Thousands participate in Civil War re-enactments every year. And as they restage the battles of Gettysburg, Antietam and Olustee, Christians are there to preach the timeless message of Jesus.
As the Confederate line moves forward to sweep the crumbling Union ranks from the field and win the Battle of Olustee for the 27th time, Chaplain Roger Niedrich kneels over the fallen Southern fighter to read Scripture and pray.

In a few minutes the casualty will, along with those around him sprawled on the north Florida terrain, spring up in full health, ready to fight another day. But for the time being, amid the swirl and smoke and screams of a recreated Civil War battle, Niedrich has a captive audience among the bodies littering the ground.

“I say things like: ‘I didn’t see you in church today; that’s probably why you are in the shape you are now,'” he laughs back in camp. “They tell me they will come to the next service. Sometimes God gives me a Scripture for them, and I will minister to them. Some of my best ministry is on the battlefield.”

An associate Assemblies of God pastor and cabinetmaker during the week, Niedrich on many weekends twins his zeal for evangelism and love for history to step back in time and reach out to members of the Civil War re-enacting community.

Across the country as many as 40,000-plus are believed to be involved in reliving the days when brother fought brother. Several thousand gathered in Pennsylvania in July to commemorate the Battle of Gettysburg, the war’s pivotal and best-known engagement–many enthusiastically reminiscing their participation in the 135th anniversary event in 1998.

Drawing an estimated 20,000 combatants, it was the biggest single
re-enactment to date, though almost as many are expected to assemble near Sharpsburg, Maryland, in September to mark the 140th anniversary of one of the bloodiest clashes of the war, Antietam.

But there are few weekends when the blues and grays can’t be found on duty somewhere. According to Bill Holschuh, editor of the Camp Chase Gazette–the re-enactors’ Bible–there are some 300-plus events a year, from large-scale recreations of conflict on the original field to living-history gatherings of just a handful. Civil War-interest publications feature advertisements for events that are promoted like a cross between a rock concert and a pilgrimage.

Add to the fighting men’s number the wives and children who take part in civilian re-enactments, and the thousands more spectators who turn out to watch passages of America’s most painful chapter repeat themselves, and there is an unlikely but significant mission field for Niedrich and others like him.

The re-enactors come from all walks of life–doctors and day laborers, professors and postal workers. Many trace their family lines back to those who served. All share a deep love for history and a respect for the hardships endured by men who fought and died in appalling numbers for what they believed in.

“It makes you appreciate how ordinary people did extraordinary things when their whole world was falling apart,” says Michael McCurdy, from Lilburn, Georgia. “For a couple of days you get the chance to get that much closer to what it was like–the smells, the sights. It’s a great way to learn history.”

For some it’s a fascination that borders on obsession. For hard-core re-enactors, attention to historical detail–down to the right kind of thread that would have been used for stitching–is just the start.

When they take part in historically authentic “immersion” weekends, they will check one another to see that no modern-day items slip through to spoil the time warp. Such forensic faithfulness doesn’t come cheap–uniform and arms can cost more than $2,000.

Sometimes they take on the identities of actual veterans, following historical events to the letter. “You can lose an awareness of the 21st century,” says Hal Merritt, a 24-year re-enactment veteran. Returning to the present day “makes you appreciate your life more,” he observes.

In the heat of recreated battle, passions can rise. Blood does spill occasionally, though it’s all forgiven fairly quickly.

Many talk about an almost mystical moment when everything comes together, and for a time they are no longer merely trying to replicate the past but somehow experiencing it as their own historic present. Some have dubbed the rush as “The Civil Wargasm.”

They speak of occasionally sensing the presence of those who died, as they tread the same ground. In tourist centers such as Gettysburg, Civil War “ghost tours” are big business, with guides telling–sometimes tall–tales of battleground apparitions. Not long ago, a psychic toured the re-enacting circuit offering to guide people into their past Civil War lives.

Yet at the same time, there is an openness to God. Niedrich finds that people who would not think of going to church in 2002 will attend his open-air camp services on Sunday mornings because it makes their re-enactment more authentic. Religion simply was a more accepted part of everyday life back in the 1860s.

They may go for a history lesson, but they get an altar call. At Olustee, at the end of a sermon in which Niedrich refers to his former alcoholism and drug addiction, he rejoices as four re-enactors step forward to respond to his invitation to pray to receive Christ.

Out on the battlefield–which in 1864 saw one of the war’s proportionally most costly fights as the Confederates defended their vital supply routes–he walks behind the Southern lines reading Scripture aloud, then praying over the fallen.

“The spectators think I am saying the last rites!” he says. Some of the wounded try to crawl away when they see him coming, he laughs. “They are more scared of me than the Yankees!”

During the rest of the weekend Niedrich and his wife, Laura–also in period dress–offer a listening ear and words of comfort or prayer to re-enactors who want to talk about their 21st century burdens. They also pass out reproduction Civil War tracts to the visitors.

He has performed weddings, marriage-vow renewals and baby dedications. One time the Deltona, Florida-based minister was even asked to say a few words as members of a unit gathered to remember a late colleague and, at the man’s request, watch his ashes being blasted across the battlefield from
a cannon.

“I have such a burden for these guys,” says the 45-year-old with a period-style beard and moustache. “I love them so much. I’d do anything for them.” A re-enactor for 20 years, he put down his gun and picked up a Bible instead some 10 years ago after recommitting his life following years of hard living.

Among those Niedrich’s Battle Line Ministries has touched is Mike Besser, a re-enactor for almost two decades. When they first met, Niedrich was “the furthest thing from a preacher,” he recalls. But when Besser attended a camp service after Niedrich’s renewal of faith, he was “captivated” by the preaching.

“He makes church fun and presents God in a way that you just can’t deny Him,” he says.

Like Niedrich, Joey Young–whose Old Paths Re-Enactors’ Missions is based in Athens, Georgia–not only conducts services but also follows the troops onto the battlefield. Going to the casualties, he says he will “pray for them, tuck a tract in their pocket.” Sometimes he asks, “If it was a real bullet between their eyes, would they know where they would spend eternity?”

Russell Cayler serves as a chaplain among the Union troops in California, which, despite the state’s distance from the Civil War theater, boasts a sizeable re-enacting community. A retired military helicopter pilot, he says his clerical role is “an opportunity to bring the Lord to people that often do not get it in the civilian world.”

Christian re-enactors can find themselves in a war zone in more ways than one.

“It can be a hostile environment, not necessarily in terms of, ‘We hate Christians,’ but the whole mind-set–the alcohol, the pervasive bad language. It’s just very secular,” observes Stuart Zaharek of Cedarville, Ohio.

Several years ago he formed the Christian Re-Enactors Network to both link believers for encouragement and support–some 300 are currently signed up–and provide a record of the importance of faith during the conflict, which Zaharek and other Christians say has been largely ignored by historians.

Phillip Surrey, a 20-year-old business student from Collinsville, Illinois, who has marched with Southern units since he was a young teen, launched a Web forum for Christian re-enactors earlier this year. His involvement in re-enacting has given him “a stronger desire to witness to people,” he says.

“There’s a lot of opportunities out there,” he notes. “The fact they are there to show respect for their forefathers shows they have a conscience, some kind of moral values.”

Much of the “ammunition” Christians in the re-enacting world use has been supplied by Alan Farley, who began pioneering Civil War re-enacting ministry almost 20 years ago. His Re-Enactor’s Mission for Jesus Christ has reproduced scores of tracts that were passed to both Northern and Southern soldiers.

Titles such as The Brand Plucked From Fire, Everlasting Punishment and Marks of Religious Declension point to their frequent hellfire-and-damnation-era message and their dated language. But Farley says that as well as being prized as souvenirs, they continue to touch people’s hearts to this day.

“They were written in a time of revival, and you can still sense the revival in the authors’ hearts,” he comments. “The Word is just as powerful, the Bible is just as alive today, and they speak. When you read them you find they are far more in-depth than anything that is handed out today–our minds are so ruined by TV and radio that we don’t have the concentration level we had in the past.”

Traveling more than 30,000 miles per year to events from his home in Appomatox County, Virginia–not far from the site of Lee’s surrender to Grant, which signaled the end of the war–Farley has recorded more than 1,200 decisions for Christ through his ministry.

He has encountered a mixed response from churches, some of which want to keep the Civil War at arm’s length because of the slavery issue. But at least one church uses re-enacting to draw people in. Averyville Baptist Church in East Peoria, Illinois, stages an annual battle over Memorial Day weekend, when the two sides clash on the church’s property.

Visitors get “lunch, a battle and a good hellfire-and-brimstone sermon” says church member Mike Scholl, who traces a chaplain in the Stonewall Brigade in his family tree and helps organize the event. “It’s all a thing to get more people to come out to hear the gospel.”

Out on the battlefield it may be “big boys with their toys,” as Niedrich puts it, but back in the camp there is room for the women. The real hard-core types who look down on participants with coolers also frown upon the “civilian camps” that allow for period-dress families at events. They point out that the only women who got close to the armies were the kind of camp followers that saw Gen. Joseph Hooker’s surname become another word for a prostitute.

But Margaret Gilbert sees her presence as continuing the ministry of her late husband, Robert, who was ordained to serve as a priest to the re-enacting community. From her Minneapolis home she travels to about 20 events a year, helping chaplains with their services. Formerly reserved about her faith, she says, “Now I can’t seem to stop [talking].”

She serves with the United States Christian Commission, founded during the war to minister to the Union troops and reactivated as a ministry that now supplies chaplains for re-enacting units. The National Civil War Association, which organizes events in California, has the Christian Committee that provides chaplains. It spells out that anyone wanting to take part in period ministry “is to do so as a matter of faith and religious belief, and not as merely a role to be played.”

Niedrich was a reluctant recruit to the ministry when first asked by an officer to lead a service; he enjoyed being in the ranks too much. He prayed about it and told God he didn’t want to preach.

“He said, ‘I didn’t want to hang on a cross, either,'” Niedrich recalls, and adds: “I never looked back.”

He says the first time he stepped out as a chaplain, he felt like someone who had just quit smoking for the first time: “I didn’t know what to do with my hands without my rifle. I felt so out of place.”

Now he grasps a Bible confidently, though he confesses to still feeling ready to throw up before he has to preach. “But when the Holy Spirit takes over, you don’t think about it anymore.”

For the 250 soldiers, civilians and spectators gathered outside his chaplain’s tent before the 26th annual Olustee re-enactment, Niedrich mixes personal testimony, impish humor and a heartfelt appeal for them to bring their problems to Jesus.

“A lot of people want to escape the reality of their 2002 problems and what better way than to send yourself back 140 years?” he reflects. “The only problem with that is that you are back there for 48 hours, but then you have to go on and come back to the real world, and the problems are still there.

“When people get saved [at his services] they are not doing it because they are thinking they are re-enacting something that happened in the past, but because they want answers to the questions they have back here in 2002.”

Healing Civil War Wounds

Some African Americans are helping re-enact the Civil War, including a minister who says the country’s racist past should not be ignored.

It may be one of the few things not historically authentic, but Clifford Pierce does a lot of hugging at Civil War re-enactments. “I just like to spread the joy of the Lord as I travel through the camps,” beams the National Parks Service maintenance worker.

The 51-year-old is one of a small but growing number of African Americans helping recreate the dark days of the 1861-1865 conflict. At Olustee, Florida, in February there is a woman portraying Harriet Tubman and at least one man in Confederate gray, recalling the blacks who fought for the South.

Pierce is here to represent Samuel Harrison, the real-life chaplain of the 54th Massachusetts, the first trained, black Union regiment to see action, whose bravery at Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina, was portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie Glory.

At Olustee, the 54th ran to the battlefield, arriving just in time to prevent the collapse of the Northern flank. It’s said that when a train loaded with wounded broke down the following day, men of the 54th tied ropes to it and hauled it to its destination.

Pierce, who is an ordained preacher, isn’t here just to see history refought, though. He is campaigning for the future, too.

“I believe that you need to know where you have been in order to know where you are going,” he observes. “You need to understand the Confederate and Union history in the right perspective.”

A member of Paxon Revival Center in Jacksonville, Florida, Pierce visits schools in his uniform for living-history presentations, when he takes the opportunity to discuss division and reconciliation.

“God is still working on the plan,” he says. “We have to live together despite the ugly heritage that we have. Then God can work out the differences so that there will be joy in the morning.”

Despite the presence of acres of Confederate flags, Pierce says he has seen little racism in the re-enacting world. “Most of us are like family. The Confederates and Union will travel [to events] together.”

Pierce has even married four Confederate couples. “That was different,” he smiles.

David Riker, a history teacher who serves as a Confederate senior medical officer admits that, as in any cross section of society, there are some racists “but very few, because the community doesn’t like that. We don’t want to be labeled from a bunch of people who have abused our flag, namely the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads.”

Even Union sympathizers support the flying of the Stars and Bars. “It was one of the flags that flew over the state, so from an historical standpoint I don’t think it’s racist,” says Jeff Webb, an architect with the 115th New York State Volunteers. “But if you have guys flying it from their pickup trucks, it’s a little bit different.”

Southern re-enactors are quick to insist to visitors that the war was more about states’ rights of self-government than it was about slavery. The sensitive issue once gave longtime re-enactors’ chaplain Alan Farley the chance to minister to a spectator. The black woman visiting his tent wanted to know if he believed in slavery.

“I said, ‘I do believe in slavery,'” he remembers with a slight smile. “‘Every person is enslaved to their own sin until they are set free by the blood of Jesus.’ We sat down and had quite a nice conversation after that.”

Pierce, one of the few unarmed re-enactors around (“I carry the biggest weapon of all–the Word of God”), says the lessons of the Civil War offered by re-enactors need to be heard even more since 9/11. “We have to have our country as one, regardless of the problems. You can have differences, but your country can’t divide.”

The Civil War’s Best-Kept Secret: Confederate Revival?

Most people don’t know that revivals swept through the camps of Southern armies during the War Between the States.

The sutlers’ row to be found at many re-enactments is like a sort of “Civil Wal-Mart,” a one-stop collection of traders selling everything from uniforms and weapons to books addressing military minutiae such as bayonet drills and latrine digging.

But one historical aspect largely overlooked both at re-enactments and in aca-
demia is the significance of faith during the conflict. That large-scale revivals swept through the Southern camps is still the war’s “best-kept secret,” according to Lloyd Sprinkle, who has spent years trying to redress the imbalance.

The pastor of Park View Baptist Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia, estimates that as many as 100,000 Confederate soldiers may have given their lives to Christ through the efforts of chaplains, missionaries and colporteurs who passed out evangelistic tracts.

Some 200 million pages of gospel literature are estimated to have been distributed among Southern troops–an indication of the seriousness with which the message was viewed in a time when paper was in short supply.

Sprinkle stumbled across a copy of Christ in the Camp, by J. Williams Jones, a chaplain in the Army of Northern Virginia, in 1968. The 624-page account, published in 1887, recalled the passion stirred by the gospel–how men had stood barefoot in the snow to listen to sermons, and ministers preached three times a day to meet the demand for their message.

The book recorded how a contemporary newspaper reported: “The bivouac of the soldier never witnessed such nights of glory and days of splendor. The Pentecostal fire lights the camp, and the hosts of armed men sleep beneath the wings of angels rejoicing over many sinners that have repented.”

Sprinkle says: “I had no idea. I had been studying revivals all my life, and here was one that was totally overlooked.” He started a business to reproduce Jones’ book and has sold more than 20,000 copies in the United States and overseas. He has also republished 20-plus other Civil War titles, including The Great Revival in the Southern Armies, in which former chaplain William W. Bennett wrote in 1876 of a “glorious work of grace which is the great moral phenomenon of the present age.”

Researching the spiritual dimension of the war has “encouraged me with respect to revival, which we stand in such terrible need of in our day,” Sprinkle says. “If God can work in the midst of the devastation of that, and He did, why should we think that He cannot and would not do that even for us?”

Chaplains and missionaries were busy in the Union camps, too, but though there were localized revivals, the move of God was not nearly as strong as among the Confederate troops.

In his journals, edited and published in 2001 as The Preacher’s Tale, Union chaplain Francis Springer wrote of his frustration at the officers who “desecrate the Sabbath” by organizing pay distributions and parades on Sundays. Springer held services, led Bible studies and prayed with Union deserters and Confederate bushwhackers before they were executed.

Springer recalled meeting with one fatally wounded Northerner, quoting Scripture. “I directed the young man, vigorous in the springtime of life, to the Savior of men.”

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Andy Butcher is senior writer with Charisma and editor of Charisma News Service, an e-mail news bulletin published weekdays.

In most Muslim nations, sharing the gospel is forbidden. But observers believe that Turkey–where the New Testament church flourished–may be the key to reaching all of the Middle East.

The first time that Ali Pektas had an encounter with Jesus Christ was in Mecca, Saudi Arabia–the spiritual heart of Islam.

“I was working in Saudi Arabia and joined a hajj, a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca–without being in any way religious. It was the first time in my life that I prayed,” says Pektas, who comes from Malatya in central Turkey.

“One night [during the hajj] I had a dream. I saw Jesus, and He was very bright and reached out to embrace me. He then touched my forehead and said, ‘You belong to Me.'”

Pektas–being from a communist family who lived in a Muslim country–had heard the name of Jesus but knew nothing about Him and had never met a Christian.

The next morning, one of his friends asked him: “What happened to your forehead? It looks phosphorous!” Unconcerned, Pektas got into his car to drive back to the center of Mecca to continue the hajj.

“The car was brand-new, but it did not start,” he recalls. “The ignition was dead, and I heard a voice saying: ‘You cannot go.'” Pektas made a decision to leave Mecca instead–and immediately the car started.

Later he heard the voice again, telling him to return home to Turkey. Today at age 45, and 12 years after his Mecca experience, Pektas is a student at the two-year Istanbul Bible Training Center, preparing for full-time ministry. Larry Mills, his pastor and the school’s director, confided in Charisma that he just might turn over his church to Pektas in the near future.

Determined to Grow

The number of ethnic Turks associated with charismatic and evangelical churches is still minuscule in Muslim Turkey–about 2,000 in 50 million. The population of Turkey totals some 66 million, but about 13 million are Kurds, and 3 million are of other minorities.

The mere fact that an indigenous Turkish church has been established in the last 15 years and Turkish church leaders such as Pektas are now emerging has unnerved the government. It is under constant pressure from nationalist lobbies and popular opinion to preserve Turkey’s traditional identity as a Muslim nation.

In the most recent wave of discriminatory measures against Christians, local authorities notified 15 congregations that their buildings were not “licensed for worship” and ordered them to abandon their services. A Christian school in Ankara was closed, and seven of its foreign staff members were deported. Ankara believers have received bomb threats, and a series of national TV talk shows have stirred anti-Christian sentiments.

Turkish pastors who met with Charisma in Istanbul explained that the latest wave of harassment has not caused the country’s Christians to lose heart, but has actually revealed a determination not previously displayed by Turkey’s believers during periods of government pressure.

They pointed out that not one church has bowed to the threats or complied with the close-down order. Instead the pastors hired a lawyer and appealed the ruling in a concerted legal action that is unprecedented in Turkey.

The Anadolu Protestant Church in Istanbul, pastored by Levent Kinran, wasn’t among the 15 ordered to close. But in a decision that reflects the new willingness of the Turkish church leadership to face the current challenge head-on, the Anadolu congregation actually reported itself by notifying police that their church was unlicensed.

“We are determined to live in the open and to gain recognition,” Kinran told Charisma. The congregation’s boldness was rewarded. Although Kinran’s church gathers in a building that is quite “unlicensed,” the authorities assured the pastor that “everything is OK.”

“What we are up against is not persecution,” Kinran says. “Some time ago a pastor from Iran spoke in our church. When he returned home he was killed. That is persecution. Compared to the Iran believers, we are doing fine.”

Pastor Behnan Konutgan, president of the Turkish Evangelical Alliance, also stresses the positive influence the current difficulties are having on the nation’s Christians, saying that “it has brought the churches together, to protest and to pray.”

In Turkey, religion traditionally is defined in political rather than spiritual terms. Christianity is viewed as the religion of Turkey’s historical enemies in western Europe and the United States.

Christianity is also associated with the blatant immoralities of the West, which in the last 15 years have invaded the Turkish mass media and youth culture, fanning opposition from faithful Muslims.

The 80-year-old Republic of Turkey is, constitutionally, a secular state granting religious liberties. Its predominant political force, however, always was and still is a ruthlessly aggressive brand of nationalism that claims the only acceptable citizen is an ethnically Turkish Muslim.

Consequently, Turkey’s ethnic minorities, Christian and Muslim, have been subjected to discrimination that has ranged from harassment to genocide. During the years 1915-1916 and 1922-1923, 1.5 million (out of 2.5 million) Christian Armenians living in the eastern provinces around Mount Ararat were killed. To this day Turkey denies the genocide occurred.

The estimated 13 million Muslim Kurds in Turkey still live under martial law. Some 3,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed, and the Turkish army has displaced about 3 million Kurds since the 1980s.

The discrimination against the new churches is also nationalistically motivated. Turks turning to Christianity are suspected of political and cultural treason and are marked as “hirelings of Western powers.”

This applies to evangelical and charismatic churches in particular because of their Western-style worship and close ties with (and often financial dependence on) U.S. and western European churches and missionaries. Pastor Konutgan, who is evangelical and an Assyrian–not an ethnic Turk–has been arrested 20 times or more since his conversion 24 years ago, always on spy charges.

Pastor Carlos Madrigal, a Spaniard ministering in Istanbul since 1985, is the president of the church-planting Silas Network. He says police questioned him frequently in the first years of his ministry and arrested him once. They always insisted he must be an enemy agent hired to “divide” Turkey.

“But in fact I supported both my family and my ministry through a normal secular job in those days, so there was no way a case could be built against me,” he says.

In spite of the resistance, the charismatic and evangelical churches in Turkey are growing in number as well as Turkish identity. Madrigal says that until 1995, foreign workers were taking the spiritual initiative to spread the gospel. After that time, Turkish church leaders started developing a vision for their nation and taking the lead.

Kinran confirms that the situation has changed entirely during the last 15 years. He became a believer in 1987 and joined Istanbul’s first ethnically Turkish church, which had been planted a year earlier.

“Today there are 24 evangelical and charismatic churches in Istanbul, and many have a Turkish identity,” he says. “Three months after my conversion, the New Testament in modern Turkish was published. A revision of the Old Testament was published in 2001.

“Two Christian radio stations are on the air,” he continues. “You find Christian ads in Turkish papers. Back in 1987 there were very few Christian books in Turkish. Now we have translated and authored many titles.”

Kinran is himself a translator, as well as the author of a Christian novel and one of the editors currently working on the first Turkish Bible dictionary. <P > Key to the Muslim World

Kinran was born to a Muslim family in Istanbul in 1967, and his testimony illustrates how Turkey was confronted by the full gospel for the first time since the days when the apostle Paul planted churches along the Mediterranean coast.

“My father was a nonreligious alcoholic, but my mother was a practicing Muslim,” he explains. “I did not question Islam, but it was never my religion.”

The same could be said of most young Turks. Secularization is racing among the youth, with cities adopting a loose Westernized lifestyle at an incredible pace. “Most young people have grown indifferent of religion,” Kinran claims.

At 17 he studied British and American literature at Istanbul University and says he was inspired by the classics to “start asking the hard questions about the meaning of life.” Looking for answers, he turned to Islam.

“I prayed five times a day, studied Arabic and read the Quran, but I could not find God,” Kinran recalls. “Being surrounded by atheist fellow students, I also read Freud and Nietzsche. But altogether I did not seem to get anywhere.”

By age 19 “life seemed pointless,” Kinran says. He was desperate enough to seek comfort in alcohol and drugs. But one day he ran into an American Christian at a bus stop, made friends and was given an American Bible.

“What really struck me reading it was the person of Jesus,” he says. “I read the Gospel of John over and over again. Jesus’ claim to be God was so overwhelming that I ended up crying.”

There were very few Christians in Turkey in the mid-1980s, but Kinran met with one new believer who was able to help him clarify the basics of his newfound faith. Realizing why Jesus had come to die on the cross, Kinran says, became “a transforming experience, and I started feeling God’s touch.”

Kinran joined the Turkish Protestant Church, planted by Campus Crusade for Christ and later heavily influenced by the Vineyard movement. Today the group consists of three congregations in Istanbul, and Kinran says half the members became Christians through “power encounters” with the Holy Spirit.

The reaction by Kinran’s family to his conversion was traumatic. It is still common that even nonreligious families disown children who leave Islam.

“I lived with my parents, the way we do in Turkey,” Kinran explains. “I chose not to mention Christianity at home, but after some time my mother started receiving bomb threats! ‘Your son has joined an organization that is conspiring to divide Turkey–beware!'”

One day Kinran’s photo, accompanied by slanderous text, appeared on the cover of one of the leading newspapers. His mother had contacted the reporter. Later she asked the police to arrest her son.

“The police didn’t arrest me, but it was awful,” Kinran says. “I felt hate for my mother and wanted to leave home. But the Lord told me no! A few years later my father died of a heart attack, and my mother said my betrayal caused his death–and threw me out.”

Family relationships of Muslim Turks converting to Christianity are often tested, even severed. Today Kinran sees his mother again. “We are not close, but at least we visit,” he says.

Konutgan explains to Charisma: “Our problem is not with the government as such. Turkish law does not forbid Christianity. But the government is not free. It is afraid of the people.”

Konutgan came to the Lord at a time when there were “no more than 10 believers in all of Turkey,” he says. His Christian roots reach back to the third century, when missionaries from Antioch (Turkish Antakya today) planted churches among Assyrians in Haran, the ancient homeland of Abraham–also located in Turkey, just north of Syria.

With conviction, Konutgan exclaims to Charisma: “As Christians we love Turkey and its government, but we hate these nationalism and fear!” If they were overcome, he says, thousands would come to know the Lord.

There are now some 50 charismatic and evangelical churches in Turkey that comprise some 4,000 believers. Ali Pektas’ pastor, Larry Mills, is a graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a missionary to Turkey, Germany and Bulgaria since 1986. He agrees with pastor Konutgan that Turkey is ready for revival.

“Something has softened up the hearts of the people,” Mills says. “I am convinced that the many prayer initiatives–the prayer during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month; the prayer through the 10/40 Window–have played a major role. If we find ways to spread the Word to the masses–for example, by employing mass media–we will see a major revival.

“I believe Turkey is a key to the entire Muslim world,” Mills continues. “Christianity is not illegal in Turkey, and the ambition to prove itself a democracy and a worthy candidate for the European Union keeps the country from yielding fully to the nationalist lobby.”

Mills emphasizes the importance of the ongoing legal infighting with the authorities for full recognition. But the main focus in the next years, he says, must be the training of Turkish leaders.

Mills reflects: “We keep asking God, ‘When?’ I perceive God is asking us, ‘When?'”–but then adds: “As soon as we see to it that there are many more Turkish pastors like Ali Pektas, revival will come!”

The Turkish Challenge

Ministers inside Turkey say sensitivity is crucial for those who are called to share Christ there.

Old-timers in Istanbul joke that there used to be “one [foreign] missionary for each believer” in the ancient Turkish city–hearkening to a time when Turkey was hardly seen as a promising mission field. Today, instead of one missionary for every believer, the new ratio is half of that–300 foreign missionaries for the city’s 600 charismatic and evangelical believers.

There is, however, a renewed and accelerating interest in Turkey as a mission field. Mission activity is on the rise in the wake of the 10/40 Window international prayer movement, the involvement of Christian agencies with the victims of the 1999 Turkey earthquake, the long-term work of Phoenix-based International Turkish Network, as well as other initiatives. Turkish leaders and missionaries working in the country agree that international backing for the church is still vitally needed.

Yet cultural issues, as well as issues of attitude that Turkish leaders hinted at, continue to cause tensions between the national and the missionary Christian communities in Turkey.

Pastor Behnan Konutgan, president of the Turkish Evangelical Alliance, told Charisma he could tell “many, many stories” of “missionaries behaving in an insensitive [and disrespectful] way” toward the Turkish people. He counsels the international church to support Turkey through prayer, and he advises foreigners who want to live in Turkey to consult the local leadership for ways they can help.

Long-term, experienced missionaries such as pastors Carlos Madrigal of Spain and Larry Mills of the United States both stress that Turkey does not necessarily need an influx of missionaries. Short-term teams in particular tend to tie up rather than add to the resources of the national church.

Mills says he would welcome ” to help train national leaders.” Madrigal says missionaries have to “invest their lives to produce fruit” by staying long term and learning the language and culture.

Phoenix-based Beyond the Borders cooperates with national leaders such as Konutgan and seasoned missionaries such as Madrigal and Mills to inspire and facilitate cross-culturally sensitive mission work in Turkey. Twice a year the organization’s director, Joy Wright, who moved to Istanbul in January 2000, invites American charismatics to her new hometown if they have an interest in praying for Turkey or helping the church there. In that setting, she introduces the visitors to national leaders.

“You cannot love people without knowing them,” Wright stresses. “While the need in Turkey is great and the Western church has something to offer, our contribution may be more acceptable if we court the Turkish church rather than trying to dominate it.

“We should feel free to present our ideas, but trust the Turkish leaders to reshape them to fit their culture,” she adds.

A few years ago, while on a shopping tour in Istanbul, Wright says she was overcome with a longing to see the country won to Christ. Today, traveling from Istanbul several weeks out of each year, she visits charismatic prayer groups in the United States to inspire ongoing intercession for Turkey.

Notes Wright: “Independent charismatic churches are still not as aware of the importance of Turkey as they should be”.

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Tomas Dixon, a journalist based in Sweden, is Charisma’s correspondent to Europe and the Middle East.

The nutritional supplement policosanol is the most impressive for lowering
cholesterol.
Q. I have high cholesterol and take Lipitor. My liver is inflamed but my doctor wants to keep me on the medication. Are there natural alternatives for the drug?
S.G., Phoenix, Arizona

A. One of the most common side effects of statin drugs (Lipitor, Mevacor, Pravachol, Zocor) is elevated liver-function tests, a sign that the liver is being mildly inflamed from the medication. The inflammation may prevent the liver from performing its detoxification functions effectively. This can lead to a buildup of toxins and free radicals in the body, which contribute to excessive fatigue, accelerated aging and degenerative diseases.

Rather than worrying about the side effects of statin drugs, why not try the foundation therapy for high cholesterol? This is a low-fat, low-sugar diet void of fried foods; excessive saturated fats from fatty cuts of meat; high-fat dairy products such as butter, whole milk, ice cream and cheese; and hydrogenated fats, which are found in margarine, most commercial peanut butters and some salad dressings.

For a nutritional supplement, policosanol is the most impressive for lowering cholesterol. It is a natural supplement derived from the wax of sugar cane and has no known side effects. It lowers the dangerous low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and increases the protective high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

Some well-designed comparative trials have been performed against statin drugs, and policosanol was almost equally as effective as most of the statins. But it takes longer than statins to achieve its cholesterol-lowering effect, typically six to eight weeks for a significant drop.

The recommended starting dosage is 10 mg (milligrams) once a day, usually with your evening meal. This typically will drop the LDL by about 20 percent to 25 percent in the first six to eight weeks. If your cholesterol isn’t lowered to a normal level, increase the dose to 20 mg a day, and this usually drops the LDL by 25 percent to 30 percent. HDL usually increases by 15 percent to 25 percent.

If you are taking the medication Coumadin, your PT levels should be monitored by your physician even though policosanol typically does not affect the PT level. Also, you will need to be monitored by your physician if you have a medical condition that requires anti-coagulant or anti-platelet medications. You should be able to find policosanol in health-food stores.

Q. I was in an automobile accident four years ago. I’ve seen five doctors and been on many medications, but I still have back pain and terrible muscle spasms. What can I do?
E.K., Las Vegas, Nevada

A. Dr. John E. Sarno, professor of clinical rehabilitation medicine at New York University School of Medicine, has treated thousands of patients with chronic back pain. He has found that injuries of the back are rarely responsible for the chronic back pain.

He discovered that tension actually leads to muscle spasm and back pain (a condition he named Tension Myositis Syndrome). Muscle spasms in the back create constriction of the blood vessels that supply the muscles with blood and oxygen, a process that leads to decreased oxygen for muscles and nerves. The result is a cycle: more spasms and more pain create more anxiety and more tension, which create more spasms and more pain.

Sarno found that many of his patients had anger, repressed or internalized, and that it was the root cause of their muscle spasms. He now counsels them not to focus on their pain but on their anger.

As Christians, we have the advantage of being filled with God’s Holy Spirit, who can bring all things to our remembrance, even the repressed anger we may carry from our childhood or adolescent years. Simply understanding this process reprograms the body for health instead of pain.

The next step is a willingness to start taking “baby steps” of faith and to gradually begin performing movements that previously you weren’t able to do.

On most days I love my job. Then there are other days when I’d like to turn off my computer, drive back home to Georgia and sit on a porch swing for a few months. I especially feel this way when I read through my bulging hate-mail file, where I collect responses from angry subscribers. For an editor, reading these letters is sort of like getting a root canal, only not as fun.

I react to these letters in different ways. In some cases I face my mistakes like a man and apologize for getting our facts wrong. At other times, when I realize what kinds of sick attitudes are brewing out there in the church, I get depressed.

Last summer, for example, we featured on our cover a photograph of four young people wearing black lipstick, metal-studded collars and Gothic clothes. I’ll admit it was not your grandmother’s issue of Charisma.

But the reason we wrote that story was to inform our readers about a significant trend going on in today’s youth culture. A few days after that magazine hit newsstands, an angry pastor called to say he had burned it because he didn’t want to look at images of “evil” teen-agers.

He torched the magazine! I hate to think how this man would react if a Goth walked into his church on Sunday and filled out a visitor’s card.

In April we interviewed dozens of unchurched people so we could get a sense of how they view the gospel and Christians. I learned a lot from their honest, humorous responses (especially their suspicions about what churches do with the money in the offering plate).

But a pastor from California dismissed our research. Regarding evangelism, he said he didn’t have time for sinners. If the Holy Spirit should ever convict unbelievers in his city, he said, then “they can just drop by.” (Great! I thought, I’m sure they’ll be drawn to the Lord by your compassion and concern.)

Then there was the woman in Pennsylvania who was upset because she believes we are “pandering” to Goths, atheists and homosexuals by teaching our readers how to minister to them. She wrote: “You hide behind the idea of reaching the masses when actually you care more about them than you do Jesus Christ. Yes, He died for them. He also died for the button-down, normal guy down the street.”

I agree that Jesus died for the button-down crowd. But when the “normal” folks embrace the gospel, the Holy Spirit comes with His fire to burn up their prejudices and stubborn religious mind-sets. The same Jesus who was willing to leave heaven and identify with demon-possessed prostitutes and greedy tax collectors is calling us to love people who aren’t like us.

I wonder what our critics will say about our cover this month, which features a young man involved in the hip-hop scene. All of our readers need to study his face carefully. I hope that instead of burning this magazine, you will pin the cover photo on your refrigerator and pray for ministries that are using rap music and street jive to reach a needy subculture.

You don’t have to dress like this guy or listen to his pulsating music. But maybe Jesus wants you to invite him into your “normal” world–so the Holy Spirit can incinerate some things in your heart.

The music is loud, and the beats are strong. But Christian hip-hop artists say they’re using this unorthodox sound to reach a generation for Christ.
It’s almost 1 a.m., and the music has been pumping for nearly five hours. But the man with the mike has no plans to forfeit his song.

This is the last night of the Holy Hip-Hop Awards held this year in Atlanta. It’s one of the rare opportunities Christian hip-hop “heads” have to showcase their talent, and Mr. Del, as the emcee is known, is the last artist to perform. The music begins, but Del suddenly cuts it off, asking everyone to come forward. He says he must follow the Holy Spirit’s lead.

Lately, he says, he’s been burdened about the state of Christian hip-hop; too many artists he’s met are just trying to make money. Mr. Del (or Delmar Lawrence) experienced fortune and fame when he was a member of the explicit rap group Three 6 Mafia. Now a Christian, the 23-year-old rapper says believers in the music business should be winning souls.

He prays for the musicians–warning that Christian hip-hop will never reach its potential until they model the lifestyle they’re rapping about. Then the bass kicks back in, and Mr. Del begins a chorus that seems to resonate with this crowd.

“I heard You were looking for some Holy Ghost soldiers!” he yells. The audience waves their hands in the air and bounces to the rhythm of the wild Southern beat.

“Here I go! Here I go! Here I go!” they respond, as the small army with Del on stage–members of his Holy South ministry–crisscross the platform waving shirts, towels and jerseys.

It’s easy to see that these young people are fans of rap music and that fusing hip-hop with the gospel is no stretch for them. But what’s not as apparent is that the fascination with hip-hop doesn’t end with the song.

When Mr. Del returns to Memphis, Tennessee, he’ll preach to his 50-member congregation with the same fervor he exhibited in Atlanta. And the worship at his church, City of Refuge, will have a hip-hop beat.

Though the conventional church is slow to embrace this style of ministry, Christians in these circles believe they’re on the brink of something big. Shekinah, a 30-year-old female rapper from Burlington, New Jersey, says she knows she is part of something great. “When I was growing up I heard about the Civil Rights movement, and I feel like this is like that,” she says. “God is going to use youth to impact the world.”

She’s not alone. The leaders of this underground community are looking to raise up an army of “Holy Ghost soldiers” who will incite a revolution of righteousness within hip-hop culture. They believe that, like its secular counterpart, it will eventually touch the globe.

The Gospel in Hip-Hop Terms

Five hundred miles north of here in Norfolk, Virginia, “Big Ed” and “Little B” are working feverishly on a CD project in a studio housed in their neighborhood community center. As members of Youth Entertainment Studios (YES), the two 20-year-olds–also known as Edward Davis and Brian Toppins–have been learning music production for the last year from a group of Christians with a passion for inner-city youth.

“They tell you about Christianity, but they don’t shove it down your throat,” Big Ed says of YES. “They don’t try to force you to be anything that you’re not ready for.”

For YES founder Harry Young, taking a missionary approach has been key in reaching a generation reared on hip-hop. Staying true to hip-hop’s mantra of “keeping it real,” these youth are on a quest to find truth, Young says. But they don’t know where it will end.

When asked about their faith, Big Ed, Little B and YES member Samuel “Sam I Am” Painter, 19, acknowledge that they believe in God. But Big Ed is still searching, unwilling to describe himself as a Christian. Little B and his best friend got saved in a certification class, but he says his life hasn’t changed much. Sam says he’s starting to go back to church, but he doesn’t believe a person must attend services to hear God’s Word.

The struggle to choose what to believe is all part of the journey, Young says.”When the Lord shows up in their lives in a way that they can recognize, then all the blinders are going to come down, and you’re going to see these young people become revolutionaries,” he says. “And it won’t be a shallow thing. It will be a deep, abiding thing because of the journey they have taken.”

Most of the artists in the Christian hip-hop scene are much like the youth who participate in YES. Some were involved in gangs and crime. Many grew up in inner-city neighborhoods surrounded by the rapping, DJ-ing, break dancing and graffiti that define hip-hop.

Birthed as party music in the Bronx in the late 1970s, hip-hop has evolved into a culture complete with a unique verbal and nonverbal language, attitude, dress, and worldview. Many Christian rappers believe their call is to translate the gospel into the language of the street.

Minister Eddie Velez, outreach pastor at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, and president of the Fellowship of Holy Hip-Hop, says many urban youth need to hear the gospel in a cultural context. For example, his pastor, Bishop Eddie Long, preached a sermon recently based on Ezekiel 37.

“God is telling Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, to speak life into a dead situation,” says Velez, 37. “Now, [the baby boomer generation] may be able to say, ‘There are dry bones on your are dry bones in your are dry bones in your church auxiliary.’

“But [the younger generation] is unfed because [they] need to hear: ‘Yo, there’s dry bones in the projects, in the hallways where you hang out, kid. There’s dry bones when y’all hanging in front of the liquor store, slinging crack cocaine. God is telling prophecy to them right in front of the liquor store. Speak to them that they might have life.’

“But [older church members] might not know about standing in front of the liquor store anymore because they’ve been delivered from it,” he adds.

For 16-year-old Brandon Robertson of Tampa, Florida, hearing the gospel in hip-hop terms made all the difference. The high-school junior was selling drugs by age 8. At 12, he “kind of” blew up his principal’s car and was expelled from middle school, he says. With two offenses under his belt, Robertson was one strike away from spending the rest of his childhood in juvenile detention.

Then he attended a rap concert in his neighborhood hosted by Tommy Kyllonen, then youth pastor of Crossover Community Church. He began participating in the youth ministry Kyllonen led, and later accepted Christ. Though initially he says all hell broke loose, today his life has taken a 180-degree turn. His grades improved, and as he began playing bass in the symphonic band, his teachers discovered that the kid who almost grew up in jail is good enough to attend The Juilliard School in New York.

Top of the Charts

The notion of “translation” will mark the upcoming release from Dove Award-winning hip-hop duo GRITS, aptly titled The Art of Translation. Though GRITS has experienced some commercial success along with Gospel Gangstaz and Cross Movement, insiders say the Christian music industry has a long way to go before hip-hop takes its rightful place alongside other formats.

In 1998, hip-hop made national news when it outsold country music, making it the top-selling genre in the country. The following year Time magazine ran a cover story noting that whites purchased 70 percent of rap music and that a diverse generation of youth had grown up immersed in hip-hop. Longtime Christian hip-hop advocates such as Toby McKeehan (Toby Mac) of dc Talk hoped Nashville, Tennessee’s contemporary Christian music (CCM) scene would take note.

“I’m watching A&R people in this town take hip-hop more seriously, finally, and I have high hopes,” McKeehan says.

His Gotee Records has been a leading producer of Christian hip-hop, with artists such as Out of Eden, John Reuben and DJ Maj on its roster. But McKeehan is hoping to get more competition. In August, Gotee will launch its Hip Hope campaign to challenge the industry to support and invest in Christian hip-hop.

The push will come as Squint Entertainment sets to release Souljahz, a hip-hop trio that is getting positive buzz from the CCM industry.

“I really do see [Souljahz] bridging the gap, and I do think that kids are buying [rap] music, and it is the mainstream,” says Chris Rodriguez, vice president of A&R for Word Records and Souljahz’s executive producer.

Rodriguez and McKeehan acknowledge that hip-hop artists must have pop influences in their music to make strides in CCM. But a true hip-hop fan would say that’s not authentic. Ironically, the black gospel industry seems hard pressed to find Christian rappers who are authentic enough.

The leading gospel music labels, Verity and GospoCentric, have had significant rap artists on their rosters–B.B. Jay and Gospel Gangstaz respectively. But currently neither label has a rap artist signed. Vickie Mack Lataillade of GospoCentric Records says her label is behind gospel rap “100 percent,” but “the problem they cannot compete with a Ja Rule, a Jay-Z, an Eminem in they’re not credible.”

The artists also must walk a fine line. Mainstream listeners often are attracted to the hard-core, thug image secular rappers project–a stereotype that doesn’t mesh well with Christianity. “You have to have lived a certain kind of life, or whatever it is you’re talking about has to be real,” Lataillade says. “You have to have a strong delivery, and I think it really needs to be able to be played on hip-hop stations. And the hip-hop stations do not care for most of the Christian music that’s out there, and that’s just the truth.”

The leaders in the Christian hip-hop movement say many Christian rappers lack spiritual depth, but critics say those who are more biblically astute tend to lace their lyrics with too much Scripture.

“Christian rappers kill the world too much,” says Frankie Cutlass, a former mainstream DJ famous for songs such as “Shake What Your Mama Gave Ya.” Now a believer and founder of God Squad Entertainment, Cutlass hopes to produce a sound the world wants coupled with the message they need. “The world knows they’re going to percent of ministry is love. Show them the love of God. The other 25 percent is the Word,” he says.

Because musical trends change quickly, Cutlass says it’s easy for gospel rap to sound outdated. Cutlass says he’s seen thousands saved at events where he has ministered, and he believes the future of Christian rap is in the streets, where some of the most talented rappers are still waiting to hear the message of salvation.

Rappin’ for God

With or without a record deal, many Christian rappers continue to pursue what they believe is their call, giving concerts in inner-city neighborhoods, prisons and some churches. New York rapper Corey Red says he has seen hardened criminals melt as he presented the gospel through his rhymes; some pastors have even changed their views on gospel rap.

“I felt the presence of God literally fall on me” during a Corey Red & Precise concert, Shekinah says. “I couldn’t believe I felt God’s presence like that through somebody rhyming.”

A bold, prophetic voice, Corey Red preaches a sometimes-unpleasant evangelistic message, with lyrics that often speak of the end times and the reality of hell. “One thing about rap, whether it’s secular or it’s rapper always talks about those things in society that we want to make-believe don’t exist,” the 32-year-old says. “So the Christian rappers play both sides of the sword–God’s love and His judgment, His forgiveness and His intolerance of sin.”

Across the country, California-based rapper T-Bone, 28, has seen gang members intent on making a hit at one of his concerts give their lives to Christ instead. A former gang member himself, T-Bone has had knives, guns and Uzis pointed at his head by gangbangers aiming to assassinate him. He says he’s had more attempts on his life since he became a Christian than he did while in a gang, but what bugs him more than trigger-happy thugs are Christians who don’t take evangelism seriously.

“I’m amazed how all these Christian artists go out and do concerts, and they don’t even do altar calls,” says T-Bone, who has been a Christian rapper for 13 years and was nominated for a Grammy for his album The Last Street Preacha. “[If] you have the answer and you don’t share it, then basically what you’re doing is saying: ‘I don’t care about any of you. You can all go to hell literally because I’m not going to give you the answer on how to get to heaven.’ And to me that’s the bottom line.”

The hard-core gospel these rappers preach hasn’t won them many friends, but confrontational lyrics have always marked hip-hop. In its early days, secular rappers often highlighted the inner city’s ills, what some say was a cry for justice and social change.

“Even though you had great political [and]…Civil Rights leaders, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. there was a chasm left,” says 30-year-old Kendra King, Ph.D., a political science professor at the University of Georgia and a “closet performance poet” herself.

“No one responded to the poor and to the everyday man and woman like Dr. King. So these people began to respond for themselves because everybody couldn’t get down with the Black Panther Party. But for the average man [and woman] who’s working their children, they began to express themselves via these beats.”

Although that cry has degenerated into a message of materialism, violence and explicit sexuality–content that King says sells records–rap artists are still dominant public voices, becoming “black America’s CNN,” as secular rapper Chuck D once said.

That role used to be reserved for African American pastors, says Jamal-Harrison Bryant, 30-year-old pastor of 5,500-member The Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, the fastest growing congregation in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“Historically, black preachers have been the barometer of what’s going on in the community and the voice,” says Bryant, who led the youth and college division of the NAACP for two years. “Where they have gone silent, now these rap artists are speaking truth to power and are serving as newscasters to talk about the injustice of police brutality, of racism, things that the church used to do. [Pastors] have now shifted their gaze and now want to talk about prosperity and not deal with the are still left in the ‘hood.”

Restoring “consciousness” and morality to hip-hop could become the Christian artist’s domain–but not without presenting the ultimate cure, gospel rappers say. “Although [secular rappers] have been a voice for the unheard, there’s not been any solution,” says Los Angeles-based rapper Jah Word (Paul Franklin), who wrote positive rap songs before becoming a Christian. “And that’s where holy hip-hop is going to fill, finally, that void. Not only are we giving you an avenue to say you’re hurting, but we’re trying to offer you the solution, the remedy to your hurting.”

A Universal Language?

Back in Atlanta, there’s still talk of rap changing the world. For Danny Wilson, head of Holy Hip-Hop Holdings, that begins with changing the church. He says more parents need to realize there’s a viable alternative to secular hip-hop.

Since 1997, the 37-year-old and a handful of his friends have been working to develop an infrastructure to raise the genre’s visibility and sustain its growth. They’ve established a Web site (), a syndicated radio program and a TV show that airs on the Inspirational Network. Now they’re working to increase the genre’s distribution channels.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” Wilson says. “[But] I hope I get to see it, when it’s like Promise Keepers, filling up the Georgia Dome.”

W.P. Middlebrooks, based in Los Angeles, has never met Wilson, but he has the same vision. He hopes his ministry, Youth United for the World, has a far-reaching, Promise Keepers-style impact, becoming “a mechanism that is very sensitive to the total challenge of youth ministry.”

As a first step, he is planting a series of positive clubs called Swapmeet Live! for Christian young adults. Playing contemporary gospel music and holy hip-hop, the first club opened in Detroit and drew 200 college-age youth. More clubs are planned for Oakland, California; Columbus, Ohio; Norfolk; and San Diego. By the end of the year, Middlebrooks, a lay minister in the Church of God in Christ, expects to start a hip-hop-influenced church, which is a growing trend (see related article on page 48).

Similar ministries abound. In New York, Bert Bocachica hosts RapFest (), a Christian street party that drew 3,000 youth last year and may exceed that figure at this year’s event August 10. In Atlanta, Lawrence Stroman, or DJ Lace, edits an online newsletter and trains churches in hip-hop youth and street ministry.

In Ajax, Ontario, Sherice Sudds edits Feed, the only magazine exclusively covering Christian hip-hop. And in Tampa, Kyllonen will host his annual Fest conference () November 7-10 to train people in hip-hop and inner-city youth ministry. A second State of Holy Hip-Hop summit will be held at this year’s event.

Amid a growing crescendo, hip-hop ministers are setting their sights on the globe. Gotee artist Knowdaverbs saw thousands saved when he ministered in Russia and Kosovo. Female rapper Elle ROC hopes to eventually follow suit, going into countries whose governments won’t allow Christians to preach but will welcome a hip-hop artist.

The Christian hip-hop movement has the potential to tap within urban communities the same “Jesus Revolution” fervor exhibited at youth events such as The Call and OneDay, says hip-hop pastor Brendan Witton, 23, of Church Without Limits in Pickering, Ontario. And because hip-hop is the voice of the streets, it could shake America’s inner cities. But why stop there? Hip-hop’s popularity reaches as far as Europe, Africa and Asia.

“Holy hip-hop is in its toddler stage,” Velez says, “but I believe revival will come to the planet through the holy hip-hop movement because rap is the universal language. There’s going to be an explosion in the earth, [but] it’s not going to look like what we’ve seen. It’s not going to look like the five-button suit [or] the typical televangelist. [God is raising up] the ones that they counted out. The ones that they didn’t use [will usher in the new move].”

Hip-Hop Hallelujah

A growing number of hip-hop churches popping up in cities across North America may change the way ‘church’ is done.

As many churches wrestle with embracing hip-hop music, an increasing number of hip-hop congregations are emerging, a trend some say will transform the urban church.

“The walls that have defined the traditional church are going down,” says W.P. Middlebrooks, 32, a lay minister in the Church of God in Christ who is planting a hip-hop-influenced church in Los Angeles. He envisions a day when pastors commonly will wear twists and dreadlocks in their hair, and sport hip-hop gear instead of suits. He says members will spend more time outside the church than in, reaching their communities.

“People can’t buy into it because they’ve bought into the facade of what church is as an organization as opposed to what God is calling [it] to be as a body,” he says.

Congregations across North America are already realizing Middlebrooks’ dream. In January, what was thought to be the first hip-hop church was born when Tommy Kyllonen, 28, was promoted from youth pastor to senior pastor of Crossover Community Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Tampa, Florida. Within weeks, two more churches were planted: Now Faith International Ministries in Atlanta and The Universal Fat House in New Jersey, pastored by rapper B.B. Jay.

In the months that followed, Charisma discovered more ministries: Church Without Limits in Pickering, Ontario, which began in November 2000; and City of Refuge in Memphis, Tennessee, founded in October.

Brendan Witton, 23, pastor of 90-member Church Without Limits believes hip-hop churches reflect postmodern congregations within an urban context. “A lot of traditional black churches are resistant to hip-hop,” says Witton, who is white. “For a lot of young people, it’s been, choose God or choose hip-hop.”

Most hip-hop churches are multicultural and attract 18- to 35-year-olds. Many include a DJ and turntables as part of the worship. Crossover’s sanctuary is adorned with graffiti. Church Without Limits has had break dancing during praise and worship.

Delmar Lawrence, 23, pastor of 50-member City of Refuge in Memphis, Tennessee, makes evangelism an integral part of his ministry. Seven people made decisions for Christ at a nightclub where Lawrence and his team witnessed. He says he once gave a concert in a neighborhood where a young man had been shot and killed, and 23 people got saved.

“God knows good and well if the gospel is to be preached to all the earth, it has to be put through every avenue,” Lawrence says.

At Crossover, Kyllonen hopes to reach hip-hop “heads” of all ages who don’t connect with more traditional ministries. Crossover offers a variety of classes from DJ-ing to rapping to break dancing to develop members’ talents. Periodically the church hosts Poet Soul nights of spoken-word poetry, which Kyllonen says is also an outreach tool.

Now Faith pastor Bennie “Precha” Foster, 34, says he has seen youth saved, healed and delivered through hip-hop ministry, but he had to leave his former church because he received so much criticism. He challenges the conventional church to embrace hip-hop, yet acknowledges that many Christian rappers have given hip-hop ministry a black eye.

“[Gospel rappers are] trying to entertain each other,” Foster says. “They should be trying to reach the unsaved. They’ve got to see disciples come from this.”

Church Without Limits uses cell groups as a means of discipling new believers. Like Crossover, it also hosts town-meeting-style rap sessions that address hot topics such as racism. Emphasizing discipleship and Christian service, Kyllonen says many of the 300 members at Crossover want to go into ministry, with four attending a local Bible college.

Kyllonen says he frequently receives calls from people wanting to start similar ministries in their areas, and he believes more churches like Crossover will emerge in the future. Crossover member Craig “Nice” Fennen, 21, says he’d like to pastor one of them. “Other churches want to look at rap music and say it’s not of God because it doesn’t fit their lives,” he says. “We’re open. As long as it lines up with the Bible, we’re open.”

The Gospel in Laymen’s Terms

Cross Movement’s Scripture-heavy lyrics and infectious beats are winning the group fans across generational lines.

Christian rap music isn’t new. Artists such as Michael Peace gave the genre limited visibility in the 1980s, and the underground has been bulging with good and not-so-good projects ever since. But amid a growing momentum, Christian hip-hop is being taken more seriously with the emergence of talented, biblically astute artists such as Philadelphia-based Cross Movement.

With their heady, theological lyrics, the Movement majors on evangelism and discipleship. Their music has brought them exposure on Black Entertainment Television and in Time magazine. And their commitment to teaching Christian doctrine through their songs has won them fans across generational lines, with grandmothers thanking them for providing an alternative to secular rap.

But it has also brought them criticism. Some argue that rap music wasn’t meant to carry such weighty material. After all, it was born as party music; theological truths would likely send a crowd home. Many Christian artists seek to produce fun, uplifting music that could be played among secular crowds.

Yet in light of what he calls a “moral famine” in hip-hop culture, Cross Movement’s The Ambassador (William Branch) says Christian artists have a responsibility to saturate their lyrics with the gospel in the same way secular artists load their rhymes with secularism.

Founding member Tonic (John Wells) agrees. “We think that anybody, learned or unlearned, who wants to use or is ‘called’ to use hip-hop as the tool for ministry should make sure they’re submitted to God and under His direction for how to pull this off,” he says.

The Ambassador says many Christian rappers “with CDs out” have secular elements in their rhymes, which, Tonic adds, helps alienate a church that is already resistant to change. For Cross Movement, Scripture-heavy lyrics have helped them create a bridge between hip-hop culture and the church.

Some listeners have challenged the group to address more social and political issues in their rhymes, something Tonic says isn’t completely out of the question. “Our specialty is, let’s come with the cure. If you understand the sin issue as it relates to humanity, then you understand why there’s domestic violence, why there’s racism. That doesn’t say we don’t try to help, [but] we have an eternal perspective. We’re not meant to stay here.”

As unprecedented business opportunities open up, their commitment to put the gospel in laymen’s terms is deepening. The group plans to establish a learning center offering Bible college-level training from an inner-city perspective. As preparation, The Ambassador is pursuing a master’s degree in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, and the other three plan to follow suit.

The Ambassador admits that many of their fans “love a concert but not a classroom,” but he says the desire for discipleship will grow as youth see more young Christians modeling their faith in the inner city.

As they work with the American Bible Society to develop discipleship and evangelism tools from a hip-hop perspective, the group is using their music as bait. “Right now it’s a strategic move to let our albums be the menu of what’s really out there,” says Phanatik (Brady Goodwin). “Then when the [learning center] opens, people are already getting an appetite for the stuff that we’ll be serving up.”

Meanwhile, Tonic cautions Christian rappers to show the older generation they can be trusted with leadership.

Says Tonic: “We need to let the truth of the gospel reign so the church could see it and say: ‘You know what? This is the same thing I preached on Sunday. They say it a little different; they use their lingo, but this is the Word of God, and I see God’s hand on them.'”

21st Century Youth Ministry

Youth Entertainment Studios is taking ministry outside the box to reach urban teens.

Harry Young had an epiphany of sorts in 1991 when he attended a Bible study for inner-city youth. On one end of the room, a youth leader was preaching to some teens. Behind him a fight was raging.

He realized a traditional youth-group model wasn’t working. So the Harvard graduate and one-time vice president of programming with The Family Channel went back to the drawing board, challenging the youth to develop a music video with a positive message.

The result was “Steppin’ Into the Light,” a video good enough to air on Black Entertainment Television and other networks. The youth group grew from 10 to 30 and evolved into Youth Entertainment Studios (YES).

Founded in 1993, YES initially worked with schools to attract inner-city youth to its program, which teaches character development while youth work on music and video projects. Young says he hoped churches would get involved to provide mentors, but most pastors didn’t understand the outreach.

“We hope to encourage churches to reach out and be patient enough to take a missionary approach,” Young says. “You learn the language of the culture before you get started, then you help them find truth.”

For Refuge Church of God in Christ in Chesapeake, Virginia, learning the language meant opening its fellowship hall to house one of the YES studios. Pastor Joseph Williams says he was challenged by a passage in Acts 16 in which Paul was grieved by a fortuneteller, then cast a demon out of her. Williams says he realized he had two options: He could either be offended by the sin in hip-hop culture or grieved by it.

“It seemed to me the Lord was saying, ‘You’re not going to be able to cast the devil out until you’re grieved by what you see'” Williams says.

He took a bold step and played two songs written by the youth for his congregation. Both talked about fatherlessness. One young man’s father abandoned him when he was young; the other watched his father die in his arms.

“You could almost hear the tears in their voices,” Williams says. “I shared with them that Jesus knew what it was like not to have a father. They had never thought of Jesus understanding where they’re coming from. It was like a light went on.”

The church holds hip-hop services occasionally, and they’ve seen youth give their lives to the Lord out of the blue. Though all the testimonies aren’t dramatic, they are plentiful. YES alumnus Adam Ballard was profiled in CBS anchor Dan Rather’s book The American Dream. His writing and directing talents were unearthed through a YES summer camp, and the California teen-ager landed internships at Nickelodeon and CBS’ children’s division.

Edward Davis and Brian Toppins, both 20, have been involved in YES for a year and want to continue working in the studio to help youth find the right path. “Most of the people who come in here are in the wrong direction, so they steer them in the right direction,” Davis says. “As it turns out, most people there’s something they’re doing something they love.”

Young is still hoping more churches will see the possibilities. He says reaching these teens involves getting out of one’s comfort zone, listening and developing relationships. “We just know God is calling us to step outside the box to really reach young people.”

For more information about Youth Entertainment Studios, write P.O. Box 5802, Chesapeake, VA 23324; call (757) 545-8766; or visit .

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Adrienne S. Gaines is an associate editor for Charisma and Ministries Today magazines. She visited Atlanta; Tampa, Florida; and Norfolk, Virginia, to conduct interviews for this report.

Many of us are ready to do anything but the one thing Jesus asked of us!
Imagine this not too far-fetched scenario: Mom and Dad are going out together for a few hours, and before they leave they make a simple request of their young son: “Johnny, we will be back in a few hours. Before we get back, could you please straighten up your bedroom?”

Mom and Dad enjoy their evening out together, but they’re shocked by what they see when they return home.

The lawn is freshly mowed. The living room has been vacuumed. All the dinner dishes have been washed.

“Johnny, the house looks great!” they exclaim. “We can’t wait to see how you straightened up your bedroom!”

“The bedroom?” he replies. “Oh, never even got near that.”

If you’re still with me, please don’t click off. We’re about to assault a major charismatic misconception that acts much like a “Johnny.”

Question: What’s the one simple mission Jesus gave to every Christian?

Answer: “‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every disciples of all the nations'” (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19-20, NKJV).

One mission–go. Two parts–preach and make disciples. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Yet, like Johnny, we get busy doing all kinds of other “stuff.” Some of it’s pretty good stuff, even excellent, although none of it is actually the “one thing” Jesus said to do.

I’ve spent more than 30 years traveling in America partnering with local churches to ignite evangelism in their communities, and I’ve seen many types of teaching or training programs in charismatic and Pentecostal churches.

For example, men and women are trained to become pleasant, efficient ushers, greeters and parking-lot attendants. Believers are trained through continual exhortations, teachings and seminars to become good stewards who give financially. A constant, much-needed emphasis is placed on praying fervently, effectively and every way imaginable.

Praise God for all of these points of service. No complaints here on any of them.

Yet, recently I read that only 1 in 3 churches trains its people for evangelism. That means two-thirds of all Christians have been trained to do everything but fully obey the command of Jesus. As a result, many of us are part of a growing population of Johnnys who are ready to do anything but the one thing Jesus asked of us!

It’s amazing that evangelism is given token attention or even avoided for “deeper things” or more palatable spiritual matters. The majority of conferences, whether they are addressing the prophetic “this” or the restoration of “that,” rarely do more than make minimal, perfunctory efforts to help the saints practically or effectively spread the message of Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but I’m more than ready to see the tide turn–now. It makes sense to me, especially if we’ve chosen to follow Jesus on His terms rather than ours (ouch!).

When Jesus saved me I was completely unchurched and totally unaware of anything remotely Christian. I’m Jewish, from New Jersey and was a heroin addict and hoodlum. But when I met Christ it was immediately clear to me that I must tell people about His work in my life.

It is not because I am an evangelist that I must do this but because I am a believer. That was 1970, and our ministry keeps going today by the grace of God.

Here is my proposal for you to prayerfully consider. Let’s take God’s one mission and have a very real and personal part in fulfilling it in our own lives, ministries and churches. Let’s honestly admit to Jesus that we have avoided and neglected what is so dear to His heart.

I want His heart to be my heart. I am sure you do, too.

It’s time to show the world how wonderful we know Jesus really is. How? By living and telling friends and enemies, in-laws and outlaws that we believe in Jesus enough to reach out, touch, help and tell.

The one we believe in is true. He still changes situations, families and lives today.

Despite the busyness of our everyday Christian lives, let’s remember to do the one thing. Jesus, and maybe you, will be glad you did.

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Scott Hinkle is founder of Scott Hinkle Outreach Ministries in Phoenix. A veteran evangelist, he regularly leads street ministry teams during Mardi Gras and other major events. He also sponsors evangelism training conferences. For more about his ministry, visit his Web site at .

What people think is the Holy Spirit is often a cheap imitation. Don’t be deceived.

Pigeons and doves are in the same family and look much the same. But the pigeon is not the symbol of peace. It was not a pigeon that came down and remained on Jesus. The turtledove–symbolizing the Holy Spirit–is different from a pigeon in interesting ways.

My friend Pete Cantrell is an expert on pigeons and turtledoves. His observations have amused and gripped me. Their relevance to a study of the Holy Spirit is almost astonishing.

“Do you see that pigeon?” he once asked me. “Watch him, he’s getting ready to bully the pigeon next to him because it is perched on the spot he wants for himself.” Seconds later, I watched it happen.

“I don’t see that happening with turtledoves,” Pete added. “Doves don’t fight.”

It seems to me that many of the claims to the presence of the Dove among us are nothing but pigeon religion–a counterfeit for the Holy Spirit. In my own haste I have presumed the presence of God in my life many times–when it was not the Dove after all. Often it has been a pigeon–not the heavenly Dove–that gave me a “religious” feeling. Here’s how you can avoid making the same mistake.

Don’t Be Fooled by Appearances

When one is preconditioned for a certain manifestation of the Holy Spirit, it is easy to presume the presence of the genuine Holy Spirit when you see that particular manifestation. Take falling down and laughing as examples.

I happen to believe that the phenomena of falling down and laughing have been the authentic results of God’s presence in some places. But when one attends a church where this happens a lot, it’s likely that someone could easily fall to the floor after being prayed for and that there could be an entirely natural explanation for it.

Several years ago, because I was sitting on the front row, I felt compelled to come forward when the preacher asked all church leaders to line up for prayer in the front. I sincerely hoped that God would come down on me and do whatever He pleased. Seventy or 80 men and women were lined up ahead of me for prayer.

As the preacher prayed for each person, every one of them fell backward into the arms of the “catcher” waiting next in line. Then the preacher came to me. I stood there like the Statue of Liberty. Nothing happened.

He prayed again, then a third time. Had I closed my eyes and been less conscious of standing straight, I suspect I too would have fallen.

I felt sorry for the preacher and wanted to apologize for his embarrassment when I didn’t fall. I wanted to go down–I promise you. But I didn’t want to be pushed over by a pigeon!

I’m not saying that the Dove did not come down on some, if not all the other people in that line. But I believe that their expectancy was so high and the preconditioning so powerful that a pigeon could have done the same thing.

Pigeons may be present whenever God shows up in genuine Holy Spirit power. On one night there may be a most awesome sense of God’s presence.

You may feel it in the worship, in the preaching and in the time of prayer ministry. People may be shedding tears of joy and repentance and laughing and crying. Scores may be converted and many healed.

You can’t wait for the next night. That night the same worship group leads with the same songs and hymns. The same preacher takes his text from God’s Word. But God chooses not to show up.

The important issue is this: Will the minister in charge have the integrity not to manipulate the people? Or will he feel that to be successful, that night’s meeting must appear to be just like the meeting on the previous night? If he thinks that, it is likely he may practice pigeon religion in order to get the same results.

The genuine Dove is like the wind that blows “‘wherever it pleases'” (John 3:8, NIV). If one is truly sensitive to the Spirit, he or she must flow with the Spirit as well. And if one is equally sensitive to His absence, that person will honor God’s sovereignty and will not pretend.

It takes a lot of courage to yield to the Spirit when He comes in power. It takes equal courage to be unpretentious when He is absent. Both aspects of the Dove can threaten one’s comfort zone.

There is nothing like a large crowd to counterfeit the presence of the Dove. A big group can create an expectant atmosphere. Nothing preconditions a leader or a congregation like a church that’s filled with people.

If there is a lack of discernment and sensitivity to the person of the Spirit, which is needed all the more at such a time, a pigeon could come down on the heads of everyone present, and no one would know the difference. I fear this has happened many times–and to the best of people.

The initial similarity of appearance between a pigeon and the Dove can even produce a “bandwagon” effect–everyone becomes excited and wants to be “in” on what is happening. This can continue for some time. But eventually one wakes up and comes to terms with the sobering possibility that it was all hype. It hurts when you realize you were taken in and that there was a fleshly explanation for everything that happened.

This can happen at an individual level as well, whether it be through speaking in tongues or through prophetic words of knowledge. If we convince ourselves that God must manifest Himself, we will settle for almost anything.

It is almost as if one says, “Well, if I can’t have the Dove, I’ll take a pigeon.” But if we believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, we ought not settle for the counterfeit.

Don’t Manipulate the Spirit

A pigeon can be domesticated, trained and manipulated. A pigeon can be easily controlled and made to conform. Not so with a turtledove.

Nor can the Spirit of God be easily manipulated or controlled: “‘The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going,'” (John 3:8). You cannot make the Holy Dove do anything–except when you make it fly away.

Feeling the need to control the Holy Spirit may be one of the greatest abuses of the Spirit. When we begin to feel we can control the will of the Holy Spirit, pigeon religion has moved in. Yet often we continue trying to convince ourselves that it must be the Dove.

The issue is control. Who’s in charge? Some people play with the Holy Spirit as if He has no will of His own.

We can fall prey to this when we are praying alone by attempting to do all the talking–thus quenching the Spirit. Or we can read the Bible and do all the thinking. In this way, the Dove does not have a chance to slip in.

The same can happen with public leadership. A powerful leader (even a worship leader or preacher) can sometimes control a crowd with his or her gift and personality. The people out there may not have a clue they are being manipulated.

The problem lies in the fact that one’s gift is, in a sense, also one’s anointing. God shapes each gift and personality for His glory.

However, not everything that someone with an anointed gift does is Spirit-led. We are under a solemn obligation to follow–not lead–the Holy Spirit. I may have an anointing to teach and preach, but I can get ahead of the Lord. When I do, pigeon religion takes over because I am in control.

Some years ago I talked with a worship leader about his style of leading worship. He admitted he had a gift that enabled him to control an audience.

He could make them do almost anything–clap, jump, sit or weep. When he did this, the people never knew they had been conditioned for a certain response in much the same way pigeons are trained to perform a particular behavior. It is an exceedingly rare worship leader who is utterly sensitive to the Dove and does not get ahead of the Lord.

Pigeon religion is man in control. It is manipulative, usurping the place of the Dove.

The gracious Spirit is gentle and prudent. Like the meek and lowly Jesus, the Dove is neither intrusive (coming when not invited) nor obtrusive (unpleasantly noticeable). He is self-effacing. When He is invited and accepts the invitation, the result takes man out of the picture.

When the Spirit is present, people want to wait on the Spirit. They want to worship, and they let the Spirit do the leading. When this happens, it is an unforgettable experience–one worth waiting for.

The Spirit will not be manipulated. The Dove flutters away as soon as one tries to do this, and the pigeon comes in.

Don’t Be Territorial

A pigeon thinks a certain place belongs to him. Pigeon religion is manifested when one instinctively feels he or she has a “corner” on the anointing. This happens when we take ourselves too seriously.

It also happens when we decide we own the franchise on God’s enterprise in a particular theological or geographic area. As a result, we struggle against someone else “elbowing in” on our calling, area of expertise or following.

This is a party spirit, a rival or competitive spirit. Because we uphold a particular emphasis, we want to be the sole vanguard for the “party line.”

Nothing is more deadly than a rival spirit in the church of God. Take the subject of revival, for example. I think we all agree that there is a heart cry for revival today. I doubt there is any evangelical group or church that is not praying for revival–a sovereign outpouring of God’s Spirit that will revive the people of God and result in many conversions.

The problem is, we all want it to come to us! We all tend to see ourselves as having “borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day” (Matt. 20:12). We resent it if God makes others “equal to us”! We want God to bless our efforts, our party line and our denomination.

Therefore we tend to dismiss any report of God’s coming down powerfully on anyone but us. We honestly believe it couldn’t happen to those who are of a different theological persuasion or ecclesiastical setting.

Not long ago a weekly prayer meeting on the second floor of a civic center in Nairobi, Kenya, centered on revival. A group of a dozen Western missionaries prayed earnestly that God would send revival to Nairobi.

At exactly the same time, 700 Kenyans were praying noisily and worshiping God–and growing rapidly–in the large auditorium just beneath the group of Western missionaries. The irony is, God was answering the missionaries’ prayers!

But they could not bring themselves to recognize revival under their noses–for the Kenyans below them didn’t represent their party line. Another example of pigeon religion!

None of us has a monopoly on the anointing. Jesus’ disciples wanted to stop someone praying in Jesus’ name “‘because he is not one of us'” (Luke 9:49-50). Jesus stepped in, admonishing, “‘Do not stop whoever is not against you is for you.'”

Even Joshua, when he was young and still had a lot to learn, was unhappy when certain people were prophesying without recognized credentials. “But Moses replied: ‘Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!'” (Num. 11:29). That is the way God would have us all to reject pigeon religion and pray for the restoration of His honor in the world (rather than just in our own ministries).

The Spirit will do His work–if we don’t get in the way. We must not step in where we don’t belong or elbow in on the Spirit’s territory. For the Spirit to be able to do His work, we must simply be the channel through which He works. If we try to do what He does best, He flutters away.

You may think you are incapable of being deceived by a pigeon. But all of us are as capable of following pigeon religion as we are of following the Holy Dove.

Simon Peter was being led by the Dove when he said to Jesus, “‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'” (Matt. 16:16). Yet just a few verses later Jesus turned and said to Peter: “‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men'” (v. 23).

Our best guarantee against following pigeon religion is an ever-increasing sensitivity to the Dove.

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R.T. Kendall has been the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London for the last 25 years. He now lives in Key Largo, Florida. He is a well-known speaker and the author of Total Forgiveness, soon to be released from Charisma House.

New Yorkers are more open to the gospel since 9/11, say leaders of two ministries in Manhattan
Two charismatic ministers are stoking the fire of revival in the financial canyons of lower Manhattan. Their flourishing congregations meet in office buildings and hotels instead of traditional churches.

The area is begging for revival, reports Leighton D. Smith, pastor of Faith Evangelistic Ministries (FEM) and president of Prompt Courier Service. “I believe God is bringing revival to Wall Street again,” he said.

Smith’s Pentecostal ministry began in 1995 with four believers studying the Bible in his office near City Hall. Later that year Smith sensed God’s leading to establish FEM.

As the fledgling church prospered, he rented space adjoining his company. When that space became too small, services moved to a hotel in midtown Manhattan.

In November a permanent home was located in an office building about two blocks from the New York Stock Exchange. “God is moving,” Smith said. “I see people coming from all over. We see street cleaners and policemen coming to our services.”

The interracial church attracts workers and executives from the financial district and others from New York City’s five boroughs. About 200 people worship on Sundays in a 7,500-square-foot space that accommodates 500. The monthly rent tab is $14,000.

Business people spend their Wednesday lunch hours there studying the Bible or listening to testimonies of Christian leaders. “Since 9/11 people are realizing that there is more to life than making money,” Smith said.

Rich Sroczynski, a manager with New York University Downtown Hospital, has been attending the Bible study for six months. “It’s inspiring,” he said. “Knowing there are others like me trying to live out their faith every day, that is strengthening.”

When Seni Hazzan, chief executive officer of the JIL Company, worked for Goldman Sachs six years ago, he walked the streets during his lunch break praying in the Spirit and asking God to bring revival to Wall Street.

“I am so touched that now people have a place they can come to have a one-on-one conversation with God and with other believers,” he said. “God is moving in the hearts of men and women to get the Word out.”

Smith came to faith while suffering from Hodgkin’s disease, a form of lymphatic cancer. He left his home in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in 1983 to get medical treatment in America. While undergoing chemotherapy in a Brooklyn hospital, the Holy Spirit touched his heart through a radio evangelist who quoted Isaiah 53:5: “And with His stripes we are healed.”

Smith gave his life to Christ and believed God for healing despite a grim prognosis. “I’m through with treatment,” he told his doctor. “I’m not coming back.” And he hasn’t returned since.

After leaving the hospital, Smith landed a job as a mail clerk. In 1985 he opened Prompt Courier Service with no money or credit. Working from a donated desk and a filing cabinet, he grew the business to 41 employees. “God did it,” he said.

Ordained in 1998 by World Harvest Church, Smith, 44, devotes only 10 hours a week to his business, which is managed by his wife, Marjorie. His prophetic ministry includes a weekly radio program called Countdown and a TV program aired six days a week locally and in Jamaica. Smith and other FEM staffers take no salaries.

Charlie Spence found deliverance in jail while hearing Smith preach on the radio. He is HIV-positive and was addicted to drugs and homeless for more than 15 years. “This church is like a spiritual hospital,” he said. “The blood of Jesus is being preached. The people are for real.”

Daniel J. Stratton, 42, followed a different path establishing Faith Exchange Fellowship (FEF). A high-flying trader in the frantic silver pit at the New York Commodity Exchange, he became a born-again Christian in 1984. During trading lulls he read his Bible openly on the exchange floor, which invited ribbing from his colleagues. “The guys would start busting my chops,” he said.

He stood his ground and launched a Bible study that led to many conversions and monthly services called Spirit of Revival. As the number of believers grew, he searched for a full-time pastor to lead them.

“I went into prayer, and God said, ‘The church is yours, too'” Stratton said. For two years he battled the idea of exiting his highly lucrative trading business. “The heart of a pastor and the killer instinct of a trader was not sitting well in one body for a long time,” he said.

Stratton and his wife, Ann, hold ministerial credentials with Kenneth Copeland Ministries. They opened FEF as a church in 1997 and rented space at 90 West St., next to the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Their first service drew 40 people.

In 1999 the Strattons took over as full-time co-pastors. When FEF lost its offices on Sept. 11, they moved to 30 Wall St., where lunchtime services are held every weekday. Almost 250 believers meet Wednesday evenings at the nearby Regent Hotel and at other hotels on Sundays. Stratton said he expects to move to larger
quarters soon.

“We are going to build a place where the Word of God can be lifted up every day,” he said.
Peter K. Johnson in New York City

A campaign by several well-known Pentecostal televangelists against a proposed merger by two satellite TV giants has come under fire from the head of the country’s only Christian satellite TV company, who has criticized their effort as “misrepresenting the facts.”

Led by John Hagee, the coalition of ministers–which includes Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Rod Parsley, Creflo Dollar, Richard Roberts, Joyce Meyer and Keith Butler–asked thousands of supporters in the spring to sign a “Letter of Petition” to oppose the planned union of satellite broadcasters EchoStar and Hughes Electronic because they say it threatens Christian broadcasting nationwide. The merger would unite the rival satellite TV services of EchoStar’s Dish Network and Hughes’ DirecTV, which currently have 7 million and 11 million subscribers respectively, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

In an April full-page ad in The Washington Post, the coalition issued an “Open Letter” to President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell urging them to reject the merger because if approved “religious broadcasters will not be able to reach satellite viewers” and the “monopoly would dramatically affect the availability of religious programming in every rural area in America.”

But Robert Johnson, founder and president of Sky Angel, a Christian organization licensed to operate a TV satellite, called the coalition’s campaign “a serious misrepresentation of the facts” that has caused damage to his company.

“In the process of opposing the merger, these ministries have created the impression that there won’t be any religious programming [anywhere],” Johnson told Charisma. “To say that creates the impression to the public that Sky Angel doesn’t exist.”

Hagee, Copeland and other ministers involved in the merger protest would not comment to Charisma. Johnson issued his own “Open Letter to the Christian Community” in a June ad in Christian magazines.

National Religious Broadcasters Chairman Glenn Plummer said the NRB is against the merger because it would create a monopoly, but he’s disappointed that the coalition neglected to inform supporters about Sky Angel.

The merger requires regulatory approval from the Department of Justice and the FCC, which has indicated that September is the earliest it might decide on the deal, the AP reported. “Sky Angel has not taken a position on the merger,” Johnson said. “Sky Angel uses the Dish Network satellite, but we’re totally independent and autonomous. We’re not going away if the merger takes place. We’ll still be here. That’s what is disturbing.”

However, Traditional Values Coalition Chairman Louis Sheldon, who is part of the coalition, defended the campaign. “The signers to the letter believe that Sky Angel shouldn’t be the only Christian broadcasting outlet, any more than they believe that EchoStar should be the only satellite television provider,” Sheldon told Charisma.
Eric Tiansay

The gathering of charismatic, Pentecostal, Word of Faith and Oneness Pentecostal leaders was called ‘a first’
Leaders of America’s major Pentecostal and charismatic movements met privately in April in a historic meeting intended to build bridges between different groups that have been at odds or distanced for years.

Almost 30 senior figures representing Word of Faith, charismatic, traditional Pentecostal and Oneness Pentecostals met for three days at a Washington, hotel to talk and pray in an unprecedented move toward unity. Some in the diverse group have talked about cementing the groundbreaking April gathering with some sort of united ministry effort in the months to come.

Among the participants were TV preachers Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, International Foursquare President Paul Risser, Assemblies of God General Superintendent Thomas Trask, International Pentecostal Holiness Church General Superintendent James Leggett, and United Pentecostal Church (UPC) International General Superintendent Kenneth Haney.

Also taking part were Billy Joe Daugherty, pastor of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Okla.; Church of God of Prophecy General Overseer Fred Fisher; Lamar Vest, general overseer of the Church of God, Cleveland, Tenn.; Bishop George McKinney of the Church of God in Christ; and Ted Haggard, pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Together 2002, as the gathering was named, was convened by Robert Fisher, director of the Center for Spiritual Renewal (CSR) in Cleveland, Tenn. He was also behind Solemn Assembly 2001, which brought thousands of Pentecostal leaders and lay members together for a 50-hour prayer vigil renouncing past divisions in Atlanta.

Fisher described the 2002 meeting as “the first time ever top leaders from all the streams of Pentecost–classical, charismatic, Oneness, Word of Faith, Third Wave–came together in a spirit of unity, not to discuss doctrinal differences, but to rejoice in their common spiritual heritage.”

Vinson Synan, dean of the School of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., and a leading Pentecostal historian, who took part in the meeting, said it had been “truly a first.” It was especially significant because of the participation of those who have not usually attended Pentecostal leadership events, including the Copelands, healing ministry leader Francis MacNutt, and Haney and Nathaniel Urshan from the UPC.

“The Oneness brethren were warmly received and participated equally in all the discussions,” Synan said. “This may mark a new day in relations with Oneness and Trinitarian Pentecostals.” The two camps split in the early 1900s because of differing views of the triune nature of God.

For his part, Daugherty found the meeting “especially significant in bringing the streams of the Pentecostal-charismatic believers into a mutual appreciation of one another.” He added: “People work together when they know and trust one another. We know each other now, and trust was built. There are no limits to what God can do when we come together.”

Haney said that he appreciated the opportunity to meet with others he had only known from a distance or met briefly. “I found them to be sincere, caring men and women,” he said. “We have varied agendas and some theological differences but share a common bond as advocates of the Pentecostal experience that is being poured out in unprecedented measures around the world, and must not allow focus on this great experience to be derailed.”

Jeff Farmer said the event was “the most empowering, encouraging and affirming” meeting he had been in during six years as president of Open Bible Churches. “There was no bottom line other than that God was among us and that we would meet together again and keep listening.”
Andy Butcher