Christians are divided in their support of Olusegun Obasanjo, who defeated Muhammadu Buhari at the polls in April
Few of today’s world leaders begin their day in a prayer meeting. But since Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president of Nigeria in 1999, he has knelt on the floor of his parlor at 7 a.m. on most weekdays with a group of advisers to ask for God’s guidance.

“Please pray for me today as I select my new cabinet,” Obasanjo said at his morning chapel service on May 22, just a month after his re-election. Looking like a tribal chief in dark African garb, the politician asked for prayer after he stood and read aloud the entire chapter of 2 Chronicles 20.

“The battle is not yours but God’s,” Obasanjo, 66, said in a muffled tone as he read the story of Jehoshaphat’s victory.

This weekday ritual has taken place for more than three years at Aso Rock, Nigeria’s official presidential compound. What makes the president’s faith remarkable is that he does not hide it from public view–in a nation where Muslims and Christians compete for dominance.

In Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, a mosque dominates the skyline, and the shrill Muslim call to prayer is heard daily before sunrise. Yet in this seemingly hostile setting, Nigeria’s Christian president surrounds himself with Baptist and Pentecostal aides and seeks counsel from pastors of the nation’s growing megachurches.

Obasanjo’s sudden rise to power resembles a biblical drama. He was imprisoned by his predecessor, Sani Abacha, a corrupt Muslim who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist from 1993 until his sudden death in 1998. While Obasanjo was in prison, he read only the Scriptures and wrote five books, including Sermons From Prison.

“He drew closer to God. His faith was reinvigorated,” said the president’s personal chaplain, Y.A. Obaje, a Baptist seminary president whose office at Aso Rock is in a house that once was used as Abacha’s residence.

“It is the first time we have had a king and a priest in one man,” Obaje said of Obasanjo. “We have professors who say, ‘If my president prays like this, I’d better get my life in order.'”

When he was elected to his first term, he immediately asked Obaje to build a Protestant chapel at the presidential villa. Today, Obasanjo attends services in the sanctuary every Sunday and hosts a monthly meeting for pastors there.

But in spite of these public religious displays, not all Nigerian Christians support their president–and some still view him as a military stooge. When he won his first term, prominent Pentecostal pastor Tunde Bakare prophesied that Obasanjo would die in office. After his re-election on April 19, another outspoken pastor, Chris Okotie, placed ads in Lagos’ largest newspaper declaring that the president would suffer God’s judgment.

And because the April election was tainted by widespread ballot fraud, some Christians claimed Obasanjo was just as corrupt as his Muslim opponent, Muhammadu Buhari–who tried unsuccessfully to stop Obasanjo’s May 29 inauguration.

Moses Iloh, leader of the Eclectic Movement of Nigeria, told Lifeway magazine that Obasanjo’s faith has not made a difference. “There is nothing there to show you that a Christian is in authority,” Iloh said.

What irks many Christians is that Nigeria’s worst problems have not been addressed since Obasanjo came to power. In fact, they contend that poverty and corruption have worsened. Once known as a rising economic power, Nigeria is now the 13th poorest nation in the world. The poverty level has skyrocketed from 27 percent in 1980 to 66 percent in 1996.

“We don’t need a Bible-thumping preacher in government,” said Lagos pastor Ladi Thompson, who added that Obasanjo failed during his first term by allowing states in northern Nigeria to adopt Islamic law, or Shariah. That has led to widespread persecution of Christians.

Other leaders in Lagos take a more tempered view. Saidu Dogo, an official with the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Charisma that Obasanjo is “just a baby in the Lord” whose recent conversion hasn’t affected all his political views. Dogo expressed hopes that the president, during his second term, will take Shariah law to court so it can be proved unconstitutional.

Lagos pastor Tony Rapu, who prayed with the president at his residence in May, said he views Obasanjo as the first step in a long process of national reformation.

“There is no question God has raised up this man,” Rapu said. “Having a Christian president is a powerful step. We might not all like his personal policies, but surely God has used this man like a Moses to bring us out of the bondage of military rule and dictatorship.”

And what happens after the first step? Rapu believes someone else will have to solve the problems of poverty, environmental degradation and corruption. “I don’t see Obasanjo taking us into the promised land,” Rapu said. “There is still much work to be done.”
J. Lee Grady in Abuja, Nigeria

Ruth Jones believes God sent her to the struggling school in Grand Rapids to give the students ‘a chance at life’

The moment Ruth Jones stepped into the building, she knew it was going to be bad.

The Grand Rapids, Mich., public elementary school known as Henry Paideia Academy “looked like the ruins of something,” she said. The building was dark and cold, and “there were no pictures … no signs anywhere that children were inhabiting this place.”

But as she stood in the hall, she said God began to reveal His plan for the school that was on the verge of closing. “He let the hallway appear pitch black all around me,”

Jones said. “But where I stood there was light. If I moved, the light moved. He said, ‘You are the light in this place now.'”

That was 10 years ago when Henry Academy was about to become the only school in Grand Rapids’ history to be closed because of failure. A study had shown that in 10 years only a quarter of its students had graduated from high school, and none had gone on to college.

Today students from Henry Paideia (which means “the upbringing of a child” in Greek) are not only graduating from high school, they’re joining the National Honor Society.

The school’s dramatic turnaround has been the subject of media reports, and the academy has received numerous awards and accolades, as well as visits from former Michigan Gov. John Engler and then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

What’s more the 300-student school that once faced closure has a waiting list.

At the center of the transformation stands Jones, a celebrated inner-city schoolteacher who didn’t have a master’s degree or experience in administration and never wanted to be a principal. But when her file somehow ended up on the superintendent’s desk as a candidate to lead the struggling school, she sensed God leading her to pursue the position.

A 20-member panel interviewed her, asking for an introduction and her philosophy on education. “I told them how the Lord changed my life,” Jones said. “I told them, ‘God is bringing me to this school because He wants to heal these children and give them a chance at life.'”

Ninety minutes after her interview, she was named head of the school. That’s when her work began. The school had long been dysfunctional. “One teacher stacked books on her desk like a fort so the children wouldn’t hit her,” Jones said.

Many of the students lived in poverty, and their neighborhoods were infested with drugs and crime. Jones said she began to pray that God’s anointing would destroy every yoke keeping the children from learning, a habit she maintains.

“When I touch these children, I know I am in covenant with [God], and these bondages will drop off,” Jones said.

Jones addressed their practical needs too. Some children came to school dirty, so she installed four washing machines and dryers to clean their clothes.

“It’s not always easy [teaching at the school],” said fourth-grade teacher Rozanna Lee. “Some of these students have a lot of emotional baggage. I tell them that it is amazing what they have to deal with and still make it to school.”

A staff of 100 volunteers does everything from comb hair to tutor in reading and math. The school teaches parenting skills, and church groups and businesses help provide food and clothing.

“I was inspired to get involved by President Bush’s speech to do something for the community,” said volunteer Patsy Lucas. “By working one on one with the same child every week, I feel that I brought some stability to the life of that child.”

Jones fights to give her students the same quality of life children from wealthier neighborhoods have. “We act like just because a child is poor, they are going to be able to do without all the things our kids have and be the same as our kids and come out all right. We sow nothing, we reap nothing,” Jones said.

Even 10 years later, Jones is still amazed at how the school changed. “There’s nothing particularly great about me. [God] just said, ‘You’ll do,'” Jones said.

“I know I can do anything if I align myself with God.”
Jean Van Houten in Grand Rapids, Mich.

A Moscow-based ministry has converted portions of Scripture into 62 languages in the world’s largest country
Mikhail Kindruk and other Pentecostal missionaries spent 20 days traveling by boat along the remote rivers of eastern Siberia, visiting 25 villages inaccessible by road. What they found, he said, was astonishing: even a full decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, no one had heard of Jesus.

“Not one person had a Bible. Not one person had heard the gospel,” Kindruk said. “In every village, practically everyone came out to hear the Gospels and to get a Bible from us.”

About half of the literature distributed in last summer’s trip is provided by the Institute for Bible Translation, an ecumenical Christian organization that has been working in the world’s largest country since 1973, first secretly and now with varying degrees of openness.

Perhaps more than any other Christian organization, the institute has laid the groundwork for evangelizing the 130 ethnic and language groups of the former Soviet Union by working to provide them with Scripture in their native languages. The institute’s most popular publication–with 8 million copies in the last 20 years–is the Children’s Bible.

“To date, I think this is the best one. It is very accessible to kids and even to adults,” Kindruk said, noting its usefulness to those encountering Christianity for the first time. “Out there … people don’t know God at all. There was a lady who came home to her husband and said, ‘Today, I accepted Jesus.’ He got indignant and said, ‘Who is this Jesus?’ He thought Jesus was another man.”

Aside from the Children’s Bible, the institute specializes in translating the Bible into the languages spoken by ethnic minorities throughout the former Soviet Union, a vast area spanning 11 time zones. Although the majority of people speak Russian, evangelists said it makes a huge difference for people to read the Bible in their mother tongue.

“People think in their own language, so it is one less step mentally for them to read the Gospels in their own language,” noted Kindruk, who spent 10 years building the Pentecostal Church of Jesus the Savior in Chita, a remote Russian city of 400,000 north of the Mongolian border.

In his work in Chita, Kindruk said he often encounters Buryats, a historically Buddhist people with their own language. So far all he has been able to offer them is a brochure about Jesus. This year, however, the institute plans on publishing the Children’s Bible in the Buryat language. In the coming years, the entire New Testament will be published in Buryat, says Natalya Gorbunova, one of the institute’s 30 employees.

“Irrespective of the number speaking their language, we consider that every nation has the right to read the Bible, or at least a portion of it,” Gorbunova said.

Boris Arapovic, a charismatic Christian from the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia, founded the institute in 1973. He set up shop in Stockholm, cobbled together funds from Scandinavian churches and set about the daunting task of translating Scriptures into the non-Slavic languages of the Soviet Union.

Today, the institute is centered in Moscow and boasts 62 translations ranging from a full Bible for the 8 million Tajiks to the Gospel of Luke for the 2,000 Itelmen people living on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East.

“We thought this would just be a book for the libraries,” Gorbunova said of the Itelmen translation of Luke in 2002. “But then the local archbishop organized dog teams to deliver it and presented it to schools and libraries. People were so happy. It was a major event. We’ve never had a response like that.”

There are up to 60 million Muslims living in the former Soviet Union. Some countries–most notably Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan–severely restrict the institute’s work by denying visas or thwarting shipments. The leaders of other Muslim regions are welcoming.

“For the people who don’t have printed books, even if they are Muslims, it is a special honor for them to have a holy book in their language,” Gorbunova said.

Gorbunova said she is devoting more time to fund raising and developing contacts in the United States to help cover the institute’s $800,000 annual budget.

“For the last few years the institute has experienced very big financial difficulties,” she said, adding that a donation of $ covers the cost of one Children’s Bible and $ pays for a New Testament.
Frank Brown in Moscow

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Contributions to this Russian Bible translation project are being matched by an anonymous donor. Send your tax-deductible gifts to Christian Life Missions, “Russian Bibles,” P.O. Box 952248, Lake Mary, FL 32795-2248.

The Church of God and the Church of God of Prophecy are linking for a three-year effort of cooperative evangelism
The announcement of a joint evangelistic effort by two long-estranged denominations is being welcomed as not only a major step in the healing of one of Pentecostalism’s deepest divisions, but also the foretaste of a new level of unity in the wider movement.

The agreement between the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) and the Church of God of Prophecy (COGOP)–which between them claim 7 million members worldwide–was unveiled at the end of April. It sees the two groups linking for a three-year effort of cooperative evangelism, which is viewed as a significant attempt to repair the breach–officially described by COGOP as an “awful schism”–that stems back 70 years.

Though the two churches have their international headquarters on the same street in Cleveland, they have relationally been worlds apart since COGOP was founded in 1923 after A.J. Tomlinson was ousted as leader of the Church of God in a dispute over church government.

In their statement, Church of God general overseer R. Lamar Vest and COGOP general overseer Fred Fisher Sr., described the initiative as “a practical demonstration of the common purposes and spiritual heritage” of their two groups. “Because of the evangelistic opportunities presented by a global spiritual harvest, [we recognize] the value of a cooperative use of available human and financial resources.”

The program launches this month and will be led by a six-member committee. COGOP evangelist William Wilson was appointed international minister of outreach of the initiative, which will involve joint services and evangelistic meetings in the United States and abroad.

The seeds of the joint effort were sown a year ago at a historic meeting in Washington, D.C., that assembled around 30 leaders of the country’s major Pentecostal and charismatic movements for a first-of-its-kind roundtable.

The group–including senior figures from Word-Faith, charismatic, and traditional and Oneness Pentecostal streams–met for three days with no agenda other than to get to know one another better and pray together.

Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan, dean of the School of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia, called the Together 2002 meeting “truly a first,” adding that the recent Church of God-COGOP announcement was very significant.

“It’s a step in the right direction for everybody and serves as a concrete example of what can be done, because they were not even on speaking terms for decades,” he told Charisma.

Fisher said that although Together 2002 was important, relations between COGOP and the Church of God had been improving in recent years. Vest could not be reached for comment.

Together 2002 was convened by the Center for Spiritual Renewal (CSR) in Cleveland, whose director Robert Fisher was “very excited” about the joint agreement. “It is an indicator of what the Lord is doing in general in terms of bringing down denominational walls,” he said.

Many of those who attended Together 2002, joined by other key figures who had not been able to attend last year, regrouped in May for Together 2003, which followed a similar format.

Jeff Farmer, president of Open Bible Churches, said he came away “even more encouraged” than last year. “Clearly, one of the future elements is cooperative ventures and ministry initiatives,” he said, adding that he had been “exchanging ideas with another Pentecostal group on how we can work together.”

Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Okla., who attended for the second time, said he believed Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17 was being fulfilled. “Friendships are being established that cross denominational lines,” he said. “Out of relationship comes communication and cooperation.”

The informal Together network is expected to play a key role in the worldwide gathering being planned in Los Angeles in April 2006 to mark the centennial of the Azusa Street Revival.

CSR is spearheading the event, which will include both a celebration of the birth of the modern Pentecostal movement and an assessment of where it has come since.
Andy Butcher

Graham’s previous visit to the city 27 years ago was nearly derailed due to racial and denominational divisions
In a dramatic contrast to Billy Graham’s last visit to the area, the evangelist’s recent Mission San Diego crusade saw record-breaking attendance at its children’s and youth outreaches, as well as 16,000 decisions for Christ over four days.

Local pastors say the success of the crusade–which brought 270,000 people through Qualcomm Stadium May 8-11–reflected the unprecedented cooperation of 650 area churches representing 66 denominations. Local ministers invited Graham in late 2002, but because of the 84-year-old’s failing health, they did not have the usual two years to plan.

“We had only four months from start to finish to unite the churches for the mission,” said pastor Jim Garlow of Skyline Church, a charismatic congregation in San Diego. “I asked the pastors to lay down their egos and their logos at the foot of the cross and lift up only the name of Jesus, and that is what they did.”

Racial and denominational division all but derailed Graham’s previous outreach 27 years ago, said Bishop George McKinney of St. Stephen’s Church of God in Christ, who was in charge of organizing the 1976 meeting. Participation was low, and several local churches boycotted the event.

“It’s pretty common knowledge that during the civil-rights movement the white evangelical church did not sense the pain and the cries and that longing for justice,” McKinney told The Southern California Christian Times. The Anglo community felt “we should be content with the status quo.”

Rick Marshall, director of North American ministries for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), said the show of unity in San Diego this year was historic. “In the 23 years I have been with Billy Graham, I have never seen so many churches draw together on such short notice anywhere in the world,” he said. “It is historic, and it wasn’t us laying the groundwork. It was God.”

More than 20,000 volunteers served as counselors and distributed 60,000 backpacks filled with food and other basic supplies to homeless teens. The BGEA also gave 10,000 military families $20 gift certificates to Wal-Mart, as many of the troops sent to the Middle East were deployed from San Diego.

Organizers said the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, coupled with a shooting at a San Diego County high school and the abduction and murder of Danielle van Dam in February 2002 contributed to the cooperation at this year’s event.

“Desperation, trouble and adversity bring people together, and differences don’t seem that important anymore,” Marshall told Charisma. “The tragic events in San Diego over the last three years have created a sense of humility and pulling together.”

Former San Diego Chargers kicker Rolf Benirschke, who was the mission chair, agreed that the community needed to be comforted. “Billy Graham’s visit to San Diego is a gift from God because the community needs healing,” he said. “This mission is not a Christian party, but a desire of the Christian community for San Diegans to know the hope and future one can have through a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

McKinney, one of this year’s organizers, said the attention given to the diverse communities in San Diego and bordering Mexico also contributed to the its success. The services, at which Graham issued his classic call for salvation, were translated into 16 languages, including Spanish, Korean and Japanese. And in what local pastors said was a rare show of cooperation, churches in Tijuana, Mexico, united with San Diego congregations in planning the event.

“Though times appear to be frightening, these are the best days in the history of the world because there has never been such a spiritual hunger as there is now,” said Fermin Garcia, pastor of Unidad Cristiana church in Tijuana.

At a press conference before the event, Graham asked local leaders not to look to Mission San Diego but through it for the broader things God is doing.

“The mission wasn’t about all of the different churches getting together,” Garlow told Charisma. “It was about the church, the one body of Christ in San Diego sharing the hope of Jesus Christ.”
Daniel E. Kennedy in San Diego

Hosanna Church, which recently dedicated a multimillion-dollar facility in Managua, leads hundreds to Christ weekly
More than 3,000 people gathered in Managua, Nicaragua, for the recent dedication of Hosanna Church’s multimillion-dollar sanctuary.

Sitting atop a hill overlooking Lake Managua, the facility is home to the largest evangelical center in the nation, which sees more than 500 decisions for Christ each week, regularly receives reports of miracles that occur during its TV program and hosts daily radio broadcasts.

At its helm is pastor David Spencer, who once fled the nation after becoming a target for the ruling Sandinista regime. Today he is described as a dynamic and motivational speaker who has helped win thousands to Christ in one of the world’s poorest nations.

“David Spencer is the most impressive person I know,” said Thomas Paino Jr., former pastor of Lakeview Christian Center in Indianapolis who helped build Hosanna Church. Spencer, who was translating for Paino at the dedication service in October, refused to translate the comment.

Impressive or not, Spencer is influential. Former Nicaragua President Arnoldo Alemán sought him out for prayer and counsel after Alemán was charged with laundering more than $100 million of government funds. Spencer prayed daily with Alemán, who left office in 2002 and is currently under house arrest awaiting trial.

A son of U.S. missionaries, Spencer, 58, first came to Nicaragua with his parents in the 1960s, then returned in the 1980s to preach during the Sandinista war. Under scrutiny from the Marxist-Leninist regime, Spencer received death threats after he spoke before 20,000 people in the national stadium. After several deportations and a jailing, Spencer left Nicaragua in the late 1980s vowing not to return unless God gave the word.

In the early 1990s, after the defeat of the Sandinistas, Spencer was invited to Nicaragua to speak at a pastors conference. During the meeting some pastors told him they believed he was called to Nicaragua. Then leading a large church in Panama, Spencer determined that he would return only if God confirmed it.

A short time later two ministers separately told him they believed God wanted him to return to Nicaragua. Upon his return to Panama, Spencer said he began to sense God confirming their words during his own times of prayer.

Within two months Spencer and his wife, Bonnie, were on their way to Nicaragua. Before he arrived, Spencer called a real estate agent and asked her to check the price on a piece of land he had seen on a hill overlooking Lake Managua.

The owner demanded $525,000 and a six-month “buy” period. If he did not complete the purchase in time, Spencer would forfeit all funds paid and lose the land. Spencer said that was the beginning of his walk of faith. Before then, he said, the largest amount of money he had ever received was $20,000.

The first payment of $60,000 arrived on time. Then the second payment of $70,000 arrived on time. The third payment of $150,000 was slow coming. At the last minute, he received a call from a donor offering $100,000. Raising the balance didn’t seem so daunting after that.

Since then, Spencer, who is on the board of directors of Paul Yonggi Cho’s church in Korea, has purchased more land to build a prayer mountain, and bought a small radio station. Now he has his sights on starting a TV station, and he’s searching for more property to build a school and preschool, and grow a farm.

And Spencer said he isn’t afraid to ask God for more. “You know that Scripture ‘Ask and you shall receive?’ Well, what is the next word? It’s ‘seek and you shall find.'” he told Charisma. “It is fervent asking, fervent seeking and fervent knocking. It’s perseverance. It’s tenacity. If you are doing something that you can do alone it probably is not from the Lord.”
Joan Wilson Carter in Managua, Nicaragua

The shipments of surplus Christian literature sent by an Illinois-based ministry have helped bring thousands to Christ
It’s an unlikely sounding strategy for world evangelism, but Steven Schmidt credits some simple spring-cleaning with bringing thousands of people to Christ and starting scores of new churches in other parts of the world.

The former Assemblies of God pastor gathers surplus Christian literature and ships it overseas to parts where the otherwise trashbound materials are like gold dust.

Schmidt solicits literature from publishers, Christian bookstores, churches and individual believers, asking them to go through their materials and pass along anything they don’t need anymore.

This year alone his Butler, Love Packages ministry aims to send about 700 tons of discarded and unused books and curriculum. “We have an abundance, a glut of inspiration and information in this country,” he told Charisma, “but for people in other parts of the world it’s gold.”

Schmidt told of visiting a Bible college in the Philippines where only 10 of the 70 students had a Bible of their own, and another in Africa where the school library consisted of just four short shelves of old books.

In 1999 he visited Zambia and met with government and church leaders, later sending two containers of Christian literature. As a result of the distribution, churches recorded almost 160,000 decisions for Christ, he said.

Raised in the Lutheran Church, Schmidt dropped out as a young man, turning to drugs, alcohol and rock ‘n’ roll. Then he became a Christian and entered the ministry. In the summer of 1975, he sensed God telling him in regard to some old Christian magazines he had lying around his home: “You’re wasting that.”

He gathered it up, eventually shipping 60 boxes of literature to missionaries overseas in just 12 months. Other people began passing along their castoffs as word of his efforts got around.

Individuals and churches across the country started mailing him materials, too. The work grew so much that he stepped down from the pastorate to devote himself full time to Love Packages.

The ministry took over an old school in Butler, and the several tons of mail it receives each week not only saved the small community’s post office from closure, but also required the building of an additional room to accommodate all the materials.

Schmidt drives to collect large donations from publishers including the Assemblies of God and the Southern Baptists, who give him excess Sunday school and vacation Bible school materials, as well as devotionals.

Some Christian bookstore owners promote Love Packages to their customers, and even pass along unsold publications that they cannot return for one reason or another. Sometimes they donate Bibles on which a name may have been inaccurately embossed.

“We can never get enough Bibles,” said Schmidt, who has traveled to more than 25 countries to arrange and check on distribution of his supplies. “It’s hard for us in America to understand that there are pastors overseas that don’t have their own Bibles, but that is the case.”

Jim Whitaker of New Life Christian Stores in Lynchburg, Va., supports Love Packages by collecting the donations from his local church–Victory Christian Center–and adding items from his store before mailing the box.

“Maybe books that are not returnable, but are not selling and are just sitting there on the shelf, or leftover Sunday school materials,” he said. “There are folks that will benefit that we will never see, but don’t have the ability to obtain products that we do [in this country]. We want to be able to bless others with the blessings God has given us.”

Individual packages sent fourth-class book rate arrive in the mail and are sorted by teams of volunteers. Cult and secular publications are weeded out, as are magazines with too much advertising or irrelevant material.

Schmidt said he had heard “thrilling stories” of how Love Packages shipments had made an impact. He was told that a tract from some literature he sent to India had been given to a paralyzed Hindu man who was healed and saved, later becoming a traveling evangelist.

“Thousands have come to the Lord and tens of thousands have received a witness through Love Packages literature,” Schmidt’s Indian contacts informed him.

“I have been doing this for a long time, but it still blows my mind, when I see the lack of materials [overseas],” he said.
Andy Butcher

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.

BISHOPS ENDORSE CARLTON PEARSON
At its annual meeting in May, the International Communion of Charismatic Churches (ICCC) “affirmed and confirmed” that Bishop Carlton Pearson of Tulsa, Okla., is a member in “good standing.” Pearson has caused a firestorm for preaching universal reconciliation, which says no confession in Jesus as Savior is needed to go to heaven. “We … recognize him as a valuable leader in the body of Christ,” said the ICCC statement, which was signed by Earl Paulk, the group’s presiding bishop. Bishop David Huskins, another signatory, said universal reconciliation was not discussed at the meeting, but that the statement is an endorsement of Pearson and not his doctrine. Pearson raised concerns recently when he said he believes Satan himself may go to heaven.

CANADIAN COURT OPENS DOOR FOR GAY MARRIAGE
Two Toronto men wed June 11 in North America’s first legal gay marriage after an Ontario, Canada, appeals court ruled that the heterosexual definition of matrimony was unconstitutional. The court also ordered marriage licenses issued to nine homosexual couples involved in the case, the Associated Press reported. The Canadian government did not challenge the ruling. Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec have allowed gay civil unions, but not full marriage. Conservative groups blasted the ruling.

MOVIE NUMBER PROMPTS DIVINE INTERRUPTIONS
A pastor and a Christian couple have been answering calls to God after their telephone number appeared on a fictional pager in the new Jim Carrey hit comedy, Bruce Almighty. Carrey stars as a constant complainer who receives the powers of God, who tries to reach Carrey by repeatedly leaving a phone number on his pager. But instead of the usual fictitious 555 prefix used by most TV shows and films, God’s exchange is listed as 776. When people in Sanford, N.C., dial the number, they reach Bruce MacInnes, pastor of Turner’s Chapel Church, the Associated Press reported. In Horrell Hill, S.C., David and Myrtle Hallman received more than 30 phone calls the week after the film opened, The (Columbia) State reported.

EUROPE ‘THE NEW MISSION FIELD’
Ugandan minister Arnold Muwone is part of a new breed of missionaries in Europe who are coming from countries once on the receiving end of evangelistic efforts. Muwone said his Pentecostal ministry “targets first and foremost the British people as a gesture of thank-you for coming to Africa and bringing us the gospel,” Time magazine said in a report examining how Christianity is becoming a minority faith in Europe. The newsweekly also mentioned a 1,500-strong church in a Paris suburb founded by an Indian man, Selvaraj Rajiah, whose members are almost all from outside France. The report also noted the success of Alpha, a discipleship course launched at a charismatic Anglican church in London that has spread to more than 130 countries since 1992.

T.D. Jakes Urges Pastors To Confront Racism

Bishop T.D. Jakes challenged pastors to preach against prejudice during the National Conference on Racism in the Church in Fairfield, Ohio, June 12. “We must preach against racism … until people are … falling on the altar and confessing racist behavior,” he said, The Cincinnati Post reported. Jakes was a keynote speaker at the three-day event organized by Cincinnati Area Pastors . Others included Bill Hybels, Fred Price and Glenn Plummer, chairman of National Religious Broadcasters.

Pastor Ron Mehl Dies

Oregon pastor Ron Mehl died May 30 after a 20-year battle with leukemia. He was 59. Mehl was senior pastor of 6,000-member Beaverton Foursquare Church in suburban Portland, and supervisor of the Columbia District of Foursquare Churches. Mehl hosted a daily radio program and wrote several books, including Right With God, the official handbook for the 2003 National Day of Prayer. Mehl is survived by his wife, Joyce, and their two sons, Ron Jr. and Mark.

Leon Patillo Arrested

Former Santana lead vocalist-turned-Christian minister Leon Patillo, 56, was arrested recently “over a real estate check,” his wife, Renee, told Charisma. “It’s not ministry related,” she said. “It’s from a long time ago. That’s all I know.” The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Patillo was being held at the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino, Calif. Patillo reportedly had not been allowed to post bail.

MUSIC

To the Ends of the Earth
By United, Integrity Music.

If you haven’t heard of them, United is Australia’s best-selling modern worship team. They are the house worship band for Hillsong Church’s (Darlene Zschech) weekly Friday night youth service, which attracts more than 2,000 teens and young adults.

To the Ends of the Earth was recorded live at “Encounterfest” in Sydney last September and features the vocals of Marty Sampson, Reuben Morgan and a young cast of songwriters sporting some major talent. Standouts include the pop worshipful “All About You,” the tempered prayerful “All” and the hopeful “Glory.”

Although the cover of the album describes the work as “high-octane” modern worship, the recording rides in a comfortable, accessible fourth gear rather than an all-out fifth, making it highly enjoyable. If you enjoy Passion worship CDs, the bands Delirious or Sonicflood, then you’ll love this modern worship recording.
Margaret Feinberg

Again
By Donnie McClurkin, Verity.

Platinum-selling recording artist Donnie McClurkin found success in mainstream circles with his megahit “We Fall Down.” But songs such as “Speak to My Heart” and “Stand” have long made him a favorite with gospel fans. No doubt he’ll gain more with his new release titled Again.

The title tune, a smoothed out, relaxing cut, is a reminder to us that no matter the problem, we can go to God repeatedly. “The Prayer,” originally recorded by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, is redone beautifully with full orchestration by McClurkin and gospel’s sweetheart, Yolanda Adams. “All I Ever Really Wanted,” penned by McClurkin himself, is another pretty tune.

“Yes, You Can,” an infectious inspirational tune and the calypso-sounding “I’m Walking” are two lively cuts. A classic from Walter Hawkins, “Special Gift,” has been tastefully covered as well on Again. “Holy” and “Create in Me a Clean Heart,” both worshipful songs, allow the listener to bask in the presence of God. Other favorites include the Kevin Bond-penned track “Heart to Soul” and “So in Love With God.” “He’s Calling You” clearly summons the unbeliever to Christ.

Throughout this breathtaking collection of songs, this anointed man of God sings with passion and conviction. This is another solid project, lyrically and musically, from one of gospel’s finest.
Andrea R. Williams

She Must and Shall Go Free
By Derek Webb, Ino Records.

If you’re unfamiliar with Derek Webb, he was the bassist for the folk-rock band Caedmon’s Call for almost a decade. Now he’s gone solo with his debut record-ing, She Must and Shall Go Free. But don’t think for a moment the singer-songwriter has left his rootsy rock background. Songs such as the title cut and “Nobody Loves Me” carry a guitar-strummin’ smoothness that has made Caedmon’s a staple for college students for years.

The “she” Webb refers to in the album’s title is the church, and his subtley edgy lyrics address themes of idolatry, faithfulness and purity. Yet unlike other songwriters and artists, Web isn’t harsh in his criticism of the church, but rather humbly encourages and challenges her to become all she can for Christ’s sake. Standouts include the swinging swank of “Nothing (Without You)” and the thoughtfulness of “Wedding Dress.”

If you enjoy Caedmon’s Call, Rich Mullins or Keith Green, you’ll love this album.
Margaret Feinberg

BOOKS

The Beloved Disciple
By Beth Moore, Broadman & Holman,
352 pages, hardcover, $.

In her latest Bible study, The Beloved Disciple, Beth Moore looks at familiar Scripture from the perspective of John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” as John’s Gospel states his identity.

Moore traces John’s steps with the Savior through the synoptic Gospels and through all of John’s writings–his Gospel, his epistles in 1, 2 and 3 John, and Revelation. She states outright the one-liner we should take away from the study: “Affection counts for more than ambition.”

Indeed, Moore wants her readers, like John, to learn that Christ “calls His beloved disciples to forsake ambition for affection.” Moore believes only disciples who are “convinced they are beloved will in turn love beyond themselves.”

Moore’s journey is intertwined with John’s journey to receive Christ’s love and to bestow it on others. Readers learn deeply personal events from Moore’s own life in which Christ’s love abounds and she in turn became a blessing. As the book progresses and Moore continually refers to her readers as “Beloved,” the address takes on richer and richer significance. Through Moore, we feel intensely the humanity and warmth of the Savior’s love, and want to rush to share this passion with others.

As with Moore’s previous Bible studies, The Beloved Disciple is encouraged for use in group settings, and materials are available to facilitate this use. If, however, you only read the book in the quiet of your private study, you will still realize there is no greater ambition than to walk with Love.
Pamela Robinson

The Ancient Language of Eden
By Don Milam, Destiny Image
Publishers, 191 pages, softcover, $.

Don Milam takes readers on a profound literary journey to discover what he calls “the original language of Jesus” in The Ancient Language of Eden. Fresh out of Bible college, Milam was well-versed in theological jargon, but found he could not communicate in settings that were foreign to him, whether overseas or at home. With a bloated soul but a starving spirit, he tells the story of how he reached out to the Father and learned a language that was new to him–a language of love, grace and mercy.

Despite the obscure title, The Ancient Language of Eden is relevant and compelling. Milam tells of his trials working with alcoholics in the inner city, being hauled off to prison in Mozambique, watching his marriage start to slip away and giving up the ministry for a time to become a painter.

Milam writes of the spiritual hunger in God’s people to shed the chains of religious slavery and run toward His loving arms. He urges readers to journey back to the biblical Garden of Eden where the language of the Father is spoken–the ancient language of love, grace and mercy.
Debra L. Edgar

The Seven Cries of Today’s Teens
By Timothy Smith, Integrity Publishers,
241 pages, softcover, $.

Based on a Gallup survey, The Seven Cries of Today’s Teens offers a well-informed, enlighten-ing presentation of our teens’ top seven needs.

Family counselor and Gallup Institute Fellow Timothy Smith devotes one chapter to each need–the need for trust, for love, for security, for purpose, to be heard, to be valued and for support.

Each need is a “cry,” Smith insists, “a signal, a call for help or a demand for attention. It does not necessarily have to be a cry of sorrow or pain–but it will become that if no one responds.”

These are the cries of “the millenial generation.” Smith says a millenial is generally defined as a young person who was born after 1981, noting that the first millenials graduated in the high school class of 2000.

In spite of and because of the violence known in the millenial generation, Smith has discovered these young people are “neo-traditionalists” at heart. They value relationships over possessions and desire time with family and friends and to have clear “borders” set for them.

Smith concludes each chapter with discussion questions designed for parent to parent and parent to teen. A “Responding to the Cry” section follows the questions and provides “tools to use at home” and “tools to use at church.” Not only parents and church youth ministers, but also any adult with a heart for ministry will want to respond to give today’s teens the help and attention they crave.

This book is a must-read in these challenging times.
Pamela Robinson

A Call to the Secret Place
By Michal Ann Goll, Destiny Image,
191 pages, softcover, $.

Deep intimacy with God is in the “secret place” Michal Ann Goll refers to in her book titled A Call to the Secret Place. Who is welcome in the secret place, and how does one get there? Goll says God invites every Christian, and one arrives by being alone with God–focused and receptive to His love–and meditating on His Word.

In this follow-up to her book Women on the Front Lines, Goll highlights the lives of seven women, including Susanna Wesley and Fanny Crosby, who exemplify total surrender to Christ. One of Goll’s contemporary subjects is Gwen Shaw, who has preached and prophesied in many nations.

Goll’s tone is conversational. However, she relies heavily on metaphors to communicate her points throughout the book, managing to integrate them successfully in the final chapter.
Leslie Santamaria

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Karen Davis must pray for protection when she goes to the bank or the grocery store. A worship leader, pastor’s wife and a Messianic Jew living in Haifa, Israel, Davis could have stayed in New York, where she and her husband, David, a Broadway director and actor, were part of the street-ministry outreach of Times Square Church.

But one trip to Israel changed the direction of their lives. From the moment they landed until they left two weeks later, Karen wept.

Immigrating to Israel in 1989, the Davises ministered to drug addicts and alcoholics, founding a rehabilitation center for both Jews and Arabs and a new congregation called Kehilat HaCarmel (Carmel Assembly), built on the very top of Mount Carmel, near where Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal.

“For over a decade now we have witnessed the miracle of the transforming power of God’s love as He works in the hearts of afflicted men to be reconciled to Him through the blood of Yeshua and then toward each other,” Karen says.

Now citizens of Israel, the Davises live in an atmosphere of tension. Karen’s response as a psalmist has been recorded on her new release with Galilee of the Nations, Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace).

The album contains fresh Messianic worship songs birthed out of her longing to unite Jews, Arabs and Gentiles to Yeshua, the Prince of Peace. Once news of the album gets out, Karen expects that she will hear from people all over the world who are connecting to the new heavenly sounds emerging from Israel today.
Marsha Gallardo

CHARISMATIC TOP SELLERS

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

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

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

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

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

6. The Three Battlegrounds
Francis Frangipane (Arrow Publications)

7. The Tongue: A Creative Force
Charles Capps (Harrison House)

8. The Final Quest
Rick Joyner (Whitaker House)

9. A Divine Revelation of the Spirit Realm
Mary K. Baxter (Whitaker House)

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

CHARISMA RECOMMENDS

They Felt the Spirit’s Touch
By Scott Hagan, Charisma House,
256 pages, softcover, $.

Scott Hagan explores the lives of 20 obscure people mentioned in the book of Acts, including Stephen, Cornelius and Apollos. Hagan expounds on the biblical narrative with humor and thought-provoking character development. Rich in imagery, this book shows how the Spirit moved in ordinary lives to change the first-century world.

Bible Health Secrets
By Reginald Cherry, M.D.;
Siloam Press; 224 pages; hardcover; $.

Dr. Reginald Cherry believes the Bible holds the secrets to healing from
cancer and other diseases. In this new book he outlines the Bible’s food restrictions as well as preventative herbs and spices mentioned in Scripture. Readers will discover a spiritual and dietary lifestyle that they can easily apply in order to experience abundant health.

Daniel Notes
By Greg Hinnant, Creation House Press,
320 pages, softcover, $.

Author, teacher and pastor Greg Hinnant takes readers on a journey exploring the life of an amazing man. This commentary on Daniel is well-researched, thoroughly cross-referenced and scholarly. Yet, Hinnant keeps it down to earth, easy to read and practical. Readers will be inspired by Daniel’s ultimate faith, absolute loyalty,
fiery testing and amazing rewards. But most importantly Daniel experienced the fullest and richest knowledge of God–available to all believers.

Catch the Wave
By Steven Cole, Creation House Press,
96 pages, softcover, $.

Steven Cole believes we can have a real and personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. Cole teaches who the Holy Spirit is, what the gifts of the Spirit are and how the Spirit moves. The author wants believers to catch the wave and use the power of the Holy Spirit to bring glory to God and fulfill His purpose for their lives.

Secretos del corazón
(Matters of the Heart)
By Juanita Bynum, Casa Creación,
204 pages, softcover, $.

In this Spanish translation of her newest book, Bible teacher Juanita Bynum explores the close connection between the heart and mind–and she explains why this key to intimacy with God is so vital. Bynum says she was shocked when God told her she was not concerned with the condition of her heart even though she was faithfully serving Him. Readers may discover deceit in their own hearts when they read this painfully transparent account of spiritual growth and the integrity it requires.

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To order these books call (800) 599-5750 or go to .

MUSIC

Gotta Serve Somebody:
The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan
By Various Artists, Word.

This collection of black gospel-style music must have been what was in Bob Dylan’s head back when he was recording his pivotal Slow Train Coming and Saved albums. But because Dylan is a white folk singer from Minnesota, his particular spin on church music took on a unique flavor all its own.

This new release offers a distinct contrast to Dylan’s original recordings, and may be why Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan is so much fun. It gives listeners the chance to hear Shirley Caesar testifying with the title track, the Fairfield Four giving “Are You Ready” a traditional quartet treatment and Aaron Neville injecting soulful sweetness into the track “Saving Grace.”

In the late ’70s, when Dylan shocked the music world by revealing his conversion to Christianity, these songs were subjects of much controversy and debate. But in the hands of these A-level gospel and soul artists, they clearly stand the test of time as sincere testimonies of faith. Not everything works here, however. Sounds of Blackness, for example, give “Solid Rock” the full choir treatment, but it sounded much more powerful in its original rocking version. Overall, Dylan fans should get a kick out of this compilation of finely written songs, sung particularly well.
Dan MacIntosh

You and You Alone
By Various Artists,
Vineyard Music.

You and You Alone, the latest offering in the Vineyard Worship series, embodies a collection of worship songs especially geared to today’s modern church. The album features well-known Vineyard worship leaders Dan Wilt and Kathryn Scott, who focus on helping listeners get in tune with God and the very essence of who He really is through these 13 contemporary praise songs.

From the opening, upbeat title track to the catchy “Your Amazing Love,” the project is packed with refreshing songs that will appeal to anyone who has a heart prepared to worship. The music is simple and melodic, allowing the compelling messages of the lyrics to be this project’s primary strength.

As a bonus, the CD is enhanced with chord charts and overhead song masters that will serve soloists, worship bands, praise teams and congregation members alike.

You and You Alone follows in the footsteps of Vineyard’s long-standing heritage of bringing fresh songs to the church body, yet is diverse enough to stand on its own merits.
Ginny McCabe

Sar Shalom
By Karen Davis,
Galilee of the Nations.

While we fear terrorism, the newest worship album from the Names of God series, Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace), was created and recorded amid the daily real-life dangers of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks happening in Israel. Worship leader Karen Davis says: “These are songs the Lord has given us the last few years during some of the most difficult times we’ve had in Israel. Days when we have needed to see the Lord, seated on His throne, high and lifted up, and to know the peace of God that passes all understanding.”

Davis works alongside her husband, David, the senior pastor at Kehilat HaCarmel (Carmel Assembly). They came to Israel as Messianic Jews and began ministering to drug addicts in Haifa, where they founded “Beit Nitzachon” (House of Victory), a residential rehabilitation center for Jews and Arabs.

“For over a decade now we have witnessed the miracle of the transforming power of God’s love as He works in the hearts of afflicted men to be reconciled to Him through the blood of Yeshua and then toward each other,” Karen Davis says. Their church congregation, which rose alongside the center, is built on Mount Carmel, where Elisha called down fire from heaven.

The soothing melodies of Sar Shalom, sung in English and Hebrew, embellish the message of peace and yet a strong resolution resounds throughout the CD to give praise to God, no matter what.

Preceded by worship albums Adonai, Elohim and Yeshua, Sar Shalom is a message of peace to a worried world, making the subtitle–Breakthrough From the Land of Israel–especially appropriate.
Marsha Gallardo

BOOKS

Islam and the Jews: The Unfinished Battle
By Mark A. Gabriel, Ph.D.;
Charisma House;
softcover; 230 pages; $.

Mark A. Gabriel, in Islam and the Jews, has captured the essence of why conflict rages in the Middle East. He sets the record straight by dispelling false information and revealing how and why Islam teaches Muslims to hate Jews. However, Gabriel is quick to add that Muslims are not the enemy. The enemy is a religion that trains people to hate and encourages violence.

As a former Muslim and scholar of Islam, Gabriel brings a non-Western point of view to the teachings of Islam found in the Quran–the Islamic holy book–and Hadith, the reported sayings and actions of Muhammad. He shows how the Quran handles seemingly conflicting revelations given to Muhammad and how later
revelations replace the earlier. This answers how early revelations of peaceful co-existence received in Mecca were annulled by later commands for jihad against the Jews given in Medina.

Through his own story,Gabriel shows that the only avenue of peace is through Jesus. Islam and the Jews: The Unfinished Battle issues a call to understand what’s behind the hatred and violence, and to subdue it through love.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone, leaders and laity alike. Read it and discover the important role you have in praying for the peace of Jerusalem.
Tom Gill

VIDEOS

Gods and Generals
By Warner Bros. Pictures.

If you’re not a movie buff who reveled in last winter’s Gods and Generals, check out the video that releases July 14. This Civil War film deserves the “epic” label, although it raises disturbing spiritual questions.

Be warned that the prequel to 1993’s Gettysburg won’t seem as majestic as in theaters, which are best suited for its picturesque scenery and poetic movements. Parents who haven’t seen it should be aware that violent battle scenes earned it a PG-13 rating.

Yet, if you long ago tired of movies that either mock Christianity or dump it into a grab bag of spiritual alternatives, here’s one you will find refreshing. Ron Maxwell’s stellar production views faith with respect and provides an intimate picture of the beliefs that sustained people during this bloody war.

Seldom can a movie keep its pace for nearly four hours while stirring emotions and forcing viewers to contemplate life’s larger issues. Yet those who use the video as a basis for family or small-group Bible-study discussions will find it prompting some unnerving reflection.

For one, it is easy to second-guess 1860s Southerners who simultaneously embraced faith and slavery. But human weakness and self-deception haven’t disappeared. One is left to contemplate whether eagerness to proclaim our righteousness is a root of present-day global conflicts.

Christians should also consider modern-day racial tensions. To what extent do they derive from our inability to come to terms with the Civil War? It is tough to escape such a question amid the movie’s pro-Southern tilt, one that paints Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee in most sympathetic, God-fearing lights.

Yet, one can’t help but ask, “Are we supposed to feel good that people could quote Scripture and offer heartfelt prayers while fighting tooth and nail to preserve slavery?”

In another scene, Jackson–played by Stephen Lang in dominating fashion–prays with the slave who serves as his battalion’s cook. After Jackson’s fervent intercession, the slave asks God to reveal why those who profess Christ can still hold His people in bondage.

Glossing over the seriousness of the man’s inquiry, Jackson echoes his plea, then promises that one day he will be free. The comment leaves the impression that after it triumphed over the evil North, the South planned to free its slaves so everyone could live in peace and harmony.

That is a tough proposition to swallow, considering the South’s eagerness to separate from the United States after Abraham Lincoln’s election.

But those on the other side must acknowledge the North’s willingness to fight stemmed more from its desire to preserve the Union–and the attendant economic implications–than a motivation to end slavery.

And, if no pure motives existed then, who among the nations can claim them today? Given that scenario, what is the Christian’s role as an advocate for peace? Such questions are as fresh now as in 1861.
Ken Walker

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The hip-hop trio Souljahz began making waves after a performance in 2002, before their Warner Bros. debut, The Fault Is History, even hit the streets. Fusing Latin, soul, hip-hop and folk, siblings Joshu’a, J’ekob, and Rachael Washington formed a sound unique to the genre. Their first single, “All Around the World,” propelled to No. 1 on the Christian Hit Radio Charts last summer. Since then they have shared platforms with such mainstream artists as Ashanti, Nelly and Brian McKnight, and garnered two Dove Awards in April.

But even with these accomplishments, the siblings have not lost sight of their goal. “We’re spreading the Word,” J’ekob told Breakaway magazine. “Seeing God use the music and giving us [our] lyrics, that’s untouchable.” Since they began traveling internationally, the group has witnessed the increased need to get the Word out to other countries. “We just saw this desperate need internationally to explain what the Bible is to kids. … Everyone over there reads it, and they are very open to hearing your message,” Joshu’a said.

With this mission in hand and focusing on world issues and their love for Christ, Souljahz provide a message to complement their top-notch production. Every song is written from real-life situations that they or those around them have experienced. They aim to minister to others going through similar situations.

When asked by The Gospel Zone about how they would categorize their music, they replied: “We don’t want to pigeon-hole our album. It is rooted in hip-hop, but we are Christians, and God is in our hearts. This comes out in our songs.” This is an album with thoughtful lyrics and big-label sound, giving the gospel music industry something to cheer about.
Eric J. Olson

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CHARISMATIC TOP SELLERS

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

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

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

4. Pigs in the Parlor
Frank and Ida Mae Hammond

(Impact Christian Books)

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

6. The Three Battlegrounds
Francis Frangipane (Arrow Publications)

7. The Tongue: A Creative Force
Charles Capps (Harrison House)

8. The Final Quest
Rick Joyner (Whitaker House)

9. A Divine Revelation of the Spirit Realm
Mary K. Baxter (Whitaker House)

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

CHARISMA RECOMMENDS

Sharpening Your Leading Edge
By Jack Hayford, Charisma House,
193 pages, hardcover, $.

This is not a how-to book about being a leader. Jack Hayford teaches that leadership is not about methods. “Whatever your skill set, mind-set is the starting place.” In this effort to prevent others from experiencing the same problems he has faced, Hayford gives personal examples not only of what did work, but also of what did not work in his life. Hayford has more than 40 years of leadership experience.

Ruling in the Gates
By Joseph Mattera,
Creation House Press,
96 pages, softcover, $.

Joseph Mattera issues a new call for the body of Christ. It is time for us to take our God-given place on Earth to bring about the kingdom of God. Only the gospel has the blueprint for a healthy society, so the body of Christ must lead the way for reform. Believers must discover their divine purpose and learn how to pray for the next move of God.

At the Cross: Where Healing Begins
By Rod Parsley,
Creation House Press,
102 pages, hardcover, $.

Sadly, many believers miss their healings and agonize, wondering if it’s God’s will for them to be healed. Rod Parsley solves the mystery with simple biblical truths. He shows the reasons behind God’s purpose in healing and that the power of faith will grow as His

eternal plan is understood. God does want to heal us, and it took only one moment in time to wipe away the bondage of sickness. We can still experience the healing Jesus died to give us at the cross.

Come Unto Me: God’s Call to Intimacy
By James P. Gills, M.D.;
Creation House Press;
96 pages; softcover; $.

During a divine appointment with God on the summit of Mount Sinai, James Gills discovered a revelation that changed his life: God’s deepest desire is intimacy with us.

Gills teaches that a committed spiritual life is not something that can be obtained–it’s learned. God wants us to open our lives to Him so He can fill us with His very own life.

Cuando gente de Dios hace cosas que no son de Dios
(When Godly People Do Ungodly Things)
By Beth Moore, Casa Creación,
217 pages, softcover, $.

Bible teacher Beth Moore warns that the devil is out to seduce God’s children and trap them in sin. She shows Christians how we can be prepared to fight temptations and that we can stand against the devil’s attacks. For those who have given in to temptation, Moore lovingly gets them on the road to total repentance and restoration with the Lord.