Serving at Final Exit

We have been busy this month participating in a city wide evangelistic outreach in Waterloo, IA. The outreach is a dramatic production called Final Exit.

This is a picture of Ben and our friend Emily praying outside of the evangelism room at Final Exit. The production is advertised as "11 scenes of extreme reality" and is not advertised in any way as a "Christian" Event. Final Exit is certainly meant to draw and attract those who would not typically go to a church event- many people think Final Exit is a haunted house.

The production follows the life of "Kim", the main character, who has a very extreme life. The scenes walk through a party scene, family violence, a drunk driving car accident, and others. The production ends with a graphic presentation of Jesus on the cross and the Gospel presentation. Every person who comes through final exits meets one-on-one with with an evangelism team member who goes through a short survey with them, ministers to, and prays for them. This is where Amy has been serving at Final Exit.

Ben has been serving on the Intercessory team and also played the role of Jesus a few times. Tonight is the last night and Ben will be playing Jesus tonight. I am going to post a couple of remarkable testimonies soon!

The Response Aug. 6

Hello everyone, I just wanted to make you all aware of something that is happening this Saturday, Aug. 6. It is called "The Response" and you can find all of their information here.

The Response is a call from Governor Perry of Texas to come together in prayer and fasting for our country. The problems we face: the deterioration of the family, the abortion epidemic, terrorism and financial crisis all stem from a single root cause - this nation has walked away from God. We don't have the power, ability, wisdom or resources to fix things on our own. So we are gathering together to make an appeal to God. We are gathering together to fast and pray, to repent of our hard-heartedness and to ask for mercy. In the words of the Prophet Joel, "Who knows? Perhaps God will relent and leave behind a blessing?"

We are gathering together at IHOPE this Saturday from 10-5 to join with others in our nation to confess our sins and the sins of our nation and to ask God for mercy and forgiveness. Please join us if it is at all possible.

Kingdom Leadership Part III

The focus of this post is to address the last of my 3 hypothetical objections and to share some closing thoughts. If you are just joining the conversation, please read the first two parts before this one. Links to them are in the side bar.

The objection that apostolic leadership has the potential for abuse is valid. We are all familiar with tyrants and dictators who use their power and control to benefit themselves and not their people. Does that necessarily mean that the system itself is bad, or is that more of a commentary on the sinfulness of human nature? But if this is a God-ordained model for leadership, and I believe it is, how do we ensure that everyone is going to live up to expectations and do things well, particularly the apostles and prophets?

The root issue that spawns the above question is fear. Fear that other people do not have our best interests in mind and that they will use their power and authority to hurt or control us. As a preemptive strike, we want to control them first. The problem is that God has not given us a spirit of "other-control," rather He has given us a spirit of "self-control." We can only control and master ourselves and our own reactions to the events around us. When we allow this understanding to take root and grow in us, and realize that this spirit of self-control has been given to all believers, we begin to live differently and see how God's system of government is designed to work.

As the Holy Spirit becomes more manifest in our lives we begin to take on His characteristics. We be come more loving, more kind and joyful. We embrace gentleness, meekness and humility. We begin to love others and to go out of our way to serve them and care for them. Or, as Paul said to the Galatians, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control." Those are the things that every believer should be growing into. We have to realize that we are no longer slaves, but sons.

Slaves need to be controlled. They have no love for their masters and must therefore be kept on task by force. They receive nothing in return for giving all of their time and energy to their master. They are not free and have no choices. But Christ has set us free! We are no longer slaves but sons of God! We have been given a new identity, a new role in the story. We do not serve a harsh task- master, but a loving and generous Father. We have been redeemed and are being renewed into His glorious image. How unfitting it is for us to live in fear-based modes of living, eating scraps off of the floor when we are children of the King!

Apostolic leadership is not like being in the army, where the superiors have complete and dominant control over their "inferiors." Apostolic leadership is not about being the "man of God" and ruling the church with an iron fist, imposing one's own will over the rest of the body. Quite the opposite! Apostles are the servants of all! They, like Jesus, become as the least, guiding and leading the church with compassion, gentleness and love. Yes, they have been gifted by God with certain gifts and abilities that allow God's Kingdom to come more fully in the earth, but they cannot do it alone! Being an apostle does not mean that church becomes a one man show.

Apostolic leadership is the empowerment of the Body. It is calling forth the gifts and abilities in other people, reminding them of who they are because of who God is and what He has done for them. It is equipping the saints, as Saint Paul puts it in Ephesians 4.

So, is it scary to have one man on top? Yes... if that man isn't Jesus. But if it is, then a whole new world opens up to us - we begin living in the Kingdom of God and enjoying all of its benefits. Not only do we see people healed physically and emotionally, we get to see lives transformed by the good news of the Gospel. All of our lives take on a greater meaning because we are living for something greater and more noble than ourselves. The goal of apostolic leadership is to get the Church to fix their gaze on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. And as we gaze upon Him, as we submit to Him and His work in our lives through the Holy Spirit, we become more like Him. And as we become more like Him we begin to do the things that He did and to say the things that He said, in essence we bring the will of God into reality in our lives and in our world. This is what Jesus taught us to pray, "May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Kingdom Leadership Part II

The main objections I hear when discussing apostolic leadership come down to three things: 1)disbelief in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, 2)the idea that the apostolic gifting "ran out" and is no longer in operation and 3) the potential for abuse having one person "at the head." I will do my best to present these in order and be fair to the opposing side.

1) Disbelief in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

There are several theological viewpoints that try to describe the work of the Holy Spirit (or lack there of) throughout Church history and in the present day, one of the most common being cessationism, or, the belief that the "miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit" ceased to function upon the canonizing of Scripture and the death of the last apostle.

The definition of "miraculous gifts" includes prophecy, apostleship, speaking in tongues, healing and miracles. The cessastionist viewpoint advocates the idea that these gifts only purpose was to jump start the church and that now proper study, interpretation and proclamation are all that is necessary to advance the Gospel. The cessationist viewpoint will allow for modern day miracles if they happen among a tribal people who have never before heard the Gospel message. Appealing to sola scriptura, the cessationist denies the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit because the Bible has been canonized, it is infallible and it perfectly sufficient to guide the Church until Christ returns.

I hope that does justice to the cessationist camp. I know many believers who belong to this group and they are good and godly people who serve the Lord faithfully. My primary objection to this viewpoint is that it is un-biblical.

Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus, the Apostles or one of the other writers ever refer to the gifts of the Holy Spirit no longer functioning. I would imagine that would be an important thing to know if you were a Christian in the early church and would have caused great consternation if on Sunday you had laid hands on someone and they received their sight and then all of a sudden no one could heal any longer. I don't believe that the Holy Spirit has an on/off switch. If it is true that the gifts were going to cease to function in the church upon the death of John, wouldn't he have included that in one of his letters...

"Beloved children, just so you know, when I die, the Holy Spirit is going to become impotent. You will no longer be able to heal, hear from God to proclaim the good news of Jesus to those whose language you don't know. Be sure to gather all of my letters into one place for God is no longer going to speak to you. Good luck and study hard," from John's lost 4th letter to the church.

More to the point, what about all of the things that Jesus said those who believe in Him would be able to do? The great commission in Matthew 28 says that we should "[teach] them to obey all I have commanded you," so what is that? Obviously the 1st and 2nd commandment. But he also taught the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7) and commanded them to heal the sick and cast out demons (chapter 10). Then there is Mark's commissioning story which is even more direct, "These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new tongues... they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well." We could argue that those things were only to be done by the first century believers, but then we would have to rule out the Great Commission as well, since it was only spoken to the Eleven. I don't believe we can take Scripture part and parcel. If the Great Commission is for all of us, and it is, then signs and wonders should accompany that proclamation.

Lastly, Jesus says in John 14 "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." I see no disclaimer here, no asterisk leading me to fine print that says "anyone who has faith in me (and lives in the first century and is named Peter, John or Paul) will do..."

Does this seem silly? I think so too, but this is what major theologians are doing to the Bible. By denying that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are in operation today, they make Jesus into a liar. For Jesus said, "It is for your good (benefit) that I am going away." No Jesus, if the Holy Spirit isn't at work in our lives today, it would have been better for you to stick around. You would convince people far better than we would.

'But the Holy Spirit is in operation... just not in those ways,' someone may argue. This brings us to number 2.

2) The apostolic gifting (and other miraculous gifts) "ran out" and is no longer in operation.

This objection is just weird to me. How do certain gifts just run out? Is not God infinite and eternal? Or can we "tap out" His resources.

I am a little riled up, so I am not being quite as fair as I should be to the opposition. Part of how cessationists view the apostolic gifting is the ability to write Scripture. Therefore, with the canonizing of Scripture, they no longer see the need for apostles, since nothing is going to be added to the Bible. It makes sense, except that the ability to write inspired Scripture is nowhere in the definition of apostolic authority.

Many of the apostles did not write anything, or else it was poorly written and didn't make the cut. The only apostles to author a New Testament book were Peter, Paul, John and Matthew. Mark was not an apostle, nor was look. James and Jude were the Lord's brothers, but to by knowledge are not acknowledged as apostles. We don't know who wrote Hebrews, but it made it in there somehow. While the apostles were the church's governing authority and wrote a letter that they expected to be obeyed, I don't think they would have put that letter on part with Isaiah, the Torah or any of the other Old Testament writings. It was believers living after the apostle's deaths that decided what was inspired and worth keeping and what was garbage - the apostles did not.

If it were true that the miraculous gifts "ran out," how sad would that be? So the epitome of what it means to follow Christ is to learn Greek and Hebrew so that we can read and study better? No power? No excitement? What about Paul? "The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power." And clearly studying does not fulfill Jesus' desires, for Jesus prayed for His Church to be one. How many factions and denomination of Christianity now exist? We clearly are not one and have become increasingly less so as this idea of cessationism has taken root in our Christian mindset.

Friends, I would love to continue, but this is turning into a novel. I will discuss the third objection tomorrow. Thank you for your perseverance in reading this!

Kingdom Leadership

In making good on my promise earlier this week I wanted to write about leadership in the Kingdom of God. I think that we in the West have some unhelpful paradigms about what the Kingdom of God is, what it looks like and how it is run. I am going to throw out some very strong phrases and then do my best to back them up with a biblical response. Hold your breath, here we go.

1) The Kingdom of God is not a democracy. (I told you I was going to start strong...)

It is almost inconceivable in our Western American mindset that the Church could be run by anything other than a congregational vote. We have councils and committees that go through extended discussions and processes to come up with a couple good options for the congregation to vote upon. This is how the vast majority of churches are governed. It is a very good business model, it is a very poor understanding of the Kingdom of God.

The point of being a Kingdom is that we have a King. And not a figure head/bobble head like many monarchs are now in countries where royalty still exists, but an actual, legitimate, sovereign and powerful King. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the One who is entrusted with all authority, power and wisdom to rule justly and righteously and to govern as God's Anointed One. He has a plan and a purpose for His people that we can either align ourselves with, or not. But we don't get to vote on wether or not He should do plan A or plan B.

Similarly, God has established a form of government in His Church that models that of heaven. In the Book of Acts we see this in action in a number of ways.

In Acts 6 we see that when the needs of the greater church community expanded, certain men were commissioned by the apostles to attend to their needs. In Acts 15 we see that there was a council made up of apostles and elders that was the final governing authority over all of Christianity. Additionally, many of Paul's letters talk about "bishops" or "overseers" (See 1 Tim. 3) who were the governing authorities in the churches that Paul established. I wish to make two points about this.

One, God has instituted apostles to be the spiritual leaders over various places or groups of people. I believe that this gifting is still in effect today and that the hallmarks of an apostle are the same as they were in the bible, namely that they are called by God (Romans 1) to be with Jesus in the place of prayer (Mark 3 and Acts 6) and to preach the Kingdom of God (Matt. 10, Mark 6, Luke 9, Acts 2) accompanied by signs, wonders and miracles done with great perseverance (same chapters as previous and also Acts 3, 4, 5 and 14 and 2 Cor. 12). In essence, what I am saying is that God has specifically chosen certain individuals to be before Him in the place of prayer and to stand in His council (Jer. 23) and from that place to deliver God's words and direction to a group of people and that God will confirm those words through signs and wonders (Acts 14).

Two, wise counsel is a necessity and Jesus always sent His disciples out two by two (Mrk 6, Luke 10). So, even though God has established apostles to be the primary vision casters and carriers, there is room for group discernment and judgment. This either happens amongst a group of apostles where mutual submission occurs or in an environment where the apostle and various elders meet as equals in order to determine God's will in difficult circumstances. In either case, this group of leaders is responsible for discerning God's will and relaying that to the people, not offering it up for debate (Acts 15).

I realize that this understanding of church leadership is runs counter to everything we have been taught and raised to believe. There are also some significant objections to the above statements, namely the disagreement as to wether or not apostles still exist. I hope to address this in another post either later today or tomorrow. Thank you for reading.

"To the King and the Kingdom!"

I worked for a while as a janitor at Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls, IA for about a year and a half. One of the perks of working there was that they had a large church library and were always getting new books in and letting go of old ones. One day I happened upon a children's book, sitting alone on the giveaway cart. Being as it was my break time, I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to the staff lounge. I re-emerged about an hour later (well past the end of my break) with tears and my eyes and a very soft heart, for this "children's book" was really a book of parables meant to teach children the realities of living in the Kingdom of God. It was amazing. It was called, "Tales of the Kingdom" written by David and Karen Mains.

I took it home and let Amy read it, and she was touched as well. Much to our delight, we found that there were two more books in the saga and we ordered them for our birthday present this past year. I cannot describe to you how wonderful they are, so I can only recommend that you buy them and check them out for yourself... sorry, but I wont lend you mine. :) But you can find them here.

The main reason I introduced these books to you is that one of my favorite lines in the trilogy is often repeated by the Rangers, the warrior servants of the King. It is used to strengthen them and remind them of what it important. "To the King and the Kingdom!"

Few things excite my soul like talking about the King and His coming Kingdom. "Kingdom theology" is a buzz word of the Vineyard movement. It was pioneered by a man named George Eldon Ladd and was the theological impetus behind John Wimber's movement. It has since been assimilated into many different denominations, but I think it is wonderful. You will here Amy and I talk a lot about the Kingdom, so I wanted to share with you a few definitions...

Whenever I talk about the Kingdom of God, I am generally referring to "the rule and reign of God in the life of every believer that works itself out in the world." Therefore, the Kingdom is not so much a geographical place (though it will be in the future) as it is a state of mind and action. I will be posting more on this in the next week, but I wanted to get this first post in because it is always the hardest one for me when I contemplate a series. I hope that you stay tuned in and that you also check out the link above. The Tales of the Kingdom are really excellent if you have children or grandchildren. Peace to you my friends.

Culture of Honor

This is a book that we have been in dialogue about- both with the Vineyard and IHOPE Leadership. "The Culture of Honor" is revolutionizing the way that we think about leadership and relationship within the body of Christ.

I (Amy) heard a concept that was new to me a couple of months ago. There was a pastor in Africa who heard the Holy Spirit speak to him and say: "If you are critical, I won't stay with you." Intense. I know that cognitively I realized there are things God likes and doesn't like, but I never thought about God's personality- that there are some environments that He prefers over others. Not cultural or geographical preferences, but relational atmosphere preferences. God doesn't like to spend time in atmospheres where there is strife or hypocrisy or unforgiveness (see Isaiah 58, Matthew 6:15).

This means that if I want to to help cultivate the presence of God in a place, it REALLY MATTERS how I think about, talk to, and treat other people in that community. The tone of voice we use, our motivations, how we handle conflict, whether we choose forgiveness or bitterness- all of these small choices add up to create an atmosphere of honor, or not.

We have just dug into the first couple of chapters and our leadership team at IHOPE begins discussing tomorrow- I am excited :)