Free graduate level courses through Covenant Theologial Seminary

For many people in pastoral ministry, especially in charismatic or pentecostal contexts, and particularly overseas in developing nations, the cost and logistical implications of pursuing a high quality, formal, graduate-level theological education renders this utterly impossible. Although the wonderful congregation I now serve as Senior Pastor is very graciously making it possible for me to pursue my Master of Divinity at the the seminary Dr. Jack Hayford founded in Van Nuys, California (The King's Seminary), I could have never done this during the years that Teresa and I lived in France as career missionaries.

For people who are unable to finance a seminary degree, I have recently discovered one way on the internet to study the Scriptures on a true graduate level at no cost whatsoever. The Covenant Theological Seminary (If you are unfamiliar with the Presbyterian Church of America, think Francis Shaeffer) in Saint Louis, Missouri offers an amazing selection of actual course audio recordings, lecture transcripts, syllabi, and course study guides on the internet via their free, Covenant Worldwide program.

By listening to these lectures, reading the texts listed in the syllabi, following along in the study guides, etc., you potentially receive a significant portion of the same benefit as if you were actually enrolled in their program. (Note: You would NOT receive course credit this way, any formal degree, be actually enrolled in the classes, or have any interaction with the professor, other students, etc.! This would be strictly for personal and ministerial enrichment...!)

Since I am currently preaching my way through the life of Christ as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, I downloaded the first lecture this morning, The Historicity of the Gospels, from the Life and Teachings of Jesus taught by Dr. Daniel Doriani and found the quality of material covered and the presentation to be very, very good. (Click here to download/listen to the lecture audio file in mp3 format; click here to download/view the study guide in pdf format; click here to read the written transcript of the lecture online; click here to read/download the written transcript of the lecture in pdf format; you can also sign up to receive the entire course via podcast, for more information, click here.)

I do not know the people at Covenant, but, being a former missionary who still has much contact with indigenous church leaders in various countries around the world, many of whom read this blog, I am deeply moved by their generosity! I think it would be very difficult to find another fully accredited, reputable seminary that so freely shares the priceless gift of godly learning on a "Whosoever will, let him come..." basis. (If you know of other accredited seminaries that share their actual audio lectures, etc., online, please let me know and I will post that information, too.)

May God bless Covenant...!

What a hoot... MeChurch ... NOT...!

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time...! Enjoy...!

Thanks to Matt Green of Ministry Today for pointing the way to this video clip on YouTube in his Wednesday Fun post.

Real-Time World Conversions Map...!

One of the most fascinating new uses of technology in ministry that I have seen recently is something my friend, Samuel Balverde, over at France Advance and Top Chrétien is working on right now. Their various sites, including the wildly successful Looking for God witnessing portal, are now available in several languages and are seeing over four hundred people a day registering decisions for Christ. (For more information about their various ministries, read this post from my Hillcrest Church pastoral blog.)

Their new beta technology feeds the results of those first-time commitments to Jesus into the Joy in Heaven mapping engine which displays satellite maps showing where the latest decision for Christ has just been registered through their sites. Global activity, of course, depends on what time of day it is in the various time zones of the world, but in the last few two or three minutes as I have written this post, I have seen decisions registered in Nairobi, Kenya; Wichita, Kansas; and a little village in Austria...!

As we prepare to go into our annual 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting at Hillcrest Church, this is going to be a wonderful tool to mobilize people to intercession during our evening corporate prayer meetings. As you watch the map, right before your very eyes, it shifts to a new place in the world where someone has just prayed, asking Jesus into their hearts...and you know to pray for that person in that place...! I admit that I am a closest techno-geek, but I really do think that is a very cool and creative and "out-of-the-box" application of emerging technology...!

D.A. Carson on private prayer languages

In Joel Willitts and Michael Bird’s blog, Euangelion, they have a great, though rather detailed, quote from the eminent evangelical theologian, D.A. Carson supporting the private use of a prayer language in light of 1 Corinthians 12:7.

Andrew Jones on the Hazard of Hotels

Concerning the ongoing discussion among Christian leaders about the need for us to carefully guard our moral purity, Andrew Jones (aka TallSkinnyKiwi), renowned blogger in the emergent church movement in the U.K., wrote a very interesting piece entitled, Haggard and the Hazard of Hotels. Jones spells out the precautions he takes when traveling alone, including avoiding staying certain places.

He writes (typos included),

Most of the time I travel alone but i am careful here i stay. If i have a choice, I crash on a friends couch. In summer I bring my tent. I even crash on airport floors to save a few bucks and travel time. If i don't know anyone in a city, I usually stay at a youth hostel. Its really cheap and i stay in a room with 5 or more people. I have to sleep with my wallet and passport in my pocket or under my pillow but it keeps me away from hotels where i am all alone and where weird things happen.

Here’s the deal. Hotels can be treacherous places for people of God to stay at because of the spiritual residue from weird and dark things that have happened in that room. OK - some of you will think me loony here. And some of you don't believe in demons. But let me play it out. Hotels, like a particular house in New Orleans, have been the ruin of many a poor boy. Some hotels are famous for the part they had to play in the destruction of careers and downfall of movie stars. Fatty Arbuckle at St Francis Hotel, San Francisco (pictured above) comes to mind every time i walk by that hotel. And there are others.

Hotels are often places where anonymously weird, perverted, dangerous, evil things of a dark nature happen - all attracting the attention and the attachment of evil spirits. Permission is granted to those spirits in those places and I don't think that permission is withdrawn once the people are gone. That means if you end up in a hotel room where weird things have just happened, you really need to do some kung fu in that room and cleanse it out before you put your bags down and settle in for the night. Really. And someone close to you should know where you are.

Those are very interesting words coming from someone who is part of a movement whose theology many evangelicals view with suspicion, and yet they obviously evidence a very deep desire to pursue personal purity at all costs. I wonder how many of those same critics are as serious about being careful in their own, personal lives as Andrew is?

His words remind me of something I heard Cliff Barrows say at Billy Graham’s Amsterdam ’86 Conference for Itinerant Evangelists. Cliff stated that when he enters a new hotel room, the first thing he does is drape a towel over the television set and place his open Bible upon it as if it were a pulpit. Even back in the eighties, well before the proliferation of online porn, Barrows had been deeply impacted by learning how many ministers he knew had fallen into the sin of watching dirty movies as a result of spending too much time alone in hotel rooms. He was determined to avoid that trap with God’s help, so he established these specific boundaries in his own life in order to reinforce his own best intentions.

In the same vein, someone once told me about hearing the late Dr. Lester Sumrall say that when preaching out of town, he never went directly back to his hotel room alone after speaking. Instead, he always asked the host pastor, or a male staff member that pastor recommended, to go out with him for a cup of hot chocolate and chitchat before retiring. Apparently, he believed taking the time to unwind over a cup of hot chocolate before going to his room was an important safeguard to his own moral purity. He also felt the hot chocolate included certain chemicals that helped replenish the nutrients his body had burned while preaching and praying for the sick. Dr. Sumrall had discovered that, by taking the time to unwind in safe company before going to his hotel, when he did get to his room, he was tired enough to go straight to sleep instead of being so wired on adrenaline that he would be tempted to stay up flipping channels until the wee hours of the morning. Let me mention, as an aside, that Dr. Sumrall’s out of print but still available biography, My Story to His Glory, is an amazing, “must-read” for any missionary or preacher.

For me, the bottom line in all of these discussions is that true spirituality, as I once heard Dale Yerton put it, is “naturally spiritual and spiritually natural.” There is a mysterious mix of the natural and the supernatural in the ministry God accomplishes through us that enables us to become and do so much more than we could ever hope to in and of ourselves. We must be very vigilant to never, ever forget, that no matter how much God uses us, we always steward “…this treasure in vessels of clay.” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV). We are still human, still vulnerable, still utterly dependent upon the God who created us and called us.

I will never forget the story an extremely gifted, anointed worship leader shared with me over dinner after service one night at a pastor’s conference where I ministered several years ago. It had been such a joy to receive from the ministry of a true psalmist during the sessions. When I went out of my way to speak words of affirmation and appreciation to him, he told me how, not long before, he had experienced something very unusual in a similar meeting. On that occasion, when he walked out on the stage with the band behind him and a very large crowd in the room in front of him, as he took his guitar pick in his fingers and was about to strike the first note, suddenly, it was as if all knowledge of how to play the guitar completely left him! He told me that, in an instant, in spite of many years of training, practice, and experience, he could not even recall how to play the initial notes! He stood there, bewildered and embarrassed for several seconds, while the crowd began to fidget restlessly, wondering what was wrong. Then, just as quickly and completely as it had left him, his musical ability came flooding back into him in an instant. As he struck the first chord, he said the voice of the Holy Spirit whispered to his heart, “That’s just so you will never forget where all this comes from!”

May God help us all to never forget where our gifts, our reputation, our circle of influence, our network, even our character and our integrity really come from, and may we never forget how much we need His ongoing help to both serve and honor Him…!

Dr. David Shibley's New Blog

Had a great chat today over Tex-Mex with my very good friend, Dr. David Shibley from Global Advance. After tasting such local delicacies as roasted avocado with chicken fajita meat at a new restaurant called Chiloso (that I really hope opens franchises soon - sort of like Chipotle taken to the next level...!) we went back to his office for a bit. During our visit, he mentioned a book that he was reading and I urged him to start a blog that he could use to share his thoughts with pastors like me.

Well, one thing led to another and in a few moments we had him up and running at davidshibley.blogspot.com. David is one of the leading spokesmen for world missions in the charismatic world today, the author of several books including A Force in the Earth and The Missions Addiction. Anything he writes will be well worth reading!

If you know pastors in developing countries, in particular, I encourage you to point them toward another of Global Advance's websites entitled www.2tim2.org. It contains resources for spiritual leaders in English, Spanish, French, and Russian. At Hillcrest Church, we believe in David and the Global Advance ministry and we support them financially on an ongoing basis. If you would like to find out more about the work they do around the world, check out their online video entitled, Touching Leaders - Changing Nations.

Jack Hayford - It Could Happen to Any One of Us

In his From the General Supervisor letter to Foursquare pastors entitled It Could Happen to Any One of Us, about the recent, highly mediatized moral failure of a prominent spiritual leader, Jack Hayford wrote the following words worth remembering,

1. If you’re looking at anything, anytime that would not pass the judgment of your spouse, it’s inappropriate.
2. If you are unavailable and no one knows where you’re at for considerable time allotments, it’s dangerous and needs to change.
3. If you’ve created a web of lies and cover-ups, then the tentacles of sin have taken deep root.
4. If repentance and accountability are not clearly present in your daily routine, then you are lion bait.
5. If you don’t practice what God says about the need for purity of heart and head (avoid all sexual immorality), then you’re headed for a great fall.

AMEN! and God help us all...!

French Evangelicals and the Polical Process

A post on Ben Witherington's blog entitled, "Evangelicals in a Post-Haggard, Post-Rumsfeld World" prompted me to take a subject I had referenced in passing in my own "Tony Campolo on Liberal Evangelicals" post and write the following,

Hi Ben!

Before becoming a pastor here in America, I served as a resident missionary to France for a number of years. It was a very interesting and eye-opening experience to pastor wonderful, Spirit-filled people who were highly committed members of the Socialist party, or who even voted for the Communist party during their elections...!

I came to discover a couple of important differences between what I perceive to be the mindset of a majority of French evangelicals as opposed to their American counterparts:

1. French believers have zero expectation that their civil government will ever be run by people who are actually born again Christians, so they do not examine the personal lives of their leaders from a biblical perspective before voting for them. It never enters a French believer’s mind that a politician’s personal life would be sufficient reason to withhold their vote from him or her.

2. French believers view the political process as inherently corrupt due to its built-in dynamic of compromise and deal-making, not to mention its potential for conflict of interest or illicit monetary gain through the trafficking of special interest lobbyists, etc. This causes them to conclude that it would be completely impossible for any believer to maintain his or her integrity and run for office with any of the major parties.

This is due, in part, to the fact that French politics are based on a parliamentary style system that renders it virtually impossible for anyone to run for office as an independent. In the mind of French Christians, no believer could ever attain the backing of any major party without having engaged in so much questionable prior activity in support of that party, or without having incurred so many "IOU's" to so many other political figures, that their integrity and freedom to act according to their conscience would have already been fatally damaged before even being put forth as a candidate.

3. Believing that the major power brokers of all major political parties have long ago compromised their personal integrity and conscience, French pastors and other spiritual leaders would view with deep suspicion any overtures from politicians trying to court the support of the church in the electoral process. Most French pastors have a very hard time understanding why their American colleagues get so excited when representatives from the White House or Congress come calling or send invitations to functions inside the Beltway. In their minds, Americans should understand that offers of political power and access are never altruistic, but always come at a price, namely, a requirement to stand by the party or candidate in question in other areas of public policy, even though those other issues may not be clearly biblical in nature or even of great importance to the church world.

4. As a result of these and other factors, French pastors tend to believe strongly that spiritual leaders, local congregations, and church movements should play the role of public conscience to the larger society and never try to forge any sort of alliance with one particular party.

In the beginning of my stay there, I questioned their perspective, given what seemed to be great gains made by the evangelical church in America regarding certain social issues in exchange for publicly supporting individual candidates and forming a de-facto alliance with one particular party. Now, I look back with dismay and think we were probably duped into believing that we could salvage our souls while selling our support.

Although I personally have strong political convictions regarding certain issues, and have voted for the same party’s candidates in every election for nearly thirty years, and though I believe there are individuals who are called by God to run for office, I have purposed in my own heart to only use my pulpit to proclaim biblical principles. I believe the best way I can shepherd all of my flock is to teach them spiritual truths, many of which do, in fact, have a direct bearing on one’s conscience and decisions when entering the voting booth, but that I should never use my position or platform to promote a particular party’s or candidate’s agenda.

In the end, the only real hope any of us have for making the world a better place, not to mention improving the state of our country, is the kind of profound spiritual renewal and transformation that comes through a deep encounter with the living God through His Son Jesus Christ. As a pastor, leading people closer to Him is the greatest contribution that I can possibly make to the political process in our nation, for the closer we are to Him, the more we will live and govern in a way that is in harmony with His character.

Great list of Charismatic/Pentecostal blogs

I have just stumbled across a great blog by Rich Tatum called Blogrodent : Pentecostal Rumination and Review. I have just begun reading his blog and have already discovered that, among other things, he has an interesting list of links to other blogs called PneumaBlogs and a call to fellow Pentecostals and Charismatics to begin blogging.

Rich also has a link to a great post on Google Blogoscope pointers on good blogging style. The layout of Rich's own blog is a great example of how to "spruce up" your blog with graphics, fonts, and neat little tools like showing an executive summary of posts on your home page with links to the full post that even include an estimate of how long it will take you to read that post...!

Looking at the beautiful layout of Rich's pages shame me terribly and have already added to my determination to update the look and feel of this page just as soon as I can...!

Enjoy...! It is well worth the clicks to check Rich out...!

Tony Campolo on Liberal Evangelicals

The current issue of Christian Ethics Today contains an interesting article by Tony Campolo entitled, "Being an Oxymoron: A Liberal Evangelical." The title caught my eye and I found his explanation of his position very thought-provoking,

The word liberal has become a political label of ill-repute among many Evangelicals. But if by social liberal, you mean someone who believes America should guarantee medical coverage for all of its citizens; fund the public schools in poor urban and rural communities at the same level as those in rich suburban neighborhoods; be committed to progressive environmental policies; give more than four-tenths of one percent of its federal budget to help the poor of other countries; and give up its militaristic adventurism—then I embrace the label with enthusiasm.

Referencing the impact Charles Finney had on such issues as abolitionism and a woman's right to vote, he pens,

Back in those days, Evangelicals pulled their churches out of mainline denominations not because the denominations were too socially liberal on the race issue, but because they were not liberal enough.

Regarding abortion, Campolo (who clearly states his pro-life persuasion) says,

... many of the Religious Right Christians who share my pro-life sentiments tend to oppose enacting legislation that would enable poor women to give birth and keep their children. No wonder one of our critics says, “Evangelicals are people who believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth.” Too often it seems like we care about protecting the unborn, but we’re not willing to provide for the born.

Toward the end of his article, Campolo writes,

The Bible speaks more about justice that it does about anything else—except for love. But in the end, justice is nothing more than love turned into social policies.

My point here is not to take position on Campolo's particular views regarding social policy, although I think the quote he gives followed by his own thoughts, "'...Evangelicals are people who believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth.' Too often it seems like we care about protecting the unborn, but we're not willing to provide for the born..." should give all of us who hold a pro-life position serious pause, and merits honest reflection.

I simply want to underscore the greater sense of unease I have felt as American evangelicals have whole-heartedly endorsed one particular political party because we are so passionate about some particular planks in its platform, even when that same party strays far from our religious convictions in other areas. Might not it be better for evangelical spiritual leaders to take public stands along the lines of what Scripture says on every social and moral and economic issue, calling both parties to task when whey stray from the Judeo-Christian philosophical base upon which this nation was built, rather than align ourselves too closely with a party whose power brokers simply want to use us to elect their candidates, without necessarily sharing or promoting our convictions?

James Dobson's comments earlier this week on Larry King Live regarding one particular Republican politician seem to make the same point, saying that the man in question

...is an economic conservative. He is not a social conservative. He doesn't like to talk about marriage and about the unborn child, the sanctity of life and things like that. He wants to talk about smaller government. We believe in smaller government too, and we're economic conservatives too, but we're also social conservatives and he's not.

Years ago, I heard Teresa's mother make the statement, "Prosperity has silenced far more prophets than persecution." Could it be that the measure of acceptance by establishment, Republican power-brokers inside the Beltway in Washington that certain, high-profile evangelical leaders have experienced has tended more to silence the prophetic voice of the evangelical movement in America rather than further our values?

In the end, maybe it just comes down to each individual knowing the role God has called them to play. I have no question in my mind that for some public servants, politics is truly a vocation, but there does seem to be an inherent tension between a system of which it is commonly said, "Politics is the art of compromise," and the prophetic role of the church of Jesus Christ in the world.

Contemplating that reality gives even greater meaning to the admonition of the Apostle Paul, as rendered in Eugene Peterson's paraphrase, The Message,

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. (1 Timothy 2:1)

Jack Hayford on Why Billy Graham Has Kept His Credibility and Integrity

Ministry Today magazine has an excellent article in its archives entitled, "It's Not About 'Office' - It's About Character," by Jack Hayford explaining why he believes Billy Graham has managed to maintain his integrity and his credibility for so many years. Hayford develops Graham's approach to the following key areas:

• Money
• Sexual Morality
• Sensationalism
• Hyperemotionalism
• Avoiding Digressions
• Commitment to the Whole Church

Building Moral Fences

In the wake of the recent high-profile revelation of moral failure by a key evangelical leader, many articles about the temptations leaders face have appeared in various publications and on the internet. In Leadership Journal, James MacDonald spelled out "Five Moral Fences" he has built in his own life in order to help guard against moral sin, and then urges the reader to make such parameters public in their own sphere of ministry:

1. I will not, under any circumstances, ride alone in a car with a female other than my wife or an immediate family member.
2. I do not counsel a woman in a closed room or more than once.
3. I do not stay alone in a hotel overnight.
4. I speak often and publicly of my affection for my wife, when she's present and when she's not.
5. Compliment the character or the conduct, not the coiffure or the clothing.

Regarding rule number three, he writes,

I did my doctoral thesis on increasing the incidents of self-disclosure of sin among men. I have heard more confessions of addiction to various forms of sexual sin than any one pastor should have to hear, and it has changed me. It has left me deeply persuaded that "there but for the grace of God (and some moral fences), go I." I know myself too well.

Lengthy, unaccountable hours with manifold temptations available is a recipe for failure. Romans 13:14 instructs us to "make no provision for the flesh." Do I sound weak? I am! And when I forget that weakness, I cease to know God's strength (1 Cor. 12:10).

When I travel, I travel with someone. When that is impossible, I stay with a friend. When that is impossible I do not go. Period. Early in my ministry, that meant there were things I missed out on. Recently our elders have agreed to help fund a travel partner for me. If an outside ministry opportunity is deemed worthwhile, and the ministry cannot afford a second airfare, our church pays for me to take another pastor or elder, or best of all, my wife!

I think his advice is very, very good. At Hillcrest Church, for example, our Elders have made it possible for me to follow a similar policy regarding solo travel, authorizing me to take another individual along with me at church expense whenever I feel the circumstances warrant it, though they do not require me to do so 100% of the time. If I wanted to borrow someone's lake house for a personal prayer retreat, for example, and Teresa could not go with me because of family obligations, I would not have to take someone else along, but I would normally take a travel partner with me when going on an extended missions trip. Earlier this year, for instance, when I ministered in the Middle East, about the only time I was alone was on the Tel Aviv - Dallas direct flight connection through Atlanta.

I wonder, though, how men in the marketplace could implement such a policy. Most corporate environments necessitate at least occasional travel, at times or to places inconvenient or even annoying to their spouses. I am well aware that many such men do, in fact, fall prey to moral sin, but I would have to stop short of saying that no Christian male should ever pursue a business career on these grounds alone. One thing is sure, though, all men, whether spiritual leaders or marketplace ministers, including me, need to avail themselves of God's grace in order to remain morally pure. A very important key to that process is developing healthy "boundaries" around our hearts and minds and schedules that we will not violate under any circumstances.

What guidelines have you come up with in your life? I encourage you to share them with other readers via the "comments" function of the this webpage.

Gordon MacDonald "Out of Ur"

While thinking about certain recent events that have figured prominently in the media over the last several days, I came across Gordon MacDonald's reflections in one of the blogs I sometimes read called, Out of Ur. His musings are seasoned with evident grace and compassion for our brother in leadership whose sins have been so widely disseminated, along with his wife, their children, and their church family. He also explores several much larger issues that each of us as leaders need to come to terms with. Here are a couple of thought-provoking excerpts:

It seems to me that when people become leaders of outsized organizations and movements, when they become famous and their opinions are constantly sought by the media, we ought to begin to become cautious. The very drive that propels some leaders toward extraordinary levels of achievement is a drive that often keeps expanding even after reasonable goals and objectives have been achieved. Like a river that breaks its levy, that drive often strays into areas of excitement and risk that can be dangerous and destructive. Sometimes the drive appears to be unstoppable. This seems to have been the experience of the Older Testament David and his wandering eyes, Uzziah in his boredom, and Solomon with his insatiable hunger for wealth, wives and horses. They seem to have been questing—addictively?—for more thrills or trying to meet deeper personal needs, and the normal ways that satisfy most people became inadequate for them.

No amount of accountability seems to be adequate to contain a person living with such inner conflict. Neither can it contain a person who needs continuous adrenalin highs to trump the highs of yesterday. Maybe this is one of the geniuses of Jesus: he knew when to stop, how to refuse the cocktail of privilege, fame and applause that distorts one’s ability to think wisely and to master self.

I find that to be a very interesting observation! While growing up in a pastor's home and then travelling widely across the U.S.A. and abroad, I have often been struck by the fact that some of the most gifted spiritual leaders I have met have also been among the most driven personalities I have ever encountered. Some of them have an approach to ministry that seems to bear incredible fruit, but at a physical, emotional, relational, and organizational cost that bears no resemblance to the promise Jesus made to all who would undertake His work in His way, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Anyone who comes to grip with the reality of Christ's sacrifice for each one of us understands what fuels the kind of godly passion the earliest Moravian missionaries articulated as a desire to "win a reward for the Lamb worthy his name...", and yet, we all do well to remember that the Apostle Paul declared part of the evidence of true spirituality to be genuine "joy" and "peace." I don't claim to always walk in that dual reality, but I am completely convinced it is the plan of God for all of our lives!

In an even more sobering vein, MacDonald goes on to write,

... all sin begins with lies told to oneself. The cardinal lies of a failed leader? I give and give and give in this position; I deserve special privileges—perhaps even the privilege of living above the rules. Or, I have enough charm and enough smooth words that I can talk anything (even my innocence) into reality. Or, so much of my life is lived above the line of holiness that I can be excused this one little faux pas. Or, I have done so much for these people; now it’s their time to do something for me—like forgiving me and giving a second chance.

Yesterday, I brought a message to our people from my ongoing series on the Gospel of Luke entitled, "How to Deal With the Devil in Your Desert", dealing with Christ's temptation in the wilderness. While studying the fourth chapter again, I was struck by the way Satan so clearly tried to provoke Jesus into presuming upon the mercies of God, urging Him to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and take it for granted that His Heavenly Father would keep Him from experiencing the consequences of His choice.

In the same way, the enemy tries to seduce each one of us into sinning again in some area of our lives where we have experienced God's gracious forgiveness in the past. Our adversary points to the fact that God mercifully chose to not expose our misdeed, reminding us that we did not reap its deserved consequences, then insinuates, "Go ahead and sin - God will respond the same way the next time that He did the last time!" To believe that lie is to fall prey to one of the devil's oldest strategies!

As we continue to intercede for our brother whose sin has been publically exposed, let each one of us also cry out to God, asking Him to do what the biblical author prayed in Psalms 19:13,

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. (Psalms 19:13 KJV)

Blogging 101 for Pastors

Blogging for Pastors 101 is a great website tutorial by Cory Miller that helps pastors begin blogging. It has a simple, step-by-step process to get you up and running. It also contains some good tips on how to create a more interesting blog. If you are building a church website, I recommend you check out his Building Rockin Church Web Sites link as well.

Jack Hayford School of Pastoral Nurture

Last week, I was privileged to attend the Jack Hayford School of Pastoral Nurture at the King's Seminary in Van Nuys, California. It consists of a series of four mentoring sessions in a group not to exceed fifty pastors. Each session or consultation, as they are called, lasts five days and includes some forty hours of teaching by Pastor Hayford on some aspect of pastoral leadership.

I participated in a Consultation One last spring. It dealt with a pastor's personal life, heart for people, and personal spiritual development. Consultation Two last week focused on such subjects as a preaching, ministering the fullness of the Holy Spirit to others, conducting public worship services that include charismatic utterances, worship, and the gospel of the kingdom of God. I enjoyed the first one enormously, but this second one was even better...! In coming posts, I intend to share some of the leadership principles I learned, and the practical ways they are impacting my ministry as Senior Pastor here at Hillcrest Church.

For the moment, just let me say that I highly recommend this program to any pastor that can attend...!

One last FYI ... the seminary Dr. Hayford founded, The King's Seminary, offers fully accredited graduate level credit for these sessions if you are willing to do the extra, post-modular coursework.

Pray for the young people at New Life Church

Several months ago, Teresa and I were able to attend weekend services at New Life Church while we were in Colorado. We were deeply touched during our visit by the very large number of young people and career adults, including young families, that were flocking to the church.

Today, as events have unfolded and the news stories continue to flood all forms of media, I keep thinking about those young, tender, bright-eyed, passionate, "babes in Christ." My heart is very, very heavy today as I remember what we saw. If you read this post, would you please pause for a moment and pray for them as well? Thanks!

Sallman's Head of Christ

Have you ever seen this painting? When I recently saw an article about its origins in Christian History magazine, it caught my eye. When I was a little boy, my parents gave me a children’s Bible with pictures in it, including this one of Jesus.

My earliest memories of thoughts about the Lord always included this image of Him in my mind. When I prayed, I would often imagine this was the person that I was talking to. To me, this is what He looked like, this was the “real” Jesus.

I must admit, though, that it created a bit of a conflict in my young mind when I heard preachers say that truly devout Christians should not wear a beard or have long hair like those hippies that were beginning to pop up everywhere outside my church world in the sixties and early seventies. The picture in my Bible seemed to prove that Jesus was an exception to some of their hard and fast rules.

Processing that apparent contradiction was the first of many steps in my life-long journey to understand and believe the things God's Word says about Him, even at the expense of some things I had been told about Him by some very well meaning, Christ-loving people. An important part of that dynamic was coming to realize there might be a difference between some things I had been told about the Bible and things the Bible actually said, that is to say, between some things I thought were in the Bible and those that really were in the Bible...!

As I have traveled around the world, I have been amazed to discover how many Christians are walking down a similar pathway. For some, the journey began when they came to understand that the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit is just as real and available now as it was 2,000 years ago, in spite of the fact that they had been taught that miracles simply do not happen today. For others, it started when they discovered there were many sincere, devoted followers of Jesus who were quite happily a part of denominations they had always been taught to view with distrust, suspicion, or even disdain. For still more, the turning point came when they realized there were people who really did know and love God, but who had never been baptized with the formula they had been taught was necessary for salvation. And on and on the list could go...

Embarking on such a search for truth can be a very difficult thing to do, especially if your study of Scripture leads you to different conclusions than those held by some of the godliest people you have ever known. This is particularly true if you come to disagree on certain points with the very people who led you to the Lord, or first taught you about Him, or were instrumental in helping you step out in faith to pursue your destiny, and yet, Jesus calls each of us to be willing to do this very thing,

"32 “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn “ ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:32-39, NIV)

As they would say in the Czech Republic, where Teresa and I have often been privileged to minister, “That is strong coffee...!” I am so glad Christ promised in that last sentence to reward us with vibrant, true spiritual life if following Him ever costs us friendships we hold dear. Thankfully, God created humans with the ability to form relationships and He places a very high value on them. He does not lightly call us to sever them, but works very hard to redeem them, even to the point of promising to save all our “house” if we place our faith in Jesus.

Allowing God to take you places you have never been, places far beyond where anyone around you has ever been, can not only be costly on a relational level, but it can also be spiritually dangerous unless you sail such uncharted seas with the Bible in in your hand as a compass. The infallible Word of God will never lead you away from God or His truth, but will always take you deeper in your knowledge of Him. As we follow on to know the Lord more fully, let’s be like the Berean Christians who heard the Apostle Paul preach and “...received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)

Let the walls come down!

Here is a link to a great article in the New York Times about a black minister and an Hispanic minister who are working to overcome the new racial divide between Afro-Americans and Hispanics. (Note: You may have to register on the New York Time's website in order to view the article, but it is free.)

Hybels on leadership styles

On the BuildingChurchLeader's website, there is a great article by Bill Hybels taken from the Winter 1998 copy of Leadership Journal magazine where he identifies different leadership styles and the situations where they are most effective. He cites Certain Trumpets by Gary Wills when he writes,

Wills describes the enormous impact of great leaders whose particular leadership style meshed perfectly with a certain need in society.

For example, when people are being oppressed and want to break free from that yoke, the situation calls for a radical, transforming leader.

In a complex, pluralistic democracy, with thousands of constituencies that must be drawn together to form a government, a political or electoral leader is necessary.

In war time, a military style of leadership works best.

During an ideologically intense social struggle, an intellectual leader might fit the bill.

Wills effectively argues that there are many different styles of leadership, and certain styles fit certain leadership needs better than others.

Hybels then lays out the following ten different leadership styles he has identified with comments about how each functions most effectively:

1. Visionary leader
2. Directional leader
3. Strategic leader
4. Managing leader
5. Motivational leader
6. Shepherding leader
7. Team-building leader
8. Entrepreneurial leader
9. Re-engineering leader
10. Bridge-building leader

He concludes, "Whatever your style, recognize it, celebrate it, and step up to the plate and lead."

Preaching and personality

In his article entitled, "How Sermon Writing Can Harm Your Soul: Facing up to the preacher's peculiar impurity" on Preachingtoday.com, Lee Eclov refers to Phillip Brook's classic statement, "Preaching is truth passed through personality," then goes on to write,

Anything true and beautiful passing through my personality is liable to become impure. No doubt about that! My sinful attitudes and my foolish pride can stick to God's word like bacteria on fresh fruit.

But there is also something impure about preaching where truth has not passed through personality. I suppose that every sermon inevitably carries the personality of the preacher, but I'm here to tell you that there are sermons where truth has not passed through this preacher's personality. And such sermons were impure. They may be true, but they're not actually sermons.

Recently, I was reminded again of the fact that God deliberately inspired four different Gospels to place in the New Testament canon precisely because different people would be reached by different portrayals of the same Savior. May God help us all to allow the Word to be made flesh again through our unique, individual lives before it comes out of our lips...!

Assessing character

In her guest column for leadershipjournal.net dealing with how to assess character, Angie Ward states, "Here's another thing about character: It is revealed not in skills, but in community." She describes how a church leader she knew was never willing to become involved in a small group at the church where he served. After leaving that post for another, he later succumbed to multiple addictions and has since left the ministry entirely.

One of the "rules of thumb" that I have developed in my own heart and mind since coming to Hillcrest Church as Senior Pastor is to make a mental note anytime someone in our leadership seems lukewarm about a particular individual taking on some new role in the life of our church. Sometimes, the leader's reluctance is simply the consequence of a difference in personality or leadership style, or the lingering effects of a past interpersonal conflict, or "turf battle," but, more often than not, it has turned out to be a warning sign of a more significant issue. As leaders, we do well to remember that our team members often interact with people in our congregation in far different contexts than we do, and they know things about them that we do not.

As a husband, I long ago learned to take very seriously my wife's hesitation regarding certain people, particularly other women! Teresa is a very warm, loving person, so any time she is clearly unimpressed or turned off by someone's manner or skeptical about their character, I immediately take her feelings as a warning straight from the heart of God. We just celebrated twenty-one years of marriage last week, and in all that time, I don't think she has ever "missed" it once!

In the same way, I am learning to rely more heavily on the other members of my ministry team to "see" things in people that I may not. Hillary Clinton has famously said, "It takes a village to raise a child." I am coming to the conclusion that, "It takes a team to know a person!"

God is Back...!

CBS ran a piece on their website yesterday saying that a Baylor survey concluded that 82% of Americans are Christians, but that they are expressing their faith in very different ways than 40 or 70 years ago. While Barna's book, "Revolution," portrays Americans as increasingly withdrawn from traditional church, Baylor's survey said half of all Americans attend church at least once a month and describe themselves as "Bible believing." I wonder if those Barna portrays have really stopped attending church altogether, or if they just attend less frequently as part of their highly individualized approach to Christian faith.

I was also struck by the fact that half of our nation's population does not believe the Bible is authoritative. Communicating Christ effectively to them requires far more than just "repackaging" our communication style to make it more media rich. My experience as a resident missionary in France centered around touching this very kind of person and I quickly learned one very important lesson - convincing a total non believer of the truth of the Gospel is only accomplished via a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. The good news is, God wants to touch people far more than we do and He will work powerfully in their hearts if we will commit ourselves to communicating His message to them!

Evangelicals: Where we are and how we got here...

Here is an excellent article from Christianity Today tracing the historical rise of American evangelicalism and the reasons behind it. As the byline puts it, "50 years ago, evangelicals were a sideshow of American culture. Since then, it's been a long, strange trip. Here's a look at the influences that shaped the movement."

Should we fret the back door...?

Browsing the web today, I came across a thought-provoking article bearing this title on the LeadershipJournal.net website. The author is a pastor who leads a thriving church in Leawood, Kansas. I think every shepherd can identify with his words when he writes,

I carry a fair amount of guilt about our back door. I think to myself, If I were a better pastor, they would still be here; or, If I had done a better job of discipling them, they would not have fallen away; or, If I hadn't preached on that controversial issue, they would not have left angry. Each one who departs leaves me with a distinct sense of failure.

He goes on to write something we pastors may not think about too
often,

This is an issue Jesus wrestled with. In John 6:66 we read, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." We know that thousands came to hear Jesus preach, and to eat of the fish and the loaves, yet how few there were that actually pursued the life of discipleship.

Some who heard him were quite critical of Jesus' ministry, accusing him of operating by the power of the Devil! Even his disciples questioned what he was doing. And one of the Twelve became so disillusioned that he betrayed the Lord to his enemies.

Jesus, too, had a "revolving back door" in his ministry.

Many scholars believe that the Parable of the Sower and the Soils reflects Jesus' own self-assessment of his ministry.

He then concludes,

Here's the takeaway: you will never completely close the back door of your church. When people leave, it hurts. Learn all you can from those who leave. Listen to hear if there is something important God would say to you through them.

Reach out to them, apologizing when needed, offering clarification and love when this is what's called for. But remember that when Jesus, God's Word made flesh, preached the gospel on this earth, most of his hearers did not accept his message. Some accused him of having a demon. One of his key leaders even betrayed him.

Jesus knew that God's kingdom would not expand by "pleasing all of the people all of the time." Instead the Kingdom expands as the relative minority of people who hear the gospel, live it, and in turn, give it away. Our task is to keep scattering the seed.

That sounds like good advice to me...! What do you think?

Typos and other challenges

Please forgive the many typos and other errors in some of my posts. The software that www.blogspot.com uses is not very handy for typing in text. I am working on a way to do my writing in Microsoft Word, then post it to this blog, and I think I about have it figured out. That should make things much, much better. In the meantime, thanks for your patience...!

Consumer Christianity - Too Many Choices?

I continue to be amazed about how many parallels there are between the life of a local church and that of a family. Pastoring, in fact, sometimes seems a lot like parenting. Perhaps this is why the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy and Titus to careful consider the state of a candidate's family life when they looked for potential spiritual leaders. He did not say that elders and deacons had to be successful business men, but he did say they had to be sucessful family men.
Entrepeneurial acumen certainly does not disqualify one from spiritual leadership and can be very valuable when applied to the life of a local church. According to Paul, though, it should not be the grounds for considering or selecting someone for such a role.

I think the reason is very simple: while businesses and churches have many things in common, a local church is much more like a family than a company. In a business, people are a means to an end; in a family, people are the end. In a business, people are sacrificed if necessary for the sake of the bottom line; in a family, people are the bottom line. Jesus did not die for ministry buildings, projects, or institutions, but for people. Hirelings lead task oriented ministries; shepherds lead people oriented ministries. Moses was not only called to go to the Promised Land, he was called to lead a particular group of sometimes rebellious people to the Promised Land. His level of commitment to them and his love for them was much like that of a father to his children. As pastors, if we ever sacrifice our sheep on the altar of our vision, then our ministry has become our god and we are a hireling, not a shepherd.

In every other gathering of human beings, people are brought together on the basis of some degree of shared interest or commonality, be it a love of football, similar political persuasions, common educational goals or something else, but in a family, people are forever bound together by simple DNA, no matter how divergent their values or diverse their personalities. Though their interpersonal conflicts may cause them to want to flee from each other, even if they go years without speaking or making contact, it is amazing how inevitably some occasion such as a wedding or a funeral or the discovery of a congenital family trait by some obscure biologist will thrust family members together once again.

God designed the biological family this way for many very good reasons. One of the most important must certainly be the perfection of our character. We can easily sever every other difficult human relationship without ever learning the lessons on interpersonal relationships from it that we should, but not our biological family ties. As one wag put it, "You can pick your friends, but you're stuck with your kinfolk!" Have you ever noticed how rare it is for siblings to be just like each other in temperament? This is not an accident! God intentionally places very diverse personalities in the same nuclear family for the simple reason that this forces every member to grow relationally. As we succeed in our families, working through conflicts and walking out forgiveness and forebearance, we learn valuable keys to success in every sphere of human relationships in broader society.

In this vein, I came across an interesting article a few minutes ago on Christianity Today's website (click here). It addresses some of the downfalls in adopting a purely "marketing" approach to local church leadership, especially focusing on meeting people's felt needs without ever calling them to a long-term, "come what may," commitment to a particular congregation. At first read, I think most any pastor who has seen someone lightly leave the flock they lead might read the article and identify with the frustrations felt in the conversation which opens up the piece. I encourage you, though, to take the time to ask yourself the question, "In the church I serve, how intentional are we about promoting the kind of interpresonal bonding between members that would motivate them to stay with this community of faith no matter what?" If we fail to do this, we rob our people of God's perspective on the local church and they will not grow unto the spiritually mature individuals He intends them to be.

What do you think?

Generous Giving Stewardship website

Here is a great website with lots of material on stewardship: http://www.generousgiving.org/

UPI says prosperity theology is booming

The United Press International news wire put out a brief item today entitled, 'Prosperity Theology' is Booming, stating that three out of the four largest churches in America preach this theology. They also reference a Time magazine poll that found 61 percent of Americans say they believe God wants people to be prosperous, although only 17 percent consider themselves to be part of the prosperity theology movement.

Should we do away with theologians?

Here's an interesting read from C. Peter Wagner entitled, "Goodbye Theologians!" I chuckled when I read that a student at Fuller Seminary had a research paper rejected by a professor because he had quoted Jack Hayford in it, saying Hayford was not "theological."

What the Bible says about fighting terrorism

As spiritual leaders, we are sometimes called upon by those we lead to provide a biblical lens throught which to view some significant current event. Here is a thought-provoking look at an Old Testament passage that its author believes provides some insight for an ethical approach to fighting terrorism. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13938178/site/newsweek/

Praise for Billy Graham's preaching from a rabbi who doesn't believe in Jesus...

Thankfully, it is a rainy Labor Day here in Dallas after so much drought. I have finally finished my homework for a course I was taking and am doing a little reading on the Internet. I'll post a few links that I have found interesting. Here is a column by one of the best known rabbis in America who begins by saying, "I'm a rabbi and I like Billy Graham. I don't agree with him about Jesus, but I like him anyway...when he dies, there will never be another preacher like him." Worth reading for all of us who are called to communicate the Gospel: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8147174/site/newsweek/

Keep walking...!

One of the email lists that I am on and that I actually read regularly is sent out by a pastor in Australia named Phil Pringle. (You can sign up for them for free here.) It always contains some brief, pithy, pungent nugget about leadership and ministry. He is an accomplished artist with many paintings, etc., to his credit, but also, apparently a cartoonist. Click here to see the animation that goes with this cartoon and enjoy a good laugh about what it sometimes means to be a leader...! Enjoy!

Mark

What do you think?

Following is a post containing some very rough notes I have made about how to evaluate prophetic words. I beg your indulgence in advance for the poor wording of certain phrases, etc. I do not have time to rewrite them, but have included them in my blog in the hope that it can stimulate some interaction between those who are reading these lines, and that we can learn from each other. So, if you have questions or comments about this subject, or experiences to relate, please share them by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of the post.

How Do I Know It's God? (Revised 12/5/2006)

Here are a few "rough" notes that I have made about the question of the evaluation of prophetic words. I would l love to hear your thoughts and comments. Just click on the "comments" link at the end of the post...

I have heard many hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of prophetic words given by various people in a wide variety of settings over my lifetime. A small minority of the time, I had a crystal-clear sense that the word was, indeed, from God. A small minority of the time, I felt certain that the word was not from God. To be perfectly honest with you, the rest of the time, I did not have a rock-solid conviction either way, when I first heard what was spoken.

Quite often, my “gut” reaction ranged somewhere from, “Hmm, that sounds and feels a little suspicious…” to, “Hmm, that did not minister anything to me, personally, but, maybe it did to someone else…” to, “Wow! I sure hope that is God! Won’t it be wonderful if it is…!” to, “I don’t have a clue whether or not that was truly inspired of the Holy Spirit.”

I think there are probably several reasons why my “discerner” is not more dogmatic.

1. I am sometimes more spiritually sensitive than at other times. When I heard the word, my heart and spirit may not have been completely focused on the Lord for a whole variety of reasons. Perhaps I had allowed what I had been thinking about on my way to church or the things that had happened earlier in the day or broader concerns that I was carrying in my own life or simply the fact that I was attending a conference where I knew I would not be leading the service or some other thing, to keep me from fully entering into God’s manifest presence through the communion of the Holy Spirit. The more "full" I am of the Spirit at the moment I hear the word, the more likely I am to clearly and accurately discern whether or not any or all of it is of truly from the Lord.

2. Some words that I have heard were addressed to someone else and not for me. Perhaps they were for some individual in the service, but not the congregation collectively. When this happens, I may have a clear sense that the word is for a third party, sometimes I do not know for sure, but think it could be because overall it sounds and feels "right." When you think about this possible scenario, you quickly understand that it is really not all that surprising that God would not always bother to let me know if a word for someone else is authentic or not. After all, if the word is for someone else's life individually, it may be that God doesn't think what He is saying to them is really any of my business. If, for instance, He is dealing with some specific, secret sin in their life that He wants to give them an opportunity to repent of without exposing them openly, then He would quite deliberately not let me know who He is talking to about that particular subject. He might then give me only a general sense of conviction that the word is from Him so that I would allow it to be given in the service if we are following the "gating" or "evaluation" procedure mentioned below, or reassure me of its authenticity if there is something about the time or way that it is given that is less than ideal.

3. In a healthy, New Testament church, for greater safety and security, God sometimes intentionally leads us collectively instead of individually, by giving a clear confirmation through establishing a consensus. When this is happening, God deliberately initiates the process of giving revelation through someone other than the leader. Some pastors have a very hard time believing or accepting this, but God really does reserve the right to speak through other people, even when we are present...! (Smile!)

4. God has clearly said that, on our best days, we only, “…know in part and prophesy in part…” until “…that which is perfect is come…,” i.e., until we stand face to face with Him! It is the height of arrogance for any of us to think that we are above that Scripture and that we will always "fully" know everything about every prophetic word.

In any case, it is not automatic that a Christian always knows the voice of God. Full grown sheep do, but not necessarily little lambs…!

“1 ¶ “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.”” (John 10:1-5 NIV)

Little lambs grow to know their shepherd’s voice by constant, continual exposure to it, that is to say, by hearing it over and over again. We also increases our degree of certainty in distinguishing God’s voice through communing with God in prayer and worship; exposure to healthy New Testament church life with fully functioning prophetic ministry; and exercising our gifts in an environment where we receive clear feedback from other, more spiritually mature individuals when we give words. I remember vividly the first time that I ever delivered a "message" in tongues to a congregation. It was then interpreted according to the Biblical pattern. After the service, a very spiritually mature person that I knew quite well made their way to me privately and said, "Mark, that message was clearly from the Lord!" Their honest affirmation of my gift greatly encouraged me and increased my faith, giving me much more confidence when I felt God leading me to minister in that way.

“11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV)

Here is a mental list of questions that I ask in those “in-between” instances when my "gut" alone does not give me a rock-solid conviction about a word I have just heard:

1. BIBLICAL - “It is Scriptural?”

Obviously, if someone says something that is not biblical, we know that is not of God. However, given the very real presence of the human element in all prophecy, in some instances, there can be someone who feels a genuine, Holy Spirit impulse to minister an exhortation to faith, for example, and tries to quote a Scripture to illustrate the point, but does not remember it perfectly or perhaps takes it out of context. They may use the verse in a way that they heard it used by others, even though upon close examination, their exegesis was faulty. The verse they quoted was misapplied, but the spiritual principle they were setting forth was valid. In this instance, the thought they were trying to convey may well have been given to them by God, but their articulation of it was faulty. The Holy Spirit certainly did not inspire them to misquote Scripture, but, in some instances, there may have been some element of what they said that was, “right on.” (See notes below on "Is it partial?")

2. SPIRITUAL – “Does it seem supernatural?”

The point here is not how “spooky” or “mystical” it is…! Genuine prophecy does not have to be given in some kind of weird voice! It can be given in a very natural way and yet still be very supernatural in origin. The style of the delivery has much more to do with an individual's personality and church background than with the level of inspiration they are experiencing. The issue I am addressing when I ask this question is that true prophecy is not merely the result of human reflection, but of divine inspiration. Words always gets my attention more quickly when I know the person giving the word has no earthly way of knowing why they are saying what they are saying, how relevant their words are to my context, or why they are so timely. This does not mean that God cannot use someone who knows all about what is going on in my life to speak to me. But, it certainly causes me to perk up my ears more when He uses someone who knows nothing about me. On the other hand, just because a word is clearly supernatural does not automatically mean it is of God. The Apostle Paul understood this reality and opened his great discourse on the nature and proper exercise of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 by delineating how one can know if something “spiritual,” i.e., supernatural, is of God and not the devil. John speaks to this same subject in his epistle.

3. CREDIBLE - Does it come from a credible person?

It appears to me that 1 Corinthians 12 & 14 seem to presuppose that credible people should be given the opportunity to share what they feel God has given them in public worship services and that utterances should be judged after they are given utterance is given publicly, not before. “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. (vs. 29)” It does not say that their word should necessarily be evaluated before it is spoken publicly. Having said that, I do think it is very wise to have some mechanism or procedure in place so that the gist of words given by people who do not have an established track record in a local church are first weighed by the leadership of that church before they are put out for public consumption. It is far easier to avoid some problems than it is to solve them once they have been created, and a lot of damage can be done to individual lives and that of a church through words that are not of God!

At the same time, verses 30 and 31 seem to indicate that even those who are not already recognized to be prophets should also be given opportunities to share and that those recognized for their gifting should cease prophesying in order for that to happen. “And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.”

In practice, this passage sometimes leads me to give credible people a chance to share even if I do not have a strong, specific inner witness that what they are about to say is for sure of God. I do this so that the body can evaluate that word collectively. (I would, of course, never ever allow someone to speak if I had a clear sense that what they were about to say was not of God…!) I would be much less quick to let someone share that is not already known to be credible unless I had a strong sense that what they were wanting to share was definitely from the Lord.

Another very important factor when evaluating someone’s credibility is their relationship and attitude toward spiritual authority and toward our “house.” It is a very serious mistake to let anyone address the congregation publicly under any pretext if they are in rebellion against the spiritual authority of the “house.” Even if their gifting is genuine, it is far too likely that in that context their attitude will color any word that they give.

4. BENEFICIAL / HELPFUL - Was it given with a right spirit? Will it edify? Is it right for this time and context?

This does not necessarily indicate whether or not the inspiration was genuine, but it can dramatically impact whether or not the word will edify the body. In a larger sense, this question is linked to another important question, “Does it edify?”

The reality is that truly inspired utterances are sometimes given with a total lack of spiritual etiquette. This is a lot of what 1 Corinthians 14 is all about. Genuine words can even be given in flagrant violation of some of the commands Paul laid down for the Corinthian church, which was in state of crisis and needed close regulation. When addressing their excesses and imbalances, Paul did not say that the gifts that were functioning in their midst in an unhealthy way were not authentic. He had much more to say about the manner of those gifts than their character or nature. Gifts that functioned outside these paraments, though sometimes genuine, would not result in maximum edification.

This still happens today. I have been in services, for instance, where I was convinced that the fourth word given was truly inspired of the Lord, even though Paul limited such utterances in Corinth to only three. Paul did not say that a fourth word could not be inspired. Rather, he said that a fourth word would be excessive, and not edify the body. In some services, that was exactly what happened - a fourth word came that was genuine, but many people in the audience rejected it out of hand because three other words had already been given. The audience was familiar with Paul's words and were instinctively prejudiced against the fourth one.

This question of, “Does it edify?’ is also very important when considering the potential impact of a particular word on the flow of a particular service. There are times when I do not release certain people to give their words in a particular service, even though I would release them to give that word in another service, simply because that word does not seem to “fit” with what I sense God is doing at that moment in the service or at that juncture in our body.

Some people go so far as to say that all New Testament words must only be positive “…edify, exhort, and comfort… (vs. 3) ” and never be corrective, but I do not believe that is the point of 1 Corinthians 14:3. There is more than one instance in the Book of Acts of individuals speaking prophetically to someone and actually pronouncing God’s judgment upon them (cf. Ananias and Sapphira, the sorcerer who was struck blind, etc.) The point of the passage is simply to underscore the need for interpretation of “messages” in tongues in a public gathering (see preceding verse.) Interestingly, the NIV uses the words, “strengthening, encouragement, and comfort.” Sometimes, godly correction is what is needed in order for a person to be stronger spiritually and thus be edified, literally, “built up.”

5. COMMUNAL - How do other spiritual leaders feel about this word? Is there a consensus regarding this word?

Sometimes, the context itself requires that we “go it alone,” but, those instances are rather rare in a healthy, mature New Testament local church. 1 Corinthians 14 indicates that when we share words from God for a particular body to that body, we can expect the Holy Spirit to bear witness with multiple members of that body, particularly among those that are the most spiritually mature and in positions of leadership.

6. CONTINUAL – How does it relate to the things the Spirit has already said?

Does this word coincide or build upon prior words? Has this same thought been expressed by more than one person in more than one context? Words that come multiple times from different sources carry more weight in my mind than words that come a single time from a single source. Paul seemed to share this view:

“22 "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:22-24 NIV)

This does not mean that all true words are spoken multiple times, but, when they are received multiple times from multiple sources in multiple places, it adds to the certainty about their authenticity and gives them added power. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the revelation of God in the New Testament contains some 1,100 references to verses in the Old Testament as the Holy Spirit deliberately linked what He was saying in the New Testament era to what He had already said in the Old Testament era.

7. PARTIAL - Is part of that word inspired, but not all of that word?

It is entirely possible, and in fact, rather common, for someone to begin “in the spirit” and wind up speaking out of their own understanding. This is particularly true if the person giving the word tries to interpret or apply that word…! One of the easiest mistakes to make is to speak forth what God says by the Spirit, and then try to explain what he meant through our own thought processes and deductions. A dear senior spiritual statesman friend of mine once told me, “Every time in my life I have heard the voice of God telling me to do something, the next voice I heard was the voice of the devil telling me how and when to do it!”

Further Observations

· Because I am aware of the very real presence of the human element in all prophecy, I think it is best to try to focus on the “bottom line” of a word instead of every detail or phrase in that word. I normally do not write words down or try to record them with a tape recorder, etc., but simply trust God that anything that is spoken to me that truly is from God will carry a weighty enough anointing that it will easily lodge in my heart and spirit and I will not have any difficulty recalling it later.

· God wants the message to get through and will keep trying if we miss it in a service and unintentionally quench the spirit. This applies to both the speaker and the evaluator. This is a great comfort to me when leading church services. I would never knowingly quench the Spirit, but I am quite sure there are sometimes that I drop the ball and miss a moment the Holy Spirit was trying to set up.

· Not every genuine prophetic word is meant to be shared publicly. Be very slow to share personal words with anyone besides the person they are addressed to.

· We need to create opportunities for people to exercise their gifts in an atmosphere where they can fail and not be severely criticized, but, rather, learn from their failures and move on into mature spiritual gift ministry. This “practice” venue should not be the main worship service!

· Spiritual maturity in a local church includes coming to the place where someone can sincerely miss it in a public worship service, and the body will know it and be able to move one with what God is doing without any serious disruption or trauma.

[Prophecy]