the reluctant leader

Lakeland Revival?

Taking a break today from my “Simple Preaching Tips” series to talk about… revivals and rumors of revivals.

I’ve never really been a revival kind of guy. I’m more into the gradual long-term process than the spiritual big bang theory. But since the Lakeland healing revival seems to be the buzz of the moment, I thought I’d throw in my 2 pesos worth.

Like all 'revivals' i'm sure Lakeland is a mixture of the spiritual & the spooky, healing & hype, generosity & greed, the weird and the wonderful.

Based on the press and the blogs, the Lakeland revival is known for the healing miracles, the preacher’s tattoos and angelic manifestations.  I love the miracles and have no problem with the tats or the metal on the preacher.

But, while I believe in angels, I’m a bit bothered when preachers are on a first name basis with someone like ‘Emma’ the angel. With all due respect to my politically correct feminist friends, are there any  female angels in the Bible? Not sure I remember any. And, do Bible angels actually have bird-like feathers that float around revival meetings like in the Forrest Gump credits? And don't get me started on the gold dust...

By the way, I believe in modern healing and miracles, I just have a hard time with the side-shows. My friend from Guam (Dale J) went to Lakeland and got instantly and totally healed, after several years of debilitating back problems. And he fell down w/out being pushed - two miracles at once.

My conclusion: I know Jesus still heals, but I’m not so sure about some of the other stuff.

For more opinions about the Lakeland revival…

Lee Grady has posted 4 insightful blogs:
“Bam! Pow! When Prayer Ministry Gets Violent”

“An Appeal for Unity in a Divisive Season”

“Honest Questions about the Lakeland Revival”

“A Holy Ghost Outbreak in Florida”

And, Steve Strang posted 2 Lakeland blogs:
“Observations about the Revival in Lakeland”

“Long Term Effects of Revival”

So, what do you think?

***New pix and comments posted on my other site***

Urgent Emails, Urban Legends & Barak Obama

A few of weeks ago, I received several copies of the latest email that is getting forwarded everywhere. This one was a warning about US presidential candidate, Senator Obama, accusing him of being a radical Muslim.

It had urban legend written all over it. CNN even had a story about the misinfo in that now infamous email.

I forwarded it to a politically astute friend – Forrest Berry - to see what he thought about it.

Here’s his response:

------------------------------
…Interestingly enough, my Mom forwarded the same Obama email to me earlier in the day so I had just researched it when I received your email. In short, it is greatly distorted and mostly urban legend. The email said that it had been checked out on www.Snopes.com <http://www.snopes.com/> but it obviously had not. Here is their link where they analyze this particular email line by line and identify which parts are true and which parts are not.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

I know you know most of this stuff, but you may wish to forward it back to those who sent the piece originally.

As Christians, we ask people to believe our testimony about God and our experiences with Him. We are witnesses to His reality. If we expect people to believe us, then we must have credibility. When we distribute false information because we are too lazy to verify it, we seriously undermine our credibility and therefore our Christian witness.  Think of how many courtroom dramas you have seen in which an attorney tries to discredit a witness. One has to wonder if the accuser of the brethren may not sometimes use internet hoaxes and urban legends to discredit us. When we promote (by forwarding) untrue information, we are telling the world that we cannot discern truth from lies and thus discredit ourselves and our testimony about God.

Therefore, if you receive an email that seems outrageous (you know, the kind that you just can’t wait to forward) take a few moments to investigate it before you hit the send button. You can be sure that someone down the line will. When that happens, you will be discredited. On the other hand, if you research a piece before sending it, and find it to be untrue, you have the opportunity to set the record straight and in doing so, increase your credibility.

For more information about hoaxes visit www.iiiip.org <http://www.iiiip.org/>  or www.snopes.com <http://www.snopes.com/> 

Forrest Berry
------------------------------

I tend to agree with Forrest. What do you think?

Latest on my accidental missionary blog: 40 Million Reasons I Will Not Vote For Obama or Hillary

What is God Saying to the Church in 2008?

I attended Emanuele Cannistraci's annual "International Apostolic Summit" - thirty “apostles and prophets” from all over the world sat around a big square table having a “round-table” discussion about this question: “What is God saying to the church in 2008?”

There were many good and interesting answers to that question. Here’s my summary: 

“Be a disciple. Make disciples.”

And, what is a disciple? Someone who carries a cross, follows Jesus, goes into all the world and helps others follow Jesus.

Besides re-connecting with long-time friends Emanuele & Shirley Cannistraci and Mel & Heather Mullen, I especially enjoyed listening to…

- - Jay Swallow – Native American leader. Cheyenne tribe. He told amazing stories about God moving among the Indian tribes he has served for 37 years.

-- Hormoz Shariat – Iranian-born former Muslim. Now a pastor in San Jose with satellite TV ministry focusing on the Middle East, especially Iran. Over 800,000 Iranians have come to Christ through his broadcasts in the past few years. Wow!   

-- Bill Hamon – Prophetic pioneer. As always, Bishop Bill presented rhyming alliterated prophetic insight for leaders. I don’t always agree, but I always appreciate his faith, energy, sincerity and graciousness.   

Here’s a good summit quote from Emanuele C:
“I travel all over the world and I don’t find many happy pastors and ministers, and I’m asking God why. After 60 years in ministry, I’m still happy. I still love the Lord. I still love the church. I still love the ministry.”

I hope to be able to say that when I’ve been in ministry for 60 years.

***New accidental missionary blog: "Why I Will Not Vote for Obama or Hillary"