April, 2009
The Five Fold Ministry: Individuals, part of a whole.
“The seasons of our ministries is over. It’s the hour of Christ and the corporate manifestation of Him in us.” –Allen Hood
When I had been a Christian for just a few months, I was sitting on a greyhound bus, and the Lord spoke to me as clear as day: “Denominations are not going to matter. People are going to unite under the banner of Christ.” I understood that to mean that denominations would still exist, but that people would not define themselves by them as they had in the past. And I can tell you–I wonder if you agree–that since I became a Christ-follower 15 years ago, that is most definitely true. I think that happens when people meet the Man first, and not just his messengers. He’s irresistible–a huge cornerstone–to fall upon or be crushed by. And I think that when we meet Him, we see less and less of ourselves, while at the same time he makes us more and more who we are.
The Five Fold Ministry
God has been bringing the “five-fold ministry” to my mind, and I’m going to post a couple of entries about it. Ephesians 4 says that when Christ ascended, he gave some gifts to people: the gifts to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Some people may have more than one of these–and it’s possible that some may have none of these. I don’t think this list is exhaustive, but it has an important purpose, which I’ll discuss in part 2. In any case, I believe that the Lord is awakening and honing people; awakening them to their callings and mandates, because a time is coming, yea, is already here, when we are going to need to know exactly which direction to move in; which area to put our energies in. (more…)
Posted by Vesper on April 30th, 2009 in April 2009, Going Deeper, States of Life | 4 Comments »
The most beautiful Crucifixion, IHOP Prayer Room.
Well, I’ve been back from KC for a few days now, but as April and May are busy ones for us, I’m catching up on my promised IHOP entries from a Panera Bread in Perrysburg, Ohio. I think I may blog about the ARC conference that begins today in Toledo, so stay tuned for that.
But to tie it all up with regards to my IHOP trip, I wanted to share perhaps the coolest encounter I had. It was on the airplane coming home.
(more…)
Posted by Vesper on April 23rd, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Global Prayer Room.
I apologize for not posting an entry last night; I was out with the Forerunner Street Evangelism team in the Plaza section of Kansas City. This was the first time I’d done anything like this. It was pretty audacious, even for me. :) There were about ten of us who went out to simply bring the good news to folks that might never darken the door of a church. We split into teams of two, and I was paired with a young man named Nathan. He had done a lot more of this than I had (which was none), so I told him that I was just going to follow his lead.
The Plaza is a shopping disctrict of about six or so square blocks of upscale shops (Brooks Brothers, Anthropologie, etc.) and restaurants. Being Friday night, lots of people were out on the town, dressed up pretty fancy, and no one in a big hurry. Nathan and I had some tracts and some flyers for an upcoming presentation here at IHOP by a man named Bob Weis, who actually had an experience of being in Hell for 23 minutes. (I’ve heard the recording; it’s quite compelling.) We had a couple of brush-offs, but nothing like you’d experience in NYC. One woman was kind of hostile and had made up her mind that she “did not want to hear anything about Jesus.” (Ask my mom; she said the same thing to me once, only not that civilly.)
Maybe two months ago now, I had been listening to a teaching on prophetic evangelism by Hal Lindhart, who is the head of the evangelism department here. He said something that stuck with me: that we must not despise a particular method of evangelism just because we think, or have heard, that it doesn’t “work” or that it’s distasteful or cheesy. That hit me so hard and really humbled me. I think we can have a really superior attitude toward certain forms of evangelism. Come on, haven’t YOU made fun of Chick Tracts? I have. But last night I was givin’ ‘em out–and you know what, people asked us for them.
Here’s a little synopsis of some of the folks we spoke to: (more…)
Posted by Vesper on April 18th, 2009 in April 2009, IHOP trip, Sharing Jesus | 1 Comment »
IHOP Prayer Room
This morning I went to the Forerunner Evangelism Institute’s weekly “open house”. It was really sweet; about 30 or so people in the room with very simple, unpolished worship, prophetic prayer (the woman praying for me had a picture of me with a spear that I was going to throw a long way, with a message on the end of it), and a message by David Vagnoni (sp) on preaching repentance. Wow. Fantastic.
What I realized through this is that I’ve been preaching half a gospel. I’ve gotten pretty decent at the “God loves you” part when I’m speaking to the lost. The problem is that it leaves them with, at best, a warm fuzzy feeling about God, and perpetuates the belief, which is actually NOT true, but most people believe, that God forgives everyone (especially if they, whoa, say “sorry!”)–in fact, it simply cements the belief that what people call “grace” is more like an umbrella under which people have license to do whatever they want. What we need to be calling to is the flip-side of the “faith” coin: Repentance. (more…)
Posted by Vesper on April 16th, 2009 in April 2009, IHOP trip, Sharing Jesus | 4 Comments »
Sorry, it's going to be all camera phone, folks.
Welcome to those of you who haven’t visited my blog before. Esther’s is a place for discussion about women and faith. Anyone’s welcome to read and comment (comments are moderated). Just as a refresher, Esther’s is based on the story in the Book of Esther (in the Bible), about a common girl from a barely tolerated people group who wound up becoming a queen. In the process of her preparation to meet the king of Persia, who wanted to choose a new queen, she was part of a harem of women all undergoing a year of intense beauty treatments and training in courtly life. We imagine it must have had its perks, but that daily life must have been as mundane as ours in a certain sense. We also imagine that lots of talk went on about, well, being women, about spiritual matters, and what they observed in the world around them. That’s the essence of the blog as well. By way of reminder, also, you are welcome to submit articles for consideration. I’m not the only blogger on the column. The most valuable thing, though is the discussion that happens in the comments area. So go ahead–join us! (If you’re shy, you can write in “anonymous”.)
Well, I’m beginning a 4 or 5 part daily series blogging my trip here in Kansas City at IHOP–Prayer, not Pancakes. :) (more…)
Posted by Vesper on April 15th, 2009 in April 2009, IHOP trip, Sharing Jesus | 1 Comment »
