---

We charismatics have been blessed with a season of spiritual refreshing during the last seven years. Some say it came to the United States from South Africa. Others say it blew north from Argentina like some kind of Latin hurricane. Others say it swept down from Canada after the Toronto Blessing erupted in 1994.

For many of us it didn’t hit until the next year when an outbreak of revivalist fervor at a Pentecostal church in Florida made national headlines. Those lively meetings at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola spread a fire that transformed cold, traditional churches all over the country–from western Michigan to the Pacific Northwest to tiny towns like Smithton, Missouri.

Many of us became addicted to the revival experience. We read Tommy Tenney’s The God Chasers and became rabid pursuers of the Holy Spirit’s presence. We broke free from personal bondage after reading T.D. Jakes’ books. Some of us went to revival meetings three and four nights a week, desperate for a touch from God. We ran to the altar countless times, seeking one more divine encounter.

We soaked in the anointing. We saturated ourselves in the glory. We saw heavenly gold dust on the pews, felt oil running from our hands or smelled the fragrance of the Lord. We fell to the floor, overcome by His power. We trembled, shook, shouted and danced as we celebrated our own personal Pentecost.

It was wonderful. It was necessary. It burned the religiosity out of us. But guess what? We can’t make this place of refreshing our home. In fact, if we stay there we will miss God’s ultimate destination.

The early church had their upper room experience. They felt the rushing wind of the Spirit and saw mighty tongues of fire. But after they were empowered they moved into the streets. Their passion prompted them to preach. They took what they received and gave it away. They left the 99 sheep and went after the lost. They knew the fire wasn’t for them to toy with. It was fuel for their mission.

If a revival is to truly impact a generation, it must transition into evangelism. It can’t be contained, bottled up or hidden in a building with doors and stained glass. It is not for the chosen few. The anointing is for the multitudes.

Many of us are addicted to the charismatic euphoria of yesterday, not realizing that God has moved on. We are stuck in a time warp, struggling to shift from the refreshing of 1994 to the revival of 2001–a movement that is destined to impact unbelievers on a scale we can’t imagine.

It’s time to get off the floor. How many times do we need to be slain in the Spirit before we will begin sharing the gospel with our neighbors and co-workers? How many more doses of the anointing do we need before we will go out into the harvest where the Lord is waiting to demonstrate His power? How many prophecies do you need to receive before you will believe you are called to minister?

Please stop hiding inside the church. God knows the lost aren’t going to come in that uninviting building, so He has already gone outside to look
for them. So should we.

Many Washington, D.C., insiders say prayer played a key role in the 2000 presidential election. They believe Christians are effectively shaping public policy behind the scenes.

---

A young, dark-haired woman smiles at the guard on duty as she checks her tote bag and keys at the security counter. After passing through the metal-detector checkpoint, she quietly takes a seat in the visitor’s gallery of the United States Senate. Dressed in a blue blazer and black slacks, she could easily be mistaken for just another tourist.

In hushed tones, her guide stealthily points out a few of the senators on the floor below, and then hands her a list of some of the key issues being debated today.

With eyes wide open, the young prayer warrior goes to work. Silently, but passionately, she prays for God’s blessing to overtake these leaders, for Him to give them wisdom in their decisions, and for righteousness to prevail in our nation’s capital. This morning, she is part of an organization of on-site intercessors who have been praying undercover in the U.S. Senate, House and various committee rooms since 1994.

Later that night at one of the many prayer houses in Washington, D.C., several people make their way down the narrow stairs into the small room that is filled almost to capacity. Some are dressed in business suits, others in jeans and sweatshirts. Diverse in race and age, the group has assembled for one purpose.

“Lord, we’ve come to seek Your face for this city and this nation,” cries a young man seated on the floor. Others join in with similar petitions as heartfelt intercession fills the room and flows heavenward. This meeting and others like it are evidence that in a city where spirituality has often been cloaked in religious formality or disregarded with cynical skepticism, the Holy Spirit is moving, bringing a promise of renewed spiritual passion to our nation’s capital.

Signs of Change

To those who have been praying undercover in Washington, D.C., for the last several years, it seems as if the windows of heaven have recently been opened and that a spirit of refreshment has descended on Capitol Hill. Not since Jimmy Carter has a president been more outspoken about his spiritual beliefs than the 43rd president, George W. Bush. As one who says he has “learned the power of prayer,” Bush now joins the front line of those who believe prayer can make a difference in the capital.

“While there hasn’t been much encouragement for a strong culture of faith on Capitol Hill in the last few years, that is changing,” says Frank Wright, director of the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship. “If you ask any long-term staffers who have been on the Hill for the last 10 to 15 years, they will tell you that there is indeed a kind of spiritual revival taking place. I would say there has been at least a tenfold increase in spiritual interest in the last 15 years.”

That increased interest can be seen in the proliferation of Bible study and prayer groups on Capitol Hill led by various ministries, staffers and members of Congress themselves. Lloyd Ogilvie, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, says he has seen an authentic renewal of personal prayer as well as Bible study and prayer groups among the senators and throughout the Senate staff.

“I’m encouraged by the fact that leaders in government are recognizing their need for supernatural wisdom, discernment, vision and strength,” Ogilvie told Charisma.

No one seems to know exactly how many Bible studies and prayer groups are actually taking place on Capitol Hill, but a conservative estimate puts it at about 30 per week. Some studies, such as the Congressional Bible Study, have between 50 and 60 members. Other prayer and accountability groups have just five or six participants.

Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., meets every Wednesday morning with a group of six other congressmen for fellowship and prayer in one of their offices. His wife, Anne, believes prayer is essential for their survival in Washington.

“Our prayer as a couple is the most important,” Anne says. “Then we both have prayer and Bible study groups on the Hill.” Anne attends a weekly Bible study for congressional wives sponsored by the Christian Embassy, a group founded by Bill Bright in 1975 to minister to leaders in government and their families.

Anne says that serving in Washington is a 24-hour-a-day job. “No one understands the life [of a public servant] except those who are living it with you.”

Kimberly Genau, who serves as Capitol Hill liaison for the D. James Kennedy Center, comes closest to knowing what Anne means. She spends her day ministering and praying with staffers, interns and wives of congressmen and senators.

“The level of warfare is very different here than anywhere else,” Genau says. “There are many strongholds that come against our leaders in the form of power, pride and immorality. They need our prayers daily.”

Many leaders are now boldly asking for prayer support from other Christians. At a recent pro-life breakfast in Kansas, Rep. Ryun told supporters, “We’re willing to fight, if you’re willing to pray.”

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has echoed Ryun’s call: “I don’t mind being on the front lines, but I need your prayers,” he says.

The recognition of the need to uphold leaders in prayer and to support them through various ministries has birthed more than a dozen spiritual organizations that target Capitol Hill and the city of Washington.

One example is a town house behind the Supreme Court that has been the site of weekly prayer for those serving in government since 1991, when Harry Valentine invited friends to pray during the Senate battle to confirm Clarence Thomas. Rob Schenck, co-founder of Faith and Action ministry, purchased the town house in 1999. Those who pass by can’t miss the prominent sign in the front yard displaying the Ten Commandments.

Arriving in Washington in 1994 with a call from God to minister to both elected and appointed officials in the government, Schenck quickly learned that those who work on Capitol Hill are well-insulated from the public.

“I began riding the elevators in the various government buildings early in the mornings and late at night,” Schenck remembers. “I’d be standing there, and the doors would open, and inside would be a senator or another official with whom I had sought unsuccessfully to get an appointment. Those elevators became a virtual ‘vertical chapel’ where God provided opportunities for me to share and pray with many leaders.”

In addition to the group’s ministry to people one-on-one, Faith in Action has presented more than 300 beautiful stone artwork tablets of the Ten Commandments to elected and appointed officials, asking them to display and obey them.

“I’ll never forget the day I ran into Sen. Joseph Leiberman while riding the underground subway between the Senate offices and the Capitol,” Schenck recalls. “I had the opportunity to speak to him about several issues. He later became the first senator to accept and display the Ten Commandments plaque in his office. He even asked for one in Hebrew for his home office.”

Operation Higher Court, a third outreach of Faith and Action, offers prayer and ministry to the Supreme Court justices. “The Supreme Court is the most insulated and isolated branch of the U.S. government,” Schenck says. “They do not interface with the public, so we’ve literally had to pray our way in there each step of the way.”

Just 24 hours after the historic Supreme Court ruling in the Bush vs. Gore election decision, Schenck attended a private reception hosted by Justice Antonio Scalia. Schenck reports that during a one-on-one conversation, Scalia asked for his prayers and the prayers of the people.

“I was taken aback by his humility and sincerity,” Schenck says. “I could tell he meant it. It was not just a platitude, but a genuine appeal for intercession on his behalf.”

Reclaiming the Capital

Sandy Grady, international prayer coordinator for Wall Builders and a regional director for the Strategic Prayer Network, moved to the area in 1974 with a similar call to pray for the government and its leaders. In addition to teaching groups how to pray for our government, Grady often conducts prayer walks throughout the city, leads prayer tours in the Capitol and spearheads on-site “swat teams” of intercessors for strategic prayer battles in the city.

“When I first started praying in the city, I hardly saw anyone else here praying,” Grady remembers. “But now people come to our nation’s capital all the time just to pray on-site. Recently, I was in front of the Supreme Court building and overheard two people sitting on the steps quietly praying. I introduced myself

and found out they were both airline employees from Fort Worth, Texas, who felt led to come to D.C. for the day and to pray in front of the Supreme Court.”

Ken Wilde, pastor of Capital Christian Center in Boise, Idaho, has been bringing groups of intercessors to the capital city to pray on-site for the last five years. Boosted by the fact that his church is home to former Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth-Hage, Wilde speaks to pastors and churches across the nation, encouraging them to pray for our leaders.

Just last year Wilde’s church founded the National Prayer Center in Washington, D.C., for the purpose of on-site prayer. Forty groups of intercessors from various churches are scheduled to come to the center in 2001.

Other prayer houses remain hidden throughout the city, hosting local and out-of-town guests who come to the city to pray. Many, like Hanna Ness, 20, say that coming to Washington to pray has given them
a new passion and love for the country. “I believe God loves this nation and that He isn’t going to let it go,” Ness says.

Many local church groups and ministries also regularly pray at various sites in the District. Intercessory groups from churches in Maryland and Virginia have networked together and often prayer walked Capitol Hill and other areas of the city.

Pastors Dennis and Donna Pisani of Glory Tabernacle Church in Washington have made prayer a priority since they established their church in 1992. “From the very beginning we felt God say that He was going to move from the streets of D.C. to the corridors of the Capitol,” Donna says.

Every Thursday night for the last five years, at least two dozen intercessors from Glory Tabernacle have met to pray at various sites throughout the city. “We pray wherever God leads us week to week,” says Sandy Grady, who heads up intercession at the church. “We have prayed in the Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court, at various prayer houses, on university campuses and in the inner city.”

Art and Sharon Snow, pastors of Brentwood Foursquare Church in Bladensburg, Maryland, are helping churches encircle the city in prayer with their Prayer Around the Beltway guide. Art says the impetus behind this prayer guide came from a historic battle in the War of 1812 that was fought in his own backyard. During this battle, American troops retreated and opened up the corridor into Washington, allowing the British to enter and burn the city.

Believing that God wanted to change this corridor from “a place of retreat to a place of advance,” Snow drove the entire 64-mile beltway around the city, recording specific prayer focuses for each of the 38 exits.

Sharon Snow recently had a vision that the prayers encircling the city of Washington were putting a rope around the feet of a giant enemy. “As more and more churches come together in prayer,” Snow believes, “the rope will get tighter and tighter around the feet of the enemy, and the powers over the city will fall.”

Perhaps those traditional strongholds binding our nation’s capital have already started to fall. Intercession leaders say it was an answer to concerted prayer when bad weather prompted the use of a Bush family Bible at the recent presidential inauguration rather than a 1767 King James edition used by George Washington and several other presidents.

Several ministries had issued prayer alerts about the Masonic Bible–the one traditionally used when a new president is sworn into office–warning that it could have spiritual consequences because of the movement’s secret rituals linked to the occult. But just before the ceremony began, representatives of the New York Masonic Lodge that owns the Bible decided it was too fragile to be exposed to the inclement weather. Intercessory prayer teams view the incident as evidence that prayer is bringing change in the spiritual climate of the capital.

A Call to Prayer

Many prayer leaders believe that prayer is not only changing Capitol Hill, but the city of Washington as well. Susan Michael, coordinator for U.S./D.C. Prayer Watch says her organization has targeted the city and the local government in prayer for the last several years.

“We’re seeing a real turnaround in the local government, in businesses and in the real estate market,” Michael says. “The immigration to the suburbs has begun to turn around, and people are moving back into the city.”

According to recent statistics, crime in the District of Columbia fell 32 percent from 1993 to 1998 and dropped another 14 percent in 1999. These figures far exceed the national average of a 12 percent decline.

The spiritual landscape in Washington has not always been as fertile as it is today. Ruth Cox Mizell remembers it being more of a desert 20 years ago. When former President George H.W. Bush ran for the Senate in 1964 in Texas, Mizell served as his campaign manager. Later, when Bush won his vice-presidential election, he asked Mizell what she would like to do in Washington. “I’d just like to pray for you,” she told Bush.

“Those were very lonely years back then,” Mizell says, “with not a lot of prayer going on in the capital.”

But no matter how dry the spiritual climate has been at times, there have always been a few faithful pockets of prayer in the capital. Johnny Johnson, former assistant secretary of the Navy during the Nixon administration, paved the way for the first prayer groups on Capitol Hill with a monthly prayer breakfast in the Rayburn Senate Building.

In 1973, Gary Bergel and his wife moved to Washington after Intercessors for America was chartered at a conference in Plymouth, Massachusetts. “We agreed to help put out a monthly newsletter to unite people in prayer for our government and to establish a day of prayer and fasting on the first Friday of each month,” Bergel says.

Corinthia Boone, one of the early pioneers of prayer for the city and the nation, has been praying for revival since she was a young girl. In 1985 she founded Together in Ministry, an organization that calls pastors from the metropolitan area together in prayer. She also helped to establish the 24-hour Revival Prayer Watch, in which 365 churches each take a 24-hour period of prayer.

The National Day of Prayer has been celebrated in our nation’s capital since it was signed into law in 1952 by President Truman. This year’s celebration on May 3 marks the 50th anniversary of the event. National director Shirley Dobson estimates that more than 2 million people will be praying for the nation that day.

Turning this nation back to its godly heritage was the purpose behind two of the largest Christian prayer gatherings ever to assemble on the Mall in Washington. Promise Keeper’s Stand in the Gap rally on Oct. 4, 1997, and the recent The CallDC event on Sept. 2, 2000, called together fathers, mothers, teens and children to repentance, prayer and fasting for the nation.

The CallDC, with its follow-up 40-day fast, was one of the most significant prayer initiatives to take place in our nation’s capital, Bergel says, “because God has waited for such a long time for the emerging church to be about its prayer business.” Bergel believes prayer is having a powerful effect and that these gatherings were crucial to what God wants to do in the United States.

Along with thousands of intercessors across the country, he believes that the power of God to set our nation on a new course will be released as believers and governmental leaders answer the Holy Spirit’s call to prayer.

Did Prayer Put Bush in Office?

Some Christians believe the controversial 2000 election was determined by an army of intercessors.

While the tumultuous 2000 presidential election popularized terms such as “dimpled chads” and gave rise to slogans such as “Every Vote Counts” and “Sore Loserman,” Christian leaders across the United States brought some less popular words into
public awareness: repentance, fasting and prayer.

One of those leaders was Dutch Sheets, pastor of Springs Harvest Fellowship in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In an interview with Charisma, Sheets detailed the call to intercession that swept across his congregation on Oct. 4, 2000, during a Wednesday evening service. “God spoke to us about the battle over the coming election,” Sheets remembers, “saying that if the election had been held then, His man would not win.”

The next Friday, Sheets shared this call through an e-mail that reached thousands of Christians across the country. “It was incredible to me how the body of Christ picked this up and ran with it,” Sheets says. “If God had not done what He had in the previous 10 years of networking prayer in this nation, I don’t think it would have happened.”

Sheets says the call to prayer was nonpartisan. “I don’t put my faith in a party or a person,” he says. “My prayer was, ‘God, give us a president who will have Your heart and help turn this nation back to You.'”

Meanwhile, in Florida, a statewide network of intercessors quietly prepared for an anticipated but as yet undefined battle. Jonathan Benz, pastor of prayer and outreach at Covenant Centre International Church in West Palm Beach, says the Holy Spirit spoke to him in July 1998
that Palm Beach County would be pivotal in determining who would sit in the White House during the next presidential term.

In August 1998 the church began praying for the 2000 election and even began sending intercessors from Florida to Washington, D.C., to pray at the Capitol. Benz also began networking with prayer ministries across his state. By the time the election took place, there were prayer ministries in 55 out of 67 counties in Florida.

In September 1999, Chuck Pierce, president of Glory of Zion Ministries in Denton, Texas, shared with Benz’s congregation a prophetic word that the eyes of the world would be on West Palm Beach in the near future. Pierce also told them that if the intercessors would pray with authority they could turn the nation in the right direction.

“We heeded the prophetic words we’d been receiving for two years, so we weren’t surprised when these events came about,” says Benz, speaking of the election crisis that put Palm Beach County in the news. “But we were overwhelmed by being so quickly put in the spotlight. Press from all over the world reported on the prayer effort in Florida, and amazingly, the reports were all favorable.”

What difference did all these prayer efforts make? “If the church had not prayed, I don’t believe we would have had an inauguration in January,” Benz says. “We were heading down a road toward a constitutional crisis.”

Sheets believes that our nation is going to begin to see the fulfillment of 2 Chronicles 7:14 because of the prayer, fasting and repentance that has taken place. But he also strongly feels that if the prayer effort slows after the election, then we’ve failed as a church. “There must come a more sustained prayer movement in America that is part of our normal, everyday lives,” Sheets says. “If this takes place, then I believe we’re going to see incredible breakthroughs in the next year or two.”

Prayer: A Capital Offense

It’s OK to pray in the Capitol, but don’t bow your head on the steps of the Supreme Court–you might get arrested.

It is the evening of Dec. 3, in Washington, D.C. Television crews and news media vans line the street in front of the U.S. Supreme Court buildling, awaiting tomorrow’s historic ruling. A line of people hoping for one of the 50 available public seats in the courtroom forms on the right and snakes around the corner for another block. Directly in front of the building, a prayer vigil draws the attention of the Supreme Court police.

From across the street, Pat Mahoney, executive director of the Christian Defense Coalition, watches the vigil he has helped organize. Mahoney, who has been banned from coming within 50 feet of the steps of the Supreme Court building, has been arrested at least 25 times in the last nine years for exercising free speech, holding prayer gatherings, carrying signs and praying on the steps of the Supreme Court building.

“There is an erosion of religious rights and freedoms in our nation, and particularly our nation’s capital, that we must stand against,” Mahoney told Charisma.

Indeed there is a paradox in our nation’s capital over the issue of religious freedom. Both houses of Congress open their sessions in prayer. Both have full-time chaplains. When the Supreme Court sits, a declaration is made: “God save the United States and this honorable court.” Yet a law-abiding citizen of the United States can be arrested for praying in or near a government building.

Pierre Bynum was threatened with arrest in November 1996 for bowing his head, closing his eyes and clasping hands with those in an out-of-town prayer group that he was leading through the Capitol. The police said it was a demonstration.

Bynum, a minister, decided to pursue legal action with the help of the American Center for Law and Justice. On April 3, 2000, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled that while the Capitol police regulation against demonstrations is justified to prevent disruptive conduct in the Capitol, Bynum’s action was in no way disruptive.

Bynum told local news media that his victory at the Capitol “gives people a little benchmark and the confidence that the Constitution is still alive, and still respected.”

“It’s shameful to see some of the excuses that are used to restrict religious expression in the name of maintaining public order,” says Frank Wright, director of the D. James Kennedy Center of Christian Statesmanship. “People’s rights are taken away in subtle ways that are couched in terms that seem to be very reasonable. The reaction of the Capitol police is simply a reflection of what’s going on in the culture.”

Wright believes the whole concept of separation of church and state is grossly misunderstood in our day. “The current conception of separation of church [and state] is less than 50 years old and comes from recent Supreme Court decisions,” Wright says. “It’s going to take a return to a judicial philosophy that recognizes that the current interpretation is a novel and even unconstitutional one.”

At the annual National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 1, George W. Bush told 4,000 guests that the federal government in its zeal to maintain a separation of church and state has been punishing religious institutions.

“The days of discriminating against religious institutions simply because they are religious must come to an end,” Bush said. “We do not prescribe any prayer; we welcome all prayer. This is the tradition of our nation, and it will be the standard of my administration.”

While the nation awaits what could be a monumental shift in the philosophy and practice of separation of church and state, it appears that the right to pray in or near buildings such as the Capitol and Supreme Court will have to be won building by building.

Blacks Say Bush Wasn’t ‘God’s Man’

Many African American Christians are offended by the suggestion that prayer put

George W. Bush in office. They say the Republican Party represents oppression.

As Christians in South Florida prayed that “God’s man” would win the turbulent election, members of New Birth Baptist Church in Miami convened to
protest voting irregularities in Florida, which they say disenfranchised black voters.

New Birth pastor Bishop Victor T. Curry, who is also head of the Miami/Dade County chapter of the NAACP, contends that thousands of Florida voters were mistakenly identified as convicted felons or as having registered twice and were not allowed to vote. A disproportionate number of them were blacks. “God has a perfect will and a permissive will,” Curry says. “God wouldn’t have to cheat for His man to become president.”

Recent polls show that more than 70 percent of blacks support both school vouchers and school prayer, but among African Americans, moral issues such as those and abortion often take a back seat to bread-and-butter concerns such as affirmative action, health care and education. While 57 percent of born-again voters chose Bush, according to a Barna Research Group study, polls show that more than 90 percent of black Protestants voted for Al Gore.

Though he admits that he cannot not speak for all African Americans, Curry expresses strong distrust for the Republican agenda, arguing that the party of Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, now has little regard for the poor. “They want to make sure the rich get richer,” he says. “I don’t believe they promote the biblical Christ; they promote the Republican Christ.”

African Americans have voted Democratic since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal era in the 1940s. Yet during the 2000 election, black Christian leaders such as Carlton Pearson and Kirbyjon Caldwell began calling on blacks to rethink their stance. Caldwell, an Independent and pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer in support of Bush, claiming that his faith-based initiatives could bring urban revival.

Caldwell also gave the benediction at Bush’s inauguration, praying that God’s favor would be on outgoing President Clinton as well as on Bush, and that America would have “the faith to believe that walls of inequity can be torn down, and the gaps between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, the uneducated and the educated can and will be closed.”

His wife, Suzette Caldwell, who leads Windsor Village’s Prayer Center, says that during the election the church simply prayed for God’s will. “We did not have a specific prayer strategy for Mr. Bush,” she told Charisma. “We prayed for the will of God to be done in the area of Bible says we are to pray for those who have rule over us so we can have peace.”

She also noted that in Texas, Bush won less than 10 percent of the black vote during his first election for governor, then an unprecedented 27 percent in his re-election. “President Bush again will have to prove that he is the president of all people,” she says.

And her prayers are still consistent. “While President Clinton had some personal do believe the Lord used [his] leadership,” Caldwell says. “The Bible tells us the heart of the king is in the Lord’s hands. The Lord can use anyone.”

---

Sandra Chambers is a free-lance writer based in Fairfax, Virginia, and a regular contributor to Charisma, covering news in the Washington, D.C., area. For information about the National Day of Prayer go to

---

Q. I am 42 and suffer from fatigue. My comprehensive physical exam and blood work were normal. I am not depressed, and I sleep eight hours. What’s wrong?
–T.S., Wilson, N.C.

A. I congratulate you for having a physical examination and blood test, since this is the first step I advise. Unfortunately, most cases of fatigue have multiple causes.

For example, though you sleep for eight hours, you might not be entering the deep, rejuvenating Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep. During these stages your body recharges and restores your energy, allowing you to wake up refreshed.

But more important, if you are chronically fatigued, then it is likely you are in the “exhaustion stage” of what is called the General Adaptation Syndrome. Dr. Hans Selye researched the symptoms of this syndrome in the 1950s and discovered that as the body experiences physical stressors, it enters three distinct and progressive stages.

Alarm. In this first stage, a “fight or flight” reaction causes the hormones adrenaline and cortisol to elevate for a while, empowering the body for action. As the sense of alarm subsides, these hormone levels return to normal.

Resistance. The body is set up for this second stage when any stressor–such as divorce, financial difficulty, sickness, a child on drugs or other situations in which a person loses a sense of control–continues for a prolonged period. During resistance, the hormones can stay elevated for months and even years.

Exhaustion. After years at the resistance stage, the body eventually reaches exhaustion. By this time, adrenaline and cortisol are decreased, and further stimulation of the adrenal glands does not elevate these hormones adequately. This syndrome, I find, is one of the most common reasons for chronic fatigue that is unexplained during a physical exam.

Anyone in the exhaustion stage of the General Adaptation Syndrome is very susceptible to reactions to food and inhalant allergies and, thus, even greater fatigue. Fatigue is linked to decreased immune function and recurrent bacterial, viral and yeast infections.

For exhaustion, you first must restore adrenal function. For men, I recommend DHEA, 50 mg (milligrams) a day; for women, pregnenolone, 50mg-100 mg twice a day. Before starting, I suggest a DHEA-S and PSA blood test by your physician. I also recommend an adrenal glandular supplement.

You need to take both a comprehensive multivitamin and a chlorophyll drink, and it is critically important for you to get adequate sleep and follow a low-sugar diet.

Q. Many people have told me that the best time to exercise is in the evening, since it keeps the metabolic rate higher. Do you agree?
–J.A., Umatilla, Ore.

A. I believe the best time to exercise is when you are able to–and it’s best to schedule it as you would any other appointment.

It’s true that if you exercise late in the afternoon or in the early evening your metabolic rate will be increased. However, if you exercise too close to bedtime it may interfere with your sleep, so you should schedule your exercise for at least four hours before going to bed.

Probably the best time to exercise to burn the most fat is first thing in the morning–before you’ve eaten. This is because the body’s sugar reserves, which it uses for fuel, are lower, and as the body depletes its sugar stores it starts to burn fat for fuel.

The body depends on sugar as its main fuel source, and to reserve that fuel it stores it in the liver and muscle cells as glycogen. During sleep, the body uses up much of its glycogen stores–and when the glycogen is depleted, the body shifts from burning sugar as fuel to burning fat.

When you wake up, drink 8 ounces to 16 ounces of water before you work out. Do weight lifting first because it will further deplete glycogen stores.

Work out for about 20 minutes to 30 minutes with weights and then begin an aerobic exercise such as brisk walking or cycling. As you do your aerobic activity, you will probably be burning primarily fat as fuel.

---

Donald Colbert, M.D., is a board-certified family physician who practices nutritional medicine. Visit his Web site at for more on health and nutrition or go to for his books by Siloam Press. Send questions to Doctor’s Orders, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746.

Ray Comfort’s bold street reaching makes people nervous, but he wants even the most timid Christian to learn to witness with confidence.

Crowds of people stroll along the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California, on a busy Friday night. Some stop at the shops and outdoor restaurants on the wide sealed-off street, while others continue to the massive shopping mall at one end.

Groups stop to watch the free outdoor acts performing in the center of the street. Green-faced mimes polish imaginary windows, break-dancers do twirling headstands on cardboard mats, a drummer sits on a crate and rattles out a solo on pots and pans.

Beneath a sign that advertises The Psychic Cat, a long-haired white Persian cat wearing a purple robe that matches the one worn by his olive-skinned owner claws at a stick tipped with green catnip. His irresistible pursuit causes the end of the stick to dip into a box and clamp one of the many rolled up horoscopes. The proprietor unrolls the astrological forecast and reads it seriously to his customer.

A few yards away, inside a roped-off area, a small man named Ray Comfort stands on a stool at a microphone addressing the crowd and pointing a silver automobile antenna at a chart of the Ten Commandments. At his feet is a prop–a mummy that he’s named Lazarus.

Comfort isn’t on the Promenade tonight to give or receive a theatrical thrill or to siphon a few bucks from generous passers-by who like his shtick. His routine is strictly serious business. Though it’s Friday evening, Ray Comfort is holding church.

His salvation sideshow has appeared here nearly every Friday night for the last four years. With his blend of come-ons and comebacks rarely seen outside the Improv, he takes on all comers.

He even prays with his team beforehand that God will grace him with hecklers. He knows they draw crowds, and that’s what he wants.

Tonight, a burly guy named John has unwittingly become the answer to Comfort’s prayer and is fulfilling the heckler’s role. A crowd has gathered at the sound of his taunts. Outside the roped perimeter John stands at a second microphone and screams repeatedly at Comfort, “If I love God, why the hell do I need to be born again?”

Comfort would be more than happy to lead him to Christ, but John will have no part of it. John is what Comfort calls the hardest kind of person to reach–a professing Christian who wants nothing to do with the radical gospel message.

“A lot of Christians don’t like what I’m saying,” Comfort says. “I try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and speak of sin, righteousness and judgment. Often that will offend professing Christians. Often they will flip me off and use a four-letter word before they leave.”

Since arriving in the United States from his native New Zealand 14 years ago, Comfort has been shaking up shopping-mall sinners and pew-bound saints alike. Perhaps not since Jesus–or at least since Dwight L. Moody–has an evangelist used the Ten Commandments so often or effectively.

For church members his message is as unapologetic as it is for unbelievers: The truly saved who have escaped the wrath of God will always come outside the church walls to keep their fellow man from burning.

Comfort isn’t the kind to hesitate at an opportunity to strike the rock-hard complacency that he believes typifies American Christianity. He claims that 80 percent of people converted at crusades are doomed to backslide. Churches are filled with “false converts,” he says–victims of the “peace, joy and love” gospel that’s been preached for decades.

Comfort’s message is clear: Sin is a disease, and there is no cure for it but Jesus. It doesn’t matter to him if he’s preaching to a boisterous Santa Monica crowd on Friday night or to an attentive church congregation on Sunday morning. For Comfort, it’s the message that counts.

Telling Hell’s Best-Kept Secret

If Comfort sounds like something out of a past century, that’s no accident. As often as he quotes the Bible he cites preachers and evangelists of old, such as Charles Spurgeon, Charles Finney, John Wesley, D.L. Moody and even Jonathan Edwards–the colonial “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” preacher himself. Using illustrations, parables and anecdotes–and talking faster than a cattle auctioneer–he renounces modern evangelistic methods, complacency in believers and the so-called saved who have never sincerely repented.

At once glib, blunt and reeking with satirical humor, he has shared his zeal in more than 700 churches and 4,000 open-air services and spreads it regularly via the 350,000 tracts his Living Waters Publications distributes every month. Hundreds of churches use his 18-video series, Excellence in Evangelism.

He has written 35 books, including How to Win Souls & Influence People and The Evidence Bible, which teaches how to refute evolution and prove God’s existence and the authenticity of the Bible. The cover of his latest book shows Stephen being stoned to death (see Acts 7:57-60) and is titled God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life: The Myth of the Modern Message.

His signature book, Hell’s Best Kept Secret, has sold more than 100,000 copies, and the audio edition even more. His message has riddled the heart of modern evangelism.

Comfort’s basic theology and methodology are as simple as they are scriptural. They came to him in his native Christchurch, New Zealand, during an era when he preached each day in Cathedral Square.

One day he was reading a Spurgeon sermon that asked: “What will you do when the law comes in terror, when the trumpet of the archangel tears you from your grave, when the eyes of God shall burn into your guilty soul, when the book shall be open and all your
sin and shame be punished? Can you stand against the angry law in that day?”

Says Comfort: “I remember looking at that and saying to myself, ‘That’s a little different than “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”‘”

The next week he was in a church waiting to speak when he opened his Bible and happened to spot Romans 3:20: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (KJV).

“I saw that the law was a schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ,” he says. “I wondered if I could use the same law, the Ten Commandments, to do the same thing.”

He started asking those in the crowd at Cathedral Square if they had ever told a lie, even a small one; had ever stolen, even a paper clip; had ever lusted after a person, with even a passing glance. All would admit they had.

“Well, then,” he would proclaim, “according to the Ten Commandments and in the eyes of God, you’re a lying and thieving adulterer. Now, when you stand before God, how will He judge you? Will you go to heaven or hell?”

Comfort believes that before he can tell people there is a cure for their sin, he has to convince them they have the disease.

“So what I do is talk about sin, open up the Ten Commandments, show the reason for the cross and say that God commands all men to repent,” Comfort says. “They have to see the need of a Savior before they really accept a Savior.”

Prayers, Punches and Preaching

Back at the Promenade in Santa Monica, John the heckler is one of those who hasn’t seen his own need for a Savior. He’s still angry–and he’s now insisting he has passed Comfort’s sinless test and has never lied, stolen or lusted.

He demands the $20 Comfort promises to anyone passing the test. Many in the gathering crowd voice approval and agreement. Comfort pulls a bill from his wallet, walks over to John and hands him $20. John takes the money and quickly disappears into the moving crowd.

He’s gone, and his anger with him–a testament, perhaps, to the fact that Comfort approaches his outdoor sessions with prayer and refuses to walk in fear. “I’ve never heard of a Christian in America today being stoned or burned at the
stake for preaching open-air,” he notes.

Of course, that doesn’t stop people from becoming irate with Comfort in public. Recently a woman started cursing him while he preached. He asked her to stop, saying, “There are ladies present.” When the woman replied that she was a lady, he told her, “Madam, you may be a woman, but you are no lady.”

“She charged me like a bat out of heaven,” he recalls. “As she was hitting me I was thinking this isn’t the normal way a lady fights. They usually poke and slap, but she was actually punching, like Mike Tyson. She landed six good punches before my team pulled her off me.”

She asked to get her purse, and the team let go of her, only to watch her deliver one more solid kidney punch to Comfort. “But it was worth it,” he said. “She doubled my crowd.”

Comfort is willing to debate in public, much like the apostle Paul did on Mars Hill in Athens (see Acts 17:16-32). He even patterns his preaching methods from the book of Acts, moving the listeners from the natural to the spiritual, speaking to the crowd about Jesus by way of the law of Moses and by citing the accuracy of the prophets. The prophecies, he says, speak to the intellect, and the law of Moses speaks to the conscience.

Adds the evangelist: “The thing to do is strip a sinner of his self-righteousness, and the way to do that is by moral law. On Mars Hill,
Paul touched their conscience by showing them they had transgressed the first and second commandments with their idolatry.

“When we do that, we’ll see people soundly saved. Without the knowledge of sin in the heart, there is no repentance and no true salvation.”

That’s the message Comfort brought with him in 1987 when he first came to the United States. He came to hold a seminar and was prepared to deliver his teaching on “Hell’s Best Kept Secret,” but no one showed up.

The next year he was preaching his message in Hawaii when pastor Garry Ansdell heard it, rejected it at first, then researched it scripturally. He became convinced it was not only sound but revolutionary.

He called Comfort in New Zealand and offered him a position as pastor of evangelism at his Hosanna Chapel in the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower. In 1989, Ray and his wife, Sue, and children Jacob, Rachel and Daniel moved to the United States.

At first he received few invitations to share a message many clergy considered counterproductive to evangelism. In 1992, Bible teacher Bill Gothard saw Comfort’s video and had him speak in a church in San Jose, California.

Impressed, Gothard copied the video and within a year showed it to 30,000 pastors. The same year, Teen Challenge founder David Wilkerson asked Comfort to speak at his Times Square Church in New York and later commented, “You will want to play and replay [his] message until you understand it.”

Idaho pastor Chris Stockwell said he has listened to Comfort’s one-hour audio tape 250 times. California pastor Ken Armstrong said it moved him to tears. In a recent e-mail, one woman said she used the message during a prison Bible study and that 60 prisoners confessed Christ.

Terry Meeuwsen, a co-host of The 700 Club, says that Comfort “brings us a word that cuts to the core of man’s spiritual dilemma. To ignore it puts us in spiritual peril.”

Facing the Hecklers

It’s getting late, and the Friday night crowds now are dwindling at the Third Street Promenade. John the heckler is gone, and a young agnostic takes the microphone and asks why, if God is all-knowing, did He create imperfect man. Comfort explains that man was originally created perfect but fell because of his free will.

“What you are, even though you don’t realize it,” Comfort pronounces, “is a
self-admitted criminal holding the judge, who is perfect, in contempt for judging you.

“The Bible says, ‘Who are you to judge God?’ Get on your knees and ask God to forgive your sins.”

The man ignores the plea and with cynicism asks: “Are babies innocent, Ray? Then why do babies die, Ray?”

Comfort explains infants also are the fruit of Adam, that death passes to all men, but adds that babies are not accountable until their youth.

“I didn’t teach my kids to lie or be selfish,” he says. “It’s sin that lies in their heart, and it’s sin that is stopping you from finding everlasting life.

“You’re like a little kid holding a stick of dynamite, and you’re fascinated by the flame. But if you don’t throw it away, you will perish. Come to your senses and ask God to forgive you and create in you a clean heart. Put your faith in Jesus. You’ll never be the same.”

Later, Comfort points out that preaching a hell-fire message without using the law to teach people about sin and show them why God is angry with them can leave hearers bewildered and angry. He compares it with the police coming to a person’s house and arresting the occupant without saying why, instead of coming to the house and telling the occupant he’s being arrested because they have found 1,000 marijuana plants in his home.

He constantly fields questions about evolution, where Cain got his wife, why God allows evil or why He created Lucifer. Earlier in the evening, a man on the Promenade asked him how he knows there is a God.

“Look at that building over there,” Comfort had answered. “How do we know there is a builder? Because somebody built it.”

A half dozen of Comfort’s disciples have driven almost 24 hours from Canada to help him and to learn from him on this Friday night. Several of them mingle in the crowd, offering New Testaments, tracts and prayer. For the newly saved there is written information about local churches.

Yet this night repentance is not apparent. However, more than 5,000 people have walked past during the three-hour session, and several hundred have stopped to listen. No doubt, many would not have heard God’s Word in any other venue.

“I thank God that the apostles didn’t put carpet in the upper room and hang a sign out front saying ‘Service Tonight, All Welcome.’ They didn’t try to draw the people in. They went open-air and preached. I maintain that you can reach more unsaved people in one good half-hour of open-air preaching than the average church can in a year.”

It’s that kind of determination to confront sin publicly that in 1997 resulted in one of Comfort’s more unusual evangelistic efforts. He was driving his daughter Rachel through his neighborhood when she pointed out a billboard advertising a TV movie and showing Cleopatra laying on her stomach, nearly naked.

The next day he purchased a 16-foot ladder, climbed onto the billboard advertising the ABC movie and stapled a large orange blanket over the Egyptian queen’s body. He said he then sent a press release to 2,000 media outlets, admitting his crime and hoping to be arrested.

“With 67,000 registered sex offenders in California, I’d like to hear them justify putting up a billboard of a naked woman 300 yards from a public school,” he says.

A man of action, Comfort’s also a man of prayer, rising most nights about 1 a.m. to read the Bible, write his tracts and pray. If there is one abiding theme in his highly successful ministry, it is that during the last century believers have gotten soft on the kind of evangelism that brings true converts.

He boldly displays in his ministry office a poster that shows sinners drowning in a stormy sea beneath a dock where Christians are singing, ignoring the cries

of those slipping beneath the waves.

“I think we’ve become a gospel-hardened nation,” Comfort explains. “In the last 100 years we’ve lost the mandate of the church. What we’ve tried to do is attract sinners to the church rather than take the church to sinners.”

Just a Normal Christian?

The Promenade is almost empty. The evening has waned, and the crowds have too, and the green mimes, the break-dancers, the pots-and-pans drummer, and even the Psychic Cat have packed it in. A young man comes alongside Comfort and hands him a $20 bill to replace the one he gave John the heckler. The donor slips back into the crowd, never waiting to hear Comfort say thanks with a voice that’s grown hoarse.

In marketplace ministry like Comfort does, the fruits of labor are not always immediately available to taste. He savors the young man’s gift, smiling for a second before putting the bill in his wallet. Though he preaches in large churches 20 to 30 times a year, and though his books, videos and tracts end up in hundreds of other churches, Comfort is–and says he always will be–a street preacher.

When asked about the brutality of preaching a message about sin and God’s law in the middle of a busy shopping district on a Friday night in greater Los Angeles, he smiles again.

“Paul and the apostles preached everywhere they went,” he notes. “I think I’m just a normal biblical Christian.”

Tickets to Heaven

Ray Comfort will pay $1,000 to anyone who finds him without a gospel tract–even if he’s in a swimming pool.

The cafeteria in Bellflower, California, is busy serving a lunchtime business crowd that’s interested in eating and getting back to the office. Pastor Ray Comfort enters the serving line armed with wit, a wallet filled with gags and his ever-present tracts.

Just as an actor never quite leaves his current character or a comedian can’t keep from cracking jokes, Comfort is a preacher who never refrains from sharing the gospel. Though he attacks on many fronts, his chief weapon is a tract.

“The hardest thing about talking about God is bringing the subject up,” he says. “Most of us can talk in the natural: ‘How you doing? Nice weather.’ But it’s hard to bring God into it. These [tracts] do it for you.”

He shows the cashier a picture of himself with an elongated head and asks, “Do you need ID?” To pay he produces a blank plastic card embossed only with the words “Another Major Credit Card.” When a server passes the table, he stops her and to her delight turns her two $1 bills into a $5 bill. All get tracts.

In 1973, a New Zealand minister gave a $90 printing machine to Comfort–a newly converted, long-haired surfer. Then 23, Comfort cranked out 100 of his first tracts about the root cause of racism. Today his Living Waters Publications cranks out about 350,000 each month.

Subjects (and quips by Comfort) include the Titanic’s sinking (“It goes down well and is a great icebreaker”) and titles such as “101 of the World’s Funniest One-liners” (“If at first you don’t succeed, don’t try skydiving”); “The World’s Best Optical Illusions”; “The IQ Test” and “The Bible Is Full of Mistakes.”

Comfort insists that even the most timid Christian can use tracts. “Why not just leave a tract in a shopping cart and go home and pray that God will use it?” he asks. “Some [tracts] even have a 10-minute fuse–you can give it to someone and you have 10 minutes to get away before they know it’s a Christian tract.”

Almost every morning Comfort leaves his one-story office building, walks across the street to the Bellflower Municipal Court and passes out tracts to the line of people waiting to pay traffic tickets.

Comfort is always tactful and never tractless. He estimates he personally has handed out 150,000 tracts and will give $1,000 to anyone who finds him without a tract in his possession.

Someone challenged him to produce a tract once while he was swimming in a pool. He had one in his bathing trunks.

Convinced of their value, he makes 16 tracts available for downloading from his Web site, , free of charge. To Comfort, sharing the gospel personally is as natural as preaching it.

“Love must reach out,” he says. “Love cannot sit on a pew and watch others go to hell.”

Ed Donnally is a former newspaper reporter and a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.

Being a pastor is a fulfilling privilege–but it can be demanding, too. Here’s what every pastor wishes his sheep knew about their shepherd.

I just want to go to a place where nobody knows us!” my wife, Kelly, lamented. As I looked into her tender eyes, I identified with her frustration. A myriad of interruptions had sidetracked us from the date we had planned.

First we had to extinguish a rumor that our marriage was in trouble. Then we discovered that the new Igloo cooler we had loaned to a friend from church the week before would not be coming back. Next we had to explain to our two boys why they had gotten in trouble for playing on the church platform when other children hadn’t.

And just when we were about to leave on our night out, the phone rang. Expecting a family member, I picked it up–only to find a talkative saint instead. Not just any saint, but a needy one who could not be put off.

After all these distractions I found myself struggling to get back into a romantic mood. Though I was eager to spend time with my wife, I felt drained by the demands of ministry. For the most part, life as a pastor is very rewarding. But there are some things we pastors wish our sheep knew about their shepherds.

Living life in a “fishbowl” puts tremendous pressure on a pastor and his family. Pastors and their families live under a massive cloud of intrusiveness. They feel as if they are constantly being watched, evaluated and scrutinized. Though integrity may guard their footsteps, it cannot protect their emotions from the pressure of constant surveillance.

Some church folk seem to have an endless curiosity about the pastor and his family. Known as Christian paparazzi, these people doggedly pursue sensational stories about them.

“Do you know that the pastor lets his children watch Power Rangers on TV?”

“Do you know that his wife bought a two-piece swimsuit from Victoria’s Secret?”

“I hadn’t heard that, but I did overhear their 6-year-old talking about the horrible argument her parents had!”

This lack of privacy is oppressive. It makes ministry heavy, and if imposed long enough, can lead to burnout.

Small-town pastors have absolutely no anonymity. Pastors who live in a church parsonage suffer even more because their home is not theirs, but public domain.

Most Christians can empathize with celebrities or those who hold public office. They criticize the paparazzi for meddling in the private lives of public people. But they do not understand that their pastors often experience the same pressure.

As a pastor, I can handle it. I signed up for this job. On the other hand, my family didn’t, and they do not always know how to handle the pressure of life in a fishbowl.

As one goldfish said: “Living in the fishbowl is fine. It’s all those cats watching that make me nervous!”

Pastors have to say no to some of the activity in their lives. Saying “no” does not mean we don’t care. It simply means we care about our families and our health also. Pastors love their families and need to spend time with them.

My wife is the joy of my life, and my boys are the apple of my eye. When I have time away from work I can think of no place I would rather be than with them. My greatest joy and fulfillment is being refreshed by their presence and being able to add value to their lives.

Most sheep do not understand the incredible demands or expectations that are upon ministers to perform, provide and produce. We normally speak at least two times a week, and we want our messages to be inspiring and life-giving. But it takes quality time alone with God and periods of study to make them that way.

In addition, we are expected to counsel; lead a corporation; heal family relationships; build marriages; attend prayer meetings, fellowship groups, graduations, parties and baby dedications; raise money; build buildings; be involved in community events; oversee ministries; do hospital visitation; provide a 24-hour hot line service at home; and be model spouses and parents.

These are just a sample of the “expectations” placed on ministers! And all of them are important, all of them require time, and all of them take the minister away from his or her family.

Recently I was invited to address the graduating class of a school in another nation. The date of the event conflicted with my son’s sixth-grade graduation. I told my son, “You know how much I love the nations, preaching and encouraging others, and you know how much I love you. I want you to know I am willing to skip this trip to be at your graduation. Would you like that?”

With tears filling his eyes he said, “I’d like that, Dad.” In this case, it was easy to decide what to say no to!

It hurts pastors to see their children suffer at the hands of the sheep. In addition to feeling as if they are constantly being watched, pastors’ kids (PKs) suffer from the pressure of the expectations that are placed on them by members of the pastors’ congregations. This is one reason they often go bad. It’s an easy way to avoid having to fulfill the expectations–or having to face the failure of falling short.

Part of the frustration of PKs is that they are constantly confronted by people who think they know them because they know who their parents are. “Are you going to preach like your daddy or teach like your mama?” the people ask. The kids are treated like property of the local church that is boxed, tagged and filed away in a closet!

The end result is that no one takes time to get to know them. They are not seen as individuals having worth on their own but as extensions of their parents. This creates a tremendous identity crisis as well as much confusion and loneliness.

PKs also suffer when people try to use them to get to the pastors. Some sheep will slide a piece of candy into a PK’s hand and then begin to ask probing questions, seeking information about their idol–or their target–like a stalker.

Children and teens do not have the social skills to deal with this kind of pressure from adults. They should not be put into the position of being either a spokesperson for, or a defender of, their parents.

It is hard for PKs to be themselves. Because they are children of pastors, they are expected to behave properly, be spiritual and correctly answer all the Bible questions that are asked of them. Yet when they excel in these areas, people attribute their success to their parents!

“You got all that from your parents,” they say, or, “You’re the pastor’s kid.” Rather than recognizing that the children worked hard to do well, sheep, with such comments, strip away the personal identity that PKs have tried to develop.

The end result is that PKs begin to feel like actors on a stage. They aren’t real people, just characters trying to please a demanding audience. And inside, they begin to rebel against the hypocrisy and religiosity of those around them.

It hurts pastors to see their children lose their sense of identity and begin to “perform.” It hurts to watch them, when they finally tire of this game, turn away from all their parents hold dear–because they believe the church is responsible for their unhappiness.

Like most kids, PKs don’t want to be actors. They don’t want to hide behind masks that are not them. They want to be “real.” You can
help them–and your pastor–by loving and accepting them as they are and encouraging them to become all God intends for them to be.

Unrealistic expectations on the pastor’s spouse hinder the church from advancing. Contrary to popular belief, not every pastor’s spouse is called to co-pastor, play piano, sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, counsel and organize church dinners. Some spouses have their own careers that they enjoy. Others are content to be at home with the kids. Still others enjoy being actively involved in ministry.

But we must realize that each person has his own unique spiritual gift, and to force our expectations of what a pastor’s spouse–male or female–should do or be upon him is wrong. Confusion results when spouses try to be something they are not. They take on false guilt when they do not perform to the standards of others. And often they burn out when they are unable to minister out of their gifts and are forced to perform something that is not in their hearts to do.

A pastor’s spouse has a life, just like every other member of the congregation, and many times it involves juggling a career, home and church–a difficult feat. Yet often the pastor’s sheep have such high expectations that a spouse cannot miss church for any reason without creating an uproar in the congregation.

These kinds of expectations are unreasonable and can lead to depression and burnout. Many pastors have been forced to step out of ministry altogether because of the stress it places on their spouses.

Not every pastor is a gifted leader. Recently I was talking with a pastor who was ready to throw in the towel. With each word he spoke, I could feel his pain. “I can’t do this anymore. I am not gifted to lead. I can’t be what they need.”

Most pastors are not trained to lead churches. They are not taught how to assess their weaknesses and how to accommodate for them. They are trained to preach and accurately interpret the Scriptures.

If they are not born leaders, their weakness shines brightly for all to see when they come out of Bible school or seminary and take on the responsibility of heading up a church. They begin to feel like failures and see themselves as an embarrassment to the kingdom of God. Pastors need help in learning to lead, and they need faithful sheep to support them in the areas in which they are weak.

Some pastors who are genuinely called by God have a great mercy gift. Others are gifted evangelists, teachers, healers and so on. Not every senior pastor is gifted to lead.

In fact, leadership may not be his strength at all. If this is the case, he must be allowed to lead by letting others help determine vision, lead meetings and manage ministries. In God’s kingdom, we must allow others’ strengths to shine brightly where we are weak. This is how living stones fit together and how we become one body.

Pastors sometimes get lonely, and they enjoy fellowship with no expectations and sheep who express sincere appreciation. The Scriptures are full of illustrations of leaders who found themselves in this lonely place. Under the weight of incredible responsibility, Solomon cried out to God, “Give me wisdom to lead this people” (see 1 Kin. 3:9). Under the weight of physical stress, beatings, hunger and thirst Paul said, “Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28, NKJV). Under the weight of the cross, Jesus cried out, “‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'” (Matt. 27:46).

Leadership can be lonely because of the responsibility it entails. Pastors know that the “buck stops with the man at the helm of the ship” and that they must give an account to God for the souls they have pastored. They also know that the church’s success or failure will ultimately fall back on them.

This is all the more reason for sheep to be aware of the things that are important to pastors and to become powerful supporters and encouragers of the grace that is at work in them and defenders of the values they hold dear.

What do pastors want most from their sheep? The writer of the book of Hebrews says it best: “But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you” (Heb. 13:16-17).

We all want to “watch out for your joy.” Remembering that we are only human and doing your part to reduce the pressure will help a lot.

Tim Franklin is pastor of Freedom Christian Center in Melbourne, Florida. He and his wife, Kelly, and their two sons have endured life in the ministry fishbowl.

She has wowed audiences worldwide. But Grammy-winning gospel artist Shirley Caeser also is a pastor with a passion to minister to her local community.

The petite bundle of energy wearing the pastoral robe has the microphone, and the crowd can’t sit still. She just sang the title cut from her latest album, You Can Make It, a disc that in February earned this gospel diva her 11th Grammy award. The song’s a mid-tempo ballad, but the audience is going wild. They can’t help it–the woman with the microphone is egging them on.

“You drove past the hospital this morning [instead of being admitted]–that’s why you ought to bless the Lord! Aren’t you glad that grave they’re digging right now isn’t being dug for you? That’s why you ought to bless the Lord!”

After more than 30 albums and 50 years in music ministry, Shirley Caesar is used to bringing audiences to their feet. But this group of 200 or so worshipers isn’t just another crowd. They’re the congregation of Mount Calvary Word of Faith Church, the Pentecostal church she pastors in a
depressed region of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Caesar, 62, begins to calm down, and the crowd almost sits, but not before she leads them into another triumphant shout that rocks the church’s structure. This foot-stomping good time is the stuff of old-fashioned Pentecostal church. Her sermon brings more people to their feet.

“Can I get a witness? God can take a pimp and clean him up and make a preacher out of him. God can take a prostitute and clean up her make a church mother out of her. God can take a homosexual him on a street called straight.”

Caesar is beginning to sing her sermon. It’s the same throaty voice that wowed former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush when she sang at the White House.

But it’s not just her delivery that has this crowd on their feet. Caesar moves her own size 7 feet in a fervent dance, as if the lives of her members depended on her beating a hole in the floor.

“There is something in all of us that God wants to use. All of my young people, did you know I got saved when I was 12 years old? Because God saw something that He wanted to use in me. There’s something in all of you that God wants to use.”

One might wonder what this modern-day music legend is doing in a place like this, in a rickety church with peeling white paint. But it’s not the outside of the church that keeps her coming back.

She says the Lord appointed her to pastor this congregation, and her heart bleeds for people in need. God gave her a voice that is shaking hearts, a shout that is shaking walls and a love for people that is changing the world around her one life at a time.

The Little Lady With a Big Voice

It’s a Saturday afternoon at Caesar’s house, located in an upscale community in Durham, North Carolina. Caesar returned this morning from Las Vegas where she taped a broadcast of the Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Praise the Lord show. She’s still wearing her semi-formal suit, but her high heels have been replaced with slippers, and she’s munching on some nuts.

She sits on a plush white sofa, but it’s tough for her to keep still. Two
phones ring frequently during her conversation with Charisma. At one point she stops to conduct another interview by phone.

But when the room falls quiet again, she begins to muse about needing to visit the sick mothers in her church and about her vision for the ministry she directs.

Mount Calvary Word of Faith’s 300-seat sanctuary can’t hold the 500 people who regularly attend on Sundays. The church’s new 1,500-seat facility is being built on 10 acres of land five minutes from the current property.

“[My vision] is that we would be community-involved. I want to bring in street people and clean them up,” she says. “I want an one of the beauticians in the church will fix the women’s hair. I want a room full of clothes where they can just go in and pick–choose and refuse–with shoes and dresses, and get them ready for service.

“I want a room that is stocked with canned we could be a blessing to them, not just send them back empty-handed. We’re not going to send them back empty-hearted–don’t send them back empty-handed.”

She wants a school and a nursery, too, and would build a home for the elderly if the insurance weren’t so expensive.

“I’ve got a heart for people,” she says. “I believe the main prerequisites for being a pastor is that you love people. Nobody is going to really care for you like your pastor if that pastor is worth his salt.”

But this pastor also is an internationally renowned singer who at press time had won 17 Dove
awards and 12 Stellar awards in addition to her 11 Grammys. Those don’t include a plethora of other accolades, including a 1989 NAACP Image Award and a 1999 Trumpet Award, or the fact that she contributed to four movie soundtracks and appeared in two feature films, spoke before the U.S. Treasury in 1992 about the evolution of gospel music, and in 1989 became the first female gospel artist to perform at Harvard University.

“When I see her perform live, to me, it’s as if she’s performing as if it’s the last performance she’ll have!” says longtime producer Bubba Smith. “She’s totally in the moment, totally connecting with the audience.” The public calls her a diva, but she herself doesn’t claim the title. She admits that her acclaim has surprised her, although she says ministering through music is part of what she calls a “chosenness” on her life, and she makes no apologies for her success.

“Everybody does not have the same calling or the same gift,” Caesar says. “I mix my preaching and my singing together, and I just knew God had chosen me to do the kind of singing I do.”

The 10th of 13 children, Caesar began singing at age 8 in the local Mount Calvary Holy church her family attended. Her father died when she was 6, leaving her mother, though a semi-invalid, to rear the family alone. Caesar’s popularity locally as a little lady–she stands 5 feet 2 inches tall–with a big voice garnered singing engagements for her at local churches.

Because she was raised in church, gospel music was all she knew. She didn’t become a Christian until she was 12, and the next year she began singing at revival meetings.

Yet it was five years later, in 1957, that Caesar says she received the call to minister. She was taking a college typing course and suddenly heard the voice of the Lord. At the time, she wasn’t certain what she heard, but when she returned home she heard the Lord call her to ministry as He did the prophet Jeremiah.

“I listened closer, and the words became quite clear to me,” she wrote in her book The Lady, the Melody and the Word (Thomas Nelson). “Behold I have called you, and I have ordained you from your mother’s womb to preach the did not fully understand what those words meant at the moment, but I interpreted them to mean God was calling me to preach as well as to sing. I did not feel torn to choose between the two, and I really can’t say which I prefer.”

The next year, Caesar got her big break when she began traveling with the popular gospel group the Caravans, led by Albertina Walker. Caesar was convinced the trio needed a third background vocalist to achieve three-part harmony. After hearing Caesar sing, Walker agreed, and Caesar spent eight years with the Caravans before going solo in 1966.

Though bumpy initially, Caesar’s musical career quickly began to blossom. She recorded her first solo album, I’ll Go, in 1967 and was frequently invited to preach at revival services. In 1971 she won her first Grammy for her song “Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man From Galilee.”

Caesar would soon become known as “The First Lady of Gospel Music,” and her career would take a quantum leap. But the same year, God challenged her to take her ministry to the next level.

Feeding God’s Sheep

On Thanksgiving Day that year, she was on a concert tour through Florida and was having
dinner with friends. Her food prepared, Caesar sat down to eat.

“I was watching the news, and right there in our neighboring state [Tennessee] there were little boys and girls with pot bellies just like in Africa somewhere, dying of starvation. God spoke to my spirit and said, ‘Feed my sheep.’ I said, ‘Lord, I’m doing that.’

“I started to eat, and the Lord said it again, ‘Feed my sheep.’ I thought that conducting revivals and singing, that I was doing this.

“When I got home, I mentioned it to Mama. Mama said to me, ‘Well, maybe the Lord is talking about natural food.’ I said, ‘Mama, how am I going to feed all these people?’ She said, ‘You can’t help everybody, but you can help somebody.'”

She began the Shirley Caesar Outreach Ministries that year and provided canned goods for needy families at Christmastime. Every year since she has offered food and financial assistance to her local community by raising money through special fund-raising concerts.

Last year’s event assembled singers Lou Rawls, Gladys Knight and others, and Caesar is hoping to make the events more elaborate in the future. Her next fund-raiser is July 10-13.

“I can count the times on one hand that we’ve had to turn somebody down. And it all happened because of that one dream, where God said,
‘Feed My sheep.’ This is what the ministry’s about.”

In June 1983 she married Bishop Harold Williams, the soft-spoken presiding bishop of her denomination. “I was drawn to his kindness, his meekness,” she says. “I wanted someone I could depend on have to fend and fight for myself. Now instead of being one, there are two of us who make up one.”

Williams has endured being called “Mr. Caesar” countless times, but he is unfazed by it. “I want her to succeed,” he says. “I knew who she was when I asked her to marry me. She sings when she wants to, there are no restrictions. When I have to go, I go, there are no restrictions. We share our ministries.”

In 1987, Caesar began a four-year term on the Durham City Council. She wanted to provide affordable housing for the elderly, decrease unemployment and foster business in downtown Durham. But before her term expired, God showed her another way to help her community.

It was in 1990, and Mount Calvary had dwindled to 17 members. Its pastor, Mother Elizabeth Lewis, who also pastored another church in Richmond, Virginia, had become ill. Caesar says God told her then that she would pastor the church.

The bishops, however, decided to appoint the church to another pastor, Deborah Yelverton. Caesar told them Yelverton would say no.

“I told them, ‘You can ask her, but she’s going to say no.’ They said, ‘How do you know?’ I said, ‘Because the Lord has told me to do it.’ And sure enough, she said no. Now Deborah is pastor of her father’s church. The Lord had it fixed when He sent me to Raleigh.”

Caesar believes Pentecostals are more accepting of women in ministry leadership than other groups. But she admits that she has not always been well-received. A church in Newark, New Jersey, refused to allow her to preach from the pulpit and instead asked her to preach from behind a table on the floor. At first she wouldn’t, but she says God changed her mind.

“If Jesus could preach from an old ship, if He could use a mountainside as a pulpit, I could use a table,” Caesar says. “So I laid that put my Bible on the table
and gave them what the Lord had given me.”

Fist of Iron, Heart of Gold

Since Caesar was appointed pastor of Mount Calvary, the congregation of 17 has grown to 500 members. But at the beginning of her pastorate, the church needed
strengthening, she says.

“I needed to see a broken people put back together again. I needed them to see something they had never seen for years and years–that God can pack this little church.”

Packing a church isn’t too tough for Shirley Caesar the gospel artist. But Shirley Caesar the pastor is known more by her love than her music.

“[Pastor Caesar] inspired me. She really took me by the hand,” says evangelist Shirley Jones, a Mount Calvary member since 1995. The 45-year-old mother of three is referring to her divorce, when she lost custody of her children. When she heard Caesar sing “Keep Patiently Waiting,” it seemed as if the song was written just for her.

“I felt like the burden of the world was on my shoulders,” Jones says. “It’s hard, especially during the holidays. Nobody wants their family broken up.”

Caesar took Jones under her wing and encouraged her not to give up.

“I felt like, ‘Who am I to share [Christ] with someone else as broken as I am?'” Jones recalls.

But Caesar had encouraged her: “When He breaks you, He remakes you. And I can feel the pieces coming back together again.”

Though strong in her longing to help people, Caesar confides that she’s not always confident in her ability to preach.

“I ‘m a better singer than I am a preacher,” she observes. “I’m more comfortable singing than preaching. I’m not putting my preaching down. [But] when I go out on stage, I mean business. I let the devil know I’m coming after [him] tooth and nail.

“On Sunday morning when I preach, a lot of times when I prepare the message, self tells me: ‘You know this is not the word for the morning,’ or, ‘You know you’re not ready.’ The devil just says a lot of things to your mind. And that’s the time when I go into the pulpit, and the Lord really blesses the Word.”

Williams describes her as a strong pastor with an iron fist but a heart of gold.

“Shirley loves people. They can put security guards around her [at concerts]. It is imperative many times for her not to stop, just to wave and say hi. She will pull away from the guards. She loves people.”

Williams says Mount Calvary Holy Churches of America has a long tradition of putting women in ministry leadership. Williams’ mother and late wife were ministers in the church. And he says the founder, Bishop Brumfield Johnson, whom Williams succeeded, appointed women to positions as pastors, although he didn’t believe women should be bishops.

“Our bishop was for women not women bishops. But he said to me before he passed: ‘Son, stand on my shoulders, and you’ll be able to see further over the wall than I can see.’

“So after a while, get on in the life of the church, there are certain revelations God reveals, and we see there is time for changes. And all churches go through that.

“There is a time when you have to take a stand and say that we were wrong in this, but now we’re going to do it this way to carry the church along.”

Formerly a pastor in Baltimore, Williams now serves as Caesar’s co-pastor, which she welcomes. He supports her, she says, helping to “hold up her
arms” as she ministers.

“If Bishop Williams had not been there I would not have been able to go on [the Sisters in the Spirit concert] tour. Some Sundays I was able to come back home and be there.

“[But] it was hard to sing on Saturday night, then get up early on Sunday morning, catch a plane, fly home and preach. Then 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock, fly right back out and sing again that night. After doing that so much, I believe it takes at least 10 years off your life.”

More and more, she says, she’s focusing her attention on her church. But she will continue to wear many hats. She has her own record label, Shu-Bell Music, and will star in a feature film next year, Sunday Morning.

The label’s first recording will be a collection of Caesar’s best-known songs, featuring Donnie McClurkin, Vickie Winans, Albertina Walker, Juanita Bynum and others. Caesar also will release a duets album with mainstream artists Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Mary J. Blige and Lou Rawls.

Though she is known as a traditional gospel artist, she says she tries to stay current with the musical trends. Producer Bubba Smith says Caesar is a big fan of Kirk Franklin’s. “He’s reaching people she’ll never reach, and she’s reaching people he’ll never reach,” he says.

But Caesar does believe gospel music can go too far. “We must not forget who we’re singing about,” Caesar says. “We’re singing about the Lord Jesus. And we must understand that we don’t have to take our gospel that far to reach the young people.

“[Some young artists] think that they have to be so different, and instead of coming up with the right songs they put all of the motion from their body in it and a lot of flesh on parade, and the people can’t hear the message from seeing the flesh.”

A Pastor Worth Her Salt

The service has ended at Caesar’s church, and she retreats to her small office to change. A homeless woman is waiting to speak with her. The woman is pregnant and has been having a rough time. Fifty dollars would help her get back on her feet.

Caesar and her staff get 10 to 20 requests like these on any given day, and there’s no time to judge this woman’s sincerity. The room falls quiet.

“Fifty dollars is easy,” Caesar responds, “but you need something to eat.” Caesar bundles up in her fur coat, and with several Mount Calvary members and the homeless woman in tow she departs for lunch at a nearby buffet.

The woman is shocked, but Caesar’s staff isn’t surprised. Whether she’s singing a sermon or preaching a song, Caesar’s goal is the same–to be used by God to change someone’s life. She has wowed audiences worldwide. But Grammy-winning gospel artist Shirley Caesar also is a pastor with a passion to minister to her local community.

Gospel’s Newest Sister Act

Mary Mary’s potent R&B sound has catapulted them to success almost overnight–without compromising their straightforward message.

Erica Atkins opened her eyes long enough to see people crying and others falling backward under the power of the Holy Spirit. The display of God’s touch upon the congregation humbled her. If the Creator of the universe could do all this when Atkins led worship, she was willing.

During another altar call at about the same time, a missionary spoke to Erica’s sister, Tina Atkins Campbell.

“She said, ‘God is going to use you to help people get delivered and draw closer to Him through singing,'” Tina recounts. “I really didn’t want the responsibility, but if God calls you, you can only run for so long.”

That was three years ago. Today, the sisters have bolted into the international mainstream music spotlight, calling themselves Mary Mary. Their debut release, Thankful, has gone gold.

And the Atkins sisters have reeled in a Grammy, a Soul Train Award and three Stellar awards. In the fall they toured with Shirley Caesar, Angélla Christie and Yolanda Adams in the Sisters in the Spirit concert tour.

“Mary Mary is the next step for gospel music,” says Teresa Hairston, publisher of Gospel Today magazine. “Mary Mary is the first gospel artist to sign with an urban [mainstream] label [for their first album]. This proves that secular labels will embrace gospel.

“The success of Mary open the door for other acts. They have shown that you do not have to compromise to be successful.”

Before forming Mary Mary, the Atkins sisters appeared in two gospel plays and sang backup for artists such as Brandy, Brian McKnight, Kenny Lattimore and Eric Benet. Eschewing stereotypes, Mary Mary taps a variety of styles in their own music, from funk and hip-hop to jazz and rock.

“Just call it ‘gospel according to Mary Mary,'” the sisters say in unison.

Their single “Shackles (Praise You),” originally penned for the Prince of Egypt soundtrack, climbed the Billboard R&B airplay and sales charts and endeared them with audiences in the church and beyond. Japanese fans flock to purchase their music.

“Mary Mary is the next big thing in gospel music,” says Kirk Franklin, himself a pioneering urban artist. “I pray that God will use them to do bigger and bigger things.”

Following in Franklin’s footsteps, the Atkins sisters have catapulted into venues far beyond those that traditionally have been relegated to gospel singers. Mary Mary crosses cultural, racial and generational barriers. When in front of a mainstream crowd, they do not preach but let the lyrics pack the spiritual wallop.

“Mary Mary is an introduction to having a relationship with God. It is all about Jesus,” Tina explains. “We want to plant a seed and make people start inquiring themselves.”

This does not mean Mary Mary sings obliquely about “love” and “happiness.” To the contrary, the songs on Thankful, most of which were written by the sisters and producer Warryn Campbell, make clear the case for Jesus, the Father and faith.

“We talk about natural situations or hardships in life when you feel like giving up, be it a relationship, a job or just life,” Tina reflects. “Then we talk about faith in the midst of those situations. I think people can relate to it when we come at it like that.”

Even the group’s name is drawn from the Bible, representing two Marys Christ knew well–Mary Magdalene and His mother, Mary. Tina would be cast as the outgoing Mary Magdalene and Erica as the more reflective mother of Jesus, the sisters agree.

Growing up in Inglewood, California, the Atkinses were weaned on hallelujahs. On Sundays, Erica and Tina could usually be found at Evangelistic Church of God in Christ, soaking up the teaching of pastor Charles Lollis and singing in the choir led by their mother. But faith was not left at the sanctuary door.

“We brought it home,” Erica continues. “My parents taught us to pray. My mother still ends every phone conversation with, ‘Are you praying?’ We hear it every day.”

A self-described radical, Tina’s hair has been almost as many colors as Dennis Rodman’s.

“We like to let people know that Christians are not these boring, homely people who don’t have a clue about fashion,” Tina says. “If you go out with your collar up, holding your Bible and looking plain with no makeup, people will say, ‘You’re scaring me; get away.’ People want to feel like you are reachable, accessible.”

Some believe the sisters’ ability to remain relevant is a key to their success.

“I call what they are doing ‘right now gospel,'” says MC Hammer, who launched his own label recently with Jubilee Christian Center pastor Dick Bernal. “This is what a dying generation needs right now. In this generation right now Jesus has been accepted in the mainstream. Jesus is no longer in the closet.”

Being relevant, however, does not mean compromising.

“We can’t please everyone, but we are always asking ourselves if something we do or sing would be offensive,” Tina says. “We sing gospel music to people who might not otherwise hear about Him, so we are going to make sure Mary Mary represents God.”

Mary Mary is about much more than a hairstyle or even good music. Erica tells of when God miraculously removed an orange-sized cyst from her ovary. Tina recounts when she survived a serious automobile crash without a scratch. They both tackle the issue of race head-on, shedding traditional labels.

“If you are white you sing contemporary Christian. If you are black you sing gospel,” Tina says. “This is terrible. I think we should just call it God’s music.”

In their short history, Mary Mary has managed not only to sing the words but also to live the lyrics that open their hit song “Shackles”: “Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance, I wanna praise You.”

Indeed, they are.

Adrienne S. Gaines is an associate editor for Charisma and Ministries Today magazines.

---

One of the great joys of being a journalist overseas, if you are a Christian, is to take part in some unique worship services all over the world. For me, the Easter season that we recently celebrated has always provided the most dramatic and moving experiences.

I’ve stood trembling with cold atop the Great Wall of China for an Easter sunrise service. I’ve mingled with expectant, murmuring Russians late on Saturday night amid the candles in the Zagorsk Cathedral outside Moscow. I’ve sat in the soul-quietening stillness of Jerusalem’s Garden Tomb just after dawn before a communion service on Easter morning.

There is in the worship at Easter such a triumphant celebration of Christ’s victory over death, the world and the devil that even the most hateful anti-Christian regimes have had enormous trouble trying to keep the Christian joy down.

In the United States and much of the West, that celebratory joy sometimes has been harder to appreciate because of the raucous commercialization that accompanies it. Easter, at times, appears threatened with terminal trivialization by the ubiquitous Easter Bunny sentimentality and egg-rolling contests.

I say “at times” because there is one magnificent Christian tradition that emphatically resists this. It is called Lent.

Many evangelical and charismatic churches have traditionally been a little troubled by the concept of Lent. After all, it is part of the annual “calendar” of historical churches–Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox–that have clung to the liturgy as their principal guide to worship–and that have often resisted evangelism and real moves of the Holy Spirit. For a time, America’s Puritan-influenced forebears would not observe the 40 days excluding Sundays that constitute Lent.

But whether you are entirely nondenominational or Episcopalian, as I am, Lent is a time to reflect soberly and humbly on your own spiritual condition, to make right your relationships with others, and to meditate about what the Lord went through before and during His crucifixion.

Traditionally, the Eastern Orthodox Church focuses the most intensely upon Lent. One service in particular seems to have no equivalent in Christendom.

This is the Rite of Forgiveness service. During it, every single church member must ask every other church member for forgiveness for any offense committed against him or her the previous year. I am told it is a time of wonderful healing and joy.

Roman Catholics and liturgical Protestant churches have emphasized Lent as a time to develop personal spiritual disciplines. Many Christians during Lent deny themselves routine pleasures like desserts, coffee or television.

But many Christians don’t just give things up, they take up something as part of the same spiritual discipline. It may be a commitment to pray daily for the persecuted church around the world (or to pray for their neighbors) or to regularly read some of the great Christian devotional classics.

Christians who are a little suspicious of church liturgies actually should welcome Lent rather than keep it at arms’ length. The Bible itself reminds us that there is a time to mourn and a time to dance (see Eccl. 3:4).

If you missed the opportunity this year to share in the sufferings of Christ, even in the small ways that Lent offers, then consider its benefits as you walk with Him through the rest of the year. The purpose of Lent has nothing to do with one’s positional relationship with God–which is established by grace through faith (see Eph. 2:8)–but everything to do with one’s spiritual self-control. It is a commitment not to be ruled by our bellies or dominated by our appetites.

And fasting from anything is almost always good from time to time. As Psalm 30:5 points out: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (NKJV).

The spirit of Lent is that quiet time when we are reminded, with some sorrow, of how much Christ suffered to accomplish what He did on our behalf.

In one of America’s most decadent cities, the International Church of Las Vegas is experiencing renewal and helping thousands find freedom in Christ.

The Las Vegas Strip is bustling with activity on this warm Saturday night. Billboard-size TV screens jutting from casino walls scream their messages in vibrant color: “Barry Manilow!” “Cirque du Soleil!” The Eiffel Tower–or rather a half-size replica–straddles a hotel. Just a few blocks away sit life-size replicas of the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, Seattle’s Space Needle and the Empire State Building–all of which make the Las Vegas skyline look like the work of a mad architect.

Throngs of tourists pack the busy sidewalks and skyways. Some window-shop at elegant boutiques, others squander their cash in cheap trinket shops, and others mob carnival rides and roller coasters. Drunk Americans and overwhelmed foreigners gape at mega-hotels, as men in baseball caps sidle up to strangers and thrust strip-club invitations into
their hands.

But the Strip, for all its renown, is only a small part of the Las Vegas area, which boasts a population of 1.1 million. Just a few blocks in any direction the casinos disappear and the City of Lights–which is the No. 1 summer tourist destination in the nation–turns into Anywhere, USA, with a panoply of restaurants, grocery stores and seemingly endless neighborhoods of Spanish-style homes. One local observer even describes the suburban scene as “Midwestern.”

In these suburbs, 15 miles from the jingling of coins and the clattering of slot machines, an Assemblies of God (AG) church stands in stark contrast with the surrounding spiritual darkness. The International Church of Las Vegas (ICLV), which meets in an understated cream-and-salmon-colored building, is home to a revival that is helping to transform the city.

Inside the sanctuary–a vast warehouse with international flags hanging from the rafters–a prayer meeting is in progress, and people are fighting for souls.

“Draw the lost, Lord! Give us a mighty harvest!” cries the worship leader, a young man with spiked blond hair and a shiny black guitar. A handful of people walk the perimeter of the room in earnest intercession, and a hundred more are gathered at the spacious altar area. Some lie facedown, others sit cross-legged, and others kneel.

At times they seem to be engaged in battle, clenching their eyes and fists and belting out the words to a praise song. In other moments there is a peaceful quietness, a softening of the music and a drinking in of God’s presence. Senior pastor Paul Goulet, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, kneels on the front row.

“From the north, south, east and west, bring them in!” associate pastor Mike Richardson prays. “We ask You for a mighty out pouring. We will not rest until, like in the book of Acts, this city is turned upside-down!”

This Saturday evening prayer meeting has been an anchor for ICLV during an amazing season of supernatural visitation. The revival, which is evidence of not only the numbers of people coming to Christ but also the intensity with which the church has pressed into God and reached out in evangelism, is making an impact on the city. Although one might assume church growth to be automatic in Las Vegas because it is the fastest growing city in the United States, the growth of ICLV has been unusually astounding. Between 40 and 50 people flood the church’s altar on a typical Sunday–and for special services the number is even higher.

Goulet says it is simply the power of God drawing sinners to Himself.

“We have been able to mix evangelism with renewal,” says the 43-year-old pastor. “We lay hands on the sick and do all those things, and we’re still growing.”

On Sunday morning Goulet, now in a tie and a crisp white shirt, greets people between services, offering hugs and high fives. He laughs readily and gives the “field goal” signal whenever someone shares a good testimony.

Suddenly the praise music starts, and the congregation quickly chimes in: “Sunrise, I’m gonna praise His Name!” People lift their hands or pump their palms toward the ceiling. Others dance in the aisles or at the altar. “For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised/ … Magnify and lift Him up!” The song ends with whoops, cheers and laughter.

Goulet takes the stage and calls people forward to intercede for the nations. Teen-agers, each holding a different flag, are stationed across the platform steps.

“Maybe you see the flag of your background up here,” Goulet says. “Does anybody want to see revival spread around the world? Come on, team, let’s call God on His promises.” The congregation responds with cries of prayer, crowding around the flags until more people are up front than in the seats.

“Begin to repent for America,” Goulet instructs, “for the sins of Las Vegas, the sins of Nevada. I pray for Las Vegas, that every part of the city would be impacted by this revival.”

After 20 minutes of intercession, Goulet draws it to a close. People get off their knees, shake hands with one another and return to their seats.

By the end of the service–after testimonies, a sermon and a drama presentation–people eagerly return to the altar. Sixteen raise their hands for salvation–18 did the same in an earlier service–and hundreds flood the platform to seek God for His power in reaching lost family members. It is well past lunchtime when the meeting breaks up.

Interrupted by the Spirit

Goulet, a French Canadian with a master’s degree in pastoral counseling and psychology, came to ICLV (then West Valley Assembly of God) in 1992, intending to build a seeker-sensitive congregation. But an interruption by the Holy Spirit one Sunday morning in 1994 led them instead toward a Toronto Blessing-style revival marked by supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit, including a large number of physical healings (see related story on page 68).

Initially the change of gears whacked 100 people–one-fourth of the church–from the attendance. But those who remained embraced the new move of God, and the church grew from 300 to 3,000 in just four years. Paul Goulet and his wife, Denise, believe part of the reason for the growth was Paul’s decision to channel the revival into soul-winning efforts.

“Paul started preaching that it wasn’t about blessings or falling down or goose bumps or manifestations but about winning the lost,” Denise Goulet says. “We were going to take what He had given us–the power of the Holy Spirit–out into the world and give it to people. That is what it’s for.”

“The more the power flows, the more I have to focus people on the lost,” Paul Goulet says. “When we have a blowout service I have to emphasize what it’s for. That is the responsibility of pastors and leaders. We don’t want to become
introverted, or people [will] get jealous of each other, and it becomes about going to the altar for the next experience, not winning people to the Lord.”

Las Vegas is a place of new beginnings and tragic endings–the city’s suicide rate is twice the national average– and many pastors here see themselves as strategically positioned to snatch newcomers from the brink.

“There aren’t many Las Vegas natives in town,” says Stan Steward, pastor of Calvary Community Church, an AG church. “A lot of people move here to start over after a bankruptcy or divorce. And in starting over they want a spiritual life.”

Pastor Gene Appel of Central Christian Church, the largest church in Las Vegas with 5,600 attendees, agrees.

“People come to Las Vegas believing there is a new future for them,” he says. “They might not know they are hungering for it, but they are spiritually open and willing to try new things. We are a hotbed of transition, and it presents great opportunities for fertile soil.”

But in winning back territory from Satan, Christians invite spiritual opposition. Goulet says he did not anticipate how ferocious the spiritual warfare would be. His family has had an unusual number of “misfortunes”: four car accidents in one year, a harrowing snowmobile wreck that left Goulet unable to walk for several months, one daughter who suddenly came down with seizures and another daughter who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease (both daughters were miraculously healed).

“This city will devour you unless you fast and pray,” Goulet says. “The thing that ties it all together is Philippians 3:10: ‘I want to know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.’

“If I want to take Las Vegas like God wants to take Las Vegas, and I partner with Jesus Christ, then I will partner in His sufferings. Most people want to know Him in power, but they don’t want to walk through ‘Door No. 3’: the fellowship of His sufferings. They realize they could lose their family, their house.

“Most people don’t win their city because they don’t walk through that door,” he continues. “But if you walk through it, you reap a rich harvest. If I had known what it would take, I would have gone back to being a therapist. But at some point you are called to give your life to something, and we are called to give our lives to this city. People are getting saved and delivered. I really think we are a threat to the demonic powers here.”

Other pastors express a similar sentiment.

“One of my staff members said recently, ‘This is not a place where you can be spiritually lazy,'” says Appel of Central Christian Church. “The climate can either be destructive, or it deepens you in a way that would not happen in safer environments. I love being in the high-risk game, knowing that so much is at stake. Heaven and hell are hanging in the balance for these people.”

One of those hanging in the balance was John Mazur, 40, who says he was a “die-hard drug user” before meeting Christ at ICLV. A New Jersey native, he found himself on the losing end of Vegas’ offerings.

“I would rather have been dead than alive,” he remembers. “I could not beat the drugs, the alcohol and the street crime. One day a man on an airplane handed me a card for ICLV and said, ‘These people will love you.'”

Mazur came to the church, and God turned his life around. But his body began to falter after years of abuse. He was diagnosed with liver disease, hepatitis, cirrhosis and possibly cancer. He received prayer for healing, and further tests showed a completely healthy liver.

“God has taken addictions from me,” Mazur says with tears in his eyes. “He took my rage. I used to like to fight. I used to jump out of my work truck to go after people. But now when I see angry people, I pray for them.

“My heart is to go onto the streets and pray for homeless people,” he continues. “The Lord never gave up on me. That’s the love of Christ I found here. My whole family is saved now. My daughter reads Scriptures to me at night. My wife is a prayer warrior. My father accepted Christ three weeks ago.”

Such stories of salvation are common in Las Vegas, pastors say. Most Bible-believing churches are seeing people come to Christ every week, and Christians are even having an impact, however quiet, on the casino industry.

Churches are full of “industry people” such as bouncers, maids, blackjack dealers and pit bosses (see related story on page 67). And because of the steady influx of people relocating to the area Appel says Central Christian could plant five megachurches every month and still not keep up.

Reclaiming Sin City

It’s now Sunday evening, and the sanctuary of ICLV is packed out. As the worship time begins, many have again crowded the altar area. One mother kneels there, hugging a child to her chest.

Goulet calls for people with various illnesses to come forward for healing. Dozens come forward and fall to their knees. Goulet instructs pastors to anoint people with oil and pray for them. One leader pours oil into the palms of another, who begins applying it to foreheads as he prays.

Suddenly Goulet calls people out of the crowd by situation: A man whose wife left him; a woman concerned for her unsaved child; a man with heart problems. The altar is a kaleidoscope of activity, with Kleenex boxes in high demand and tears and oil flowing.

A 6-year-old lifts her hands. Three men of different races hold hands like children and worship as the musicians play: “From my heart to Yours / I lift a love song up to You.”

“I tell you, the power of God is just breaking out,” Goulet says, grabbing his 12-year-old son from the front row and bringing him on stage to marvel at what God is doing. He puts his arm around him, swaying, singing and laughing while the prayer time continues.

The man Goulet called out to receive prayer for heart problems has risen from the floor and is jumping and pumping his fists in the air. Several people lay under modesty cloths. A line forms as Goulet calls people forward who need jobs.

“Come on, saints. Pray, pray, pray.”

The congregation prays and sings. Several minutes later, as easily as it began, the prayer time ends, and people return to their seats, socializing along the way. God has touched many, so Goulet launches into a testimony time.

“The first thing God did for me was bring me to this church,” says a 60-year-old woman. Another woman tells how she led a business client and his wife to the Lord.

Goulet is endlessly animated: more “field goal” signals, high fives, laughter and hugs. After the testimony time he preaches on the power of impartation and calls on unbelievers to accept Christ. Eight come forward. Then he calls believers to prayer.

“How many of you are willing to lay down your life to win one more soul? Come down.” Hundreds stream forward, and Goulet begins praying for them. “Come on, Spirit of God, blow, blow, blow.”

Meanwhile, the collapsible wall on the right side of the sanctuary is drawn back, a mobile water tank is rolled out, and water baptisms begin. People gather to watch and applaud. The prayer time continues at the altar as the band plays, “Every breath I take, I take in You / You make me move, Jesus!”

After a while, the number of people praying dwindles, and the Goulets casually visit with friends.

“There has been a release in our lives,” Goulet says, “and our job is to keep pouring, like the woman with the little flask of oil. That is how God is building His church.”

And that is how the Holy Spirit is penetrating the darkness in this City of Lights.

God at the Blackjack Table

Jack Runion, 63, doesn’t hold down your everyday office job. He is, in fact, a “pit boss”–a person who oversees gaming tables–at a busy casino in Las Vegas, which attracts 30 million visitors each year to its hotels and gaming establishments.

He also is a member of Calvary Community Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Las Vegas. And though this may be surprising to those who live outside of Vegas, Runion’s situation is not that unusual. Many Christians like him work in the casino industry and see it as a mission field.

“This is the best place in the country to make a lot of money, even if you don’t have a college degree,” says Stan Steward, Runion’s pastor. “A valet can make $50,000 a year, which is why, after they come to the Lord, they stay in that [line of] work.”

As the backslidden son of a Pentecostal pastor, Runion started dealing craps in 1956 in Kentucky, where gambling was illegal. He eventually moved to Las Vegas and worked the tables there for 30 years. Today he oversees five tables and 16 dealers. He and his wife, JoAnn, came back to the Lord after she was healed of cancer in 1995.

“After I got saved, working in the casino bothered me,” Runion says. “I had a real problem with it, and I prayed and talked to pastor Steward about it. The Lord spoke to me and said: ‘It’s just your job. Go do it and forget about it.’ I haven’t had a guilty conscience since then. I think there is a purpose to being there.”

Runion says many of his fellow employees are believers, such as a man who works in surveillance, a day-shift manager, a lady in the cashier’s cage and two people in slots. But others are caught in the cycle of gambling and often come to work after losing their paychecks to the roulette wheel or some other game.

“They wait to get their tips, and the next morning they are broke,” he says. “They are looking for that big score. The employees respect me for being what I am, and I invite them to my house to talk more. They see I have no [gambling] problems. I am the same every day, smiling and happy.”

Until recently, Runion and his wife taught a class at church for people breaking free of gambling and other addictive behaviors. “The Lord led me to take over that class,” he says. He opened his home for the 12-week program and led meetings that included prayer and discussion.

At work, Runion sees plenty of unreformed gamblers.

“A lot of desperate people come in,” he says. “I’ve seen people whose lives or businesses went into the drop box. I know people who have committed suicide. It is hard to watch sometimes because I think of what people could do with their lives. But some of them don’t care. That’s all they live for.”

Runion strongly believes that Christians should not gamble, but he is convinced that the industry provides Christians the opportunity to bring others out of the enemy’s grasp.

“Casinos are like factories,” he says. “You go in and do your eight hours. If you save one soul, it could be worth it all.”

Miracle in a City of Lost Bets

Doctors told Tom and Julie Bryant their baby would be born dead. But God had other plans for little Jessica.

Tom and Julie Bryant, members of International Church of Las Vegas, were devastated to learn that the baby inside Julie’s womb was endangered because a lack of amniotic fluid. And while doctors encouraged the couple to choose abortion, they refused–even though they were told that the baby would almost certainly die at birth.

“Julie had no fluid around the baby or in the [baby’s] lungs,” says obstetrician John Martin, who at the time was a resident doctor at University Medical Center in Las Vegas and who eventually delivered the baby. Martin says it is believed that lungs develop because of the amniotic fluid that fills them.

“The worry,” he told Charisma, “was that this baby was fine as long as mom supplied the oxygen, but once [the baby] came out, the lungs would be nonexistent or severely compromised in their function.”

There were other complications, too: a narrowly averted miscarriage at 17 weeks and the baby’s frank breech position, meaning the bottom pointed downward and the body made a v-shape. Normally, when a baby almost miscarries so early the mother aborts. But the Bryants stuck by their decision.

“The doctors were loathe to offer us hope,” Tom Bryant adds. “They warned us of probable mental retardation, atrophied limbs and/ or spina bifida, and the risk of infection that could harm Julie’s health. We asked everyone in our church to pray with us.”

The prayers were not in vain. On April 18, 1996, in week 26 of Julie’s pregnancy, baby Jessica was born. Tom saw that she was pink–a sure sign, he thought, that she was taking in oxygen. Sure enough, a doctor told him that the baby showed “promising” lung development.

“It shocked all of us,” Martin says. “The lungs developed. The baby didn’t seem to be compromised even though she’d been ruptured for 12 weeks.”

“The medical staff varied greatly in response to what they had seen,” Bryant says. “One doctor rejoiced with us, although this contradicted all that he knew. Another specialist deliberately avoided us.”

“What happened was one of those miracles that you hope and pray for,” Martin recalls. “The baby survived and did well and is doing well to this day, which is so amazing to me. It was against such overwhelming odds.” Martin adds that he was moved by what happened to Julie, whose “strong religious convictions” impressed him.

“I now talk about the possibility of survival,” he says. “I am more upbeat than other doctors because I have seen babies survive.”

Joel Kilpatrick is a former associate editor for the Pentecostal Evangel and is a free-lance writer based in the Los Angeles area. He is a frequent contributor to Charisma.

---

Fifty years ago, famous novelist Ralph Ellison wrote about being black: “I am … because people refuse to see they approach me, they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination–indeed, everything and anything except me.” His description applies equally well to those single people who believe they are disenfranchised because they are unattractive.

In today’s world, beauty is a highly desired commodity. Even though most of us don’t measure up to media standards for great looks, we believe physical beauty brings happiness. Despite the efforts of feminists, women still define themselves based on physical appearance. Those who don’t score high on the cultural beauty scale deal with rejection more than those who do.

Beauty is an advantage in our society. That’s why people spend billions of dollars on plastic surgery. But what happens when you, like most of us, aren’t one of the “beautiful people”?

A reader from Utah expresses this dilemma. “I am an unmarried Christian woman with a female roommate. People often misjudge me based on my looks and living arrangement. I am not very pretty. I wear thick glasses that don’t lend to contacts. I would like to be married, but so far there is no one interested in me. Would it be wrong to ask God to make me prettier? And how do I handle the unkind comments people make?”

People inside and outside the church do make judgments based on looks and marital status. Early on girls learn the lesson that appearance matters. Women internalize messages from magazines and other media that often lead to a preoccupation with beauty and attaining the perfect body. But asking God to make you prettier isn’t the answer.

My advice to you and others in similar situations is to take the following steps.

Maximize what God has given you. Get a stylish haircut and eyeglass frames. Use makeup to enhance your skin and facial features. Dress in ways that flatter your shape and frame.

Exercise and keep your weight within a healthy range. Do all of this for you, not some potential boyfriend. You will feel more confident and more attractive.

Avoid comparing yourself with others. This is very hard to do when bombarded by nonstop images of glamour. But remember that pictures of models and movie stars are often computer-altered and airbrushed. Most women have to learn to accept the body they were given–imperfect as it is.

Concentrate on character. As trite as it sounds, inner beauty is more important in the long run than outer beauty. Physical beauty fades, but godly character makes people beautiful. It is not uncommon to hear couples talk about attractions that grew over time because of the inner beauty they saw in each other.

Realize that your self-worth comes from God. If you know how God sees you, it matters less what other people think. Your identity must be grounded in Him regardless of appearance. To Him, you are beautiful. He did not make a mistake when He made you. You are a result of His handiwork (see Eph. 2:10). You are wonderfully made (see Ps. 139:14). He loves you just as you are (see John 3:16). You are His child (see John 1:12).

Practice being assertive. When people make hurtful comments, let them know their words hurt. Speak up in a gentle but assertive manner. For example, the next time someone insinuates you are gay because you are unmarried and live with another single woman, say, “That insinuation hurts” or “Please don’t judge me. You don’t even know me. Instead, ask how you can pray for me.”

A woman who is pretty does have an initial advantage meeting men, but beauty does not guarantee relationship success, high self-esteem or an interesting personality. Those things must be cultivated over time.

Focus on the things you can control, and work on those. And remember, inner joy and peace always are reflected outwardly. Confidence shines when you truly know who you are in Christ. In today’s world, nothing could be more attractive.

The evangelist denies claims made by a former employee who demanded $2.2 million not to sue

---

Morris Cerullo, who turns 70 later this year and has no plans to slow his global gospel outreach, has been sued by a former employee who claims that the California-based evangelist is defrauding donors.

The suit was filed in May of last year by John Paul Warren, an Assemblies of God (AG) minister who served as an executive at Morris Cerullo World Evangelism (MCWE) headquarters in San Diego from March 1998 until he was fired in October 1999.

Since then, staff at MCWE have been scrambling to deal with Warren’s claims, which include fraud, violation of the California Labor Code and misuse of Warren’s confidential 5,000-name mailing list.

MCWE officials flatly deny Warren’s allegations. Cerullo says he cannot comment on specifics of the suit until it is resolved. In a statement provided to Charisma, MCWE’s board of directors said they consider Warren’s allegations to be “100 percent without merit.”

Privately, Cerullo executives view the lawsuit as an attempt by Warren to extort money from their ministry. Their statement says that prior to Warren’s lawsuit being filed, he demanded $2.2 million not to sue. In response MCWE officials asked Warren to submit his grievances to binding Christian arbitration, but he refused.

“He responded through his attorney that he would go to nonbinding arbitration, and only on the condition that MCWE pay all the expenses for both sides of the arbitration,” the MCWE board said.

In the lawsuit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, Warren alleges that Cerullo persuaded him to join his ministry by promising that he would become Cerullo’s “partner,” “second in command,” and eventual “successor” at MCWE. The suit claims the promises were so convincing that Warren gave up ministries he had established in northern California, turned over his donor database to MCWE and moved to San Diego.

However, the suit charges, “These promises never materialized nor were they ever intended to.” The suit also states that during Warren’s extensive traveling with Cerullo, he began to be concerned about “unethical and fraudulent fundraising techniques” at the ministry.

For example, Warren claims in the suit that at a January 1997 MCWE Annual Conference, as well as in fund-raising letters, Cerullo asked donors for a $1,500 gift to MCWE. In return, Warren said MCWE promised to provide them with a satellite dish allowing access to its global prayer satellite network as well as other organizational events. Warren claims the promised satellites were never given to donors.

Rick Towne, an attorney representing Cerullo, said the ministry made it clear to donors that the satellite dish offer was contingent on negotiations with system providers, and that MCWE handled the offer legally.

According to the suit, an AG congregation in Salem, Ore., that was considering Warren as a candidate for senior pastor, reversed their decision to hire him after the church board learned of his lawsuit against Cerullo. Warren, who sold his San Diego home to make the move to Salem, contends that his name was withdrawn from consideration after representatives from People’s Church called MCWE for a personal reference.

Randy Campbell, senior associate pastor at People’s Church, told Charisma the church has nothing to say about the situation since everything discussed at board meetings is confidential.

In addition, Warren claims that MCWE officials’ interference severely damaged his relationship with the AG, including his “future employment opportunities, since the AG is the recommending body for all of its churches.” AG officials at the Southern California district office and at the denomination’s headquarters in Springfield, Mo., said they did not have enough information to comment on the case–which is expected to go to trial in June.

Another suit against Cerullo, filed by Harry Turner, a former MCWE vice president who resigned in November 1999, was recently settled out-of-court. Turner said the settlement agreement prohibits him from revealing how much money he received from MCWE.

However, a letter to Cerullo’s ministry from Dean Broyles, an attorney for Turner, revealed that Turner demanded $800,000 “to settle this matter short of litigation.” The letter is among public documents filed at San Diego Superior Court.

Turner’s list of grievances against Cerullo included allegations of lies and fraud by Cerullo to his donors. In a November 2000 deposition that was part of the suit, Robert Killion, Cerullo’s chief financial officer, admitted that the federal government was investigating allegations of mail fraud at Cerullo’s ministry.

Davis Frast, a public information officer and postal inspector with the Postal Inspection Service, said that his agency has received complaints about Cerullo’s ministry and the agency is in the first stages of an investigation.

MCWE officials could not comment on specifics of either lawsuit, but one official said he believed both situations were attempts to steal money and energy from a ministry that is reaching millions.

MCWE has never been a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), an evangelical self-policing group. ECFA President Paul Nelson told Charisma that his organization gets frequent calls concerning Cerullo and other similar ministries. “But we don’t know anything about our nonmembers,” Nelson said. “Non-high-profile members are more conspicuous by their absence, but it doesn’t make them bad.”

Officials at the ministry vigorously defend Cerullo as a tireless crusader for the gospel. The evangelist has just completed a 3-1/2 yearlong outreach that cost a whopping $60 million. He also aired a prime-time gospel TV special last December that cost $3 million in airtime–and reached an estimated 2 billion people.

Cerullo has now embarked on his most ambitious project yet: a “Decade of Harvest” campaign in which he plans to preach or distribute gospel materials to the 276 least evangelized people groups in the world during the next 10 years.