Archive - Jan 2000
Page 1 - Catching The Waves of Renewal By Dan Siemens
- Page 2 - David's Heart By Mary Ann Herzan
Page 3 - MY TRIP TO ICELAND, LATVIA, AND DENMARK By Doug Norquist
Page 4 - Revival Fires By Kevin J. McClure
Attention Pastors and Leaders!
We are very pleased to tell you that we are able to offer an insightful and practical book written by our friend and Lutheran Renewal board member, Pastor Mike Bradley.The Ongoing Journey is a new, 300-page book intended to help you walk step by step in the visioning process for your church or for your own personal life and ministry. Not only does Mike share the wisdom that God has given him through years of tested pastoral ministry, but he has also gleaned many nuggets from the vast amount of visioning and leadership material currently available. This book is up-to-date and is written in a user-friendly form. It can be ordered from our Resource page on the back of this newsletter.
Here's an excerpt from the book:
"Because vision is a picture of future reality, a visioning team may be pregnant with God's vision for some time. They may live and lead and serve their people without having an 'official' vision statement….as they patiently await the 'arrival' of that which God is birthing.
The time spent 'awaiting this arrival' is not a time of inaction. Ministry is going on in peoples' lives. God is moving and acting in and through the body. The vision is continuing to be formed within the hearts and minds of those to whom God is giving impartation. The vision is being nurtured and developed. But, it may not yet be time to 'give birth'. So, a visioning team may simply need to live with the vision for a time.
Leigh Anderson writes:
'Years ago, when Wooddale (his church) relocated to our present facility, no one believed it could be done. As a leader at Wooddale, I was responsible to voice the vision to build a facility…Someone with vision lives in the future. I 'lived' in our new building at Wooddale for years before the church actually moved in (Anderson/Shelley, pp. 19-20).' "
Mike Bradley and his wife, Debi, have five children. He continues to serve at Trinity Lutheran Church in Rapid City, SD where he has ministered for the past 12 years. Mike's life-message is helping God's people to rediscover what it means to be a safe place and a safe people.
Catching The Waves of Renewal
By Dan Siemens
Standing high atop a sea-cliff, overlooking a rocky section of the California coast, I found myself with a panoramic view of the action below. Here, a band of twenty surfers, tightly encased in their shiny, black, seal-like wet suits, plied their trade. Lured irresistibly by the rising sound of crashing seas, they challenged the uneasy surf and braved the chill of this January afternoon.
After watching them intently for some time, I observed that being a successful surfer required the recognition of a specific cycle of wave activity. There were two distinct parts to this cycle.
First, there was a time when the waves began to noticeably decrease in intensity, moments where inaction and stillness ensued. Even the sound of the water breaking on the shore became strangely muted. During this part of the cycle, the surfers would simply straddle their boards, facing outward toward the open sea, and there they bobbed silently in staggered unison. With all eyes scanning the horizon, they attentively watched and waited as they rested atop the liquid rhythm of the heaving sea.
Once in a while, as if to tempt anyone brimming with impatience, a feeble wave would develop with the false promise of an exciting ride. But not to be fooled, the experienced eye let it roll harmlessly past to break in weakness upon the shore.
Then suddenly, surfers came alive with activity that signaled the second part of the cycle. As if someone had fired a starting gun, each person, now lying horizontally on their craft, began to frantically dig armfuls of ocean with a windmill-like motion that propelled them seaward.
With a carefully timed approach, the paddlers reached the peak just as it was cresting in intensity. Totally changing the direction of their travel to now race back down the steep incline, they boldly stood to their feet. Empowered by the crashing wave and spray, which folded under in continuous motion behind them, these surfers were rewarded for their patience and could now experience the ride of their lives.
Like surfers looking for the next wave, we must learn how to recognize the cycles or seasons of wave activity relative to renewal movements.
In Rick Joyner's book, A Prophetic Vision for the 21st Century, he notes from the history of past revivals the importance of preparatory watching, recognizing and ultimately responding to the moves of the Holy Spirit. He writes:
"In the previous great awakenings or revivals in church history, very few individuals were anticipating the move of the Holy Spirit. In almost every one of the awakenings, the existing churches and ministries were damaged by the new move, simply because the groups were not ready for it. In contrast, today there seems to be almost a universal expectation of impending revival but very little has actually been done to prepare for it. The next wave of the Holy Spirit is in reality bigger than we have dreamed, but because we are dreaming, instead of preparing, we are now in serious jeopardy from the very wave we have been hoping to see."
Here are two ways we can prepare today for what God is sending tomorrow.
I. We must be vigilant and watchful with spiritual sensitivity in order to recognize the sovereign, rhythmic waves of the Spirit. This is especially true during the lulls in between the waves.
I learned from observing the surfers that there seemed to be more time waiting and watching than actual surfing. Biblical, expectant waiting is not a bad thing at all. Proverbs 8:34 says, Blessed is the (person) who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway." Expectantly searching the horizon of the Spirit makes me more vigilant and ready for what God will be sending. Watching and waiting also makes me hungry for more; it is a way of agreeing with God about my own desperately weak condition. Here I realize that I cannot make a single thing happen without the power of his Spirit.
Watching and waiting prepares my hungering heart with grace in order to embrace the next move of God, because every wave of renewal comes with a price.
The effects of the most recent wave are still being felt around the world. It has renewed our love for the Father, and has sovereignly healed our hearts. It has also allowed us to experience just a fraction of the fearsome power of God, so that we will not be afraid when He comes to us in a stronger manner in the future.
But already, many are sensing that another swell is coming. Things have gotten somewhat quiet on the shore. In spite of this lull, we must also remember that biblical waiting doesn't mean inactivity. There is a healthy tension here. (See Kevin McClure's article in this issue). Although we long for the Spirit to be poured out afresh, that doesn't mean that if God doesn't send revival today that we are helpless to move on. God's Holy Spirit is always with us. The Kingdom work of plowing, sowing and reaping must always continue in season and out of season (I Timothy 4.2). During the quiet times we are also called to integrate what we have learned from our previous 'ride' as we allow its unique emphasis to become deeply imbedded in our spiritual lives.
II. Our God is infinitely creative. Every wave of the Spirit must not only be recognized, but it must also be embraced in its God-ordained uniqueness.
No two waves of renewal are exactly the same. Each carries with it a familiar, yet distinct, message, a specific momentum and a capacity to sustain. Although each wave of renewal is birthed from the same ocean and is built upon by the momentum of previous swells, the Azusa wave differed from the Charismatic wave. The most recent wave which has flowed out from Toronto, Canada, has crested and is rolling onto the shore of the Church seeking to fulfill its own distinct purpose.
Surfers do not have the luxury of riding the same wave twice. We cannot recognize or move to the new unless we let go of the old. Surprisingly, one of the hindrances that keeps us from recognizing and embracing a unique, new move of the Spirit is our intimate connection with the previous wave. Joyner notes that "usually those of a previous move are retreating as the next wave advances, creating a clash that hinders the incoming wave."
I love the way RT Kendall in his book, The Anointing, makes this point. He writes:
"God does not always repeat himself when manifesting his glory. We must come to terms with what may be yesterday's anointing. It will do us no good to pretend that what happened yesterday is happening today, if it isnt".
He illustrates this by using the Old Testament account of Saul, Samuel, and David. Saul had the blessing and anointing of God and led a powerful move of the Spirit through Israel. But through his overt disobedience, he lost it. King Saul, in effect, became yesterday's man, but he still publicly wore the crown for quite some time. What God was secretly sending was a new movement with tomorrow's man, David. He received the new anointing, but was without the visible crown until God's appointed time. How difficult it is to recognize the new when the old is firmly in place!
Samuel is a picture of today's person, like you and I. He desired to be prophetically attuned to the now work and movement of the Spirit. But even when God revealed where he was heading with David, Samuel had a terrible time letting go of yesterday's anointing on King Saul. God had to come to him and say, in so many words, "Samuel, that wave is past. How long will you mourn for Saul?" (I Samuel 16.1)
So where are we today? Have we embraced, appropriated, and released the past moves of God? Are we currently in-between the Spirit's wonderful waves? Do you see the rising swells? As certainly as we move ahead with the ongoing work of the Kingdom, we must also watch together in listening prayer and plead in intercession for God's new wave upon the horizon of the vast rolling ocean.
Why must we plead in earnest for this new wave? Let's publicly admit that as much as God has done in every previous wave of the Spirit, the acts of God that we desperately need to awaken our churches and shake our cities are not being performed in our midst. We need so much more!
As we continue to cry out to God for more, may we have eyes to see the approaching swell of his mercy, and may we have the courage to ride out to meet it when it comes.
Dan Siemens and his wife, Denise, are parents of two teen-age girls, Ali and Teresa. Dan is on staff full-time with Lutheran Renewal as the Ministry Coordinator.