John Wesley Preaches from his Father's Grave

On Sunday June 6th 1742 John Wesley, the English Evangelist re-visited his home town, Epworth in Lincolnshire.

This was the town of his birth and his father had been the Pastor of the St. Andrew’s Anglican Church there. The Wesley children had been raised there.

Prior to the Sunday service beginning Wesley offered to assist the Curate with the service, either by preaching or ‘reading prayers’ (from the Book of Common Prayer, then used by Anglicans).

The curate wasn’t keen, and we pick up the story from Wesley’s Journal:

‘He did not care to accept my assistance. The church was exceeding full in the afternoon, a rumour being spread that I was to preach.

‘But the sermon on ‘Quench not the Spirit’ was not suitable to the expectation of many of the hearers. Mr. Romney told them one of the most dangerous ways of quenching the Spirit was by enthusiasm; and enlarged on the character of an enthusiast…’

It’s quite likely that John Wesley, his friends and many of the people could clearly understand that the dodgy ‘character’ being described was Wesley himself!

‘Mr. Wesley will preach in the graveyard!’
Wesley continues, ‘After sermon, John Taylor stood in the church-yard, and gave notice, as the people were coming out, ‘Mr. Wesley, not being permitted to preach in the church, designs to preach here at six o’clock.’

‘Accordingly at six I came, and found such a congregation as I believe Epworth never saw before.

‘I stood near the east end of the church, upon my father’s tomb stone and cried, ‘The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’

We might expect that many left the Church of England because of the combination of the Curate’s and Wesley’s behaviour. And they did. But Wesley remained a loyal Anglican to the very end, urging new converts to attend the very churches that were teaching against the evangelical movement and preaching specifically against him and Whitefield.

In fact, because some who had left what they considered an unbelieving church were urging others to leave, Wesley, the very same day he had defied the Curate, decided to stay in Epworth and plead with several to remain within the Church of England.

It was a religious loyalty and tension that he struggled with all through his life.

While he was in Epworth he preached every evening of that week from his father’s grave to great crowds who continued to hear him. (all quotes from John Wesley’s Journal, Baker edition, Vol 1, p.377)

It was only near the end that he finally faced the inevitable and laid hands on the first apostolic delegate to America, Thomas Coke. Coke, in turn, had authority to appoint other leaders over the Methodist work in America.

So the Methodist movement, finally freed from its traditional English roots, became established in its own right and for many years became a mighty mouthpiece for evangelical Christianity around the world.

More next time…

© 2009 Lex Loizides

Basilica of St. John Lateran

The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the oldest and first in rank of the four great basilicas of Rome, namely:  St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Mary Major.

It was built on a piece of land donated by Emperor Constantine the Great in 313.  It used to be called the Lateran Mansion.  Originally known as the Church of the Saviour, it was later dedicated to both johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist.  The high altar contains the relic of the original wooden altar used by the apostle Peter.  In the ciborium over the altar are enshrined the heads of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Being the cathedral of Rome and the official residence of the Pope, the Basilica carries on its façade the title Omnium Urbis et Orbis Ecclesiarum mater et Caput – The Mother and the Head of all Churches of the City and of the World.  The Basilica signifies the importance of the Pope who, as St. Ignatius of Antioch said, presides over the whole Assembly of Charity.

Visual source:  fotopedia

Why is it that when certain women get married they start to act holier than thou as if they never had a sexual past? The second coming of the Virgin Mary they are not! Humph! This lady I know, I will call her Pam,  was relating a story to me about her niece, I will call her Denise. Denise has been a bit reckless sexually, but she is young and we all live and learn.  I am not excusing her behavior but I am saying we all make mistakes and she will learn. Now Denise does have a baby but c’mon she is 20 years old so she is an adult. Now I have listened to all of Pam’s stories about Denise but the one yesterday was over the line. Denise met a guy online, I will call him Jim, and they have been chatting for a while on the net. Jim lives in the carribean and he decided to come visit her for the first time. Keep in mind they have only been chatting for two months. They were having a good time and she even sexed him up. Denise  left the house for work and while she was gone Jim decided to go through her computer. Now Jim is an IT/ MIS specialist so he knows how to pull up info you think you deleted. He pulled up all of  her computer history and saw all of her chats and nude pictures she was sending to other guys. He got pissed and fussed Denise out. He told her she was immature and she was not virtuous and yada, yada, yada. Jim told Denise he loved her and  could not believe she would break his heart this way. Ok stop right here. I can say I would have dropped Jim’s ass on the spot because he invaded Denise’s privacy. I mean he don’t pay for her internet access and he did not buy that computer so he should have kept his black ass hands off of it. They have only been chatting for two months and they have not even been dating because his ass lives on another country. Jim is dumb if you ask me and he is a hypocrite. He is also an evangelist so what is he doing sexing up Denise before marriage ummmm…hello? Then Jim wants to break up with Denise. I would have said, “NEXT!” Jim get your ass to the left. I mean he got some nerve going into her computer and looking at her stuff and then fussing at her and he exposed her private life to her family. Denise is grown and can do what the hell she wants. They were not even dating. They were only chatting online and it was only two months. He is the dumb ass to get his feelings all in it so quickly, and Pam, Denise’s aunt, agrees with Jim. Pam is a dumb ass too and all she is thinking about is money becasue Jim has a good career.  If  I was Denise I would kick Pam’s ass to the left also. So then I asked Pam, “how many dicks did you jump on back in the day before you married?”  “How many married men did you sleep with as a sinlge woman back in the day Pam?’ I am not condoning bad behavior, but I am saying let’s stop judging and talking down to women who make mistakes and let’s start teaching and uplifting each other.

I’ve been encouraged recently by a few ‘tweets‘ from Andrew Lim, the Pastor of the Asian Bible Church at St Andrews Cathedral in Sydney. It’s great to see and hear of Christians having the courage to simply walk up to people they don’t know (yet!) and try to have a gospel conversation with them.

Then Peter Scholl made this comment on the Sola Panel about personal evangelism and I think he’s hit the nail squarely on the head.

Sometimes I wonder if the fear of being asked a question we can’t answer prevents us from sharing our love of Jesus with our friends. We are worried that if we bring Jesus into the conversation, we’ll be asked a curly question, and maybe as a result, we’ll look like a bit of a goose, so we choose to keep quiet.

We sometimes tend to think that talking to others about our faith in Christ is only for the Uber-Christians, those fearless few that are endowed with the rare boldness and wit required to answer every question and respond cleverly to every objection. Yet it seemed even the apostle Paul (the original Uber-Christian) had the need to ask for boldness when it came to sharing the gospel. So perhaps we shouldn’t be lapse in doing the same?!

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel – Ephesians 6:18-19

Evangelist Oral Roberts, who rose from tent revivals to found a multimillion-dollar organization and an Oklahoma university bearing his name, has died.

He was 91.

Source:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010513823_apusobitoralroberts.html

Charles Wesley, Hymn-writer and Evangelist

Charles Wesley is mainly remembered for his excellent poetic gift. This gift, thoroughly saturated in Scripture, produced some of the church’s best-loved hymns.

If you are in an English speaking church context it is quite likely that you recognize these well known opening lines from Charles Wesley hymns:

• Hark! The herald angels sing,
  “Glory to the newborn King;
  Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
  God and sinners reconciled!”

• Love divine, all loves excelling,
  Joy of heaven to earth come down;
  Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
  All thy faithful mercies crown!
  Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
  Pure unbounded love Thou art;
  Visit us with Thy salvation;
  Enter every trembling heart.

• And can it be that I should gain
  An interest in the Saviour’s blood?

• O for a thousand tongues to sing
  My great Redeemer’s praise,
  The glories of my God and King,
  The triumphs of His grace!

Actually, it’s difficult not to just go ahead and include whole hymns for the pure pleasure of enjoying them.

A Passionate Evangelistic Preacher

But my point is that Charles Wesley was not only a hymn-writer but also a passionate evangelistic preacher.

Like George Whitefield, his preaching mentor, Wesley also enjoyed great infillings of the Holy Spirit as he preached (see also, Acts 4:7-10).

Some excerpts from his journal of 1741 will give us a flavour of the kind of passion he employed in his efforts to bring men and women to Christ.

‘April 13^th. While I was in great love…the Spirit of power came down, the fountain was set open, my mouth and heart enlarged, and I spoke such words as I cannot repeat. Many sunk under the love of Christ crucified…’

‘April 22^nd. I sharply reproved three or four inflexible Pharisees; then prayed the Lord to give me words of consolation, and immediately I was filled with power, which broke out as a mighty torrent.

‘All our hearts caught fire in a moment, and such tears and strong cryings followed, as quite drowned my voice…’

‘Sun May 3^rd. At Kingswood [Bristol] as soon as I had named my text, ‘It is finished!’ the love of Christ crucified so constrained me that I burst into tears, and felt strong sympathy with him in his sufferings. In like manner, the whole congregation looked upon him whom they had pierced, and mourned.’

His preaching was effective and many were converted. One particular Kingswood resident wasn’t happy though. Charles wrote:

‘May 5^th. A wild collier [coal miner] brought me four of his children…crying, ‘You have got the mother, take the bairns [the kids] too!’

(All quotes from Arnold Dallimore, Charles Wesley, A Heart Set Free, Crossway Books, p.107)

An Inspiring combination of the Poet and the Evangelist

Charles Wesley was an Evangelist, and an effective one at that. We’ll return to his heroic story later, but for now, let’s not forget that many of his hymns were written in the very context of urging his generation to come to Christ.

His hymn ‘Lovers of Pleasure’ provides us with an excellent example of the combination of his poetic and evangelistic gift. Enjoy!

‘Lovers of pleasure more than God,
For you He suffered pain;
Swearers, for you He spilt his blood;
And shall He bleed in vain?

Misers, for you his life He paid,
Your basest crime He bore:
Drunkards, your sins on Him were laid,
That you might sin no more.

The God of love, to earth He came,
That you might come to heaven;
Believe, believe in Jesus’ Name,
And all your sin’s forgiven.

Believe in Him that died for thee,
And, sure as He hath died,
Thy debt is paid, Thy soul is free,
And thou art justified.’

Charles Wesley

For more on the hymns of Charles Wesley and other Methodists see, ‘A Collection of hymns for use by the people called Methodists’)

More next time…

© 2009 Lex Loizides

Dr. Oral Roberts the evangelist has died. Oral Roberts was the first to bring the  the television camera into healing services. He also Founded Oral Roberts University in Tulsa Oklahoma. Funeral Arrangements  and Memorial Service details and plans are pending. Burial will be private

Roberts conducted over 300 Evangelistic Services worldwide. It is estimated he laid hands on 2 million people.

A video on Oral Roberts death.

Funeral industry| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Legendary televangelist Oral Roberts 91, died today, a day after he fell at his California home and was hospitalized for broken bones and pneumonia, in Newport Beach, Calif., according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross.

A statement released Monday says Roberts fell on Saturday and was being treated for broken bones and a slight case of pneumonia. It says he was listed in stable condition at the hospital near his home in California.

Oral Roberts...dead at 91

Roberts founded Oral Roberts University  in Tulsa, Okla., in 1963 and served as its president until 1993. His son Richard followed his dad as the second president of the university, and subsequently had to step down following a financial scandal that tarnished the reputation of the school.

Richard Roberts and his wife have denied accusations that they spent university money on vacations, home remodel and other luxuries at a time ORU was $55 million in the red.

Oral Roberts returned to the campus this year to install the Universities third president Mark Ruthland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts_University

Mark Ruthland, Ph.D., President of Oral Roberts University said that “Chancellor Roberts was one of the brilliant spiritual lights of the 20th century and a giant of the Christian faith.  At the core of his legacy is a great university that bears his name.  Like millions worldwide, I am mourning his passing and am grateful for his visionary life and contributions.”

“Oral Roberts was the greatest man of God I’ve ever known,” said his son, Richard Roberts, according to Tulsa TV station KTUL. “A modern-day apostle of the healing ministry, an author, educator, evangelist, prophet, and innovator, he was the only man of his generation to build a worldwide ministry, an accredited university, and a medical school.”

Oral Roberts was the son of a preacher and started traveling the country staging charismatic revivals out of a tent, and later he did the same revival style meetings, but on TV.

I remember growing up in the 70’s, and we would watch his program every Sunday, because a family friend, Carlton Pearson,was a singer in the Oral Roberts Chorale that used to deliver rousing choreographed numbers on the series, which was one of the highlights of that show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlton_Pearson

Carlton Pearson former protegé of Oral Roberts

Carlton Pearson was the only black male member of that group, at a time when it was rare to see black men on TV at all. Better yet, it was Carlton, who was a role model for all the kids at Jackson Memorial C.O.G.I.C. in San Diego, because he was within our peer group, and he represented to us, a path and direction that we all could possibly follow, so that we could eventually go to college and get out of San Diego.

When Oral Roberts put Carlton on his show, he definitely advanced race relations here in the US, by showing us, especially in San Diego, that we could actually get out of that city and become national figures.

He was also a good friend and confidante of the late Bishop Blake, whose work here in Southern California to elevate the black man and all of our fellow-men, has only been rivaled by his son Bishop Charles Blake of the West Angeles Church of God In Christ in Los Angeles.

Charles Blake jr. is also an alumnus of Oral Roberts University ,so the impact on our family and the whole Church of God in Christ has been significant. For many years, Carlton Pearson was on the board of trustees for ORU, and the love and support from Oral Roberts was a big reason for his past success.

Unfortunetly, a change in beliefs for Pearson, forced a falling out between the two.

The AP reports that Oral Robert’s had survived two heart attacks in the 1990s and a broken hip in 2006. Roberts was a pioneer who broadcast his spirit-filled revivals on television, a new frontier for religion when he started in the 1950s. He was also a forerunner of the controversial “prosperity gospel” that has come to dominate televangelism. The evangelist’s “Seed-Faith” theology held that those who give to God will get things in return.

On a personal note, I always respected Oral Robert’s because of his dedication to his causes. Many outside the faith may not have understood him, but really, they would not understand any preacher, simply because of his beliefs.

The legacy that I will alway’s remember Mr Robert’s for, would be the fact that he assisted black people to attain our civil rights, and for his bold move to put Carlton Pearson on TV.

When he did that, he let me know that we could do anything that we set out to do.

Our C.O.G.I.C.has been promising a college of our own in Memphis, All-Saints University, for well over 40 years now, to no avail, but Oral Roberts opened his campus in 1963, with a lot less members…and ironically, a lot of our children have gotten education from him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_God_in_Christ

Oral Roberts was in part a Native American, and he was proud of that fact, just like many African Americans. He stepped down from a pentecostal organization as a preacher, so he could grow his own ministry more effectively, and more aggressively.

Funeral services are pending at this time, and will be announced at a later date.

For more information about Oral Roberts follow this link- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts?loc=interstitialskip

I am saddened by the death of minister Roberts as I was when Reverend Ike passed away a few months ago, but I must also celebrate his life…

May he rest in peace.

Oral Roberts University

For more reports on the death of this legendary man of God, click on these trusted sources….

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/16/2773000.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/15/oral-roberts-dead-televan_n_393118.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD9CK058G2

…dead at 91.

Televangelists don’t get videos,

-Shady

(Methodism and the Mob Part 6)

The Mob Reacts – The Death of William Seward

How do you respond when you hear that a Christian missionary is in trouble for distributing Christian literature, or for some other attempt to communicate the Christian faith?

Maybe your first response is to assume that the believer lacked wisdom. You may be right, of course. Christians can get carried away as they try and verbalise how wonderful they think Jesus Christ is. Each incident needs to be assessed separately.

But on the other hand, we’ve got to a slightly strange place when our assumption is that a follower of Christ trying to share their faith is automatically over-zealous or unwise.

Don’t misunderstand me: the Christian needs to communicate his faith with respect, wisdom and grace, with an ability to listen to others’ objections and beliefs. (see Col 4:4-6)

But the idea that a negative response to an honest attempt at presenting the gospel is always a correction, or, worse, a sign of God’s disapproval, merely reveals our evangelistic immaturity. Jesus made it clear that there would be times when the message would be rejected. Even He was rejected (see John 15:20-21).

And it’s difficult to think of how the Christian Faith advanced from its earliest days apart from believers courageously communicating the gospel to those who didn’t respect the Christian ideals of tolerance and debate.

Another thought before we re-join the 18th century battlefield: put yourself in the position of the hapless ‘missionary’ who is in jail for trying to share the Christian faith. It’s quite likely that you would be your own harshest critic as you retrace the decisions or statements that got you into trouble. My guess is that you’d want folk to pray for you.

The First Methodist Martyr
In October 1740,William Seward and Howell Harris were out again preaching the gospel in Wales. This time, they visited Hay-on-Wye.

Suddenly, someone from the crowd took aim and Seward was hit with a large stone and lay unconscious on the ground.

Dallimore writes, ‘he was carried from the scene unconscious. For a few days he hovered between life and death, but sank steadily lower till on October 22, 1740, his spirit passed away.’ (Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield, Vol 1, Banner of Truth, p.584)

Seward’s death, at age 38, was a blow to the young movement. But it did not stop their passionate preaching. Undeterred, they continued to present the gospel to the masses in Britain.

It was a personal blow to Whitefield, both in terms of friendship and financial support. Seward was helping fund Whitefield’s Orphan House in Georgia and Whitefield now carried that financial burden alone. Tragically, Seward had not made a will (ibid, p.585)

Trusting in God’s Sovereignty
John Wesley wrote in his journal for Mon Oct 27th, ‘The surprising news of poor Mr Seward’s death was confirmed. Surely God will maintain his own cause! Righteous art thou O Lord!’

Wesley’s trust in God’s sovereignty is totally appropriate. Is there any individual, or people too hard for God to reach by His grace? No! ‘The earth is the Lord’s and its fullness.’

We might question Seward’s enthusiasm, especially when he had been a target for violence before; the sin, however, was not his, but the one who threw the stone.

And the message of forgiveness of all sins through Jesus Christ continued to be preached throughout Britain during the 1740’s.

See Methodism and the Mob Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
© 2009 Lex Loizides

For those who have closely followed my blog and it’s comments for some time, you may have noticed a spike in the activity as I engaged in a discussion about my seemingly smooth connection between the Ephesians 4 gifts, and church leadership. I’m going to lay it out a bit more fully here.

The 4 gifts described are apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher. Some say there are 5 gifts listed here, but that, to me, simply shows that someone doesn’t read their footnotes, or Greek. This list is about the church, and how it is built and grows into maturity. And this list is, to my observation, exhaustive.

This caused a bit of confusion, because it has been put alongside other non-exhaustive gift lists in the New Testament and so the assumption would be that if it is an exhaustive list you would also have the spiritual gift of love, helps, administration, faith, and so on, in a long and informative presentation. But I don’t see this list as something to be added to the other spiritual gifts because, as I commented on Friday, I see these as ‘categories of grace.’ Other theologians refer to them as offices, but my observations have led me to believe there is more than simply ‘offices’ available here.

As we observe the church at large there is a great sense that if we don’t work together we go nowhere. Redeemer church in Manhattan has been painstakingly planning the re-planting of it’s church because the majority of the work done by the church is achieved by a minority. The efforts, for them, is to bring more people into active ministry instead of passive discipleship (a little oxymoron there for Monday morning).

And He gave them apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor (or shepherd)-teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

This text is written to the whole church in the region of Ephesus. It isn’t addressed to the elders, and nowhere in the letter is church leadership structure addressed. What comes out of the emphasis of “unity in the spirit” comes a list of grace-categories that apply to every believer. Each and every person has been given a specific way in which they engage with the church. All of the congregation is, here, given the encouragement that the bringing of the church to maturity is not the responsibility of a small eldership team, it’s a body responsibility.

Of all the spiritual gifts, the irrelevance of these ‘grace gifts’ is shown, as those who truly seek Jesus are drawn into church ministry to some degree. And whether an apostle is actually starting businesses raising ridiculous amounts of money instead of planting churches, or a prophet is in a consultancy role instead of bringing direction to church vision, there is the clear, distinctive encouragement that the church grows because of everyone being in Christ. It doesn’t grow because Paul is a good apostle, it doesn’t grow because they have a great preacher, and it doesn’t grow because everyone submits to godly leadership. It grows because everyone submits to one another, perfectly operating in the unity and balance of these 4 grace-categories, equipping the church for ministry. Where the other grace-gifts are brought out in corporate worship, these gifts are brought out in corporate mission.

The leadership post was almost too soon. If you have an eldership, it will be made up of one or more of these categories, because everyone is operating in one of these categories.

Quite straight-forward really.

Merry Xmen

[As dictated by bassist Joe Stuhff, via electric medium]

Not too many stockings bear a printed depiction of an open mouthed serpent–ornamental Christmas stockings even less so. God smiles upon us, Jesus is one year older, and Allah and Ganesh are drinking hot cocoa with Quetzalcoatl. Christmas trees are decorated, from Korea to Israel, and Eskimos eat glazed ham for dinner. The demon who inhabits Frosty the Snowman’s body is summoned and duly banished. Atheists, agnostics, and evangelists share a thin gruel of bitter falsehood.Vikings and communists alike regain a veneer of humanity. Happy Festivus to one and all!

-=HN=-

[Kai]

The church interests me a great deal. It helps that I’m in it. I have, for a number of years now, been pondering on the various ways in which I see church structure, and particularly church leadership structures, work. I may want to claim that I have found the answer, but that could put me with a league of people who have no idea what they’re talking about after trundling along, regardless of people’s comments 15 years down the line.

Mark Driscoll tries to put leadership into certain categories. It pleases a whole host of people because it’s fresh language restating basics on church leadership. He wrote a chapter on it in ‘Vintage Church’ and then recommends his little book of church leadership.

He maintains there are three roles within the church:
1. Prophet
2. Priest
3. King

The prophet loves the bible, the priest loves the people, and the king loves to organise everything; to oversimplify.

Thanks Mark.

I was in a different camp, and I’m still there. Ephesians names 4 offices in the church:

1. Apostle
2. Prophet
3. Evangelist
4. Pastor-Teacher

There is overlap with Driscoll’s observations, but I find the Ephesians model more helpful, and easier to find in the bible.

The apostle starts and oversees the church. The prophet sets and communicates the vision of the church. The evangelist is the primary agent in growing the church. And the pastor-teacher looks after the people in the church.

I used to see it like this:
Apostle — Lays foundations never laid before
Prophet — Says things never said before
Evangelist — Tells things never heard before
Pastor-Teacher — Deals with things already there

I would like to revise my pastor-teacher definition to:
Ensures the flock are feeding on fresh grass, leading them forward to new pastures when the current pasture has been exhausted. (This does need to be a tad shorter.)

The pastor is the primary agent in keeping everyone together. Unless you have at least 2 of the 4 in the list from Ephesians, you have an unbalanced and stagnant church.

The prophet upsets people, so only the core will remain, the apostle can bore people, so only the new will be interested, the evangelist will bring converts, but those who have matured and are not gifted in evangelism will move on, and the pastor will be happy with who he has, acutely aware that adding to the current number may upset things.

Church leadership was designed for team ministry. It’s how it works best. Balance and wisdom come from an eldership made up of a few of these offices.

Building with bamboo!

The bamboo scaffolding we’d observed being used to construct massive sky-scrapers in Hong Kong was very visible, very strong and very flexible. Although very strange to western eyes, this was totally appropriate for use in building massive high-rise blocks in a place where typhoons and strong winds can provide adverse conditions at any moment.

The massive edifice that is Hillsong also has scaffolding being used in its construction; it is equally strong, flexible and appropriate, however much of it is invisible.

I wrote about the campus strategy in the last post; now I want to outline the second equally revelationary growth strategy that I discovered. Again, this was not unique to Hillsong Church or to Australia. A similar phenomenon would be pointed out to me several weeks later at Mars Hill Church Seattle. The strategy was most clearly defined to me in Sydney by one of the senior leaders who had been with the church for many years and so had been part of the outworking. It is this: The leadership of Hillsong Church unashamedly concentrates on a few areas in which the Holy Spirit has gifted the church, and in so doing seeks to trust God for the outworking of other areas where it is weak. In other words they do not seek to work hard on making up for their weaknesses at the expense of their strengths. No, rather they invest more in their strengths and talents; they strengthen their strengths, working through them to accomplish all the things they are believing God for.

In this respect I met with a remarkable degree of humility and honesty from pastors and leaders; they would often openly confess “That is not one of our strengths” and I pondered a lot on the significance of this frankness. One leader asked me if I’d noticed anything unusual about the number of visiting speakers they hosted at Hillsong. I confessed that I had not really thought about this, however as we talked it was clear that for a church of this magnitude it was indeed slightly unusual that they invited so many guest speakers on a regular basis. Brian Houston certainly seems to undertake a lion’s share of the preaching, but nearly every other week there does seem to be a visiting speaker from elsewhere speaking at one of the meetings or at a special event. The reason given was that preaching and teaching is not one of their main strengths, and, although no-one would exactly call it a weakness either, Robert Fergusson clearly is an anointed expository preacher, however they have not majored on trying to build the church in this way as others might.

Instead they have and continue to identify their unique God-given strengths and put effort into developing these. We discussed what these were and I discerned from my conversations what was emerging as the top three ‘main strengths’. Although the Hillsong leadership would probably use other terminology, I feel the best way to categorize them for this purpose would be under the general headings of:

Worship and Music Ministry (exemplified most easily through Hillsongs near global influence in song-writing and worship style. Need I say more?)

Reaching & Gathering Young People (the 15-45 age group has been the most unreached and under-represented age demographic in Western Church – Hillsong are strong reaching and keeping in this age group)

Engaging & Integrating People Effectively & Culturally into Community (the many culturally engaging ways in which they connect with, and equip so many people into becoming a serving community)

In a way this strategy went against the grain for me. I have tended to feel there are things we just have to do as a church or leadership in which we are weak or do not have particular anointing in; the need is there so we just have to fulfill it. But at the same time I realised I had also become critical of churches who recruited to make up for their weaknesses from the outside. So this was somewhat inconsistent on my part! Nevertheless I regularly justified my view by quoting Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to “do the job of an evangelist” [2 Tim 4:5] where, by implication, it would seem Timothy is instructed to do something he is not especially gifted or called to do, but falls under the heading of “duties” which you undertake just because you are a minister of the Gospel.

During my time away as I meditated on these things I felt God persuade me that I had been wrong about this. I concluded that this was not the norm. I saw in Jesus how he testified “I only do what I see the Father doing” [John 5:19] – indeed this comes on the back of the incident earlier in the chapter when Jesus had just healed one man at the Bethesda Pool when clearly there were many more in need of healing all around. This was not of course a sign of weakness in Jesus. On the contrary it was a sign of his being focused on God the Father, setting his face like flint towards the goal of his mission, a sign of absolute trust in God to deal with everything else if we simply do what he requires us to do. This seems to be truly seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in the sure hope that everything else will be added unto us.

Similarly I saw how Paul encouraged Timothy on more than one occasion to “stir up the gift of God” in him – clearly the things he was gifted in, and in fact in 1 Tim 4:14-15 Paul writes “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” This seems to be an encouragement or even perhaps a warning to Timothy not to forget investing in his main gifting and become a generalist in ministry, or perhaps get caught up in so many areas where he was not gifted that he neglected his God-given, prophetically identified and anointed gift, at the expense of trying to meet all the needs around him.

Doing a few things well may not sound very sexy as a job description but it is certainly how a Kingdom extending church like Hillsong has managed to remain strong and focused on bearing fruit that remains.

There is one final aspect relating to this strategy that needs to be highlighted. It falls under the third category relating to the way in which Hillsong Church connect with and equip many people into becoming a serving community.

Duncan Corby

It was clearly identified for me during my thoroughly enjoyable conversations with a very cool-headed and genial man called Duncan Corby who is effectively the person we would call Vice-Principal of Hillsong’s International Leadership College; a fully university-validated tertiary theological school for undergraduates and post-graduates which was established twenty years ago and has now built up into a training base for thousands of students today. This is the College at which Chris Parkes has been studying for past few years. Duncan is a clear thinking, enthusiastic, hands-on trainer – not an ivory tower academic. He is not only intelligent, he is a very likeable fellow with a real zeal for God and for His church. It is evident that he loves what he does and he spoke passionately with me about how the College had grown, their curriculum development – for which he is largely responsible – and the importance of the College in the whole ethos of what Hillsong stands for as a church with a particular vision. He also talked with me about his aspirations for Chris, with whom he is undoubtedly impressed!

Part of the multi-functional gallery of the Convention Centre being prepared for use as a lecture theatre

I too was certainly impressed with the standards of training at Hillsong College; in fact it is fair to say that I was very pleasantly surprised at the depth and breadth of the theological and doctrinal study being done. This was not what I had anticipated experiencing at a Pentecostal Seminary and I had to repent of my poor attitude. I’m not sure where my low expectations came from – I searched my memory in vain – so perhaps it was just plain, simple and ugly prejudice on my part!  Whatever the case I certainly had to repent for what I saw at Hillsong College was very healthy in terms of well-rounded Christian doctrine and understanding.

Let me illustrate this: One afternoon that week I accompanied Chris to a 3 hour lecture on Augustine’s epic and significant apologetic defending Trinitarian Theology De Trinitate. It was hosted by the Hillsong College lecturer responsible for the doctrinal unit being taught, but the teaching on this day was delivered by Dr Neil Ormerod, a Roman Catholic visiting lecturer who was also an expert in Augustinian theology. Dr Ormerod is a Professor of Theology, and indeed Director of the Institute of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Education at the Australian Catholic University. He is not someone I would have expected to hear teaching at Hillsong! He was warmly welcomed, and well received by the students. Greatly inspired by the works of Bernard Lonergan a Jesuit theologian, Neil gave us first a comprehensive overview of Augustine’s life and thought as it related to De Trinitate, followed by a contextualisation of the issues being tackled in the work, then he gave a well structured basic survey of the arguments of each book in the treatise.

Dr Neil Ormerod lecturing at Hillsong College

I was transfixed – the three hours passed in no time at all and I could have continued for another three without blinking an eye! I found myself taking copious notes on my iPhone’s Notes application – not the easiest of tasks as those of you who have tried two finger typing historical, theological and philosophical information as fast as you can using a screen the size of a… well, a phone, in fact… will understand. [For those of you who like this kind of thing - theology I mean - I will endeavour to upload my notes onto this blog as is, i.e. like they currently appear saved on my iPhone, to see whether you can make head or tale of my jargon and abbreviations! For those of you who don't enjoy this kind of thing, take this as a warning to skip the next post.]

So the Church and thus the College take seriously the task to identify, raise up and equip existing and potential leaders in Word, Spirit and Deed. All the College students are engaged ipso facto in various aspects of Church life and leadership. Serving for them is part of their training and as such it means the church has at its disposal an army of volunteers with the time, desire and inclination to put into practice what they learn. This means on a Sunday students can be found all over, in set-up teams, children’s ministry, youth work, bands, singers, Audio-Visual teams, host-teams, serving drinks, setting out chairs, flyers, hand-outs, leading groups of other volunteers, praying in ministry teams… you name it. During the week they are leading small groups, preparing curriculum, rehearsing music, drama, dance, evangelising, creating promotional material, following up visitors and new Christians. In turn this creates a culture within the whole church of volunteerism, for there are several thousand students among the 20,000+ attenders, nearly 10% of the church. As someone pointed out to me without a hint of cynicism “… and they pay us for the privilege!”

Students originate from within the local church as well as many from other churches in Australia, New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific area, and indeed the world over. There have been five Guernsey students studying there in recent years! Many come from different ethnic backgrounds which helps add to the church’s international flavour. They come to study and specialise in Worship Music, Pastoral Leadership, Media, Dance as well as to undertake the more Theologically based Degree Programme. Some are on courses which last just a year, others three or four years, but the student ethos is a huge part of church life because of the numbers involved. A large proportion of students stay on to become leaders in the church, serve overseas on mission, or to find work nearby and remain active, well-trained members. All the students we met were motivated, happy, thoroughly engaged in church life, buzzing I would say!

Duncan pointed all this out to me. He clearly believes they would not be where they are today as a Church in terms of ethos and size without the College and the students and I believe he could be right. The teaching and learning environment, energy, creativity and sheer momentum provided by such a large body of young people ready and willing to serve the Lord Jesus surely adds something special to this special church.

(Methodism and the Mob Part 4)

John Cennick

Howell Harris did not only preach in Wales, of course, but ventured into England as well.

On one occasion he was preaching with fellow Methodist John Cennick in Swindon in Wiltshire, South West England.

Before long there was a strong reaction and considerable gang of trouble makers were out to stop these Evangelists from preaching.

Threatened with Guns
Cennick wrote, ‘The mob fired guns over our heads, holding the muzzles so near to our faces that Howell Harris and myself were both made as black as tinkers with the powder. We were not affrighted, but opened our breasts, telling them we were ready to lay down our lives.…

Splattered with Sewerage
‘Then they got dust out of the highway and covered us all over; and then they played an engine upon us, which they filled out of the stinking ditches.

‘While they played on brother Harris, I preached; and when they turned the engine upon me, he preached. This they continued till they spoiled the engine; and they threw whole buckets of water and mud over us.

‘After we left the town, they dressed up two images, called one Cennick and the other Harris, and then burnt them.

The home and family of the hospitable attacked
The next day they gathered about the home of Mr. Lawrence, who had received us, and broke all of his windows with stones, cut and wounded four of his family, and knocked down one of his daughters.’ (John Cennick, Memorable Passages relating to the Awakening in Wiltshire (unpublished, but referred to in Dallimore, George Whitefield, Wakeman Press, p.142, and Christian History)

Pressing on until grace wins
Yet these heroes continued to proclaim the gospel message, overcoming the resistance and transforming the culture. If ever we needed an encouragement to persevere then here it is, in the heroism of the 18th Century Evangelists.

More next time…

Methodism and the Mob Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
© 2009 Lex Loizides