Pneumatikos INSIGHT

On Religion, History & Society:

A Forum for Conservative Christian Thought

Volume 5, No. 1, March 1999

In This Issue:



Approval Received to Plant a New Church in Houston!

by Rev. Paul A. Hughes

In January, I received formal approval to plant a new Assemblies of God church in Houston, Texas. The target area for the new church is the thriving business district known popularly as the West Loop or Galleria area.

My plan is to follow the methodology of the Apostle Paul: to assemble a core group of trained and committed staff first, move into the target area, and begin doing an evangelistic, apostolic ministry. I have begun an active search for staff. Please let me know if you are aware of anyone whom the Lord might lead to join me in this exciting endeavor. One of my goals is to provide opportunity for young or under-used ministers to enter into full-time ministry quickly and fulfill God's calling in a powerful way.

I believe that the Lord wants to plant a church in Houston which will take this part of Houston by storm, and be one of the instruments by which He brings true end-time revival to the city. In order to do so, I believe that I must remain very open to doing a lot of new things, and working in new ways.

While perusing a book by David Cannistraci a few days ago, I ran across the following passage:

A striking reality of the Early Church is that it quickly broke with the standard religious conventions of the day. For example, the Temple was the center of activity for Jewish people, and yet the disciples quickly adapted to the use of homes as meeting places. This shift showed an openness in the Christian community to new ways of doing things. Creative thinking was allowed to guide their activity. They were free from the prevailing religious methods, and as a result, the Church was effective and grew at an astonishing rate.

"The Church today is beginning to show these same signs of innovation and practical thinking. Fresh, God-directed methods of outreach, education and discipleship, and inspiring approaches to worship services and ministry to one another will breathe life into our activities. These can be the new wineskins that help us contain the new wine God is pouring into us so that we may joyfully face the challenges of this new day" -- from The Gift of Apostle (Regal Books).

There are many great things about the traditions of the Pentecostal Movement, and for my own sake I would feel quite comfortable within the structure of the present Church. However, the Lord has shown me that we have built the Movement and the Church into a subculture with which we are quite comfortable, but which does not appeal to many on the outside. Those who feel drawn back to God immediately perceive that they would first have to join the subculture, or feel out of place. For example, in the average assembly, this would include an abrupt change in musical taste to country gospel. Even contemporary gospel would seem foreign to most outsiders. Such a matter might seem trivial or superficial, but make no mistake:   each subcultural distinctive becomes one more barrier to reaching the unchurched! Think about it -- from the unchurched person's perspective, we are asking them to crucify their flesh, in the form of laying aside personal tastes and worldview, before bringing them into the church and getting them saved.

Moreover, we have in too many cases shut out the potential convert and church member because of existing cliques and authority structures which deny them fellowship and active participation, unless and until they are able to work themselves into the system. Some of us know how difficult "breaking in" can be.

I recall the words delivered by the prophet, "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:19). God is a God of old things, but also new things and new ways.

My vision for west Houston is to do whatever needs to be done, according to God's will, to reach the city. I have few specific plans, and have no desire to make changes for the sake of change. But I dare not let stale methods and old-fashioned thinking limit the work the Lord wants to do. I appreciate your prayers that I might know God's will at each step, and that He might prepare the way before me, and hearts for the Harvest.

For more information on West Loop Church, visit the website.



When Is Revival Needed?

An Excerpt from Charles Finney's Second Lecture on Revival

Has the need for revival ever been more desperate than in America at the end of the Twentieth Century? We do well to heed the words of this great revivalist of the 19th century.


When A Revival of Religion is Needed

by Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875)

  1. When there is a want of brotherly love and Christian confidence among professors of religion [i.e., those who profess Christianity], then a revival is needed. Then there is a loud call for God to revive His work. When Christians have sunk down into a low and backslidden state, they neither have, nor can have, the same love and confidence toward each other, as when they are all alive, and active, and living holy lives. God loves all men with the love of benevolence, but He does not feel the love of complacency [i.e., satisfying, reciprocal love] toward any but those who live holy.

    Christians love each other with the love of complacency, only in proportion to their holiness. If Christian love is the love of the image of Christ in His people, then it can be exercised only where that image really or apparently exists. A person must reflect the image of Christ, and show the spirit of Christ before other Christians can love him with the love of complacency. It is in vain to call on Christians to love one another with the love of complacency, as Christians, when they are sunk down in stupidity [i.e., lethargy]. They see nothing in each other to produce this love. It is next to impossible that they should feel otherwise toward each other than they do toward sinners. Merely knowing that they belong to the Church, or seeing them occasionally at the Communion table, will not produce Christian love, unless they see the image of Christ.

  2. When there are dissensions, and jealousies, and evil speakings among professors of religion, then there is a great need of a revival. These things show that Christians have got far from God, and it is time to think earnestly of a revival. Religion cannot prosper with such things in the Church, and nothing can put an end to them like a revival.

  3. When there is a worldly spirit in the Church. It is manifest that the Church has sunk down into a low and backslidden state, when you see Christians conform to the world in dress, equipage, and "parties," in seeking worldly amusements, and reading novels, and other books such as the world reads. It shows that they are far from God, and that there is great need of a revival of religion.

  4. When the Church finds its members falling into gross and scandalous sins, then it is time to awake and cry to God for a revival of religion. When such things are taking place as give the enemies of religion an occasion for reproach, it is time to ask of God: "What will become of Thy great Name?"

  5. When there is a spirit of controversy in the Church or in the land, a revival is needful. The spirit of religion is not the spirit of controversy.

    There can be no prosperity in religion where the spirit of controversy prevails.

  6. When the wicked triumph over the Churches, and revile them, it is time to seek for a revival of religion.

  7. When sinners are careless and stupid, it is time Christians should bestir themselves. It is as much their duty to awake as it is for the firemen to do so when a fire breaks out in the night in a great city. The Church ought to put out the fires of hell which are laying hold of the wicked. Sleep! Should the firemen sleep and let the whole city burn down, what would be thought of such firemen? And yet their guilt would not compare with the guilt of Christians who sleep while sinners around them are sinking stupidly into the fires of hell.




ECHOES OF THE END-TIMES

Have the Soviets Fooled the U.S. into Disarming?

by Paul Hughes

I have always suspected that the break-up of the Soviet Union was not all that it appeared to be. In fact, I believe that the Soviet Union could, judging from political and economic factors, come back together at any time, and almost overnight.

Recently, Russian defector and former spy Stanislav Lunev revealed that Russia continues to prepare for war with the West, and in particular the U.S. In his book, Through the Eyes of the Enemy, and an Associated Press article by Barry Schweid, Lunev warns of nuclear "suitcase bombs" being planted near the locations of U.S. leaders. Even worse, he and other sources describe a long-range plan of "strategic deception" being pursued by the Soviets in order to lull their enemies into complacency, setting the stage for world conquest.

Internet columnist J. Adams goes further. "There is reason to believe," he wrote six years ago, "that what the West is walking into right now is a trap set by Moscow in which Yugoslavia and Iraq are the bait." As Adams relates it, the West will go to war, prompting a neofascist reaction in Russia. Then a false peacemaker (Mikhail Gorbachev, in his mind) will arise to claim the position of global savior.



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ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

Rev. Paul A. Hughes, M.Div., is an ordained Assemblies of God minister, Bible teacher, writer, musician, and songwriter. He is available nationally for pulpit ministry, Bible teaching, singles seminars, Holy Spirit conferences, and music ministry.

© 1999 Paul A. Hughes
Last updated October 2001. For more information, comments, or suggestions, write westloop@yahoo.com.