Is "Love the SInner" Working for Us?

Often I have heard from Evangelicals concerning gays and lesbians, “love the sinner but hate the sin.” How has this played out in our churches?

For a time I attended a church where a young lesbian attended with her grandmother. This young woman is student at a nearby university and is very bright. She does dress in masculine clothes and does not hide her homosexuality. She has an interest in all kinds of spirituality and so Pentecostalism was of great interest.

While I am at least forty years older than her, we struck up a friendship and continue to meet for coffee from time to time. She grew up with a totally absent father.

I tried to get her involved in a young adult group, the Alpha course and a Sunday school class and she attended each of these at least a couple times. The people in these groups were polite but not genuinely friendly. So she stopped attending the church.

Do we attended church for the sake of ourselves or to be a minister of Christ? I sincerely believe that if the church would have loved this young lady she would likely be a Christian today. I do wish the church would have loved and served her. How do we set the captive free? Do we even try? Lets try a little harder to love those that are more difficult to love.

Is "Love the Sinner But Hate the Sin" Working?

The news media is full of stories about a militia group the press is calling a Christian militia. It grieves me to see the name of Christianity associated with a group that is intent on overthrowing the government and killing law officers. How is it that the media is not calling them a cult but identifying them as Christian? Twenty years ago the group would not have been identified as other than a cult. Nowadays, in these news stories there is no mention of the term cult.

As Christians we have been identified as a people that are in opposition. We are against abortion, homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, Muslims, secular humanists and . . . whatever we perceive as sin or sinful. What did the long term impact of the Moral Majority turn out to be? The name, "Moral Majority," implies that the rest of the population is immoral and therefore, even the name casts judgement. The Moral Majority has become a minority and now, Christians are seen as judgmental. As the Church we need to be seen as a sweet fragrance in our nation.

I have a friend that refuses to identify himself as Christian because of our reputation. Instead, he identifies himself as a "follower of Jesus."

With our Christian reputation for being against so much it has become natural for the press to simply identify a militia that wants to kill and destroy the government as Christian.

How many times have I heard the phrase, "Love the sinner but hate the sin?" I do not think we can truly love a person when we also focus on hating their sin. Jesus has provided a remedy for sin. Can't we get past the sin and just love people? How long has it been since you hugged or shook hands with a gay man or a lesbian?

In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul asks rhetorically, "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?" In the next verse Paul goes on to say, "God will judge those outside [the church."]

When I read the scripture I see that I should hate my own sin. When I examine myself with regard to wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony, I have enough sin in myself to occupy all of the hate I want to hold.

As Christians lets stop being against other people. Lets examine and deal with our own sin. With Jesus, we have much to be for. Perhaps if we clean up our reputation by really living right and really loving people, next time a group like the "Christian Militia" will be identified as a cult.

One Brother

For about a year I stopped attending Sunday school. I was frustrated by the study of books whose authors have subtle anti-Pentecostal currents and/or lousy hermeneutics. Recently I started attending another class. I have been very blessed by the depth of teaching in this group.

There have been two main teachers in this class but often members fill in for a teacher that cannot be there. It is a great blessing to listen to each one of them. Their exposition of the scripture is excellent. I am finding the Sunday school classes more instructive and memorable than the pastor’s Sunday preaching. These teachers are lay people that are truly students of the Word.

What makes this group so different from the other Sunday school classes in this church? The difference is one brother who has been sitting in the background and over a period of years has mentored this group. One brother has made a great difference in the solid, spiritual growth of individuals in this group. He has truly discipled this group into a group of disciplers and teachers.

I repent of my frustration; I pray that I might be used like this brother.

The Sweet Presence of God During a Prayer Meeting

Yesterday I went to a prayer meeting at church. Typically four, five or six people gather together from 7:00 to 9:00 PM on Fridays to pray for needs in the church. Because our pastor has announced his resignation, the need for more prayer feels more acute.

Partially because seven people showed up and the small prayer room gets stuffy, we moved to the main sanctuary and the sweet presence of God settled in that place. To linger and pray in that presence was a profound blessing for me. I miss attending prayer meetings like that.

In the past I have regularly attended dynamic prayer meetings on Friday or Saturday evenings. But they seem to go strong for a season and fizzle to a handful of people. I believe it is time for a new season to start. It would be good to do some discipleship on prayer. I believe God will bring in a group of people that regularly invite the manifest presence of God. The manifest presence of God changes people and churches.

Casting Out Demons

Demons are real and powerful but God is greater. A great many books have been written about binding and casting out demons. But the typical casting out demon book puts the emphasis on the demon. The emphasis should be love and compassion for the person afflicted by the demon and the power of Jesus in us. About all these books are good for is making lots of money for the writers and publishers.

I once heard an entire student body of a small foreign Bible college try to cast out a demon. I did not want to interfere so I stayed away from the situation. After about an hour of the women shouting the hymn “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus,” and the men yelling at the demon, I thought maybe I should get involved. I found a group of six men holding down Beth. Beth was a young coed of about eighty-five pounds that was studying to be a pastor. The six men holding her had two men on each arm, one man holding her head and another man holding legs that were tightly wrapped in a blanket. And the men were physically struggling with the demon. Their focus was on the demon and not so much Jesus or the young women.

I laid a hand on the woman and softly said something like, “In the name of Jesus, demon be silent and still. I do not want to talk to you; I only want to talk to Beth.” I repeated that a couple times and told the guys to let go of her. When released she struggled so the guys grabbed hold of her again; but I think she struggled in her own power. I repeated the process again and she was calm. In just a few minutes I carried her away to a more private location. Two other young women accompanied me.

I held her on my lap while I prayed in tongues. After a about a half hour she was getting heavy so I asked her to get up and exhausted, she laid on the floor. She started calling on Jesus and delivered herself of her own demon.

What I learned from this experience is that deliverance needs to be in the love, mercy and compassion of Jesus. The focus is not on the demon but on loving the person the way Jesus would. Jesus’ power and love is so much greater than any demon.

Is God in Control at General Council?

I have a friend that describes being elected as the student body president while attending seminary. He says God started speaking to him about two weeks before the election. God was telling him that he would be student body president. He did not want the job so it is good God started dealing with him early.

He relates that there were about a dozen ballots, each time eliminating a group of nominations. Seems my friend was consistently on the bottom of the nomination list that was saved. When three names were left, one vote separated the front runner from the second runner and one vote separated my friend from the second runner. My friend should have been eliminated, but someone said, “There is not enough separation, lets hear from the nominees.” In two more ballots my friend was elected.

Now if God can control a simple election like that, I suspect God can also control the election process at each General Council. It is mostly Pentecostal ministers that are voting. Do we trust they can collectively hear God?

Will Your Church Someday House a Community Theater Group?

Less than a block from the church I attend is an old church building that was built by the Methodists in the early 1900's. It must have seated around 2000 people. I can only imagine how that church had a powerful, culturally relevant impact on that culture. The church had fallen into the hands of a small, liberal denomination that could no longer support the huge building. Now a community theater group has taken over the building.

As a fifty something year old Pentecostal, I am concerned that we develop culturally relevant methods to share the Gospel with a younger generation. It is a generation that has little understanding of the church. If we don't do that, perhaps in another fifty years a theater group will get a super good buy on another building.

Earl Creps is an authority and conference speaker on church growth and evangelism. His podcast, "Walk With Me" at http://www.earlcreps.com/podcast/ is worth listening to if you have a spare half hour. He addresses how the younger generation see us, the church.

The Future of the Assemblies of God is in Good Hands

As an older guy who has held Assembly of God credentials less than a year, I am impressed by the young pastors in our fellowship. I have read with great interest the blog Future AG (http://futureag.blogspot.com/). The reins of the movement will soon be turned over to these more youthful pastors and I am excited about the future.

The postmodern generation is a generation with great interest in the supernatural. (For the most part, my enlightened generation did not see the possibility of the supernatural.) As younger guys and gals move in the charismatic gifts before your generation, we will have people movements like we studied about in missions classes. I trust that you will find the methods to package the old Biblical truths in ways appealing to post moderns.

Older Pentecostals must demonstrate the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and the lives of their churches. Too many of our young pastors have not seen a real move of the Holy Spirit. If we cannot demonstrate the charismata, we are in trouble with our movement. What makes a Pentecostal different from a typical Evangelical is the Pentecostal worldview holds a very immanent God. Our “Pentecostal” God is here, now, and in us to change the world.

Hey older pastors, the younger pastors have trouble with “initial physical evidence” because we have not demonstrated it. In the last three years, other than myself, I have seen only one pastor preach on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And that pastor was not AG, he was Baptist.

“Controlling and Manipulative Prophecy”

Some years ago, prophesying got Pete into trouble at the church he was attending but was not aware of the cause of the trouble. Over a period of time, the church relieved Pete of all ministries he was involved in. He lost his Sunday school class, small group, Bible study, etc. Pete had no idea what why this was happening. Counsel from a close friend from another state was that Pete should leave the church because he was not allowed to be effective in ministry.

It seemed when the senior pastor spoke, the Pete’s prophecies did not dovetail with the pastor’s messages. When the associate or a guest minister spoke, prophecies dovetailed with the message. A couple times Pete gave only the beginning of a prophecy and asked for someone else to complete the prophecy. The prophecies were completed by others.

When Pete returned from vacation, there was a microphone put up in the front of the church. The new policy was that prophecies were to be spoken into the microphone.

Uncomfortable with the loss of ministry responsibilities and a sense of growing estrangement from much of the church leadership, Pete decided to start attending a different church. About a year later, Pete asked a close friend what was going on at that former church that caused the trouble. The friend said that for about six months Pete had been prophesying against every decision the board had made behind closed doors. What capped off the matter was that Pete had prophesied about the need for moral leadership just after there was a moral failure on the church board and the broad took no disciplinary action. It was felt the board member was sufficiently repentant.

The purpose in using a microphone was to catch Pete trying to use his “false prophecy” to control and manipulate the church.

Things Pete could have done better:

1. Carefully examine prophecies that could be interpreted negatively, consider delivering it privately to the pastor or board and not the entire congregation.
2. Have followed the advice of another church’s pastor to talk to the church board. (Pete made the excuse to himself because he was busy with legal problems being sued in two different jurisdictions.)
   

Things the church could have done better:

1. Have called Pete into a board meeting or meeting with the pastor and confront him directly.
2. Listen to see if Pete’s prophecies ring true when the associate speaks or a guest speaks. Examine whether good prophecy or controlling and manipulative prophecy can come from the same person.
3. To not focus so much time on trying to find out whom was leaking information to Pete and be straighter forward.
4. Seriously consider whether the prophecies were valid instead of immediately assuming they were attempts at controlling and manipulating.
5. Have prayed for discernment.
   

Things the church did right:

1. They did not forbid prophecy as so many Pentecostal churches do now.
2. They did not expose the entire matter to the congregation.
   

In the Bible, prophecy was sometimes used to bring correction. Churches should consider that to be a possibility. Churches should confront the person prophesying if leadership feels the prophecy is in error. Churches have a responsibility to help mature their people in the use of spiritual gifts. Above all, all parties should be willing to be straight forward and discuss the issue.

I welcome comments. I have something to learn here.