.....another question
I promised you more on Question Everything but before I get back to the article.... I need to tell you... I got an email from a guy in NH who got all excited about what John Eldredge was doing out in Colordo and went on one of his Wild Heart things into the mountains and hillsides and far-a-ways out there.... got himself totally turned on to all this relational stuff and the things Eldredge has been saying. So, he feels the Lord is saying "do some Base Camp stuff up here in New England"....Colorado is a long ways away. He is doing it.....using Eldredge's materials. I was really blessed to know something like this is available in this area. It's a guy thing.... well.... a some guys thing....maybe not mine.....but for bunches of others it is and what happens at these things is life changing.
I told him probably the last thing in the world I want to do is back pack up a mountain for 4 days, say hi to a bear or two and try to catch a few trout if the bear gives me permission! So I suggested to him to put together a Golf Weekend for me instead!
I put his website over there to the right under my blogroll as Expeditions... check it out. You won't see his name...sorry no picture either...no hoopla about his church affiliation.... or any other baloney.... just an exhortation to join them for a life changing heart experience.
I wanted to tell you this because it is so diametrically the opposite of what one usually sees surrounding much of what is being promoted in Christian circles. Gives me a perfect entree to get us back to the Question Everything article. Here's the next section. Give it some thought.
"Our teaching and practice that revival and evangelism are events judged by numbers and anointing produce several areas of question. Most of the questions being asked about Lakeland, for example, do not go deep enough. We question where the furniture is placed inside the box but do not question the box!
1/ Can you believe the numbers?
Somebody tracked the number of decisions being reported by evangelistic ministries in Ukraine between 1995 and 2000. Their numbers added up to five times the total population! In trying to verify the source of this statement, I heard similar statements regarding evangelism in Russia. Even if the numbers of descisions were “only” equal to the total population the numbers are suspect. One ministry leader with whom I shared this said, “Well, many go forward several times!” Really! I was told to stop questioning and confronting “or I would lose ministry opportunities”.
A friend discovered that his crusades in India were packed with already christians bused in to create a crowd and coached on coming forward in increasing numbers as the crusade progressed to create excitement. The partner had reported planting sixty churches out of the crusade when he did not have a single congregation.
Basically you can have as large a crusade in India or Africa as you can afford to pay for. Things in the West are more sophisticated but does the media hype create the revival or does the revival create the media hype? Why are miracle stories presented with such conviction but so hard to verify? Why would the team at Lakeland tell one friend to stop questioning when he was seeking verification of the miracles?"
More tomorrow! Meanwhile....maybe it's time to start asking a few questions in the circles where we travel. What are we doing? Why do we do that? What should we stop doing? What should we start doing? What should we do differently? Got the idea?
Go for it!
:)
I told him probably the last thing in the world I want to do is back pack up a mountain for 4 days, say hi to a bear or two and try to catch a few trout if the bear gives me permission! So I suggested to him to put together a Golf Weekend for me instead!
I put his website over there to the right under my blogroll as Expeditions... check it out. You won't see his name...sorry no picture either...no hoopla about his church affiliation.... or any other baloney.... just an exhortation to join them for a life changing heart experience.
I wanted to tell you this because it is so diametrically the opposite of what one usually sees surrounding much of what is being promoted in Christian circles. Gives me a perfect entree to get us back to the Question Everything article. Here's the next section. Give it some thought.
"Our teaching and practice that revival and evangelism are events judged by numbers and anointing produce several areas of question. Most of the questions being asked about Lakeland, for example, do not go deep enough. We question where the furniture is placed inside the box but do not question the box!
1/ Can you believe the numbers?
Somebody tracked the number of decisions being reported by evangelistic ministries in Ukraine between 1995 and 2000. Their numbers added up to five times the total population! In trying to verify the source of this statement, I heard similar statements regarding evangelism in Russia. Even if the numbers of descisions were “only” equal to the total population the numbers are suspect. One ministry leader with whom I shared this said, “Well, many go forward several times!” Really! I was told to stop questioning and confronting “or I would lose ministry opportunities”.
A friend discovered that his crusades in India were packed with already christians bused in to create a crowd and coached on coming forward in increasing numbers as the crusade progressed to create excitement. The partner had reported planting sixty churches out of the crusade when he did not have a single congregation.
Basically you can have as large a crusade in India or Africa as you can afford to pay for. Things in the West are more sophisticated but does the media hype create the revival or does the revival create the media hype? Why are miracle stories presented with such conviction but so hard to verify? Why would the team at Lakeland tell one friend to stop questioning when he was seeking verification of the miracles?"
More tomorrow! Meanwhile....maybe it's time to start asking a few questions in the circles where we travel. What are we doing? Why do we do that? What should we stop doing? What should we start doing? What should we do differently? Got the idea?
Go for it!
:)
