Before he met Jesus in 1989, Zachery Tims was dealing drugs in a Baltimore neighborhood. Today he’s helping thousands of people turn their lives around.

Marijuana and cocaine defined his young life.

He started by selling to addicts in a high crime area. Before long he sold drugs to classmates at the Roman Catholic high school he attended, to women willing to barter their bodies for crack cocaine, and later to supervisors wanting to get high on the job. Trafficking turned him on—until, like some of his customers, he got addicted to his product.

But all that changed for Zachery Tims one early morning in March 1989.
It was close to 3 a.m., and the blackness of the night sky paled in comparison to the spiritual darkness that had blanketed Tims while he slept. Demons swarmed around him in his dream, trying to pull him into hell. It was the third straight night the hideous creatures seeking his life had invaded his sleep.

This time, Tims bolted from his bed and rushed for the door.

“I ran down the street to my co-worker’s house and told him, ‘I’m ready!’ I didn’t want to go to hell,” Tims told Charisma.

At that moment, 19-year-old Tims met his Maker, praying with the man he had nicknamed “Holy Roller,” pleading for Jesus to save him. He says he was instantly delivered from drugs and never craved them again. The horrible nightmares and demonic visions also did not come back.

Today Tims is a pastor and evangelist and glad to be saved and working for Jesus. He and his wife, pastor Riva, founded New Destiny Christian Center in 1996, a flourishing congregation in Apopka, Florida, near Orlando.

It’s a church where those wearing a jail-issued ankle bracelet indicating house arrest can worship alongside new converts who lift their hands in praise to God, each oblivious to the religious dos and don’ts found in other churches. It’s a community resource where in February women will gather for a conference tailored to moms who raise their children alone.

Valerie Morris, who joined the church 10 months ago after moving from Spokane, Washington, says she attends the church because it emphasizes the Bible.
Morris told Charisma: “I go there because that’s where I get fed. I can apply the Word to my daily living.” She says she “loves” the women’s ministry, called Jewels, and “absolutely will not miss a meeting.”

Tims’ ministry is having a positive impact on people not only in central Florida but across the U.S. and in other countries as well. This 37-year-old ex-addict, who bears a striking resemblance to actor Will Smith, travels the globe ministering with healing evangelist Benny Hinn, and millions of U.S. viewers watch the gregarious preacher on The Word Network and Trinity Broadcasting Network. Tims’ new book, It’s Never Too Late (Charisma House), chronicles his life while including a moving story of his conversion and detailing the discovery of his true identity in Christ.

Whenever he shares his testimony, Tims mentions the mercy of God that spared him not only from trafficking and addiction but also from a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years. He was charged with attempted murder in 1984 after he shot a man who had stolen drugs and money from him.

Tims, in fact, believes he himself would be either incarcerated or dead today had it not been for the persistent witness of his co-worker, Holy Roller—whose real name is Douglas ChukwuEmeka—a church deacon who faithfully shared the gospel with Tims and told him where he would go for eternity if he died without knowing Christ.

“When Doug told me about hell, I listened,” Tims says. “These demonic things would be circling around my head. A bright light would come into the room, and then Holy Roller would appear in my dream, and that’s when the demons would flee.”

He admits there were times when he had no genuine desire to get saved, but his memories of scorching summers in Baltimore, convinced him he didn’t want to spend eternity in a place where he would burn forever.

Tims now considers it his mission to bring others to Christ. No matter where he goes, he is committed to evangelizing, especially people who are battling the same demons that ensnared him as a boy.

Baltimore Bad Boy

Like most single mothers raising a child alone, Madeline Tims wanted the absolute best for her son, but she didn’t buy him pricey designer sneakers and clothes when he entered middle school. Instead, she used her money to send him to St. Thomas Moore, a private school he had attended since kindergarten.

Though she was recently divorced and living on one income, Madeline still managed to purchase a home for the two of them to live in. But what had looked liked a nice neighborhood for raising a small family turned out to be a facade for criminal activity.

They had moved to the northeast side of Baltimore, less than half a mile from a crime-infested apartment complex. The place was a haven for drug dealers, who’d stand on street corners selling mostly crack cocaine.

But heroin was around too. Junkies would slip into nearby alleys when they’d hear someone yell: “Five-O! Five-O!”—a warning that the police were coming.

At age 12, innocent and impressionable, Tims became increasingly attracted to the dangerous lifestyle in the neighborhood.

“I didn’t know they were drug dealers per se, yet by the way they dressed—Air Jordan sneakers, NBA jackets in the winter, Puff leather and lambskin coats—I knew something was going on,” he says.

His father was a respected police officer in Baltimore, but Tims didn’t have much of a relationship with him. Eventually, he did what millions of youth do—he got involved with the wrong crowd.

It was 1982, and Georgetown University was playing the University of Virginia in a highly publicized, televised basketball game. It was also a defining moment for Tims, then 13, who had never abused drugs.

“I was watching the game on television, and I asked one of the guys from the corner to go to the liquor store and get what we call a ’40’ [a 40-ounce beer]. … When he came back, he gave me a marijuana stick and said, ‘Here, enjoy the game,'” he recalls.

After that, Tims too started hanging on street corners and selling drugs.

He moved around the northeast side, trying different locations in hopes of cutting into an already saturated market. He started out by dealing marijuana, but it wasn’t long before he started manufacturing and trafficking hard core drugs. Tims says it was a slow progression from selling “weed” and pills to dealing cocaine and heroin.

“We would go to one of the guys’ basements, who would take the time to mix and prepare the packages. By this time I had a little team working with me. I had a little gang,” he told Charisma.

One year later his influence and reputation as a dealer had spread, and Tims liked to mimic tough-guy mobster Tony Montana of the movie Scarface. He thought, as Montana had, that he was indispensable because he was a major supplier of drugs. And like Montana, Tims started to lose control as a result of his delusion.

His father could not influence him, and he rebelled against his mother’s warnings. He was having sex with adult women, and his fortunes were growing from drug dealing. At age 14 he was raking in $1,000 a week.

When a drug-dealing partner broke into his mother’s house and stole his stash of money and dope, he went into a blind rage and hunted him down.

“I called him on the phone and asked him to meet me on the street. … I came with my gun and I figured I would scare him,” says Tims, describing the events that occurred. But the demons that would eventually chase him into the arms of a loving God were driving him that day to kill: “I heard in my head: ‘Kill him, shoot him! Kill him, shoot him!’

“So I whipped out the gun and fired every bullet—five or six. It was a .38 snub-nosed revolver … stolen from a state trooper,” he recalls.

His 20-year-old partner fled with a bullet in his foot, and Tims became the new drug don of Baltimore’s northeast side.

Christ at the Crossroads

Even though what Tims says he wanted in life was both the safety and camaraderie of a well-knit family and love and acceptance, his choices had led him into a life of crime and violence.

He was arrested and charged with attempted murder for the shooting but was released on bail. He transferred to Lake Clifton High School in Baltimore, where he continued his old practice of selling drugs to classmates.

Months later, Tims, then 15, was arrested again and jailed for distributing a “controlled dangerous substance.” For several months he remained in a maximum-security facility for extremely violent youth.

A local high-profile lawyer managed to get the drug and attempted murder charges reduced to a juvenile offense, and Tims was sentenced to a forestry camp in Cumberland, Maryland, near the Appalachian Mountains. It was a penthouse compared with the maximum-security prison where he could have served out his time.

The judge had called him a “menace to society,” but after earning a General Educational Diploma and serving close to 13 months at the camp, Tims was released.

His incarceration has made him more sensitive today to people in jail or prison. New Destiny offers ministry to inmates. When Tyrone Mitchells introduced himself to Pastor Tims after church one Sunday he was wearing a monitoring device on his ankle that tracked his whereabouts.

“Pastor Zach placed his hand on my shoulder, and through his tears told me he would do whatever he could to help me. The church didn’t judge me, they loved me” Mitchells says. Today, the former inmate is married and owns a cleaning business.

Had Tims had a similar Christian influence in his own life, perhaps he wouldn’t have been sucked back into his old drug habits when he was released from the juvenile camp. From age 16 to age 19, he tried to get himself together and stay off drugs, but his efforts to remain clean failed, plunging him back into his old habits.

“My father started beating me when I missed the bus for work one day. [The incident] pushed me over the edge, and that’s when I started using … and selling again.

“I sold drugs to managers. I sold to bosses. I was the drug dealer at the [fitness club] I worked for. Managers worked for me.

“But this time … it wasn’t just marijuana that I used. … I began to get into harder drugs—cocaine to be more specific. … It was a spirit … because it was never enough,” he says.

Despite an insatiable appetite for harder drugs, Tims never put a needle in his vein, he told Charisma. “I probably had a $100 to $200 [a day] habit—I was addicted to snorting cocaine,” he says.

The addiction was drawing him closer to death’s door.

“What little food I ate, I could not pass. My nose would bleed repeatedly, and cartilage would come out whenever I’d blow it. My weight was down to maybe 150 pounds,” Tims says. He resorted to drinking alcohol—something he hated because his father was an alcoholic—to help him fall asleep at night.

But after ChukwuEmeka, a credit manager where Tims worked, overheard Tims using profanity while talking on the telephone at work, he became part of a divine intervention into the young dealer’s life.

“One day he asked me if I would take him home. I did and I talked to him about the rapture,” says ChukwuEmeka, 52, who now pastors New Destiny Christian Church in Laveen, Arizona.

The seeds of the gospel ChukwuEmeka planted in Tims took root, made evident when Tims literally ran from the demons in his dream to ChukwuEmeka’s house so he could be introduced to Jesus.

“I took him to the basement. We knelt to the floor, and he prayed to receive Christ,” ChukwuEmeka says of that night.

“Not only did he get saved, but he was baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues,” adds ChukwuEmeka, who gets somewhat emotional when he speaks of the power of God that transformed Tims.

From Dope to Hope

After giving his life to Christ, the new convert joined New Destiny Church, formerly Living Word Church in Baltimore, under the discipleship of ChukwuEmeka. In August 1989, he enrolled in Towson State University and later graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Tims volunteered to work with the youth ministry at his church, and it was there he met a pretty Spirit-filled woman named, Riva.

“I told God that I wanted someone who had never been in the streets, never dealt with the clubs and never had sex or did drugs,” Tims says. “God gave me a person the opposite of what I was, which was the stupidest thing … since I didn’t deserve it.” He says he doesn’t deserve to be blessed but that he has much to be grateful for.

In 1993 Tims graduated from Maranatha Bible College and eventually became chief financial officer of the church. The couple married in 1994, and in 1996 they were sent out as missionaries to Orlando, where they founded New Destiny.

Riva, 36, oversees several areas of responsibility at the church, including women’s ministries, evangelistic outreach and others. She holds a bachelor’s degree in hospital administration health science policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, that comes in handy sometimes. She knows her role is crucial.

“I’ll get a call from the [church’s] hospital care-team saying, ‘This person needs a touch,’ and I’ll call or go to the hospital,” she says.

The couple has four children—Zoelle, 11; Zachery III, 11; Zahria, 8; Zion, 7—and Riva says it’s God who enables her to meet the demands of pastoring a large, growing church.

“It really is the grace of God. Sometimes at night I’ll be thinking about a member or praying for someone, and they’ll stay in my spirit until I … reach out to them. I can’t rest until I do it,” she explains.

It was pastors Randy and Paula White of Church Without Walls International in Tampa, Florida, who taught the young Zachery and Riva to focus on evangelism. They have done that and made it a goal to add the personal touch to sharing God’s love, which is why every new member is given the Tims’ home telephone number.

The hands-on, evangelistic approach to ministry has caused exponential growth at New Destiny.

When the couple started the ministry, they held meetings in a storefront building and had only four members. During 1999, according to Zachery, the church grew from 300 people to more than 1,000 in one week. Today it has more than 7,500 members and $20 million in assets.

There are more than 33 ministries with programs geared toward drug addicts, men, women, youth, 20-somethings, married couples and others. Billboards throughout central Florida advertise the church and draw newcomers.

New Destiny recently opened a three-story youth facility and fitness center where tutoring, counseling programs, basketball camps, Tai Kwon Do classes and more are offered—even breakfast every day except Sunday.

The $4 million facility was built debt free and is part of a larger plan to establish what Zachery Tims calls the City of Destiny. The project includes a 5,000-seat cathedral slated for groundbreaking in 2007, a “senior saints” home and a shopping plaza, for starters.

Elder Marguerite Esannason, director of Ministry of Helps at the church and a long-time member with her husband, Fred, knows why the church is still changing lives today.

“We know that [people] are precious to God,” she says. “New Destiny is significant because there is much turmoil and stress—and people need Jesus.”

As Zachery Tims did.

Today his past is a testament to God’s transforming power. Nowadays when he falls asleep, he is grateful for the good night’s rest he gets. His dreams no longer are of saving himself from hell but of pointing others to heaven.

“When I was in the world, I lived for the enemy with a passion. But when God saved me and called me to the ministry, I was determined to win as many souls to Christ as possible. They need to know it’s never too late.”

Michigan pastor Keith Butler, a pro-life Republican, took a big risk when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate. He talked with Charisma about why he’s the best man for the job.
As volunteer workers and supporters scurry to transform the Epicurean lounge into a campaign pit stop, a tall gentleman arrives early, commanding attention the moment he enters the room. “Thank you for your support,” he says graciously, shaking hands with nearly every person who walks in the room.

Distinguished-looking and seemingly resolute, the man generates a mini-frenzy among members of the Down River Republican Party, a grassroots organization in Trenton, Michigan. “’Hello, everyone. I’m the person replacing [Democratic Senator] Debbie Stabenow,’” he says, to rousing applause.

Bishop Keith A. Butler, pastor of Word of Faith Christian Center (WFCC) in Southfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, is used to speaking confidently about his future. Since April 12 when he officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate, Butler, 50, has been doing double-duty as both pastor and politician, crisscrossing his state to rally the troops around his cause.

“I will concede no part of the state to her,” Butler tells the mostly working-class crowd in Trenton, many of whom are feeling the effects of Michigan’s struggling economy. “I will be your next U.S. Senator!”

Though he now faces stiff competition from Republican sheriff Michael Bouchard, who entered the race unexpectedly Oct. 31 and quickly replaced Butler as the frontrunner in the Republican primary, Butler sent a wave of excitement through charismatic circles when he announced his candidacy.

Pastor Marvin L. Winans of Perfecting Church in Detroit says Butler would be good for Michigan because he genuinely cares about people. He says he has no doubt African-Americans will support Butler, though most are Democrats.

“He will run on his record,” says Winans, who has known Butler since the two were teenagers. “He is a man of integrity, principle, and he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He knows what it means to struggle.”

Attendee Nancy Richards, 75, says Butler represents views that are most important to her. “I heard him speak at a businessman’s luncheon, and the Lord told me Keith Butler was a spiritual general,” she says.

Staunchly pro-life and an unwavering supporter of traditional marriage, Butler is not running for the notoriety. At 21,000 members, his church is now one of the largest and most prominent in Detroit. It has planted 15 satellite congregations across the country and as far away as England and Scotland, generates $30 million a year, and employs a staff of more than 250. In its 27 years of ministry, Butler says Word of Life has helped feed and clothe thousands of people.

Though he has been working outside traditional political circles, Butler says he is in tune with Michigan’s grassroots. “Voters are sending someone to Washington who will advance their interests, whether [they’ll] have oil to heat their homes,” Butler says. “That’s what will determine the outcome.”

If he wins, the University of Michigan graduate will become the first black Republican from Michigan elected to the Senate, and the only charismatic pastor to win a seat traditionally held by Democrats.

But it won’t be the first time Butler has overcome barriers to fulfill his calling to politics. In election year 1984, he was the Michigan state chairman of Blacks for Reagan and Bush, and in 1986 he worked as coalition director for Bill Lucas, who ran for governor.

In 1989 Butler ran for office himself and was elected to Detroit’s city council, becoming the first Republican councilman elected to office by Democratic voters. But after serving a four-year term, he decided not to run for re-election. He opted, instead, to put his children first.

“I wanted [my son] to know that I would be there for him every game,” he says. “It was important to my wife and [me] that I be a part of my children’s lives.”

Butler’s hard work and commitment to his party later opened the door for him to become Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Convention and a member of the GOP’s national platform committee in 1992. In 2000, he served as co-chairman of the Republican Party to help with the re-election campaign of President George W. Bush. Though Sen. John Kerry won Michigan, the GOP saw a small increase in Bush support.

Today, Butler is combining his experience as CEO of Word of Faith with his years of involvement in local, state and national government to wage his own campaign. Charisma met with Butler at his headquarters in Southfield to discuss his plan to make America better.

The Gospel and the GOP

At 23, a driven Keith Butler was on course to fulfill his call not just to ministry but to the pastorate. Butler and his wife, Deborah, had been greatly influenced by the late Kenneth Hagin Sr. and were sensing the call to tell others about salvation, faith and God’s ability to transform lives by starting a church.

In 1979, the couple founded WFCC. Since then, the Butlers and their three adult children, Keith Butler II, Michelle and Kristina, have all graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Butler was a registered Democrat and had become intrigued with politics. Then in 1980 he got his hands on a platform that explained the beliefs and practices of both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. He read it and compared both parties’ values to his own. “I was a Republican!” he recalls. “That was a tremendous shock to me.”

Like most African-Americans, Butler was raised a Democrat and was faithful to the party. In fact, he says he doesn’t remember ever meeting a Republican until he went to college.

Though the pastor officially switched his affiliation in 1982, moving from an African-American-supported party to the predominantly white, conservative GOP was tough. “The way I felt about it at the time was I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, it had left me,” he says.

Still, Butler viewed himself as an orphan. His new party was notorious for not being inclusive of blacks and other minorities. Yet he says he couldn’t deny his convictions about the sanctity of human life.

“The Republicans were right on with their values, but my understanding of them was that they would not welcome me,” Butler says. “At the same time, I couldn’t support what the Democrats were standing for. I really felt like an orphan. It took a while.”

Butler opted to become an agent of change, and in the last 25 years he has gained the respect of Republicans, Democrats, blacks, whites and other groups in his city. Since he began his Senate run, Butler has received endorsements from Republican supporters across his state and from party members in Washington, D.C.-from Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to former Rep. J.C. Watts.

According to recent polls, some Republicans withdrew support when Bouchard entered the race in late October. Before, observers said Butler had a strong chance of besting opponent Jerry Zandstra, a minister and director of the Acton Institute, a Christian-based think tank in Grand Rapids. Butler says D.C.

Republicans who were “uncomfortable with his candidacy” encouraged Bouchard to run, promising him financial support.

Bill Ballinger, publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, said Republicans want someone with experience. Although Butler has been a faithful GOP supporter, Ballinger foresees a challenge for the candidate in the state’s August primary. “He has impeccable credentials … but he hasn’t held an office in 17 years,” Ballinger says. “Bouchard is the strongest, potentially, because he is a proven vote-getter.”
Butler disagrees with those who question his experience. “Not only am I a pastor, I’m also the president and CEO of a middle-size corporation [with] 252 employees, and I’ve been running [Faith Christian Academy] for 23 years,” he says. “… I am as successful as anyone in America in my field so this shows I am qualified.”

Butler points out that Democratic Sen. Carl Levin was elected to the Senate in 1978 after having served only on the Detroit City Council. “If I’m not qualified for the United States Senate, then neither was Carl Levin,” he says.

Despite the politicking, Hester Wheeler, director of the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, says Butler’s candidacy is historic. “I don’t think there has ever been an African-American in Michigan to run for the Senate.”

An Eye on Washington

Though there are challenges, Butler still has his eye on Washington, D.C. He says the economy will determine the outcome of the election, not polls.

Butler believes his platform could help revitalize America and the Great Lakes state. Michigan reportedly has the lowest income growth of any state and the highest unemployment rate in the country. In June General Motors, which is based in Detroit, announced plans to cut 25,000 jobs by 2008, a loss of 17 percent of its workforce.

The Rev. Lou Sheldon, president of the Traditional Values Coalition, a Christian lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C., believes Butler understands the critical issues. “He knows the potential bankruptcy social security faces; he understands education … he understands international issues such as trade balance, war and terrorism and the right to bear arms; he understands why right to life is so crucial,” Sheldon says.

And while some Democratic opponents may take jabs at the prosperity gospel popular in Word-Faith circles, Sheldon notes that Butler will take a cut in pay if he wins the election. “The most revealing fact is that Keith Butler will take an 80 percent decrease in pay over a six-year Senate term,” he adds.

At press time, Butler had raised $1.5 million for his campaign, but he predicts it will take some $8 million to pay for TV commercials, radio spots and other media. Despite contributions from ministry friends such as Sheldon, Butler’s campaign coffer doesn’t outpace Bouchard’s.

Still, Butler believes he has the strongest vision for his state and the nation. He wants better education for America’s children-one that acknowledges God and embraces accountability and morality. “Education is the single most important equalizer. It requires four essentials to be successful,” Butler says.

“We need parental involvement, kids who are hungry to learn, qualified teachers and no union control,” he says. “Unionization has caused us to do things that are crazy.”

He supports the president’s No Child Left Behind Act and says he’s for parents using systems that could help them educate their children, including school vouchers.

During campaign stops, he tells attendees that he’s in favor of a flat tax because it yields more economic growth and that he supported the president’s 2003 tax cut. But he considers the right to life to be the single most important issue. “What can be greater than whether or not a person is allowed to live or die?” he asks.

Because he pays $100,000 a month in healthcare for church employees, Butler says he knows what it will take to make healthcare manageable and affordable. He attributes the soaring costs of care to an overused system and to consumers who are disconnected from services and fees.

Butler proposes a healthcare savings account that would allow Americans to manage their own healthcare. Both employees and employers would make deposits into the employee’s account. “If you know how much money you have, you’re going to want to know the cost [of care] because that savings account is not infinite,” he says.

According to the GOP hopeful, there must be new leadership in Washington, D.C., if America is to remain strong and competitive. It’s a message he carries with him on the campaign trail.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the results of liberal policies,” Butler says. “… For me it’s not about party at all. It’s about what’s right, what’s wrong, what works, what doesn’t, what helps humanity, and what’s killing it. That’s what matters to me.”

The Political Power of Pentecostals

African-American Pentecostals and charismatics are wielding greater political influence than ever before. But their views don’t fit squarely into either political party.

Though he may be the first charismatic pastor to run for Senate, Bishop Keith Butler is just one of a growing number of black Pentecostal and charismatic ministers who are getting involved in politics.

Sought out for their community development and family revitalization initiatives-along with their moral conservatism-black Pentecostals and charismatics have gained unprecedented access to the White House in recent years.

A letter from Bishop Charles Blake, pastor of West Angeles Church of God in Christ in California, led to a meeting in May with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that focused on increasing black ministers’ involvement in African foreign policy. Attendees included Bishop T.D. Jakes, the Rev. Eugene Rivers and Bishop Eddie Long.

Previously, Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. of Hope Christian Church in Maryland assembled 100 black ministers at pastor Fred Price’s Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles to urge their resistance to gay marriage. During the February 2005 conference, the inaugural event of his newly formed High Impact Leadership Coalition, Jackson unveiled his Black Contract With America on Moral Values, which outlined a six-pronged agenda for African-Americans that included such issues as family restoration, prison reform and wealth creation. He has since held similar summits in New York and Philadelphia.

In June, Rivers, pastor of Azusa Christian Community in Boston, unveiled God’s Gift, a document that affirms traditional marriage and outlines a plan to reduce the number of out-of-wedlock births and single-parent households among African-Americans. Meanwhile, pastors such as Long have led local marches to rally Christians around a “moral agenda” that includes opposition to gay marriage.

Though black Pentecostals have always worked to influence social change, observers say this kind of political engagement is different. “Gay marriage has galvanized African-American Pentecostals like no other issue,” says Tony Carnes, a Colombia University sociologist and head of the International Research Institute on Values Changes.

In 2004, he partnered with A.R. Bernard, pastor of Christian Cultural Center, a predominantly black charismatic church in New York, to study voter trends among evangelicals, charismatics and Pentecostals in their state. They found a subtle move toward conservatism among African-American Christians in New York, with a 6 percent increase over 1997 in the number of registered Republicans and a 12 percent decline in the number of Democrats.

During the 2004 election,11 percent of African-Americans supported Presi-dent Bush, a 2 percent increase over 2000. In the battleground state of Ohio, black support for Bush increased by 5 percent. Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, says the rise could have been part of a normal variation in the black vote. But she says black pastors also may have played a part.

“If there were simply a few large and powerful black churches where the minister of that church had made it clear … that that was sort of the appropriate Christian way to vote, then you would see … that jump [in Bush support],” she says.

Carnes says the most influential black Pentecostal and charismatic ministers are part of the “post civil rights generation.” Their agenda is primarily to rebuild families, revitalize communities and build black wealth, usually by encouraging entrepreneurship. Because they believe strengthening families will help bring success in other areas, Carnes says, they see gay marriage as an assault on their goals.

But though they agree with conservatives about gay marriage, observers say black Pentecostals and charismatics aren’t in Republicans’ pockets. Concern for social justice is what drives their community work. Rivers, who was profiled in Newsweek for his work mobilizing pastors to resist gangs in Boston, hosted Democratic Sen. Hilary Clinton at a fundraiser in January 2005, then met with White House officials a week later.

“Black Pentecostals, along with some others within the black church, are really bridge people … and they’re not comfortable in either camp,” says David Daniels III, Ph.D., an ordained Pentecostal minister and a professor of church history at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. “When they deal with liberals, they agree with them on certain issues and challenge them on others. When they deal with conservatives, they agree with them on certain issues and challenge them on others. Consequently, they may be able to come up with an agenda that might get us past this impasse.”

Because of their rising influence, that agenda may get a better hearing than it would have 50 years ago when the most prominent black churches in many cities were Baptist. Today the most influential black churches in many communities are Pentecostal or charismatic. Observers such as Robert Franklin, Ph.D., a professor of social ethics at Emory University and a respected scholar on black church issues, believe these ministers may one day wield the greatest political influence in the black church.

“Some black Pentecostals, by no means all, are experiencing what their white evangelical counterparts began to experience just prior to President Reagan’s election, namely their enormous political potential to influence elections and policy directions,” Franklin says. “The evangelicals created the Moral Majority. So far, black Pentecostals haven’t evolved to create a similar … vehicle.”

Without that infrastructure, observers say, black Pentecostals and charismatics are unlikely to gain strong grass-roots support. Others worry that without a clear agenda, their opposition to gay marriage will overshadow their social justice concerns.

“The Bible says all unrighteousness is sin,” says Virginia state Sen. Yvonne B. Miller, a longtime member of the Church of God in Christ. “Exploitation of the poor is sin. Paying low wages to people just because you can is sin. Everything contrary to the will of God is sin.”

Rivers believes political independence may be black Pentecostals’ greatest strength. “We’re pushing the envelope discreetly,” he says. “Amazing things are happening that nobody saw coming.”
Adrienne S. Gaines

What was once thought of as vulgar is now standard fare in Top 40 music and on TV, radio and film. HOW can we reverse the trend in modern media?
They emerged in the late 1990s as the recording industry’s hottest new group. They had already captured the attention of music lovers around the country with a plethora of big hits, including “Say My Name” and “Bills, Bills, Bills,” both released in 1999.

But it was the group’s sexy, youthful appeal and 2001 hit song “Survivor” that catapulted them to the top of every music chart in the industry. Today, they have sold more than 40 million records.

Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, the three 20-somethings who make up the singing sensation Destiny’s Child, have made it big. In late 2000 they settled a bitter breach-of-contract lawsuit with former members of Destiny’s Child and have since acquired international acclaim as one of the world’s most successful all-girl groups.

But somewhere along the way, the trio traded their message of empowerment and success for a more steamy, provocative sound.

With street-savvy sexual lyrics, seductive clothing and overtly suggestive dance moves as signature trademarks, Destiny’s Child continues to dominate the pop and R&B scene. However, many parents and others see a sharp contrast between the group’s public profession of faith in Jesus and the songs they sing. The words to the contemporary chart-buster “Lose My Breath” from their 2004 release Destiny Fulfilled illustrate the critics’ point:

“Can you keep up? / Baby boy / Make me lose my breath / Bring the noise / Make me lose my breath / Hit me hard / Make me lose my breath… Ooo, I put it right there made it easy for you to get to / Now you want to act like you don’t know what to do / After I done everything that you asked me/ Grabbed you, grind you, liked you, tried you / Moved so fast baby now I can’t find you.”

Why are young people buying the group’s apparently contradictory message? In his book Faith, God and Rock & Roll, author Mark Joseph explains. “In the confused sexual ethos of the post-AIDS era, Destiny’s Child seemed to be a perfect reflection of the pop culture group zeitgeist that was able to marry a somewhat virginal sexual ethic with an up-front and frank sexual posturing,” he writes.

Experts say it’s the beat of the music that draws people, but it’s the lyrics that influence culture; they teach society how to live. Popular music and other mediums help to shape a person’s worldview, and what he sees as reality when an adult or young adult is often contrary to core values learned early in life.

The line between quality entertainment and raunchy programming is becoming increasingly unclear with the release of television’s new fall lineup. MTV’s gay channel, Logo, launched in 2005; sex-driven reality shows dominate prime time; and films that are rated PG-13 today are worse than R-rated films from 10 years ago.

If Destiny’s Child is too steamy for some listeners, then Jessica Simpson in her movie debut as Daisy in The Dukes of Hazzard is scalding. The movie is a remake of the 1979 popular television series.

The bikini-clad Simpson heats up the screen opposite Burt Reynolds, who portrays Boss Hogg. Simpson discarded her virtuous, good-girl facade for the sensual allure of a vixen.

Vulgar language, violence and sex scenes found in the media are cause for alarm among many believers and proponents of quality entertainment. In this report, Charisma examines the impact of media on culture and what the church can do about it.

Media Madness

If current research is any indication of American’s fixation with the media, then we are obsessed. Nielsen Media Research indicates that in 2003 we spent nearly eight hours per day watching television. And when we’re not slouched in front of a TV set or scouring the Internet, we go to the movies.

According to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), total box office sales grossed more than $9.5 billion in 2004, up 25 percent from just five years ago. Summer releases-films that appear in theaters from May to August-account for nearly half the year’s movie sales, grossing some $4.49 billion.

Music is a multibillion dollar industry too. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) says Americans spend a total of $12.2 billion per year on music of every genre imaginable: rock, rap/hip-hop, R&B, urban, country, pop, New Age, classical and more.

But the consequences of America’s indulgence are far-reaching. Not only does it cost consumers huge amounts of money to pay for entertainment, but also it robs families of valuable time together. That’s a high price for consumers to have to pay. Still, for some people, listening to suggestive lyrics or watching gratuitous sex on television and in the movies is standard fare.

Industry watchers insist there is a reason many Americans, including Christians, become complacent about their viewing and listening habits.

“We want to stretch out on the couch because we’re too tired to do anything about [the media],” says Randy Sims of Christian Worldview, an organization created to train believers to engage culture from a biblical perspective.

He cautions believers to be intentional about their entertainment choices for two reasons. First, the media can be destructive to one’s sensibility. Second, attending movies that contain inappropriate content sends a clear message to Hollywood: “We want more of this type of fare.”

“There is a spiritual dichotomy. Christians separate entertainment, politics and science from their beliefs, but God is saying, ‘I have dibs on that too,’” Sims told Charisma. He challenges Christians to examine their views on religion and faith in light of biblical truth. In doing so, believers, especially younger generations, can develop spiritual discernment.

“When young people understand the biblical worldview and are able to apply it, they can take ownership of their entertainment choices,” Sims says.

April Fleming, a recent college graduate and longtime member of a Pentecostal church, knows some of the music she listens to is questionable. But when Destiny’s Child announced its farewell tour, the 23-year-old and three other friends scurried to get front-row seats for the concert.

“I like the group,” Fleming says. “I don’t do the things that they sing about in their music. But I must admit, I need to be more discerning and yield to the Holy Spirit’s conviction in my life.”

Standing in the Gap

Many Christians see the motion picture production companies in Hollywood as an evil force designed to corrupt society, but media experts say consumers shouldn’t be too quick to rid themselves of the entertainment giants. Instead, Americans should use their financial muscle and other methods to lobby film and television producers, record companies, and writers in the industry.

Phil Cooke, an international media consultant, advises Christians to view Hollywood as a mission field and to treat it as such. “We don’t go to Africa and boycott, criticize, humiliate and get upset at African tribes or South American villages,” Cooke explains. “We [gain] their trust, and we become one of them.
“We develop a love relationship with them and then they learn to listen to our message. We need to do the same thing in Hollywood.”

But in order to lobby media executives to produce shows and music void of immorality and extreme violence, Christians will have to be proactive and speak up if they want their values represented.

One thing is certain: With regard to entertainment, current research proves that the media influence culture, and the culture dictates to consumers, many of whom are believers, what to wear, what to listen to and how to live. For the most part, it’s a message inconsistent with the gospel.

As a result, Christians, especially teens, risk their credibility and sometimes have little or no impact on peers. In fact, research indicates they sometimes abandon their own godly beliefs.

Cooke challenges consumers to help reverse this trend by “voting with their dollars” as well as speaking out against offensive material. He suggests that readers take the following steps:

Pray for Hollywood. Numerous Christians who work in the entertainment industry share their faith in unique ways. They need other believers to pray for the countless entertainers, actors, actresses and singers in need of spiritual revival.

Support quality films. “Go see good movies, instead of just criticizing bad movies,” Cooke advises. “If Christians see a movie weeks after it releases, it won’t matter that much. But if we show up the first weekend a good movie comes out, it’ll have a big impact on Hollywood,” he says.

Write to network executives. According to industry watchers, Christians would probably write more letters to network executives if they knew the difference a letter makes. But they say believers shouldn’t quote Scriptures and rant about the Bible because the Bible means nothing to some executives.

“Tell the network you thought the language was inappropriate because it aired early when your children were still up. … Be rational, be intelligent and be supportive. Tell them about the shows you do like,” Cooke says.

Join the Hollywood Prayer Network. A ministry created by professionals in the field, the Hollywood Prayer Network-with the help of 3,500 Christians-mobilizes global prayer for the entertainment industry.

The group enlists churches, parachurch organizations and individuals from around the country to pray for every aspect of the entertainment industry. Intercessors pray for workers involved in film, television, music, the Internet, and the news media, and they pray for actual film and television projects. To become an intercessor, visit www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org.

Get involved in the industry. To influence pop culture and the media at ground level, Christians will need to pursue careers that lead to opportunities in the entertainment industry. Christian universities and colleges that offer programs in broadcasting, film and other media-related fields include Biola University in La Mirada, California; Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California; Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and North Greenville College in Tigerville, South Carolina.

Hollywood executives and record companies create offensive material because they don’t have a religious worldview, Cooke says. In fact, the entertainment industry is becoming increasingly disconnected from Middle America.

Entertainment professionals seem to have the idea that everybody uses profanity, engages in violence, and has illicit sex, and their scripts reflect that bias. But the voting results of those who went to the polls in 2004 indicate that Americans are more conservative than Hollywood has realized.

Believers can help media reconnect with mainstream America, Cooke says. But he and others insist the body of Christ must be willing to stand in the spiritual gap if there is to be lasting change.

She is known as the mentor of dynamic preacher Juanita Bynum. But pastor Veter Nichols is committed to training an army of intercessors for God.

A long stretch of Interstate 94 leads to one of America’s best-kept secrets. Port Huron, Michigan, about 60 miles east of Detroit, is a snapshot of Small Town, U.S.A.

Falling leaves that mark the beginning of autumn in this city pale in comparison with the snow-covered trees of winter. The town is home to Michigan’s oldest lighthouse, but it’s the huge port that keeps the community bustling with commerce and tourism.

Though quaint and picturesque, Port Huron has a secret of its own. Her name is Veter Nichols. Deemed a prophet and a spiritual mother to the men and women whose lives she has influenced, the 57-year-old has the makings of a drill sergeant. Though she stands only 5 feet 3 inches tall, her presence is commanding, and she’s not easily fooled by preachers who can swoon large crowds yet have little integrity. To Nichols, character matters most.

For 28 years, Nichols has worked alongside her husband, Apostle William Nichols, at New Covenant Life Ministries, formerly known as New Hope Tabernacle Church, where the couple pastor. She has spent much of her time quietly training an army of prophets and intercessors, but Mother Nichols, as she is known in Christian circles, is rising from obscurity to train others to work in the Lord’s army.

Though some call it mentoring, Nichols says her work is simply discipleship. She sees it as a way to help other Christians grow in their faith and develop their God-given purpose. She believes it’s something all believers should do on some level to help raise up strong Christian leaders.

In 1981 Nichols and her husband met Juanita Bynum, an itinerant preacher who eventually moved in with the couple. Bynum, 22 at the time, spent the next nine years of her life with the Nicholses, and much of what she learned during her sabbatical helped lay the foundation for her international ministry. But it wasn’t easy.

“It was all-out war!” Bynum told Charisma, recalling her years in Port Huron. “Mother Nichols, especially, was not impressed with my singing, prophesying, directing the choir. She wanted to get to my inner core, to my character.”

In Nichols’ recent release, The Birthing of a Prophet (Flow Publishing), she details her life as a spiritual mother to Bynum. The book has paved the way for Nichols to share her mentoring ministry with millions of viewers on Christian television and has opened doors for her to preach the gospel to thousands more.

Charisma talked with Nichols about how God is using her Destiny Ministries to train and equip believers who sense a call to ministry. She told us why she believes it’s time for Christians to report for duty in service to the Lord.

Basic Training

Nichols considers herself the prophetic type-she sees ministry in others. Even as a small child she noticed something different about herself. At 8 years old, after receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, Nichols said she somehow knew she was called to ministry. “The people I meet have an unction about their passion, and I help draw it out of them,” she says.

Nichols says mentoring and discipling-she uses the two words interchangeably-are vital. “It’s a person’s lifeline,” she says. “I don’t think the person will fulfill the purpose of God in their life” without it. Christians who forego the “process,” she insists, are ineffective and struggle with their purpose in ministry and being able to fulfill it with Christ-like character.

The process she speaks of is called brokenness. It’s the same concept she used as a first-time spiritual mother to one of the most sought-after preachers in the country.

Bynum was slowly making a name for herself on the preaching circuit when she met the Nicholses some 25 years ago. She went to Port Huron to move in with the couple and their two young daughters, Cherise and Bridgette. But the first step to brokenness required Bynum to submit to spiritual authority.

First, Apostle Nichols exercised tough love with his surrogate daughter by insisting that she relinquish her appointment book, which contained an itinerary of her upcoming preaching engagements. “You aren’t going to be like every other evangelist, preaching with no character or integrity,” he told her. “We see greatness in you!”

Next, Mother Nichols spent years discipling Bynum, challenging her to demonstrate Christ-like character and doing spiritual warfare on Bynum’s behalf.

“Some people will allow you into their lives while others won’t,” Veter Nichols says. “They don’t want to see the ugliness [in themselves] because it’s painful and a lot of work. Juanita Bynum was our test case. She was the one God sent because He knew what our ministry would become. As iron sharpens iron, we were training her, and she sharpened our process.”

During that nine-year training season, Bynum endured a failed marriage, an emotional breakdown and battles with sexual integrity-which she described in her 2000 book No More Sheets. But no one is more grateful for the experience than Bynum.

“Besides my own mother, Prophetess Nichols has one of the keenest eyes in the nation,” Bynum said. “I tailored my mentoring ministry after her.”

Many of the principles Bynum learned are detailed in her book My Spiritual Inheritance (Charisma House). The author unapologetically supports the need for submission to spiritual authority, insisting that it leads to spiritual growth and blessings.

Wanting to break from the traditional model of church, the Nicholses became trailblazers in their town in the late 1970s. They eventually adapted a charismatic worship style and popularized ministering deliverance to Christians and others struggling with demonic possession. They were transforming their church into an institute of training, and they were determined not to be bound by the spirit of religion.

It was after Bynum moved from Port Huron to Chicago and others began to look to the Nicholses for help that the couple realized they were called to mentor. Today their church is viewed as a kind of boot camp, and members who want to be active in ministry must first enlist in the Ministers Institute of Training.

The institute, which has graduated more than 100 students since it was founded in 2000, is designed to draw out the spiritual gifts housed in every believer. The program includes a school of ministry that offers classes on the tabernacle of David and the life of Moses to teach people the deeper meaning of worship, the gifts of the Spirit and deliverance ministry. Other coursework includes training in leadership for women to prepare them to teach, preach, lead and mentor.

With an emphasis on prophetic ministry for those who sense a call “to speak the mind of God to others,” Nichols says, the church began to grow and attract gifted, charismatic people. But the Nicholses were unimpressed and remain so today. She says experience has taught them it’s only a matter of time before “the good, the bad and the ugly comes out because of the anointing on the ministry.”

Some people don’t complete the institute because it requires self-denial, sacrifice, time and energy. But that didn’t deter pastor Timothy Alden. He gave up his life in Pontiac, Michigan, to be mentored by Mother Nichols.

In 1983, when Alden attended nightly revival meetings in his hometown, he heard Nichols preach what he considered a life-changing message. Around 1985, he quit a “really good job at the bank,” packed up his belongings and followed Nichols back to Port Huron.

“Her message was cutting-edge,” Alden remembers. “Her style of worship was new, and the Word was authentic. I wanted what she had.”

He moved in with the Nicholses when he was 19 and lived with them for nearly five years but has since moved to Los Angeles to start a church. He pastors City of Praise Christian Church using some of the same principles he gleaned from his mentor.

Nichols’ teachings on character and holiness left such an indelible mark on the now 41-year-old that he is outspoken about his commitment to remain a virgin until marriage. His teaching on abstinence even landed him an interview with People magazine in August before the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin released.

“The media is flooded with suggestive, sexual messages promoting promiscuity,” he says. “It is rare to find someone walking out self-control, even in the church.”

Though the Nicholses have discipled hundreds of believers through the years, they are quick to acknowledge their limitations. They weren’t always certain how to help Bynum through her struggles. But Mother Nichols is sure of one thing: God has given her a “finisher’s anointing.”

“It’s this anointing that has helped me not to give up on individuals,” she says. “Even when others have thrown their hands up and walked away, something inside me says, ‘Don’t let them go!’ It’s important for me to keep my ear attuned to the voice of God.”

Marching Orders

In her book, Nichols tells readers “the transformation of a prophet takes place in the furnace of affliction.” She speaks from personal experience. Fifteen years ago she battled lung cancer, and in 2002 she was diagnosed with colon cancer, which is now in remission. In March, her husband underwent heart surgery.

But difficult times only strengthen this woman. Having faced her own mortality, Nichols is even more committed to leading the unsaved to Christ. She insists that Christians must once again make winning souls their priority. “If the church would focus on the lost, I believe every promise, goal and dream God has for us will come to pass,” she says.

As a traveling minister, Nichols has seen flamboyancy and entertainment infiltrate churches, and she knows there is a lack of spiritual preparation among believers. Nichols founded Destiny Ministries in 1992 to first teach men and women the Word of God, then to train them to be effective soul winners. The mentorship program of the ministry is designed to help women fulfill their purpose in the body of Christ.

It’s this sort of commitment that drew worship leader Judy Jacobs to Nichols. While ministering at the Trinity Broadcasting Network two years ago, Jacobs said she was drawn to Nichols after hearing her story. “She was on the set with Juanita Bynum, and I was moved by Mother Nichols’ humble spirit, yet she had this powerful anointing,” Jacobs recalls.

Last October, Nichols ministered at Jacobs’ annual mentoring institute, which drew 150 women to Tennessee to be mentored by Jacobs and other ministers.

Nichols launches her Elijah to Elisha mentoring conference November 3-5, with additional events scheduled in 2006. The goal is to mentor women toward the fulfillment of their God-given destiny.

This grandmother of five from Small Town, U.S.A. believes Jesus is soon to come, and she is concerned that countless people still don’t know Him.

“We are kingdom people, and we need to be walking in kingdom-mindedness and [following] kingdom principles,” she says. “God is gracing us, and we need to access what He has provided for us as it pertains to winning souls. It’s time! It’s time to gather in the harvest. That’s what’s important.”

For Kevin Monk, life was near perfect as a youngster growing up in Los Angeles. He was the shining star of Little League baseball in his community and had high hopes of one day playing in the majors. His father was a Baptist preacher, his mother a committed believer.

But it wasn’t long before life threw the boy a curve ball. His father became an alcoholic after a work-related accident in 1971 left him crippled and embittered. His brother was brutally murdered in 1978. Despite the desperate prayers of his mother, Monk, at age 13, did what more than a half million young people in the United States are doing today–he joined a gang.

“By the time I was in eighth grade, I was carrying a pistol,” Monk says of his early years as an “OG”–an Original Gangster in the 83rd Hoover Crips Gang. “I was a perfect candidate because I had the devastation that pushes a young man into a gang: traumatic death, hopelessness and an abusive, absent father.”

When he was 17, Monk was drafted by the L.A. Dodgers and later the Milwaukee Brewers, but he never donned the uniform of either baseball team. He instead had become a gang member, or “gangbanger,” who sold drugs and had a cocaine addiction that would nearly take his life.

Today, at 39, Monk is a survivor. He no longer is addicted to cocaine and did not die young–despite being shot six times. There are others like him, some of them less fortunate.

Some people may not like her forceful preaching style. But one thing is for sure: When Paula White found Jesus, her life was transformed
Rising tall and slender from her seat, Paula White walks to the platform with confidence. With a big Bible clutched tightly in her hand like a special-delivery package, she grabs the microphone and sets the stage for a Holy Ghost rally.

“How many of you know God’s about to reverse the curse in your life?” she asks, her voice booming out to the nearly 6,000 churchgoers attending Super Sunday. “Slap somebody upside the head and say, ‘Reverse the curse!'”

Radical praise erupts from one side of Bishop T.D. Jakes’ cavernous Potter’s House church in Dallas to the other. The 38-year-old woman who has primed this crowd and hundreds more like it is a feisty, charismatic preacher. White has managed to overthrow barriers common to her female contemporaries and become one of the most sought-after preachers–male or female.

“When pastor Paula White shares who she is, where she’s been and how the Lord brought her through, she encourages her audiences to hope for change,” Jakes told Charisma.

White has crisscrossed diverse lines to minister in the Church of God in Christ, the Greek Orthodox Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church and prayed for accused singer Michael Jackson.

In 2001, she launched Paula White Ministries and signed on to broadcast her weekly TV show with secular network giant Black Entertainment Television. A popular author, White has written several books including He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (Charisma House).

Clad in a black suit and stilettos that make her look taller than she is, the 5-foot 5-inch preacher struts across the stage to drive home another point in her sermon: “I don’t know who I’m here for, but somebody’s going to receive a divine reversal!”

“Preeeach, Paula! Preach!” the mostly African American congregants yell to the pretty Anglo woman who some describe as Barbie-like, with her trim figure, fashionable clothes and neat blond hairstyle.

For these mainly black worshipers who have flocked to hear White’s message, color seems to be a nonissue. They’ve come to receive a word from God, and it doesn’t matter to them if her skin is a different color from theirs. Her ability to connect with diverse audiences, say her supporters, is due primarily to her ability to keep it “real.”

Pastor Randy White knows why his wife is making significant strides in the church. “She is dedicated and committed to the study of the Word, to stay in His presence and to consecrate herself,” says White, who along with with his wife, founded Without Walls International Church (WWIC) in Tampa, Florida.

Though she has become practically a household name among Pentecostal Christians as a preacher of faith-and-victory messages, Paula White is no overnight success. She ministered for years to children and youth in inner cities.

Nor is she the product of a lineage of preachers who paved the way for her to become a well-known minister. She, in fact, didn’t hear the gospel for the first time until she was 18.

Charisma learned during a recent interview that there’s another side to the Paula White we see today.

For many years she struggled to overcome a childhood marred by suicide, sexual abuse, poverty and an ongoing dysfunctional family life. It was an upbringing that could have ruined her forever, but it instead prepared her for the ministry she is so passionate about today–reaching brokenhearted, abused and discarded people.

Tragedy Strikes

As a child growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi, White seemed to have a near-perfect life. Her well-to-do parents, Donald and Janelle Furr, were successful entrepreneurs who owned toy stores in the city. Her mother managed the day-to-day operations of the business, and White remembers tagging alongside her father when he’d handle business outside the office.

“Every morning my daddy would take me to breakfast. He would draw smiley faces on my pancakes, and we would go off to the country club and play golf or gin rummy,” White recalls.

But there was another side to the likeable, savvy businessman. He gambled and drank.

And before long, tragedy struck White’s idyllic childhood. One day in 1971, when her parents were separated, Donald arrived at Janelle and the kids’ home in a drunken stupor.

Grabbing for his daughter, he insisted to his wife: “Give me Paula or I’ll kill myself.”

“My father started bashing my mom in the head with his arm,” White remembers. Donald spent the night in jail, and after his release he later killed himself, White says.

It was hard for 5-year-old Paula to understand why the man she remembers today as a “big teddy bear, nurturer and caregiver” would kill himself. She found it equally hard to believe people when they told her she was the apple of her daddy’s eye. “For years I would say to myself, ‘If he loved me so much, why did he leave me?'”

This question sent White on a quest for unconditional love–and ultimately into the hands of a loving God. Because the tragedy left Janelle with the responsibility of raising her two children by herself, the family went headlong into poverty.

Not long after the suicide, White experienced tragedy of another sort. From the ages of 6 to 13 she was sexually molested. The abuse wasn’t “consistent or constant,” she says, but she told Charisma that trusted caregivers, teachers and even close relatives violated her during those seven years.

White is aware she isn’t alone. According to recent statistics, 3 million children in the United States are victimized every year by one or more sex offenders. In U.S. churches, the numbers are blurry because the abuse wasn’t confronted until the sex scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in recent years brought the problem to the national forefront.

That’s why White says she is grateful for the release of Jakes’ Woman, Thou Art Loosed: The Movie, which aired in 408 theaters around the country after its release in 2004. The film is a continuation of Jakes’ longtime message of the healing God offers for sexually and emotionally abused women.

A mother now herself, White has forgiven the sexual predators who preyed on her body during those abusive days. But she didn’t stop there. In an effort to prevent other children from experiencing the same fate, WWIC provides a safe haven for thousands of inner-city young people through its Operation Explosion Outreach Ministries.

Finding God’s Love

Like others scarred by alcoholism, suicide and abuse, the family reeled from the pain that had invaded their home. White acted as caregiver to her brother while their mom scraped to make ends meet, when she wasn’t dealing with problems, White remembers.

“Through it all, I always knew my mother loved me. Today, she is a born-again believer, my best friend and confidante,” White says.

The sexual and physical abuse that had crept into White’s life as a youngster began to manifest in ways she had no control over. She exemplified symptoms typical of molested children.

White became clingy, sucked a bottle and masturbated. One day a teacher sent a note home describing her as a “traumatized, troubled young girl.”

“My teacher stood me in a corner and spanked me in front of the class because I wet myself. She never discerned that something is wrong in this child’s life,” White says.

Not only did she have to struggle with abandonment issues stemming from her father’s death, she also had to contend with rejection from other children. But as a teenager, White was popular, pretty and sexually active.

In 10th grade her boyfriend, a member of the high school wrestling team, taught her how to control her weight through purging. As a result she suffered from bulimia for years afterward. Meanwhile her hunger for love became so deep that she lost her identity.

Says White: “I thought if [my father] left me because I was unlovable, then I would become what you think is ‘loveable.’ Is that a straight-A student? A pretty girl? Is that an athlete or someone who jumps in bed with you? What is it?”

While White was living with a boyfriend, God intruded on her life. “I went with a friend to someone’s house and when I walked in the door, out of the blue a man named Butch said, ‘I see your pain,'” she recounts.

White had done such a good job of masking the hurt, she thought it was impossible for a complete stranger to know anything about her. That day, however, she became a born-again Christian. The man also led her through steps of deliverance.

What she had spent the last 13 years searching for was found in one moment. White spent what seemed like hours at the house, she says, while the Holy Spirit transformed her life. She says God’s love consumed her.

“My guarded heart was pierced with the love that I had been on a journey looking for,” she says. “For the first time in my life, I knew love.”

Before White left her friend’s house that day in Baltimore, Butch told her to find a church to attend. Newly saved and eager to learn more about Jesus, she became absorbed in the Bible and visited numerous churches.

During a period when she attended a Nazarene church she noticed that her friend, who always seemed bubbly, would sneak away from the service on Sunday nights. When her friend told White she was leaving to get her “fix” at the small Pentecostal church, White asked if she could do the same.

“I went to that Pentecostal church and grabbed the back of the pew,” she recalls. “I’m thinking, Everybody’s crazy!”

She soon felt at ease when God spoke to her heart: “This is of Me and it’s OK. It’s OK.”

But it was the Word, not the church experience, that had the greatest impact on White. For the next two years, she saturated herself with the Bible. One day, she says, she was simply worshiping God when He instantly healed her of the bulimia she still was struggling with.

“From my feet to the tips of my fingers, I could feel God remove the bondages. He fully restored my metabolism,” she remembers.

A New Life Begins

White eventually found a church home in the city, and when the janitor at her church quit, her pastor–T.L. Lowery, of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)–asked White to clean the church nursery. Lowery noticed her commitment to that job and asked her to teach the 2- and 3-year-olds, and later the 4- and 5-year-olds.

White says she must have studied 80 hours a week just to make sure her lesson plans were doctrinally correct and on a level the children could understand.

She was working at the Church of God headquarters in Baltimore when she met Randy, a divorcé, who was an associate pastor at a small church in the area. The two were married two years later against the advice of a few church members who said Paula wasn’t “ministry material.”

Randy, however, paid the comments no mind. The Whites now have been married for 15 years.

The couple moved to Washington, D.C., but left the city in 1990 after Randy sensed God telling him to move to Florida. It wasn’t long before the Whites rolled into inner-city Tampa in 1991 with a vision to reach out to hurting people.

Their strategy to win souls through evangelism and restoration paid off. The next year, South Tampa Christian Center opened. In 1997, the name was changed to Without Walls International Church to reflect the Whites’ vision of a church where people who would never cross the threshold of a traditional ministry could worship. Its catchy motto reflects its paradoxical purpose: “The Perfect Church for People Who Aren’t.”

Known today for its diversity, the church of some 15,000 members serves as a training ground for those seeking to spread evangelism and outreach throughout the country. The staff at WWIC have trained believers who represent more than 200 ministries in the United States and abroad.

In Luke 15:8-10 Jesus tells the parable of a woman who searched untiringly until she found a valuable silver coin she had lost. Like this woman, Paula White specializes in searching–for lost people for the kingdom of God.

While living in Baltimore, she would give food to homeless people and tell them about God. She would strike up conversations with strangers so she could share the gospel with them. That combination early in her Christian life of meeting physical needs and telling people about Jesus is what still drives her today.

Nothing stirs White more than her love for sinners. During her interview with Charisma, she cried three times as she shared her passion for unbelievers.

She will have the opportunity to reach even more people when her new TV studio, located at the church, opens later this month. Her TV program, Paula White Today, is seen by millions of people in the United States and is broadcast worldwide as well.

Although in her childhood she was traumatized by her father’s death and devastated by molestation, White never contemplated suicide. A vision she had when she was 18 reveals why.

“The Lord showed me … millions of people,” she says. “When I would open my mouth, masses and millions of people would get saved, delivered or healed. But when I shut my mouth, the people would fall into utter darkness.

“I knew then God was calling me to preach the gospel. My answer to Him was, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Today my answer remains the same.”

Can I Get A Witness?

Some people say Paula White can dissect Scripture like the scholarly Rev. Jackie McCullough, while others say she preaches similar to Bishop T.D. Jakes. One thing is certain, White’s preaching has opened doors for her to minister to a large following that continues to grow.

Her spiritual agenda has taken her to every continent on the globe to offer restoration to suffering people through evangelism. She accomplishes her goal with a simple message: “Heal hearts, touch lives and save souls.”

But White will tell you there’s no secret to her preaching. In fact, she credits Jakes, her “spiritual father,” with mentoring her in the presentation of the gospel.

“Bishop Jakes has had a great impact on my style and delivery,” says White, who has a copy of every sermon in Jakes’ library. McCullough, who is a doctoral candidate at Drew Theological Seminary, has also influenced White.

A Southern girl who in the past called herself “trailer park trash” now knows why her messages knock down barriers. “I’m called to be a reconciler, like David,” explains White, who says God is using her, like He did the ancient Hebrew king, to bridge two kingdoms. In her case, however, it’s the divide between races.

According to Ebony magazine, White is charting a course less traveled by others in Christian circles. “You know you’re on to something new and significant when the most popular woman preacher on the Black Entertainment Network is a white woman,” it reported.

For evangelist Joyce Rodgers, White’s ministry is essential to the church. “Pastor Paula delivers the Word with great passion that empowers anyone who hears her,” Rodgers observes.

In fact, White expects to receive more than 1,000 speaking invitations in 2005, which do not include the 120-plus offers for her to minister internationally, according to Jennifer Mallan, spokesperson for the church.

White does not wrestle with her ministry calling as a nationally known female evangelist. She has struggled, however, with the failures of her past. “I thought I wasn’t ministry material, but the Holy Spirit ripped off the labels,” White says.

Today, she is certain of her purpose. “If you cut me, I’ll bleed evangelism,” she said.

When CeCe Winans auditioned in a talent search as a child, she never dreamed God would use her to sing the gospel. Yet today she’s using her platform to preach, too.
The room seems to light up when CeCe Winans, 39, takes the stage. It could be her congenial personality that brightens the atmosphere, or it could be her signature smile that endears her to throngs of concertgoers. Her smile is so near perfect, in fact, that Procter & Gamble hired her to do a commercial for Crest toothpaste. BellSouth and Kmart hired her to promote their products, too.

But beautiful teeth and market appeal don’t drive people to their knees in reverence of God. Winans’ ability to draw listeners into a deep encounter with the Father can only be explained in spiritual terms.

This woman has a God-given anointing for worship.

“I’ve always considered myself a worshiper,” says Winans, whose family name has been synonymous with gospel music for decades. “The secret to my success, in every area of my life, is worship and praise to Him.”

If releasing an album nearly every other year for more than two decades isn’t proof of her success, then perhaps earning awards is. Winans has received six Grammys, 18 Doves, three Soul Train awards and other honors.

She’s considered one of the most prominent Christian artists in the music business. She has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Entertainment Tonight. Since 1985 she has cranked out six albums of her own, in addition to the seven albums she released with older brother Benjamin “BeBe” Winans. She has also recorded the hit “Count on Me” as a duo with mainstream pop vocalist Whitney Houston.

A native of Detroit, Priscilla Marie Winans was nicknamed “CeCe” by some of her siblings. She was born eighth in a clan of 10 kids. All of the children–who include older brothers David, Daniel, Michael, Ronald, Marvin, Carvin and Benjamin, and younger sisters Angie and Debbie–were taught to sing by their parents, Delores and David Sr., known in the gospel music world as Mom and Pop Winans.

All the Winans kids were raised in a strict home and attended a small Church of God in Christ (COGIC) congregation founded by CeCe’s grandfather. But she says today with no apologies that she appreciates her Pentecostal upbringing.

Because she grew up listening to anointed worship and praise, Winans is amazed when she meets Christians who are unaware of the power of worship. Her surprise prompted her to record Throne Room, a project that released last year. Unlike her previous albums, which are dominated by upbeat gospel and R&B, this one is almost completely devoted to worshipful hymns and choruses.

For Winans, it reflects her inner spirituality more than any other recording. It moves listeners beyond the surface and shows where this woman lives most of her life–in what she calls “the secret place” of God’s presence.

“The Lord put it on my heart to do a project that would encourage people to get into the secret place under the shadow of His wings and make it a part of their lifestyle,” she told Charisma during an interview near Nashville, Tennessee, where she now lives.

Winans believes all Christians must start moving closer to that place of worship. If we don’t, she adds, we won’t be prepared to face the battles ahead.

“The times we’re living in are tough, and we’ve got to learn how to worship because that will be our refuge,” she insists. “If we will learn to worship, then we’ll be OK.”

Winans knows that Christian music actually can be distracting if it doesn’t have the right focus. She learned this firsthand during her younger years when she performed regularly on a glitzy set for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Praise the Lord TV show.

Winans does not want her music to distract or take the focus off Jesus. That’s why she considers her recent CD to be “different, pure and simple.”

The new priority she places on worship also indicates that this photogenic celebrity with the million-dollar smile has entered a new season marked by maturity and deeper passion for God. It’s just not enough today for her to entertain an audience. She wants to give them more of Jesus.

The Road to Success

When Winans was growing up, lots of kids in Detroit were running through the streets without adult supervision. Winans was either in a church meeting or singing somewhere else.

Singing professionally by age 16, Winans says she never had a desire to do anything else. But landing a job with the Bakkers on Christian television shocked her. In the early 1980s, Howard McCrary, who had played and sung with Andraé Crouch, asked BeBe and CeCe to audition for Praise the Lord.

“It tripped me out,” she says. “That was my first introduction to any and everything–white people, different styles, television. Me and BeBe were the only little color there. We hadn’t planned on being a duet, but churches said, ‘We want those two little African American kids.’

“BeBe didn’t make the first round of auditions,” CeCe jokingly reminds her brother at times. Excited about the possibility of singing for one of the premier Christian TV ministries, she told her brother he had to make it because her father would not allow his first-born daughter to move away from home and live alone.

“That Sunday we sang for Jim Bakker and he loved us,” she remembers. PTL hired BeBe and CeCe as singers and the two moved from Michigan to North Carolina.

They lived in Charlotte for the next three years.

Despite being from the city made famous by recording acts such as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5–all of whom got their start at Detroit’s legendary Motown Records–Winans knows that worship involves a whole lot more than singing or skillful instrumentation.

“Worship is a lifestyle,” she says. “I believe people think that if they sing a song and hear something edifying they’ve experienced true worship. True worship is when your focus is on the Father and only the Father. It’s not about anything or anybody else.”

But it’s no wonder this former choirgirl who preferred to be in the shadows of her popular family while growing up is so passionate about what she does. A no-nonsense believer who harps on integrity every chance she gets, Winans wants to see the body of Christ stand for holiness and not forsake biblical truth.

The older she gets, in fact, the more intense she feels about the need for integrity in the church. Give her a microphone today and she might just preach rather than sing.

“It’s scary, sometimes, what I see in certain [churches when I travel], but I’ve learned that it’s God’s business. My job is to love and to pray,” she says. “When I see crazy things, it’s like, ‘God, if I see it I know You see it.'”

She believes the lack of character and integrity among some believers is because of a lack of reverence for God.

“We’ve lost the fear of the Lord. And when you lose your fear, you lose wisdom,” she explains. “I always examine my heart.”

Her conviction has been tested many times. Once, when the singer was asked to perform at a prestigious event at the White House, she was told that “the audience will be mixed with a lot of people, so we’d rather you not say anything about Jesus. … We don’t want to offend people.”

She declined the invitation, telling the organizers: “You are offending me when you say that. That’s who I am, and [He is] whom I represent.”

Winans consented to sing after receiving a call from a representative who gave her the go-ahead to speak freely about her faith.

In the 1990s it was CeCe and BeBe’s music that was considered too ambiguous. Some listeners didn’t like the singers’ hip style, preferring instead traditional gospel. The duo’s musical tastes were too much like contemporary R&B for a Christian audience.

To others, the siblings’ music represented a new generation of gospel. The two were overwhelmingly successful among many unbelievers, causing their music to cross over into mainstream America.

Today CeCe and BeBe have separate careers, however. She is releasing a pop-style CD next year and BeBe is promoting his most recent release.

Their early success with the Bakker’s Praise the Lord program paved the way for the two to sing to the masses. Winans is grateful for the opportunities afforded her as a worshiper. But her decision to do a CD of mostly worship songs caused some to question whether she was undertaking a wise venture.

There are some people even in the Christian music industry who don’t think worship sells. But Winans decided she wouldn’t sell out to that opinion.

“There are many souls who depend on what I do,” she explains, noting that people of all ages have come to know the Lord in her concerts.

Objections from well-meaning Christians weren’t enough to convince Winans to abandon a project that would help believers stand strong in hard times. “I didn’t realize just how many people don’t know that worship is also a weapon,” she adds. “That is one reason Throne Room is important.”

The Singer Is a Preacher

In 2001, contemporary Christian and gospel music singers Steven Curtis Chapman, Yolanda Adams, Shirley Caesar and Winans, along with many others, performed for President and Mrs. Bush and a large audience at the White House. But to Winans, being recognized for her artistry can’t replace what she considers most important of all–her family.

“Family comes first,” says Winans, who has been married to Alvin Love for 20 years. “I can’t go out and minister and come home and [find out] my kids are crazy. You’ve got to take care of your family.” She stresses her point with some forceful language, calling it “backwards” and “not from God” when careers are placed before family.

After being in the music business for more than 23 years and even owning her own record label–PureSprings Gospel–the singer insists a lot of extras that aren’t important can distract people in ministry.

People would ask her in a way that made their questions more like requests: “Are you going to this party? Meeting these people?”

“No,” she would answer. “I’ve got babies to take care of. I’ve got a husband.”

And if Christians are to have an impact on their families and in their communities, Winans insists they will have to be Spirit-led because the Holy Spirit convicts and teaches believers truth.

Winans’ Pentecostal fervor continually boils under the surface. She sees things in black and white, and when Christians blur ethical or moral lines she can get riled.

“Jesus said, ‘If you love Me you’ll keep my commandments.’ If you don’t, you’re a liar,” she says bluntly. “The Word is so straight-up. All this stuff we try to cloud [the Bible with] is because people don’t want to live right. It’s as simple as that.”

When asked about the high divorce rate in the country, Winans says marriage is “a choice” and each spouse must choose to stay married. She doesn’t believe Christians have the right to give up on marriage.

“I’ve been married for 20 years, and it hasn’t been easy. But I had to choose–do I love God more than I love myself?”

Her bold stance is tempered by a refreshing candor. This woman knows who she is, and she’s honest about her weaknesses.

She continues: “I ask myself, ‘CeCe, are you going to stay in this [marriage] and represent the Father, or are you going to get out?’ I’m sorry, but people just don’t want to die [to their selfishness].

“But there’s forgiveness, thank God. If I end up divorced I’m wrong because God’s Word is right. Surely He can make a marriage work, but we have to be willing to say, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Even when you’re right, His way is still more right.”

In addition to singing and being a wife, she is also a mom to two teenagers–Alvin III, 19, and Ashley, 17. Part of Winans’ passion is to see young people become worshipers who are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

“We’re going to get it if we don’t start pouring into this generation. We must teach them how to be bold,” she says. “They haven’t seen enough examples of us being Christ-like in the world. Everybody else is coming out of the closet, and it seems like we’re going into the closet.”

That’s partly the reason she helped found a ministry named My Sister’s Keeper along with Kiwanis Hockett and Demetrus Stewart at Born Again Church, the Nashville congregation where Winans has been a member since 1992. My Sister’s Keeper is a mentoring program designed to help pre-teen to college-age women become godly women.

“The ministry confronts real issues. We have former drug addicts, divorcees and teen moms in the group,” says Stewart, who oversees the 6-year-old program. “The ladies need Jesus, and they need to know who God says they are.”

In an effort to prepare for what God might call her to do next, Winans is gearing up to earn a college degree. In 2000, both Winans and husband Alvin completed a Ministry in Training program at their church. The two-year study prepared her for preaching and teaching the gospel. She senses that in addition to singing God is opening doors for her to minister the Word.

She already has a track record for preaching–even when audiences don’t expect her to. At one concert this year, Winans learned that the pastor who was sponsoring the event at a large church had been promoting acceptance of homosexuality. So between songs, Winans boldly defended biblical sexuality–even though she knew the pastor was in the audience.

“My kids have seen me be a light in a dark world,” she says. “They’ve seen me go on whatever show and still magnify the Father. I tell them to have a relationship with the Father and go among the world and be the light.”

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new CeCe Winans–the one who rocks religious boats and confronts sin like a prophet. This unassuming girl who started her career in a talent show knows that God has given her a big platform–and it is not just so she can entertain or enjoy celebrity.

In an age of low-cut jeans and near-naked pop stars, Christians need to bring some sanity to the way America is dressing.

Nearly 90 million viewers turned on their televisions to watch the 38th annual Super Bowl game in February. No doubt many of them expected to see only star-studded performances by popular singers during the halftime show. What they saw in addition was a three-second glimpse of singer Janet Jackson’s breast when Justin Timberlake ripped her costume at the end of their routine.

The Jackson-Timberlake debacle initiated a storm of criticism in the public arena over indecency on television. Whether the exposure was intentional or caused by a “wardrobe malfunction,” as first claimed, the incident has led to bills being passed by both houses of Congress increasing fines against broadcasters that violate decency standards.

A similar storm over immodesty is brewing in the body of Christ. For many, the sensual, skimpy, low-cut, too-short, revealing clothes worn by believers is causing much alarm.

Last year, when a well-known female preacher arrived at a Pentecostal conference wearing an extremely tight dress, leaders of the group apologized to attendees and promised, “She will never preach here again.” And when a young woman visited a church near Atlanta, she was surprised to find the pastor and many of the church’s male leaders dressed in sexy-looking, tight muscle shirts.

“I left because I struggled with lust in the past, and I didn’t want to take myself through that again,” the woman explained.

One Florida pastor, frustrated about immodest dress among his congregants, confronted the problem during Sunday morning worship. “When you wear your clothes tight and too short, you’re making a statement about yourself. My advice to you is, ‘If you are not for sale, please take the sign down!'”

Recently, Charisma spoke with ministry leaders about the need for modesty among believers. They say churches must be willing to address the issue if Christians are to be lights that reflect the purity of Christ.

Worldly Influences

Madeline Crabb, author of a training manual for churches, titled Dressing to Please God: Clothing the Mind, Body and Spirit, is familiar with inappropriate clothing worn by believers. The author was prompted to address the issue after noticing the steady shift among Christians toward wearing revealing clothes.

“God wants women to be without excuse, and He wants Christians to know what is expected of them,” Crabb, 54, told Charisma.

A licensed minister, the author has participated in or held at least 200 women’s shows or workshops. During the years, she has taught women how to dress and how to conceal their flaws to look more attractive and presentable.

Her experience helped shape her core message: Modesty is humility expressed in proper dress, and anything other than that is compromise.

“The world has a hard time believing the church,” Crabb says. “We use a lot of religious mumbo jumbo about how, as Christians, we have grace and freedom. And then we make statements about how the world doesn’t understand us. … The church doesn’t understand the parameters God has given.”

Though her message is unpopular at times, the Bloomington, Indiana, resident hopes Christians will listen.

But many believers, particularly young ones, aren’t turned off by immodest dress. In fact, they are some of the worst offenders. Why? Because they are influenced by the world around them.

Today, more than ever, kids get a megadose of sexual content every time they turn on the television, according to Focus on the Family. Other research indicates that when children as young as 7, 8 and 9 watch pop divas and gangster rappers in the media they become desensitized to the message of modesty.

It isn’t solely the fault of the performers. Recording companies sometimes put tremendous pressure even on Christian performing artists to compromise. Take the popular group Out of Eden, for example.

This group burst onto the music scene five albums ago, and throngs of listeners have collectively purchased more than half a million of their recordings. But according to the group’s members–sisters Lisa Kimmey, Danielle Kimmey and Andrea Kimmey-Baca–some record companies won’t do business with them and other singers who refuse to show lots of skin.

“Companies don’t understand us not wanting to show off our bodies except to our husbands,” Kimmey-Baca told Cross Rhythms magazine. “They don’t understand that God has called us to be role models. … We want to sing about sexual purity.”

There are some signs that our society still appreciates modesty, however. John Stossel of ABC’s 20/20 challenged fashion designers who create sexy clothes for young girls, especially 8- to 12-year-olds. Since designers already are making sexy clothing for young girls, what would they design for prostitutes, Stossel wanted to know.

But not enough people are asking that question. That’s undoubtedly one reason Mother Barbara McCoo Lewis, who oversees women in more than 250 churches in Southern California for the Church of God in Christ, stresses how important it is for Christians to be models of modesty in our fallen world.

“The principles of holiness, which include modesty, must not be assumed but rather imparted in a spirit of love and patience,” the Los Angeles resident explained. In an effort to help women adopt a godly lifestyle, Mother Lewis started Daughters of Ruth and Naomi, a mentorship program that mainstreams younger women into every area of ministry and encourages spiritual maturity through positive reinforcement.

“Modesty is better caught than taught!” she says.

Hemlines and the Heart

For many pastors battling immodesty in the church, the debate goes much deeper than hip-hugger jeans and belly blouses. Many of them say it’s purity of heart that is most at stake. They attribute the downward turn toward unprecedented indecency to a society saturated with sexual content in every medium: music, television, advertisements and movies.

The steady dose of immodesty, research indicates, is shaping society’s perception of reality and, ultimately, its spirituality. Bob Lepine, known to Christian radio listeners across the country as the co-host of the popular daily radio program FamilyLife Today with Dennis Rainey, says immodesty is a fast-growing problem in the body of Christ and that the church must be wise in its attempt to address it.

“This issue is a matter of the heart, not legalism,” Lepine says.

Like Lepine, there are leaders who are taking their chances despite what believers might say. Pastors are teaching congregants that men and women and young girls and boys should dress in a manner reflecting Christ-likeness, not the culture. They use passages in the Bible such as 1 Timothy 2:9-10 as the standard.

“Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works” (KJV).

C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries says any discussion about modesty begins with the heart, not the hemline. According to Mahaney, what a woman wears “will demonstrate that she lives with a settled resistance to the ceaseless pull of the world.”

In a teaching addressing the topic, Mahaney goes on to say: “I choose to believe that most Christian women who dress immodestly are not intentionally promoting immorality. Some are no doubt failing to exercise sufficient wisdom and diligence.”

The ministry offers a “heart check” for Christians to check their motives for dressing in a particular manner. Questions include:

What statements am I making with the clothes I wear?
Does my clothing satisfy me, or does it please God?
Is what I wear a reflection of the Word of God, self-control and appropriate attire, or do I identify with popular culture and worldliness in the way I dress?
What standard do I use when selecting clothing–society’s standard or the Bible?

Taking the Modesty Test

When Dannah Gresh accepted the Holy Spirit’s prompting to minister to teenagers, she had no idea it meant teaching girls about their “secret weapon.” In her book, Secret Keeper: The Delicate Power of Modesty (Moody Press), Gresh lovingly but firmly warns girls about their God-given power.

“If you’re a young woman, you were born with the seed of this power planted firmly within you,” Gresh writes. “This power is unique to us girls–it is your allure,” she explains.

Gresh’s simple yet thought-provoking message about an often misunderstood principle is disarming. When this mother of two children–Lexi, 10, and Rob, 13–took her husband’s advice to address the issue of immodesty in the church and in secular settings, she quickly learned that Christians desperately need to confront the problem.

Gresh told Charisma there can be dangerous consequences for girls who wear sensual, revealing clothing. She cites organizations such as The Medical Institute for Sexual Health. According to the institute, several factors place girls at risk for future problems.

Gresh says: “One of the top five risk factors is a girl appearing older than she actually is. She does this by the way she dresses and presents herself.”

The author says girls don’t realize it, but they reveal their special gift from God–a gift intended solely for their husbands–when they wear clothing that accentuates curves and other parts of their bodies. She says boys who used to struggle with pornography on the Internet now face temptation when they go to youth groups because girls are dressing more provocatively.

In an effort to arm believers with the tools to live godly lives, Dannah and her husband, Bob, started Pure Freedom (www.purefreedom.org) with the purpose of “equipping men and women of all ages to live vibrant lives of purity, to experience healing from past impurity and to help couples have vibrant, godly marriages.” The Greshes’ message is connecting with hundreds of thousands of American youth. The couple facilitates about 25 youth conferences annually and are scheduled to train ministries in Zambia to use their curriculum to fight the AIDS pandemic.

For one girl, 16, ministries such as Pure Freedom help because they “do not place people in bondage with manmade rules that will never be embraced.”

After receiving numerous requests for guidelines to help teens dress in modest fashion, Gresh developed the Truth or Bare? Modesty Test, which she uses to offer simple solutions to clothing problems. Gresh says girls can determine for themselves if clothes are modest or not.

“It’s to help a girl to go through the thinking process by herself and let her heart be molded into modesty rather than face a legalistic set of rules,” she says. There are seven Truth or Bare? tests, including:

Spring Valley. To determine if a shirt or a blouse is too tight, the girl should “take the tips of her fingers and press into the shirt where the ribs come together in the ‘valley’ in the middle of the chest.” Gresh says if the shirt “springs” back when the fingers are removed, the shirt is too tight. Her solution: “Get rid of the shirt. It’s not going to get bigger overnight.”

Raise & Praise. If a girl wants to know if she is revealing her belly, Gresh advises her to extend her arms and hands as far as she can in a gesture of worshiping God. If the movements reveal any skin, the young lady is encouraged to purchase a “secret weapon,” a ribbed T-shirt or tank top from the men’s department. The tee should be worn under the shorter shirt and tucked into shorts or pants.

Mirror Image. To see if a skirt or shorts are too short, Gresh suggests sitting on the floor with legs crossed, Indian style. If too much thigh or undergarments are visible, she says, it’s too short. She tells girls to go for “extremely long, extremely full but not extremely short” skirts. For shorts, she encourages girls to “keep looking” for just the right length.

Plumber’s Test. Want to know if your pants are too low? In reference to the popular low-rider jeans, Gresh suggests that you sit Indian-style on the floor, bend forward as far as you can and then, “reach behind and get a feel of what might be the featured view if your jeans are too low.” She tells girls, “Find a pair that won’t cause viewers to blush for you.”

Gresh says she offers tests to girls because she knows they don’t want to intentionally lure guys. She believes it is her responsibility to teach biblical truths in a way that won’t turn people off from the message and from the church.

“A lot of people just don’t know that purity and modesty are reflections of the heart of God. This is not about rules that place people in bondage. I believe as Christians, the body of Christ should live and dress in such a manner that people want to get to know God.”

Just Say NO to Janet

You don’t have to take your style cues from Janet Jackson, MTV or legalistic saints. Here’s how to make fashion sense.

DO: Wear fashionable, modest clothing. The Bible doesn’t say you have to look like a prude.

DON’T: Wear form-fitting, tight clothes. By doing so you cause others to take their eyes off God to look at you.

DO: Wear clothes that complement your body type. Look for clothing stores that carry styles with your figure in mind.

DON’T: Expose flesh that should be reserved for your mate’s eyes only. This means covering cleavage so you aren’t tempting someone of the opposite sex. Don’t let your underwear peek out of pants or tops.

DO: Wear clothes that represent your God-given sense of personal style.

DON’T: Let people convince you that it’s wrong to wear certain colors. Remember, God made the rainbow!

DO: Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you select clothing that honors Him.

DON’T: Allow a church’s or denomination’s set of legalistic, unbiblical rules (such as “no pants” or “no short hair”) create an atmosphere of spiritual bondage for you.

Valerie G. Lowe is an associate editor with Charisma magazine. She lives in Central Florida.

Seven years ago R&B recording artist Pebbles traded celebrity for a life dedicated to Christ. Today Perri Reid is leading sinners to Jesus from her ministry base in Atlanta.
As latecomers scurry through the doors, greeters manning their posts rush to extend warm handshakes to the faithful worshipers who have decided to weather the nasty storm outside.

“Good evening and God bless you. Come on in,” an usher says as she gestures with her hands. From all appearances this looks like a typical Tuesday night church service. You might think so until you reach the door leading to this unusual sanctuary, which is housed in a converted warehouse on Eleventh Street near downtown Atlanta.

A disclaimer posted at the entrance is proof that this is anything but your average church meeting. “WOGCL is not liable for bodily injury,” the sign cautions. “Please understand that you are entering a healing and deliverance service.” Attendees are also advised not to bring cameras or video recorders to meetings.

WOGCL stands for Women of God Changing Lives Through Christ. The name sounds quaint, but don’t be fooled: This is not a quiet women’s Bible study. These women have gathered for a spiritual battle.

“I declare war!” a feisty female preacher shouts from the front of the room. “We tear down the Jezebel spirit!”

The wind and rain pounding against the windows and doors are no match for the battle brewing inside these four walls. Intercessors invade the altar. They’re walking in circles, praying, rebuking and setting the atmosphere for a confrontation.

The woman with the microphone, dressed in sleek black with stiletto heels, may look vaguely familiar to first-time visitors. That’s because she was once one of the top R&B stars in the country. But Perri Reid, known as “Sister Perri” to the hundred or more followers who visit her service each week, is known today for her preaching, not her sultry dance tunes.

“God rescued me, and now I have a responsibility to bring others out,” Reid says of her transformation–which began seven years ago when a personal crisis led to her conversion. “I didn’t try to commit suicide, but I felt my soul dying. I felt empty,” she told Charisma.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Reid was known to the world as Pebbles, a stunningly attractive, award-winning songwriter who quickly claimed stardom. Her string of releases include “Love/Hate,” “Love Makes Things Happen” (recorded with Babyface), “Girlfriend,” and the co-written hit songs “Mercedes Boy” and “Whip Appeal,” all released by MCA Records.

But her life took a disappointing turn in 1995 when her marriage to the former president of Arista Records, Antonio “L.A.” Reid, began to crumble and later ended in divorce. In the same year she was embroiled in a very public contractual dispute with singers from TLC, the popular girl group she founded. During this time of what Reid calls “demonic oppression,” she didn’t understand that the devil was trying to destroy her, she says.

Out of desperation, she reached out for help from a psychic but received no benefit from the contact.

“I remember lying on my bed breathing my last breath,” Reid recalls. “I tried to reach for the phone to ask for help but couldn’t. That was the day the enemy tried to take my life, but that was also the night grace stepped in.”

She found her answer in Jesus–and experienced supernatural deliverance from demonic power. From that point on, the singer went on the offensive against the devil.

In 1998, God prompted her to start WOGCL, a deliverance and healing ministry that aims to rescue both believers and unbelievers from spiritual bondage. Reid walked away from fame and money and now spends her energy helping others find the same answers she discovered.

Delivering the Captives

For first-time visitors to her Atlanta ministry, Reid’s Barbie-doll veneer is an attention-grabber. But to this 5-foot-7-inch preacher, looks are deceiving.

“I’ve been a celebrity before–that’s not why I’m here,” Reid says. “I’m here for two reasons: obedience to God, and because I have a charge to see His people free.”

Judging from her weekly deliverance and healing service, it takes more than a pretty face to draw sinners struggling with drugs, alcohol and witchcraft. It takes the Holy Spirit’s power.

One woman who has never attended the services searched for Reid for one year after watching her on television. Geneviee Frampton of Tigard, Oregon, who once considered herself a “drug addict in terrible bondage,” was in a crisis when she heard about Reid’s ministry. Frampton had been in and out of rehabilitation programs, jail, and mental hospitals and had participated in Alcoholics Anonymous.

“I was watching a VH1 program about retired pop stars and what they are doing. It showed Perri doing deliverance right there on television,” Frampton wrote in a testimony to WOGCL.

Realizing that freedom was possible, the mother of two begged the Lord to save her and “to give my children their mother back.” With the help of two pastors the woman was freed from her addiction. Frampton told Charisma that today she is active in church and is training to become a Bible study leader.

Unbelievers aren’t the only people who are seeking help from Sister Perri. Born-again, go-to-church-every-Sunday Christians also frequent her meetings. Some attend in hopes of having generational curses, fear and other problems removed from their lives.

Others come for Reid’s insightful Bible teaching. She bluntly tells believers who attend: “You can get saved, say the words, go down in the water, but if you’re not free from the ways of sin, you will continue in your sins.”

Reid believes deliverance and healing require much more than a one-time church service where a preacher prays, lays hands on a person and commands evil spirits to leave. Based on her experience, Reid says deliverance is a process that produces sanctification and wholeness.

Chris Hayward, contributing editor of the book Ministering Freedom From Demonic Oppression, agrees. He advises ministries to treat deliverance as a lifestyle, not a program.

“To make deliverance effective within the local church, there needs to be certain measures in place,” Haywood writes. Bible teaching, discipleship, accountability and the pastor’s participation all are vital, he claims, for balanced deliverance ministry. Those are principles Reid has put in place since she began WOGCL.

“People don’t need to be afraid. Deliverance and salvation go together,” Reid says. Perhaps that is why she hammers away at the need for holiness in the body of Christ. She insists it is the power of the Holy Spirit and a willingness to die to oneself that open the pathway to lasting change.

Unlike some of her counterparts in deliverance work, Reid does not teach that Christians can be possessed by demons. She prefers to use the word oppressed.

“If you are walking within the realm of righteousness and you’ve been saved, you can’t be possessed. Satan can’t indwell you, but he can oppress you,” she explains. She teaches that secret sins, wrong attitudes and sinful behaviors open doors for demonic spirits to erect strongholds in the lives of believers.

“Our part in the purifying process is learning how to die to our ways, which is from the world. That’s walking out your salvation,” she adds. Reid knows her message of holiness isn’t popular–even in some churches–but she still is committed to preaching truth to those who will hear it.

Reid is not a Lone Ranger in the ministry. She recognizes the need for mentors and spiritual oversight. Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of the 25,000-member New Birth Cathedral in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia, licensed her as a minister in 2001. And Bishop Paul Morton, leader of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, a growing network of churches, serves as Reid’s spiritual leader and covering.

Says Morton: “When [Reid] was in the world she made an impact, and now that she’s in ministry, she’s making an even greater difference in the body of Christ. Her impact on women is huge.”

Crusaders for Christ

Although she seems quite comfortable with a microphone and has enough charisma to sway an audience, Reid says she is not a pastor–and her ministry is not a church. However, she believes that her role is to come alongside pastors to help get the job done.

“Pastors can’t do it all,” she insists, explaining why she wants to help undergird the church.

A study in Ministries Today magazine confirms Reid’s statement. The study shows that pastors who bear the burden for their congregations without the help of a support system suffer from burnout, stress and spiritual exhaustion. Other findings suggest that some leaders are throwing in their clergy collars because the demands of ministry are destroying marriages, breaking up families and causing financial hardships.

That is why Reid considers WOGCL vital to the body of Christ. “I am not a pastor. I’m an aide to the church. I am a sent one commissioned to go forth to break the chains. I get the people out, break shackles and break down the enemy’s kingdom,” she says.

“Servants,” as they are called at WOGCL, are trained and equipped to walk alongside leaders in the ministry of deliverance. With her teams of workers, Reid is prepared to preach, conduct revivals and crusades, and offer deliverance.

As a secular entertainer, Reid knew her ability to sing was a divine gift. Today, she uses her gifts to reel in souls for God. With spiritual tools such as worship, prayer, prophecy and healing, she is ready to assist. And, Reid adds, she is not interested in stealing sheep–or fleecing them.

Her message to pastors: “We’re not coming to take nobody’s members. We’re concerned with souls making it into heaven.”

A majority of the people who attend Reid’s weekly meetings are, in fact, committed members of area churches. Beverly, who attends a church that considers itself “Bapticostal”–a Baptist congregation that operates in the gifts of the Holy Spirit–serves as a greeter at WOGCL. One of the ministry’s security guards is a member of a United Methodist church, but he experiences tangible expressions of the Spirit’s power in Reid’s meetings.

Baptists, Methodists and Catholics all come. Reid isn’t certain why such a variety of people frequent her meetings, but she is sure that the Word of God is the drawing card.

“We preach Jesus and His power,” Reid says. “We don’t want to be bothered with a bunch of foolishness.”

For many, it is Reid’s no-nonsense approach that keeps them coming back week after week for more truth. “I knew nothing about spiritual warfare, worship and praise,” wrote one woman, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta. She admits that she didn’t “know how to have a relationship with the Lord” until she visited the ministry.

A beautiful voice from Reid’s past also found refuge at WOGCL. When singer and actress Whitney Houston told Reid she was “losing it” in 2002, Reid opened the doors of her home to Houston, husband Bobby Brown and the couple’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina.

During an interview with Essence magazine, Houston discussed her friendship with her preacher friend. “She took me under her wing. I stayed in one room, and she took me through a transition of deliverance and prayer, constant in my case,” Houston told the magazine.

Reid knows the apprehension some leaders face when considering the ministry of deliverance. She knows it will take proper training and working together to accomplish God’s will for His people.

Says Reid: “God keeps saying: ‘Perri, everybody needs to come out of their pockets of resistance. It’s going outside the walls, and it’s going to the highways and byways and raising up people. It’s time now; I’ve pushed the button.'”

With orders from God, according to Reid, she is stepping up her efforts to reach the masses with a television and radio ministry. This month she is moving her ministry to a larger building to accommodate growing crowds. And in the near future, she will open a Women of God Changing Lives Deliverance Institute.

It has been nearly six years since the inception of WOGCL, perhaps one of Atlanta’s best-kept secrets. But today, God is bringing this diva-turned-disciple to the forefront with one goal in mind: to set spiritual captives free. Not only is Reid obeying the call, she’s also taking countless others with her.

When Marie Muhammad-Vaughn rejected Islam, her life took a turn for the worse. Yet today, the great-grandaughter of the founder of the Nation of Islam says she has no regrets.
Nine-year-old Marie and her sister Lulé were excited about their slumber party. The two were celebrating their birthdays together in 1981 at the home of the world-famous heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali.

For most kids, having a party at a celebrity athlete’s home would have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For Marie, Lulé and their siblings, it was no big deal. The children’s grandfather, Herbert Muhammad, was Ali’s personal manager, and he made certain the kids received special attention.

Marie’s family also had religious ties with Ali. Marie’s great-grandfather, the late Elijah Muhammad–who for almost 40 years was the architect and influential leader of the Nation of Islam–had bestowed the name “Muhammad Ali” upon the boxer as part of his rite of passage into the religious group. Born Cassius Clay Jr., Ali had joined the sect and become a Muslim in 1964.

But when Marie, Lulé and their siblings, Ruth and Herbert, refused to join the Nation of Islam, deciding at a young age not to become Muslims, the special parties and outings ceased–as did other privileges. They no longer were welcome to reap the benefits of being the great-grandchildren of the most revered member of the Nation of Islam.

Today, Marie Muhammad-Vaughn, 31, is a Spirit-filled believer in Jesus Christ. Choosing Christianity meant being estranged at times from her relatives, but she has no regrets for following Christ. She is convinced that God has a call on her life.

“Elijah Muhammad named me after his mother, who was Baptist, but she eventually followed her son and converted to Islam,” Muhammad-Vaughn says. “Where she laid down the baton, God wants me to pick it up because my roots are in Him.”

When Muhammad-Vaughn considers her lineage, she knows why she is a follower of Christ. It was the truth, she says, that set her free and sustained her during moments of depression as well as through challenges of being a single mother and difficulties she has faced because of her family heritage.

“Even though I didn’t grow up in a Christian home and we didn’t go to church, my mother constantly told us that Jesus Christ is Lord,” she recalls. Those words eventually led the Chicago native to ask Christ into her life at age 17.

Married now for 3-1/2 years, the mother of three knows there are millions of people, including her close relatives, who have chosen to follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. She talked with Charisma recently about how Christians can win them back.

A Nation Is Born

According to USA Today, approximately 7 million Muslims live in the United States. The American Jewish Committee however, reports drastically lower numbers–possibly as low as 1.5 million and no more than 3.4 million. An even lower figure, 527,000, was published in the 2000 Statistical Abstract of the United States, based on the 1993 National Survey of Religious Identification.

Discrepancies aside, there is no question that Muslims comprise a variety of nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, including Indonesian, Asian, Arab and African. African Americans account for 30 percent of all Muslims in the United States and include those who align themselves with the Nation of Islam, which is predominantly black.

This was not the case in 1930, when the first seeds of the Nation of Islam were being sown. Economically, the country was reeling from the stock market crash of 1929 and was entering the subsequent Great Depression. Socially, civil liberties in America were unrefined–certainly not what they are today–especially for the country’s black populace.

It had been only 47 years since 1883, when the United States Supreme Court had invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875, stripping blacks of their right to accommodations at inns, theaters and other public places. The high court’s decision had led to similar rulings that strengthened Jim Crow–a system of laws that made it legal to discriminate against blacks.

Legalized discrimination had given rise to tumultuous times. In 1913, Timothy Drew, also known as Noble Drew Ali, established the first African American Muslim sect, the Moorish Science Temple Divine and National Movement of North America. After Drew’s death in 1929, Wallace D. Fard declared himself to be a reincarnation of Drew and started the Temple of Islam, now commonly known as “the Nation.”

Based in Detroit, Fard started preaching a doctrine unheard of in most communities. His message of black solidarity and allegiance to Islam caught the attention of some of the city’s African American residents. Followers said his vision for change was birthed from the pain of 400 years of black slavery in America and couldn’t have come at a better time for a “displaced” race.

Ironically, Fard was not black.

“Fard was a white man born in Portland, Oregon, in 1891. His message was geared to African American people,” says Carl F. Ellis Jr., co-founder of Project Joseph, a Christian organization that ministers to Muslims, and co-author
of Emergence of Islam in the African-American Community.

From the onset, Fard–also known to his converts as Master Wallace Fard Muhammad, or simply, “the Master”–believed his mission was to “restore and resurrect his lost and found people,” according to the history of the Nation of Islam. Fard claimed that these people were the “original members of the tribe of Shabazz from the lost nation of Asia.”

He compelled blacks to practice what he called “the religion of their ancestors.” His influence quickly spread, drawing numerous followers.

One convert was a young man named Elijah Poole, the son of a Baptist preacher. Poole and Fard met in 1931, and Fard spent the next 3-1/2 years discipling Poole in the “profound secret wisdom of the reality of God.”

Poole eventually left Detroit and started Temple Number Two in Chicago. Fard’s indoctrination of him paid off when, in 1934, after Fard had mysteriously disappeared, Poole–who had renamed himself Elijah Muhammad–emerged as the voice and the driving force behind the fast-growing Nation of Islam.

Elijah continued in the steps of his tutor, promoting self-reliance and separation for the black race. Establishing himself as Allah’s prophet, Elijah stood at the head of the Nation of Islam while the movement exponentially gained momentum.

In March 1995, Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of the Nation of Islam, rallied almost 1 million men, most of them African Americans, to Washington, D.C., for the Million Man March. Still, membership in the Nation of Islam is considerably less today than it was some four decades ago during its peak.

Its influence, however, among young African Americans is considered strong, particularly among those immersed in the hip-hop culture. Observers say that because hip-hop prides itself in “keeping it real and truth-telling” and is often seen as anti-establishment, it tends to align itself with political or religious figures who speak the language of the culture.

Farrakhan’s position on racism, social change and economics has even prompted some black pastors to open their pulpits to the 70-year-old minister, but other Christian leaders caution churches not to allow a man who teaches false doctrine into their pulpits to preach.

However, the fascination with Farrakhan as a leader isn’t unique, according to observers of the Nation of Islam. The Nation has always been led by charismatic, visionary figures.

Possibly the most recognized of its leaders was Malcolm X, a young convert whose style, attitude and strong message of black identity garnered the attention of millions of Americans during the Black Power political movement of the 1960s. The Nation grew to10,000 members during its pinnacle in the 1960s and 1970s.

Malcolm would become one of the most influential Muslims of the 20th century. Born Malcolm Little, he became intrigued with Elijah Muhammad’s teachings after being introduced to the religion by his brother. A drug dealer and pimp at one time, Malcolm was drawn to the Nation of Islam while serving jail time in Boston in 1948.

Similarly, some of the Nation’s followers today convert to Islam while in prison. Even those who come from godly, Spirit-filled and evangelical homes buck Christianity for a religion they say offers African Americans, especially black men, respect, dignity and self-discipline.

The Nation’s historical precedent for this is Fard himself. He served jail time in Michigan and Illinois while establishing his religious work. Incarceration didn’t stop him from discipling the disenfranchised, nor did it hinder Malcolm.

One of the many seekers in the 1960s trying to find his black identity in a seemingly white economic and political world was Larry Spruill. It was during the civil rights era that Spruill became intrigued with the Black Power movement, an interest that eventually led him to convert to mainline Islam.

“Activism prompts you to look at both the political and the spiritual side of an issue,” he explains. African American baby boomers such as Spruill were captivated with the opportunity to raise the consciousness of black America.

“Seeing black men dressed in white robes and wearing dark suits with bow ties was exotic. It was exciting and dynamic,” says Spruill, who is the principal of the 3,000-student Mount Vernon High School in Mount Vernon, New York, and holds several academic degrees, including a Ph.D. in American history.

Learning to speak Arabic and studying the teachings of Islam’s founder, Muhammad, prompted him to convert. But it wasn’t long before Spruill, whose God-fearing mother prayed fervently that he would return to the Lord, realized Islam gave him a religious experience but left him wanting more. In search of something deeper, he did not join the Nation.

Reaching Islam

Many say the body of Christ must be prepared to minister to people who will look to someone for answers. The church must also ready itself for those who will leave the religion for many of the same reasons Spruill left, say ministry leaders such as Ellis.

But to be effective, Christians will have to leave the comforts of the church and take to the streets, prisons and other places if they want to compel sinners to come to Jesus. According to Marie Muhammad-Vaughn, Christians have something other religions don’t have. “People are in search of truth. There’s a lot of confusion out there, but we know what is right,” she told Charisma.

Wallace Fard, in fact, mixed verses from the Bible with teachings from the Quran, according to Emergence of Islam in the African-American Community. He taught his converts that “Christianity is a tool in the hands of the White slave masters to control the minds of Black people.”

Muhammad-Vaughn says that in the end Fard did nothing more than lead her great-grandfather and thousands like him away from what Christ was calling them to do, taking them instead into darkness.

“I believe Elijah had a mighty work to do for Jesus, but he allowed the enemy, through deception, to pervert his message,” she says.

Similarly, Elijah would target new Christians with his doctrine in an attempt to dismantle their faith. “Elijah would use the Quran to challenge newly saved believers who had not yet received the baptism in the Holy Ghost,” Muhammad-Vaughn explains. “These people were eventually led astray and converted to Islam.”

Today when she shares her testimony in churches and with people who are coming out of Islam, Muhammad-Vaughn stresses the need for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. She says that as a discerner the Holy Spirit divides truth from error.

“Without the truth, a person cannot grow in the knowledge and the revelation of the inspired Word of God,” she states.

Woodley Auguste, a 30-year-old corporate publicist in Lake Mary, Florida, knows the importance of the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in a believer’s life, as well as what the Nation teaches. Auguste spent seven years in the Five Percent Nation, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. Auguste says he changed his name to Asaud and became radically committed to the Five Percenters.

“African Americans were feeling emasculated. Especially black men,” Auguste explained. “That is why many of them converted to Islam and still do today.”

But it wasn’t long before a Christian brother came along and established a rapport with Auguste, who lived in Brooklyn, New York.

“That brother’s prophetic gift attracted me to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it was the love of God apparent in his life that led me to a saving knowledge of the Lord,” he added. Auguste insists it will take that same love to win others to Him.

Like most religions that differ from the Christian faith, Muslims, whether members of the Nation of Islam or orthodox adherents, reject the deity of Jesus Christ. According to the Nation of Islam’s The Muslim Program, Allah is not the God of the Bible.

“We believe that Allah [God] appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July 1930; the long-awaited ‘Messiah’ of the Christians and the ‘Mahdi’ of the Muslims,” the literature states.

Those who are familiar with the Nation and its followers insist that it will take a move of the Holy Spirit to reach Muslims.

Ellis Jr. of Project Joseph says his own spiritual search almost prompted him to align himself with the mainline Muslim faith, though he never converted to Islam. He adds, however, that before he became a Christian he was “in search of something more than the church.”

Notes Spruill: “This is no intellectual war we’re in. This is a spiritual battle, one that will take prayer and divine love to overcome.” Spruill is hopeful that many Muslims will come to saving faith. As a basis for this hope he points out that “in Acts 2, the Ishmaelites were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.”

With the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, Muhammad-Vaughn sees strategic opportunities opening for sharing Christ, whether with traditional Islamic believers or those who follow the teachings of the late Elijah Muhammad.

Like many others, she believes God is tearing down the walls of separation and opening doors for Christians to evangelize unbelievers. Her only concern and prayer is that the body of Christ rise to the occasion to minister the love of God to Muslims.

“God used my lineage, the rejection I encountered as a child, and even used my family name to draw people for His glory,” she says. “Every challenge I’ve encountered will be worth it if I am able to tell just one person that Jesus is Lord.”

Many American converts to Islam were raised in Christian churches. Here’s how you can reach them.
By Carl F. Ellis, Jr.

When sharing my faith with Muslims, I’ve found it helpful to evaluate why they are devoted to Islam. American converts to Islam are particularly interesting. Most of them are African American. Often, they were raised in the church and have devout Christian relatives who pray for them.

If we relate to them wisely, God’s Word will affect them in more ways than they are willing to admit. Three considerations are important when discerning why a person has converted to Islam.

1. He could be moved by the standards of Islam. By standards, I mean the doctrines or teachings. Most Christians assume that the standards alone are the reason a person embraces any belief system. In my experience, the next two considerations actually can have greater weight.

2. He could be devoted to Islam because of his situation. This could stem from alienation or a need for cultural identity. The Muslim community projects itself as a brotherhood with affirmation and solidarity.

3. He could practice Islam because of his own motivations and goals. A person often realizes that he has been alienated from God and consequently seeks to achieve God’s favor. Perhaps he wants to purge himself of false values such as materialism or self-centeredness. Therefore, he might see Islam as the means to satisfy his desire for righteousness.

Instead of simply confronting a Muslim, I seek to draw him out through conversation. I’ve met many Muslims whose personal goals and motivations were essentially biblical. In such cases, I’ve learned to be sympathetic and supportive.

As a result, I’ve seen barriers come down. Only after establishing camaraderie will a discussion with them about the way to achieve their goals become meaningful. This is when the gospel really becomes “good news.”

I have talked to dozens of Muslims who have, in the final analysis, admitted they can do nothing to earn God’s favor–that their only hope of salvation is in God alone. Is not this the basis of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?

God promises His Word will not return void (see Is. 55:11). A skillful application of God’s Word to a Muslim’s core issues will surely bear fruit. Here are some practical suggestions for how to do this:

Be yourself.

Try to understand Islamic doctrine from the perspective of Islam. Study the history of Islam’s development, especially in America.

Be a good listener. Don’t evaluate a Muslim only on the basis of his doctrine. Examine the other factors that fuel his devotion to Islam.

When his motivations and goals are biblical, affirm them. When they are not, lovingly challenge them. Try to use words according to his definitions, not yours.

When dealing with a Muslim’s doctrine, do not use the occasion to show how much you know about his faith. Instead, deal with him on the basis of what he expresses to you about his beliefs. You’ll find he is never totally consistent with the doctrine he holds.

It’s always important to draw him out by asking questions in the genuine spirit of wanting to be informed. Give him a chance to express himself, and make sure he knows you understand what he’s saying.

Do not be bowled over by his arguments. Stand firm, with poise and confidence. If you are familiar with his theology, you can tell when he begins to feel the pinch. Usually, he will begin to repeat himself or make up his theology on the spot.

Do not use a King James Bible. According to the teachings of some Muslim sects, King James himself translated this version and corrupted it. I recommend the New International Version.

Never use a Bible in which you have made any marks. To a Muslim, this indicates a disrespect for the Word of God.

Avoid all pictures of God, Jesus or any biblical characters. This looks like idolatry to a Muslim.

Never use the word Trinity. Because of the Muslim teaching, this word often connotes the worship of three gods and will bog you down with issues of polytheism. The term Godhead is a good alternative.

Don’t be offended by a Muslim’s use of the name Allah.

In other words, remove all offenses–except the cross. And never forget the power of love. For against love, there is no defense.

Disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, Timothy Jones found peace when he returned to his Christian roots.

While the rest of America was grieving the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, 16-year-old Timothy Jones was being sentenced to one year in juvenile detention for committing petty crimes. While incarcerated, Jones says he faced many negative influences, the presence of which prompted him to consider the teachings of the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad.

“Elijah Muhammad was a significant leader,” Jones says, “because he stood up to the Establishment”–the reproachful nickname used to include the “white power structure” and the political and economic systems in America at the time. But it wasn’t until the 18-year-old returned to prison for committing more serious crimes such as drug dealing and auto theft that he converted to Islam.

African American leaders say racism in America produced two types of leaders, Martin Luther King Jr., who embodied a nonviolent approach to equality, and Elijah Muhammad and his protégé, Malcolm X, who both embraced retaliation as a means to gain justice.

Known for his “by any means necessary” approach to righting the social wrongs of the time, Malcolm offered a political viewpoint that endeared him to literally millions of people. He was Elijah Muhammad’s hand-picked spokesperson, and his profound knowledge of Islam drew people by the scores into the Nation.

“There is an element of Elijah Muhammad’s teaching that was needed because black people were being treated brutally and even killed during that era,” said Jones, who earned a bachelor’s degree while serving time in jail. Having pledged his allegiance to the Nation, Jones even stood guard for “the Honorable” Elijah Muhammad, as he was known, at the Nation’s Savior’s Day observance in 1972. But when deadly conflict arose between the Nation of Islam and a splinter group of the Nation, Jones left the organization.

The dispute among the two groups wasn’t the first of its kind. It was Malcolm who severed ties with the Nation in 1964 after he learned Elijah Muhammad allegedly had fathered several children outside of marriage. It was the same year, according to www.biography.com, that Malcolm made a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and discovered fellow Muslims who were “blonde-haired, blue-eyed men.”

Upon his return to the United States, Malcolm renounced Elijah Muhammad. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm was gunned down by three members of the Nation of Islam–Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson.

Today Jones is a middle school counselor and resident of Orlando, Florida. He attends New Life Church of Orlando a Church of God in Christ. He told Charisma he wasn’t willing to stay in the Nation and die for the sake of an argument. Instead, he started to reconsider the roots of his faith.

“I came from a Christian background, as do many others who convert to the Nation, but I returned to what I truly believe,” Jones says. “I believe that Jesus Christ is the way.”