75 :: Providence Road Church of Christ

This morning I worshiped at Providence Road Church of Christ (PRCoC) at their 8:30 am service. I had heard great things about this church over the years, and I was curious on what a visit would yield. Everything I had heard was validated.

This is a great church with friendly people, really unique music and a very solid Minister. Basically, everything you would want in a church.

I attended early to be able to make the service at Freedom House later in the morning. This was a "four church weekend" for me. I believe that is the largest number of churches that I have ever attended in a weekend.

When I arrived at the front of the church, I was greeted by a phalanx of friendly people. I mentioned my blog and visiting one hundred churches to a few of them. They found it intriguing, I think.

The layout of the sanctuary was really interesting. There were rows of chairs, but also a few long, wooden tables interspersed throughout the sanctuary. It was a really good layout.

The music was among the most uplifting that I have heard, as it was so different. It was entirely a cappella! There was a five-part harmony on the stage, and the church is clearly filled with people who enjoy singing together. 

Check out the videos:

It both was an unexpected and pleasant thing to sing a capella praise music.

The sermon was given by Matt Haynes, the Minister at PRCoC. Although he looks very youthful, he shared an anecdote about the early years of his marriage back in 2003. As such, this is likely not his first church that he has pastored and he is not as young as he looks.

His sermon was excellent. 

The church is in a series on word studies, this week's was "wow."

Minister Haynes started his sermon by speaking about the changing demographics in the US in the area of worldview. He pointed out that across all age categories, following God is in decline. Part of this phenomenon is seen in the rise of a group called "The Nones." These are people who make no commitment about their belief in the transcendent. 

While The Nones are more numerous among younger people, there are Nones in every age category. 

Hearing about The Nones was an interesting turn of events this morning. 

James Emery White, the Pastor at Mecklenburg Community Church where I visited last week, wrote a book about The Nones... entitled The Rise of the Nones. I have also heard this demographic group brought up in other church visits.

Before proceeding on the sermon, I'll share a few thoughts on The Nones...

I think that young people are by their very nature less likely (and often less able) to give serious consideration to life's big questions. And that is nothing new. The ill-founded confidence that emboldens a young person to render a verdict on millennium-old beliefs by the age of fifteen is a story as old as time itself. That young people today are using this age-old tendency to eschew religious thought is not really a huge surprise. 

It is perhaps not even new, as many people would have said they were Christian out of either obligation or superstition in the past. Those tendencies have passed now, perhaps revealing a swath of society that never really believed in a transformative way to begin with.

I would also observe that many of The Nones are not really Nones. 

While many of The Nones tend to describe themselves as atheists, yet they also tend to deify the aggregate of matter. They say things like, "The Universe is looking out for me." The Nones also tend to believe that they have had past lives and are in a cycle of reincarnation. I will also observe that the seemingly atheistic Nones often invoke the Hindu concept of Karma to explain why bad things happen to people (a form of theological victim shaming, if you ask me).

In summary, I believe that many of The Nones are not truly Nones. Instead, they are more often adherents to a loosely-cobbled-together series of syncretistic ideas that provide them no challenge in wrestling with the more difficult questions of life. 

Many of them will almost certainly find The Way. Perhaps it would be more useful for them to be described as "Not Yets."

Back to the sermon...

Minister Haynes pointed out that the timeline in the decline of belief has happened on the same timeline as a marked societal increase of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and an overall increase in mental illness. 

The data does tend to bear this out, just Google some of the charts on these subjects. That these respective numerical increases and decreases are related to each other is certainly open for debate, but there is no question that there is a timeline correlation.

The sermon offered that an overall decrease in awe - the reduced tendency of people to say "wow" - is on the rise and that this will inevitably impact the church. 

One interesting part of the sermon was when he invoked the well-known YouTube video where a man loses his composure when viewing a double rainbow in Yosemite.

In case you are not familiar with this video, here it is:

Minister Haynes pointed out that people tended to laugh at this video, which was one of the most viral of all time. People also searched Google to find out was wrong with the man. Was he crazy? Perhaps he was "not all there"?

His name was Paul "Bear" Vasquez. 

At the time that the video went viral, Vasquez was going through an exceedingly difficult phase of his life. His relationships had broken down. He was unemployed. There is some conjecture that he struggled with substance abuse. And he was living in a tent and homeless in Yosemite at the time of the double rainbow.

His sense of awe and appreciation was palpable. He actually cried in joy as he said, "It's so beautiful!" and "What does it mean?!"

In reality, this video is one of the most beautiful things that we can witness. A broken person whose human condition has not robbed him of his sense of awe and appreciation for a wonder of creation. 

But Vasquez was not simply excited by this phenomenon, he was absolutely subsumed with awe during the event. He wept the kind of tears that are usually reserved for the birth of a baby or the good death of a loved one. He was shattered in the most beautiful way by the unexpected double rainbow.

Bear Vasquez died last year. At the time of his death, he still had massive life struggles.

I believe it was Einstein who said that there are only two ways of living - as if nothing around you is a miracle, or as if everything around you is a miracle.

In reality, a growing number of people are living as if nothing is a miracle. And that is something we are paying a social price for.

He explored Exodus 18:15-23:

“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

He made the point that this story can be understood by exploring the Hebrew meaning of "seeing God from the back." A study of the words reveals that ancient Jews believed that we are best positioned to observe the divinity of God in retrospect, that the events of our lives are often seen with the most clarity when we look backward. 

The Hand of God can be evident to us when we look backward and see anew how seemingly disparate events in life worked together to produce divine outcomes.

He drove multiple parts of scripture in the same way, making a compelling case for all of us to have a quicker tendency to express our awe. After all, we live in a place where the entire cosmos pivoted when Divinity incarnated as Yeshua, suffered an ignoble execution and then rose from the dead.

I mean, that is pretty awe-inspiring in and of itself, no?

Thanks to PRCoC for a great visit - I mean, wow. 

May you keep growing and moving forward.

74 :: Founded in Truth

Today we worshiped at Founded in Truth, a congregation in South Carolina. This church is grounded in a Messianic Jewish tradition, making it yet another interesting experience. This theological bent also explains why we were worshiping on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

When we entered the church, we were greeted with "Shabbat Shalom," the universal greeting for the Jewish Sabbath. As I learned years ago, the Jewish day begins at sundown. This means that the Jewish Sabbath (our Saturday) begins every Friday at sundown. This results in the fact that Saturday church is Shabbat church.

"Shabbat Shalom."

I first heard the phrase in 2017 when I arrived in Jerusalem a bit before sundown on a Friday. I also heard this phase at Hope of Israel (post #61 on this blog). And today I heard this same phrase at Founded in Truth.

Once I heard this phrase, I knew that the rest of the service would be contextually different. Jesus would be Yeshua, one example of that difference. There were also shofar being blown, as well as many of the men wearing talitot. A group of children performed traditional Hebraic dances in the corner of the sanctuary. This was a Christian church service infused with the Jewish roots of our faith.

So good.

You can see Mariel Charlotte holding a shofar, as well as taking part in the Hebraic dancing.

The band was really quite good. They did one of the best renditions of Rest On Us that we have heard. The percussion was a djembe, a West African type of drum. It was a very unique set up and they sounded great.

There was then a Torah Portion reading, a traditional part of Jewish worship. The reading was done by a guy who gave a personal talk on the importance of Remembering. His talk was interlaced with stories about how he tells his kids about the miracles that have happened in his own life. It was both touching and well done. 

The guy had an elaborate tattoo on his left arm that had frightening images on the bottom of his arm and angelic images on the top of his arm - these two realms were separated by the word YESHUA.

Amen, brother.

After the Torah Portion reading, the children were brought up front and blessed by the community. The men of the church put a makeshift tabernacle above the children. Then the children were allowed to go to their classes for the remainder of the Shabbat service. 

This was in a congregation that was absolutely packed with children, such a beautiful sight!

The sermon was given by Joshua Ensley, a new associate pastor with Founded in Truth. He and his family moved to Charlotte from Georgia six weeks ago. It was outstanding. It was an exploration of the phenomenon of unbelief. The sermon dissected unbelief into three parts - What is Unbelief? How Does Unbelief Operate? and How Do We Overcome Unbelief?

Joshua made a point during the sermon that illustrated the true character of unbelief. After Yeshua was resurrected, He walked through a wall and then proceeded to eat a fish... yet people still didn't believe in Him. The list of people who didn't believe included some of His disciples! They actually thought He was a ghost.

They had seen the fullness of truth, yet still insisted maintaining their unbelief.

Such a theme is also found in Exodus. 

The Israelites were wandering through the Desert of Sin under the guidance of a fiery cloud that was filled with the Spirit of God. These people were seeing Adonai first hand both day and night - yet they still devolved into worshipping a statue of a cow. They had seen God with their own eyes and yet focused their devotion on a mere statue.

These examples reiterate the same point - evidence alone is insufficient to move a person from unbelief to belief if their heart is hardened. Unbelief is not a problem of the intellect, it is a problem of the heart.

Joshua also made a great point about the intellectual commitment that must follow belief. 

To embrace Christianity, one's heart must encompass two equally valid yet deeply disparate realities. These are the darkest pessimism and the brightest optimism that come with our faith. 

The dark pessimism is that we are all broken and incapable of achieving peace on our own. There is no hope for us when we insist on having autonomy. As it says in Isaiah 64:6, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

The bright optimism is that God is close to all of us, ready to fully redeem us into joy when we simply make the decision to turn to Him. As it says Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

That is the beauty of the Gospel - it verifies our darkest desperation and offers to replace it with our brightest (and only) hope.

I'll finish this post by saying that this is a prolific congregation that is having big families. This is a wonderful thing to see in our society. Additionally, these were an exceedingly kind group of people. They made us feel welcome. Founded in Truth definitely typifies the best in Southern Hospitality. 

Again, all so good.

Thanks to FIT for an absolutely great visit to their deeply interesting church.

73 :: Refuge Ranch

 

Tonight we worshiped at Refuge Ranch in Indian Land, SC. This was a Friday night church experience and the specific type of church was that of a deliverance ministry. This is a ministry that is involved in delivering people from unclean spirits and demons. So, yes - it was always important that I get to a church like this.

The definition of a deliverance ministry can be explored in greater depth at [this link].

We went with four friends to Refuge Ranch, as Beth has a unique acumen for gathering people. Everyone had an interesting experience and this proved to be a very fascinating place to visit. 

When I asked Beth for a word that described Refuge Ranch, she offered "immersive."

This church is in an event space in South Carolina. As far as I could tell, the precise place that the worship is held is not permanently Refuge Ranch's. When we made an effort to attend Refuge Ranch in the past, there was a wedding reception in the building, as an example of how this shared space is used.

Upon arrival, we were seated by ushers, a vestige of a formal side of church. But Refuge Ranch was anything but formal.

The event space was bathed in the purple light that has moved into the status of "ubiquitous" in virtually all contemporary churches. As soon as the crowd assembled, there was music from videos, not a band. This was a bit different, as most churches have a band. But the sound quality and the choice of music was excellent.

As the music blared, there were women on the stage performing with the colored flags that are increasingly a part of churches like Refuge Ranch.

The crowd got warmed up over time and then turned the corner to definitively worshiping with enthusiasm for the rest of the service. It was an excellent example of how individuals in a crowd work off of each other's enthusiasm. 

Eventually, the music stopped and we had a message from Pastor Michael Rozzell. Pastor Michael's history can be read on the Refuge Ranch website [link], but suffice it to say that it is one of radical deliverance over different phases of his life. In each of those phases, he overcame things that he would describe as spirits that occupied parts of his life and body.

Through being delivered from these spiritual things, Pastor Michael developed the deliverance ministry of Refuge Ranch.

A good part of his sermon was on current events. During the message, Pastor Michael mentioned the legitimacy of the Trump presidency, and he spoke at length about the Covid-19 vaccines. He linked the vaccine and Covid-19 to end-times prophecy - this included an exploration of the rider of the white horse in Revelations 6:

Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.

This rider of a horse is a symbolic representation of an impostor Christ, which Pastor Michael related to the Greek word "corona" and the bow he carried as depicting a shot. You can see where this was headed. His exploration of these themes included a video that spelled out the Nuremberg Code and how the current roll out of the vaccines was a violation of that international agreement.

I looked into the Greek words for "crown" that is used in Revelations, and found that "stephanos" and "diadem" are the words that are used. I also found that corona was offered as one of the words in some source data. So, there remains some ambiguity in my mind as to the words that can be unpackaged from this book of the Bible.

Revelations is by definition a very symbolic book that is subject to huge variety in terms of how people understand it.

No matter the accuracy of the translation and/or theology, I acknowledge that this was the message that Pastor Michael offered the assembled people - Covid-19 and the shot are aspects of the unfolding eschaton, which is happening right now. 

Then he moved on to the deliverance part of the event. I won't go into an in-depth description of what happened, but I will summarize it by saying that the prayer was focused on spiritual entities that occupy space in a person's life and body. The method of being delivered from such things is believed to be unison prayer and a focus on exhaling and even coughing. This was depicted as the way that a spiritual expulsion can happen, whereby a person is freed from spiritual oppression.

I had a physical manifestation in a part of my body that carries some minor health watch items, specifically my calves. They can twitch involuntarily if I am poorly hydrated and not exercising them with regularity. It was interesting to observe what they did during the deliverance part of the service.

The idea is that the attendees of the service were being cleared of spiritual oppression.

The distinction between spiritual oppression and demonic possession is a useful one to explore here. From what I understand, it is believed to be the case that a Christian who is redeemed by Christ can be spiritually oppressed by different spirits (it was mentioned that there are over three hundred Spirits of Fear), but that they cannot be possessed demonically. That ignoble state is impossible, since a believing person is protected from such things by The Blood.

To drive home the ways that spiritual oppression can enter a person's life, there was a schematic presented that depicts your ears, eyes, mouth and sexuality as likely avenues through which a destructive spiritual force can enter a person, according to the theology of Refuge Ranch.

Interesting... click on it and have a look:

The context of Refuge Ranch's corporate worship experience is that we are able to declare power over spiritual entities, as well as bind and cast out those same spiritual entities that are present in our lives and bodies.

For congregations that are of the theological tradition that Refuge Ranch is part of, this act of declaring power and binding/expelling such entities is the ultimate expression of Christian faith.

After his message and the deliverance event, which took more than an hour and a half, there was another music video. The people worshiped with an enthusiasm that they did not have at the beginning. There was a level of enthusiasm that was unmistakable from the message and deliverance. 

At the end of the service, there was corporate praying at the front. This type of prayer results in people being "slain in the spirit," a manifestation whereby a person collapses onto the ground. There is a person waiting to catch the falling individual so they don't slam onto the ground and hurt themselves.

I have not shared any photos of people laid out to preserve their privacy.

I was curious about this, so I made an effort to be present of mind (open minded) and I went forward to pray with two of the people on the stage. I actually did have this experience. The couple anointed my forehead with oil and then prayed over me. Within a minute or so, I slumped backwards into the arms of a guy who lowered me to the ground and then covered me with a satin sheet.

I stayed there for a period of time and there was an interesting bodily reaction from me while I lay on the floor. I eventually opened my eyes and saw the couple was hovering over me, praying.

What was that all about?

I don't know. I am candidly still processing it with great interest and a bit of confusion (the good kind). 

As we drove home, Beth posited it had to do with some things that she knows a great deal about, specifically on the body's vagus nerve and how human experience can link to it. It was really interesting, as it plays in the nexus between physiology, psychology and spiritual experience. And I had just had an experience where all three intersected in a way that was entirely new to me.

I can say definitively that I did not choose to fall backward. I was also not pushed, nor was there any constriction of my airways, or stomach. In short, the techniques that can be used to make people fall were not a part of my experience.

Really fascinating stuff.

We and our friends spent time in the parking lot after the service. We were catching up, but also talking through some of what we had seen and heard. Since these friends are "go to a deliverance ministry of Friday night" sort of people, all of it was very open and interested and investigative. At least a couple of the individuals have been vaccinated, so that generated some discussion, as you can imagine.

I enjoy church services that push a new boundary in me, both theologically and experientially. Refuge Ranch certainly did both.

I am glad to have had this experience and exposure.

Thanks to Refuge Ranch for a... very different and expanding experience.

72 :: Mecklenburg Community Church

Today I worshipped at Mecklenburg Community Church. My love had a headache, so I took the three kids out to church. This church has been on the list since the beginning of this spiritual pivot, but Meck (the church's colloquial name) only had its post-COVID opening a couple of weeks ago. Meck was closed between March, 2020 until June, 2021. Several members of Meck joined Freedom House during the time that Meck was shut, so we heard about the church from multiple people who used to go here.

Meck is a big church and it has been around for a long time, by the standards of Charlotte's mega-church ecosystem. They opened in 1992. At one point in time, Meck was the fastest growing congregation in the US. While other churches have since leap-frogged Meck on that metric, this clearly remains a healthy church. Meck has two services in an auditorium that holds about a thousand people. 

When we drove up, I saw a huge amount of activity around the property and got a glimpse of a modern building. We were routed to multiple people who guided us through Meck's massive parking lot. We eventually got to the inside of the church and seated ourselves in the dark auditorium.

You can see how great the music was. It was quite solid and that high quality music emanated from a mere three people on the stage! Meck clearly has its musical act together.

During the musical part of the service, I took note of the fact that I now find it odd to spend time in a place where no one is using their bodies in the act of worship. Meck was definitely one of those places. The sanctuary was filled with a crowd of people who were rather reserved as the band sang about adoration, devotion and the lavish love of God. I noticed that I was less reserved than the norm and could not help but show it at one point. During one of the songs, I stood up and lifted my hands up. For that song, I was the only person in the place who was not sitting down.

But, you know... sometimes you just have to show your divine gratitude.

James Emery White came onto the stage to give his sermon after the music was over [link to more about him]. It was great to see this man after hearing a good bit about him over the years. 

Of note is that Pastor White was the head of Gordon-Conwell Seminary, a well-known and prestigious seminary that has its roots in New England and now has a presence in Charlotte. Additionally, Pastor White is the author of several books, including The Rise of the Nones, Serious Times and A Search for the Spiritual, After "I Believe", Meet Generation Z and Christianity for Non-Christians. 

In addition to the accomplishments he has achieved in growing Meck and writing several books, Pastor White has more recently gained some notoriety by pushing back against resistance to COVID-19 vaccination. Here is a [link] to an article entitled "White Evangelical Resistance" that he wrote on Crosswalk a couple of months ago.

While this article certainly did not endear him to opponents of his perspective, it appears to have done no damage to his congregation, as it is well-attended and filled with white evangelicals.

These are interesting times we live in, there is no question.

Pastor White's sermon was from James, a New Testament book written by Yeshua's brother (if hearing that Jesus had siblings surprises you, read [this]). The sermon was the first in a five-part series entitled "Fleshed Out."

The verses in James are important and they spell out several precepts very succinctly:

Testing of Your Faith

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Hearing and Doing the Word

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:2-25)

Pastor White used the compelling words as imagery of someone who has been driven to their knees by the battering and suffering and deprivation that can come from life... only to put one knee down while praying. His point was that only when we have a full commitment to our faith can we find the full redemption and new life that comes from the Lamb of God. 

My experience matches this idea. There are no areas where God is not active in claiming each human life. In actuality, God is involved in claiming that which is already His, namely our personal totality. We are already of and from God, so if we insist on maintaining a degree of autonomy that leaves us unyielded to God, we will likely not know the joy that can come from following God. 

Instead, it may be the case that we will only suffer and start to consider it "normal."

In the verses, a person who is subject to the duality of obedience and disobedience to God is described as a "double-minded man." Such double-mindedness is something that is a facet of every searching heart, but we need not think of it as a resting place. We will all struggle with such double-mindedness, until such time that it becomes untenable to do so.

As soon as Pastor White finished his sermon, the lights came on and everyone walked out of the church. It was at exactly the one hour mark. It felt abrupt, to be candid.

The whole service was exactly one hour. I took note of the fact that this seems short to me now. Ninety minutes is a more rich experience.

The visit to Meck was a perfectly contained, timed-to-the-minute and somewhat less passionate church experience - that is how I would describe the visit to Meck.

James Emery White is a brilliant man and a real asset to Charlotte and the believing community throughout the world. His church is a good place and I enjoyed this visit.

Thanks to Mecklenburg Community Church for a nice visit.

71 :: International House of Prayer, Kansas City

Today we prayed at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City. IHOP has a 24x7 prayer room that has been going around the clock since 1999. We spent most of our time in said prayer room. 

IHOP has more than this 24x7 prayer room, it also has a university, a coffee shop, condominium complexes and a series of other assets in and around Kansas City.

We stopped to visit IHOP because we had heard of it and because one of our friends back in Charlotte spent some time there as a student a few years ago. 

In some ways, going to IHOP was a bit of a different experience than a regular church visit, because IHOP is not exactly a church. It is more of a movement. And it is a movement that has specific theology and prophecy specifically related to Kansas City and the broader Midwest region of the United States.

We did a great deal of research after visiting IHOP. 

Before getting to the details of that research, what was our experience at IHOP?

Beth and I went into the 24x7 Prayer Room together. Like all of IHOP, the Prayer Room is found in a strip mall that is entirely owned by the group. Once inside, we found an interesting and subdued place that had a decent number of people studying scripture, praying and listening to the music being played by the praise band. There were flags from around the world along the ceiling, a huge map of the world, as well as scripture along the walls.

Pictures and videos:

It was clear that this was a good place to have a quiet moment, as well as ponder the accomplishment of twenty-two years of continuous prayer. Such a duration is certainly an interesting and remarkable achievement.

After spending some time in the Prayer Room, we drove over to IHOP University. This was again in a strip mall, this time a massive one. We visited the coffee shop, as well as saw the Center for Biblical End-Times Studies. We spent a few minutes in the All Nations Prayer Room. This is where IHOP hosts worship in Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, French and Arabic (we were there during the Spanish time).

The fact that we saw the Center for Biblical End-Time Studies reminded us of the theological focus of IHOP, which is definitively bent toward the eschatological. This means that IHOP is focused on the end of all things. Eschatology is defined as "...a part of theology concerned with the final events of history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity. This concept is commonly referred to as 'the end of the world' or 'end times'. The word arises from the Greek ἔσχατος éschatos meaning 'last' and -logy meaning 'the study of' something."

There are two words that are commonly associated with the theological branch of eschatology, specifically Armageddon and Apocalypse. 

Armageddon is the Anglicized name of a location in Israel where a final battle between good and evil will take place. 

Apocalypse is a term rooted in Greek that means "the lifting of the veil," which refers to an uncovering of reality that will accompany the End Times.

This gets us to the question of Mike Bickle's eschatological and apocalyptical revelations that took place in the 1970s and 1980s. These prophetic revelations gave rise to IHOP. 

Mike Bickle is the Founder and spiritual head of IHOP. He's currently in his late 60s.

Mike Bickle claims to have received a set of direct prophetic revelations while visiting specific places. The first was in Cairo, Egypt in 1975. These prophetic outpourings led to a large edifice of prophecy that people at IHOP call "Prophetic History." It may not be an unfair statement to say that at IHOP, Mike Bickle's prophetic history is elevating to a level relevance next to The Bible itself.

If you are interested, here is a recording that elaborates on this prophetic history, from Mike Bickle directly. It takes an hour to watch it, you may find it interesting:

Bob Jones, the son of the Founder of Bob Jones University in South Carolina, figures directly into Mike Bickle's story, as do other notable pastors like John Wimber and Rick Joyner. The reader will note that Rick Joyner is the head of MorningStar Ministries in the Charlotte area, one of the first churches that I visited as part of this experience.

Mike Bickle says he received multiple prophetic outpourings and learned that the Second Coming is imminent, that Kansas City in particular will be one of the lights to the world in this final age, and that the American Midwest will be a global focal point as these final events occur. 

These prophetic revelations came in the form of people having shared dreams, angelic visitations, and identical words of knowledge coming from different Prophets. 

Critics state that memorization of Mike Bickle's prophetic history is an example of where IHOP crosses the line of treating his experiences as truths on par with The Bible itself.

From such prophecy arose a loose confederation of Prophetic leaders who have formed something called the Apostolic-Prophetic Movement (APM), which seeks to take Christianity in an entirely new direction. Their goal is to re-establish the entire Christian church according to the Five-Fold Ministry. The Five-Fold Ministry would organize believers into five categories that are described in Ephesians 4:11 - "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers."  

In addition to the APM, there are a small group of Prophets who comprise what is called the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Mike Bickle is one of those Prophets.

There is also a worship style that is related to IHOP and the other prophetic churches called the "harp and bowl" style. It infuses the worship at churches in the NAR and APM.  Harp and bow refers to a part of the Book of Revelations that says:

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. (Revelations 5:8)

Names like Rick Joyner of MorningStar Ministries, Bill Johnson of Bethel Church and Christian singer Cory Asbury are ones that we already knew, but learned about their involvement with IHOP and the related entities of AP and NAR only after extensive research in the last day.

We knew nothing about any of those connect points prior to visiting IHOP.

So, what to make of all of this? 

For sure, we do not generally do research to this level after visiting a church. IHOP has clearly captivated Beth's imagination and given rise to discussions between us that have varied from intrigued to skeptical to fascinated to troubled. In short, we're working through what sense we can make of IHOP.

It's alot.

I guess here is how I approach such questions - there are only three options that might explain IHOP.

First, IHOP may result from a prophetic outpouring that came directly from God. If so, it deserves our attention and we should learn more. We did talk it through and said that if even this is of God, it could still be misused by flawed vessels (the humans involved).

Second option is that there is no transcendent source of Mike Bickle's revelations and that he is a deeply deceptive person. In essence, this is the snake oil option.

The final and third option is that Mike Bickle's prophetic history is a deception from a transcendent source, which ultimately leads us to the doorstep of The Enemy.

Which do I believe that IHOP might be? 

Candidly, I do not know. 

What seems evident is that there is a huge emphasis at IHOP on Mike Bickle's personal prophetic experiences. That is at least a possible warning sign about IHOP, in that it seems to put his revelation on the same level as Scripture. It also feels that there is a risk of a cult of personality. 

With that said, the idea of 24x7 prayer rooms as a discipline in the modern Christian church is something we consider very inspiring and a solid thing to seek to expand.

As far as the rest of it, we can and will keep our minds open. 

At the very least, this is all very interesting. This visit has proven truly noteworthy in how much research it generated in a mere twenty-four hours (Beth's research has vastly outstripped mine, a theme).

Really glad we had this chance to see this interesting gathering of Christians.

Thanks to IIHOP for a fascinating visit.