awful stuff kept on happening there that it had to be something like Satan’s throne. And, just like Pergamum, a good Christian man had been martyred there in the early days of the Mission. At the end of his 40 day fast he believed he had to go out to 377 Renewal Journal the site of the killing and fast there a further seven days. This was a rather harrowing experience and he was conscious of doing battle with cosmic forces throughout. At the conclusion of the fast (only days after the national prayer gathering at Uluru in July), they planned meetings at Mornington Island which began on 27th July. At the end of the first meeting 100 stayed behind for prayer and counselling. By the end of the crusade there had been 300 conversions (25% of the population) and they were still going on with 500 reported by September. Five other pastors helped with this marvellous happening. Two are Fijians from Palm Island and Weipa. The pastor from Aurukun and a white pastor from Townsville are also involved as is an Indian South African from Brisbane. They are working on discipleship, want Bibles, and are already getting phone calls from surrounding areas asking them to go there, but are saying: “When God says it is right!” One of the team leaders was Pastor Jesse Padayache, the South African Indian. He has ministered in Australia for many years. His wife Cookie was healed miraculously through prayer from a tumour on the brain. They have x-rays showing total healing. In February and May, Jesse had spoken at revival meetings in Palm Island north east of Townsville, among the tribes there, where there has been much drunkenness. Many were converted, delivered and set free from addiction to alcohol, tobacco and fornication. A man, angry with Jesse because his de-facto wife was converted in February and wanted to get married, was later converted. He asked Jesse to marry them during the meetings in May. Now money formerly spent on addictions is spend on food, clothes and shelter and many people are prospering for the first time. News of the revival meetings on Palm Island reached Mornington Island. In Mornington Island, alcohol abuse has been extreme. Drunkenness was everywhere. The place was littered with piles of beer cans. About 10 people attended the services. On the first night, Tuesday, 27 July, 1999, the team was casting out demons till midnight. 378 Geoff Waugh People were healed - the deaf, cripples, back pain, diabetes, blood pressure, heart diseases. Many committed their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ and were freed from generational curses. A report from the pastors says: “Spirits of suicide, alcoholism were driven out and old curses of sorcery and witchcraft were broken.” On the second night, Wednesday, an angry lady with a beer can came in abusing Jesse and the team for casting out spirits. She yelled, “Me and my beer, we live together. Don’t listen to this man.” But the people wanted to be delivered because of the changes they saw in their friends. Many were healed and delivered. Two healed people threw away their crutches. A lady with a stroke was healed and freed from her wheelchair. The drunk lady saw the healings and eventually wanted prayer. She gave her life to Jesus and became instantly sober. She said, “Pastor, I don’t want this stupid habit” and gave her six pack of beer to the pastor. Their report tells of a young boy, born disabled - dumb, deaf and unable to walk - was healed, running around. His first word was “Mom”. A woman with a stroke who could not speak and could hardly walk is walking around testifying about what God had done for her. A woman came to the meeting with a walking frame, but left the frame and walked home without it when the Lord healed her. They have a Women’s Refuge which is usually chock-a-block on Thursday and Friday nights. It had one customer! Around midnight one night, a man called his family together and spoke of what God had been doing in bringing the whole family to the Lord, saying, “Everyone is welcome in this home, but from now on there never to be any alcohol in this house.” A white policeman came to a meeting, drawn to what Aborigines were experiencing but feeling too ashamed to go forward. Next day, a pastor found him sitting in a corner, spoke to him about his shame, took him home and led him to the Lord. The pub shut an hour early, with no customers. Next day there was no one at the women’s shelter - they didn’t need that sort of help any more! Many leaders in the community were saved, and the sale of beer dropped dramatically. Around 500 in that community of 1200 became 379 Renewal Journal Christians. Now former enemies are reconciled. Revival has brought reconciliation between blacks and whites also. Community leaders encouraged people to kick the demon drink out and give themselves to God. A young man, lying in bed at home heard the loud speakers, and so came to the meetings to give his life to God. On Sunday the church was packed with people standing outside to listen. Many were healed in the morning, and many more on Sunday night. Large numbers, formerly in de-facto relationships, have now married. The pastor has been busy performing marriages. Within weeks, beer consumption dropped by over 9,000 cans a week. On the Monday they started classes for believers. More were converted then also. A drunk man came from the pub to the believers class, seeking God. The believers also follow up each other, because they all know who is involved. When Jesse passed through Weipa on his way to Arakun in the gulf of north west Queensland in August, he met an aboriginal lady from a community of 400 people in Mapoon, north of Weipa. Her 34 year old son, looking wild, saliva dripping, and shaking, had been in a psychotic state receiving treatment for six years. He’d been separated from his de-facto wife and children for that time. The pastor saw them at the shopping centre so invited them to his place for healing prayer. The son was frightened of the pastors, staring with wild eyes. They bound spirits and cast them out. When he went back to the hospital he was pronounced totally healed. He now lives with his family and got married. The mother asked for prayer also. She had asthma, a heart monitor, sugar diabetes, and a huge lump like a rock melon on her stomach. The lump disappeared, and the arthritis, asthma, diabetes and blood pressure were all healed immediately, medically verified. Later she came back to Weipa for meetings with a bus load of people, all seeking God because of those healings. Most of that bus load were saved, and now a church as been started in Marpoon. The previous church had been destroyed in the 1960s, and the people there had hated the gospel, till now. 380 Geoff Waugh Jesse caught the small plane from Weipa to Arakun. Many were drunk there. People ignored or hated the church, regarding Christianity as a religion for whites. Only about 6 members went to the church. One the first night of meetings at Arakun, about 50 came into the hall with another 40 people sitting around outside listening. Noisy dogs came in. An old man, deaf in his left ear and partially deaf in his right ear was totally healed. Three weeks earlier, in a dream he had seen the dark skinned Jesse pray for his healing, and he knew he would be healed at that meeting. Then, nearly all in the hall and some from outside gave their lives to Christ that first night. Many were healed, including a man lame in his right leg. Word spread fast. Everyone knows what is happening in the community. The next night the church was packed. Crowds stood around outside. By the end of the meetings, 170 aboriginals had given their lives to Christ for the first time. Many were healed including people blind or partially blind and deaf. Great joy filled the community. Many were delivered from alcohol addiction. One of the council officers in the building next door told the community leaders that Jesse and the pastor needed to go on casting out demons because so many people were being delivered of drunkenness and diseases. Demons associated with suicide came out of a man who had tried to kill himself four times. Now he is whole. Everyone talked about the changes in the atmosphere of the community. Then he returned to his de-facto wife and was married. His witness brought large numbers to the Lord. Back again at Weipa for meetings, the same things kept happening. A young white lady in her twenties was delivered with loud cries and healed on the second night of the meetings in Weipa, to the surprise of the aboriginals who thought only aboriginals had demons. The news spread like wildfire, and many more came for salvation, deliverance and healing. The bus load from Mapoon north of Weipa – brought by the lady and her son who had been healed at the pastor’s home previously returned full of saved, healed and delivered people, determined to start 381 Renewal Journal their church in their community. Just as revival on Elcho Island in 1979-1980 sparked revival across Arnhem Land, and teams went out to many aboriginal communities, so this revival is touching many communities in north Queensland. Pray for the mighty had of God to bring powerful revival to the land. Revivals into the 21st Century The year 2000 dawned with increasing reports of revival movements among the world’s 6 billion people (now over 7 billion). The previous forty years saw the world’s population double. What will the next 40 years bring? Or even one year, the year 2000? Amid growing reports of social and physical upheavals, terrorism, the awful threat of nuclear holocaust, and the increase of epidemics of fatal diseases, reports of revivals continue to grow. Independent churches in Africa, house churches in China, and grassroots communities in Latin America all experience amazing revival, amid persecutions. Now revival reports continue to spread in the West also. We too can cry out to God for mercy and revival as we humble ourselves, pray, repent and seek God. This past century began with many thousands of prayer groups seeking God. Revivals broke out across the globe, the best known being the mighty Welsh revival of 1904-5 which sparked so many other revival movements. A year later prayer groups in Los Angeles saw the disturbing and powerful Azusa Street revival break out. Both these revivals impacted countless lives in quite different ways. Both issued in Spirit-filled evangelism and mission which spread around the globe. The Welsh revival impacted 100,000 people for God. Azusa Street touched thousands more from a little meeting in an old barn crowded when they had 500 people. Yet the 500 million Pentecostal and charismatic movement in the world now usually acknowledges it’s roots in that revival. Now a single crusade with Reinhard Bonnke may reach more than 500,000 people in Africa. David Yonggi Cho’s church in Seoul, Korea, has over 800,000 and has impacted thousands more and planted other 382 Geoff Waugh huge churches. Over 100,000 people have encountered God recently in Toronto and more than 100,000 have made commitments to God in Pensacola. Like the rippling waves from a boulder dropped into a pond, these waves of revival have spread worldwide. And we have heard only a little of the amazing accounts of revival movements in China, Africa, Latin America, India or the island nations! God said, “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.” The year 2000 and another millennium are now set to see that fulfilled more than ever before in history. References Riss, Richard (1995) The Worldwide Awakening of 1992-1995. http://www.grmi.org.renewal.Richard_Riss/history.html Riss, Richard (1998) “Worldwide Awakening” in Renewal Journal #8: Awakening, page 31. Waugh, Geoff (1998) Flashpoints of Revival. Shippensburg: Revival Press. 383 Renewal Journal Looking to Jesus Journey into Renewal and Revival 384 Book Reviews The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition by Vinson Synan. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997. Review by Eerdmans Publishers Vinson Synan is dean of the School of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This review from the back cover of the book summarises the scope of this book written by a world recognised Pentecostal historian. Called “a pioneer contribution” by Church History when it was first published in 1971 as The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States, this volume has now been revised and enlarged by Vinson Synan to account for the incredible changes that have occurred in the church world during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Synan brings together the stories of the many movements usually labelled “holiness,” “Pentecostal,” or “charismatic,” and shows that there is an identifiable “second blessing” tradition in Christianity that began with the Catholic and Anglican mystics, that was crystallized in the teaching of John Wesley, and that was further perpetuated through the holiness and Keswick movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the appearance of modern Pentecostalism. Synan then chronicles the story of the spread of Pentecostalism around the world after the heady days of the Azusa Street awakening, with special attention given to the beginnings of the movement in those nations where Pentecostalism has become a major religious force. He also examines the rise of various mainline-church charismatic movemerits that have their roots in Pentecostalism. Because of the Renewal Journal explosive growth of the Pentecostal movement in the last half of the century, Pentecostals and Charismatics now constitute the second largest family of Christians in the world. “This could well he the major story of Christianity in the twentieth century,” writes Synan. “Pentecostalism has grown beyond a mere passing ‘movement’ . . . and can now he seen as a major Christian ‘tradition’ alongside the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformation Protestant traditions.” The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition will continue to be an important handbook for shaping our understanding of this phenomenon. The God Chasers by Tommy Tenny Shippensburg: Destiny Image, 1998 Review By Ruth A. McKeand Some books will make you happy. Some will encourage you. Some will challenge you. Some will make you think. Some will even make you angry. The God Chasers will do all these and more. Tommy Tenney, whose pen authored The God Chasers, has spent 30 years in the ministry. He’s seen and experienced much of God. Like King David, he has always sought to be “a man after God’s own heart.” To Tenney, this seeking after God’s heart is the essence of a God chaser. The God chaser longs for deep intimacy with God. He or she wants more than just the “stuff” of ordinary religious experience. Tenney, like all true God chasers, has questioned why we find entering into the desired intimacy so difficult. Why, if God is all I truly want, am I so aware of “where He’s been” instead of being conscious of “where He is?” And so, painting picture after picture, Tenney reveals many of the things that get in the way of intimacy with God. First, Tenney challenges us to ask ourselves if we are truly seeking God. With statements like “it’s simply not enough to know about God. We have churches filled with people who can win Bible trivia contests but who don’t know Him,” he invites us to look at our own walks with God. 386 Reviews Do we realize, as Tenney did, that “there is much more of God available than we have ever known or imagined, but we have become so satisfied with where we are and what we have that we don’t press in for God’s best.” Secondly, we must honestly look at what we’re eating each day. Tenney’s comments may anger you but he believes that “most of us . . . keep our lives so jammed with junk food for the soul and amusements for the flesh that we don’t know what it is to be really hungry.” He views this daily diet of the typical believer as one of the main obstacles to intimacy with the Almighty for most of us. He sees too many of us being more concerned with our own comfort, and that of our families, and all the things we want (or have) to do, that God gets precious little of our attention. When we do come before Him, our minds are preoccupied with the cares of this life. He points out that “we’re happy with our music the way it is” and we’re content with services designed for pleasing men “instead of yielding to what God likes.” We want the stuff that God can give us, without the commitment and intimacy of union with Him. But Tenney calls us repeatedly back to the desire of the God chaser. The true God chaser wants to see His face, just as did Moses and the Apostle John. Most of us want revival today. We truly believe we want God to be real to us and in us. But Tenney calls us to pause and think. There’s more to this relationship with God than getting the stuff. The first step to real, personal revival, according to Rev. Tenney, “is to recognize that you are in a state of decline.” Recognizing our true state will birth a “divine discontent” in us, out of which real hunger for God will grow. Tenney contends that most of us have “become addicted to the anointing, the relayed word of good preaching and teaching,” preferring for someone else to go up the mountain to seek God for us. Like Israel of old, we prefer “distant respect” over “intimate relationship” with the Almighty. We seek revival instead of the Reviver just as we so easily fall into the selfish trap of seeking the gifts instead of the Giver. Tenney points out that “there is something in us that makes us afraid of the commitment that comes with real intimacy with God.” One reason, he says, is that “intimacy with God requires purity.” In this hour “God is calling people who want serious revival into a place of transparent purity. It’s you who He’s after.” This kind of purity requires death and 387 Renewal Journal that is the greatest barrier of all that the believer faces. We all fear death, but to see God’s face, one must die. No one can see God’s face and live according to Scripture. “It is God’s mercy that keeps Him away from us,” Tenney says. We are sinful flesh and He is absolute holiness and purity. The latter will destroy the former if, and when, it comes into its presence. But be encouraged. There is hope. Through “repentance and brokenness— the New Testament equivalent of death,” we can become “dead men walking.” And dead men can enter the presence of God without fear. Brother Tenney urges us not to shrink back from the altar upon which God would have us sacrifice our egos. Instead he provokes us to embrace death of self and to see it as the only way we can truly see God’s face. The God chaser is after God Himself. Many know about God. He’s everywhere all the time. That’s His omnipresence. But, Tenney declares, “There are also times when He concentrates the very essence of His being into what many call ‘the manifest presence of God.’” That’s the deepest desire of the God chaser, the manifest presence of God! For this, he is very willing to die! But first we must admit our need and our hunger. That’s what God is looking for. It’s in this state of brokenness, repentance, and hunger that God can come with His presence and His power and begin to really change us. It’s admitting our need and our hunger, and then seeing our true state, which brings the brokenness and repentance that opens the door for God “to take us through the complete process . . . without hindering or quenching His Spirit, then when the kabod, the weighty presence of God, comes among us and upon us, then we will be able to carry it without fear because we will be walking in the purity of Jesus and our flesh will be dead, covered by the blood of the Lamb.” Tenney believes the world cannot be changed until God is freely allowed to change each of us. We can truly touch our world as witnesses and evangelists only when we engage in what Tenney calls “presence evangelism.” He believes God can, and will, change us as we experience His presence because experiencing “God’s glory is lifechanging. It is the most habit-forming experience a human being can have, and the only side effect is death to the flesh.” This prepares us for God’s true purpose, evangelism. But the evangelism that Tenney looks for in the church is “when the residue of God on a person creates a divine radiation zone of the manifest presence of God, so much so that 388 Reviews it affects those around you.” This type of evangelism is not “an emotional encounter with man but a death encounter with the glory and presence of God Himself.” “It is time for God’s people to get desperately hungry after Him,” says Tenney, “because the fires of revival must first ignite the Church before its flames can spread to the streets.” But he warns, “Supernatural things . . . will happen to you too, but it only comes one way. There is no shortcut to revival or the coming of His presence. God’s glory only comes when repentance and brokenness drive you to your knees, because His presence requires purity.” It’s only when we candidly look into our own hearts that we, like the prodigal son, see there the deep “poverty of heart.” It is this revelation that will propel us back to the Father’s arms. And once there we will see His face, sense His power, and experience His presence. It’s there, in the arms of Love Himself, the God chaser finds true happiness and a joy unspeakable and full of glory! It’s there that the God chaser finds that he’s been caught by the very One he’s been chasing all along! And that’s the purpose of this book by Tommy Tenney . . . to whet our appetites and change each of us into a God chaser so we too can get caught by the One Who’s caught him! Primary Purpose by Ted Haggard Orlando: Creation House, 1995 Reviewed by Tony Peter Primary Purpose is a practical book on winning souls for the kingdom of God, especially from a pastoral point of view. Founder and senior pastor of the 6000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Ted Haggard is a graduate of Oral Roberts University and has co-authored with Jack Hayford a similar book called Loving your City into the Kingdom. 389 Renewal Journal Ted Haggard writes with a pastor’s heart and a passion for winning souls to Christ in practical, relevant ways. His book includes charts and diagrams as well as practical stories. The book is focused on three foundations for any attempt to win the lost for Christ and to grow the church. The first is prayer; all kinds of prayer. The second is keeping focused on the task of evangelism; all kinds of evangelism. The third is unity between individuals and the churches. Haggard begins the book by giving a short testimony of the beginnings of his New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He describes the difficulties and the challenges in starting a new church in an area once known as a difficult place to successfully start and continue a work for the Lord. He describes not only his struggles in starting his church but also in continuing to keep his church on track for the primary purpose of winning the community and city to Christ. The second part of the book deals with what he calls five principles of keeping your church on the primary purpose. The first principle is that of focusing on the absolutes of Scripture and not side tangents such as different doctrinal issues between individuals and churches. The second principle is to promote Christ and his Word, not you or your own ideas. This is the key to reaching the lost. Haggard laments that too many individuals and churches focus on winning other Christians from other churches through transfer growth rather than focusing on winning the lost through conversion growth. The Third principle is to pray for the Holy Spirit’s activity in your area. Haggard describes this as increasing the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the area where you want to win the lost. This changes the climate of the area to open the way to win souls for the Lord. The fourth principle is to appreciate and respect one another’s interpretations of Scripture. Different churches interpret Scripture differently and act accordingly. As long as they do not transgress the fundamentals of Scripture they will appeal to different people from all walks of life that become saved and then attend a church that will suit them. Divisions or conflict between churches can stifle the Holy Spirit 390 Reviews and stop evangelism. The fifth principle is honouring others through supportive speech and actions. Haggard explains that this is another way of maintaining unity in the body of Christ between the churches. The third and last part of the book focuses on the lifestyle, character and fruit of Christians and churches in relationship to evangelism. Haggard explains that it is the church’s function to live as the Bible calls us to live. Then we shall see the fruit of this lifestyle, namely souls won for Christ and churches growing. Haggard describes the Christian lifestyle as continuous spiritual warfare. Only through a righteous lifestyle can the believer and the church truly advance the Kingdom of God as we are supposed to. This is a practical, thorough book on evangelism from a pastor’s point of view rather than an evangelist’s point of view. Ted Haggard writes with a passion not only to see souls saved and churches grow but to see the whole community, city and nation changed. The book is a vital manual for any Christian wanting to start a new work or church in any part of the world. The stories and principles make it a great book for anyone, especially pastors, wanting to reach people with the gospel. This book focuses on proven strategies for the advancing the Kingdom of God today. Essential strategies include prayer warfare, unity between believers and churches, and focusing on the primary mission of the church, evangelism. This book is one of the best I have read concerning winning souls, communities and cities to Christ through a pastor’s heart for people and not just as a quest for numbers. It shows that whole communities and cities can be won for the Lord and that God wants more of his children to step out in faith with love for the lost. 391 Renewal Journal Inspiration 392 Renewal Journal 15 Wineskins Renewal Journal Contents Renewal Journal 15: Wineskins Editorial: New Wineskins for the 21st Century 383 1 The God Chasers, by Tommy Tenny 387 2 The New Apostolic Reformation, by C Peter Wagner 395 3 The New Believers, by Diana Bagnall 409 4 Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, 421 by Lawrence Khong 5 New Wineskins for Pentecostal Studies, by Sam Hey 435 6 New Wineskins to Develop Ministry, by Geoff Waugh 445 Reviews and Resources 465 Cover Photo: 15 Wineskins Wineskin from biblical times. “New wine must be poured into new wineskins” (Luke 5:38). 394 Editorial New Wineskins for the 21st Century Jesus spoke about wineskins, and it is now a well known proverb: You don’t put new wine into old wineskins because the new wine bursts the wineskins; you put new wine into new wineskins - and both are preserved (See Mark 2:22 and Matthew 9:17, Luke 5:37-39). Even tea totallers and know that, although they may have never seen a wineskin nor drunk wine! In fact, most of us probably have never seen a wineskin except in pictures! Jesus also noted that no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new because the old is better. Luke, the radical Gentile writer preserved that wry comment for us in Luke 5:39. So those who like the old wine in old wineskins have a reprieve! However, in times of rapid or massive change, the new wine pours out and needs to be preserved in new wineskins. Like it or not (some like it, some don’t) we all live through these massive changes in all areas of life. Why use a typewriter if a computer is available? Why keep a horse if a car is available? Why use a chip heater if electric or solar power is available? Why use ancient English (or Latin) if few or no people understand it? Why sit on hard Renewal Journal wooden pews if cushions, pillows or comfortable seats are available? Change is now so rapid that Alvin Toffler called it “Future Shock” - the culture of the future invading the present. Some of it is good, some bad - as is true in all cultures. So new wineskins keep emerging to contain the new wine of current moves of the Spirit of God in renewal and revival. Some churches have managed to contain the old and the new together. One way, among a huge possible range, is to have a traditional morning service and a contemporary or renewal evening service on a Sunday. Some churches have both traditional Bible Study groups and relational prayer groups. Many churches use both hymns and chorouses. However, the massive shift going on at present involves emerging new wineskins which keep multiplying, growing and changing. This issue of the Renewal Journal gives some implications of some of those changes. It doesn’t cover all the changes. That would take volumes! It does highlight a few significant ones. Evangelist Tommy Tenny has written about the awesome presence of God invading those who earnestly seek Him. He calls those people the God chasers. Some of our students recently reported how they began praying together one night on an outreach weekend and were amazed to discover it was after 5 a.m. when they finished. That was new for them. Yet, revival is full of such accounts. By the late nineties, Peter Wagner began describing these changes in what he calls The New Apostolic Reformation. It is not postdenominationalism because it is happening within denominations as well as in millions of independent churches and networks globally. A leading Australian news magazine, The Bulletin, carried a significant cover article on “The New Believers” written by senior editor Dianna Bagnall. She describes one of the more visible emerging wineskins in Australian church life, noting that Pentecostal church attendance in Australia is second only to total Catholic attendance. Baptist visionary and pastor Lawrence Khong describes a vision and 396 Editorial: New Wineskins strategy for church growth he has used in Singapore where his church has grown from 350 to now over 8,000 attending. Sam Hey comments on how emerging Pentecostal scholarship is providing new possibilities for Bible study which responds to both the Word and the Spirit. I comment on how everyone can now be involved in ministry and also can easily participate in a huge range of readily accessible resources providing powerful education for ministry. Revival continues among Australian Aborigines, as described in the Australian report. Global reports also provide further accounts of revival. Revival not only provides new wine, sometimes in a rather heady mix, but also escalates the emergence of new wineskins. Revival can never be contained in a ‘normal’ church service. So when we keep praying for revival, we are also praying for new wineskins to help us preserve and share the new wine as God’s Spirit is poured out upon us. 397 Renewal Journal Renewal Journals, Volume 1 (1-5) Revival, Church Growth, Community, Healing, Signs and Wonders 398 1 The God Chasers Tommy Tenny Evangelist Tommy Tenny describes people and churches who seek the Lord zealously in his book The God Chasers. This article from his first chapter tells how he witnessed the visitation of God in the 3,000 member Christian Tabernacle church in Houston, Texas, led by Richard Heard. This body of believers in Houston had two scheduled services on Sundays. The first morning service started at 8:30, and the second one followed and began at 11. When I returned for the third weekend, while in the hotel, I sensed a heavy anointing of some kind, a brooding of the Spirit, and I literally wept and trembled. You could barely breathe The following morning, we walked into the building for the 8:30 Sunday service expecting to see the usual early morning first service “sleepy” crowd with their low-key worship. As I walked in to sit down in the front row that morning, the presence of God was already in that place so heavily that the air was “thick.” You could barely breathe. Renewal Journal The musicians were clearly struggling to continue their ministry; their tears got in the way. Music became more difficult to play. Finally, the presence of God hovered so strongly that they couldn’t sing or play any longer. The worship leader crumpled in sobs behind the keyboard. If there was one good decision I made in life, it was made that day. I had never been this close to “catching” God, and I was not going to stop. So I spoke to my wife, Jeannie. “You should go continue to lead us to Him.” Jeannie has an anointing to lead people into the presence of God as a worshiper and intercessor. She quietly moved to the front and continued to facilitate the worship and ministry to the Lord. It wasn’t anything fancy; it was just simple. That was the only appropriate response in that moment. The atmosphere reminded me of the passage in Isaiah 6, something I’d read about, and even dared dream I might experience myself. In this passage the glory of the Lord filled the temple. I’d never understood what it meant for the glory of the Lord to fill a place. I had sensed God come in places, I had sensed Him come by, but this time in Houston, even after there was all of God that I thought was available in the building, more of His presence literally packed itself into the room. It’s like the bridal train of a bride that, after she has personally entered the building, her bridal train continues to enter the building after her. God was there; of that there was no doubt. But more of Him kept coming in the place until, as in Isaiah, it literally filled the building. At times the air was so rarefied that it became almost unbreathable. Oxygen came in short gasps, seemingly. Muffled sobs broke through the room. In the midst of this, the pastor turned to me and asked me a question. “Tommy, are you ready to take the service?” “Pastor, I’m just about half-afraid to step up there, because I sense that God is about to do something.” Tears were streaming down my face when I said that. I wasn’t afraid that God was going to strike me down, or that something bad was going to happen. I just didn’t want to interfere and grieve the precious presence that was filling up that room! For too long we humans have only allowed the Holy Spirit to take control up to a certain point. Basically, whenever it gets outside of our comfort zone or just a little 400 Tommy Tenny beyond our control, we pull in the reins (the Bible calls it “quenching the Spirit” in First Thessalonians 5:19). We stop at the tabernacle veil too many times. “I feel like I should read Second Chronicles 7:14, and I have a word from the Lord,” my pastor friend said. With profuse tears I nodded assent and said, “Go, go.” My friend is not a man given to any kind of outward demonstration; he is essentially a man of “even” emotions. But when he got up to walk to the platform, he appeared visibly shaky. At this point I so sensed something was about to happen, that I walked all the way from the front row to the back of the room to stand by the sound booth. I knew God was going to do something; I just didn’t know where. I was on the front row, and it could happen behind me or to the side of me. I was so desperate to catch Him that I got up and publicly walked back to the sound booth as the pastor walked up to the pulpit to speak, so I could see whatever happened. I wasn’t even sure that it was going to happen on the platform, but I knew something was going to happen. “God, I want to be able to see whatever it is You are about to do.” My pastor friend stepped up to the clear pulpit in the centre of the platform, opened the Bible, and quietly read the gripping passage from Second Chronicles 7:14: If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Then he closed his Bible, gripped the edges of the pulpit with trembling hands, and said, “The word of the Lord to us is to stop seeking His benefits and seek Him. We are not to seek His hands any longer, but seek His face.” In that instant, I heard what sounded like a thunderclap echo through the building, and the pastor was literally picked up and thrown backward about ten feet, effectively separating him from the pulpit. When he went backward, the pulpit fell forward. The beautiful flower arrangement positioned in front of it fell to the ground, but by the time the pulpit hit the ground, it was already in two pieces. It had split into 401 Renewal Journal two pieces almost as if lightning had hit it! At that instant the tangible terror of the presence of God filled that room. People began to weep and wail I quickly stepped to the microphone from the back of the room and said, “In case you aren’t aware of it, God has just moved into this place. The pastor is fine. [It was two and a half hours before he could even get up, though - and even then the ushers had to carry him. Only his hand trembled slightly to give proof of life.] He’s going to be fine.” While all of this happened, the ushers quickly ran to the front to check on the pastor and to pick up the two pieces of the split pulpit. No one really paid much attention to the split pulpit; we were too occupied with the torn heavenlies. The presence of God had hit that place like some kind of bomb. People began to weep and to wail. I said, “If you’re not where you need to be, this is a good time to get right with God.” I’ve never seen such an altar call. It was pure pandemonium. People shoved one another out of the way. They wouldn’t wait for the aisles to clear; they climbed over pews, businessmen tore their ties off, and they were literally stacked on top of one another, in the most horribly harmonious sound of repentance you ever heard. Just the thought of it still sends chills down my back. When I gave the altar call then for the 8.30 a.m. service, I had no idea that it would be but the first of seven altar calls that day. When it was time for the 11 a.m. service to begin, nobody had left the building. The people were still on their faces and, even though there was hardly any music being played at this point, worship was rampant and uninhibited. Grown men were ballet dancing; little children were weeping in repentance. People were on their faces, on their feet, on their knees, but mostly in His presence. There was so much of the presence and the power of God there that people began to feel an urgent need to be baptized. I watched people walk through the doors of repentance, and one after another experienced the glory and the presence of God as He came near. Then they wanted baptism, and I was in a quandary about what to do. The pastor was still unavailable on the floor. Prominent people walked up to me and stated, “I’ve got to be baptized. Somebody tell me what to do.” They joined with the parade of the unsaved, who were now saved, provoked purely by 402 Tommy Tenny encountering the presence of God. There was no sermon and no real song - just His Spirit that day. Two and a half hours had passed, and since the pastor had only managed to wiggle one finger at that point to call the elders to him, the ushers had carried him to his office. Meanwhile, all these people were asking me (or anyone else they could find) if they could be baptised. As a visiting minister at the church, I didn’t want to assume the authority to tell anyone to baptize these folks, so I sent people back to the pastor’s office to see if he would authorize the water baptisms. I gave one altar call after another, and hundreds of people were coming forward. As more and more people came to me asking about water baptism, I noticed that no one I had sent to the pastor’s office had returned. Finally I sent a senior assistant pastor back there and told him, “Please find out what Pastor wants to do about the water baptisms -nobody has come back to tell me yet.” The man stuck his head in the pastor’s office, and to his shock he saw the pastor still lying before the Lord, and everyone I had sent there was sprawled on the floor too, just weeping and repenting before God. He hurried back to tell me what he had seen and added, “I’ll go ask him, but if I go in that office I may not be back either.” We baptized people for hours I shrugged my shoulders and agreed with the associate pastor, “I guess it’s all right to baptize them.” So we began to baptize people as a physical sign of their repentance before the Lord, and we ended up baptizing people for hours. More and more people kept pouring in, and since the people from the early service were still there, there were cars parked everywhere outside the church building. A big open-air ball field next to the building was filled with cars parked every which way. As people drove onto the parking lot, they sensed the presence of God so strongly that some began to weep uncontrollably. They just found themselves driving up onto the parking lot or into the grass not knowing what was going on. Some started to get out of their cars and barely managed to stagger across the parking lot. Some came inside the building only to fall to the floor just inside the doors. The hard- 403 Renewal Journal pressed ushers had to literally pull the helpless people away from the doors and stack them up along the walls of the hallways to clear the entrance. Others managed to make it part way down the hallways, and some made it to the foyer before they fell on their faces in repentance. Some actually made it inside the auditorium, but most of them didn’t bother to find seats. They just made for the altar. No matter what they did or how far they made it, it wasn’t long before they began to weep and repent. As I said, there wasn’t any preaching. There wasn’t even any music part of the time. Primarily one thing happened that day: The presence of God showed up. When that happens, the first thing you do is the same thing Isaiah did when he saw the Lord high and lifted up. He cried out from the depths of his soul: Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts (Isaiah 6:5). You see, the instant Isaiah the prophet, the chosen servant of God, saw the King of glory, what he used to think was clean and holy now looked like filthy rags. He was thinking, I thought I knew God, but I didn’t know this much of God! That Sunday we seemed to come so close; we almost caught Him. Now I know it’s possible. They came right back for more People just kept filling the auditorium again and again, beginning with that strange service that started at 8.30 that morning. I finally went to eat at around 4:00 that afternoon, and then came right back to the church building. Many never left. The continuous “Sunday morning service” lasted until 1 a.m. Monday morning. We didn’t have to announce our plans for Monday evening. Everybody already knew. Frankly, there would have been a meeting whether we announced it or not. The people simply went home to get some sleep or do the things they had to do, and they came right back for more - not for more of men and their programs, but for God and His presence. Night after night, the pastor and I would come in and say, “What are we going to do?” Most of the time our answer to one another was just as predictable: 404 Tommy Tenny “What do you want to do?” What we meant was, “I don’t know what to do. What does He want to do?” Sometimes we’d go in and start trying to “have church,” but the crying hunger of the people would quickly draw in the presence of God and suddenly God had us! Listen, my friend, God doesn’t care about your music, your midget steeples, and your flesh-impressive buildings. Your church carpet doesn’t impress Him - He carpets the fields. God doesn’t really care about anything you can “do” for Him; He only cares about your answer to one question: “Do you want Me?” Ruin everything that isn’t of You, Lord! We have programmed our church services so tightly that we really don’t leave room for the Holy Spirit. Oh, we might let God speak prophetically to us a little, but we get nervous if He tries to break out of our schedules. We can’t let God out of the box too much because He can ruin everything. (That has become my prayer: “Break out of our boxes, Lord, and ruin everything that isn’t of You!”) Let me ask you a question: How long has it been since you came to church and said, “We are going to wait on the Lord”? I think we are afraid to wait on Him because we’re afraid He won’t show up. I have a promise for you: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isa. 40:31). Do you want to know why we’ve lived in weakness as Christians and have not had all that God wanted for us? Do you want to know why we have lived beneath our privilege and have not had the strength to overcome our own carnality? Maybe it’s because we haven’t waited on Him to show up to empower us, and we’re trying to do too much in the power of our own soulish realm. God ruined everything in Houston I am not trying to make you feel bad. I know most Christians and most of our leaders genuinely mean well, but there is so much more. You can “catch” God - ask Jacob - and it might ruin the way you’ve always walked! But you can catch Him. We’ve talked, preached, and taught about revival until the Church is sick of hearing about it. That’s what I 405 Renewal Journal did for a living: I preached revivals - or so I thought. Then God broke out of His box and ruined everything when He showed up. Seven nights a week, for the next four or five weeks straight, hundreds of people a night would stand in line to repent and receive Christ, worship, wait, and pray. What had happened in history, past and present, was happening again. Then it dawned on me, “God, You’re wanting to do this everywhere.” For months His manifest presence hovered. © Tommy Tenny, 1998, The God Chasers, pages 5-12, reproduced with permission from the publishers, Destiny Image. Richard Heard’s account of that visitation is reproduced in the Renewal Journal, No. 10: Evangelism – “God’s Awesome Presence.” He describes continual evangelism and the whole carpet of the church being tear- stained from people repenting 406 2 The New Apostolic Reformation C. Peter Wagner Prolific author of over 40 books, C. Peter Wagner, describes the emerging church wineskins for the twenty-first century. This article is reproduced with permission from Chapter 14 of The Transforming Power of Revival edited by Harold Caballeros and Mel Winger. I will soon complete 30 years as a professor of church growth on the graduate level. During these 30 years, I have studied countless Christian churches of all sizes, in all kinds of locations, from new church plants to those hundreds of years old, spanning virtually every theological tradition, and rooted in varieties of cultures on six continents. I have reported my research the best I have known how in an average of one or two books a year. I have never been more excited about a book dealing with church growth than I am about The New Apostolic Churches, from which this chapter is reprinted. I will begin with a personal testimony of how God has brought me to the place where I am now; it will explain why I am so excited. Renewal Journal Seasons of Research During my decades as a scholar, God has seen fit to focus my research energies on certain aspects of church growth for certain periods of time. As I have done that, I have tried to use what I have learned to develop new courses for my students at Fuller Theological Seminary, and many of the lessons eventually become books. My mentor in church growth research was Donald A. McGavran, the founder of the whole field of church growth. He is now with the Lord, but for years I have had the singular privilege of carrying the title of the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth. One of the most basic lessons I learned from McGavran was that the best way to discover what makes churches grow is to study growing churches. As a result, my first season of research, spanning the 1970s and into the 1980s, was spent doing exactly that. In retrospect, I now look at this as researching the technical principles of church growth. During that time, I began to notice something I obviously did not have the mental equipment to understand or to assimilate into my analysis of church growth. I noticed that the churches worldwide that seemed to grow the most rapidly were, for the most part, those that outwardly featured the immediate present-day supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit. My mentor for helping me make a paradigm shift into what I now call the spiritual principles of church growth was John Wimber, founder of the Association of Vineyard Churches and Vineyard Ministries International. This began my second season of research, focusing first of all on the relationship between supernatural signs and wonders and church growth, then on prayer and spiritual warfare. This began in the early 1980s and continued to the mid-1990s. My third season of research is now focusing on the New Apostolic Reformation, the subject of this chapter. I am very excited because the new apostolic churches, better than any I have previously studied, combine, on the highest level, solid technical principles of church growth with solid spiritual principles of church growth. I will tell more about that later. 408 C Peter Wagner Unity + Gifts = Growth One of the most explicit Scripture verses about church growth is Ephesians 4:16, which says that the Body of which Jesus is the head, “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body” (italics added). A formula for growth, then, is: Unity (joined together) + Gifts (every part does its share) = Growth. Paul tells us in verse seven that each one of us has a “measure” of grace, just as Romans 12:3 says we have a “measure” of faith, the measure being our spiritual gifts. Then Ephesians 4:8 says that Jesus, when He ascended, “gave gifts to men,” and it goes on to tell us that He gave gifted people to the Church on two levels: (1) the government level (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers) in verse 11, and (2) the ministry of the saints in general in verse 12. When the government is in its proper place, biblical unity of the saints emerges and “every part can do its share.” How do these biblical principles unfold in real life? For 2,000 years, the Church of Jesus Christ has grown and spread into every continent. Jesus said, “I will build My church,” and He has been doing it. As we review those 2,000 years, however, it is quite obvious that Jesus does not always build His Church in the same ways. He did one way in the Roman Empire before Constantine; another way after Constantine; another way in the Middle Ages; another way following the Reformation; another way during the era of European colonization; and yet another way post-World War 2, just to name a few. Growth: a Story of New Wineskins Every time Jesus began building His Church in a new way throughout history, He provided new wineskins. While He was still on earth, He said that such a thing would be necessary: “Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into the new wineskins, and both are preserved” (Matt. 9:17). The growth of the Church through the ages is, in part, a story of new wineskins. 409 Renewal Journal Because this is the case, a crucial question not only for professors of church growth, but also for Christians in general, is this: What are the new wineskins Jesus is providing as we move into the twenty-first century? Four Crucial Questions My experience as a church growth scholar has led me constantly to ask four crucial questions: 1. Why does the blessing of God rest where it does? 2. Churches are not all equal. Why is it that at certain times, some churches are more blessed than others? 3. Can any pattern of divine blessing be discerned? 4. Do those churches that seem to be unusually blessed have any common characteristics? As I have tried to answer these questions, it is important to realize that I am a very traditional Christian. For decades I have been an ordained Congregational minister, and I still am. We Congregationalists came over on the Mayflower! I find myself in one of the oldest wineskins on record. Furthermore, I am a conservative Congregationalist (ordained in the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference). This was definitely an obstacle to my early church growth research because while I was a missionary in Bolivia I was anti-Pentecostal, and the fastest-growing churches in Latin America at the time happened to be Pentecostal churches. I finally overcame my biases, however, and, in 1973, wrote Look Out! The Pentecostals Are Coming! (Creation House). At that time, Pentecostal churches were one of the new wineskins, and their growth was showing it. Wineskins of the 1990s That was back in the 1970s. What, however, are the new wineskins for the 21st century? Where does the blessing of God seem to be resting today? The answer to this question began coming into focus in 1993. As a professional missiologist, I had picked up certain bits and pieces of information through the years, but until then, at least in my mind, these bits and pieces were unrelated. Then, however, I did begin to see a pattern among three amazing church growth movements: 1. The African Independent Churches. These roots go back to the 410 C Peter Wagner turn of the century when large numbers of contextualized African churches began breaking away from the traditional mission churches. Throughout the century, the growth of the independent churches in Africa has far exceeded the growth of the traditional churches. 2. The Chinese house churches. Particularly since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1970s, the multiplication of house churches under a hostile Marxist government in China has been a missiological phenomenon. 3. Latin American grassroots churches. During the past 20 years, the largest churches that have been launched in virtually every metropolitan area of Latin America are largely those that are pastored by individuals who have had no formative experience with foreign missionaries or mission-initiated institutions. I would put these three together with the rapid growth of the American independent charismatic churches I researched for the Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, published by Zondervan in 1987. My article, entitled “Church Growth,” pointed out that this was the fastest-growing segment of Christianity in the United States in our times. What happened in 1993, then, was the realization in my mind that, indeed, a pattern of divine blessing today on certain identifiable groups of churches is discernible (Question #3). The next question then becomes (Question #4): What are their common characteristics? A Churchquake! In the balance of this chapter, I will outline the nine most common characteristics of these churches I have been able to discern to date. My exposition and comments about each will, of necessity, be brief so as to keep the size of this chapter proportionate to the others in this book. I am simultaneously working on my textbook about the subject, which will provide abundant details. The title I am considering for the textbook is Churchquake!, which, to me, reflects the magnitude of change these new wineskins are bringing to the Body of Christ. In fact, I am sure we are seeing before our very eyes the most radical change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation. Let’s take a 411 Renewal Journal brief look at nine components of the new wineskins that are shaping the Church for the twenty-first century. 1. A New Name When I began researching the Pentecostal movement years ago, it already had a name. This new movement, however, did not have a name. Because I was planning to teach a seminary course based on it, I needed a name for my course. For a couple of years I experimented with “postdenominationalism,” but strong protests from my denominational friends persuaded me that it might not be the best name. Besides many of the new apostolic churches have remained within their denominations. “Independent charismatic” does not seem to fit either because (1) these churches see themselves as interdependent, as opposed to independent, and (2) they are not all charismatic in orientation. The name I have settled on for the movement is the New Apostolic Reformation, and individual churches being designated as new apostolic churches. I use “reformation” because, as I have said, these new wineskins appear to be at least as radical as those of the Protestant Reformation almost 500 years ago. “Apostolic” connotes a strong focus on outreach plus a recognition of present-day apostolic ministries. “New” adds a contemporary spin to the name. Although many people were begging for a definition of the New Apostolic Reformation from the beginning, I resisted formulating one until I believed I had a more mature grasp of the movement. Now that I have taught my first Fuller Seminary course about the subject, I believe it is time to take the risk of a definition, hoping that it will not have to be revised too frequently in the future: The New Apostolic Reformation is an extraordinary work of God at the close of the twentieth century that is, to a significant extent, changing the shape of Protestant Christianity around the world. For almost 500 years, Christian churches have largely functioned within traditional denominational structures of one kind or another. Particularly in the 1990s, but having roots going back for almost a century, new forms and operational procedures are now emerging in 412 C Peter Wagner areas such as local church government, interchurch relationships, financing, evangelism, missions, prayer, leadership selection and training, the role of supernatural power, worship and other important aspects of church life. Some of these changes are being seen within denominations themselves, but for the most part they are taking the form of loosely structured apostolic networks. In virtually every region of the world, these new apostolic churches constitute the fastest-growing segment of Christianity. Infinite creativity seems to be the watchword for assigning names to local churches. The “Crystal Cathedral” and “Community Church of Joy” are among the most prominent congregations in our country. “Icthus” churches are multiplying in England. On a recent visit to the Philippines I came in contact with “The Warm Body of Jesus Church.” One of my favorite churches in Argentina is “Waves of Love and Peace.” In Kenya, Thomas Muthee pastors “The Prayer Cave.” A friend told me of a church in Zimbabwe called the “Dodge the Devil and Go Straight to Heaven Church”! 2. New Authority Structure In my judgment, views of leadership and leadership authority constitute the most radical of the nine changes from traditional Christianity. Here is the main difference: The amount of spiritual authority delegated by the Holy Spirit to individuals. I have attempted to use each word in that statement advisedly. We are seeing a transition from bureaucratic authority to personal authority, from legal structure to relational structure, from control to coordination and from rational leadership to charismatic leadership. This all manifests itself on two levels: the local level and the translocal level. On the local church level, the new apostolic pastors are the leaders of the church. In traditional Christianity, the pastors are regarded as employees of the church. It is a question of trust. New apostolic congregations trust their pastor. Traditional congregations trust boards and committees. The difference between the two is enormous. The most passionate description of this difference I have yet seen is Lawrence Khong’s chapter in this book [also reproduced in this Journal]. On the 413 Renewal Journal translocal level, one of the most surprising developments for those of us who are traditionalists is the growing affirmation of contemporary apostolic ministries. Our English “apostle” is a transliteration of the Greek apostolos, which means one who is sent out with a commission. This is an important dimension of what we are seeing, but the more surprising feature is the reaffirmation, not only of the New Testament gift of apostle, but also of the office of apostle. 3. New Leadership Training Although new apostolic pastors are fervently dedicated to leading their churches, they are equally dedicated to releasing the people of their congregations to do the ministry of the church. A characteristic of many new apostolic churches is an abundance of volunteers. Church members are normally taught that part of being a good Christian is to discover the spiritual gifts God has given them and to minister to others through those gifts as well as through any natural talents they might also have. Members of the paid pastoral staff of typical new apostolic churches are usually homegrown. As all the believers in the congregation become active in ministry, certain ones tend to rise to the top like cream on fresh milk, and they are the ones who are then recruited for the staff. Because for many this involves a midlife career change, the possibility of their enrolling for two or three years in the residence program of a traditional seminary or Bible school is extremely remote. Therefore, academic requirements for ordination, so long the staple in traditional churches, are being scrapped. New apostolic ordination is primarily rooted in personal relationships, which verify character, and in proved ministry skills. Continuing education for leaders more frequently takes place in conferences, seminars and retreats rather than in classrooms of accredited institutions. Little aversion is noticed for quality training, but the demands are many for alternate delivery systems. A disproportionate number of new apostolic churches, especially the large ones, are establishing their own in-house Bible schools. One of the most notable features of new apostolic churches, which traditional church leaders soon discover to their amazement, is the 414 C Peter Wagner absence of nomination committees (to place lay leaders within the congregation) and of search committees (to locate and recruit new staff members). 4. New Ministry Focus Traditional Christianity starts with the present situation and focuses on the past. New apostolic Christianity starts with the present situation and focuses on the future. Many traditional churches are heritage driven. “We must get back to our roots. We need to pray for renewal” - meaning that we should once again be what we used to be. The founders of the movement are often thought of as standing shoulder to shoulder with the twelve apostles. On the other hand, new apostolic church leaders are vision driven. In a conversation with a new apostolic senior pastor about his church, I once asked, “How many cell groups do you have?” I think that was sometime in 1996. He replied, “We will have 600 by the year 2000!” I can’t seem to recall ever finding out how many cells he did have in 1996. As far as the pastor was concerned, though, that apparently didn’t matter at all. In his mind, the 600 cells were not imaginary, they were real. The 600 was what really mattered. 5. New Worship Style With only a few exceptions, new apostolic churches use contemporary worship styles. Contemporary worship is the one characteristic of the New Apostolic Reformation that has already penetrated the most deeply into traditional and denominational churches across-the-board. Many churches that would not at all be considered new apostolic are now using contemporary worship in at least one of their weekend services. Worship leaders have replaced music directors. Keyboards have replaced pipe organs. Casual worship teams have replaced robed choirs. Overhead projectors have replaced hymnals. Ten to twelve 415 Renewal Journal minutes of congregational singing is now 30 to 49 minutes or even more. Standing during worship is the rule, although a great amount of freedom for body language prevails. As you scan a new apostolic congregation in worship, you will likely see some sitting, some kneeling, some holding up hands, some closing their eyes, some clapping their hands, some wiping tears from their eyes, some using tambourines, some dancing and some just walking around. “Performance” is a naughty word for new apostolic worship leaders. Their goal is to help every person in the congregation become an active “participant” in worship. Frequent applause is not congratulating those on the platform for their musical excellence, but it is seen as high tribute to the triune God. 6. New Prayer Forms Prayer in new apostolic churches has taken forms rarely seen in traditional congregations. Some of this takes place within the church and some takes place outside the church. The actual number of prayer times and the cumulative number of minutes spent in prayer during the worship service of new apostolic churches far exceed the prayer time of the average traditional church. Worship leaders weave frequent times of prayer into singing worship songs. Many of them argue that true worship is, in itself, a form of prayer, so blending the two seems natural. A considerable number of new apostolic churches practice concert prayer, in which all the worshipers are praying out loud at the same time, some in a prayer language and some in the vernacular. At times in some churches, each one will begin singing a prayer, creating a loud, harmonious sound not unlike the sound of the medieval Gregorian chant. New apostolic leaders have been among the first to understand and put into practice some of the newer forms of prayer that take place in the community itself, not in the church. For many, praise marches, prayer walking, prayer journeys and prayer expeditions have become a part of congregational life and ministry. For example, 55 members of one local church, New life Church of Colorado Springs, recently travelled to 416 C Peter Wagner Nepal, high in the Himalayas, to pray on-site for each of the 43 major, yet-unreached people groups of the nation. 7. New Financing New apostolic churches experience relatively few financial problems. Although no vision-driven church believes it has enough resources to fulfill the vision adequately, and although financial crises do come from time to time, still, compared to traditional churches, finances are abundant. I think at least three discernible reasons explain this situation. First, generous giving is expected. Tithing is taught without apology, and those who do not tithe their incomes are subtly encouraged to evaluate their Christian lives as subpar. Second, giving is beneficial, not only to the church and its ministry in kingdom of God, but also to the giver. Tithes and offerings are regarded seeds that will produce fruit of like kind for individuals and families. Luke 6:38, which says that if we give, it will be given to us in greater measure, is taken literally. Third, giving is cheerful. It is not yet a common practice, but I have been in new apostolic churches in which the congregation breaks out into a rousing, athletic-event kind of shouting and clapping the moment the pastor announces he is collecting the morning offering. They are cheerful givers and they want everyone else to know it. I rarely hear the complaint in new apostolic churches I often hear in traditional churches: The pastor talks about money too much. 8. New Outreach Aggressively reaching out to the lost and hurting of the community and the world is part of the new apostolic DNA. The churches assiduously attempt to avoid the “bless me syndrome” as they try to live up to their apostolic nature and calling. They do seek personal blessings from God, but usually as means to the end of reaching others. A worship song I frequently hear in new apostolic churches says: “Let your glory fall in this room; let it go forth from here to the nations.” 417 Renewal Journal Planting new churches is usually an assumed part of what a local congregation does. The question is not whether we should do it, but when and how. The same applies to foreign missions. One of the more interesting developments for a missiologist like me is that a large number of congregations are becoming involved, as congregations, in foreign missions. This does not mean they are necessarily bypassing mission agencies, especially new ones such as Youth With A Mission, but it does mean that they are expanding their options for influencing their people to participate in a more direct and personal way in world outreach. Compassion for the poor, the outcast, the homeless, the disadvantaged and the handicapped is a strong characteristic of most new apostolic churches. Many other churches do a lot of talking about helping unfortunate people, but new apostolic churches seem to find ways to actually do it. The Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim, California, for example, distributes almost $2 million worth of food to hungry people in their area every year. The Cathedral of Faith in San José, California, has constructed a rnillion-dollar warehouse facility and it has become one of the largest food distribution centres in the state. Other local churches are doing similar things. 9. New Power Orientation I mentioned earlier that the New Apostolic Reformation seems to be combining the technical principles of church growth better than any similar grouping of churches I have observed. Even those new apostolic churches that do not consider themselves charismatic usually have a sincere openness to the work of the Holy Spirit and a consensus that all the New Testament spiritual gifts are in operation today. The majority of the new apostolic churches not only believe in the work of the Holy Spirit, but they also regularly invite Him to come into their midst to bring supernatural power. It is commonplace, therefore, to observe active ministries of healing, demonic deliverance, spiritual warfare, prophecy, failing in the Spirit, spiritual mapping, prophetic acts, fervent intercession and travail, and so on in new apostolic churches. A basic theological presupposition in new apostolic, as contrasted to 418 C Peter Wagner traditional, churches is that supernatural power tends to open the way for applying truth, rather than vice versa. This is why visitors will frequently observe in these churches what seems to be more emphasis on the heart than on the mind. Some conclude from that that new apostolic churches are “too emotional.” Conclusion The more I have studied the New Apostolic Reformation during the past few years, the more convinced I have become that we have a major transformation of Christianity on our hands. Don Miller titles his excellent new book on the subject Reinventing American Protestantism (University of California Press). By extension, I believe we are witnessing a reinvesting of world Christianity. If that is the case, it is all the more reason to give God thanks for allowing us to be alive and active in His kingdom in these enthralling days. © From Chapter 14, “The New Apostolic Reformation”, in The Transforming Power of Revival edited by Harold Caballeros and Mel Winger (Peniel, Buenos Aires, 1998), excerpted from The New Apostolic Churches edited by C. Peter Wagner (Regal 8ooks, Ventura, 1998), used by permission of Regal Books and the author. 419 Renewal Journal Renewal Journals, Volume 2 (6-10) Worship, Blessing, Awakening, Mission, Evangelism 420 3 The New Believers Diana Bagnall Diana Bagnall wrote this cover story for the 11 April, 2000 issue of The Bulletin, with Newsweek, reproduced here with permission. ___________________ The Great Leap of Faith - comment by Max Welsh, Editor-in-Chief of The Bulletin: In discussing the role of religion in Australian politics, especially with Americans, I stress the fact that Australia is probably the most secular of all the democracies. We do not have an established church. At the individual level, people may claim allegiance to one faith or another but, in practice, we are not a church-going nation. We do have religious leaders who speak with the authority of their rank. However, their ability to influence the national debate, let alone to set the national agenda is, at best, modest and usually marginal. While committed Christians have formed themselves into non-partisan Renewal Journal fellowships, at the federal parliamentary level there is no real equivalent of the Moral Majority movement in the United States. I’m referring here to a mass political force. The Pentecostal movement, which operates outside traditional religious groups, has been around for some time but it has a low profile in the national political-cum-social debate. It may be that I’m the one out of touch, but I was surprised when senior writer Diana Bagnall told me more Australians attend Pentecostal services than Anglican churches. This is a major, fast-growing religious force. Its low profile is in large part due to its atomistic, as distinct from hierarchical, form of organisation. But it also reflects a widely held view among Pentecostal leaders that the mass media - a singularly secular institution - has in the past sensationalised their activities, exhibiting more scorn and ridicule than sensitivity and understanding. If that is true, it’s a pity because what is happening in this corner of Australian life is both interesting and important for what it says about our society. It was on this basis that Bagnall researched and wrote our cover story. ____________________________________ Christianity is being born again. Pentecostal congregations are swelling, the influence of their leaders is soaring, and politicians are starting to take notice. Diana Bagnall examines the attraction of the absolute in an age of doubt. There’s a point at which continuing to caricature a sizeable group of Australians as a weird or loony fringe when they are going about a lawful activity in a purposeful, well-organised manner begins to backfire. Think of One Nation. When the group numbers scores of thousands and has been notching up double-digit member- ship growth each year for the best part of two decades, the ridicule is clearly unsustainable. Call them misguided if you want, or politically subversive, which they undoubtedly have the potential to become, but don’t trivialise born- 422 Diana Bagnall again Christians as marginal or eccentric. Because the numbers tell a different story. Their signature mix of conservative theology and radical religious practice is as mainstream as the church comes these days if by mainstream we mean belonging to that part of the river where the water flows most strongly and in greatest volume. That they are relatively invisible at a national level is partly because their culture and vocabulary is so particular (in many respects theirs is a parallel universe), and partly because the Pentecostal churches that attract them in the greatest numbers don’t have the street-corner presence of traditional churches. Sure, a handful of Pentecostal congregations are housed on big acreages in large, purpose-built auditoriums, complete with cafes and youth centres, recording studios and schools, but more find a home in recycled buildings - warehouses, primary schools, community centres. And that’s what’s fooled us. We haven’t seen the communities and the networks. And they’re big, vigorous and potentially powerful. Brian Houston, who heads the Assemblies of God denomination in Australia, estimates that there are 3000 full-time trainees in AOG Bible colleges across the country. Many of these churches are young churches. In the Christian City Church, a Sydney-based denomination that didn’t exist 20 years ago and now claims 25,000 members worldwide, for example, 70% of attendees are aged I5-39. The predominant style is contemporary and prosperous. Hip even. These are places where winners hang out, where the rewards are tangible and tantalising. They promise the good life on Earth, and of course, the bonus of eternal life. They offer intimacy and excitement, a sense of belonging and of righteousness. A heady mix. The church in decline has become a media cliché. Church leaders, those whose opinions are sought out because their brands of Christianity are familiar and visible, are increasingly portrayed as desperate men, maximising what’s left of greatly depleted stores of spiritual and temporal authority. One minute they’re talking of the need to market their spiritual “programs” more effectively, the next they’re wading more deeply, with government encouragement, into bureaucratised social welfare. 423 Renewal Journal Save for the odd embarrassing episode where a triumphant Melbourne Cup jockey or superstar footballer takes advantage of his media access to proclaim his love for the Lord, there is little in the mainstream media to suggest that the church is anything other than a cultural backwater populated by the elderly and the backwardlooking. Census data seems to prove the point. It shows a 35. 5% increase between I99I and I996 in the number of Australians saying they had no religion and the major Christian denominations losing market share. So what about the 3500 people who turn up each weekend to worship at the Christian City Church in Oxford Falls, near Sydney’s northern beaches? What about the 5000 women who milled among the marquees and pots of pink and magenta petunias at Pastor Bobbie Houston’s women’s conference last month at the Hills Christian Life Centre in Sydney’s Baulkham Hills? What about the 1200-strong Ipswich Region Community Church in Queensland waiting on the completion of a new 1000-seat auditorium and 350-seat youth and children’s facility? What about the 100,000 people who are expected to march into the Sydney Olympic Stadium on June 10 (the Day of Pentecost) under the banner of the Awakening 2000 movement to celebrate ‘the reason for the turning of the millennium’? Don’t they count? As a combined grouping, there are now more people worshipping in Pentecostal churches than at Anglican churches each week, according to the most recent National Church Life Survey. Only Catholic parishes have a greater number of attendees. But these new Christian communities don’t just restrict themselves to Pentecostal churches, which makes the business of mapping their influence much more difficult than simply counting bums on pews. There are contemporary evangelical, charismatic and Pentecostal churches across denominations, says Melbourne Anglican leader Peter Corney. “The majority of adults attending Protestant churches on Sunday in Australia would go to one of these types of churches,” he says. “Almost all the large churches (that is, over 500 members), and the churches with young congregations, fall into those categories.” For just as loyalty to political parties has broken down over the past decade and capturing the swinging voter has become the measure of 424 Diana Bagnall political success, so too the old religious tribal connections have broken down. People are open to persuasion. In the new churches the power of the message is in its communication. “We scratch where people are itching,” says Mark Edwards, 41, an ex-lawyer who has increased membership of the Ipswich Region Community Church sixfold in the eight years he has been its senior minister. His sermons are more likely to focus on financial management (he has just finished a two-year term as president of the local chamber of commerce) and work issues, relationships and raising children than on fine theological argument. But, fundamentally, there is still only one message - salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Part and parcel of that is acceptance of the Bible’s authority, literally across the board. … For it is now well understood by those who analyse patterns of church growth and decline that firmly drawn boundaries and clearly stated values are an asset rather than a liability to churches in a postmodernist world characterised by impermanence and relativity. The balance of theological power is shifting on the ground as people vote with their feet for more conservative, orthodox Christian values. “Liberal theology has reigned supreme in the theological colleges, and still does, but out there, in the trenches, the whole liberal theology thing just hasn’t worked,” explains Peter Corney, who until last June was vicar of St Hillary’s Anglican Church, in Melbourne’s Kew. “It has failed to capture the hearts and minds of a generation of young people.” The average size of Anglican and Protestant congregations in Australia is around 70, with more than a third having fewer than 25 attendees, according to the National Church Life Survey. Yet in 20 years, under Corney’s evangelical leadership, the congregation at St Hillary’s grew from 150 to 1000. Most of those filling the pews in the two Sunday evening services are under 25. Further east in the same city, 2300 people pack the pews of Crossway Baptist Church which under exmissionary Stuart Robinson’s leadership has grown by about 20% each year since the mid ’90s. People lock into clearly defined vision and values, says Robinson. “They want to know where they are going.” In fact, St Hillary’s and Crossway are the exception rather than the rule in more than one respect. For while Corney believes that the church is 425 Renewal Journal entering a post-denominational era, it is an undeniable fact that most of Australia’s mega-churches are Pentecostal, not in itself a denomination but a brand of Christianity that features as its centrepiece the highly charged experience called baptism of the Holy Spirit. The most common sign of a Pentecostal experience is that a person begins speaking in tongues (making sounds that usually they can’t understand and feel they can’t control), but there are other signs such as falling to the ground in a trance or, as happened first in Toronto in the early ’90s, laughing uncontrollably (the Toronto Blessing). Pentecostal churches have been around since the beginning of the century, but burst into international prominence in the ’70s during the so-called charismatic renewal. At that time, a fair few people attending regular churches were also caught up in Pentecostal-style worship. While some of them defected early on to the Pentecostal churches, many hung in with the old denominations hoping they would move with the times. By and large they were disappointed, and by the mid ’80s large numbers of church-goers were spilling out of old churches and into new ones in a massive shift in the Protestant landscape that some have compared to the Reformation of the 16th century. That exodus gathered momentum in the ’90s. Between the 1991 and 1996 censuses, Pentecostal groups overall increased their membership by 16%. In terms of the number of congregations established, the growth appears to be even more dramatic. The National Church Life Survey found that between 1991 and 1996 the number of congregations within four Pentecostal denominations, the Assemblies of God, Foursquare Gospel, Christian Revival Crusade and the Apostolic Church, had grown from 832 to 1046, a 26% increase. The NCLS found that the overall growth in Pentecostal denominations was predominantly due to ‘switchers’, that is people who are joining from other denominations. The survey found nearly three times as many switches joining the Pentecostal churches as there were newcomers without a church background. The leaders of these new churches make no apology for their gain at another’s expense, “People will go where it’s happening for them,” Phil Pringle, 47, founding head of Christian City Churches and senior pastor 426 Diana Bagnall of the mega-church at Oxford Falls. At Brian Houston’s Assembly of God church at Baulkham Hills in the north-west of Sydney, growth is limited to how many carpark spaces can be accommodated on the 8.5hectare site. The church is about to embark on building a 3500-seat auditorium. “Most people here think it is too small,” he says. Already, the Hills Christian Life Centre pushes through 7000 churchgoers on any one weekend. Like those who attend any of the big, new regional churches, they are likely to drive past 100 other churches on their way. The question is, why? We can talk, as Pringle does, about an “ache” for God, we can talk about seeking refuge from the confusion of modern life and about the eternal longing for meaning. And all these things go some way to explaining the filling up of the churches. But there are more temporal reasons, to do with charisma, seductive packaging, the power of positive thinking, professional standards and, possibly most importantly, the effective harnessing of youthful idealism and passion. Men like Pringle and Houston bear as little resemblance to conventional clergymen as Brad Pitt does to Laurence Olivier. Pringle, once an art student and still a painter, started his church in 1980 with 12 people in the Dee Why Surf Club on Sydney’s northern beaches. It has grown into a denomination (a formalised denomination, that is) encompassing, according to his estimates, 25,000 people in 100 churches around the world. Houston, 46, runs two Assembly of God churches and one of gospel music’s most successful recording stories, Hillsong Music, which claims annual worldwide sales of more than 2 million albums. Aside from the Baulkham Hills operation, there’s a smaller church at Waterloo in central Sydney with a congregation of 2300. Not for Pringle or Houston the quiet scratch of pen on paper within the sanctuary of a book-lined study. They move at a furious pace, as much entrepreneur as pastor, as much celebrity as preacher. It is nothing for them to be opening a new church in Los Angeles one week, addressing a conference on the Gold Coast the next, all the while churning out the next motivational book, overseeing the operations of their various training colleges and schools and co-ordinating the activities of roving teams of laptop-toting pastors, big pools of musicians and singers, and expanding counselling and community 427 Renewal Journal service arms. Masters of communications technologies, they draw around them sophisticated teams to produce web sites and videos, music recordings and television programs for broadcast on both free-to-air and pay TV (the Australian Christian Channel is part of Optus TVs basic package). Their core role, however, is to spearhead the growth of their churches by presenting their deeply conservative religious message week after week in a compelling, high-energy, contemporary format. “I would struggle with that kind of pressure,” admits Father Mike Delancy, a Catholic parish priest at New Norfolk in rural Tasmania whose daily pastoral fare is much more likely to be a funeral service than a baptism of any sort. He’s involved in the ecumenical Awakening movement, and unusually for a man of his cloth, counts many Pentecostal pastors as his friends. “The flip side for them is that when the high energy drops off, so do the people,” he says. Physically, the churches these men lead (and make no mistake, this is a man’s world - women have a vital place in it, but the Bible’s teaching is firm on the gender hierarchy) are designed to be user-friendly for “seekers”, as newcomers are called. No knee-bruising pews, no distracting religious icons. The purpose-built auditoriums are cathedrals of modern entertainment with all the technological wizardry. Christian City Church at Oxford Falls is in the process of redesigning its web site to give live online access to church services. But even in more modest locations, church services are conceived of as multimedia events - display windows for marketing Christianity rather than as liturgical set pieces to mark a religious calendar. There’s none of that intimidating business of knowing when to stand and when to kneel, and which page of the order of service or which number hymn to turn to. “Culturally relevant” is the buzz phrase used to describe the approach. Instead of priests and altar boys, the focus of attention is a rock band, usually several musicians and singers who pump out music with the catchy rhythms and romantic tub of good pop. The words are simple, and projected on big screens. In fact, the services are not unlike Saturday night variety TV seemingly effortless, but planned down to the last minute. At 428 Diana Bagnall Edwards’Assembly of God church in Ipswich each service (and, typically, there are several each Sunday, designed for different congregations) is planned six months in advance by a salaried creative arts director who leads a team of about nine people and draws on a bigger pool of about 70 musicians, singers, sound, lighting and drama people. Edwards explains: “You go to a Barbra Streisand concert and you expect a certain standard of that concert. Why should people who come to our church expect any less?” Edwards is a former lawyer, a local lad who switched careers in his mid-30s to follow his passionate belief. He’s typical of the new breed of church leader - intelligent, thoughtful and community oriented. Bronwyn Hughes, a member of the National Church Life Survey team, says leaders of growing churches have a profile that closely matches the leadership profile of management literature. “These people function in a similar change environment. [Their role] is about mobilising people, and gaining their trust.” Some of the new church leaders are traditionally trained denominational ministers but the great majority are not. Melbourne pastor Mark Conner, for example, inherited the church from his father, Kevin. He was a musician and a youth leader before he took over the reins. Houston, too, inherited his church from his father Frank (there’s a dynastic streak in these churches). Robinson, of Crossway Baptist, says his Pentecostal friends laugh at him because he has a string of degrees. “In contemporary church, we don’t place a high value on the status of ordination,” he explains. A leadership “gift”, by contrast, is mandatory. “I think all these guys could run a large company somewhere,” explains Corney, who is now executive director of the interdenominational Institute of Contemporary Christian Leadership. Yet, curiously, they have relatively little profile beyond their own world. That, it seems, is about to change. “The church that I see is a church of influence, a church so large in size that the city and the nation can’t ignore it, a church growing so quickly that the buildings struggle to contain [it] . . .” write Houston and his wife Bobbie in a manifesto placed prominently in the foyer at Baulkham Hills -just a few metres away from the Brian and Bobbie exhibition stand, a bookstall of their books and videos over which their names are written in neon script. 429 Renewal Journal Houston’s stated desire for influence more in keeping with the size of his church is a sharp new turn for the Pentecostals. Until very recently, Pentecostals have lacked a cohesive national voice. The hallmark of Pentecostal churches is that they are strongly autonomous. Individual pastors run their own show and are not answerable to a church hierarchy. To their members, that flat management structure is undoubtedly a drawcard, but it means these new churches lack any kind of national cohesion, and they’ve punched below their weight politically. But if politics is about whose values are going to prevail, then these communities are finding their voice. On February 18, Houston launched a new alliance of Pentecostal churches called Australian Christian Churches claiming to represent more than 1000 churches and 170,000 members. That’s by no means all the Pentecostals in Australia. Pringle’s Christian City Church is not yet involved, and may never he (there is territorial jealousy in this arm of the church too). But the intention behind the new alliance is what counts. “If the people of God see themselves as grasshoppers, everyone else sees them as grasshoppers,” says Houston, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his long legs, the blond highlights in his hair an altogether unsurprising touch in a thoroughly modern preacher. “I want to change inside the church . . . [I want it to he known] that the message of God is valid, that there is nothing to apologise for. I believe it is time that we started to see ourselves as a legitimate voice of the church and no one else is going to see that if we don’t even see ourselves that way.” Rearing its head here is the old Pentecostal underdog. They are used to being out in the cold. For example, Houston was only in January asked to join the National Council of Churches even though he was appointed national president of the Assemblies of God in May 1997. Pringle comments wryly that “maybe we have enjoyed it out there a little.” And it is undoubtedly true that Pentecostals revel in their outsider status. When Hollywood pastor in pink, the impeccably manicured Holly Wagner (a dead ringer for Meg Ryan) excitedly told of a deal she had struck with “the secular publisher HarperCollins” to publish her book The Dumb Things She Does, The Dumb Things He Does, she spoke of taking her book “out there”. There is that degree of them and us going on here. 430 Diana Bagnall So what is the Australian Christian Churches’agenda? Making disciples, of course. There is no other for Christians. “I love this country and I really believe the church has answers for Australia. I genuinely would like to see the church helping people and give them the answers that they want,” says Houston. Pringle is going down another path. Last year, Prime Minister John Howard opened Pringle’s church at Oxford Falls. Pringle is in Canberra reasonably often, at the invitation of Alan Cadman, federal member for Mitchell, who attends some of the CCC’s services. He has lunched with John Anderson, John Forrest and Brian Harradine. He doesn’t like the idea of Australia developing a Christian political party. Neither does Ian Jagelman, a former PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant who is now senior pastor of a 1000-strong church in the Sydney district of Lane Cove-Ryde. “I am not sure that we are not better off having strong relationships with our local members and when an issue comes up letting them know what we think about it,” he says. “There comes a point where our church will he so big, where clearly people in the political process will want to know what we think.” © Reproduced with permission from The Bulletin, Vol. 118, No 6219, 11 April 2000. 431 Renewal Journal Renewal Journals, Volume 3 (11-15) Discipleship, Harvest, Ministry Anointing, Wineskins 432 4 Vision and Strategy for Church Growth Lawrence Khong Rev Lawrence Khong led his Baptist church in Singapore from 350 to a weekly attendance over 8,000 with a strong emphasis on expository preaching and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. This article is reproduced with permission from Chapter 14 of The Transforming Power of Revival edited by Harold Caballeros and Mel Winger. On August 17, 1986, I stood on the platform in a rented auditorium in Singapore to preach in the first worship service of a brand new congregation. As I approached the pulpit, the Holy Spirit spoke clearly to my heart: “Son, today the new baby is born!” Then the words of Haggai 2:9 flooded into my mind: “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, ... And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty” (NIV). I was too emotionally worn out to be excited about the “greater glory.” I simply took comfort in the fact that in this new church there will be peace. I had just emerged from more than a year of leadership struggle in my former church. I had grown up in this church, a Bible-believing Renewal Journal congregation that had been growing consistently. This had been my spiritual home throughout my teenage years. The leadership of the church had clearly and lovingly affirmed my calling into the ministry. They sent me to pursue my theological training in the United States. I returned to be the pastor of the church. Within five years, it grew from 350 to 1,600 under my pastoral leadership. A career-changing experience During the fifth year of my pastorate, I had an unexpected encounter with the Holy Spirit that opened my heart to the reality of God’s power. In that encounter, I began speaking in a new tongue. It was something I had always told my congregation would not and should not ever happen in this day and age. I clearly taught them that this particular gift, together with other power gifts of the Holy Spirit, had ceased at the end of the apostolic age. I taught them so well, in fact, that the leadership of the church rejected the validity of my experience and its theological implications immediately. I realized they were doing the very thing I would have done if I were in their shoes. I was confused. My experience completely devastated my neat and tidy theology. I could not at that point give a clear biblical understanding about what happened. On the other hand, I could not deny the reality of that experience without compromising the witness of the Holy Spirit in my heart. Meanwhile, my ministry began failing apart. Before long, theological differences within the leadership degenerated to attacks on my personal integrity. After many months of painful struggles, I was finally asked to relinquish my role as the senior pastor of the church. In the midst of this agonizing process, the Lord gave me a clear word from Scripture: “A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world” (John 16:21). The lord told me He was bringing forth a “new baby” in my life that would launch me into a new ministry. The painful struggles I was going through were the labour pains needed to bring forth this new birth. 434 Lawrence Khong The new baby is born When the Lord said, “Son, today the new baby is born!” on August 17, 1986, Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) began. It brought unspeakable joy to my spirit. Since then, the promise of God has been true. The glory of this ministry has far exceeded what I would ask or think. Indeed, in the last 10 years of our church, there has been peace. As I am writing this (1998), the baby has grown considerably. The attendance in our weekly worship services has reached close to 8,000. In the past 10 years, we have baptized more than 6,400 new believers. During the same period, some 16,000 persons have made professions of faith for the first time. Most significantly, in my mind, almost every person who worships with us is also part of a cell group ministry during the week. In these small groups, we train every member to be a minister of the gospel, calling forth a higher-than-average level of commitment. As I reflect upon the grace of the lord in Faith Community Baptist Church during the last 10 years, the Lord has impressed me with four major factors that have contributed to the phenomenal growth in this local congregation. These four factors include (1) a clear vision and strategy for growth; (2) a cell church structure; (3) a reliance on the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit; and (4) one strong and anointed leader. A clear vision and strategy for growth During the first 12 months of FCBC, I had the leaders of the church join me in seeking the Lord for a clear vision and strategy for growth. We were determined not to be another church that religiously maintained traditional programs. With all our hearts, we sought the Lord for a blueprint that would enable us to take our city for God. The Lord showed us that to do this, we must move in unity, we must share a common vision and we must agree on the appropriate strategies to fulfil the vision. As early as 1987, we developed a three-part vision that has guided our programs ever since. This three-part vision has 435 Renewal Journal seen refinements through the years. Today, it stands as follows: By God’s grace, we will, (1) establish integrated ministries of outreach, discipleship and service that encompass the whole of Singapore; (2) be a model cell group church that provides quality pastoral training and equipping resources for transitioning cell group churches in Singapore and around the world; and (3) establish 50 cell group churches around the world by sending out teams to reach hidden or responsive people groups. To achieve this vision, we have adopted the following strategies: 1. Develop an exciting and meaningful celebration every Sunday through music and the pulpit ministry; 2. Minimize committee meetings by decentralization of operations to full-time staff; 3. Commit to active staff recruitment to establish a multiple-staff ministry., 4. Establish a discipleship network for evangelism, prayer and Bible study; 5. Provide lay leadership training for all leaders of the church; 6. Develop and establish specialized ministries of outreach; 7. Train, equip, send and fully support missionaries from the church to the mission field; 8. Build a “Touch Centre” consisting of an auditorium seating some 3,000, including other ministry facilities for both the church and the community; 9. Develop within every member a deep commitment to regular, disciplined and intense warfare prayer for spiritual revival in Singapore and around the world; 10. Strengthen the family so as to provide a solid base for reaching the unsaved with the love of Christ. From the beginning, we were filled with a sense of excitement that God was going to fulfill these visions among us. In FCBC, every one of us is given a corporate challenge to fulfill the vision the Lord has given us. We believe that “everybody’s job” becomes “nobody’s job.” Members of FCBC believe that if no one else will do it, we will assume the responsibility of winning our nation to the Lord. Before long, most of us would begin to realize that we could no longer possess this vision. Rather, this vision has now totally possessed us with a consuming zeal from the Lord! 436 Lawrence Khong Completely structured as a cell group church In the last five years, FCBC has organized an annual “International Conference on Cell Group Church.” Thousands from around the world have come to learn the principles and operations of a cell group church. Every year, I begin the conference by proclaiming a statement that has become a major landmark of my teaching about the cell church. My statement is: There is a heaven and earth difference; an east and west difference between a CHURCH WITH CELLS and a CELL GROUP CHURCH. Just about every church in the world has some kind of small groups. Some of these groups are Bible study groups, fellowship groups, counselling/therapy groups, prayer groups and many others. However, these are churches with cells and not cell churches. The major difference between the former and the latter is a structural one. Hence there is a fundamental, not a superficial, difference between them. In a church with cells, the cell ministry is only a department within the total ministry of the church. Members of the church have many options. They can choose to serve in the missions department or the prayer department or the Christian education department or the fellowship department. They can choose between the Sunday School or the adult fellowship. The cell ministry is just another one of the options. This is not so in a cell group church. In a cell group church, the cell is the church. No menu of options is open to every member except that they be in a cell group. Every department of the church is designed to serve the cell ministry. Departments do not have any constituency of their own. All are designed to support the ministry of the cells. In FCBC, every believer is assimilated into cell groups, similar to military squads. Each cell is trained to edify one another and to evangelize so that it will multiply within a year to a maximum size of 12 to 15 people. These cell groups are not independent “house churches,” but basic Christian communities linked together to penetrate every area of our community. 437 Renewal Journal Approximately three to four cell groups cluster to form a sub-zone, and a volunteer zone supervisor pastors the five cells and its cell leaders. Five sub-zones cluster to create a zone of about 250 people pastored by a full-time zone pastor. Five or more zones cluster to form a district, and a seasoned district pastor shepherds as many as 1,500 people. From the start, we created zones that were geographical (north, east, west) and generational (children, youth, military). Later, we added our music zone for those participating in our choirs, bands, orchestras, drama and dance. Even these music cells are constantly winning people to Jesus Christ. Every year, more than 2,500 make first-time decisions for the Lord in the cells. Foundations for ministry In the early years, we worked hard to create the foundations for our ministry. Pastors who had no previous experience with cell church structures were trained and cell leaders were equipped. Nonexistent equipping materials had to be written. Soon we had a nickname: “FCBC-Fast Changing Baptist Church”! Every experimental step helped us learn how to equip and evangelize in the new paradigm. We were determined to discard anything that did not help us achieve our goals, so we revised our strategy again and again as we gained experience. Indeed, we are still doing so! Like other cell churches, our life involves three levels: the cells, the congregations (a cluster of five zones) and the celebration on Sunday. We quickly had to go to two and then three celebrations of 1,000 people to accommodate the growth in the cell groups. We presently have one evening service on Saturday and four services on Sunday of two hours duration each. A completely different congregation of people worships in the Saturday evening service. We have studiously avoided advertising “seeker-sensitive services,” choosing instead to grow through the ministries of our members in the cells. Our cells are seeker-sensitive, but our celebration is not. For us, the celebration is an assembling of the Body of Christ rather than a means of attracting the unconverted. Nevertheless, many profess faith in Jesus Christ as a result of the intense anointing that comes through 438 Lawrence Khong worship, as well as my pulpit ministry that focuses on down-to-earth life issues. The Year of Equipping What we call “The Year of Equipping” has become an important part of our cell group life. Each incoming member is visited by the cell leader, who assigns a cell member to be a sponsor for the new person. A “Journey Guide” is used to acquaint the cell leader and sponsor with the spiritual condition of the person. Guided by private weekly sessions with the sponsor, this person will complete a journey through the “Arrival Kit” and then be trained to share Christ with both responsive and unresponsive unbelievers. Another major part of The Year of Equipping consists of three cycles of training for evangelism and harvest meeting in the cells throughout the year. One such cycle begins in January, where new members of the cell are sent for a weekend of evangelism training. This is followed by further practices during the cell meetings, leading up to the Good Friday weekend. In these months, every member of the cell is asked to pray for unsaved people whom they would invite to a special Good Friday evangelistic cell meeting. On that one Good Friday evening, we will have as many as 4,000 unsaved people in all our cell groups spread throughout the city. More than 10 percent of them will give their lives to the Lord for the first time. In that meeting, every member of the cell shares the gospel with unsaved friends. We do this three times a year. In this way, equipping for evangelism is an ongoing lifestyle of every cell. It is my intention that every cell becomes a fit fighting unit in the army of the Lord! Community service Because of our strong desire to penetrate the society around us, we have formed the Touch Community Services. This is the neutral arm of our church designed to relate to the community. Through this separate corporation, we conduct childcare, legal aid services, after-school clubs, marriage counselling, a workshop to train the handicapped and many other social ministry areas. This has earned the respect of 439 Renewal Journal unbelievers around us and has provided openings for the gospel we would not otherwise experience. It has established good will for us among the many racial groups that live together in harmony in our nation. Our community services have found so much favour with government authorities that much of our service ministry is actually funded by the government. As of now, the juvenile courts make it mandatory for their offenders to seek counselling from our youth counselling services. The registry of marriage has invited us to conduct premarital counselling for all who are getting married in Singapore! This is our “root system” into the unconverted world. Reliance on the supernatural works of the Holy Spirit The structure of the cell church is nothing but a conduit for the power of the Holy Spirit. Unless the living water flows, the cells are lifeless. A major spiritual breakthrough came for us in those early years as we began to recognize the place of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our midst. As our cell groups were confronted by the need for spiritual power in caring for people, we saw a gracious outpouring of His presence in our midst. I shall never forget a certain Sunday when the Lord visited us powerfully. We were then conducting four worship services in a rented auditorium that seated about 800. On that particular Sunday, I preached a message about repentance. Many came forward to repent of their sins. As I prayed for them from behind the pulpit, the Holy Spirit came into our midst. Most of them fell under the power of the Spirit. This was something we had never experienced in our church. It surprised everyone in the auditorium, especially the people who found themselves lying on the church floor for the first time in their lives, completely unable to move. The presence of the Lord was so overwhelming that by the beginning of the third service, members who were just walking into the auditorium for worship fell under the power of the Spirit, having no idea what had been happening in the preceding services! This visitation of the Holy Spirit brought about a six-month period of deep repentance among the members of the church. The anointing of 440 Lawrence Khong the Spirit filled every cell meeting. The sick were being healed. The demonized were set free. The church grew rapidly as our cell groups learned to minister in the power of the Spirit. One strong and anointed leader At the risk of misunderstanding me as being arrogant, I have always told audiences around the world that one of the main factors that has contributed to the growth of FCBC is the gracious gift of leadership the Lord has entrusted to me. FCBC has grown rapidly because of my strong and anointed leadership. In the early years of the church, the leadership team carefully studied a chapter written by Oswald J. Smith in his book Building a Better World. He began his chapter with these words: “Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people” (Isa. 55:4). God’s plan is that His flock should be led by a Shepherd, not run by a Board. Committees are to advise, never to dictate. The Holy Spirit appoints men. To Bishops and Elders is given the care of the churches, never to Committees. They are to be the Overseers, the Shepherds. Each one has his own flock. Because men have failed to recognize this, there has been trouble. When God’s plan is followed, all is well. The cell group church is vision driven. It needs a strong leader to rally the people toward a God-given vision. It is also structured like the military. It calls for a strong commander to instil a sense of strict spiritual discipline needed to complete the task. At the inception of the church, my core leaders asked, “Pastor, what sort of leader will you be?” My answer was unequivocal, “I believe I will be a strong leader, one who believes what the Lord wants me to do and who pursues it with all my heart.” Traditionally, the church has been suspicious of strong leadership, especially when it is centred in one person. As a result, many manmade systems of checks and counterchecks have been built into traditional church polity to ensure that there can be no one-man rule. Although I agree that there is a need for mutual accountability, these checks have more often become major roadblocks for God’s appointed 441 Renewal Journal leaders to lead His people into victorious ministry. Many lay leaders have expressed great fear of so-called “dictatorship” behind the pulpit. After 20 years of ministry, however, I must say that I have seen more “dictators” sitting in the pews than those standing behind pulpits. What is leadership? One day I was praying about this issue of leadership and the Lord impressed upon me to write down these words about leadership: Leadership is not dictatorship Leadership is rallying people to pursue a vision. A leader successfully instils in those he is leading a deep desire to fulfil that vision. He gains the trust of his people by virtue of his character, his integrity, his resourcefulness, his zeal, his good judgment, his people skills and, most importantly, his anointing from God. As a result, the people grant him the freedom to decide and the authority to supervise and control. Such leadership can never be provided by a committee or a board. If, indeed, such leadership is provided by a group, it is because within that group someone can provide such strong leadership first to the group and through that to the rest of the people. We often talk about New Testament leadership as if it is completely different from Old Testament leadership. I believe that biblical leadership is consistent throughout the New and Old Testaments. Whenever God wants to do a work, He chooses a man. We have leaders such as Moses, Gideon, David, Elijah and others in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we have leaders such as Peter for the Jews and Paul for the Gentiles. In FCBC, I assert my clear leadership in three areas: Casting the Vision I lead the people by casting a clear and concrete vision for the church. In the early years, I spent countless hours sharing, discussing, praying and formulating the vision and strategies of the church. I realize that a vision is only powerful when it is fully owned by the people. Our vision and strategies were clearly set by the third year. Since that time, I have constantly shared and reinforced this for my leaders and members. I speak to every new member of the church about this vision in our new member orientation called “Spiritual Formation Weekend.” I challenge 442 Lawrence Khong every member to consider seriously our vision before joining our church. If someone is not able to subscribe to the vision, I strongly recommend that the person join another church. Once the vision and strategies have been forged, I expect every leader in the church to support them. This is especially so for pastoral staff. They are selected on the basis that as lay cell leaders and group supervisors they have demonstrated their commitment to the vision of the church. Today, the church has a paid staff of almost 200. In the last 10 years, we have had a staff turnover of fewer than 10 persons. There is a tremendous sense of unity on the team. The reason for this is that I have clearly provided leadership in casting for the people a clear vision and articulating specific strategies from the Lord. Creating an environment for Growth As leader, I am concerned about creating an environment conducive to growth. We have written a clear mission statement and we have agreed upon specific core values that define the uniqueness of FCBC, both in terms of belief and of practice. I will reproduce the mission statement here: We seek to fulfil God’s role for us in bringing the gospel to the world by developing every believer to his full potential in Jesus Christ within a vision & value driven environment and a Godcentred community. Preaching and Teaching from the Pulpit The main vehicle by which the growth environment is established comes through dynamic teaching and preaching during the celebration. Some think that the cell church consists of only cells. This is not true. Although the cell is the church, the church is more than just cells. The cells come together in the celebration meeting, absorbing the apostolic teaching that shapes the direction, commitment and spiritual atmosphere for the whole Body. The church in Acts 2 met in homes, but they came together to listen to the apostles’ teaching. I spend some 20 hours every week preparing my sermon. The sermon each week is more than teaching the Bible. Every sermon conveys a passion for God and communicates His purposes for His people. There is no doubt that the growth of FCBC is the result of God’s special grace in and through my life. As long as I walk humbly before the Lord in intimacy, the Lord will lead us from glory to glory. I realize that as I 443 Renewal Journal promote and support strong apostolic leadership, there is always the danger of abuse. It is altogether possible for apostles to abuse the authority God has given us as His apostolic leaders. Nevertheless, this apparently is a risk God is willing to take with us because, in His grace, He has chosen to do just that. God is more than able to bring down His erring servants just as quickly as He raises them up. Meanwhile, I believe in affirming God’s appointed leadership over His people. Affirmation with humility I believe that God’s leaders need affirmation and encouragement as they agree to take positions of leadership. Yet they must have the humility to serve. Strong leaders have often been misunderstood to be dictatorial and proud. For my part, though, I would rather affirm them, pray for them and release them to become a blessing to the Body of Christ. When FCBC started, my heart was completely shattered by the rejection of the leaders of my former church. The issues that finally brought about the split of the church turned personal. I was attacked for being controlling, dictatorial and even dangerously influential. At the inception of FCBC, I had lost my confidence to lead. Thus I became laid back, relinquishing the leadership to my core leaders who, together with me, started the church. In the beginning of 1987, a few months after the church had started, we invited Pastor Bill Yaegar from the First Baptist Church of Modesto, California, to speak to us about leadership. Pastor Yaegar was in his 60s and since then has retired. In his visit with us, Bill Yaegar noticed how discouraged I was. I could never forget his parting words to me at the Singapore airport. He said, “Son, I was praying for you this morning. The Lord told me He was giving you a new name. Your name shall be called ‘Ari.’ This is a Jewish name that means ‘lion.’ Lawrence, the Lord tells you that you are the ‘Lion of Singapore.’ You are to stand up and roar. And whenever others forget that you are the ‘Lion of Singapore,’ stand up and roar again!” No one had ever previously affirmed me that way. It was an extremely important moment in my ministry career. I realized in that instant that through all my years of Christian ministry, people were constantly 444 Lawrence Khong warning me to go slower, to be more cautious and to be more “humble.” This was the first time a seasoned servant of God had actually encouraged me to take charge, to lead and to press on. Something burst forth within the depths of my spirit. I have been roaring ever since for the glory of God and the advance of His kingdom! © From Chapter 13, “A Vision and Strategy for Church Growth”, in The Transforming Power of Revival edited by Harold Caballeros and Mel Winger (Peniel, Buenos Aires, 1998), excerpted from The New Apostolic Churches edited by C. Peter Wagner (Regal 8ooks, Ventura, 1998), used by permission. 445 Renewal Journal Renewal Journals, Volume 4 (16-20) Vision, Unity, Servant Leadership, Church, Life 446 5 New Wineskins for Pentecostal Studies Sam Hey Dr Sam Hey, a former high school science teacher, lectures in Biblical Studies at Citipointe Ministry College, the School of Ministries of Christian Heritage College in Brisbane. His article is part of his Ph.D. research. 1972, 292). “Until recently it was possible to obtain a doctorate in theology at a Pentecostal Bible College without knowledge of ancient or modern languages, without knowledge of the origin or composition of the Bible, without secondary education, and simply on the basis of six years’ instruction on the Bible” (Hollenweger As Pentecostalism has matured and been accepted into mainstream denominations this pre-critical fundamentalist view of the Bible has had to be replaced by more sophisticated approaches which are more widely accepted by those with whom they interact. But that change rang alarm bells for many Pentecostals who had discarded scholarship as faith-destroying and even demonic. Renewal Journal Pentecostal beliefs have been considerably influenced by the hermeneutical approaches that they have used. Pentecostalism inherited from the Reformation the belief that Scripture has meaning which is clearly and easily discerned (Osborne 1991, 9). From John Wesley they inherited the conviction that the text of Scripture needed to be integrated into their own life, speech, and devotional experience (Arrington 1988,378). The Holiness movement gave them a subjective fundamentalist view of Scripture and a suspicion of critical scholarship (Hollenweger 1972, 291). After an initial period of isolation, Pentecostal churches found increasing opportunity for interaction with evangelical churches which shared their common goals. The large Pentecostal Assemblies of God (AOG) movement joined the National Association of Evangelicals when it was founded in 1942 (Hyatt 1996, 179). The upward social mobility, higher incomes and suburbanisation which followed World War II led to a change in educational outlook and aspirations of American Pentecostalism led many members to pursue a more sophisticated understanding of their beliefs. Bible school training was improved and the Bible-based theology programs of the 1940’s were mostly replaced by liberal arts degree programs (Menzies 1971, 376). The change in training methods has led to changes in the thinking of the graduating church leaders. Through them it is changing the Pentecostal movements. The inauguration of credentialing of AOG ministers in 1959 was an indicator of the increasing concern for conformity (Menzies 1971, 376). With an increasing interaction with evangelical churches came the adoption of their historical- critical methods. This led to an emphasis on the context and the pursuit of the intention of original author of the text (Cargal 1993, 163; Fee 1991,86). This development has not been welcomed by older traditional Pentecostals who say that it threatens the Pentecostal belief in a post-salvation reception of the Spirit evidenced by glossolalia. The younger, newer graduates are also concerned. Sheppard says that a dependence on critical exegesis challenges the vitality and freedom 448 Sam Hey that characterised traditional Pentecostalism and will endanger its future (Sheppard 1994, 121). He says that Pentecostals were beginning to pursue the historical-grammatical method at a time when biblical and theological scholarship has moved beyond this emphasis (Sheppard 1994, 121). Sheppard singles out Gordon Fee as an example of this. Joseph Byrd suggests that the Pentecostal emphasis on detailed critical exposition in seminaries has produced pastors with a good knowledge of technical exegesis but lacking the prophetic edge which characterised early Pentecostalism (Byrd 1993, 207). The application of scholarly methods such as that of Fee and Menzies has challenged the distinctive Pentecostal belief that a post-salvation “baptism in the Spirit” evidenced by tongues is the intended teaching and the normative pattern of Scripture. When Fee’s critical methods are used, the experiences of Jesus and the apostles are found to be so different from those of modern day Christians that they must be considered irrelevant (Fee 1991,94). The Pentecostal claim to an intended pattern in Acts which can be applied to all Christians is found to be unwarranted. Glossolalia as the sole evidence of the Pentecostal baptism is also found to be untenable (Fee 1991,99). The historical method and pursuit of the author’s intention has created an unbridgeable historical gap which has led Pentecostal scholars in recent times to question this approach (Cargal 1993, 163). Many Pentecostal scholars in recent times have begun to look to other approaches for support for the distinctive Pentecostal beliefs. Post-modern Pentecostalism Recent editions of the Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, Pneuma, reveal that the hermeneutical sophistication of Pentecostals has risen dramatically over the last decade as they have begun to integrate the latest hermeneutical practices. This is seen in the writings of Pentecostal scholars such as Cargal (1993), Byrd (1993), Harrington and Pattern (1994) and Arrington (1994). These scholars have begun to point out the inadequacies and dangers of the Pentecostal emphasis on intentionality and the grammatical, historical, and critical context of the text. They have looked to post-modern hermeneutical methods instead (Mclean 1984, 36). 449 Renewal Journal While it is beyond the scope of this article to evaluate post-modernism to any large degree, it is important to consider the ways in which this influential movement is affecting the development of Pentecostal hermeneutics in general and the distinctive Pentecostal beliefs in particular. In recent times the ability to locate an absolute, intended meaning within the text has been challenged by the recognition that the interpreters of the text “cannot silence their own subjectivity, or achieve an objective neutrality” (Thiselton 1977, 316). Gerald Sheppard says that both liberals and fundamentalists have perpetuated the same false notion that the original intention of the author can be located. Both of these “left and right wing modernist groups” are pursuing the same impossible task (Sheppard 1994, 121). Cargal (1993, 163) and Arrington (1994, 101) observe that most Pentecostal preachers have been unaffected by the greater acceptance of critical scholastic methods. Many Pentecostals have continued the Pentecostal practise of interpreting the same text differently at different times to meet the different needs that arise. Pentecostal readings of Acts have had less to do with a rationalistic, inductive method of biblical interpretation and more to do with a creative interaction with the text of Acts (Macchia 1993, 65). Pentecostals usually emphasise the immediacy of the text and multiple dimensions of meaning arising from the “leading of the Spirit”. They give scant consideration to its historical-critical context. This approach invariably leads to multiple meanings and multiple applications the same text. At times one of these meanings can attract strong support and become a fixed belief. The post-salvation experience evidenced by glossolalia is an example of this. Many Pentecostal scholars in recent times have claimed that the Pentecostal method has “more continuity with post-modern modes of interpretation than with the critical-historical method” (Cargal 1993, 165; Arrington, 1994, 101). Post-modernism distinguishes itself from modernism by the rejection of the notion that “only what is historically and objectively true is meaningful,” (Cargal 1973, 171). However, it must be remembered that Pentecostalism and post-modernism have different reasons for rejecting this claim. 450 Sam Hey Some Pentecostals, such as Howard Ervin, have suggested that the post-modern questioning of modern scientific certainties provides support for a return to the ancient world views of biblical times (Ervin, 1981,19). Ervin’s view is a naive misrepresentation of postmodernism. While post-modernism recognise that reason and rationalism cannot tell us everything, it does not claim that critical thinking is passe, but simply that it is limited (Cargal 1993, 178). Despite this qualification, the “post-modern vision of reality opens up the possibility of the transcendent virtually closed by modernity.” (Cargal 1993, 178). Therefore Cargal is able to say that developments within post- modern methods of interpretation hold promise for Pentecostals (Cargal 1993,187). The Pentecostal emphasis upon the Spirit as the source of multiple meanings of the text is an important contribution which Pentecostalism can make to the Western Church. Cargal says that “the [Pentecostal] recognition of the dialogical role of the experiences of the believer in both shaping and being shaped by particular interpretations of the biblical text is both compatible with certain poststructuralist views of the reader as creator of significations and an important critique of objectivist views of the meaning of the Bible and its authority” (Cargal 1993, 186). The larger text In this last decade Pentecostals have recognised that the process of interacting with biblical narratives such as Acts is “more complex and creative than a mere historical investigation into the original intention of the author/editor” (Macchia 1993, 67). Pentecostal beliefs such as the belief in the sign of glossolalia did not just arise from the biblical text, but from the larger historical and cultural texts with which Pentecostalism was interacting. In recent years Pentecostal students of hermeneutics have recognised that the study of the text needs to be broadened to include the intertextual connection which exists between the biblical texts, the ritual “texts” enacted in worship and the relational “texts” of the faith community (Dempster 1993, 129; Cargal 1993, 163). 451 Renewal Journal A trans-contextual basis is needed which allows the “comparative evaluation of contextual criteria of interpretation and indeed the purposes for which each set of criteria gains its currency” (Thiselton 1992, 6). Pentecostals have not interpreted the text as individuals, but as members of communities of readers who cannot be isolated from their communal expectations. It was the expectations of the faith community and its social setting which ultimately determined the Pentecostal interpretation of glossolalia in Acts and not historicalgrammatical concerns. Pentecostalism is increasingly recognising the role of its traditions and Christian communities in shaping its beliefs (Fee 1991,69). The text of Scripture is usually read in the light of one’s own sociological, cultural, religious, ecclesiastical and national histories. Fee says that the Pentecostal belief in a baptism in the Holy Spirit distinct from conversion and evidenced by tongues “came less from the study of Acts, as from their own personal histories, in which it happened to them in this way and therefore was assumed to be the norm even in the New Testament” (Fee 1991, 69). The Pentecostal New Testament scholar, Gordon Fee, has challenged the Pentecostal beliefs which have arisen from their traditions suggesting that they need to be re-examined on the basis of the biblical texts (Fee 1991, 69). Some Pentecostals see this approach as an implicit threat to the Pentecostal belief in tongues as the evidence of a post salvation Spirit baptism (Burgess and McGee 1988, 305). Plurality of meanings Church of God pastor and scholar, Joseph Byrd believes that new hermeneutical methods such as those of Paul Ricoeur are needed if the distinctive Pentecostal beliefs are to survive the sophisticated theological treatments by Pentecostal scholars such as Fee (Byrd 1993,203). The hermeneutics of Holland and Ricoeur offer promise to those who seek to preserve the Pentecostal tradition as it acknowledges the role of the readers in projecting their own interests, desires, and selfhood into the text (Thiselton 1992,472). Wolfgang Isler suggests that biblical texts are deliberately ambivalent 452 Sam Hey (Thiselton 1992,517). This ambivalence has enabling interpretations such as those of Pentecostals to meet the spiritual needs of twentieth century Christians. Isler suggests that the text deliberately invites the reader to place themselves into different roles within the textual setting (Thiselton 1992, 517). Sheppard suggests that Pre-critical Pentecostalism should not be dismissed as uncritical, but recognised as attuned and acclimatised to the cultural values of the marginalised groups in which it began (Sheppard 1994, 127). Michael Foucault has shown that modern ways of knowing have led to pre- and post-modern values being overlooked. Early Pentecostal hermeneutics has focused on subjective, intuitive ways of knowing, the validity of which needs to be reconsidered (Foulcault 1973, 217-249). Pentecostal hermeneutics must allow for the claim that the Holy Spirit reveals deeper meanings of the text that allows it to be culturally relevant (Cargal 1993,174). The difficulty with this proposal is that it easily leads to excesses and misinterpretations. The emergence of the unitarian Pentecostals is an example of this (Synan 1997,161). Unless other controls exist, Fee suggests that “we must abide by rules of good exegesis and exert extreme caution in considering any deeper meanings.” (Fee 1979, 39). In recent times the task of hermeneutics has been widened to consider the way in which biblical texts have been used to serve the interests of different groups and to loosen or maintain dominating power structures and authorise values which serve the interests of individuals or corporate entities within religious communities (Thiselton 1992, 7). Recent Pentecostal studies by Margaret Poloma confirm that glossolalia has provided support for the Pentecostal protest against modernity and motivation for evangelism (Poloma 1989, 3). Glossolalia has also been a symbol used to promote individual, social and racial equality, they have been replaced by beliefs which condone organisational, sexual and racial dominance (Poloma 1989, 3). Poloma says that while charismata such as tongues are a factor in the rise and revitalisation of religious movements, “it seems to depart quickly once it has completed the task of institution building” (Poloma 1989,232). 453 Renewal Journal The Appeal of Pentecostalism in a Post-modern Age It is not difficult to locate reasons for the appeal of Pentecostalism in a post-modern world. Pentecostalism has challenged the perceived threats inherent in post-modern approaches and has provided appealing alternatives to post-modern dilemmas. In contrast to the uncertainty arising from a complex multiplicity in post-modernists, Pentecostalism speaks of one absolute unchanging God who is behind all different views. In contrast to the post-modern perplexity in facing an avalanche of information, Pentecostalism reduces truth to one source of information, the Bible and one interpreter - the Holy Spirit. Postmodernism accepts the uncertainty of past and of the future events. In contrast to the variety of experiences which exist in a post-modern world, Pentecostals claim the one Holy Spirit which behind the variety of charismatic experiences. Glossolalia is still the chief Pentecostal experience and it continues to provided evidence of a supernatural God and an invisible world. The attempt by some Pentecostals to align Pentecostal hermeneutics with the popular post-modern movement must not overlook the differences that exist between them. While post- modernism is in reality an extreme form of modernism, and a “misnomer for ultra modernity” (Oden in Dockery 1995, 26), Pentecostalism is a reaction against modernity. Post-modernism accepts the anti-supernatural, pro-critical approaches that were important in modernism and these would not be accepted by most Pentecostals. “Although the post-modernist hesitates to deny the validity of all religions”, says Lints, “he hesitates also to assert the exclusive truth of but one religion.” (Lints 1993, 206). Pentecostalism, in contrast still holds to a single Christian truth. Glossolalia is considered to provide support for the existence of the supernatural and evidence that Pentecostalism is the one true faith. 454 Sam Hey Paul Ricouer Pentecostals appear to be divided between the modern, critical approach typified by Fee and the post-modern approach of recent scholars. One solution to this dilemma is Paul Ricoeur’s post- critical hermeneutic (Byrd 1993, 207). Paul Ricoeur has attempted to combine attempts to reconstruct the original meaning of the text with attempts to existentially apply readings of the text to contemporary situations (Bleicher, 1980, 217). His description of the movement of the reader from a naive, intuitive interpreter of the text to an increasingly selfcritical analyst mirrors the development of Pentecostal hermeneutics well. This hermeneutic, which has developed from that of Schleiermacher asks us to listen with tolerance and mutual respect and to balance the creative with the analytical (Thisleton 1992, 4). Ricoeur has shown that objectivity and subjectivity need not be considered as opposites, but two aspects of the one paradigm that exist along side each other as “two sides of the one coin”. These two should interact. The Pentecostal praxis informed what was found in Scripture, while at the same time careful study of the text has informed Pentecostal praxis (Moore 1987, 11). By combining the benefits of the Critical-historical-literary method with the recognition that multiple interpretations of the text exist the Pentecostal interpreter is equipped to discover and applied the “biblical” message. (Arrington 1994, 101). The dual recognition of the objective and the subjective leads to the acknowledgement that the differing understandings of the glossolalic references in Acts have been shaped by the differing contexts in which they were formed. Modern hermeneutics can no longer a search for the “true” or “historical” meaning. It must examine the effect of the text and investigate the processes which the text creatively produces and sets in motion. The hermeneutics of Ricoeur stresses the creative effect of symbols, metaphors and narratives on religious imagination and thought. This method encourages an awareness of the diversity of meanings that the text will present to diversity of readers (Byrd 1993, 211). When applied to the interpretation of the glossolalic passages in Acts this method would suggest that Pentecostal and non Pentecostal interpretations exist side by side as alternative readings of the text. 455 Renewal Journal The recognition that symbols within the text will be re-experienced by succeeding communities and generations in different ways builds greater tolerance and understanding of the ways in which beliefs such as that concerning glossolalia change. New generations of Pentecostals will not be expected to have the same experience of the text’s symbols as the first generation of Pentecostals (Byrd 1993, 211). They must be allowed to develop their own views which are appropriate to their own times and situations. Professor of Sociology, Margaret Poloma suggests that it is not the glossolalic experience alone which makes Pentecostalism distinctive, but the expectant social reality in which it occurs (Poloma 1989, 184). Malony and Lovekin say that the charismatic group, and not the individual’s experience determine the effects of glossolalia upon a person (1977, 383). Poloma says that the Pentecostal experience must involve the unexpected and be constantly renewed if it is to survive the pressures of typification, patterned role expectations and institutionalization (Poloma 1989, 185). Consequently, an exciting new wineskins for biblical scholarship is the emerging hermeneutic of Pentecostalism which challenges the historical-critical approach, and invites the Holy Spirit who inspired Scripture to interpret it to the faith community and to individuals within that community. 456 6 New Wineskins to Develop Ministry Geoff Waugh Dr Geoff Waugh is the founding editor of the Renewal Journal. This article is part of his doctoral research in missiology (the study of mission) and updated in his book Body Ministry. Ministry education, and theological education, are changing, radically. Now any church can offer Spirit-filled courses with high quality accredited programs, using modern technology. You teach your own people, using abundant resources available. You run your own leadership training, full of fire, accessing media such as courses available on the internet. Scene 1: A large charismatic church in any city in 2010 They allocate trained full time and part time staff with modern resources to run their two year government accredited charismatic Bible College diploma, bachelor and post-graduate courses. Government subsidies cover fees for their full time students and student workers. They train their own leadership on the job and for the future through Spirit-filled study and ministry, especially learning to move in their personal and corporate gifting and anointing. Many people in the church study subjects there part-time for their own enjoyment and development. Renewal Journal Scene 2: A small charismatic church in any town in 2010 They run small study groups led by volunteers such as teachers or home group leaders for their people enrolled in accredited distance education courses in ministry. They have people enrolled in diploma, bachelor and post-graduate courses in charismatic studies. Government subsidies cover fees for their full time students and student workers. They train their own leadership on the job and for the future through Spirit-filled study and ministry, especially learning to move in their personal and corporate gifting and anointing. Many people in the church study subjects part-time for their own enjoyment and development. In other words, you can now study pentecostal or charismatic courses at diploma, bachelor and post-graduate levels at home, or in a study group in your church, or in your home group. Individual subjects are available to you right now. This is new for many Pentecostal and charismatic Christians. In the past, they were often suspicious of study because it seemed to put out the fire through liberal teachings full of doubt and unbelief. Seminaries are cemeteries, they said! Now churches and Christians are rediscovering that Spirit-filled study can fan the flame and set people on fire. Our ministry is the ministry of Jesus Christ in his church and in the world. He was certainly filled with the fire of the Spirit and has set people on fire for 2000 years. This is the vital starting point and the most radical. Jesus ministered in the power of the Spirit of the Lord. So must we. Consequently, our ministry is charismatic by definition, nature and function. The Holy Spirit is given to the church so that we can minister in the power of the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit, the charismata, enable that ministry. Urban Holmes (1971:248) notes: The heart of the Christian ministry is its charismatic liminal quality. Without question there is a place for professional capacities in ministry but it is the charismatic character of the church that lends strength to professions such as counselling, teaching, and community organization that they cannot possess otherwise. 458 Geoff Waugh Hendrick Kraemer (1958:180) emphasised the issue: The point we can’t evade is that, true as it may be that for many important historical reasons the Church has become from a charismatic fellowship an institutional Church, she must acknowledge that, as to her nature, she is always charismatic, for she is the working field of the Holy Spirit. Her being an institution is a human necessity, but not the nature of the Church. Ministry education gets caught in that institutional bind, even while seeking to respond to the Spirit. One powerful means of freeing us from that institutional bind is to open education for ministry to everyone. The challenge facing theological [and ministry] education today is * to take an open attitude to structures and methods and to design programs that will be open to the whole people of God, * to take an open attitude toward curriculum design so as to build on the students’ interests and needs and motivation, * to take an open attitude toward the role of the student and the role of the teacher so that both can become fully involved in determining and developing the learning experiences, * to take an open attitude toward evaluation and to discover more relevant, more human, more Christian ways to validate our program (Kinsler 1981: 86). Not only do modern delivery systems provide us with resources to transform our educational task, but the organisational shift from bureaucratic structures towards networking offers new possibilities for effective open education for ministry. In other words, you can train for any pentecostal or charismatic ministry anywhere now. 459 Renewal Journal 1. Third Wave Megatrends The emerging social and cultural context in which we now live has been called the Third Wave (by Alvin Toffler) and its major characteristics described as Megatrends (by John Naisbitt). These are not to be confused with Peter Wagner’s “third wave” of renewal (first the pentecostal wave, second the charismatic wave, and the third wave in all churches). Those waves of pentecostal renewal in the twentieth century penetrated all the current social/cultural waves of tribal life (as in Africa now), town life (as in country towns now), and technological life (as in huge cities now). The Industrial Revolution saw a shift from a tribal, agricultural society to the emergence of the town with its mine or factory, printed media and supporting bureaucracies including schools and suburban churches. Professional ministry gradually shifted from the village priest for all the people to denominational ministers educated in theological schools of the classroom model. We now experience a radical social restructuring ushered in by the accelerating changes of a technological revolution. No terms fully describe it. Alvin Toffler writes of three waves: agricultural, industrial and what he used to call super-industrial (1970) but changed to “third wave” (1980), arguing that most terms narrow rather than expand our understanding because they focus on a single aspect rather than describe the whole. “Post-modern” has become the current term used to label these profound changes. Other phrases describing this emerging era include: Harvey Cox’s technopolitan society (following tribal and town); Marshall McLuhan’s electric era and global village; Daniel Bell’s post-industrial society; and John Naisbitt’s information society. John Naisbitt (1982, 1990) examines megatrends shaping this new era, many of which apply directly to education for ministry. He describes American cultural changes but these trends also apply to all societies experiencing the global technological revolution. I comment briefly on five of his first list of megatrends (1982:1) and two from his megatrends 2000 list (1990:276, 248) which seem particularly 460 Geoff Waugh relevant to education for ministry. In other words, you can now be involved in a huge range of world-class opportunities for study and ministry right where you are, in your home group, cell group, study group, or mission group or in your own home alone. 1.1. From an Industrial Society to an Information Society: Although we continue to think we live in an industrial society, we have in fact changed to an economy based on the creation and distribution of information. Education for ministry now benefits from educational processes and resources common to society including the proliferation of media which liberate education from confinement in classrooms and make it available in ‘schools without walls’. Britain’s Open University is an example. External Christian degree studies is another. Teachers and students can engage in mutually enriching interaction and research at the interface of context and content, facilitated by educational and communications technology. For example, the computer is replacing the typewriter, the photocopier has overtaken the duplicator, the video is taking over from the audio cassette, the resource centre is assimilating the library and going electronic, the modem connects us with the Internet, and mail is increasingly by fax or e-mail. An internet copy of this paper is now more useful than a printed copy! It reaches more people, anywhere in the world. Anyone can download it and use it. Quotes can be immediately woven into other tasks, including more articles! The material can be used and re-used in multi-media, including adapted to OHT for study groups or adapted and printed in Study Guides and Readings. In other words, you can download this article from the Renewal Journal web page, reproduce it for your home group, study group, church paper, or tertiary study. You can adapt it, and turn a summary of it into a hand-out or an OHT sheet. I’ve done all that with this article and many other articles - often. 461 Renewal Journal 1.2. From Centralisation to Decentralisation: We have rediscovered the ability to act innovatively and achieve results - from the bottom up. We are familiar with this trend and encourage it in many of our church structures. It also applies to education for ministry. We choose resources and studies from a widening range of possibilities. At the personal level, increasing numbers of people study for theological or ministry degrees, often by open education or distance education. At the church level, innovative congregations or creative people in churches find ways to enrich the ministry education of their people, and this may include external studies in education for ministry which was once available only to full time college students. At the college level, many colleges now offer external studies or distance education with decentralised programs related specifically to local contexts and guided by local tutors. In other words, you are no longer dependent on other people to chart your course or even your beliefs. You do that, led by the Spirit in fellowship with God’s people. 1.3. From Institutional to Self-Help: We are shifting from institutional help to more self-reliance in all aspects of our lives. Institutional Christianity is big business, but many traditional churches decline while home groups multiply and house churches proliferate. Independent churches attract increasing numbers, and some denominational congregations experiencing rapid growth sit rather loosely or uncomfortably within traditional structures, often challenging those structures prophetically. Large numbers of educated and committed Christians join or form study groups, renewal groups, charismatic congregations or covenant communities. Continuing theological education is another example of self-help programs. Institutional help or direction is often by-passed in favour of a wide range of personal interests including study for various 462 Geoff Waugh degrees now increasingly accessible from colleges around the world. This self-help option is increasingly taken where external study is available. In other words, you can chart your own course in study and ministry according to your personal calling, gifting and anointing. That course can fan the flame in you and set you on fire for powerful ministry if you choose your study well. 1.4. From Either/Or to Multiple Options: From a narrow either/or society with a limited range of personal choices we are exploding into a free-wheeling multiple-option society. Demarcation lines along denominational or doctrinal differences once characterised churches, theological colleges, and even Bible colleges. These increasingly blur and merge within the unity of the Spirit and in the ecumenical landscape. Renewed Baptists, for example, may identify more deeply with Catholic Charismatic spirituality than with their own historical distinctives. ‘Rebaptism’ is a burning pastoral issue as increasing numbers choose to move freely among differing groups. Multiplying home groups discover authentic unity and raise eucharistic problems. Traditional understandings of ordination and ministry are increasingly challenged, as this statements over half a century ago: The question we are now considering is that of the possible ordination of the ordinary farmer or merchant or lawyer, who is prepared to give freely to the Church the time that he can spare from the ordinary occupation in which most of his time must be spent. The proposal seems to us strange only because, from the point of view of the Early Church, we have got things thoroughly turned upside down. ... It is hardly too much to say that in those days almost anyone could celebrate the Holy Communion, and hardly anyone except the bishop could preach; whereas now almost anyone can preach (or, rather is allowed to preach!) and hardly anyone can celebrate Holy Communion. Lack of balance in either 463 Renewal Journal direction is to be deplored (Neill 1957:65). Local churches as well as Bible colleges need to take our multiple option context seriously and offer a wide range of options adapted to people’s calling, giftings, anointings, ministries and learning styles. An example of this is the learning contract or agreement and the importance of practicum or field education learning and ministry experiences. In other words, you will probably be ordained to your ministry in your lifetime, if you want to be, whether you are male or female, employee or boss, working in the church or in the world. Many churches in Australia are already doing this. 1.5. From Hierarchies to Networking: We are giving up our dependence on hierarchical structures in favour of informal networks. Naisbitt (1982:197) identifies three fundamental reasons making networks a crucial social form now: (1) the death of traditional structures, (2) the din of information overload, and (3) the past failures of hierarchies. He adds, The vertical to horizontal power shift that networks bring about will be enormously liberating for individuals. Hierarchies promote moving up and getting ahead, producing stress, tension, and anxiety. Networking empowers the individual, and people in networks tend to nurture one another. In the network environment, rewards come by empowering others, not by climbing over them (1982:197, 204). That is crucial. It fits with Christian commitment to love and serve one another. And it helps to overcome the flaws of bureaucratic Christianity, such as the Peter Principle: ‘In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence’ (Peter 1969:22). 464 Geoff Waugh Where that happens in churches, people now tend to choose a better option, often going elsewhere. Toffler describes the shift toward networking this way: We are, in fact, witnessing the arrival of a new organizational system that will increasingly challenge and ultimately supplant bureaucracy. This is the organisation of the future. ... Shortcuts that by-pass the hierarchy are increasingly employed. ... The cumulative result of such small changes is a massive shift from vertical to lateral communication systems (1970:120, 133). The impact of networking is reflected in our growing use of short term task groups (instead of long term committees) and the supportive, nurturing home group or cell group structures (instead of formal midweek prayer meetings in pews). Contextual education for ministry will help to prepare ministry which can function well in a networking environment. Not only do ministers and leaders need to know how to facilitate task groups, study groups and home fellowships (rather than be threatened by them), but the shape of ministry can be transformed in this context as task group specialists and cell group leaders minister and enable ministry, disciple others and are discipled in mutuality. Further, Bible Colleges can provide essential resources for use in the learning and ministering networking groups as well as for individuals. In other words, you will get your rewards and fulfil your ministry “by empowering others, not by climbing over them.” 1.6. The triumph of the individual The great unifying theme at the conclusion of the 20th century is the triumph of the individual. Networking frees people from bureaucratic restrictions. New relationships emerge in voluntary associations including the church and its activities. Technology empowers the emerging freedom of the individual. The motorcar, then the aircraft, dramatically increased 465 Renewal Journal individual mobility. Millions now communicate freely within the electronic village. The freedom of the individual under God within committed community is an increasing reality of church life and education for ministry. Individual giftings and callings are openly pursued, encouraged and channelled into effective ministry within the body of Christ. Gifted ministries emerge in ordinary people, fuelled and trained by the best teachers and leaders in the world through video, casettes, TV programs, internet articles which now include video and audio preaching and teaching. In other words, you can use any or all of these resources as you serve God in the power of His Spirit, doing what He leads you to do, such as in personal networks, home groups or house churches. 1.7. Religious revival At the dawn of the third millennium there are unmistakable signs of a worldwide multidenominational religious revival. Naisbitt notes widespread religious revival including charismatic renewal, such as one-fifth, or 10 million, of America’s 53.5 million Catholics in 1990 were charismatic. Now one third of practising Christians worldwide are pentecostal/charismatic. Traditional, doctrinal, cognitive Christianity is increasingly challenged by transforming experience of God. This has immediate application to education for ministry. An urgent task for us all is to make our ministry education in renewal as widely available as possible to meet this rapidly expanding revival. Open education for ministry can flow anywhere through networking Christian ministries to inform and inspire, to liberate and equip leadership and multiply ministry. In other words, you will be increasingly relating to others in revival from all kinds of denominations, or none, and with all kinds of theologies (where Jesus is Lord). That’s one reason why good Spirit-filled study can help you see more clearly and serve more fervently. 466 Geoff Waugh 2. Open Education Possibilities Adult education, continuing education and ministry education now offer wide scope for self-directed learning, which Malcolm Knowles calls andragogy (1980). Malcolm Knowles developed the concept of andragogy to describe self-directed learning in contrast to pedagogy viewed as mainly teacher-directed learning. In its broadest meaning, self-directed learning describes a process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes ... Self-directed learning usually takes place in association with various kinds of helpers, such as teachers, tutors, mentors, resource people, and peers. There is a lot of mutuality among a group of self-directed learners (Knowles 1975:18). Many people seek out these possibilities for self-directed education, especially in extension or distance education modes. Illich’s deschooling proposals (and similar expressions of schools without walls) describe networking systems which apply to education in general but also to open education for ministry. Instead of fitting educational resources to the educator’s curricula goals, he proposes four different approaches which enable students to gain access to educational resources which may help to define and achieve their goals (Illich 1971:81). These are: 2.1. Reference Services to Educational Objects - which facilitate access to things or processes used for formal learning. Educational objects can include resources found in most churches such as libraries, resource centres, book shops, study notes, CDs, audio and video cassettes, TV (e.g. open university), ands study groups using overhead projectors, whiteboards, and a range of resources. In other words, you can now offer video nights or seminars for a huge range of training including counselling, worship, evangelism, home 467 Renewal Journal group leadership and youth and children’s ministries. Leaders from around the world come into your home or group by video. 2.2. Skill Exchanges - which permit persons to list their skills, the conditions under which they are willing to serve and the addresses at which they can be reached. Skill exchanges can include activities such as tutoring or people who can teach or disciple others, musicians, ministry task groups, and educational or service specialists. Most informal church programs use these skill exchanges – musicians train musicians; home group and study group leaders train other cell or study group leaders. We call it discipling. In other words, you can be in a group where someone disciples you (choose well!) and also in a group where you disciple others. One great way to learn something is to also teach it to others. Use your gifts and skills, don’t bury them! Many people use their distance education study materials for study groups, teaching or preaching. 2.3. Peer-Matching - a communications network which permits persons to describe the learning activity in which they wish to engage, in the hope of finding a partner for the inquiry. Peer matches can include persons interested in learning skills or forming study groups, including a wide range of ministry education activities. Some church directories now list areas of interest, and people can easily establish common interest groups. In other words, you can help people in your home group or church to identify their interests from a list (there are plenty around, or make up your own in the group), and then to match them. It happens informally anyway - people who like surfing go surfing together; intercessors love to pray together. 2.4. Reference Services to Educators-at-Large - who can be listed in a directory giving the addresses and self-descriptions of professionals, para-professionals, and freelancers, along with conditions of access to their services. 468 Geoff Waugh Educational leaders in churches can assist in exploratory activities and in helping students achieve specific goals. Practicum and field education studies often link students with mentors and role models in ministry such as in music, youth or children’s work, counselling, evangelism and other significant ministries. Open education for ministry can explore these networking facilities. Networks, along with the other megatrends, both require and enable contextually appropriate models of education for ministry, and help to open the theologising process to the whole church in an intentional and integrative way. In other words, you can mix life and ministry with continuing education such as in distance education, learning with others, or on your own, how to live for God and minister in the power of His Spirit. 3. Implications and Directions Open education for ministry can intentionally address these contextual issues of accelerating change and integrate traditional classroom procedures with open education processes. Significant implications and directions include equipping the church for ministry, contextualising education for ministry, providing resources for the church, and renewing the church. 3.1. Equipping the Church for Ministry. Open education for ministry not only equips pastors or leaders for ministry but opens that process to the whole church. Ralph Winter, an extension pioneer through the Presbyterian Seminary in Guatemala, observed that their extension program cost less per student, allowed a smaller faculty to deal with a large number of students (by using seminar tutors), stressed independent study and reflection, attracted more candidates to the ministry, reached more mature students, enabled teaching on several levels more easily, and allowed students to work in the context of their ministry. Renewal Journal He emphasised that extension was not primarily a new method of teaching but that its greatest significance was as a new method of selection and equipping for ministry, since the underlining purpose for working by extension is in fact more important than any of the kaleidoscopic varieties of extension as a method - it is the simple goal of enlisting and equipping for ministry precisely those who are best suited to it (Kinsler 1978:x). Opening ministry education to the whole church helps to reach the real leaders and equip them. Missionary Roland Allen severely criticised western styles of education for ministry for failing to do this. His points include these (Mulholland 1976:16-18): (1) The apostles required maturity and experience with Spirit-filled giftedness for leadership; we ordain young, inexperienced graduates. (2) The apostles say nothing about full time employment in the church; we require it. (3) The apostles selected the real leaders; we emphasise a subjective, internal call. (4) The early church valued spiritual and practical formation in life and ministry; we value academic credentials. (5) The early church allowed full ministry including the sacraments; we deny this to many groups. Open education for ministry gives the real leaders access to theology in a ministry context. These spiritually gifted and pastorally experienced leaders may, or may not, be officially ordained but they function in significant pastoral ministry not only with individuals but also as task group leaders, home group pastors, or worship leaders and preachers. In other words, you can run your own ministry training centre, as in your home group or study group or ministry group or mission group. You can now use world standard resources in your own local training. 470 Geoff Waugh 3.2. Contextualising Education for ministry. Opening ministry education shifts the focus from the classroom to the context of ministry, from preparation for ministry to formation in ministry. Classrooms will undoubtedly continue to provide an essential means of serious theologising, especially when students’ ministries, gifts and contexts are taken seriously. Open education for ministry can broaden this approach. Ross Kinsler emphasised the role of extension in that process: The full significance of theological education by extension will be perceived when local people discover that they are being invited to become primary agents of both ministry and theology. For theology itself is the interplay of Christian life/ministry and reflection, of Gospel and context, of God and history. ... Theological education by extension can be treated as a stop gap for those who can’t go to seminary, a partial, pragmatic substitute for the ‘real thing’. Or it can become a new and powerful attempt to return ministry and theology to the people, where they really belong (Kinsler 1983:3, 21). Committed Christians often challenge entrenched structures with spiritual sensitivity, prophetic insight, pastoral concern and intellectual integrity. The prophetic and teaching role of Bible College staff can be increasingly exercised by informed people who may never sit in college classrooms but who now have greater access to theological resources. This is closer to the New Testament pattern for ministry formation and education. The principal model for ministerial formation is Jesus himself, who continues to call his followers into his ministry and mission, and the classic text is Mark 10:42-45, which speaks of service and self-giving. One of the enigmas we face is that theological education ... leads to privilege and power, whereas ministry is fundamentally concerned with servanthood (Kinsler 1983:6). Open education for ministry can fulfil a significant servant role in the 471 Renewal Journal church by providing ministry education for the whole church, not just the elite few. In other words, you can minister as Jesus did, serve as Jesus did, disciple others as Jesus did - without desks in a classroom, but in life, in homes, in relationships. 3.3. Providing Resources for the Church. Open education for ministry provides resources for the whole church which can be used anywhere. Many churches now make these resources available, and produce their own. Resource centres in churches supply audio and video cassettes as well as books and magazines including periodicals or journals. Guest speakers are now recorded on cassettes (audio and video) and copies can be widely distributed. The same applies to lecturing or teaching. Distance education uses these facilities extensively. Resource directories and publicity through church papers provide the church with access to these. Many resources, simply produced and widely distributed, facilitate group sharing as well as provide significant input. Taped lectures or sermons, for example, can easily include discussion questions or tasks for discussion and action. External students value these resources. Cassettes (easily used with accompanying material) become not only formal study tools, but also provide up-dated resources for continuing education, for personal enquiry, and for seminar or tutorial groups. More sophisticated distance education models can be developed also. University external studies departments offer many examples. Clive Lawless, a lecturer in Educational Technology at the Open University in London comments on how Britain’s largest university teaches at a distance using a wide range of media including audio and video cassettes available for personal use as well as broadcast through educational radio and television. Most of their courses involve regular seminars as well as providing personal study resources. 472 Geoff Waugh Lawless (1974:8) notes three important implications of the Open University for ministry education: (1) Open education for ministry methods can be used on a large scale and at the highest educational levels; (2) Open education for ministry needs personnel and resources to concentrate on it; and (3) Open education for ministry needs to use a wide range of media and materials. He says that we need to ask two questions concerning the range of media and materials available: whether all possible media and materials are being used, and whether they are being used in an effectively integrated way. In other words, you can have world leaders such Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Benny Hinn, Yonggi Cho and many others in your home or home group via video or cassette, leading to lively discussion and mutual ministry. Current educational media provide resources for the church and in the process opens the classroom to the whole church. This in turn helps to further equip the church for its ministry. 3.4. Renewing the Church. Ministerial formation is committed to renewing the church but often frustrated and bound by entrenched traditions. Those limiting structures are increasingly by-passed in the shift to lateral networking fuelled by creative open ministry education resources. The concern of theological educators in many places is to liberate our institutions and churches from dysfunctional structures in order to respond in new ways to the Spirit of God in our age and in our many diverse contexts. Theological education by extension is a tremendously versatile and flexible approach to ministerial training; it is also now a spreading, deepening movement for change, subversion and renewal (Kinsler 1981:101). Rigid or traditional structures may be made more flexible with new 473 Renewal Journal developments which emerge out of creative and courageous responses to the Spirit of God. Renewal ministries in the church function naturally and powerfully along flexible networks of committed groups. Some of these fit within denominational structures, though uncomfortably at times. Others emerge as new structures, mixing formerly separated Christians into various expressions of “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. Networks of committed and creative groupings continue to multiply. Larger congregations also need networks of small groups for personal fellowship, effective ministry and service to others. These congregations usually provide significant ministry education resources in paperbacks, magazines, audio and video cassettes, and also produce their own resources. One common example of such resources in ministry education made widely available are external studies units in degree courses. These often include: (1) A study guide, including administrative, content, resource and assessment information; (2) Notes and/or essential text(s); (3) A reader containing significant articles or book chapters; (4) Resource materials, such as disks, and audio and/or video cassettes. These become available not only for individual or tutorial study, but also for use in ministry. Bible College staff have abundant resources to make their teaching available anywhere as resources for open education for ministry, including overseas. This includes accredited diploma and degree programs. Open education for ministry uses these emerging opportunities to creatively involve the church in contextual theological reflection. It is a significant force to equip the church for its mission in the world. In other words, you are a theologian (you have significant thoughts about God and are continually learning), a teacher (by example, modelling, dsicipling and serving - both informally and formally), a 474 Geoff Waugh minister (for to serve is to minister), and a disciple of Jesus who by his Spirit within us ministers through us to others, and through others to us. References Illich, Ivan (1971) Celebration of Awareness. Penguin. Kinsler, Ross (1981) The Extension Movement in Theological Education. Pasadena: William Carey Library. Kinsler, Ross (1983) “Theology by the People.” Manuscript prepared for Pacific Basin Conference, Fuller Seminary Library. Kinsler, Ross, ed. (1983) Ministry by the People. Orbis. Knowles, Malcolm (1975) Self-Directed Learning. Chicago: Follet Knowles, Malcolm (1980) The Modern Practice of Adult Education (Revised), Chicago: Follet. Lawless, Clive (1974) “The Open University.” Theological News Monograph, No. 7, April, Fuller Seminary Library. Mulholland, Kenneth (1976) Adventures in Training the Ministry. Presbyterian and Reformed. Naisbitt, John (1982) Megatrends. Warner. Naisbitt, John and Aburdene, Patricia (1990) Megatrends 2000. Pan. Neil, Stephen (1957) The Unfinished Task. London: Edinburgh House. Peter, Lawrence (1969) The Peter Principle. Pan. Toffler, Alvin (1970) Future Shock. Pan. Toffler, Alvin (1980) The Third Wave. Collins. Wagner, C. Peter (1988) The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit. Ann Arbor: Vine. The research in his article is explored more bully in Geoff Waugh’s book Body Ministry. 475 Renewal Journal Body Ministry The Body of Christ Alive in His Spirit Compiled from two books: The Body of Christ, Part 1: Body Ministry, and The Body of Christ, Part 2: Ministry Education 476 Geoff Waugh Book Reviews Pentecostalism by Walter Hollenweger (Hendrickson, 1997) Pentecostal pastor and then Reformed minister, Dr Walter Hollenweger, retired professor of Missions at Birmingham University in England, has pioneered research on Pentecostalism for 40 years. He published The Pentecostals in 1972, which is still a classic survey of the worldwide Pentecostal movement. His recent book, Pentecostalism is in many ways a sequel. Hollenweger assesses the origins of the fastest growing religious movement in the world. He describes the theological stories of the pentecostal movement within its Black oral root, Catholic root, evangelical root, critical root, and ecumenical root. Cecil Robeck of Fuller Theological Seminary says, “I know of no one else who has the breadth of knowledge, the depth of understanding, or the grasp of such a broad base of scholarship to be able o write this book. … This fascinating book is at times playful, at times deadly serious, and at times simply informative. It will stretch the thinking of all who care to be taught, and challenge the hypocrisy of those who think they know it all. And it will help us all to understand better than we have before, the roots that have nurtured one of the most vital Christian movements in the twentieth century.” Renewal Journal Harvey Cox of Harvard University and author of another investigation of Pentecostalism, Fire from Heaven, adds, “Pentecostalism is the fastest growing and most vital Christian movement on the globe today. What great news that the esteemed elder statesman of Pentecostal studies has now given us this comprehensive and absorbing account of how it stared and why it is growing.” Almost 500 pages, it is not light reading, although it is peppered with vivid stories of Pentecostalism. If you want a light-weight paperback summary, look elsewhere. If you want a thorough, academic and firefilled examination of this astounding movement, you have it in this book. An increasing number of postgraduate and undergraduate students will mine this rich ore for profound insights and quotable quotes. (GW) The Transforming Power of Revival edited by Harold Caballeros and Mell Winger (Peniel, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1998). This collection of 18 articles by 16 authors from five continents gathers insights from the World Congress on Intercession, Spiritual Warfare and Evangelism held in Guatemala City in October 1998. It provides a global picture of recent developments in Spirit-filled prayer and evangelism. Chapters include: It’s worth it to pay the price, by Omar Cabrera. The purpose of the anointing, by Carlos Annacondia. The Agreement of Heaven and earth, by Cindy Jacobs. Soulwinning, by T. L. Osborn. The New Apostolic Reformation, by C. Peter Wagner. The Road to Community Transformation, by George Otis Jr. Almolonga the Miracle City, by Mell Winger. 478 Reviews & Resources In the sixties and seventies renewal was sweeping the churches and independent churches and movements abounded. By the eighties and nineties revival movements gained increasing prominence. Now he vanguard of revival movements is reporting on whole cities and even nations experiencing powerful Spirit-filled awakening and transformation. This book from Latin America will inform and inspire you with some of those latest current accounts of God’s mighty purposes and actions in the world today. It is the forerunner of many current books emerging to lead us into city-wide transformation and revivals which are beginning to impact nations. (GW) DVDs: Transformations 1 (The Sentinel Group, 1999) A few Christian videos grab your attention and expand your horizons. This is one. George Otis Jr. takes you on a mindblowing journey to four cities, two in Latin America, one in Africa, and one in North America. All of these cities have been radically transformed by united Christian prayer and witness. Crime has dropped dramatically. Christians really love one another and God answers their prayers, to the astonishment of the government and civic leaders. Mayors and police chiefs plead with the Christians to keep praying because it has made so many revolutionary social changes. One is a community where 92% of the population is born again. The four city gaols have been closed for lack of crime. Agricultural productivity has reached biblical proportions, and experts from America are now visiting the city to try and learn the secret of such abundant agricultural productivity. 479 Renewal Journal Another is a city where 60,000 jam the municipal soccer stadium for all-night prayer vigils every three months. There a multi-billion dollar drug cartel has been brought to its knees in answer to united prayer. Another is a town where local bars have been transformed into churches. Ancestral shrines have been destroyed. Entire family clans have come to faith in Christ. Another is a city where thriving occult centers have been closed, drug abuse has been significantly reduced and a crime wave has subsided as the churches fill. Transformations 2 (The Sentinel Group, 2001) Visit modern-day sites of transforming revival in Uganda and Canada's Arctic provinces. Re-visit a true historical revival in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. (75 min) More stirring stories of whole communities transformed by the presence and power of God. Available from the Sentinel Group – www.glowtorch.com. Available in Australia from Toowoomba City Church, PO Box 2216, Toowoomba, Qld. 4350. Ph. 07 4638 2399. 480 Reviews & Resources This book surveys over 50 powerful revivals with many eye-witness accounts. The second edition, 2009, includes accounts of transforming revivals in the 21st century. 481 Renewal Journal Dr C. Peter Wagner - America: I know of no other book like this one that provides rapid-fire, easy-to-read, factual literary snapshots of virtually every well-known revival. As I read this book I felt like I had grasped the overall picture of revival for the first time. Outreach Magazine (COC): God has set off fireworks of revival throughout the history of Christianity, but few of us are aware of the magnitude of his handiwork. In Flashpoints of Revival, Australian author Geoff Waugh walks us through God’s gallery of revivals, century by century, to show us that the Holy Spirit can spontaneously ignite at any time, anywhere. You will read details, historically documented facts, and personal accounts of every major move of God for the past three centuries from every corner of the globe. For revival enthusiasts or historians this book is a treasure chest. For those who think God “doesn’t do that” this book is a must read. The Australian Evangel: Using eye witness accounts, Australian Geoff Waugh takes us on a journey of revivals - beginning with the Moravians in Herrnhut, Germany in 1727 and continuing through the centuries to others in England, America, Canada, Africa, India, Korea, Chile and more, including Brownsville in 1995. This will leave you hungry and thirsty, hopefully crying out to God for revival in Australia. Excellent. Rev. Tony Cupit - Director of Evangelism, Baptist World Alliance: Flashpoints of Revival is a good overview of the major revivals that have taken place in history, especially more recent history, and it will be a compendium for historians and others interested in the subject for a long time to come. I doubt if there is a resource quite like it for logical progression and comprehensive treatment. Rev. Professor James Haire - Head, School of Theology, Griffith University: This work of the Rev. Dr. Geoff Waugh is of great significance. What is particularly important is the way in which we are enabled, through Dr. Waugh's work, to see how God has acted in all 482 Reviews & Resources kinds of ways, through unexpected people, in unexpected situations, to bring about revival. Churches and Christians around the world will benefit greatly from this timely contribution. Dr Stuart Robinson – Crossway Baptist, Melbourne: Geoff Waugh has broken new ground by pulling together evidence of divine impacts on people in revival. This is a book that will inspire you and help you to persist until the earth is ‘filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.’ Rev. Tim Hanna – Gateway Baptist, Brisbane: I love learning about revival and this book adds to that hunger. Geoff Waugh, with great integrity and detailed research, draws together much information that will inspire the reader. Dr Naomi Dowdy - Singapore: Flashpoints of Revival has brought many hours of interesting reading. It is very informative and up to date. Bishop Ralph Wicks: I read Flashpoints of Revival with much interest and enjoyment. It provides a comprehensive account of spiritual renewal. Rev John Mavor - President, Uniting Church: In churches that need God’s power for great tasks, it is important that God’s action in other places be studied. Geoff Waugh has made a crucial contribution to that task. Dr Lewis Born – Uniting Church, Queensland: Geoff Waugh’s work has global relevance. He is a competent teacher; an excellent communicator; an informed, disciplined renewalist; and an experienced educator. Rev Tim Hanna, Gateway Baptist Church, Brisbane, Australia: I love learning about revival and this book adds to that hunger. Geoff Waugh, with great integrity and detailed research draws together much information that will inspire the reader. This is an extension of Geoff's many years of contribution in the area of renewal and revival as editor of the Renewal Journal. Geoff has initiated renewal activities in many denominations in Australia and has participated actively as a 483 Renewal Journal member in the growth of Gateway Baptist Church in Brisbane. Rev Dr Lewis Born, Former Moderator, Queensland Synod of the Uniting Church: Dr Geoff Waugh's work has a global relevance, which he has applied in the Australian context. As a fellow Australian I am appreciative. My appreciation is greatly enhanced by a deep respect and affection for the author. He is a competent teacher, an excellent communicator, an informed, disciplined renewalist and an experienced educator. All these qualities combine to commend the author and his work. Pastor Neil Miers, President, Christian Outreach Centre: Geoff Waugh places current outpourings of the Holy Spirit in historical context. In 1993 I said that this move of God would go round the world. It has. It is breaking out and touching millions of lives. Geoff's work helps us understand more about God's mighty work in our time. Pastor David McDonald, Brisbane Christian Outreach Centre: This book covers vital information on revival. Geoff Waugh has a deep commitment to revival and teaches on it in our School of Ministries and in many churches. The examples in this book will build your faith and stir revival fire in your heart. Pastor Peter C. Earle, former Principal, Brisbane Christian Outreach Centre School of Ministries: Geoff Waugh inspires his students in his degree and diploma courses on the history of revivals. This book covers some of that material and provides an invaluable resource for understanding revivals in history and in current events Note Revival Fires (published by Global Awakening – see renewaljournal.com) is an expanded version of Flashpoints of Revival with an extra chapter added on the 21st century and detailed referencing throughout the book. 484 Reviews & Resources Renewal Journals Contents of first 20 issues Renewal Journal articles, available now on www.renewaljournal.com. No. 1: Revival Praying the Price, by Stuart Robinson Prayer and Revival, by J Edwin Orr Pentecost in Arnhem Land, by Djiniyini Gondarra Power from on High: The Moravian Revival, by John Greenfield Revival Fire, by Geoff Waugh No. 2: Church Growth Church Growth through Prayer, by Andrew Evans Growing a Church in the Spirit’s Power, by Jack Frewen-Lord Evangelism brings Renewal, by Cindy Pattishall-Baker New Life for an Older Church, by Dean Brookes Renewal Leadership in the 1990’s by John McElroy Reflections on Renewal, by Ralph Wicks Local Revivals in Australia, by Stuart Piggin Asia’s Maturing Church, by David Wang Astounding Church Growth, by Geoff Waugh No. 3: Community Lower the Drawbridge, by Charles Ringma Called to Community, by Dorothy Mathieson and Tim McCowan Covenant Community, by Shayne Bennett The Spirit in the Church, by Adrian Commadeur House Churches, by Ian Freestone Church in the Home, by Spencer Colliver The Home Church, by Colin Warren China’s House Churches, by Barbara Nield Renewal in a College Community, by Brian Edgar Spirit Wave, by Darren Trinder 485 Renewal Journal No. 4: Healing Missionary Translator and Doctor, by David Lithgow My Learning Curve on Healing, by Jim Holbeck Spiritual Healing, by John Blacker Deliverance and Freedom, by Colin Warren Christian Wholeness Counselling, by John Warlow A Healing Community, by Spencer Colliver Divine Healing and Church Growth, by Donald McGavran Sounds of Revival, by Sue Armstrong Revival Fire at Wuddina, by Trevor Faggotter No. 5: Signs and Wonders Words, Signs and Deeds, by Brian Hathaway Uproar in the Church, by Derek Prince Season of New Beginnings, by John Wimber Preparing for Revival Fire, by Jerry Steingard How to Minister Like Jesus, by Bart Doornweerd No. 6: Worship Worship: Intimacy with God, by John & Carol Wimber Beyond Self-Centred Worship, by Geoff Bullock Worship: to Soothe or Disturb? by Dorothy Mathieson Worship: Touching Body and Soul, by Robert Tann Healing through Worship, by Robert Colman Charismatic Worship and Ministry, by Stephen Bryar Renewal in the Church, by Stan Everitt Worship God in Dance, by Lucinda Coleman Revival Worship, by Geoff Waugh No. 7: Blessing What on earth is God doing? by Owen Salter Times of Refreshing, by Greg Beech Renewal Blessing, by Ron French Catch the Fire, by Dennis Plant Reflections, by Alan Small A Fresh Wave, by Andrew Evans Waves of Glory, by David Cartledge Balance, by Charles Taylor Discernment, by John Court Renewal Ministry, by Geoff Waugh 486 Reviews & Resources No. 8: Awakening Speaking God’s Word, by David Yonggi Cho The Power to Heal the Past, by C. Peter Wagner Worldwide Awakening, by Richard Riss The ‘No Name’ Revival, by Brian Medway No. 9: Mission The River of God, by David Hogan The New Song, by C. Peter Wagner God’s Visitation, by Dick Eastman Revival in China, by Dennis Balcombe Mission in India, by Paul Pilai Pensacola Revival, by Michael Brown, and Becky Powers No. 10: Evangelism Power Evangelism, by John Wimber Supernatural Ministry, by John White interviewed by Julia Loren Power Evangelism in Short Term Missions, by Randy Clark God’s Awesome Presence, by Richard Heard Pensacola Evangelist Steve Hill, by Sharon Wissemann Reaching the Core of the Core, by Luis Bush Evangelism on the Internet, by Rowland Croucher Gospel Essentials, by Charles Taylor Pentecostal/Charismatic Pioneers, by Daryl Brenton Characteristics of Revivals, by Richard Riss No. 11: Discipleship Transforming Revivals, by Geoff Waugh Standing in the Rain, by Brian Medway Amazed by Miracles, by Rodney Howard-Brown A Touch of Glory, by Lindell Cooley The ‘Diana Prophecy’, by Robert McQuillan Mentoring, by Peter Earle Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford 487 Renewal Journal No. 12: Harvest The Spirit told us what to do, by Cari Lawrence Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup Smithton and Mobile Revivals, by Joel Kilpatrick No. 13: Ministry Pentecostalism’s Global Language, by Walter Hollenweger Revival in Nepal, by Raju Sundras Revival in Mexico City, by Kevin Pate Interview with Steven Hill, by Steve Beard Beyond Prophesying, by Mike Bickle The Rise and Rise of the Apostles, by Phil Marshall Evangelical Heroes Speak, by Richard Riss Spirit Impacts in Revivals, by Geoff Waugh Primacy of Love, by Heidi Baker No. 14: Anointing A Greater Anointing, by Benny Hinn Myths about Jonathan Edwards, by Barry Chant Revivals into 2000, by Geoff Waugh No. 15: Wineskins The God Chasers, by Tommy Tenny The New Apostolic Reformation, by C. Peter Wagner The New Believers, by Dianna Bagnall (Bulletin/Newsweek journalist) Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, by Lawrence Khong New Wineskins for Pentecostal Studies, by Sam Hey New Wineskins to Develop Ministry, by Geoff Waugh No. 16: Vision Vision for Church Growth by Daryl & Cecily Brenton Almolonga, the Miracle City, by Mell Winger Cali Transformation, by George Otis Jr. Revival in Bogotá, by Guido Kuwas Prison Revival in Argentina, by Ed Silvoso Missions at the Margins, by Bob Eklad Vision for Church Growth, by Daryl & Cecily Brenton Vision for Ministry, by Geoff Waugh . 488 Reviews & Resources No. 17: Unity Snapshots of Glory, by George Otis Jr. Lessons from Revivals, by Richard Riss Spiritual Warfare, by Cecilia Estillore No. 18: Servant Leadership The Kingdom Within, by Irene Brown Church Models: Integration or Assimilation? by Jeannie Mok Women in Ministry, by Sue Fairley Women and Religions, by Susan Hyatt Disciple-Makers, by Mark Setch Ministry Confronts Secularisation, by Sam Hey No. 19: Church The Voice of the Church in the 21st Century, by Ray Overend Redeeming the Arts: visionaries of the future, by Sandra Godde Counselling Christianly, by Ann Crawford Redeeming a Positive Biblical View of Sexuality, by John Meteyard and Irene Alexander The Mystics and Contemporary Psychology, by Irene Alexander Problems Associated with the Institutionalisation of Ministry, by Warren Holyoak No. 20: Life Life, death and choice, by Ann Crawford The God who dies: Exploring themes of life and death, by Irene Alexander Primordial events in theology and science support a life/death ethic, by Martin Rice Community Transformation, by Geoff Waugh Bound Volumes Vol. 1 (1-5) Revival, Church Growth, Community, Signs & Wonders Vol. 2 (6-10) Worship, Blessing, Awakening, Mission, Evangelism Vol. 3 (11-15) Discipleship, Harvest, Ministry, Anointing, Wineskins Vol. 4 (16-20) Vision, Unity, Servant Leadership, Church, Life 489 Renewal Journal Renewal Journal Publications www.renewaljournal.com Revival Books Flashpoints of Revival Revival Fires South Pacific Revivals Pentecost on Pentecost & in the South Pacific Great Revival Stories, comprising Best Revival Stories and Transforming Revivals Renewal and Revival, comprising Renewal: I make all things new, and Revival: I will pour out my Spirit Anointed for Revival Church on Fire 490 Reviews & Resources Renewal Books Body Ministry, comprising The Body of Christ, Part 1: Body Ministry, and The Body of Christ, Part 2: Ministry Education Learning Together in Ministry Living in the Spirit Your Spiritual Gifts Fruit & Gifts of the Spirit Great Commission Mission Jesus the Model for Short Term Supernatural Mission Teaching Them to Obey in Love Keeping Faith Alive Today The Leader's Goldmine Word and Spirit by Alison Sherrington Study Guides Signs and Wonders: Study Guide The Holy Spirit in Ministry: Study Guide Revival History: Study Guide Holy Spirit Movements through History: Study Guide Renewal Theology 1: Study Guide Renewal Theology 2: Study Guide Ministry Practicum: Study Guide 491 Renewal Journal Devotional Books Inspiration Jesus on Dying Regrets The Queen’s Christmas & Easter Messages Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection comprising: Holy Week, and Christian Passover Service, and Risen: 12 Resurrection Appearances Risen: Short Version Risen: Long version & our month in Israel Mysterious Month – expanded version Kingdom Life series Kingdom Life: The Gospels – comprising: Kingdom Life in Matthew Kingdom Life in Mark Kingdom Life in Luke Kingdom Life in John A Preface to the Acts of the Apostles 492 Reviews & Resources The Lion of Judah series The Titles of Jesus The Reign of Jesus The Life of Jesus The Death of Jesus The Resurrection of Jesus The Spirit of Jesus The Lion of Judah – all in one volume Discovering Aslan - comprising: Discovering Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Discovering Aslan in Prince Caspian Discovering Aslan in the Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’ Discovering Aslan in the Silver Chair Discovering Aslan in the Horse and his Boy Discovering Aslan in the Magician’s Nephew Discovering Aslan in the Last Battle 493 Renewal Journal General Books You Can Publish for Free An Incredible Journey by Faith by Elisha Chowtapalli Biographical Books Looking to Jesus: Journey into Renewal & Revival Journey into Mission – Geoff’s mission trips Journey into Ministry and Mission - autobiography Light on the Mountains – Geoff in PNG Pentecost on Pentecost & in the South Pacific Exploring Israel – Geoff’s family’s trip King of the Granny Flat by Dante Waugh Travelling with Geoff by Don Hill My First Stories by Ethan Waugh By All Means by Elaine Olley Travelling with Geoff by Don Hill 494 Reviews & Resources Renewal Journal Publications www.renewaljournal.com Renewal Journals 1: Revival 2: Church Growth 3: Community 4: Healing 5: Signs and Wonders 6: Worship 7: Blessing 8: Awakening 9: Mission 10: Evangelism 11: Discipleship 12: Harvest 13: Ministry 14: Anointing 15: Wineskins 16: Vision 17: Unity 18: Servant Leadership 19: Church 20: Life Renewal Journals 1- 20 (now in 4 bound volumes) Vol. 1 (1-5) Revival, Church Growth, Community, Signs & Wonders Vol. 2 (6-10) Worship, Blessing, Awakening, Mission, Evangelism Vol. 3 (11-15) Discipleship, Harvest, Ministry, Anointing, Wineskins Vol. 4 (16-20) Vision, Unity, Servant Leadership, Church, Life 495 Renewal Journal Renewal Journal www.renewaljournal.com The Renewal Journal website gives links to Renewal Journals, Books & Blogs Free subscription gives you updates for new Blogs and free offers including PDF Books Renewal Journal Publications www.renewaljournal.com 496

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