Fifty years ago a brave band of American missionaries ventured into the jungles of Ecuador to begin the difficult process of evangelizing the isolated Waodani tribe.

The five men didn’t get very far. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming and Roger Youderian were killed by the natives before they could build the first chapel or start the first Bible study.

When news of the tragedy spread in January 1956, the mission to the Waodanis seemed to be a miserable failure. Yet it soon became clear that these men did not die in vain. The witness of Elliot and his team eventually resulted in hundreds of conversions. The amazing story of sacrifice and redemption in a remote South American rain forest-a story now immortalized in the film End of the Spear-has inspired Christians around the world to make world evangelism a passion and a priority.

I’m praying that the film will reignite fresh missionary zeal in the American church, which has lost the kind of radical courage that leads people to forfeit money and careers in order to win souls in a hostile environment.

I wonder what happened to this missionary spirit? Many of us are so focused on claiming our financial harvest or overcoming our personal problems that we forget there are entire countries in the world that still haven’t heard about Jesus. In our comfortable world of megachurches and claim-your-instant-promise conferences, the idea of braving insects, bad food, sickness and the threat of death is considered weird and old-fashioned.

Some of us have either become too sophisticated to pay that kind of price or too lukewarm to believe that God requires it. We’ve forgotten that the gospel makes demands on us. We’ve forgotten that the Christian life is not just about blessings and personal breakthroughs but also about being willing to face impossible obstacles in order to take the gospel to the world.

I’m afraid that we have replaced raw missionary zeal with a happy-clappy, seeker-sensitive message of self-empowerment. Our shallowness has made us weak and irrelevant in a time when the church desperately needs more heroes like Jim Elliot.
I know those heroes are out there. I often meet them overseas-in places such as Egypt, Nigeria or China-any country where Christians have swallowed their fears and become willing to suffer when necessary.

I met one of these heroes in Indonesia in January. He is less than 5 feet tall, but he could be considered a spiritual giant. His name is Pastor Lucky, and he lives in Papua, the easternmost region of this huge island nation. Missiologists know Papua has one of the highest concentrations of unreached tribes in the world.

I met Pastor Lucky during a conference in Jakarta. After hearing me speak he slipped a wrinkled, handwritten note into my hand. It said in imperfect English: “Plese pray for Papua.” It listed 14 isolated people groups who live in the jungles of his province.

Most of these tribes live in trees and do not wear clothes. All of them are violent and cannibalistic. They don’t have a written language and have no access to the Bible. They have no technology. But they do have Pastor Lucky.

I was drawn to this man partly because his short stature and slight frame made me feel an urge to protect him. He explained to me that he had an accident when he was 11 months old that left him crippled. Lucky’s father rejected his son because of his physical impairment and even tried to strangle him when he was 9.
“I grew up very timid, feeling unworthy and useless,” Lucky told me through a translator. But because of his mother’s prayers, he became a Christian at age 12. Today, at age 32, he pastors a church in Papua. But his ultimate goal is to penetrate the jungle.

As Lucky told me of his plans to reach these hostile tribes, I couldn’t help but think of those Christian martyrs who died in 1956. I wondered if Pastor Lucky might join them. And I wondered if many of us would be willing to pay a similar price.

Not all of us are called to dangerous jungles. But Jesus told all of us to go. If the word “go” is not in your gospel, I dare you to ask God to give you the heart of a missionary adventurer.

You may be surprised where that prayer may take you.

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J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and author of 10 Lies the Church Tells Women (Charisma House). His ministry, The Mordecai Project, focuses on empowering women in ministry and confronting abuse.

Satan has used lies and racial stereotypes to divide and isolate us.

Several weeks ago I decided to get a haircut while I was waiting for my daughter’s car to be repaired. I looked across the street and saw a sign that read “HAIR” and figured I could try a new place for a change-even though I was unfamiliar with the neighborhood. When I walked in I realized it was a shop that catered to African-Americans.

Everyone in the salon was black, and they all gave me slightly puzzled stares when I came through the door. They probably weren’t used to seeing middle-aged white guys come in this place too often.

I immediately smelled chemicals I’d never smelled before. About eight women were seated in chairs on the left side of the salon, and I soon learned that many of them had been there for two hours getting relaxer treatments or elaborate weaves. Several men were in the cramped lobby waiting for the one male stylist who specialized in men’s hair.

I had an awkward choice to make. I could turn and walk out, and risk sending the message that I didn’t want to be in a black hair salon. Or I could do what Jesus would do. I quickly decided that He had led me there.

I gave my name to the receptionist-a kind-faced, middle-aged woman who was carrying on a spirited conversation with one of the female customers about her unexpected pregnancy. I was told that “Devon” would be cutting my hair when he finished with the four men in front of me.

I could feel the stares more intensely as I thumbed through worn copies of Ebony and Black Enterprise. The receptionist looked at me every minute or so with a nervous smile. I asked her about her large family and told her about my four teenage girls.

We suddenly had a lot in common.

While a wall-mounted television blared a rerun of The Proud Family, the whirring of hair clippers blended with a dozen conversations to make the room buzz. There was a sense of community in this place that I’ve never felt in the sterile suburban salon I visit once a month. These people knew one another, shared their family news and even swapped prayer requests.

I felt at home, but many questions were going through my mind. Do these folks even want me here? Will they laugh when I leave? Does Devon know how to cut a white guy’s hair?

All the men in front of me were getting their heads shaved except one, who was having his hair platted in tiny patches and adorned with beads. I did not want beads, a shaved cut or a “low, low fade,” which in black lingo means shorter than a buzz cut.

When I got in Devon’s chair I immediately pushed past the awkwardness. “So is there really any difference when it comes to cutting black or white hair?” I asked.

Devon laughed. “No, man. It’s all just hair.” He laughed again when I admitted that I used Afro Sheen on my curls when I was a teenager in the 1970s.

Devon did a great job on my hair, and I told him I’d be back again. Then I told the receptionist I hoped she would have no complications with her pregnancy. A lot of eyes followed me as I walked to the door.

Some of those people looked dumbfounded, as if I had broken an unwritten social rule. I just smiled and waved. It felt good to break some stereotypes-and make new friends in the process.

My experience that day reminded me that Jesus went out of His way to break social barriers. He even went to Samaria-a place no other kosher Jewish rabbi would dare visit. After He ministered to the divorced woman at the well, He stayed there two days-most likely eating Samaritan food, living in a Samaritan house and soaking in Samaritan culture (see John 4:40). Who knows? Maybe He even got a Samaritan-style haircut.

Satan has used lies and racial stereotypes to divide and isolate us. But when we cross ethnic and cultural lines and learn to spend time with one another, we discover how flimsy the devil’s barriers really are. I hope you will venture outside your safety zone and start crashing through the cultural blockades that separate people in your community.

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J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and an award-winning journalist. His ministry, The Mordecai Project, focuses on empowering women in ministry and confronting abuse. Log on at .

Back in November I spent a weekend doing what I love most: teaching and encouraging a group of leaders from a local church. We had a proposed agenda for Friday night and all day Saturday, but we quickly scrapped that outline and let God have His way. As we prayed and prophesied over each person, the
spiritual temperature of that church went from cool to hot within 24 hours. I love it when God takes over!

After Sunday morning’s message, in which I shared how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, people who wanted that experience jammed the altar. More folks lined up for prayer after the service, too, including a young man who needed to get his heart right with God.

When the Holy Spirit is present in power, spiritual hunger rises. Healing and joy are released. The flame inside us is fanned into a blaze, and our dying embers come alive.

But as I look around at churches today, even among congregations that use the Pentecostal or charismatic label, it appears that Pentecost has become a stale concept. Many churches have intentionally turned their spiritual thermostats way down below room temperature in an effort to be relevant and sophisticated.

We wanted to fit in with the culture so badly that we moved uptown, reinvented our message and remodeled our altars. I’m all for making changes to reach a new audience. But I fear that the fire on our altars went out while we were buying our expensive sound systems and installing coffee bars.

We’ve invented a new variety of dry religion. It looks nothing like your grandmother’s three-hymns-and-a-boring-lecture. Today’s version includes upbeat music, a casual dress code, relaxed meeting times and popcorn sermons. We even use PowerPoint and movie clips! We’re proud to say, “Hey, we’re not religious!”

But let’s remember that if we aren’t open to the Holy Spirit-and if we aren’t willing to take the risks involved in Pentecost-then our trendy, postmodern worship experience can become as boring as a three-hour pipe organ concert.

Please hear me. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with PowerPoint or coffee lounges. I’m glad we have cordless microphones and Jumbotron video screens. We should use the newest technology to reach our culture. But there’s nothing worse than an American megachurch full of high-tech gadgets that is devoid of genuine spiritual life.

Does anybody out there notice that something is missing? Look around at your own church. Is the Holy Spirit welcome?

How long has it been since someone gave a prophecy or a message in tongues in a service? Do sick people come to the altar for healing? How long has it been since someone was so overcome by conviction that they ran to the front seeking salvation?

Are things so regimented that God can’t interrupt man’s programs? It’s time to look beyond our slick facades and recover what’s been misplaced-before we lose a generation.

We are in the same predicament as the sons of the prophets who turned to Elisha for help (see 2 Kings 6:1-7). They were busy building their house when one of the men dropped his ax head in the Jordan River. He had lost his most valuable tool, and he couldn’t build anything without it.

The man cried for help and Elisha supernaturally discerned where the ax head was submerged. Then Elisha caused the heavy iron tool to float to the surface of the water.

In all our religious busyness we must recognize that we’ve lost the ax head. We’re trying to build ministries without the one tool that can do the job. Maybe we thought we could use a cheaper substitute, but our lightweight imitations don’t work.

We may dress and perform like hip, tech-savvy, 21st century Christians, but we don’t have the power of Pentecost. We’ve become dull and helpless.

We must return to the Jordan-the place where the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus-and cry out to God for His power to be restored. We must have the Spirit’s sharp edge. Only He can cut through sinful hearts and spark the blaze that will engulf our nation in authentic spiritual revival.

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J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and author of 10 Lies the Church Tells Women (Charisma House). You can read his biweekly online column at .

The Apostle Paul wrote the Bible’s most eloquent words about Christian love. But when it came to the subject of heresy, he went into verbal-attack mode. He labeled those who were spreading false doctrines “dogs” (Phil. 3:2) and “liars” (1 Tim. 4:2), and he not only labeled heretics publicly but also “handed them over to Satan” in his prayers (see 1 Tim. 1:20, NASB). That doesn’t sound much like the “sloppy agape” we often model today.

Paul believed that when heresy goes unchecked it contaminates everyone. He warned his disciple Timothy that false teaching spreads “like gangrene” (2 Tim. 2:17). “Gangrene” can also be translated cancer.

Modern translation: False doctrine is malignant. Get the tumor out before it kills people.

It troubles me that many charismatic and Pentecostal church leaders today are not displaying the necessary backbone to label a heretic a heretic. We have become masters at soft-pedaling and inaction when the Lord requires us to confront.

Case in point: Bishop Carlton Pearson, who was raised in the nation’s largest Pentecostal denomination (the Church of God in Christ) and who once worked with the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, began teaching what he calls “the gospel of inclusion” a few years ago. He has become a Universalist, claiming that people do not need conversion in order to be saved by Christ.

Pearson’s deception has been widely reported. In Charisma we followed Pearson’s demise and announced that one organization, the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops’ Congress, labeled him a heretic in 2004. Since then Pearson has convened a national conference about Universalism that featured John Shelby Spong, an Episcopalian who affirms gay ordination and does not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You would think that every charismatic leader in the United States would sever ties to Pearson until he renounces his apostasy. But that is not the case.

 

• Popular gospel singer John P. Kee, who pastors New Life Fellowship Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, appeared on the program at Pearson’s Inclusion 2005 conference, which was held in Pearson’s Higher Dimensions Family church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June. Having Kee’s face on the program certainly gave the conference added credibility in the eyes of gospel music lovers.

   

• Pearson was the featured speaker at Bishop Earl Paulk Jr.’s Atlanta-area church, Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, in May. Paulk then put Pearson back in the same pulpit in October.

   

• The International Communion of Charismatic Churches (ICCC), which Paulk founded, still lists Pearson as a member. When I asked an ICCC leader why they did not remove him, he said the organization does not currently have any mechanism to restrict membership based on doctrinal or character issues.

  Huh? I think we’ve identified the root problem. In the loosey-goosey world of charismatic independence, we find it almost impossible to police our own. Everything is about “fellowship,” but we lack the teeth in our policies to ensure that we can properly discipline preachers who veer off into doctrinal error.

  When I bring up the issue of Pearson’s apostasy I usually get a lot of glazed looks from people who don’t want to believe that a brother has fallen into deception. “Don’t be so hard on the guy,” is a typical response. “Maybe we don’t understand his message.”

  I don’t need any more explanation. Pearson has a banner on his Web site that announces “God Is Not A Christian.” At press time, his church was to host a combined service on November 17 with a local Unitarian congregation in Tulsa. (Note: Unitarians are nice people, but they do not believe in the deity of Jesus.)

  I’m sorry I sound harsh. But I would not be walking in the love of God if I weren’t willing to issue this warning in order to protect vulnerable people. Sometimes we have to be willing to offend. “Love your brother” does not mean, “Always be nice.”

  We Christians don’t know how to handle it when the Bible requires tough love. It’s time for all of our congregations, denominations and church networks to raise the bar and defend the faith from those who pervert it.

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  J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma. His online column appears on Charisma’s Web site twice each week at . His ministry, The Mordecai Project, focuses on empowering women in ministry.

 

God can use even the darkest tragedy as a backdrop to showcase His mercy.

We’ve all heard about the dead bodies in the hospitals, the cars stuck in trees, the looting in the French Quarter and the federal government’s slow-as-Mississippi-mud response to Hurricane Katrina. But did you hear about the man who was healed of deafness when a volunteer counselor prayed for him at a Dallas refugee shelter a few days after the storm? Probably not.

Most news broadcasts during the first week of the tragedy were depressing—
except when Fox News gave air time to Franklin Graham, whose Samaritan’s Purse organization rushed food to evacuees before the federal government even realized that New Orleans was flooding. (Can we make Graham the director of FEMA?)

Samaritan’s Purse was just one of many Christian charities that became the true heroes in this awful disaster. Their compassion unleashed a thousand miracles that were never reported.

It may sound trite to suggest there is a bright side to this tragedy. I certainly don’t want to trivialize the pain felt by Gulf Coast residents, especially those who lost everything when nature’s fury displaced 1 million people. But on the flip side, we can thank God that this disaster had a happy ending.

The stories of Christian generosity are everywhere. A 100-member congregation in Pascagoula, Mississippi, cooked hot meals for 3,000 people a day from their parking lot—even though their sanctuary was destroyed. Churches all over the country welcomed evacuees, offered free apartments and even chartered planes to bring homeless families to a safe shelter.

A Missouri church covered the monthly payroll of a church in Slidell, Louisiana, that was flooded. Small ministries delivered tractor-trailer loads of baby food, Powerade and even underwear. And a church in Sri Lanka that funneled American aid to tsunami victims recently sent $10,000 to help Katrina’s survivors.

The storm opened unusual doors for ministry. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a Vietnamese community that has been closed to outsiders for years allowed a group of Christians from Mobile, Alabama, to operate a feeding center for the mostly Buddhist residents of their area—where Katrina’s 9-foot storm surge reportedly swept 80 people out to sea. In nearby Pascagoula, Christian teenagers repaired houses for the elderly, and one old man wept when he was told he wouldn’t be charged a dime for the work.

Hundreds of evacuees have prayed to receive Christ. In Mississippi, a man who was helping a group of Christian guys serve food to storm survivors stopped in the middle of cooking hot dogs and said, “I can’t take it any more. I’ve got to get saved.”

God has an uncanny way of turning bad things to good and using even the darkest tragedy as a backdrop to showcase His mercy. And that’s why it really irked me when Christians began sending e-mails about God’s judgment on New Orleans as soon as Katrina’s eyewall had passed over southern Mississippi.

These armchair prophets were quick to claim that New Orleans was under water because God had smitten it. My question:If Hurricane Katrina was a judgment from God, why was the most notorious sector of the city left high and dry? Does God have bad aim? Shame on anybody who was hurling stones in the direction of Louisiana when frantic people (including many Christians) were stranded on the tops of their houses.

I asked several godly Christian leaders how they viewed this tragedy, and not one of them saw it as divine retribution. And those who pastor in New Orleans are eager to return so they can encourage their scattered flocks and rebuild the city.

The question is not why the storm happened. What we need to ask is: How do we respond? When evangelist Scott Hinkle heard people were drowning, he packed up and headed to Louisiana with a ministry team. When he got there he learned that thousands of nameless Christians had organized the most impressive relief effort in American history. By the time all the water is pumped out of New Orleans we’ll have heard of a thousand more miracles—carried out by caring Christians who got out of their armchairs and proved that mercy triumphs over judgment.

Has the American church given the devil a place to hide?

Nobody I know has ever taken a photograph of the devil, and we couldn’t find a recent snapshot to use on the cover of Charisma this month. The only images we located were paintings, drawings and a few sculptures—all based on artists’ notions of what the Evil One must look like.

I certainly was not inclined to pursue an interview or a photo-shoot, since I really don’t care to see Satan in person. But for the sake of journalistic accuracy I need to inform our readers that the red-faced monster we featured on our cover is probably not a realistic depiction.

Most of us tend to think of the devil as a grotesque creature: a half-man, half-reptile with forked tongue, goatee, black fingernails and creepy, Darth Vaderlike voice (and bad breath of the sulfuric variety). He’s like all the things we feared most when we were kids: Dracula, Freddy Krueger or any twisted character played by Vincent Price. Kids today might give the “Most Like Satan” award to the dark wizard Saruman from The Lord of the Rings films.

But the issue for us is not whether the devil has pointed ears or carries a pitchfork. Regardless of his real appearance, he is a master of disguise. That’s what makes him so dangerous.

We Christians are always on the lookout for the devil’s work. But it seems we spend way too much energy looking in the wrong places for his fingerprints.

A few years ago, for example, some Christians worked overtime to inform parents about the evils of Pokémon, claiming that Satan was plotting to take over the minds of children by using a Japanese cartoon. That was only after another group of Christians circulated a warning that a major U.S. household-products company was controlled by devil worshipers. (It wasn’t.)

Today, many believers act as if the Harry Potter books are hell’s primary tools to infiltrate our families with witchcraft.

I don’t buy that. Satan is much more subtle.

The apostle Paul, who wrestled with plenty of demonic powers in his day, told us that we must know our enemy in order to outwit him. One thing we must understand is that the devil’s primary target is the church­—so he snoops around there a lot.

He comes “as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14, NASB) and is an imposter who claims to speak for God. He can mimic piety. He’s OK with choir robes, clerical collars and the whole Sunday morning routine. He knows how to dress to fit in.

He detests genuine praise music that exalts God, but he’s fine when he can turn worship into dead formality or manipulate it in a fleshly way to glorify the performer. He hates the Bible (because he must bow to its authority), but he has impressive knowledge of the Scriptures and can twist them to create false doctrines.

He despises preachers, but if he can tempt them to embrace greed or arrogance (or lure them into denominational politics), he can use them like puppets on a string. He hates it when Christians love each other, so he uses every trick in his bag to trigger jealously, strife, divorce and painful church splits.

The apostle Paul didn’t seem too concerned about the devil’s influence in pagan culture. He was much more alarmed that Satan had infiltrated the church without anyone’s knowing it.

“Who has bewitched you?” he asked the Galatians (Gal. 3:1). He told the Corinthians: “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3).

Has the American church given the devil a place to hide? Satan thrives on religious hypocrisy. He also loves backbiting, pride, greed, selfish ambition and hidden perversion. As long as we tolerate such things, we create an atmosphere of spiritual compromise that attracts the enemy and gives him a safe haven.

Religious people don’t even realize they are part of this evil plot. But radical Christians who are full of the Holy Ghost must go on the offensive, chase Satan down, invade his territory and liberate his captives. When our masked enemy is faced with a church that walks in genuine love, Christlike humility, bold authority and biblical faith, he must tuck his scaly tail between his legs and run.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma and the director of The Mordecai Project (). You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. His latest book is Fearless Daughters of the Bible.

NOBODY IN MY FAMILY watches Desperate Housewives. My wife and I are raising four teenage daughters, so the last thing we need is a sleazy prime-time soap opera about suburban women who consider adultery an acceptable way to cure boredom.

No thanks. I’ll change the channel.

On the other hand, I do want my girls to grow up to be desperate. Not like the women who live on the fictional Wisteria Lane, but more like Hannah–the Bible’s original desperate housewife. We could use a big dose of her desperation today.

Many people who have read Hannah’s story (see 1 Sam. 1-2:11) wrongly assume that her anguish was born out of a selfish motive. We think she just wanted a baby, and that God answered her petition because she prayed really hard.

I don’t believe her story is that shallow. So much more than a maternal instinct was at work here.

Hannah was a praying woman, and an intimate friend of God. From that place of deep fellowship she understood what was happening in her nation. She knew that Israel was backslidden, that the priests in the temple were defrauding the people, and that divine judgment was imminent.

This barren woman’s desire for a baby was not born out of a need to feel good about herself. Nor was it simply an attempt to make her husband happy or to silence her contentious rival, Peninnah.

No, this had nothing to do with boosting self-esteem. Hannah was asking God to send a prophet who could bring revival to her barren land. And she was willing to be the vessel through which that prophet could be born.

What is so amazing is that three people tried to abort the spiritual promise in her womb, yet she pressed beyond their interference and believed God anyway. Peninnah offered nothing but condemnation–taunting Hannah for her childless condition as if it could never be cured. Meanwhile, Hannah’s patronizing husband, Elkanah, implored her to forget her desire for a baby and find her identity in him instead.

But the worst insult came when Hannah arrived at the church. The spiritual leader of the day, Eli the priest, didn’t recognize that what was stirring inside Hannah was of the Holy Spirit.

She was so overcome by the power of the Lord that she got a bit emotional, so much so that Eli thought she was a drunken fool. He could no longer discern a Pentecostal visitation from an alcoholic stupor.

Yet Hannah did not let the insults stop her from pursuing a breakthrough. The words from Peninnah, Elkanah and Eli went in one ear and out the other, but Hannah held on to her word from God. The next time she came to that temple she carried a boy prophet in her arms who would one day call Israel to national repentance.

I want to offer a challenge to all the Hannahs who read our magazine. There is a divine call on your life, and it is so much bigger than you and the restricted place where you live now. You may feel you are spiritually barren, or that God has forsaken you. It is time to walk in faith–and to pray with desperation!

If voices of condemnation are harassing you, rebuke them. If patronizing voices are telling you to stop pursuing your dreams, politely ignore them (even if they are from those you love). And if religious voices are criticizing you (perhaps because you are a woman, or because your prayers are loud and undignified), smile and keep storming heaven until your promise has been birthed.

Although I attended church as a teenager, I was anything but spiritually grounded. By age 16 I was questioning the Bible, God’s authority and all my parents’ religious traditions. I flirted with becoming a Jew and then considered atheism. I’m sure I gave my mother fits. But thanks to her prayers, my dad’s patience and the intervention of a youth pastor, my life was turned around by the time I headed to college two years later.

To this day I can’t figure out why Barry St. Clair took an interest in me. He was a busy guy, involved in training youth pastors all over the country. Yet he invited me to his weekly youth Bible study, included me in his social life and allowed me to hang out with him and his wife and kids at his home.

When he found out I wanted to become a Jew, he didn’t lecture me—he just kept on building our friendship while intensifying his prayers. When I decided in 1976 to make Jesus the absolute Lord of my life, Barry was the first person I told.

Today Barry is still a close mentor and one of my dearest friends. I call him before I make any major decision, and he e-mails me almost monthly to say that he is praying for my ministry.

The Lord sent Barry into my life more than 30 years ago. I am grateful that a godly man saw some hidden potential in a confused, frizzy-haired 10th-grader from Atlanta. Today when I speak to teenagers or college students, I get a déjà vu feeling when I realize that I sometimes preach like Barry. He reproduced himself in me because he took the necessary time for something we don’t seem to value much these days: personal, one-on-one discipleship.

In this month’s issue we are highlighting the fact that the American church is dangerously close to losing the younger generation (see Ron Luce’s article on page 36). As we consider solving this crisis, I propose that we make some radical shifts in our strategy:

1. Focus youth ministry on relationships. Today’s teens are the most disenfranchised kids in American history. Many are passed from one house to the other every week depending on whether mom or dad has custody. Is it any surprise that these kids would rather play video games than visit a traditional church?

Sermons and concerts may reach them initially, but the only way to press beyond the pain of divorce and rejection is genuine friendship. Youth today need overdoses of love from surrogate parents and peers who can show them real trust and commitment.

2. Get rid of the hype. A lot of us adults have been conditioned to shout and swoon every time the preacher raises his voice or twitches his arm during a sermon. But teenagers are not impressed. They don’t fall on the floor just because somebody places a quivering hand on their heads. They are looking for real spiritual substance, not the charismatic fluff we have been conditioned to applaud.

3. Banish legalism. Many teens leave church because they’ve been fed a diet of toxic religion. For them, Christianity is just a bunch of rules about what to wear and what not to smoke. Yet they become radical for Jesus when they discover that real faith is about a close, intimate relationship with a God who can heal their hurts and empower them to work miracles.

4. Start youth churches. Statistics show that we aren’t reaching teens fast enough today. We are stupid to think we will reach them by doing church the same way we’ve done it since Grandma bought the first stained-glass window back in 1935. It’s time for radical, out-of-the-box solutions.

If teens aren’t showing up to sit on your wooden pews, then plant a youth church at the local skate park or coffee bar. Take the church to them. Then, when kids get saved, let them take leadership roles and implement their own strategies to reach other kids—using their music (and chairs that don’t look weird).

Today’s prodigals need a shoulder to cry on, a loving home to visit and caring mentors like Barry St. Clair to help them find their way back to the Father. Nothing can replace the power of the personal touch. Youth ministry won’t be successful without it.

I DON’T CARE TOO MUCH for birthdays-at least not mine. They used to be fun, but today they are harsh reminders that I don’t look 30 anymore. Time has passed. The carefree days of youth have been replaced by the pressures of adulthood. We spend our younger years craving maturity, but when we attain it we suddenly realize we don’t want the gray hair, the slowed metabolism or the aches and pains that come with age.

We can exercise, eat healthy food and take vitamins, but we can’t stay looking like 20-somethings forever. We must accept the wrinkles and the receding hairlines with grace. We have to grow up.

Back in the days of Moses (long before plastic surgery, Bowflex machines or Viagra), the people of Israel rebelled against maturity. Even though the Lord parted the Red Sea to rescue them from Pharaoh, and even after He sent daily manna to teach them to trust, they refused to embrace the new season. They longed for Egypt because it was easier. (“Hey, slavery isn’t so bad. There’s no responsibility!”)

God wanted to take them to a land of promise-a land they were to rule like adults-but they rejected the offer. Instead they chose to doubt God’s goodness. They whined like preschoolers and threw themselves into sexual immorality as if they were still teenagers with raging hormones.

As a result of their immaturity they were stranded in the desert for 40 years-wandering in a circle and going nowhere. Those who refused to embrace the responsibilities of walking with God never saw the lush vineyards of Canaan. The unbelieving rebels were buried in forgotten graves-and if you visit that desert today you won’t find any trace of them. They faded into sad insignificance.

The Israelite pilgrims started out with a big charismatic bang. When they left Egypt, Miriam led them in boisterous praise. They clapped, shook tambourines and danced while waving colorful banners. They witnessed miracles. But in the end, an entire generation wandered into oblivion. And they didn’t have any photographs, videos or musical recordings to help them remember the good old days.

I wonder how much their story resembles ours.

Those of us who call ourselves charismatics started out with a big bang, too. Back in the 1970s many of us found the freedom of the Holy Spirit and left our staid, traditional churches to discover vibrant faith. We danced. We clapped. We saw miracles. We learned to prosper. But sometime in the mid-1980s some charismatics began to rebel against maturity.

God began to make it clear that the Spirit-filled life is not just about shouting hallelujah and swooning at the altar. We realized we were going to have to get off the floor, develop character, grow our faith and use it to fight devils. We faced the fact that God is looking for a company of mature adults-not whiny, self centered kids-who can transform nations with the gospel.

As we celebrate 30 years of charismatic history with this special anniversary issue of Charisma, I want to make an important announcement: The charismatic movement is over. It was glorious, but it is time to move on. Those of us who have been drifting in the wilderness must cross the Jordan. We have been wanderers, but we must become warriors.

Charismatic renewal was a glorious phase that introduced us to so much revelation about the Holy Spirit, but we can’t camp in that place forever. The goose bumps and the hoopla of the past won’t help us on the battlefields of the 21st century, where Jesus’ followers must challenge and crush global demonic strongholds.

We are entering a new season-a time of apostolic conquest. I suspect some charismatic people will resist the challenge and stay behind, playing their favorite oldies from 1978 and yearning for the days of manna and quail.

But God’s glory cloud has moved, and last year’s manna is moldy. Jesus is invading the secular culture, and He is mustering an army of young believers (along with the faithful Calebs and Joshuas) who smell war. Let’s run to the front lines and join them.

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J. LEE GRADY is editor of Charisma and author of 10 Lies the Church Tells Women (Charisma House). His ministry, The Mordecai Project, focuses on empowering women in ministry and confronting abuse.

Who will lead the church in the next decade? These young Christian leaders, all 40 or younger, represent THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH.
WHEN CHARISMA WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1975, some of the leaders profiled on these pages were not even born. Yet today they are steering the church into new territory, armed with the courage and creativity needed to make the gospel relevant to their generation.

They represent a new breed. Burned out on denominationalism, they avoid labels and aren’t comfortable with old church models. Turned off by religious hype, they crave authenticity. Products of the digital age, they are more media-savvy than their elders-and they intend to use 21st century technology to reach people who have been turned off by toxic religion.

Today’s emerging leaders aren’t afraid to push new buttons, sail into uncharted waters or blur the line between secular and sacred. Their faith has been shaped not only by the culture wars of the 1990s but also by reality TV, iPods and instant messaging. They are the first generation to use blogging as an evangelism tool in cyberspace. Today’s emerging leaders fully intend to reinvent church, even if it means changing the music, tampering with ineffective church programs and barbecuing our sacred cows.

They are passionate about worship, yet today’s leaders also have known pain. Their generation has experienced more than their fair share of divorce and family dysfunction. For that reason they are poised to offer more effective ministry to those who have been overlooked by churches in the past: singles, abused women, sex addicts, homosexuals and the emotionally broken. They are also the first generation of Americans to move fully beyond institutionalized racism-and they are intentional about making tomorrow’s church a place of ethnic diversity.

These 30 leaders certainly are not the only individuals who should be recognized by Charisma. (Our selections were culled from nominations submitted by leaders in charismatic and Pentecostal churches throughout the United States.) But we believe the church has never seen a more gifted group of men and women step forward to carry the torch into the future.

1. Ron and Hope Carpenter Jr., 37, 36
Both raised in strict Pentecostal homes in the South (Ron is from a South Carolina hamlet known as Possum Kingdom), the Carpenters met in Bible college in Georgia and in 1991 planted a church in Greenville, South Carolina, a bastion of racial division. Today, Redemption World Outreach Center is one of the largest congregations in the Southeast (with more than 7,300 members) and is a model of racial inclusion. Although the Carpenters are still connected to the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, they have their own apostolic network that attracts forward-thinking leaders who desire to duplicate the success of Redemption in other regions.

2. Shelley Henderson, 32
A native of Los Angeles, Henderson came to Washington, D.C., in 1999 to work as an intern for Oklahoma congressman J.C. Watts. That job led to an opportunity to develop the first-ever Congressional Faith-Based Summit, which explored partnerships between the government and Christian ministries-and stirred national
controversy over the role of faith in public life. She was eventually appointed by President Bush to serve as director of the White House Faith-based Initiative at the
Department of Education. A mother of one son, Henderson hosts an annual event for pastors’ wives that has featured first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as speakers.

3. Benny Perez, 40
Perez has never been afraid to take the gospel where it isn’t welcome. In the mid-1990s, he caught national attention when he pioneered a youth outreach near Seattle, an area where Goths and grunge rockers outnumber born-again Christians. Hundreds of teenagers were converted and discipled during that revival, which was based at the First Assembly of God in Marysville. After launching a national conference ministry to train teenagers in radical evangelism, he moved to Las Vegas to pioneer a congregation that is now influencing that city’s unchurched culture.

4. Matthew Barnett, 31
The congregation his father pastors in Arizona has 20,000 members. So it was fitting that the younger Barnett should take the helm of the nation’s original megachurch, Angelus Temple, a congregation founded in 1923 by Pentecostal pioneer Aimee Semple McPherson. When the Los Angeles church was at the point of death in 2001, Barnett was tapped to revive it-and he spent $7 million to remodel it into a state-of-the-art urban outreach center. Barnett probably knows more about urban outreach than anyone in the country: His successful, multifaceted Dream Center (housed in an old Los Angeles hospital) offers practical assistance and spiritual aid to addicts, poor families and the homeless, and has now been duplicated in 130 cities worldwide.

5. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, 33
Heads turn these days when anyone fi gures out how to attract young people to church. In Baltimore, all heads turned in Bryant’s direction when his church, Empowerment Temple ., began growing by 60 to 100 people a week. His secret? Bryant has unashamedly replaced staid tradition with Pentecostal fervor, and he doesn’t shy away from dealing with taboo topics such as homosexuality, drugs and pornography in his sermons in order to relate to the hip-hop generation. The majority of his more than 10,000-member congregation is under 40, proof that
he is reaching African-American Gen-Xers, many of whom view church as irrelevant.

6. Tessie Güell de DeVore, 39
A Cuban-Puerto Rican, DeVore got her start in Christian publishing in Miami and eventually landed a job at Strang Communications, the parent company of Charisma. In 1993 she launched Vida Cristiana, and the magazine has since become the largest Spanish language Christian magazine in the United States,
serving the fastest-growing minority group in the nation. Two years ago PR Newswire named her one of the top 100 Hispanic journalists in the nation. Last year she was named president of the Spanish Evangelical Products Association and is the first woman to hold the position.

7. Rory and Wendy Alec, 39
Although not Americans, we included this couple in our list because their influence is set to reach millions of American homes in this decade. They are founders of God TV, Europe’s leading Christian broadcaster. Not only are the Alecs taking their message far (God TV now reaches a potential 270 million viewers, with stations in Israel and Africa) but they also produce programs that are hip and sophisticated for younger viewers who can’t stomach most other religious programming. Unless other broadcasters figure out a way to reconnect with younger viewers, it is likely that God TV’s debut in the United States will send channel surfers in the Alecs’ direction.

8. Kevin Turner, 36
To a generation that lacks heroes, Turner offers a fresh model of courage. Discipled by revivalist Leonard Ravenhill, Turner launched his Strategic World Impact ministry in order to aid persecuted Christians in the world’s most dangerous hot spots. Turner has redeemed Christian slaves from Muslim warlords in Sudan, aided refugees in Afghanistan and distributed relief supplies to tsunami victims in Indonesia. He and his team send aid into dozens of nations from their base in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

9. Nicole C. Mullen
Some Americans got their first glimpse of Mullen during the Republican National Convention a year ago, when she sang the national anthem in her unique, soulful style. But her diehard fans have been following her career since she toured as a backup singer with Amy Grant and eventually won Dove Awards for her solo albums. What sets Mullen apart from the money-driven music industry is her ministry focus. Both of her grandfathers are Pentecostal preachers in Ohio, she attended the charismatic Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, and she works with an international aid organization to free African girls from slavery and ritual sacrifice. (She doesn’t tell her age, but we know she’s under 40.)

10. Cameron Strang, 29
You could call him the philosopher of the revolution-and he buys a lot of ink (and
bandwidth) to promote his new ideas. Strang’s growing company, Relevant Media Group, started fi ve years ago and already has caught the attention of USA Today and Publishers Weekly. His Relevant magazine, with 60,000 subscribers, has grown by tapping into the most underserved age group in the Christian market-20-somethings-who, according to Strang, are “hungry for God but disenfranchised by traditional religion.” Edgy and sophisticated, Relevant applies the gospel to contemporary issues in a nonthreatening manner, and it doesn’t off end the
sensibilities of younger adults who have a low tolerance for hypocrisy.

11. Gerard Henry, 33
After getting his start in ministry as a campus evangelist at the University of Maryland, Henry went to Bible college and got connected to an employee at the Black Entertainment Television (BET). After working at BET for three years he presented a concept that became one of the most popular shows on the Washington, D.C. based cable channel. His talk show, Lift Every Voice, which features interviews with top gospel artists, athletes and preachers, was increased from a half-hour to an hour and is in its fifth season. As the show’s host, Henry has gained national notoriety even while boldly proclaiming his faith on mainstream airwaves.

12. Jeremy Del Rio, 30
Not too many law school graduates quit their legal careers to do street ministry.
But that is what Del Rio did after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A native of New York City, and the son of unconventional preacher Rick Del Rio, Jeremy helped found the Ground Zero Clergy Task Force, which administered aid and pastoral care to the residents of New York most affected by the World Trade Center disaster. He also runs Generation Xcel, a volunteer-run organization that operates two youth
centers in lower Manhattan, a youth theater in the heart of East Village, and after-school and summer programs for more than 125 at-risk youth.

13. Todd Bentley, 29
Though he is Canadian, Bentley’s impact on American churches is impressive. A former drug addict from Vancouver-and now a confessed “Holy Spirit junkie”-he was saved at 18 and launched his Fresh Fire Ministries at age 25. Today he is probably the world’s youngest as well as busiest healing evangelists with a schedule that rivals that of Benny Hinn (Bentley preaches 30 to 50 times a month and has ministered in crusades attracting as many as 100,000 people). His revivalist style is not for everyone (“Some think I am too loud,” he told Charisma in 2002), but numerous healings that have occurred in his meetings have been documented.

14. Alan Chambers, 33
He once frequented gay bars in Orlando, Florida, before he surrendered his life to Christ. Yet today Chambers is the gay community’s worst nightmare. He rejected
Homosexuality after becoming a Christian and then married a woman from his church. Today, as president of Exodus International, the nation’s leading ex-gay
ministry, he brings a decidedly conservative perspective to the airwaves during his frequent interviews on mainstream media. Chambers’ youth has brought a fresh perspective to the 30-year old Exodus group-and he is bringing needed attention to the problems facing teens who struggle with homosexuality.

15. Danita Estrella, 40
She isn’t Catholic and she doesn’t wear a nun’s habit. But this former promotional
model is carrying on a crusade for the poor that has caused some people to compare her to Mother Teresa. Estrella ventured to Ouanaminthe, Haiti, in 1999 to work for a small Christian school. Eventually she bought a building and began an orphanage, and more children began to arrive-some of them HIV positive. “Pastors began to bring me children when their parents died,” she told Charisma in 2001. Today, with the help of American churches that fund her work, Estrella feeds and educates more than 500 children, and she has personally adopted 72 of them as her own.

16. Zachery and Riva Tims, 36, 34
Mentored by inner-city megachurch pastors Randy and Paula White, the Tims’ 6,000-member New Destiny Christian Center in metro Orlando, Florida, has grown at a fast clip, thanks to their savvy use of media (including lots of billboards that compete with theme park advertisements in the city’s tourist corridor). A former
cocaine addict from Maryland, Zachery Tims now reaches rich and poor with
the gospel and is building a ministry complex called the City of Destiny on 21
acres his church recently purchased.

17. Jason Upton, 31
One of the freshest voices in contemporary worship today, Upton has been compared to Keith Green because his music is deeply spiritual and carries a prophetic edge. What sets him apart from so many Nashville, Tennessee, artists is his unconventional spontaneity and a childlike reliance on the Holy Spirit’s presence to make worship come alive. He also understands the younger generation. He told Relevant magazine: “There is something in our generation that is repulsed by doing something just to do it. There is a real heart cry in our generation for intimacy. Worship … is what we’re looking for.” If his recent
recordings Key of David, Trusting the Angels and Great River Road are any indication, Upton’s career will likely skyrocket.

18. Margaret Feinberg, 31

If there is a spiritual revival stirring among 20-somethings in this country, Feinberg is best prepared to write about it. With more than 14 books under her belt, the Alaska-based writer has accomplished more than most authors twice her age. One of her most recent books, Twentysomething: Surviving and Thriving in the Real World (W Publishing), calls young adults to discover their spiritual mission (with a chapter on how to conquer what Feinberg calls “your quarter-life crisis”). Her next book, due from Tyndale House, is aptly titled What the Heck Am I Going to Do With My Life? and is aimed at career-minded young adults.

19. Ben Cerullo, 29
His face resembles his evangelist grandfather, Morris Cerullo, but the similarities stop there. This younger Cerullo who admits he wandered away from his faith as a teenager and messed with drugs and alcohol-is now an evangelist of a different sort. He has launched an impressive, high-tech outreach to youth by using extreme sports as a backdrop. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based ministry he launched in 2000, Steelroots, produces a half-hour program aired on the Inspirational Network (which is owned by his father, David Cerullo). The Steelroots show mixes faith with profiles of popular skateboarders, surfers and snowboarders-and Cerullo has released a magazine designed to hook more viewers.

20. Juan and Tracy Galloway, 35, 32
He started a Christian punk band called Sanctified Noise while a teenager. She was the youngest person to attend Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas. When they married, both knew they were called to reach the fringes of society. In August 2003 they established the East Coast School of Urban Ministry in Elizabeth,
New Jersey and they teach trainees everything from counseling skills to outreach techniques (including how to use junk percussion instruments for evangelism). Now affiliated with the Foursquare denomination, the Galloways also have started City Tribe Church, an urban congregation that features hip-hop, reggae, house,
Latin and rock music during worship. Juan is blunt in describing his focus: “We as the church in America need to get away from the gospel of the American dream and get back to healing our communities.”

21. Robert Stearns, 36
He is part worship leader and part revivalist, but more than anything he is a prayer warrior and his main concern is Israel. Stearns’ passion for the Jewish homeland is so strong, in fact, that the New York-based minister last year single-handedly launched one of the most ambitious prayer projects ever organized for Israel. With backing from more than 500 Christian leaders and numerous Israeli political leaders, Stearns’ Eagles Wings ministry sponsored the international Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem last October 3-and mobilized an estimated 50 million believers to pray. The event will be held annually every first Sunday of October
“until the Messiah returns,” Stearns says.

22 & 23 Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, 33, 28

At a time when few American women were heading to the mission field, these two missionaries made international headlines in 2001 when they were abducted
by Taliban soldiers during the war in Afghanistan. Their courage became the subject of a 2002 book, Prisoners of Hope, which recounted the hair-raising account of their incarceration in a Taliban prison and their rescue by American forces. Both women now challenge Americans- particularly those in their age group-to embrace the Great Commission. Currently they are using money
raised from their book royalties and speaking fees to train missionaries. (We won’t be surprised to see them return to the Middle East when the political situation there changes.)

24 . Russell and Ana Maria Schlecht , 35, 24

Four years ago this couple made the decision of their lives when they picked up and moved from Seattle to start a church on the Harvard University campus in Boston. “The last place I wanted to be was next to Harvard,” Russell admits. But he moved across the country anyway-obeying what he says was a call from God. Today, their Grace Street Church is one of the only congregations located in walking distance to Harvard dorms and classrooms. It offers Spirit-filled ministry
to a growing congregation of 150 attendees-a large church by Boston standards, and unusual because young people form its core. The Harvard Crimson’s 2003 profile of the church quoted one student saying of pastor Russell: “He’s not old and boring.” Few churches in America get such good advertising.

25 . Brian Mosley, 26
Though this graduate of Baylor University is one of the youngest leaders on our list, Mosley made a big splash when he founded , a ministry that is harnessing the energies of 20- and 30-something Christians. The Web site gives young adults a fast track to the mission field by listing immediate job openings with dozens of missionary and relief organizations, and it is sponsoring several conferences this fall and next year. Says Mosley: “We want to help connect this generation to hands-on opportunities to live out their faith.” Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney and his Gen-Xer son, Marc, 31, helped launch Mosley’s first Fusion conference last fall in Dallas.

26. Philip and Sharon Smethurst, 37, 35

If the apostle Paul were ministering today, he would probably enjoy traveling with this South African couple, who base their ministry on the east coast of Florida. Philip Smethurst’s motto is: “Any Road, Any Load, Any Time.” Armed with satellite phones and GPS devices, he and his teams of young adult evangelists travel to the most remote parts of the planet to reach isolated tribes that have never heard the gospel. Since the Smethursts founded Overland Missions in 1999, they have taken hundreds of 20-somethings on difficult, month-long missions in Africa and South America. “We are raising up young adults as young apostles,” Smethurst says. “We are demanding from them apostleship, not just evangelism.”

27. Matt Sorger, 32
Revivalists typically don’t come from New York-at least not since the days of Charles Finney. But Sorger is an exception. A product of Zion Bible Institute in Rhode Island, he served as a coordinator for The Call New York, a massive prayer gathering held in the state in 2002. As an itinerant preacher- with a proven track record of miracles he raises hopes that the Holy Spirit is thawing one of the most spiritually bleak regions of the country. Says his mentor, revivalist Lou Engle: “Matt carries the heartbeat of God for this generation. He possesses a deep passion for the Lord and a hunger for true revival.”

28. Michael A. Stevens Sr., 35
Pastors in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) who want to move up the ranks in their denomination can get frustrated-since senior leaders often stay in power until they are in their 80s. But Stevens has focused his work not on climbing a ladder but on transforming the inner city of Charlotte, North Carolina and his work has caught the attention of city officials. His 1,100 member congregation, University City COGIC, offers 45 different ministries to help people outside the church walls-
including classes on economic empowerment. Stevens believes Charlotte will be changed one person at a time, and he lives the message: When he was held up at gunpoint in 1996, he led his assailant to Christ and refused to turn him in to the police. Today the man is an active member of the church.

29. Greg Russinger, 34
The church this young Foursquare pastor started in Ventura, California, will never fit in the traditional mold. Hey, this is California! Known as The Bridge, it is one of the few congregations in the United States with an art gallery and a music lab. But Russinger believes young people today want to connect with one another and explore their creativity in a deeply spiritual environment. His congregation of 250 meets on Sunday nights in a downtown venue. Worship is sometimes led by a full band and other times by tribal drums. Every month the congregation washes clothes for street people. We expect Russinger’s concepts to catch on as younger pastors discover they too can venture outside the box.

30. David Cunningham, 34
This man knows what he wants. “My life’s mission is to challenge and shape culture through film,” says Cunningham-son of Youth With a Mission founder Loren Cunningham. He grabbed Stephen Spielberg’s attention after releasing To End All Wars, a $14 million War World II movie that got limited box office exposure but critical praise. The film was violent enough to earn an R rating, yet it was laced with a Christian message of forgiveness. Insiders expect Cunningham to eventually direct a film that will take evangelical faith into mainstream theaters. We are ready to buy some tickets.