050908Leaders Seek to Reclaim the ‘Evangelical’ Label /Charisma/news/archives/050908Leaders Seek to Reclaim the ‘Evangelical’ LabelDozens of evangelical leaders including Os Guiness signed a manifesto urging U.S. Christians to be “evangelicals” as an expression of their faith, not their voting preferences.
[05.09.08] Dozens of prominent evangelical leaders signed a manifesto Wednesday urging Christians in the U.S. to be “evangelicals” as an expression of their faith, not their voting preferences.
 
Addressed to fellow believers as well as the American public, thedocument dubbed “An Evangelical Manifesto: A Declaration of Evangelical Identity and Public Commitment” states that “the confusions and corruptions that attend the term evangelical” have grown so deep that “the character of what [evangelical] means has been obscured and its importance lost.”
 
The declaration , which was  released on Wednesday, was also meant as an appeal for other leaders to sign and adopt and was notably missing support from prominent Christian conservatives such as Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. “The closed group of people working on the [Evangelical Manifesto] apparently excludes traditional conservative and pro-family evangelical voices,” said Janice Shaw Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, a conservative think tank for the Washington, D.C.-based Concerned Women for America. 
 
Crouse said the timing of the manifesto during a major election year causes it to emerge as a “political document” through which its authors and endorsers “appear to be making a power play to launch new public faces for evangelicalism.”     
 
Yet the declaration is significantly self-critical, disapproving of all the political forms evangelicals might assume, both conservative and liberal. “As followers of ‘the narrow way,’ our concern is not for approval and popular esteem,” the document  says . “Too many of the problems we face as evangelicals in the [U.S.] are those of our own making. If we protest, our protest has to begin with ourselves.”
 
Three “mandates” outlined in the 19-page document called on believers to reaffirm their Christian identity “according to the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth” ;  reform church behaviors to reflect true worship, sacrifice and discipleship and not “commercial, diluted, and feel-good gospels of health, wealth, human potential, and religious happy talk” ;  and lastly, rethink Christians’ place in public life by not using Christian beliefs “as weapons for political interests.”
 
“Christians become ‘useful idiots’ for one political party or another,” the document warns of the consequences relating to the politicization of faith.
 
The document was drafted by several prominent evangelicals, including social critic Os Guinness, author and professor Dallas Willard and Rich Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary. Among the many signatories were Jack Hayford, president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; Stephen Strang, founder and publisher of Charisma; and Bible teacher Kay Arthur.
[05.09.08]Dozens of prominent evangelical leaders signed a manifesto Wednesday urging Christians in the U.S. to be “evangelicals” as an expression of their faith, not their voting preferences.
 
Addressed to fellow believers as well as the American public, thedocument dubbed “An Evangelical Manifesto: A Declaration of Evangelical Identity and Public Commitment” states that “the confusions and corruptions that attend the term evangelical” have grown so deep that “the character of what [evangelical] means has been obscured and its importance lost.”
Oznews1.jpg/050808Revivalist Aim to Spark Worldwide Revival/Charisma/news/archives/050808Revivalist Aim to Spark Worldwide RevivalChé Ahn, senior pastor of Harvest Rock, along with several other major charismatic ministries have joined together and created an organization aimed at world evangelization.[05.08.08] Several major charismatic ministries known for stoking revival around the globe have joined together and created an organization aimed at world evangelization.The newly formed Revival Alliance officially launched in March during a conference at Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, Calif., dubbed Releasing the Supernatural. Ché Ahn, senior pastor of Harvest Rock and co-founder of Revival Alliance, said he believes global transformation is possible if revivalists from large existing ministries link with smaller, lesser-known ones. "The concept [is] to fulfill the prayers Jesus modeled in John 17 by capturing people's hearts for revival of the nations," he told Charisma.

The idea for a network of revival-based ministries stemmed from a prophecy given by apostolic minister Bob Jones to Rolland and Heidi Baker of Mozambique-based Iris Ministries. "[The alliance] seemed to come together effortlessly," said Rolland Baker, a co-founder of the alliance who credits Ahn as a major impetus. Things formed "simply because we like and enjoy one another, and not just because we all have large ministries."

In addition to Ahn and the Bakers, founding members of Revival Alliance include Bill Johnson, senior pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, Calif.; Randy Clark, head of Global Awakening; and John Arnott, founding pastor of Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship and leader of Partners in Harvest, an international network of churches.

Each of the leaders oversees large ministries that have spawned thousands of churches worldwide. "I've gone into 36 nations, and 5,000 churches have grown from our ministry," said Ahn, also pointing out that the Bakers have been catalysts for planting nearly 10,000 churches worldwide. "We and the others walk in unity and try to hear together what God is saying to us. There's great strength in unity."

The network's leaders and their spouses will meet during the year to fellowship and seek God to discern which direction they should move in. "The unique thing about this alliance is we want to give ourselves to other people's success," Johnson said. "We want to give whatever we have to others in the team. It's not at all about whose name is above the door."

In keeping with such a mind-set, Revival Alliance leaders prayed for two dozen mostly unknown young leaders during March's inaugural conference in Pasadena and commissioned them to minister around the world.

Johnson said one key goal of the alliance is to connect pastors and leaders who have established ministry work in order to build trust among them and to maximize their effectiveness. "We all have different focuses and don't want to duplicate one another's efforts," Johnson said. "The point is to maximize the spheres of influence each of us have.

"We get together as much to hold each other up in prayer as to pray for transformation of nations," he added. "The future of the network is rooted in servanthood and relationship."--Josie Newman

[05.08.08] The newly formed Revival Alliance officially launched in March during a conference at Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, Calif., dubbed Releasing the Supernatural. Ché Ahn, senior pastor of Harvest Rock and co-founder of Revival Alliance, said he believes global transformation is possible if revivalists from large existing ministries link with smaller, lesser-known ones. "The concept [is] to fulfill the prayers Jesus modeled in John 17 by capturing people's hearts for revival of the nations," he told Charisma.

The idea for a network of revival-based ministries stemmed from a prophecy given by apostolic minister Bob Jones to Rolland and Heidi Baker of Mozambique-based Iris Ministries. "[The alliance] seemed to come together effortlessly," said Rolland Baker, a co-founder of the alliance who credits Ahn as a major impetus. Things formed "simply because we like and enjoy one another, and not just because we all have large ministries."

CheAhnnews.jpg/050608bMayor Fights Crime With Prayer/Charisma/news/archives/050608bMayor Fights Crime With PrayerAn Alabama mayor invited city residents to put on sacks and ashes and gather for a series of prayer rallies to repent. Photo: Mayor Larry Langford and his wife, Melva.
[05.06.08] An Alabama mayor pulled out an unusual weapon to fight his city’s worsening homicide rate: prayer. Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford invited pastors and city residents to put on sacks and ashes and gather for a series of prayer rallies to repent in an Old Testament-style revival.
 
“Man has made a mess of things,” he said. “Let’s try returning our city to God and letting him lead.” Langford, who has been in office less than a year, came up with the “sackcloth and ashes” idea after reading the book of Jonah. He was touched by the compassion God showed the city of Nineveh when they repented. “If it worked then,” he said, “it will work now.”
 
Roughly 1,000 people attended an April 25 rally held at Birmingham’s Boutwell Auditorium. During the prayer meeting, about 20 ministers dabbed everyone’s foreheads with ashes, then clothed them in burlap sacks the mayor had purchased. The lights were dim, and a CD playing actor James Earl Jones’ narration of the Scriptures filled the room. Banners read “Jehovah” and “Holy.” Large TV screens on each side of the stage displayed, “A City Not Forsaken.”
 
Olivia Turner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Alabama, told the Associated Press that her group received complaints about the prayer rallies and has been discussing them as a possible violation of church-state separation. A few days after the event, reports of another murder hit the news, but Langford wasn’t disheartened. “People were expecting an instantaneous miracle, but the miracle was all those people coming together to pray. I think we are going to see hearts changed.” —Marie A. Sutton in Birmingham, Ala.
[05.06.08] An Alabama mayor pulled out an unusual weapon to fight his city’s worsening homicide rate: prayer. Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford invited pastors and city residents to put on sacks and ashes and gather for a series of prayer rallies to repent in an Old Testament-style revival.
 
“Man has made a mess of things,” he said. “Let’s try returning our city to God and letting him lead.” Langford, who has been in office less than a year, came up with the “sackcloth and ashes” idea after reading the book of Jonah. He was touched by the compassion God showed the city of Nineveh when they repented. “If it worked then,” he said, “it will work now.”
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