Songwriter Darlene Zschech lives in Australia, but her music has revitalized worship in thousands of churches on this side of the planet.

You’ve probably heard of her, although you may have mispronounced her last name. Darlene Zschech (pronounced “check”) might not conjure up the face of the blue-eyed, blond-haired Australian beauty, but the chorus she wrote in 1993, “Shout to the Lord,” should surely resonate as soon as you read the words: “Shout to the Lord / All the earth / Let us sing / Power and majesty / Praise to the King.”
Zschech is the person behind this and many other worship songs currently popular the world over, including “The Potters Hand,” “Worthy Is the Lamb,” “All Things Are Possible” and “I Will Run to You.” But what is crucial to remember is that she is first and foremost a worshiper–then a wife, mother, songwriter and worship leader.

Her love for her Lord shines through, and she knows this love is contagious. It’s as if she wants to infect everyone around her.

“I owe Him so much more than my life,” she says. “I’m eternally thankful. And whether on a platform or in my bedroom, I worship and honor Him the best I know how.”

For Zschech, 38, music has always been an integral part of her life. She’s been singing professionally since age 10 when she appeared on a weekly children’s TV program in Australia called Happy Go Round.

“So I’ve sung every bad song there is as well as some good ones,” she notes with a smile.

Her childhood was full of joyful memories, as well as disappointments and heartaches. She grew up with loving parents, but their decision to divorce when she was 13 brought a tragedy to her family that she thought happened only to other people.

Her teenage years were bumpy, as she was riddled with guilt and anxiety, responses typical of children from broken homes, she says. However, through the trial Zschech found more than tragedy.

“The longing in my heart found its home the day I found Jesus at the age of 15,” she says.

When Zschech became a Christian, her life radically changed. “Everything in the natural sense remained the same, but my heart was completely changed. I can honestly say that from that day till this, Jesus takes my breath away,” she says.

“He has literally walked me through the valleys. Magnificent! I cannot praise Him enough for reaching down, like Psalm 18 describes, and rescuing me.”

Not long afterward, she started to want more.

“It wasn’t long after we were in church I really had an encounter with the Holy Spirit,” she says. “When you accept Christ you get the whole deal–Father, Son, Holy Ghost. You don’t get two out of three; you get the three.

“Without that real sort of encounter with the Holy Spirit there’s just no way that I would have the strength and that fire in my belly to get up and do what I do today,” she adds. “That ‘keeping’ power of God is amazing.”

The Servant’s Life

What the Holy Spirit helps her “do” is serve as worship pastor of the 15,000-member Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia. Zschech oversees the Worship and Creative Arts Department of the church.

In addition, she is worship leader for the Hillsong Television program, which reaches more than 125 countries, and associate director of Hillsong Conference, an annual music and leadership conference held by the church. Last year it drew 18,000 people from more than 70 countries.

She has written three books: Worship (Hillsong Music Australia), Extravagant Worship and The Kiss of Heaven (Bethany House). She is also a mother–she and husband Mark of 19 years have three daughters, Amy, 15, Chloe, 11, and Zoe, 3.

Adding to this list of titles is Zschech’s best-known role as an award-nominated songwriter and producer. “Shout to the Lord” is sung today by an estimated 25 million to 30 million churchgoers each week and has been recorded by more than 20 other artists. Hillsong Music Australia’s best-selling albums, for which Zschech is lead vocalist and producer, have reached gold status, selling more than 7 million copies.

Zschech says she really doesn’t think much about her far-reaching influence.

“I don’t understand it,” she says. “I’m with my team most of the time. I travel a bit, but I’m with my church, my team, my family–that’s where I concentrate my focus. I take the responsibility seriously. I don’t treat that lightly. I just want to honor God. I didn’t go out looking for it.”

To help keep that focus, Zschech says she protects herself from getting too wrapped up in the business side of making music. She prefers not even to know how many CDs she’s sold. She actually avoids conversations about that if she can.

“My husband is a great protector because he knows my heart,” she says, adding: “Even when I started working at the church, I didn’t want to be paid because I was like, ‘What if my heart goes the wrong way?'”

She acknowledges having her own faults, while recognizing that in spite of them she has a role to fulfill.

“I’m imperfect just like humanity is so imperfect,” she says. “And the Word says the heart is deceitful above all else. I get it wrong and have gotten it wrong so many times. I don’t forget about the influence or my role for myself and my children. I really want to be better for Him.”

Zschech maintains some barriers as a way to shield herself from the international recognition. One of them is to stay planted in her local church, serving and contributing to the music team. She says if anyone on her team wants to get an ego, even for a second, that “they’ll just get it knocked out of ’em so quick.”

“‘Get over yourself,'” is the team’s advice.

Having known many worship leaders who have had some sort of influence through their churches, she is saddened when they leave to do their own thing and end up with less-than-happy results.

“If God calls you, you better know God has called you, because it’s usually the church family that’s given you any sort of platform,” Zschech says. “If you leave your home base and believe your own mail and your own press, it’s only a matter of time before you implode, and then it’s really sad.”

She believes the primary pitfall of a Christian leader is self-admiration. That’s why she stresses the need to always maintain the heart of a servant.

“I think for every Christian leader your admiration is your worst enemy,” she says. “I think you need to be always getting your hands dirty, serving. You don’t graduate from a life of service. The price for us is higher.”

Zschech is careful not to assume more power than is given to her as a worship leader. She believes the amount of influence a worship leader has “depends on how much you’ve been given … by your pastor.”

She explains: “My responsibility is to make sure that the integrity of worship in the body and in our local church is strong and their understanding of what they’re doing is always increasing.”

She notes that in fulfilling that responsibility she is “still serving” rather than leading.

“We worship for 20 minutes–mini-worship–but that’s what we’ve been given, that’s what we do,” she says. “Our church has learned we don’t need 20 minutes to warm up–we need 20 seconds because we’ve only got a little bit of time. It’s inspiring. You just do the best you can with what you’ve got.

“We don’t talk a lot. If we’ve been asked to or been given permission then we do, but if not, we don’t,” she adds. “When you serve another man’s vision and make it yours and then God gives you your own thing, the challenge is to continue to serve another man’s vision. It’s easy when you’ve got no vision of your own.”

Just a Simple Songsmith?

Even with more than 60 songs to her credit, Zschech says she is not really a prolific songwriter. Songs “develop” in her, she says, and often come out of her own personal experiences.

“Some people write cards, some people bottle up their feelings, some people write poetry. I write a song,” she says.

Some are recorded, but some are not–the decision being determined by Zschech’s personal view of the song.

“A lot of songs you don’t hear, and a few you do,” she adds. “I’m writing all the time, but some of them are not for the church, they’re just between me and the Lord.”

Zschech sees a difference between an artistic song and a worship song. Worship songs have to serve the congregation, she says.

“I think you want the congregation to sing, so you’ve got to write it so they’re able to sing it,” she points out. “And often it means as a writer you write as a servant not as an artist. And often I find that’s just a real easy difference in writing.

“I think there is always room for songs to reveal how you feel,” she admits. “But for the greater church, more and more they just need to be singing the Word because it’s the Word that holds life and truth that sets people free. You want to put the Word to music for them to help them live, not that you just express yourself–that’s not a good enough reason to inflict that on the congregation.”

Perhaps functioning more as an artist than as a worship leader, Zschech released her first solo project in October, Kiss of Heaven (INO Records). The songs on this album were not written specifically for church worship, yet there is a deep dimension of worship to them.

Zschech says she had wanted to do this album for a long time but that the time had not been right because other projects took priority.

“I didn’t really have a lot of time to work on it because we were working on our church album Hope,” she says. “And I just knew if I gave my first fruits again to the [church] and didn’t compromise on that at all, that God would honor my leftovers, what I had left, what He trusted me with.”

“Everything About You,” from her solo album, is a love song for her husband. Zschech says that for years he had been asking her to write a song for him. “You’ve written a song for the kids,” he told her. “You’ve written a song for your father. You’ve written a song for other people’s fathers. What about me?”

Though the song was written specifically for her husband and was not intended to be a general love song, Zschech says many people love it. “I’ve gotten some amazing feedback that it’s challenged people’s commitment to their spouses,” she says.

She voices a concern that the church does not do enough to celebrate long-term marriage commitments. Being a child of a broken home has resulted in her appreciating the finer points of a successful marriage.

“I’m, like, can’t we just celebrate the goodness of God? Without God we certainly wouldn’t be together. I love [my husband],” she says. “He’s cool. That’s pretty much inspiration for a song.”

Zschech says her husband wants another song. “I’m, like, ‘No, I’m going back to my first love–God.'”

Room for Everyone

Her love for God is what she wants to proclaim. But as a worship leader she wants to inspire and lead others to proclaim their love for Him too. It has encouraged her to see the changes in congregational worship that have occurred throughout the church during the last several years.

“I think in the last five years, the way we do church has changed,” she says. “The congregation is actually worshiping and not just listening or being entertained.

“Even people who used to just dabble in worship, you just can’t get away [with] that any more. It’s like either you are a worshiper or you’re not. I think it’s been a great journey, it’s been wonderful.”

She believes these changes have helped reshape the church, drawing it closer to a common goal of knowing and loving God from the heart. “I don’t think it’s songs or style–it’s heart, it’s spirit. There is room for all sorts of styles and sounds,” she says. “If you want to look at New Zealand through to Africa–every culture brings its own, and it’s all magnificent.

“So it’s always come back to the heart,” she notes. “I think the heart has been challenged in worship in the last five years.”

The word “unity” is specifically what comes to mind when Zschech thinks about what God is doing globally in His church.

“I see a great unity across the body of Christ,” she says. “God says Himself He commands blessing on unity. And if God commands blessing on unity, I just think, Man, what would that look like?

“It’s not our version of blessing, but His. What would that look like for the earth? Is it His glory, His goodness? Possibly. My desire is to see more signs and wonders, healing, reconciliation. Hard hearts would be changed. As hearts are changed, we are changed.

“People preach gloom and doom over the church, but I see exactly the opposite,” she adds. “I see it rising strong, glorious, unified. Not perfect–very imperfect. But that’s why we need God.”

Zschech sees some good coming from the United States pertaining to worshiping God, but she also talks about what she sees wrong with America.

“I’ve seen it change a lot. I don’t want to point the finger because in a lot of ways you have also pushed the bar so high on so many other levels.

“I just think for a long time the church [in America] has gotten caught in the wrong things,” she says. “Sort of a hierarchical system … religious thinking, who’s allowed to do this or what you’re allowed to wear–all those things that stand in the way.”

Religious approaches to God that exclude the majority of believers are “really sad,” she says, and overlook the key biblical tenet that worship in the kingdom of God is inclusive but never exclusive. Music artists or worship leaders who consider themselves or what they do as exclusive have missed the point, she notes.

“As artists, you are gifted and talented, and there is an exclusivity about what you do. But when it comes to worship, it’s about the Lord and it’s inclusive–every man, woman and child. It’s, ‘Shout to God, all the earth.’

“And so when it becomes just for the chosen few, [you’ve] probably got to relook at why you’re doing what you’re doing and whether it is serving the purpose well. I just think if we just get captivated by Jesus it’s amazing how things fall into place.”

One approach that can hold people back, she says, is the long-held debate of whether or not women should be in roles of leadership. Zschech adds, however, that she herself has hardly encountered any resistance to her role as a prominent female worship leader.

“I just think, If you don’t like it, don’t listen. … Find a guy and let him lead you.

“Actually, … I think if it’s a problem for you, listen to Ron Kenoly, listen to Alvin Slaughter, listen to Delirious,” she adds. “There are a million guys out there doing a finer job than I ever will. Go for it–just worship God. Don’t let a silly thing like is it male or female keep you outside of encountering Christ. That would really be a shame.”

When it comes to encountering Christ, Zschech just wants everyone to know that “the kind of walk that I’m walking is so available to everybody.”

“I’m just a very ordinary person. I’m not a special anything,” she says. “It’s hard work–what we do is hard work–but there is also favor, just great favor. It makes it so much easier–no striving–a different way to live.

“Trust God. It’s the hardest lesson in life–let yourself fall into the hands of God.”

A From Down Under

Christian music from Australia–with its raw, youthful edge– is topping charts around the world.

When Rebecca St. James and the Newsboys finished their 34-city tour in April, they were considered some of America’s most influential contemporary Christian musicians. But these recording artists are Aussies!

The Australian origins of these acclaimed acts and of other international artists, including Darlene Zschech and Paul Colman, point to a thriving Christian music scene Down Under. Its strength came to light last December when singer Guy Sebastian won the Australian Idol contest. A committed Christian, Sebastian honed his talent at Adelaide’s Paradise Community Church, whose Planet Shakers conferences have expanded into a national youth forum for Christian music.

The edgy sound of Australia’s youth culture has been a major shaper of the country’s praise and worship genre. “The music here has a touch of rawness about it,” says Wes Jay of Woodlands Media, which specializes in promoting and nurturing Christian acts.

Other influences, Jay believes, are an inclination to improvise and a willingness to engage audiences. He cites a defining moment for the Paul Colman Trio when the sound system failed at Nashville’s Roman Auditorium during a Gospel Music Week.

The trio “immediately engaged the audience,” Jay says, “and they got everybody singing along. [They] won the hearts of America because they said, ‘Even in our difficulties here we’re going to still minister to you. … We’re going to create a sense of community and involve you.'”

Australians cut straight to the heart. Carl Laurens, creative ministries director at Waverley Christian Fellowship, Melbourne’s largest church, believes homegrown praise and worship songs grew out of this attitude.

“There was a genuineness about our worship that hadn’t been tainted by [its] marketability, so I think we’ve got to be careful that that doesn’t creep in,” he warns.

Exploiting their cross-cultural appeal, Australian Pentecostals have established music-focused churches in places as diverse as Tokyo, Ukraine and London. Last summer Assemblies of God youth teams traveled to Japan–notorious for its resistance to the gospel–to present outreach concerts in Tokyo and Osaka. The events yielded more than 300 conversions, a harvest that staggered experienced missionaries.

One of Australia’s best-established Christian singers also has an overseas focus, yet it is not only in the big-arena music scene. In 1996 the Gospel Music Association of America voted Steve Grace as International Artist of the Year, an apt title in the light of his close involvement with Samaritan’s Purse. Apart from playing at Franklin Graham’s crusades, Grace, a son of missionaries, has linked with Operation Christmas Child to visit Malaysia and the Solomon Islands to deliver thousands of gift-filled shoeboxes.

In songs such as “Saints of Sudan” and “Christmas in Kosovo,” Grace draws attention to people in need. “I’m just making people aware that we can bring about great historic change in nations that are either war-torn or in desperate situations,” he told Charisma.

Instrumental band Rivertribe offers a different international dimension, blending indigenous instruments from around the world to recreate a spiritual element the band believes is missing from both secular and church life. Originally Melbourne buskers with a sound based around the aboriginal didgeridoo, they craft a multicultural style they hope will be widely relevant and touch hearts in a way that songs with words cannot.

Although Rivertribe is gaining popularity in the United States and other artists such as Roma Waterman, Alabaster Box and Nathan Taske, are not far behind, a legion of unknowns is waiting to be discovered. Very few find success in the small Australian market, but Jay believes this has its positive side: “Australian Christian music is genuine, it is the real deal.”

Even within its own genre the chances of success are slim. “There are literally hundreds and hundreds of acts,” Jay says. “There are 160 new Christian albums made by Aussies each year, and out of those about 10 will rise to the top.”

Mark Conner, Waverley Christian Fellowship’s senior pastor, spent a few years in the United States and played keyboards for Ron Kenoly and Marty Nystrom. He identifies a different measure for success in the Christian music business.

“One thing that is a strength is that many of the worship songs coming out of Australia are birthed out of local churches and ministries that God is already blessing,” Conner says. “They are songs that have emerged out of what God is doing–songs that have already been proven to release people to touch God in worship that are then recorded for the benefit of others.”

In other words, Christian music from Down Under is not just about marketing and the almighty dollar. That could be Aussie music’s biggest contribution.
Adrian Brookes

Aussie Women Lead the Way

In Australia, women in Pentecostal and charismatic churches are enjoying a new day of opportunity.

Australia was the first nation in the world to grant women the right to vote and run for office. Among the notably few voices opposing that 1902 decision were 34 South Australian women who said they could not participate in the political process. “The energies of women are engrossed by their present duties and interests from which men cannot relieve them,” the women said.

Worship leader Darlene Zschech still runs into remnants of those attitudes. “The only negative comments I’ve ever received have been from women,” she says, noting that opposition is usually “in regards to being a working mother, rather than a woman in leadership.”

Zschech, who is worship pastor at Hillsong Church in Sydney, believes women’s influence in Australia’s Pentecostal and charismatic churches is strong. And, she adds, men are consistently supportive of women in ministry.

Her experience seems typical at all levels. Sharing the high profile is former tennis champion Margaret Court, now senior pastor of Victory Life Church in Perth. The winner of 64 Grand Slam titles emphasizes that ministry is “a gift on people’s lives, it’s not appointed by man.”

Court believes women leaders are readily accepted in Australia. “People know the gift and the call and the grace that is upon our work, and I don’t believe that they can question it,” she says.

Others, without Court’s profile, share a similar experience. Penny Webb, an associate pastor at Perth’s 3,000-strong Riverview Church, believes that though Zschech and Court are inspirational, women have been the backbone of many church activities.

“Women are involved in ministry based on their giftings, their constancy, their capacity to do the job,” she says of Riverview. “When it comes to even our teaching team … there are just as many women that actually teach in our weekend services as men.”

Though Webb regards Australia’s reputed male chauvinism as a myth, she concedes that Riverview may be ahead of the trend toward acceptance of women in the pulpit. For instance, the Assemblies of God (AG), Australia’s largest Pentecostal denomination, shows a marked disparity between policy and practice.

“The Assemblies of God in Australia has always taken a position of supporting women in leadership,” says Keith Ainge, the AG’s national ministries director. “The first national conference, which was in the 1930s, formally made a statement that supported women in ministry.”

Ainge readily admits, however, that the statistics do not reflect this. As of September, 2,408 people held AG credentials, but only 503, or percent, were women.

The gender disparity of senior ministers is still greater. Of 1,010 AG senior pastors only 35, or percent, were women. The number of female credential holders had, however, increased from 464 in 2002 to 503 in 2003.

Ainge was instrumental in encouraging Melbourne pastor Melinda Dwight into leadership, first of all as senior minister of Burwood Christian Life Center and then as a member of the AG’s Victorian State Executive. Dwight’s reluctance in taking the state executive post may reflect other women’s attitudes.

“I assumed that I was putting my name forward because God was teaching me a lesson about humility,” she says, “so I totally planned for how to handle rejection and public humiliation. It was a great surprise to me when people voted me for that position.”

Despite widespread approval of her leadership Dwight remains the country’s only female state executive member and still sees obstacles for women. “I think there are challenges in terms of perceptions within the church,” she says. “Women senior pastors are a very small group, so having support in those sorts of things is not quite there.”

Though neglect may be more significant than visible opposition, Jim Reiher, a lecturer at Melbourne’s Tabor College, points out there is still plenty of opportunity for covert resistance. “I did a survey [in 1999] and found about one in three leaders in th e AG in Victoria don’t really want women to be senior pastors,” he says.

But Webb is upbeat and optimistic about the future role of women in Australia’s church. As a mother of three, she admits women’s maternal role can be restrictive. But she challenges other aspiring women leaders to learn how to balance responsibilities.

“This is the juggling we have to do as mothers in ministry,” Webb said on a cell phone while picking her child up from school. “But I love it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Adrian Brookes

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Leigh DeVore is an assistant editor for Charisma. She interviewed Darlene Zschech in September.

If you are like me, you are proud of the 100,000 U.S. troops who are serving in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, defending democracy and waging war on terrorism. These brave men and women are serving under very difficult circumstances far from family and friends. Their work is dangerous and tiring and benefits us all.

A few months ago we had the privilege of publishing a book about our president titled The Faith of George W. Bush. We have been encouraged by the response to the book and the powerful message of faith author Stephen Mansfield crafted.

Now, we have an opportunity to get this book into the hands of military personnel who we believe will be blessed by the message and inspired by the faith of their commander in chief.

The book, which was on one of The New York Times best-seller lists for two weeks, is not a political book. It is the story of how a man who was considered the mediocre son of a famous father and who had a troubled marriage and a drinking problem was totally transformed after he came to faith in Christ. Twelve years later, the Lord spoke to this man and told him his country would need him in a time of crisis and he should run for president.

Scott Plakon, a businessman from Longwood, Florida, and a good friend of mine, read the book and asked for some copies to send to servicemen serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Scott was inspired by reading the book of the president’s spiritual odyssey and thought that people who were risking their lives in defense of our freedoms might benefit by gaining a better understanding of their commander in chief.

Around Christmas Scott came to me and offered to make the book available to other troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. He said he would give a donation to our nonprofit partner, Christian Life Missions, to provide the books for thousands of servicemen and women. I told him I would match his donation and try to involve our readers in this project.

Because we like to do things based on relationship, we began contacting chaplains to ask them if they would be interested in helping. We got an enthusiastic response from retired Army Col. E. H. “Jim” Ammerman, head of the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, which has approximately 200 Spirit-filled chaplains serving in the armed forces. Ammerman had read the book and believed it would bless the troops. He is working with us to distribute the books through his own chaplains and to make contacts in high places in the military.

Our plan is simple. We will start by giving out as many books as we have money to pay for, and we will continue to distribute them as funds become available.

Our company is making the books available at our cost, with no royalty for the author and no profit for our company. The only additional cost is the shipping.

A few weeks ago we published a companion study guide, which takes the principles in the book and expounds on them in a format appropriate for group discussion. Because The Faith of George W. Bush was co-published with Penguin Group (USA) Inc., it was written without a lot of references to Scripture and without specific commentary on the spiritual concepts involved. The study guide explores these spiritual concepts. It is perfect for the troops to use with their chaplains.

We want to raise money to send between 25,000 and 50,000 copies of the book and the study guide to chaplains, who will distribute them to the men and women under their leadership in the armed forces. Our company will do its part, but we need readers such as you to give whatever you can for this project.

Tell us if you would like a copy of the book or the study guide for yourself. Christian Life Missions will be happy to send one to you as a thank you for your donation, deducting the fair market value of the book (as required by law) from the tax-exempt donation amount on the receipt you will receive.

We ask that you give generously. We need a big response to meet this need! You can trust us to use the money as outlined above and to report back later on the results.

Please send your tax-deductible gift to Christian Life Missions, P.O. Box 952248, Lake Mary, FL 32795-2248. Thank you for partnering with us to bless our servicemen and women!

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Stephen Strang is the founder and publisher of Charisma.

Faith-based groups in Cambodia and elsewhere are working to end sexual exploitation
Srei Gauv’s smile was as bright as the sun rising over the nearby Mekong River. “I dream about being married and living in a big house,” the 18-year-old Cambodian said. “I want to have a family.”

Not unusual aspirations for a teenage girl, but hearing them come from Srei Gauv brought tears to missionary Tammy Fong Heilemann. “This is success,” Heilemann said. “She is learning to dream.”

Srei Gauv did not dream much before she arrived at House of Hope in Kompong Cham, started by Heilemann and her colleagues in 1998 as an outreach of the Christian humanitarian organization InnerCHANGE. Rather, Srei Gauv’s family and society had relegated her as an outcast because she was one of an estimated 20,000 underage children who had for years been ensnared in Cambodia’s grizzly world of sex trafficking.

“Some girls are sexually exploited as young as 6,” World Vision Cambodia Communications Manager Anita Dodds said. “It shocks you to the core.”

In Asia alone, as many as 1 million boys and girls under 18 are forced, coerced or sold into prostitution or sexual slavery each year, estimates Rob Morris, director of Justice for Children International (), a New Haven, Christian advocacy group. Worldwide, the figure may be twice as high.

“A lot of people are not aware of the issue,” Morris added. “Most are blown away when they learn the facts. Obviously justice is important to God–the Bible talks about defending the weak and the fatherless. I cannot think of anyone in the world who is more vulnerable [than a child forced into sex trafficking]. If the church is aware, we will act.”

Thailand and the Philippines have long been hotbeds of child prostitution, but trafficking does not stop there. World Vision International also identifies Cambodia, India and Brazil as tempests, but adds that no nation lies untouched. An estimated 10,000 forced prostitutes are brought into the United States each year, The New York Times reported.

Traffickers often transport women and children to nations where they do not speak the language or know the culture. Nepalese cross the border to India. Colombians can be found in Venezuela. Nigerians work in brothels in Italy.

“The map of sex-trafficking routes spans around the world,” Morris said. “It looks like a spider web stretching from Mexico to Russia to Sri Lanka.”

UNICEF Canada estimated that sexual exploitation yields $3 billion a year, the third-largest organized crime in the world, only trailing drug and gun trafficking. This forcible movement of people is 10 times larger than the trans-Atlantic slave trade at its peak. Lack of awareness, sex tourism, weak or no local law enforcement and poverty spur its growth, Thailand-based ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and other watchdog agencies assert.

Sex trafficking proliferated virtually unchecked for years, but people have started to fight back. In 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Protect Act that allows U.S. agents to prosecute American citizens who commit sex crimes against minors in any nation and establishes mandatory 30-year sentences for each offense. In December, Bush also inked the Trafficking Victim’s Protection Reauthorization Act. It earmarks $200 million to combat trafficking worldwide.

Faith-based missions are also involved. In January, World Vision received a $500,000 U.S. government grant to launch a child sex tourism prevention project utilizing billboards, in-flight magazines and the Internet. In Cambodia, World Vision ( ) works to prevent sex tourism through police training, partnerships with the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Interior, children’s clubs and other efforts, Dodds said.

Last year, Washington, International Justice Mission (IJM) spearheaded a widely publicized brothel raid in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that resulted in the rescue of underage girls. IJM () investigates cases of sex trafficking, works to rescue victims and attempts to bring perpetrators to justice.

“Commercial sexual exploitation is the ugliest, most preventable man-made disaster on the earth today,” IJM founder and President Gary Haugen said. “As people of faith, God calls us to do something about this oppression. We cannot simply look away; we must act.”

In Cambodia, several other Christian agencies seek to heal victims and reduce poverty. The Hagar Project, for example, runs three businesses that employ Cambodians, some of whom have come out of a shelter the ministry operates for rape victims and former sex workers.

“Christians are still lagging behind in providing a meaningful answer,” Hagar Project Director Pierre Tami observed. “In general, we do not have much appreciation for justice. You cannot go to a girl in a brothel who has been sold by her mother and give her the four spiritual laws. The church needs to be awakened. Girls are literally disappearing, and the gospel has a chance to make a difference.”

InnerCHANGE’s House of Hope conducts health-education seminars in Cambodian provinces where prostitution thrives and offers girls a way out. As many as 20 girls a year can reside at the ministry’s home. After nearly a year at House of Hope, Srei Gauv has learned to read, has gained self-respect, can operate a sewing machine and attends church. “I will not be deceived any more,” she softly, but firmly, said. “If other people can make it, I can make it.”

Some House of Hope graduates go into business manufacturing garments, purses and other items for Hands of Hope, an adjunct business (). One graduate now earns $100 a month. Typically factory workers earn $45 to $70 a month.

A growing number of like-minded ministries reach out in other nations, too. House of Refuge in Chiang Rai, Thailand, originally only housed girls who had been forced into prostitution. Now the group has two homes and also takes in minors who have been victims of sexual abuse. In the Congo, Relief for Oppressed People Everywhere (ROPE), a Britain-based Christian charity, helps orphans, street children and girls in danger of prostitution.

“Sometimes we question the impact we have on what seems like an impossible issue to address,” Heilemann told Charisma. “Then we look at the faces of the girls and young women like Srei Gauv and we remember that it is worth loving one at a time … offering hope, modeling compassion, showing the mercy of our God–and giving them a chance to dream.”
Steven Lawson in Cambodia

More than 300 church and parachurch leaders attending this year’s annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in Colorado Springs, Colo., rose and applauded the gathering’s first speaker, President George W. Bush, when he addressed the crowd March 11 via satellite from Washington, D.C.

Receiving standing ovations at the beginning and end of his 15-minute address, the president never mentioned Democratic rival John Kerry, who was the subject of a series of attack ads Republicans released the same day. Nor did he even acknowledge that a campaign for the presidency was well under way.

Instead he recited his administration’s major accomplishments, the loudest applause coming when he declared his support of family values. “I will defend the sanctity of marriage against activist courts and local officials who want to redefine marriage,” he said.

Bush also drew cheers for referring to America as “freedom’s home and freedom’s defender,” but he added that liberty is the possession of no government. “Liberty and freedom are God’s gifts to every man and woman,” he said.

Bush also reminded evangelicals of his efforts to send AIDS medicine to Africa, slow the sex traffic in Asia, reduce taxes, create new jobs, reform public education, promote faith-based charities, support abstinence education, and oppose abortion, stem-cell research and human cloning.

In his introductory comments, NAE President Ted Haggard said the only issue he and the president disagree on is trucks. Haggard prefers Chevrolets, while Bush is typically seen driving a Ford at his Texas ranch.

But not everyone was as excited about the president’s address. The Rev. Cheryle Hanna, a convention participant, is an assistant to the pastor at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit and a member of the national board of American Baptist Churches of the United States.

“It’s interesting how a president who wants to portray himself as a Christian being guided by God would take young American men and women into a war under false pretenses,” said Hanna, who also wishes some of the billions being spent in Iraq were applied to more pressing social issues at home.

Bush was the first of three administration speakers who got top billing at this year’s NAE gathering. The others were Timothy Goeglein, a special assistant to the president, and John Hanford, U. S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
Steve Rabey in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Several prominent house-church leaders have been arrested since January in an intensified wave of religious persecution
Christians in China are expecting a spiritual revival to follow a new wave of persecution on the unregistered churches in the communist nation, says the head of a Pennsylvania-based organization dedicated to raising awareness about religious liberty abuses in China.

Bob Fu, head of China Aid Association based in Glenside, Pa., says believers in China are expecting a recent crackdown on the underground church to result in hundreds coming to Christ. “They feel another round of revival is coming,” Fu told Charisma. “Whenever there is a major wave of persecution … there is a major spiritual revival.”

Since January several prominent house-church leaders have been arrested, including Deborah Xu Yongling, 58, the sister of Peter Xu Yongze, founder of the Born Again church movement, which has millions of followers. Police reportedly arrested her Jan. 24 in Henan province while she was sleeping at her niece’s house, Asia Harvest reported. After significant international pressure, she was released on bail March 15, China Aid said.

Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) reported that also on Jan. 24, police arrested Qiao Chunling, 41, who is closely associated with Li Tian’en, one of China’s most prominent house-church leaders. The following day Zeng Guangbo, 35, was arrested at a house church in Zengzhuang village, located in Henan province, China Aid Association said. A former military policeman who was fired in 1988 because of his work with the underground church, Zeng escaped two days later, but police rearrested him March 1 when he tried to pass through the Inner-Mongolia border into Russia.

The arrests came after top leaders from the Religious Affairs Bureau and the United Front Work Department, which oversee religion in China, viewed a four-hour documentary titled The Cross: Jesus in China by California-based China Soul for Christ, and were briefed on a recent book, Jesus in Beijing, by journalist David Aikman. Both works document the unprecedented growth of the underground church in China.

Aikman, a former China correspondent for Time magazine, said none of the leaders arrested recently were named in his book. He said he carefully masked the identities of others. “I don’t, frankly, think any of the older [house-church leaders] were picked up as a result of my book,” Aikman told Charisma. “They are hardly news to the authorities.

“This is just one of a series of crackdowns. I hope it is short-lived. … But if you pretend nothing is going on, you do tremendous disservice to the Chinese Christians, who have been [facing persecution] for years.”

The video, written and directed by Christian pro-democracy leader Yuan Zhiming, clearly shows the faces of several house-church leaders who agreed to be interviewed before the camera. But China Soul for Christ President Wenji Xie said the documentary had nothing to do with the recent arrests.

“The situation [in China] is the same,” he told Charisma, adding that there may have been an increase in arrests in certain areas. “This is part of their annual crackdown. They always do this right after the Chinese New Year.”

Fu said a heightened repression of the house-church movement had been in motion for more than a year. But he believes it may have intensified after participants in the National Religious Working Conference saw the video and were briefed on the book.

“Maybe they used this as a pretext, an excuse, to do more,” Fu said. “From the beginning of 2003 until now, almost every province has been affected by the campaign to stop the growth of the house-church movement.”

Fu said the government may treat incarcerated Christians in much the same way they treated members of the Falun Gong cult, subjecting them to brainwashing, torture and political study camps, or forcing them to sign a paper renouncing their faith or join a state-sanctioned church.

Christian advocacy groups encourage believers in the West to write letters to the Chinese Embassy, the U.S. ambassador to China and congressional leaders. To that end, VOM recently launched a Web site, , dedicated to mobilizing Christians to write letters of encouragement to Christians imprisoned for their faith and to relevant officials.

At press time, journalist Li Ying was pictured on the site. She is currently serving a 15-year sentence for producing an underground-church magazine. By mid-March, VOM spokesman Todd Nettleton said more than 1,400 people had written her letters, which were translated into Chinese at the site.
Adrienne S. Gaines

Rehoboth Christian School has received commendations and grants for helping its mostly Native American student body

Nestled in the high plateau country of northwestern New Mexico, Rehoboth Christian School in Gallup is quietly pioneering a new way for American schools to serve minorities.

The 425-student, K-12 school is located in McKinley County, the third-poorest county in the United States. It serves mostly a Navajo and Zuni student body. Most of these students would be typically considered “at risk” of dropping out of school because they come from single-parent households, live below the poverty line or somehow lack parental support, among other factors.

However, Rehoboth High School Principal Tim Stuart, Ph.D., believes an “at risk” label ends up hurting more than helping children and results in their being treated with an attitude of hopelessness and despair.

“Students do not necessarily identify themselves with labels, particularly ones that predict their defeat,” he told Charisma. “Recent studies have shown children are more optimistic about their future than their parents are. Sadly, it is the adults, school systems and government that label children ‘at risk’ of failure.”

Rehoboth is a noteworthy exception. While just four out of 32 schools in the region have managed to stay off the state’s academic probation list, Rehoboth boasts a 100 percent graduate rate, with 90 percent of its students going on to college. More than a quarter of its high school students have ACT test scores above the 90th percentile.

The success of its program also landed the school a $1.3 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation–a first for New Mexico–through which Rehoboth staff plans to match each student with a caring adult and improve their access to technology. Rehoboth also is one of three schools nationwide to be featured in A Culture of Giving, a video by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation that examines a teaching method called service learning and its effectiveness within Native American settings.

Stuart said the school’s attitude toward the challenges facing its students–poverty, as well as high rates of alcoholism and teen suicide–has been critical to its success. He said experiencing adversity does not necessarily lead to poor academic performance or a failure to contribute positively to society.

The difference, he said, comes when students receive the appropriate support at school through healthy relationships with caring adults and are encouraged to develop what he has called “promise character.” That includes learning such disciplines as perseverance, responsibility, optimism and motivation.

Stuart discusses this concept in a book he has co-authored with educator Cheryl G. Bostrom, titled Children at Promise: Nine Principles to Help Kids Thrive in an At-Risk World (Jossey-Bass). He was quick to emphasize that Rehoboth was already using this formula before he joined the staff in August.

“They just didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate it,” he said.

Ron Polinder, the school’s executive director, explained what lies behind the school’s success. “It’s the coming together of God’s people interculturally in a community with all this diversity,” he said. “We have been doing this for 100 years. The staff are very dedicated.

“There is a lot of commitment on the part of the parents. We want to create a model of excellence, diversity and thoroughly Christian education.”

Doug Evilsizor, Rehoboth’s director of development, said the school tries to model the diversity God has created. For example, he said: “There are Christians at all income levels and they all need an education. Rehoboth provides opportunity to a lot of kids who would have no opportunity otherwise. They are kids who fall through the cracks. Rehoboth prides itself on taking kids no matter what their background and giving them the tools to succeed.”

Sean Rivera, 18, and a senior, said he appreciates Rehoboth’s ethnic diversity and strong Christian emphasis. “We get along better because of our common values and Christian beliefs,” he told Charisma. “All of us are in it together. I have really enjoyed the school because of the atmosphere and the friendships I have made.”

Ellen Arrowsmith, 17, said Rehoboth is unique because of its multicultural focus. She said it is wonderful to be in a school where the most important issue is faith and not one’s financial or physical status. “Rehoboth is a Christian community small enough for you to be involved in everything and get individual attention,” she noted.

Stuart said as the word gets out about this educational philosophy he hopes both parents and educators will begin to see “at risk” children differently and realize that they are just one step away from being children “at promise.”
Jeremy Reynalds in Gallup, N.M.

The Voices of Christ Prophetic Poetry Team shares the gospel at poetry slams, literary cafés and open-mic events

An Atlanta-area ministry has embraced poetry as its unlikely evangelism tool.

Theresa Harvard Johnson, founder of the Voices of Christ Prophetic Poetry Team, says she and her team of “prophetic poets” have been commissioned to take the gospel to the world.

A journalist and creative writing instructor, Johnson, 32, has been writing poetry all her life. But when she accepted Christ in 2001, she says both her life and her poetry changed.

“But there was no forum, no foundation to express this gift in ministry,” she told Charisma.

That changed when Johnson launched Voices of Christ (VOC) in McDonough, Ga., in 2001. The team is comprised of poets from all walks of life, ages and church backgrounds. Johnson says their commitment to spread the gospel through poetry is their common bond.

The team travels to secular poetry slams, cafés and clubs, but Johnson said VOC is all about ministry, not performance. “What the Lord has created with this team is so much more than people who present poetry, prose or spoken word. We present the Word of God and expressly represent Jesus Christ,” she said.

Johnson believes poetry falls within the prophetic office listed among the fivefold ministry gifts in Ephesians 4. “I am always inspired while I am asleep,” Johnson said. “That’s no different than how the Spirit of the Lord inspired Joseph or Daniel in their dreams.

“Also, there is something to be said about ‘speaking’ God’s Word. Just as the prophets of old, the Holy Spirit is still inspiring men and women to be mouthpieces … to speak to a dying world.”

Johnson and her team travel locally and nationally to participate in poetry slams and open-mic events. “One of the things that I stress to our team is that although we go to secular venues, we are not there for the purpose of entertainment,” she said. “We are there for the purpose of evangelism.”

To underscore her position, she requires team members to undergo training before they share their poems publicly–not necessarily to hone their literary gifts, but their spiritual gifts.

“We memorize the Word of God as a team, and when we minister, our poems should be traceable to the Word of God,” Johnson said. “Not … every poem has to … directly say ‘Jesus,’ but the heart … of the poem should clearly say ‘Jesus.'”

Johnson said the response at secular venues has been overwhelmingly positive, though their reception has been cool at many churches and Christian functions. Still, she is undaunted. She believes acceptance will grow as the church understands that Christian poetry is a move of the Holy Spirit.

“This is why the Lord is raising up prophetic voices such as our team and others like the hip-hop poets,” Johnson said. “The medium of spreading the gospel is changing, but the gospel itself will never change. As long as we hold true to the gospel, people will see that Christian poetry teams are no different than the ministries of praise and worship teams, interpretive dance ministries or Christian drama ministries.”

Apostle John A. Davis Sr., founding pastor of Harvest Faith International Ministries, where Johnson is a member, embraced Johnson’s vision more than three years ago when he saw VOC in action. “I was absolutely blown away,” said Davis, whose church hosts a teen poetry night. “There is no question once you hear the prophetic poetry team, that they are inspired by the Holy Spirit.”

He believes Johnson and her team meet a need in the body of Christ and in the secular world. “Jesus commissions us to ‘go into the world and preach [the] gospel to every creature,’ and that is what the prophetic poetry team is doing.”

Heddie Simmons joined VOC recently after a friend encouraged her to check out the group’s Web site, . “I started writing poetry during the time of September 11, and I had been searching for a group that I could express myself, but also a place that stood for Christ,” Simmons said. “It had to be a place where poetry came from God, from the heart, had to mean something and had to change lives.

“When I went to the Web site and saw ‘prophetic,’ I knew … this is where the Holy Spirit wanted me to be.”

Like others doing nontraditional ministry, Johnson has seen her gifts make room for her. “The bottom line is that God is calling for all of us–no matter what gifts and talents He has given us–to operate out of our spirit and not our flesh.”
L. Pat Williams

For more information on Voices of Christ Prophetic Poetry Team, contact Theresa Harvard Johnson at 770-898-0455, or e-mail information@.

With his outreach events, CDs and a weekly radio program, Stephen Bennett stresses that Jesus can heal homosexuals

Stephen Bennett and his wife, Irene, are vexing the gay community preaching the liberating power of Jesus Christ via Stephen Bennett Ministries (SBM) based in Huntington, Conn.

Bennett, 40, is a former homosexual who says he no longer has homosexual desires. He stresses that overcoming one’s same-sex attraction is a process, which for some may not be easy, yet it is completely possible. “I am perfectly happy as the man God created me to be,” he said. “I am in love with my wife. My nightmare has turned into a fairytale because of God.”

Even though Bennett recalls feeling effeminate as a child, he attributes his homosexual past to a rocky relationship with his father, a high-energy inventor and entrepreneur. “I grew up in a very wealthy home,” he said. “I had everything physically I wanted, except I just wanted his love, his approval and his attention and never really got it.”

Pursuing a career in art, he enrolled at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he experienced his first homosexual encounter at the age of 18. “That began an 11-year descent for me into the gay lifestyle,” he said.

Bouts with cocaine, alcohol and bulimia followed. He had sex with more than 100 partners, many of whom died from AIDS. “It’s a miracle I never got infected,” he said.

For a while he ran with the Hollywood crowd, painting portraits of movie stars and working for country singer Crystal Gale. After hitting bottom selling drugs and living in a cockroach-infested building, he entered a secular rehab program in 1988. He kicked his addictions but continued his gay lifestyle. He met the man of his dreams in a gay bar and began a three-year relationship.

During that time a Christian young woman confronted him with the gospel and gave him a Bible. He battled with abandoning homosexuality until January 1992 when he prayed to receive Christ. “I confessed my sin before God,” he said. “I physically felt the peace of God.”

Within two weeks he fled his partner’s home. However, homosexual urges lingered until he reconciled with his father. “I had to forgive my father,” he said. “That was for me the breaking point of my homosexual struggle.” A year later he married Irene, a friend of the woman who witnessed to him.

The Bennetts had two children, were active in evangelism and operated a lucrative sign-painting business. Yet something was missing. Their moment came during the summer of 2000 after an evangelistic service at a Connecticut beach. “I really felt that God was calling us to do something special for Him,” Irene Bennett said. “We dedicated our lives. Whatever He wanted us to do, we would do it.”

Encouraged by friends, Bennett recorded a CD, I Believe in Miracles, which featured his testimony. Almost immediately it aired nationally on Christian radio stations. “It had nothing to do with my voice or the music,” he said. “It was because of the testimony.”

As a result, requests for interviews from Christian and secular TV programs flooded Bennett’s phone line. During this time the sign business nose-dived and racked up almost $65,000 in debts. Miraculously the Bennetts received $125,000, which enabled them to erase their debts and by faith launch SBM ().

The Bennetts share the hope of Christ to the gay community through CDs, literature, concerts, targeted outreaches, a weekly radio program, counseling, e-mail and media interviews. Bennett has appeared on FOX News’ The O’Reilly Factor, and speaks regularly at churches and events sponsored by the American Family Association (AFA) and Concerned Women for America.

“We have partnered with SBM on several projects,” said Buddy Smith, executive assistant to the chairman of AFA. “The dominant message we have heard from Stephen is a love for Christ and a heart that is broken for the homosexual.”

When not traveling Bennett ministers by phone almost daily. His tract I Was Gay is distributed nationwide. In January a distraught 20-year-old man phoned him from Texas crying, “I can’t take this homosexual lifestyle any longer.” Someone gave Bennett’s tract to the young man at a gay pride parade in August 2003. Bennett prayed with him, sent literature and directed him to a local church.

Last summer SBM sponsored a national outreach in Provincetown, Mass., a known gay enclave on Cape Cod. Volunteers gave out more than 600 gift bags containing a Bible, CD, T-shirt and tract. Bennett plans a similar event this year at gay pride day at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., in June.

In response to the November ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court sanctioning gay marriage, Bennett is launching a national billboard campaign. Signs show the Bennett family and copy that says: “Wonderful husband. Loving father. Former homosexual. Jesus Christ changes lives.”
Peter K. Johnson

The co-founder of the 1970s pop group now coaches gospel choirs and mentors aspiring musicians
At the height of his fame, the co-founder of one of the most successful pop-and-funk bands of the 1970s left his lucrative career to return to his Christian roots. Today one-time Commodores guitarist Thomas McClary leads a simpler life, overseeing the music ministry at his Orlando, Fla., church and preparing to release a CD by its 100-voice choir.

Once famous for million-selling singles such as “Three Times a Lady,” “Shining Star” and “Brick House,” McClary is a deacon and worship team leader at New Destiny Christian Center. Later this year he will produce the church’s first CD on his own Visitation Records label.

“He has the zeal of Peter but the wisdom of Solomon,” his pastor, Zachery Tims Jr., said. “He keeps everything balanced. He’s a team player and a team builder. When he takes charge, people want to follow him.”

“He’s really a nice guy,” added Sam Kenoly of the Kenoly Brothers, who is also a member at New Destiny. “He’s given me so much advice that it’s like taking college courses. He’s really been an inspiration to me.”

Born Oct. 6, 1950, in Eustis, Fla., the youngest of eight children, McClary played high school sports and graduated as valedictorian. He went on to the Tuskegee Institute in Montgomery, Ala., where his life took the path that would lead to fame. While standing in line to register for classes, he heard someone whistling a sax solo by legendary jazz musician Eddie Harris.

“He was going through all the riffs, and I was thinking this guy’s got to be a musician,” he recalls.

McClary asked the student to start a band with him. His name was Lionel Richie, and they founded the Commodores in 1968 with four other Tuskegee students.

They started off as a backup band for Jerry Butler, Candi Staton and the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Later they landed a two-year opening spot for the Jackson 5’s world tour. Their popularity growing, Motown head Berry Gordy wanted to sign them.

Their string of pop smashes brought them negotiating power. They demanded to keep their song-publishing rights–something Motown’s Jobete Publishing never surrendered to artists.

But the Commodores became trailblazers, creating music that won fans worldwide. “Some of the letters we’d get were amazing,” McClary remembers. “One lady was dying of cancer. She said every time she put a certain song on, it would ease the pain.

“We had people write us from around the world who didn’t speak a lick of English but knew the spirit in which the songs were written. … We tried to be good stewards of that gift that God gave us even though we didn’t give God the glory at that time.”

One of the group’s most beloved songs, “Jesus Is Love,” hit the R&B Top 40 in 1980.

By 1982 McClary and Richie had co-written songs for Diana Ross and Kenny Rogers. After their manager–the glue that kept the group together–died, both men went solo.

McClary cut the Hot 100 single “Thin Walls” and produced a hit with the group Klique. He was scheduled to produce James Ingram, Melissa Manchester and the Four Tops. Then, “I heard an audible voice from God while I was in the shower,” he recalls. “The voice said, ‘It’s time for you to come home now.’ I thought I was hearing things.”

McClary went home–literally. He returned to Eustis, where he joined a church and produced a documentary titled The History of the Apostolic Faith. He used his celebrity influence and recording royalties to fund local church and community charities and, as a local hero, gave motivational speeches at youth groups.

Meanwhile, Universal Records keeps all of the Commodores’ music in print with various hit compilations. Because of the group’s enduring popularity, McClary says there may be a reunion tour in the near future. He keeps in touch with his band mates and reminds them of the source of their good fortune.

“I tell the guys all the time that God had to honor me to honor His Word,” McClary explains. “I was a tither even back then. I tithed even though I wasn’t saved because of my praying parents who feared God. My accountants used to laugh at me and wonder why I’d be giving six figures to the church. … For the last 20 years the royalties have not stopped. It’s been incredible.”
Bill Carpenter