Looking For New Wineskins (The Misunderstanding of Christianity Part 4)

God’s fire that I encountered in the Jesus Revolution and by spending time with radically committed Indian Christians is always burning in my heart. However, I was growing weary of trying to fit it into organized religion. Old religious wineskins rarely appreciate God’s new wine.

I eventually decided to become a motivational speaker and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. That way, I could let God’s fire burn in front of non-religious people. I did that full-time for the next 12 years while still searching for the new wine of God’s Spirit.

I needed help getting started as a speaker, and I kept seeing an ad in the Nashville Business Journal for C & T Seminars run by a woman named Ernie. One day I called her and told her I was a new motivational speaker. I asked if I could buy her lunch and if she would tell me how she got started. She agreed and was a great help.

I didn’t intend for anything romantic to happen, but it did. Although she had grown up as a Baptist, it didn’t bother her that I was a Jesus Freak, so Ernie became my wife. Over the course of a year, she became as excited about Jesus as I am.

We were regularly attending Christ Church, a charismatic megachurch. Once they asked me to preach in their small Wednesday night service. Ernie’s best friend and former roommate, Helen from Scotland, who wasn’t a Christian, was visiting us. She and Ernie attended the service. During my sermon, Helen whispered to Ernie, “That’s what he’s supposed to be doing.” Later, Helen surrendered her life to Jesus in our living room.

Ernie began to nudge me to get back into the ministry. I wasn’t eager to do so, but I finally contacted a pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to let them know that I was available. To my great surprise, I was quickly hired to be the part-time pastor of Franklin Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Nashville.

It was an old historic church with fewer than 20 people, mostly elderly, in attendance on Sunday mornings. Things went well for a while. I preached on Sunday. Ernie started working with the women. Together we started an interactive Bible study on Wednesday nights. The church grew to about 60 people on Sunday morning. Most of the new people were young and were excited about Jesus. God was on the move in an old wineskin.

However, the original members were becoming more and more unhappy with the growth and with all the new people in the building. Someone reported us to the Presbytery, the pastor and a representative from each of the regional churches. They listened to the people’s complaints, and they listened to us testify about how wonderfully God was moving.

By a close vote they said that I could stay as pastor if I would let them record my sermon every Sunday. I knew they wouldn’t like my passionate preaching style, so I resigned.

A few of the original members and some of the new people decided to leave and start a new church. They asked if Ernie and I would lead them. We agreed but even in a new situation there was still resistance to my preaching style. We eventually left, but the church continued and even built a building. It’s known as Christ Church Franklin.

Our best friends began to attend the Nashville Vinyard church and thought we would like it. We did! The worship was amazing. The sermon was okay. But the best thing was the open altar every Sunday morning. Several spiritually hungry people came forward each week to be prayed over. The congregation was free to leave, but those who did missed the best part of the meeting.

Prayer teams would pray over each person frequently giving them supernatural prophetic words, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom. Each week people were deeply moved and often in tears. They were being physically healed and set free from inner torment. It was truly amazing.

The Nashville Vineyard church started several small groups. Our friends were asked to lead one of them. They encouraged everyone in the group to listen to Jesus and share what he put on their heart. Their group was thriving with the presence of Christ.

However, eventually the church leadership began to require the group leaders to have their group discuss the Sunday sermon in a more tightly controlled format. That caused conflict with our friends and their group. They eventually left having been greatly hurt both emotionally and in their spiritual life. We stayed awhile longer, but the fire in that church was rapidly cooling off.

Two more couples in the church who also left talked to us about having our own small group. So, the six of us began to meet on Sunday nights in our living room for about a year. We called it “a hath a” meeting based on 1 Corinthians 14:26 in the King James Version. “When ye come together every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.”

Those “hath a” meetings with the 6 of us were wonderful. Yet we battled with feeling guilty that we weren’t in a traditional church. Those old wineskins were calling us back. Some friends told us about a new church, Abounding Grace, meeting in a school near us that had an open mic during worship.

We checked it out and loved it. The first meeting we couldn’t figure out who the pastor was. The worship was spiritually thrilling. People were enthusiastically praising God and even dancing before the Lord. From time to time someone would come to the mic and share a powerful insight, a Scripture, or a testimony. After about an hour, they would switch gears, send the children out, and have everybody sit and listen to a sermon by a different person each week. The new wine of God’s Spirit was flowing and I was hooked.

The pastor who so gracefully shared the pulpit (or podium in his case) was handing out copies of his book “Issues of the Heart — Let My People Go.” There was a small slip of paper inside the book that said something like: “Much of what I have written in this book is extreme, but I have been corrected by leadership and brought into a more accurate point of view.” That note made me really want to read it.

His book is all about Christians coming together to all listen to and obey the leading of God’s Spirit. I’ve read it several times and still have the copy the pastor gave me. I just opened it and saw these words: “The one-man system violates the people. One man becomes the eye, the ear, the nose, the foot, the hand.” He also wrote: “It is time to be up and doing. Their (spiritual) food will not continue to come from attending and listening; their food will be to do the will of the Father. So many need to realize that to move on in God is not rebellion. It is not a wrong sort of independence. Rather it is a natural healthy part of maturing.”

Wow! I was excited to find a pastor who articulated what I had experienced and learned from The Jesus Revolution and from being around on fire Indian Christians! Yet I was about to learn that even in that amazing church the new wine was in decline.

Stay tuned for Part 5: Finding New Wineskins Beyond a Sermon Centered Church

Looking For New Wineskins (The Misunderstanding of Christianity Part 4)

God’s fire that I encountered in the Jesus Revolution and by spending time with radically committed Indian Christians is always burning in my heart. However, I was growing weary of trying to fit it into organized religion. Old religious wineskins rarely appreciate God’s new wine.

I eventually decided to become a motivational speaker and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. That way, I could let God’s fire burn in front of non-religious people. I did that full-time for the next 12 years while still searching for the new wine of God’s Spirit.

I needed help getting started as a speaker, and I kept seeing an ad in the Nashville Business Journal for C & T Seminars run by a woman named Ernie. One day I called her and told her I was a new motivational speaker. I asked if I could buy her lunch and if she would tell me how she got started. She agreed and was a great help.

I didn’t intend for anything romantic to happen, but it did. Although she had grown up as a Baptist, it didn’t bother her that I was a Jesus Freak, so Ernie became my wife. Over the course of a year, she became as excited about Jesus as I am.

We were regularly attending Christ Church, a charismatic megachurch. Once they asked me to preach in their small Wednesday night service. Ernie’s best friend and former roommate, Helen from Scotland, who wasn’t a Christian, was visiting us. She and Ernie attended the service. During my sermon, Helen whispered to Ernie, “That’s what he’s supposed to be doing.” Later, Helen surrendered her life to Jesus in our living room.

Ernie began to nudge me to get back into the ministry. I wasn’t eager to do so, but I finally contacted a pastor in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to let them know that I was available. To my great surprise, I was quickly hired to be the part-time pastor of Franklin Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Nashville.

It was an old historic church with fewer than 20 people, mostly elderly, in attendance on Sunday mornings. Things went well for a while. I preached on Sunday. Ernie started working with the women. Together we started an interactive Bible study on Wednesday nights. The church grew to about 60 people on Sunday morning. Most of the new people were young and were excited about Jesus. God was on the move in an old wineskin.

However, the original members were becoming more and more unhappy with the growth and with all the new people in the building. Someone reported us to the Presbytery, the pastor and a representative from each of the regional churches. They listened to the people’s complaints, and they listened to us testify about how wonderfully God was moving.

By a close vote they said that I could stay as pastor if I would let them record my sermon every Sunday. I knew they wouldn’t like my passionate preaching style, so I resigned.

A few of the original members and some of the new people decided to leave and start a new church. They asked if Ernie and I would lead them. We agreed but even in a new situation there was still resistance to my preaching style. We eventually left, but the church continued and even built a building. It’s known as Christ Church Franklin.

Our best friends began to attend the Nashville Vinyard church and thought we would like it. We did! The worship was amazing. The sermon was okay. But the best thing was the open altar every Sunday morning. Several spiritually hungry people came forward each week to be prayed over. The congregation was free to leave, but those who did missed the best part of the meeting.

Prayer teams would pray over each person frequently giving them supernatural prophetic words, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom. Each week people were deeply moved and often in tears. They were being physically healed and set free from inner torment. It was truly amazing.

The Nashville Vineyard church started several small groups. Our friends were asked to lead one of them. They encouraged everyone in the group to listen to Jesus and share what he put on their heart. Their group was thriving with the presence of Christ.

However, eventually the church leadership began to require the group leaders to have their group discuss the Sunday sermon in a more tightly controlled format. That caused conflict with our friends and their group. They eventually left having been greatly hurt both emotionally and in their spiritual life. We stayed awhile longer, but the fire in that church was rapidly cooling off.

Two more couples in the church who also left talked to us about having our own small group. So, the six of us began to meet on Sunday nights in our living room for about a year. We called it “a hath a” meeting based on 1 Corinthians 14:26 in the King James Version. “When ye come together every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.”

Those “hath a” meetings with the 6 of us were wonderful. Yet we battled with feeling guilty that we weren’t in a traditional church. Those old wineskins were calling us back. Some friends told us about a new church, Abounding Grace, meeting in a school near us that had an open mic during worship.

We checked it out and loved it. The first meeting we couldn’t figure out who the pastor was. The worship was spiritually thrilling. People were enthusiastically praising God and even dancing before the Lord. From time to time someone would come to the mic and share a powerful insight, a Scripture, or a testimony. After about an hour, they would switch gears, send the children out, and have everybody sit and listen to a sermon by a different person each week. The new wine of God’s Spirit was flowing and I was hooked.

The pastor who so gracefully shared the pulpit (or podium in his case) was handing out copies of his book “Issues of the Heart — Let My People Go.” There was a small slip of paper inside the book that said something like: “Much of what I have written in this book is extreme, but I have been corrected by leadership and brought into a more accurate point of view.” That note made me really want to read it.

His book is all about Christians coming together to all listen to and obey the leading of God’s Spirit. I’ve read it several times and still have the copy the pastor gave me. I just opened it and saw these words: “The one-man system violates the people. One man becomes the eye, the ear, the nose, the foot, the hand.” He also wrote: “It is time to be up and doing. Their (spiritual) food will not continue to come from attending and listening; their food will be to do the will of the Father. So many need to realize that to move on in God is not rebellion. It is not a wrong sort of independence. Rather it is a natural healthy part of maturing.”

Wow! I was excited to find a pastor who articulated what I had experienced and learned from The Jesus Revolution and from being around on fire Indian Christians! Yet I was about to learn that even in that amazing church the new wine was in decline.

Stay tuned for Part 5: Finding New Wineskins Beyond a Sermon Centered Church