Jamaica-born Pat Francis started a Bible study in 1989 that has grown to become a congregation of 3,500
Pat Francis, founder and head of one of Toronto’s largest charismatic churches, doesn’t consider her Jamaican roots or the fact that she’s a woman as hindrances
to the explosive growth of Deeper Life Christian Ministries, a 3,500-member congregation with strong ties to the community, schools and juvenile courts.

“God will have His way no matter what it looks like. It’s wise to never put God in a box,” said the tall, dignified Francis, who knows from experience the benefit of letting God have His way in one’s life. “I had to die to myself and to my career in the medical field once the call became overpowering. I didn’t choose this calling and did nothing to bring it forth but simply followed the Spirit’s promptings.”

Francis’ ministry, which started off as a casual Friday night Bible study in her home in 1989, has grown into a church that is steadily on the move. Deeper Life holds three services each weekend; broadcasts a TV show; runs a Christian academy with 60 full-time students; and supports 75 community programs and outreaches, including an AIDS hospice, hospital visitation, and homeless and women’s shelters. The ministry also intervenes in the juvenile courts on behalf of troubled youth and oversees several ministries abroad.

A new 600-seat conference facility, family life center and sanctuary located on 20 acres of property close to the current church building was set to break ground in the spring. Although Francis is quick to give God all the credit, she is a determined individual who doesn’t flinch in the face of adversity or opposition.

“Having studied the enemy and how he works, I saw how he keeps people from their destinies through lies and obstacles,” said Francis, who holds doctorates in divinity and pastoral counseling, and is a certified psychotherapist and radiographer.

“When I started Deeper Life in 1993, all hell broke loose. The traditional church attacked me and the ministry with all kinds of false accusations,” she told Charisma. “I stood strong in Jesus, and He allowed all heaven to break loose. Over 700 people turned up for the first service, and we’ve been catapulting ever since.”

Growing up in Jamaica, Francis recalls being taken to a variety of denominations by well-meaning relatives and friends, few of whom knew about a true relationship with Christ or the power His name holds. At 8 years old, after having a vivid dream in which Jesus was going in and out of her bedroom, Francis committed her life to Christ.

“I knew God in a real way because He spoke to me, but I had no influences around to help in my Christian walk, so I backslid until I was 18 when I gave my life to Him again in a Brethren church,” she said.

Francis describes her spiritual life as dry until her mid-20s when she saw the Holy Spirit moving powerfully at a Women Aglow meeting in Toronto. After receiving a baptism in the Holy Spirit, Francis soon started an unofficial deliverance ministry in the Pentecostal church she then attended and sang and spoke at Women Aglow meetings.

“My name got around, and soon I was on the road as a missionary, going to Africa, India, Asia and the Caribbean. It’s where I got my real training for ministry,” said Francis, who also was working full time as a radiographer.

After starting a Friday night Bible study in 1989, which grew to 70 people within one year, Francis said God told her, “The seed has been planted, and the child has been born.”

“A couple of years before that, I had a dream I was giving birth to a baby, and I realized it was a spiritual baby,” said Francis, who is married but has no children.

Soon after that, Deeper Life Christian Centre was launched, designed and built by a former atheist who has since given his life to Christ. Almost from the beginning, Francis had a heart for troubled youth.

“I’d walk through the shopping malls and see the upset and anger in many of the young people’s eyes, and I knew they needed love,” she said. “Our youth ministry started off when I took 120 youth to a retreat for a weekend.”

Many of them came from broken homes, were in trouble with the law or had drug addictions. Francis and her staff mentored and monitored the behavior of the youth, and several have gone on to college, some for medicine or law.
Josie Newman in Toronto

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.

NICHOLE NORDEMAN HONORED AT DOVES
Nichole Nordeman and Michael W. Smith were the big winners during the 34th-annual Dove Awards held in Nashville, Tenn., April 10, earning seven and six Doves respectively. The event featured a special tribute to Smith, who has won at least one Dove each year since 1989, The Tennessean reported. Besides being named Artist of the Year, Smith won Male Vocalist, Praise & Worship Album, and Long Form Music Video awards. Nordeman’s awards included Female Vocalist, Songwriter, Song (for “Holy”), and Pop/Contemporary Album. Other winners included Third Day, earning a Group of the Year award, and Paul Colman Trio, which was named New Artist of the Year.

SINGAPORE PASTOR DIES OF SARS
A 39-year-old Pentecostal minister became a victim of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak that has caused alarm in parts of Asia, after going to a hospital to pray for someone with the condition. Simon Loh died in April in Singapore, where concern over the mysterious condition prompted the closure of schools. The pastor of Faith Assembly of God (AG) Church in Singapore, Loh contracted SARS after going to pray for the hospitalized daughter of a man who also died from the disease. The AG’s Asia-Pacific regional director, Russell Turney, appealed for prayer for pastors as they ministered to those affected.

TIM LAHAYE LAWSUIT DISMISSED
In March, U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter dismissed all of Tim LaHaye’s claims against Cloud Ten Pictures (CTP), which released the film version of the best-selling Left Behind in 2001. LaHaye sued Namesake Entertainment–with whom the movie deal was originally made–and CTP in 2000, claiming he was fraudulently induced to sign the contract and that the original agreement was not honored. The ruling came a month before the release of Armageddon, the 11th installment in the book series co-written by LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, who did not participate in the suit for “religious” reasons. CTP lawyer Keri Borders said a countersuit against LaHaye–seeking damages of more than $10 million–is expected to go to trial this fall.

FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE ‘ENDS ON A WHIMPER’
President Bush’s widely touted plan to make federal money available to religious groups that provide social services is being mourned as it gets buried after a two-year battle. Family Research Council president Ken Connor said April 1 that the initiative was ending “not with a bang but a whimper.” The Senate approved a much-modified form of a bill April 9 that whittled the original aim “down to almost nothing.” The revised bill provides tax breaks for donations to charities, but excludes provisions that would have enabled religious groups to apply for government grants for some of their ministry programs by protecting them from local anti-discrimination laws.

Jim Bakker Returns to TV
Jim Bakker has returned to television with an interview show that airs on 32 stations in 20 states, the Springfield (Mo.) News Leader reported. Filmed in Branson, Mo., at Studio City Café, The Jim Bakker Show features interviews with celebrity guests conducted before an audience of café patrons served by a troupe of singing waiters. The show began airing in January and is funded by Bakker supporters. Former head of PTL Ministries, Bakker was convicted of fraud in 1989 and served five years of an 18-year prison term.

Fishing Pro Nixes Beer Ad
Fishing pro and dedicated Christian Jimmy Houston was barred from top fishing prizes because he refused to wear a Busch beer apparel patch and add the beer sponsor’s decal to his boat at three Bass Angler Sportsman Society (BASS) events, the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger reported. Because of his decision, Houston, a deacon at First Southern Baptist Church in Keys, Okla., and host of the ESPN2 TV series Jimmy Houston Outdoors, was disqualified from receiving qualifying points for the prestigious BASS Masters Classic tournament and a potential Angler of the Year prize worth $100,000. BASS signed Busch as an official sponsor in 2002.

U.S. Missionary Killed
American missionary Todd Fields, 41, was shot and killed during a robbery in Guatemala on March 28. Fields, from Mount Vernon, Ky., had served in Honduras with Global Outreach International for 13 years and was leading a group of high school students on a retreat to Guatemala when they were robbed, the Associated Press reported. Fields lived in Honduras with his wife, Lynell, and two daughters, Savannah, 14, and Sophia, 10.

BOOKS

25 Tough Questions About Women and the Church
By J. Lee Grady, Charisma House,
224 pages, paperback, $.

Following up his 10 Lies the Church Tells Women (Charisma House), J. Lee Grady takes an egalitarian approach to the question of women’s roles in 25 Tough Questions About Women and the Church. Grady seeks to provide biblical answers to the types of questions women have asked him in ministry settings around the world or in his role as editor of Charisma.

Although not all women can relate to being abused, Grady starts with an all-important question that acknowledges the heartache in many a woman’s life: Is there a way to find total freedom from the resentment I feel? He goes on to address such issues as what to do when marriage and ministry collide or the question of men “covering” women in ministry.

His use of historical and contemporary examples of women, including Catherine Booth, Susanna Wesley, Aimee Semple MacPherson and even former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, reveal how women through the centuries have dealt with some of these difficult questions.

Grady, himself a father to four daughters, also adds a touch of humor to this controversial subject with chapter titles such as “Men Behaving Badly,” “Are Women Elders Called Elderettes?” and “Pastors Who Wear Lipstick.”

Even Christians who take a complementarian approach to women’s roles will appreciate the care that Grady has exercised in answering questions women pose every day with regard to their roles in the home, church and on the job. One thing he doesn’t do is offer a one-size-fits-all answer, and that many women will appreciate.
Christine D. Johnson

Inviting God’s Presence
By Larry Keefauver, .;
Warner Faith; 320 pages; paperback; $.

Pastor, regular Ministries Today columnist and CBA best-selling author of the Lord, I Wish series, Larry Keefauver writes in his preface: “Many religious books explore how to know God. This book explores how to experience friendship with God.”

Inviting God’s Presence is an interactive guide that includes a 12-week study journal, and the use of Scripture, music and calls to action to move the participant into the presence of God.

Weeks one through eight lead readers through ways to tear down walls that block out God’s presence: walls such as silence and mistrust, loneliness and selfishness, anger and confusion, disappointment and monotony, despair and unknowing, greed and guilt, unworthiness and legalism.

The studies of weeks nine through 12 will leave the participant listening and abiding, comforted and loved unconditionally, accepted and forgiven wholly and holy in God’s presence.

Designed for the unbeliever and believer alike–anyone hungry for God and more of His presence–this book will benefit all who take this journey. Keefauver leads us to walk with God, and to abide with

God, not just to perform religious duties for Him.

The author is convinced that such a journey was meant to be life-changing, seeing that God’s ultimate intention is that we become best friends with Him. This book is a great resource for small groups.
Pamela Robinson

Souls Harvest: Out of Revival
Fire & Glory
By Bob Shattles, McDougal Publishing,
272 pages, paperback, $.

For many years Bob Shattles had done everything he knew to do to try to win the lost for Christ. This was especially true after he had gone forward during an altar call for people who wanted to have the heart of God and feel what He feels. After experiencing what seemed like a heart transplant in which God took out Shattles’ heart and exchanged it with His own, this Baptist pastor felt overwhelmed with the desire for every soul to escape the penalty of hell and spend eternity in heaven.

Shattles’ burning passion for evangelism was not enough, however. No matter how hard he tried, his efforts were often ignored or disregarded.

This all changed dramatically, however, when he received an empowerment to win the lost like never before. Quite suddenly, in just a matter of months, he was enabled to bring many more souls to the Lord than he previously had brought in his entire lifetime. Within this short time, the combination of vision and empowerment yielded a harvest of 50,000 new believers in Jesus.

Shattles, who was pastor emeritus of Souls Harvest Worship Center in Douglasville, Georgia, died of liver cancer in July 2001. For two years after attending a meeting led by revivalist Ruth Heflin in 1998, he had experienced the “gold flakes” phenomenon in his meetings.

His book will stir again a passion for the harvest with its account of how signs and wonders follow to confirm the preaching of the gospel while addressing the question of why we should not be satisfied with evangelism or church as usual.

Shattles’ stories of how people in restaurants, airports and stores were so convinced of the existence and power of God that they eagerly received Christ is sure to quickly strip away readers’ complacency about not having the power of God at work in their own lives in this magnificent way. These testimonies still ignite a desire to see–and a faith to receive–miracles that will ease suffering and turn hearts toward the Lord.
Renee DeLoriea

Knowing God Intimately:
Being as Close to Him as You Want to Be
By Joyce Meyer, Warner Faith,
320 pages, hardcover, $.

Anointed Bible teacher Joyce Meyer is once again “preaching good”
in her latest book, Knowing God Intimately: Being as Close to Him as You Want to Be. As she states, her whole purpose in the book is “to let people know how to receive the power of the Holy Spirit that is available to us today.”

Meyer organized the book into four sections corresponding to the four levels of intimacy in the Holy Spirit: God’s Manifest Presence, God’s Transforming Power, God’s Reflective Glory and God’s Everlasting Fruit. “Scripture teaches that we, not God, determine our level of intimacy with Him,” she insists. “At this moment, each of us is as close to God’s throne of grace as we choose to be.”

As always, Scripture empowers every word Meyer gives to us. Her teaching centers on revealing how believers find greater intimacy with God only through being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

This outpouring, she illustrates, is like filling a glass with water, to its highest measure. After we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God’s gifts and fruit manifest in our lives. These gifts include His prayer language (speaking in tongues), available for all who are open to receiving it.

You will yearn to read this book in one sitting, but its richness and depth will cause you to tarry. A joy will come from reading it again and again.
Pamela Robinson

MUSIC

Carry Away
By Shane Barnard and Shane Everett,
InPop Records.

If you missed them the first time around, Shane Barnard and Shane Everett are back with their sophomore release, Carry Away. The album carries its own radio-friendly pop feel and worship-driven lyrics.

Listeners unfamiliar with Shane and Shane will find a refreshing vulnerability and a desire to know God in the songs. The guitar-driven title song could double as an older Steven Curtis Chapman tune with its catchy chorus and rhythm. The tender, slower-paced “Be Near” sings a worshipful prayer for God to draw close.

There’s an urgent, penetrating cry for God found throughout the album. Shane and Shane have a special ability to merge Scripture, prayer and worship into music form. This is one of those albums that the more you listen to it, the better it gets.
Margaret Feinberg

Offerings II: All I Have to Give
By Third Day, Essential Records

After an initial Offerings and a brief interlude with the wildly popular Come Together album, Third Day is back for a second round of worship. Just like its predecessor, Offerings II: All I Have to Give blends live worship with in-studio recordings. Unlike the first album, both the sound quality of the songs and the transition between them is much better.

A popular band releasing a worship album doesn’t raise too many eyebrows these days. It seems as if everyone is doing it, and an encore might seem like overkill. On the album cover, the band addresses the question of why they’re making another Offerings record.

“God is not through with Third Day and worship,” the band members write, “God is not through with any of us and worship.”

And that is a good thing because I just cannot get this album out of my CD player. Beyond the contagious rock edge and lead singer Mac Powell’s compelling vocals, what makes this album an absolute standout is song selection.

Third Day breathes passion into a wide range of songs from Waterdeep’s “You Are So Good to Me” to Rich Mullins’ “Creed.” If you like Third Day or edgy worship, you’re going to love Offerings II.
Margaret Feinberg

I was in the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Our flight to Israel was delayed for a security check. Three hundred of us were crowded into a small, secure area. I heard a child crying ‘Abba! Abba!’ I saw a Hasidic Jewish father run to find his frightened child, lost in the luggage,” says Ron Phillips, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was at that moment he realized, “So many children are lost in the luggage of life and need to know that God is a father.”

Growing up with a tremendous need for a father’s approval, Phillips decided to write a book, Kisses From the Father: Falling in Love With the Holy One (Harrison House), to illustrate God’s fatherly love for those who feel forgotten or have lost hope.

By putting into contemporary language how God dealt with Abraham, Isaac, Joseph and others, Phillips brings biblical stories alive. His encouraging words, especially in the second half of the book, let readers know that God was a father then, and, more important, God is still a father, right now, for all who cry, “Abba! Abba!”

“In this day of family dysfunction, absent parents, and abusive, indifferent fathers, I want the reader to be assured that there is a father in heaven who is personally interested in every detail of their life,” he says. “God, our Father, showers blessings from heaven upon our lives, kissing us with mercy and peace.”
Mark Weber

CHARISMATIC TOP SELLERS

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

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

3. Pigs in the Parlor
Frank and Ida Mae Hammond

(Impact Christian Books)

4. God’s Creative Power for Healing
Charles Capps (Harrison House)

5. The Three Battlegrounds
Francis Frangipane (Arrow Publications)

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

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

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

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

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

CHARISMA RECOMMENDS

Marketplace Ministers
By Paul Gazelka, Creation House Press,
160 pages, paperback, $.

Businesspeople do not have to give up their desire for both ministry and business, says Paul Gazelka, a “marketplace minister.” He explains how a business income can help support a full-time minister’s vision as well as the marketplace minister’s own ministry vision.

The Prayerful Spirit
By James P. Gills, M.D.; Creation House Press;
176 pages; paperback; $.

James Gills says: “Prayer is tough. It is easier to tithe; it is easier to work for the Lord … than to pray and pray unceasingly.” Having a prayerful spirit is vital, though, because prayer gives us access to the power of God and reminds us that we truly need Him. Gills writes: “Prayer aligns us with God and gives us greater peace, joy and fulfillment than anything … on Earth.”

Intimate & Unashamed: God’s Design for Sexual Fulfillment
By Scott Farhart, M.D.; Siloam Press;
224 pages; paperback; $.

Christians short-change themselves when they turn to the world for answers about sex, writes Scott Farhart, an obstetrician and gynecologist, who gives a biblical perspective on sex. Topics covered include anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, sex and the aging man and woman, and contraceptives. Farhart
also dedicates a chapter each to singles and newlywed couples. The author wants people to understand God is not “anti-sex” and that He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives.

Wrestling With God
By Rick Diamond, Relevant Books,
176 pages, paperback, $.

Christian growth can involve a fight, but it is not meant to be a competition with God, author Rick Diamond states. He points out our goal and God’s goal is the same–a relationship of intimacy and trust. Diamond discusses how maintaining this, however, requires asking tough questions, moving beyond religion and giving up control.

Las doce transgresiones (The Twelve Transgressions)
By Sergio Scataglini, Casa Creación,
224 pages, paperback, $.

Sergio Scataglini, from Argentina, is one of the leaders of the Argentine revival. He teaches that Christians with even the best intentions commit transgressions that can bring a devastating ripple effect, releasing poison in marriages, families, careers and the body of Christ. Profiling 12 Bible characters who loved God yet made costly mistakes, Scataglini shows readers how to avoid 12 sins that lurk in the shadows to hinder holiness and block a believer’s relationship with God.

I believe a new understanding of the prophetic is coming to the church.
When the Old Testament prophet Joel predicted the coming of the Holy Spirit, he said, “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Joel 2:28, NKJV). The book of Acts reports that beginning on the Day of Pentecost, his prediction was fulfilled: The people who were filled with the Spirit spoke in tongues and prophesied (see Acts 1:4; 19:6).

I know many charismatics who have refused to buy into the belief that tongues died with the apostles. They may even speak in tongues regularly. And if anyone questions them, they quote Paul’s command to the Corinthians, “Do not forbid to speak with tongues” (1 Cor. 14:39).

But what about the Scripture that warns us to “despise not prophesyings” (1 Thess. 5:20, KJV)?

As important as prophecy was in the New Testament church, it is rarely the norm in charismatic churches. If a traveling prophet comes to town it’s a “big deal.” Yet I believe a new understanding of the prophetic is coming to the church, due in part to the teaching of men such as apostle John Eckhardt of Chicago, who views prophecy as an important function of the fivefold ministry in the church.

Recently my wife, Joy, and I flew to Chicago to visit Eckhardt’s Crusaders Ministries, which began to explode in 1995 when Eckhardt started emphasizing the importance of deliverance. We were amazed to see firsthand a church where ordinary believers were empowered to heal the sick, cast out demons and prophesy.

We invited Eckhardt to speak at the recent Charisma Women’s Conference in Daytona Beach, Florida, to share his experience. He taught the prayer counselors how to pray for deliverance and then led a session for those who wanted to learn to release the prophetic flow.

In discussing prophecy, Eckhardt went over the Scriptures I quoted above, emphasizing that just as speaking in tongues should be normative, so should prophesying. Then a woman who had been trained at his church taught the 600 people in the session that in the same way we can pray at will for perfect strangers we can prophesy when that gift–designed to encourage, exhort and comfort the body–is stirred up.

I grew up in a Pentecostal church where people “tarried,” often for years, to receive the Holy Spirit. Many of them were shocked when charismatics prayed for the baptism in the Holy Spirit and received it almost immediately.

I had the same feeling in this session. Though I’ve been around the prophetic for decades and have occasionally operated in the gift myself, I didn’t believe it could be released at will.

But Romans 12:6 tells us, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith” (NKJV).

While I participated in a group with five women, prophesying for those on my right and left, I found that the prophecies I gave welled up from within my being, and I felt certain I was hearing from God in what I was saying. And the two women who prophesied over me were very specific about things that involved writing. One prophesied that I’d take the vision and write it down.

Afterward I asked them if they knew what my occupation is. They said no. That was somewhat humbling since it was apparent neither read my column in Charisma. However, it was also a confirmation that what they prophesied was from the Lord.

What’s the point of all this? I believe God is doing something new in the church. Certainly there’s a lot to be criticized, and in my role I’m in a position to hear and see all the negative.

But there is also a fresh wind of the Spirit and a new understanding of how the church should operate being brought to us by a new generation of leaders who are not impressed with titles and who do not push for money or position. John Eckhardt is such a man. His assurance that every Spirit-filled believer is equipped to do the things God has called us in His Word to do was an inspiration to me to step out and make prophesying a normal part of my life. I pray it will be so for you as well.

Hundreds of U.S. military personnel came to Christ and were baptized during the war.
There are no atheists in foxholes.” The phrase is often quoted among military chaplains, who say the war in Iraq brought many soldiers to faith in Christ and created opportunities to minister to their families.

Communicating with Charisma via e-mail, military chaplains said there were baptisms in the desert–using water bottles or makeshift baptismal pools–as well as opportunities to counsel soldiers who lost friends in battle. On the home front, ministers were providing aid to families of reservists, some of whom had been short an income since their loved ones were deployed.

Air Force Capt. Steven T. Dabbs, who was stationed in Kuwait, offered grief counseling to two Marines who lost three friends when one of their helicopters went down. “One of the Marines looked up at me, and as his blue eyes filled with water, he said, ‘I want to know Jesus as my Savior,'” Dabbs wrote in an e-mail to colleagues. “After I led them in prayer, I saw them off as they returned to their posts.”

Chaplains said soldiers were more responsive to the gospel, though the reaction was typical of wartime trends when people are more mindful of their mortality. “We hear reports of good things all the time, of soldiers coming to faith,” said Air Force chaplain Kenneth Stone, who is based at the U.S. CENTCOM headquarters in Florida.

Chaplains said soldiers gathered for worship services whenever they could find the time, and several participated in Bible studies in tents at night or carried camouflaged pocket-sized New Testaments distributed by Campus Crusade for Christ. In the midst of war, “my prayer is that God would bring glory to Himself through this conflict,” said Col. Ron Crews, a chaplain in the Massachusetts National Guard.

British soldier-turned-evangelist Mark Reynolds said he witnessed an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at a training camp in Catterick North Yorkshire. Sixty recruits came to faith in one month, he said, with an estimated 700 to 800 soldiers making professions of faith in the last year.

“I can’t explain it,” he said. “I’m not doing anything different, although I must admit I have been bolder in the way I approach the men recently.”

A 22-year military veteran, Reynolds said new converts were given Bibles and as he saw them off, “I’ve told them to remember God’s promise to be with Joshua wherever he went, and I’ve encouraged them to read the Psalms written by David, the warrior king.”

For one soldier’s parents, a videotaped baptism circulated through the media brought comfort when their son, 22-year-old Army Spc. James Kiehl, was found among the dead during the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch. “I cannot overstate how important it has been to this family to have that video of their son being baptized, and how that can replace in their minds the image of their son’s body,” the Kiehls’ pastor, Jim Holt of Comfort Baptist Church in Comfort, Texas, told Baptist Press.

Knowing that Marine Pfc. Juan Guadalupe Garza Jr., 20, accepted Christ two years ago after a classmate invited him to a youth service at Bedford Christian Community in Temperance, Mich., has motivated the Assemblies of God church’s youth group to become bolder evangelists, their youth pastor said. News of Garza’s death April 8 during the battle for Baghdad had many of the teens in disbelief, youth pastor Rick Flood said, but also reminded them that tomorrow is not promised to anyone.

At home Christian organizations offered assistance to the families of servicemen. The Salvation Army distributed thousands of care packages as part of its “Operation Compassion From the Home Front” campaign, with similar efforts under way across the country.

In addition to giving food and clothing, many Christians supported the troops through prayer. After the conflict erupted, people signed up to pray for troops at a rate of 10 per second at one time, said Ted Haggard, founder of the World Prayer Team, which features a link to the Presidential Prayer Team on its Web site.

Two Christian aid workers said prayer led to their rescue March 31 after they had been held by Iraqis for 10 days. Kenyan truck drivers David Mukuria, 53, and Jakubu Kamau, 37, were rescued by British troops when the 7th Armoured Brigade seized control of Al Zubayr in southern Iraq, The Sun reported.

“God must have given them the power to save us,” Kamau said. “It really was a miracle that they came.”

Friends and family of Pfc. Jessica Lynch also credited the power of prayer for her dramatic rescue April 1. “Our prayers came through,” said friend Daniel Smith, 18, The Washington Post reported. “She made it.”

Similarly, relatives of the seven rescued POWs thanked God for their return. “We thank God for watching over them,” Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson’s father, Claude Johnson, said, the Associated Press reported. Her mother added: “I know [Johnson] was scared, but by her praying, she would get through it,” The El Paso (Texas) Times reported.

As the statue of Saddam Hussein bowed to coalition troops April 9, intercessors encouraged Christians to pray for Iraq’s next leader. “Let’s pray for the Lord to raise up a wise, compassionate man who will lead Iraq into a new era of freedom, that Iraqi citizens will enjoy a society based on liberty and fairness,” Haggard wrote in an Iraq Prayer Alert. “My prayer is that under Iraq’s new president, Iraqi Christians will be free to worship and proclaim Jesus to their fellow Iraqis without any repercussions.”

Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse and the Southern Baptist Convention were poised to take relief into Iraq when the war ended. Both World Relief and The Salvation Army were developing plans to aid the Iraqis after the war, and Convoy of Hope had collected a half-million pounds of wheat from Indiana to be distributed in Iraq at the war’s end.
Adrienne S. Gaines

With 9 million people living with cancer in the United States alone and another 10 million worldwide diagnosed each year, Christians are uniting to pray about one of the world’s most feared diseases.

Intercessors from all 50 states and more than 100 nations are expected to participate in the Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day held annually on June 5. In addition to individual prayer efforts throughout the day, a special service will be held that evening at Crystal Cathedral in California.

Among the participants will be Dr. Francisco Contreras, a noted oncologist who specializes in holistic and alternative cancer treatment. A committed Christian who leads the Oasis of Hope Hospital in Mexico, Contreras helped found the day of prayer in 1997 with Dr. Daniel Kennedy, executive vice president of Oasis of Hope, and Robert A. Schuller, son of Crystal Cathedral senior pastor Robert Schuller.

Author of The Hope of Living Cancer Free and The Coming Cancer Cure (both by Siloam Press), Contreras said he plans to pray for a breakthrough in cancer research. “I do believe God heals people, and I believe that He can prevent the occurrence of cancer in people, but I have a very special prayer that I lift up every year. I pray, ‘God, please grant wisdom to the doctors and scientists and help them find the cure for cancer,'” he said. “I believe that God will answer this prayer, and though the glory for the cure for cancer may be given to a researcher in some university, I know that it will be God who will give the enlightenment to that researcher.”

While praying for a cure, participants will also pray for those living with cancer and for the families of those who have died of the disease. Among this year’s participants are people who know firsthand the pain that cancer brings, including Paul Finkenbinder, a well-known evangelist in Latin America who is living with cancer, and the younger Schuller, whose mother battled the disease.

Kennedy said he receives prayer requests all year from as far as Kuwait, South Africa and Hong Kong at the Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day Web site (). The petitions are compiled into a book, which he has carried as far as Israel to have people pray over them.

Kennedy said the idea for the prayer day was birthed out of a series of visions he had over 11 days in which he saw “people uniting for one cause–prayer–for the healing of those who have cancer.” Contreras funded the inaugural event in 1998, which was broadcast internationally.
Adrienne S. Gaines

The pastor of an independent charismatic church is enthusiastic about leading one of the largest evangelical groups
During its 61st annual convention in March, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) elected independent charismatic pastor Ted Haggard as its third full-time president. Made up of 43,000 congregations from 50 member denominations and comprising 27 million constituents, the NAE is among the largest bodies of evangelical Christians in the United States.

Haggard will continue leading his 9,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., but will network with NAE headquarters in Washington, D.C. He said he wants to see the NAE develop a louder voice in the public arena, becoming a proactive participant in the cultural “exchange of ideas.”

“I am super optimistic about the potential that exists within the NAE,” Haggard said. “Evangelicals in America are between 40 million and 50 million. … We’re getting things set up to be a resource should the major media outlets call to find out the evangelical view.”

High on Haggard’s priority list is responding to questions raised by the war in Iraq, as well as addressing partial-birth abortion.

Describing himself as a “Spirit-filled evangelical” because of his Southern Baptist roots, Haggard is the first NAE president who heads an independent charismatic congregation, though past-president Don Argue is affiliated with the Assemblies of God and immediate past-president Kevin Mannoia considered himself charismatic.

NAE chairman Bill Hamel, president of the Evangelical Free Church of America, said he “sensed no tension” over Haggard’s charismatic theology, and described Haggard as “a proven leader.”

“Ted has a positive, proactive desire to see evangelicals working together to reach the world for Christ,” said Hamel, who described Haggard as a friend. “Ted crosses denominational and theological lines very easily.”

Haggard recently founded the World Prayer Team (), an Internet-based, round-the-clock effort to link intercessors, and oversees the 200-member Association of Life-Giving Churches. Well-known for his teaching on church growth, Haggard has won the respect of ministers across denominational and racial lines.

“Ted Haggard has distinguished himself not only in the evangelical circles, but across the church world as a leader, a man of prayer, a man of vision, a man of passion, and one who can motivate people to become involved in the kingdom of God,” said Assemblies of God General Superintendent Thomas Trask.

Haggard plans to begin an aggressive recruitment campaign to increase NAE membership, hoping to draw large independent churches that are not affiliated with either the theologically liberal National Council of Churches or the more conservative NAE. Haggard said the essential ties that bind all evangelicals are the beliefs that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God, that Jesus is the Savior of the world and the only Son of God, and that in order to be saved a person must be born again. “All people with a conservative theological view should be part of the NAE,” he said.

Evangelical leaders say NAE is poised for growth. “It has been obvious from our initial meeting that Ted is bringing to this responsibility a commitment and dedication that will continue the growth and strengthening of NAE,” said Commissioner W. Todd Bassett, national commander of The Salvation Army.

“Ted Haggard will lead the National Association of Evangelicals into a new era of evangelical growth,” said Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. ” The NAE has a vital role in communicating the cause of Christ through American Christians, and Ted will be a great spokesperson for this cause. My prayer is that key leaders will support him as he continues to lead many to help fulfill the Great Commission,” Bright added.

At its March meeting, the NAE partnered with Mission America Coalition to advance evangelistic efforts within member churches and denominations. With its growing bank of resources, including the World Prayer Team and World Relief, the NAE’s humanitarian assistance arm, the NAE can mobilize millions of Christians around an issue within a day, Haggard noted.

Haggard believes this is one of the greatest generations in Christian history, second only to the first-century church. He says there are more born-again pastors and government leaders than ever before, more Christian media and more Bibles being distributed worldwide.

“We’re stronger than we’ve ever been,” he said. “This is the generation of evangelism opportunity.”
Adrienne S. Gaines

Christians are praying for the film capital in hopes that it will become known as ‘Holywood’
Christians converged in Southern California in February to pray for the entertainment capital of the world–in hopes that Hollywood would become known as “Holywood.”

The desire to bring a sea change in Tinseltown was evident Feb. 22 as 30,000 people gathered for prayer at the Rose Bowl for The Call Los Angeles. Many of the participants spent the day fasting and were encouraged to begin a 40-day fast that would end April 5 with another Call event in San Francisco.

“This was really God working,” said Karen Covell, director of prayer for Hollywood Prayer Network, a grass-roots ministry for and by Hollywood professionals. “It was so amazing to see so many people [at The Call], especially kids, in intercessory prayer.

“I really believe that if we commit to prayer and let God do the work, then we can rid the industry of pornography, and Hollywood can be an influence by sending out good messages to youngsters,” Covell added.

Meanwhile, a smaller band of intercessors assembled in nearby Santa Monica to conduct strategic prayer during the American Film Market’s annual event, said to be the largest gathering of industry power-brokers in the world. Some 7,000 media executives attended the weeklong event to screen more than 600 films and decide which ones to purchase and market around the world.

“Christians can affect the films that go into the world by affecting the
atmosphere over the American Film Market,” said Don Paul, a prophetic minister and head of Santa Monica-based Mission Hollywood.

Paul, who organized the Santa Monica prayer effort, and his team of intercessors conducted what they call “prophetic assault worship” as an attempt to change the spiritual atmosphere in the region. He believes last year’s similar prayer effort resulted in the release of more family-oriented films.

The Call focused on bringing cultural transformation while mandating repentance, reconciliation, revival and revolution. Earlier on the day of the event, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook Southern California. Ché Ahn, a co-founder of The Call and the pastor of Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, said the temblor was symbolic of what God wanted to do through prayer.

“We believe God is shaking the heavens and the earth,” Ahn said. “We want to see God bring a new move of His Spirit here in California.”

Though the Los Angeles event was smaller than the first Call in Washington, D.C., which drew 400,000 participants in 2000, Ahn said he was touched to see so many attendees stay the entire day.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “Personally, I’ve never wept as much at a Call event. It really touched me. There was a very diverse group of people there.

“What’s even more amazing is that we didn’t advertise or say who the speakers were going to be, yet 30,000 people showed up, and many of them stayed. To me that was a miracle.”

Hollywood and the entertainment industry have been hot areas for prayer for many years. Actress Jamie-Lyn Bauer hosts a prayer group in her home, and many other teams have conducted prayer walks at several key sites in the region. In April, Los Angeles-based Sunset Ministries planned to host televangelist Benny Hinn as part of a three-day prayer and worship event aimed at proclaiming Jesus Lord over Hollywood.

Paul hoped the prayer efforts in Hollywood would be ongoing, particularly in Santa Monica, which he believes is a spiritually significant area. He said Hollywood is not merely an unincorporated town in Los Angeles; it is an organization.

“When you look at the government, it’s not all located in Washington, D.C.,” Paul said. “The government is everywhere. Hollywood is the same way.”

Some of the largest studios are based outside of Hollywood, including 20th Century Fox and HBO, which are located to the west in Century City. MTV and Fox-TV are headquartered in Santa Monica. Warner Bros., Disney and NBC are north in Burbank. Sony Pictures is located south in Culver City.

In addition to prayer, Christians familiar with the film industry say developing relationships with media leaders is critical to bringing change in the region. “One of the things you don’t see in Hollywood is healthy relationships,” Paul said. “You have to get people to like you first, instead of getting in their faces. You have to learn how to speak their language.”

Covell said the Hollywood Prayer Network, which has been praying for the entertainment industry for years, has seen many actors and studio executives “come out of the closet” and accept Jesus. She added that she didn’t believe there was a conflict in holding The Call and intercession for the American Film Market at the same time.

“There is something going on in Hollywood every weekend,” she said. “It’s the Grammys one week and the Oscars the next. I think it’s great that there were enough people to be at two different events with the same goal of praying for Hollywood.”

Call co-founder Lou Engle believes Los Angeles and San Francisco are two of the most important cities in the country.

“When you look at Los Angeles and San Francisco,” Engle said, “what you’re looking at are two of the most influential cities in the United States, if not the whole world. [The Los Angeles area] is the entertainment, communications and porno capital, and San Francisco is one of the trendiest cities in the world.

“We are praying for a revival like never before,” he added. “We believe that God wants to influence Hollywood for His kingdom.”

During The Call, Engle noted that 37 percent of U.S. pastors struggle with online pornography and called this lust perverted worship. In one of his many speeches, he called on attendees to declare the San Fernando Valley–considered the pornography capital of the world–as a city of worship and not lust.

Engle believes the power of prayer will influence the way things are run in Hollywood, but those changes may not come as quickly as some may hope.

“We may not see results until 10 to 15 years down the line,” Engle said. “Or we may see them immediately. Right now it’s too hard to tell.”
Kevin Hunter in Los Angeles

Inner-city children’s ministry pioneer Bill Wilson was shot March 5 while being assaulted and robbed at gunpoint–but today he credits God with saving his life. The president of Metro Ministries International was making his regular visit to the homeless on Wednesday night when two men accosted him near a Brooklyn, N.Y., waterfront.

“I thought it was just going to be another robbery,” said Wilson, who has been robbed several times in the 22 years since he started his Brooklyn-based ministry. “But one of the guys pulled out a gun and stuck it in my mouth. I thought, This is the end. He pulled the trigger. I heard the thing click, and nothing happened.

“I prayed, ‘Lord help me,'” Wilson, 54, added. “Then I just spun and went down. That’s when he fired a second time. It ripped a hole on the left side of my mouth. If I wouldn’t have spun, he would have shot my brains out because the guy had a chokehold on me.”

Wilson said the two assailants got away, robbing him of his watch and camera. He was taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery. “I’ve been stabbed twice, had my jaw and a rib broken, and gotten three concussions,” Wilson said. “I’ve seen 21 people murdered. I’ve been through some tough ones, but this is the worst one.”

He said he will continue to lead Metro Ministries, which reaches more than 20,000 children weekly through its Sidewalk Sunday School program.

“It’s a decision to make a commitment,” he said. “I am not leaving. I have committed my life to this place. This is not going to deter me. The two hardest things in life are starting and finishing. I’m going to finish.”

Elsewhere, Melody Green, the widow of singer Keith Green, was recovering in a Thousand Oaks, Calif., hospital after suffering a stroke March 3 while visiting friends. Green, 56, is president of Last Days Ministries (LDM), which she founded with her late husband.

According to an LDM statement, the stroke “left significant weakness of her left side” but had not affected her ability to communicate. She was “alert, in stable condition and beginning the process of physical therapy.”

Green took over the leadership of LDM after her husband’s death in a 1982 plane crash. The ministry, originally based in Texas, was part of Youth With A Mission for a time. She now runs it from Kansas City, Mo. Eric Tiansay

The three-part examination questioned the “lavish” lifestyle of the television evangelist and his fund-raising practices
A charismatic televangelist has dismissed a Texas newspaper investigation that called into question his lavish lifestyle, biblical claims for prosperity and use of supporters’ donations.

In a major three-part series it called “an examination,” The Fort Worth Star-Telegram stopped just short of accusing Mike Murdock of wrongdoing in operating his Denton-based ministry. Murdock is known for his teaching on biblical wisdom and “seed sowing.”

The man who “says his mission is to rescue people from poverty is living lavishly, while the ministry he founded spends most of its money on overhead,” the newspaper said, noting that Murdock, 57, drives fancy sports cars, owns Rolex watches and recently purchased a jet. “Murdock makes few distinctions between his resources and those of the ministry he founded. Some critics question whether his actions are proper.”

The Star-Telegram’s 13,500-plus-word story, published March 2-4, was the result of a six-month inquiry. Three reporters and a research librarian investigated Murdock, whose weekly TV program, Wisdom Keys, is broadcast nationwide.

The newspaper pieced together details of Murdock’s lifestyle and ministry from documents obtained by the Trinity Foundation, a televangelist watchdog group in Dallas; local property-appraisal records; a report of a burglary at his home; interviews; and excerpts from his broadcasts and books.

The newspaper said Murdock would not agree to an interview with its reporters unless everything he said was printed verbatim.

Murdock told Charisma that the first story in the series–featuring his photograph–ran on the front page next to an article on the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“There was only one column devoted to the capture of the mastermind of the 9/11 attack, and the rest of the front page focused on our ministry,” Murdock said. “That told me that this wasn’t just a regular story. I don’t know if it was intentional, but it added to the negative tone of the story.”

Murdock added that he was saddened by the attack “targeting” his ministry. “Every minister of the gospel always finds hatred, anger and false accusation from nonbelievers to be painful, devastating and soul-searching,” he said.

“Our attorneys will address the 36 discrepancies and false statements in the first article alone,” he added. “I have a 14-page response that will be presented to our partners shortly.”

The Star-Telegram examined three aspects of Murdock’s ministry: how donors’ money is spent, how the line between his interests and those of the tax-exempt ministry is blurred, and his biblical claims for prosperity.

Experts on nonprofit organizations told the newspaper that Murdock’s solicitation of personal gifts–for his birthday and ministry anniversaries– were “questionable,” but none charged that he was raising funds illegally. Ministry accountant John Walker of Tennessee-based Chitwood & Chitwood said whether the funds were marked as love gifts, blessings or birthday gifts, they were simply income, the Star-Telegram reported.

Murdock’s main critic in the series was Ole Anthony, the founder and president of the Trinity Foundation, who claims Murdock is living a double standard.

“He tells his employees they should sacrifice, but he doesn’t,” Anthony told the newspaper. “He tells the viewers to buy his books and give to him, but he doesn’t give. He’s just another cog in the wheel [of televangelism], maximizing self-interest.”

The newspaper also spent a day examining Murdock’s alleged use of “love bonding”–a psychology term used by University of California, Santa Cruz, social-psychology professor Anthony Pratkanis.

“On his television program, he often pauses to gaze intensely into the camera,” the Star-Telegram said. “He singles out viewers as if he knows who is watching and what they are thinking.”

The newspaper quoted Murdock newsletters, in which he told donors: “I wonder if you realize just how much you are appreciated … how many times I talk to the Father about your needs, your pain, your miracles!”

At least eight women moved to the Denton area, some believing Murdock intended to marry them. The newspaper said one woman lives on the side of the road near the ministry’s headquarters.

On a ministry tape, Murdock said he did not know the woman living near his property, but tried to help her by giving her some money to return home, the newspaper reported. He told the Star-Telegram that God did not send her to marry him because she “brought divisiveness.”

Murdock told Charisma several “wisdom keys dominate my heart” concerning the Star-Telegram investigation, which he said had been going on for several years.

“False accusation is the last step before supernatural promotion,” he said. “Adversity is always the golden link to divine relationships, time reveals truth, and those who attack you fear your potential. The flood of phone calls, mail, e-mails and flowers from all of my pastor-friends and partners has meant the world to me.”

Murdock added that the articles were “disappointing in motive, goal and falsehood.”
Eric Tiansay