Gate Post

Meet Shaun King, serial entrepreneur for Jesus

Steve — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:45:18 +0000

My sense is the story of Shaun King is just in it’s earliest chapters but already it’s worth telling. I first met him four years ago when he came to us to be assessed for church planting. His dream was to plant in inner city Atlanta where he grew up. The first thing that set him apart was that he had a powerful death to life testimony. Our assessment team unanimously recommended him but I think it’s fair to say we wondered if he was a right fit for our system. No doubt in our minds that he’d succeed but perhaps there was the thought that our system would stifle him. Months later, via his magic with social media and the grace of God, he became our largest launch to date, over 600 on his first Sunday at Courageous Church.

Those of us who played even a small part in that beemed with pride. His success gave him leaway to buck the system a bit… I remember he riled our feathers when he noted publicly our meetings were too white and the speakers on our platforms were all white. A few years after that smoke cleared I can report our meetings are less white.

Shaun is a social media specialist and he raised massive amount of money for Haiti and got thousands of tents sent there. In the earliest days he somehow directed search and rescue efforts via Twitter from his home in Atlanta – no kidding, U.S. relief ships were following his leads to hurting people, doctors in the US were being directed to specific people in specific places. Shaun appeared on many national news and morning shows. There is a similar story to tell about his work helping the Atlanta Flood Victims. Those of us who’ve been following him on Facebook and Twitter grew to look forward to his updates loving how he just said what needed to be said. Things like; “Note to Donors: Please do not donate your dirty draws & bras. I will have a scientist from GA Tech run a DNA scan & twitter your name.”

In March of this year he felt led to make a radical shift in his church. He announced in a few weeks he’d preach his last sermon at the church. It wasn’t because he was leaving the church. It was because he was changing his church and focusing on three causes instead of church just being about pulling off Sunday morning services. I’ll repost his comments here because they are worth reading.

Currently, the overwhelming percentage of our time, energy, skills, budget, and creativity are spent preparing for Sunday morning services, getting people to our Sunday services, and getting them to volunteer for our Sunday morning services. I love what we do on Sunday morning. I love preaching and it is one of my primary gifts. I love our worship team, our breakfast, our volunteers. Our church is growing.

However, 5 things have convinced me that this extreme emphasis on Sunday morning is not the will of God for our church.

1. Our city is falling apart in painful ways that break God’s heart. Atlanta is now the nation’s hub for child sex trafficking. We have one of the highest teen incarceration rates in the nation. Our education system in Atlanta is beyond broken. In the face of these things, the church continues to preach and sing, but kids keep getting sold to perverts for sex.

If James 1:27 is true and “Authentic faith in the eyes of God is caring for widows and orphans” then I declare that our church will have authentic faith and have hands and feet that address these issues. Right now, our church, like most American churches, as Rick Warren said “Is one big mouth”.

2. As I read the Gospels and see Jesus, I am increasingly stumped how we determined sermons and songs are what makes us most like Him. I am not saying we do away with them, but we preach and sing too much and serve and love in radical ways far too little. The answer is not to add love on top of the sermons and songs, but to decrease the sermons and songs and increase the service and love to create a balance that looks like the life of Jesus.

3. This week I was able to meet with a personal hero of mine and he said something to me that was shocking. One of the best preachers in the world, he leads one of the largest churches in the country. He told me, “At this point in my life I have preached thousands of sermons and I am not even sure what they mean to God, but nothing makes me feel more alive and like I am nailing God’s will like caring for foster children. I can point my finger in the Bible and say yes – this is what God wants.”

For me, I do not want to wait another twenty years to come to this conclusion. I do not want to wait until our entire church is built around my sermons (as it is becoming) and then conclude that it may or may not be what most honors God. I’d rather go for it now.

4. Anybody that ever heard the vision of Courageous Church before we launched in January of 2009, knows that our vision was to never become a Sunday morning machine, but this is what we have become and we do it well. A real temptation exists to keep chugging along, do it like other churches do it, and try to forget the original vision of Courageous Church to take bold leaps of faith to bring about real change in peoples lives, in our city and in the world.

Most of our time is now spent thinking about the arrangement of chairs, the execution of payroll, the brightness of the lights, the printing of the announcements, the lyrics on the screens, the pitch from the mics, and in the midst of all of this – I confess that people have been hurt in the process. We created a church to love God and love people and in the busy-ness of it all – people that we cared about were neglected and forgotten. I won’t do it this way another day.

5. I feel like this is what God wants for Courageous Church.

Rather than meet weekly on Sunday mornings, Shaun broke things down into three discipleship groups that met around three causes; child trafficking, education and caring for widows. The Cause Groups would meet twice a month, the entire church would re-gather once a month for a Festival.

In all my years of church planting and training church planters I have said a thousand times, we don’t build churches on or around a cause – we build a church on Jesus. For sure this is what Shaun was seeking to do. Even so, Shaun is spot on when it comes to pointing out (what I’ve been calling) the theotainment model of the mega-church today is probably not what Jesus wanted us to build. I’ve long maintained that the church is a community and that causes are the domain of the parachurch. Shaun makes me rethink that.

In case you are wondering, Shaun’s experiment didn’t work. He faced perhaps the roughest summer of his life as his church sought to transition into these uncharted waters. Last month Shaun announced that since the bulk of the families in the church wanted to return to the traditional model, he would transition himself out of leadership. Here’s part of what he had to say in his announcement:

I thank God that I am not stepping down in shame or scandal, but it is clear that God is calling Rai and I to take our family in a direction that is just significantly different than what most in the church are asking for. Over the past 6 months I have taken Courageous Church down a difficult, counter-cultural road in an earnest attempt at building true disciples. It’s been rough. All but a few families are now yearning to go back to a traditional Sunday focused system and I am sure that I am not the person to lead you there.

Those of us who assess church planters know it’s often more insightful to talk to the guys wife if you want the real scoop. Here’s what Shaun’s wife Rai had to say about leaving Courageous Church. You’ll have a hard time finding anything more honest about being a pastors/church planters wife. My o my o my o my, it’s the perfect thing to read here on this last day of “Pastor Appreciation Month.” Made me wonder what my wife would write if someone asked her honest feelings about the state of the church.

The last couple months Shaun’s been writing about giving away everything he owns, 1000 books, his new ipad, his bed…. everything. This is the first time I’ve ever voiced this but I’ll say it here, every serious follower of Jesus would do well to walk away from everything they own at least once to follow Jesus. I’ve given away my retirement three times and gobs of other things and dollars and certainly there was a time when I had nothing that wouldn’t fit in my car, but never have I walked away from everything. I do believe these are days to live a wartime lifestyle - living only on what we need and giving the rest where it’s most needed.

Shaun wrote a fascinating article on when a leader loses his mojo. He likens himself to Obama in that regard – at the top of his game just a couple years ago, now a fog has set in and it’s better to pull over if you can’t see where you are going.

Don’t think for a moment Shaun now lacks vision. After living his entire life in inner city Atlanta, this week he drove his family to California where they will live for an undetermined period of time before he and a team move to Africa – the suffering in Somalia has gripped his heart. And he’s climbing the worlds seven great mountains of need. Check that out here TellTheMountainToMove. You can read his next steps here.

C. Peter Wagner statement on the New Apostolic Reformation

Steve — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:48:08 +0000

THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION
An Update

C. Peter Wagner, Ph.D.

            Surprisingly, the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) has recently become a topic of discussion in the political media. I noticed some mention of it in connection with Sarah Palin’s run for Vice-President, but I considered it relatively insignificant. Then more talk of the NAR surfaced around Michelle Bachman, but it soared to a new level when Rick Perry entered the race for the Republican nomination for President in August.   The best I can discern, the NAR has become a tool in the hands of certain liberal opponents of the conservative candidates designed to discredit them on the basis of their friendship with certain Christian leaders supposedly affiliated with the NAR. To bolster this attempt, they seek to accuse the NAR of teaching false doctrine and paste on it the label of “cult.” For example, Forgotten Word Ministries posts an article by Marsha West expressing concerns about Rick Perry’s prayer assembly in Houston on August 6, that uses the title: “Texas Governor’s Upcoming Leadership Event Includes Cult Members.”[1]

            Soon after the event, nothing less than Al Jazeera News picked up on the theme and posted an article on the NAR under the title “America’s own Taliban.” My name comes up in most of the Internet postings on NAR, but in this one I am called the “intellectual godfather” of the movement.[2] When I read that, I felt that I had a responsibility to attempt to bring some clarification as to what the NAR is, what are its goals, and how these goals are being implemented. That is why I am writing this brief paper.

What Is the NAR?

            The NAR is definitely not a cult. Those who affiliate with it believe the Apostles’ Creed and all the standard classic statements of Christian doctrine. It will surprise some to know that the NAR embraces the largest non-Catholic segment of world Christianity. It is also the fastest growing segment, the only segment of Christianity currently growing faster than the world population and faster than Islam.[3] Christianity is booming now in the Global South which includes sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and large parts of Asia. Most of the new churches in the Global South, even including many which belong to denominations, would comfortably fit the NAR template.

            The NAR represents the most radical change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation. This is not a doctrinal change. We adhere to the major tenets of the Reformation: the authority of Scripture, justification by faith, and the priesthood of all believers. But the quality of church life, the governance of the church, the worship, the theology of prayer, the missional goals, the optimistic vision for the future, and other features, constitute quite a change from traditional Protestantism.

            The NAR is not an organization. No one can join or carry a card. It has no leader. I have been called the “founder,” but this is not the case. One reason I might be seen as an “intellectual godfather” is that I might have been the first to observe the movement, give a name to it, and describe its characteristics as I saw them. When this began to come together through my research in 1993, I was Professor of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, where I taught for 30 years.   The roots of the NAR go back to the beginning of the African Independent Church Movement in 1900, the Chinese House Church Movement beginning in 1976, the U.S. Independent Charismatic Movement beginning in the 1970s and the Latin American Grassroots Church Movement beginning around the same time. I was neither the founder nor a member of any of these movements, I was simply a professor who observed that they were the fastest growing churches in their respective regions and that they had a number of common characteristics.

            If I was going to write about this phenomenal move of the Holy Spirit, I knew I had to give it a name. I tried “Postdenominational” but soon dropped it because of the objections of many of my friends who were denominational executives. Then, in 1994, I tested “New Apostolic Reformation.” “Reformation” because the movement matched the Protestant Reformation in world impact; “Apostolic” because of all the changes the most radical one was apostolic governance, which I’ll explain in due time; and “New” because several churches and denominations already carried the name “apostolic,” but they did not fit the NAR pattern. Other names of this movement which are more or less synonymous with NAR have been “Neopentecostal,” “Neocharismatic,” “Independent,” or “Nondenominational.”

            I am rather fascinated at the lists of individuals whom the media glibly connects with the NAR. I’m sure that some of them wouldn’t even recognize the term. In many cases, however, they would fit the NAR template, but since the NAR has no membership list they themselves would need to say whether they consider themselves affiliated or not.

            For those who might be interested in such things, the books I have written related to NAR include The New Apostolic Churches (1998); Churchquake! (1999); Apostles and Prophets (2000), Changing Church (2004); and Apostles Today (2006). These are all available on amazon.com.

Concerns about the NAR

            If the critics are using openness to NAR as a slur against conservative political candidates, they obviously need to verbalize what could be wrong with NAR in the first place. To suppose that NAR is a “cult” or that it teaches “heresy” can be attributed only to sloppy or immature journalism.   All too often “heresy” has come to mean only that the person disagrees with me and my friends, but the purpose of using the word is to project guilt by association on the politician. It attempts to implant a question: Who would vote for a heretic? But there is little evidence presented that the issue in question incorporates the doctrinal unorthodoxy of a true heresy. Instead, key words are usually dropped which describe legitimate areas of disagreement among Christian theologians on the level of whether or not we baptize infants. Neither of the opposite positions on matters like this deserve to be placed in the category of heresy.

            Let me review the media pieces I have collected and pick out some key words in order to clarify my position. I say “my position,” because others in NAR might not agree with me, and they are not compelled to do so. NAR has no official statements of theology or ecclesiology, although a large number of us do happen to agree upon many somewhat radical conclusions. Most of us have long track records of service within traditional Christianity, and we have needed to go through paradigm shifts to get where we are now. Keep in mind that one of the affects of every paradigm shift is that some people get pulled out of their comfort zones. One of the reasons for opposition to some of the more radical ideas of NAR is that certain people have decided not to change and they are upset with those who have chosen to change.

Apostolic governance. As I mentioned before, this is probably the most radical change. I take literally St. Paul’s words that Jesus, at His ascension into heaven, “gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:11-12). Most of traditional Christianity accepts evangelists, pastors, and teachers, but not apostles and prophets. I think that all five are given to be active in churches today. In fact, St. Paul goes on to say, “And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers…” (1 Corinthians 12:28). This does not describe a hierarchy, but a divine order. Apostles are first in that order.

            I strongly object to journalists using the adjective “self-appointed” or “self-declared” when referring to apostles. No true apostle is self-appointed. First of all, they are gifted by God for that ministry. Secondly, the gift and its fruit are recognized by peers and the apostle is “set in” or “commissioned” to the office of apostle by other respected and qualified leaders.

The office of prophet. Prophets are prominent in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. As we just saw above, apostles are first and prophets are second. Every apostle needs alignment with prophets and every prophet needs apostolic alignment. One of the reasons why both should be active in our churches today is that the Bible says, “Surely God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). And also: “Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established; believe His prophets and you shall prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20). I want to prosper and I want you to prosper.

Dominionism.   This refers to the desire that some of my friends and I have to follow Jesus and do what He wants. One of the things He does want He taught us to pray for in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This means that we do our best to see that what we know is characteristic of heaven work its way into the warp and woof of our society here on earth. Think of heaven: no injustice, no poverty, righteousness, peace, prosperity, no disease, love, no corruption, no crime, no misery, no racism, and I could go on. Wouldn’t you like your city to display those characteristics?

            But where does dominion come in? On the first page of the Bible, God told Adam and Eve to “fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc.” (Genesis 1:28). Adam, Eve, and the whole human race were to take dominion over the rest of creation, but Satan entered the picture, succeeded in usurping Adam’s dominion for himself and became what Jesus calls “the ruler of this world” (John 14:30). When Jesus came, he brought the kingdom of God and He expects His kingdom-minded people to take whatever action is needed to push back the long-standing kingdom of Satan and bring the peace and prosperity of His kingdom here on earth. This is what we mean by dominionism.

A theocracy. The usual meaning of theocracy is that a nation is run by authorized representatives of the church or its functional religious equivalent. Everyone I know in NAR would absolutely reject this idea, thinking back to Constantine’s failed experiment or some of the oppressive Islamic governments today. The way to achieve dominion is not to become “America’s Taliban,” but rather to have kingdom-minded people in every one of the Seven Mountains: Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment, and Business so that they can use their influence to create an environment in which the blessings and prosperity of the Kingdom of God can permeate all areas of society.

Extra-biblical revelation. Some object to the notion that God communicates directly with us, supposing that everything that God wanted to reveal He revealed in the Bible. This cannot be true, however, because there is nothing in the Bible that says it has 66 books. It actually took God a couple of hundred years to reveal to the church which writings should be included in the Bible and which should not. That is extra-biblical revelation. Even so, Catholics and Protestants still disagree on the number. Beyond that, I believe that prayer is two way, we speak to God and expect Him to speak with us. We can hear God’s voice. He also reveals new things to prophets as we have seen. The one major rule governing any new revelation from God is that it cannot contradict what has already been written in the Bible. It may supplement it, however.

Supernatural signs and wonders. I have a hard time understanding why some include this in their list of “heresies.” Whenever Jesus sent out His disciples he told them to heal the sick and cast out demons. Why we should expect that He has anything else in mind for us today is puzzling. True, this still pulls some traditionalists out of their comfort zones, but that just goes with the territory. One critic claimed that the NAR has excessive fixation on Satan and demonic spirits. This is purely a judgment call, and it may only mean that we cast out more demons than they do. So what?

Relational Structures

            Some of the authors I read expressed certain frustrations because they found it difficult to get their arms around the NAR. They couldn’t find a top leader or even a leadership team. There was no newsletter. The NAR didn’t have an annual meeting. There was no printed doctrinal statement or code of ethics. This was very different from dealing with traditional denominations. The reason behind this is that, whereas denominations are legal structures, the NAR is a relational structure. Everyone is related to, or aligned, with an apostle or apostles. This alignment is voluntary. There is no legal tie that binds it. In fact, some have dual alignment or multiple alignment. Apostles are not in competition with each other, they are in cahoots. They do not seek the best for themselves, but for those who choose to align with them. If the spotlight comes on them, they will accept it, but they do not seek it.

            The key to this? The mutual and overriding desire that “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!”
-end-

[1] http://www.forgottenword.org/leadershipevent.htm1
[2] http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/20117259426336524.htm1
[3] David B. Barrett, et. al., eds., World Christian Encyclopedia,, Volume 1, Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 4

John Stott: Don’t look at me, look at Christ

Steve — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:02:38 +0000

John Stott’s repeated exhortation when preaching was “Don’t look at me, look at Christ.” Every preacher, song leader and musician needs to write that phrase in the margin of their message notes and chord sheets every weekend. People ought to walk away with His name on their lips, not yours.

In his new little book “It’s not business, it’s personal” Bob Sorge writes about how ministers and musicians get in between Jesus and his Bride the Church. In a chapter called “Scoring with the Bride” he addresses ministers and musicians who feed off her praise and seek out her affections. Imagine if you were asked to serve my bride and you were teasing her affections off of ME and on to YOU. No doubt, Jesus our Bridegroom God has an issue with those who steal away the affections of his Bride.

Bob Sorge says many times he walks away from speaking and prays: “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, and deliver me from this tendency to present myself in such a way that the Bride takes notice of me and my service to her. After I’ve spent an evening with your Bride, I don’t want my name to be on her lips. I want her talking about You.”

Can we get away from these platform-driven performances and smoke shows where the clamor in the hallways is “wow, that guy always hits a homerun.” Same with music ministry as people leave going… “wow, what a voice, I hope she puts that on CD.”

Dog Days: How to Persevere in Extended Seasons

Steve — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:14:45 +0000

Those living here in the upper midwest can identify with extended seasons— today is April 20 and it snowed a couple days ago. Many here want it to warm up because it has been cold long enough. I’m a four season guy with fall being my favorite season. Living where it’s hot year round sounds horrible to me. People visit us here in South Dakota and comment on the nasty weather and I tell them it’ll change tomorrow because it always does. I like short seasons and get discouraged in extended seasons.

An extended season is a period of time that extends beyond the point in which you thought it should end. Surely you can relate to things taking longer than anticipated. Surely you can relate to thinking you’d be further along than you are right now.

Psalm 40:17 says “O my God, do not delay.” This is one of the great cries of the Bible… How long O Lord? How long? On occasion I joke how God is never late but that he sure misses a million opportunities to be early. Frankly I wonder sometimes if God isn’t waiting on us more often than we are waiting on him. When we look back, as the saying goes, time seems to fly. However when we are in the moment, the dog days seem to drag on. This post is about doing the dog days well.

The phrase “dog days” actually goes back to the Graeco-Roman period. Plato used the Latin term diēs caniculārēs or dog days. The ancients noticed the hot weather and associated it with the star Sirius (prominent in July and August). The Sirius star, dog star, is the basis for the Canis Major Constellation (Large Dog). The Romans sacrificed a dog to appease the rage of Sirius. Wikipedia tells us the dog daies were “believed to be a time when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad and all creatures became languid, causing man burning fevers, hysterics and phrensies.”

Today we know that when winter drags on, or summer seems forever, there aren’t gods to appease. However there is much that God is developing in us during these extended seasons which are common both to the spiritual life of an individual and church community.

Extended seasons can be brutal on us as we wrestle through 1) discontentment, 2) unmet expectations, 3) impatience, 4) a sick heart from deferred hope, 5) doubts about ourselves, doubts about God and his Promises, 6) apathy and 7) faith that wanes. Extended seasons are times when 8 ) negativity and criticism creep in and we more easily turn on one another.

James 1:3-4 says “Perseverance must finish it’s work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.” As much as we might wish an extended season would end, it is important that what God is doing in us is completed. Galatians 6:9 says “Don’t weary in well doing for we will reap a harvest in due season if we do not give up.” We can forfeit all God has for us when we don’t stay the course. In Matthew 25:5, the Bridegroom was a long time coming and those waiting became drowsy and fell asleep. Extended seasons are times when all can be lost.

The Bible really offers no insight into how to fast forward through a season that drags on and on. However, there is much in the Word of God on how to persevere through extended seasons. Here are a few thoughts…

Seasons are pregnant, don’t abort them. When we study times and seasons in the Word of God we find ourselves sorting through chronos and kairos time. Chronos is time measured by a clock or calendar. Kairos times are those seasons when God breaks in. When I say “seasons are pregnant” I’m referring to how the Bible speaks of “the fullness of time.” An extended season is a gestation period for what God is producing in us. An extended season is actually a mercy as God gives us additional moments to come into maturity.

Romans 5:3-5 says “Perseverance produces character, character produces hope.” The point is that these times produce something– something is coming forth from these times making it worthwhile to persevere. There is character development needed before we move into the next season. It’s too late to lay a foundation after the building is built. There is no turning the clock back later making now the time to develop godly character.

Boycotting winter is an exercise in futility as it changes nothing. In an extended season, stay out of futility. Futility is something that is incapable of producing a result. The Bible talks about the “futility of their years” and “futile thinking” (Ephesians 4:17). Extended seasons can be productive seasons if our focus is right.

A Severe Mercy in the passing of ARC’s Apostle… Billy Hornsby 1949-2011

Steve — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:48:18 +0000

Last night at 9:44pm, Billy Hornsby met Jesus. Big win for him and major major loss for so many of us who’ve known him as friend, mentor and father and as the pioneer and founder of our church planting movement – Association of Related Churches. In 2010, a melanoma cancerous growth on his foot spread to his spine and in January of this year it went to his brain.

Seacoast’s Geoff Surratt had this to say: @GeoffSurratt If you want to know what it means to leave a legacy, search “Billy Hornsby” on Twitter//such an amazing man

If you do that, and on Facebook, you’ll see the likes of people all over the world honoring him – from Brian Houston of Hillsong Australia to Larry Stockstill of Bethany to Rick Warren of Saddleback to John Maxwell of EQUIP. Mostly what you’ll find are church planters like me from all over the world saying things like what my friend Dominic Suazo said… @billyhornsby I will always remember you my friend. You believed in me when others didn’t. You changed my life. This is a common sentiment from many who Billy has helped become the leaders in some of today’s most successful and fastest growing life-giving churches… @billyhornsby believed in me during a dark time in my life. From a variety of ecclesiastical streams now flow prayers and concern like this… Much love to my ARC friends on the passing of their Apostle. Interesting choice of words and spot on.

Billy took me into his family and that means he considered me a son, he introduced me to everyone he knows and taught me something unknown in denominational accountability systems… spiritual fathering that is based on relationships and love. He made time for me, invited me and my wife into his home, on hunts, on trips – he visited us here in our home and church. And I do actually think he wanted to come see me more than just the fact that I could introduce him to a rising cloud of South Dakota pheasants. A great memory is Thanksgiving a handful of years ago when he and son-in-law Pastor Chris Hodges came up to hunt – we got hammered by a snowstorm and ended up stranded in the Kelly Inn in Mitchell. The power went out that night so Billy’s C-PAP machine wouldn’t work. All that meant the three of us just talked and dreamed and encouraged each other – the ARC Assessment process was birthed that night.

I appreciate Billy believing in my Momentum book and writing for it and getting copies to everyone in the ARC church planting network. He handed out my books at our Church Planting Roundtables. He trusted me to establish the assessment structure ARC uses to discern who God is leading to plant future ARC churches. Billy asked me to meet up with him in Pensacola to help start the Globe School of Ministry, and he asked me many times to help him write books and articles. He introduced me to people who are today my closest friends, even opening up doors for me in Europe where Billy was the European coordinator for EQUIP’s Million Leader Mandate. Billy would even call when he was out speaking and ask me to fax him my thoughts as if I were speaking in that venue. I did, and I’m not sure he used them- but wow does that make one feel valued. On occasion when we needed it, he and Charlene sent my wife flowers, coffee gift packages, and took us to great restaurants. He ministered to me and invited me to be with him in Birmingham after my mom died. In part he helped fill a dad-gap in my life after my dad died. A full-blood cajun, Billy taught me how to, pardon me, “suck some heads” and gobble down jambalaya and savor beignets. He rarely spoke without first telling a Boudreaux and Thibodeaux joke – we already know the mantle on that is now fully on Pastor Chris. I have a great memory of Billy picking up my guitar and making my daughter blush by singing her a country music song. He was actually very good and could have easily put out a CD.

I’ll be honest now, in the last few years I know Billy struggled with my political and pro-life involvements. In 2007 he called me at 6:30 in the morning and told me God gave him a scripture and a word for me and he’s been up praying for me since 4am. I thanked him for letting me sleep a couple more hours. He said God gave him Deuteronomy 11:24 where God said… “Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert of Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea. No one will be able to stand against you.”

Billy said he felt God was saying to me… I’ll give you all this territory, and with relative ease, but the relative ease part of this promise is only good as long you as you stay within the borders of the territory I’m giving you – he said… notice God was giving him territory within established boundaries – i.e. from the Euphrates to the Western Sea. Billy said he fears the pummeling I’ve taken in my pro-life and political involvements may be due to those areas not being within the borders of “my territory.” His admonition was to get with God and discern my borders. Kristen and I felt like we did that and obviously, I’m pretty involved politically. I think about this a lot. Maybe Billy felt like I made a choice between more involvement in ARC which he was asking for and the “political way.” Even so, when I ran for Congress he was very supportive and wrote… this all amazes me. (When I get home I’ll dig out his exact statement of support.)

Eight weeks ago ARC and Church of the Highlands put this tribute together to honor him. I regret big-time that I was too busy in the legislature at that time to contribute to this tribute when I was asked – the request got buried at that time along with other stuff. I’ll look for a link of a message he gave here at Church at the Gate on relating to people in a life-giving way – it was vintage Billy Hornsby and it still has life-life-life on it and his life anointing all over it. His most recent book is hot off the press and you can read his comments on that here or you can buy a copy here. Here is a brief statement from Pastor Chris referring to arrangements for the memorial service at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham.

We are praying for Charlene, Pastor Chris Hodges and of course his wife Tammy, and his other daughters and grandkids and all the ARC staff and Lead Team. Billy and Charlene have been in love since childhood and they shared the most amazing marriage I’ve ever witnessed. When my dad died before my terminally-ill mom died I said it was a C.S. Lewis style “Severe Mercy” that God took him first as his last conversation with me included the statement… “I can’t bear to lose your mom, I’m addicted to her.” Charlene has also had numerous recent bouts with cancer (she’s been healed of it many times over many years but again is struggling – here is a precious youtube clip where they are talking about all this together) and Kristen and I have wondered many times what Billy will do without her. Again it seems a severe mercy to me that God took him first.

I really look forward to being in Baton Rouge in a couple weeks for our annual family reunion – and you are invited! – surely this will be a great time to celebrate a great life.

Do you suppose Billy is right now talking with Noah about how to really build an ARC that God will use to save the world?

UPDATE 1: A memorial service to celebrate Billy’s life will be held at Church of the Highlands on Monday, March 28, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. CDT. In lieu of flowers we are asking that donations in Billy Hornsby’s name be made to the Association of Related Churches (ARC), www.arcchurches.com, a non-profit ministry which trains, resources and supports church planters.

UPDATE 2: ARC just put up some pics and video clips of Billy.

UPDATE 3: This is a must see and well worth the 13 minutes of time it takes to watch it… Billy’s last public appearance and message to us all.

Grounded: Timely Exposition of the Life & Letters of Peter the Rock

Steve — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:38:08 +0000

This weekend, January 2, I am excited to begin a series I have been working on for some time. Here’s a preview…

To a young person, grounded for life sounds like harsh punishment. Those who go a bit further in life know how important it is to be grounded. More and more, even in the church, people are tossed about by every wind and wave—following feelings, fads and chasing after fringe unorthodoxies.

Simon, Cephas and Petros are Aramaic and Greek names that all mean the same thing… rock or stone. And all three of these are names for the disciple (and later apostle) known today as Peter. Frankly, it’s an interesting name for one who, at least in his early years, was anything but a picture of stability. His over-eagerness, immaturity and mistakes make him the disciple with whom we can most easily empathize. Yet he became a rock during the foundational period of the church and the initial wave of tribulation that came against the followers of Christ. Each of the four gospels, as well as the book of Acts, set forth his life as a witness to us. His letters, 1 & 2 Peter, comprise exhortations for us as “living stones” to be grounded, especially in anticipation of the end times.

The first weeks and months of a New Year are key times to get grounded which is why Pastor Steve is focusing in this season on the theme grounded—based on the life and letters of Peter the Rock. In a weekend message series that is at the same time both a character study and a book study, it will become clear why Jesus said: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” – Matthew 16:18

New book: The Spirit of Adoption

Steve — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:44:23 +0000

Last week I was excited to get an advance copy of a new book written by my friends Randy and Kelsey Bohlender, The Spirit of Adoption: Winning the Battle for the Children. The book is now in and can be ordered here. A group study guide is in the works.

Randy and Kelsey have shared the adoption message a couple times in our church and each time they’ve come, people adopt more children, and people give lots of money for others to adopt more children. Kristen and I are delighted to see that they have taken the time to put, in book form, the anointing they walk in so strongly… the Spirit of Adoption. They make the case that, as the positive alternative to abortion, “adoption is the next frontier for those who call themselves pro-life.” As a couple who has devoted years to contending for the plight of the unborn, the Bohlender’s have noticed… “while the church has been highly vocal in it’s opposition to abortion, it has largely failed to think about what it means if we get our way.”

“If we overturned Roe v. Wade tomorrow, what would happen to those 4500 babies born each day?“

The Bohlender’s are asking, will “the Church step up to the task of caring for the orphan, the cast off ones, the unwanted…. the harder question was would we?” When Kristen and I first met Randy and Kelsey a few years ago, God did something in my heart… I had to repent of my increasingly frequent empty nest fantasies. (We have two kids lefts at home, a junior and a senior in high school.) Kristen and I enrolled in foster parenting that next fall and took an unwed mom and new baby into our home. I’m sure that’s just the beginning.

Lou Engle’s zeal for LIFE oozes in the foreword he wrote for this book. He sets the book in the broader context of what God is doing raising up a new army of rescuers. He comments on how the Bohlender’s own adoption story is “off the charts.” That story is woven throughout the book and if you haven’t heard it yet it alone is worth the price of the book.

The Spirit of Adoption is a crash course in one of the central burdens God is laying on the church in this hour. The Bohlender’s make the case Biblically that the nearer we get to the end of the age – wars, earthquakes, and judgments that kill masses of people – “this will lead to a huge number of orphans wandering the face of the earth, looking for a home.”

Equally sobering are the chapters where the Bohlender’s alert us to the others that are vying for the unwanted children of the world – the sex trade and the homosexual community. The mandate of God for the church to step up to the plate comes through loud and clear in these pages. There is an open challenge here for lawyers, social workers, doctors, and others to join forces to make adoptions happen. The reality of the high cost of adoption, and not just the financial cost, is addressed.

And, those of you who still have no true grasp of the fact that YOU are adopted into God’s family will see that matter is settled in this book – the Great Finalization… “for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Romans 8:14-15)

Randy blogs here and has a recent post on adoption here. He and Kelsey founded the Zoe Foundation which promotes adoption as a positive alternative to abortion. They have seven kids (3 adopted) and are intercessory missionaries at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.

Praising mother nature for the oil spill dissipation

Steve — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:31:15 +0000

Been busy- so, this is a week late and my friend Father Timothy Fountain beat me to the punch. I’ve noted several times on my other blog that we are praying for God’s mercy in the Gulf with regard to the oil spill. This is the jist of the prayer I’ve posted a couple times already and have been praying publicly and privately:

We are praying fervently that God would have mercy on us in relation to the BP oil spill in the Gulf; specifically that he’d release wisdom to plug the leak and creative technologies to clean it up, and that he’d expose what he needs to expose right now in our hearts and especially in our corporate and national leaders.

Now the New York Times reports the oil spill is vanishing fast. Apparently God has been answering our prayers in a way far beyond what we can ask or imagine. One of the main causes of the dissipation is the presence of oil eating bacteria in the Gulf water. In response to that news Father Tim posts… “Dare I say that lots of people have been praying?“ In the comment string following Father Tim’s post, our yet unbelieving far far left of center friend Cory at Madville Times writes… “Tim, is that headline saying what I think it’s saying?“ Father Tim responds in part in this way:

Cory – people of faith will consider unexpected improvement a blessing and an answer to prayer. Favorable natural phenomena and successful human effort are not ignored – in fact they are the primary means through which God would be understood to answer prayer in most faith traditions.

Cory thanked him and noted that was the thoughtful answer he was looking for. Here was my contribution to the discussion:

Tim – You beat me to it on this post. I’ve been busy, but not to busy to notice all those who are now praising mother nature, micro-bacteria and the tiniest members of the ecosystem! And who can we thank for that perfectly ordered natural healing design? That’s right… Darwin! O wait, he’s dead. I lack the blind faith the evolutionists possess… and I chuckle when people praise the ecosystem instead of the one who ordered it perfectly. I can’t even look at a tiny little bird without thinking of the stunning foolishness of those who swallow the dangerous delusion that it is a product of uber-billions of years of unguided random mutations. [It's dangerous because the ideology devalues human life and holocausts and genocide have been the historical result of the deception that some are more human than others - and that only the more fit should be allowed to survive. And, teaching it to kids communicates they are accidental, just the next random mutation, and we have no intrinsic value. Cory will likely take these words and try to make a campaign issue out of them for me. I think we ought to teach evolution as one of the theories explaining origins and point out it's both unproven and flawed.]

I am grateful for the legislators in LA who, painfully aware of the arrogant emptiness of the ideas of man, had the humility and wisdom to ask for Divine Aid. [It would now be appropriate for a Louisiana legislator to call for a Day of Thanksgiving in gratitude to God for saving us from ourselves. If it's appropriate for us to bestow our gratitude and honor any earthly scientist for their great contribution, it's appropriate to thank and give due honor to the Grand Architect of the Universe for having the foresight to hardwire the creation to heal itself. Too bad he didn't think to hardwire the universe to also deal with human Co2 emissions Perhaps Al Gore will save us there.]

…Though this nation deserves no favors from heaven, we continue to pray God’s mercy on every living thing in the Gulf. And we pledge to better steward the wonders of his creation.

Had God prompted a scientist somewhere to solve this problem I would have been praising God while the world bestowed awards and honors on the man. Surely God wearies of the boasting of man. These micro-members of the ecosystem have risen up as one of the little mercies of God and ironically, as simple as they are, they are presently confounding the wise. That too is evidence God is behind this dissipation. [Don't think for a moment that this God who knows when every sparrow falls to the ground has no concern for the masses of oil-covered pelicans.]

All week I’ve been focused on the notion of “little mercies.” In terms of the millions of gallons of oil disappearing I’m not really sure this qualifies as a “little” mercy. But it seems appropriate to designate oil-eating, micro-bacteria as a little mercy.

A couple passages of Scripture come to mind. There is the story Jesus told of the ten being healed of leprosy and only one returning to give thanks. Maybe the others were praising natural processes. What I like to show people are the dangers of ingratitude and how big a deal this is to God when we boast in ourselves. In the oft-quoted Romans 1:21-25 passage about the iniquity in the world, few notice how fundamental ingratitude was the issue and not iniquity. It was because of ingratitude that God turned the world over to it’s own destructive course:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

When the military honor guard officer handed me the flag that draped my father’s coffin, he looked me in the eye and said with these words… “On behalf of a grateful nation…“ For sure our nation is filled with gratitude for those who give their life in service of their country. But beyond that, I’m not sure it’s true we are a grateful nation any more.

One other thought… recently I dropped a quote elsewhere on this blog regarding how American Christianity has digressed to nothing more than a “moralistic therapeutic deism.” In light of that, it’s no surprise that most church leaders are silent on these kinds of topics. As they have resorted to offering popular therapy over unpopular theology, they’ve digressed into deism and no longer have a theology of a God who acts or personally intervenes in our world today.

Has the a-word controversy vanished?

Steve — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:14:39 +0000

I’ve posted here numerous times how brutal it was only 5-7 years ago to be an evangelical who uttered the notion that there are “apostles” today. Though there is just as much (or more) Scriptural justification to capitalize “Apostle” today as there is to capitalize “Pastor,” I’ve always been careful to use the term in the lower case so as to not exasperate the controversy. However, people always seemed to miss that little detail.

Regarding my commentary on the “Pastoral Epistles” (Obtainable Destiny, Creation House, 2004), Dr. C. Peter Wagner mentioned me on page 78 of his book “Apostles Today” saying: “To my knowledge, the first biblical commentary that treats these epistles as apostolic rather than pastoral is Obtainable Destiny by Steve Hickey.” While I thanked Peter for the plug, I also ducked.

But today I delight to see example after example of major evangelical church planting and mission organizations talking openly about apostolic work, apostolic teams, apostolic networks, the apostolic gifts, sending (aka apostolos), our apostolic mission, apostolic church planting. This pic is from my recent copy of Mission Frontiers which some of you know is THE main (and strategic) evangelical missiological publication which comes from the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, CA.

You may have to squint, but the text at the bottom says: “Apostolos is a conference for apostolic young people who have already committed to expanding God’s Kingdom at the frontiers…“

There is no more fitting, or Biblical, term for this frontline work of establishing kingdom outposts where there previously were none. We are all comfortable with the terms “home missionary” and “church planter” though you won’t find “missionary” or “church planter” in your concordance, or “theologian“! ((Ha! Got to love my friend Peter Wagner for his “Goodbye Theologians” article.))

The peaceable part of me wants to say let’s just do the work and stop straining gnats regarding what it’s called. However, I do think it’s critical frontline workers again recapture their identity/role/function with regard to their apostolic gifting. I’ve written elsewhere how three “apostles” entering a region must send icy chills up the spine of our fiery Adversary. I can’t imagine news of three new “pastors” in the area would be much of a threat or cause much trembling in the realms of darkness.

The shift away from Theo-tainment and Commercial Worship

Steve — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:09:10 +0000

At our ARC All Access Conference in Baton Rouge in May, I heard Priscilla Shirer describe how “Christianity began in Palestine as a fellowship – a relationship. It then moved to Greece where it became a philosophy – a way to think. It moved to Rome where it became an institution – a place to go. It moved to Europe where it became a culture – a way of life. It moved to America where it became an enterprise – a business.” Perhaps you’ll agree that is painfully true.

Considering, you can imagine my delight to see this month’s cover article in Worship Leader magazine which focuses on the shift “away from commercial worship.” Though the article doesn’t come right out and define it, I think I like the term. I’d venture to say commercial worship is worship we package and sell to spectators sitting in audiences. Commercial worship is performance and not so much encounter, entering in, beholding, or even so much as participation.

As I was writing the first draft of this article this morning, a tweet came in from church growth expert Ed Stetzer (tweets from Ed come multiple times a day as he’s typically on location from the variety of church leader meetings and conferences across the nation that he is invited to address week after week). His most recent tweet reads: “Cool Stage, Nice Logo, Smokin’ Band. Must be a denominational conference.” I don’t interpret his tweet as any sort of dig at denominations, but see it more as an observation from one who frequents all the “camps” noting how commercial worship is now the norm nationwide. Thinking positively I thank God we are giving God our best in worship, that all the arts are being redeemed and that all flavors of churches are experiencing life-giving dynamic worship. Yet, I’m reminded of a comment from Allen Hood at the Onething ’08 conference… “Jesus did not die so you could worship at a synchronistic shrine.”

Worshipping at a synchronistic shrine

If you are unfamiliar with the term syncretism, it’s a missiological term used to describe the over-contextualization of the Gospel… when we embrace and adopt so much of a culture that we inadvertently dilute and lose the Gospel.

I first encountered a syncretistic shrine in the mid-80′s as a youth pastor taking my youth group to a Stryper concert. Only a few years before, I was a lost soul, deep into the rock and roll occult world myself (I’m even in some of the footage in the old Hells Bells video on the dangers of the occult and rock and roll.) I vividly remember being at that Stryper concert seeing the smoke, the band dressed in torn black clothing, wearing dark make-up on their eyes and pale/corpse-like make-up on their faces, gyrating in front of red lights which were pulsating like a heart from behind to the beat of the drum. The lyrics were unintelligible though I knew they were “Christian.” I remember thinking – Yikes – this is no different than what I was just delivered from – aren’t we supposed to avoid even the appearance of evil?

To be clear, I’m not in any way concerned about the appearance of evil as I write today about this shift away from commercial worship, and I take no issue with lights and smoke. The purpose of me recalling that story was to illustrate the extreme of the synchronistic shrines that have crept into Christian worship in America. I’m suggesting we rethink how it is that our worship services aren’t looking much different than concerts these days.

Lucifer loves to divert our worship

The first thing the Bible tells us about Lucifer is not that he is powerful but rather that he is crafty and subtle. We know from Isaiah that he was a musician in heaven before he envied the attention God was getting (Ezekiel 28:13, Isaiah 14:11 – his very being was made up of instruments from the day God created him). His sole aim today is to divert worship off of Jesus. My assessment is that he works more to divert our worship off Jesus than he does to distract us from the Word. If Lucifer can control the atmosphere in a room by diverting worship he thereby diminishes the ability of the congregation to be open to the Word and encounter the presence of God. God inhabits the praises of his people (those who “come before him with singing”) and to the degree our adversary can control the atmosphere in the room through subtle shifts in the dynamics of our worship focus, he can quench the presence of God.

A few days ago a friend of mine posted an article on his blog that used the word “theo-tainment” in the title to refer to how much of the American church amounts to not much more than entertaining people with God each week. The article states: “The modern idea of a church, or ecclesiology, is that church exists as a venue to attract the lost through dynamic programs, performers and events – the more dynamic the better.” It’s amazing how far we’ve come from the days of the early church where it was supernatural signs and wonders and deeds of compassion that turned the heads of the lost toward Jesus. There is a great longing in me to fully shift back in that direction.

An expensive succession of cheap light and smoke shows

Recently, I was ashamed to visit with an unbeliever who actually told me she sits back, shakes her head and watches with great interest the expensive succession of light and smoke shows the large churches in her city promote in an effort to attract her attention. As she spoke I was praying, Forgive us Jesus.

Later that same day a friend of mine told me he visited a church that previous Sunday that was literally “rockin” as people came in – he said the band was playing “Rockin’ Robin” and people were in the aisles, swaying, clappin’ and enjoyin’ the music. Then he reports they were greeted, seated for the worship set as the band performed a couple of Christian songs, throughout which no one stood, no one sung along and they clapped when it was over. As he was talking I was praying, “Forgive us Jesus that we’d dance to Rockin’ Robin but not even rise to praise your Name.” Lucifer had to just love the worship service that day!

More therapy than theology

Sociologist Dr. Christian Smith reports his conclusions from a study detailed in his Soul Searching book… “we suggest that the defacto dominant religion (in the contemporary US) is what we might call moralistic therapeutic deism. This of course has very little to do with historical orthodox Christianity.” This indeed has been the trend: Sunday’s are more about therapy than theology. By “theology” I do not mean to suggest we need return to dry dogmas. By “theology” I mean the fervent pursuit of the knowledge and person of the Living God. By “therapy” I’m suggesting many churches today only offer people shallow inspirations that help them get through another week, tips on how to have a better marriage and manage their depression and money better. There is no deliverance, victory or true freedom in the context of Theo-tainment and Commercial Worship.

Beholding “His Terrible Beauty“

This morning my wife read to me Psalm 96:4 from The Message: “His terrible beauty makes the gods look cheap.” Though extremely expensive to pull off, commercial worship is cheap. A worship leader’s job is to get out of the way and lead people to behold “his terrible beauty.” Those who behold Him become worshippers. The greater revelation we have of Jesus the louder we sing, the more extravagant and less dignified we are before him.

The prophet Amos spoke of the time when God says: “I cannot stand your assemblies… though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.” (Amos 4:21-24) The prophet continues with an exhortation to loose the justice stream of God from heaven to the earth and Amos ends with a line about God raising the fallen tabernacle of David at the end of the age (9:11).

God did not say he would raise up Moses tabernacle or Solomon’s Temple, he liked David’s tabernacle best. The difference between David’s tabernacle and the others is that David’s tabernacle didn’t have a veil that separated God from his people. It was more intimate. And, David appointed and paid for 288 prophetic singers and over 4000 musicians to minister before the Lord full-time… “to make petition, to give thanks and to praise the Lord” day and night (1 Chronicles 15:1-17:27). That Davidic night and day prayer continued for several decades and God loved it so much he said he will raise up David’s fallen tent again here in the last generation. If there is to be a major shift in the worship of the church it must be in the direction of intimate and sustained worship and prayer, continually keeping the fire on the altar hot, “it must not go out.” (Leviticus 6:13)

The number one thing I’ve found to counteract commercial worship is to disciple musicians. It’s been my observation in days past that the musicians have not been expected to rise to the standards of piety, heart holiness and wholehearted devotion we expect of others who minister. One of the reasons I sent my son to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City is because they are cranking out a hundreds of musicians right now but firmly stating: “IHOP is called ‘the singing seminary’ – we don’t buy into the nonsense that musicians don’t do the Bible.’” Their main focus is on raising up musicians who “eat the scroll,” cultivate and enjoy intimacy with God, and behold the “terrible beauty of God.”

The next battle in the worship wars?

As a pastor who survived the first round of worship wars a couple decades ago – hymns vs choruses, organs vs guitars – I’d suggest we are entering into a new phase of worship wars – commercial worship vs encounters where we behold his “terrible beauty.” We started to make that shift a decade ago in our church and I still speak of this in each new member class… how a “win” for us used to be pulling off a great service and how a “win” is now a God-encounter. A great service and a God-encounter are not the same thing. What it takes to entertain people and what it takes to attract God are very different things. It’s a tough choice for pastors to make but I encourage them to make it knowing that the presence of God is what changes lives and attracts the lost, not stunning performances.

A little book that helped us, and is still helping us, navigate through these tensions is “Following the River: A Vision for Corporate Worship” by Bob Sorge. Sorge writes about the great difference between Levites leading worship and band members just playing through set lists as they would at any other gig.

What I’ve written here I’ve written with some awareness that it might ruffle some feathers. A few years ago I opened my mouth in similar fashion and spoke publicly against “Christian” screamo bands suggesting that one couldn’t scream angrily under the anointing of God. I offended some of the younger generation in our fellowship. And so this article has been brewing in my spirit for some time and honestly I hesitated to write it because my heart is not to provoke an argument. Even so, I sense an obligation to stir and provoke people to go to deeper levels of adoring Jesus and beholding his “terrible beauty.”

On the one hand, no one should presume to judge the worship preferences or styles of music enjoyed by any one else and an article such as this could very well be interpreted as such and result in raised defenses. On the other hand, those such as myself who are called to plan worship experiences for people week after week need to talk honestly about what we are doing.

Testimony of the Trailblazers

Steve — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:08:32 +0000

This summer we are focusing on some of the heroes of the Christian Faith—men and women who have been faithful witnesses for Christ in their generation. The Book of Revelation says testimonies pack power to overcome adversaries and the Book of Hebrews teaches how all ages are encouraged on by the example of those in the Great Cloud of Witnesses.

Each Wednesday evening in a special mid-week service, we will introduce one of the trailblazers of the faith and set forth the distinctives of their contribution to the Kingdom of God. You’ll meet people like Amy Carmichael, Rees Howell, George Muller, Watchman Nee, Smith Wigglesworth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and, among others, revivalists and patriot pastors from our nation’s past. On Sundays, I will be basing my messages on the testimonies of key Biblical trailblazers like Joseph, Caleb, Gideon, Josiah, Deborah, John the Baptist and Anna.

More importantly, you will be challenged to be bold with your testimony throughout the week as God gives you occasion and to live as an example knowing others are following closely.

A sabbatical following the footsteps of Jesus, the Reformers and Paul

Steve — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:32:04 +0000

A couple weeks ago I had breakfast with my pastor friend of many years here in town, Jim Hoogeveen of Heartland Community Church. Jim was just a few days away from departing on a summer long sabbatical which starts in Egypt, (pic: up “Mt. Sinai”), then he’ll follow the footsteps of Paul, Jesus and end the summer doing what I did last summer – submerging himself in the world of the Reformers/Europe. It’ll be his first time in Israel – I told him from my experience, he’ll never look at the Bible the same again after being right there where it all went down. ((I don’t remember exactly but I think Jim started Heartland the same time we started/ ’94 - we both met in those early years in a new church planters think tank we had going in town.))

Pastor Jim was fortunate to be a recipient of a Lilly Foundation grant which is a National Clergy Renewal Program. 1500 pastors a month leave the ministry and the Lilly Foundation is trying to refresh God’s laborers so they cross the finish line.

I really look forward to following his travels, reflections and experiences and invite you to do the same – guaranteed we’ll learn something. Pray he and Lois are safe, and that they are refreshed. You can follow his travels here, be sure to scroll all the way back and catch the posts he’s already put up. He and Lois will end the summer with family celebrating their 40th anniversary.

Kristen and I have a couple nice pics from a decade or so back of us on camels in deserts – no better place to be if you want a God encounter! Ha! (Our camel was a two-seater though.)

Small World – new CATG message series

Steve — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:38:41 +0000

This weekend, on Mother’s Day, I start a new message series, a three-week mini-series that I’m calling “Small World.”

Small World is about having a global perspective and concern – it’s about the big things our big God wants to do through little ol’ you and me.

Small World is a missions series where I’ll explore the mandate of God on the Church to reach the world – no one is exempt from this call. I’ll talk about the unprecedented connectedness of the world and globalization and how historical and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant. I’ll talk about what the Bible says about the immigration issue presently facing our nation. I’ll address the fact that global problems are here in our backyard and that yes, we are to be our brother’s keeper. It’s a series on being a World Christian, not a worldly Christian, but rather someone who has not only a passport but has a passion for the justice issues facing the hurting in our world. This isn’t a series about how bad the world is…. it’s a Good News series…. He’s got the whole world in His hands!

…like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky

Steve — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:54:14 +0000

“…established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.” Psalm 89:37

Each year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on church services, programs and activities catered to every age group. And yet, what kind of “Christian” is the result? Are we producing hit and miss cultural Christians who are really functional atheists and spectators? Or, are we producing “faithful witnesses” as they are called in the Book of Revelation.

Tomorrow I start a new three-part message series called Faithful Witness which is focused on the caliber of believer the Bible says will reflect God and prevail in the hard times to come. A faithful witness is one who shines bright in the darkness, as Psalm 89:37 says, like the moon. They will be unwavering, established and bold during a coming time when darkness rules. They will testify to what they’ve seen first hand. As “night” falls over the nations of the earth, they will be faithful to embody and announce the entire Gospel of the Kingdom, not just the parts of it that are easy or that people want to hear.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

Steve — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:57:07 +0000

Sixty-five years ago today (April 9, 1945), German pastor/theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung in the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp for his participation in an assassination plot against Hitler. With this anniversary in mind today, Thomas Nelson Publishers released the first new biography of Bonhoeffer in forty years — Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.

(((If you missed it, click here for my earlier post/pics on my recent visit to the Bonhoeffer home in Berlin.)))

Fox News did a story today on this newest Bonhoeffer book:

“There were many German churchgoers, whether they were Christians or not I don’t know, but they went to church and somehow they made peace with the Nazis,” Metaxas says. “They thought there was nothing wrong. Bonhoeffer had such a devoted faith he knew without any question that the Nazis were anti-Christian and they were evil, and if he didn’t stand against them he would have to answer to God.” Bonhoeffer believed he was called by God to help those who wanted to assassinate Hitler. “Bonhoeffer was not a pacifist,” Metaxas says. “And that will be news to a lot of people who think of Bonhoeffer as their hero, as some kind of pacifist.” He was willing to be involved in a plot to kill Hitler. “He wasn’t helpful as a gunman; he was helpful with contacts all around Europe,” Metaxas says. “He had the ability because he had ecumenical church contacts to work as a double agent, and that is what he was, he was a double agent.”

Read that first sentence again, the part about church-going “Christians” making peace with evil. Bonhoeffer was a prophetic voice to a church paralyzed by false grace, cheap grace. Metaxas writes:

What was left in its wake was the murder of 6 million Jews and a legacy that has tarnished the Christian faith in Europe. But the legacy that Bonhoeffer leaves future generations is of the untold dangers of idolizing politicians as messianic figures. Not just in the 1930s and ’40s, but today as well. “It’s a deep temptation within us,” says Metaxas. “We need to guard against it and we need to know that it can lead to our ruin. Germany was led over the cliff, and there were many good people who were totally deluded.” Bonhoeffer, says Metaxas, was a prophet. He was a voice crying in the wilderness. He was God’s voice at a time when almost no one was speaking out against the evil of the Nazis.

Good church-going people in Germany were deluded and led over a cliff,,,, by four hundred years of a Lutheran theology of non-engagement with society. As I say in my earlier post:

Bonhoeffer criticized Luther for two things; 1) focusing the Reformation only on the church (whereas Zwingli sought to influence – salt and light – all of society). Bonhoeffer believed Luther’s views on this set the stage for the German Church of the 1930’s to stay out of Hitler’s business. In the 1000+ plus pages of Reformation history I’ve read this month, I’ve had the sense that had Zwingli been in Germany and not in Switzerland, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened. Bonhoeffer also was one of the earliest voices in the German Lutheran Church to renounce 2) the anti-Semitism and treatment of the Jews.

The Fall Away Factor

Steve — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:32:28 +0000

Recently I’ve been encouraged to make available past message series I’ve done. We put a TON of work into these in terms of graphics and quality but mostly what we aren’t wanting to waste is what is really there – dump-truck loads of content– Biblical exposition and revelation. Some people cut corners at work, however when it comes to teaching on the weekends, I don’t. In fact, I do agree with those who are telling me it is a shame that this stuff just goes in and out our ears only once. So, I’m going to start featuring past series here and you can order them here. More to come.

I did a seven part series called The Fall Away Factor back in 2007 as a follow up course to the Omega Course….

“The Spirit clearly and explicitly says that in the latter times some will abandon the faith.” (1 Timothy 4:1) Of all the glorious and much anticipated facets surrounding the Second Coming of Christ for his Bride the Church, there are significant horrors as well. One being a foretold great falling away of those who were previously settled in the fold. The soft spirituality and hardly-committed American Church will surely see the greatest defection when being a follower of Christ really starts to get difficult. This abandonment will go beyond backsliding and backpedaling and into the realm of betrayal and renouncing core Christian beliefs. In a message series that runs parallel to The Omega Course, Pastor Steve walks through six factors fueling apostasy underscoring how we can ensure our lamp oil does not run dry.

Contains seven audio messages;

Part 1 – Don’t Let Your Love Grow Cold
Part 2 – Standing on Unstable Doctrines
Part 3 – Standing With Israel
Part 4 – Mad at God
Part 5 – Half-heartedness
Part 6 – Understanding the Times to Come
Part 7 – Bonus Message – The Days of Noah

$15 plus shipping – order here.

George Washington: Surveyor of Israel?

Steve — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:44:26 +0000

I’ve been in George Washington mode for a couple months – just finished a thousand page biography of him and am just starting another thousand pages on him. (Here’s the book I’m reading now. Excellent, just excellent!) When I finish that book I have a little study plan mapped out in prep for Kaitlyn/my annual trip to DC and Mount Vernon in May. Here’s an amazing thing I uncovered today (in light of what I dub “Recognition Theology” — (America as “Israel” or as an Israelite nation and the nation we call “Israel” today, to be Biblically precise, actually being Judah).

Prior to his public service, George Washington was a land surveyor (as was his father who died when George was 11.) Using his father’s surveying equipment, as a young man, Washington surveyed and purchased land. Below is a picture of the front cover of his surveyor’s notebook which as you can see, has some scribbles, a couple calculations, and a one-sentence, very cryptic quote in his own handwriting —- historians never mention this quote apparently disregarding it as being without context and therefore gibberish and entirely meaningless to us today.

Here’s the quote as it’s tough to read in the pic…

If you can’t find it in the book of Ezekiel, look for it in Israel.

It reads like a riddle – a prophetic surveyor’s riddle.

Google the riddle and you’ll see that absolutely nothing comes up. It’s on no historical radar anywhere that I can find. Yet, Peter A. Lillback does mention it. He discovered the page in the Library of Congress and he writes the following about why Washington might have written that on the cover of his surveyor’s notebook;

As Washington was taught the Scriptures by his Anglican childhood tutors, he learned that Israel was a nation marked out by very clear boundaries (Joshua 13-21), such as would be well understood by surveyors. And the book of Ezekiel concludes with a remarkable survey of the New Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40-48). The young surveyor apparently autographed his official record with this observation. His task in the pristine woods of the New World in some way reminded him of the Biblical accounts of marking off expanses of land that had been gifted by God. [George Washington's Sacred Fire, by Peter L. Lillback, page 108-109]

Lillback obviously has a sense of what this is about— but I believe Washington knew that blood descendants of Abraham came here and that this land is the land of promise spoken of by Hebrew prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel. It is foretold in Joel 2:20 that at the time they are attacked at the end of the age, the people of Israel will be occupying a vast land between an eastern and a western sea (America is the only non-island nation spanning from “sea to shining sea“). Perhaps you are aware that when Washington died, Thomas Jefferson wrote; “verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.”

What did these guys know about “Israel” that few recognize today? (Did you know Jefferson was a “Jew?”)

End Time Israel is not just a little nation in the Middle East but rather “a nation and company of nations” with a population as innumerable as the sand on the seashore, just as God told Abraham it would one day be. Hosea 1:11 foretells the coming day when “the people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited...”

Judah = Jews. “Israel” refers to the ten northern Hebrew tribes – the blood descendants of Abraham who were scattered and migrated mainly through the Caucasus Mountains and populated Europe and eventually the New World. It appears Washington had some sense of these things.

Did Glenn Beck unknowingly stumble onto the false justice movement the Bible forecasts for the End of the Age?

Steve — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:03:20 +0000

Last Thursday Glenn Beck started a little firestorm over the topic of “social justice” and the Church. MSNBC hammered him…

First off, I have trouble listening to Rev. Jim Wallis talk about justice when he has no regard for the plight of the unborn. His “gospel” is good news for the trees on the planet but bad news for the smallest most vulnerable people on the planet. But putting that aside, he does what any marginally Biblically literate person could do, he lays out a watertight case showing that the Bible speaks volumes about justice and God’s heart for the poor. However, Wallis refuses to acknowledge that much of what passes as “social justice” is rooted in politics, humanism and the rejection of Jesus as the Savior of the World.

But he does do a good job of making Glenn Beck look like an idiot. Beck says “social justice” has become a code word. Here are those controversial comments;

I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words…. Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! If I am going to Jeremiah Wright’s church,” he said, referring to the incendiary black pastor who led the church attended by the Obama family members when they lived in Chicago. “If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop and tell them, ‘Excuse me, are you down with this whole social justice thing?’ If it’s my church, I’m alerting the church authorities: ‘Excuse me, what’s this social justice thing?’ And if they say, ‘yeah, we’re all in that social justice thing’–I’m in the wrong place.”

“Social justice was the rallying cry–economic justice and social justice–the rallying cry on both the communist front and the fascist front.” … “Nowhere does Jesus say, Hey, if somebody asks for your shirt, give your coat to the government and have the government give them a pair of slacks.”

I wouldn’t say the term “social justice” is a code word and I disagree that each time it is used that it is a veiled Communism or Fascism. I do think however social justice is a thoroughly Biblical theme that has been undeniably hijacked by humanists who reject the revelation of Jesus Christ as THE answer to what ails the poor of the world. It’s unfortunate (for Beck) that he dove head first into this seemingly lacking a broader understanding of what he was getting himself into – theologically, Biblically, and historically.

Listening to these clips of him speaking on this topic makes me think he’s not aware the debate and controversy these past 125 years over the notion of a “social gospel” – something which has divided mainline and evangelical churches for a century. As you can see in the video he set himself up for a major smack down. I saw that coming a mile away.

Fire away at me for saying this but I view Glenn Beck as an emerging prophetic voice to a nation – he is the loudest voice right now pointing this nation back to its Christian Foundations – and yes I am aware he is a Mormon. God can speak through donkeys. And right now the MSM wants us to think he’s an ass.

It’s not true that every church that uses the term “social justice” is speaking in code. However, it IS true those who have no tolerance for how the Bible says justice will come to the earth have hi-jacked the term. And, in my view, it is true that many evangelicals are falling fast into a false justice movement that is taking root in the earth. In my view, Beck is on to something, although it appears to me that he’s not fully aware of what he stumbled onto.

At the End of the Age a counterfeit justice movement will emerge that will set the poor up to receive the anti-Christ (Rev. 13:16-17). Stuart Greaves writes;

…a false justice movement is emerging in the earth that will seek to serve the poor, but will end up seducing them with lies and leading them to eternal ruin. Multitudes of the poor of the earth will bend the knee before a demonized man… the very movement that claims to be motivated by compassion to serve and liberate the poor is, in fact, preparing them to be swept up into the harlot religion and receive the Anti-Christ…

In that article (sited below), Greaves differentiates the false justice movement with the Christ-Centered Justice Movement. Greaves says:

Pursuing social action outside the context of the apostolic gospel is opening up the door to preaching a false version of Jesus, a Jesus who is nothing more than a sympathetic humanitarian with a gospel of social reformation.

The basis of the false justice movement will be in humanism and in the rejection of Jesus Christ but it will appear compassionate. To quote an important book from a couple decades ago – there is a beautiful side of evil –and that is how many will be deceived – counterfeits are masked as the real thing. The stage is set for that and Beck, though hardly an articulate spokesman on the topic of the false justice movement, has, for better or worse, stumbled onto it. Regarding Jesus (as the One who returns to bring true justice to the earth), the Bible says righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. The false justice movement rejects righteousness – they “pursue social activism at the expense of holiness of heart.” (Greaves)

Here is the link to the Stuart Greaves article Pursuing Christ-Centered Social Justice. Greaves also has a good teaching on God’s Vision for Justice.

Tough Week

Steve — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:44:07 +0000

Last weekend I kicked off a new Lent/Easter message series called Tough Week which is focused on the last week of the life of Jesus. Hope part one is a blessing to you – you can listen to it here. Hope you can join us for part two this weekend.

Stuck in Twenty-Ten message series

Steve — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:23:17 +0000

We tend to think of people stuck in the 70s or 80s, or stuck in the past. However, I’m starting off the new year with a message series for people who are stuck right now – stuck between a rock and a hard place, stuck in sin, stuck in dead end jobs, or stuck emotionally or spiritually, or stuck in unhealthy mindsets, or stuck in disbelief, or stuck in their ways.

God wants us unstuck, untangled and moving on. This is a series on freedom and it’s packed with truth that will set you free.

As always, my friend Bobbi knocked it out of the park with graphics for this series. It’s the perfect look especially in light of the fact that America is in the deep freeze and snowed in for a while!