I was in South Africa a little while ago at an event called “Loftus for Jesus” at which approx 70,000 people gathered in a stadium in Pretoria to listen to some good music and hear a potato farmer called Angus Buchan preach – not on paper a BIG draw maybe outside South Africa.
I was there for just a couple of days BUT was struck by the gloom hovering in the air. The politicians have been and are failing, the economy is going downhill fast, crime is rising etc etc – things are bad and getting worse – most of this is not news to anyone that follows current affairs but what maybe is that all is not doom an gloom.
At the event in Pretoria, Angus boldly stood up and declared “the future of South Africa is in our hands (the Christian Church) NOT the governments – there are enough people in this stadium to change our Nation!” I know he believes it and after hearing him – so do I.
Something is happening in South Africa right now – in the midst of the chaos, the body of Christ is coming together, it’s praying and seeking God for something new – I think that Angus and men like him know the ONLY hope for their nation IS God. By the way a little bit of background – this event is as far as I know the biggest of its kind in South African history and sold out within DAYS of the tickets being made available. It also comes only a couple of months after the Mighty Men’s conference which saw 60,000 men gather in a field to pray and see the nation changed – there’s 6 or so more of these gatherings planned this year – the church is on the move.
Angus struck me as God’s man for this hour in his nation. A prophetic voice calling on the Church to take its rightful place in society – I loved his passion, but also his humility and compassion. His message was not one of criticising the government for what they are doing wrong BUT one of awakening the Church to do what it needs to do. I believe every nation needs an Angus Buchan – and I believe some nations already have them – I believe Lou Engle (founder of the Call) is such a man for the US. Sadly I don’t yet see one in the UK.
So what should our response be as programme makers and broadcasters to this? Well I firmly believe we MUST enable these men to have a platform – we are the Church’s mouthpiece and it is up to us to ensure that God’s message to His church in this hour is heard – and I believe this is that. Sadly very few broadcasters I believe will take these risks – it’s not comfortable, is often VERY controversial (for example Lou Engle’s attitude to abortion and same sex marriage certainly don’t make him many friends) it also doesn’t always make for what we think is good programming (though I would personally define good programming for Christian broadcasts as a. something the viewers want to watch and b. something that takes them from spectating to participating) – and of course it can be financially costly. BUT we have to do it I believe to NOT do so will miss God’s agenda – and I certainly don’t want to do that.
What about you programme makers – will you find ways to allow your viewers access both to these men – but more importantly to their messages – how can you build programming that will help change your nations – a big task, but think of the rewards.
Also local Churches MUST take a lead, they must allow these men access to their pulpits, encourage their congregations to get to these meetings, engage with the message and Church let’s build the Kingdom NOT our own Empires.
I actually wonder if ultimately many of our ministries and churches will be judged on how we respond right now to these Nation changers and the challenging messages they present – will we embrace and encourage them or try and pretend they are not there and hope they go away. All credit to the broadcasters and programme makers who are already engaging. As you know one of our clients is GOD TV and I am going to give them (and Wendy Alec in particular) a shameless plug as being one who will and does step out – the Loftus meeting was broadcast LIVE on GOD TV as have all the recent Lou Engle Calls etc. so well done GOD TV for standing up and being counted – will the rest of us?
I’d love to know your thoughts on this – do you agree should our attention be drawn to these “Nation Changers”? Can we achieve it? Should we support them and how? I am personally passionate about this – and I think you should be too.
Sunday 10 August 2008
Friday 1 August 2008
Reflections on Lakeland
I recently spent 5 consecutive days in Lakeland Florida at the outpouring working for one of our clients GOD TV. I rarely get to spend 5 consecutive days anywhere so this actually felt like a considerable chunk of time for me. I thought I would share here just a few observations from my time there – and I’d love to hear your thoughts too.
Firstly let me nail my colours to the mast right up front – I do believe something remarkable is happening in Lakeland, I don’t personally think its about Lakeland as a place – I think possibly it maybe that when Todd moves on the “happenings” will stop – I don’t necessarily however think its about Todd either – in fact I can’t answer the why him, why there and why now questions – maybe we’ll only get those after its all over – BUT I do firmly believe that something remarkable is going on there – disagree if you like that’s my opinion and here are some reflections on what I experienced there:
1. Todd – he is the same on stage as off stage; I spent some time with him and was impressed with his approachableness, passion (it oozes out of every pore) and his ability to relate to those around him. He is also as sharp as a razor (in the right way) there’s no pulling the wool over his eyes – I was also impressed with his desire to ONLY focus on the genuine – if you watch him operate he rarely “proclaims” people healed instead they are the ones proclaiming and he is REALLY keen to get evidence – which despite what some areas of the press would tell you is there in plentiful supply. He’s also seen as “one of us” read Louis story below.
2. The worship and the hunger of the people – I’ve been to LOADS of Christian meetings as part of what I do but never and I really mean NEVER have I experienced anything quite like what I experienced in Lakeland – the hunger and the passion is incredible. I walked round the outside of the tent one night and the thing that amazed me was where ever I looked people were worshiping – what’s surprising about that – well usually on the “fringes” of the meetings people tend to not engage – not so here EVERYONE I saw was interacting with God in worship – that stunned me. Then there was the noise factor. I stood by the stage when the band were NOT playing and my eardrums could barely cope with the level of noise coming from the crowd as they sang, clapped, shouted, cried etc. it was an incredible sound – again see Louis story below.
3. The healings and testimonies – this is possibly the most controversial area – are people genuinely getting healed – well all I can say from what I saw yes absolutely. We were there primarily to film testimonies of people getting healed and we found plenty, ranging from the deaf hearing, to kidney disease, to depression etc. Everyone that testified you could see had been deeply touched – many were near to tears at what God had done for them and many had clear physical improvements in their condition – some total – some partial BUT there is no doubt healings happen thick and fast. And we also filmed some people who were back after being healed previously and had gone to their doctor and got medical proof – Praise God.
All in all, I had a great 5 days, and was even more convinced when I came away that God is up to something in Lakeland – oh and the trapped nerve in my back got healed – Todd prayed for me and ever since then it has been steadily improving and improving (it was still bad before this) but now I have no pain, and virtually full movement back – I’m working on getting the muscles back to full functionality now – so there’s personal testimony for you as well.
Now to Louis story. Louis has given me permission to share this – BUT I confess I may get some facts wrong – if I do, Louis I apologise.
Louis was our sound guy for the 5 days when we were there, an American from New York of Italian descent. Louis had been brought up a catholic but had stopped going to church as he didn’t find anything genuine there – he still believed in God but on a superficial kind of level. I’m not too sure what Louis expected when he came to work with us, but he was a lovely guy, really sweet spirited etc. and we got on great. You could see after the first day when we were filming some of the testimonies that Louis was touched by the stories of what God was doing and when we went in the tent he was blown away by what I described above – and was soon asking “What do these people have that I don’t?” – he was also very taken with Todd and the fact that he was just a normal guy – we had quite a few good chats – I love people that are hungry to know more. By the last day of being there Louis was already telling us of the change that his family were seeing in him, he was talking about God all the time etc. Since we’ve come back, Louis and I have corresponded a bit and I know he is moving forward in his faith, at his request we’ve given him a couple of suggestions on bible reading plans as he wants to get into reading the bible etc. I’m going to look forward to hearing more positive stuff – but the long and short of it is that if you’re asking what the fruit of Lakeland is – well there’s one story for you right away.
I know there has been lots of criticism – the above is my take on it all after being there for a few days – is everything that’s happening there God? Undoubtedly not, there’s people who are being touched spiritually and others that are having an emotional experience only – does that mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater and disregard it all – NO – that would dishonour what God IS doing – have an open mind, don’t be dismissive, be enquiring etc. Also if you want a good solid theological argument – that’s not what I’m aiming at here – let me point you instead to an article by Rick Joyner on the Morningstar website – he’s much better qualified than me in that area – www.morningstarministries.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=1000034608
I hope for some the above thoughts are helpful – I would really like to know what you think so post away……..
Firstly let me nail my colours to the mast right up front – I do believe something remarkable is happening in Lakeland, I don’t personally think its about Lakeland as a place – I think possibly it maybe that when Todd moves on the “happenings” will stop – I don’t necessarily however think its about Todd either – in fact I can’t answer the why him, why there and why now questions – maybe we’ll only get those after its all over – BUT I do firmly believe that something remarkable is going on there – disagree if you like that’s my opinion and here are some reflections on what I experienced there:
1. Todd – he is the same on stage as off stage; I spent some time with him and was impressed with his approachableness, passion (it oozes out of every pore) and his ability to relate to those around him. He is also as sharp as a razor (in the right way) there’s no pulling the wool over his eyes – I was also impressed with his desire to ONLY focus on the genuine – if you watch him operate he rarely “proclaims” people healed instead they are the ones proclaiming and he is REALLY keen to get evidence – which despite what some areas of the press would tell you is there in plentiful supply. He’s also seen as “one of us” read Louis story below.
2. The worship and the hunger of the people – I’ve been to LOADS of Christian meetings as part of what I do but never and I really mean NEVER have I experienced anything quite like what I experienced in Lakeland – the hunger and the passion is incredible. I walked round the outside of the tent one night and the thing that amazed me was where ever I looked people were worshiping – what’s surprising about that – well usually on the “fringes” of the meetings people tend to not engage – not so here EVERYONE I saw was interacting with God in worship – that stunned me. Then there was the noise factor. I stood by the stage when the band were NOT playing and my eardrums could barely cope with the level of noise coming from the crowd as they sang, clapped, shouted, cried etc. it was an incredible sound – again see Louis story below.
3. The healings and testimonies – this is possibly the most controversial area – are people genuinely getting healed – well all I can say from what I saw yes absolutely. We were there primarily to film testimonies of people getting healed and we found plenty, ranging from the deaf hearing, to kidney disease, to depression etc. Everyone that testified you could see had been deeply touched – many were near to tears at what God had done for them and many had clear physical improvements in their condition – some total – some partial BUT there is no doubt healings happen thick and fast. And we also filmed some people who were back after being healed previously and had gone to their doctor and got medical proof – Praise God.
All in all, I had a great 5 days, and was even more convinced when I came away that God is up to something in Lakeland – oh and the trapped nerve in my back got healed – Todd prayed for me and ever since then it has been steadily improving and improving (it was still bad before this) but now I have no pain, and virtually full movement back – I’m working on getting the muscles back to full functionality now – so there’s personal testimony for you as well.
Now to Louis story. Louis has given me permission to share this – BUT I confess I may get some facts wrong – if I do, Louis I apologise.
Louis was our sound guy for the 5 days when we were there, an American from New York of Italian descent. Louis had been brought up a catholic but had stopped going to church as he didn’t find anything genuine there – he still believed in God but on a superficial kind of level. I’m not too sure what Louis expected when he came to work with us, but he was a lovely guy, really sweet spirited etc. and we got on great. You could see after the first day when we were filming some of the testimonies that Louis was touched by the stories of what God was doing and when we went in the tent he was blown away by what I described above – and was soon asking “What do these people have that I don’t?” – he was also very taken with Todd and the fact that he was just a normal guy – we had quite a few good chats – I love people that are hungry to know more. By the last day of being there Louis was already telling us of the change that his family were seeing in him, he was talking about God all the time etc. Since we’ve come back, Louis and I have corresponded a bit and I know he is moving forward in his faith, at his request we’ve given him a couple of suggestions on bible reading plans as he wants to get into reading the bible etc. I’m going to look forward to hearing more positive stuff – but the long and short of it is that if you’re asking what the fruit of Lakeland is – well there’s one story for you right away.
I know there has been lots of criticism – the above is my take on it all after being there for a few days – is everything that’s happening there God? Undoubtedly not, there’s people who are being touched spiritually and others that are having an emotional experience only – does that mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater and disregard it all – NO – that would dishonour what God IS doing – have an open mind, don’t be dismissive, be enquiring etc. Also if you want a good solid theological argument – that’s not what I’m aiming at here – let me point you instead to an article by Rick Joyner on the Morningstar website – he’s much better qualified than me in that area – www.morningstarministries.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=1000034608
I hope for some the above thoughts are helpful – I would really like to know what you think so post away……..
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