The following reports were released during the last month by Charisma NOW. Go to our Web site at to subscribe to the free weekday service or to access full-length versions of each day’s stories. The site also includes a search engine so you can access archived news.

PASTOR GOES ON HUNGER STRIKE TO PROTEST STRIP CLUB
When a gay strip club set up shop next to his rescue mission and Christian school, San Francisco pastor Roger Huang went on a 30-day hunger strike, refusing to eat or drink anything besides a cup of coffee in the morning and water the rest of the day. Sitting on a chair in front of City Hall, Huang called for, among other things, closure of the Chez Paree strip club and a ban on liquor licenses in the area, the San Francisco Examiner reported. Ending his strike on May 6, Huang said progress had been made. Local officials were looking at ways to limit liquor licenses, increase police patrols and clean up the area, the Examiner reported. Huang also said the owner of Chez Paree offered to sell him the building for $1.4 million, which the ministry is working to raise.

BLACK PASTORS DENOUNCE GAY MARRIAGE
Pentecostal Bishop Paul Morton and charismatic pastor Fred Price were among a group of African-American ministers to denounce Massachusetts’ move to legalize same-sex marriage beginning May 17, the anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, which desegregated U.S. public schools. At a Washington, D.C., press conference May 17, the leaders criticized efforts to liken the push for gay rights to the gay civil rights movement. They called on the Congressional Black Caucus to oppose civil unions and support legislation declaring marriage to be between one man and one woman.

DEFAMATION CASE AGAINST JEWS FOR JESUS DISMISSED
In May a West Palm Beach, Fla., judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against the nation’s largest Messianic Jewish organization that arose out of “a praise report” in a Jews for Jesus (JFJ) newsletter. Circuit Court Judge Catherine Brunson threw out the suit filed by Edith Rapp, who claimed that JFJ defamed her in a July 2002 newsletter by saying she was a “Jewish believer.” In the newsletter, her stepson, JFJ employee Bruce Rapp, said Rapp accepted Christ while the two were visiting his dying father. On Dec. 11, Edith Rapp sued JFJ, claiming the conversion account was fictitious and that JFJ knew the account was false when it published the newsletter. Liberty Counsel, which represented JFJ, filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that it was not defamatory to call someone a Christian. Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver said the lawsuit was an attack against JFJ because of its evangelism activity among Jews.

CHURCH RECONCILES AFTER 50-YEAR-OLD RIFT
The reconciliation of a Pentecostal church in Texas that mended a 56-year split has reportedly empowered members to influence the community. According to the Assemblies of God News, Family Worship Center was Full Gospel Assembly of God when it opened in 1935 in McKinney, now part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. But 12 years later, half its members left because of leadership differences. The group that departed formed Southside Assembly of God, which later changed its name to DaySpring Christian Fellowship. In 2003, both congregations voted unanimously to reunite and combine staffs. Since the merger last fall, the church has registered a record-high attendance of 316 during a January service, at which 11 people received Jesus.

Andraé Crouch Honored With Star on Walk of Fame

Hollywood has a new star–on its legendary Walk of Fame. Eight-time Grammy-winner Andraé Crouch was to become the third gospel artist to be honored with a star on the famous Hollywood Boulevard walkway, joining singer Mahalia Jackson and the Rev. James Cleveland. Best known for songs such as “My Tribute” and “Just Like He Said He Would,” the pastor of New Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ was to be honored in a ceremony June 4.

James Dobson Launches Political Group

In April, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson launched a political sister organization called Focus on the Family Action, aimed at lobbying for socially conservative causes, the New York Times reported. Dobson has been making speeches across the country supporting bans on same-sex marriage, and this summer his group plans to begin a voter-registration drive targeting young Christians. Dobson said he will endorse conservative candidates as a private individual, the Times reported.

Shock Rocker Receives Honorary Ph.D.

Legendary shock-rocker Alice Cooper was awarded an honorary doctor of music from Grand Canyon University on May 8. A longtime supporter of the Phoenix-based Christian university, Cooper, 56, accepted Christ 13 years ago and launched the Solid Rock foundation to help youth avoid gangs, guns and drugs. Cooper, who has been married for 28 years and has three children, said he is honored by the recognition. “So they’re making me a doctor of music? A Ph.D.? Dr. Cooper? I guess school’s never really out!”

BOOKS

The Ten Offenses
By Pat Robertson, Integrity,

Hardcover, 240 pages, $.

Sadly, this book has little chance of widespread use in the arena where it is needed most: America’s public schools. However, although few outside Christendom are likely to pick up this book (except to mock it), one can argue that churches need The Ten Offenses: Reclaim the Blessing of the Ten Commandments as a refresher course.

Robertson’s book is a practical guide to the positive aspects of following God’s law–and the consequences of disobeying it. Not only is this material excellent for Christian schools and home schoolers, but it also provides fertile ground for small-group discussions.

Especially useful is the appendix, which includes preambles to all 50 state constitutions, all of which honor God in some way. The strongest call to Christians to correct their ignorance of the law appears in the epilogue, where Robertson notes: “If we live the commandments of God, then our lives will prove a far more effective testimony than any stone tablet, no matter where it is situated.”
Ken Walker

High Calling
By Evelyn Husband with Donna

VanLiere, Thomas Nelson, hardcover,
233 pages, $.

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crewmembers on their return from a 16-day space mission. Evelyn Husband, wife of Columbia Commander Rick Husband, writes a poignant account of the courageous life and faith of her spouse of 20 years.

Her testimony is supported with accounts about Rick Husband’s character from his acquaintances and friends. He was a Christian after God’s own heart: kind, compassionate, selfless, honest–no matter the personal cost.

Rick Husband’s faith makes High Calling so much more than a wife’s tribute to her husband. It comforts us with an awareness that Christ and His people ultimately triumph over death. Evelyn Husband and her children, Laura and Matthew, are not left behind.

Their own faith moves them ahead in preparation for Christ’s kingdom. They witness to the value and sanctity of lives boldly lived in Christ here and now.

As was Lisa Beamer’s account of the courageous life and faith of her husband, 9/11 hero Todd Beamer, High Calling is an excellent example of the new genre of survivalist literature. In the chaos of a world on the verge of a terroristic holocaust, our nation needs to look to its Christian heroes for strength and direction. You will cry with joy along with Evelyn Husband as she shouts in closing her book: “All is well. Hallelujah!”
Pamela Robinson

Throne Room
By CeCe Winans with Claire Cloninger,
Integrity, hardcover, 144 pages, $.

CeCe Winans, a favorite among traditional gospel and contemporary Christian music fans alike, recently released her praise and worship follow-up CD, Throne Room. This is a collection of songs to help listeners bask in God’s presence.

In her book by the same name, Winans continues the theme of worship by opening up and allowing us to delve into her personal worship experiences. She teaches Christians in a simple yet informative way how to worship.

Winans provides two keys to worship and describes the life changes that result from stepping into the secret place. The many cited Scriptures about praise and worship will enlighten the reader about the power and the blessings of entering the throne room of God.

She also speaks about worship and its power in spiritual warfare and why it should be a part of every Christian’s daily routine. Personal examples, such as her brother Ronald’s revival from death, 9/11 and memories from her youth of her father’s worship practices, reveal Winans’ warmth and transparency.

Throne Room also provides the background and the inspiration of each song on the CD. The book closes with reflective questions to help readers examine their own personal worship routines. Throne Room is a wonderful book for those who yearn to have a more intimate relationship with the Lord.
René Williams

The Glorious Disturbance
By Ernest B. Gentile, Chosen Books,
Softcover, 285 pages, $.

Author Ernest B. Gentile makes a solid case for what he calls the “Peter Pattern” in his newest book, The Glorious Disturbance. Taken from Peter’s first sermon of Pentecost (see Acts 2:38-39), the Peter Pattern is the sequence of conversion, water baptism and Spirit baptism accompanied with speaking in tongues. The pattern appears normative in the early church and the author maintains that it is the birthright of all Christians today.

The Glorious Disturbance seems to be written particularly for those who want a thorough theological basis for accepting Gentile’s belief as normative today and for those who may have been prejudiced against speaking in tongues by current doctrines and traditions. Gentile addresses the role of the Holy Spirit as recorded in the book of Acts.

The author approaches the subject in a thoughtful, scholarly manner with interesting side notes and charts, making his book more comprehensive than a basic how-to-be-filled booklet. Gentile gives us an understanding of worship in early Jewish tabernacles and how the church was born out of this.

He methodically discusses every form of baptism and how they correspond with one another. He also accurately examines many of the main denominations of Christianity and how they have traditionally defined the experience of Spirit baptism. This book is a great resource for anyone who teaches on the baptism of the Holy Spirit as well as those doing personal research.
Deborah L. Delk

MUSIC

Abandon
By Jason Morant, Integrity Music.

Jason Morant is a new talent to watch for on the modern worship scene. The melodic, haunting intensity with which he worships draws listeners in and pierces their souls on debut album Abandon.

Citing influences that range from Keith Green to U2, Morant creates piano- and guitar-infused modern-rock melodies. The strength of this album is that Morant never tries to straddle the fence of both artist and worshiper. He simply praises the Lord, and his songs stick right in the heart.

The 12 songs are packed with straight-forward titles and lyrics such as “Bless the Lord,” which states: “I left my heart in worship/Taken by the truth/That You are God” or the catchy, guitar-backed “Great Is the Lord” that says: “Forever I’ll say/Great is the Lord/Great is the Lord/You’re the one who set me free/You’re the king who rescued me.”

This stunning album is consistently good throughout, but standouts include Morant’s take on the classic praise song “I Love You Lord” (indeed a “sweet, sweet sound”) and the piercing “Sing Over Me.”
Natalie Nichols Gillespie

7 Sons of Soul
By 7 Sons of Soul, Verity Records.

Washington, D.C., is home to a number of gospel greats including Richard Smallwood, Byron Cage, William Becton, Maurette Brown Clark, Stephen Hurd and Patrick Lundy.

The 7 Sons of Soul have recently added their name to this burgeoning list. The group consists of six members–Cliff Jones, David Lindsey, Deonte Gray, Sam Kendrick, Nathaniel Fields and Paul Edwards, with Jesus Christ being the seventh nonsinging member of the group.

Their self-titled debut includes a number of traditional, almost quartet-sounding songs including the popular “Run On,” “Show Me The Way,” a song dedicated to the late Willie Neal Johnson of the Gospel Keynotes, and a beautiful harmonizing rendition of “Amazing Grace.” Not to be pigeonholed, the group also showcases an urban vibe on the laid-back “He’s So Real” featuring R&B crooner Raheem Devaughn and the hip-hop-flavored tunes “Job” and “Need You.”

“He’s Coming Back” and “Prayer Changes Things,” both with a down-home feel and driving rhythm, find the group reaching back to the roots of gospel. Gospel’s current premiere artist, songwriter and producer Fred Hammond, as well as Pam Kenyon Donald, make guest appearances on a tasteful remake of The Hawkins Family classic “What Is This.”

Most new groups do contemporary gospel well; few are able to transition so easily from the traditional to the ultracontemporary as the 7 Sons of Soul are. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from these young men.
René Williams

VIDEO

Bells of Innocence
Good Times Entertainment.

Starring Chuck Norris, Bells of Innocence is a “faith-based” thriller in which belief in God determines the outcome of a battle between heaven and hell.

The plot involves Jux (Mike Norris, Chuck’s oldest son and the film’s executive producer), Conrad (David White) and Oren (Carey Scott), who are on a mission trip bound for Mexico when their plane loses power and crashes in the Texas desert.

The friends end up in Ceres, a town that doesn’t exist on any map and whose residents wander aimlessly. The only communication to the outside world is a short-wave radio, belonging to Matthew (Norris), a mysterious rancher who lives on the outskirts of town.

Joshua (Marshall Teague) controls the town and plots to fulfill an ancient prophecy of sacrifice and destruction. The visitors realize that the only way to leave is to become “agents of redemption.”

Bells of Innocence is spooky and engaging but is not recommended for young children because of its occult theme, scary scenes and violence.
Eric Tiansay

Munizzi grew up singing Southern gospel. Now, as a thirtysomething independent artist, she’s singing in a black gospel style and loving it.

Munizzi, a wife and mother, recorded her latest CD, The Best Is Yet to Come, at Lakewood Church in Houston. She wasn’t sure how the crowd would like her brand-new songs, but the experience turned out to be “so incredible,” she says. “It felt like we stepped into something way beyond ourselves.”

This album has taken her ministry () to new levels and brought her songs to the forefront of the music industry. Karen Clark-Sheard, Vicki Yohe and Ron Kenoly have recorded her songs. Kenoly says: “Martha leads worship with power, excitement and authority. Her sensitivity in worship helps you to know that she has spent much time in personal prayer and devotion.”

Munizzi also likes to talk about topics beyond music. Molested as a child, she used to bite her nails because she had a spirit of anxiety.

God has since healed her. And despite her parents’ divorce, she sees how her own marriage can be stronger. Munizzi does not dwell on her past.

“If I wrote a book, the molestation would be a chapter, not the whole book,” she says. “I’ve talked to others … who have had far worse experiences than I did. My childhood, for the most part, was happy. … These days, if I am led to share my painful past experiences with people, I love to say: ‘Look what God has done. He has been faithful.'”
Mark Weber

CHARISMATIC TOP SELLERS

1. Pigs in the Parlor
Frank and Ida Mae Hammond

(Impact Christian Books)

2. Total Forgiveness
R.T. Kendall (Charisma House)

3. A Divine Revelation of Hell
Mary K. Baxter (Whitaker House)

4. The Final Quest
Rick Joyner (Whitaker House)

5. The Three Battlegrounds
Francis Frangipane (Arrow Publications)

6. Matters of the Heart
Juanita Bynum (Charisma House)

7. A Divine Revelation of Heaven
Mary K. Baxter with T.L. Lowery (Whitaker House)

8. Within the Gates
Rebecca R. Springer (Christ for the Nations)

9. The Torch & The Sword
Rick Joyner (Destiny Image)

10. The Battle Belongs to the Lord
Joyce Meyer (Warner Faith)

Marcus and Joni Lamb say their mission is to reach the lost through Christian television

God-given destiny.” Joni Lamb uses those words often.

On her award-winning TV show, Joni, she tells men trapped in the homosexual lifestyle that God has a destiny for them. Your sin, she says, is the roadblock keeping you from being all you were meant to be.

She tells women with unplanned pregnancies that God has a destiny for every child. Please don’t take that life and thwart that purpose, she pleads.

And she and her husband, Marcus, are, she feels, living out the destiny God has for them in reaching the world with the gospel through their Daystar Television Network. “It’s far beyond what I ever could have imagined,” she said.

Daystar is the world’s second-largest Christian TV network. “We are actually all over the world,” Joni Lamb said. “We’re in 150 countries. We’re on over 50 stations in the United States.”

Television has been a part of the Lambs’ lives since the early days of their nearly 22-year-long marriage. For Marcus Lamb, the ministry started even before that. He began preaching at the age of 15. By the time he was 19, he had graduated summa cum laude from Lee College in Cleveland, Tenn.

He was preaching an evangelistic meeting at Joni’s home church in Greenville, S.C., when he met his wife-to-be. Joni Lamb was saved at the age of 6 and filled with the Holy Spirit at 13. When she met Marcus, she was ready to serve and traveled with him all over the United States during the first two years of their marriage.

Then in 1983, Marcus Lamb says he felt the Lord leading him to start a Christian TV station. He says he didn’t understand why God would call him to leave a thriving evangelistic ministry, since he didn’t know how to build a TV station–“and I didn’t have $1 million.”

But on Oct. 12, 1985, WMCF TV-45 went on the air in Montgomery, first Christian TV station in the area. At the age of 27, Marcus Lamb became the youngest person ever to establish a TV station in the United States.

A few years later the Lambs said they again felt the Lord leading them to venture into unfamiliar territory. They sold the Alabama station and moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 1990. By 1997 they were ready to launch the Daystar Television Network.

“The Daystar Television Network’s mission is to use television to reach as many people as possible with the Good News,” Marcus Lamb wrote on the Daystar Web site. “Daystar is committed to building and operating Christian television stations to refresh the lives of our viewers and help bring a spiritual awakening in the world.”

Now the network is second only to Trinity Broadcasting Network in size. Marcus Lamb said he hopes to change that in the future and overtake the broadcasting giant.

“The bottom line to me is souls,” Lamb told Charisma. “If I’m able to fulfill the Great Commission–to go into all the world and preach the gospel–it would make us No. 1.”

He said the network has received testimonies from as far away as Saudi Arabia. Viewers have written in, saying, “We can’t go to church, but we can watch Daystar.”

Getting to their current point of success–with some 120 million viewers domestically and potentially millions abroad via satellite and the Internet–hasn’t been without challenges. The most recent came in the form of a dispute with Sky Angel, a Christian-owned satellite company that sued Colorado-based EchoStar to drop Daystar and the Southern Baptist FamilyNet from its subsidiary Dish Network.

Sky Angel claimed an earlier agreement with EchoStar gave them exclusive rights to provide Christian programming on Dish Network. In January, EchoStar won the dispute and is still broadcasting Daystar.

“This is a great victory for the Lord and for the Gospel,” Marcus Lamb said in a statement at the time. “We wanted to stay on the Dish Network in order to reach more people and win more souls.”

Besides owning the network, the Lambs also host a show, Celebration, which tackles a wide range of issues from finances and politics to parenting and relationships. Marcus Lamb said he and Joni try not to be too traditional or religious in the way they talk, and they seek to offer well-thought-out answers to life’s problems.

“We try to address these issues in a very relevant, down-to-earth way,” Marcus Lamb told Charisma. “Since these are relevant subjects, even people who are not Christians will listen to the solutions.”

He said creating quality programming is the biggest need for Christian television. “We’ve got to do programming that thinks outside the box and meets people’s needs,” Lamb said. “The methods will change, and that will enable us to expand, and our influence and impact will grow. We’ve got the greatest story ever told. Our packaging just needs to be improved.”

Joni Lamb also hosts her own show, Joni, which recently won the prestigious Best Christian Talk Show of the Year award from the National Religious Broadcasters. “I really kind of had to be pushed into it,” she said. “I felt so inadequate. The bottom line is that the Lord began to really speak to me about the opportunity that I have. Am I ready to step up to the plate with the opportunity that is before me?”

She said the next step will probably be putting Joni in syndication. But while her three children–ages 12, 14 and 18–are still at home, she isn’t interested in expanding her ministry too far. “I would rather stop where we are now and have our family intact and see our children serving the Lord than to gain the whole world and to lose them,” she said.

The studio is just a seven-minute drive from their home in Euless, Texas. She can film her show and still be home when the kids get home from school. “They are the most important job I have, next to being Marcus’ wife,” she said.

But the Lambs leave no doubt that spreading the gospel through their network is their destiny. “The best part is to see people’s lives changed,” Joni Lamb said. “To see people given hope. To see people saved, delivered, restored, healed. That is the greatest blessing of all–to see people come to know Christ.”
Suzanne Jordan Brown in Dallas

It was a powerful experience to look into the president’s eyes and see his personal side.

Monday, May 24, 2004, was a momentous day for me. I received an invitation from the White House to join eight religious journalists for an on-the-record interview with President Bush that was to take place two days later. Of course I readily accepted.

Once there, the other journalists and I gathered with the president around a mahogany table in a formal conference room in the West Wing. I sat across from the most powerful man in the world, knowing this was a moment I’d remember the rest of my life.

When the interview began, I quickly saw that the president was allowing each journalist around the table to ask a question in turn. The first few questions had to do with policy, and the president rattled off answers as if he were at a news conference.

As he talked, however, I caught a glimpse of his humanness. Not that I didn’t know he was human–and vulnerable. I’d read our book The Faith of George W. Bush several times during the publishing process. But it was a powerful experience to look directly into his steel-blue eyes and see his personal side.

I sensed the Holy Spirit telling me to listen with my heart to perceive what the Lord was saying through this man whom I believe He put in office and whom we’ll endorse for a second term.

I asked: “Your election in 2000 was one of the most unusual in American history. Some would say you were lucky. In light of your faith, how do you view the closeness of the election?”

Bush said that while waiting for final election results he spent a lot of time outdoors at his ranch and was quite calm. He said he and Laura tried to prepare themselves so that if he won he’d be ready to serve. He made some other observations as well, about the electoral college versus the popular vote, and we’ll report that in a subsequent issue along with his comments about Iraq, faith-based initiatives and the cultural war our nation is in.

For now here are some observations I made about Bush the man:

* Bush is definitely a man of faith. He talked openly about reading The One Year Bible through every other year and a half and reading Oswald Chambers every morning, which, he said, “helps me understand how far I am on my walk.”

He said he prays all the time–not just at a set time. He prays that God’s light will shine through him “as best as possible, no matter how opaque the window.”

The president is mindful, he said, “of the proper use of faith” in a political context. “You can’t fake your faith, nor can you use your faith as a shallow attempt to garner votes. … The best way for faith to operate is … to let the light shine,” he said.

* He’s a man of tenacity and firm resolve. “I believe there’s a clash of ideologies,” he said, referring to radical Islam. “America must be firm in our resolve. … I will not yield.”

* He’s a humble man. In responding to Russell Shaw, a Roman Catholic writer, the president–a Methodist–spoke respectfully of Pope John Paul II. He said he has been “in awe in [the] presence” of the Catholic pontiff.

* He’s a realist. He said winning the upcoming election is not a given. Then he talked about how great his family life and his relationship with his wife are. If they weren’t strong relationships, he said, he would never put them through the rigors of a campaign.

When it was my turn, I added a personal note to my question, telling the president I pray for him every day. He responded in humility, calling it a “great gift for which I am most grateful.”

Bush also said that when he works the “rope lines,” greeting well-wishers as he travels the country, every two to three people say they are praying for him. He said that is “an incredibly sustaining part of the job of president … and it has made being the president … a lot easier.”

So I’ll close by urging all our readers to pray for President Bush. Whether you agree with his policies or intend to vote for him or not, we are commanded by the Word to pray for those in authority over us. He’s in a pivotal position at a pivotal time in history. Let’s pray that he will follow God and that God’s will will be done.

More than 1,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., April 28 to raise awareness about the humanitarian needs of North Koreans and to draw attention to legislation that would allow U.S. officials to give North Koreans refugee status on a case-by-case basis.

Dubbed the North Korea Freedom Day, the event was organized by the North Korea Freedom Coalition (NKFC), a consortium of about two dozen organizations including Jubilee Campaign, Prison Fellowship, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Defense Forum Foundation, which aids North Korean defectors.

Though most media coverage has focused on North Korea’s nuclear agenda, organizer Suzanne Scholte said the purpose of the event was to turn attention toward the humanitarian plight of North Korea’s 23 million people, especially those who risk their lives to escape through China. The NKFC reported that those caught by Chinese police are returned to North Korea, where they are treated as defectors and are most likely killed or worked to death in prison camps.

Chung Byung-Ho, professor of anthropology at Hanyang University in South Korea and one of a dozen speakers addressing the crowd on the West Lawn of the Capitol, said 2 million to 3 million North Koreans have died of starvation and brutality in recent years.

After an April 22 train explosion in Ryongchon that killed 170 people and injured 1,300 others, the North Korean government blocked South Korea from entering the nation to provide relief and medical assistance. Activists such as An Hyuk, a North Korean defector and co-founder of the Democracy Network Against the North Korean Gulag, challenged dictator Kim Jong-il to “open his roadways and airways” to receive help for the victims.

Interestingly, on May 7 North Korea agreed to hold high-level military talks with South Korea and to allow aid for the train victims, the Associated Press reported.

On the freedom day, North Korean defectors presented testimony before the House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee. At the same time, about 200 participants lobbied key representatives about passing the North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004, which among other things will provide funds for nonprofit groups to aid North Korea.

Said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.: “In a free North Korea, people would have a chance to reclaim their conscience and put their faith in a God of their own choosing, not one dictated by the State.”
John Lindner in Washington, D.C.

Thugs on notice, Shepherds in need, Unreasonable demands, Prophet problems
Bugged by Thugs

I was very happy to read “Thugs in the Pulpit” (May/June) by Richard D. Dobbins. We just left a large church because of the loveless lifestyle of the pastor. Money was the big issue around which everything else revolved. The church reminded me of an auctioneer’s block, with statements such as “Who will give such-and-such amount?” “Stand up, those who will give blank number of dollars.” After a year or so of this extortion, we left and shook the dust off of our shoes. When members of the family were sick, the pastors were inaccessible. However, we are mature Christians and have now found a loving church–not a perfect church–but a caring church whose main focus is not money.
name withheld

Money Trouble?

I read with interest “Feed the Shepherd” (May/June) by Ken Walker. In this neck of the woods, I know five pastors who used to draw full-time salaries from their churches, but have recently had to take outside employment because their congregations could no longer afford to pay them. Three of these pastors are now working full-time jobs. I myself have been pastoring a small, storefront church for the last 20 years and have never received a salary. Watching my brothers lose their paychecks has not made me very hopeful! I am submitting my address, because I’m wondering if anyone else is going through the same thing in any other part of the country.
Doug Hoffman
Jubilee Gospel Church
165 Elmwood Ave.
Burlington, VT 05401

REPLY It seems we’ve struck a nerve. Participate in our online poll in the “Pastors’ Discussion” at to answer the question, “Do you have to work an outside job to supplement ministry income?”

High Expectations?

I have just finished reading Larry Keefauver’s column, “Professional Shepherds?” (May/June), and I have just a couple of questions. First, who or what should we neglect to make these living-room, nursing-home and hospital visits? Our spouses? Our children? Preparation and prayer? The counseling appointments and other requests for our time? How about leadership time and administrative tasks? Second, what about the apostle Paul’s writings in Ephesians 4 that the fivefold ministries are given the responsibility of equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry? Are we going to go back to the days of only the clergy being eligible for ministry? Is the pastor the only one God can speak or work through? Is a pastor only considered a scriptural or effective pastor if he or she shows up at the nursing home, drops by the home of every person with a problem, or personally attends to every person’s need? No! It would seem to me that if we are to follow Keefauver’s prescription, we had better make every church in America 100 people or fewer.
Jay Satterwhite
via e-mail

Fivefold Kudos

J. Lee Grady’s article (“Stuck on Titles?” January/February) was an inspiration to me, in light of issues I am dealing with in my own church. I am glad you will be devoting future issues to the topic of the fivefold ministries. A member of my church, a self-proclaimed prophet, has been attending some charismatic meetings and is attempting to give “personal prophecies” to members of my congregation–even going so far as to say that they will die if they don’t heed his words. This “prophet” feels no sense of accountability to me as the pastor of the church because of what he has been taught. In his eyes, he has more authority than me as the pastor. I finally had to ask him to leave the church. The Lord is using you to bring reform to charismatic churches and ministries, and I have been blessed by your articles.
Jim Williams
Calvary Assembly of God
Elkhart, Indiana

REPLY Keep reading. In our September/October issue addressing the gift of prophets, we’ll explore the topic of personal prophecy and offer practical guidelines for pastors and leaders who are seeking to release this ministry effectively and responsibly in the context of the local church.

Church leaders say The Passion of the Christ has created a historic evangelism opportunity
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ sparked a new commitment to evangelism as ministries mobilized to take advantage of what many were calling one of the best opportunities to reach the lost in recent years.

“I believe The Passion of the Christ may well be one of the most powerful evangelistic tools of the last 100 years because you have never seen the story of Jesus portrayed this vividly before,” said Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Church in Riverside, Calif.

Ministries were staging theatrical plays, launching online campaigns, airing TV commercials, and taking the gospel to the streets with the help of customized tracts. The American Tract Society distributed more than 3 million Passion tracts in 10 different languages. Outreach, a Christian company, offered various Passion-related evangelism materials, from door hangers and posters to booklets and banners.

And Faith Highway created TV commercials produced to help ministries reach out to the unchurched. The first 20 seconds are approved footage from the movie trailer. The last 10 seconds contain customized church information. Company officials said 400 churches had invested about $1 million to air 500,000 commercials.

Ricky Rush, pastor of Inspiring Body of Christ Church in Dallas, said four new families visited the church almost immediately after he began airing the commercials. “We’ve had people come up to the building late at night as we are closing up,” said Rush, who also saw church growth as a result of the effort. “They had just seen the movie and wanted to come inside and pray. So we let them.”

One of the most popular outreach strategies was buying out movie theaters and letting the movie do the talking.

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of The Purpose-Driven Life, booked 47 theater screens so church members could take their lost friends to see the movie. Warren also planned a two-part sermon series on the movie to bookend both sides of its release and invited more than 1,000 community leaders to a VIP premier showing.

The strategy bore much fruit. Saddleback reported that nearly 900 friends of members accepted Christ, and the average church attendance increased by 3,000 in the first couple of weeks after the film debuted.

New Song Community Church in Oceanside, Calif., rented one theater and followed up the efforts with a four-part apologetic series called “The Passion: True or False?” The ministry mailed out 25,000 Passion-related postcards inviting people to the series. Senior pastor Hal Seed said at least 57 people have come to Christ through the effort.

“This is a one-time event in our generation’s history,” Seed told Charisma. “This movie has the potential to spark revival. I see churches that weren’t interested in evangelism getting interested and others fine-tuning their focus more on outreaches.”

The Rev. David Hale, senior pastor of Christ Life Church in Madison, Miss., made tickets available to first-time visitors and has seen several families accept Christ. But he’s not stopping there.

“When the movie comes out on video and DVD we plan to make it available so our members can offer viewings in their homes,” Hale said. “We know there are still a great number of people who have not seen the movie.”

The Passion sparked conversation and controversy about who Christ was, what Christ claimed, how Christ suffered, and even who is responsible for Christ’s death. The debate continues to rage on with some unexpected reactions.

“Claims that the film is anti-Semitic are ludicrous, and we need to recognize them as such,” said Jeffrey Mann, assistant professor of religion at Susquehanna University in Selinsgove, Pa., and a Lutheran. “Even the argument that it could inflame anti-Semitism is rather weak. Could one see the film and conclude that the Jews are Christ-killers? Of course. However, I suspect even more people will see the film and conclude that the Savior of the world is a Jew.”

Yechiel Eckstein, an Orthodox rabbi who founded and heads the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, cautions Jews against overreacting to the film. “The near-hysteria that has marked much of the Jewish communities’ reaction to the movie threatens to obscure the absolutely critical need for both Christians and Jews to focus on the true enemy of contemporary western civilization and of Jews in particular–radical Islamists,” he said.

“Because Gibson’s film comes at a time when anti-Semitism is at its highest since World War II, it is that much more important to speak out against any material that raises the specter of Jews as ‘Christ-killers.'”

Messianic Jewish minister Michael Brown, president of the FIRE School of Ministry in Harrisburg, N.C., urged Christians to be sensitive to Jewish concerns about anti-Semitism. “It’s very important that Christian leaders … reach out and say evangelical Christians are the best friends Israel has in the world, and Christians that see this movie don’t blame anyone for Jesus’ death,” Brown said. “They thank God for Jesus’ death and see it as a result of their own sin. As true followers of Jesus we renounce all anti-Semitism.”

Before the movie released, Brown debated Oxford-educated Rabbi Shmuley Boteach about who is responsible for Jesus’ death. Though Brown said the film did not create any formal dialogue between Messianic and traditional Jews, he said, “People are talking about the film and understanding why Jesus died,” adding that some Jews accepted Christ after seeing the film.

Muslim reaction is perhaps the most unexpected. The Passion was released in late March in Qatar. Muslims flocked to theaters to see the film because of the anti-Semitism claims against Gibson. The film was so popular in Kuwait that theaters cancelled other films to show The Passion on all its screens.

“In two short hours, more Qataris heard the gospel than I have been able to reach in nearly five years of living here,” one church leader told Frank Dietz, minister at large with Operation Mobilization International. “The Muslims sitting around us were being moved–gasping, crying and reacting with disgust to the brutality that Jesus faced.”
Jennifer LeClaire

As tension escalated in Iraq in early April, foreign aid workers were encouraged to leave the nation until hostilities settled.

At press time insurgents in Iraq had kidnapped at least 40 foreign workers from 12 nations, prompting humanitarian organizations to remove their foreign personnel. World Vision removed all of its foreign workers in

April, continuing its efforts to distribute medical supplies, rehabilitate schools and improve water supplies with Iraqi staff. Baltimore-based World Relief did the same, relocating its only American relief worker, Brandon Pustejovsky, to Turkey.

“Iraq is clearly one of the most volatile and dangerous places in the world right now, especially for relief workers,” said World Vision spokesman Dean Owen. “Clearly the tension and the difficulty of working in Iraq for aid workers is increasing.”

Owen said that although World Vision offers extensive training for aid workers that includes mock hostage-taking incidents and executions, at least one missionary has been killed on the field in each of the seven years he has worked for the organization. “Aid workers have become an increasingly large target,” Owen said.

Since the war in Iraq ended last year, Christian groups have been working to assist Iraqi Christians in spreading the gospel within their nation. Campus Crusade for Christ launched an initiative to print and distribute Bibles, while Duluth, Equip, founded by author John C. Maxwell, planned to train Iraqi ministers as part of its effort to equip 1 million church leaders outside the United States by 2008.

As other missionaries were leaving the nation, Heather Mercer announced plans to enter Iraq to scout out land to plant a church, Waco-based KXXV-TV reported April 13. Rescued in 2001 with fellow American Dayna Curry from capture by the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mercer was to help Antioch Community Church in Waco find sites in northern Iraq, where relief workers say the situation had been calm until recently.
Adrienne S. Gaines

The couple will train 10,000 people in healing ministry during a healing crusade to be held Oct. 2 at the Astrodome
Charles and Frances Hunter have never been ones to call it quits, but on Oct. 2 the couple known for their worldwide healing ministry will host their last citywide Healing Explosion, to be held at the Astrodome in Houston.

“I think it will be a historic event because we’re going to train 10,000 people how to minister healing,” said Frances Hunter, 88. “When we anoint the 10,000 people on the healing team, do you have any idea the explosion of power that’s going to go out?”

The training sessions will be held Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, and Frances Hunter believes the Oct. 2 Healing Explosion will affect people around the world. They’ve already received reservations from India, Indonesia, Korea, Peru, Ecuador and the Ukraine.

“We believe that these 10,000 people who are going to be on the healing team … [will] go back to their churches, and they’re going to start teaching their people so our churches can really come alive with the power of God.”

The Hunters have been teaching Christians how to minister healing for more than 30 years. Known as the “Happy Hunters,” the couple has hosted healing crusades worldwide since the mid-1980s, written dozens of books on healing, and produced training videos about healing ministry, which they will soon release on DVD. In 1990, they began the World Evangelistic Census, a campaign that mobilizes people to do door-to-door evangelism while taking a census of the world.

Recently, both Hunters have had their own bouts with illness. Charles Hunter, 84, had six major spinal operations between May and December 2003. Frances Hunter had a bout with breast cancer, which eventually led to a mastectomy. “In the hospital [we] still laid hands on the sick, and they’d get healed,” Frances Hunter said, adding that she led her surgeon to Christ.

The first Sunday they were able to return to their church, Lakewood Church in Houston, “a lady comes up from behind me, throws her arms around me and says: ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Five years ago I was in stage-four breast cancer. You laid hands on me, and I was totally healed.’ And there I sat with a bandage still on me.

“That’s the amazing thing. … Jesus didn’t say you had to be healthy to heal the sick. He just said you had to believe.”

That’s the crux of the Hunters’ message, teaching that Jesus gave all believers authority to minister healing. Frances Hunter hopes their ministry will reach a new generation, and they plan to teach participants at the Healing Explosion some of the new things they have learned.

“A chiropractor showed us how to get carpal tunnel syndrome healed,” Frances Hunter said. “We put our fingers on their wrists, the thumb on one side and the index finger on the other, and we command the ligament and tendons to relax. We command the carpal tunnel to open up, and we command any blockage to dissolve in the name of Jesus.”

The Hunters also encourage people to take care of their bodies, but they say there’s no substitute for God’s power. A former neurosurgeon agrees. He’s been praying for the sick since the 1980s when he was first exposed to the Hunters’ teaching.

“There are thousands of people who have learned to heal through their videos,” said Dr. Phil Goldfedder, who retired three years ago. “I remember laying hands on a man with a back problem, and he was healed. I was as surprised as he was.”

Eventually Goldfedder began to ask patients if they wanted him to pray with them, and many were healed. “The problem was learning how to write it on the chart,” he said.

Jim and Sue Daniels have been praying for the sick since they met the Hunters in 1983 at a church in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. They said when they applied the principles they learned from the Hunters, their grandson was healed from injuries he suffered after a fall. Years later, a friend of his was healed of scoliosis.

Both in their 70s, the Daniels are two of the many healing ministers who have been invited to attend the Healing Explosion, including Marilyn Hickey, Mike Francine and Rodney Howard-Browne.

“For [the Hunters] to do something like this is mind-blowing,” Howard-Browne said. “To do it when you’re in your 40s is a big deal, but to do it when you’re in your 80s is mind-blowing. I feel that if the Lord has said this is the last Healing Explosion, we as the body of Christ need to get behind them.”
Adrienne S. Gaines

Former leader Paul Risser resigned i nMarch after the denomination lost money in two alleged Ponzi schemes
Delegates from the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel were expected to elect a new president during the denomination’s annual convention June 1-4 in San Francisco. Former President Paul Risser resigned in March after the denomination lost $14 million in two allegedly fraudulent investment companies.

Federal investigators claim International Product Investment Corporation (IPIC), headed by California-based Gregory Setser, bilked Christians of $160 million over roughly three years, while Orange County, Financial Advisory Consultants (FAC), headed by James P. Lewis Jr., swindled hundreds of people out of $814 million over 20 years.

Setser, who says he is innocent of all charges, was released on bail in February and awaits trial. Lewis was denied bail in March.

In a statement, Foursquare officials said neither Risser nor the corporate treasurer, Brent Morgan, who also resigned March 10 as a result of the loss, were seeking personal gain through the investments. “There was no criminal intent or conflict of interest found on the part of the President or the Treasurer,” the statement said. “Both men were acting only in a desire to further the interests and investments of Foursquare.”

Risser said he hoped the investments–roughly 6 percent of the proceeds from the $250 million sale of a Los Angeles radio station–would “advance God’s kingdom both in the U.S. and around the world,” officials said. But the denomination’s board of directors questioned whether Risser had the authority to make the investments.

Foursquare spokesman Ron Williams said Risser is still held in high regard by the denomination, which was founded by Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. Today Foursquare has 5 million members in 138 countries. Williams said Risser will continue to serve the denomination, possibly by speaking at churches and conferences and assisting the missions department.

Though both IPIC and FAC allegedly defrauded Christians in what Securities and Exchange Commission investigators say were Ponzi schemes that paid earlier investors with money from new investors, interest in FAC spread among several Foursquare leaders by word-of-mouth.

Believing the company had a 20-year track record, Jeff Miller, pastor of Mission Community Foursquare Gospel Church in Riverside, Calif., invested nearly $70,000 of his personal money in FAC after being referred to the company by other denominational leaders.

“I believe there were many Foursquare leaders involved in this fund,” Miller said. “My boss had been given a recommendation by other district supervisors.”

He questioned the fact that FAC did not have an advisory board. “But when you see such high returns, and when you see other pastors and denominational leaders investing, you think there is stability,” Miller, 52, told Charisma.

Within two years, he believed his retirement fund had grown to $100,000. A later statement put his investment at more than $140,000. But in November, FAC denied his request to withdraw money, claiming the Department of Homeland Security had frozen the company’s bank accounts. Miller received a payment in December, but he later found out the company was allegedly fraudulent.

The SEC charged Lewis with securities fraud in December. Lewis allegedly promised investors up to 40 percent returns, claiming FAC bought distressed businesses and resold them at large profits. But federal investigators say no specific information about FAC’s business ventures was ever supplied to investors.

Brick Kane, CEO of Los Angeles-based Robb Evans and Associates, the court-appointed receiver in the FAC case, said it is still unclear whether investors will recoup any of their money. He said Lewis’ assets would cover about 6 percent of what he owes investors.

Hindsight is 20/20, but Kane said there are warning signs for potential scams, such as high rates of returns, a lack of external audits and few details in annual reports. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Kane said.

Miller said he and his wife are determined not to become bitter. “We were going to be able to retire at 57,” Miller said. “I would have loved to be able to do ministry without being concerned about income. But the Lord is our resource.”

Williams said Foursquare’s board of directors has established a bylaw committee and financial committee to cooperatively clarify who is authorized to engage in investments. He said there was no loss of money from tithes or missions giving.
Adrienne S. Gaines