Friday, August 28, 2009

Ordination of Women

When we were planning on ordaining Malana, I was asked if this was something that I came to by my own reading of scripture or was I more influenced by what I may have recently read. Actually the answer is more in a third category, an experiential journey, while scripture and what I have recently read (like in the past few years), have both contributed.

From my perspective this journey into the understanding of the ordination of women started in Bible School. From time to time we would have visiting ministries, some of whom were women. We were in the Pentecostal tradition which usually did not have a problem with this, although ordination was still controversial. The Pentecostal tradition saw ministry as a ministry of the Spirit where the vessel had little or no influence on the message. So what if women were used by God? It was the message, not the bringer of the message, that mattered. Pentecostals also saw the ministry as a matter of calling, character, and charism (anointing of the Spirit or gifting). There was also a precedent of women used by God, like Amy Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman, and the like.

Yet there were these verses in scripture that seemed to stand against such ordination. Verses like “I do not permit a woman to teach a man”, or “women must be silent in the church”, or “an elder must be a husband of one wife” (a one woman man) all seemed to controvert the view that women can and should be ordained. So I began a study of women’s role in scripture. At that time I decided that God can and would use women for any ministry as long as she maintained her femininity. Although I had a hard time defining ‘femininity’, this answer stood me in good enough stead to get through Bible school with it’s acceptance of women’s ministry that seemed in contrast with direct statements of scripture.

As time went on, I began to see that this view was inadequate. I saw that women were as capable in every way with men. My experience with life caused me to ponder my understanding of scripture. I have learned that when my experience and my view of scripture don’t match, there is a reason why. And this reason is worth finding. Sometimes my view of scripture needs adjustment, sometimes my interpretation of my experience needs adjustment. But something needs adjusting! This is frequently how our understanding of scripture is adjusted. When the first Christians saw the resurrected Jesus, they had to adjust their understanding of scripture to account for this reality. I do not believe that they went back looking for proof-texts on resurrection. I believe that they had to readjust their view of the topic of certain passages in order to account for Jesus. When all else fails, read the manual. They discovered that they had actually misunderstood what God intended them to understand by the scripture. This is because the context in which they viewed the scripture was itself incorrect. When their worldview changed, their understanding of scripture changed. Yet what they found was that this new worldview, based on the resurrection of Jesus, was actually better supported by scripture than was their old worldview.

This is what happened to me. Through life I saw women, through Malana, in a different light. I also saw that my understanding of scripture did not support my new worldview that well. I tried to find out why. In so doing I found what I believe is a better understanding of scripture, one that seems ‘more true’ to the apparent intent of the scripture.

There were two books that have helped the most in this pursuit of a better understanding of scripture. One is titled “Why Not Women” by Loren Cunningham and some other guy(YWAM Press). In this book they take the view that the scripture passages that seem to be strongest against women in ministry as equal with men are mistranslated and misunderstood due to this mistranslation. They make a good case, although some of their exegesis is forced. The other book that helped was “Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals” by William Webb (IVP). His point was that Paul’s injunctions against women’s ministry was a local cultural affair and need not, indeed must not, be transferred translocally. He points out that all Paul’s instructions on men and women presupposed a culture where the family unit was often father, mother, children, and slaves. Further, it was a patriarchal society where the father had a god-like status in the home, often with the power of life and death over its members. Webb shows that many other things that Paul said, when allowed their full force, would over time change the culture where this idea of the family held sway.

It is to these verses that I now look for Biblical support for my changing worldview. Gal 3:26-28 NASU “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female ; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

It is clear that Paul intended this statement to affect our daily life. He is not just speaking of equal access to God, but of a real equality in Christ. We no longer have a problem with the abolishment of slavery because slavery is inappropriate for human relations. Yet in Paul’s day such a view would be, practically speaking, impossible. Yet over time we have seen that slavery and equality cannot go hand in hand, both theoretically and in everyday life. We have also seen that nationality has no bearing on who can minister, or on status in Christ. Now we can see that it makes no difference. I submit that the third couplet, of male and female, deserved the same recognition. That whether you are a male or female has no bearing on your function or status as a Christian. This, to my way of thinking, includes ministry and ordination.

Ordination today has so much ecclesiastical baggage that it is almost impossible to use this word and mean something that the Bible speaks of. In the New Testament there are no offices per se but functions, responsibilities. The word translated “ordain” is not a special word, but a normal word used to indicate the placement of someone to do or be something.(see Heb. 5:1, Mt. 25:21, Mt. 24:47, Rom. 5:19)So ordination is simply a giving of responsibility in the church for service (ministry). This responsibility is recognized by the laying on of hands. With the responsibility is the authority to make the necessary decisions to get the job done. This authority is not used for any personal gain or status, but only to serve and discharge the duties given to her.

In Malana’s case, she was given most of the pastoral duties in Tree of Life Church. She is responsible for the meetings, some counseling, money, organization of other ministries, among other responsibilities. She is not a preacher, although she does a fine job when so inclined. Tree of Life Church has been greatly blessed by her ministry.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Ask whatever you want

Here following are 14 promises where we are enjoined to ask anything. If you just look at the words in bold type you will miss the qualifications, except in the last promise. We can get anything we ask if only it is God's will. This is because prayer is not a way for us to manipulate God to get Him to do stuff we want - it is how we enter into His work as co-laborers. God's work is that we might believe and come to trust and love Him and others. This is a purpose of prayer, that we can grow in trust and our love of God. It is not magic. Nor is it a way to inform God of stuff He doesn't know. Through prayer His kingdom, not ours, is manifested. "Your kingdom come."

1.If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matthew 21:22

2.Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

3.Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9

4.Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:19

5.And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. John 14:13

6.You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 4:14

7.If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. John 15:7

8.You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. John 15:16

9.In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. John 16:23

10.Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. John 16:24

11. In that day you will ask in my name. John 16:26

12. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5

13. And receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 1 John 3:22

14.This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Ministry in Russia

When I first went to Russia in 1997, I only went to support my friend Nikolai P. He had asked me to go with him because I was his homeleader and he thought that I would be a help. I was a decent enough teacher and had been gifted by the Lord with a prophetic word. But I told him that I didn’t have the money. He gently corrected me by saying that I must ask the Lord first if it was His will, then, if it was, God would provide. I prayed and the Lord spoke to my heart telling me that whatever I could do to help Nikolai I was to do. On the day before our team was to leave the Lord brought in the $10,000 we needed to make the trip – I still don’t know exactly how. I have since gone about 20 times.

The Lord sent us to Kamchatka, a peninsula about the size of California hanging down above Japan from the farthest eastern end of Russia, across the Bering Sea from Alaska. It is lightly populated with four indigenous tribes mixed with European Russians, Koreans, and others. It had been a closed area, even to other Russians,due to military operations during the Soviet years. The gospel had hardly ever been reached there and it was Nikolai’s burden to see the church of Jesus Christ established in that land.

Nikolai, his wife, and his close friend Anatoly P. had been sent by their church in the Ukraine to plant churches in Kamchatka. When I first came to the church in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, there were about 500 people, all new Christians. Churches were already beginning to be established in some other towns too. There are now over 25 churches established with more on the way.

God was moving in power by His Spirit. One woman bought her grandchild to us for prayer. This 2-year-old lay limp as a rag doll in his grandmother’s arms. His muscles weren’t working very well. She handed this child to us and we all laid on hands and prayed. As we prayed, the child’s toe touched the thigh of the one holding him and his legs began to move in that automatic bicycle pedaling motion that infants have. The child began to cry and we handed him back into his grandmother’s arms. We all watched as he then raised his head by his neck that was now gaining strength and he stood, perched solidly, looking around with wide, fearful eyes. I noticed that the look in his eyes began to change from fear to an “I-can-get-into-this” kind of look. We had handed back the child healed to his joyfully crying grandmother.

Later that week, Nikolai and I flew to Palana, a small town in the middle of Kamchatka. The first night in town we had a meeting with about 20 young adult men. As Nikolai and I raised our hands in prayer and worshiped the Lord,these young men began to do the same. We all sang our praise to God. It was years later I found out that, when we did this, the Spirit had fallen upon these young guys filling them all and granting them the gift of tongues. I had no idea at the time because I didn’t know their language. We never taught them about this, God just did it like he did in the book of Acts at the house of Cornelius.

It was during this period that God began to establish me as a prophet. Nikolai would take me to many meetings and counseling sessions. Since I didn’t speak Russian, and they tended to feed us too much food, I often grew very sleepy at these times. They would talk and talk and I would try to stay awake. I would usually be told what the topic was, like marriage or church. Every time we had one of these sessions I would get a thought or a verse of scripture. At the end of the session Nikolai would ask me if I had something to say. I would then say what was on my heart and hope that it at least applied to what they were discussing. They didn’t tell me until later that, every time I spoke, I used the same verses and said the same thoughts confirming what had been said.

On one of these earlier visits I was speaking to them inside a theater at a conference. I had a vision in which I saw behind me and to the right, a large dark wall of clouds. It was coming down the peninsula with the intent of hiding all the light. Yet where we stood at the southern end, the light remained very clear and bright. After a while, the cloud was pushed back up the peninsula by the light. The light then went across Russia to the west going across Siberia, the steppes, and south into the neighboring countries. I shared this with them and we all cheered a lot and that was that.

When I left the building with my translator, we noticed that, in the direction I had ignorantly pointed inside the closed theater, there was in fact an extremely large bank of very dark clouds sitting like a wall with the edge of the front over the volcanoes to our north. The light around us was very bright and super clear. My translator told me that he had lived there his whole life and had never seen such a cloud formation.

For years I thought that the picture the Lord had shown me was only of their ministry. Yet in 2005 Bruce M., a friend of mine who is known to have accurate prophetic dreams from the Lord, called me and told me the Lord had given him a dream concerning me. In that dream I was on a peninsula in a tent like Moses’ tabernacle and I was covered by the glory of God. Yet beyond the glory was darkness. The Lord said to Bruce that He was pleased with me and that I could ask Him for anything I wished. Bruce asked the Lord what I should ask for. The Lord answered that I should ask for the nations. Then the Lord indicted to Bruce the verse in Isaiah where the Lord told Zion to expand their tent for people are coming! Don't hold back! Yet when Bruce told me about the dream the first time, he did not tell me of his question of the Lord and the Lord's answer. So that night I was deeply affected and I believed the word Bruce had shared. Without knowing the Lord's response I prayed, believing I could actually pray for anything I wanted. I decided to ask the Lord for the anointing to preach the gospel with a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. In addition, I prayed that this anointing would come upon me in the context of a mighty outpouring of His Spirit upon all His people with thousands of people who would have the same anointing I had.

Gradually it dawned on me that that the vision I had received in Kamchatka and the dream my friend had was about the same thing. This was confirmed when the leaders in Kamchatka asked me this spring of 2009 to pray and consider working with them to extend the ministry across Russia. I believe I am called as a prophet and a teacher to these people. I have it in my heart to help them establish churches all across Russia and the neighboring countries. My wife and I desire to go to the places that are out of the way, to the forgotten, to help lift the shade on the 10-40 window. And I would still be doing what the Lord had originally asked me – to help Nikolai in whatever way possible.

This is where you come in. If you would like to see this vision come to pass and the Lord disposes you so, would you consider supporting this ministry? If so, get in touch with me.