World Impact Ministries / Peter Youngren

I have just about seen enough articles, teaching albums, etc. advertised under titles like “Greasy Grace”, “Crazy Grace”, or “Grace Gone Wild”. While I am sure that just about everything can be abused, even grace because the Bible says so. These three titles that warn against the grace message don’t have a clue and often have little or no knowledge of what the message is. Instead they build up a phantom and an attack that their imagination has created. It goes something like this: “Those who preach a radical message of God’s grace are people looking for a low commitment, a low level Christian life where anything goes because sin is tolerated (after all, Jesus paid for them).” Often writers are connecting the message of grace with general moral decay in the church and in the world. I used to have this opinion of grace teaching myself only seven or eight years ago. I had never really heard the message but just assumed that people who would preach that all sin, past, present and future had been paid for by Jesus, couldn’t be doing anything good with their sermons, in fact they must be something negative (creating a license to sin).

I remember when I used to enjoy being called a fundamentalist or call myself a fundamentalist. That was back when fundamentalism meant, “Clinging to unchanging truths.” In that sense, I am still a fundamentalist, clinging to the unchanging reality of what Jesus has done through His death and resurrection and what He is doing in His present day ministry as our exalted King.

How are we saved, and what is the means of our salvation? Amazingly, much confusion exists among evangelical and charismatic Christians on this topic. A recent issue of Christianity Today heralded an increased acceptance of Calvinism, which prompted me to read a couple of books on this subject. Well, now I am even more convinced of the need to address the subject of salvation.

Christmas has started a bit different for RoxAnne and I. It has been an exciting year! I enjoy blogging and I sure enjoy your responses. I am writing from Timika, in the province of Papua, Indonesia. Last night we finished a Gospel Festival; and at the end of it I was swarmed by Muslims. They were hugging me, squeezing me, wanting to get close… it was awesome. I know they were not praising me; I was only basking in the overflow, so to speak, of what Jesus had done for them. They were only grateful to me because I had brought them a witness of the LIGHT. Now it is the day after and I am thinking back.

This year we have celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Azusa Street Pentecostal phenomenon. An October survey from Pew Forum on Religion and Public states that more than 40% of Pentecostals, in a majority of countries surveyed, indicate that they have never spoken in tongues. In the United States only half of Pentecostals have spoken in tongues. It was the experience of speaking in other tongues, just like on the day of Pentecost, which propelled the Pentecostal movement to the front pages of newspapers across the world 100 years ago. Of course no one has suggested that speaking in tongues has ceased among Pentecostals, not at all. In fact today, people from a wide range of denominations and backgrounds enjoy this gift.

One of the issues that prompts Christians to action is keeping “Christ” in Christmas. Every year as Christmas approaches, great concerns are expressed about nativity scenes at city halls and the lighting of Christmas trees or “Winter Festival” trees. I visited the UK last week. One of the Nov 7th articles in The Daily Telegraph (UK) headlined “Christmas stamps ignore Christianity”. The news item was triggered by the Church of England criticizing the Royal Mail service for featuring snowmen, reindeer and Father Christmas on its stamps, while ignoring religious art or the nativity scene.

Recently I was asked to articulate the purpose of this ministry in a single sentence.  The questioner pointed out that to many organizations this could be a trying, even painful process. It could be difficult for me because I have to consider a wide range of ministries we are involved with: the Celebration Church, World Impact Ministries, Celebrate Jesus International, Celebration Bible College, overseas Gospel Festivals, television ministry and International Pastors’ seminars. I could break down every one of those departments into other areas of activities. For example the Celebration Church is currently in three locations: Toronto, Niagara and Hamilton, each one presenting its own challenges and opportunities. 

“When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.”

“Those who know don’t speak. Those who don’t know speak.”

I don’t know how true these quotes are, but I like them nonetheless. One of the “read between the lines” doctrines in the Bible is that of Friendship(s). This sounds like a bit of shallow discussion but I have seen over the years numerous relationships based on numerous things: work, next door neighbor, family etc. However, how many sincere friendships do you have? How many people are in your life that truly know you and genuinely care about you?

I just spent five days traveling across the United States. Staying in hotels and having some free time on my hands I made it a point of watching a lot of Christian television. Something struck me very strange in program after program. The viewer is inundated with the preaching which claims we need victory?, breakthrough?, the next level?, etc. The preaching is quite obviously targeting born-again, spirit-filled believers. Are we really that needy? Or are preachers merely feeling a false emotion-based feeling of need?