Author of the best-selling Wild at Heart, Eldredge says he wants to help Christians break free of works-oriented religion
John Eldredge has a simple way of summing up Isaiah 61:1–“God has sent Jesus on a mission. He has great news for us. God has sent Him to restore and release something. That something is you. He came to give [us] back our hearts and set us free.”

That’s the crux of the message he shares in books such as his best-selling Wild at Heart, which has sold more than 1 million copies, and at conferences across the country that attract thousands of participants each year.

“It’s possible that reading my books may create more questions than provide answers,” Eldredge told Charisma. “That’s OK with me. I want my readers to seek God with their whole heart and get the answers for themselves.”

He offers some assistance in his latest book, Epic, which summarizes the gospel and helps readers share the reasons for their faith. But Eldredge’s own journey to faith has been less structured.

He describes himself as a “flaming pagan” who experimented with drugs in the 1970s. The son of an alcoholic parent, Eldredge realized he didn’t like the person he had become and at the age of 19 prayed that God would begin changing him.

After studying drama at California Polytechnic University, he spent more than a decade at Focus on the Family, first in its public policy division then as an instructor in its institute. Writing came later, as a byproduct of his interests in acting and counseling.

But he was also seeking a deeper Christian life. “I realized in order for my words to touch others I could not write about anything that I had not first lived,” he said. “To this day I do not teach beyond my personal experiences and my own walk with God.”

He says his best-known book, Wild at Heart, “is not about things a man can do to be a nicer guy. It is a book about the recovery of a man’s heart, his God-given masculinity, and his need to be real.

“Many churches have taught men to be nice, be passive, be polite. The real life of the average man seems a universe away from the desires of his heart.”

A member of Imago Dei church, which he describes as charismatic, Eldredge said he was deeply influenced by the teachings of Jack Hayford, former senior pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif. “From pastor Hayford I learned the dynamics of healing, counseling, deliverance and discipleship–to see God’s people truly set free,” Eldredge said.

He brought those characteristics to Ransomed Heart Ministries in Colorado Springs, which he founded in 2000, and to the four-day retreats he hosts in Colorado for approximately 300 people six times a year. He refers to the events as times for “open heart surgery.”

“God shows up and heals the hurting and brokenhearted,” Eldredge said. “Dogma doesn’t do it. Legalism doesn’t do it. If people come with open hearts and a desire to pursue Jesus, they will find Him.

“Jesus is the antidote for our wounds. One of the things I tell men is this: Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs are men who have come alive.”

Today Eldredge, who holds a master’s degree in biblical counseling from Colorado Christian University, is perhaps one of the nation’s best-known men’s ministers, with Wild at Heart video Bible studies held at thousands of churches nationwide. Jason Kemp led a Wild at Heart Bible study at the Church at Rocky Peak in Chatsworth, Calif.

“The teaching of John Eldredge was deeply impactful,” Kemp told Charisma. “It helped me become more adventuresome and to view my life from the perspective of a spiritual battle. There are few books that have changed my life like Wild at Heart has.”

“I went because I had read the book and was hoping his video would expand on the book to make it come alive, and it did,” added Greg Hunt, a small-group leader at the Church at Rocky Peak and a participant in the Bible study.

“I was reminded that God designed the husband to love and ‘rescue’ his beautiful wife, and to offer her my strength, which I gain from following the Lord and making right decisions based on the Bible. It has had a tremendous impact on my marriage.”

Eldredge’s message, however, is reaching beyond men. He is collaborating with his wife, Stasi, on a book for women titled Captivating, which is scheduled to release next spring.

And his Waking the Dead is aimed at helping the American church get unstuck from a works-based Christianity. He said many Christians think more knowledge, performance and duty will result in righteousness, and they become exhausted trying to use clever designs of their flesh to handle life and to stay on the straight and narrow path.

“I see a richness in Scripture that beautifully portrays the progressive relationship God desires to have with His people,” Eldredge said. “Many Christians get stranded in the servant-master stage. The full and ultimate height of our relationship is to be a bride to God the bridegroom.”
Judith Hayes

Patricia King’s reality show documents her Extreme Prophetic school’s street outreach in cities in North America and Europe

The camera reveals the eyes of a man hardened by anger, vestiges of prison life still marking his face as he listens to Extreme Prophetic team members on the streets of Las Vegas.

Canadian minister Patricia King and participants in her Extreme Prophetic school are shooting a reality show documenting their evangelism activity on city streets in North America and Europe. The man in this segment had walked out of prison just hours before team members stopped him on the sidewalk outside a casino and told him that God loved him and had a plan for his life.

Tears ran down the man’s face when Stacey Campbell, one of the team members from Kelowna, British Columbia, shared prophetic insights about childhood events that had filled the man with anger. He accepted Christ there on the street, virtually unconscious of the cameras that would spread his testimony around the world.

“We don’t even think of it as religious broadcasting,” King told Charisma. “It’s not at all churchy. It’s just God being God and touching people’s lives with His love. We are so blessed that He shows up every time we shoot, and the people He touches are never the same.”

King, the woman behind Extreme Prophetic, is a hip and extroverted 50-something grandmother who lives with her husband in Kelowna, about a three-hour drive from Vancouver. Saved in the 1970s after practicing the occult, then serving as a missionary with Youth With A Mission, King has become known as a Bible teacher who emphasizes prayer, evangelism and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

She credits a 1994 visit to the Toronto Blessing renewal with spawning both a storm of questions and some “amazing” spiritual experiences that motivated her to dig deeper in prayer and Bible study. The result was a teaching series about biblical encounters with a supernatural God. She later founded a “glory school” and wrote a book, Third Heaven, Angels and Other Stuff.

“The Western church, for the most part, has an academic orientation rather than spiritual,” said King, who says God led her to change her name from Pat Cocking last year after her ministry began receiving obscene messages. “The school offers an invitation to walk in that divine realm and dispels people’s fear of legitimate supernatural encounters.”

But she hasn’t stopped there. King believes supernatural encounters should be taken to the streets. “[People] are not hungry for institutionalized religion; they are hungry for true encounters with God,” King said. “The whole idea behind the Extreme Prophetic school is to take God’s prophetic gift with extreme love into extreme places–anywhere and everywhere the unsaved congregate.”

The four-day schools, held in such cities as Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Chicago, offer hands-on training in prophetic evangelism. King and her team offer what they call “spiritual readings”–a New Age-sounding term they use to describe personal prayer during which they offer any prophetic insights they believe God has given them.

One episode of the Extreme Prophetic show pans in on people lined up outside a Kelowna juice café. They had waited for up to an hour to hear what Extreme Prophetic team members had to say. Many received words of encouragement, others accepted Christ.

The Extreme Prophetic school has spawned similar ministries in other cities. Doug Addison, a Los Angeles pastor and evangelist, attended one of King’s glory schools and now runs InLight Connection, a prophetic street outreach.

“I immediately saw that this type of evangelism is relevant for our spiritually curious culture,” Addison said. “It is a great way to get into deeper spiritual conversations with people, pray with them, and lead them to Jesus.”

Others stepped out more hesitantly. Former Chicago ad executive Rob Hotchkin said he’d been conditioned to ignore people on the street. “During the Extreme Prophetic school God gave me a heart for these people,” he said. “I remembered that these people are human beings. They are lost and broken but God loves them.” Today he works for Extreme Prophetic ministries.

The show airs on Monday nights and Sundays on The Miracle Channel, which streams a simulcast of the show on its site, . King’s Web site, , also carries the program. Sky Angel has recently agreed to air an Extreme Prophetic TV special, and King anticipates that the show will be picked up in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Julia Loren

Jon and Sonnet Barr say their technique at The English Exchange is centered around building relationships
In the 15 years since the Iron Curtain fell in Russia, Christian missionaries from the United States have witnessed decidedly mixed results in their efforts to gain a foothold in the largely atheist country.

Through the years, evangelists flooded in, sparking reports that thousands of Russians were professing new faith in Christ. But almost as soon as the missionaries packed their bags, many of the new believers fell away and developed an aversion to Christianity.

Now another wave of missionaries has launched a new movement aimed at producing more lasting results in Russia. The idea is to lay the groundwork for evangelism by developing loving and trusting friendships between Russians and American Christians first. Their vehicle: English classes.

“The missionaries [of the past] rushed in to do ministry without researching the culture to realize that Russians make life-changing decisions differently than the Western perspective,” said Sonnet Barr, a missionary with Moscow-based The English Exchange, affiliated with the interdenominational United World Mission based in Charlotte, N.C. “You can’t fault their hearts, but you can fault the failure to respect and understand the attributes and characteristics of a different culture.”

Added Jon Barr, her husband: “Russians were quick to raise hands, come forward in meetings and say the sinner’s prayer. But the reality was that they were looking for a relationship that would last a lifetime, and the lengthy dialogue required by Russians to change the ideas of the heart.”

The idea of using conversational English as a ministry tool is not new in Russia or elsewhere around the world. But what distinguishes the Barrs’ approach from others, according to experts, is their focus on building relationships–an often tedious and painstaking task.

“The Barrs have made their approach less evangelistic,” said Eugene Richardson, missions pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, Calif., which has sent several of its members to serve on short-term assignments with the Barrs.

“Their approach is to establish a relationship so there is trust,” Richardson said. “Who they are becomes a greater witness than what they say.”

The Barrs arrived in Moscow in May 2001 to minister at a camp that used the Bible to teach English. Jon Barr, a graduate of Calvary Bible College in Kansas City, Mo., was assigned to train Russian youth leaders. Sonnet Barr, who has an undergraduate degree in music from California State University in Bakersfield and a certificate in Bible from Columbia International University in South Carolina, was assigned to train worship leaders.

Just eight days into the mission, one of the main ministers suffered a stroke and returned to the United States. “With three other teammates who had been in the country less than a year,” Sonnet Barr said, “[God] started what He wanted: a program based on loving relationships with His people totally dependent on Him.”

The Barrs’ program uses staples of the American summer-camp experience–silly songs, dances, skits and other activities designed to build camaraderie.

Teachers, recruited from U.S. churches and Christian colleges, are encouraged to maintain a fun and friendly atmosphere, sharing their faith only in informal settings outside the classroom.

Not everyone, though, has been satisfied with the slow, long-term approach to evangelism. Some missionary organizations working with the Barrs have pulled their ministers out of Russia because of a lack of quick, quantifiable results in the form of church plantings and baptisms.

The Barrs defend their plan, defining their ministry as a “plowing” mission. They measure success in the relationships established with several Russians who became Christians through the program and now share their faith with successive students.

They also measure success in their effort to tackle tough subjects. This summer they held lectures on black history and race relations in the United States to counterattacks by skinheads on Africans, Armenians and Georgians.

But the Barrs say they are most gratified by the response to their follow-up efforts with graduates of the program. After the July camp, a group of Americans maintained the social ties through kite-flying, bowling and other activities. As a result, 15 of the students took the next step and attended a church service.
Dion Haynes in Moscow

The granddaughter of two Pentecostal ministers says she often is led to share personal messages from the Lord through song

For Dove Award-winner Nicole C. Mullen, nothing beats meeting the audience after a concert. Well known for contemporary Christian hits such as, “Redeemer,” “Come Unto Me” and “On My Knees,” Mullen often senses the need to deliver personal messages from the Lord to concertgoers, many of whom have stood in line to meet her. Fitting her gift, she sings them.

“This is for you,” Mullen told one woman recently and with a hum, sang out, “When you call on Jesus …” Tears flowed, as they often do. She said she has been having these kinds of ministry encounters since she was 8 years old, and her singing around the world is a fulfillment of a prophecy declared when she was 12.

Both of Mullen’s grandfathers are Pentecostal preachers in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mullen’s parents, Mary Jane and Napoleon Coleman Jr., branched off and helped start a nondenominational church by hosting it in their home. The pastor and his family even lived with the Colemans for a time.

The ministry grew to a storefront, and now New Life Temple in Madisonville, Ohio, spreads down the block.

“We always had gifts of the Spirit moving,” Mullen said. After a church service, she told Charisma, “I would capture a single mom and say, ‘Hey, can I sing you this song the Lord has put on my heart for you?’ They would sit and listen to my a cappella version, and sometimes they would start crying. I could see the Lord really working on their hearts.”

Still, Mullen wasn’t the celebrated singer in the choir or her family’s favored child prodigy. She was known as just one of the three little Coleman girls until she privately began to dream bigger after a special message from God was delivered to her.

The last week of confirmation class, the church elders came and laid hands on the children. “Sister Dottie prayed over me and said the Lord had given her a word for me,” Mullen recalled. “I remember it clearly to this day: ‘Say not in your heart that you are small but that you are great because I live within you.’

“Then she said the Lord had told her how He was going to take me to different places to sing and how He was going to use me.” Mullen was excited and told her mother but was cautioned that “the true test of prophecy is that you don’t have to make it come about.”

In fact, nothing of magnitude seemed to be happening when Mullen started out singing backup vocals after she attended college at Christ for the Nations Institute. One connection led to another, though, and being introduced to Christian singer David Mullen and agreeing to help him with vocals and choreography caused her to step into destiny. And love.

Traveling kept them apart much of their two years of dating–Nicole toured with Amy Grant, while David performed across the country as a solo artist. When they wed 11 years ago, David decided to concentrate on production and songwriting and encouraged Nicole to perform solo. They work together on everything now, including raising their three children and tending their farm outside Nashville, Tenn.

Mullen continues to reach out to hurting women, and she devotes much of her time to encouraging young girls. In concerts, she sings her African-influenced song “Freedom” in honor of the Trokosi slaves in Ghana. Partnering with International Needs Network, she’s trying to help raise funds to free these women, whose parents gave them away as young girls to abusive priests as a sacrifice for their ancestors’ sins.

The ministry is purchasing the women’s freedom and teaching them the liberating gospel, as well as life skills to help them become self-supporting.

Mullen also reaches out to young girls in her own neighborhood. For years she taught dance classes, and her students have performed with her in concerts. Weekly now, some 40-50 young girls come to her Baby Girls Club. Together they sing Bible verses, share their current “drama” in small groups and pray. After crafts and dance class, there’s a talent show.

Mullen reminds them of such rules as, “You have to keep it under 90 seconds because we don’t want to hear all four verses of ‘I Believe I Can Fly.'” They also know when they come or leave they “gotta give Miss Nicole her hug.”

Sister Dottie has passed away, but it seems her prophecy has stood the test. Mullen’s fifth release, Everyday People, debuted in September. She has been honored with 20 Grammy and Dove Award nominations. And her worldwide performances include appearing at Carnegie Hall and singing the National Anthem at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Marsha Gallardo in Nashville, Tenn.

Pentecostal Pastor Detained in Iran

An Assemblies of God pastor is still being detained at an unknown location in Iran, though nine other church leaders arrested with him have been released, Compass Direct reported. As of mid-September, Hamid Pourmad, 47, had not been able to contact his family since police raided a denominational meeting held in Karaj, located 20 miles north of the capital. Voice of the Martyrs expressed concern for Pourmad, who converted to Christianity from Islam 25 years ago, and feared there may be a new crackdown on Christians under way in the mostly Muslim nation.

House-Church Leader Released in Vietnam

A prominent house-church leader was released Sept. 6 after eight days of interrogation. The Rev. Tran Mai was arrested on Aug. 29 as he crossed the border of the Asian nation after several months abroad, Compass Direct reported. He was questioned regarding his association with two other prominent house-church leaders who are currently in police custody, the Rev. Bui Van Ba and the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang. Mai’s release came after the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF), an association of 30 unregistered house-church groups of which Mai’s group is an active member, called for a three-day period of fasting and prayer from Sept. 5-7. The VEF also urged Christians to pray for the protection of house churches, especially in light of Vietnam’s new Ordinance on Religion, which is scheduled to become law on Nov. 15, Compass reported.

Gunmen Open Fire in Colombian Church

Masked gunmen opened fire on worshippers gathered for an evening service at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Puerto Asis, Colombia, Sept. 4, killing three and wounding 13 others, Compass Direct reported. The pastor, Francisco Sevillano, was not harmed. Colombian army spokesmen blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) for the attack, Compass said. Sources told the news service the shooting appeared to be aimed at an individual in the worship service and not the entire church body.

French Christians and French-Canadian Christians met in Quebec City in hopes of healing long-held resentment
Ministry leaders and intercessors from across Canada gathered in Quebec City in July to witness a dramatic, teary reconciliation between French-Canadian Christians and Christians from France after 245 years of estrangement.

Dubbed The Homecoming by its organizers, the reconciliation quickly became a love-in between the two French groups following a visit to France by leader David Demian just one month earlier.

“I had to visit France for other ministry work, but the Lord told me then to invite French church leaders over here for our reconciliation meetings,” said Demian, director of Watchmen for the Nations, a group of 500 Canadian church leaders committed to prayer and reconciliation in Canada and around the globe.

“They readily agreed, having forgotten all about France’s history of abandoning the French-Canadians. The French-Canadian church leaders who were with me thought it was a wonderful idea and agreed to welcome them with open arms,”

Quebec is one of the largest of 10 Canadian provinces and three territories, and French-Canadians make up 22.9 percent of the country’s population. Quebec has held several votes to separate from the rest of Canada and was the site of much civil unrest and some violence during the 1960s and 1970s.

French-Canadians in Quebec have the lowest church attendance of any group in the country, despite a rich history of Catholicism and a wealth of Christian place names. Although the second ethnic group to populate Canada, following the First Nations people, the French were eventually defeated by the British during the 1700s, and the country became a British colony.

After winning a battle with the French in 1759, the British occupied Quebec City, the capital of the province. The following year, the French sent six frigates filled with soldiers and supplies to bolster the French-Canadians, but the British heard of the plan and blocked their entrance to Quebec City’s harbor. The French sunk some of their own boats and returned to France, never to be heard from again.

The reconciliation included a reconstruction of historical events; French church leaders arrived on a ferry boat to symbolically represent a return to Quebec City’s harbor, where French-Canadians welcomed them with open arms. After a teary reunion, they traveled to the Plains of Abraham, site of the 1759 French-British battle. There the French repented for abandoning the French-Canadians and made a commitment to stand with the French-Canadian church.

The French-Canadians then expressed their forgiveness toward France. Church leaders from English Canada also committed to stand with France to see the growth of the church in French Canada. Seed was planted in the ground to symbolize healing and growth in relationships, and communion was later held.

The Homecoming was part of an ongoing series of reconciliation gatherings that Watchmen for the Nations has held since 1995. Demian said the goal is to mend Canada’s spiritual rifts and regional strife so the nation can reflect the glory of God and help other nations find healing.

“When God called me to this ministry, I believed the reconciliation was to happen first between the white man and the First Nations, but He said no, it was to happen between French and English first,” Demian said. “So we started off two years ago at Charlottetown, the birthplace of Canadian confederation, where we read what Canada’s first prime minister declared when he wrote that there would be holy matrimony between French and English. Using that as our theme, we moved across the land … gathering history and praying.”

Demian said Watchmen for the Nations also is acting as a spiritual mentor and supporting several other nations that are repenting for former conflicts in hopes of finding spiritual wholeness. Among them are Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Denmark.
Josie Newman in Quebec City

First on the list of upcoming projects is Gifted, a talent show patterned after Fox’s popular program American Idol Inspirational Speaker

A music-industry veteran and the son of Christian TV pioneers are teaming up to produce Christian-themed entertainment that will reach secular audiences.

The partnership will fuse Johnny Wright’s experience in the music industry as president and CEO of Wright Entertainment Group (WEG) with Matt Crouch’s background in the Christian entertainment industry as the founder of Gener8Xion Entertainment. Together they plan to create entertainment that will enjoy large crossover appeal.

“It is our goal to wrap God’s message–His love–in acceptance, and in a way that blends seamlessly into ‘pop’ culture while still upholding the values we, as Christians, value most,” says the mission statement of the partnership, tentatively called Wright Generation.

As a first step, Wright, a Christian who heads the management group for Britney Spears and ‘N Sync, and Crouch, son of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) founders Paul and Jan Crouch, are creating a TV show titled Gifted, a Christian talent show similar to American Idol.

Scheduled to air Thanksgiving evening on TBN, Gifted will feature 12 solo artists, aged 18-24, who will compete by singing gospel and contemporary Christian songs in front of a live studio audience and an experienced panel of judges.

A cross-country audition tour was to begin in September. Finalists were to be chosen from such cities as Denver, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mobile, Ala., and Nashville, Tenn.

The TV audience will select the winner, who will receive a record deal and future management in both the secular and Christian markets under Johnny Wright. This fall the show will be a two-hour special, but Wright Generation is planning a full 10-episode second season.

The similarities between Gifted and American Idol are obvious, and Freemantle Media, the producer of Fox’s hit show, has noticed. Freemantle recently sent Wright Generation a letter stating that it is infringing on American Idol’s copyright trademark and requesting that it stop production of Gifted.

“We’re not going to be bullied,” Wright told Charisma. “Our show is completely different than theirs.”

In addition to being a two-hour special, Wright said, Gifted will have a number of features different from American Idol. He also noted that in his time working on Fame, an NBC talent show of similar mold, there was never any talk about accusations of copyright infringement from American Idol.

“Is this just a veiled attempt to shut us down so they can move forward with the same kind of idea?” Wright said. “The Christian community, as well as the secular community, deserves to have a show delivered to them like this, and it deserves to come to them from people that are in the Christian community.”

The statement is interesting coming from Wright, who until this point has not worked in Christian entertainment but now says that it is what he is going to move into in the future.

“I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve had people come up to me and say: ‘I have a great daughter that can sing, but I really don’t want them to be in that pop world because I don’t want them singing about those subjects. I would really like them to be singing about church and faith,'” Wright said. “How many times are people going to say that to me before it clicks?”

When Wright’s assistant, Philip McIntyre, met Crouch, he saw an opportunity for the two to work together. He said the chemistry between Wright and Crouch was apparent from the start.

Now a producer for Gifted, McIntyre said the whole project came together in less than six months–which is rare in the entertainment industry. “It absolutely happened fast, like it was definitely meant to be,” McIntyre said. “In our industry, it normally takes a lot longer.”

Crouch said that in their first conversation, Wright told him he wanted to “reshape pop culture that [he] was in part responsible for creating.” At that point Crouch says he knew God had orchestrated Wright’s career through the mainstream communications world and his career through Christian media so they could each bring a unique perspective to this venture.

“What burns inside of me … is to really put a new face on what the world thinks Christians are and what they think a life of faith in Christ is and does, and what it accomplishes,” Crouch said.

Wright Entertainment is currently making plans past Gifted for future TV and music projects, which they hope will help reinvent the cultures that each of them have come out of.

Crouch said they want to help people understand that “we, as people of faith, can blend seamlessly into the world because that was really what Christ said for us to do.”

Chris Glazier

Police Halt Christian Wedding in Eritrea

On July 25, police disrupted a Christian wedding ceremony in the Eritrean town of Senafe, arresting 30 guests and members of the wedding party, Compass Direct reported. Police ordered everyone who was not Pentecostal to leave immediately, Compass said. Thirty Christians remained and were taken to the police station. In early August, all but two had been released after signing a document promising not to participate in any evangelical Christian weddings in the future.

Anti-Conversion Bill Ruled Unconstitutional

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruled that certain significant clauses in a controversial bill prohibiting conversions were unconstitutional, Sri Lanka’s Daily News reported. The Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Bill was introduced in July by the all-Buddhist Jathika Hela Urumaya party, which has been working to ban allegedly “unethical” conversions to Christianity. The legislation proposed fines of up to $11,000 and up to seven years in prison for violators. The court said the bill would have to be approved by two-thirds of the Parliament and put before the people through a national referendum in order to become law, the News reported.

Brazil Court Reverses Pastors’ Conviction

An appeals court in Sao Paulo has reversed the conviction last year of two evangelists charged with violating the South American nation’s “hate crime” law. The landmark case involving evangelicals and Afro-Brazilian spiritists is the first to test a federal law declaring it a crime to “practice, induce, or incite discrimination” against members of another religion, Compass Direct reported. Umbanda and Candomble spiritist groups brought criminal charges more than two years ago against Baptist pastor Joaquim de Andrade and Anglican Aldo dos Santos, claiming that gospel tracts they distributed at the annual Iemanja festival disparaged the African deity, and therefore violated the federal law. In April 2003, the men were found guilty, but refused to pay the fine imposed and appealed the verdict. Andrade hailed the appeals court’s decision as upholding freedom of speech and their right to conduct personal evangelism in public places.

The Army Medical Service Corps’ first African American female general is a licensed minister with the Church of God in Christ

Soldiers in the U.S. Army swear to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies. Similarly, Christians pledge their lives and service to God.

For Brig. Gen. Sheila Baxter, the two covenants intertwine. In the general’s view, God destined her military career and provided her with a broad audience to share His message.

“Your steps are ordered by the Lord,” the Army Medical Service Corps’ first African American female general said. “I believe He just pulled my star out of the sky and dropped it down because He felt that I was ready. Every day He reminds me, ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ ”

As the assistant surgeon general and deputy chief of staff for force sustainment, Baxter oversees medical logistics policy, contracting, information management and facilities for the Army’s medical department. In her companion role as a licensed evangelist for the Church of God in Christ, she advises, teaches and prays for those needing God’s direction.

“I have tough jobs with lots of responsibility,” Baxter said. “You want to make certain you’re giving right counsel. But I’m confident because I have God in me and there’s no doubt He helps me daily.”

In her youth, the Franklin, Va., native never dreamed of a military career. She played basketball at Virginia State University (VSU) and planned to teach health and physical education after graduation. But a summer visit to her cousin, who was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, introduced her to the U.S. Army.

“A light bulb came on,” Baxter said. “I loved the camaraderie [of the military], I loved the atmosphere. When you get on that road God has for you, He will put people in your path to help you along the way.”

Although Baxter had completed her junior year, the ROTC program at VSU accepted her into its two-year program. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1978, the first female VSU player to score more than 1,000 points and member of the school’s athletic Hall of Fame climbed steadily through the ranks. In June 2003 she received her general’s star.

Today the 49-year-old, who also earned a Bronze Star and Legion of Merit award, credits several superiors, including Brig. Gen. Richard Ursone and Col. Robert Bowles, for paving her way to the Army’s top echelon. But a current Texas pastor directed the military commander toward her twin devotion to God and country.

Raised in a Baptist church, Baxter joined the Church of God in Christ while assigned to Augsburg, Germany, in 1986. Two years later, she heard God’s call to evangelism and shared her vision with pastor J. Edward Fisher. Several years later, she studied under his supervision at the Copperas Cove Church of God in Christ while assigned to Fort Hood, Texas.

“It’s not surprising General Baxter is a good leader in the church,” Fisher said. “I encouraged her to stay in the Army because she knows the importance of being bold and not fearful in sharing God’s Word. It’s unusual to have someone of her rank as an evangelist, and she provides a great example with her humble, quiet way of serving the Lord.”

Baxter says God has ordered her steps, sending evangelistic opportunities along the way. Several years ago, she hoped to attend the Industrial College of the Armed Forces but received an assignment to the Army War College in Pennsylvania instead.

While studying strategic leadership, national security and military strategy, she met Woodrow Woodall, a young man in her congregation who was going through a period of turbulence and questioning. His penchant for asking why directed him to several faiths and denominations, but Baxter’s counsel and guidance taught him to see God’s way of doing things.

“I have a very inquisitive nature and struggled with resolving tough questions, such as ‘Who are we?’ and ‘What is our purpose?'” said Woodall, a systems analyst for a Fortune 500 company. “General Baxter lifted the cloud of deception from me. I learned to stop shouting at God and started listening to God.”

Currently stationed at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Baxter calls San Antonio’s Greater Evangelistic Temple Church of God in Christ her home church. Now serving her third tour of duty in the Alamo City, she and her pastor, Superintendent C.W. Steward, feel very much at ease with their respective spiritual roles.

“She is a faithful member, a diligent missionary, and a good teacher and speaker,” Steward said. “Even though she holds a prestigious position in the military, she conducts her church duties with very little fanfare. General Baxter simply offers her services to the church wherever they’re needed.”
John Hillman

T.D. Jakes Seeks Pastors’ Support for New Film

Seeking to duplicate the grass-roots campaign that led to the success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, Bishop T.D. Jakes has been promoting his new movie, Woman, Thou Art Loosed: The Movie, in private showings for ministers in advance of its planned nationwide release this month, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. Starring Kimberly Elise (The Manchurian Candidate), the movie tells the story of a woman searching for hope in prison after a lifetime of sexual abuse, poverty and addiction. The film is rated R and features strong adult content and language. Based on Gibson’s success, Jakes said, audiences are receptive to Christian-themed films that aren’t sugarcoated. He has planned a dozen private showings nationwide and hopes to open the film in 500 theaters.

Group Plans Christian ‘State’ in South Carolina

A Christian group seeks to get groups of 12,000 people to migrate to South Carolina in hopes of creating a Christian “state” that will be governed based on the Ten Commandments, United Press International (UPI) reported. Cory Burrell, 28, a co-founder of , said disenchantment with the current Republican administration prompted the project. He cited legalized abortion, the removal of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama judicial building and a lack of progress in banning same-sex marriage among the group’s frustrations, UPI said. Though currently has only 600 participants, Burrell said he hopes to have 50,000 to 70,000 supporters by 2016.

Watchdog Group Fights Christians’ Political Speech

Christian leaders are fighting attempts by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to stop them from mobilizing their constituents around political issues, the Washington Times reported. The watchdog group is filing complaints with the Internal Revenue Service against ministers who speak out on political issues or candidates. So far the group has filed complaints against the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Rev. Ronnie Floyd of First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark., and Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston.

CHRISTIANS ENCOURAGE ACTION ON SUDAN ‘GENOCIDE’

Some 35 Christian leaders issued a letter to President Bush Aug. 1 advocating his continued action on what they have called genocide in Sudan. Since February 2003, the Janjaweed Arab militia has been murdering black Muslims in the western Darfur region in what many observers say is an attempt at ethnic cleansing. A broad coalition of Christian and human-rights activists have been staging demonstrations in front of the Sudanese embassy since June. But the letter–signed by representatives from such groups as the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the International Pentecostal Holiness Church and the Assemblies of God–marked many of the signatories’ first response to the Darfur crisis, though most have been longtime advocates for Christians persecuted in the south. “We view this as an opportunity to reach out to Muslims in the name of Jesus,” NAE President Ted Haggard said, the Washington Post reported. Congress has declared the Darfur crisis “genocide,” and the United Nations threatened economic sanctions if the Sudanese government did not end the conflict by Aug. 31.

CHRISTIAN DOCTORS SUPPORT ADULT STEM-CELL RESEARCH

The Christian Medical Association (CMA) sent a letter to Congress opposing embryonic stem-cell research and asking for their support for adult stem-cell research, Agape Press reported. More than 2,000 Christian doctors signed the letter, saying adult stem-cell research already is yielding successful therapies for patients. CMA executive director Dr. David Stevens said embryonic stem-cell research would produce abnormal embryonic stem cells and would inevitably exploit women in order to acquire human eggs for cloning, the Christian news service said.

SKY ANGEL FOUNDER DIES

Robert W. Johnson, founder of the nation’s only Christian satellite TV service, died Aug. 5 from heart failure. He was 66. The chairman and CEO of Naples, Dominion Video Satellite and Sky Angel, Johnson devoted nearly 25 years of his life to building up Sky Angel, which broadcasts 36 TV and radio channels. In 1980, Johnson said God gave him the vision for Sky Angel, using what was then an emerging technology known as high-power direct broadcast satellite (DBS). Johnson believed DBS was the last opportunity for Christians to control the airwaves by offering Christian programming nationwide. A veteran of the Navy, Johnson is survived by his wife of 44 years, Jeanine, a son and three daughters. Johnson’s son, Robert Jr., will serve as interim leader of the company.

BUSH ASKED TO STOP SOLICITING CHURCHES FOR CAMPAIGN SUPPORT

Sixteen prominent theologians and religious leaders have asked President Bush to stop seeking church membership directories from Republican volunteers as a way to solicit campaign support from churchgoers, the Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram reported. Co-written by Baptist minister Tony Campolo and Wake Forest University religion professor James Dunn, the letter calls on Bush to “repudiate the actions of his re-election campaign, which violate a fundamental principle of our democracy,” the Star-Telegram reported. Signatories include retired Texas Christian University religion professor Ron Flowers and former Southern Baptist Convention President Jimmy Allen.