We have, now more than ever before, great potential to reach the lost for Christ through this church if we would be obedient to the mission that God has given us and on board with the overall vision that I present to you today.

He made a statemement, that I have heard recently somewhere else, that has really got me thinking. He saud,” We will do anything short of sin to bring the lost to Christ” Wow!

I am so fed up with religion and non-Biblical rules that tell us as Believers what/when/ how we are supposed to act and share our faith. I am tired of people allowing tradition to drive their actions instead of passion for real people who will burn for an eternity in a real hell.

It is so ridiculous to hear Christians says things like;’ You can’t play that kind of music’, ‘You can’t show that movie’, ‘You can’t hang out in those places, or ‘You can’t talk to those kind of people’ when it comes to doing church and taking part in evangelism.

I think of Jesus and the people that he associated with, particularly ones that he ate with. Eating with someone in the ancient Near East was a way of showing acceptance of someone. He hung out with the sinner and the cultural outcast. Religous/ Traditional people were so upset by it that they started calling JESUS a drunk!? They couldn’t handle Jesus breaking their made-up rules. I think it was because they realized that it really wasn’t their good deeds that could save them, but Jesus. And that made them uncomfortable because of their arrogance. They wanted to believe that they could take care of themselves…and that they didn’t need God to do so instead.

Our Church today is the same. We have come to rely on our traditions, our music, our charisma, our teaching style, our programs, and our contemporary made-up rules; and we are pathetic. It’s time to get back to Jesus! There are some of us who are starting to wake up to our incessive need for God, and a movement is beginning. I hope for the day when our nation and our generation of Christianity experiences a revival in ferver and passion for Christ, and in particular, evangelism.

Like Jesus, we need to start influencing the sinners and the outcasts with our friendship and convicition. We need to do so with wreckless abandon without the worry of what religous Christians will think of us. Because afterall, we must see embrace becoming all things to all men so that some may be saved.

And this means truly doing anything short of sin to save the lost! I’m with you Perry.

I am seeking God to show me what His perception of the identity of the local church is so I can impart it to the people of this congregation and, because of that see scores of people meet Jesus and enter into the work He has for them in His Kingdom!

I want to potray to these people how God sees them as individuals and how he sees them as a body. I want them to find their identity, not in comparison to others, but IN Chrsit. This is what I want for myself as well.

This Sunday I will be giving a preview service which will reveal some of the plans I have for this body and hopefully get them thinking about who they are and what they’re doing.

I hope to find this for myself as well.

I will be recording the message and will have it up on the website later next week and will continue to post my thoughts and messages in regards to Identity. It will become a long series which will shape the church for the direction God is taking it in.

An interesting week to be sure as icons of the twentieth century begin to fade into the sunset. First, Ed McMahon, a from the Golden Age of Television and a pioneer and late night comedy and talk shows. Then two days later, Farrah Fawcett, a sex-icon of the latter twentieth century, a talented actress and a determined fighter of cancer. And on the same day as Fawcett, today, Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson was a musical genius who wrote and performed brilliant songs that changed the world. He was dancing prodigy who inspired new and creative ways for performers to express themselves with their bodies for centuries to come.

Michael emerged as a star performing with his four brothers throughout the 1960′s and 70′s, but became a megastar as a solo artist in the late 1970′s and early 80′s.

Jackson apparently had a horrificly abusive father growing up which unfortunately, but not shockingly led him to VERY bizzare behavior as an adult.

Michael was almost daily crucified by the media and was driven to extreme plastic surgery, prescription drug addiction, manic depression, eating disorders, and alienation.

For nearly two decades Jackson has fought off extreme and convincing allegations of child sexual abuse on many fronts, but never has been convicted of doing so- although large settlements have been paid to the accusers families from Jackson.

He was a man who could not cope with living in the harsh realities of this world and tried to escape it all by living the life of a child for most of his life.

As mentioned before, Michael will be remembered as a musical and dance genius who, along with Elvis Presley, contributed more to his field than any other person to walk this earth. He will also be remembered as a business man, an entreprenuer, and philanthropist (giving away tens of millions throughout his lifetime to charities in need).

But I wonder how history will reflect on him in the long run.Elvis had all sorts of skeletons in his closet, but for the most part it’s not those parts of his life that are remembered collectively by the public. When people tend to think about Elvis, they think about the young Elvis who was in the prime of his artistry and carrer. Iis that how people will remember Michae; Jackson- a pop superstar from the early 1980′s who wow’ed the world with songs like ‘Bad’, ‘Beat It’, and the all time classic ‘Thriller’? Or will people remember ‘Wacko Jacko’ who was obsessed with the unusual, who lived as if he was Peter Pan, who radically changed his appearance to something almost unhuman, and who was accused of so many sexual atroscities against children?

Either way, the world has lost a man who has influenced American culture-no- world culture on a level that only a few dozen people can claim throughout the history of mankind.

Rest in peace Michael. I hope you found it through Christ so you can escape the hell that was your life.

The local church is a gateway to the new life that Jesus offers to His creation.

My idea of the local church is people from every age, race, social status, economic level, and vocation within a local community coming together to: worship the Lord Jesus Christ, grow in relationship with Him, build authentic, encouraging, and accountable relationships with each other, serve and meet the needs of the world around them, and share the faith, love, and hope that they have found in Jesus Christ in a tangible way with all who they come into contact with.

Within this local church, this community, everyone needs to be integrated in order for the community to progress and reach others with the same good news that they have been transformed by.

One way to integrate everyone is to break up into smaller communities- communities made up of: specific age groups (infants, children, youth, college, young adults, seniors, etc…), specific life stages (singles, married couples, parent, empty nesters, retirees, etc…), specific ministry passions (local missions, homeless ministries, global missions, etc…), or specific life situations (divorcees, addicts, grief, etc…); all while continuing to meet together as a large community in order to strengthen and encourage one another.

One such smaller community is youth ministry. Youth, or student ministry, consists of both Middle School and High School students. Middle School and High School students are not ‘the church of tomorrow’ as so many people like to label them, THEY ARE A VALUABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF TODAY’S CHURCH.

Youth ministry, a community of Middle School and High School students within the larger community of the local church, is the greatest way for the local church to reach the lost youth of their community for Christ. Not only is youth ministry the greatest way for the local church to reach JUST the lost youth of their community, BUT one of the greatest ways to reach lost people OF ALL AGES for Christ- period.

In a poll conducted by The Barna Group in 2004, 43% of all Americans who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior indicated that they did so before reaching the age of 13. The same poll also revealed that 64% of American born again Christians accepted Jesus Christ as their savior before their 18^th birthday. While only 13% of American born again Christians made their profession of faith between the ages of 18 and 21.

This means that approximately 77% of all Christians in America choose to follow Christ sometime between birth and the age of 21- with the chances to reach them declining dramatically each year. It is crucial that the local church put much of their outreach and ministry focus on children, teens, and young adults in order to reach the lost for Christ.

So, needless to say, youth ministry is extraordinarily important within the context of the local church. But what could it look like?

My idea of youth ministry within the context of the local church is similar to my view of the local church as a whole: Middle School and High School Students from every grade, school, race, social status, and recreational interest within a local community coming together to: worship the Lord Jesus Christ, grow in relationship with Him, build authentic, encouraging, and accountable relationships with each other, serve and meet the needs of the world around them, and share the faith, love, and hope that they have found in Jesus Christ in a tangible way with all who they come into contact with.

It is important for Middle School and High School Students to have a ministry targeted directly at them within the local church. The reasons for this are many, a few of those reasons are- because teens face issues unique to their age group (discovering their identity, deciding what they want to do with their life, learning how to build and keep relationships, struggling with the pressures of newfound sexuality, working to get good grades, etc…), teens respond more within a group of their peers more than they do within a group of adults (because their peers are going through the same issues as them, their peers tend to be less judgmental than adults, they enjoy recreating with their peers more so than adults, etc…), and teens tend to relate more with others who share or are aware of the same generational interests as them (music, television, movies, publications, video games, web sites, jokes, etc…).

This ministry would have a weekly worship gathering for Middle and High School Students- preferably during the middle of the week so that students could be encouraged from the events that have transpired previously in the week and for the ones to come. This weekly worship gathering would have a relaxed atmosphere, yet offer high energy corporate worship music, corporate prayer, Bible teaching, and group ice-breakers or games. The weekly worship gathering would be the GATEWAY to the local church’s youth ministry where students could confidently invite their ‘non-Christian’ friends because they themselves know that their friends will be accepted by their peers and their leaders, have a good time, hear a message relevant to their lives, and encounter Jesus in a non-judgmental, non-pressured way. Serving a meal before the weekly worship gathering would be optimal as to draw students in from the community and allow the rest of the church community an opportunity to serve their young people.

This ministry would have weekly small-group meetings split up into age-specific and gender-specific groups. In these weekly small-group meetings students will develop close-authentic-accountable relationships with a small group of their peers and a mentoring relationship with their small-group adult leader. Within these groups students will eat together, share their struggles with one another, pray for each other, read and discuss the Word of God together, and hold each other accountable. Different small groups could meet at different times, but having this group meet on Sunday nights would be optimal as to encourage each other to live for Christ throughout the coming week and to discuss the topic from the previous week’s worship gathering.

This Youth Ministry would have consistent monthly events planned for students to recreate, serve, and evangelize together. These events would enable the group to grow closer together, invite their friends, and have life experiences that they may have never experienced without attending. These events could transpire both locally and in distant locations.

The Youth Ministry would have at least one retreat or camp scheduled per calendar year for Middle and High School Students to attend. These retreats or camps would give the students a rare opportunity to be ministered to outside of their local context- lowering their inhibitions to what the Lord can do in their life and opening their eyes to new life experiences.

This Youth Ministry would be led by a God-loving youth pastor who would build and oversee a team of adult volunteers within the local church and student leaders within the youth ministry. The youth pastor’s duties would be (but not limited to) to schedule and oversee all events as well as spend quality time loving, serving, and mentoring his students, volunteers, church community, and surrounding community. The adult volunteers’ duties would be (but not limited to) to run and work within certain departments of the ministry (leading individual weekly small group meetings, preparing meals before the weekly worship gathering, engaging and mentoring students at the weekly worship gathering and at Sunday services, ‘shepherding’-chaperoning- youth events and retreats/camps, etc…). The student leaders’ duties would also be (but not limited to) to run and work within certain departments of the ministry (running specific events at the weekly worship gathering like sound, video, projector, greeting, games, etc…mentor younger students, lead worship music, etc…).

A healthy youth ministry will have its leaders and volunteers visiting its student’s campuses for lunch and extracurricular activities. It will also have its leaders and volunteers developing relationships with students’ families by participating in home visits.

I believe that both the Middle School and High School Students should have the opportunity to attend ’Big Church’ with their adult family and friends so they can- learn from the senior pastor’s teachings; worship with their adult family and friends; be mentored by the adults within the church community; feel, hear, and see that THEY ARE A VALIABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF THE GREATER CHURCH BODY; have more opportunities to serve their church community; be involved with ministry at Sunday services (on the worship team, ushering, greeting, etc…); and so that the adults within their church community can see that the youth ministry needs their support- prayerfully, relationally, financially, and by volunteering. Some churches have their ‘youth services’ during Sunday morning ‘Big Church’ services, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I feel that it robs students of awesome opportunities that they can experience with the adults of their church community. This is one of the reasons why I advocate for youth ministries to have their weekly worship gatherings during the middle of the week.

I believe that if some of the above ideas were followed and if the local church as a whole was committed to similar philosophies, that the natural result would be growth within the local church’s youth ministry. Once the number of Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers within the local church’s youth ministry exceeded approximately 30 students, respectively, it would be wise to separate the weekly worship gathering up between the Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. This is because just as Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers face different issues and relate to culture differently than their adult community members do, the same division translates on a smaller scale between Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. So having separate weekly worship gatherings, and possibly even events, would allow the youth pastor and adult volunteers to tailor meet the ministry needs of the two student groups.

All this being said, there is not necessarily a wrong or a right way to do youth ministry. You have to do what works for the students unique to your community. And the only way to do what works, in any ministry, is to let GOD LEAD YOU- by His Word, through prayer, by His Holy Spirit, and under the direction of an elder that God has placed with you.

The local church is a gateway to the new life that Jesus offers to His creation.

My idea of the local church is people from every age, race, social status, economic level, and vocation within a local community coming together to: worship the Lord Jesus Christ, grow in relationship with Him, build authentic, encouraging, and accountable relationships with each other, serve and meet the needs of the world around them, and share the faith, love, and hope that they have found in Jesus Christ in a tangible way with all who they come into contact with.

Within this local church, this community, everyone needs to be integrated in order for the community to progress and reach others with the same good news that they have been transformed by.

One way to integrate everyone is to break up into smaller communities- communities made up of: specific age groups (infants, children, youth, college, young adults, seniors, etc…), specific life stages (singles, married couples, parents, empty nesters, retirees, etc…), specific ministry passions (local missions, homeless ministries, global missions, etc…), or specific life situations (divorcees, addicts, grief, etc…); all while continuing to meet together as a large community in order to strengthen and encourage one another.

One such smaller community is Young Adult/College Ministry. Young Adult/College Ministry usually consists of young people in the 18-30 age group in various stages of ‘young adult life’: High School Seniors (possibly attending a Young Adult/College Ministry to transition out of the Youth Ministry and into young-adulthood), College Students (attending a Young Adult/College Ministry during the school year while on campus and/or during breaks if they live in town), Young Professionals (Young Adults who attend a Young Adult/College Ministry that are in the work-force and have either graduated  or did not graduate from/attend college), and Young Couples(who attend a Young Adult/College ministry and still feel a part of that age group even though they are in a serious- possibly marriage- relationship). Young Adults and College Students are not ‘the church of tomorrow’ as so many people like to label them, THEY ARE A VALUABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF TODAY’S CHURCH.

Young Adult/College Ministry is the greatest way for the local church to reach the lost Young Adults and College Students of their community for Christ.  Not only is Young Adult/College Ministry the greatest way for the local church to reach JUST the lost Young Adults of their community, BUT one of the greatest ways to reach lost people OF ALL AGES for Christ- period.

In a poll conducted by The Barna Group in 2004, 43% of all Americans who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior indicated that they did so before reaching the age of 13. The same poll also revealed that 64% of American born again Christians accepted Jesus Christ as their savior before their 18^th birthday. Only 13% of American born again Christians made their profession of faith between the ages of 18 and 21.

This means that approximately 77% of all Christians in America choose to follow Christ sometime between birth and the age of 21- with the chances to reach them declining dramatically each year. These statistics point to the fact that we as Christians are not doing enough to reach Young Adults and that the early stages of Young ‘Adulthood’ is a crucial time to reach the lost. It is imperative that the local church put much of their outreach and ministry focus on children, teens, and young adults in order to reach the lost for Christ.

In addition; a recent study done by Life Way Research showed conservatively (other unscientific sources show much higher numbers) that 70% of Protestants who attended church regularly in High School said they quit attending by age 23. 34% of those who said that they quit by age 23 had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That shows that approximately 25% of Protestant Young Adults have left the church-period! This is a HUGE problem.

Life Way also cites three basic components that Young Adults look for in church: 1) The ability to connect with others, 2) the ability to participate in exploring the Scriptures, and 3) the opportunity to meet the needs of others through social action and justice. Those needs, for the most part, are not being met in the local church. Young adults who are leaving the church in staggering numbers see that the churches offer so much for their teens and offer so much for young families, but don’t offer anything for those that are in between those two life stages

So, needless to say, Young Adult/College Ministry is extraordinarily important within the context of the local church. But what could it look like?

It is important for Young Adults and College Students to have a ministry targeted directly at them within the local church. The reasons for this are many, a few of those reasons are- because Young Adults and College Students face issues unique to their age group (discovering their identity, deciding what they want to do with their life, learning how to build and keep relationships, struggling with the pressures of sexuality, working to get good grades, etc…), Young Adults respond more within a group of their peers more than they do within a group of  older adults or teenagers (because their peers are going through the same issues as them, their peers tend to be less judgmental than older adults, they enjoy recreating with their peers more so than older adults, etc…), and Young Adults tend to relate more with others who share or are aware of the same generational interests as them (music, television, movies, publications, video games, web sites, etc…).

This ministry would have a weekly worship gathering for Young Adults and College Students- preferably during the middle of the week so that the Young Adults could be encouraged from the events that have transpired previously in the week and for the ones to come. This weekly worship gathering would have a relaxed atmosphere, yet offer high energy corporate worship music, corporate prayer, Bible teaching, and group ice-breakers or games. The weekly worship gathering would be the GATEWAY to the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry where Young Adults could confidently invite their ‘non-Christian’ friends because they themselves know that their friends will be accepted by their peers and their leaders, have a good time, hear a message relevant to their lives, and encounter Jesus in a non-judgmental, non-pressured way.

Serving a meal before the weekly worship gathering would be optimal as to draw Young Adults in from the community who don’t have time to prepare a meal or eat dinner before attending a worship gathering; and would allow the rest of the church community an opportunity to serve their young people.

This ministry would have weekly small-group meetings split up into age-specific and possibly gender-specific groups. In these weekly small-group meetings Young Adults will develop close-authentic-accountable relationships with a small group of their peers and a mentoring relationship with their small-group leader. Within these groups Young Adults will eat together, share their struggles with one another, pray for each other, read and discuss the Word of God together, and hold each other accountable. Different small groups could meet at different times, but having this group meet on Sunday nights would be optimal as to encourage each other to live for Christ throughout the coming week and to discuss the topic from the Sunday morning service and the previous week’s Young Adult/College Age Worship Gathering.

This Young Adult/College Ministry would have consistent monthly events planned for Young Adults to recreate, serve, and evangelize together. These events would enable the group to grow closer together, invite their friends, and have life experiences that they may have never experienced without attending. These events could transpire both locally and in distant locations.

The Young Adult/College Ministry would have at least one retreat or camp scheduled per calendar year for Young Adults and College Students to attend. These retreats or camps would give the Young Adults a rare opportunity to be ministered to outside of their local context- lowering their inhibitions to what the Lord can do in their life and opening their eyes to new life experiences.

This Young Adult/College Ministry would be led by a Jesus-loving College Pastor who would build and oversee a team of volunteers within the local church and Young Adult/College Student Leaders within the Young Adult/College Ministry. The College Pastor’s duties would be (but not limited to) to schedule and oversee all events as well as spend quality time loving, serving, and mentoring his Young Adult Congregation, volunteers, church community, and surrounding community. The volunteers’ duties would be (but not limited to) to run and work within certain departments of the ministry (leading individual weekly small group meetings, preparing meals before the weekly worship gathering, engaging and mentoring Young Adults at the weekly worship gathering and at Sunday services, etc…).

A healthy Young Adult/College Ministry will have its leaders and volunteers visiting with their members and visitors for coffee, lunch, or other activities in order to develop relationships and trust; and mentor those they minister to.

I believe that Young Adults and College Students should have the opportunity to attend ’Big Church’ with their other family and friends so they can- learn from the senior pastor’s teachings; worship with their family and friends; be mentored by older adults within the church community; feel, hear, and see that THEY ARE A VALUABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF THE GREATER CHURCH BODY; have more opportunities to serve their church community; be involved with ministry at Sunday services (on the worship team, ushering, greeting, etc…); and so that the other adults within their church community can see that the Young Adult/College Ministry needs their support- prayerfully, relationally, financially, and by volunteering. Some churches have their ‘Young Adult/College Services’ during Sunday morning ‘Big Church’ services or as an alternative to their ‘Big Church’ service, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I feel that it robs Young Adults and College Students of awesome opportunities that they can experience with the other adults and young people of their church community. This is one of the reasons why I advocate for Young Adult/College Ministries to have their weekly worship gatherings during the middle of the week.

I believe that if some of the above ideas were followed and if the local church as a whole were committed to similar philosophies, that the natural result would be growth within the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry. Once the number of Young Adults (20 something’s) and College Students (18-22 year olds) within the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry reached a large number, respectively, it might be wise to consider separating the weekly worship gathering up between those two groups in order to minister more strategically and effectively. This is because just as Young Adults and College Students face different issues and relate to culture differently than their older adult community members do, the same division translates on a smaller scale between Young Adults (once again 20 something’s) and College Students (18-22). So having separate weekly worship gatherings, and possibly even events, would allow the College Pastor and volunteers to tailor meet the ministry needs of the two different groups.

All this being said, there is not necessarily a wrong or a right way to do Young Adult/College Ministry. You have to do what works for the people unique to your community. And the only way to do what works, in any ministry, is to let GOD LEAD YOU- by His Word, through prayer, by His Holy Spirit, and under the direction of an elder that God has placed with you.

Disclaimer Number 1:

Unlike many of my Christian brothers and sisters; I do believe that the supernatural Gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament are for today if used with the strict and evident guidelines set by the Apostle Paul. I will go into specific detail in a later post under my Doctrine Series 1 Posts.

Disclaimer Number 2:

I do not believe- although I could be wrong- that Todd Bentley has any intention of leading people away from Christ or leading them into an anti-Christian cult. I do ,however, believe that Satan is using Mr. Bentley and his tactics to lead people away from the sovereignty of Christ. I believe that Mr. Bentley is, although unaware of it, a wolf amongst the flock.

That being said, I believe that one of the Biblical Spiritual Gifts that I posses is Discernment (1 Corinthians 12:10). Discernment, also known as ‘distinguishing between spirits’, is the abillity to tell if God is in something or not. It is the abillity to tell right from wrong. It is the abillity to detect evil in something.

From my first observation of the Todd Bentley-Lakekand, Florida-Revival; I felt something was not right. It started out as reports of Bentley kicking people in the face to heal them and asking people to come and get drunk off the Spirit.

Then I started to read Todd’s blogs, listen to some audio of his teaching, and watching the revivals on the internet. My feeling of something not being right was confirmed. What I have seen frightens me because so many Christians are diving into what appears to be the beginning of a possible strange cult. I grieve for those who do not look to see if God is in something, but instead just want a supernatural experience.

I’ll go into this in detail over the next few weeks, but today I want to talk about the problem of Locality.

In 2 Kings Chapter 5, there is an unusual story about an Aramean named Naaman who was stricken with leprosy. He traveled to Israel to see if the god of Israel could/would heal him through the Prophet Elisha. God does heal Naaman by using Elisha and because of this healing, Naaman realizes that there is no ther god but the God of Israel and makes a promise to no longer worship any other god but Him.

This is a fascinating story with a lot of strange things taking place, but I want to focus on one particularily unusual part of the story. You see, after God reveals Himself to Naaman through the healing, Naaman makes a weird request of Elisha. He asks if he can take “two mule loads” of dirt from Israel back to his home country of Aram…in order to worship God??

It’s wonderful that Naaman had this conversion experience, but he greatly misunderstood something about God. You see, in that day and region it was common for people to associate certain gods with certain regions- like a territorial god of sorts. So even though Naaman acknowledged God as ‘the god’, he still saw God as a god who was limited to a specific region and he thought that if he could bring some dirt from Israel back home, that maybe this god would somehow follow him there.

About 900 years after this story in the same general location (Samaria), Jesus takes on this very issue. The story is found in John Chapter 4. Jesus has a controversial converstation with a Samritan woman at a well. This is also a very fascinating story with many wonderful implications, but I want to focus on one interesting segment.

The woman says,” Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” So just like Naaman, this woman associated worshipping God- and basically associated God Himself- with a specific geographic location.

Jesus then corrects her when He says,” Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ” He then says,” But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

So Jesus clarifies that God is not a physical god who is bound by geographic boundaries- He is Spirit, He is everywhere, and can be worshipped anywhere! The Bible is clear that God is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-12).

So what does this have to do with the Lakeland Revival? The answer: a whole lot. The unofficial slogan for this ‘revival’ has been “Get Some!” The following are two direct quotes from Bentley’s Fresh Fire Ministries home page: “So we want to invite you Sunday night and every night to watch God’s power live in Lakeland, Florida. If you can be with us, “Come get some!!!” “I invite you to come and discover what it’s like to be in His presence, what it’s like to build a personal relationship with God, what it’s like to hear God, to experience God, to move in His power, and to see His purpose wrought in your own life.“

To me this wreaks of the old “God is a regional physical god who is constrained to a geographic boundry” philosophy. It says, “you have to come here to GET SOME of God.” It says basically that,” God’s not where you are, so come GET SOME of Him where we are because we have things figured out.” It says,” God is not powerful enough to meet you where you are, so come GET SOME from us because we are better than you.” Now these were not quotes from the Bently camp, but that is the essence of what they are saying.

Bottom line? If you need God- He is there for you wherever you are and is able to save you, to heal you, and restore you. You don’t need a fancy evangelist. You don’t need to be in Florida. You don’t have to have someone say,” BAM!” You just need God- He is enough. God has made Himself available to us through the cross of Christ and we can come to Him whenever we want and wherever we are.

This “Come Get Some” slogan also grieves me because it trivializes God into a god who exists to please you, meet your needs, and do what whatever you want Him to do. My hearts desire is not to “Get Some” of God. My hearts desire is to worship God and to serve Him because He is worthy of my praise whether I have some whacky experience in the Sunshine State or not.

My trust in God is based off of His revelation to me through His Word, His creation, and His goodness. My faith in Him is solid and is based off of a person- God in the flesh- who loved me so much that He died for me on a cross 2000 years ago. It is not based on a feel good experience or a one time earthly blessing. It is built on the corner stone of Christ.

Part 2: Miracles = Good? Coming Soon.