Christian publishers, broadcasters and civil liberties groups have come out in support of Harvest House Publishers in its fight to have a multimillion-dollar libel action thrown out of court.

More than 20 companies and organizations were involved in filing or supporting “friend of the court” briefs backing Harvest House against the Local Church movement and its publishing arm, Living Stream Ministry (LSM). The briefs-submitted in October to the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas in Houston by The Rutherford Institute, The Inspirational Network, the Pacific Justice Institute and the National Religious Broadcasters-argued that a ruling against Harvest House would threaten press freedoms under the First Amendment.

Among those named as interested parties in the actions were Moody Publishers, Kregel Publishers, Gospel Light/Regal Books, Rose Publishing and the USA Radio Network. The appeals court also heard oral arguments over Harvest House’s appeal of an earlier rejection of an application for summary dismissal of the lawsuit. A decision is expected soon.

Local Church congregations and LSM took Harvest House to court in 2001, seeking more than $100 million on the grounds they were libeled by their inclusion in the 1999 John Ankerberg and John Weldon book Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions, which Harvest House published. Founded in China in the 1920s by Watchman Nee and later brought to the U.S. by Nee’s disciple, Witness Lee, the Local Church claims 25,000 members in 300 churches nationwide and more than 250,000 members in 3,000 churches internationally.

Though cult-watchers have long said LSM has never sufficiently distanced itself from questionable teachings on topics such as the Trinity or the nature of the church, it was accepted into the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association in 2002.

In its submission, The Rutherford Institute argued that “nothing in the book singled out the Local Church as promoting or engaging in behavior that the book attributed to some sects or cults or individuals.” The appeals court’s decision that the action should go to trial threatened the “vigor” of public discussion on religion “and raised a danger that the press will censor itself because [of] … uncertainty” over First Amendment protections, the brief added.

LSM and the Local Church said in a statement that the Rutherford brief “mischaracterizes the nature of the conflict.” The case “is not just about the freedom of speech or the right to publish,” it said. The case was “about abuse” of First Amendment rights, “not about freedom.”

LSM spokesman Chris Wilde added that freedom to publish under the First Amendment was abused “when someone can make false charges of criminal and abhorrent behavior without bearing any responsibility to substantiate them. The brief seems to argue for unrestricted freedom, without responsibility. That’s an unusual position for Christians to take these days.”
Andy Butcher

The founder of Atlanta’s Cathedral of the Holy Spirit has stepped down from leading international network
Bishop Earl Paulk Jr. resigned from his position as archbishop of the International Communion of Charismatic Churches (ICCC) after leaders of the Georgia-based organization asked him to step down in October. When ICCC leaders met again a month later they elected a new leader and voted to cut all ties with Paulk.

The abrupt move came on the heels of a lawsuit filed against Paulk in August. In the suit, former parishioner Mona Brewer alleged that Paulk, pastor of Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Atlanta, coerced her to have sex with him and others-including visiting charismatic preachers.

Brewer and her husband, Bobby, with whom she filed the suit, served on the staff of the cathedral. She claims that around 1989 Paulk began requiring her to have sex with him, “other members of the church community [and] leaders of other churches as well as his family members, sometimes with other individuals observing the sexual acts,” the lawsuit said.

Brewer admits that she should not have consented to the alleged demands, but she said Paulk manipulated her into thinking her salvation depended on her engaging in the sex acts. Paulk has denied the accusations repeatedly, and he countersued the Brewers shortly after the lawsuit was filed. He later retracted the litigation.

Accusations of sexual misconduct have hounded Paulk since he was accused of committing adultery in 1960. In 1992 a church member went public with claims that she was pressured into having a sexual relationship with Paulk’s brother, Don Paulk, who served as senior pastor. He admitted to an affair and resigned but was reinstated three weeks later.

The same year several women alleged that a church staff member sexually harassed them during counseling sessions. Another female staff member claimed in 1993 that she had a sexual relationship with Earl Paulk Jr.

In 2001, a female church member filed a lawsuit claiming the bishop sexually molested her when she was a child and later when she was a teenager. That suit was settled out of court in 2003.

The cathedral-known for its racial diversity, creative arts programs and massive, neo-Gothic sanctuary-continued its ministry, although in 1992 membership dropped by half, from 12,000 to 6,000. Paulk denied wrongdoing and refused to grant media interviews, but he continued to oversee the ICCC, which he had led since 1982.

Previously, most area pastors kept quiet about the scandal, and national Christian leaders didn’t get involved in what they viewed as a local problem. No church court investigated the charges, largely because Paulk’s ministry has been independent of denominational accountability since he left the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) more than 40 years ago.

But new ICCC presiding bishop David Huskins, 39, says the days of loose accountability in his organization are over. “What the charismatic world needs today is someone to take responsibility,” Huskins told Charisma.

Huskins could not comment on specific allegations of sexual misconduct by Paulk or other cathedral staff members. But he said the ICCC has tightened its bylaws and released a strongly worded statement that holds its members to high standards of morality and theological integrity.

“We do not condone beliefs that allow for immorality or sexual impurity,” Huskins said. ICCC leaders also made it clear in their Nov. 17 meeting that Carlton Pearson, the prominent Pentecostal bishop who recently became an avowed Universalist, is no longer affiliated with the ICCC.

The ICCC elected Margaret Idahosa, widow of Nigerian church leader Benson Idahosa, as vice president. She was so adamant about breaking ties with Paulk, Huskins said, that she threatened to pull all her African churches out of Paulk’s network if the group did not take a strong stand against him.

The ICCC works in 29 countries and represents hundreds of congregations. Paulk served as archbishop of the group, but ICCC leaders voted in November to discontinue the use of that title.

“We do not find that term to be scriptural,” said Huskins, who will use the less authoritarian title of presiding bishop.

In early November, a group of Atlanta-area pastors issued a statement of apology for alleged abuses of power at Paulk’s church. Bradley White, 49, pastor of City Harvest Worship Center, and Johnny Enlow, 46, pastor of Daystar International Christian Fellowship, are two of the ministers rallying Atlanta pastors around the statement. Posted on the Internet at www.christianswhocare.net, it apologizes to women who were “betrayed, victimized, abused and wounded by sexually inappropriate actions.”

Enlow said he speaks for a growing number of pastors who are signing the statement. “Christian leaders who see unrighteousness done in the name of Christ simply cannot sit back and say nothing,” he said.

Huskins admits that the ICCC or some other church body should have looked into the charges against Paulk and the cathedral years ago when accusations first surfaced. Now, he says, “it certainly will be played out in the legal system.”

The Brewers’ lawsuit is currently moving forward in Dekalb County Superior Court, and dozens of witnesses are going through a deposition process. Bobby Brewer told Charisma in October that he and his wife filed the suit “to give victims a voice.”
Among the dozens of people required to appear in court for depositions in the case are two of Paulk’s daughters, Beth Bonner and Joy Owens, and numerous other Paulk family members.

At the same time relatives were being deposed for the trial, Paulk, 78, was battling cancer. He was admitted to an Atlanta-area hospital for surgery to remove his bladder and prostate along with part of his colon.

Huskins said he viewed Paulk as a spiritual father for many years and now must face a wide range of emotions. “I’m angry. I’m grieving. I’m challenged by my own lack of discernment,” he said. “But it is time for new leadership.”

Acknowledging a “dangerous trend of independence in the charismatic movement,” the new ICCC leader believes Spirit-filled churches must be more intentional about confronting unbiblical behavior in its leaders. Huskins added: “We have no choice but to deal with sin in our midst.”
J. Lee Grady

Venezuela President Gives Missions Group 90 Days To Leave

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has revoked New Tribes Mission’s permission to work in his nation. The Ministry of Justice and Interior published the decree Nov. 14 in the official Gazette of Venezuela, where laws and orders are recorded. The order gave the missionaries 90 days to leave tribal areas, where NTM had been working since 1953. The Florida-based organization came under fire Oct. 12, when Chavez accused its Venezuela workers of spying for the U.S. Some 3,000 tribal Christians protested the order Oct. 28, just two days after a group of Venezuelan evangelical leaders issued a statement supporting Chavez’s decision. NTM requested a meeting with Chavez to clarify “misunderstandings,” but at press time he had not consented. The organization said it would comply with the order but would also explore its legal options.

British missionary Murdered in Sudan

A British aid worker died in November after gunmen ambushed his jeep in Sudan near the Ugandan border, Compass Direct reported. Roughly 20 militants attacked Collin Lee, his wife and their Sudanese driver Nov. 5 as they traveled to the southern Sudanese town of Yei from Uganda. Lee, 57, had worked with International Aid Services as a trauma counselor for war victims in Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda for less than two years. His wife survived the attack. “Collin felt that he had a calling from God, and he had a real sense of urgency to accomplish that goal,” Lee’s friend and colleague Elias Kamau told Compass. The Ugandan army held the Lord’s Resistance Army responsible for the murder.

Christian Girls Attacked in Indonesia

Unidentified assailants shot two high school students Nov. 8 in Indonesia’s Poso district, central Sulawesi, just 10 days after three Christian teenage girls were beheaded on their way to a private Christian school, Compass Direct reported. Ivon, who at press time was being identified only by her first name, and Siti Nuraini, both 17, were admitted to a Poso Kota hospital in critical condition, according to the Jakarta Post. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on security forces to find the perpetrators. However, Indonesians are doubtful they will be found, as many violent crimes in Poso remain unsolved, Compass reported.

Bible College Faces Harassment in Bangladesh

A Bible college in Bangladesh was forced to relocate after facing persistent harassment from Islamic extremists, Christian Freedom International (CFI) reported. In July Grace Presbyterian Bible College moved from Khulna to south Sayabithi, about 15 miles north of Dhaka. “The fanatic groups attacked our school three times, two times this year, one time last year,” said principal Peter Khaleque. “They tried to kidnap the girls and kill the men.” The 33-student school continues to face opposition in its new location, but Khaleque said classes would continue. CFI is calling on the U.S. government and United Nations to urge Bangladesh to stop the growing persecution of religious minorities, especially Christians.

Georges Sada’s book tells of Saddam Hussein’s plan to destroy Israel and hide weapons of mass destruction
Saddam Hussein’s top military adviser, who is a devout Christian, has written a book in which he tells about the former Iraqi dictator’s plans to destroy Israel, hide weapons of mass destruction and overtake the Arab world.

In Saddam’s Secrets, set for release on Jan. 24, Georges Hormis Sada, a former air vice marshal in Saddam’s air force, gives a firsthand account of his interaction with and service to the ousted leader and how his faith was a vital part of it all.

“This book is not just a tell-all about Saddam Hussein,” said Sada, 65, the former president of the Assembly of Evangelical Presbyterian Churches in Iraq. “I hope that this book will help people to see what this man was really like. But more than anything I hope that people who read it will see that appeasing tyrants is always a bad idea. As we all know now, kissing up to Saddam Hussein was a recipe for disaster. And we’re still paying the price for that today.”

Sada, who serves as the current personal adviser to Iraq Prime Minister Ayad Allawia and an adviser to the new Iraqi army, paid a price for serving under Saddam. He was promoted to the rank of general in 1980, but was involuntarily retired in 1986 because he refused to join the Baath party, a radical Arab political party.

Sada was recalled to active service on Aug. 2, 1990, just hours after Hussein invaded Kuwait. He was put in charge of prisoners of war, but on Feb. 5, 1991, Sada was discharged and imprisoned because he refused to obey Hussein’s order to execute allied forces pilots who were shot down and captured in Iraq.

“I really expected bad things to happen to me when I was put in prison, but thank God, Saddam finally realized that what I did with the POWs was the right thing,” Sada recalled. “So instead of being killed, I was retired once again. When the war ended and the prisoners were free to return to their homes, alive and safe, that’s when I really understood why God had allowed me to be recalled into the service. It was so that I could be given the task of keeping the pilots alive.”

Retired Col. David Eberly, the United States’ highest-ranking Gulf War POW, was one of the coalition pilots shot down and captured. Eberly, who retired from the Air Force in 1997, was held for 43 days in the Iraqi desert. “I was only in the lion’s den for those days,” said Eberly, who wrote about his ordeal in the book Faith Beyond Belief. “Georges lived there his entire life, and he was protected. The Lord knew Georges was on a mission. Georges has told me that he was there to save our lives.”

Eberly described Sada as a humble Christian. “He wears a large cross of nails around his neck on the outside of his coat most of the time,” Eberly said. “Georges is behind the cross. His life is that way. Saddam respected him for that.”
Terry Law, president and founder of World Compassion Terry Law Ministries, a Tulsa, Okla.-based evangelistic and humanitarian aid organization, has traveled to Iraq seven times since 2003 with Sada’s help.

“Georges was Daniel in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court in my mind,” Law told Charisma. “That was real because Saddam wanted to rebuild Babylon, ancient Iraq. Georges is a Christian witness. He has contact with all of the leaders of Iraq. He is highly respected. He is one Christian that they all listen to.”

Law considers Sada a close Christian friend. “He is living for God in the middle of the worst situation in the world,” he said. “The fact that he’s alive is one of the most amazing testimonies. Georges is the only Christian in the world who knew Saddam and can tell the stories.”

Sada, who is a member of Iraq’s National Presbyterian Church, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), noted that “no one should ever underestimate the cunning and resourcefulness” of Saddam, whose trial began in October.

“Saddam needs to be held accountable for his actions,” Sada said. “He murdered countless thousands of our men, women and children over many, many years, so the punishment must be severe. The biggest mistake would be to assume that Saddam is no longer a threat to Iraq or to the world. No one is safe as long as he’s still around, so the judgment of the courts must be swift and certain.”

Also releasing this month is John Hagee’s book Jerusalem Countdown, which discusses the threat of a war against Israel and the impact it would have on the U.S.
Eric Tiansay

The Redeemed Christian Church of God has built its North American office in once-segregated rural Texas
In what some see as a role reversal, the Nigeria-based Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) is building a North American headquarters as part of its ongoing mission to evangelize the U.S. and other parts of the world.

RCCG is constructing the facility on several hundred acres of pastureland it purchased in a back-road, north Texas community called Floyd. Just four decades ago a banner over the main county road read “Blackest Land, Whitest People.”
Even today some residents of Floyd-population 100-have expressed discomfort with having large gatherings of Nigerians and an active church headquarters in their conservative Caucasian farm town.

Detroit pastor James Fadele, RCCG’s North American chairman, said the ministry’s goal is simply to reach the lost. “In the heart of every man is a vacuum [that] only God can fill,” Fadele said. “Be it America or Africa, our objective is to preach Christ to the people so as to fill the vacuum.

“Our goal is to plant churches within 10 minutes’ drive in every developed nation and within five minutes’ walk in every developing nation … until every nation in the world is reached for Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Fadele said the most misunderstood concept about RCCG is that the church, which was born in Africa and internationally draws a largely African attendance, must be only for Africans. “Every lost soul is a priority to the Lord,” he told Charisma. “The soul of the African, European and American are all of equal value and worth to God. Jesus died for every lost soul.”

RCCG reports more than 200 churches in the U.S. and between 2 million and 5 million members worldwide, with congregations in 90 nations. The church was founded in 1952 in Lagos, and is currently under the leadership of Enoch Adeboye. He has been quoted as saying the Floyd location was chosen because God told him to build there.

Each month, RCCG hosts an all-night prayer meeting at its Redemption Campground in Lagos that draws several hundred thousand people. Every December the RCCG Holy Ghost Congress reportedly draws around 7 million attendees.

Out of Africa, a 2004 Regal Books release edited by Global Harvest Ministries founder C. Peter Wagner and pastor Joseph Thompson, names RCCG as a significant leader in a burgeoning trend of Africans becoming missionaries to the U.S.

The book reports that Nigerians are planting more new churches outside their own country than Americans are planting outside theirs. It says Nigerians are creating larger churches-with an average of 500 members-than most American churches, which are comprised of 200 or fewer members.

It also reports that of the world’s six continents, Africa is experiencing the most accelerated rate of church growth-2.62 percent per year compared with .81 percent in North America.

Thompson, a native Nigerian and former teaching pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Africa’s history of military rule and corruption, civil war, famine and oppression, coupled with its current soaring crime rate, unemployment, and overpopulation have provided the impetus for its turn toward Christianity.

“The Bible is very clear that God uses people who are broken and hungry for Him,” said Thompson, whose own church, The Well in Lake Mary, Fla., is scheduled to launch in February.

“We have the West to thank for exposing us to the truth of Scripture,” Thompson added, “but then again, it is the mind-set of the West that has become a hindrance to the church in America-keeping Christians from being able to experience the full power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Our first recourse is God, while for Westerners God is often the last recourse when every other means has failed.”

Thompson said the same African culture that once wrapped its arms around the power of witch doctors and the demonic today is more open to the spiritual aspects of Christianity. Although Westerners have a tendency to intellectualize miracles away, he said, Africans embrace them.

Some media have reported that plans for the Floyd campus include an elaborate Disneyland-like facility with a 10,000-seat sanctuary, lecture centers, dormitory, lake and Christian-themed water park-amenities similar to the ones at the church’s 18,000-acre Redemption City global headquarters in Lagos.

However, James Alao, overseer of the Floyd RCCG campus, said that as of press time nothing more specific than the initial building, which is structurally complete and features a 700-person meeting area and modest office facilities, has been confirmed.

The RCCG ministers’ conference Oct. 20-22 marked the first official gathering at the new Floyd headquarters. In June 2007 the Floyd campus will be the site of RCCG’s North American Convention.
Marcia Davis-Seale in Floyd, Texas

Case of Kindergarten Censorship will Go to Trial

A case of censorship involving a kindergartner’s picture of Jesus is proceeding to trial. In 1999 Antonio Peck, then a kindergarten student at Baldwinsville Elementary School in Syracuse, N.Y., created artwork for a class assignment about ways to save the environment. His poster included an image of Christ along with cutouts of children recycling and picking up garbage. Citing church-state concerns, school officials folded the mural so the image of Christ could not be seen. Peck’s parents later sued the school for censorship. In 2000, a trial court said the school had the right to censor the student, but in 2001 an appeals court unanimously reversed that decision, sending the case back to the trial court, which in 2004 again ruled in favor of the school. In October, a federal appeals court reversed that decision, allowing the case to go to trial. Liberty Counsel is representing the Pecks.

Appeals Court Dismisses Parents’ Suit Over Sex Survey

California’s Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared that parents have no “fundamental right” to be the exclusive provider of their children’s sex education, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The ruling came Nov. 2 when the three-judge panel dismissed a lawsuit filed by parents angered that the Palmdale School District, located in Los Angeles County, surveyed their elementary school students about sex. Upholding a lower court ruling, the high court said the parents “have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students,” CNS News.com reported. The school district said the survey, which asked first-, third- and fifth-grade students how often they thought about sex, among other questions, was part of a program to gauge exposure to early trauma and help students overcome learning barriers. The parents argued the consent forms never mentioned that students would be asked about sex. Their attorney planned to appeal.

Campaign Declares Legality of Celebrating Christmas

Jerry Falwell urged pastors to resist “bullying tactics” by the American Civil Liberties Union during the holiday season by participating in a campaign aimed at spreading the message that celebrating Christmas in public places is constitutional. The Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign began in 2004 in Alaska when Anchorage Baptist Temple ran a series of newspaper ads declaring the celebration of Christmas to be legal. Pastor Jerry Prevo said “the pre-emptive measures resulted in not one incident of religious discrimination.” In 2005, Florida-based Liberty Counsel (LC) spearheaded the effort, which also involved posting ads defending the legality of public commemorations of Christmas. LC said the campaign gained support from thousands of public school teachers and administrators.

Affiliated Media Group helps buy airtime on stations such as USA Network and the Discovery Channel
Ray Davis is passionate about giving media ministries exposure beyond the church walls.

Davis is founder and CEO of Affiliated Media Group (AMG), the largest full-service Christian advertising agency in the world. AMG is responsible for purchasing airtime for a who’s who of ministers on Christian and mainstream TV networks. They include Joel Osteen, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, Paula White, Greg Laurie and David Jeremiah.

AMG lands airtime for these ministries on Black Entertainment Television, Independent Television Network (formerly PAX TV), ABC Family Channel, USA Network, Daystar, The Inspiration Network, Discovery Channel, Court TV and Fox Network. Those networks and other TV outlets reach more than 97 million households nationwide, as well as viewers in 64 countries.

“Our goal is to give our media ministries the greatest degree of exposure and visibility possible, while at the same time negotiating efficient rates and costs,” Davis told Charisma. “We represent no one that we do not believe in, and make it a point of learning as much as we can about each of our clients, so that we can better assist them in achieving their media goals.”

He sees AMG working hand in hand with the media ministries in fulfilling the Great Commission. “I certainly believe that what Affiliated Media Group does is a ministry in every sense of the word,” said Davis, 56, who started AMG in 1989. “We consider ourselves to be part or an extension of the ministries we represent and truly believe that our company has been called for such a time as this to help evangelize the world.”

Van Dalton, one of the co-owners of the company, echoed Davis’ sentiment. “We understand the pastors’ mind, heart and the commission that has been given to them,” said Dalton, 47. “We’ve seen people come to Christ through our ministry clients’ programs. That’s probably the most critical and passionate part of what we do. It’s absolutely rewarding. It’s why we love what we do.”

Osteen, pastor of 30,000-strong Lakewood Church in Houston, said, “Affiliated Media has provided us the expertise and media strategy that has been essential in managing and growing our television outreach.”

Jakes, pastor of the 28,000-member Potter’s House in Dallas, echoed his sentiment. “Ray Davis and Affiliated Media believe in what we are doing to evangelize the world for Christ,” Jakes told Charisma. “Their commitment of service and dedication to our goals continues to be the reason why we partner with their agency year after year after year.”

Davis said AMG has access to airtime that no other agency has been able to gain. “For example, the USA Network had a no religion policy,” said Davis, noting that AMG has 105 ministry and humanitarian group clients. “But we were able to break through the ice and get the first religious program on the USA Network in early 2005. That was Joel Osteen, and that opened up additional airtime for our other clients.”

AMG, which has its headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla., and marketing, public relations and production offices in Dallas, Chicago, South Bend, Ind., and Oklahoma City, Okla., has nearly 70 employees.

Davis, who with his wife, Betsy, attends Southpoint Community Church, a charismatic congregation in Jacksonville, said despite breakthroughs on general market TV networks, media ministries face challenges, including “diminishing airtime opportunities.”

“There has been a move … to try to get the Federal Communications Commission to forbid paid religion on the air,” Davis said. “The argument of these atheists is that religion offends some people. I do see this as a real threat. They’ve already taken prayer out of schools and the Ten Commandments out of the courtrooms.
“As the world changes and drifts further away from God, who says they can’t take paid religion off the television? I also see government interference and regulations hindering [Christian programs],” he continued. “We have to be very diligent and strategic in everything we do.”
Eric Tiansay

Matt Stover says he wants to use his football platform to help build the kingdom of God
Die-hard football fans know of Matt Stover.

The 37-year-old Texas native thrilled the NFL in 2001, kicking the Baltimore Ravens to the Super Bowl championship. Stover is so consistent in getting the ball between the goal posts that he is always one of the first players picked in any fantasy league and annually has been among the league’s top scorers.

So when the can’t-miss master of field goals missed three times the first game of the 2005 season, heads were shaking. This was not supposed to happen.

The following Tuesday night, at Stover’s weekly men’s Bible study, the guys let him talk and they prayed. “That was good,” he said. “They had only seen me in success. If I was going to be an authentic man, I had to be able to talk when I failed too.”

Success is somewhat of an understatement when applied to Stover’s professional football career. Entering his 16th season this year, the Louisiana Tech graduate has climbed to No. 10 on the NFL’s all-time scoring list, been on two Super Bowl champion teams and is known as one of the most accurate kickers ever to put on cleats.

After each field goal attempt and after each PAT (point-after-touchdown) kick, Stover thrusts both of his hands into the air, pointing toward heaven. The routine-often caught on camera and broadcast to sports bars and living rooms everywhere-is his witness and now his trademark. “How can I not do it?” Stover asked. “I am giving the glory to God in all things. It is not about me, it is about Him.”

For Stover, such a witness seems appropriate. “Football is what brought me to Christ,” he explained.

Indeed, during a game in 1993, he says God got his attention. Stover-the last remaining Raven who was a Cleveland Brown before the team’s move East-had missed a 19-yard field goal. Dropping to one knee right there on the field, he cried out, “Lord, help me.”

It wasn’t a complaint; rather, it was a prayer. “Wow, I thought. I didn’t know I had that kind of reverence for God in me,” Stover recalled.

A few months later, Stover attended a Professional Athletes Outreach retreat at which he came to realize that he had wrongly allowed football to become his god. “Before that it was all about me,” Stover told Charisma. “I always had a knowledge of God, but never a relationship with Him.”

Stover took the step to surrender his life-all of it, including football-to Christ. That was more than a decade ago. Today the kicker sees himself as a role model and has committed to use his sports platform to build the kingdom of God.

When Stover speaks before young athletes he emphasizes the need to take personal responsibility, specifically when it comes to three big temptations all successful athletes face: money, athletic ability (pride) and sex. “I tell them that I had it, got it, been there and it is not it,” Stover said. “Even in secular places, they come up to me and say that they are glad that someone is finally talking about these things.”

At Christian venues such as Fellowship of Christian Athlete camps Stover candidly asks young athletes where they are in relationship to Christ. “A lot of athletes never take responsibility for their own lives,” Stover said. “A lot of athletes grow up but remain boys.”

Stover and his wife, Debbie, attend Grace Fellowship, an evangelical church in suburban Baltimore. They also support a crisis pregnancy center, an outreach to abused children and a nonprofit organization that assists the mentally handicapped.

For Stover, having the ear of young athletes is a gift. As he nears the end of his professional football playing days, he sees himself expanding his ministry, particularly to men. What he now tells young athletes he will continue to tell males of all ages: “We must take personal responsibility as Christians and as men.”
Steven Lawson

A new documentary explores the life of Lonnie Frisbee, a Jesus movement evangelist who died in disgrace
A documentary based on the life of a charismatic evangelist is raising eyebrows-and difficult questions about God’s grace in the face of persistent sin.

The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher, produced by filmmaker David Di Sabatino, is a biography of Lonnie Frisbee, a pioneer in the Jesus movement who indulged in drugs and homosexuality during his ministry and died of AIDS in 1993. Di Sabatino said he believes Frisbee was instrumental in founding the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard movements and that neither group has given him proper recognition.

Frisbee was 17 years old when he went to the highest peak of Tahquitz Canyon in California, stripped off his clothes, dropped some LSD and began to see a vision of what he believed God had for his life. Self-described as a searching individual, Frisbee said in the film that though he experimented with mysticism, drugs and homosexuality, he didn’t find satisfaction until he met Jesus Christ and became a born-again Christian.

Frisbee came down from Tahquitz Canyon on a mission to reach the world with the gospel. After several street missionary trips, Frisbee, who became known as “the hippie preacher,” became an assistant pastor under the tutelage of Chuck Smith, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Teens and young adults loved him, and Calvary Chapel experienced phenomenal growth. Frisbee later became involved in the Vineyard Church in Corona, Calif.
A worldwide missionary effort put Frisbee in several European countries, where he ministered to thousands. But while Frisbee was working with Vineyard founder John Wimber, a young man came and told leaders that he and Frisbee were having an affair.

The revelation eventually led Smith and Wimber to distance themselves from Frisbee, said Vineyard Church historian Bill Jackson. “Lonnie was a fractured guy that God chose and used mightily but was duplicitous,” Jackson said. “These great men of God felt incredibly betrayed. …

“This is tragedy on both sides of the coin,” he added. “But if you erase Lonnie from history you wouldn’t have those two movements.”

Di Sabatino, who edited The Jesus People Movement: An Annotated Bibliography and General Resource, wanted to make the film because Frisbee’s story shows “a great glimpse into the heart of God, a patient and loving father who often uses a cast of strange characters in his plan of redemption,” he wrote on his Web site, www.LonnieFrisbee.com.

He also said he wanted to “help” the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard movements “come to grips with a more truthful albeit messier story about how they came into existence.”

Frisbee’s former wife, Connie Bremer-Murray, said the hippie preacher’s passion to serve God was genuine. “God chooses whom He will choose,” she told Charisma. “And the Lord is able to forgive.”

Contemporary Christian musician Bryan Duncan, who became prominent at the end of the Jesus movement, said he saw and enjoyed an advance copy of the movie after he found information about it online. Duncan said he understands how a Christian leader can fall from behind the pulpit-or anywhere else.

“I run into a significant number of men that struggle with sin,” Duncan said. “I don’t claim to understand the malady, but I do understand the compulsion. It’s a backward thought process.”

He said some people think that when they find Christ they will be instantaneously transformed. “I haven’t found that to be true,” Duncan said. “Whatever darkness you bring to Christ, you will probably work on that for a lifetime.”

Di Sabatino said making The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher has been worth the effort. “He was a tough character, and he was hard to deal with,” he said. “If I knew him today I don’t think I would have liked him. But I am very glad I did this.”
The documentary has aired at several film festivals, including the Newport Beach Film Festival, Reel Heart Film Festival, and the Raggamuffin and Mill Valley film festivals, but at press time no national release date had been set.
Michelle Lovato

Carlton Pearson’s Church Goes Into Foreclosure

Higher Dimensions Family Church has gone into foreclosure, causing the congregation led by Carlton Pearson to hold Sunday services at an Episcopal church in downtown Tulsa, Okla. Higher Dimensions has experienced a 90 percent decline in membership since Pearson began preaching what he calls his “gospel of inclusion,” the Tulsa World reported. The doctrine teaches that all people are saved, even if they don’t acknowledge Christ. With only 500 members, down from 5,000 a few years ago, the church has been unable to make mortgage payments on its 30-acre property, which at press time the ministry was trying to sell. Rev. Stephen McKee, pastor of Trinity Episcopal Church, where Higher Dimensions was to meet for 1 p.m. services for three months beginning in November, said he is comfortable with Pearson’s doctrine, the World reported. “[I believe] that God became a human being, and if He loved us enough to do that, I have difficulty believing in a God that’s going to put my colleagues in hell,” McKee told the newspaper.

Israel Newspaper to Print Christian Edition

The Jerusalem Post plans to begin printing a Christian edition this month, The Guardian reported. The newspaper planned to partner with the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem to produce a monthly Christian edition that would be distributed among U.S. evangelicals. The publications will highlight a range of subjects, including archaeology, tourism and ideological arguments, Post editor David Horowitz told The Guardian. But he added that the Christian editions would not be permitted to seek conversions. Meanwhile, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism has gone public with its plans to build a Christian theme park on 125 acres of land being donated to evangelicals. The $60 million Holy Land Christian Center would focus on the places Jesus walked and include a Sea of Galilee Amphitheater overlooking the mouth of the Jordan River, and a Christian Experience Auditorium and Multimedia Center, the Christian Science Monitor reported. It would also include an online broadcast center that would allow ministers to address their constituents back home live from a location near the Sea of Galilee.

Voters Oust School Board Members in Favor of Intelligent Design

All eight members of a Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing intelligent design into science classrooms were removed from office in early November, the New York Times reported. Dover, Pa., voters elected a slate of challengers who opposed the teaching of intelligent design. In October 2004, the Dover school board voted to require ninth-grade biology students to hear a brief statement that there were “gaps” in the evolution theory and that intelligent design was a viable alternative they could learn about by reading Of Pandas and People, which would be kept in school libraries. Eleven parents later sued the board, arguing that intelligent design was essentially creationism in disguise and that the board was trying to impose religion on students, the Times said. Some observers say the election result was a sign that voters were weary of the controversy surrounding the trial. A verdict in the case is expected this month.

Texas Voters Cross Party Lines to Support Gay Marriage Ban

Texas voters overwhelmingly backed their state’s ban on gay marriage in November, with African-Americans and Hispanics crossing party lines to support the amendment, the Houston Chronicle reported. Proposition 2 passed with 76 percent of the vote. The election had the highest voter turnout of a constitutional amendment election since 1991. Observers say minority voters don’t necessarily see gay marriage as a party issue, but as a religious and cultural matter.

Baptist Leader Adrian Rogers Dies

Adrian Rogers, Ph.D., pastor emeritus of 28,000-member Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., died Nov. 15 after battling cancer. He was 74. Rogers served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention three times, and his Love Worth Finding broadcast aired on more than 14,000 TV and cable outlets and 2,000 radio stations. After serving as Bellevue pastor for 32 years, Rogers retired in 2005, but he planned to continue his broadcast ministry and leading the Adrian Rogers Pastor Training Institute. Funeral services were to be held Nov. 17. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; four adult children; nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Texas Pastor Electrocuted in Baptismal

The pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, was electrocuted Oct. 30 after grabbing a microphone while partly submerged in water, the Associated Press reported. Kyle Lake, 33, was a leader in the emerging church movement and had written Understanding God’s Will: How to Hack the Equation Without Formulas and (re)Understanding Prayer: A Fresh Approach to Conversation with God, both published by Relevant Books. Roughly 800 people were in attendance at the church, which was founded in 1995 by author Chris Seay and Christian musician David Crowder, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported. Funeral services were held Nov. 1 in Waco. Lake is survived by his wife, Jennifer, a 5-year-old daughter and two 3-year-old sons.