Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. —1 Corinthians 9:19

To quote my friend Joseph Ton, “Success in the eyes of the world is how many servants you have. Success in the eyes of Jesus is how many people you serve.”

God is looking for people who are willing to become servants, and we can expect that, like Jesus, we will be tested in that role to the extreme. Yet it is a great faith-builder, for one who is willing to be subordinate, and all that that means, must rely increasingly on God’s faithfulness. So we must ask ourselves how willing are we to go in pursuit of God’s standards rather than the world’s, which will always be the reverse.

Too often when we first come to God we are under the impression that God owes us something. We think we have bargaining power with God to ask Him questions and make Him answer us. Yet suddenly we begin to realize that we are nothing and that God owes us nothing. He owes us, if anything, a place in hell. It is at this point that we begin to say, “I subordinate myself to you.”

Everybody you meet thereafter will be your superior in some sense. And this is why Paul said in Philippians 2, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (v. 4). How humbling it is to accept authority from and be subordinate to one whom you think is less capable or qualified than you! How humiliating!

Yet the beginning of greatness is accepting authority. When the disciples asked for preferment, Jesus did not rebuke them. He just reversed the roles: let the greatest among you be the servant of the rest. This is just what Jesus did in His own life: He “emptied himself” and became a servant.

What we must ask ourselves, therefore, is to what extent will the marks of the bond servant, which characterized Jesus’ life, be ours?

Excerpted from Meekness and Majesty (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1992, 2000).

Recent public statements by megachurch pastors in response to a scandal-ridden peer reveal differing perspectives on repentance, restoration and ministerial ethics.

Last September, four men—all former members of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta—claimed the church’s pastor, Eddie Long, used gifts, trips and money to coerce them into engaging in sex acts with him. Although no criminal charges were filed, Long settled with his accusers last month, leading some church leaders who had previously reserved judgment to speak out.

On June 5, fellow Atlanta pastor Creflo Dollar urged his World Changers Church to refrain from gossiping about the Long scandal and warned disgruntled New Birth members that they would not find a listening ear at his church. 

“That preacher’s still anointed to do what he was called to. He just had a wreck. The blood will take care of his issue just like it will take care of yours,” Dollar stated. “And I just can’t believe that people would leave their preacher because he had a wreck, instead of praying for him.”

When the allegations first hit the news last September, Dallas pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes encouraged his congregation, The Potter’s House, to pray, saying: “When all this is over, one thing is for sure—somebody, if not everybody in it, is going to need the blood.”

More recently, Jakes was interviewed by The Christian Post at the McDonald’s Gospelfest on June 18 in Newark, N.J. When asked about the scandal, Jakes noted that New Birth should be allowed to address the situation within its own church structure.

“The New Birth church is a church unto itself who has a board and it has a membership. How they choose to handle their leadership issues it’s not something that we can control regardless of which side you stay on that issue,” Jakes said. “It is their church issue and their responsibility and their response.”

The most direct statements have come from Bishop Paul Morton, who leads Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans and Changing a Generation Full Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta. In a message posted online June 21, Morton called on Long to apologize to the men who sued him.

“If the settlement has already been made they can’t sue you again, but you can apologize,” he said. “Some people will stay with you, some people gonna leave you, but you’ve got to leave that up to God. Those are the consequences for the sins that we do.”

Morton is the presiding bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, the body that consecrated Long as “third presiding bishop” of the group in 1994 (a position now held by Los Angeles pastor Clarence McClendon). However, Morton appeared to be addressing Long as a fellow minister, not in a disciplinary function, and New Birth is not listed in the fellowship’s directory of affiliated churches.

A survey of 2,196 Protestant leaders from around the world highlighted the concerns shared by Christians in 166 countries and the divergent outlooks for the church in the Global North (Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand) and the Global South (sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and most of Asia).

On Wednesday, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life released the results of a survey of those invited to attend the Third Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization, a 10-day gathering of ministers and lay leaders held in October in Cape Town, South Africa. The leaders surveyed expressed agreement on theological and social issues, such as abortion, homosexuality, the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Christ, but leaders from the Global North and the Global South expressed differing outlooks for the future of the church in their parts of the world.

While 71 percent of evangelical leaders in the Global South expect that five years from now the state of evangelicalism in their countries will be better than it is today, a majority of evangelical leaders in the Global North expect that the state of evangelicalism in their countries will either stay about the same (21 percent) or worsen (33 percent) in the next five years.

The threats to the progress of evangelicalism cited primarily surround cultural influences that have invaded the church. Only 22 percent cited government restrictions as a “major threat to evangelical Christianity.” Of greater concern are secularism (71 percent), consumerism (67 percent), sex and violence in pop culture (59 percent), the influence of Islam (47 percent), theological divisions among evangelicals (30 percent), evangelical leaders leading lavish lifestyles (30 percent) and sexual misconduct among leaders (26 percent).

Other intriguing results of the study are the respondents’ views toward Pentecostals, the prosperity gospel and women in ministry leadership. While 92 percent of those surveyed had a positive view of Pentecostals, 90 percent expressed disapproval of the prosperity gospel. Although most responded that men should be the religious leaders in marriage and family (79 percent) and the main financial providers for the family (53 percent), most do not think that women must stay home and raise children (63 percent), and a majority favors allowing women to serve as pastors (75 percent).

New York just passed its historic gay marriage law. Could Minnesota be next? Not if the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition has anything to do with it.

The coalition is a group of community and faith leaders and organizations in support of next year’s vote to preserve the definition of marriage as only one man and one woman in Minnesota’s constitution.

“This is exactly why we need the constitutional amendment to protect marriage in Minnesota,” says Jason Adkins of the Minnesota Catholic Conference and a member of the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition. “Marriage between one man and one woman has served mankind for all of recorded history as the building block of civilization and the best institution for children.”

As Adkins sees it, marriage has been radically redefined in New York, where gay marriage was imposed without a popular vote. Placing one-man, one-woman marriage in Minnesota’s Constitution, he says, ensures that only voters will ever be able to decide the meaning of marriage, not politicians.



”Those who opposed placing the amendment before the voters said it was unnecessary, but the activities in New York show differently,” says Chuck Darrell, director of communications of the Minnesota Family Council. “In fact, State Senator John Marty boasted that the Minnesota state legislature would force same-sex marriage on the people this year—just like in New York—without a vote of the people.”

The Minnesota legislature has determined to let the people decide the issue of marriage. Darrell says the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition is looking forward to a healthy debate on the amendment and trust the people of Minnesota to make the right decision on marriage in the state.

AP Photo/Chris Gardner

New York just passed its historic gay marriage law. Could Minnesota be next? Not if the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition has anything to do with it.

The coalition is a group of community and faith leaders and organizations in support of next year’s vote to preserve the definition of marriage as only one man and one woman in Minnesota’s constitution.

“This is exactly why we need the constitutional amendment to protect marriage in Minnesota,” says Jason Adkins of the Minnesota Catholic Conference and a member of the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition. “Marriage between one man and one woman has served mankind for all of recorded history as the building block of civilization and the best institution for children.”

As Adkins sees it, marriage has been radically redefined in New York, where gay marriage was imposed without a popular vote. Placing one-man, one-woman marriage in Minnesota’s Constitution, he says, ensures that only voters will ever be able to decide the meaning of marriage, not politicians.

“Those who opposed placing the amendment before the voters said it was unnecessary, but the activities in New York show differently,” says Chuck Darrell, director of communications of the Minnesota Family Council. “In fact, State Senator John Marty boasted that the Minnesota state legislature would force same-sex marriage on the people this year—just like in New York—without a vote of the people.”

The Minnesota legislature has determined to let the people decide the issue of marriage. Darrell says the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition is looking forward to a healthy debate on the amendment and trust the people of Minnesota to make the right decision on marriage in the state.

Delta Air Lines is under fire for the company it keeps.

The American Center for Law and Justice is outright demanding that Delta Air Lines put the kibosh on its partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines. Why? The ACLJ says the airlines has discriminatory policies targeting Jews, Christians and women.

Under the Delta-Saudi arrangement, American Jews and non-Jews with an Israel stamp in their passport may be prohibited from flying into the country, which embraces Shariah Law and open discrimination.

And the ACLJ isn’t stopping there. The group is also asking the Federal Aviation Administration and Congress to investigate the prejudicial business deal. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, is confident that Congress will want to examine the transaction and relationship very closely.

“For Delta to form a business relationship with a country that has a disturbing record of human rights violations is not only problematic, but warrants further scrutiny from the federal government and Congress. Delta says it does not discriminate in its business practices, but then says it cannot control what other nations do. Delta can’t have it both ways,” Sekulow says. “If you choose to do business with a government that discriminates on the basis of religion, ethnicity and gender, you simply cannot brush it aside. We’re calling for FAA oversight of this deal and a congressional investigation. Delta can do the right thing—cancel this business relationship—and it should.”

The ACLJ is launching a national protest campaign urging Americans to express their concerns over the Delta-Saudi alliance.

AP Photo

Recent public statements by megachurch pastors in response to a
scandal-ridden peer reveal differing perspectives on repentance,
restoration and ministerial ethics.

Last September, four men—all
former members of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta—claimed
the church’s pastor, Eddie Long, used gifts, trips and money to coerce
them into engaging
in sex acts with him. Although no criminal
charges were filed, Long settled with his accusers last month, leading
some church leaders who had previously reserved judgment to speak out.

On June 5, fellow Atlanta pastor Creflo Dollar urged his World
Changers Church to refrain from gossiping about the Long scandal and
warned disgruntled New Birth members that they would not find a
listening ear at his church. 

“That preacher’s still anointed to do what he was called to. He just had
a wreck. The blood will take care of his issue just like it will take
care of yours,” Dollar stated. “And I just can’t believe that people would leave their
preacher because he had a wreck, instead of praying for him.”

When
the allegations first hit the news last September, Dallas pastor
Bishop T.D. Jakes encouraged his congregation, The Potter’s House, to
pray, saying: “When all this is over, one thing is for sure—somebody, if
not everybody in it, is going to need the blood.”

More recently, Jakes was interviewed by The Christian Post at the McDonald’s Gospelfest on June 18 in Newark, N.J. When asked about the scandal, Jakes noted that New Birth should be allowed to address the situation within its own church structure.

“The
New Birth church is a church unto itself who has a board and it has a
membership. How they choose to handle their leadership issues it’s not
something that we can control regardless of which side
you stay on that issue,” Jakes said. “It is their church issue and their

responsibility and their response.”

The most direct statements
have come from Bishop Paul Morton, who leads Greater St. Stephen Full
Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans and Changing a Generation Full
Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta. In a message posted online June 21,
Morton called on Long to apologize to the men who sued him.

“If the
settlement has already been made they can’t sue you again, but you
can apologize,” he said. “Some people will stay with you, some
people gonna leave you, but you’ve got to leave that up to God. Those
are the consequences for the sins that we do.”

Morton is the
presiding bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, the body
that consecrated Long as “third presiding bishop” of the group in 1994
(a position now held by Los Angeles pastor Clarence McClendon). However,
Morton appeared to be addressing Long as a fellow minister, not in a
disciplinary function, and New Birth is not listed in the fellowship’s
directory of affiliated churches.

AP Photo

A survey of 2,196 Protestant leaders from around the world
highlighted the concerns shared by Christians in 166 countries and the
divergent outlooks for the church in the Global North (Europe, North
America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand) and the Global South
(sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and
most of Asia).

On Wednesday, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on
Religion & Public Life released the results of a survey of those
invited to attend the Third Lausanne Congress of World
Evangelization, a 10-day gathering of ministers and lay leaders held in
October in Cape Town, South Africa. The leaders surveyed expressed
agreement on theological and social issues, such as abortion,
homosexuality, the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Christ,
but leaders from the Global North and the Global South expressed
differing outlooks for the future of the church in their parts of the
world.

While 71 percent of evangelical leaders in the Global South expect that five years
from now the state of evangelicalism in their countries will be better than it
is today, a majority of evangelical leaders in the Global North expect that
the state of evangelicalism in their countries will either stay about the same
(21 percent) or worsen (33 percent) in the next five years.

The
threats to the progress of evangelicalism cited primarily surround
cultural influences that have invaded the church. Only 22 percent cited
government restrictions as a “major threat to evangelical Christianity.”
Of greater concern are secularism (71 percent), consumerism (67
percent), sex and violence in pop culture (59 percent), the influence of Islam
(47 percent), theological divisions among evangelicals (30 percent),
evangelical leaders leading lavish lifestyles (30 percent) and sexual
misconduct among leaders (26 percent).

Other intriguing results of the
study are the respondents’ views toward Pentecostals, the prosperity
gospel and women in ministry leadership. While 92 percent of those
surveyed had a positive view of Pentecostals, 90 percent expressed
disapproval of the prosperity gospel. Although most responded that men
should be the religious leaders in marriage and family (79 percent)
and the main financial providers for the family (53 percent), most do
not think that women must stay home and raise children
(63 percent), and a majority favors allowing women to serve as pastors
(75 percent).

According to Joshua Project, approximately 1 percent of missions funding is given for outreach to unreached people groups. Less than 1 percent of that funding is given for Muslim evangelistic efforts. This staggering reminder comes at a time when outreach to those who claim Islam as their faith is pivotal.

Speaking from Lebanon, the president of the Crescent Project Fouad Masri spoke to Greg Yoder. He says this point in the history of outreach to Muslims is second to none: “The openness has never been this way. It’s unprecedented that people are interested in knowing about Christ. God is on the move. We’ve never seen them open for the Good News, not only in the U.S., but here.”

Masri is leading a team in Lebanon as they are talking openly about Christ. The team has primarily been talking to college students there. The American team has been surprised. “There’s so much openness. They are talking about Jesus, about God, about who Christ is and what He came to teach,” Masri says. “So praise the Lord, He’s opening their hearts!”

Unfortunately, the lack of funding is hampering Muslim outreach worldwide. Masri likens the lack of funding to Peter’s lack of faith: “Peter stepped out of the boat, and Christ said to him, ‘Come and walk on the water.’ And many times when we look at the Muslim world, we think it’s like walking on water, but guess what? God is saying, ‘Come, they are open. Come get involved.'”

According to Masri, funding is the lifeblood of their ministry because once Muslims read about Jesus for themselves, they “hear the gospel, get saved, change their life around and they begin reaching out to others.”

One Muslim-background believer is now talking to his family about Jesus, “explaining to them that what they’ve heard about Him is not the truth. They need to hear about Christ from the Bible, from the ‘Injil’—from His own words.”

In the wake of New York passing a gay marriage bill last Friday, there are many voices crying out.

Some in the secular world—and even in the church—are celebrating. Others, like Dr. Michael Youssef, are weeping.

Although many are blaming Republicans, Youssef is pointing a bold finger directly at the church of Jesus Christ. As he sees it, the church allowed this abomination to rise up and the church is the only body on earth working to restore God’s righteousness to the land.

Charisma News caught up with Youssef, founder and president of Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, a worldwide television ministry, and senior pastor of The Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, to discuss his thoughts on the gay marriage campaigns across the country and how the church should respond now.

Charisma News: What are some of your thoughts on this gay marriage law passing in New York?

Youssef: Here is another one that goes down the tubes. The stats say one in nine Americans are living in states where gay marriage is legal and it’s not going to stop there.

Let’s go to the beginning. When we begin to be immoral people we will cease to be blessed people. God blessed us as a nation through the years because of the faithfulness of the Founding Fathers to God’s Word. It might not be explicit but implicit in every action of their deliberation. Now we come to a time where we are removing the boundaries of our forefathers and as we remove these boundaries we are removing ourselves from the hand of God’s blessing and protection.

It is very disturbing to see the greatest nation leading the world in this abomination. It is very, very sad. This is a group of Republicans that made this happen. This is not a Republican-Democrat issue anymore. It is a moral issue. Those who love the Scripture and God’s ideal for our society must be very repulsed and speak against it. We need to examine every candidate for office from now on—to check not how he is going to help the economy, but how he is going to uphold God’s moral standard.

Charisma News: You are right. With 2012 coming up, we have an opportunity and I hope we take that opportunity very seriously. I have seen many people coming out against the Republican Party in outrage.

Youssef: It is not really about the Republican Party. I have said this all along. Many of us who were in the party loved Reagan and Bush. The Republican Party hasn’t been able to do anything. They haven’t been able to make decisions or to lead. They have made speeches but I think it has to be a grassroots movement from the bottom up.

These are not social issues that so many folks in the media are telling people to lighten up on if they want to get elected. They are moral issues and we have got to make a decision as a nation whether we are going to be a moral nation or we aren’t going to be. Younger evangelicals have been sucked in by false teaching and are now walking away and turning their backs on biblical morality. The only morality they look at is taking care of the poor by the government—not by us but by the government. That is very dangerous.

The problem is that we are not taking the warnings that God has gently been giving us, from tornadoes and floods. God keeps sending us these gentle warnings to wake us up, but we are not waking up at all. We just keep saying we can overcome and keep putting our hopes in ourselves.

Charisma News: What is it going to take then? Is the Church doing its job? Are we doing enough? Praying enough?

Youssef: This problem started in the church. The society did not begin to collapse on its own, morally, when churches started to reject the authority of the word of God. The debate about homosexuality started in the church and not politics. The Episcopal Church started the whole thing by ordaining gays and blessing gay marriages. That came from the church pulpit into society. Then the Presbyterians followed and now many evangelicals don’t want to talk about it. The main issue is rejecting God’s word as authoritative over us as individuals and as a church. As goes the church so goes society. The church is the one that needs to repent first. It is my call to the church through my blog and writing to call the church to repentance. Until that happens society is going to continue going in a downward spiral.

Charisma News: It seems like that is a message many people don’t want to hear: repent.

Youssef: I saw this program the other day with Ken Ham with his theme park about creationism in Oklahoma. Guess who is opposing him? Pastors in the area. One pastor came on PBS and said they believe in evolution and not this stuff and they are going to fight him. These are pastors in Oklahoma. We have to clean house before we point fingers. They will point the finger back and say we as believers need to cry to the Lord in the Spirit of repentance.

Charisma News: That is the bottom line.

Youssef: I was given the keynote address to NRB three years ago. It was almost prophetic that I was quoting Jeremiah Chapter 9 where he was saying “I want to weep over my people.” You look at the condition of the church and we need to be weeping, not celebrating. We need to be weeping because the condition of the church is so dire. As we weaken we have all these massive churches and they are all preaching self help and we have selfed ourselves to death.

Charisma News: What will it take to get the church to repent?

Youssef: It is a combination of the faithful to keep crying to the Lord. I have a personal view that isn’t from Scripture that we are in for a big catastrophe. Why America? Because we should know better. Why not China? Because they are pagan. How are they to know better? We do. They don’t have the biblical foundation we do. God judged Israel into exile. Why Israel? Because they should have known better. They got into idolatry and did not repent. Prophet after prophet would call them to repent and they wouldn’t. God had enough and sent them into Babylon. This is the way God works and this is His character. This is what is going to happen sooner than we realize.

Charisma News: People don’t want to hear the truth. It is good that you are saying these things. If it does happen at least we will remember we were warned.

Youssef: It will serve as a witness. But when you read Revelation and there are catastrophes that literally come and wipe out one-third of the population and do you think their hearts would repent? No. God is not going to be mocked and He is going to justify and vindicate His own name.