IS AN APOLOGY ENOUGH?

Repentance, Washing Feet, and Making Amends

By

Pastor Mike Berry

Bishop Craig Coates
Annapolis, Maryland

I recently saw on Facebook a designed T-shirt that stated, “You Matter!”  I thought to myself, “Exactly.” This shirt said it all. The struggle for human dignity burroughs throughout history.  The need to feel valued is part of our basic human nature. When there is injustice in a country that promises that “WE THE PEOPLE” (Not the Government) will “promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” we fall short of that ideal.  

Jesus summed it up when he said, “Love your Neighbor as you love yourself.”  In New Zealand an old Maori saying proclaims; “If you don’t love yourself, God help your neighbor!”  Human dignity needs to be restored in our nation. Micah 4:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you;  But to do justice, to show mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” When others are devalued, disenfranchised, and not given a place at the table - as the Body Of Christ we are called to do the work of Justice.  Human Dignity requires reciprocal liberty. That is why Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King took up the struggle for human rights as a minister of the Gospel. King built his ideas about  human dignity on four ideas: (1) All persons are children of God and have equal value and dignity.  (2)This equal worth becomes the basis of “just and fair treatment.” (3) This dignity, brings with it a moral capacity that gives people the ability to make socially good choices.  (4) This shared image of God provides the “existential common ground” for genuine community building across races, cultures, and ethnicities, making the “beloved community . . . a distinct historical possibility.” These ideas led me as a spirit-filled evangelical pastor to do what I could to heal the racial divide. 

Pastor Mike Berry asking forgiveness and washing the feet of Dr. Bernice King
and Dr. Alveda King with others on April 9, 2016

On November 27, 2015, I had a dream I was on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on the spot where Dr. King stood and gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.  As I looked down at the granite stone marking the spot he stood, I realized I was on my knees. I then saw the feet of Dr. King’s family members standing there also. I began to wonder why I was seeing this and I heard the Lord speak to me that I was to “wash the feet” of Dr. King’s children and ask their forgiveness for the Body of Christ’s lack of support in their grieving time after his assassination.  Also I was to ask forgiveness for not obeying the prophetic word He had given us on that hot August Day in 1963.” I responded to The Lord and asked, “Lord, are you calling me to actually do this? I don’t even know Dr. King’s family. How can I do this when I have no connection to them?” I asked God to confirm that if this is what He really wanted me to do, to open up the door for this to happen. Later that morning, God opened the door for me to introduce myself to the family and the rest became history.  On April 9, 2016 I stood on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial with four other “white” clergymen and washed Dr. Benice King’s feet. Joining us at my request, Bobby Schuller, TV Pastor of “Hour of Power”, washed Dr. Alveda King’s feet. Pastor Greg Carr, descendant of Maryland’s First Governor, from Annapolis, Maryland washed Lynne Jackson’s feet (Great-great granddaughter of Dred Scott. South African Minister Andre’ Van Zyl washed Bill Haley, Jr’s feet (Grandson of author of “Roots” Alex Haley and direct descendant of Kunta Kinte). And Matt Lockett washed the feet of his dear co-minister friend, Will Ford III, whose family was once owned by Matt’s family - each supporting our call together to “Heal The Racial Divide.”  

Dr. Martin Luther King's Church
Atlanta, Georgia

Some have asked why do you do this?  My simple answer has been, Jesus said, “The greatest among you must become servants to all.”  Just before he went to the cross for us, “He took a towel, got down on his knees and washed his disciples feet.”  For me, getting down on my knees, with the whole world watching via television, and humbling myself at the Lincoln Memorial to wash Dr. King’s family’s feet and repenting for my own “cultural sins and bias” and that of the American Church. This moment empowered me to step up my own work as a minister in our ongoing struggle to restore “human dignity” in our nation.  It also was my own personal statement to the King family, that “You Matter” especially in light of all they have suffered and sacrificed as a family to bring an end to racism and their work of calling for human dignity to all. This King family’s story continues to serve as an incredible witness to the entire world. I believe that God is calling the church in America to get up and get on the right side of history.  That’s why I believe as a pastor that I had to lead the way and be an example as a descendant of a family who once owned slaves but, repented, and became America’s first abolitionists family. For me, repentance, asking forgiveness, and washing feet is one way to say I am sorry for my own and the church’s complicity in not working for healing our racial divide. I am very thankful that Dr. Bernice King and Evangelist Alveda King gave me the opportunity to humble myself and offered me the gift of forgiveness.  But, was this apology enough? My answer is “No” but it was a beginning. 

Recently, I was reading about St. Peter struggling with his own racism and personal bias.  As an orthodox Jewish man, he was taught to stay away from Gentiles. However, God took this old racist and called him to present the Gospel to the Gentile world.  His response was “no!” even after God challenged him three times. But God kept working with him and changed him In Acts 10:28 Peter confessed, “  He said to them: '' you are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.”  If God can change St. Peter he can change any of us.   

Racism and personal bias is not a matter of the color. It’s all a matter of culture.  All human beings are cultural beings whether Asian, Hispanic, European, middle-eastern, African, or Native.  However, We are all “one blood.” (See Acts 17:26) We all have a cultural community to which we belong. We have all been socialized in it and grown accustomed to its way and prefer it until we have been challenged and exposed to go to the world beyond us.  Cultural wars didn’t begin in America and will not end in America. Racism has taken place throughout all history. Germans killed Jews, Serbs killed Croatians, Sunni Muslims killed Shia Muslims, Spain massacred Native Americans, Dutch fought English and so on.  The unfortunate thing is that the Church has been complicit in it. Devaluing human life has been the result of a little unknown 15th Century Church teaching known as The Doctrine of Discovery. The church has no place in calling our government to repentance until it addresses its own history of dehumanization, slavery and racism.  

Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney Statue Removal
From Annapolis, Maryland State House 

An apology is not enough because until the Euro-centric American community, whether, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese or Dutch, make a fearless searching moral inventory of their history and then “Admit to God, to themselves, and to the disenfranchised communities that have been dehumanized the exact nature of their wrongs.”  Repentance requires honesty.  It has been said, “You can’t change the things you don’t acknowledge.  An apology is not repentance. Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.”  The scriptures are clear that true Repentance is demonstrated in not only acknowledging our sin but making amends.  Luke 19:8 explains to us that Zacchaeus, after encountering the Lord, stated, “if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." 

America was built on dispossessing Native Americans, Slavery, and stealing land.  The unfortunate thing is that many Christians think all we have to do is invoke II Chronicles 7:14 to “Heal Our National Divide.” Unfortunately, God did not make a promise to give them the land. They may have made a covenant but God didn’t agree. They came under charters based on the Doctrine Of Discovery which said, “Go to heathen, pagan, and unchristian lands, dispossess the inhabitants and bring them into perpetual slavery.”  400 years ago, after Gov. Berkeley of Virginia was frustrated with the non-conforming Native Americans, said ‘forget them, bring in the African.’ This is how it all began. Anyone who is familiar with our true history knows that the vestiges of slavery are a continuum that began with the kidnapping of people from their native lands to the bondage and brutality of American chattel slavery. When the descendants of those who were enslaved were no longer needed, a national dilemma was created…  what to do with the dehumanized remnant. The only solutions America embraced was the compulsion of sending the Africans back to Africa, Jim Crow, questioning their citizenship, offering 40 acres and a mule, segregated education, housing and perhaps a good seat in the back of the church. All these ideas revolved the concept ‘We The People.’ Does this mean ALL the people?”  We still have a lot of work to do to “make our nation a more perfect union.”

A few years ago, community leaders in Richmond, Virginia began a journey to address their city’s past.  Along the way, they were contacted by the President of Nigeria and the city of Liverpool England. The President Of Nigeria wanted to repent on behalf of his tribe for selling other tribes into slavery and the City Of Liverpool, who built the slave ships that were engaged in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, wanted to reconcile with Richmond over their national sins.  As a result, powerful conversation, work and healing has been transpiriing. However, I learned that in Liverpool there six powerful wealthy families whose family wealth was built and is retained on the history of their families having built those ships. When they were approached by the city of Liverpool to participate they felt no obligation to participate or even make amends with the wealth their families made through slavery.   In my view, any family, corporation, bank, church, institution or government who engaged and benefitted through this history needs to do something to reconcile their history, make amends, and lead by example in the fight to dismantle racism.   

Frederick Douglass
"Let's Tell All The History!"

In April 2017, Georgetown University made an apology its role in the 1838 sale of 272 enslaved individuals for the university’s benefit took place in the presence of more than 100 descendants. “Slavery remains the original evil of our Republic – an evil that our university was complicit in – a sin that tore apart families,” said Georgetown President John J. DeGioia.  He went on to state “We lay this truth bare – in sorrowful apology and communal reckoning.” The university’s leadership didn’t stop there. Between apologies, affirmative action policies and renamed buildings, Georgetown University and its students decided together to set up a scholarship fund for those descendants who wanted to get an education. This action provides us another example for engagement and may afford all of us ways to develop long-term frameworks for dialogue, repentance, apologies and making amends in our communities.  Burying our history is one thing, but to continue to bury our hearts and minds will only pass the problem to the next generation.

I Just Love The Word Of God

“But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to
the ministry of the word.”

Acts 6:4

When I was 5 years old, my grandfather took me on Saturday Mornings to a Christian Bookstore owned by a man named Jay Green.  Jay Green, Sr. (1918 – May 20, 2008) was an ordained minister, Bible translator, publisher, and businessman.Green was born in Ennis, Kentucky. He earned degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, Toronto Baptist Seminary, and Covenant Theological Seminary. The main reason my grandfather took me to Jay’s bookstore was to learn how to read the bible that Jay produced for kids.

Knowing about the Bible as literature is a crucial part of what it means to be a literate person.

Jay’s motivation to produce an accessible, more easily understood translation of the Bible began when he tried to read the King James Version to his children and they asked, "Daddy, why don't you make a Bible that we can understand?" His first effort was The Children's King James Version, New Testament (1960). It was these same daughters that would sit with me on Saturday mornings and teach me to read through Jay’s first fully produced Children’s Bible.  He went on to produce a large number of translations of the Bible into English, some revised multiple times, including The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible, in One-Volume. He once described himself as "the most experienced Bible translator now alive" (Paul 2003:99).  What an honor and privilege it was to have learned the books of the Bible and then read through it during those early years of my life.  My grandfather was a very wise man in getting me to read the bible for myself. It provided the foundation I needed to understand the Gospel and why I needed to be Born Again.

It's critical for church leadership to challenge believers to be in the Word of God, 

consistently growing in their knowledge of the Scriptures.

Later after receiving Christ as my Savior, my grandfather and I joined a baptist that I loved, led by Rev. Ed Miller, a graduate of Princeton, University.  At age 14 Pastor Miller asked me to join his discipleship group that he held on Saturday mornings. He invited 5 young men to come at 7am in the morning and meet with him.  As we began our study, we would take time to pray together and then study the word together for at least 4 hours. We went through the entire Bible together. What I didn’t know was that my pastor was one of the first Baptist leaders to have received “The Baptism In The Holy Spirit” during the early days of the Charismatic Movement.  In June 1970, I was water baptized and a year later I encountered the Holy Spirit for the first time and would also receive this same experience.  The most important thing this experience did for me was to fuel my love for God’s Word even more.  

During these early days of the Charismatic Movement, me like Rev. John Poole from Gospel Temple in Philadelphia, Rev. Bob Mumford, Derek Prince, and Malcolm Smith.  Malcolm Smith, born in London, England, became a pastor of a church in New York City where all that he was beginning to understand was put to the test of the broken lives that fill the streets of that city. It was during that time that he began  traveling through the as a teacher and leader of the emerging renewal of the Spirit throughout all denominations in the 60′s and 70′s. On Monday and Tuesday evenings he would come down by train and teach The Word Of God to our congregation.  His input into our lives was life transforming. Never once during these years did our spirit-filled worship replace our hunger for the Word Of God. It was our study of God’s Word that moved us into great moments of praise and worship. My pastor once said to us, If it’s not in the Word Of God, we don’t do that.  In other words, our expressions of worship, exercising of spiritual gifts, and ministering to others all had to have its foundation in the Word not in experiences or emotionalism.

Human beings are emotional creatures. We love or hate, feel happy or sad, angry or joyful. And yet christians sometimes struggle with integrating emotion into their spiritual lives and end up falling victim to dangerous tendencies when it comes to their emotions.

At age 16, a friend of mine asked me to join him in driving up to Coatesville, Pa. to attend a night time bible institute.  The Institute was founded by Rev. Dr. charles Strauser and focused on bible literacy. I attended this bible school for two years and was licensed as a Minister by them just as I became a youth pastor in a United Methodist Church in my home city.  Again, Dr. Strauser’s intensive Bible study challenged me to love God’s Word even more. During my time with him, God’s Word was confirmed with incredible movements of the Holy Spirit in the classroom which again were not based on worship or music.  God’s Word was the centerpiece of everything he taught. I guess the main reason for my emphasizing these foundational years for me is the fact that had it not been for God’s Word being front and center for me during the spiritual formation periods of my life I probably wouldn’t have the deep love and intimate relationship I have with the Lord today.  This leads me to my concern.

Hosea 4:6

“My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.”

Is it just me?  Or are you sensing the same thing?  There is a famine of God’s Word in the modern expressions of the church.  I have been listening, searching, and hungering to find anyone who is just teaching God’s Word.  The Church world express seems fixated on its music, light shows, creativity and motivational talks but rarely do I hear the solid teaching that grounds people in their faith.  The church seems to be more focused on it’s assets, cash and numbers than on doing what Jesus command us “make disciples.” Discipleship begins with introducing God’s Word, getting people to read and love God’s word and making it the centerpiece of their lives.  

When we examine the early church, we find in Acts chapter 6 that the Apostles found that their ministry was pulling them into differing directions other than what they should be attentive to - The Word Of God.  So they appointed others as deacons so that they could effectively do two things - PRAY and STUDY GOD’s Word. A few years ago, I was watching a Christian TV program where a young upcoming preacher was asking another well known preacher what the most important thing he needed to know about being in the ministry.  The famous preacher responded, “Get a good lighting director!” I was shocked. To hear someone give advice to someone that looked up to him that the show was more important than “prayer and the ministry of the Word” simply astounded me. Proverbs 4:20-22 says, “My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body …”  Each time the scriptures speak of our need to experience a renewal in our faith it always begins with people rediscovering the most important aspect of our faith -THE WORD OF GOD.  King Josiah called his nation back to God after he read the scriptures for himself (II Kings 22). Ezra reintroduced the Bible to Israel. (Ezra 7-10) Likewise, we need to turn off the light show, get rid of the dancing girls, turn up the lights and simply begin where we should have been all the time - in God’s Word. Why?

Psalm 119:11

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:105

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Jeremiah 31:33

"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hebrews 10:16

"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

Unfortunately in many respects, the contemporary church in America looks more like a large corporation than like anything described in the New Testament. Even church leaders sometimes bear a closer resemblance to CEOs and corporate executives than to humble, tender shepherds. Sadly, the good news — that a sinner can find forgiveness for sins before a holy God by placing his trust in and committing his whole life to Jesus Christ—is often eclipsed by “success”-oriented programs and an interest in the bottom line.vAs a result, many churches have become nothing more than entertainment centers, employing tactics that effectively draw people into the church, but are incapable of truly ministering to them once they come.

Hillsong's Worship Leader: Marty Sampson recently announced he's lost his way.

In recent days, several key leaders in both the pulpit and in worship have “fallen away” from their faith and people have wondered why.  It’s a pretty simple answer to a common problem in the modern contemporary church. Jesus used the term fall away in the Parable of the Sower when He taught of a seed sown on rocky places (Matthew 13:20-21, Mark 4:16-17, and Luke 8:13).  The plant sprouted up quickly in the shallow soil, but then withered because it had no root.  Jesus said the seed represents the Word of God (Luke 8:11), and ”Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root.  They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” (Luke 8:13)  Without the Word Of God firmly planted in our hearts -all of us forget who we use to be.  James 1:22-25 says:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

 Let’s return The Church To A Foundation In The Scriptures

It’s Our Only Hope!

Addiction: How Big Is the Problem?

Addiction is ruthless.  It comes in various forms and destroys marriages, families, friendships, churches, and communities.  The most disappointing thing I've encountered over the last 25 years or so serving in Annapolis is how little understanding the church has or addresses on this subject. Most people think addiction has to do with drinking alcohol, drugs or smoking. However, addicts can be addicted to sex, gambling, spending, work, food, adrenaline rushes, religion, chaos, or any number of other things. Author and former priests, John Bradshaw defined "addiction" as a "pathological relationship to any mood altering substance, experience, relationship or thing that has life damaging consequences. Addiction is pathological because it is rooted in denial."  It is also clear that a person rarely has just one addiction. A vast number of addicts move to another addiction when they stop the addiction they were in.  Addicts can be alcohol or drug free but use other more subtle substances to mood alter and cover up the pain they feel in their lives.  Rather than deal with the pain, they can and will go into hiding and find a way create a false self to cover up.  Addiction is all about numbing oneself from inner conflict and pain.  

Recently, a young minister, new to our community asked me what I thought Annapolis' number one problem was and I said, "Heroin."  He was shocked by my answer and didn't know how to respond. I wasn't surprised since most seminaries don't even talk about the real issues facing congregations today.  However, I shared with him that I had been serving in a contemporary church setting that was made up of 80% of its people having come from various recovery programs or into the church seeking help breaking free from their addictions and that Heroine was the number one problem in our city. He just look at me in disbelief and I am sure he had no idea how bad things had gotten in our community. It took me many years to understand what we were dealing with and what our ministry could do to get people and families onto the road of recovery.  The number one thing I have learned is the ALL addiction is a family problem.  Understanding the nature of addiction and the options for treatment can help family members avoid the cycle of addiction if the whole family seeks "healing" from addiction. Jesus asked a very important question in John 5:6: "Do you want to be healed?"  In this simple passage, we find some important keys onto the road for recovery. First, does the addict really want to get help?  Or, is he or she just looking to just be propped up in their addiction.

If a person doesn't want to go into a detox, a recovery house or program immediately there's nothing you can do for them.  When you read John 5:7 The crippled man answered Jesus by stating that "No one would help him."  This is called deflection.  It is always someone else's fault that I am not healed. He also is avoiding answering the question.  A number of years ago, a young man was brought to me by another addict.  He pulled up into front of the church as I was coming out and said, "Hey, Pastor Mike this guy needs your help."  When I struck up the conversation I learned this guy was doing $400 to $500 a day's worth of crack. I recognized I couldn't help him because he was unwilling to go into treatment. He just returned the streets.  He then went through our community telling various leaders that I left him out in the streets, wouldn't help him, and wouldn't provide him a place to stay, etc.  It was my fault he could get help.  A few days later, a local minister came into my office and accusingly asked me if I had left this guy out on the street homeless and how ungodly I was to do so.  I just looked up at him and asked, "So, how much money did you give him?"  He said, "I gave him a $1,000."  "Oh," I continued, "Did the Lord tell you to give him that money?"  The minister said, "Of course."  I looked at him and said, "You should be proud of yourself. That probably went up his nose last night and you help him in his addiction"  Then I asked the enabling minister to leave!  Why, because he didn't hear God at all. He was nothing more than what many churches are - enablers. Sure enough, the young guy returned to our ministry center later only to tell me, what I told the minister, he went out and used again and asked if I could help him.  I told him, "No I couldn't but Jesus could" and that there were treatments centers available to him if he would commit to going. He took me up on the offer and went to a treatment center and came to the Lord and began his recovery.

The next thing we see in John 5:7 "The crippled man blamed others for why he was not healed." In other words, "it's my friends, my family, my mother, my father's fault that I am addicted."  No!  Your condition is your responsibility.  Jesus didn't offer him prayer, he didn't lay hands on him, give him money, or even offer to take him to the doctor. He simply said, "Take up your bed and walk." Stop the excuses and take the necessary steps for your own healing and stop blaming everybody else.  A few years back, a lady who was related to some members of our church called me and asked me to help her son who had overdosed on Heroin.  So in good faith, I met with her son and got him into a local Christian treatment center.  Shortly, after he had completed the program. We assisted him in getting a job, a place to stay and plugged into church life to support his ongoing healing process. Everybody loved him.  However, this same mother began demanding that he return home to meet her needs.  What I didn't know is that he came from a home with two chronic alcoholics.  Both mother and father were drunks.  When things didn't go her way she began undermining his recovery process and started blaming me, his other siblings, and even our church for his relapse.  He would later get into an auto accidently that totalled his car and had to be medivaced by helicopter to a trauma center.  I was asked to come and as always went to the hospital to pray for God to spare his life.  God spared his life.  But he returned to his addictions and has been in and out of jail and has continued to make a mess out of his life. He knows the gospel, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit, read the entire bible and was discipled but is still addicted.  To this day all his mother does is publically attack my wife, my kids, and me every chance she gets.  Why? Because that's what drunks do!  Churched or not.  My biggest problem isn't her deflection, accusations, or unwillingness to get help herself.  My biggest problem is that there are "Christians" who choose to believe her accusatory spirit or see the underlying problem of their addiction and make me the bad guy.  Jesus didn't respond to this man's accusation.  Ever heard the phrase, Well you made your bed now lay in it?  This man laid in his "Crippled" state for 38 years in front of the temple too. Addicts are around the church today. Religious leaders are ignoring them too. 

How long is it going to take for the church to wake up and deal with all the addiction in the church today? Priests are being exposed for paedophilia, protestant ministers are being charged with sexual assaults on women, and pastors are having affairs with board members covering things up all because addiction has found a safe place to hide - in the church. Pastors have died from overdoses, have been caught with prostitutes, or found porning on the web while the governing boards of our current institutions turn and look the others way.  It's time for the church to address the epidemic.  It's time that the local church address not only the addict but the families in the churches that enable the addicted.  How can the church talk about the health and growth of the church without building in processes for the sanctification process of leading people, marriages, and families into wholeness.  Acts 16:31 gives us an important promise.  "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (healed and delivered) and so will your house!" 

and... ‘This is the word of the Lord’

As Christians, we have often heard scripture readings, creeds, and even prophetic words end with the phrase, and “This is the word of the Lord.” In many traditions the congregational response “Thanks be to God” was introduced in liturgies from the 1960s onwards for all designated scripture readings and liturgies.  But, what exactly does this phrase imply? Some commentators have pointed out about the phrase “This is the word Of the Lord” and our affirmation “Thanks be to God” is an affirmation that we are “Hearing what the Spirit is saying to the Church” and ready to obey Him.  Revelation 2:29 exhorts, “Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”  In Charismatic circles worship, preaching and prophetic words are considered God speaking to us.  The phrase, “This is the Word Of The Lord,” has its foundation in I Corinthians 14:29 which says, “Two or three people should speak what God has revealed. Everyone else should decide whether what each person said is right or wrong.”  In other words, the body of Christ is called on to discern, evaluate, and then decide if this is God truly speaking or coming from another source. But what a congregation does in response or action usually speaks as to whether they really are affirming that God has spoken to them.

Chuck Pierce
A prophetic voice in the modern Charismatic Movement 

There are three perspectives that most charismatically oriented congregations take on prophecy: (1) God is speaking He will do something and our response is to wait until it comes to pass and if it does or doesn’t come to pass determines whether it was the Word Of The Lord; (2) If God is speaking, we are to discern and determine that it is “the Word Of The Lord,” and then do it if we affirm it it His Word to us; or (3) This is just a declaration of what we ‘decree’ to happen and if we have faith it will happen because we declared it. If it doesn’t happen then we have not exercised our faith enough. In the mainline protestant and evangelical  traditions “Sola Scriptura: scripture alone” and it’s proclamation through preaching is considered “God Speaking” and is to be affirmed through our living out God’s word in our lives. So, when “This is the word Of The Lord is proclaimed,” and affirmed with “Thanks be to God,” it is a recognition of who God is calling us to be and how he wants us to live."

From my own theological perspective, I believe God speaks many ways. Scripture explains to us the many ways God speaks to us. He speaks through creation (See Job 12:7-10; 37:14-16; Psalm 8:3-4; 19:1-6; Romans 1:18-21). The voice of God can be revealed through mountains, water, trees, meadows, landscapes, and more. In John 12:27–30, God spoke from heaven, but when God spoke in this incident, some people who stood nearby thought they were hearing thunder. There’s the possibility that this could happen today. Sometimes if we hear thunder, or see floods or hurricanes or high winds or volcanoes, it may actually be the voice of God. He speaks through scripture (II Timothy 3:16; Heb 4:12). He speaks through circumstances (See Jonah 1-4). He speaks through wise counsel (Ps.1:1-6; Prov.11:14;12:15,22;19:20-21). He speaks through the ‘peace’ in our hearts (Col. 3:15).  This passage explains to us that If we don’t have peace about a decision, then it isn’t from the Lord. Don’t move forward unless you have peace.
 According to the Bible God can speak to us through other people (See Acts 16:1;2 Tim.1:5; Gal.2:11-14).)He can also speak to us through Dreams and visions. This pattern is shown in the lives of Joseph, Solomon, Jacob, Peter, John, and Paul. This method is available to us today too (see Acts 2:17 where Peter quotes Joel 2:28). God can also speak through supernatural manifestations. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush (Ex. 3:1–4). He spoke to Gideon through a fleece (Judg. 6:37–40). He spoke to Saul on the Damascus road through a bright light (Acts 9:1–5). He even spoke to Balaam through a donkey (Num. 22:1–35). God also speaks through a still small voice within us (Prov.20:27). He spoke this way to Elijah (1 Kings 19:12).  

The point here is that if we believe God is speaking, then we need to listen to Him. We need to tune in to the frequency of heaven and hear the voice of God. Note the warning held out in Jeremiah 7:13: “While you have been sinning, I have been trying to talk to you, but you refuse to listen.” Essentially, God was saying to Judah that they did any number of wicked things, and He was speaking and speaking to them repeatedly about it, but they did not listen to Him.  Too often today, those who claim God has been speaking to them have the same problem. They might affirm “This is the Word Of The Lord” but do little to apply their lives to it.  I love the promise held out for us in Romans 10:17: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” If you’ve ever met a person of great faith, then you’ve met a person of great hearing who knows how to listen and applies the Word of God to their daily life.  John 16:13 says, “"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” This is why it's important that we don’t miss His voice and what He is trying to tell us to do.

In my own observation as I’ve traveled, ministered, observed, discerned and listened to the proclamation of God’s Word over the last five decades; God has been speaking to all of us on “what kind of people He is calling us to be” because we are in a preparation period.  Eph. 5:26 states says, “Christ gave himself up for us to sanctify us, cleansing us by the washing with water through the word, and to present us to Himself, as a radiant church, in all its beauty--pure and faultless, without spot or wrinkle or any other defect, but to be holy and unblemished.”  Romans 8:29 states very clearly “God is conforming us to the image of his Son.” The Apostle Paul goes onto say, “Those whom He has called He has also declared free from guilt; and those whom He has declared free from guilt He has also crowned with glory.” The reason He is preparing us, cleansing us, freeing us and getting us ready to be “His glorious Church” is to get us ready for the greatest revival ever to be witnessed in his redemptive history. (See Ps. 102:18; Isaiah 40:1-5; 60:1-5; Hab. 2:14; Acts 3:21) God wants to move through us in unprecedented ways! Here is just a cursory of what I’ve heard, discerned and accepted as God’s word to us over the last five decades. Just like every generation since the protestant reformation, a “truth” has been emphasized, taught on, and restored into the life of the church.

In the 1970s

There was a great revival that took place across our nation known called “The Jesus People Movement.”  With this great outpouring of the Holy Spirit questions emerged around the subject of What is a new testament church?  What is a new testament community look like? (Acts 2:42-46) As a result, new kinds of churches were planted exploring the ideas on new paradigms of leadership, discipleship, and what they believed were new testament expressions of church.

In the 1980s

Many traditional and mainline protestant churches began to ask the question, why do we believe in signs, wonders, and miracles in the bible and not experience them in the life of our churches today?  As a result, many leaders and churches began to teach on the subject of the Restoration Of The Church (Acts 3:21) which emphasized the restoration of the five fold ministry (Eph. 4:11-17) and found new contemporary expressions of worship and the arts based on David’s tabernacle (Amos 9:11) which became an important emphasis leading people into a new emerging prophetic perspective called, “Present Truth” - or what God is speaking today to our generation.

In the 1990’s

There was a great move of the Holy Spirit that began in Toronto, Canada that literally swept the nations.  The foundational teaching underlying this movement was based on “Personal Transformation” (Heb. 12:15). Leaders taught heavily on what I will call, “relational holiness.” Forgiveness and healing our brokenness within family life, church life and friends was emphasized.  

In the 2000s

The Search for Meaning, Healing and Reconciliation (II Cor. 5:18) became an important subject in light of 911.  The day after the terrorist flew planes into The World Trade Center a book by Pastor Rick Warren hit the shelves entitled “The Purpose Driven Life.”  Nicky Gumbel, from Holy Trinity Church in Brompton, England developed the Alpha Course which focuses on “What is the meaning of life?” Interest in "What is our purpose?" Who we are (Identity) and why we are here has led many christians to addressing historical wrongs perpetrated between people groups, to right the wrongs of the past, and restore dignity to the marginalized in our communities.  Calls for healing and reconciliation increasingly became the basis of redressing the historical wounds of the past all across the world - ending both modern slavery and racism in our time. (See Acts 17:26).

Since 2010

Cultural Transformation (Eph. 3:10) has become a major focus due to increasing urban problems that are larger than any one church can adequately address. Every church within a commnity must come to understand that their particular church is not God's gift to the city. The Body Of Christ is. New missional praxises involving churches working together with the twelve civic sectors will serve to improve the gospel’s contextualization (See Nehemiah 1-2). In our pursuit of the “missio dei” in the communities our local churches serve; God is calling us to be missional, relational, and incarnational. The church is being called to become truly "local" and present in the neighborhood.

H. Beecher Hicks, in Preaching Through A Storm, said, "the unspoken implication (I Sam. 3) in the Samuel narrative is that in trying times, it is important to listen for the lesson and hear the voice of God within it. Despite the fact that many churches are sticking their heads in the sand and going on with business as usual demonstrates how irrelevant they have become to the cry outside the doors of their buildings, in the neighborhoods they are called to serve. Most churches are not even aware that God has left the building. While many leaders are calling for another awakening, God has been alive and well in the streets, in the music, in the arts, and theater's speaking to a generation that the church hasn't even taken time to understand. I love the Body of Christ and am a committed member of the local church I serve. However, just like you I am being called to "engage" my life into communities that have never heard the gospel, experienced The Holy Spirit, or recognized that God has been working among them. I am not "knocking" anything here. However, Jesus is. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Once again, Jesus is calling all of us to gather at a table and eat with the publicans and sinners that the religious leaders of Jesus' time wouldn't have wasted their time - to listen together to the only voice that matters- HIS. THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD!