A Version Analogy

An interesting thought came to me today. Let's see if I can make sense of it here:

Today's traditional versus contemporary music "battle" is like the King James versus the New International Version of the Bible "battle."

How so? you may ask?

The KJV was written to put the Bible in the common person's hands; it was written in their language so they could read it and understand it. It had been too long kept out of their hands, because they were not taught Latin (or Greek or Hebrew). Only the highly educated could read it and therefore (attempt to) understand it. Although even the service was often in Latin, so the common person got little out of it anyway.

Years pass. Many years pass. Whole tons of years pass and the KJV is still the main English Bible translation even though the King James language has changed dramatically. So much so, that in some passages it is almost as unrecognizable as Latin (I said "almost!"). So a new version is written (NIV) with the same purpose of the KJV - to again put the Bible into the hands of the common people.

But there are those who prefer the "old" version because that's all they know. There are even those who actually believe (I've heard it said!), "If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!" Whoa!

Now if you like the KJV, go at it (frankly, I don't understand it any better than I would Latin)! But don't hold to the KJV like it's the ONLY one that's "right." Allow those who don't speak King James to have the Bible in their own common language- so they can understand it (the whole purpose of reading the Bible, don't you think?)

And I'm not even going to go to that place where some people break into their King James dialect to pray. What's that all about anyway?

So now we come to music. Over time, music changes probably MORE than language. I know that because I like all kinds of music (opera and country excluded! {heh}) and have been observing it for my whole life. What I've learned is that the music I like is not always the music a younger generation likes. This holds true for generation after generation. We're not the first to deal with this truth.

So we need to take the truths of the Gospel and put them into a contemporary music styling IF we expect to get the attention of each successive generation AND hope they will hear it long enough to understand it.

Don't get me wrong. I love my songbook. However, I also know I want to win the next generation, so I need to, at the very least, place the words into new music styles. Although, I must say, "Thee's" and "Thou's" can be easily changed to "You." Sure, you might lose a rhyme here and there, but is that really necessary to get a spiritual point across? Must we use the KJV version of our Songbook or can we also include a newer NIV version?

Does my analogy work? Am I making sense here? What do you think about it?

Some Good Blogging Advise

I got some GREAT blogging advise as a comment to one of my blogs. Since some might not dig down into those comments, I would like to bring them out into the open here.

Thanx, Evangeline, for your wisdom. I know I will be thinking about this list when I blog and comment!

Evangeline said... I have discovered that I must:

- Stop and read my posts, and consider whether they're ambiguously worded. Sometimes I know exactly what I mean, but that's no guarantee that another person will.

- Learn humility.

- Consider that I might have misunderstood another person's post (see first point), due to misreading, ambiguous wording, preconceptions, etc... and if I might have, ask them before I blast them.

- Learn more humility (really doesn't come easily to me).

- Show love when responding to people, whether they have disagreed, attacked, or offended. Sometimes that means shutting up and never saying another darn thing on the topic.

- Rely on God's opinion of me, not other people's... so that negative comments don't rip my self-esteem to shreds.

- Humbly (there's that humility thing again! argh!) consider others' criticisms of me... just in case they've actually got a point, and I need to apologize. Or maybe just grow spiritually in that area.

- Apologize for wrongs I've done, even if they were unintentional, even if someone else started it, even if I was 'in the right', even if someone else hurt me more. I still need to apologize for my part. This might take the form of apologizing for continuing an argument when I should have realized that someone was upset and needing comfort, not logic.

- - -
PS: If I might add another item to the list:

- Learn humility (again)! ;)

Less Content; More Filling?

My blogs seem to be going by very fast and by the time many get to commenting, they're already many days past. I've been thinking about intentionally writing less often so that I give more opportunity for people to comment more.

My goal has been to blog daily, but maybe that doesn't really matter as much. Who knows- maybe I could offer more depth if I change my timing as well.

What do you think?

Always Enough

I just finished reading Rolland and Heidi Baker's book Always Enough. Click on the title or the picture to go to Amazon.com where you can purchase the book. Or go directly to Iris Ministries website (NOT at irisministries.org) at www.irismin.com.

I highly recommend this incredible book! Written in a very readable style, Rolland and Heidi switch writing duties back and forth as they share their story of powerful and amazing ministry in Mozambique. God was always there providing for their support and mission.

I heard Heidi speak at a conference once. She was amazing! I have rarely seen anyone so attuned to God's presence and obviously under Holy Spirit's power. I have a DVD of her message and have watched it over again a couple of times. I could make it available to some of you, if you are interested.

Watch out while reading the book, though, you may be inspired to send Iris Ministries some financial support as we have! Or maybe even adopt a child (one of Heidi's pleas). If adoption is out of the question, you can easily sponsor a child through a variety of international programs. The Salvation Army offers a wonderful child sponsorship program that costs a mere $20 a month!

If interested, contact:
The Salvation Army
Overseas Child Sponsorship Bureau
PO Box C-635
West Nyack, NY 10994-0635

Seeing Red

I used to be a supporter of James Dobson and his ministry. That changed after he blasted The Army a couple of years ago when we had decided to allow employees to choose their benefitiaries in California. He totally used this opportunity to push his agenda forward at the expense of The Salvation Army and the pressure became so heavy, we actually reversed our decision.

This issue was not about supporting the lifestyle of gays. It was completely about allowing employees to choose their benefitiary. The whole thing was blown out of proportion and was encased in misunderstanding. For a person of Dobson's stature and influence to use another organization (church) for his own ends was and is unconscionable.

But now look what's in the news:

A new idea "The debate over gays and marriage in Colorado has recently taken a different turn from the national debate," Ramesh Ponnuru writes in National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com). "Until a few weeks ago, the debate looked familiar. Gay-rights advocates were trying to get the legislature to enact a bill recognizing civil unions (or 'domestic partnerships') for same-sex couples. Social conservatives were trying to get voters to adopt a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Now conservative state senator Shawn Mitchell has changed the script by introducing legislation that grants some benefits to same-sex couples — with the support of James Dobson and Focus on the Family," Mr. Ponnuru said. "His legislation results from an asymmetry in the debate. One of the reasons many people support civil unions or same-sex marriage is to get certain practical advantages for gay couples. The main reason other people oppose these policies is that they do not want the government to recognize homosexual relationships as marital, or even as akin to marriage. "Mitchell's idea is to make certain benefits available to gay couples — and to many other pairs of people. His legislation would make it easier, for example, for gay men to arrange to give each other a say in their medical care by becoming 'reciprocal beneficiaries.' But two brothers, or a brother and sister, or two male friends, could enter the same arrangement. Thus there would be no recognition of homosexual relationships as such. (Hence Dobson's support.) - The Washington Times 2/17/06

So now, when he is probably in a similar situation The Army was back then, he does the same thing we did. How sad. Who is going to call him to account?

I hope someone (who can do something about it) catches this and remembers. With all the publicity Dobson got out of that, he should recant and issue an apology . . . OR reverse his decision as he pushed us to do.

Definition of the Day

Blo-gan-za (blau-gan'-za) n. 1. A long and elaborate, spectacular entertainment or display of fancy blogging and comments. 2. Muchos Commentos (Comment all you want. We'll blog more). 3. Comments that stir up a feeding frenzy for blog sharks (who can smell a discussion out of only 1 part in a million blogs). {heh, heh}

A GOOD Bloganza

Whew! I just finished another bloganza, but this one made me feel much better than the last one!

Check out Questions for the Journey (newly added to my list on the right).

A word of caution: if you go there, you will get engaged and hooked. And you better be prepared to spend a LOT of time reading (and finding other blogs well worth reading. And so on and so on . . .)! The main entries are weekly, but the comments (good ones) go on forever!

Larry, looks like you've hit a very hard to define target and hit it dead center. I'm proud to know you and hope to "reacquaint" one of these days. It's been too many years and it appears to me we're STILL two of a kind.

Remember those old "Six Pack" days?

Shame on those of you who went the wrong direction with that reference! We were all from Staff Cabin Six (Cabin Six. Six Pack- get it?) at Camp SWONEKY about 100 years ago!

It's All About Relationship

God showed up powerfully again in our service this morning. During the singing of "Spirit of the Living God, Fall Fresh on me" we began to experience the "heaviness" of the very Spirit we were singing to! God was answering our musical prayer.

When finished singing that chorus, we were "supposed" to move on to lively worship music, but we just skipped right through that to a more worshipful song. It was the right thing to do and God kept moving all around the room.

Aurora was so moved, she could no longer sing, so Debbie stepped up to help lead the prayer time (again, out of program order) and let Holy Spirit continue his work. I could see people around the room being affected in their own ways. Some knelt, some lifted hands, some became very still, but almost all seemed to sense that God was manifesting himself (sadly, there were a few who missed it). I felt at least 3 distinct waves of Holy Spirit's presence wash over me throughout this time.

Dan, weeping mildly came and placed his hand on me and prayed for my upcoming message (and against a cold that had affected my voice). After that, I was led to move around the room and lay hands on and pray specifically for 3 of our youth.

We sang a little more, kept praying and eventually we all began to sense a lifting of the "weight" and an okay to move on with the meeting.

Next, the scripture reading seemed to be extremely powerful. So much so, I read it in 2 different versions. I trust God was "moving it from our heads to our hearts" and sensed I had never quite read it or heard it that way before.

I spoke about Relationship. This was an introductory message of a four-parter, intending to get our hearts off ourselves and onto our Relationship with God, Others and the Lost. We watched a very funny video "commercial" with a guy singing and hawking a (fictitious) 2 CD set of praise music about "ME!" We heard clips from songs like: "It's all about Me," "How I lift my name on high," "I exalt me," "How great I am" and others. It really made the point in a fun way.

When I was finished, I asked people to take a slip of paper home with them which read:

What's it All About?
It's all about Relationship.
1) Our Relationship with God.
2) Our Relationship with Others.
3) Our Relationship with the Lost.

Our homework is to review it regularly over the next few weeks and ask God to speak to us about Relationship, pray for insight and revelation, and for the upcoming services.

In the end, I believe God had his way with us today. It was awesome!

How did Uzzah Die?

So after writing about who killed Saul a couple of days ago, guess what I read his morning? The story of Uzzah:

. . . Uzzah put out his hand to steady the Ark. Then Yahweh's anger blazed out against Uzzah and he struck him dead because he had laid his hand on the Ark. So Uzzah died there in the presence of God. - 1 Chronicles 13:9-10

I don't know. Maybe I'm back at square one here! Or maybe the Ark fell on Uzzah and everyone assumed it was God?

I mean how did Uzzah die that they knew it was God acting against him? They apparently forgot about the rules of moving the ark and (at least Uzzah forgot) about not touching it. So when he died, was that the shock to their systems to remember God's rules?

Or at that particular moment did God sit up, take notice and send a bolt of lightning directly to Uzzah's head?

Shocking!

This Blogging Stuff is Dangerous!

I just got finished reading an infamous "bloganza" with well over 30 comments! Whew! Most people want comments on their blogs. Most of us think when you get a lot of responses, that's a good thing.

After reading the above mentioned (which I'm not going to link to here), I find myself rather riled up. And certainly not in a good way. I'm agitated; angry and more than a little confused. How can a forum for discussion turn into such mean-spirited repartee? Especially when there are mostly Christians involved?

I once found myself in such a "blow up" with one of my comments on another blog. Someone misunderstood what I said (or seriously disagreed) and it spiraled into a shooting match. I am sure, to this day, if that person ever met me personally they'd never take the chance to really get to know me because of this silly misunderstanding. Too bad. I now fear making some comments because of this.

When I read such things, I usually find it all stems from 1) people misunderstanding the words written or 2) people wanting to convince other people of their "right" way of seeing things. Maybe there are other reasons too, but my friends, in our discussions "can't we all just get along?"

I like discussion. I like to get involved. But as long as things can get so dicey in here, I'm betting there are plenty of others like me who won't get involved in a good discussion for fear of being misunderstood. Or for fear of getting someone's anger shot straight at them. That takes all the fun out of it.

Watch out! This blogging stuff is dangerous!

- - - - -
I SO wanted to title this "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" but my guess is too many would miss the reference. {sigh}

To Soldier or Not to Soldier. That is the Question.

I was impressed with a friend's blog a long time ago about their Corps' standards for making soldiers. In fact, I printed it and posted it where I could see it at my office desk. High standards. Standards I agreed with.

Many years ago, I was a Water Safety Instructor (WSI) with the Red Cross. That meant I could teach people and certify them to be Lifeguards. I was always concerned with making sure they were qualified, because I was told that if someone I certified ever had a drowning at their site, as their instructor, I could be called to court with them. I held a very high standard because of that! I didn't just make anyone a lifeguard. They had to really be qualified. In fact, I once failed a friend who didn't give it his all.

Since then I have always held an equally high standard for making people soldiers. I tell those in my soldier prep classes the above story and let them know I'm not interested in making pew-warmers. I want active, fighting soldiers involved in ministry.

That's been a fine tack for years, but now I find myself concerned with a certain facet of this standard. What do we do with people who are mentally or physically challenged? At first glance, they obviously can't carry the standard at the level I have expected. Are they therefore disqualified for soldiership in this Army?

I don't like that thought at all.

Sure there is the analogy of a military army- they certainly can't bring in people not qualified to be full soldiers. I see that and agree with that. There are just some things some people can't do. Period.

But as I've said before, we are not a "real" army. We use the term as a figure of speech (like scripture does). In fact, we are a Body. Well . . . that one breaks down too; the only analogy that works completely is: We are the Church. There is nothing out there like the Church, but the Church. We are unique.

And the Church is made up of all kinds of people. I don't care what you think about membership in this Army, I believe everyone who believes in Jesus Christ can belong to this fighting force. Everyone has some way they can be important to the mission of winning the world. Even if it's just being faithful to the church by attending regularly. We may never know how powerful faithfulness is, in the grand scheme of things!

Don't get me wrong- I'm not advocating pew-warmers. If people can do more, they most certainly should. I do not well tolerate lazy Christians (isn't this an oxymoron? Can there really be such a thing?)! We were not Saved to Sit. We were Saved to Save (and Serve, but not just Serve).

So back to my original line here: What do we do with people who are saved (love Jesus), but don't have the physical or mental wherewithal to be "fully" active soldiers as we usually know them? Do we make them adherents (a sad excuse for a response)? Do we just let them "belong" to our Church as members? Or do we make them soldiers and encourage them to do whatever they can and be faithful at it?

I'd really like to know your thoughts on this issue, please.

God Killed Saul?

Here's where I was wrestling with God this morning:

So Saul died because he was unfaithful to Yahweh. He failed to obey Yahweh's command, and he even consulted a medium instead of asking Yahweh for guidance. So Yahweh killed him and turned his kingdom over to David son of Jesse. - 1 Chronicles 10:13-14

What? God killed Saul? Just because he disobeyed (well, there was that medium thing too)? Then I know quite a few people who should be very nervous (including myself)! And what about evil people who seem to flourish? Many of them live long lives. Now I know this is scripture, so that's why I was wrestling with God about it all.

Here's what I think is going on: The Israelites misunderstood God. Sure they had the best take on him out of all the ancient world, but they still were like little children, learning about who this God really was. It took God quite a long time to get us to understand the truth about himself- uh, in fact, we're still working on it!

The Israelites thought God was like them. They thought he acted like them. They thought he felt like them. But the truth is God is so far above us, we have a lot of trouble making any kind of sense of him.

God began the process of teaching us about himself from the very beginning of time. Look at the story of Job. Job sat in the middle of some friends who totally "got God wrong." God said so. He was not like they assumed he would be, punishing Job because he had sinned. We got a sneak peek behind the scenes to see the real culprit.

Jesus taught the truth about his Father- God was not like an earthly man; he was not like the ancient world believed (or some of us to this day). When his disciples asked if they should call fire down from heaven (how we would have handled those bums!), Jesus showed them the truth. When his disciples tried to shoo away the little children because they thought they were bothering Jesus, he corrected them. "Things are not as you think they are," he told them.

They were taught these things through their culture. But culture is not the end-all; culture is not "right" or "wrong;" culture is just how different people learn to interact with the world around them. And the Israelites culture (though learning) taught some inaccurate things about God.

Would these things have shown up in scripture? Yes. What about each illustration I mentioned above? There are many more we could find if we took the time.

So if Jesus had to correct their view of God, can we assume there are other places in scripture where we find inaccurate depictions of God and/or what he was doing? I think so. And I think so, without watering down the importance and place of scripture. It's just how they understood God back then. Today it's just how we understand God as well.

I don't think "God" killed Saul. I think that's how the Israelites interpreted what happened to their leader. After all, it makes sense to us, right? But remember, God is not like us.

I think Saul walked out from under God's "umbrella" and while out from under God's "protection," he got hit by the enemy. God was certainly not pleased with Saul, but I don't think he reached down and smote Saul because he was angry with him. Again, we'd find a lot more smoking corpses lying around if that were the case!

This is an issue to this day as we wonder "why God allowed (caused?) 9/11 or New Orleans, etc." He did not cause these events as punishment on humankind. The enemy caused these events! Why would we pin culpability on God for what Satan does?

True, God is also a God of judgment, but we still have time to repent and change our ways before he chooses to judge humanity. That day will come, but it is not today.

I praise God he is not like me and he is well above my limited understanding! There are a lot of things I wrestle with in scripture, but I also praise God His Spirit is still available for interpretation and revelation.

More Thots on Hearing God

I've been thinking about a "Hearing God Scale." Here's what it might look like:

Level 0
God moves/speaks and you miss him completely. God's certainly not happy about anyone being on this level, but many Christians live in this place most of the time. I think we'd all agree this is not a good place to be on our scale!

Level 1
God moves/speaks and he really wants you to hear him, but you might not be listening or know how to discern his voice. So God breaks out his holy 2x4 and whacks you on the proverbial head. You hear God and don't miss him! God only uses this one when he has to. He'd rather not go this route, but will if necessary. If you ask me, I'd rather get the whack than miss God.

Level 2
God moves/speaks and you get it- most of the time. God really wants you to hear what he has to say, so he gives you a spiritual "nudge." You hear God, but he's still not satisfied about what he's got to do to get you to hear his voice.

Level 3
God moves/speaks and you observe his Spirit working, thereby discerning what is going on. You're getting much better at this listening stuff! But God still has another step for you.

Level 4
God wants to move/speak and as his heart turns toward moving/speaking, you (tuned in to his Spirit) sense his heart and just know what he wants to do. NOW you've reached the place where God wants you to live!

If Holy Spirit lives within us and we are attuned to his Voice/Heart, we know what he is feeling even AS he feels it. THAT'S what holiness is- being so attuned to Holy Spirit that you do not sin.

Hmm. I hadn't thought about holiness and listening to God as being necessarily related before. Now I am!

Whose Job is it?

Once upon a time there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Who is Joel Boyd?

Full Name: Joel David Boyd

Age: 20

Home: I was born in Southern California, but I call Seattle home.

TSA Background: I was born into Pasadena Tabernacle, my parents went into training when I was about six, they were appointed to two Corps in California, then we moved to Seattle. My parents stepped out of officership due my mother's health problems. We moved back down to southern California where we attended Tustin Ranch. Then I moved back to Seattle. From there I went to the War College.

I've worked at Camp Arnold, The Salvation Army in the western part of the Northwest division, for seven years. I've helped lead Adventure Corps and I also lead an after school program in Seattle. I'm also a bandsman and songster at Seattle Temple.

Favorite Food: I like steak!

Favorite Color: uhh... Green

Favorite Band/Group/Song: I don't know what my favorite band is, although I recently got this CD of this Hasidic Jew who does Raggae and it's pretty awesome. My favorite song is.... ummm... I don't know the name of it.... but I think it's track four on The Art of Breaking (Thousand Foot Krutch)

Favorite Movie:

Favorite Quote:

Any Instrument?: Trombone (ed: I KNEW there was a reason I like this guy!)

BRIEF testimony/thot: I said the sinner's prayer at 6, got saved at 13 by William Booth, decided to let God use me to save the world at 18. Next is entire sanctification!

A thot about coming to Bangor: I look forward to seeing what God is doing/wants me to do in Bangor! See you soon!

Who is Denise Knee?

One of our two War College Interns this year (May - July, 2006)

Full Name: Denise Joanne Knee

Age: 29 (by the time I get to Bangor!)

Home: Toronto, Ontario

TSA Background: Corps - Agincourt Community Church, involvement - youth leader, songster, evangelism committee (ed: Ooo, I LOVE this one!).

Favorite Food: Roast Beef dinner with all the trimmings.

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Band: downhere

Favorite Movie: Dead Poets Society

Favorite Quote: none

Any Instrument?: Alto Horn

BRIEF testimony/thot: God's grace has brought me to where I am today. There have been big things in my life that could have led me towards the path of destruction (alcoholic family members, all my young friends leaving the church), but God is faithful and showed his love to me through grace. I see that now. I am definitely saved through grace.

Thoughts about coming to Bangor: I love the East coast am thankful to God for blessing me with the opportunity to come to Bangor, meet the people and partner along side all of you in ministry. Praise the Lord! I am looking forward to the summer!

It's Official!

For those of you who want to get a heads up on these things, the 2 students coming from The War College to Bangor for their internship are Joel Boyd and Denise Knee. I just got "the" email from Steve!

As a part of The War college curriculum, students are sent out (in pairs as often as possible) to ply their newfound knowledge of Christian Community and mission in another setting. The term is from May - July(ish) and they are required to return for a debriefing and graduation in August.

The Bangor corps is one of the most prominent sponsors of The War College, so naturally we are very interested in bringing on students. In years past, we have benefited from the personal ministry and friendship of Jonathan Howell, Tara Ayer, Aurora Atell and Travis Roberts (quite an elite bunch, there!). Aurora and Travis are currently in Bangor- Travis inbetween mission appointments (soon to be heading to Charlotte, NC) and Aurora has recently become our Corps' Youth Pastor. She is also involved in starting up Bangor MMCCXX (cell ministry) and has just started her second cell since coming! {well deserved thunderous applause!}

Our assignment is to begin praying for Joel & Denise. Please join us. I'll be posting more information on Joel and Denise in the next couple of days, so watch this space!

The Reason

Okay, short blog today after you all faithfully read through my last two books (did you all REALLY read them?) . . .

I've been thinking about the reason for those 2 long blogs. Here's what I've come up with: A few months ago I got hit with a seriously huge issue that I just couldn't blog about in a public forum like this. I tried once or twice, but realized too many people read this and too many would know what was going on (and who was involved). Some things you just can't air out in public.

I'm the kind of person who really thinks best when talking (or blogging for that matter) and I could not think through this issue by blogging about it. Therefore, I "shut down" and just couldn't seem to get up enough steam to blog about things that were on the back burner. I was totally wrapped up in solving the huge problem at hand (I refuse to use the excuse of "writer's block").

Suffice it to say, I have come to a fine conclusion to this situation and have moved on. Now I can finally put those creative juices into some stuff that's been wanting to get out for some time. And out they did come!

It also helps when God downloads a whole ton of stuff into your head during morning prayer! My response to that is to put it down on paper . . . or in this case, the blogosphere ASAP.

Who Leads the Church?

Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret? - 1 Corinthians 12:27-30 (NIV)

I am a bit concerned with the way The Salvation Army has begun to adopt the business management model to our leadership paradigm. Many books promoting this model have been passed around and even sent out to our officers en masse. It seems we are being encouraged to operate our Army as a business.

Now I don't want to discourage our use of successful business practices at all, but when you boil it down to the basics, the Church is not a business. The Church is a living organism that is designed to function as a body. In other words, each part has a role to play in the successful operation of our mission- to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). The Salvation Army's mission carries this commission to its obvious conclusion- to make disciples while winning the world for Jesus!

But can we do that successfully if we use a business model instead of a Biblical model of leadership?

Often God's decisions fly directly in the face of good business practices. Imagine if Joshua had hired an administrator when preparing his attack on Jericho. I mean, come on! "Walk around the city 7 times for 7 days then shout at the wall." Does this seem like a good business practice to you? It's certainly not a good military strategy. Who in their right mind would have thought to do that? An administrator? Oh, right- God spoke His plan to His prophet/leader, who got the vision of it and led his people into a great victory. Would this event have ever happened if God had charged the leadership of His people to an administrator?

The passage at the top of this entry gives us some place to start in our quest for a biblical leadership model. It appears that those placed in leadership of the Church should be Apostles and Prophets (numbers 1 and 2 on the list). These are the ones God anoints with "what it takes" to lead the Church- vision and spiritual inspiration. Isn't it interesting that we (TSA is not alone here) typically place in leadership those who are gifted in administration, seventh on the list?

Who leads "the Church" (God's people) in the Old Testament? The Prophets. Who leads the Church in the New Testament? The Apostles.

The Twelve (apostles) gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables (administrate). 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word." - Acts 6:2-4 (NIV)

This passage tells us the early Church used administrators in their proper gifting to do the work of administration. In no place do we see these administrators being appointed to lead apostles and prophets while plying their giftedness in the body. The apostles and prophets are set free from this very task of administration so that they may have more time to pray, study, teach, train the body and make more disciples (and win the world).

Now please don't take this as a negative diatribe against our Army or its leadership. That is not my intent nor my heart. My desire is that we look at what we have become and change it(us) as necessary in order to actually accomplish our mission more successfully.

I also realize there are sometimes administrators who have gift mixes that include the apostolic and/or the prophetic. Often we are blessed with their unique style of leadership they can provide. But on the whole, it appears our aim is to put administrators in, what we have considered to be, pastoral leadership positions (those gifted in this way could feasibly play either role and/or both. However this is not as common a gift-mix as we seem to assume). I have long argued that our Divisional Commanders cannot perform pastoral duties because of their business responsibilities and usual lack of pastoral gifting. We need to realize that the gift of pastor is another whole gifting we haven't even mentioned yet in this writing. Notice pastor is not even among those in our passage above as a leader of the Church? Hmmm.

I'm sure there are a variety of ways we could approach this issue, but here is one suggestion that seems interesting to me (let's approach this from a Divisional Headquarters point of view for now):

1) Actually discover the spiritual giftedness of our people (officers and soldiers alike) so we can make good decisions about what part they will play and where they will fit into our body.

2) Set up two "leadership tracks-" a) one for apostles and prophets who would be the Divisional Commanders and Youth Secretaries, b) one for administrators who would help the DC and DYS do the administration (personnel, property, finance) and free them to work their vision (that God has given them). Each person considered for either track should actually be gifted in these respective areas. Personal charisma should have little or no place in formulating the outcome of this equation.

3) Not just officers should be appointed as administrators. If our officers are raised up to be spiritual leaders, then train those leaders to give visionary leadership rather than do administrative tasks. Give qualified soldiers some of these positions (this should also show up in who is actually accepted into officership. Some of our current officers are better gifted (only gifted?) in administration than in spiritual leadership.


What would this look like when practiced? I think we'd see a lot more risk taking in our decision-making process. Assuming the leaders are carefully listening to God for their vision and tactics (as spiritual leaders are more likely to do over administrators), we would see more dramatic successes in a wide variety of areas of ministry.

Certainly after yesterday's blog, I would be remiss to point out that these leaders should also listen to their administrators for wisdom because God has given us reason as one fourth of our basis of sound judgment. But we are currently doing that almost to the exclusion of sound vision. Hence this writing in the first place.

Knowing God's Voice

Because of certain recent events, I find myself again wondering why so many people miss the moving of the Holy Spirit. It absolutely staggers me when this happens- more so, because we say we are a holiness movement. You would think people who especially concern themselves with the Holy Spirit would be more attuned to what he is doing at any given moment. Unfortunately this is not the case and I find myself agonizing over these times when God moves in our midst, but we are woefully ignorant of his presence and miss out entirely on what He has for us.

I’ve been seeking God on this issue a lot lately and that means He will eventually lead me to a better understanding of it all. I believe this, because I believe the scripture that tells us ask (and keep asking) and it will be given; seek (and keep seeking) and you will find; knock (and keep knocking) and the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7). Here’s what I have so far:

Knowing when the Holy Spirit is moving is basically an issue of hearing/discerning God’s voice. If He moves and you know it, you are discerning God’s voice. If He moves and you miss it, you are not discerning God’s voice (for now, let’s sidestep the possibility that you hear His voice and choose to ignore it- that’s another whole can of worms!).

This is such an important issue for me, because to “know God’s voice” is one of my life goals. Whatever happens in my life, I don’t ever want to miss God! When He moves, I want to be right there with Him! Therefore when we miss God and I have no control over it (I’m not leading the service or I don’t have the authority to interrupt), I am crushed. I believe never wanting to miss God should also be a legitimate desire for every Christian. After all, if God is trying to tell us something or do something specific in our midst and we miss it, should that not break our hearts?

When God is near He often manifests Himself for our benefit (“manifest” means a clear, obvious appearance, perhaps even in a physical way). This “larger than life” sense in us that informs us God is near can be quite powerful. I have rarely seen people ignorant of God in His most powerful manifestations. Haven’t we all been in (what we call) “special” meetings when and all of a sudden- perhaps after a powerful testimony, song, dance, message, etc, everyone seems to be struck with God’s presence? Perhaps the altar is lined with people seeking, perhaps many are crying, perhaps there is a huge silence that no one dares to break. These are what I call “God’s two by four moments!” In other words, He breaks out His Holy two by four plank and wallops us upside the head! We can’t miss Him then! We often speak of this sensation as a “heaviness in the air” or “in our hearts.”

A few years ago, I was teaching a Bible study on God’s presence. I was trying to get this very point across when all of a sudden- wham! God was there! I stopped and tried to breathe, but I was worried that any small movement might spoil the sensation (yes- sensation. Despite what some think, our emotions and senses really do play a vital role in our experiencing God*). I looked around the circle and everyone’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates! Then I realized this was the best possible illustration I could have asked for, so we talked about what God was doing and had everyone take note of what this specifically felt like and what was happening. Our time was running late, but no one wanted to break the peace and well-being with which God was covering us in those few precious moments. Then slowly, He began to withdraw the manifestation. Soon we were all “back to normal,” but God had taught us something very important that we would not soon forget. In fact, we sought this experience as often as God would allow it, because actively seeking God and the knowledge of His presence is vital to our relationship with Him. If God is moving and/or speaking we can be sure it is with a purpose! That’s why we listen- to know what to do and follow His lead.

But what if God sometimes chooses to move with less obvious power? Doesn’t it make sense that there would be times when God is moving, but not everyone present “gets” it? Or to put it another way, when only some people sense His moving, while others are oblivious? I believe these are times when only those who are actively seeking His presence actually discern His moving. Maybe someone is preoccupied with keeping the meeting flowing smoothly or their upcoming participation. I have sometimes found myself almost missing God just because I was more intent on my part than on what He was wanting to do. This is how many people miss God- they are simply not paying attention to Him at that moment; other things are preeminent in their minds and hearts. We would expect this to be the case with people who have not yet become Christian, but it should never be the case with those who have given their lives to Jesus.

There are those who believe we must focus on Jesus all the time and not give the Holy Spirit the attention. Is it important to discern between God’s voice, Jesus’ voice and the Holy Spirit’s voice? I’m not sure you can do that! Aren’t they all one-in-the-same? Remember, they are The Trinity. If you focus on one, you are focusing on them all. The Holy Spirit is a part of the Trinity and as such deserves our worship just like God and Jesus. Certainly the Holy Spirit points us toward Jesus, but that does not exclude His participation in the personhood of God.

Back to my original premise: Knowing when the Holy Spirit is moving is basically an issue of hearing/discerning God’s voice. Everything I am talking about here hinges on believing God speaks today. If you are a Cessationist and believe God stopped speaking directly to His people after the original 12 apostles died and only speaks today through the Bible, you are going to have to come up with some scripture to back up this erroneous belief. “Good luck” (it’s not in there, by the way)!

Here are my suggestions to help us not miss God when he moves in our meetings today:

1) Believe God speaks today through any means he chooses, including His Word, other people (especially kids), writings (blogs), sermons, testimonies, dreams, visions, music, nature, prophets, tongues, words of knowledge, coincidence (God-incidence!) and direct messages to our hearts. Sometimes He even speaks in an audible voice! {gasp!}

2) Learn to discern God’s voice. As His sheep, we can learn to know His voice (John 10:4). This is Jesus’ promise to us. It comes with time in His presence, practice listening and seeking the confirmation of others about what you are hearing (if you’re the only one hearing the truth in something, you can be sure it’s not God speaking).

3) Expect God to manifest Himself in your midst. Watch for Him; He will show up!

4) Obey. When you finally do start rightly discerning God’s presence (voice) and what He wants you to do at that particular moment . . . do it! Disobedience is the fastest way to anyplace Jesus isn’t.


I will continue to wrestle with the issue of missing God as long as I witness it happening. I pray each of you reading this will learn to discern God’s voice and obey Him. Never let His voice fall on deaf ears.

May all who have ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.


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* Footnote: We in The Salvation Army have roots in the teachings of John Wesley, who taught what some have termed “The Wesleyan Quadrilateral.” His teachings are based around his belief that there are four sides to our understanding the things of God- The Bible, Reason, Experience and the Tradition of the Church.

Unfortunately, some have chosen to ignore three of the four sides and often insert the Tradition of The Salvation Army (or their own denomination), which makes for a very two-dimensional theology.

Certainly, the Bible is the most prominent of these sides, but it does not stand alone nor should it. We can no more ignore our feelings (experience) than we can ignore scriptures we don’t like. If we forget the Tradition of the Church and insert our own denominational traditions as a basis to understand spiritual matters, we will always fall short of the truth God intended for His people. It takes all four sides to get a proper balanced view of God and His Kingdom. We cannot ignore any side and still expect to come to God’s truth.

Prophetic Acts & Wrap up

Thursday (26th) saw my last day of classes, which means Friday I had prayer sessions all day. This proved a nice way to finish out my stay, since I was feeling quite tired at the end of Thursday! My last few sessions were nice and quiet, ranging from Jonathan Evans practically doing his own session(!) to some fun ones with galleon ships, a hike through the woods to stomping on a little demon running around the floor of the room- not in reality, but as a prophetic act.

Prophetic acts are important.

A prophetic act is doing something in the physical world that represents something in the spiritual realm. An particular example of this is found in 2 Kings 13, where Elisha tells king Jehoash to shoot an arrow out the window then strike the ground with other arrows. Jehoash apparently thinks this is silly, so he half-heartedly strikes the ground 3 times. But Elisha gets angry at him and tells him his victory will not be complete because of his unwillingness to believe and perform this prophetic act with relish.

A modern day example would include our writing warfare scriptures on tent stakes and driving them into the ground in the corners of the property of our Family Store here in Bangor. We used a special mallet with scripture written on it and prayed at each stop singing praises to God. Shortly after that event, we began to turn a profit at our store for the first time in over 5 years! Since then we have become almost wildly successful at raising funding for our local ministry.

A coincidence? You can believe than if you wish. I choose to believe we did what God asked us to do. We acted out a prophecy and God showed us a physical answer to a physical deed, because it all represented a spiritual truth we were standing on- we broke old curses against us and spoke out loud that we were going to be victorious.

Very early Saturday, I headed to the airport with Darren and Jonathan. My 2006 trip to The War College in Vancouver was finished. But not my association with many of these fine students and staff. I trust they will keep in touch and we will have continued contact over the years. I would really like that! The proof is in the contact I have maintained with many of previous years' students.

God bless these faithful students! God bless The War College! God bless The Salvation Army!

Who Fears Fear?

Tuesday and Wednesday (January 24 and 25) held 3 more great class sessions and 9 more excellent personal prayer sessions. Oh yes, I did eat and sleep somewhere inbetween these things!

On Tuesday, I discovered another student gifted to help in deliverance, so on Wednesday, when they were taking the role of pray-er (a support for the person being prayer for) and one session went a little over time, I felt led to leave them to finish the spiritual "cleanup" and head on to the next person- Rebekah Barnum (from last year's Martyrs session). I learned last year that Rebekah is very good at listening prayer, but I must admit, I was surprised to see her session finish in 20 minutes! The shortest session I have ever led- a record time! Basically, she went in, found Jesus, heard what he had to say to her, took it in, and finished up playing with Jesus in a pond. She was blessed, I was blessed and we were done. As simple as that. Wow! You go, girl!

During these days, I also hit my most dramatic deliverance session. Basically, fear had caused enough problems in someone's life, so we kicked him out. But he didn't go without a real physical fight! It was a bit rough, but we knew our authority, so Fear had to go. No question about it. I won't mention any names here, but some of us noticed the mottling on this person's face the next couple of days as they recovered from this bout! My understanding from their testimony is that this person is experiencing a very changed life without fear.

I know exactly what they are going through, because Fear was the first demon kicked out of me, many years ago in my first ever experience in deliverance ministry. It was awesome and I thank God for the freedom I now experience in this area of my life.

Amen to That!

My first day of classes and prayer ministry started on Monday the 23rd. I didn't have a chance to get to know any of the students this year prior to class. In past years, I had attended a conference with the whole class, which gave me some time away from the classroom (and the teacher/student thing) to learn names and get a bit familiar with everyone. At the beginning I'm always a bit uncertain as to how I am going to be received and my teaching accepted, but experience tells me I have truth on my side. I guess I would rather teach truth and not be accepted than half-truth and be accepted.

I got to the CrossWalk early enough to watch their Praying the Bible session. I planned on observing them as they prayed and walked around the room. This way I could gain some insight through my gift of discernment (if God chose to give me anything). Observation is always important for me- I do a lot of it.

After I was introduced by Steve, Jonathan Evans began to pray for the class. As everyone typically bowed their heads, God nudged me to look around and see who was praying with their eyes open. There were 2 and I made an instant spiritual connection with the first one. God told me she either had gifts in Intercession or Deliverance. I was able to confirm that during the rest of the week through discussion, prayer and more personal observation.

Right off the bat, I saw that this class was going to be special. They were highly interested and inquisitive. I fielded lots of questions and there was plenty of great discussion (well beyond class time). I don't have all the answers, but between us, we were able to sort through some issues. I so love to teach in this kind of situation!

All five prayer ministry sessions went very well. Notable for me was someone who had at least 2 false Jesus images. False Jesus' come up when we have developed some wrong idea of who Jesus is- such as the idea that Jesus is some kind of galactic traffic cop, just waiting to give us a ticket when we go one mile over the limit. That's NOT the Jesus I serve, but many people think he's that way. In other words, their image of Jesus is false and when they meet this Jesus in listening prayer, he is easy to root out and chase away. The real Jesus comes in and shows them that he is not like that at all, rather loving and caring. It usually changes people's lives to see this new realization!

Most notable for me was a session where I was praying with a student from a third world country. I must admit, I went into this session with some prejudice I was shocked to be confronted with. My wrong assumption was that people from third world countries would have much more demonic stuff to deal with (in actuality, they understand it better and have often already dealt with much of the demonic junk in their lives- as opposed to the Western world, who doesn't believe in the spirit world of demons, etc).

In this particular prayer session, their whole image was God showing them the huge fields ripe for harvest and Jesus calling them to tend to that harvest! Very little, if any, was about that person or their own needs. It was all about their ministry to others. Down went my prejudice and up went praises to Jesus! I have never before experienced a session like this one! It was incredible and I was privileged to be a witness to it!

My prayer is that we all would have such a personal vision and we would devote our very lives to making it come to fruition. Amen (so be it).

SonDay in Vancouver

SonDay (Jan 22) in Vancouver found me traveling to the Caribou Hill corps for their second service of the day. At both services this day, The War College and students were featured as a missions focus for the corps. At my service, they showed The War College's new video "I am The War College" in which many different people involved in various TWC ministries were spotlighted on the streets of Vancouver. This was set to the music of Rent and the ending tag is: "Measure the year in love." Two students then gave their testimonies and the corps people were encouraged to get to know them all personally by inviting individuals to their homes for SonDay dinner. I believe ALL students found a home and, my guess is, they ate well!

Later that evening, I got to participate in a join ministry effort by the Caribou Hill corps' evening congregation (led by Michael Collins) and TWC students- feeding people from a canteen that visits the Down Town East Side twice a week. I've helped here before, but this time I was privileged to take the role Michael usually takes and serve the soup!

While some serve soup & bread, sandwiches (with the peanut better and jelly right to the edge of the bread!), hot drinks and sweets, etc, others move around the crowd and interact with the people. Michael, in particular, is a master at interaction! He has so much fun talking with people about Jesus! He always makes this time serious and fun at the same time.

It was raining lightly (which it almost always does in Vancouver!), so by the time we were finished, I was fairly soaked through. My left arm was almost asleep because of the position I had to stand in to take the soup from the canteen and deliver it to the people in the never-ending line. When there is no more soup and/or food, most people sadly disburse, but some remain for continued discussion about spiritual things, pray and joke with Michael.

The best thing about this ministry that I can see is that the people serving aren't just there to "deliver food." Rather, their mission is to get to know these people from the DTES and deliver hope through Jesus Christ. Friendships are developed and in some cases, lives are changed by someone caring for them- perhaps for the first time in their lives. That's what ministry should be all about. One of these servers has actually adopted the child of one the street people.

Afterwards, I walked back to Steve & Danielle's place for the evening a bit cold and soggy, but warm and satisfied in spirit.

Anyone Listening?

Okay, back to my Vancouver update . . .

January 19-21, I attended a conference sponsored by the "Listening Prayer Community." I thought Brad Jersak was going to teach. He did not, so my first thought was: "Rats! This isn't going to be as good as I had hoped." But then my second thought was: "I like Brad Jersak, but why does my experience have to be predicated on hearing Brad Jersak in person? God's going to be there- that's all that really matters." My second thought was right- to a degree.

Overall, the teachers were a bit dry. This was tough to sit through because I had a bad case of jet lag and was struggling to stay awake anyway! However, the materials were very good and God was there, as I previously believed would be the case. I learned more things that are going to prove helpful in my overall prayer ministry and I relish any opportunity to advance in that area of my giftedness.

However, the best part of the conference was having to deal with my issues with anger. For more details of that, look back to my January 22 blog entry. Since that time, I have definitely noticed a difference in my dealing with certain situations and people. Anger is only an slight echo bouncing somewhere around in the back of my mind. That will eventually cease to almost nonexistence, if my experience with other similar issues holds true. Right now, I need to continue to hold onto the truths I learned during these particular prayer sessions.

All in all, this event was highly benefitial for me and I am eternally grateful to God for letting me in on the opportunity to attend. It was well worth the personal expenses I had to lay out for this conference. I highly recommend their teaching- and obviously, Brad's book (to the right)!

Why not look the Listening Prayer Community (click here) up on the web?

How Rich are You?

Here's a VERY interesting website:

www.globalrichlist.com

Type in your annual income, choose the currency type and find out how rich you are compared to the entire world population. Trust me, you're going to be surprised!