SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #25d ---- 7/8/98
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
Encouraging One Another as we "Fight the Good Fight"
TITLE: Independence Day ---- A Day For Rejoicing or For Repentance?
Part Four, A special issue continuing from 7/5/98.
Dear Co-Laborer:
As we have been considering this week, it is apparent our country has
lost its moral and ethical moorings, and is aimlessly adrift in a sea of
powerless rationalization, self-indulgent pleasures, rampant crime, and
broken lives. One man said it was like trying to have a swimming party
in a stagnant and polluted water pocket in a city dump.
God, however, intended there to be a climate of spiritual refreshing and
moral integrity in America, with dependency on Him as the bedrock.
History reveals it, and blessings of the past shout for this generation
to be accountable to that fact. No country in history has been given so
much which it, in turn, has hoarded and used for personal
indulgence, extravagance, and selfishness.
Tragically, the church has often been not only a victim, but also a
frequent primary culprit which has created the condition. Eighty percent
of the church's resources and manpower are devoted to twenty percent of
the world's population. With its tendency toward performance rather than
relationship, a competitive suspicious spirit, and isolationistic
tendencies toward the various forms and denominations which it takes, it
has, though unintentional for the most part, nonetheless helped the world
conclude that the Christian Gospel is a farce and, in fact, is itself one
of the primary examples of hypocrisy in society.
At the same time, there is also an extraordinary movement of God taking
place that cannot be ignored. Along with all the bad and the evil which
we have discussed this week, there is the other side of the coin ---- the
sovereign move of God which is taking place around the world. While it
is certainly far from being full blown, it is something that cannot be
denied.
There are several trends I believe to be significant.
TRENDS TO BE NOTED:
While there has been the evidence of most of these for a number of years,
I do feel there is an increase that is worthy of consideration.
1. Leadership Changes: Both in para-church organizations and in
denominations, there have been leadership changes that have led to the
emergence of more and more men and women of spiritual depth and passion
being placed in positions of leadership. People who are risk takers and
committed to the fulfillment of the Great Commission are speaking out and
stepping out in helping to guide their respective institutions toward a
more Bible centered and world encompassing philosophy and strategy of
ministry. This is indeed encouraging.
2. Mutual trust and appreciation: It seems in many ways denominations
and other ministries are recognizing that they can trust, respect, and
love believers in other camps without jeopardizing their own ministry
styles and doctrinal beliefs. There seems to be less suspicion and
hostility toward others who are in different groups and a greater respect
and appreciation for the uniqueness of those other groups and how they
contribute to the overall ministry and task of the New Testament Church
as a whole.
3. Ministry Networking: This trust and appreciation, in turn, has led
to some extraordinary things taking place between various ministries and
denominations. Who would have ever believed that Campus Crusade for
Christ, Southern Baptists, Every Home For Christ, The 700 Club, and
Assemblies of God would ever join together to carry out a particular
project? Yet, this type of thing is happening all the time ---- between
denominational offices, local churches, mission boards, and seminaries.
This is a great contribution toward preparing the Body of Christ for the
coming great harvest.
4. Para-Church Ministries Focus: While most para-church ministries have
always been sympathetic toward local churches, they have not always
carried out ministries that could be called "user friendly" toward local
churches. In fact, many of these ministries were developed because of
either the inability or the unwillingness of a local church or a
denomination to fulfill the vision and ministry these founders
envisioned. Now, however, more than ever, pastors and denominational
leaders are finding that many of these para-church ministries have
something very significant to offer their people.
5. Emergence of New Para-Church Ministries: Numerous prayer ministries
and other specialized groups have surfaced in recent years that seem to
be significantly contributing to areas that were being neglected or
avoided by denominations. Sometimes the denominations had such
ministries, but they were so stiffened by the rigor mortis of
organizational structure, administrative policies, or denominational
jargon that they not only had no appeal to the outsider, but they had
also become boring or laborious to those already inside.
For example, most denominations had some form of men's ministry, but
along comes Promise Keepers and breathes new life and vision into the
lives of hundreds of thousands of male church members (and their wives!)
and draws the net of salvation around tens of thousands of unbelieving
men who were taken to the local, regional, or national meetings by
newly-motivated Christian friends.
And, in many cases, rather than being threatened by a new men's movement
that "might take our men away from our church program", it has been
heralded as a welcomed move of God. The head of the SBC Baptist Men's
organization is reported to have strongly endorsed Promise Keepers and
acknowledged that he saw it as an asset rather than as a competitor for
Southern Baptist Churches.
6. Pastors Praying Together: All around the nation groups of pastors
are gathering regularly for fellowship, discussion groups, encouragement,
support, and prayer. It is different from and more than the typical
"Ministerial Alliance" meetings that focused on finding common ground for
support of cooperative local events such as Good Friday services, food
pantries, and community Thanksgiving dinners.
This was different. These pastors get together for things more
significant than superficial issues and cooperative projects. They get
together to fellowship; to encourage each other; to pray for each other.
My most significant experience with this was while I was still pastoring
in Wisconsin. God convicted me that if I wanted the pastors of the area
to accept who I was and what I was doing, I must be willing to meet them
on their turf. One of the first things I started doing was to attend the
monthly Ministers' Fellowship meeting. I didn't change my theology to do
so. I simply started attending and supporting those programs that I felt
I could.
Soon ELCA and Missouri Synod Lutheran, United Methodist, Seventh Day
Adventist, Assembly of God, Friends, Nazarene, Church of God, American
Baptist, Southern Baptist, Advent Christian, Church of Christ, and other
pastors became my friends. I still kept my doctrinal convictions.
After about a year I had been totally received. Then God prompted my
heart to suggest that some might like to get together in a more informal
setting for the three-fold purpose of fellowship, encouragement, and
prayer for each other and our respective ministries. It was met
favorably. Our first meeting we had four people from three
denominations. We decided to meet twice a month. It continued growing.
Our numbers varied, but out of thirteen churches in town, we often had
eight or ten guys coming.
(Incidentally, if you'd like specific information on how we did it and
what our ground rules were, drop me a note.)
The first thing that happened is that God began changing our hearts
toward each other and began changing our perspective of the church to
where we were no longer interested in building our own little
(denominational) kingdom that could successfully compete against the
others. We thrived on not only praying for each other and our personal
needs, but we began praying for each other's ministries and churches.
What a joy!
Well, what came out of all this? For starters, we discovered we were no
longer in adversarial positions toward each other, but were, in fact, on
the same team. Little by little we also got on the same page.
>From those years of praying together, the following are just some of the
things that took place:
1) We began developing the Good Friday services (even though I still
can't personally get three days and three nights squashed in between
Friday night and Sunday morning) so that they became much more spiritual
and evangelistic, and far less liturgical and dry.
2) We sponsored a "Walk Through The Bible" seminar.
3) We initiated community-wide National Day of Prayer activities
including praying in front of city hall. It is my understanding that in
1997 more than 400 people attended various activities of the day (in a
town of 5,000, that isn't bad, folks!)
4) We sponsored the See You At The Pole annual event for both the
high school and junior high students, and the attendance grew annually
both in students and in teachers.
5) We assumed the responsibilities of planning the Baccalaureate
services for the high school each year, and paricipating as requested by
the students in the graduation exercises. This enabled a strong
Christian influence to be maintained in graduation activities.
6) Because most of the churches were very small, we developed a
city-wide youth ministry coordinated by youth directors from the various
churches.
7) We totally restructured the food pantry and designed it to be not
only a source of food for low income families, but also a place where
they would get evangelistic literature, Bibles, and the offer of
spiritual counsel and financial counsel.
8) We initiated an organization called Compassion Impact Services
which coordinated a number of ministries such as free minor auto repair
and tune ups for single mothers, small interest-free loans for low income
families who needed an inexpensive car so they could get to work, family
counseling services from a Christian perspective, and a variety of other
ministries.
9) We began periodic community-wide prayer and praise services that
brought people together for prayer, fellowship, and worship. While the
attendance was never enormous, it was significant, and generated
continued strengthening and unifying of the believers in the city.
10) We even sponsored several city-wide crusades. Can you imagine a
Lutheran, a Baptist, an Assembly of God, and a Methodist ever agreeing on
the evangelist, much less the style of service to have?
I will never forget one in particular. I was the general coordinator, my
friend Clark (an Assembly of God pastor) was the assistant coordinator,
Phil (a Nazarene pastor) was promotional director, Charles (an ELCA
Lutheran) was (believe it or not!) the counseling coordinator, Betty (a
Methodist) was the music coordinator, and Howard (a New Ager Methodist
pastor) was the treasurer.
We had morning services in the Assembly of God church, evening services
in the United Methodist church, had twenty-one churches participating,
and had a Presbyterian evangelist Peter Marshall, Jr. as the speaker ----
dealing with sin, repentance, healing, forgiveness, and giving alter
calls!
Hundreds of people came to the services ---- many of them discovering for
the first time the spiritual life and personal faith in Christ that
people whom they worked with for years actually had. Reconciliation and
forgiveness took place among citizens as they met together. Others came
to Christ. Still others made fresh commitments to their churches and
also to the needs of the community.
The final night is one I will never forget. Peter preached a powerful
message. Probably a hundred people were at the front in prayer. To my
surprise, Peter began sharing with the people ---- several hundred
present ---- the vision and desire we pastors had to see spiritual unity
among believers and a spiritual awakening in our town. He indicated he
felt it would be appropriate for the people to affirm our vision and
commit themselves to pray for us.
As we pastors stood arm in arm at the front of the building in a circle,
the people began to come. At least 80% of the attendees gathered around
us, and, as many as could, laid hands on us and began to pray. The fall
out of that meeting is still being felt today, seven years later.
7. A Nation-wide Prayer Movement: Perhaps nothing is more significant
than this in our nation. There are literally thousands of stories of
amazing things happening when God's people began to pray. There are so
many different organizations that are promoting this ---- Concerts of
Prayer International, Watchman on the Wall, Every Home For Christ, Focus
on the Family, Campus Crusade for Christ, Fuller Theological Seminary,
Etc.
There is a growing movement of prayer across America today.
1) Over 1,000 pastors and thousands of laity in New York City meet
regularly to pray.
2) Southern Baptists have hosted "solemn assemblies" around the
nation; an entire session of their national convention last year in
Atlanta was devoted to prayer, with nearly 39,000 of their churches
meeting that same evening to pray.
3) During the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles several years ago
hundreds of pastors and thousands of laity met to pray; there was not one
single reported violent crime for the entire duration of the Olympics.
4) While violent crime in Iowa increased by 11% in 1989, it decreased
by 17% in Cedar Rapids ---- a 29% variable. The FBI rated that city as
the safest U.S. city of 100,000 or more. In 1990 they had only one
murder all year ---- on December 30th.
What was the one identifiable factor? The pastors pray together
regularly. Some sixty of them, along with a large number of laity, meet
weekly and pray for their city.
One pastor who was involved in the anti-abortion issue requested prayer.
He indicated that he was not necessarily asking them to agree with his
beliefs or his tactics, but to ask that God would put it in people's
hearts to consider whether or not they should be involved. The pastors
agreed ---- and did so on the spot.
The previous anti-abortion event had drawn little more than 60 people.
After the pastors prayed, more than 1,000 individuals showed up at the
next rally.
A city-wide praise march rallied more than 10,000 marchers parading
through downtown singing Christian music and carrying Christian banners
and placards.
The police department of Cedar Rapids knew of twelve major drug dealers
in the city ---- they could not suppress their trafficking. The pastors
learned of it and began to pray by name for those twelve drug dealers.
Their prayer was specific ---- NOT that God would punish them or that the
police would capture them ---- BUT that the fear of God would be put in
their hearts.
Within less than two years nine of the dealers had come to Christ, and
the others fled the city.
5) A group of pastors began praying together in Ft. Worth. Little by
little God began to draw churches together until some 100 churches began
working together in housing rehabilitation, Bible clubs in every local
police precinct station, food programs, servant evangelism projects,
prayer rallies, and praise marches. Thousands of lives were touched for
eternity.
6) Columbus, Springfield, Portland, Milwaukee ---- in literally
thousands of communities, people are gathering together to pray. Pastors
meet regularly to pray together in Baraboo, WI; a banker has a weekly
"lunch hour" prayer meeting for anyone to attend.
I could go on and on about things that God is doing.
GOD'S LAST-DAYS AGENDA:
I hear much disagreement over just what is going to take place in the
final days on this earth prior to Christ's return. Some say, as does Pat
Robertson, that there will be a great revival in the church; others say
there will be a great apostasy ---- a great falling away. Still others,
such as Bill Bright, say there will be a great evangelistic harvest.
Some say the church will be unified; others insist it will be divided.
Who is right? One thing I am learning ---- your opinions about
eschatology greatly influence how you view things that are happening, AND
how you respond to them.
I propose that ALL of the above will happen! I believe there will be
further institutionalization of the church ---- at least that part of it
that chooses to remain "organization" instead of "organism".
At the same time I believe God will bring spiritual unity to that part of
the Church that wants to and is willing to pay the price. There is no
doubt in my mind that God is bringing unity to the Church. And, keep in
mind dear friend, that there is a vast difference between spiritual unity
and structural union. You do not have to have structural union in order
to have spiritual unity.
You may ask whether or not you can have spiritual unity without
doctrinal agreement. That's a very interesting question.
My answer would be that Jesus never indicated that doctrine was to be the
test of fellowship or of unity. He said that LOVE was the litmus test.
(I address this in much greater detail in Shoulders #'s 10-14.)
I believe there will be a great international revival that will sweep
around the globe.
I also believe that, while America will feel much of it, we will
nonetheless come under severe judgement for our failures, and especiall
our gross sins of which I wrote earlier.
I believe the Church is going to be shaken, purged, and purified.
I believe many will abandon their commitments because the cost will be
too great.
I believe those who go on with God will be greatly persecuted ---- some
will even die.
I believe there will be more shocks and disappointments as more Christian
leaders fall victim to their own weaknesses and carnal goals.
I believe unbelievers will continue to be turned off by the
institutionalization of a hypocritical church.
I believe that hunger and genuine searching for spiritual answers will
increase.
I believe that compassionate Christians will rise to the occasion, and
that God will bless them with thousands coming to Christ.
But ---- more than anything else ---- I believe God is going to
accomplish His agenda, His way, and in His time. And, if it meets with
His approval, I plan to stick around for that!
MAN'S LAST-DAYS RESPONSIBILITIES:
So, with that in mind, what are things we must do? I believe the
following will be absolutely necessary.
1. A Growing Movement of Prayer: Whatever else you do, my friend,
become a person of prayer, and garner people around you (no matter now
few or how many) and develop a ministry of intercession.
2. An Uncompromising Commitment to Holiness: I think we should have
learned this lesson by now ---- God judges and punishes sin. He seeks,
honors, and remains faithful to holiness. If you want to walk in
intimacy with God and see His power released in your life, you must walk
in holiness.
3. A Willingness to Fast: I believe this is one of the long-neglected
disciplines of the Christian life. I highly recommend three sources on
this subject. *God's Chosen Fast* By Arthur Wallis. Andrew Murray also
has a book on the subject, *Fasting* I think is the title. Contact Henry
Blackaby at the SBC's North American Missions Board for material he has
put together.
4. A Solemn Assembly for your church: One of the greatest American
authorities on Revival and Spiritual Awakening is Richard Owen Roberts.
He has an outstanding booklet on the subject. You can reach him at
708-584-8069. He resides in Lisle, IL, just west of Chicago. Henry
Blackaby is also a good source on the subject. I can also send you by
e-mail some material I have prepared, if you like. It is material I
used while pastoring in Wisconsin for a three-day Solemn Assembly we held
over a week-end.
5. A Servant Spirit that Compels you: Whatever else you do, it must be
accompanied by a willingness to invest your life in the lives of people
in need. You will learn that spirit by observing the life and ministry
of Jesus and by looking at people around you. You will surely find some
who need your love and compassion. I believe Servant Evangelism is the
order of the day.
IN CONCLUSION:
The question is, then, "How do we get back to where we belong morally and
spiritually?" It can be a long journey, but one that begins, as do all
journeys, with the first step. However, it must begin.
Regardless of our individual denominational preferences, the first step
will be the same ---- Prayer!
"First, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers,
petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all
men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order
that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godli-
ness and dignity." (I Timothy 2:1,2)
"If My people, who are called by My name humble them-
selves and pray, . . . Then I will hear . . . will
forgive . . . will heal their land." (II Chron 7:14)
Regardless of our differences, regardless of our varied backgrounds, the
one thing we can do, and must do ---- is pray! Pray for our broken
families, our poor, our churches, our ministers, our officials, our
youth, our children, our schools and leaders. God is a God of compassion
who longs to pour out His blessing ---- if only we will pray!
In Christ's Bond,
Bob Tolliver
Copyright July, 1998. All rights reserved.
Life Unlimited Ministries
[email protected]
Ph: 417-275-4854.
Fax: 417-275-4855