Charisma April 2010-PDF

April 2010

COMETOGETHER

21 Emerging Leaders of Tomorrow’s Church

MENTOR ME: What Every Young Believer Needs to Know

» Empowering the Next Generation

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Apr i l 2010 / Charisma 5

CharismaT h e M a g a z i n e A b o u t S p i r i t - L e d L i v i n g

char i smamag. com

[ N E W S ]

14 FYI

16 News

Charismatic renewal marks 50 years / 16

Churches add ‘creation care’ to social agenda / 18

Dream Center pairs new college with ministry / 20

Evangelist to mail book to 1 million Jews / 21

Persecution Watch / 23

News Briefs / 24

[ D E P A R T M E N T S ]

6 Charisma Online

8 Feedback

26 Bible Reading

Guide

26 Digging Deeper A devotional from Life Publishers

58 The Buzz Firefl ight’s WaitPLUS » Should we fi re God?

» Vo l u m e 3 5 , N u m b e r 9

+[ C O V E R S T O R Y ]

28 21 Emerging Leaders of Tomorrow’s Church

Meet the new generation of Spirit-empowered leaders out to change the world. » BY KEN WALKER

» ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: emerging.charismamag.com

[ F E A T U R E S ]

36 We Cry Out Young Christian leaders today crave authentic

faith. Here are 7 passions of the next generation. » ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: cryout.charismamag.com

40 Listen to Your Mentors These 7 spiritual veterans off er sage advice to the younger

generation. » ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: mentors.charismamag.com

46 7 Trendsetting Churches How churches are pioneering new trails. » BY ADRIENNE S. GAINES » ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: trendsetters.charismamag.com

52 10 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 21 You might think you’re smart when you get out of college, but I suggest

that the real education is only just beginning. » BY MARK RUTLAND » ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: 10things.charismamag.com

54 God’s Strength for This Generation After 20 years, a pioneer’s message on our need for the Holy Spirit’s

power is just as relevant–and prophetic–today. » BY DENNIS BENNETT » ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: bennett.charismamag.com

10 Editor’s Note by Marcus Yoars

12 Straight Talk by Joyce Meyer

66 Fire in My Bones by J. Lee Grady

[ C O L U M N S ]

Charisma & Christian Life (ISSN #0895-156X) is published monthly by Strang Media Group, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746. Periodicals postage paid at Lake Mary, FL 32746 and at additional entry offi ces. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement Number 40037127. Subscription rate is $24.97 for 12 issues, $39.97 for 24 issues. Canadian subscribers add $10 per year for postage, other countries add $20 per year, payable in advance in U.S. currency only. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Send undeliverable Canadian mail to: 1415 Janette Avenue, Windsor, ON N8X 1Z1. © 2010 by Strang Media Group. For advertising information call (407) 333-0600. Nothing that appears in Charisma & Chris-tian Life may be reprinted without permission. PRINTED IN THE USA

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» ON THE COVER Empowering the church’s next generation of leaders[istockphoto.com/Archermt]

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Creative ChurchesTo get inspired by how God is moving through His church in creative ways, check out trendsetters .charismamag.com. There you can watch how innovative ministries such as the Expectation Church Network (below) push the envelope.

6 Charisma / Apr i l 2010

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For far too long young people have experienced God from one side of the church while the “older folks” resigned to do ministry from a separate corner. Why is there such a wide generation gap in today’s church? At realtalk.charismamag.com Charisma held a roundtable conversation with leaders from within the body of Christ to talk about the generation gap and discuss a remedy. Listen to the podcast, then tell us if you agree or disagree. It’s high time we start talking about this elephant in the room.

Avoid the ‘Wouldas’ and ‘Couldas’Charisma tracked down a few veterans in the faith to give young people sage advice about faithfully standing the test of time. Go to mentors.charismamag.com and get advice to avoid your own “wouldas” and “couldas.”

Leaders Predict Where the Church Is GoingSo where is the church headed? Is there change on the horizon? Visit vision.charismamag.com, where we’ve gathered thoughts from leaders about where the church is going.

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What Are You Chasing?This month we’re highlighting young ministers who are sharing their passions for the next generation. What are you passionate about? What are you chasing? Go to passionate.charismamag.com and tell us what you’re pursuing. We may feature your answers in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

The Generational Elephant in the Room

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R E C A L L I N G O R A L R O B E R T S

I thank God for Oral Roberts’ legacy of faith, love and power (“A Legacy of Faith” by Ken Walker, February). He was indeed a true man of God, regardless of what the critics say. Surely because of his dynamic vision and passion for the kingdom of God the worldwide land-scape of the Christian faith has been positively and eternally aff ected. May his legacy abound and may the good Lord help his family and ministries at this time of grief. Shalom!

Lawrence A. Lasisivia e-mail

Oral Roberts changed my life with his teaching on “seed faith.” I will always be grateful for the encouraging letters he also sent me. I will be so happy to meet with him and Evelyn in heaven. God bless the rest of his family. We rejoice that his promotion to glory has arrived.

Sally Lockwoodvia e-mail

H I L L S O N G C H U R C H

Thank you for your interest and care in sharing the story of Hillsong Church (“A Sound From Down Under” by Nicole Partridge, January). My wife,

Bobbie, and I are grateful. Reading the article, we felt humbled and amazed at all God is doing in Sydney and around the globe through His church. We cer-tainly feel blessed to have been entrusted with such a great church family. Thank you again for featuring our story.

Rev. Brian C. HoustonHillsong ChurchSydney, Australia

P R I S C I L L A S H I R E R

Thanks for the article on Priscilla Shirer (“Like Father, Like Daughter” by Carol Chapman Stertzer, February). She is a terrifi c and dynamic teacher and speaker. I went to a Bible study of Deeper Still. Wow! Other friends have been to the Deeper Still conference the year before and had really liked her. I’m very excited about this young Spirit-fi lled teacher.

Nadine Childsvia e-mail

A R E TAT TO O S TA B O O ?

“The Dark Side of Tattoos” (by William M. Sudduth Sr., January) gives some real insight into what is behind tattoos and what happens spiritually to some people when they get them—that spirits attach themselves to people through this practice. That is why God warned against it in the Old Testament. I don’t believe everyone with tattoos has a bad spirit, but the devil does use tattooing as a means of gaining access to people. We need to be aware.

name withheld

Just because tattoos have pagan ori-gins doesn’t mean they’re evil. What about clocks, calendars or the names we use for the days of the week? All pagan. Many tribes use drums specifi cally to conjure demons. Are drums evil? I do, however, see a problem with the reason many people get tattoos: to be defi ant, to make a statement, to get attention or to prove themselves. So if anything’s wrong

»FeedBack

S E E F E E D BAC K O N P G. 6 3»

“Because of his dynamic

vision the landscape of

the Christian faith has

been positively aff ected.”

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IN 1993, PETE MYERS FACED one of the toughest challenges in sports history. To that point, the 6-foot-6-inch journeyman had played sparingly for seven NBA teams in seven years. But prior to joining the Chicago Bulls that year, Myers was asked to do the impossible: Fill in for Michael Jordan after the greatest basketball player of all time abruptly decided to retire (for the fi rst time).

I’m thankful I don’t face as daunting a task as Myers did—not because the person I’m replacing isn’t as extraordinary, but because of the remarkable inheritance he’s left behind and the way it’s being transferred. Lee Grady is one of the most distinct and respected voices in Christian journalism today. After serving Charisma for 17 years, he’s made my task of following in his footsteps extremely challenging. Yet one thing I love about Lee is that he’s never wanted me to trace his trail, but instead to blaze one for myself. As anyone close to him knows, Lee leads by empowering. He believes in handing over the necessary tools to let people run their own course, all while he off ers them his unconditional support.

The church desperately needs more Lee Gradys right now. We need battle-proven generals who are willing to make way for and empower a new generation of passionate, Spirit-fi lled leaders. We

need veterans with proven wisdom to help guide those eager to venture further.

But let me remind my fellow emergents of this two-sided coin: We may be blazing new trails, but we must not neglect the wisdom of the pioneers who came before us. Our success will be directly propor-tional to how well we listened to the voice of God speaking through our predecessors. If the church is to truly fl ourish in the next season, young and old must understand the need for intergenerational conversation, not monogenerational monologues.

This month Charisma highlights the Spirit-prompted generational transfer already in process—and shown in places such as Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the ongoing Empowered21 conversations will be celebrated April 8-10. We believe these pivotal multigenerational gatherings off er hope for all ages. Because as in this maga-zine’s transfer from one editor to the next, those involved understand that the state of the generational inheritance usually mat-ters more than the individual inheritors.» MARCUS YOARS is Charisma’s new editor.

Inheritance Transfer»Editor’sNote

Be sa lt .

We bring out your best so you can honor the call:

You are the salt of the earth.Matthew 5:13

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works and glorify your Father in heaven’ ” (NKJV).The more we respond to evil with evil, the more it

increases. I am reminded of a movie titled El Cid, the story of the man who united Spain and became a great hero using the principle I’m talking about.

For centuries the Christians had fought the Moors. They hated and killed each other. In battle, El Cid captured fi ve Moors but refused to kill them because he realized that killing had never done any good. He believed that showing mercy to his enemies would change their hearts, and then both groups could live in peace.

Although he was initially labeled a traitor for his actions,

they eventually proved to work, and he was honored as a hero.

One of the Moors he captured said, “Anyone can kill, but only a true king can show mercy to his enemies.” Because of El Cid’s one act of kindness, his enemies off ered themselves to him as friends and allies from that point on.

Jesus is a true king, and He is good, kind and merciful to all. Can we do any less than follow His example?

Right now, can you think of anyone to whom you could show mercy? Is there someone who has treated you wrongly that you can be good to? Being merciful and good, especially to your enemies, may be one of the most pow-erful things you have ever done.

Imagine how diff erent the world would be if each one of us who claims to know Christ would do one kind thing for someone else every day. The results would be astonishing. The world would change rapidly because we really could overcome evil with good if we all made a commitment to live the way Jesus tells us to live.

I have three friends with whom I sometimes go to lunch or have coff ee.We often talk about things God has put on our hearts to do for others, or cre-ative ideas for fresh ways to be a blessing. I believe conversations like this are very pleasing to God.

I would like to challenge you to take a lead role in the “love revolution.” Enlist people you know and invite them to a planning session on practical ways to meet needs. Find someone who needs help and make a group eff ort to help them.

The idea of encouraging others to be aggressive in doing good works is not new. Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.”

We should actually study and think about how we can stir others to do good works and loving, helpful deeds. And remember, doing the right thing will require forming new habits and devel-oping aggressive acts of love. The results will be wonderful!

FAMED PHILOSOPHER AND ORATOR Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It’s true. Doing nothing is easy, but it’s also dangerous. Where there is no opposition to evil, evil will multiply.

We all fall into the trap of complaining about the things that are wrong. But complaining does nothing except dis-courage us even more. It changes nothing because there is no positive power in it.

Imagine what a mess the world would be if all God did was complain about everything that has gone wrong since He created it. But the Father doesn’t complain. He continues to be good and work for justice. Evil is powerful, but good is more powerful.

We need to stop and realize that God has chosen to work on this earth through His children—you and me.

It’s humbling to realize that He could do so much more if we would be committed to love and do good at all times. We need to remember Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 5:16, “ ‘ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good

Start to Do Good

It’s humbling to realize that God could do more if we would do good at all times.

» StraightTalk by Joyce Meyer

»

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» JOYCE MEYER is a New York Times best-selling author and founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries. She has authored more than 80 books, including The Love Revolution (Hachette), from which this article is adapted. She hosts Enjoying Everyday Life radio and TV programs, which air on hundreds of stations worldwide. To read past columns in Charisma by Joyce Meyer, go to charismamag.com/meyer.

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Live Simply. Reap the Rewards.Join Chuck and Pam Pierce as they show how you can simplify your life, your house and your soul.The Rewards of Simplicity by Chuck and Pam Pierce

Expect Miracles—and You Will See Them.Tune into the miracu-lous and receive more of God’s miraculous provi-sion in your life. Includes incredible testimonies from famous leaders such as Bill Johnson and James Goll.When God Says Yes by Julia Loren

Beat Burnout.A revolutionary new way to overcome burnout in your life from one of the foremost leaders of inner healing.Renewal for the Wounded Warrior by R. Loren Sandford

From J. Lee Grady!The former Charisma edi-tor exposes the problems plaguing churches today and offers a bold call for believers everywhere to reclaim the genuine pow-er of the Holy Spirit.The Holy Spirit Is Not For Sale by J. Lee Grady

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< S P O T L I G H T >

Contagious JoyYolanda Adams says joy is possible even in bad times.

Yolanda Adams is a Grammy-winning gospel

singer with platinum-selling records, but she is

no stranger to pain. Her father was killed in a car acci-

dent when she was a child, and she recently experi-

enced an unwanted divorce. Yet she says she’s learned

how to have joy despite her circumstances. “The things

that we look at as hard and heart-breaking, God can

get the glory out of them too, if we let Him,” she says.

In her book, Points of Power, Adams leads readers on the

journey she has walked to defeat “joy killers” through

faith, love and forgiveness. “As a Christian, I want more

than ever to show others the power of God’s love,” she

writes. “You don’t do that by badgering people; you do

it by being a good example.” —VALERIE G. LOWE

With the charismatic movement

marking its 50th anniversary

this month, many Christians are

wondering how the Holy Spirit

will move in this generation.

As charismatic leaders gather

at Empowered21 April 8-10 to

discuss the future of the Spirit-

fi lled movement, we encourage

you to join us in praying for:

» A fresh wave of renewal to

sweep across churches and

nations around the world

» Revival on college campuses

across the globe

» Boldness to evangelize the lost.

»FYI

» Gospel artist Yolanda Adams


To sign up for regular prayer updates from Charisma’s Prayer Initiative, visit prayerinitiative.com.

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Adults under age 30

are less likely to attend

church or affi liate with

a particular religion

than their parents and

grandparent were at

the same age, according

to a recent poll by the

Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But modern 18- to 29-

year-olds do have something in common with older generations.

The Pew Center found the millennial generation’s beliefs about life

after death, the existence of heaven and hell, and miracles closely

resemble those of older Americans. The percentage who say they

pray daily also rivals that of previous generations at the same age.

[ M I L L E N N I A L

B E L I E F S ]

An Assemblies of God chaplain wants to help Haiti rebuild, one prefabri-

cated home at a time. Denny Nissley, executive director of Christ in Action

ministry in Manassas, Va., is shipping 5,000 prefabricated homes at a cost of

$600 each for earthquake victims in Haiti. The fi rst shipment of 500 homes

was to arrive in Port-au-Prince by late March. Vol-

unteer crews in South Carolina, Texas and Virginia

are building the $600 home kits, which include four

walls, a roof and a pressure-treated fl oor. But Nissley

is still raising the $3 million needed to complete the

project. “God put this Haiti project on my heart, but

it takes the body of Christ to bring it to reality,” he

says. The 12-by-8 wood frame structures can sleep

up to eight people and will be erected on blocks

or the ground. The kits, designed in a half-hour by

a Christian builder in Virginia, can be assembled

in about two hours using a cordless drill. The fi rst

homes will be built for Morningstar Christian Academy in Port-au-Prince.

Other building sites have yet to be selected. —PETER K. JOHNSON

REBUILDING HAITI[ C O M P A S S I O N ]

[ F A I T H & C U L T U R E ]

Movie Spotlights

Faith, CancerFilm from Fireproof producer seeks to inspire prayer

Anew fi lm from one of the producers of Facing the Giants and Fireproof will spotlight how the faith of a boy facing

cancer changed the lives of many.Inspired by a true story, Letters to God opens in

theaters April 9 and stars Tanner McGuire (House, Lost) as Tyler Doherty, an 8-year-old cancer-stricken boy who writes letters to God every day. The letters eventually end up in the hands of a troubled postman played by Jeff rey S. Johnson (CSI, Without a Trace) and aff ect people across the community. The cast also features Robyn Lively (Saving Grace) as Tyler’s mother and Ralph Waite (The Waltons) as a neighbor.

“The real story is that these little letters were really prayers,” says director David Nixon, one of the producers of the popular Christian fi lms Facing the Giants and Fireproof, “and that’s really what I would like for people to take away from the movie ... that you can have a connection with God and it can be as simple as writing a letter to Him.”

The $3 million fi lm, co-written by Tyler’s father, Patrick Doughtie, includes uplifting stories of cancer survivors and is being supported with resources to help churches counsel people facing a cancer diagnosis. Nixon has two more fi lms in development through his Possibility Pictures that will target Christian audiences. “We don’t want to get preachy,” Nixon says, “we just want to tell simple stories about Christians and how they go through adversity.” —ADRIENNE S. GAINES

» Denny Nissley in Haiti

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» Director David Nixon with Tanner McGuire, who plays a cancer-striken boy in Letters to God

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This month marks the 50th anniversary of what many consider to be the origins of the charismatic movement.

On April 3, 1960, the late Father Dennis Bennett told his 2,600-member Episcopal congregation at St. Mark’s church in Van Nuys, Calif., that he had experienced a “personal Pentecost.” While attending a prayer meeting, the Britain-born minister had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in an unknown language.

“My tongue tripped, just as it might when you are trying to recite a tongue twister, and I began to speak in a new lan-guage,” Bennett recalled. “Right away I rec-ognized several things. First it was not some kind of psychological trick or compulsion. There was nothing compulsive about it. ...

It was a new language, not some kind of ‘baby talk.’ It had grammar and syntax, it had infl ection and expression—and it was rather beautiful.”

The revelation angered some church leaders, who eventually asked Bennett to resign. “His experience was explo-sive because the Episcopal Church is known to be a very proper, intellectual and historic church,” said Rita Ben-nett, the rector’s widow and president of the Christian Renewal Association in Edmonds, Wash. “Some people were happy and said they wanted to be prayed over too. But others were not happy at all. They didn’t understand.”

Rather than fi ght about charismatic renewal, Bennett stepped down and was soon invited to “bring the fi re” to St. Luke’s

Episcopal Church in Seattle. He served as the pastor of St. Luke’s for two decades, ran Holy Spirit workshops and wrote the best-selling book, Nine O’clock in the Morning, in which Bennett shares his testimony and tells of how the charismatic movement spread throughout the nation.

Although Bennett wasn’t the first mainline denominational pastor to expe-rience the baptism in the Holy Spirit, he was the fi rst to openly share his testimony. The news of Bennett’s Pentecostal expe-rience even made the newspapers and wire services, and was featured in Timeand Newsweek magazines.

The membership at St. Luke’s qua-drupled as renewal began to spread across the U.S. Within just a few years, people in virtually every major Protestant tra-dition—Baptists, Lutherans, Menno-nites, Methodists, Presbyterians—were receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Charismatic renewal has since swept the globe, though Pentecostal scholars say its growth has slowed in the U.S. “The move-ment began to wane in America by the mid-1990s, but it continued to grow all over the world tremendously, especially Africa, Asia and South America,” said Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan, dean emeritus of the Regent University School of Divinity. “Today there are 640 million Pentecostals and charismatics. It’s still the fastest-growing part of Christianity.”

Stanley M. Burgess, a professor of Christian history at Regent University and editor of The Encyclopedia of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, says one-third of the world’s 2 billion Christians are charis-matic or Pentecostal. “The greatest explo-sion is now occurring in China,” Burgess said. “It’s a combination of Pentecostal and charismatic. Within 10 years, we expect that China will be the most Christian nation on Earth, and that’s just stunning.”

This year, several events are being planned to celebrate Bennett’s legacy and the 50th anniversary of the movement,

« The late Dennis Bennett is considered the father of the modern charismatic movement.

[April 3 marks the golden anniversary of the day Dennis Bennett told his church he’d had a ‘personal Pentecost’

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»News

Charismatic Renewal

Marks 50 Years

Have the news, as it happens, sent to your inbox.

Go to: charismamag.com/newsletters

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including Empowered21: Global Congress on Holy Spirit Empowerment in the 21st Century, which is being held April 8-10 in Tulsa, Okla. The Rev. Billy Wilson, execu-tive director of the International Center for Spiritual Renewal and chair of Empow-ered21, says the event will explore what’s on the horizon for the “Spirit-empowered” movement.

Wilson said charismatic leaders world-wide have told him there is a growing need for authentic leaders with integ-rity. Pastors also say there is a huge need to teach younger generations about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and to answer their “heart cry” for spiritual fathers and mothers, Wilson not ed.

“They have a huge desire for what I call primitive Christianity—New Tes-tament Christianity in its purest form,” Wilson said. “They want the miraculous. They want the gifts of the Spirit, but they don’t want to make a show of it. I think this generation is positioned to not only see the movement grow, but really expe-rience the Holy Spirit in a totally new dimension.”

In early March, the Regent University School of Divinity planned to celebrate Bennett’s legacy by archiving his papers in their library. Meanwhile, St. Luke’s Epis-copal Church in Seattle will honor Ben-nett, who died in 1991, with a series of events July 26-31, marking the month when Bennett was assigned to the Seattle church. Rita Bennett, author of You Can Be Emotionally Free, also will honor her husband’s legacy during her annual Emo-tionally Free seminar July 19-24.

Bennett said she recently found some of her husband’s unpublished papers that shed light on how he learned to “pray from the Spirit.” She said the message is still relevant. “The reason for speaking and praying in the Spirit as often as possible is to keep in touch with your Friend, not just to fulfi ll a process,” the late Episcopal minister wrote. “The experiencing of gifts fulfi lled is very important, but the feeling of fellowship with Jesus is far more so.”

—TROY ANDERSON

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»News

As the 40th observance of Earth Day approaches, more Christians are embracing environmental stewardship

Churches Add ‘Creation

Care’ to Social Agenda

[A

s the nation prepares for the 40th observance of Earth Day, Christians say churchgoers’ views about environmental

issues are changing, though the validity of climate change remains controversial.

Today three-quarters of Christians believe churchgoers should be more active in caring for the environment, according to research by The Barna Group. Among evangelicals the number is 90 percent. In addition to reducing electricity use and fossil-fuel consumption, more Christians are touting the benefi ts of simple living as a way to combat rampant consumerism.

“Over the last fi ve years what I’ve seen is that people who are biblically based have actually gone to the Bible to see

what it has to say,” says Dr. Matthew Sleeth of Wilmore, Ky., an ER physician who quit medicine to preach on environmental stewardship. “It’s always been important since Genesis 2:15, where God puts Adam and Eve in the garden and says to tend and protect it. But I think in recent history there’s been too much politics around taking care of our environment.”

Sleeth and his wife, Nancy, are founders of Blessed Earth, a nonprofi t dedicated to spreading environmentalism among churches. On April 21, a day before Earth Day, Blessed Earth will hold what Sleeth bills as the largest ever faith-based gath-ering involving Earth Day, a simulcast based from Northland, A Church Distributed, the Florida congregation led by the Rev.

Joel Hunter.Sleeth expects

the simulcast will draw thousands of churches of all denomina-tions. “We’ll have more than a million people,” Sleeth said of the simulcast. “As far as I know there’s never been any-thing over a couple thousand involving the faith groups on Earth Day.”

Chr i s t i an s ’ evolution on the environment

mirrors a broader change among evan-gelicals, who today are more apt to address social justice issues as they advocate for the sanctity of life and traditional mar-riage. Charismatic pastor Tri Robinson said seven years ago when he wrote Saving God’s Green Earth: Rediscovering the Church’s Responsibility to Environmental Stewardship, churches rarely discussed “creation care.”

“One of our goals was to really change the worldview of the evangelical church on the subject,” said Robinson, senior pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellow-ship in Boise, Idaho. “It took a while, but it’s really starting to grow now. People are making the connection between biblical truth and the value of creation care, and they weren’t making that seven years ago. There was this idea if you were pro-envi-ronment you were probably pro-choice.”

Climate change remains a volatile issue, though, with only 27 percent of evan-gelicals convinced global warming is real, according to Barna. In 2007 the Rev. Jerry Falwell said global warming is “Satan’s attempt” to distract churches from fi ghting abortion and gay marriage. Since his death, leading evangelicals such as James Dobson have continued to challenge popular claims about climate change.

But unlike with abortion and gay mar-riage, opinions vary on the environment. In 2006 a group of religious activists led by Richard Cizik, then a vice president with the National Association of Evan-gelicals, penned a green manifesto calling Christians to action on climate change. The same year the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution urging better care of God’s creation.

Even Christians who support creation care prefer to step away from left-leaning environmentalists. Sleeth emphasizes that unlike Al Gore he is nonpolitical and says the Blessed Earth event will not address global warming. His group is partnering on the event with Asbury Theological Seminary and Zondervan, the evangelical publisher of Sleeth’s book, Serve God and Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action.

—AMY GREEN

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» Dr. Matthew Sleeth expects 1 million churchgoers to participate in his Blessed Earth simulcast, to be held on the eve of Earth Day.

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Tyndale-I Get It 1p.indd 1 10/16/09 3:52:04 PM


The accredited one-year program will pair higher education with hands-on ministry in inner-city Los Angeles

Dream Center College to

Train Students for Service

Deciding what to do with his life, Cody Cressey thought about going to Bible college, but he wanted to get hands-

on ministry training too.When he heard about the new Dream

Center College in Los Angeles, the 23-year-old decided to do both. Now, he’s planning to take accredited college courses while he ministers to families living on the mean streets of the City of Angels. “It just breaks my heart going out there,” Cressey said. “You get to see and feel the need fi rst-hand. I feel called to the ministry ... and the Dream Center College is an amazing place. I don’t know of any better place to learn and get this hands-on ministry training.”

Cressey is one of hundreds of students planning to attend the college when it opens in September. He is currently enrolled in The Movement, a ministry training and discipleship program at the Dream Center that will become a one-year certifi cate pro-gram this fall under the new college.

The college will be located in a 160,000 square-foot tower at the Dream Center, a nonprofi t outreach dedicated to helping inner-city people. Established in 1993 by pastors Tommy and Matthew Barnett, the Dream Center provides food, clothing, shelter, life rehabilitation and biblical training through 273 outreaches.

Matthew Barnett, pastor of the nearby 7,000-member Angelus Temple–the church founded by Aimee Semple McPherson in 1921—says the college is unique because students will get to earn college credits as they spend a year helping the homeless, poor and addicted in the inner city. After-ward, the credits can be transferred into a degree program at a traditional university.

“It’s kind of like the Peace Corps of colleges where people can learn, grow and develop at the same time they get college credits,” said the 36-year-old pastor. “They

can go to the college on-site and get all the things the Dream Center provides with hundreds of outreaches on a daily basis.”

The idea for the college, accredited under the Oakland, Calif.-based Patten University, grew out of The Movement, a program designed to raise up the next gen-eration of “world changers.” Kelli Bradley, co-director of The Movement, said youth today want to live for a cause. “They love the fact the Dream Center has such a great cause,” she said. “We are reaching out to the community to make it a better place to live, and so the students get really excited about the prospect of being able to do that.”

During the one-year program, students will receive 24 college credits, 12 from spiritual formation classes taught in a tradi-tional classroom by professors and the other half through hands-on ministry practicum. The credits can transfer into most degree programs as history or philosophy credits.

“I just feel like God is mobilizing our generation,” Cressey said. “People are just pushing the envelope and doing things I haven’t been used to seeing. ... We realize there is a lot of hurt that needs to be healed and only God can take care of that.”

—TROY ANDERSON in Los Angeles

»News

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Sid Roth is mailing a book of testimonies from Messianic believers to 1 million Jewish homes across the U.S.

Minister Leads Jewish

Evangelism Campaign

[A

Messianic minister is on a cam-paign to evangelize 1 million Jewish homes nationwide.

Sid Roth, founder of Georgia-based Messianic Vision and host of the It’s Supernatural TV show, last year launched an initiative to mail copies of his book They Thought for Themselves to 1 mil-lion Jewish homes across the U.S. The book fea-tures the testimonies of 10 Jewish believers in Jesus.

“Sure, a lot of [the books] will be torn up without even being read,” Roth said, “but the ones God is dealing with, they’re going to read this and they’re going to come to the Lord.”

Roth, who ministered among Jews in the former Soviet Union for 15 years, says in recent months he has seen a “change in the atmo-sphere” of Jewish evangelism.

Last summer in Brighton Beach, N.Y., nearly 400 Russian Jews reportedly attended an evangelistic meeting billed as a lecture on the paranormal. People were healed, Roth said, including a wheelchair-bound woman who had not been able to walk for fi ve years. “Almost the entire group stood up to make public professions of Messiah,” Roth told Charisma.

Later, at a similar meeting in California, roughly 30 Jewish people professed faith in Christ. “In my opinion this is unprec-edented in America,” Roth said. “I’ve been in Jewish ministry over 35 years, and I’ve

never heard of anything like this before.”He said 50 Holocaust survivors professed

faith in Christ during two meetings he led in Israel. “Again, by Israeli standards, this is an unprecedented thing,” Roth said.

Other Messianic leaders say they are not seeing a modern awakening similar to what happened in the 1990s among Jews in the

former Soviet Union. But they also say Christians have been wrongly reluc-tant to evangelize Jewish people. “I think there’s been a misconception that Christians have had that Jewish people are not open to the gospel,” said Jonathan Bernis, head of Jewish Voice Ministries International. “And while true of the older genera-tion, the Jewish leadership

and those that are more observant … it’s not true of the overall Jewish community [in the U.S.] and in Israel.”

Messianic Vision has launched Project 77, which is seeking $77 donations to mail seven books to Jewish families in the U.S. By February, the ministry had raised enough money to mail 82,000 books.

Roth said bringing together Jews and gentiles as believers in Jesus would usher in a historic revival. “I see these Jewish people coming to the Lord, entering the church and forming the one new man [described in Ephesians 2] to catapult the greatest gen-tile revival in history worldwide,” he said. “That’s my vision. That’s what I believe.”

—ADRIENNE S. GAINES

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» Messianic evangelist Sid Roth


»News

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PUSH FOR ISLAMIC COURTS IN KENYA ALARMS CHRISTIANSChristians in Kenya are opposing a proposed constitutional provision that would expand the scope of Islamic courts in the East African nation. In February, 23 Christian leaders released a statement asserting their opposition to any inclusion of Islamic courts, which have existed in Kenya since 1963, with their jurisdic-tion limited to the coastal province. Christians, who make up 80 percent of the population, defeated a similar proposal in a 2005 refer-endum. Muslims make up 10 percent of Kenya’s 39 million people, and 9 percent of the population follows indigenous religions. Both Christian and Muslim leaders have threatened to block the draft constitution in a refer-endum later this year if their preferred language is not included. The 2005 referendum was followed by a bitterly disputed presidential election in 2007 that sparked rioting, reportedly leaving 1,300 people dead. The election dispute was resolved with one can-didate becoming president and the other prime minister, and at the heart of the pro-posed constitution is an attempt to transfer presidential powers to the prime minister.

EUROPEAN COURT RULES AGAINST TURKEY’S RELIGION IDA European court on Feb. 2 ordered Turkey to remove the religious affi liation section from citizens’ identifi cation cards, calling the practice a violation of human rights. Reli-gious minorities in general and Christian converts in particular have faced discrimina-tion because of the mandatory religion declaration, which was enforced until 2006. Since then, citizens have been allowed to leave the religion section of their IDs blank. The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights “is a good thing,” said Zekai Tanyar, president of the Turkish Protestant Alliance, citing prejudices against Christian con-verts. “[Religion on the ID] can cost people their jobs,” he told Compass Direct News. “It has been known to aff ect whether they get a job or not, how people look at them, whether they are accepted for a post or an application of some sort.”

ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS IN KARNATAKA, INDIA, FREQUENT AND FURIOUSKarnataka state recorded the highest number of anti-Christian attacks in India last year, and it is keeping that pace this year. Christians in Karnataka are being attacked “at rapid regularity” and “with near impunity,” and it is “a serious matter of concern for the Christian community,” said Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. Much of the violence occurs under the vigilante pretext of rounding up Christians supposedly involved in “forcible” or “fraudulent” conversion eff orts. On Feb. 1 in Thagadur village, Kodagu district, Hindu extremists dragged 11 Christians—including four women—from their homes and colluded with police to arrest them on such false charges. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that all of the Christians, members of the Beraka Gospel Church in Suntikupa village, were tortured at the Siddapur police station to pressure them to admit to the charges. Police denied torturing the Christians, but like many people in India, Inspector Ratan Singh of the Siddapur police station seemed to believe that laws against fraudulent conversion apply to any kind of proclamation of faith.Source: Compass Direct News

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» Observers fear debate over the proposed provision could spark riots like those in 2007.

Persecution Watch


News CM 4-10.indd 23 3/8/10 2:07:08 PM


[ DENOMINATIONS MOURN LOSS

OF PENTECOSTAL BISHOPS ]

The Church of God in Christ and the Pentecostal Assem-blies of the World mourned the loss of two prominent bishops earlier this year. Bishop Allie T. Moore, the last sur-viving bishop to be appointed by Church of God in Christ (COGIC) founder C.H. Mason, died Feb. 7 in his Louisville, Ky., home at the age of 98. Moore had been appointed leader of the denomination’s Kentucky jurisdiction in 1947 and for more than 60 years had served as pastor of 19th and Cedar COGIC in Louisville, which was renamed Moore Temple COGIC in 1985. Moore’s death followed that of Bishop Norman L. Wagner, former presiding bishop of the Pente-costal Assemblies of the World (PAW). He died Jan. 30 in a Youngstown, Ohio, hospital, after having heart surgery. He was 68. Wagner served as pastor of Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church in Youngstown, now known as Calvary Ministries International, for nearly 40 years and led the PAW, a Oneness Pentecostal denomination with more than 1.5 million members worldwide, from 1998 to 2004. A respected singer, songwriter and arranger, Wagner was nominated with his choir for two Stellar Gospel Music Awards.

[ BLACK DENOMINATIONS UNITE, UNVEIL PLAN

TO EMPOWER AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALES ]

Three historic black denominations united for the fi rst time in 45 years to unveil a plan to keep black males out of prison and in school and church. The African Methodist Episcopal (AME), Christian Methodist Episcopal and AME Zion churches announced the Male Investment Plan at the Great Gath-ering March 1-3, which drew 5,000 people to Columbia, S.C., and received a video address from President Obama. The plan targets 5- to 25-year-old black males and will focus on economic, educational, physical and spiritual enrichment, The State reported. Participating churches will lead Saturday Academies that will team youth with mentors and off er them skill-building workshops. The plan will be phased in 13 regions, beginning in Washington, D.C. The three denominations have a combined membership of more than 5 million and pledged to provide $10 million annually to fund the initiative. AME Bishop John R. Bryant, who helped usher charismatic renewal into his denomination in the 1970s, said the church’s power to bring change among black males is “in our relationship with the Holy Ghost,” the State reported.

[ CONSERVATIVE LUTHERANS TO FORM

SEPARATE DENOMINATION ]

A group of conservative Lutheran organizations that opposed the Evan-gelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) decision to allow homosex-uals to serve as pastors is launching a new denomination this summer. Lutheran CORE will unveil the North American Lutheran Church at the ELCA’s convocation in August. The proposed splinter group will be based on four attributes: Christ-centered, mission-driven, traditionally grounded and congregationally focused. Meanwhile, the national assembly of the Church of England in February passed a motion that affi rmed the desire of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) “to remain within the Anglican family.” The ACNA formed in response to liberal moves within the Episcopal Church USA, the American branch of Anglicanism, that culmi-nated with the ordination of an openly gay bishop in 2003.

[» Bishop Norman Wagner died Jan. 30.

»NewsBriefsD.C. ISSUES GAY MARRIAGE LICENSESThe nation’s capital began granting same-sex marriage licenses March 3 amid ongoing eff orts by traditional marriage supporters to get a referendum on the issue. Congress chose not to overturn the gay marriage law the Washington, D.C., City Council passed in December, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it has been a “matter of judicial policy” for the High Court not to intervene in local mat-ters. Traditional marriage supporters said they would continue pursuing a ballot initiative, which would allow voters to repeal the gay marriage law. So far, the courts have upheld District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics rulings claiming a ballot measure would discriminate against homosexuals and violate the city’s human rights law. Same-sex marriage is allowed in six U.S. jurisdictions.

DON WILDMON RETIRESAmerican Family Association (AFA) founder Donald E. Wildmon has resigned as chairman of the Mississippi-based organization. Wildmon, who has led AFA for more than 30 years, was hos-

pitalized for three months beginning in August after contracting encephalitis from a mosquito bite. He also is recovering from surgery to remove cancer on his left eye. His son, Tim Wildmon, is expected

to lead the organization. Don Wildmon plans to continue working at

the ministry and with other pro-family groups nationally, but he will not serve in a leadership role at AFA, according to a ministry statement.

T.D. JAKES PROTÉGÉ TAKES OVER DENVER MEGACHURCHChristopher Hill, protégé of infl uential Dallas pastor T.D. Jakes, is succeeding Heritage Chris-tian Center (HCC) founder Dennis Leonard as senior pastor of one of Denver’s largest churches, according to the Denver Post. Under Hill—a former minister at Jakes’ Potter’s House Church in Dallas—the 5,000-member, mul-tiethnic HCC will be renamed Potter’s House Church of Denver, more closely matching the name of Jakes’ 30,000-member congregation. Leonard, 60, started HCC in his basement with 30 people in 1985. Jakes presided over Hill’s installation as the church’s pastor Feb. 24.

» Don Wildmon

AFA

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True fulfi llment in a relationship with Jesus comes not from a miracle encounter but in walking with Him, no matter which road He takes.

This month’s reading brings us to the story of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. There truly is a great deal

we can learn from this short passage from the Gospel of Mark.

First, Bartimaeus knew about Jesus. “When he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to shout” (Mark 10:47). Second, Bartimaeus knew that is was Jesus’ char-acter to “have mercy” on the people with whom He interacted (vv. 47-48).

Third, Bartimaeus did not hesitate when Jesus called him. He threw off his cloak (quite possibly his only possession), jumped to his feet and went to Jesus. Last, Bartimaeus knew exactly what he wanted from Jesus. “I want to see,” he said.

Refl ect now on your own life. Do you really know and understand God’s character? Are you assured that it is God’s character to give His creation (you) good things, to show you mercy? And then do you actively seek Him? (Shouting in a crowd as Bartimaeus did is very active.)

The fi rst two steps are easy. But they are where we often stop. We may seek God, but do we listen for His answer (His call)? Do we throw off what holds us back (our safety nets) and go to Him?

Finally, consider your requests. What

are you praying for? Do you ask God to give you a vision of His purpose and will for your life? After Jesus healed Bar-timaeus we fi nd that “he followed Jesus along the road” (v. 52).

Consider the testimony of “Sally,” who found Christ in a country closed to Christianity. She made two Christian friends who invited her to church.

“From the very beginning my heart was touched by worship and songs. Later on ... I asked the pastor to pray for my very impor-tant exam. He said: ‘I hope you will pray with your own faith.’ So I simply prayed and I asked Him to meet me or somehow prove to me that this is the right way!

“And He did. I found there were no more doubts about Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I gave my heart to Him and I started to serve Him right after that. Now Jesus is the fi rst priority in my life, and knowing and doing His will is much more impor-tant than even my job and my dreams.”

To truly “see” is to understand that life is fulfi lling only when we are following Jesus down the road. It is important to realize that physical healing or fi nancial stability or whatever you are seeking is only the starting point on the road, the beginning of a lifelong journey.

» Adapted from Principles 4Life (Life Publishers International), available free of charge at lifepublishers.org.

S P E C I A L F R O M L I F E P U B L I S H E R S

There’s More Down the RoadRead Mark 10:46-52

This month’s Bible study:

Visit biblestudy.charismamag.com

for more Bible studies.

D I G G I N GD e e p e r

[A P R I L 2 0 1 0 ]

Follow our daily reading plan in

each issue of Charisma to read

through the Bible in one year.

B I B L EReading Guide

»Apr. 1 Judg. 11-12; Ps. 50; 2 Cor. 1

Apr. 2 Judg. 13-16; 2 Cor. 2

Apr. 3 Judg. 17-18; Ps. 89; 2 Cor. 3

Apr. 4 Judg. 19-21; 2 Cor. 4

Apr. 5 Ruth 1-2; Ps. 53,61; 2 Cor. 5

Apr. 6 Ruth 3-4; Ps.64-65; 2 Cor. 6

Apr. 7 1 Sam. 1-2; Ps. 66; 2 Cor. 7

Apr. 8 1 Sam. 3-5; Ps. 77; 2 Cor. 8

Apr. 9 1 Sam. 6-7; Ps. 72; 2 Cor. 9

Apr. 10 1 Sam. 8-10; 2 Cor. 10

Apr. 11 1 Sam. 11-12; 1 Chr. 1; 2 Cor. 11

Apr. 12 1 Sam. 13; 1 Chr. 2-3; 2 Cor. 12

Apr. 13 1 Sam. 14; 1 Chr. 4; 2 Cor. 13

Apr. 14 1 Sam. 15-16; 1 Chr. 5; Matt. 1

Apr. 15 1 Sam. 17; Ps. 9; Matt. 2

Apr. 16 1 Sam. 18; 1 Chr. 6; Ps. 11; Matt. 3


Apr. 18 1 Sam. 20-21; Ps. 34; Matt. 5

Apr. 19 1 Sam. 22; Ps. 17,35; Matt. 6

Apr. 20 1 Sam. 23; Ps. 31,54; Matt. 7

Apr. 21 1 Sam. 24; Ps. 57-58; 1 Chr. 8; Matt. 8

Apr. 22 1 Sam. 25-26; Ps. 63; Matt. 9

Apr. 23 1 Sam. 27; Ps. 141; 1 Chr. 9; Matt. 10

Apr. 24 1 Sam. 28-29; Ps. 109; Matt. 11

Apr. 25 1 Sam. 30-31; 1 Chr. 10; Matt. 12

Apr. 26 2 Sam. 1; Ps. 140; Matt. 13


Apr. 28 2 Sam. 3; 1 Chr. 12; Matt. 15

Apr. 29 2 Sam. 4-5; Ps. 139; Matt. 16


“I WILL PRAISE you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.”

—Psalm 9:1, NLT

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» N E X T G E N E R AT I O N : T H E L E A D E R S

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EMERGRR IGG NGLEADERS

Meet the new

generation of Spirit-

empowered leaders out to change the world.

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JAESON MACHURCH PLANTER, FILMMAKER,MUSIC ARTIST Once a hip-hop rapper, 29-year-old Jaeson Ma ran with an Asian gang as a teen before accepting Christ. His conversion led to a career as a pastor, church planter and author before he returned to music. Ma had a hit single, “Love,” last fall and this year will release a new album, Glory. He recently launched into fi lmmaking with 1040, a documentary meant to educate and inspire the world about what God is doing in China. The fi lm tells stories of faith, hope and love from across the most populous nation of the world. “Most Westerners do not know that the greatest move of God is happening in Asia right now ... with over 37,000 coming to faith daily. In Asia, 1040 highlights how faith is not so much what we believe but how we behave.”

OF TOMORROW’SCHURCH

CLAY HEARNMEDICAL MISSIONARYSoon after he graduated from Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia, Clay Hearn left for southern Sudan, where he has worked the last 15 months with the missions arm of International Pentecostal Holiness Church. He helped with the ministry center’s daily operations and worked with short-term missions teams but is scheduled to return home soon to enroll in medical school. “I believe the Lord is sending me into medicine to give me a tool to reach out to otherwise

unreachable people. There are so many places in the world that are closed to the gospel and missionaries but not to doctors.” His time in Africa changed his view

of the U.S. church, which he says is yielding crucial ground. So many Christians try to avoid off ending others that they avoid doing anything for God, Hearn says.

ALEX NOVIKENTREPRENEURAlex Novik immigrated with his family in the early 2000s from Belarus to Philadelphia, where his father began pastoring a small Slavic church, Word of Life. After earning a degree in graphic design, Novik opened Novik Design three years ago. He says visual messages are the most powerful tool to infl u-ence people’s decisions. “If we put 20 billboards in the city [saying] ‘Real men

don’t smoke’ or ‘Real men don’t hurt women,’ in a few years we are going to see a signifi cant change in people’s mindset about who a real man should be. God needs His people in the media sphere of infl uence to get the right message across.” A

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FRED PRICE JR.MEGACHURCH PASTORIn March, the youngest son of pastor Frederick K.C. Price marked his fi rst anniversary as senior pastor of Crenshaw (California) Chris-tian Center after accepting his father’s mantle on his 30th birthday. Refl ecting the younger Price’s age, the church has received an infl ux of 18- to 35-year-olds, including new converts and believers who didn’t attend regularly before. Price says their numbers include members who have taken commitment to the next level by assisting with the helps ministry and pastoral duties. “In these trying and per-ilous times, I want to see the church get in line with the will of God so we can see movements of God as great as the ones seen in the book of Acts. I’d also love to see God move through willing vessels to fulfi ll His plan and purpose in their lives.”

BENJAMIN NOLOTANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVISTThree years ago, Benjamin Nolot founded Exodus Cry, a ministry countering modern slavery, after his address at a conference on human traffi cking was interrupted by numerous attendees falling to the fl oor weeping. Soon after, a donor gave him $10,000 to start the organization that today is part of the 24/7 Justice Initiative at International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri, where Nolot has been a member since 2003. His ministry today receives 90 percent of its fi nancial support and involvement from people under age 30. Nolot, 33, is co-author of a book titled Babylon about the spiritual underpinnings of modern slavery and currently is fi lming a documentary about the global sex trade, sched-uled for release in December. He says that “entering the fi ght against slavery became more than joining a cause. It became an issue of entering into friendship with Jesus.”

JUDAH SMITHMEGACHURCH PASTORFormerly pastor to teens and college students at The City Church in Seattle, 31-year-old Judah Smith replaced his father, Wendell, as the senior pastor last September. The transi-tion has enlarged his heart for people in all seasons of life. Many of the young people he pastored in The City’s Generation Church are now 25 to 35 years old and are the backbone of the church—generous in giving, serving and leading, Smith says. “One of my main goals when I was the youth pastor was not just to see young people serve God passionately while they were young, but to serve God in every season of their life. My measure of a successful youth pastor is if the young people he or she pastors are still in church—loving God and raising godly families—as they get older.” In addition to the thousands who hear Smith preach each weekend at one of The City Church’s multiple campuses, more than 35,000 people download his sermons from the church’s Web site.

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CAMERON STRANGENTREPRENEURIn 2000, Cameron Strang launched Relevant Media Group, a multimedia company targeting the college-to-early 30s audience, and is the publisher of its fl ag-ship print and online magazine, Relevant. This year the company released a digital version of the magazine for e-readers and added an online radio station to the mag-azine’s Web site. In May, Strang expects to publish the fi rst print edition of Reject Apathy, currently an online site that promotes Christian cultural engagement. He foresees a future melding of the church’s “vertical” emphasis on the cross with a “horizontal” focus on social justice. “God is doing a new thing in my genera-tion, and I feel like I’m charged with navigating those waters in the media—not only reporting on what God is doing, but also being a voice of leadership.”

BENJAMIN STEPHENS IIIPASTOR AND AUTHORBenjamin Stephens III leads four Bible study classes at West Angeles Church of God in Christ (COGIC) as pastor to collegiate and young adults. Two groups meet on college campuses, and a weekly one at the church attracts 125 young adults. The 36-year-old also serves as national president of the COGIC young men’s ministry. A book he co-authored, From Jay-Z to Jesus, has stirred interest outside Christian circles with its call for the church to build bridges with urban youth and mentor future leaders. “I pray that God will bring revival to young adults. Even though the dress code might be diff erent, or someone might have a tattoo or a piercing, I hope that will not disqualify them in their worship. Don’t judge a book by its cover. God is still doing some amazing things in the lives of young people.”

JUSTIN DORROHCHURCH PLANTERJustin Dorroh left the business world last year to pastor The Door Community of Faith in Portland, Oregon—one of more than 40 churches globally that have been planted by Antioch Ministries Inter-national of Waco, Texas. He led the congregation during its relocation into a theater setting and capped off the move with a relaunch of the church last September. The church’s emphasis is on cell groups that meet

in various areas, including one near Portland State University. Members do everything from passing out free coff ee to giving away gift certifi cates to establish relationships with nonbelievers. “People have put the church in a box [here], and we’re trying to get out of the box. People think God wants to condemn them. As we share the gospel, people are saying, ‘I’ve never heard that before.’ We’re starting to see breakthroughs.”

RANDY OLSSONTEEN MANIA LEADERLast November Randy Olsson became the director for global expansion with Honor Academy of Teen Mania, a youth ministry based in Garden Valley, Texas, where he has been affi liated since 2001. The one-year academy grounds recent high school graduates in the faith and is accredited through partnerships with Oral Roberts University and Sterling Univer-sity. Olsson is optimistic about youth, saying the young generation has three distinguishing marks: a desire for authen-ticity, an active faith and an emphasis on community. “The young generation is so hungry to be relevant. They want to meet felt needs of the world.” Olsson also wants to see every believer strengthened for the future. “The culture is swallowing people up, intellectually and spiritually. The reason Honor Academy exists is ... to get people rooted in their faith and able to withstand the onslaught.”

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REBECCA GRANTANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVISTA 28-year-old graduate of Evangel University, Rebecca Grant spends most of the year in India assisting Project Rescue, an outreach to female sex-traffi cking victims that originated with members of Mumbai Teen Challenge. Though based in New Delhi, Grant travels to various cities with her Rescue Arts, which uses creative arts to minister. “I have seen broken women and girls learn to express and create through the arts and discover their value in Christ,” Grant says. “Each time a young woman creates something beautiful out of what was broken and hopeless, I see a light of hope and understanding in her eyes. That change is what keeps me going.” After spending much of 2009 in New Delhi at a Project Rescue site, she planned in March to help open a Home of Hope in the city. Grant says traffi cking in India will change only as believers come together across cultures and ideologies.

DAMON THOMPSONREVIVALISTWhen he was 9, Damon Thompson saw him-self in a vision tossing Bibles into wheat fi elds and watching balls of fi re ignite. He surren-dered to the call to preach 13 years ago and has since traveled the globe to deliver a mes-sage of renewed hunger for God. “I want to see signs, wonders and miracles following not just ministers but believers. Jesus said that we would perform the signs He did and greater. It’s my passion that the church not settle for a lesser power.” As a member of the leader-ship team at Ramp youth and conference center in Hamilton, Alabama, Thompson has a large following among young adults. He says today’s younger generation is tired of fake religion and doesn’t want to come to church and see a show. “They want to have a power encounter that will change everything about their lives.”

ROB HOSKINSMEDIA EVANGELIST“I have a great burden to see the church join together in unity to accomplish the Great Commission,” says Rob Hoskins, president of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based OneHope (formerly called Book of Hope). The worldwide ministry, founded by his father in 1987, teaches children biblical basics. More than 640 million copies of its Bible summary have been distributed, and 20 million-plus children have seen its animated movie about Christ’s life, The GodMan. Under Hoskins, OneHope has expanded to include fi lm, text messaging, trading cards and music. “After 20 years of extensive ministry work on behalf of OneHope that has taken me to more than 70 countries, I have seen fi rsthand the need for a more unifi ed approach to world missions between the church, missionaries and mission-minded organizations.”

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JENNIFER TOLEDOACTIVISTJennifer Toledo directs with her husband, Jonatan, the Africa-based aid organi-zation Global Children’s Movement, which they started six years ago to raise awareness of child pov-erty. Their eff orts include a center for women rescued from the sex trade in Kenya, a relief center in Congo and an anti-violence campaign in Uganda. Their organiza-tion also trains American pastors and leaders to work with children. Toledo says the church needs to realign its priorities so it will be ready for what she believes will be the greatest revival in history for children and youth. “Everywhere we travel around the world, we meet pockets of children who are having radical God encounters, interceding for revival, [receiving] visita-tions and being called to the harvest fi eld. There is something brewing [and] stirring in the hearts of this generation. There is a com-pelling hunger for a gospel that transforms lives.”

JONATHAN SHIBLEYMARKETPLACE MINISTERJonathan Shibley has taken his college background as a business major at Baylor University into the world. He is founder of the Marketplace Missions initiative of Dallas-based Global Advance, which last year sponsored 20 marketplace conferences in 14 developing nations, attended by

some 3,000 business leaders. Shibley says evangelism, job cre-ation and environmental stewardship all occur in this arena. He organized the marketplace emphasis to impart a gospel vision to entrepreneurs and professionals. Pilot projects in 2004 met with success and revealed that little attention had been given to Chris-tian businesspersons in developing countries. “I think millions of believers in the marketplace are awakening to the fact that they are a strategic, vital piece in God’s plan. People need to see the power of God manifest, and the marketplace is where the rubber meets the road.”

ERIC REEDERYOUTH REVIVALISTAlong with overseeing youth ministry at The Oasis in Middletown, Ohio, Eric Reeder travels extensively, exhorting the church to infl u-ence society. He has a heart for seeing the church arise, particularly in multigenerational settings. That happened last November in the fi rst of a series of worship and prayer conferences held under the name Surge. The event attracted more than 300, and the crowd was split evenly between people over and under age 35. “I was thrilled about that. I’m talking gray-hairs down to teenagers,” he says. Reeder, 33, is also excited about the promise of today’s youth. “The younger generation is bursting to do more than go to a Sunday church service. Their hearts are beating to make signifi cant impact and change on a broad scale.”

DAVE SUMRALLCHURCH PLANTERLast year Dave Sumrall launched ONE, a ministry for people in their late teens and 20s that brought more than 400 people to Christ as it spread to three campuses of Church of the Highlands in Bir-mingham, Alabama, where he served for two years. Sumrall, 32, and his wife, Kate, were scheduled to move to Indianapolis in March to plant I-town Church, a con-gregation that will focus on young adults and families and emphasize children’s programs and nurseries. “I am very pas-sionate about the local church. I truly believe it is the hope of the world. The generation I am privileged to pastor is one of the most genuine and hungry generations to ever live. They want a true relationship with Jesus that results in New Testament power that can be displayed in normal, everyday life.”


DARREN WILSONINDEPENDENT FILMMAKERDarren Wilson became an underground success after his fi rst fi lm, Finger of God—which looked at miracles occurring in the global charismatic movement—sold more than 60,000 copies. The artist-in-residence and assistant professor at Judson University and head of Wanderlust Productions debuted his second fi lm, Furious Love, on Feb. 14. Wilson, 33, hopes the new movie will start a revolution of love in the Western church, which

he says has a tendency to focus on its problems instead of reaching those out-side of God’s grace. “My passion is for today’s church to actually rise up and be the church God has been calling her to be for the last 2,000 years. We are called to show the love of Jesus, and that love is a radical thing. ... There is power in the exertion of love toward our fellow man.”

JOHN WHEELERMINISTERJohn Wheeler made national news a year ago when he helped organize an event to foster racial unity among Pentecostal churches in Springfi eld, Missouri. Today the 27-year-old is still calling for racial reconciliation. “If racial division is not the biggest stronghold of the devil, it’s one of them,” says Wheeler, great-grandson of Church of God in Christ (COGIC) founder Charles H. Mason. Wheeler moved to San Diego in December to be part of St. Stephen’s Cathedral COGIC and work with its youth ministry. His recent relocation puts him closer to Azusa Street in Los Angeles, scene of the historic 1900s-era revival led by African-Amer-ican preacher William Seymour. “They were all of the same motive and the same heart—they were all one body. A lot of people following [Seymour] weren’t even the same ethnicity. That’s powerful.”

KIM WALKER-SMITHMUSICIANKim Walker-Smith has recorded four albums with Jesus Culture, a worship movement that emerged from teaching conferences held by Bethel Church in Redding, California. Formerly worship pastor at the church, she stepped down in January 2009 to attend school in San Francisco and to marry Skyler Smith, a childhood friend who plays guitar for her at some of her concerts. Despite the move, she is still involved with Jesus Culture and will release her second solo eff ort this fall. She says youth are growing up with more divorce, abuse and violence than previous gen-erations but are emerging stronger. “I see God capturing the hearts of the younger generation. They are hungry for the supernatural and for something that goes beyond their full under-standing. Faith isn’t really diffi cult for them.”

H E A R T H E M S P E A K

Visit emerging.charismamag.com to watch powerful videos from some of the passionate young leaders featured in this article.

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FAYTENE KRYSKOWREVIVALISTCanadian speaker Faytene Kryskow has spearheaded movements to train intercessors and infl uence her nation’s political system. In 2008, she led the largest-ever pro-life gathering in Canada at Parliament, and she oversees TheCRY, an interdenominational prayer and fasting movement. She says current world events are so intense that believers can’t be going about business as usual: “We have to be sensitive to the times and what the Lord wants us to do.” Author of a best-selling book, Stand on Guard, Kryskow also launched MY Canada to give young adults a voice in Parliament and has used it to organize more than 500 meetings with political leaders. “God has rolled out the red carpet for us to speak.”



A RESOURCE OF THE ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND

The doors of the church are being bound. The growing intrusion of government into the affairs of the church poses a profound threat to church autonomy and even to our most basic religious liberties – freedom of speech, freedom to exercise religious beliefs, and freedom of access. Pastors must be willing to speak up to reclaim and secure the right of the Church to be the Church. To learn what you can do, visit us online:

www.SpeakUpMovement.org Facebook.com/SpeakUpChurch Twitter.com/SpeakUpChurch

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We» N E X T G E N E R AT I O N : T H E I D E A L S

CryOut

Young Christian leaders today crave

authentic faith. Here are 7 passions

of the next generation.

1. A Cry for the

Simple Gospel

By Francis ChanWhen I did youth ministry back in the 1980s our goal was to get people to our meetings however we could. We off ered entertainment, food, bands, games, prizes—anything. Then we would give a message telling people how easy it is to get to heaven. We wanted to get them to pray the prayer!

Some good things resulted from those days, but I also know I wasn’t being entirely honest. Fearing rejection, I often didn’t mention the cost of following Christ. This was faulty reasoning.

The truth is, when the Holy Spirit moves, people will come to Christ regard-less of the cost. All I was doing was deceiving them into thinking they were saved when they indeed may not have been.

Thankfully, the days of “tricking” people into church gatherings and manipulating them into praying seem to be coming to an end. Today’s Christians are hungry for absolute truth and des-perate for authenticity.

Unbelievers are still off ended by the gospel, but they are more off ended when

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a person’s true beliefs are watered-down. The world can respect those who lov-ingly disagree with them but not those unwilling to state their true beliefs.

Jesus was very direct and easy to understand. He said, “Follow me.” He was clear that following Him was going to be diffi cult but that He is worth it (see Matt. 16:24-26).

Rather than ignoring the commit-ment He calls us to, let’s emphasize the worth of our King so people are willing to follow at any cost.

FRANCIS CHAN is pastor of Cornerstone Community Church (cornerstonesimi.com) in Simi Valley, California, and the author of two books, Crazy Love and Forgotten God.

2. A Cry to Engage

the Culture

By Erwin McManusFor some Christians, whenever they hear the word “relevance” they hear the word “heresy.” Being relevant doesn’t mean you change your convictions to cater to any audience. You do listen carefully to learn how to communicate eff ectively to the people who so desperately need to hear, believe and receive.

Any church that genuinely loves people and passionately pursues them with God’s love is going to have to rethink much

of what they’re doing today—how they are going to get the living water to those who are dying of thirst.

If you are biblically literate you immedi-ately understand the metaphor of living water. Jesus used it when talking to a woman at a well. He was attuned to the times and to His context, and His imagery and lan-guage made perfect sense.

Today we’re still using the same lan-guage, the same metaphors. When was the last time you met someone at a well? But I bet you’ve met someone recently at a Chili’s or a Starbucks.

We have made the words rather than the wisdom of Jesus our model. I don’t for one minute think Jesus intended for us to canonize His analogies. I believe He expected us to do like He modeled.

At Mosaic, where I pastor, we carry as our No. 4 core value, “Relevance to culture is not optional.”

We keep reminding ourselves that the church isn’t ours, that we are the church and we belong to God. And if that makes

us controversial, then so be it. I would rather be a friend of sinners anyway. How about you?

ERWIN MCMANUS is lead pastor of Mosaic, a faith community with locations in greater Los Angeles and Berkeley, California (erwinmcmanus.com).

3. A Cry for Justice

By Lynette Lewis

There comes a time when you look at all the pain in the world and stop hoping something will change. You decide, I will answer the cry for justice, not knowing how you’ll fi nd the time or resources, who will join you or when you’ll see results. You simply decide to act.

That is how the Stop Child Traffi cking Now campaign began. My husband, Ron, and I were tormented by the growth of child sex-traffi cking in the U.S. But being appalled wasn’t enough. We researched the issue, talked to experts and built a grass-roots campaign.

Though we branded the campaign as a “human rights” mission, Psalm 10 became our battle cry—in particular verses 17-18: “You hear, O Lord, the desire of the affl icted ... defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more” (NIV).

As the campaign grew, thousands of teens and youth inside the church and beyond it responded to the cry for justice. The last weekend in September 2009, people in 40 cities and on 70 campuses participated with walks, runs and other


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rallies, raising more than $750,000 to fund operative teams of retired military elites who track down predators and bring justice to child victims. This is only the beginning of an all-out eff ort to defend the innocent.

This generation will not be silenced while the atrocities of injustice go on. The movement will grow until His “jus-tice rolls down like waters and righteous-ness like an ever-fl owing stream” (Amos 5:24, ESV).

LYNETTE LEWIS is an inspirational speaker and co-founder of Strategic Global Initiatives, an organization dedicated to giving a “voice to the vulnerable” globally (sctnow.org).

4. A Cry for the

Persecuted Church

By Lazarus YeghnazarIn the last century, more souls heard the

gospel and accepted Jesus Christ than in all the previous history of humanity. More martyrs also gave their lives for the gospel in that time period than had done so since the emancipation of the church.

When we refl ect on the fi rst-century church and the suff ering it went through, we tremble and remember the words of Jesus Himself:

“Anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of me. If you do not take your cross and follow Me you are not worthy of being my disciple!” (See Matt.10:38; Luke 14:27.)

The trail of crimson, holy blood spilled by the saints has run through the church from the foot of the cross to this very day—from the Roman catacombs to the Soviet gulags to the burning churches today in Indonesia, Mindanao, Nigeria and India.

The “persecuted” church is the church. The church that truly is “salt and light” in the world causes irritation, fric-tion and suff ering. Light and darkness cannot coexist peacefully.

Jesus said: “I have come to bring the sword” (see Matt. 10:34). A silenced, ami-able, accommodating and nonthreatening church will live in peaceful coexistence with the world under an undeclared truce!

Are you a part of the persecuted

church? Do you identify with her pain and suff ering? Or would you rather be in a nonthreatening church with few demands? I am a member of the perse-cuted church.

LAZARUS YEGHNAZAR is an Iranian evan-gelist based in England and director of 222 Ministries (222ministries.com).

5. A Cry to Reach

the City

By Napoleon KaufmanThe fi rst homicide of 2010 in the city

of Oakland, California, occurred during a robbery in which a young man was shot and killed in front of his wife and kids. The story touched me deeply. Our church isn’t in Oakland, but we have many members who live there. The tragedy was a reminder that we must reach our cities for God.

The apostle Paul was a master at reaching cities for God. Ephesus, Antioch, Paphos, Troas—everywhere Paul traveled he left a lasting impact. I believe he under-stood that truth is the greatest need in the hearts of people.

Truth is what ultimately will make us free. Paul skillfully preached and taught a noncompromising gospel that helped people come to grips with the fact that they needed to be born again. As a result,


Lazarus Yeghnazar



God’s Word broke through barriers of religious pride, cultural bondage and spiritual deception.

We will never truly reach our cities if we continue preaching about politics or the latest Hollywood drama. Paul told Timothy to “preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2) Our cities, political leaders and com-munities need the church to be what we were created to be—the pillar and ground of the truth.

Had anyone shared the gospel with the thief in Oakland? Had he ever been told there’s a better way? I don’t know.

But I hope that there’s a cry welling up within you to go and reach your city for Jesus. Promise me that as you go, you’ll tell them the truth.

NAPOLEON KAUFMAN is senior pastor of The Well Christian Community (thewellchurch .net) in Dublin, California, and a former NFL running back with the Los Angeles Raiders.

6. A Cry for the Poor

By Biju Thampy

Five-year-old Raju and his mother, Vanda, had not eaten for four days when we found them lying on a busy street in Mumbai, India. We were shocked by seeing Raju’s right eye literally sticking out, bitten by something. The infection had entirely destroyed his eye.

Vanda had given birth to a baby 12 days before, right on that sidewalk where we found her. The newborn died on the street for lack of care.

Vanda and Raju would have died in a few days if we hadn’t met them. Hundreds

of thousands of people had walked past or stepped over them without listening to their cry.

There are millions like them—who are not mere numbers but precious indi-viduals created in God’s image for whom Jesus died. But they are unable to voice their powerlessness.

God hears their silent cry, and He commands us to stand up for them as well: “ ‘ Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute’ ” (Prov. 31:8, NIV).

I believe He created mankind to

live with dignity (see Ps. 8:5-8). Today it isn’t charity that will answer the cry of the poor, but dignity. Charity makes the giver feel good and gives temporary

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» N E X T G E N E R AT I O N : T H E C H A L L E N G E S

These 7 spiritual veterans off er sage advice to the younger generation.

MentorsTO YOURListen

For too many years, young Christian leaders had to go it alone when they launched out into ministry. They were forced to learn which decisions were costly,

unwise or spiritually damaging from the mistakes they made. But in the last fi ve decades the church has learned that everyone needs spiritual mothers and fathers.

This generation is crying out for mentors like never before, so we’ve asked a few veteran pastors, mis-sionaries and Bible teachers to share their wisdom with the next generation of church leaders. And though their comments are tailored toward those young in ministry, the insights these leaders share are valuable reminders for Christians of all ages.

I S TO C K P H OTO. CO M / M E N TA L A R T

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1. LIVE LIFE ‘IN FRONT OF JESUS’By Jack Hayford

I’m often asked, “What is the one thing above all others that is a leader’s pri-ority?” My answer has little to do with personal gifts or professional skill. But it is the thing that will become the foremost reason people will trust and follow you and the reason God will put His seal of approval on you. The one thing is integ-rity of heart.

Leaders with integrity of heart listen to the Holy Spirit’s whispers, yield to His slightest “pings” of conscience and submit to His goads of correction or direction. It is found and sustained by daily choices of a conscience that yields to, and a con-scientiousness that abides in, this sobering and inescapable truth: Every moment, I am naked and exposed in front of Jesus (see Heb. 4:13).

That I should live my life “in front of Jesus” is the counsel my mother engraved upon my heart as a child. It was never used to condemn, but spoken to teach me to live self-confronted by that reality. It has never produced perfection in me, but it has provided life-long protection from self-will, presumptuous indulgence or presumed self-righteousness. To live your life in front of Jesus will keep you on

the sure course unto life, the pure path of love and in the securing fold of truth.

JACK HAYFORD is founding pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California, and former president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

2. BE GOD’S ANSWER FOR A HURTING WORLDBy Lisa Bevere

God created the woman as the answer to Earth’s fi rst problem: that man not be alone. Today there continue to be problems that only God’s daughters can answer. Our

world is heartsick and in need of intimate, safe connections. The problems loom so large, the needs are so vast, that our response must at once be intimate and enormous.

Lovely ones, I want you to rise up in strength, so you can enlarge the lives of others and hear the cry of the broken and captive. Any gift, ability or talent you have was given in order for you to improve the lives of others. There is something within you that this world desperately needs.

Together women of all ages are writing this chapter in the history of God’s daugh-ters. He is relating the mothers, daughters, sisters and grandmothers for their personal strength and spiritual growth, and for His kingdom purposes. Together we are stronger than any of us are standing alone.

Women are God’s answer to hurting relationships, an impotent church and a dying world desperate for healing. You are a voice for those who’ve been silenced. You are beauty amid desolation. You, daughter, are God’s answer.

LISA BEVERE is an international Bible teacher and the author of numerous books, including Fight Like a Girl.

3. EMBRACE THE ‘ONE THING’By David Shibley

A truly successful life is measured not by its duration but by its direction; not by its parties but by its purpose; not by what was amassed but by what was dispersed; not by the embracing of things but by embracing the one thing—to love Jesus supremely and to make Him loved by people everywhere.

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To be eff ective in ministry, you must pursue God daily through prayer and Bible study, and guard your integrity. If you lose trust, it’s game over. Stay true to Scrip-ture—believe God and His Word—and keep evangelism and discipleship central.

Give high priority to cultivating rela-tionships with God, your spouse, your family, and a few trusted friends, and always protect your “base,” which is your marriage and family. Allow yourself to grow from opposition—we can all learn from our critics—and let disappointments work for you. Steer clear of bitterness.

Discover and develop your dominant spiritual gifts and expect miracles. Pour into others, and do what it takes—count the cost, pay the price—to be faithful to your calling. You are the benefi ciary of a century of the Spirit’s outpouring. Live in such a way “that all will honor the Son” (see John 5:23). Inspire your generation to fulfi ll Christ’s Great Commission.

DAVID SHIBLEY is the founder of Global Advance, a ministry that equips church and marketplace leaders to help fulfill the Great Commission.

4. CULTIVATE A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUSBy Mike Bickle

When looking back over 35 years of ministry, the single most important truth that I can pass on to younger leaders is the

absolute necessity of taking the time to cultivate a vibrant relationship with Jesus. The pressure to grow a ministry can be overwhelming. It comes with many hidden traps that can kill our spiritual lives. Many leaders today confess to living spiritually dry, disillusioned and burned-out lives. This is the inevitable result of pursuing ministry without a vibrant relationship with Jesus.

Jesus corrected the church in Ephesus for working hard in ministry without maintaining a fresh love and devotion to

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Him. He exhorted them: “You have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your fi rst love” (Rev. 2:3-4, NKJV). Growth in ministry is good, but it can never replace your relationship with Jesus. Ministry service without the foundation of intimacy with Jesus inevitably leads to burnout and, thus, to far less ministry in the long haul.

Satan’s strategy is to distract from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus (see 2 Cor. 11:3). He knows that if we lose this, we will be much more vulner-able to disillusionment. We must intention-ally cultivate a responsive heart of love to Jesus. It does not happen automatically. It is something that we must set our hearts to do all the days of our lives.

MIKE BICKLE is founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri.

5. SEEK THE KINGDOMBy Bishop George McKinney

My fi rst word of counsel to every leader is drawn from biblical wisdom—“seek fi rst the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). When a person’s priorities are out of order, his life will be fi lled with confusion and God’s given purpose will not be fulfi lled.

Confi rm your status as a citizen of the kingdom of God by acknowledging His authority over your time, talents, oppor-tunities and treasures. When seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness is top priority, you will be able to expe-rience faithfulness as a steward of God’s blessings.

Second, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own under-standing; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5-6). It is essential for servant leaders in the kingdom to maintain an ongoing, inti-mate relationship of trust and obedience to God. Challenging situations tempt us to

lean upon our own understanding. Always remember that God has promised to be with us at all times and that He delights in our acknowledging and trusting in Him. The kingdom is His kingdom, and we belong to Him; we are God’s responsibility.

God’s call to ministry is a call to prepa-ration. It is not a call to success, but a call to faithfulness.

BISHOP GEORGE MCKINNEY is pastor of St. Stephen’s Cathedral Church of God in Christ in San Diego and a member of the denomination’s 12-member General Board.

6. DON’T BE OFFENDEDBy Bob Mumford

Years ago, people built traps in order to catch birds. They would balance a box on a stick tied to a rope and birdseed or

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other food would be placed under the box. When a bird came to eat the seed, the stick would trip, and the box would fall on the unsuspecting bird.

In Greek, that stick is called the skan-dalizo, translated “to off end.” When skan-dalizo becomes your portion—and it will—and you fi nd yourself in a spiritu-ally or emotionally dark box, it is often diffi cult to recover because you can feel like you’re fi ghting a tar baby. Every move is the wrong one. Every prayer sounds like a poorly verbalized whimper. All counsel seems petty or counterproductive.

Being scandalized or off ended is one of the most binding traps into which a believer can fall. In many ways, it goes far beyond simply being hurt, deceived or ensnared by carnal sin; it has the capacity to totally undermine and destroy our walk with the Lord. When we have been scandalized, we really do not care what anyone thinks. We feel the early signs of deep-seated anger, and if we are not careful we can rapidly be sucked into the vacuum of rage and depression.

Jesus warned us about not being off ended. We must allow God to do things that we would never expect. Matu-rity involves guarding against stumbling, falling into sin, or giving up our faith because our expectations were unmet.

BOB MUMFORD is a veteran charismatic Bible teacher and founder of Lifechangers ministry.

7. LEAD BY EXAMPLEBy Nola Warren

During our years of ministry in Mexico, my husband and I have had the joy of mentoring hundreds of young men and women as they prepared for their God-given ministries. We always used the apostle Paul’s admonition in 1 Corin-thians 11:1 as our guide: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” We have always believed that is the best mentoring system of all, and it was one of the many truths we taught our own fi ve children.

Always remember: Lead by example. As we are instructed to follow the example of Christ, we should remember the example He left. Jesus was love. He was sacrifi cial. He humbled Himself. He came to serve, not to be served. We need to love those who come to us for mentoring, sacrifi cing for them and never expecting them to serve us, but rather serving them ourselves.

And parents, don’t forget about the little leaders of tomorrow living under your own roof. They also need to be loved and trained in the ways of our Lord.

NOLA WARREN is a Bible teacher and long-time missionary to Mexico.

M O R E M E N T O R I N GFind out what advice other ministry veterans have for the next generation of church leaders at mentors.charismamag.com.

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8. EMBRACE CHANGE

By Tommy BarnettOne of the most important les-

sons for any leader to embrace is

that change is constant and change

is our friend. God has ordained a

D I G I T A L E D I T I Olife of change, for our entire lives. David wrote, “Because they do not change, there-fore they do not fear God” (Ps. 55:19, NKJV). It is during times of change that we realize our need of God.

Every leader will go through changes, and your happiness in life depends upon your attitude, prepara-tion and acceptance of the changes in your life. When changes have come in my life, I have accepted them, prepared for them and made the next era richer. Then I trusted God more because I had to. And the older you get when change comes, the more you’ll have to trust Him because the harder it is to change.

So here are a few quick thoughts on how to make change your friend: 1) don’t rush change; 2) prepare for the next change; 3) enjoy the time when you need God more because of change; 4) embrace change as a means of developing your dependence on God; and 5) resist hanging on to the old. It is chal-lenging to live with change

but impossible to live without it. Make change your friend and trust God more.TOMMY BARNETT is pastor of Phoenix First Assembly of God and chancellor of South-eastern College in Lakeland, Florida.

9. BECOME MORE LIKE JESUSBy Francis MacNutt

There are two kinds of spiritual gifts. First, there are the famous ministry gifts Paul lists in 1 Cor-inthians 12 that are meant to help others. Then there are the gifts

known as the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22 that are meant to help us become like Jesus.

In my experience, most people want to receive the ministry gifts, but it is the fruit of the Spirit that will cause us to become more like Christ. And isn’t that the real goal of our lives? People can have spec-tacular ministry gifts and still be involved in grave sin, as strange as that may seem. Many leaders with extraordinary ministry gifts often

Various-Listen Mentors CM DigExc2 2 3/17/10 3:02:03 PM

seem to display glaring personal weaknesses. Jesus advised us not to seek the ministry gifts unless our personal lives were noted for holiness (see Matt.7:22-23).

By all means, pray for the min-istry gifts that help others, but do not neglect the personal gifts

that help you become like Jesus.

We desperately need the power of

the Spirit to transform us so that

we can be like Jesus, especially in

loving people sincerely—even our

enemies. Pray for the power of the

Spirit to transform you until you

become like Jesus. It’s the greatest

thing that could ever happen.

FRANCIS MACNUTT is an author and the

founder of Christian Healing Ministries in

Jacksonville, Florida.

I O N E X C L U S I V E

D.L. Foster

10. PUT YOUR HOPE IN GODBy Wellington Boone

When times of inner turmoil steal your hope, remember this story: In 1873, the people of South Carolina elected the former slave Robert Smalls to the U.S. House of Representatives. Despite racial prejudice, he compiled a brilliant record and was known as a pow-erful orator. Later he served as cus-toms collector in Beaufort, South Carolina, until Woodrow Wilson was elected president and fi red many blacks, including Smalls.

This wasn’t the fi rst time Smalls was forced to humble himself in the face of injustice. He became a hero during the Civil War. While still a slave, he piloted the Confed-erate ship Planter out of Charleston Harbor and into Union hands while the captain and crew were ashore. With the reward money he received, he purchased the house where he and his mother had been slaves. One day, the wife of his former slave master, Mrs. McKee, returned to the house. She was elderly and confused and thought she still lived there. Instead of turning her away, Smalls moved her into her former bedroom and served her.

Smalls died in 1915 at the age of 76 and was much honored, but he didn’t see his greatest reward in his lifetime. In 2001 the Army Reserve commissioned the Maj. Gen. Robert Smalls, the fi rst ship

named after an African-American.

If Smalls had spent his life looking

for his reward, or even for jus-

tice to be served, he likely would

have been deeply discouraged. As

leaders, we must put our hope in

the Lord, and remember the words

of David: “Why are you cast down,

O my soul? And why are you dis-

quieted within me? Hope in God;

for I shall yet praise Him, the help

of my countenance and my God”

(Ps. 42:11).

WELLINGTON BOONE is chief overseer of

the Fellowship of International Churches

based in Norcross, Georgia.

Apr i l 2010 / Charisma D I G I TA L E D I T I O N E XC LU S I V E

Various-Listen Mentors CM DigExc3 3 3/17/10 3:02:27 PM

7In an age of Twitter and Facebook, churches too are breaking new ground in evangelism, humanitarian aid and community development.

1. Expecting Miracles in Las Vegas

Every other week, Scott Linklater, 32, and teams of sidewalk evangelists make their rounds on the notorious Las Vegas Strip, where they distribute gospel tracts that resemble huge $100 bills. They see the 40 million tourists who visit the Strip annually as their mission fi eld, and in the last year have shared the gospel with more than 120,000 people.

Out of the outreach eff ort grew the Expectation Church Network—a group of “simple churches,” or house churches, affi liated with the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. “In order to share the gospel, we can’t spend our time and resources on the stuff that other people spend their time and resources on,” Linklater says, referring to the over-head and administrative costs associated with church buildings. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Expectation Church currently links eight simple churches, and Linklater hopes that together they will share the gospel with 200,000 people on the Strip this year. In time, he wants to reach more than 1 mil-lion Vegas tourists annually. “We can justifi -ably say we can do that as we build up more and more workers,” he says.

Trendsetting Churches

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» N E X T G E N E R AT I O N : T H E I N N O VAT O R S

» The Expectation simple church network is evangelizing Las Vegas one gospel tract at a time.

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2. Reaching Unchurched Millennials in Minnesota

When Peter Haas and his wife, Carolyn, moved to Minnesota to plant a church, they hoped to launch an arts-focused ministry that attracted the unchurched. Five years later, what they’ve built is Substance Church, a 2,000-member congrega-tion in St. Paul where 70 percent of the members are part of the Millennial generation, or under age 30, and most were previously unchurched.

A former rave disc jockey, Haas, 34, says he always hoped to build a church for people like himself—“who are very open to God but can’t relate to what we perceive to be the organized church.” Known for its ultra-contemporary worship, Substance Church meets in three loca-tions, but Haas says the ministry’s style is not the real draw. He says research shows that most unchurched people are multiethnic and under age 30, and they feel disenfranchised in churches where the average age of the platform leaders is over 40. “We felt we’ve got to make sure we’re representing people they can relate to on our platform,” Haas says.

But a bigger key, Haas believes, is fostering Christian community by helping members fi nd a core group of friends who will support them in their Christian walk. “We’ve lost that com-munal element to Christianity,” Haas says. “Our whole philosophy hinges on getting every single person in a small-group community in as short a period of time as we can and getting them into ministry. That’s the driving force.”

3. Redeeming the City in MilwaukeeHoly Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ in Milwaukee,

burned its mortgage in 1987, a year after it was established. Since then the 5,000-member congregation has been moving aggressively to empower the residents in its city.

Led by Bishop Sedgwick Daniels, the church established a credit union; K-12 school; housing complex for senior citizens; $15 million youth center that houses a Boys & Girls Club, theater, and social service agency; and a free health clinic. The next project, Bishop’s Creek, will include more than 120 three-bedroom townhomes, a hotel, shops, water park, and a dormitory for children that are displaced. Funded through church giving as well as grants and business partnerships, phases one and two of the $70 million project will open this year, with the hotel and water park scheduled to open in 2011.

“The vision of the church is to win souls for Christ,” Daniels says, “but ... we have a divine mandate that says we are to be mission-minded. We’re to feed those that are hungry, clothe those that are naked, preach the Word or make it accessible. In order to do that, you must fi rst give a hungry man food, as did Christ ... and they can readily receive the Word. So you provide services, and you provide a holistic environment where that Word can be embraced with love because it’s demonstrated through care.”


C O N T I N U E D»

» Substance Church pastor Peter Haas leads a congregation that is primarily under age 30.

» Bishop Sedgwick Daniels is on a mission to empower his city.

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4. A ‘Servolution’ in LouisianaDino Rizzo has a clear ministry goal:

to start a revolution of service in churches worldwide. He’s starting in Louisiana, where he and his wife, DeLynn, are meeting the needs of the poor and hurting through The Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge.

The 7,000-member church has 10 campuses, including two Dream Cen-ters that provide food, clothing and other needs in some of the poorest areas of their city. Church members also regularly mow lawns, help neighbors move and give away water on the local college campus as part of an outreach initiative infl uenced by pastor Steve Sjogren’s book Conspiracy of Kind-ness. When temperatures dipped below freezing last January, Healing Place gave away dozens of space heaters.

“We were not serving to grow a church,” says Rizzo, who released his book, Servolution, last year. “We were serving because of the cause of Christ in our hearts. We felt like that was the best tool to reach people who Jesus died for in our community. As it caught fi re and people got a hold of that, it just began to blossom and take off .”

Rizzo’s vision to see a “servolution” comes closer to reality each year. The min-istry has two campuses in Africa, and in March it hosted Servolution 2010, when churches worldwide led 10 days of com-munity outreach in the run-up to Easter.

5. Reaching the World From North Carolina

During a missions trip in the 1980s, pastor Michael Fletcher of Manna Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina, had what eff ectively amounts to an awak-ening. “Sometimes when you’re in your

own culture, you’re blind to the lostness of people,” he says. “When you go some-where that’s not your own culture, you see things as they are. ... And I just said, ‘We’ve got to reach people, we’ve got to go.’”

Today he nudges the members of his 5,000-member church to engage people outside the church walls through dozens of outreach eff orts Manna Church leads. “We have a global strategy—if there are unsaved people in your home, it goes from the head next to you on the pillow at night right

around the globe,” Fletcher says.That passion to reach the lost also

infl uences Grace Churches International, a ministry network that has grown from 27 congregations when Fletcher took over in 2001 to more than 400 in 69 nations today. “When we talk about ministry partners, it isn’t just send money, it’s hands-on, be

involved in what they’re doing,” he says. The goal is to build the kingdom, not

one congregation, Fletcher adds. “Selfi sh-ness has hijacked the church in the West,” he says. “That’s a fact. We think about our-selves, meet my needs. That’s not Christi-anity. Christianity is giving. It’s giving the gospel of Christ to [the world].”

6. Rescuing the Homeless in Atlanta

Like most other U.S. churches, Rescue Atlanta Church led by pastors Mel and Teresa Rolls has services twice a week, on Sundays and at midweek. But that’s where the similarities end.

Roughly 70 percent of Rescue Atlan-ta’s members are homeless and another 25 percent are from troubled inner-city neighborhoods. A hot breakfast is served before Sunday services and a warm lunch before midweek Bible study. In addition to a food pantry, the church has laundry and shower facilities, as well as a clothes closet and medical clinic.

“I really believe the success of what we’ve done in the 21 years we’ve been doing this is that we get into their lives to where we earn the right to speak into their lives,” says Mel Rolls, an Assemblies of God minister. “They see we’re their friends. We’re not trying to herd them into church. We want them to trust us, then trust the message, then they follow.”

Despite the unique makeup of Rescue Atlanta, the Rollses encourage church members to serve others. They support missionaries worldwide and members have been sponsoring children in Haiti since long before the January earthquake. After fl ooding wreaked havoc in Georgia


» Dino Rizzo, pastor of The Healing Place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has a passion to serve.

» Though most of its members are homeless, Rescue Atlanta still helps others in need.

» Manna Church pastor Michael Fletcher

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last September, teams of homeless men from Rescue Atlanta helped families who had lost everything. “The congregation is amazing,” Rolls says. “They give. We receive an off ering every time we have a service. No one feels like they have to give, but they do give.”

7. A Florida Church That Left the Building—Literally

In 2003, pastor Byron Bledsoe was leading a growing Southern Baptist church in Orlando, Florida, that was drawing 1,500 people each week. Its denomina-tion had even recognized the ministry as a top evangelistic congregation.

But instead of being excited by the commendation, Bledsoe was troubled. He knew that only about 10 percent of the people the church reached each year had been previously unchurched. “If we didn’t exist anymore, nobody in the community would even care,” Bledsoe says.

That nagging discontent led him on a two-year journey that culminated in some

radical moves. He phased out the choir for a worship band and transitioned the Sunday school into home-based cell groups. But the biggest change came in 2007, when the church sold its campus and started holding services in a movie theater, losing 1,400 of its 1,500 members in the process.

Now known as C3 Church, the min-istry spends “every extra dime” on outreach projects such as feeding needy families and providing backpacks for students. Bledsoe says the strategy, though painful, has yielded some unexpected fruit. Most

of the 600 people who attend services each week were previously unchurched. And the congregation has become ethni-cally diverse, just like the city. 3

ADRIENNE S. GAINES is the news editor for Charisma magazine.

S E E T H E M I N A C T I O NSee some of these innovative churches in action at trendsetters.charismamag.com. Also tell us about churches in your city that are fi nding creative ways to reach the lost.

» Byron Bledsoe’s Florida congregation sold its church campus to use its resources to reach the city.

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» N E X T G E N E R AT I O N : T H E P R I O R I T I E S

You might think you’re smart when you get out of college, but I suggest

that the real education isonly just beginning.

10 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 21

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In an Amish kitchen in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Dutch country, I saw a sign I’ll never forget: “Too soon old, too late smart.” When I saw it, I thought it was memorable but

hardly meaningful. I was 21. Now the words are meaningful, but I can barely remember the farmhouse. I am 62.

Sometimes I have the fantasy that I will sit up on my deathbed and cry out, “Oh, I get it,” and lie down again and die. The Amish have it right.

Recently a friend said he wished he were 21 again. The thought held little interest for me, but he made an intriguing counteroff er: What if you could be 21 and know what you know now?

That held more allure, but it begged a question: What, if anything, do I now know that I wish I had known at 21?

I came up with 10 things, none of which I think I would have placed on my priority list at age 21.

1. Inner healing is greater

than outward success. It is probably impossible to arrive at 21, let alone 62, without wounds in the inner person—deep wounds that need God’s healing grace. The more I see of inner healing and the more I face up to my own inner wounds, the more I wish I had let Messiah touch my deepest hurts earlier in life. That childhood hurt, that hidden outrage, that long-suppressed horrifi c memory can lurk like a monster in the basement waiting for years, even decades, to rise and wreak havoc.

Hiding the monster, denying that it’s down there, is a dangerous game. The temptation is to create an alternative reality where success and accomplishment and appearances seem so very real and the monster but a mirage. If I were 21 again I would bore down into the inner world of me and fi nd Christ’s healing touch in the darkness under the fl oorboards.

2. Mercy is greater than

justice. I have found that many in the church want the wayward to “get what’s coming to them.” Too often,

there is a shortage of mercy among the followers of Christ, who blessed the merciful in His most famous message, the Sermon on the Mount. Were I 21 again, I would learn and practice mercy, knowing that later I would need it.

Churches, boards, denominations and individual believers who hanker for justice when a colleague stumbles may be planting for a bitter harvest. They gloat over the sins of others, humiliate the fallen and demand their administrative pound of fl esh.

Competitiveness and legalism are the death of mercy. Mercy makes love real, acceptance and understanding a practice, and tenderness a way of life.

3. Kindness is better than

being right. Just before my friend Jamie Buckingham died, I asked him for a word of wisdom. He said, “It is better to be kind than to be right.”

At 21, I advocated my positions too aggressively. I argued with an eye toward winning, unconcerned about the heart of my “adversary,” who may not have been adversarial at all. I made debate a contact sport. In preaching I let the bad dog off the chain, to the applause of the gallery.

Should time travel be mine and were I to be back in the land of 21, I would be kinder and less concerned with being right. Too many young adults give little thought to kindness.

They Twitter hurtful words like poi-sonous birds. Their humor is mocking, acidic and unkind. And they are more concerned with being thought clever than with being kind. The value of gentleness has declined on the world market; if I were 21 again I would wish to know the worth of a kind word.

4. Serving is better than

being served. Encircled by their entourages, the “success” mer-chants of modern Christianity place high dividends on being catered to. When I was a pastor, the church I led invited a singing group to come minister. Their list of special demands, including a particular type of orange cut into equal fourths (I kid you not), was fi ve pages long. We canceled.

I wish I had known at 21 how hollow is all that outward stuff . I wish I had known that caring, not being cared for, is what Christ had in mind.

I wish I had changed more diapers instead of leaving that to my wife. I wish I had served more meals, car-ried more bags, held more doors and lightened more burdens.

5. Brokenness is the

doorway to wholeness. This mysterious paradox was hidden from me at 21. I feared brokenness. I ran from it, and when it got too close fought it off with all my might.

If I had but known brokenness was the key to my healing, it would have lifted such fear from me. I thought it would maim me at least and maybe even kill me. Now I know that there is very little real wholeness that does not emerge from real brokenness.

6. Truth is liberating and

devastating. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” My friend Jamie tacked on, “But fi rst it will make you miserable.”

How true. There is a phrase pop-ular among many young adults that I quite like despite my usual distaste for pop jingoes. It is, “Keep it real.” I am not sure of all that is meant by it, but I know what I mean by it.

I wish I had known not to fear the truth about myself. I wish I had known that the temporary misery of the truth was worth going through to fi nd the freedom that it brings.

7. Learning is greater than

education. I am a university presi-dent, and Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a great university. I am not saying that higher education is unim-portant. What I am saying is, I hated getting educated.

At 21, I was a miserable college senior. I was a miserable student from the fi rst grade right through high school and on through three degrees. I was miserable because I did not understand the connection between education and learning.

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» N E X T G E N E R AT I O N : T H E F O U N D AT I O N

StrengthGod’sFOR

GenerationTHIS

B Y D E N N I S B E N N E T T

Originally written 20 years ago, a pioneer’s message on

our need for the Holy Spirit’s power is just as relevant–

and prophetic–today.

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Dennis Bennett was a priest in the Episcopal Church who became known as the father of

the modern charismatic movement after he proclaimed from his pulpit on April 3, 1960, that he had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Within weeks he was asked to resign his pastorate at thriving St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, California. He continued his ministry, moving into the pastorate at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Seattle, where he stayed until 1981. In 1968 he founded Christian Renewal Association with his wife, Rita, who is its president today. Dennis died on November 1, 1991, a year after he wrote this article, which is adapted with permission from Mis-sion & Ministry, then the magazine of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. It is a reminder that, in any era, the foundation for min-istering to the world isn’t us alone, but the Holy Spirit, who works through us to change people’s lives.

I had a vivid experience of receiving the Lord Jesus as my Savior when I was 11 years old. I found He was alive and wonderful beyond belief but afterward spent much time looking for what came next. I tried to fi nd that fi rst, careless rapture of my conversion over again. At times I would sense that the Lord was still very much with me, but my awareness of Him was limited, although my intellec-tual belief was strong.

You who have been brought up in this age of awareness of the Holy Spirit cannot imagine how blank we were on this topic back in the 1940s and 1950s and even later. Kenneth Scott Latourette in his masterful two-volume history of the Christian church, which covers church history up to 1976, does not even mention the Pentecostal revival! Yet without question the growth of the

Pentecostal movement is a most striking phenomenon of modern church history.

In my personal Pentecost, the joy and glory of God broke in upon me in 1960. I recognized it as the same kind of expe-rience I had when I accepted Jesus, only much more vivid and constant.

It didn’t seem to matter whether I was awake or asleep—or what was going on—the new awareness of God stayed with me. It was an incredible new dimen-sion in my spiritual life. I had been trying hard to become more aware of God; now, all of a sudden, He was with me without my having to seek Him.

I had no precedent for this experi-ence. It was not the fulfi llment of any expectations that had been implanted in my mind. I had never attended a Pente-

costal church and had no notion what they taught or believed. Moreover, I did not receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit in a church setting, but in a private home, praying with two Episcopal laypeople.

True, I had done a good deal of research over several months while I was looking into it all, but the friends who witnessed to me simply told me faithfully what had happened to them and then prayed with me. After that I didn’t have a great deal of further contact with them.

It concerns me that so many Christians nowadays seem not to grasp, or perhaps have not even had a chance to grasp, what happened back there 2,000 years ago and can continue to happen today as people receive the same Pentecostal experience. I believe the baptism in the Holy Spirit

to be the drivetrain by which the power of the Spirit travels from the engine to the wheels.

Evangelism starts the engine, but without the drivetrain the people of God do not move very far, and soon begin to wonder when Jesus is going to come and take them away from a world they obvi-ously are unequipped to cope with!

Acts 8:14-17 clearly tells how Peter and John prayed with the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit after their con-version and baptism with water through Philip the evangelist. Jesus made receiving the baptism in the Spirit mandatory—and for a very good reason, since it is what makes the power of God available through the individual believer to the needy world.

In those early days in Van Nuys we experienced what it was like to be “early Christians,” both from the excitement of discovering how real it all was and from fi nding out how quickly one could become unpopular! We found out for ourselves why people in the fi rst century were willing to risk their lives to belong to the fellowship of Jesus of Nazareth.

None of us may have literally risked our lives, but we did risk our reputations, our jobs, our friends. I saw the amazing fellowship and love with which people were drawn together after they had been set free in the Spirit, and to me it was worth the challenges.

I soon found, though, that there was much in me that could quench my new awareness of the Holy Spirit. He never leaves us, but I would lose my awareness of Him if I did not follow His leading.

During these last 30 years I have been learning how to continue to respond to the Holy Spirit in me, so His joy and power and freedom can continue to fl ow in and from me. I have certainly failed far more often than I have succeeded, but the Lord is patient. The main desire of my life is still to enjoy more of what I knew at the fi rst.

So, in retrospect, my concern is still to keep that fi rst fi re burning—not to lose my fi rst love. Yet I have learned that He doesn’t forsake me. It is always I who forsake Him, or at least make my environment distasteful and untenable for Him, so that He has to retire into the depths of my spirit, where my soul is not aware of Him for a time.

It has been a diffi cult three decades,


» Rev. Dennis Bennett in the 1980s

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but I would not go back to the time before I was baptized in the Holy Spirit for anything in heaven or earth. There is no nightmare I can imagine that would be more devastating than to lose this awareness of the reality of God.

Now what about the look ahead? I hear today that the charismatic movement is dying down. Some say the Pentecostal and charismatic movements have both passed their prime and are to be replaced by a “third wave” of the Spirit that, however, denies there is any experience of a baptism in the Holy Spirit after salvation and claims it all happens when we accept Jesus. It also maintains that it is not necessary to speak in tongues to be baptized in the Spirit.

Either of these lines of thought show that the purveyors thereof have not grasped what this Pentecostal or charismatic renewal was and is all about. This is mainly and usu-ally because people have not themselves received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and therefore are sympathetic and well-meaning brothers and sisters commenting on something they have not entered into.

Many have the impression that the charismatic renewal is simply one among several programs for strengthening the church. But the charismatic renewal isn’t one choice among several. It is the renewal of the experience of Pente-cost as people respond to Jesus Christ’s instructions to all His followers that they are to be empowered before they go out to the world with the good news.

The charismatic renewal is not an evan-gelical revival; although more than anything else it has fueled the current interest in evangelism. It is highly important that we see the diff erence between revivals—which are occasional and short-lived upsurges of response to God—and this global renewal of the experience of Pentecost, which has been going on with increasing momentum for nearly a hundred years.

This is the breaking forth of the Holy Spirit from the religious prison in which He has been confi ned through much of

Christian history, so He can begin to make Christians what they are supposed to be: centers of power and joy for the refreshing and healing of the world.

Evangelism is the initial offering and proclamation of forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, and the receiving of new birth in the Holy Spirit. After this has happened Jesus commands us to receive the freedom and power of the Spirit, to release the Holy Spirit who has come to live in us, so that He can bless us and work through us (see Acts 1:4-5).

We can be so near to seeing this truth and yet so dangerously far away. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us when we receive Jesus as Savior, that is absolutely true; but

we do not necessarily receive Him, that is, allow Him to rule in our lives.

Through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is allowed to extend His infl uence over our outward lives—our will, intellect, emotions and bodies. Not surprisingly He begins with our speech, and begins to tame the unruly member, to make it usable by our Lord so He can give us words to adequately express our praise and love to God in “words which are not in our power to say” (Rom. 8:26, Basic English Version).

Thus we can pray and intercede for ourselves and others in words that pre-cisely express God’s will. This taming of the tongue also makes it possible for God to speak through us to His people, in pro-phetic utterances and also in gifts of tongues, which are then understood through the companion gift of interpretation.

I haven’t changed my essential con-victions about all this. I’m still saying the same things I did 30 years ago, although, I hope, with much more understanding of what it all means.

What is happening to people today when they receive the freedom of the Spirit is just the same as at the fi rst, except that now we understand much more about it. The church is not primarily a preaching or teaching institution. It must

be charismatic. It must manifest the gifts and fruit of the Spirit, for they are the continuing signs that Jesus is alive and ready to bless people now.

People are weary of talk about religion, whether by semi-believing intellectuals or arrogant fundamentalists, and they are especially weary of ill-natured Christians who condemn everything and everyone, including one another. (This includes the so-called liberals who use social concerns to bring people under condemnation.)

But if people see the glory of the indwelling Spirit in their friends and neighbors and experience His fruit and gifts pouring out of God’s people to heal body, mind and spirit, they will be drawn to the love of Jesus, and they will indeed receive His complete healing. Jesus did good works, healings and deliverances, and these are what showed people the kingdom of God was “at hand”—that is, right here and now.

He tells us to do the same. It isn’t any diff erent today. If people see Jesus doing these things through His followers, how can they refuse to accept Him?

Evangelism brings people to receive Jesus, and then the Holy Spirit can come and live in them. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is letting the power of the Spirit fl ow out to bless, fi rst of all, the individual and then the world around.

When Peter was challenged by the other apostles and brethren because he had min-istered to the Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his household, Peter responded: “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” (Acts 11:15-17, NKJV).

This is what Jesus promised at the fi rst. Let us not be found with those who withstand God but with those who will stand with God so that this great response to His love and grace in the Holy Spirit can continue unhindered in our day. 3

T H E S TO RY CO N T I N U E SRead our May 1980 cover story detailing Dennis Bennett’s extraordinary life at Bennett.charismamag.com.



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»The Buzz

[BOOKS]

A N E Y E W I T N E S S R E M E M B E R S T H E C E N T U R Y O F T H E H O LY S P I R I TBy Vinson Synan, Chosen, hardcover, 208 pages, $17.99.

Author and historian Vinson Synan always produces interesting and informative mate-rials for understanding the modern-day church. He takes a more personal approach in this book, adding observations and reactions to these events, making the material come alive. Anyone who has been involved in the Pentecostal-charismatic movement in the last century will feel as if they must have crossed

paths with Synan at some point. Faithful to cover the wide spectrum and diversity of this century, he covers events leading up to Azusa Street and the birth of modern-day Pentecostalism; the Latter Rain and Healing Revivals; charismatic mainline denominations, both Protestant and Catholic; the controversies surrounding the prosperity gospel; racial reconciliation; and the more recent revivals of the 1990s and the new millennium. Synan summarizes brilliantly so the reader understands where

the church has been and sets the stage for understanding its future.

—DEBORAH L. DELK

S H O U L D W E F I R E G O D ?By Jim Pace, FaithWords, hardcover, 272 pages, $19.99.

Pastor Jim Pace sat in a coffee shop just a few blocks from the Virginia Tech campus in 2007 when a gunman went on a shooting rampage and killed 32 people. In the following weeks and months, he and many

others would ask the same questions: Where was God and why did He allow this to happen? They are questions often pondered when people see the evil and horror that seem to run unchecked around the world. In his new book, Should We Fire God? Finding Hope in God When We Don’t Understand, Pace examines the question that if God is so loving and good, why doesn’t He stop these things? He digs deeper and examines the possible reasons for God’s seeming inaction. Giving solid biblical answers and real-life examples that help reveal God’s responses in times of turmoil and distress, Pace explains why God should most defi nitely never hear the words: “You’re fi red!” —JEFF FRIEND

G R E E N L I K E G O DBy Jonathan Merritt, FaithWords, hardcover, 192 pages, $16.99.

The founder of the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative is on a mission to depolarize and depoliticize environmentalism. Instead of wrangling over left-right issues, Jonathan Merritt approaches the topic from a theological perspective, exploring Scriptures that dem-onstrate God’s concern for His creation. He will make some squirm with his adept observations of how America’s materialistic

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT FOR SALEBy J. Lee Grady, Chosen, softcover, 224 pages, $14.99.

Longtime readers of Charisma will recognize some of the past stories and material from J. Lee Grady’s “Fire in my Bones” columns that appear in his latest book. Echoing calls already made in this magazine, he urges charismatics to develop dis-cernment and turn away from heresies that have given the movement a bad name. Whether taking prosperity theology to extremes, engaging in adultery or demanding huge hono-rariums, many leaders have disgraced Christ’s name. It isn’t just these charlatans—some of whom he names—that Grady rebukes; it’s those with “itching ears” who give them plat-forms. He also off ers guidance with succinct teachings on such topics as protecting oneself from imposters, recovering moral character and reclaiming relational Christianity. Readers will draw inspiration from his fi rst-person accounts of witnessing in the inner city and observing humble servants helping the desperately poor in Mumbai and other Third World outposts. In some corners of the church Grady won’t be too popular for urging that we embrace God’s ways instead of popular, man-centered methods. But then, neither was Jeremiah.

—Ken Walker

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The Buzz CM 4-10.indd 58 3/5/10 11:43:53 AM

lifestyle is a leading cause of environmental damage. Writing in an approachable, persua-sive style, he also argues that Christians are cap-tive to faulty biblical interpretations. Among the errors he cites are

turning the Genesis “dominion” mandate into an exercise in human-centric behavior, and using end-times theology as an excuse to shrug off Earth stewardship. Merritt has a sense of humor, too, exploring how trendy environmentalism often stems from a self-centered, boasting frame of mind. Christians should wince over his retelling of the vitriolic attacks he faced from fellow believers when he raised the idea of caring for the environment. The fact that Mer-ritt bases his approach on Scripture should lay to rest the idea that only liberal tree-huggers can be active in this arena.

—KEN WALKER

T H E D AY T H AT C H A N G E D F O R E V E RBy Tim Roehl, Regal, softcover, 224 pages, $14.99.

The day Jesus was crucified undoubt-edly was the most important day in his-tory, and mankind was forever impacted. But Jim Roehl focuses on the mark that day left on specifi c people

who became witnesses and participants as events unfolded. Roehl considers the possible thoughts of Pontius Pilate, the centurion, Barabbas, Annas, Peter and sev-eral others. Whether a minor character or a main fi gure, each had a diff erent but revealing perspective that combined to give unique insights into the signifi cance of Jesus’ death. Roehl also discusses the

words Jesus spoke from the cross and how they have changed lives from that day to the present. Although each chapter high-lights a particular individual or phrase, the overall focus throughout the book never strays from the most important character who is at the center of each of the life-changing experiences: Jesus Christ.

—JEFF FRIEND

[MUSIC]

F O R T H O S E W H O WA I TBy Firefl ight, Flicker Records.

Firefl ight’s third album, For Those Who Wait, continues to off er their signature rocking, lyri-cally compelling songs. Lead singer Dawn

Michele says this album was infl uenced by personal stories: “It’s our lives, our hearts and our pain just poured out.” The title track is a rousing reminder that in those times when God might seem distant there is a purpose. “Desperate” is an emotional cry to God for help. It’s a refreshing admission for those tired of cliché answers and empty promises that things will be OK, yet it’s also a song of faith that God is our hope and we can trust Him despite how things seem. Michele fl awlessly delivers the rousing rock songs with passion, while her vocal diver-sity is highlighted on the ballads “Recovery Begins” and the tender and soft “Name,” which will capture audiences’ hearts with the chorus: “He sees you / He’s near you / He knows your face / He knows your pain / He sees you / And He loves you / He knows your name.” Firefl ight’s transparency will assure listeners that they are not alone and will encourage them to keep trusting and waiting. For Those Who Wait is an album of personal music that is sure to appeal to believers and unbelievers alike.

—LEIGH DEVORE


[CONTEMPORARY]

Y E S T E R D AY ’S P R O M I S EBy Vanessa Miller, Whitaker House, softcover, 400 pages, $9.99.

Melinda Johnson always felt called to the ministry and naturally thought she would replace her father as pastor when he retired. But instead he appoints Steven Marks, who is against female pastors and is Melinda’s ex-fi ancé.

She is discouraged but continues to work at the church. Eventually their working together reignites feelings. Can they set aside their diff erences and love again?

[HISTORICAL]

W I L D F LO W E R S O F T E R E Z I NBy Robert Elmer, Abingdon Press, softcover, 352 pages, $13.99.

When Steffen Petersen helps young Jewish nurse Hanne Abrahamsen rescue Denmark’s Jews from a Nazi prison camp, the pastor discovers the meaning of true faith. As his conviction strengthens and his aff ection for Hanne

grows, he becomes more directly involved, never anticipating the danger or the cost.

[ROMANCE]

D I S A S T E R S TAT U SBy Candace Calvert, Tyndale, softcover, 352 pages, $12.99.

A rush of ER patients with life-threatening symp-toms brings charge nurse Erin Quinn to work on her day off . The staff soon realizes this is a mass poi-soning. When the media learns of the possible health hazard, the fire

department helps bring order. Instantly, Erin and fi re chief Scott McKenna feel a connection. But will they let their troubled pasts keep them apart?

»Fiction+

continued

The Buzz CM 4-10.indd 59 3/5/10 11:44:03 AM


»The Buzz

T H E G O L D E N R U L EBy Above the Golden State, Sparrow Records.

Above the Golden State’s sophomore release, The Golden Rule, is a collection of songs by the pop-rock band that explores the fundamental truths of Christianity.

“The Golden Rule, to love God and your neighbor as yourself, is a commandment we’ve all been given,” frontman Michael

Watson says. “We want to encourage the church to return to that fundamental truth.

We are constantly pursuing God upward, serving God within our community and going into the world to share His mes-sage.” The title track and its catchy melody remind listeners of this principle. Many will be encouraged with “I Am Loved,” which declares that even when it doesn’t seem like it, God is with us. This album also addresses the hard realities of life. “Tragedy” reminds us that in the midst of loss and heartache we can fi nd our strength and hope in Jesus. Although this CD has a short song list, the music and truth-packed lyrics are better than some albums twice as long. Listeners will focus again on what Christianity is truly about, and they will be encouraged to put their faith into action.

—LEIGH DEVORE

U N S H A K A B L EBy Deluge, Integrity Music.

Deluge’s sophomore release, Unshakable, was inspired by a season of profound joy and loss. Jonathan Stockstill, frontman and worship

pastor at Bethany World Prayer Center, had his fi rst child. Yet within months his young sister-in-law died from cancer, while his brother, youth pastor Joel, continued to fi ght a lifelong battle with kidney disease. “The songs speak of where we’ve been and how we’re pressing through,” Jona-than Stockstill says. The title track especially connects with the church, he says. Deluge rocks out this request for God to solidify our faith. “Power” declares our need for Him to help us live like Jesus and move in the supernatural. “Refuge” is a statement of faith that when we experience trials, God won’t allow us to be overtaken. “Come Into My Courts” was inspired by a divine vision Joel had when his wife, Amy, died: “Come in My courts / Won’t you run to Me? / Won’t you come to Me?” Album highlight “Let’s Worship,” with guest vocalist Kari Jobe, will lead listeners to refl ect on Christ and who He is in their lives. Unshakablerejoices in the power, safety and strength we have in God. And believers in all seasons of life will be encouraged as they worship with the band. —LEIGH DEVORE

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If I were 21 again, I would still go to college. But this time I would go to learn not just to graduate. I would unleash my curiosity, embrace the process, worry less about my grades and enjoy learning.

How strange that I love to learn at the age I am now. I read voraciously—any subject. I want to know, to understand, to go deeper. If I were 21 again I would take that to college.

8. Giving is sweeter than

gaining. I believe in the laws of the harvest. If there is any place in the world that understands “seed faith” it is ORU. Seed faith is not a new idea to me. I believed it at 21. I practiced it and am blessed today because it is real.

Yet I wish that at 21 I had known the sheer joy of giving. I know God will bless us when we give, and sometimes we have made this merely a method to gain. I wish I had realized the joy of generosity. I would have given more and delighted more in the good that giving does and less in the returns it provides.

9. Forgiveness doesn’t fix

everything. Not the happiest truth I wish I had known, but it’s among the most sobering. Had I known this I might have been less callous, less reckless and more mindful of the cost.

There are things, relationships and hearts that once broken cannot be fully “fi xed” by forgiveness. The wound, the uncaring and insensitive word—they may be forgiven, but the damage from them may never quite be right again.

When I was 21 I just wanted to be forgiven. I wish I had known to do less damage.

10. Prayer is more powerful

than persuasion. In all of life, at every age, confl ict is an inescapable reality. I wish I had known younger that in con-fl ict and crisis talking to God works better than talking to people. At 21, due perhaps to youthful arrogance, I thought that I could talk my way through everything.

Self-sufficiency, a dangerous habit, breeds prayerlessness. The older I get I fi nd that crisis drives me faster to my knees and more slowly to the phone.

I have seen God turn hearts around, change organizations and melt opposi-tion by prayer alone—when no persua-

sive speech could have made a diff erence. If I were 21 again, I would spend more time talking with God and less (far less) persuading others to do what I want.

I wish I had known more than I did at 21. I might have considered one or two of these truths, but I doubt I would have fully appreciated their value.

I do not think I want to be 21 again. But if I had to, if some evil genie made me go back and live it all over, then these

are the things I would want to know and the things I would want to believe. 3

MARK RUTLAND is the president of Oral Roberts University and author of 13 books. He also leads a missions and church-planting organization, Global Servants.

Y O U R T U R NTo share what you wish you had known at age 21, go to 10things.charismamag.com.


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with tattoos, it’s the sinful pride in which we typically seek them—not some evil spirit that mystically comes with the ink.

Art Thomasvia e-mail

How can the writer say, “Anyone who pierces anything but the earlobes needs to repent”? How does that make sense? It’s either no piercings or piercings anywhere you want. Because he doesn’t understand tattoos and body piercings, he just changes the Word of God to support his belief. Where does the Bible say you can pierce your ears but not the rest your body?

Matt Schimmelpenninghvia e-mail

C H U R C H D R O P O U T S

I agree with John Bliten, who wrote a letter in February Feedback about “The Church Dropout” (by Matthew Green,

December). I think people want to be blessed, but they want it on their terms instead of God’s. That would be like a person saying I want to work for an employer but I don’t want to abide by the company standards. That is plumb silly. Yet people treat God the same way.

Ryan Kempfvia e-mail

M A R R I AG E U N D E R F I R E

The church is not obligated to appease or accommodate the world to attract members (“Groups Say Marriage Battle Is Not Over” by Steve Rabey, February). If gays genuinely want to become a member of the body of Christ, then they must leave their sin at the door. The church, in one sense is inclusive, in that the gospel mes-sage is proclaimed to all men. On the other hand, it is exclusive for only those who have genuinely been born again. If

gays prefer their lifestyle then they have excluded themselves from the church. The question they must answer is, “Which do I love more: my lifestyle or God?”

Edward HornbakerHolcomb, Kansas

We must remember that America is not a theocracy, regardless of whether the country was founded on Christian prin-ciples. Gay people are going to continue to form relationships with one another, whatever we believe the Bible may say about them. The issue is not whether these relationships should be given the title of marriage or not; it is whether the people in these relationships should be granted all the same civil rights as het-erosexuals. The answer is yes. Civil rights are not the kind of thing that should be put up for popular vote.

Elijah Seymorevia e-mail

»FeedBack continued from page 8

Feedback CM 4-10.indd 63 3/5/10 3:06:47 PM

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relief to the recipient. But giving dignity to the poor ends their cry, causes them to rise up and stand on their own feet, and puts them on the giving side.

You and I are God’s answer to the cry of the poor in our generation. It is a cry we cannot ignore.

BIJU THAMPY is based in Mumbai, India, and founder of Vision Rescue (visionrescue .org.in), a ministry with the stated purpose to help the poor “live with dignity and respect.”

7. A Cry for Radical

Discipleship

By Mark BattersonDuring a trip to the Galápagos Islands

I witnessed something awe-inspiring: wild animals in their natural habitat doing what they were created to do. They were uncivi-lized, untamed, uncaged. I felt a new affi nity with Adam when I was in the Galápagos environment. I could imagine what life must have been like before the fall.

After returning home, our family went to the National Zoo near our house in Washington, D.C. But after the Galá-pagos, I’m ruined for zoos: too safe, too tame, too predictable.

While walking through the ape house I had this thought as I looked at a 400-pound caged gorilla: I wonder if churches do

to people what zoos do to animals.I love the church; but too often we

take people out of their natural habitats and try to tame them in the name of Christ. We try to remove the risk, the danger, the struggle. And we end up with caged Christians.

We foster spiritual co-dependency. We learn more, do less and call it discipleship. But Christ called us to live by faith, use our gifts and make a diff erence.

Radical discipleship is the willingness to do whatever and go wherever Christ calls. And I promise this: It won’t be the path of least resistance because that’s also the path of least impact.

Sure, the tamed part of us grows accus-tomed to the safety of the cage. But the untamed part longs for some danger, some challenge, some adventure.

And the cage opens when we recog-nize that Jesus didn’t die on the cross to keep us safe but to make us dangerous. When was the last time you asked God to make you dangerous to the enemy?

MARK BATTERSON is the lead pastor of the National Community Church in Washington, D.C. (theaterchurch.com).

S T I L L C R Y I N GHead over to cryout.charismamag.com to fi nd other “cries” from new leaders in the church.

»Cry Out cont’d. from page 39

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Mark Batterson

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D I G I TA L E D I T I O N E XC LU S I V E Charisma / Apr i l 2010

8. A CRY FOR INTIMACY WITH GODBy Margaret Feinberg

I’m part of a generation that hungers to know God. We want a real relationship with Him—the kind that’s fi lled with laughter, tears and honesty even when it hurts. We want a relationship with God that isn’t tampered with, one without artifi cial additives that promise to make it sweeter, sourer or tastier than it really is. We want an organic relationship with God.

Why organic?Though it’s a word usually asso-

ciated with food grown without chemical-based fertilizers or pes-ticides, “organic” also describes a lifestyle: simple, healthful, close to

D I G I T A L E D I T I O

Margaret Feinberg

nature. Those are things many of us desire in our relationship with God.

We hunger for simplicity. We want to approach God in childlike faith, wonder and awe. We long for more than just spiritual life; we want spiritual health—whereby our souls are not just renewed and restored but become a source of refreshment for others. And we want to be close to nature, not mountain ridges and shorelines, as much as God’s nature worked in and through us.

Such a God-infused lifestyle requires us to step away from any insta-grow shortcuts or formula-based beliefs and dig deep into the soils of spiritual formation only found in God. In this place, our intimacy with God springs to life.

Many of us have come to the place in our spiritual journeys where we want to know a God who in all His fullness allows us to know Him just as He is, stripped as much as possible of any false per-ceptions. We want to know God.

MARGARET FEINBERG is a speaker and author of The Organic God and Scouting the Divine (margaretfein berg.com).

9. A CRY FOR RACIAL DIVERSITYBy Samuel Rodriguez

The greatest mosaic of all is the kingdom of God. Diversity and multiethnicity exist not as

an attempt to i n co r po r a t e politically cor-rect ideas into the church but as a manifesta-tion of God’s love toward all His children. Pentecost was a multiethnic, mul t i l ingua l e x p e r i e n c e . A m e r i c a n Christianity is not. That’s about to change.

For too long the church in America has embraced de facto seg-regation whereby we defi ne the church not only by its denomina-tional affi liation but even more so by its racial and ethnic composi-tion. This emerging generation is privy to a powerful truth: Only a multiethnic kingdom culture can repudiate the spirits of Herod, Absalom, Jezebel, and Sodom and Gomorrah.

Racial diversity may very well save American Christianity. Historically, white evangelical believers focused on righteous-ness or vertical issues such as abor-tion and marriage while ethnic believers channeled resources into the horizontal issues of justice, poverty and equality. Next Gen-eration believers will converge at the nexus of the gospel message—where John 3:16 meets Matthew

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25; where righteousness marries justice while moral relativism, cultural decay and spiritual apathy simultaneously acquiesce before a robe of many colors.

In other words, American evan-gelicalism will be less segregated, more integrated and more com-mitted to authentic community outreach. Be advised—our young people have no interest in sitting in the pews of a church that is entirely white, black or Hispanic. They desire diversity, not in the context of political correctness, but in the Spirit of Pentecost.

SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and the His-panic National Association of Evan-gelicals (nhclc.org).

10. A CRY FOR PURITYBy D.L. Foster

Let’s get the bad news out of the way: Practical, balanced teaching on sexual purity and living it out with

I O N E X C L U S I V E

Samuel Rodriguez

D.L. Foster

integrity has an anemic history in the contemporary church. By contrast, a nonstop, toxic mix of eroticism coupled with the fl esh’s rebellious nature has comman-deered our attention with little to no intervention.

Thus, our only hope now is to cry out and pursue purity. The yearning is deep and passionate; however, deep and passionate yearning simply doesn’t rise to the level of resolution.

During the last 14 years that I’ve ministered sexual wholeness to mostly young adults I’ve become familiar with that cry. It’s anxious, urgent and deeply personal.

And it isn’t just confi ned to young, single Christians. Sexual purity isn’t synonymous with celi-bacy. If the goal is indeed sexual purity that pleases Christ, then the progressive path out of sexual

impurity should be marked by:1. Rediscovering the founda-

tions and fundamentals of our faith and what they are intended to accomplish in your life.

2. Rebuilding the breaches in your life using spiritual and rela-tional processes.

3. Recreating your desires through strategy. You must have more than just a desire to live sex-ually pure. Desire must conjugate into holy pragmatism.

The most important lesson I’ve learned and continue to teach is an old one: Prevention is much better than a cure. Sometimes progres-sive thinking should never evolve beyond proven truths.

D.L. FOSTER is founder of Atlanta-based Witness Freedom Ministries, which declares that freedom from the gay lifestyle is a reality in Christ (witnessfortheworld.org). 3

Apr i l 2010 / CharismaD I G I TA L E D I T I O N E XC LU S I V E

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Have Fire in My Bones sent weekly to your inbox: charismamag.com/newsletters

Passing the TorchIF YOU HAD TOLD ME SEVEN YEARS AGO that I

would resign my job at Charisma in 2010 and make a shift

toward public ministry, I would have asked if you were smoking

an illegal plant. I liked my paycheck and my benefi ts. And in

2004 I was trying to fi gure out how I would put four kids

through college when I had no extra money in the bank.Fast forward to 2010, in the middle of the Great Recession.

They say the economy is improving but I don’t see this in Florida, where the foreclosure rate is still one of the nation’s highest. Yet right in the middle of these uncertain times I sensed God directing me to make a career change.

Everything in my fl esh screamed: No! Please, God! No! Yet I knew I was facing one of those “Peter, get out of the boat and walk on the water” moments. Because I have been in one place for 17 years, the thought of change was terrifying. I didn’t even want to look over the side of the boat, much less stick my foot in the waves and try to walk.

But at the end of January I put my toes in the water. Like Peter, I have wavered a few times since then. The sound of the crashing surf is scary, and I’ve looked back at the boat more than once. But I know that I know that I know this faith-stretching exercise is going to end well.

What has carried me through this season of transition is the comfort I receive each day from reading my Bible. I don’t read it just because Christians are supposed to have a nice devotional life. I read it for survival.

Since the new year began I have focused all my reading on the journeys of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, mainly because these patriarchs pioneered this thing we call faith. Their life lessons provide a framework for our own adventures with God.

One thing I have noticed about these pioneers is how God was so faithful to renew His promise to each subsequent genera-tion. Abraham’s faith did not die with him. The God who met Abraham on the mountain of Moriah also met Isaac at the well of Rehoboth. Years later, God met Jacob in very personal ways.

Isaac didn’t live off just his father’s experience. God appeared to him and promised His presence (see Gen. 26:24). Jacob didn’t live off the afterglow of his dad’s encounter alone—God showed him opened heavens at Bethel and wrestled with Him at Peniel. After Jacob received a life-altering limp in that place, he said, “I have seen God face to face” (Gen. 32:30, NKJV).

We serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—a God who transcends time and bridges generation gaps. God is not static. He’s always on the move. When He entrusts His truth to us, it is never His plan for it to die with us; He opens the heavens afresh and gives revelation to our sons and daughters.

I stepped down from my role as editor of Charisma earlier this year because I recognize the younger generation must carry the torch. What we once called the charismatic renewal movement has ended. Something new and dynamic is taking its place. And I am thrilled to see it.

I was swept into the charismatic movement at age 18. Today I’m 51, and God is moving in unique ways with my children’s generation. I still have a role to play as a mentor and a spiritual father, but older leaders must step aside so younger Isaacs and Jacobs can lead the way. Things tend to get stale and religious when people hold on to power and position.

I am thrilled to hand over the reins of Charisma to Marcus Yoars, a gifted writer and editor who has worked with me for almost three years. He has the values and spiritual fi re of the previous season, yet he also carries the creativity and passion of a new spiritual awakening that is stirring in our nation.

We don’t even know what to call this new movement of the Holy Spirit yet. Whatever historians name it, I believe Charismawill be a tool to help fuel its fi re.

And even though I am passing this torch, I intend to keep running this race of faith while I cheer for the younger team.

I am thrilled to hand over the reins of Charisma to a gifted editor.

]

» J. LEE GRADY was editor of Charisma for 11 years. He now serves as contributing editor while devoting more time to ministry. You can fi nd him on the Web at themordecaiproject.com. His new book, The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale (Chosen), releases this month.

»FireInMyBones by J. Lee Grady

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