Once a drug addict and a thief, Canadian minister Monty Lewis uses his testimony to draw people to Christ
An ex-drug addict who used to beat other addicts senseless, steal wallets and forge doctors’ signatures to maintain his habit now advises the Canadian government on chaplaincy issues within the prison system and recently received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for turning his life around.

A salvation experience while lying naked, about to commit suicide, in the isolation hole of a maximum-security institution left Monty Lewis changed forever. He was delivered of his chemical addictions; anger, fear and other emotional problems eventually disappeared too.

“In my entire life, I had never felt loved until that moment, that instant when I told God I wasn’t worth saving but asked Him to let me die with dignity. An explosion of God’s love filled that prison hole and a peace I’d never known let me sleep like a baby for the first time in years,” recalls Lewis, 58, of his 1977 conversion at Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick.

The next morning he received a visit from a Salvation Army captain, who led him in the sinner’s prayer.

Lewis, who finished hosting his second Coalition of Prison Evangelists’ (COPE) conference for 250 international prison evangelists in September in Fredericton, New Brunswick, believes God protected him through almost 20 years of brawling, stealing, forgery, drugs, alcohol and womanizing. At one point, he had dozens of charges pending, from assault causing bodily harm to robbery with violence, stretching from his home province of Nova Scotia on Canada’s east coast to British Columbia on the nation’s west coast.

“I always had a sixth sense–a voice inside would say, ‘Don’t go down that alley’–I know now it was the Holy Spirit. I remember once being in a car with a hooker; we were driving to a pig farm in Penticton, British Columbia, and that same voice told me clearly to get out of the car. I found out later it was the famous pig farm where 50 prostitutes were killed, dismembered and buried,” he said.

The sordid quality of Lewis’ early adult years was preceded by an equally disturbing childhood as Lewis’ alcoholic father frequently beat his mother and told Lewis he would never amount to anything. As a child, Lewis was sexually abused by some teenage boys, an experience he said made him feel “dirty, stinky and never as good as anyone else.”

After accepting Christ and going clean, Lewis got a lucrative job, married Lynda, who he met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and had three children. In 1986 he started Cons for Christ, a Canadian ministry whose workers visit inmates in jail and send them Bibles, and follow up by discipling them when they’re on the outside.

Cons for Christ has since spread internationally to Haiti, Estonia, the Ivory Coast, Britain and France. Cons for Christ sponsored its first COPE conference in British Columbia in 2001. The conference was co-sponsored and funded by Kenneth Copeland Ministries.

Lewis is now chaplain’s adviser to the department of public safety in New Brunswick and wrote a training manual used throughout the Canadian prison system called Can the Chaplain Do It Alone? As an ordained minister with the Apostolic Church of Pentecost of Canada, he frequently shares his testimony at schools, churches and prisons.

Although the severe limp in his left leg from a terrible fight and the “train tracks” running down his left arm from years of shooting heroin belie Lewis’ past, he now seems every inch a respectable, hard-working person; a man with a mission.

“God has shown me my destiny,” Lewis told Charisma, “and it’s to reach the hearts of those who are imprisoned not just by bars, but by their own sin, shame, hatred and unforgiveness.”
Josie Newman in Toronto

The 18-year-old charismatic Christian was reported by his mother and diagnosed with “reliogious delusions” in June
For eight weeks between mid-June and mid-August, an 18-year-old charismatic believer, who identified himself only as Carl-Johan H., was committed against his will to a local psychiatric hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. The hospital psychiatrists diagnosed him with “religious delusions” and forbade contacts with “all friends … associated with [the patient’s] cult.”

In the first two weeks Carl-Johan was kept in total seclusion and given medication against psychosis and schizophrenia. The young believer had been reported by his mother, who feared for her son’s sanity after hearing him speak in tongues and witness publicly.

In the meantime other psychiatrists have said Carl-Johan manifested no signs of mental disturbance. Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare initiated an investigation into the case in August.

Two days before his release, Carl-Johan told Charisma that the hospital committed him against his will based on his mother’s information only, though Carl-Johan is an adult and had no record of mental or social disorders.

Carl-Johan said he had accepted Jesus and was baptized in the Holy Spirit in a large charismatic church in Stockholm in May 2002. “It was a new world to me,” he said, “and I had questions that I discussed with my mother. I always found her a wise person.” Until April Carl-Johan was not active in his newfound faith, and he is still not a church member.

“But in April I started witnessing to people and praising God publicly, which made my parents very upset, especially my visiting the neighbors,” Carl-Johan said. “I also prayed in tongues, and hearing this my mother got hysterical. Once she tried to hit me. I did not recognize her at all. Then doctors started showing up at home, without notice, to examine me.

“On one Sunday two people dropped in: a man calling himself a cult expert and his sister, who was a psychiatrist. I guess I should have said no, but I agreed to talk to them.”

The “cult expert” is a well-known figure in Sweden, Peter Öhlén, a radio journalist who got involved with “deprogramming” people who left the large Word of Life Church in Uppsala in the 1980s after what the former members described as very negative experiences. Öhlén has no medical training.

The same night a hospital psychiatrist visited, though Carl-Johan refused to speak with him. “I had had enough for one day.” The result was that the doctor called the police, while Carl-Johan’s parents locked the doors to prevent their son from “escaping.”

“At the hospital they gave me an injection that made me very weak and dizzy. It turned out to be something against schizophrenia,” he said.

Thomas Jackson, a veteran psychiatrist with specialist authorization in both Sweden and England, told Charisma that “with 100 percent surety Carl-Johan is not seriously mentally ill.” Jackson was not allowed to visit with Carl-Johan, but talked to him repeatedly over the phone and had unlimited access to the medical journal, which he describes as “full of mistakes, and typical of stressed doctors.”

“One doctor who diagnosed Carl-Johan with ‘fulminant psychosis’ had obviously not read through the journal,” Jackson added. “Colleagues [in the same journal] describe Carl-Johan as ‘fully together.'”

The Uppsala Hospital, where Carl-Johan was sent in August for what the doctors call a “second opinion,” confirmed Jackson’s assessment. On his return to Stockholm, Carl-Johan was released.

Carl-Johan’s legal adviser Marina Rosing has reported two heads of department at the psychiatric hospital in Stockholm to the National Board of Health and Welfare, commenting to the Swedish press that the doctors’ treatment of Carl-Johan “is reminiscent of methods that were used against Christians in the old Soviet Union.”

Committing Christians to psychiatric care against their will is rare in western Europe, but human-rights organizations monitoring religious liberties have said there is a clear trend in some countries to view charismatic Christianity as potentially harmful to the emotionally unsettled. A French law passed last year forbids evangelism directed at people groups defined as “weak,” such as children, the elderly and the sick.

Jurist Ulf Holmgren at the National Board conceded to Charisma that the discrepancies in the opinions given by different psychiatrists concerning Carl-Johan’s mental state “seem odd,” but pending the investigation he refrained from further comments.

Professor Lars Farde, head of Psychiatry at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm and an international authority in the field of “the human brain and the spiritual,” was highly critical of the interpreting of spiritual experiences in terms of mental disorder.

Farde, himself a Pentecostal believer, told Charisma: “The understanding of the normal Christian experience has been lost in our secularized society.” He said hundreds of thousands of Swedes have had “spiritual experiences [similar to Carl-Johan’s].”

Farde, whose latest research on the human brain’s handling of the spiritual is soon to be published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, also cautioned against “cult deprogramming,” which he described as scientifically “undefined and lacking in quality control.”
Tomas Dixon in Sweden

Through their Hope for the City ministry, Dennis and Megan Doyle will dole out millions of dollars in excess goods this year
A charity that will this year distribute some $300 million in aid worldwide started just a few years ago with a simple realization: “We have lots of warehouse space.”

Coming from Dennis Doyle, that’s a bit of an understatement. As CEO of Welsh Companies, this Christian businessman oversees Minnesota’s largest full-service real estate company: a $125 million privately owned corporation that manages 22 million square feet of real estate valued at $1.5 billion.

Some of that is empty warehouse space. Putting that together with an extensive network of clients in both business and ministry led Dennis and his wife,

Megan, to found Hope for the City, which acts as a “middle man,” taking corporate surplus and getting it into the hands of organizations that fight poverty.

Hope for the City really began when the Doyles began meeting regularly with other couples for prayer. “We … believed that we heard God say that He wanted to start a ministry to reach businesspeople, to awaken them in their careers to be open to the fact that God can use them right where they are,” Megan Doyle said.

That got the Doyles thinking. They realized that in addition to warehouse space, they had contacts with a lot of corporate leaders, for most large Minnesota companies wind up doing business with Welsh Companies at some point.

“We realized we knew who the inner-city workers were because we supported them with both time and money,” Megan Doyle said. “We also realized that … there’s a lot of excess resources out there–food, clothing, medical equipment, office supplies, excess or just slightly used furniture that gets thrown away–that could easily be … distributed to these inner-city ministries to help them be more effective in serving their clients.”

The Doyles use their contacts in the business world to find organizations with high-quality surplus goods. They find organizations working to lift people out of poverty through contacts in ministry, including their church–Grace Church in Eden Prairie, Minn. And they use whatever warehouse space isn’t leased at the moment to store surplus goods that are being transferred from those who have them to those who need them.

An early partner in Hope for the City was Internet-based grocery delivery company that donates surplus food. Others soon followed, including the Gap, Old Navy, Wal-Mart, Office Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond and Avon. Donations from pharmaceutical and medical supply companies, distributed worldwide, soon pushed total retail volume of donated goods to record highs: from $8.6 million in 2001 to $120 million in 2002 to some $300 million and counting this year.

Hope for the City picks up donated goods when necessary and uses Welsh Companies warehouses as distribution sites. Most of the groups benefiting from Hope for the City are Christian ministries, but other faiths and secular organizations are served as well, a fact that opens doors to major corporations. All of this is done with remarkably low overhead: less than 1 percent of their $120 million budget in 2002.

Though the goods are donated without charge, the philosophy behind Hope for the City is not to provide handouts. “We believe that you’re not going to change a city or change people unless you actually work on the core issues behind the problems,” Dennis Doyle said.

With that in mind, Hope for the City partners with organizations “who are touching the people and actually making a change in their lives,” he noted. “There are more than enough quality people doing the job. We aren’t going to compete with the people who are there.” In a biblical reference to the men who held up Moses’ hands during Israel’s battle with the Amalekites, he added, “We’re going to lift up their arms.”

The support role has paid an unexpected dividend. Quarterly meetings of organizational leaders who benefit from Hope for the City have helped smaller inner-city ministries network with one another. “Even though there’s a ton of nonprofits and a ton of people ministering, a lot of them don’t know who’s on the next block,” Megan Doyle said.

The Doyles hope the success of Hope for the City encourages others to look for creative ways to use the resources God has given them. “You can make your business into your ministry,” Dennis Doyle said. “Look at what God put into your hand. Lift it up to the Lord.”
Doug Trouten

Eagle Television broadcast Christian evangelistic programs, news and The Flintstones before it went off the air in April
When U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq last spring, the warren of offices and studios that make up Mongolia’s Eagle Television were electric with the energy of a staff fully aware that it was making journalistic history in the isolated, former communist state. They were the only channel in this landlocked country of 2.7 million offering western-style, seat-of-the-pants coverage of breaking news.

“There wasn’t a bar or restaurant or shop that didn’t have Eagle TV on. You had people standing around the televisions in the state department store,” recalls the independent station’s affable general manager, Tom Terry.

Terry, an American who took over the unusual Christian station last year, was determined to provide a lively, objective alternative to government-controlled television’s staid war coverage. A retired Mongolian general provided commentary. Viewers called in with opinions.

But in late April financial disputes led Eagle Television’s American partners to shut down the station.

In addition to international news, Eagle Television broadcast American evangelistic programs such as the charismatic Hillsong Television from Australia and Christian music videos, as well as The Flintstones and NBA basketball. Eagle Television’s management estimated that it has generated “10,000 contacts for Christ” over its eight years of operation in a country where Tibetan Buddhists and pagans predominate.

“Eagle TV was founded for two purposes,” Terry told the Associated Press (AP). ” … To advance the gospel of Jesus Christ and … for the advancement of freedom and democracy.”

These days, Terry sits alone in his barren office, his laptop plugged into the wall and cans of Coke on the windowsill. With flow charts and a good deal of patience, he explained how an eight-year arrangement fell apart when the Mongolian side threatened to go to court to dissolve the partnership.

AMONG, a nonprofit Christian organization in Sioux Falls, S.D., that helps fund Eagle Television, reacted swiftly to preempt what they thought could be a costly and dangerous legal battle, said Terry, who was hired by the group. To safeguard the station’s expensive equipment, Terry removed it from the studios and locked it up in storage. The Mongolian partners learned what happened after the fact.

“I kind of look at it like coming from the Lord that most of these guys were out of the country at the time,” Terry said.

Today, the two sides are at an impasse, waiting for the government to decide who will get Eagle Television’s broadcast license and return to the air. Government officials are promising to be objective.

“I don’t think there is any kind of hidden political motive between the participants,” said Jagvaral Hanibal, the foreign ministry’s spokesman. “I would really like to see it come back. For the public, for society, it is important.”

The Flintstones was especially popular, the AP reported. The 1960s cartoon was dubbed into Mongolian and renamed The Flint Stone People. “The Flint Stone People showed how normal people celebrate life,” retired civil servant Balganjav Oyunchimeg told the AP. “We learned many lessons from that family.”

On the face of it, AMONG would seem to have an advantage in the dispute because it has no political agenda in Mongolia, whereas the Mongolian partners are in the Democratic Party, which forms a tiny minority in the nation’s Communist-controlled parliament.

“AMONG is the only disinterested party here. All we are here for is the propagation of the gospel. The propagation of the basic [press] freedom of a democracy,” Terry said.

Surprisingly, the station’s religious programming has been barely an issue in the public debate. One exception was a May interview given by one of the Mongolian partners, Batbayar, to the weekly Seruuleg newspaper in which he said he looked forward to running Eagle Television without the Americans.

“We won’t be poked any longer for ‘spreading alien religion’ etc.,” stated Batbayar, who, like many Mongolians, uses only one name.

Bayartsetseg, a legal expert at the nonpartisan Mongolian Foundation for Open Society, said she, as a Buddhist, found the station’s religious content personally repugnant but praised the station’s contribution to making Mongolia into a functioning democracy.

“There is a gap of independent news. We have a country ruled by the Communist Party,” Bayartsetseg said. “There is so much censorship here. Mongolia’s main [TV] channel is owned by the government, which means the Communist Party controls it.”
Frank Brown in Ulan Bator, Mongolia

Bill Glass has seen some 35,000 inmates make decisions for Christ each year for the last decade at his outreach events
He never thought he’d go to prison. Certainly not as a minister.

But in 1970, Bill Glass, a four-time All-Pro defensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns, did a friend a favor. He led a ministry team into a prison in Marion, Ohio, enticing them with big-name athletes such as Roger Staubach, then sneaking in a testimony about Jesus.

Today, 33 years later, Glass is still preaching, still reaching and changing the hearts of prisoners across the country. The 6-foot-6 Texan with the baritone voice and slight Southern drawl spoke in 400 prisons last year and has seen 35,000-plus inmates receive Christ every year for the last decade.

“I wanted to be an evangelist like Billy Graham,” Glass said. “I thought my ministry was going to be citywide meetings.”

Instead, he found it behind barbed wire, bars and locks. Recently, Glass’ volunteer ministry team spoke in seven prisons in western Washington, seeing 1,166 prisoners accept Christ during a three-day event Glass called “A Weekend of Champions.”

“I had never gotten in trouble with the law,” Glass said. “I wasn’t a street kind of guy. So for me to end up in prisons was totally unexpected.”

But he’s not arguing with the results. About 2 million people are behind bars today in the United States. Seventy percent of all prisoners commit another crime after being released and end up back in jail. Glass’ program reverses that number. Of the prisoners who make decisions for Christ at Glass’ outreach, less than 30 percent return to jail.

“I didn’t come to be preached to,” Jack Murphy said. “I came to see the football players.”

Murphy, in prison for murder and for his involvement in America’s largest jewelry heist, went to one of Glass’ outreaches at a maximum-security prison in Florida in 1974. Murphy came to see Roger Staubach, then the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.

“Bill came with the same program that he has today,” said Murphy, now a speaker in Glass’ ministry. “Because of that program I asked the Lord into my heart. It started the process. It started the journey.”

The ministry has a twofold effect. It shares hope with the prisoners and trains Christians how to share their faith.”Too many Christians want to hide in the church,” Murphy said. “They get tied into safe ministries. They make quilts.”

Murphy accuses the church of ignoring the prisons, maintaining its distance because of a better-than-thou attitude. Murphy points out that much of the New Testament was written in prison and that the first Christian was the man hanging on the cross next to Jesus.

“Bill leads the largest group of front-line, hands-on evangelists in the world,” Murphy said. “They’re mobilized to win souls. They learn how to share their faith, how to pray with people to get saved. Ninety-five percent of the people who call themselves born-again Christians don’t know how to lead someone to the Lord.”

A Wheaton College study rated Glass’ ministry among the best of the United States’ 450 prison ministries. It received the highest rating for front-line evangelism to prisoners.

Glass’ ministry has 35 full-time workers and relies heavily on volunteers, people who counsel and share the four spiritual laws with prisoners who have raised their hands during evangelistic meetings, asking for prayer. About 250 volunteers worked at Glass’ outreach in western Washington. The counselors huddle with the prisoners after the program, spending 10 minutes to an hour sharing.

Randy Poe, a dentist in Roseburg, Ore., has counseled at Glass’ ministry since 1981 and often drives a busload of volunteers from his hometown, participating in as many of the outreaches on the West Coast as he can.

“This is an amazing school of evangelism,” Poe said. “One of our missions is to help churches ignite Christians to share their faith in Christ. I believe we probably have the most effective school of evangelism of any organization in the United States.”

Glass, now 68, suffered a slight stroke a year ago and has turned over the administrative duties of his ministry, but he’s speaking more than ever. He is scheduled to speak at all 24 of his weekend ministries this year and has no intentions of slowing down. He started a mentor program for juveniles in Corpus Christi, Texas, where Glass grew up. Said Glass, “I’m having too much fun to slow down.”
Gail Wood

After an Ontario court ruled that same-sex unions are legal, evangelicals vowed to fight the implications
Same-sex marriage is now legal in Canada’s largest province, Ontario, and will become legal across the nation as early as this month following an uncontested declaration by Ontario’s Court of Appeal that said forbidding gays to marry is unconstitutional. Canada is now the third country in the world–following Holland and Belgium–to legitimize same-sex unions.

But in a surprisingly swift move, Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Cabinet, who did not contest the

Ontario decision, proposed legislation to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. The bill included language that would protect the right of churches to refuse to marry gays and lesbians.

The definition of marriage in Canada’s Constitution will be changed to that of a union between two consenting adults. The move follows a long fight by gay activists who argued that the old definition of marriage as between one man and one woman was unconstitutional because it violated the constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“We were totally shocked that the federal government wasted all the work of its Justice Committee and the taxpayer’s dollars to rush this through,” said Bruce Clemenger, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), a large national association of evangelical Christians that has been present at every stage of the same-sex marriage debate.

“If you redefine marriage as the union of two consenting adults, how do you draw the line at just two people being involved? Further down the road, we could see the legalization of polygamy or incestuous relationships.”

Clemenger said homosexual and lesbian couples who have lived together longer than one year already receive the same rights as heterosexual couples in matters of health care, social assistance, ability to adopt children or use artificial reproduction methods, and inheritance rights. “Basically, these couples are taken care of … but what they really want is the golden ring,” he added. “They want to be seen in the eyes of the public as completely acceptable.”

Dan Cere, an ethics professor at McGill University and founder of the Institute for the Study of Marriage, Law and Culture, said the decision in favor of same-sex unions is part of the general deterioration of marriage in Canada.

“We can wash the law of gender differences, but it doesn’t change the basis of how relationships and families are designed,” said Cere, a staunch Catholic. “We’re developing a kind of culture which is immune to marriage, when the truth is that marriage is a cultural institution you shouldn’t mess around with.”

Wendy Gritter, executive director of New Direction for Life Ministries, a Canadian ministry to Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction, believes the gay marriage issue can present an opportunity for evangelism. “The same-sex marriage issue is a great opportunity to reach the gay community with the gospel by showing them the love of Christ coupled with discipleship for their struggle,” she told Charisma.

David Hazzard, head of ministerial services for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), says PAOC supports the EFC’s stance on same-sex marriage.

“In Canada, we live in the midst of the tension of speaking both God’s punishment and God’s mercy,” Hazzard said. “I preached a sermon on Gay Pride Day in Toronto two years ago which told of Jesus offering His grace to the woman caught in adultery, but I also told of Christ’s commission to change her lifestyle. The implication was He views homosexuality in the same way.”

The United Church in Canada ordains ministers who are practicing homosexuals and says it will marry same-sex couples, while certain dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada recently adopted a service to bless same-sex live-in relationships.

Since June when same-sex marriage became legal in Ontario, approximately 10 percent of all marriage-license applications have come from gay and lesbian couples, including several from gays in the United States, where same-sex marriage is not legal except by civil ceremony in Vermont.

Also in June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law banning sodomy. Gay rights groups praised the decision, likening it to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended segregation in public schools. Christian organizations, however, decried the ruling, saying it could clear the way for gay marriage in the United States.

“This case gives advocates of same-sex marriage a weapon with which to force state officials and private employers to give same-sex unions exactly the same status as traditional marriage,” said Vincent McCarthy, executive director of the Center for Marriage Law. “The court has now imposed the sexual revolution into the Constitution.”

The ruling may serve as a wake-up call to “the majority of Americans who believe in traditional marriage and oppose same-sex unions,” said Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, one of more than a dozen mostly Christian groups that filed a brief in February opposing the legal challenge to Texas’ sodomy law.

“[The] decision has awakened a sleeping giant,” Staver said, “and will galvanize and reinvigorate the majority of Americans who believe in traditional marriage but have ignored the radical agenda of the same-sex marriage movement.”
Josie Newman in Toronto

Groups such as One Hundred Hours lead worship among non-Christians in bars across the U.K.
A Christian praise track has been an unlikely feature in one of the summer’s most popular films and a hit TV show.

Andy Hunter’s “The Wonders of You,” on the British DJ’s debut album, Exodus, was part of the backdrop for The Matrix: Reloaded trailer and included in an episode of ABC’s spy thriller Alias–though the lyrics on the techno tour de force are clearly vertical: “Who is like You? Who is like the wonders … the wonders of You?”

Hunter is part of a new breed of worship leaders, singers and musicians who’ve been taking their praise music beyond church–and into film scores, popular TV shows, London theaters and student bars.

Beneath the giant neon displays of London’s Piccadilly district, a small West End audience has been warming to a different light. They’ve been listening to classic tunes by the likes of Paul Simon and Fats Waller–alongside worship songs.

Presenting this unusual program of folk-rock anthems is established worship leader Dave Bilbrough. He’s been singing popular tunes and sharing stories in epic singer-songwriter style at a little theater in fashionable Jermyn Street.

Some punters have probably gone along expecting a conventional worship set. Others have brought their unchurched friends. Regular theatergoers have come out of curiosity. But whether they’ve realized it or not, they’ve all found themselves in a worship environment–“unplugged.”

Other Christian singers have made an impact by working in the wider music scene. When heavenly sounds filled the corridor at a secular rock festival, musicians walking past the open door couldn’t resist. Curious to check it out, they discovered a group praying with spiritual passion–and just joined in.

Those musicians had been getting ready to go on stage, but suddenly found themselves having devotions with the London Community Gospel Choir (LCGC), Britain’s best-known gospel act, who was on the same bill.

“It presented an opportunity to witness to these guys about our faith,” said LCGC leader the Rev. Bazil Meade. This 65-strong choir navigates the murky waters of pop music–not to preach, but to be itself at worship.

Meade believes there’s power in just doing what they do–and doing it well. “People will recognize you for what you are and realize there’s something special about what you do,” he said.

This choir was “crossover” material before the term was widely used. It has moved outside church circles and received recognition in the wider showbiz world. It has appeared at rock, blues, classical and jazz festivals, singing in theaters and arts centers.

Propelled into a place it never dreamed of occupying, the choir evolved from a bunch of bright young singers from various black churches to a national institution. Eventually it became a familiar face on British television–working with a host of household names including Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones and Elton John.

LCGC recently marked its 21st anniversary with a “live” recording of its funky, feel-good sound at London’s Abbey Road studios, where The Beatles created some of their greatest work.

Hurriedly assembled for a youth event, another group–this time a humble four-piece worship band called One Hundred Hours–didn’t have such a great future in mind.

But when they’d play their guitar-driven rock at youth groups–mixing secular
“Brit-pop” songs with compositions by British worship pioneers Delirious and Matt Redman–they felt “something was happening” during the worship.

After praying about it, they realized there was a deeper purpose for them. At a Youth With A Mission conference in Scotland, group members said the praise became very intense, and a powerful prayer time took place. Since then, intercessory worship has been their calling card.

But their bookings haven’t been confined to “nice” Christian venues. They’ve played amid the drink and smoke of college bars, where unsuspecting students have sung along to praise songs. “People are designed to worship,” said lead singer-guitarist Tré Sheppard, whose wife, Tori, adds dramatic background vocals to the band’s chunky sound.

“Christianity is not this alien thing we’re trying to force on them. We just missed what we’re designed for,” he added. “I want to appeal to that rather than thinking, ‘You bad people need saving.’ People know they need saving. They know they’re screwed up. We want to say there is hope–and hope rocks.”

As worship winds its way from behind church walls to the wider world, Christian singers and musicians are beginning to live out what the band Delirious–who blazed a trail in reaching mainstream audiences with worship music–sings about in their popular anthem “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?”–“open up the doors and let the music play, let the streets resound with singing.”
Clive Price in London

Observers say the content encourages religious conflict and could lead to attacks against Christians in the mostly Orthodox region
Three countries in the former Soviet Union have introduced new school textbooks that, to varying degrees, portray evangelical Christianity as suspicious at best and at worst a breeding ground for religious fanaticism.

“People are really upset, not just the Pentecostals but the Baptists, too,” said Dina Shavtsova, a Pentecostal lawyer in the Belarus capital of Minsk who specializes in religious freedom issues. “The kind of information in that textbook really encourages religious conflict. Maybe something won’t happen right away, but when you put this together with the negative television broadcasts, it adds up.”

Shavtsova pointed to an early June attack on the charismatic Living Faith Church in the city of Gomel as an example. In the overnight incident, vandals broke windows and painted Antichrist on the church’s sign.

Besides Belarus, the former Soviet republic of Georgia uses a high school textbook that paints “foreign sects” with a wide brush. However, the situation there seems to be the least severe.

In Russia, human rights activists are fighting to halt the planned nationwide introduction of a textbook that they claim promotes Orthodox Christianity above other faiths. All three nations are dominated by Orthodox Christians and have tiny Protestant minorities.

Yevgeny Ikhlov of the nongovernmental for Human Rights organization is leading a court and public relations campaign to stop the further spread of the Foundations of Orthodox Culture textbook in Russia. Although Ikhlov is mostly concerned about the book’s anti-Semitic aspects, he said he has no doubt it will be used to denigrate other faiths.

The situation in Belarus, a country of 10 million between Russia and Poland, is the most serious both because of the textbook’s 147,000 press run and because every student is obligated to take the course “Man, Society, Government” before graduating high school.

One section of the book reads, “Although every religion claims to hold the absolute truth, all the same fanaticism is especially likely to appear among sects.” It goes on to state, “In our republic, some of the most widespread sects include the evangelical Baptists, the Evangelicals, the Pentecostals, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others.”

So far, despite written pleas to the Belarus ministry of education to recall the textbook, no action has been taken. The only two groups to formally file complaints are a Pentecostal umbrella group and a tiny Hare Krishna organization that objected to the textbook’s associating it with Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo, a doomsday cult that attacked a Tokyo subway system with nerve gas in 1995. Shavtsova said some Baptist families in western Belarus had taken their children out of government schools.

Ikhlov said it is no coincidence that Belarus, Georgia and Russia are all grappling with similar textbook issues.

“These post-Communist states are all pursuing a nationalist, conservative line of thinking,” he said. “They try to portray themselves as close to the local Orthodox people, who need to be protected against the barbarians.”
Frank Brown in Moscow

Many of the following reports were released during the last month by Charisma News Service. 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.

CHRISTIAN FINANCIAL COUNSELOR LARRY BURKETT DIES
Well-known Christian radio personality Larry Burkett died July 4 from a heart-related illness. He was 64. The co-founder of Gainesville, Christian Financial Concepts, which merged with Crown Financial Ministries in 2000, had battled kidney cancer and heart disease since 1995, the Associated Press reported. A week before his death, Burkett had been declared cancer-free, but he had suffered a heart attack a month before. Burkett spent the last 27 years sharing his Bible-based financial advice with readers and listeners nationwide and abroad. He is survived by his wife, Judy, four children and nine grandchildren.

‘TEN COMMANDMENTS JUDGE’ LOSES APPEAL
A federal appeals court ruled July 1 that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, known as the “Ten Commandments Judge,” must remove his God’s Laws monument from the lobby of the state judicial building. A three-judge panel unanimously upheld a lower court order that said the display violates the Constitution’s prohibition on government promotion of religion, the Associated Press reported. Tom Parker, a spokesman for Moore, said the chief justice would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

HANK HANEGRAAFF INVESTIGATED BY FINANCIAL COUNCIL
In June the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) declared Hank Hanegraaff’s Christian Research Institute (CRI) compliant with ECFA standards. In March CRI had been found in violation of three of the group’s seven codes–board governance, financial controls and policies, and use of ministry resources–prompting a compliance review. Among the ECFA’s concerns were payments totaling $3,141 to Hanegraaff’s wife for personal expenses and $3,100 in dues to the country club in the Hanegraaffs’ gated community, Christianity Today reported. ECFA President Paul Nelson said CRI had been fully cooperative, though the review remains open.

CHRISTIAN LEADERS ENDORSE MEL GIBSON’S FILM
Some prominent Christian leaders have enthusiastically endorsed actor Mel Gibson’s new film depicting the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life. In June, Gibson showed The Passion to leaders at Focus on the Family and to hundreds of pastors and lay leaders, including Ted Haggard, president of the National Evangelical Association, The Colorado Springs Gazette reported. Haggard said the film “conveys, more accurately than any other film, who Jesus was.” Focus on the Family President Don Hodel described the movie as “historically and theologically accurate” and said it was “certainly the most powerful portrayal of the Passion I’ve ever seen or heard about.” Gibson co-wrote the script, and directed and produced the $25-million film, which stars James Caviezel, a devout Catholic, as Christ. Gibson also screened the film to several Christian leaders at the annual Christian Booksellers Convention in Orlando, Fla., in July.

Navy Chaplain Appointed Senate Chaplain

Rear Adm. Barry Black was appointed Senate chaplain June 17, becoming the first African American, the first military chaplain and the first Seventh-day Adventist ever to hold the post. His predecessor, Presbyterian minister Lloyd Ogilvie, retired in March. Black, 54, was among three African Americans to be considered, one of whom was Pentecostal pastor George McKinney of St. Stephen Church of God in Christ in San Diego. Assemblies of God minister Richard Foth, a longtime “missionary” on Capitol Hill, reportedly was considered for the post.

Roberts Liardon Back to Regular Preaching

After stepping aside from ministry due to an admitted moral failure, pastor and writer Roberts Liardon has returned to regular pulpit preaching. Liardon, who founded Embassy Christian Center in Irvine, Calif., 10 years ago, resumed Sunday-morning preaching in June. Liardon confessed to a short-term homosexual relationship with the church’s youth pastor. Since his admission in 2001, several Embassy members have left, and Sunday church attendance has dropped from 700 to about 100.

Evangelist Achieves Historic Military First

Col. Sheila R. Baxter, a licensed evangelist in the Church of God in Christ, became the first woman in the Army Medical Service Corps to be appointed a brigadier general. A native of Virginia, Baxter, 48, has relocated to San Antonio to work for the surgeon general of the Army.

If you have a news tip for Charisma News Service, e-mail us at charisma@.

MUSIC

Secret Conversation
By Charles Billingsley
Perpetual Entertainment Group.

Charles Billingsley, long known for his silky vocal stylings of other people’s songs, now steps behind the scenes to lend songwriting credit to five of the tunes on his newest effort, Secret Conversation. Billingsley has lost none of his vocal chops and displays them in new modern worship songs such as “Your Love for Me” and the beautiful ballad “In Your Presence.”

The album is less a showcase for the artist’s talent, however, and more a foray into worship, with Billingsley’s co-written efforts “Whisper to My Heart” and “The Altar” displaying a vulnerability and earnest longing for a touch from the Savior. This is a pleasant collection of new songs aimed at the inspirational listener.
Natalie Nichols Gillespie

Just Come In
By Margaret Becker
Cross-Driven Records.

After 19 No. 1 songs, Margaret Becker left the recording business for a few years to mentor young artists. Yet Becker’s fans wouldn’t let her go. To oblige, the singer-songwriter went into the studio after three years and re-recorded some of her best songs and a few new ones.

Becker produced Just Come In and gave it a stripped-down, raw production that lends the album a coffeehouse feel–perfect for her smoky vocals and emotive delivery. She soars on praise song “You’re Worthy” and new songs “My Refuge Be” and “Jesus Draw Me Ever Nearer (May This Journey).” She also packs power into previous hits “Say the Name,” “Clay and Water” and “All I Ever Wanted.”

Becker shows once again that she is a talented singer and songwriter who would be sorely missed if she left the landscape of Christian music completely. Just Come In is one of the rare “greatest hits” albums definitely worth the wait.
Natalie Nichols Gillespie

BOOKS

How to Hear From God
By Joyce Meyer, Warner Faith,
304 pages, hardcover, $.

In her latest release, Bible teacher Joyce Meyer reminds us God talks to people–every day. We can hear a supernatural word from God anytime in the Bible. Otherwise, God usually speaks to us through natural ways (for example, creation and people) and the still, small voice within us, which brings conviction, assurance and peace.

The book falls into two sections: learning to listen and learning to obey. In fact, Meyer stresses, “If you want God’s will for your life, I can tell you the recipe in its simplest form: Pray and obey.”

How to Hear From God offers an expanded version of Meyer’s tape series by the same name. It is ideal for use in small groups. Discussion questions follow each of its 14 chapters.

“Hearing the audible voice of God is rare for most people and nonexistent for many,” Meyer insists. “I have heard the audible voice of God [only] three or four times in my life.”

Learning to listen to His still, small voice becomes imperative for the Christian. Meyer teaches us how to recognize it.
Pamela Robinson

The Secret Place of Joy
By Lindell Cooley, Regal Books,
150 pages, softcover, $.

As music minister at Brownsville Assembly of God church in Pensacola, Florida, Lindell Cooley has ridden the wave of revival for almost a decade.

In his book The Secret Place of Joy, Lindell challenges readers to move from simply being a spectator of worship to being a daily worshiper. In a conversational tone, he discusses the importance of forgiveness, the role of the maturation process and the need for intimacy with God.

Cooley explains that worship is about loving God without condition or qualification. When we become the worshiper God longs for, then we will enter the secret place of joy.

The book is extremely easy to read, and Cooley’s down-to-earth approach to spiritual topics is refreshing. If you want to have a greater sense of joy, then read this book.
Margaret Feinberg

Think Like Jesus
By George Barna, Integrity Publishers,
224 pages, hardcover, $.

In George Barna’s research work, he has observed that it’s often hard to see a difference between Christians and non-Christians. In Think Like Jesus: A Revolutionary Approach to Making the Right Decision Every Time, Barna urges believers to be set apart and consciously develop a biblical worldview.

The author identifies seven core questions that Christians must be able to answer biblically in order to live transformed lives, including “What is the character and nature of God?” and “What spiritual authorities exist?” He then answers these questions from Scripture and provides practical applications.

Barna also presents fresh data revealing that less than one out of every born-again adult knows the foundational truths of the faith well enough to “think like Jesus.” His research questions, which are representative of traditional evangelical thinking, measure such diverse factors as prayer for the president, boycotting products and belief in the inerrancy of Scripture.

Barna doesn’t give a straightforward solution on how to train one’s mind to think biblically, but he does provide resources that will help in the formation of such a worldview. Most importantly, Barna acknowledges that committed Christians sometimes will differ in their opinions as to what a biblical worldview is, and in that light, he encourages a loving response.
Christine D. Johnson

FILMS

The Fighting Temptations
Paramount Pictures, PG-13.

Mix Sister Act and My Big Fat Greek Wedding with a large helping of gospel music and Southern charm and you get The Fighting Temptations. Several Christian musicians make cameo appearances including the Rev. Shirley Caesar, Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams. Also featured are pop singer Beyoncé Knowles, R&B legends The O’Jays, Melba Moore and others. The film opens in theatres across the nation September 19.

Darrin Fox (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a New York City advertising executive, compulsive liar, big spender and has creditors trying to chase him down. He returns to his small Georgia hometown to claim his inheritance. But there’s a catch. His great Aunt Sally stipulated in her will that he gets the money only if he leads the church choir to a national contest.

Challenged by a legalistic church sister, Fox tries to rebuild the choir, making promises he never intends to keep. He finds his new talent in a variety of places, from the barbershop to the county prison. But before long, the foundation on which Fox has built his seemingly successful life crumbles. He finally realizes what his lies have cost him and decides that truth is what really matters.

The best thing this movie has to offer is by far the music. Caesar has a cameo role and also gives a roaring vocal performance. Knowles’ stellar voice only adds to the quality of the film. Rapper T-bone is simply amazing and adds an entirely new dimension to the music. Many times throughout the film, moviegoers are going to want to tap their toes and clap their hands. The variety of characters from all backgrounds exemplify God’s love and desire to use anybody.

Several conversations and situations give this movie its PG-13 rating. However, Hollywood got a lot of things right and made a really fun film!
Leigh DeVore

NEWS

Frank Peretti Thriller Goes to the Movies
A film version of the suspense novelist’s Hangman’s Curse opens this month

Hangman’s Curse, a youth thriller by Frank Peretti, made an unprecedented move when it jumped to the top of the best-selling adult fiction charts shortly after its release. The harrowing tale is now slated to appear on the big screen in a handful of cities September 12.

Produced by Ralph Winter and Namesake Entertainment in association with Total Living Network and North By Northwest, the film marks Peretti’s first book to become a movie. For years fans have been asking the author when one of his titles, including This Present Darkness and The Visitation, would become a film. Peretti said Hangman’s Curse was chosen because it’s a smaller project.

“The Darkness books are further out because they’re so expensive to do,” he said. During the negotiating process, Namesake Entertainment picked up the film rights to Hangman’s Curse, Nightmare Academy (the second title in the The Veritas Project youth series ) and The Oath. Twentieth Century Fox still maintains rights to This Present Darkness and, according to Peretti, the script has no immediate production plans.

“[Namesake] wants to establish an ongoing relationship and put their best foot forward,” Peretti said. “[Hangman’s] is a good film to start with.”

The film follows the story of a family of investigators sent to unravel a mysterious curse plaguing a small-town high school. Directed by Rafael Zielinski, the film stars David Keith (Behind Enemy Lines), Mel Harris (Thirtysomething, K-9), Edwin Hodge (Die Hard With a Vengeance, The Long Kiss Goodnight), Jake Richardson (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) and Daniel Farber (Orange County).

Peretti has been heavily involved in the filming, which took place in Spokane, Washington, last summer. He has helped write and rewrite the script, has participated in auditions with actors, and he even played a supporting role as the investigator’s eccentric lab expert, Professor Algernon Wheeling.

“We adapted [the book] to the film, and it’s a good story,” Peretti said. “It moves fast. It’s suspenseful, but it’s a little different, and I was in the middle of that. That’s something about Namesake that’s very distinctive; they didn’t take my work and run off with it.”

He also noted that it is exciting to be part of a film that is not about the end times. “It’s like watching Jurassic Park I, II and III,” he said. “Why see the same movie again? There are other topics in the world [besides] future eschatology.”

The film has recieved a PG-13 rating , Peretti said, “but it’s not for any of the usual unsavory reasons. The only pivotal factor is the scariness; there’s no swearing or violence or sexual innuendoes or blood. But we didn’t want to make it hokey. It’s a fine line.”

The film opens in six markets September 12, according to Bobby Neutz, co-owner of Namesake Entertainment. The response to the theatrical release will determine the video-release date. If the response is strong, the company plans to roll it out into additional markets.
Margaret Feinberg

Sandtown, the inner-city children’s choir of third-through- eighth graders who live in the Sandtown community in Baltimore, Maryland, was birthed out of New Song Urban Ministries, who wanted to give a dying community the chance to revive itself. Now it is giving participants a chance to develop self-esteem, hone their talents and see the world.

“The choir is one compartment of a community-development program of comprehensive rebuilding of the Sandtown community,” says Steve Smallman, the choir’s executive director.

“Most kids are in the choir to spread the name of Jesus and to inspire people to go on and push to achieve their goals,” says 14-year-old choir member Anthony Gaither. “Most people are not used to hearing kids singing about God and just worshiping the Lord.”

Smallman lives in the neighborhood of Sandtown, where drugs are commonplace, and stealing was once such a way of life that you could watch thieves roll refrigerators down the community streets in shopping carts.

The Sandtown choir gives these kids something to strive for, a goal to achieve, and the knowledge that they can do anything they put their minds, spirits and energy to.

“You hear about young people getting killed every day; that’s a reality in our neighborhood,” Smallman says. “When the kids perform, you are getting a lot of genuine expression of hope and faith that they need.”

“They pretty much get on stage and demand that you love what they do,” says choir director Alvin Richardson. “‘Cute’ is the last thing you think once you hear them. They’ll just about blow the hair off your face.”

“We don’t back down from anybody,” agrees 12-year-old Sharandall Moses. “We just love to sing for the Lord.”
Natalie Nichols Gillespie

CHARISMATIC TOP SELLERS

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

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

3. Pigs in the Parlor
Frank and Ida Mae Hammond
(Impact Christian Books)

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

5. The Three Battlegrounds
Francis Frangipane (Arrow Publications)

6. No More Sheets
Juanita Bynum (Pneuma Life Publishing)

7. A Divine Revelation of Heaven
Mary K. Baxter (Whitaker House)

8. Prison to Praise
Merlin R. Carothers (Merlin R. Carothers)

9. The Believer’s Authority
Kenneth E. Hagin (Faith Library Publications)

10. Good Morning, Holy Spirit
Benny Hinn (Nelson)