Pat Morley and Man in the Mirror
ministry are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. They are
to be congratulated for outstanding contributions to the lives of many
people—including me—and for advancing the kingdom of God.
I’ve known and admired
Pat since the late 1970s when he was an up-and-coming real estate mogul in
Central Florida. He was well on his way to making his Morley Properties as big
as Trammel Crowe in Dallas, which was his goal.
Pat was always known as
a strong Christian. He even started a prayer breakfast in Winter Park, Fla.,
where Charisma began. It has changed and flourished and influenced many.
Pat was among those who persuaded Campus Crusade and other major evangelical
ministries to relocate their headquarters to Central Florida. read more
Note from Steve Strang: Attending this meeting of leaders was a great honor. Please read my commentary on what I learned. I took the opportunity to bring home "flip camera" interviews with about half of the participants representing churches and ministries around the world. Each one is only 2-3 minutes but gives you more information about that ministry. If you view several or all of them, you'll begin to get a feel for what is happening around the world—and that is my goal. read more
It was early evening yesterday, April 28, when a cell-phone
call let me know the devastating news: David Wilkerson had been killed in a
tragic traffic accident. Dr. George Wood, general superintendent of the
Assemblies of God, had just learned the news and felt I would want to report
it. Knowing how important this was, we had a story online within 40 minutes
that included a statement from Dr. Wood until we could get more details. The
traffic on our website was so great the site temporarily crashed, and the article
had more forwards on Facebook than any in the history of Charisma
News.
That’s because David Wilkerson was one of the great
Christian leaders of our generation, and his passing is a loss to the global
church. He was the model of integrity, and he finished strong in a day when
some televangelists are photographed in foreign countries with women they
aren’t married to while others are exposed for secret gay activity while
publicly opposing the gay agenda. Wilkerson was the paragon of virtue and his
influence was tremendous. read more
What a global network of megachurch pastors can teach us
For more than three decades I’ve been reporting on the move of the Holy Spirit around the world. Much of what’s going on is wonderful. The church is growing, people and churches are being revived, miracles are happening. These are what motivated me as a young journalist to start Charisma.
However, much of what is happening isn’t wonderful. In the American church there’s more scandal and divorce, while a few so-called leaders seem more interested in enjoying a Hollywood lifestyle than in having godly character. There’s persecution around the world and culture wars at home. There’s a growing threat of humanism and militant Islam around the globe.Yet when I’m tempted to get discouraged I am reminded that no matter how bad things may be, God is in control.
This happened recently when I was invited to meet with a small group of Christian leaders in Seoul, South Korea. I’d never heard of their network, which consists mainly of several dozen megachurch pastors outside North America who meet for friendship, fellowship and to work together to fulfill the Great Commission. They have no website, and while they have a name, they’re so low-key I won’t use it here.
To be invited into the network, the churches (or networks of churches from a single church) had to have 20,000 members. Some were much higher. In Korea, 450,000; in Africa, a network with 250,000 members; in India, 80,000; in South America, 20,000.
This year, for the first time, they invited a few megachurch pastors from the U.S. They also invited CEOs of large parachurch ministries such as Campus Crusade, The Navigators, Mercy Ships, Open Doors, Alpha and several others to talk about how we can work together. I was the only one specifically invited from media and was honored to be included.
Because the meeting was below the radar screen, it wasn’t a “news event” to cover. Instead, I decided to write my opinion on the group and what I observed:
First, I came away encouraged at the state of the church worldwide. The pastors seemed full of vision. Even in countries with very difficult circumstances such as poverty in Africa or persecution in the Islamic world, they seemed to be encouraged.
I was impressed with the humility and character of those who attended. Instead of displaying huge egos as we have become accustomed to in the West, these leaders talked about their ministries with humility.
Dealing with Islam was the central theme of the meeting. Yet these pastors didn’t seem alarmed by the threat of Islam, unlike many American pastors who are stunned when they discover there’s a mosque in their town. They shared how thousands of Muslims are coming to Christ through signs and wonders, and through dreams and visions. One Arab pastor shared how his church is dealing with political unrest in his nation, adding that its churches “applaud the overthrow of the regime.”
Yet there are grave dangers and much persecution of Christians in the Islamic world. An Indonesian pastor shared how he and his wife learned to forgive the terrorists who planted a bomb in their car that exploded and left his wife without a leg.
An American attendee named Joshua Lingel has a vision to train the church in apologetics and Muslim ministry. He told us Muslims are trained in Islamic apologetics and most Christians don’t know how to answer them. His ministry, i2, has amazing training materials and a success record in winning Muslims to Christ. Well-known Christian apologist Josh McDowell added that many American evangelicals leave the faith when confronted with anti-Christian ideas because they don’t know what they believe.
Because of this extraordinary meeting I’m motivated to help American Christians understand their faith; to network more—none of us can do the job alone—to fulfill Christ’s command to share the gospel and make disciples; and to pray for more visionary, humble leaders to lead the church through theses difficult times. We Westerners have a lot we can learn if we would bother to listen.
I was in Korea the day the earthquake occurred in Japan
followed by the devastating tsunami. Last time I was in Korea I stopped in
Japan on the way home and met with missionary Ken Joseph
Jr. This time I'm glad I didn't stop! But I've developed a friendship with
Ken who emailed me the day after the earthquake to tell me how horrible it is.
As I flew home I knew I had to do what I could to help. That's when I decided
to reach out to you. One of the things I have through Charisma Media is
influence. I want to encourage you to help in some way—even if it's small.
There are many ministries helping. We are publicizing the good works of many of
them as we find out what they are doing. Help us or help them, but please do
something. read more
February 1 is a significant day for our company. It's the day we drop the name "Strang Communications" which we have been using for nearly 30 years and go by our new name: Charisma Media. We've sent out "news releases" so you may have heard about this. But I decided to send this to you because I felt you would be interested.
I shared "my heart" in a column in the February issue of Charisma and told why, as the founder of this company, I feel led to make this change. The easiest way for me is to let you read my actual column below. And then below that is the press release we sent out which has the "who, what, when, where and why" journalistic angle to the story for those of you who are interested. read more
