A Thought on Pioneering Leadership

Recently I was driving to my hometown at night from Brantford, Ontario with my father in the passenger seat of his car. I’m very familiar with the route because I’d taken it many times over the years, and I had come along to drive back with him because his eye sight is insufficient for night time driving. The trip is usually 2 1/2 hours one way, and we had gone back and forth in the same day to pick up a chair his mother was giving him.

It started to rain as soon as we left around dinner time, and most of the way home it was rather foggy out. It made little difference as there were enough cars on the highway to see their rear lights through the fog. But by the time we get midway home, we normally take a toll highway with significantly less traffic, and at the end of this highway we typically reach some back roads and take them for some stretch of time. Even though I’ve driven this route many times, it dawned on me that this was one of the few times I’d driven in the night time. And the only time I’ve taken this route in the foggy conditions which I was that night.

The back road we were taking had a lot of winding roads and hills, almost like a roller coaster ride at some points. Even though I’d count myself familiar with it, in this condition I was driving below the speed limit and more cautiously since I couldn’t see very far in front of me. It seemed the safest thing to do. However, at several points during the drive, cars and trucks would tail me, almost riding my bumper, and then speed up driving around me. I guess they were getting impatient with me, but once they pulled in front of me and were in the lead they too would slow down. I assume they realized how bad the visibility was, but when they were following me, it was easy to see where they were going so long as someone else was already pioneering the way for them through the fog.

I thought that this occasion showed me a brilliant principle; that it’s easier to follow than it is to lead. In fact, when the way isn’t made clear before you, it’s harder to tell where you’re going, but when someone else is pioneering the way before you, it’s so much easier to just follow along with fewer things to focus on or pay attention to like the leader has to.

Jesus asked his listeners in Luke 6:39 “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? ”

I personally believe after being in a few ‘pioneering’ situations where I was following Godly leaders as they ventured into unchartered territory, that the best thing to do when I was uncertain of where we were going, was to show them my respect and not make things anymore difficult for them than it already was to be going somewhere and having nothing to guide them but their principle and vision. It’s very easy to get impatient and pull ahead of the car in front of us going slower than we desire, but once we pass them we may find there was a reason they were driving so slowly.

It may be true that you can only go as fast as who’s in front of you, but sometimes the ones in front of us are the ones who fall into the pit and can warn us to not follow their steps.

Blessings.

When Christians Come Out of the Closet

by J. Lee Grady

Singer Ray Boltz’s shocking announcement that he’s gay offers us a chance to adjust our attitudes.

How should we respond when a fellow Christian embraces a gay lifestyle? Do we give him a hug and tell him we wholeheartedly respect his decision? Do we just keep quiet and pray? Or do we grab a Bible and offer a stern lecture?

I know it’s an uncomfortable subject, but I’m delving into it because recording artist Ray Boltz has come out of the closet. The 55-year-old singer, winner of three Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association, told the world last Friday that he just got tired of fighting his same-sex feelings. He told the Washington Blade, a gay magazine, that he now lives “a normal gay life” and feels liberated.

I am sure the gay community rejoiced that Boltz has joined their side of this debate. Now they are waiting to see our response. Many of them expect Christians to yank Boltz’s music off the radio, stage bonfires with his CDs and send cryptic death threats. (Hint: None of these is the right reaction.)

Best known for a string of Christian hits in the 1990s including “Thank You” and “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb,” Boltz told the Blade that he disclosed his repressed homosexuality to his wife and four grown children in 2004, the year he retired from his music career. He quietly moved to South Florida and began dating. His divorce from his wife of 33 years was finalized this year.

His confession was brutally honest: “I’d denied [my homosexuality] ever since I was a kid. I became a Christian. I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore.”

When I first heard Boltz’s announcement I felt betrayed, the same way I feel when a famous preacher admits to an affair or when a good friend leaves the faith. I’ll admit I immediately began composing a biblical lecture in my head.

I was upset that Boltz chose to stop fighting same-sex temptation after all those years of marriage. I was sorry to learn that he feels “closer to God” since he embraced his suppressed gayness. Most of all I was annoyed that his decision sends a distorted message to our culture that Christianity doesn’t offer the power to overcome sin.

But as I asked the Lord to share His heart with me about Boltz’s situation, I realized that our corporate response to this is as much about a right attitude as it is about right doctrines:

1. We must weep. The prophets who called ancient Israel to repent for apostasy did so through tears. Not only did they declare the word of God, but they also spoke with His tone of voice. I pray we will refrain from speaking God’s words to gay people until we have wept long enough to internalize His heart for them.

It’s easy to get angry at the people who are making wrong choices, but self-righteous anger does not produce the character of Christ in us or anyone else. Weeping, on the other hand, tenderizes us. It adjusts our self-righteous attitudes.

It’s not enough for us to preach to people. We must pray for them first. When they meet us, they need to see our moist eyes, not scowls and pointed fingers. Compassionate prayer bathes our message in God’s mercy. It requires us to humbly identify with sinners as we recognize that each one of us battles some form of brokenness or addiction.

2. We must love homosexuals. Preachers are fond of making grand declarations of God’s hatred of homosexuality, and we are prone to cheer them on. But Tim Wilkins, a recovered homosexual who is now director of Cross Ministry in Wake Forest, N.C., pleads with Christians to tone down the angry rhetoric. He says that every time a preacher makes a demeaning remark about homosexuals in a sermon, he wounds 70 percent of his listeners who either (1) silently deal with same-sex attraction themselves; or (2) have family and friends who do.

A 2007 Barna survey showed that 90 percent of young non-Christians and 80 percent of young churchgoers believe Christians display “excessive contempt toward gays and lesbians.” Could this be one reason we are not reaching large numbers of homosexuals with the gospel? If we don’t show genuine love, we can expect them to ignore us.

It was Jesus’ offer of friendship, not a sermon, that brought the hated tax collector Zaccheus to repentance. When Jesus called the little guy down from the sycamore tree and said, “Today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5, NASB), He erased all the rejection Zaccheus had endured from the moralizers who had condemned his thievery. (And Jesus didn’t get more popular with religious people when He made this new friendship.) Perhaps we need more hospitality and fewer sermons!

3. We must contend for the faith. Ray Boltz’s disappointing decision represents a national trend. Many people today are embracing homosexuality as an appealing alternative. They are listening to teachers, psychiatrists, talk-show hosts, Hollywood celebrities, sympathetic family members and even some mainline Christian ministers who say sexual orientation is totally genetic—and unchangeable.

These people have bought the lie that says a person who feels same-sex attraction must always be controlled by those desires. Not true! Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we can have freedom from every kind of sinful behavior.

We don’t have the right to compromise God’s Word, no matter how many people decide to come out of the closet. But let’s remember that the message we are called to proclaim to the world is not “Homosexuality is wrong.” That’s a true statement, but it has no power to change anybody.

The gospel we must shout from the housetops is that Jesus loves all of us, no matter our condition, and that His forgiveness can heal our brokenness. I pray Ray Boltz will soon discover that truth in a fresh way—and I hope he’ll write many more songs about it.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma Magazine. If you or someone you love struggles with same-sex attraction, go to crossministry.org for helpful resources and information about Tim Wilkins and Cross Ministry.

New “Fire On Your Head” Blog Site

No, for real–this isn’t some re-post of an old article. We now have a magazine-like blog on the internet called “Fire On Your Head‘. It’s a written version of the podcast of the same name, with 4 authors currently. I think it’s long overdue and fills a void for some readers out there who’d never listen to the podcast (nor know what a podcast is, for that matter) but are spiritually hungry for the kinds of things that we articulate.

If you go to www.fireonyourhead.COM, you’ll be redirected to our podcast, which I think is great–because that link is easier to remember than what the proper link is. But www.fireonyourhead.ORG is a new blog site, currently with 4 authors, all with a passion and heart for all things pentecostal, apostolic, revivalistic, and BIBCLICAL. It’s like Tominthebox, but serious, or like Pyromaniacs — which IS a good and Biblical blog, but I just get bored of how narrow their focus is and how much they bag on charismatics and pentecostals like we’re all undiscerning dolts. The vision for ours is a site like theirs but from a Pentecostal perspective, since it seems there are few sites out there with such an impetus.

I’ve spent over a week getting up early and going to bed late and taking breaks only to go to necessary meetings, just trying to get this site ready. It’s still being tweaked on the back end and I’m about 80-90% satisfied with it. From now on I’m going to be primarily putting my ‘article’ and ’study’ type of stuff on that site, and maintaining this personal blog for updates and people wanting to be updated on my ministry.

I’ve wanted to do something like this site for years, but wasn’t mature enough when I started blogging to have my views ripped to shreds and react with a “that’s life” attitude. I certainly wasn’t flinty-faced enough to write things that will stir up the religious spirit and get me whipped by people who disagree on things and seem like they can weave a great web of Scriptures around me that I don’t have the time to completely answer. I’m not marketing the site as a theology site, but it certainly won’t be full of flaky ‘words’ and ‘dreams’ and visions of angels and crap like that. You can read a smattering of articles I have on there already by Bryan Purtle, David Hepting and David Edwards (authors/contributors to the site).

Those of you who know me well know my heart burns for grounding people in the Word of God, but that the Holy Spirit is an awesome part of that. I, along with the other authors have a stirring in us to put something on the internet and trigger discussion.

What happened this summer with the Lakeland Healing Outpouring and Todd Bentley’s falling, have really given the largest protestant segment of Christianity, the Charismatics/Pentecostals a real black eye and cemented the image and stereotype that we’re all gullible and sign seekers devoid of discernment. Those events burdened me to finally go ahead and set this site up to help fuel Bible-based articles to work against that stereotype in as many peoples’ lives as we can possibly impact with this site. The Lord told me some time ago when I registered the name for the podcast site, to also buy the dot org domain name. I had no use for it other than maybe having it also redirect to the podcast in case someone typed it wrong they still got where they were going.

I’ve felt it was on my heart to ask certain individuals to co-author the blog site with me so it could have its own momentum and not rely on me, make it an article site and not a personal blog. Fortunately, each initial person I’ve asked so far by writing or calling them felt virtually the same burden for a site like such, and in various forms were each feeling the Lord wanting to have them step out more in the area of inspired writing. Each of us feel the same stirring—this was confirmation that we’re on to something and believe this site is from the heart of God. Each of us in our own way feeling the Lord put more of a burden for writing, and spitting out in written form some of the Biblical insight and revelation He’s been giving us. One guy told me he’s wanted to start his own site like this of his own, but it never materialized over the years and when he got my invitation, he was stirred up. Me on the other hand, I was honored that he’d say yes, because the articles of his I’ve read really challenged and stirred me. I’m sure they will you as well.

So the result (basically) is “Fire on Your Head – The Blog”—Articles to stir you up and provoke you towards revival. In keeping with the ‘discussion’ format of the FOYH podcast, discussion is fostered and encouraged in the comments section and our site’s forum, the latter of which I’m still working on and will take a while. I’m still learning how to do some of the back end HTML stuff and site design by trial and error is a totally new capacity for me in information sharing.

But feel free to ersase my fierycanadian.blogspot/wordpress.com from your sidebar links and instead replace it with the new site, which will be far superior. You of course can keep reading my personal blog for knowing what’s going on with me, but any help people can be by linking to www.fireonyourhead.org is much appreciated.

Blessings, and fire on your head!

Like A Bullet

That’s what a Dutch friend told me recently in an e-mail.
I have their permission to copy it–or was it merely permission to refer to it? Oh well, sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission (only sometimes!)

At any rate the following paragraphs accurately describe how I’ve been feeling lately:

Lucky enough, you´re in Gods hands, Peru is in Gods hands, and your worth is not determined by what you do, or where you are.

I don’t know if this makes sense (please judge it)
But I thought of you in prayer as a bullet, a heavy (like lead) bullet, and has a lot of power in it.
Imagine one with a diameter of like four inches. Which is (as far as I know) too big to be defined as bullet, but that’s my impression.

(This I my thought about that… a bullet that’s really big, will not be used as hail-bullet, to just shoot it together with thousands of other small bullets at once, in the hope one of those hundreds will hit something) will not be used for shooting something small, like a pigeon or something……it’ll be picked up for a specific task)

And when nothing happens, it seems like it’s worthless, like it’s not moving, like it’s doing nothing, like just plain almost boring lead substance.
But once you go, you’ll hit target.
It’s like God knows exactly when to “shoot” you, when to lift you up and use you.
Steve, You’re more special in Gods hands, then you can imagine/see in the natural!!!!

I feel a total “amen!” and encouragement by this word, because as a few of you may know, my moving to Peru has been postponed. My missions director Dr. Peters has forbidden me to go to South America until I have a full $1000/month in support, of which I currently have half coming in or pledged for certain. I’m ready to go, ready to be fired like that bullet. I’ve been in Canada for the better part of 2008, initially thinking I was going to be back in Holland in the New Year, was unable to work for the winter due to my foot injury (that still gives me trouble, but I am able to walk and stand with little problem), and as some of you regular readers and lurkers know, I was redirected by the Lord to Peru, where I found my niche this spring, and am now getting ready to move there. I was originally aiming for this fall, but the money is just not in place, and the timing seems off.

I talked to Ron Smith over skype last week, who I’ll be working with when I move there, and coupled with how he and family will be back in the states for a month or two and returning around late January/early February and recommended that I try aiming for coming down there when they’re back instead of before. Judging by my financial situation, and the peace of the Lord I’ve been feeling as I sought Him for His guidance about this, I feel it’s the best thing to do. It gives me more time and a specific deadline, goal and time frame to work in, and then like that bullet, when I’m finally shot, I’ll hit target effectively.

That being said, I’m looking to rent a room until then. I had an agreement with my parents that I’d be out of their house before the end of the month, whether I’m moving to Peru or moving out on my own. Hopefully my supporters if they’d like to wait until I leave for Peru will set the money aside instead of skipping the months until then, because aside from my $1000 a month in support needed, I need approximately $2400 for Spanish lessons. One I found was a 16 week crash course at 4 hours a day helping you to become basically fluent in the language. I applied for a 15-week Tuesday night beginner’s course at Fleming College in town, but they were full and I was number 4 on the waiting list. But down there, I can take this crash course when I move. I’ll be looking for a job in order to support myself until February, and hitting the trail harder for support raising.

An information night for anybody who wants to fellowship or just hear first hand what’s going on and where I’m going will be forthcoming in Peterborough of course. Maybe even recorded for podcast use. I’ll announce it through e-mail, my blog and Facebook and things like that, because right now I don’t know where it will be.

The reason I know a few of you are reading
I thought I’d mention something here since everybody in Peterborough knows about it anyway, but yes it is true that my home church I fellowship with has split in half. Almost evenly in half numbers-wise. I am not at liberty to say much more than that, but I believe in just admitting the elephant is in the room since everybody sees it anyway. I’d like to say, why does it have to be that church splits are always a bad thing? Though some relationships are severed or at the very least strained as people are forced to choose sides in the situation, I’m finding a sense of camradery and fellowship take place as people are getting together to pray for a reconcilliation and resolution to the issue.

People are studying their Bibles like they haven’t in a long time in order to learn what is actually written concerning the issues that led to these developments. People are getting together to pray like they never have before. People are going through a hard time together and in a very real sense bonding together and growing together out of it. Most of the churches in town are praying for us as a Body, and people all over Canada that have a relationship with our fellowship have come to visit or reached out to be an encouragement. Local pastors are checking their own hearts and praying to make sure something like this isn’t likely to happen in their own fellowships.

Personally, I hate that this split has happened, as division is never from God, but I DO like the ways the Lord is restoring what the locusts have eaten and giving both sides seemingly a goal and focus for how to move forward. Jerome Ocampo, our Filipino friend and guest speaker for 2 Fire For Life summer schools has said repeatedly that “Desire for change alone doesn’t produce change. But intolerable pain coupled with desire for change usually does the trick.” I’m seeing that in a very real way right now.

Please pray for Stephen Best and Bill Clark. Please pray for people in this situation who may fall through the cracks or who are so disillusioned that this mess turns them away from Christ. Pray that God be glorified and the enemy’s purpose totally defeated. None of us really know what’s ahead and how it will look, but I’m hopeful and see something has been birthed from all of this. No baby comes out of the womb perfectly clean, but there’s blood and mess and a lot of pain in the delivery. Right now, the chips are falling where they are and the smoke is beginning to clear and it’s hard to see how this baby will grow after being brought forth out of the whom. But I am hopeful.

Like a bullet, we’ve been fired out of the gun and are going to hit target.

And finally, I’m going to devote the whole next post to what I’ve been working on all week, but you can get a sneak peak of our new site www.fireonyourhead.org by click here, but I will give a press release type of write up next time.

Thanks for reading, and I say on with the purposes of God–no matter what side of things you find yourself on.

What Do We Do Now About The Lakeland Outpouring?

We’re finally back for episode 34 of the Fire On Your Head Podcast. Join Dan Slavin and Steve Bremner as they update you on how things are going with ministry in the Netherlands, and give a re-cap of the Fire For Life Summer School and solemn assembly on the Malieveld (08.08.08.). Then, we spend the last half of this week’s episode discussing what to do now about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland outpouring. We discuss some of the reactions and issues surrounding the latest developments on it.
Listen to this episode

Download this episode (right click and save)

Links:

“False” Prophets vs. Impatient Watchdogs? – Steve Bremner

A Statement and Appeal Regarding Lakeland – Dutch Sheets

Statement By C. Peter Wagner Regarding Todd Bentley

Please visit our site at www.fireonyourhead.com, or consider subscribing to us in the iTunes store, the Zune Marketplace or at ZenCast listed as “Fire On Your Head”, where you will also have access to many other teachings from our conferences.