]]> http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/4039/feed/ 0 http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/3975 http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/3975#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:00:21 +0000 dru http://www.maranathaglobal.org/?p=3975 Our friends in the Philippines are receiving our teachings and shared these photos of what the Lord is doing there (Pr Edgardo Grande, Mindanao Island)…please pray for the Lord to bless their efforts there!  The photos are from two separate occasions recently.

Many of the Urdu messages we have posted on this site are because of translation by Shakil Masih in Faisalabad, Pakistan.  Here are some recent photos from there. Please keep the brethren there in your prayers.

March 2008 children

Burundi childrens seminar March 2008

Burundi Pastors Meeting March 2008

Training Sessions for Pastors March 2008

Seminar for Children in Burundi March 2008

Seminar in Baraka-Malinde Oct 2008

Burundi Team in Baraka & Malinde (Congo) Oct 08

Nyanza-Lac BURUNDI Oct 2008

Burundi miniseminar Sept 2008

Pr Delphin teaching in Bujumbura Sept2008

Delphin teaching in Bujumbura Sept 2008

Burundi Team Visiting Kigali, Rwanda Dec 2008

Burundi: Teaching the Children in March 2008

Shakeel and his family June 2009

outdoor church service

Pakistan 2008

The response to our recent evangelistic campaigns in Brazil – has been unprecedented. For us, this is a special moment, a final great harvest before the Lord returns. The photos here tell the story well.

The Apostle Paul wrote that Jesus Christ gave himself “to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14)   The Lord designed His project of salvation to produce a people who belong to Him – a Body, the faithful church (“eager to do what is good”). Our approach to evangelism reflects this understanding of salvation – that the Lord wants to save people, but he also wants the saved people to be “a people,” a Body.

The evangelistic efforts of Maranatha churches generally fall into two categories: the ongoing efforts of each local church to reach their surrounding community, and special evangelistic events (often with tens of thousands in attendance) hosted by the churches in a geographical region working together.

In the larger evangelistic events or campaigns, some have had over 100,000 in attendance. We do not usually advertise such events, and we never announce who will be preaching beforehand (there is no value in elevating a preacher). For us, an ideal meeting has more visitors than church members, and the two events featured here are examples where we had this result. We never ask for money or take offerings at such events. The purpose of the event is to reach outsiders, and we have something to give them, not take from them.

Legions of volunteers from our churches in the region handle all the planning, setup, sound, and cleanup afterward. Almost all the visitors have been invited by a member of the church (sometimes a single member will bring dozens to the event), which means the visitor has a contact already who can bring them to the local church in the days following the event.

Our goal is to get every visitor integrated into our local churches in that area so they can grow and develop spiritually. We are less concerned about the numbers who come than about the numbers who stay, who become committed servants in the local church. Evangelism must be an activity of the Body.

]]> http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/1879/feed/ 0 http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/1850 http://www.maranathaglobal.org/latest/1850#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:56:24 +0000 dru http://maranathaglobal.jeffwatts.com/?p=1850  

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”  - Proverbs 22:14

“The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.”  - Psalm 102:28

The Lord has called us to give as much priority to discipleship of our children as we do to the adults in the church; they are not just the “future” of the church, they are the “present” as well, real members.  

Even if a child is too young to be baptized yet, we still treat the youngster as an important part of the church.  In Maranatha churches, we usually have the children sit in the front rows in every service, because it helps them pay attention, and helps them see that there are other children in the church paying attention and receiving a blessing.  The Sunday School teachers sit with them to help them behave properly.  ”From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise…”  (Psalm 8:2).  

The children participate in every service; we do not send the children to a nursery or childcare room so that they miss the services.  The services are just as much for them as for the adults.  Babies in the church stay with their mothers wherever she sits, but from age 3 and up the children sit separate from the parents, in the front where the other children are sitting. 

Once a week, in our larger churches, we remove the children during the message (usually on Sunday morning) to give them a special lesson taught by the Sunday School teachers.  We do not waste their time having them draw pictures or doing crafts, and we never have them make idols (like crosses or pictures of Jesus or angels or characters in the Bible).  We teach them the Revealed Word, a real Bible lesson, in a way that children can understand; we teach them to pray aloud properly; and we have them practice some of the simple hymns.  They return to the regular church service at the end of the pastor’s message, ready to participate in the closing (of course, our services are shorter than in most churches – the Lord revealed that they should be no more than one hour in length). 

We divide the children into three classes – the youngest (ages 3-6), the intermediates (ages 7-10), and the adolescents (ages 11-14).  By the time the children reach age 14, we hope that they have learned deeply about salvation, prayer, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, the books of the Bible, the doctrine of the Body (the faithful church), the significance of the blood of Jesus, the necessity of obedience to God’s revelation, the concept of eternity, and other important subjects.  ”At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”  (Matthew 11:25).

 In areas where we have enough churches and members, we hold children’s seminars twice a year (in October and in March), where they go and hear two longer presentations, lots of songs, etc.  These are great evangelistic opportunities because the children bring their friends, and their little friends hear the gospel and have experiences with the Holy Spirit.  The Lord has blessed these meetings richly, producing good fruit with the salvation of more and more children.  Our children are an inheritance that the Lord has entrusted to us; we are very careful and attentive to preserve the inheritance and prepare the children to serve the Lord faithfully as adults, and to spend eternity with Him thereafter.

“He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.”  (Proverbs 14:26)  Parents need to share their own spiritual experiences with their children, telling them about those times when God answered prayers or intervened on their behalf, times the parents have witnessed miracle, or lessons the parents have learned as they served the Lord.  We need to read the Word to our children and teach them to pray.  Parents should teach them the importance of behaving in the church services – not to spare the parents embarrassment, but so that the children are paying attention and can receive a blessing in every service.  Many parents do not understand that God wants to speak to their children in each service – they mistakenly think that the church services are for the adults, and the children are just observers.  This is a great mistake.  Sometimes God reveals a message to the pastor that the children will remember the rest of their lives.  The Lord can speak through visions and other spiritual gifts in the services and give the children a deep experience with Him.  The children can begin to experience the Lord presence when they worship and praise.

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” – Acts 2:38

“Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.” – Acts 18:8

THIS PHOTO ILLUSTRATES different steps in a typical Maranatha baptism service, as the three groups pictured are each at different stages in the baptism.   First, (see the group in the rear on the left) the pastors give a word of instruction to the new believer, and may pray with laying on of hands.  Then the pastors lower the person backward into the water, just for a second or two, as in the scene in the front.  The Lord usually gives some visions or revelations for the believer (especially promises about their spiritual life or God’s plans for them), and the pastors explain these and consider the interpretation of the visions, as in the group to the far right, in back.   This photo is from Brazil, where our seminar facilities (but usually not our individual churches) have special outdoor pools designed for baptisms like this.

The Word refers to three types of baptisms (Acts 19:1-6): John’s Baptism, Baptism in the Name of Jesus (or the name of the Trinity), and Baptism with the Holy Spirit. We believe that Baptism is an ordinance from the Lord Jesus for those who believe (Matthew 28:19).  The Lord delegated to the disciples the authority to baptize. (John 4:1- 3).

IMMERSION – In the Bible, baptisms took place in a body of water, like a lake or river.  The Greek word for “baptize” means to submerge under water, to dip beneath the surface.  We almost always baptize with immersion, except in a few special cases where we cannot baptize the person in water (like someone in a hospital bed who cannot go to a body of water).  

Because baptism is a sign of repentance – a very serious choice to become a faithful, permanent servant of Christ – we should not baptize small children or infants.  We should baptize only those who are old enough to make a serious decision about what kind of person they will be.  When churches started baptizing babies, a few hundred years after the Apostles, it caused them to lose the concept of conversion and salvation.  Once everyone was a baptized Christian from birth, nobody thought about the need for repentance, personal relationship with Christ, or a conversion experience.   Baptizing babies removes the personal choice element from baptism, and makes everybody into “cultural Christians” instead of real believers.  Infant baptism eventually eliminates all understanding of salvation through faith.

We always baptize members “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” exactly as Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28:19-20.  This is very clear and there is no reason to do otherwise.  We want to obey him.  

Some other churches insist on baptizing “in Jesus’ name” instead.  They point to Acts 2:38 as the justification for this, but this is an excerpt from Peter’s evangelistic sermon, not a description of how they conducted the baptisms.  Peter was making a point about the need for his Jewish audience to accept Jesus as the Messiah.  He used the phrase “repent and be baptized…for forgiveness of sins” to show that John’s baptism of repentance (which everyone there knew about) had to be connected to Jesus from then on.   In actuality, the churches that insist on baptizing “in Jesus’ name” do not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity at all.  That is the real reason they are afraid to utter the words that Jesus told us to say when we baptize, because it so clearly invokes the Trinity.  They search and strain for Bible verses about “Jesus’ name” and try to say that “Jesus” is the name of the Father and the name of the Holy Spirit.  This is unconvincing – it would make no sense in that case for Jesus to tell us to baptize “in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Baptism should always be done in connection with a local church, or a local group of churches that function as a Body (see 1 Corinthians 12:13).  It is a mistake for evangelists do baptize lots of new converts after a crusade with no regard for where they will receive fellowship in a local church Body.  It is better for local churches to baptize new converts when they have become members of the church by attending regularly.

How do we conduct a baptism in Maranatha? - First, the pastors give a word of instruction to the new believer, and may pray with laying on of hands.  Then the pastors lower the person backward into the water, just for a second or two, as in the scene in the front.  The Lord usually gives some visions or revelations for the believer (especially promises about their spiritual life or God’s plans for them), and the pastors present explain these mean.

Unfortunately, some churches teach a false doctrine that water baptism is necessary for salvation.  This makes our salvation dependant on an outward action or “work.”  Yet the Bible teaches we have salvation by grace through faith.  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Our salvation does not depend on any of our good works, including the good work of getting baptized.  Baptism is good, but we should not distort the biblical doctrine of salvation by suggesting that it is a prerequisite for entering heaven.  

Jesus wants all his disciples to get baptized.  This is clear from Matthew 28.  We should do this out of obedience, and we receive a spiritual blessing when we do.  Even so, a person who surrenders his life to Christ is saved at that moment, even though he has not yet been baptized.  If a new convert dies before his baptism, he will still go to heaven.  Remember that the thief on the cross next to Jesus had no opportunity to get baptized.  Yet Jesus assured him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise (heaven).”  (Luke 23:43).  Baptism should be part of “working out” or implementing our salvation (Philippians 2:12), part of the Christian life.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.  - Mark 1:35 (NIV) 

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” –  Psalm 63:1 (KJV)

“My soul yearns for you in the night;  in the morning my spirit longs for you.” – Isaiah 26:9 (KJV) 

Many years ago, the Lord revealed in our midst that the secret of our success- of our growth and our ability to achieve everything the Lord wants for us- was to pray early in the morning, while it is still dark outside. 

These snapshots depict one of our churches (in a town called Timoteo, in Minas Gerais, Brazil) in different phases of an early morning prayer service.  Notice how full the church is at such an early hour (6 am) – this is a blessing in itself! 

Usually a brother leading the meeting (a worker, deacon, or pastor) opens the meeting asking everyone to kneel in the Lord’s presence as we seek to renew the blessing of Jesus’ redemptive blood in our lives.  (We apologize that the photos have a problem with the color – the church was not brightly lit at 6 am when they were taken).

Then everyone is seated, sometimes singing a brief, prayerful song.  Then members take turns standing and praying about specific items mentioned by the meeting’s leader, as in this photo.  Notice that children also participate in these meetings when possible.

These prayer meetings typically last 20-30 minutes.  Some brethren go straight to work or school from the church, while others return to their homes.  To close the meeting, the brother leading it often asks people to stand together for a closing prayer, and sometimes reads a Psalm or other encouraging verse from the Bible before dismissing those assembled.

Of course, we should pray all throughout the day.  Sometimes the Lord will calls us to have a prayer vigil where we stay at the church interceding until it is late at night, even midnight.

 Even so, there is a special blessing when we pray in the early morning, before the sun rises.  The Word of God records specifically that Jesus prayed at this time.  In Psalms and Isaiah it speaks of seeking the Lord in these times.  Many stories in the Bible describe the Lord’s servants having special experiences in the early morning- Moses, Joshua, Jacob, etc.  Sometimes the Lord actually reveals that it is important for the whole church to meet in the early morning to intercede for a particular need.

We have found, as a Body, that brethren have really wonderful and profound experiences when they pray at this time.  The brethren seem to have more gifts (revelations and visions).  The spiritual gifts are more detailed and clear.  There is often a stronger feeling of the Lord’s presence and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

We also know that throughout church history, many of the men used the most by God prayed early in the morning.  Charles Finney, perhaps the greatest American revivalist (d. 1876), would regularly rise at 4:00 a.m. and pray for two to four hours before he began his day.  Many others in church history shared his experience- the Lord called them to get up at this time to pray.  And the power of the Holy Spirit was released to accomplish amazing things.

We live in a continuation of this project that God has been doing for many years.  It is now our turn to seek the Lord and be used by him to reach this generation. 

It is a sacrifice for us physically to get up early.  Everyone wants to stay in bed and sleep more, especially at this time of day.  It is easier to stay up late than to get up early.  This kind of physical sacrifice is similar to fasting, in which we deny our desire to eat and drink.  This sacrifice requires extra determination on our part and demonstrates to God how serious we are about interceding for a particular need. 

There are fewer distractions early in the morning.  This enables us to have a more focused prayer time that is richer and more fruitful.  Even though we are tired and sleepy, these things are not as disruptive to our prayers as the phone calls and traffic we hear later, not to mention the frequent sounds of people arguing, shouting, playing loud worldly music, etc. Also, most businesses are closed and most of society is still asleep, so we cannot feel distracted by our impatience to go do certain errands, talk to other people, or complete certain projects. 

It is good for our hearts and minds to put God as the first thing of the day.  As we attend to the Lord first, by seeking him before we go to work or do other things, we honor him.  We will be more likely to give the Lord the top priority in our decisions when we have put him as our first thing we do each day.

“David went to Mahanaim...” (2 Samuel 17:24)

We use “Mahanaim” as the name for our seminar facilities in Brazil (Portuguese “Maanaim”).  We have several now in different parts of Brazil, where we have thousands of churches and a great need for places to hold large meetings).  Volunteers do all the construction and upkeep, keeping costs to a minimum.  Most of the facilities can hold over 1000 attendees for a weekend seminar; some can hold 4000.

The tropical climate allows the facilities to host events year-round.  They are lovely places, where members can escape the hectic pace of their daily lives, and draw closer to God in a setting surrounded by the beauty of His Creation.  A typical “Mahanaim” conference or seminar center in Brazil, most of which can hold several thousand attendees for weekend seminars and other events.

The facilities are beautiful, but we also design them very efficiently.  We can serve lunch to thousands of attendees in about 30 minutes.  Fresh fruit and fresh breads abound in Brazil, along with vegetables, meats, rice, and coffee.  The goal is to build “around” nature.  The transparent canopies over the walkways let in the sun and blend with the foliage, but keep attendees dry during occasional tropical rain showers.  

Seminars are a crucial part of the spiritual life we experience in Maranatha.  They supplement our frequent, brief church services throughout the week.  Frequent, short services keep our members in constant fellowship.  Seminars, however, play a necessary role in the life of the Body and the spiritual development of each member.  Over time, the Lord has revealed a detailed, regular system for our seminars in Brazil, where we now have about thousands of churches.   

The seminars play a vital role in strengthening the Body of Christ today (the faithful church).  Every aspect must be according to revelation in order for the seminars to achieve their purpose.  “According to revelation” means two things.  First, it means that every aspect of a particular seminar fit with the general guidelines that the Lord revealed for all the seminars (guidelines discussed throughout this series of lessons).  Second, “according to revelation” means that God speaks about the specific decisions that arise with each separate event, issues that are unique to each seminar.  These issues include the dates of the meetings, the venue, who should teach the classes, etc.  God addresses all these specific issues for each seminar through dreams, visions, revelations, or consulting the Word – usually during the planning states before the event.  This is our experience every time.  

In the early days of Maranatha, when this system of programs was just beginning, the Lord told our Presbytery (pastors in leadership), “In 2 days of a seminar, the Spirit can accomplish as much in a member’s life as in 2 years of attending regular church services.”  Yet this occurs only when we follow the set of revelations and guidelines that the Lord gave for these events.  Without the system of revealed seminars, members will still grow spiritually, but it will take a lot more time.  The revealed seminars help compress the time needed for members to attain spiritual maturity.  When the members are maturing much more rapidly, the entire Work of the Holy Spirit accelerates in that country.  The Body grows more and accomplishes more.