Grace-Based Pastors Conference in India

Hello guys, some members in my cell group are organizing a Pastor’s conference in India in February 2012. My cell group is made up of Christians from different Churches, though most or all of us have been impacted by the message of grace – and most attend New Creation. We are all just ordinary Christians who have been impacted by the revelation of grace and the love of God. We also believe the days of the “big men of God” – specially anointed and holy servants of God that Christians ought to look up to because they have something special that we don’t have – are dying and instead all the saints are called to do the work of the ministry. The grace message has often been accused of producing passive Christians and to a certain extent that has been true. However, for us as a cell, we don’t believe in being passive, but in demonstrating the love of God to this world in an active manner. The grace and love of God empowers us to live for Him and bless people and our heart is to go out into the world and make an impact on peoples’ lives. I think two ministries / churches that we really identify with in terms of getting that message and ministry balance is Andrew Wommack and Bill Johnson.

Therefore, though many of us in the cell are not pastors or big leaders in Churches (none of us are actually) – and we still face many challenges in our own lives and are definitely “not there” yet (as Andrew Wommack would say, “I haven’t arrived yet, but I’ve left”) -, we challenge ourselves to step out and share and minister.  So with this Pastor’s conference, we are collaborating with a good Indian pastor friend of ours who is doing a lot of good work in one part of India.

We are holding this conference in a Seminary and targeting over 100 pastors from all over India (though mainly the Southern part). The focus of the conference is going to be on the gospel of grace and the love of Daddy God. All of us are united on this, having had our lives transformed, and thus this is the message we want to share to impact the lives of many pastors and their congregation.

This is going to be an exciting conference. I’m in charge of the curriculum and making sure all the messages are in line and flow from one to another. About 8 people from my cell group are going and 5 of us are going to share about 8 messages in total. We’re going to share on interpreting and preaching the Bible from a New Covenant perspective, righteousness-consciousness, grace, Sonship, union (identification) in relation to overcoming sin and ministry and the practical message of Spirit, Soul and Body and living it out from our spirit. Some of our influences have been people like Pastor Joseph Prince, Andrew Wommack and Bill Johnson.

Three of the 8 of us are pretty new to sharing – two of us only shared our first message in 2011 and one I think hasn’t really shared before. Some may be thinking how we can organize a pastor’s conference when many of us are so inexperienced. Perhaps that’s so. But I hope we’re not going into India thinking that India is a developing country and Singapore is a developed country and therefore we can do this because we’re somehow superior to them and they would respect us because of the fact that we’re out of town and thus know more. Definitely not! I don’t think we presume to go there thinking that we’re somehow better or know better than them. Both sides will learn from one another. For us, we have a very personal message and revelation that we want to share – something that has transformed our lives and we believe will transform the lives of the pastors and their congregation. And we really believe in getting to know the pastors there and not acting like we’re some big shots from out of town. In fact, most pastors would be traveling from afar off and will be sleeping on mattresses  in the Seminary. Our cell group wanted to live with them rather than stay in a hotel – because we truly want to interact and get to know the people and we don’t see ourselves as different or on a higher level than them – but for some security and other reasons this could not be arranged.

Donating Grace-Based Books to the Seminary (and maybe the Pastors too?)

Anyway, so this is what’s happening in February 2012. Actually the main reason for this post is to appeal to people who want to contribute books to the Seminary there in India. The Seminary is new and so they have need for books. I’ve given about 100 or so of my Christian books to the Seminary. They are a portion of the books I’ve bought since 15 years ago. But most of them are not very grace-based. The reason why my cell group is very passionate about organizing this conference is because it’s about teaching and transforming the thinking and hearts of pastors. If the pastors catch the loving and gracious heart of Daddy God and the message of the New Covenant, they will share this message to their congregation. The potential for impact is thus enormous. And that’s why I also believe in investing in books for the Seminary students to read.

So for those who want to be part of donating grace-based books to the Seminary, you can donate through me through the Paypal button below. I will use the money to purchase a list of different grace-based books I know (I haven’t read all of them, but I know they are good). Below is my compilation of various life-transforming grace-based books which I will get with your donation – feel free to comment below and point out some books I’ve missed. And if you want to donate to purchase a specific book, then let me know too. For those in Singapore, you can contact me if you want to physically pass me one of your books. If there’s enough money, I’ll think of purchasing one good grace-based book to give also to the pastors at the conference (maybe 100+). That’s only if we have enough money because we want to be fair and give all of the pastors the book and not just some of them.

Donation amount

Donate $5.00 USD Donate $10.00 USD Donate $20.00 USD Donate $50.00 USD Donate $100.00 USD

1) Books by Bill Johnson of Bethel Church (I put Bill Johnson’s books first because for those who are wary of the grace message, he’s probably the least controversial, and most influential, leader of all names here. While his books don’t address the message of grace directly, I believe his theology and his books, like that of the Vineyard (at least in the past), ASSUMES the foundation of the message of the love and grace of God. He uses a different language and doesn’t get caught up in all the controversies, but he’s definitely grace-based in most senses and his Church even sells Pastor Joseph Prince’s books. I first heard of the message of the Father heart of God through Vineyard and the Toronto Blessing was mostly about that message, which to me is a message of grace using different terms)
2) Destined to Reign by Joseph Prince
3) Books by Andrew Wommack
4) Books by New Nature Publications
5) It is Finished by Nerida Walker (just got this book and it looks interesting)
6) Books by Elyse Fitzpatrick (Elyse is a good Reformed author. My background is in the Reformed tradition and even though I don’t agree with a lot of beliefs in that tradition now (and I think it’s too legalistic for me in general), one section of the Reformed tradition has a very strong “gospel-centered” focus which is very grace-based and which I think a lot of grace-based Christians can learn a lot from.
7) Books by Mark Hankins (good identity in Christ stuff)
8) Books by EW Kenyon (good identity in Christ stuff)

[I don't have time to complete my list, but I will keep adding books when I have time and will continue to welcome donation for these books even after this upcoming trip because the team may plan to go there regularly in future and work with the Seminary and pastors there and the Singaporean pastor we work with goes there quite regularly]

It’s the end of the year again! This year, I’ve written very little – only 7 posts before this one. But there’s been a lot of stuff that’s been brewing in my mind that I will share a bit here, but will do so more hopefully next year in longer posts.

Street Healing in Singapore

I started to get serious about healing early 2010 after listening to Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technican (DHT) course (go to my Healing Resources to get the course) – and having read Bill Johnson for a few years previously. Most of my posts have been about healing since then. A group of us Singaporeans passionate about healing soon got together (we’re now on the Singapore Healing Room Facebook Group) to meet from occasionally to regularly. We met pretty regularly the 2nd half of 2010 (up to weekly in some months) but slowed down starting from 2011. In April, we invited Roger Sapp to Singapore, Malaysia and Batam early this year. Before that in March, some of us attended Randy Clarks’ mini School of Healing and Impartation at Cornerstone Community Church. By the way, Randy Clark and Bill Johnson will be in Singapore for a full School of Healing and Impartation next March (2012) – find out details here at Kingdom Invasion and many of us are excitedly looking forward to it.

As mentioned here on a post Street Healing in Singapore, a group of South African youths came to Singapore to visit New Creation Church in January. We met up with them and also spent time doing a treasure hunt at night in Geylang. This led to contact with some migrant workers we prayed for who got healed there. They contacted me July this year to pray for their friend and we went to a square in Little India to pray for them and saw literally dozens of people flock to us for prayer for healing.  Since August, the group has met about 8 times from August to December to minister to these migrant workers in Little India and organized a BBQ for about 20-30 migrant workers on Deepavali. You can find out more about this ministry at Singapore Healing Forum.

In 2012, we’re planning to meet alternate weeks: one week to minister healing in Little India and the other at a member’s home to discuss healing, study the Bible on healing, pray for people’s healing and just grow in our ministry of healing. This group consist of Christians from various Churches and some of them are helping out in different “Healing Rooms” in Singapore. You are definitely welcome to join us.

I know at least two other groups who go to the streets of Singapore to minister healing and also prophesy. God is indeed doing something new these past few years and it’s wonderful to see the Church go out into the world and the streets to demonstrate the love of God as Jesus did.

Preaching and Teaching

I wrote last year that I hope to start preaching and teaching to young people this year. I specifically said “young people” because I’m not that old and I guess I feel more comfortable relating to young people and also because of my relative lack of experience. Well, I actually preached a total of 4 times this year – ranging from 10 minutes to about an hour to between 15 to 100+ people – but the crowd was a normal crowd, not specifically a younger crowd.

It was definitely a challenge for me to preach – but a challenge I gladly took because I love to challenge myself and I know this is something I want to do more of in future and something I do believe God has called me to. I prepared a lot and was definitely a bit nervous as anyone would be! But I do enjoy sharing what I’ve been learning – I have received a lot over the years throgh many people’s teaching and preaching and I want to give out through the same way. While I still have so much to learn in terms of how to preach and share, I am happy to have gotten started.

I know I have my own unique way of approaching preaching and teaching. My Christian journey has allowed me to appreciate very good solid theology because of my non-charismatic Reformed background. I’m also an Arts and Social Science graduate who loves to do research and understand different perspectives and who  has written lots of argumentative essays. In other words, I’m very left-brain dominant and a perfect candidate for membership in any non-charismatic church whose messages are comparatively more theoretical, intellectual and theological than sermons in charismatic churches. But I’m not like that.While I do find a lot of charismatic teaching and preaching too shallow for my liking, I also find a lot of non-charismatic and Reformed teachings too theoretical. So I’m very much in between, appreciating the strengths of the charismatic and non-charismatic worlds of Christianity. And I’ve been like that for 15 years and many times I’ve felt like a misfit where I am. But I’m already used to that.

While I can’t stand a lot of charismatic teaching and preaching, that’s not to say I don’t listen to them. I listen to all kinds of charismatic teachers and preachers (although I’m selective) because I think I can learn from everyone and everybody has different gifts. And I also don’t think the way I like to learn (as a left-brain dominant person) is a holistic way. We all need to be balanced in terms of functioning in the left and right brain. Because I’m left-brain dominant, I’ve been trying to be more open to functioning with my right-brain. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere (Hearing God’s Voice Again), I believe prophetic people and those who flow more in the Spirit tend to be right-brain dominant. And that’s why I want to be open to tap on the right-brain. Prophets and prophetic people, because of their inclination to being right-brain dominant, also tend to be really bad teachers and preachers. This is of course not always true – I think Kris Vallotton is a good preacher.

I’m also more postmodern (or maybe more accurately critical-realist) in outlook in that while I believe in absolute truth, I also believe we human beings interpret the Word through our own biased lenses. I don’t just accept anything taught by anyone (even my favourite preachers/teachers). I find many Christians (especially charismatics because of their bent to the anti-intellectual and anti-theoretical) too accepting of teachings they’re taught by their pastors or favourite teachers. Because of my background in Reformed theology and my reading of many different Christian traditions, I tend to be more critical and I would acknowledge different perspectives and views and the fact that I don’t know many things. God’s truth is absolute but our interpretation can easily be flawed. I find no place for a lot of dogmatism I see in the Church today, which to me has sparked the growth of the emerging Church movement and the anti-institutionalism of many modern Christian movements. However, in relation to preaching, while I understand a lot of it is our interpretation (and I don’t want to mistake my view of things for gospel truth), I know many times in teaching and preaching (especially) you sometimes have to speak in absolutes if not you don’t really get anywhere.

Anyway, out of all the ministers who have influenced me in recent years and who hold on to beliefs that are similar, I think Andrew Wommack is one of the best teachers of the Word. He’s charismatic (in beliefs), yet teaches in a very solid, logical and organized way that has benefited many people around the world. I think the organization of his teaching is one of his great strengths and the reason why so many have benefited from his ministry. I think Joseph Prince is one of the best preachers. His teaching is also very good, although many times it tends to be very disorganized. However, when he preaches a message that is more or less organized, he’s one of the best preachers in the world. Joseph Prince is probably more holistic in his balance of preaching/teaching skills, though I think Andrew Wommack is more holistic in his message (he touches on many important topics and not just focus on grace). By the way, I’m defining ‘teaching’ here as something that’s slightly more left-brain oriented that appeals more to the mind and logic and ‘preaching’ as slightly more right-brain oriented that appeals more to the emotions.

I’m still very new in teaching and preaching but I do want to improve. My strength is more on the teaching and left-brain organization and logic (as people can see from this blog and my writings) and I want to improve more on the right-brain aspects to sharing – appealing to emotions, using stories, being led by the Spirit, prophetic preaching, etc.

My heart has always been doing ministry full-time. And I do intend to move into that in future after prospering in my businesses. I don’t want to work for a Church or ministry and be beholden to the politics of institutional Christianity. I want the financial freedom to be able to minister where I feel God wants me to go – and to minister freely especially to the marginalized and the poor and disciple them in their identity in Christ. Now is the time of learning and applying what I’ve learned. The essential message that’s been brewing in my heart these few years is “identity in Christ”. Topics like grace, new creation, new covenant, finished work, sonship, Daddy’s love, etc., is all related to that. And this message of a new identity in Christ ought to be applied in all areas. I want to focus on the healing ministry in future. But right now, I want to apply that message in my life especially to prosperity and my businesses. Eventually I will do more preaching and teaching and I can’t wait for that to happen, but I’m enjoying my time right now too.

On Dr. James B. Richards

I’ve learned many things this year. I continue to encounter new ministers to learn from. Before 2011, the people who have had the biggest impact upon my theology and Christian life in recent years have been Joseph Prince, Bill Johnson, Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack, Roger Sapp and Dave Roberson. Probably the person who has had the biggest impact upon my Christian life and theology this year is Dr. James B. Richards of Impact Ministries. I’d seen his book Grace: The Power To Change around in various bookstores for a few years but never picked it up. I knew he was a grace-based preacher, but I thought he was probably like others and maybe didn’t add anything radically new to what I’ve already learned from others so I resisted getting into his teachings. Actually, right now, though I love his teachings, I still haven’t read that particular book. But I’ve read and listened to dozens of hours of his teachings and interviews and have gone through his Heart Physics program.

I think the first teaching of his I got into was his Anatomy of a Miracle which touches on Quantum Physics. I had been interested in Quantum Physics and its relation to faith and miracles and his book was all about that. I’ve become interested in recent years in the relationship between science and the Bible and Quantum Physics has a lot to say about this. So I read that and went on to his other materials. James Richards is definitely very different from many grace-based preachers. He has degrees in theology, human behaviour and medicine and thus he brings  different perspectives to things and that sets him apart. I’m someone who reads widely myself and thus I love it when people brings in the perspectives of other disciplines as I think it makes things more holistic and it gives us greater insight to the workings of the world and humans.

I do plan to write more fully (and also do an email interview) with James Richards in 2012 so I won’t write much here except to say that I think he’s brought in a missing piece to the faith message and that is the importance of meditation, which to him consist of physical relaxation and using of imagination. Anyway, I can’t say I agree with everything he advocates (I’m not sure yet) and some of his stuff is pretty controversial. But generally I like what he teaches and I think what he specializes in (his essential message is about the heart and the use of meditation to persuade one’s heart) is something that would really bless many Christians.

Other teachers

Having a similar message (on meditation and persuading the heart) to James Richards is Dave Martin. I’ve listened to a lot of his stuff and also do his meditations. I started to read the books of Jay Snell this year after having known of him for a while but not having the motivation to finish reading any of his books. I don’t know much about him but his first book on Abraham’s Blessings is a book to re-read and study. His other books are quite hard to follow. I’ve started to read E.W. Kenyon and listen to Charles Capps’ stuff. Both are from the faith tradition. I actually got more into Kenyon’s stuff after I read Donald Mann of Covenant Peace Ministries.

Donald Mann is one interesting guy. As James Richards majors on meditation (imagination) and really believes in that, Donald majors on meditation in the form of confession/affirmations and really believes in that too such that he advocates confessing Scriptures at least 2 hours a day. Like James, Donald also brings in the science of the mind. I got to know him recently and communicated a bit with him through email. I want to follow up with him to get to know him more and also read his 3 books which look really good. He’s been influenced by Curry Blake I believe and his books are full of mainly Scriptural confessions. All about good identity in Christ stuff. He also seems to have ministering healing working well in his life.

The Exchanged Life tradition

One Christian tradition that I found this year which is very grace-based is the Exchanged Life tradition. This tradition is all about union with Christ and is very grace-based. It is a pretty non-charismatic Christian tradition, but I’m interested to learn more from it because unlike the many grace teachers that’s been impacting the world recently, this is a tradition that’s been established longer and consist of non-charismatics – which generally means they handle the Word of God better. As a more established tradition/movement, there’s a lot to learn from them. For example, Steve McVey, who is a big name in the grace movement, I believe has benefited a lot from that tradition. I really like the writings of John Best of Abundant Living Resources. He’s written a lot of solid theological books that relate to many topics related to grace. While I do appreciate a lot of the new grace-based authors that having been writing good books, I’m a big believer in also drawing from the Christian tradition and understanding the perspectives of the past and building on them. To ignore how much we can learn from the past is being really stupid – because truly there’s nothing new under the sun. I learned a lot about grace from the Reformed and Lutheran tradition (there’s a lot of mixture there too) and also the Redemptive-Historical Biblical-Theology tradition. The important thing is to draw from as many people and be aware of the different arguments because all this has actually been around for a long time. There’s a lot of good stuff in the newer authors and preachers and they bring their unique gifts and interpretation of things. But it’s best to combine the new with the old – building on the foundation of the past, yet not letting it restrict you.

Fahkram Church after the floods in Thailand

Hi to all who read my blog (not that I’ve been writing much lately!) or who have stumbled upon this blog. I wrote a post a while back on Fahkram Church which I’ve gotten to know over the past year plus. If you read the post, you’ll know why I think this is a very unique and amazing church – I encourage you all to read that post if you haven’t.

I’ve gotten to know some people there pretty well. I’ve visited the Church about 3 times over the past year or so and twice I stayed within the Church compound (they put me up in a nice air-con room for free). They are a church that has services every day because maybe 50 or so people live within the Church compound. The pastor has helped many people to get jobs and make money. He preaches a message of God’s grace and love and God’s desire to prosper His people. Yet he also lives the message of generosity out by helping and blessing his people. I know his sheep come before him. Even though he teaches his people to give to God and he could become pretty rich through the church tithes / offerings, he actually lives within the church compound with some of the members. He doesn’t live a better lifestyle than them. I think a person who truly understands our God of love and grace will not focus on his own self, but on other people and helping and blessing them. Demonstrating the love of God to others will become (effortlessly) more important to us than just focusing on ourselves and our wants as we conform more and more to the image of our Saviour. While I believe in prosperity and God prospering us, I’ve seen too many who preach such a message for themselves and not understand that God desires to use them to be a blessing to other people too. That’s why I admire someone like Andrew Wommack who I believe truly lives that message out. I know the pastor of this Church and I know he’s someone too that lives out such a lifestyle.

The reason for writing this post is that I want to provide an opportunity for my readers to help this Church. As you know, floods in Thailand have caused a lot of damage to the country. And it has caused a lot of damage to Fahkram Church too as you can see from the above picture. You can also see more pictures of damage here (their facebook account). Also, a list of damage done to the Church provided by Anne is listed below this post.

During the floods, the Church actually went on one of their mission trips to the north of Thailand. I think they stayed away from their Church for a month or more as the Church was flooded about 40 days. You can find out more about what happened to the Church and how to help them out here: Fahkram Church. There you’ll be able to see some pictures and get the contact numbers and email of the Pastor and one translator who speaks English. You’ll also get the bank information if you desire to transfer some money over.

I’ve set up a PayPal (you can use credit card) donate button (actually it’s a PAY NOW button coz it’s not easy to get a PayPal Donate button as I’m in Singapore) for those who want to contribute a bit of money to the Church. You can contribute as little (even $5) or as much as you want. The little donations add up. Do note that the money will go directly to my PayPal account, not theirs.  The reason I’m doing so is because I know a lot of people will probably not go through the trouble of Telegraphic Transferring (TT) money over to the Church. PayPal and using one’s Credit/Debit Card is so much easier and quicker – especially if you want to donate just a small amount. For big amounts, I’d encourage you to contact the Church directly. For small amounts, you can use the PayPal button below. Of course, this will be based on trust – for those of you who know me or are familiar with my blog, it’s your judgement to make if you want to go through me.

I will be TTing some money over this month or next month so I’ll transfer your money along with mine. You can also email the Pastor or Anne (the translator who speaks English) at the above email address to make sure they get the money from me if you’re concerned about it – in fact, I encourage you to do so. I’ll also get them to email you an acknowledgement of your donation when I send the money over. Please note that it is NOT their idea that I help them raise money through my PayPal account. It is my idea because I know how easy it is to transfer money using PayPal. It’s actually more of a hassle for me to organize this, but I think it’ll encourage people to give small donations they may not give if they had to TT the money (the cost of TTing is probably around US$5-10 or more per transfer which is a lot if you want to transfer a small amount).

Donation amount

Donate $5.00 USD Donate $10.00 USD Donate $20.00 USD Donate $50.00 USD Donate $100.00 USD

PS: There seems to be a problem with the donation amount. If it shows US$5 on the next screen, just change the QUANTITY to make it add up to the amount you want to donate.
PPS: Thanks to those who have already donated very generously through PayPal. I’m pleasantly surprised yet very encouraged. And the Church will be too! :)

A list of damage (and cost) caused by the floods provided by Anne, the translator (note that US$1 = 32 Thai Baht)

1 A fence are damaged now we brought corrugated iron to make the fence temporary from now on.
2 The motortri-cycle for the need peoples in our church 68 motortri-cycle have to fix it because stay in the water for 40 days
it’s cost to repair per motortri-cycle is 3,500 bath total 238,000 bath
3 The water main,pipe it’s break down water can’t run down.
4 The wall must painting new again inside and outside door 15,000 bath
And other rooms inside the church is
5 The kitchen room
5.1 A refrigerator 1 = 16,990 bath
5.2 Machine cold water 3,500*2 = 7,000 bath
5.3 The Kitchen cabinet 5,000*4 = 20,000 bath
5.5 The Gas and Gas tank 2,750*2 = 5,500 bath
5.6 A bowl,cup,pot,pan,glass total =30,000 bath,P.S The stain of the oil can’t remove.
6. Storage room
6.1 Cabinet device performance 5000*2 = 10,000 bath
6.2 Equipment performance 50,000 bath
6.3 Instrument 12,000 bath
7 Praying room
7.1 Clothes closet 4000+5000 = 9,000 bath
7.2 T.V.cabinet 3,500 bath
7.3 Sofa 15,000 bath
7.4 The Table and chair 4000 bath
8 The worship room and office room
8.1 The table computer 2900*2 = 5,800 bath
8.2 Steel filling cabinet 5,000 bath
8.3 Table Mixer 3,500 bath
8.4 The carpet on the stage in worship room 7.50 * 3.20
8.5 The curtain in worship room
8.6 The books cabinet 5000*3 = 15,000 bath
9 The Audio mixer rooms
9.1 sound proot wall lining
9.2 Microphone condenser
9.3 Speaker mix down
9.4 Cutting computer
9.5 table mixer
9.6 Equipment mixer cabinet
9.7 Ground
10.The Toilet
10.1 The door for PVC 1,500*2 = 3,000 bath
11. Air condition repair and change equipment,clean up =11,500 bath

Most of my recent posts don’t have much to do with grace as they have to do with healing (mainly) and other charismatic issues. But I’m still very interested in grace. And even as I explore New Covenant messages and teachings on healing by Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack, Roger Sapp, Bill Johnson, etc.,  I learn more of how grace and God’s love for us is really a foundation for all the healing and supernatural stuff we do. Too heavy a focus on obligations and imperatives and we become sin-conscious, guilty and tend to disqualify ourselves from receiving healing/blessings and moving in the supernatural.

In my many posts on grace and New Creation Church (and Pastor Joseph Prince) in the past, I quoted many people from the Reformed (Calvinistic) tradition in defense of the message of grace. Michael Horton was the first person who actually awakened me to my understanding of grace and the gospel about 10-15 years ago as I grappled with the “Lordship Salvation” controversy. I’ve quoted Reformed authors in defense of my view of grace not because I think the Reformed tradition is very grace-based.  In fact, I’ve always maintained that I think there’s a large section of the Reformed tradition that tends to legalism. I say this from experience because before I read Michael Horton, I read many other Reformed and Puritan authors and they were saying really different things from Michael Horton! So there’s that divide in this tradition.

They say history repeats itself. And it’s true in this matter of grace, antinomianism and legalism. When people accuse New Creation Church and Joseph Prince and other grace-based preachers of “antinomianism”, guess what – it’s happened before. Down the centuries, people have come up on different sides in the Reformed tradition on these matters. And even as I speak, things are hotting up in the blogsphere and in the Reformed world. People (many Reformed Christians themselves) are challenging some Reformed Christians (like Michael Horton) on the way they preach the gospel and grace. Too much grace, they say. Gotta beware of antinomianism. Same charges that have been thrown at Pastor Joseph Prince and many others.

For those interested in grace and want to know what’s been happening in the Reformed world, the rest of the post deals with some stuff among Reformed Christians regarding grace and antinomianism that have been going around the Internet and blogsphere the past week:

It probably started with Jason B. Hood’s article in Christianity Today. Partly in response to Tullian Tchividjian’s article Don’t create a new law for yourself, Jason B. Hood wrote Heresy Is Heresy, Not the Litmus Test of Gospel Preaching in Christianity Today:

Antinomianism is lawlessness, believing and teaching an obligation-free version of Christianity. In certain quarters of the evangelical world, being accused of antinomianism is increasingly considered to be a symptom of a healthy ministry. This belief has a long pedigree; no less an authority than Martyn Lloyd-Jones believed there was “no better test” of gospel fidelity than the accusation of antinomianism.

Basically, Jason challenges Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ belief that there was “no better test” of gospel fidelity than the accusation of antinomianism. I wrote positively about Lloyd-Jones’ belief in my Thoughts on New Creation Church – Accused of Antinomianism post – so obviously I disagree with Jason.

Two good responses to Hood’s article:  The Radical Gospel, Defiant and Free by Dane Ortlund and Two Ways To Realize Radical Obedience: My Indirect Response To Jason Hood by Tullian Tchividjian. I really, really liked portions of Ortlund’s response so I’m going to quote some chunks of it:

The gospel of grace is so radical, so free, so counterintuitive, so defiant of all the entrenched expectations of our law-marinated hearts, that it would be surprising indeed if our preaching of this gospel is not met with the objection anticipated by Paul—“are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (Rom 6:15; cf. 3:8; 2 Pet 3:15–17). The question is not whether Paul stood squarely opposed to “lawlessness” (your definition of antinomianism). On this you and I (and Paul, and Lloyd-Jones) are happily agreed. I am puzzled at the need you feel to explain at length that Paul opposed lawlessness. Of course he did.

…You underscore the way Paul vociferously refuted antinomianism, as if this refutation deflates Lloyd-Jones’s suggestion that charges of antinomianism may be compatible with gospel faithfulness.

Ortlund is spot on here. This is where I think Jason B. Hood misses the point. When Lloyd-Jones or whoever says that good, authentic and biblical gospel preaching will cause you to receive accusations of antinomianism, we don’t mean that we are for antinomianism or lawlessness! No, we aren’t. As Ortlund suggests above, being against antinomianism (lawlessless) is not inconsistent with your gospel preaching receiving charges of antinomianism. I know – this is profound. I’ll give you time to think about that…

We revel in that charge of antinomianism not because we advocate lawlessness, but because the radical preaching of grace and justification by grace alone through faith alone will make people think that we’re advocating lawlessness. But we’re not advocating lawlessness – just that you don’t get saved by your obedience or keeping the law.

Ortlund continues:

The real question is not whether Paul opposed lawlessness, but (1) why the charge of antinomianism was raised in the first place, and (2) how Paul handled it. As for the first question, surely the answer is the sheer gratuity—the puzzling, head-scratching, wonder-producing scandal—of free forgiveness won for us by another. Forgiveness not only of our rotten badness but also our rotten goodness.

…The next and most important question, then, is how this radical obedience and personal holiness are to be encouraged. And here we come to the real crux.

One way is to balance gospel grace with exhortations to holiness, as if both need equal air time lest we fall into legalism on one side (neglecting grace) or antinomianism on the other (neglecting holiness).

The other way, which I believe is the right and biblical way, is so to startle this restraint-free culture with the gospel of free justification that the functional justifications of human approval, moral performance, sexual indulgence, or big bank accounts begin to lose their vice-like grip on human hearts and their emptiness is exposed in all its fraudulence. It sounds backward, but the path to holiness is through (not beyond) the grace of the gospel, because only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart. The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

So the charge of antinomianism was raised in the first place because the radical grace and forgiveness offered through the gospel of Jesus Christ means that we don’t earn our forgiveness but Christ earned it for us! But how did Paul address this charge, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). Did he try to use a bit of fear so that Christians don’t be too lax and continue to sin? Did he try to balance grace with adding some law? That’s what many people think would cause Christians to flee sin. They think that too much grace and you’ll give them a license to sin. We need some godly fear to motivate them to live holy lives! John Wesley wrote:

If we took grace too seriously especially the doctrine of election it would undermine our only basis for pursuing a holy life, fear of punishment and hope of rewards.

But did Paul think like that? Did he try to temper the free love of God with a bit of fear and lots of focus on doing good? No! He actually counters charges of antinomianism by preaching more GRACE! This seems so counter-intuitive and backward. Surely we promote holiness by preaching holiness and the fear of God and all those kinds of things right? WRONG! As Ortlund wrote and this bears repeating again (bolds too),

The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

Or as Michael Horton wrote in The Fear of Antinomianism in response to Hood’s article and also this recent attack on his teachings,

What’s striking is that Paul answers antinomianism not with the law but with more gospel! (Rom. 6:2-4)  In other words, antinomians are not people who believe the gospel too much, but too little!  They restrict the power of the gospel to the problem of sin’s guilt, while Paul tells us that the gospel is the power for sanctification as well as justification.

…The ultimate antidote to antinomianism is not more imperatives, but the realization that the gospel swallows the tyranny as well as the guilt of sin.  It is enough to save Christians even in their failure and not only brings them peace with God in justification, but the only liberation from the cruel oppression of sin.  To be united to Christ through faith is to receive everything that we need not only to challenge legalism but antinomianism as well.

Or as Tchividjian wrote:

The irony, in other words, of gospel-based sanctification is that those who end up obeying more are those who increasingly realize that their standing with God is not based on their obedience, but Christ’s.

To summarize, the true radical biblical preaching of the gospel should (as Paul’s gospel preaching did) attract accusations of antinomianism. That doesn’t mean we’re promoting antinomianism or lawlessness. One can be against lawlessness yet be charged with preaching a gospel that seems to promote lawlessness. Paul is definitely against sin and lawlessness but he understood that true gospel preaching will attract such charges. When he was accused of antinomianism, he didn’t soften the freeness of the love and grace of God in Christ in order to prove that he’s against sin. He didn’t start balancing grace with law. He didn’t pull back and start to preach holiness or fear or whatever. Rather, he preached more grace and gospel. In fact, he preached identity and union with Christ (which is for another post altogether). He preached more indicatives before later going on to imperatives. But he preached enough grace and indicatives before he moved on to the imperatives so his audience clearly knew that all imperatives and calls to holiness are totally grounded in the gospel and grace of Jesus Christ. As Horton wrote:

We need imperatives—and Paul gives them.  But he only does this later in the argument, after he has grounded sanctification in the gospel.

P.S.: For those who have read this blog and my many posts in the past regarding grace, you’d realize that I quote from a lot of Reformed Christians like Michael Horton on grace and the gospel – often in the context of demonstrating that people like Joseph Prince who preach grace and the gospel radically are not alone. However – and I’ve mentioned this before – that doesn’t mean I think Michael Horton and Joseph Prince would have a lot in common or that Joseph Prince is Reformed in theology! Not at all. Well, I do think Joseph Prince is teaching good Reformed and Reformation theology when it comes to the doctrine of justification. But other than that, Michael Horton would be against Joseph Prince’s view on things like prosperity and healing. Michael Horton, contra Joseph Prince but like most Reformed Christians, would also believe in the third use of the law, viewing the 10 Commandments as a guide for the Christian. However, in an essential aspect of the gospel and grace message (and the doctrine of justification, not sanctification), I would argue that Joseph Prince and Michael Horton are pretty much on the same page. In addition, I think both would be in agreement on the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ being central to Christian preaching and the whole Christian life, and the fact that it is the supernatural wisdom and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ (not good advice, psychology, principles or law) that transforms and empowers the Christian to live for God and man.

P.P.S.: The conversation continues with Jason B. Hood responding to Dane Ortlund with his We Who Have the Spirit Have the Power to Change and Dane having the last word with his Major Agreement, Minor Disagreement, Moving On. I hope to address these posts and this topic once again in a future post on grace-empowered sanctification.

We had a great meeting with Mike Reyes on the 30th August. About 40 plus people turned up to hear Mike share about his journey into healing. His journey started like how many of us are starting – by devouring resources on healing. For him, he read books by John G. Lake and Kenneth Hagin. For a lot of us, we’ve been into materials by Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack and Bill Johnson. I haven’t really read much of Hagin because I’m not a huge fan of his (I think Hagin has good stuff on faith, but a lot of the Word of Faith people I think lack in the area of the New Covenant), but I picked up Hagin’s Healing Anointing since Mike mentioned it.

He spoke about the importance of understanding grace in the healing ministry. That’s one thing I love about him – he’s hugely grace-based and understands the New Covenant well. I asked him personally if there’s a place for asking for “more” (e.g. more power and perhaps more anointing, etc.) in the New Covenant, since we already have everything in Christ. His response was that we should ask to “see” more. I think what he was trying to get at is that we already have everything we need in Christ. Therefore, we’re not trying to “get more”, but our prayers ought to be asking God that we “see” more – perhaps more healing, etc. – in our ministry.

Because of Curry and Andrew, I’ve looked at healing mostly from a faith/authority point of view and from New Covenant lenses. Mike’s pretty much in agreement with them on ministering healing from faith/authority. However, Mike also talked about the healing anointing/gift of healing (he thinks both are similar) and differentiated the authority we have to heal from the healing anointing/gift of healing. He said we could raise the dead based on the authority we have – even without the healing anointing/gift of healing. But then, to Mike, there’s also the healing anointing/gift of healing. I’m still thinking about the place of the healing anointing/gift of healing in relation to ministering healing in the New Covenant. Mike agrees almost fully with Hagin’s book on the healing anointing. I’m starting to look into this area of anointing.

Another thing I love about Mike is that he’s not dogmatic and recognizes he’s still learning and doesn’t know some things still. One thing he’s still pondering is whether there’s such a thing as “corporate anointing”. He does believe in faith being raised in a corporate setting, but isn’t sure there is such a thing as a corporate anointing. This is something I’ve been thinking about recently (as I listened to Roger Sapp on creating the right spiritual chemistry for healing) and I’ve been moving to the position Mike is leaning towards now.

Mike mentioned how the people he mentored moved in words of knowledge before he did and he only received it later. He felt God was trying to say to him that the reason is because He wanted to him to know that he should heal whether or not he had words of knowledge. I like that! Very much like Curry and Andrew. That is, there’s no need for words of knowledge before one steps out to pray for healing. If there is, that’s great. If not, we have the Word of God which tells us to lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

Speaking of mentors and mentees, Mike mentioned how he’s happy to see those he mentors outshine him. I think that’s a refreshing way of looking at things – to see people that learn from you go beyond you in terms of moving in God’s power. Wouldn’t that be wonderful if we all had this attitude – we don’t just disciple people but yearn to see them become even greater than us! A leader’s and discipler’s job is successful when those he leads empowers his disciples such that they move beyond him.  There is no place for an “I’m God’s specially anointed one and you guys have to follow me” kind of attitude. Nor is there a place for ego or control here – it’s about God’s kingdom, not about ourselves.

Mike also moves in the prophetic and words of knowledge. Before Mike started praying, he told us that God told him someone had a condition that sounded like Petella. He had no clue what condition that was but heard it from God and remembered it coz it rhymed with Nutella! There was a guy (an American) who actually had that condition and Mike prayed for him. I was told later on by my friend who brought the American that the American actually asked God to tell Mike to call up his condition! I think that’s cool – Mike definitely heard from God and I want to hear God that way! Here, Mike’s praying for Mr. Petella guy:

Mike shared how he got healed of his short-sightedness after taking off his specs and believing by faith that he’s already healed even though the manifestation didn’t occur there and then – he took it by faith (Mark 11:24). After a few months of struggling without his specs (not being able to see the bus numbers, etc.), the healing manifestation came. Here he credits where the Word of Faith teachings have helped. For other areas of his own healing, if the manifestation didn’t occur, he would still take it and consider himself healed by faith – and act as though he’s been healed already. However, for people he’s praying for, he wants to see a manifestation of healing and not just tell them that they are healed by faith!

He talked a bit about inner healing during the Q&A time and his view seems to be quite atypical of the normal charismatic view – which is actually something else I appreciate of him. I’ve reflected a lot upon inner healing and while there are lots of results from your normal inner healing ministry, I don’t find a lot of the “methods” used based on Scriptures. Just as a lot of teaching on physical healing includes a lot of traditional sacred cow beliefs that aren’t found in Scripture, it seems the same for teachings on inner healing which tend to be hugely complicated and very unlike how Jesus ministered. While Mike didn’t elaborate on his views on inner healing, he did say that he believes in it but that we have to be very careful to make sure the practices are in the Bible.

Inner healing is one area that still confuses me a lot. I’ve got a lot of thoughts about it (nothing conclusive). Maybe I’ll write more about it one day. But basically, I feel the traditional inner healing ministries (e.g. Ellel, Elijah House) use very complex methodology that seem to be based on both secular psychology and an Old Covenant mentality.

Mike also talked about ministering healing out of a restful (not works) position. There’s a form or aggressiveness that comes out of rest. I think there’s a real tension there. Curry is strong on authority/aggressiveness and the war-mindset, while Roger Sapp’s ministry is very much focused on rest and the finished work of Christ. Focusing too much on aggressiveness can make one fall into works if one is not careful – “This healing has not manifested because I’ve not been aggressive enough against the devil/sickness!”. On the other hand, perhaps one can focus so much on grace and not understand the violent and aggressive nature of the war.

After attending Bethel Church (Redding), I spent nearly two weeks in Colorado. I’ll share more about that next time but fresh on my memory now is my time in Arkansas for Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training from 8th to 10th July.

I’ll start by saying that my three days in Arkansas for this training contained times that were easily some of the best of my trip – and perhaps in my life – and yet also some of the worst of my trip.

A great bunch of friends

The night before the training, I took a flight from Colorado Springs to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) in Arkansas and arrived about 11pm. Visiting a small city in America without a car sucks. My cab ride to the hotel cost me a good US$40! I prayed that I wouldn’t have to take a cab each day to and from the meeting place as the trip would probably cost about US$30-US$40 each way! Arkansas isn’t exactly a place to go for tourists – the most famous thing about Arkansas is Bill Clinton, who was a former Governor of Arkansas. There’s pretty much nothing to do in that part of Arkansas (except that the headquarters of Walmart is located here) and there isn’t much public transportation. I was hesitant to arrange a trip to come to this training – I knew it’d be very costly (not just air ticket but also hotel and transportation), but I guess I really wanted to come because of the impact Curry has had on my thinking. And I’m definitely glad I came.

On the morning of the first day, I got up early and waited at the hotel reception. I knew that more than 20 people staying at the hotel were going to the training so I was going to ask for a ride. Eventually, I got a ride with a group of four fantastic people (Michael, Ashley, JD and Caleb) – a truly awesome bunch, without whom my time in Arkansas would have been so much less meaningful. They were in their twenties and were from various parts of America – one completed an internship at Mike Bickle’s International House of Prayer (IHOP), another spent the previous month at Bethel Church in Redding and a couple leads a house church in Kansas City. Here they are with Curry:

Throughout our time there, we went everywhere together. We chatted extensively throughout this time about healing and all. We talked about Curry Blake’s teachings and on healing how it compared to Bill Johnson’s – I really enjoyed this part because I had been thinking a lot about all this (like in my previous post) and our conversations helped refine my thinking. They were people who prayed for people on the streets – some with more success and some with less. When Michael, the driver of the car, first heard that I wanted a lift, he asked me if I had uneven legs (legs of uneven length) because he doesn’t allow people with uneven legs to ride in his car. I knew what he meant – if I had uneven legs, he would pray that God would grow and even the length of my legs. He had grown the leg of the receptionist the night before when he first came into the hotel. I was really excited when I heard all this as this was what I wanted: to be around people who do the stuff so that I can be challenged by them and do it together with them. I wanted to do that during the Bethel Conference though there wasn’t much time in between sessions and sessions ended too late. And I really wanted to do it during this Curry Blake training too. I didn’t just want to just learn and not go out to the streets to heal people. God answered my prayer by giving me a great bunch of friends to be with the whole there days.

Conversations about healing and the prophetic

We had great conversations. Conversations I dream of having with friends, but I don’t have many Christian friends into healing and the few into healing are not familiar with Curry Blake or what he teaches. We had very constructive and thought-provoking discussions after the sessions. We analyzed Curry’s teaching (agreed and disagreed here and there), honestly wondered why some of us had so little success, wondered how we could grow in this area, etc. One guy talked about how when he was at Bethel, some students used the power of God to stick coins on the wall! I think this is probably some stuff students do and not endorsed by the leadership and I think it’s probably an immature way to use the power of God, if it’s indeed the power of God – see this video by a bunch of guys I met and stayed with after my time at Arkansas and before I returned to Singapore.

I talked with them about my struggles in moving in the prophetic and one of them shared about how a friend of his made him move out in faith by telling someone that he was gifted in the prophetic – which pressured him to step out and listen to God to give that person a word on the spot. He learned through being pushed to take risks and he suggested that I give him a word there and then. I turned the tables and asked him to give me a word (ya, I wasn’t willing to take risks in this area – I need to learn to do that!). He gave me a word and it was a pretty accurate word of knowledge. Another guy also told me about a picture he saw of me and that was pretty accurate too.

Pastor Joseph Prince in America

Every city I visited in the States, I was pleasantly surprised to meet people who love Pastor Joseph Prince’s preaching (they watch it on TV).  The same was the case at Curry’s training. I’ve probably encountered about 15 people in total throughout my trip in five different cities (Redding, Denver, Colorado Springs, Bella Vista in Arkansas and San Jose). When they know I’m from Singapore, the first thing they ask is if I know Pastor Joseph Prince! One lady told me she wakes up 4:30am every morning just to listen to him. Another tells me of how she and a relative of hers have been healed through listening and applying the message (of confessing our righteousness of God in Christ). Another spoke of how he was liberated from condemnation and guilt. And another that both Curry Blake and Joseph Prince were his favourite preachers. By the way, I heard that Curry Blake is trying to hook up with Joseph Prince / New Creation Church and I think Andrew Wommack also. If this does materialize that would be super awesome! I’m hoping that both Curry Blake and Andrew Wommack would come to Singapore one day!

Success rates in healing

I don’t want to be a person big on numbers, but numbers are important. I don’t want to overemphasize numbers, yet on the other hand I don’t want to understate the importance of numbers. While I don’t like it when a Church keeps on focusing on numbers, I think it’s equally wrong to totally neglect numbers. To me, seeing the fruit is in a sense seeing the numbers.

Before I attended Curry Blake’s training, I read people saying that he had 85% success rate in healing, which was supposedly one of the highest around. During the training, one of my friends asked Curry what his percentage of healing was. My friend was uncomfortable with Curry preaching such an absolute message of healing without any compromise or toning down of how we have the power in Christ to heal all the sick and raise the dead, etc. So he asked Curry what his success rate was – believing it has to be 100% if he’s to preach such an uncompromising message of healing. Curry’s response was that he has between 94% to 96% success rate.

I’m not going to put down Bethel because I’ve learned so much from them and Bill Johnson and gang first got me into all of this. And I’ll continue to learn from them but I also want to learn from others and finally evaluate what I’ve learned by going to the Bible. What I heard through talking to some people is that Bethel’s Healing Rooms sees only about 5% success rate. While this is through some pretty good sources, feel free to take this with a bit of healthy skepticism (I do) – after all, in a sense this is hearsay. I’d also do the same with Curry’s supposed success rate. I wouldn’t want to compare Curry’s success rate with that of Bethel’s because besides not being 100% sure of the exact figures, I also think context is important. Furthermore, I didn’t see a great deal of healing during Curry’s conference – something I’ll write about later in this series of posts.

However, I’ve talked to at least four people in the States who got started in this healing business having been influenced by Bill Johnson and Bethel. But the moment they latched onto Curry’s teachings, they saw a dramatic increase in the success rate of their healings, which they attribute to understanding healing in the way Curry teaches – as opposed to the way Bethel and others teach.

Like I said above, I don’t want to be putting Bethel down and it’s not my intention to create division and pit Curry Blake against Bill Johnson. However, as I’ve suspected since I heard Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) mp3s online, there are definite differences in teachings. And Curry’s teachings have not only caused my faith to increase and inspired me to start stepping out more and more, but it’s also dramatically transformed the thinking and rate of success of others.

Dogmatic Curry

Curry is definitely dogmatic about what he believes in. I’ve listened to a few of his DHTs where you’ll hear him disagreeing with a lot of other ministers and popular teachings on healing – he’s not afraid to be outspoken and dogmatic about it. Being dogmatic isn’t necessarily bad. I’m generally not attracted to people who are too dogmatic, but I think Blake makes a lot of good sense and his message needs to be heard. A person being dogmatic wouldn’t make me not hear his message. Prophets were/are dogmatic and they were not nice people. During my trip, I heard two leaders who were prophetic in the sense of speaking forth an important but unpopular message that the church needs to hear. One was Curry and the other was David Watson, which I’ll write about in future. Like prophets of old, they have strong convictions (often politically incorrect) and tend to either piss people off or draw strong followers to their messages.

As Curry mentioned, one of the most powerful and faith-filled ministers, Smith Wigglesworth, was not a nice person and he didn’t have many visitors or friends. After all, these people aren’t out to win friends and be likable, but to speak the truth. Speaking the truth often means going against accepted wisdom of the day and being politically incorrect. Curry would probably acknowledge that he’s not a super friendly and sociable guy. He may come across quite arrogant to some and put a lot of people off with what he says and his teachings, but I’ve heard many have accepted his teachings after strongly disagreeing with them initially (because they went against a lot of things they believed in) and struggling with it for some time. I’ll definitely be writing more about Curry’s unique teachings on healing on this blog, some of which I’ve already touched upon in my previous post on two ways to minister.

Bethel’s Kingdom Culture Conference is over and I’m in Denver now for another two conferences. I’ve had about an average of 4 hours of sleep over the past few nights! This trip has been and will be fun and exciting, but I don’t exactly have a relaxing schedule! Not complaining though! :)

Where do I start about writing about the conference? Let me just start and see where this goes. First, I wish I was able to spend a longer time at Bethel. I’ve told friends many times that if I were like 10 years younger, I’d love to attend the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) for at least a year, if not longer. Many people ask me why I don’t consider going to a Bible College or Theological Seminary. That was a dream of mine for many years beginning about 13 years ago. My response would be that the past 15 years of reading, writing, learning, serving, being in different churches and exploring different Christian traditions have been the greatest Bible College experience for me. I’ve definitely learned more through all this than I would from 3-4 years of traditional theological studies. I don’t need more of such knowledge. If I were to consider any “Bible College” or ministry school, it would be BSSM or Randy Clark’s Global School of Supernatural Ministry or some place similar like Andrew Wommack’s Charis Bible College. Once one has seen and heard the stuff that goes on in places like Bethel, I don’t see how one can go back to a form of Christianity that is without power!

Why would I want to spend precious hours reading, learning and writing a paper about some moot academic and intellectual point of Christianity or theology when I could be learning about how to activate my faith and move in healing and the prophetic? Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve spent the last 15 years reading a lot and learning so much. It’s served me well. Early on in my Christian life I struggled in relation to the issue of grace and that led me to believe in the message of grace and ignore a lot of “mixture” I hear from the pulpit. But even during this time, there were things I just wouldn’t go into because I think it’s just too academic and irrelevant to my Christian life and me making a difference in the lives of others. I’m glad for what I’ve learned and I think there’s probably a place for all that. But definitely not at the expense of seeing power in one’s Christian life. Why can’t I do what Jesus and the Apostles did? It’s easy for me to make up an excuse and say that all that probably isn’t for today because after all I haven’t seen all that taking place very often. You hear it preached, but when it comes to demonstration time, reality doesn’t live up to the ideal. I know charismatic Christianity. I was transformed in a Pentecostal church 15 years ago and so I’ve been a charismatic at heart my whole Christian life. And yet, hey, I haven’t seen much power even in charismatic churches. Christianity has to be filled with the power of God to transform lives – setting people free from bondages, healing of sicknesses, etc. This was the kind of power that Jesus and the Apostles demonstrated. I know the last few sentences may be a bit judgemental and critical of many churches and Christian traditions (hey, I’ve always acknowledged I’m fallible and so this is my own fallible and biased perspective – so those who disagree with me have gotta forgive me!), but after all my years of experience in different Christian traditions, the kind of Christianity in a church like Bethel, while not perfect, is very close to what I think Christianity should be like.

I would never say that God is totally absent from any Christian church or tradition. I think there’s truths deposited in all traditions. And I don’t think Bethel’s form of Christianity is perfect or that they can’t learn anything from other traditions. But I think Bethel has got a lot of things going right for them and I’m very impressed. They are very well grounded in the grace and love of God – and the importance of knowing one’s identity in Christ. Joseph Prince’s books are sold in their bookstore and some conference attendees I spoke to know and love Joseph Prince’s stuff. As I mentioned before, I first heard of teachings on the love (grace) of the Father from the Toronto Blessing (some call it the “Father’s blessing”) 15 years ago. This whole focus on the love and grace of God may not have originated from Toronto, but I know the segment of Christianity that some call the Renewal movement sees all this (the love and grace of God) as totally foundational to all that they are doing. It is not just a teaching, but a message that undergirds everything they do.

Yet Bethel goes beyond just the grace message – without leaving it behind. One of my favourite messages during the conference was Kris Vallotton’s afternoon message on Friday. He spoke about believing in people. By the way, Kris’ life message is all about our identity in Christ and how we’re children of the King and thus royalty. He came from a really terrible family background (with unloving and even abusive? step-fathers) and thus he knows the importance and transforming power of experiencing the Father’s love and knowing who we are in Christ – which is really what the grace message is all about at its core. Anyway, Kris’ message was a very moving and inspirational message about how we ought to believe in people and love them even if they don’t deserve our love – just as God loved us even when we didn’t deserve it. And through believing in people and loving them despite their faults, we help them achieve the wonderful destiny God has for them. I’m starting to like Kris more as a preacher and communicator.

I loved his message, but here’s the point I want to make – which I’ll develop slowly. New Creation’s messages are focused solely on the grace of God (the indicatives of Scripture). Most other churches like City Harvest Church would focus primarily on what we ought to do for God (the imperatives of Scripture). I’ve argued on this blog (see here) that our preaching should not focus solely on the imperatives of Scripture – yet it also shouldn’t focus solely on the indicatives of Scripture. If I had to choose between a church that focuses solely on the indicatives and one that focuses solely on the imperatives, I’d choose the former – that’s why I appreciate New Creation so much. But I’ve also argued that I think Paul and the Scriptures don’t do an either-or thing. They talk about both. And it’s not just about preaching both in any fashion. The important thing is getting the relationship between the two correct. The imperatives ought to be grounded in the indicatives – the power to live for God and love Him and people comes from knowing how much God loves us. That’s the way Paul wrote his letters – e.g. Ephesians 4-6 (imperatives) come after Ephesians 1-3 (indicatives).

I don’t think we should ever have the imperatives as the dominant focus of our ministry or preaching. If we always hear about what we have to do for God and what God expects of us, we’re not going to live victoriously. And the sad thing is that most churches do preach a steady diet of imperatives after imperatives. That’s why New Creation exists and is so popular – that’s why so many lives have been transformed there. On the other hand, I also believe that we shouldn’t just focus on indicatives always. That’s equally unbalanced (by the way, this has nothing to do with mixing law and grace for I’m not saying we have to balance law and grace!). Some may argue that preaching the indicatives and grace will automatically result in transformed lives. That is, we don’t need to hear preaching on the imperatives because that will happen automatically. Well, I totally agree that preaching grace will transform lives. But Paul obviously thought that something more was needed in his teaching/preaching than mere indicatives because he didn’t just write Ephesians 1-3, but wrote Ephesians 4-6 too!

Now, my point is that there has to be a way that avoids both extremes of focusing almost solely on the indicatives or focusing almost solely on the imperatives. Could we preach in a way where we talk about what we should do for God yet do it in such a non-condemning way that people are inspired to live for God and become more like Christ? If in our minds the greatest accomplishment in preaching is to ensure that legalism and condemnation is totally avoided, then we’ll constantly make sure that our messages are totally devoid of any form of imperative because that could be dangerous – as is commonly thought. But I think Paul saw it differently. Constantly on his mind wasn’t the fact that legalism and condemnation need to be avoided. Yes, the grace and love of God is a totally fundamental message we need to keep returning to. There will never be a time when we never need to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, there are many other things in Scripture that would not be touched upon if we only talk about the gospel and the grace and love of the Father. To be sure, these (love and grace) ought to always undergird every other message. But we don’t have to be afraid of preaching the imperatives, or the “law of Christ”, as some people call it. These have nothing to do with the law of Moses. In the New Covenant context, there are lots of exhortations and imperatives made by the Apostles – and these are made to New Covenant Christians! Preaching them isn’t mixture if we properly bring out the fact that they do not save one and that the empowering to do them is found in the gospel and the grace and love of the Father.

When I hear messages from Kris Vallotton (e.g. like the above) or Bill Johnson or Andrew Wommack, I don’t feel condemned. They preach messages that touch on the imperatives and other things that may not be directly related to grace, yet it’s not in a condemning or negative way because the message of the grace and love of God (indicatives) is always there empowering our actions (imperatives). In fact, such messages inspire me to become more like Christ and I’ve learned tons from them.

I see in Bethel a church totally immersed in the grace and love of the Father and one that prioritizes intimacy with God and prizes His presence. There’s no hint of legalism, serving God through self-efforts or exhausted worn out Christians there. Messages aren’t focused solely on winning the world or serving God. But along with a culture that values intimacy with a loving and gracious Father and His transforming presence is a strong belief that we receive from God in order to bless others and the community. And the members actually do that as anyone who knows a bit about Bethel would know. Many non-Christians I talked to know Bethel and have only positive things to say about the church. They know the people are blessing the community and doing good. Members go out to pray for people and demonstrate the power of the Kingdom of God. They do so not out of obligation, hope of reward or fear of punishment, but out of an overflowing of God’s love for them and in anticipation and expectation that God would demonstrate the power of His love to the lost. I can’t help but feel this culture of joy and excitement. It’s a culture that not only believes in receiving from God, but also in giving it all away. It’s emphasized there that God doesn’t show His power and love so they can keep it for themselves or keep it in the Church – but so that they can give it to the world. Freely you have received, freely give. It’s such an exciting culture and perspective they have.

So here’s a church totally saturated with the grace and love of the Father, yet one impacting its community and the world in a tremendous way. It shows that it’s possible for a church to be grounded in the radical grace of God in a way that doesn’t result in passivity on the part of members, but rather in them freely giving away what they’ve freely received.

Throughout this conference, I tasted a form of charismatic Christianity quite different from the kind in New Creation Church. In fact, Vineyard and many charismatics would differ from New Creation on things like physical healing, inner healing, prophecy and deliverance. Not a huge difference because New Creation is still a charismatic church, but a big enough difference for people to note that New Creation does do things quite differently.

I think it’s what Pastor Prince and others (maybe pastor Henry?) have experienced early on in their charismatic Christian lives that have shaped their thinking and practice today. And I’ve heard enough through Pastor Prince’s sermons to know that they are wary of what they feel are extreme charismatic practices – he often makes fun of and disagrees with some common charismatic beliefs and practices related to prophecy, demonization and healing. I appreciate the discernment they’ve tried to show as there needs to be a lot of discernment in the charismatic movement! I do agree with some of the criticisms Pastor Prince has put forward and am challenged to think more about others which I may not agree with. Sometimes, however, I do feel that he’s tended to over-react in the opposite direction, but I’ll not be dogmatic about my disagreements because I’ve still much to learn and am open to learn from him and others.

So while I’m certainly no expert in all of this, in this post and the next one I’ll write down some thoughts (and questions) that have been on my mind:

I think one of the major differences I see between New Creation Church on the one hand and say Vineyard churches and churches like Bethel Church in Redding (pastored by Bill Johnson) on the other is in terms of equipping. John Wimber, a founder of the Vineyard, believed that “everyone gets to play” – i.e. lay people get to do the stuff like healing and deliverance and not just pastors or leaders. John Wimber and Vineyard thus believe in equipping and teaching the whole body of Christ to move in the gifts of the Spirit. They don’t believe we need to go to some anointed leader for ministry because God can use everyone and each of us (not just leaders or pastors) should seek to be equipped so that we can bless others. In the same way, Bethel Church is famous for equipping people to move in the Spirit – not just within the church walls, but especially so outside the church walls as in these testimonies of healing happening in a grocery store and at Disneyland. This equipping emphasis is the same for Curry Blake’s ministry.

New Creation Church is probably the best in the world for the preaching of the message of grace, but it’s very much focused on one person and the teaching/preaching gift of one person. To me, this has resulted in the neglect of equipping the lay people to move in the various spiritual gifts. To be sure, New Creation doesn’t believe that only Pastor Prince or the pastors are anointed to heal, but that every member can heal. But they definitely don’t equip them in this area or provide opportunities for members to practice the various miraculous spiritual gifts.

Through speaking to many New Creation members (past and present) and through my own experience in different cell groups, leaders and the members aren’t encouraged to move in the spiritual gifts, nor is time made available for it – the main focus of the cells is the teaching. Pastor Prince and other top leaders seem to be able to move in the various gifts, but it seems to stop there and not go down to the cell leaders or even more importantly the cell members.

Pastor Prince has mentioned before (something like) that there’s no need to teach or learn about hearing God’s voice because we all do hear God’s voice if we’re Christians. In a sense, that’s totally true. I believe we all do hear God’s voice. But that’s not really the issue. When Christians say they don’t hear God’s voice, the problem is that they find it difficult to distinguish between their thoughts, the devil’s voice and God’s voice and many Christians (like myself) desire to grow in this area and move in the prophetic gift (following 1 Cor. 14:1). There is a need and a place for teaching on this subject and encouraging Christians to practice hearing (discerning) God’s voice for it’s not something that happens automatically. So I disagree when the need to be taught about hearing (discerning) God’s voice (and the need for practice) is dismissed so easily and Christians are not equipped to move in this area.

The same for prophecy. I think it can definitely be unhealthy if everyone goes to seek out another person who is gifted in prophecy for a word for their lives, but the solution isn’t to neglect prophesying (1 Cor. 14:1). The potential abuse of a gift should not result in the neglect of it, but rather the proper and biblical use of it.

My idea of a local church isn’t that of a group of people centering around the gifts of one person, or even the gifts of the leaders. Every member should be equipped – they should be taught to pursue them and they should be given opportunities to develop and practice them and move in their various gifts in ministry to the rest of the members. I mentioned before what happened in a service at Church of Our Saviour (COOS). I think it’s wonderful when the youth were used by God through Words of Knowledge and Gifts of Healings to heal the sick. That’s the body of Christ functioning – each playing a part. No one is a spectator when everyone is equipped to move in the gifts God has given them. But first they have to be intentionally equipped.

The many practical things I’ve learned since the conference have all been due to the leaders I’ve encountered understanding the importance of equipping the body of Christ. The leaders I’ve met have all acknowledged that we can all do the same things that they do. They’ve acknowledged that we all have different gifts which we can use to serve each other.

To be sure, understanding the Word is important for a Christian’s growth, but there’s more to doing church and blessing others than understanding the Word of God.

In the next post, I’ll share a bit of my thoughts on common charismatic practices like generational curses, conditions for healing, inner healing, intercessory prayer and the desperate attitude (for God’s presence and just more of Him) common in many charismatic churches – as it relates to New Creation view of things.

On to the conference and things after: The day before the conference started, I ended up bringing the three speakers to New Creation’s healing service by Pastor Henry (24th February). My friend who organized the event mentioned that they had heard about New Creation and wanted to attend the healing service. After all, the whole conference they were doing was all about healing (inner, physical) and this was the area that they were into. The leader of the group didn’t really know about Pastor Prince but wanted to check out New Creation because one of his close friends highly recommended Pastor Prince’s ministry, mentioning him as the “Apostle of grace”. Since no one was actually going to bring them to New Creation, I gladly gathered some friends to show them some Singaporean hospitality :) Of course, I was also greedy – greedy to learn :) I wouldn’t have passed up the chance of getting to know these people from whom I could learn much in the things of the Spirit. After all, I would never be able to get to know the leaders from my own 20,000+ member church and learn much from them personally. And New Creation did things quite differently from the typical charismatic church. The leaders of the cell groups I’ve been to were never taught to move in the Spirit in the kind of way I’d be learning in the conference – more on this in the next post.

So anyway, having got to know the speakers for just a few minutes and lining up for tickets to get into the main auditorium at around 5pm+, Ron (the leader of the three and the one with healing gifts) asks there and then in the queue if he could pray for a friend who was clearly in pain in her foot. He prayed a short prayer for healing, asked if my friend got better (there was a bit of improvement) and then asked if she would be willing to spend about 5-10 more minutes so he could pray for her complete healing. I was quite impressed. This is what we Christians should be doing, isn’t it? Praying for the sick and believing God will heal as we pray. We don’t need to wait to get into a healing meeting to receive our healing. And we could pray for healing anywhere. And Ron prayed really believing that God could heal my friend there and then. And even if it didn’t happen the first time he prayed, he believed that the healing would come as he continued to minister to her and pray for her in the next 5-10 minutes.

More on the pain in the foot and healing later, but during dinner in the food court at the basement, the speakers started ministering inner healing and deliverance to my friend. The food court was getting crowded and this was getting exciting. Exciting because I was already beginning to be in the midst of people “doing the stuff”, as John Wimber of Vineyard would say – i.e. doing the stuff Jesus did like healing and deliverance, etc. I wanted to learn and I was already learning even before the conference started. And this was a beautiful start to the rest of the week when I had ample opportunities to learn – observe, ask questions and practice.

It’s not that I had never encountered all this before. I had been a charismatic Christian for 15 years and had been to many charismatic services and attended a few charismatic churches. I had been to teaching sessions and knew a bit about all this stuff. But I never really practiced all this. Partly because even in the charismatic churches I attended all this was never a huge part of what a Christian ought to know and practice. Maybe the leaders knew and practiced all the stuff, but the laypeople were never equipped to move in this area.

And I learned a lot also because the group was really small. The average number of people who attended the 9 sessions over the three days was probably around 10-12 per session. This allowed me lots of time between and after sessions and even after the conference ended to get to know the speakers personally and to learn from them. Not only was I able to pick their brains and ask them hard questions, but Ron was like a mentor to me during this short time. He didn’t just do the stuff and pray for people. He got me to practice what I was learning. He got me to pray for the sick and taught me along the way. He even had little debrief sessions after ministering to people and explained what happened and why he did things the way he did. It was altogether an awesome learning experience that a layperson like me would never have been able to get if the conference was attended by 50 or 100 or thousands of people.

One of the highlights of the conference for me was on the first day when Ron started to pray for people. There was some time left after the teaching session and he decided to call people up to pray for them to show us how he ministered and prayed for people. I was the third person called up and he prayed for me and spoke words over my life that resonated deeply with my heart and were quite accurate. I didn’t feel anything great and there wasn’t any great manifestation. But I was touched by the words he said and felt it was God affirming my gifts. It wasn’t just some general words that could apply to everyone, but the words were quite specific and I knew he couldn’t have known them apart from really tapping into what God was saying. I’ve never had anyone speak over me like that. Maybe I’ve had some general words of encouragement which I don’t remember and which didn’t impact me that much, but nothing that touched my heart like this.

I also had other words spoken to me during the conference. Some are accurate, some not so and some I don’t know. But I’ve recorded in my prayer journal all the words spoken over me and will continue to pray through them and am open to see how God speaks to me through them.

The day after the conference, which was a Sunday, two of the Speakers wanted to visit Church Of Our Saviour (COOS). Unsurprising since COOS is definitely a church to visit with regards to healing – they have been greatly influenced by Bill Johnson and his church – Bethel Church. That Sunday, the focus of the service was on youth and youth ministry. Before the sermon, about 20 youth or so gathered in front of the church and gave Words of Knowledge regarding what God wanted to minister to. Many people went to the front and were touched by God as the youth prayed for them. The senior pastor, Derek Hong, also had this prophetic vision of someone nearly drowning years ago and God wanting to heal the person of that experience. This was of course a very specific vision and someone came forward to him to be prayed for. It was a great experience to see God using young people. I dunno if they allow the gifts to flow like this every meeting, but I think it’s wonderful to see lay people encouraged to practice these gifts and God using them to touch lives.

During the conference, I got to know a young guy who’s hoping to go to Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry this year. (I’m very envious of him – if I were much younger, I would probably go and who knows, God may make a way for me to go one day!) He’s a young prophet who’s being mentored by Rusty Russell. After the conference, I met up with him and talked a lot to him about the prophetic. He introduced me to a cell group he got to know and has been attending recently. The leader of this group is also a student of Rusty and was a cell leader at New Creation many years ago. His cell broke up when he left the church but recently many of them got back together and have been meeting at least once a month. It’s not your typical cell as the focus is just seeking God, receiving from Him and prophesying – and encouraging everyone to move out in the gifts and minister to each other. I’ve been there about twice and had some words spoken over me. I’ve also spoken a lot to the people there about the prophetic and healing. I’m quite excited to continue to attend and learn to move in the Spirit there.

Since the conference, I’ve been mostly attending New Life Vineyard (where the conference was held in) in the mornings and New Creation in the afternoons. New Life Vineyard is a really small church of about 10-15 people. I’ve been experiencing first hand how Vineyard does things and I quite like it. It’s nice to have a small community too, something I’ve been looking for for a while. I’m still not sure if I’ll attend this church but will see how God leads. I also don’t know if I’ll continue to attend New Creation because it can get quite tiring to attend two churches. If I’ve learned anything the past two months, it’s that I need to spend less time outside and more time with God alone if I’m to know more more intimately, hear His voice and move in the Spirit. Even if I don’t go to NCC so often, I’ll still continue to buy Prince’s sermon CDs. Anyway, the past two months or so I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a few Vineyard pastors (from here, Australia and Thailand) and have been asking lots of questions, discussing and learning a lot – and doing a bit of practical stuff too.

A bit about the Vineyard church association and tradition. Not that this conference was a Vineyard conference, but since the model of charismatic Christianity promoted during the conference I think is very Vineyard-like (and though two of the three speakers are not from Vineyard, they do have relationships with Vineyard churches) and it was held in a Vineyard Church, I thought I’d write a bit about it. I mentioned here that I thought John Wimber, one of the founders of Vineyard, would probably be remembered as the most balanced, respected and loved charismatic Christian of modern Christianity. I followed Vineyard from the earliest years of my Christian life until Wimber died in 1997. Vineyard’s worship at that time was awesome and like what Hillsong is today. But what was really so wonderful about Vineyard is that it brought together the best of the charismatic and non-charismatic Christian worlds by introducing a more biblically balanced form of charismatic Christianity to the Christian world. And this is what I’ve always admired of the Vineyard. It was probably them that stirred my desire for many years to become a Bible College lecturer specializing in bringing together the best of both the charismatic and non-charismatic worlds. But I have to acknowledge that from after Wimber’s death in 1997 until the conference, I hadn’t really kept in touch with what had been happening in the Vineyard. After 1997, I moved more into Reformed theology, then social justice issues and emerging church Christianity, then missions, then New Creation’s grace teachings – though all the while never forsaking my interest in charismatic Christianity. I’m pleasantly surprised that Vineyard has been going strong all these years and that one of their distinctives besides “doing the stuff” is their passion for social justice. There also seems to be some Vineyard leaders/churches quite progressive in their theology and into the emerging church movement – which I’m a bit surprised (pleasantly, I guess) because this means there’s a bit of diversity in the Vineyard. I wonder how the Vineyards which appreciate the emerging church tradition combine that with “doing the stuff”.

One thing I really appreciate about the Vineyard besides their balanced charismatic practices is that they are very strong on grace. In fact, my first encounter of teachings on the Father’s love came from Vineyard. The Toronto Blessing (closely related to the Vineyard because the church associated with it was once a Vineyard) I think was really an emotional/inner healing revival. Unlike many other revivals based on a strong conviction of sin, repentance and weeping, the Toronto Blessing’s characteristics were the focus on the Father’s love and laughter. Lives were transformed through encountering the love of the Father healing the wounds of people. And so the Vineyard form of charismatic Christianity is very grace-based and I was very happy when Ron (though not a Vineyard pastor) preached during the conference that Christians have even their future sins forgiven – good stuff! Of course, Ron just said that that’s no big deal as that’s mere classical Christianity – and the guy has a PhD from Oxford in Historical Theology so I think he should know! But still many Christians still don’t live with assurance that their future sins are also forgiven.

Yes, Ron moves in the Spirit and has a PhD from Oxford in theology – I really, really like that combination! We need more of such people strong in the Word and Spirit. I’m going to stop this post here because it’s getting long. If anyone is still following, my next and probably final post in this series would kind of bring together all my experiences regarding healing and the prophetic and offer some thoughts and questions – especially regarding the differences in charismatic beliefs and practices between New Creation and Vineyard (which I’ll take to represent many other charismatic churches).

I only started writing in this blog a lot about New Creation Church and theology related to grace the past 2 years or so. That’s because I started attending New Creation more regularly 2 years ago. I felt that because of my theological struggles and interest in the topic of grace (Lordship Salvation, etc.) that started years ago, I had something to contribute to the discussion and so I started writing all these posts related to grace. And the more I started to attend New Creation and the more I started to learn from Pastor Prince and New Creation and the more I started reflecting on everything I’m hearing at Church, the more I blogged on these topics.

But if anyone ventures beyond my blog posts on New Creation and grace to the other parts of this website with all my previous articles and biographical writings, you’ll see a different side of me. That’s the social justice / missions side which I’m hugely passionate about. Maybe it’s taken a bit of a backseat the past 2 years as I focus more on grace. But I’ve also purposely not mentioned a lot of things happening in my life on the blog because I know how controversial it is to write posts about New Creation. Most of the posts about New Creation’s theology has been more positive in nature. And New Creation Church is still very far from being accepted in many places – though things are slowly changing. Therefore, I’ve kept my identity mostly a secret here and not written about other aspects of my life because many Christians still can’t accept someone from New Creation.

I know a lot of people wonder why the name of this website is stillhaventfound. After all, haven’t I already found everything in Christ? Well, the reason for the name is here so I won’t elaborate further suffice to say that the reason has to do with my interest in social justice and seeing this world become a better place – and of course, Christians have a role to play in that. The truth is that a large part of my life concerns social justice (and also missions). Read my past articles on social justice issues like poverty (e.g. Encountering Peter Singer which explains my view of what the Bible says regarding helping the poor) and you’ll understand why some friends who know me from old wonder if I’ve lost that passion for social justice. They wonder about this because recently I’ve been writing so much positively about New Creation and grace and the New Creation message seems so self-centered and prosperity-centered and a contradiction to the altruistic, other-centered, social justice mindset I’d been advocating in my previous writings. What gives? Have I completely changed my mind on this issue?

Well, a big “NO”! The purpose of this whole post is actually to explain how I reconcile my recent writings in defense of New Creation’s theology with my old writings on social justice and helping the poor. To start, let me first talk a bit about the issue of prosperity (and blessings). I believe God desires to prosper us but it’s not always true that those who don’t prosper lack faith. I think a lot of it has to do with unjust social structures and I’ll leave a part of it to the mystery of God. But this doesn’t mean we have no responsibility to exercise faith and ask and believe – faith plays a role and a lot of times we don’t get because we don’t ask. (Regarding the issue of suffering, I’m still reflecting how that fits into the Christian’s life).

I’ve never written much in support of New Creation’s view of prosperity. Nor have I written much against it. I strongly disagree with using so much money on a new building, but what would I know anyway and you can still respect and honour the leadership while disagreeing with certain things.

I’m against Christians living extravagant lifestyles. I dunno about New Creation’s view on this. But I disagree with Christians being too rich not because it’s a sin to be rich. It’s definitely not! It’s just that it’s way better (i.e. more loving) to live more simply and give your additional money to bless those who need it. But if prosperity preachers could be faulted for living too extravagantly and not thinking about better ways of using their money (instead of using it on themselves) like using their money to bless others and reach the lost, let me just say that to be fair the same accusation can to be leveled against most Christians in the developed world – most of whom are middle-class and can easily do more to help the poor and contribute to missions. But of course we don’t look at it this way, do we :) We love to take pot shots at churches like New Creation and City Harvest (which, by the way, easily talks more about prosperity than New Creation), but the truth is that all Christians fall short of the ideal.

I may not be entirely comfortable with New Creation’s teaching on prosperity, but it’s not because they are like the extreme prosperity (tele-evangelistic) churches / preachers. They aren’t – they are much, much more moderate and those who lump New Creation in with the other prosperity churches / preachers have no clue what they are talking about. And there happens to be many such heresy hunters and self-proclaimed watchmen of God out there who have no understanding of the nuances involved, but just love to criticize New Creation and pronounce guilt by association. No doubt New Creation would claim to be of the Word of Faith (Prosperity) movement, but they are of a very different kind. New Creation doesn’t continually ask for money or manipulate Christians to give (see here). If it does, I wouldn’t be there listening to Pastor Prince and I would suspect the majority of the church wouldn’t be there too. We’re there because of the strong preaching on Jesus and God’s grace and love and this helps us see the beauty of Jesus. That’s why we’re there for.

Yet still I’m not entirely comfortable with some of the teachings on prosperity in New Creation. But neither am I entirely comfortable with the Methodist Churches (English speaking) which contain easily the richest Christians in Singapore. The preaching may not be prosperity-centered one bit, but it’s not about the preaching, but the lifestyles of the Christians.

Here’s the kind of prosperity teaching I believe in. While New Creation isn’t like the extreme prosperity preachers, I don’t think it’s up to this level yet either. I’ve spoken approvingly of Andrew Wommack’s view of prosperity (Wommack comes from the Word of Faith / Prosperity tradition) when he said:

Prosperity is how much of a blessing are you to someone else. That’s the way that God evaluates it.

When you get to where the priority on your finances isn’t for you, but rather it’s to bless someone else, then God will assume the liability of taking care of you.

I’ve also quoted approvingly of P.G. Vargis (another prosperity dude):

I live a simple life. Do not misunderstand me – I am not preaching a poverty gospel, neither do I practice it… I spend money if it is really necessary. I have not saved any thing [sic], money, land or a house for me or my children. Whatever I get for the ministry is put into the ministry… Live a simple life and give all the rest to the mission – that is my policy.

I think the above two people are wonderful representations of the so-called Prosperity Gospel. They may preach that God wants to prosper us, but that’s not wrong when they truly believe in prosperity for a purpose, money for missions and blessed to be a blessing. Now, these are wonderful phrases that many prosperity churches like to throw around, but I know very few that actually truly believe them to the extent that it’s so clear through how their lives are lived. From what I know of the above two people (admittedly not a lot so I may be wrong), I think they truly try to live those phrases out – at least to a much greater extent than other Christians, whether from the prosperity tradition or not.

In my opinion, a person who truly believes all the above phrases would live a simple life, just as P.G. Vargis put it. As I argued here,

In the light of almost unending poverty in the world and endless opportunities to help the poor, what justification do we have to live a luxurious lifestyle when by cutting down on such a lifestyle we could bless and love the poor?

I would add to the above giving to missions to reach the lost – not just helping the poor. To me, then, living up to the ideal that God calls us would require us to live a simple life. This doesn’t earn us favour or blessings or salvation for that is all for us in Christ. We ought to strive to such a life simply because we desire to love God and people. Even if we fail, that’s OK. We all will. God won’t punish us. There’s always grace available. So this isn’t something that’s meant to be legalistic. We will never attain the ideal because we’re not perfect. But, on the other hand, let us not deceive ourselves to think that we can be passive and it doesn’t matter how we live. We still ought to strive to be Christlike in every way, even though we will fall short. In this regard, prosperity church or not, we’ve all failed. The majority (if not all) of middle-class Christians in Singapore have fallen short of this ideal, whether your church is for or against the so-called prosperity gospel.

So me being in New Creation doesn’t actually reflect that I’ve changed my view from old that we Christians as a whole have failed terribly in helping the poor and reaching the lost and that we can and should do a whole lot more in this area. I still believe that. If I were in any other church in Singapore, I’d still be faced with Christians who live the middle-class, me-centered lifestyle, in spite of what is preached in the church.

(Perhaps the Christian tradition that most identifies with social justice and poverty issues is the emerging or emergent church movement. Their passion for social justice is admirable, but many verge on compromising the gospel and that’s something I can’t accept.)

I still have my passion for social justice and missions. I still wanna see more Christians standing up for the rights of the poor and marginalized and oppressed and giving their lives to reach the lost. I like the radical message calling people to give up their lives for the lost and dying. Oh, we need more preachers who preach the radical message of self-sacrifice and other-centeredness, who will preach on the Christian’s responsibility to missions and social justice. Surely that will transform the church into other-centered Christians who will do God’s work even if it cost them everything… Or will it?

And here’s the crux of the matter. This is what I’ve been reflecting a lot upon: If your preaching focuses more on calling Christians to sacrifice and to help the poor and do missions, will it actually result in that happening? I don’t think so. As I reflect on my life and talk to people, I find it’s not preaching such messages that will transform lives. It’s not harping on the fact that Christians should work out our salvation that will result in transformed sacrificial lives. I don’t even think that was the focus of the New Testament Epistles in the first place. Instinctively, we think that telling your members that they should do more will change their minds and their lives. But really, does it?

My passion for social justice came through reading secular books and understanding the world. My passion for missions came through understanding more about grace. I’m sure other people will have different experiences but I certainly don’t want to go to church and listen to the pastor telling me how much more I should do for the poor and the lost. Why not? Because I ALREADY KNOW THAT! And for those who don’t already know that and don’t have much concern for the poor and lost, I don’t think it’ll help if we keep on reminding them what the Bible says about this area. There’s a place I think to preach what the Bible says about all this every once in a while, but I think it’s really understanding and experiencing grace that empowers Christians to do the above.

Some people have told me they’ve appreciated some of the articles I’ve written on poverty as it’s challenged them. That’s all good. But challenging them to think is one thing. It’s a good start. But that doesn’t empower one to take action – the gospel does. And that’s why we go to church – to listen to the gospel that empowers us, more than to listen to what we should do and how short we’ve fallen (we already know all that).

I think together with the empowerment that comes through hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, we need opportunities to experience serving. This is where I think New Creation is extremely weak in for a church of 20,000 people. City Harvest Church is a model for providing myriads of opportunities to serve. If we could somehow bring together New Creation’s gospel empowerment with City Harvest’s opportunities and passion for serving, that would be way awesome!