Dear intercessors & ministry parnters,

I am writing to you at a very important moment of my life & ministry, asking you for extra prayer covering as I enter into divine national and international assignments these next 60 days.The Lord has led me in the last few months to take on a massive assignment to mobilize the nations young adults to vote and pray for the coming elections on college campuses nationwide (www.voteandpray.com).

At the same time the Lord has opened up major doors in Asia for me to lay apostolic foundations for youth revival in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.Below are my prophetic encounters and experiences during the last few months in Colorado Springs with The Cause USA.

The Cause USA: Colorado Springs

In the last 50 days I have together joined myself in covenant with hundreds of other young radicals from all over the United States to pray for our nations government, coming elections and ultimately its freedom. In my entire prayer life I have never experienced the level of intercession I have here in Colorado Springs. The past 50 days scores of youth have been interceding night and day 24/7 for God to release His truth, justice and mercy to America (www.thecauseusa.com). The experience has been none less than “heavenly” and “powerful.” Youth are giving up sleep, food and everything else in order to pray and fast believing God can change the direction of our nation through prayer. Following after 1 Timothy 2 where we are commanded to pray first of all for kings and leaders in authority we have been daily praying for God’s kingdom to come to our nations governmental leaders, the coming elections, the supreme court, justice & mercy issues, campus revival & reformation.

Our nation is in a national and moral crisis with these coming elections & if the liberal agenda wins, it could mean the breakdown of the entire American society. We as a nation are at a crossroads to keep this nation Christian or very soon Post-Christian. It is a battle of evil and good, right and wrong, choosing God or Baal, will the church stay silent or will it rise up with the spirit of Elijah and stand for Truth?

I’ve witnessed these young warriors in Colorado lay down their summers to pray for our nation as if it were life and death. Literally, young people have been taken up to the third heaven regularly as God has been revealing his broken heart on the issues of abortion, homosexuality, the poor and needy, the war and His desire to raise up a generation of Daniel’s and Esther’s who will rise up and take leadership of our nation by ruling it with justice & truth-- instead of complacency and compromise to the Anti-Christ spirit.


Vote & Pray the Cause USA

Out of these 50 days of prayer the Lord confirmed a series of 3 prophetic dreams revealing His desire at this hour to mobilize Joel’s Army (Joel 2) all across the college campuses of America. I was given a blue print through these 3 dreams to raise up and mobilize the “ground troops” as my Pastor Lou Engle has been called to raise up the “air force” or intercessors to battle in the heavenlies- these past 50 days & into the election. We at the Cause agree that the next step is to empower Christian young adult radicals to student activism and massive prayer to turn America back to God. Here’s how the Vote & Pray movement and vision came about…

The Mobilization of Joel’s Army

In 2004 I had 3 significant dreams between February and April which may be giving prophetic insight into God’s strategy to mobilize Joel’s Army all across America for another Jesus revolution. I will first recount these 3 prophetic dreams and then testify to how these 3 dreams have been interpreted and confirmed.These 3 dreams included encounters with Pastors Bob Weiner, Mike Bickle, Dutch Sheets and Lou Engle.

Dream #1

In my first dream in February I dreamt Bob Weiner was standing directly in front of me. He told me to put my left hand over my left eye so that he could lay his left hand to pray over the left side of my body to receive an impartation of God’s anointing. As I put my left hand over my left eye my hand was holding a long print out sheet of paper with names of students from different campuses. These sheets of paper had millions of names of lost students from different campuses all over America and on the top of the paper it said “Campus Revival.” Now before Bob laid his left hand over me to pray he told me to “hold on” because he needed to get another sheet of paper with names of other students to staple to my sheet of paper on campus revival. When I looked at the sheet of paper he had stapled to my sheet of papers I was bewildered because it was a list of names of students from “student activist organizations” in Washington D.C. Once Bob stapled this list of student activists to my list of campus revival he laid his left hand over my left side and the fire of God’s presence shot right through the left side of my body.

At this point I woke up from my dream at about 3 or 4am in the morning with my actual left hand over my left eye. I could feel God’s presence very strong in my room. Not knowing what to do, I begin to pray in the spirit and after about 10 minutes I fell back asleep.

The moment I fell back asleep Bob Weiner reappeared before me and told me to put my right hand over my right eye so that he could lay his right hand over me to pray for God’s anointing to be released. I obeyed and put my right hand over my right eye and he prayed for me with his right hand and immediately the fire of God’s presence shot right through the right side of my body. Then the dream changed to another scene…

In this next scene it seemed that I was outside an IHOP conference with many attendees walking in front of the convention hall. All of a sudden Pastor Mike Bickle comes walking along and says to me, “Hey young man I want to talk to you…lets go grab a bite to eat and talk!” I was wondering to myself, “Why would an important guy like Mike Bickle want to talk to me, I’m a nobody?” I responded to him anyways and told him, “Sure I’d be glad to talk you want to take my car to go get food?” He then responds and says, “No we’ll take my car instead, so we walk over to his car and the dream ends.”

Dream #2

received my second dream the week The Passion of the Christ was released in late February 2004. In this dream I was in a car with Dutch Sheets driving around in Colorado. He was in the drivers seat and I was in the passenger seat. He was talking to me about mobilizing America to prayer in all 50 states when all of a sudden we parked and got out of the car to walk to the top of some large peachy/orange industrial building. As we walked up and got on top of this building I began to passionately explain to Dutch how the secret to uniting and mobilizing the American church to prayer and revival is by lifting up the name of Jesus so that all men would be drawn unto Him. I began to explain how the movie The Passion of the Christ was doing just this, it was uniting Christians of all different denominations and backgrounds to come under one banner “Jesus Christ” and because of this lost souls by the millions were being drawn to Jesus. The dream ends.

Dream #3

The third dream I received in early April 2004. In this dream I was in an airport with many people. I then find myself going down an escalator with many young people following behind me, but when I look to my left the escalator going up had no people but only Lou Engle. As he was going up the escalator he looked at me and winked his eye and said, “It’s time!” I then look back at him and wink my eye and said, “It’s time!” The dream ends.

Background to Dreams:

After “The Call SF” in 2003 Pastor Che Ahn my spiritual father and apostle sent me out to plant a church on San Jose State University campus. I went through The Call School training on church planting and it was during this time I received a revelation while reading the book of Acts those few days on a different approach to planting churches for the next generation. It would be using missionary methods of small group church planting churches as in the book of Acts (http://www.campuschurch.net/). The Lord revealed to me in the months after that I was to start a campus church planting organization with the vision to spark another student volunteer missionary movement. This dream has begun as Pastor Che Ahn & Lou Engle commissioned me to start “Campus Church Networks” a mission’s organization with the vision to initiate and cultivate student-led church planting movements on every campus in every nation.

Interpretation and Confirmation:

In February 2004 I was on a business trip to LA and found time to meet with my Pastor Lou Engle for lunch. During this time I explained the first dream to Pastor Lou because I really had no clue of what it meant and was even unsure if I was to share it because it made no sense to me. Lou immediately was astounded and had the interpretation of the dream. He explained, “Jaeson it’s simple, Bob Weiner in the 70’s mobilized and trained thousands of students to plant churches on university campuses for revival, but he also mobilized thousands of students to reform society by being active in the political sphere!” Lou then explained that you can’t have revival without reformation and Bob praying for my left and right side meant the left and right wings of the government for revival and reformation. At that time, I didn’t have much of a concept of the importance of reforming society, I was only passionate about planting student led churches on university campuses for revival as I had been commissioned to do by Pastor Che Ahn.

Lou then shared with me that for the past 6 months the Lord has been laying strong on his heart a new movement called “The Cause” that would mobilize all of America, specifically young adults from college campuses to vote and pray for the coming November elections. He explained how he had a dream where he saw a large bus and the side of it, read “VOTE AND PRAY THE CAUSE USA.” Lou then added that Bob Weiner stapling the list of student activist’s organizations to my list of campus revival was a confirmation that we must mobilize both, The Call (revivalists) and The Cause (reformers) to see true revival in this generation.

As I was still in awe and trying to grasp the interpretation because of my lack of knowledge in the importance of reformation, Lou interpreted the next part of my dream. He said, “Now your dream with Pastor Mike Bickle means that God is saying we must first raise up houses of prayer on every campus in every city before we launch out to bring revival and reform. Mike didn’t get into your car, which represents your vehicle of ministry for campus revival, but you got into his car first which represents his vehicle of ministry, raising up the House of Prayer!

After these two interpretations Pastor Lou asked me to seriously pray and think about going with him to every university campus for the next 6-12 months to mobilize students to vote and pray for the coming elections and to challenge college students all over the USA to campus revival and reformation. I told Lou it was my heartbeat to do so, but I was working full time at the moment at a tech company. He told me I’m not saying this is God speaking, but just pray on it and we’ll talk again in 30 days!

Now about a week later I received the dream about Dutch Sheets and finally after a few weeks I wrote it down and emailed it to Lou Engle. It was interesting because the day I emailed it to Lou he was literally on his way to the airport to Colorado Springs to meet with Pastor Dutch for the weekend to talk about the Cause possibly being held in Colorado. At this time I did not know Lou wanted to raise up a 50 day governmental house of prayer and that he was thinking about doing it in Colorado. When Lou received the dream I was told he again was astounded and took it as a confirmation for the Cause to be in Colorado. Later I realized what this dream meant in part. It was confirming Lou’s vision to mobilize thousands of Nazarites to UNITE together from all 50 states to ask God in faith filled prayer to bring reform to our nations government.

Finally, in April when I received the third dream of Lou and myself at the airport winking and saying, “It’s time”, I told this to Lou and he gave me the interpretation. For the past months the Lord had been giving Lou revelation on raising up “fighter pilots” or young radicals that would war for our nations future in the heavenly places through fervent intercession. He told me, “He was going up the elevator because God has called him to attack the heavenly places to break open the heavens for revival, but maybe God is calling me to go down the escalator to mobilize the ground troops to campus revival and reformation.” It was so interesting because in April the Lord had given me a clear conviction to leave my job and step out in faith to start the campus church planting ministry he had put in my heart. That very week in April I left my job on faith and within one week God put it on the heart of a special person to finance my first 6-12 months of ministry without me even asking or telling this person about what I was doing. I knew it was God’s confirmation for me to join Lou to serve him and mobilize the young radicals on every college campus to three things: 1) Raising up Houses of Prayer 2) Mobilizing student activism 3) Campus Church Planting.

Since the 3 dreams and interpretations I had been helping Lou and The Cause team to mobilize students to Colorado the past summer for 50 days of night and day intercession for the coming elections. During this time a few other significant fulfillments to the dreams happened by God’s sovereign orchestration.

Confirmation of Mike Bickle dream:

After I had ministered to youth all over Hong Kong with outbreaks of revival fire I came back home to California immediately to minister at a special conference. In early July (July 2-4) I was scheduled to speak for the Friends of the Bridegroom Conference among Chinese speaking Christians in Fremont California. It so happened I was the main speaker for the youth and the main speaker for the adults was Pastor Mike Bickle. I sensed the Holy Spirit was telling me to take a chance and contact Pastor Mike although I have never met him personally. At 8am in the morning I called the front desk of the hotel we were both staying at and asked only for Mike’s room number, instead, the receptionist put me right through to his room and Mike picked up the phone! I told him who I was and that I would like to possibly get 15 minutes of his time. He told me lets me downstairs in 3 minutes! When we got downstairs he immediately said, “hey young man lets not talk in here but lets take a walk outside and talk!” We went outside and I explained to him how God had called me to plant student led churches on university campuses and to raise up houses of prayer. As we talked we both begin to really connect on a heart level and then he says, hey lets go get some coffee and talk more.” So I ask him, “You want to take my car?” Mike responds, “No we’ll take my car right here.” (Later on I realized this is almost exactly what happened in my dream with Mike in February. He didn’t get into my car first, I got into his first.”) The next two days Mike and I had some in depth conversations on how to network together in starting campus prayer groups and campus churches on the university campus.

Confirmation of Bob Weiner dream:

During this time I had also received a call from Bob Weiner’s secretary that Bob was expecting me to join him in a youth crusade in Indonesia. I had met Bob back in November at the ICA meeting in Texas and asked him for mentorship in how to plant churches on campuses. It was also at this time he invited me to go on a mission with him to Indonesia, but by this time in July I had thought since I hadn’t heard from him that it wasn’t still on. When I received the call from his secretary I was totally surprised. The problem was if I was to go to Indonesia with Bob it would mean I would have to push back going to Colorado for The Cause by one week. Something in my spirit told me I needed to meet with Bob and by God’s grace I received an honorarium from my speaking engagement for the exact cost of the plane ticket to Indonesia. I decided to go.

The week of (July 10-18) I got into Indonesia to help minister with Bob at the youth crusade and to train youth leaders in campus ministry. The Holy Spirit told me before I got on the airplane at the airport to look up on Google “Bob Weiner+Maranatha.” I was amazed as I researched the articles on Bob’s ministry history that his organization Maranatha ministries was the first campus ministry to plant actual student-led “New Testament Churches” on university campuses. For God had given me the same revelation in June 2003 to start “actual churches on campuses” led by students on every university and high school campus in America and around the world. Now this is the kicker…

When I got into Indonesia and Bob and I sat down to talk for dinner, I explained to him what God had been showing me in the last 24 months in regards to mobilizing houses of prayer, student activism and campus church planting on campuses throughout America. I told him my 3 dreams I received in early 2004 and he not only had the exact interpretation Lou had, but I nearly jumped out of my shoes when he told me, “Jason, do you know what I trained the youth ministers in Indonesia on last night? I preached on the 3 R’s, “Revival, Reformation of Society and Restoration of the New Testament Church!” I almost fell out of my chair when I heard it. Literally, the three things God revealed to me to mobilize on the university campuses for months has been the message Bob has been preaching around the world! Revival represents the extension of God’s kingdom and it must begin with revival prayer (houses of prayer). Reformation of Society has to do with mobilizing God’s army to take dominion in every sphere of society: government, business, education, sports, media, arts and sciences etc (student activism). Restoration of the New Testament Church has to do with the revelation God had given me to empower students and every believer to be full time ministers by planting NT relationship based small group churches to prepare for the next great harvest, in my case and Bob’s-- networks of (campus churches)!”

Also, before I left Indonesia Bob gave me rough plan of how to mobilize 1 million Christian young adults to vote and pray before the coming 2004 elections. I immediately emailed Lou back home that the dreams had been confirmed and God had given us the strategy to fulfill his dream “VOTE AND PRAY THE CAUSE USA” by putting feet to the 50 days of prayer.

Confirmation of Dutch Sheets Dream:

When I got into Colorado Springs for The Cause 50 day prayer initiative I was able to write up the strategic plan in a matter of a few days to mobilize Christian young adults all across the United States to vote and pray. During this time a most peculiar encounter with Pastor Dutch Sheets happened. I had never met Pastor Dutch, but one day he walked into the Cause office looking to meet with Pastor Lou. For some reason, Pastor Lou had forgot about the meeting by accident and I was stuck there trying to help Dutch track Pastor Lou down. As I was getting some coffee for Pastor Dutch he asked me about my ministry background. I sensed I was supposed to share with him the dream I had of him back in February. As I began to share the dream of how we were driving in together in Colorado Springs and stopped in front of a large industrial building he stopped me mid-sentence and asked, “Wait, what does that building look like?” I then explained it looked like a massively large industrial building or warehouse with a flat roof, the color was peachy/orange.” He then told me he was has been praying about and asking God for confirmation on buying a large industrial peachy/orange warehouse building to establish as a governmental house of prayer in Colorado! Make a long story short I went with Pastor Dutch to look at this building and I can honestly say it looks almost identical to what I saw in my dream!

Whatever the case, if it is or not, I began to understand the interpretation of my dream with Dutch, that indeed it was a call to gather the nations youth from all 50 states to unite in governmental prayer. From this Colorado governmental house of prayer there would be a mobilization of grassroots prayer on college campuses, just like what happened with the movie The Passion of the Christ that mobilized one of the most remarkable last minute grassroots marketing campaigns through Internet and word of mouth among young adults.

Further confirmation with Passion Movie:

I remembered later that when I got the dream with Pastor Dutch in February that it was during the release of the movie The Passion of the Christ. It was during that month I was inspired by a sub-site of [www.thepassionofthechrist.com] called [www.studentshavepassion.com] On this site they were able to mobilize college campus ministries to own the Passion movie and promote it on campuses.

In mid August someone got a hold of the marketing company that marketed the Passion movie. They heard about our vision to mobilize young adults to vote and pray and they contacted us with interest. When I called the company director I shared with him how I was inspired by their sub-site www.Studentshavepassion.com.

I told him how we wanted to market and mobilize the Vote & Pray movement the same way. The director then tells me that he was the one who personally made that sight and he would be more than willing to implement the guerilla marketing strategies he did for the Passion of the Christ for our Voteandpray.com movement because he believed in what we were doing. By the grace of God the partnership has been solidified and we have hired this marketing company on to market the Vote & Pray movement. The dream with Dutch on mobilizing young radicals from all 50 states through the Passion of the Christ strategy is now coming to fruition.

Nationwide Prayer Movement:

On top of all this revelation of God’s strategy a girl during the 50-day prayer had a dream where she saw her and I in Washington D.C. mobilizing college students to the D.C. mall. She then saw the streets of D.C. stopped and flooded with hundreds of thousands of young people in prayer for our nation. She (Crystal) had this dream in early August. We thought at the time the dream was symbolic, but only to find out now what we believe will be literal.

About the third week of August we were contacted by an movement called “America for Jesus” (http://www.americaforjesus.org/) that is mobilizing all Christians in America to gather on the Washington D.C. mall on October 22, 2004 for what they are believing to be the largest national prayer and repentance gathering to turn America back to God. When I talked to the director of this movement he told me that what we were doing with “Vote & Pray the Cause USA” was their answer to prayer to get Christian youth & young adults to join the older generations in prayer at the mall. I was blown away just thinking that potentially over a million Christians would rush the D.C. mall in prayer right before the November elections, it was and is a divine set up!

Not only this, but we were also contacted by another movement called [www.40daysusa.org] This organization has put together a nationwide prayer initiative with endorsements from nearly every major prayer ministry and intercessory network to mobilize potentially 20 million Christians in the US and 200 million worldwide to pray and fast for 40 days before the election day November 2, 2004. Again, when I talked to the director about our vision to mobilize the young radicals on college campuses to vote and pray he was stirred and asked me to share this vision with Pastor Lou at the World Prayer Center to a group of 30 national prayer leaders. One of those leaders in the room that day was Coach Bill Mcartney of Promise Keepers. I thought to myself, what are the chances that the 3 men who have mobilized nearly 1 million to pray on the D.C. mall in the past 20 years would be supporting this 40 day prayer initiative and possibly the march on D.C. Oct 22, 2004.

The visionary behind the America for Jesus movement on Oct 22 is (Bishop John Jimminez) who mobilized “Washington for Jesus” in 1980 the first million man march to pray for America on the D.C. capital. Then in the 1990’s it was Coach Bill Mcartney who mobilized “Stand in the Gap” a million men to pray on the mall. Finally, it was Lou Engle who had the vision and brought nearly half a million youth in 2000 to the D.C. mall for a day of prayer and fasting. Now here in 2004, all 3 of these men have a conviction from God to mobilize prayer for our nation once again, possibly on D.C. all together.

Worldwide Prayer Movement:

Why all this prayer? I wonder why in the last 12 months I've been able to experience all of Argentina unite in prayer as one over national TV. Then later God took me to South Africa to witness 25-30 million praying in over 1500 stadiums in all 58 African Countries at the same time for national revival (www.transformationafrica.org). God also open doors for me in Hong Kong to witness an open heaven of youth revival and recentley Indonesia where the largest churches are uniting together to build the tallest building in the world, which will be a prayer tower that rises above all the Muslim houses of prayer in that land. Now this… America uniting in 40 days of prayer and fasting before the elections by the millions. I told the 40 dayusa director about the worldwide day of prayer birthed from Transformation Africa and they believe what is happening now in the states could be a ramp up to May 15, 2005 where Christian leaders worldwide are mobilizing 500 million believers from all continents to pray from sun up to sun down for world wide revival and the greatest harvest to be saved out of the Transformation Africa movement!


What's going on? I believe the end is getting closer & we must be ready and faithful for the last Great Harvest! ...ARISE & SHINE FOR THE GLORY OF THE LORD HAS RISEN UPON YOU OH GLORIOUS CHURCH (ISAIAH 60) AND THE GENTILES SHALL COME STREAMING TO YOUR LIGHT!! HALELUJAH!!!


In conclusion:

After much prayer and talking with my spiritual fathers, I believe these dreams, interpretations and confirmations are for one reason: to mobilize Joel’s Army in America & eventually the nations. Right now is the time of the harvest and the Body of Christ must unite together to raise up prayer on every campus for revival, to mobilize students to activism on every campus for reformation and to empower every young radical to plant New Testament churches on every campus in America and around the world.

I am asking you all for your prayers as I endeavor in the next 60 days to mobilize the Vote & Pray the Cause USA movement. The vision is “To mobilize 1 million Christian young adults to vote, pray and recruit 10 others who have never registered to do the same” Already since we have launched the website (http://www.voteandpray.com/) we are getting Christian radicals on college campuses from all over the nation emailing us that they want to join the cause and start 1 Timothy 2 prayer meetings on their universities and mobilize all the Christians on their campus to vote and gather in Washington. It’s already happening! It is definitely the supernatural breath of God that is making this happen so fast! Also, pray for Pastor Lou and the 120 Nazarites who prayed & fasted earnestly for 50 days will be hopping on a freedom bus praying through the swing states in the next 50 days up till the election asking God to turn America towards the face of Jesus.

At the same time I am asking you for your major prayers because I will be traveling to Asia in September to train over 250 pastors in Hong Kong on how to reach the school campuses of HK through prayer evangelism and campus church planting, conducting a major youth crusade in Kowloon park and mobilizing for The Call China. Then I will be in Singapore to connect w/ major leaders and then Indonesia to help Bob Weiner further lay an apostolic foundation with a key team of campus church planters who are envisioning to plant student led churches on every university in Indonesia in the next 5 years. Finally, I will be in Thailand early October to attend the Lausanne Conference and the International Prayer Council to talk with worldwide leaders on how to mobilize the world wide prayer movement in the next generation. I believe this IPC meeting will be a key meeting to inform the world’s leaders to pray and join with the Body of Christ in America for these crucial upcoming elections & to further build bridges to unite as one body of Christ, one House of Prayer worldwide.

Immediately, after my trip to Asia I will be conducting a major outreach crusade at San Francisco State w/ local fellowships Oct 13 and then off to Washington D.C. to re-unite with our Vote and Pray the Cause USA team for massive intercession and worship on the D.C. mall into the Oct 22, 2004 prayer rally & on into the elections.

Specific prayers I am asking for…

>Grace, grace and more grace to spend time w/ the Lord & hear His voice

>Wisdom in how to execute both assignments on the home front and in Asia>Protection from the enemy and to be hidden in His presence

>That God will strengthen my body, soul and spirit continually (for rest)

>Favor of God to rest upon me and the Vote and Pray team to mobilize God’s youth army on every college campus to activism and intercession

>Traveling mercies, good sleep and protection for my family, friends and church back home.

>That I will do God’s will and not my own, that I will walk continually in the spirit and never in the flesh.

>Humility and grace in this specific season of my life

Thank you all for your prayers, I couldn’t ask for anything else more but that you would pray and intercede for me personally as you also intercede for our nation and the nations. Thank you for believing in God’s leading in my life & any advice or thoughts are always welcomed. God bless all of you for joining with God and with me to pray in and walk out revival, reformation and restoration of God’s divine will in this generation. I am hungry for revival, for another great awakening, for our nation and the nations to see the glory of God in this day!

Yours for the Great Commandment and Great Commission in this generation,

Jaeson Ma

jaeson@campuschurch.net
www.thecauseusa.com
www.voteandpray.com
www.40daysusa.org
[www.americaforjesus.org]
www.transformationafrica.org




It’s been a month since I’ve written in my blog. Sorry, but things have been one non-stop crazy, but at the same time non-stop AWESOME!

God is good! I guess I’ll probably right another 10 page blog starting with the Forerunner Christian Church Youth conference, then my trip to Indonesia, then to Singapore, then straight to Colorado for The Cause where I am currently at. Oh yeah, and I’ll have to add what happened at “BAAYF” youth camp.

Forerunner Christian Youth Conference
Okay. So first after I got back from Hong Kong I had to immediately speak at the Forerunner Christian Church Youth Conference. For me this was the third straight year and really I didn’t know what to expect, especially after I had preached every sermon and story to them. Well, God seriously came through and the presence of God came with fire. There were youth from all over the nation and healings and prophetic words broke out as many of these young firebrands were filled with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. I met some awesome people like Caleb from UCLA (I love his heart) and Jonathan from Home of Christ in LA…there worship team played my favorite HILLSONG UNITED SONGS! Yeah!

I also had an incredibly interesting encounter with Pastor Mike Bickle who was the adult conference speaker. You can read about this prophetic fulfillment in the next blog…seriously crazy!

Indonesia
While, I was at the FCC conference I decided to go on a whim to Indonesia to meet w/ Pastor Bob Weiner and minister to the youth there. I was able to get my plane ticket through my honorarium (totally God) and this trip was so strategic. Again I will explain the significance of this meeting with Pastor Bob Weiner in Indonesia in the next blog (it connects w/ my reason for meeting with Mike Bickle).

In Indonesia I got to experience full blown revival. The church I was ministering at was Bethany in Surbaya…there church is about 120,000 members and their 2 sister churches are also over 100,000 members. The church building was like a stadium arena that fit over 20,000. The pastor was incredibly humble and a man of supernatural faith. He reminded me of Pastor Paul Yongi Cho in Korea. He has the same gift of faith to believe the unthinkable. Currently, God has given him a vision to build a massive prayer tower in Jakarta that will be the tallest building in the world (taller than the sears towers). It’s a very significant project because Indonesia is the highest populated Muslim nation in the world & there are thousands of Muslim houses of prayer on every street corner praying 5 times a day. God is raising up a house of prayer in Indonesia that will rise above every other house of prayer. I see this tower being the beginning of a center point for thousands of Christians all over Indonesia to unite together in prayer for their nation. Christians are still being killed in Indonesia & yet the church is growing at astronomical rates. It amazes me how God would let me experience so many nations experiencing transformation and revival. It was God’s grace as I was able to minister to the youth of Bethany church. I showed the Call video and again the spirit of repentance and Holy Spirit fire fell as youth got on their faces crying out for the youth of Indonesia.

Lastly, the most amazing door opened for Campus Church Networks while in Indonesia. Pastor Bob Weiner and I met w/ the leading Apostolic network and asked them, “What are your churches doing with your college students?” They said, “nothing!” So Pastor Bob told them, “Give them to us and we will win and train 1 million college students for Christ in the next 5 years to transform Indonesia.” You might think that sounds crazy, but it was Pastor Bob who came to Indonesia 20 years ago and started some of the first churches that are now the largest churches. He did it by reaching out to Indonesian international students on the UCLA campus and then sending them back to Indonesia to plant youth churches on the universities of Indonesia! So the Apostolic network agreed to hire 6 regional directors for us to oversee the 6 major regions of Indonesia. Through these 6 RD we will train them to plant campus churches on every major university in Indonesia in the next 5 years.

I’m going back October 1-5 with the following plan…
1) Pastor Bob and I are going to train these 6 regional directors to win 2 students of peace from each university campus in their region. They will have 3 months to do this from Oct-Dec.
2) Pastor Bob and I will go back in January and hold a training conference where these regional directors will bring back the 2 students of peace they have recruited from each campus, which will amount to about 500+ student church planters. Here we will train these 500 with the necessary equipping to go back to their universities and win 10 unbelieving students to start the initial campus churches.
3) We will then offer continual training to the Regional Directors as they coach and empower the campus churches to multiply and reproduce other campus churches to start networks of campus churches over each campus causing an infiltration of saturation church planting. (As we keep the campus churches small to 10-20 members this will keep them protected from persecution because many of these universities are Muslim universities.

Lastly, I met an incredible pastor named Jeffrey. This pastor quit his post as the national youth director of Indonesia to reach out to the poor and disenchanted Muslim street kids and homeless. All I can say is this man not only lives by faith, but experiences the miracle workings of faith literally as in the New Testament days. During my 10 days there his ministry experienced more than 250 instantaneous miracles where many deaf were receiving back their hearing, blind restored of their site, etc. Their ministry feeds 2000 homeless every month and this is the crazy testimony. He told me one time they didn’t have enough money to buy enough food for the homeless they were to feed. But they just emptied out their ministry bank account and bought what they could. He told his workers to just begin to pack up the packets of rice and grain, when about a few hours into it they realized that the supply of grain and rice seemed to not run out! (Remember Jesus multiplying bread?) Yeah, it was happening right before their eyes, the grain supply would never end and they were able to feed all the homeless for the whole month and more.

What can I say but that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever! On to the next trip…

Singapore:
It’s always nice to visit Singapore. This time I was only their 2 days on a stop over. But God did some amazing things while I was there. I got to catch up with my pastor friend “Jeremy Seaward” who is the youth pastor of Victory Family Center. I went to his youth service where he spoke an powerful message—man he is a really good preacher! I didn’t expect it but after he preached he asked me to pray over the youth and …man…God’s fire fell again as I challenged them to be willing to die for their generation and go to the nations! Almost 90% of the youth there got on their knees and responded with tears. I honestly believe another wave of revival is going to hit the youth of Singapore in a greater measure than the measure of revival they have experienced in the early 90’s.

That night I got to meet w/ “Morpheus” well I call him that because he is the foremost church-planting trainer in the world. I can’t mention his name because then he could be discovered. But we had an incredible night together talking about church planting movements happening all over the world and the thousands upon thousands being swept into the kingdom daily through indigenous church planting. Not to mention his wife made an awesome taco and salad dinner.

The next morning I went to go speak at Wesley Methodist youth service. Wow, it’s only been less than a year since I’ve been there and the youth group has nearly doubled from 400 to close to 700 or so! I was going to speak on prayer evangelism, but I felt led to speak on their authority in Jesus Christ and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Many youth responded, but there were also some that may have not understood the power and infilling of the spirit and took it the wrong way. I pray God will clear up the resistance to the Spirit of God cause I understand Wesley Methodist is a bit more conservative church. But man, I really love the youth there and pray I’ll be able to continue to equip and minister to them in the future. May God’s will be done and release that youth group into full- blown revival. I prayed and prophesied that their youth group would grow to 1000 in 6 months…let it be so Lord.

Finally, right after the 2 Wesley services I hopped in a Taxi and went straight to Jurong West to visit City Harvest Church www.chc.org.sg I love this church, it’s pastor Kong Hee is one of my favorite speakers. I just love his heart for the next generation. His church is about 16,000 members and most under the age of 26. The service I went to was specifically to pray for the youth to reach the campuses of Singapore with revival fire. It was awesome… I got to connect again with Pastor Zhuang the youth pastor there and even I got sent to exit through the back of the church because I had to rush out to catch a taxi back to the airport. While I exited the back into the elevator, guess who I bump into? Yup…Pastor Kong Hee! I got to shake his hand and he told me to send his love to pastor Che. I guess it’s just cool to meet men of God you really look up to, especially since I’ve listened to almost all his sermons and preached a few of them myself… haha!

Well, I got to the airport in time and managed during my trip to Singapore to get some good old fashioned “ha-kar center style Singaporean food” THE BEST!

Colorado
To be continued….revolution is coming to the youth of America!





I haven't written here in a bit..its been a wild ride
with God these last months. I'm going to journal
it all in once I get back from speaking. Basically,
I went to Indonesia, to Singapore, to Colorado
for the 50 day prayer & just flew out to the Bay
Area to speak at the BAAYF youth camp & will
fly back to Colorado right after. Things have been
non-stop but in a good way, a revolution is coming
a fire is burning and I pray God will give me the
wisdom and strength to stay steady the course
& accomplish the task in this season.

Please pray for the BAAYF camp that I am speaking
at 9/8-9/13. This is an important camp to me because
this is the same camp where seeds of God's love
were deposited in me more than 10 years ago. Now
I'm speaking at it and I pray the FIRE of GOD Falls!
May these fires spread like wild all over the campuses
of Nor and So Cal in Jesus mighty name! It's time!

....man..wait till i share about what happened in Indonesia
and goodness...what has been happening in Colorado...
Father now is the time..now is the moment for your army
to arise in the day of Your power!

www.thecauseusa.com
www.voteandpray.com
www.campuschurch.net

LETTER TO THE NASHVILLE MEDIA:
There's a major story waiting for you to pluck and it has several Nashville angles.




Rice Broocks is pastor of Bethel World Outreach Center, co-founder of Champions for Christ sports ministry, co-founder of the Every Nation denomination, and former major board member of the notorious Maranatha Campus Ministries. He is based in Nashville. He recently resigned as president. The official reason is to concentrate on world missions and a local building program. Probably the real reason is so much negative exposure on the Internet. He co-founded Every Nation before the Internet was invented, so he and the core of former Maranatha board members who regrouped after Marantha's breakup - alleged breakup as we shall see - were able to hide the Maranatha part of their resumes while they build the denomination.

But then Champions for Christ made headlines about the same time as the Internet was invented. Rick Ross, America's most prominent cult watcher has posted most of the news articles about Maranatha and Champions for Christ at www.RickRoss.com. Ross also has a message board that contains an enormous amount of informal but well organized material . Meanwhile, ex members share information on www.FactNet.org. There's even an ambitious timeline available from ulyankee@yahoo.com. This timeline proves that on paper, essentially nothing changed after the Maranatha breakup. Meanwhile William Mackenstadt supplied Ross with a bibliography of local articles. And there's a lady who was in Steve Murrell's church in the Philippines and Phil Bonasso's old church in Los Angeles. She uses the message board name Ginger. She's keeps everyone current on what happening in Every Nation. To make a long story short, Broocks finally ran out of places to hide.

Probably the final straw was when Every Nation co-founder Stever Murrell, a missionary in the Philippines, investigated the finances of Every Nation co-founder Phil Bonasso, a pastor in Los Angeles. These 3 founders of Every Nation, formerly known as Morning Star, were board members of Maranatha, so they had known each other for a long time. But Broocks and Bonasso were buddies. Broocks stood by his old buddy and it was the last mistake he made as president. Every Nation watchers suspect Broocks will launch his own denomination soon. Early, Broocks had to choose between his old friend Greg Ball and his old friend Bonasso. Broocks and Ball had been friends since they were roommates and Maranatha evengelists in college. Broocks and Bonasso have been friends since the both became faith teachers in Maranatha. Broocks chose Bonasso.





Victory Clubs is one of Every Nation's many front groups. Here's the transcript from a Channel 5 News report on a lawsuit against Victory Clubs in Nashville:

"Thursday, two families filed a lawsuit against their daughters' public high school because of religion. The girls claimed a school club put their lives in danger. It's a lawsuit that may stir up new controversy over the role of religion in public schools. Jane Doe: "They encouraged me to be saved and take victory over my life, accept the holy spirit and speak in tongues." You'd expect something like that in a church, but that actually happened at Hillsboro High School as part of a school-sanctioned religious club that, parents now, say crossed the line. Mrs. Doe: “My daughter could have died.” The Victory Club, as it was known, was sponsored by the Bethel World Outreach Center, a fundamentalist Christian church based in Brentwood. Jane Doe: “What really drew me in was the feeling of being loved.” At Hillsboro, church leaders regularly gave free pizza and sodas to students who met during lunchtime for some prayer and a little preaching. David Lyons, attorney: “It's a religious pep rally on school grounds during the school day sanctioned by school administrators.” Bethel church member, Meghan Therrell, who is the music teacher at Hillsboro, served as the Victory Club's faculty advisor. Parents said she was the one who convinced students to then join the church itself. Mrs. Doe: “That's not right.” Jane Doe: “I wanted to hear God's voice.” This Hillsboro student said, after she was baptized into the church, she was then pressured into speaking in tongues. Tim Johnson, Bethel World Outreach Senior Pastor: “Speaking in tongue is a way to communicate with God.” Johnson said it's a crucial part of their faith. Jane Doe: “They said I'd be closer to God and that my relationship and walk with God would be stronger.” And after the 17-year-old finally did speak in tongues she insists she was repeatedly warned by church members, including her teacher Meghan Therrell, not to tell her parents about it. They feared her parents wouldn't understand and would force her to quit the church. Jane Doe: “The way they said it was we would be persecuted for our religion…by my own parents.” Bethel's Youth Minister, Shino Prater, said that's just not true. Shino Prater: “We don't have that type of control over people. That's not, we don't do that.” But the girl's mother claims that when she confronted Therrell about it, she didn't deny it. Mrs. Doe: “That's not acceptable and it's especially not acceptable to be done by a teacher.” Second Mother: “They brainwashed them.” The second mother said the church turned her daughter into “a religious freak.” Second Mother: “It hurts a lot because my daughter wasn't like that.” She said her daughter, an honors student at Hillsboro, became so consumed by trying to recruit and save others at the school that she had a total breakdown. Second Mother: “If you don't do this, don't do that, you're not serving God and if you don't serve God, you're going to be punished. You're going to go to hell. And that was her worry all the time.” According to a lawsuit just filed against the school and church, the girl has now spent weeks in psychiatric hospitals and has been diagnosed as suffering from something called religious indoctrination. Jane Doe said it almost drove her over the edge too. “I wanted to commit suicide and actually tried.” David Lyons: “It's astounding that this would happen in one of the best high schools that we have in Nashville in the year 2005. Lyons said there's enough blame to go around, but Bethel Church leaders said while they're sympathetic they're not responsible. Tim Johnson: “I just can't accept that and will not accept that.” The Bethel Church said they have 70 Victory Clubs around the country—13 of them in Nashville-area high schools—and they've never had any sort of problem like this before. NewsChannel 5 tried to speak with Therrell, the teacher and faculty advisor of the Victory Club, but she did not return our calls. NewsChannel 5 took a look at the Metro school system’s religion and public education policy. It states "schools may not endorse specific religious practices." But it also states "schools may not forbid students acting on their own from expressing their own religious views."




Roy McCollum founded Bethel. In a classic Every Nation maneuver, Broocks sent McCollum on the road as a teacher. By the time McCollum returned to Nashville, Bethel was firmly in Broocks' hands. What Broocks did to McCollum, the Every Nation wolves, especially Broocks and Bonasso, have done to who knows how many other pastors. What happens after the pastor and / or the staff get pushed out? You guessed it, Broocks and Bonasso go after the church treasury. When Broocks thumped Champions for Christ co-founder Ball out of Every Nation, after a psuedo scandal with Ball's secretary and a MAJOR financial disaster with Champions for Christ insider and Austin Wranglers founder Greg Feste, Broocks sent McCollum to Austin to clean up the mess. Well, McCollum has pulled out of Every Nation. Nobody really knows if McCollum is still loyal to Broocks or if he's fed up with the scandals. If he's still loyal to Broocks, this is a good indication that Broocks will launch his own denomination soon. If he broke with Broocks, is he going to invite Ball back? Ball was much more popular with the athletes than Broocks.




Next is Larry Tomczak, who recently announced that he's moving from Atlanta to Nashville to co-found a church-planting training school with Broocks. Do you remember the book I'm OK, You're OK? Do you remember the rumors that the author committed suicide? Well the author was very frustrated with these rumors for a long time. Finally he caught someone repeating it on the radio and at a conference. You guessed it, the target of his frustration was Larry Tomczak. Christianity Today reported that the lawsuit was for $22,000,000. In the 70's, C.J. Mahaney and Larry Tomczak founded TAG. The official name was Take and Give. It was also nicknamed Triumphantly Abiding in God. TAG morphed into People of Destiny, which doubled as the name of Mahaney and Tomzcak's magazine. People of Destiny Magazine was THE magazine for young Charismatic-discipleship / covenant-relationship types in the 80's and 90's. Mahaney embraced Reformed Theology, otherwise know as Dominion Theology, the Cultural Mandate, and Reconstructionism. People of Destiny Ministries was changed to Sovereign Grace Ministries, which is probably a reference to Calvinism. People of Destiny Magazine became Sovereign Grace Magazine, then Sovereign Grace Online, now apparently defunct. The shift to Reformed Theology didn't set well with Tomczak, who embraces the traditional view of the Gospel, ie, evangelism and discipleship. (True Biblical discipleship, not the brand that became notorious during the Shepherding movement.) So he left DC and ended up in Atlanta. Well, he made several trips to Nashville for medical treatment. And who did he bump into in Nashville. That's right, Rice Broocks. But guess what type of seminary Broocks attended after Maranatha disbanded. That's right, a Reformed Theology seminary.




There is also a major connection between NewBoys, a very popular Christian band based in Nashville, and Every Nation. Here's an investigation by Washington City Paper about Redskins quarterback Mark Brunell, the Champions for Christ member who made so much news when he was with the Jaguars during the Greg Feste / Curtis Enis scandal. The Washington City Paper traces Brunell to Broocks, Every Nation, and NewBoys:

Most of the local jocks who have tried to break into the record business in recent years have flopped. Allen Iverson and Chris Webber both got nowhere pushing gangsta rap. Brandon Lloyd’s attempt to fashion a hip-hop career while he was with the San Francisco 49ers alienated management and helped punch his ticket to D.C., but he still hasn’t found a label to release his rhymes. Amid all the failures, there’s one area athlete who went in another direction when he joined the biz and has been moving units ever since. Would you believe…Mark Brunell? In the fall of 2004, during his lousy first season with the Skins, Brunell was part of a group that included former Jacksonville teammate Tony Boselli that invested in InPop Records. Before Brunell’s money came in, the Nashville-area label, known for releasing lite Christian rock, was thought to be in as much trouble as the QB’s career. Both have since been revived. “[InPop’s] image is definitely solid, known for well-produced quality music in the pop vein,” says Doug Van Pelt, editor of HM, an Austin, Texas–based magazine that caters mainly to a Christian-music-listening clientele. “They’re big with the soccer moms. InPop and anything with the distribution that the label has—everything goes to at least 1,200 Christian bookstores across the country—is pulling in some pretty big bucks.” Brunell’s stable of talent includes several righteous rockers who are or were at one time on the fringe of the mainstream music scene, acts such as Newsboys, Mat Kearney, Petra, and Superchick. Just as Iverson and Webber tried to use their rhymes to hype the thug-lifers they’d become (or, in Webber’s case, wanted to become) through serial brushes with the law, InPop’s output seems aimed to do nothing but enhance Brunell’s hard-earned image as perhaps the godliest man still in a sports uniform. (Quick test! One set of lyrics is from Iverson’s unreleased 2002 recording “40 Bars,” and the other comes from a disc by InPop’s heaviest hitters, Newsboys: (A) “Come to me with faggot tendencies/You’ll be sleeping where the maggots be/Everybody stay fly get money kill and fuck bitches/I’m hitting anything in plain view for my riches”; (B) “Good news for the modern man, yes it is/Eternity in the heart of every man/Confirmed just who I am/Here I stand/The forever man.” Guess which is which! No Googling!) InPop is only the most audible of Brunell’s off-field commercial projects. In the noncommercial vein, he’s long been a frontman for Every Nation, an evangelical organization based in the Nashville area. Other celebrity proselytizers for the ministry include Boselli and former Redskins Tim Johnson and Darrell Green. Cracking the connections between Brunell’s side ventures and his church is easier than Monday’s crossword puzzle. For example, Newsboys’ go-to slogan, featured on the front page of the band’s Web site, is “every tribe, every tongue, every nation.” Newsboys’ last major tour was called the “Have You Done the Purple Book?” campaign. At the shows, attendees were given copies of the “Purple Book,” also known as Biblical Foundations for Building Strong Disciples, which is the handbook that those in the Every Nation flock are tasked with memorizing. Brunell provides the primary back-cover blurb on the hardcover and paperback versions of the book: “The Purple Book has been instrumental in my growth as a believer, an effective tool in helping me build the life that God has intended for me.” The book was co-authored by Every Nation founder Rice Broocks, who is also a partner of Brunell’s and Boselli’s in InPop Records. Brunell is also the public face of a group called Champions for Christ, whose catchphrase is “Every Person. Every Team. Every Sport. Every Nation.” Along with that slogan, the Champions for Christ Web site’s front page has a big photo of Brunell, along with a plea from the Skins QB to come to the group’s annual conference, where, he says, “professional and college athletes from around the world will come together for a time of worship, teaching, and camaraderie.” Messages left at InPop’s offices were not returned, and, through the Redskins media office, Brunell declined a request for an interview about InPop and how his business interests relate to his church, saying he likes to stick to football matters during in-season interviews. The more the lefty’s right-minded image rubs off, the better for Every Nation—its rather quiet expansion has not come without controversy. “Brunell, he’s one of their stars, and Every Nation is a cash cow,” says Rick Ross, a New Jersey resident and self-appointed watchdog of religious institutions. “There’s absolutely no transparency in the finances of this church, nothing like what you’d get with any other established church,” citing the ministry’s reluctance to submit to an independent audit. Every Nation’s fiscal strategies aren’t the only things that have caused some unwanted light to be shined on Brunell and his partners. In 1998, Champions for Christ was said to be steering NFL players to an agent tied to the group—Brunell’s then-marketing representative, Greg Feste, was accused of putting the fear of God into Chicago Bears running back Curtis Enis to get him to switch agents. (Brunell partnered with Feste to found the Austin Wranglers, an arena football team.) In May 2005, a federal lawsuit was filed in Nashville against Bethel World Outreach Center—an Every Nation church in Brentwood, Tenn., that is Broocks’ home base and where Johnson serves as chief pastor—after a student and church recruit at local Hillsboro High School attempted to kill herself. News reports at the time said the girl was distraught over orders to recruit fellow students for Every Nation and an edict from church leaders not to tell her parents about speaking in tongues during the afternoon meetings, which were held on the grounds of the public school. And in January, Judy Peters, a former Fairfax County schoolteacher now living in the Pittsburgh area, brought Ross in for an intervention in hopes of deprogramming a daughter who had turned on her kin after being recruited by Every Nation on the Boston University campus. “Every Nation controlled her entire life, and they were so abusive and coercive,” says Peters. “Everybody who was not a part of their church was dead to her. They brought her to Nashville and put her in a two-bedroom apartment with five girls for what they called ‘training.’ [In Boston] they had her working more than 80 hours a week for the church, most of it fundraising, and for that she was being paid $550 a month. So we had an intervention, just like she was an alcoholic that needed treatment.” According to Peters, who says she comes from a family of devout Catholics, after the intervention her daughter agreed to leave the church and to stay for two weeks in the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, an Ohio facility that, according to its promotional material, treats “people who have been victims of psychological, emotional or spiritual abuse from religious cults, toxic relationships or other manipulative groups.” Peters says Ross hammered home the lack of transparency in Every Nation’s finances and how that differed from more mainstream religious entities. “I try not to use the word ‘cult,’ but that’s what it was,” says Peters, who asked that the name of her daughter—who is back living at home but still seeing a psychologist because of the church episode—not be used for this story. “They told her who to trust, who not to believe, who she could hang out with, what she could read—she had to memorize the Purple Book—and what music she could listen to.” And what music was that? “She listened to Mat Kearney and the Newsboys,” says Peters.




Here's a post by a former member of Every Nation who uses the message board name Dust. Dust lives in Nashville and is very active on the FactNet.org board. Dust has discovered that Broocks has been very busy courting the Charismatic / nondenominational churches in Nashville:

"I started this thread because if you've noticed, I'm a bit edgy the last few days. Had an absolutely wonderful Christmas and awesome church experience OUTSIDE of EN, but I want to share my dilemna. I live in the Nashville area. And, I am visibly upset by what is happening here. Rice Broocks/EN is doing their best to come out on top in this city, and make alliances with other charismatic churches. We have searched high and low to find a church that he has not influenced or perpetrated with EN dogma. We are happy that we have. We just discovered that he has, indeed, approached our pastor with the glitz and seduction of the new evangelism school. Our church is NOT going to join this VISION. THANK GOD! But, just the idea of the possibility has shaken me up. I actually think I have a touch of that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder! By a FLUKE, we had a chance to visit with our new pastor and get up close and personal over the holiday, and I probably said a little too much. Our pastor knows Rice, but had no idea of the truth behind this ministry. I found myself saying things that I had said I would NOT say......and it wasn't to vent. It was to protect him and his church. I am upset that I feel like I have baggage! EN is building their church right in our neighborhood. I almost feel like we have to move to get away from all this. EN has made an alliance with New Song Church and with Dale Everest. I have no experience with this church and I DO NOT know the pastor. But, I feel sorrow for the people. I ask God, WHY? Why am I here in Nashville to see all this? What is our role (me and Forword)? I could use your prayers. And, PLEASE, pray for the churches in this town. I realize repentance is now a joke, and they are getting away squeeky clean."

REFRESHER COURSE:



During the Curtis Enis controversy, Washington Redskins cornerback and Champions board member Darrell Green vehemently condemned the NFL investigation. NBA forward and Champions vice-president A.C. Green, its first pro member, fired off a letter to the editor of Sports Illustrated.

Both Greens are longtime friends of Greg Ball, who co-founded Champions, who converted A.C. Green while Green was in college, and who had recently converted Enis. Ball denied suspicions that Champions is a cult, as did former Bobcat hall-of-famer and traveling spokesman Dave Jamerson. Enis’ new agent, Greg Feste, said that although he was associated with Ball, he was not connected with Champions. Darrell Green finally called the NFL.

No one at Champions let on that they had been through this before. Champions for Christ was started under the auspices of Maranatha Campus Ministries, an organization accused of being a cult almost from its inception.

Ball and Champions co-founder Rice Broocks were board members and executive officers of Maranatha, and Maranatha evangelists from their college days. Brett Fuller, who discipled Darrell Green and oversees Green’s charitable foundation, was a Maranatha board member and co-pastor of one of its key churches.

Of all Maranatha leaders, Ball was the worst and most sophisticated offender when it came to cult-like tactics. Ball practiced the classics, including unconstructive criticism and having people get on their knees. Another cult classic is that Ball receives a $62,000 salary from Champions, plus a $48,000 housing allowance, and recently built a $312,000 suburban home; while staffers raise their own support and make $25,000 or $30,000 a year.

Ball, Broocks, and Fuller are board members of Morning Star International, a regrouping of several Maranatha board members, and now the parent organization of Champions. Morning Star was co-founded by Broocks and two other leading Maranatha board members, Los Angeles pastor Phil Bonasso and Philippine missionary Steve Murrell.

One of these Maranatha board members who regrouped is Ron Lewis, pastor of the Kings Park chapter, and founder of Campus Harvest. Lewis is a board member of Morning Star. Jim Lafoon, vice-president of Campus Harvest, is also on the Morning Star board. David Whitehead, national director of Campus Harvest, was a Maranatha board member. Leo Lawson, who is charge of training for Morning Star, was a board member of Maranatha, and co-pastor of one of its key churches. David Houston, a Morning Star pastor, was a Maranatha board member, and pastor of one of its key churches. Brad Butts, Champions staffer and long-time associate of Ball, was a Maranatha evangelist.

Broocks is a protégé of prominent faith teacher Kenneth Copeland and was Maranatha’s chief faith teacher. Bonasso was also one of Maranatha’s faith teachers, and discipled A.C. Green. Morning Star is part of the New Apostolic Restoration, led by Peter Wagner. (Wagner consoled Maranatha at one of their conventions after the article in Christianity Today, saying that the founders of Christianity Today were failures in the ministry)

Morning Star literature has been scrubbed clean of any reference to Maranatha. Bios do not include prominent positions in Maranatha. Activity is not described as Maranatha-sponsored, although clearly dated before Maranatha disbanded and before Morning Star was formed.

Maranatha literature and the Post-Maranatha web site indulge heavily in unrepentant and revisionist history. No mention of a run-in with a committee of cult-watchers, of deprogrammer kidnappings, of the carnage of destroyed lives. Nor of mass staff resignations and numerous conference speakers refusing to return. Only the vaguest reference to constant turbulence and dissent within the board, and that attributed to the devil.

Maranatha founder Bob Weiner’s mild recanting is not found; neither is there any mention of repeated personal confrontations with friends and associates over disturbing Maranatha practices; his berserk, retaliatory stunts against former members; or his thousand-and-one denials, ostensible explanations, contradicting versions, straight-faced lies, and vicious recriminations.

Certainly no mention of the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education, or two articles in Christianity Today and another in Charisma Magazine. Official reason for the breakup: "decentralization and diversification." Surely it was coincidence that Maranatha disbanded immediately after the Chronicle of Higher Education article.

Note: Bruce Harpel, one of Maranatha's staunchest defenders, director of the Minneapolis Maranatha, is in charge of the Post-Maranatha website.

Thanks to the Champions controversy, former Maranatha board members can add USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, CNN, ESPN, PBS, and, once again, Christianity Today and Charisma Magazine.

Not even the Wall Street Journal, which took Weiner to task for his political activity, delved into his close ties to well-known jihadists in the dominion theology camp, namely R.J. Rushdoony and Gary North.

Media House International, which publishes the Forerunner, contains much material by hard core Reconstructionists; North dedicated one of his books to Maranatha; and Rushdoony is revered, even idolized.

A little known episode is that Weiner flew in to Guatemala to lay the foundation for dominion theology. Tyranny and genocide were not found on Weiner's lips, nor in the pages of the Forerunner. Speaking at a Maranatha convention, Copeland looked down at Rio Montt and prophesied that he would once again become president of Guatemala.

It also turned out that when Weiner met with Ronald Reagan, intrigue was the agenda: raising support for the Contras. Weiner also claims to have advised Boris Yeltsin on economics.

Weiner is on several committees, secular as well as religious, that are dominion theology oriented. The two most prominent are the Coalition on Revival and the Council for National Policy.

One of the main complaints from dissenters on the Maranatha board was that Weiner’s wife, Rose, was controlling the organization. Mrs. Weiner is considered a co-founder of Maranatha with her husband, and was considered the organization’s prophetess.

Mrs. Weiner and Maranatha board member Walter Walker created a stir by second-guessed a meeting between Maranatha leaders and a team of cult-watchers, circulating word that deception was at work during the meeting.

It was Mrs. Weiner who lead the organization into dominion theology. It was also Mrs. Weiner who founded Maranatha’s newspaper, the Forerunner. (The founding editor of the Forerunner, Lee Grady, became editor of Charisma Magazine) Her vision for the Forerunner, as a vehicle of dominion theology, was for it to be a battleground of ideas within a battleground of ideas: college campuses.

As a college student during the 60’s, she witnessed the impact of underground campus newspapers. The Forerunner was intended to do the same: change students, who would in turn change their society.

Whereas other campus organizations - Campus Crusade, Navigators, Intervarsity - exist to recruit and support members, the visions of Maranatha and Morning Star are expressly world revolutionary, with the campus identified as the key to their strategy. The title of Broock’s book, written for Maranatha, sums it up: "Change the Campus, Change the World."

The cult accusation dogged Weiner like it did not dog leaders of other youth-oriented ministries - YWAM, Agape Force, People of Destiny, Last Days, Calvary Chapel - all of whom were closely associated with Weiner and with each other. Nor have Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Athletes in Action, and other such organizations experienced the kind of problems Champions has.



This report was written shortly after the first Champions for Christ scandal. Looking for updates on these people:

Bob Weiner
Rose Weiner
Bruce Harpel
Forerunner
Post Maranatha

Rice Broocks
Greg Ball
Steve Murrell
Phil Bonasso
Leo Lawson
Ron Lewis
Jim Laffoon
Brett Fuller
John Rohrer
David Houston
David Whitehead

Peter Wagner

A.C. Green
Darrell Green
Mark Brunell
Tony Boselli
Bryan Schwartz
Dave Jamerson
John Blue
Brad Butts
Greg Feste

[www.webspawner.com]
[everynationexposed.blogspot.com]
www.geocities.com/ulyankee/

Bartholomew's Notes on Religion has several pages on Maranatha / Every Nation / Champions for Christ. Does anyone have a list of those links?

Any more links to any more significant sites?

Here's Bartholomew's index page on Every Nation Churches / Every Nation Ministries / Morning Star International (also includes His People and other people/ministries with connections to EN or EN leaders):

[blogs.salon.com]

It's updated as he adds new articles.

There are some entries over on Talk2Action as well - here's a Google search of their site with relevant entries:

[www.google.com]

The history and talk pages of Every Nation's Wikipedia entry make for interesting reading - note the major revisions (deletions!!!) made by one of Every Nation's Manila PR staff (where the EN PR machine seems to be based these days):

[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]

Same with the Maranatha Campus Ministries entry... Jon Moseley, a "former" yet still sympathetic member of Maranatha Christian Church of DC aka Grace Community Church aka MetroMorning Star, as well as Jay Rogers (Forerunner editor) have made significant revisions on that page as well:

[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]

Correction... I said Grace Community but meant Grace Covenant Church -that's the name of the former MCM chapter in DC/NoVA throughout the 90s and into the first part of this decade.

Though the last I checked, the parent corporate entity is not currently active. It's still active in NoVA as a foreign corporation, but the parent corporation in DC was revoked last year and has not been reinstated.

RICHARD BARTHOLOMEW:

I think there are basically two problems with Every Nation. First, there have been three occasions where groups associated with MSI/EN have provoked negative media reports: a few years ago there were ongoing concerns about Champions for Christ, and in the past year there have been complaints concerning the AIO fraternity at the University of South North Carolina and a club at the Hillsboro High School in Nashville. I know that secular media may have a general bias against religious groups, but it seems to me telling that with all the different groups out there, EN should be such a lightning rod for negative attention from disconnected media outlets.

But the main issue, I think, concerns the legacy of Maranatha. I know you consider that Broocks led Maranatha to a decent conclusion, and that may be so for all I know. But there is also a sense that the Maranatha past is being "managed" rather than dealt with openly and honestly - and if you want to concentrate on one issue, I think this is it.

Examples:

1. I've been told that the website of the MIT chapter of Victory Campus Ministries used to mention Maranatha, but this reference was pulled when it came to general notice.

2. Champions for Christ presents itself as something which belongs firmly to the post-Maranatha era, when in fact it goes back to 1985. Comparing these two versions of its profile on Charity Navigator is instructive: here (from Wayback) and here.

3. Ron Lewis, who runs an EN affiliate in Chapel Hill, told the media that he left Maranatha in the late 1980s; yet in 1990 he registered Maranatha Christian Ministries International and planted the Maranatha Christian Church of Boston.

Now, I'll grant that none of this is earth-shattering, but combined with the media reports about AIO and Hillsboro it has a cumulative effect. The impression it gives (fairly or not) is that this is a secretive organisation which has whitewashed past mistakes from the 1980s, and now shows signs of repeating those errors.




STEPHEN MANSFIELD:

Richard, thanks for being straightforward with me about this. Let me answer briefly.

I know that MSI/EN has had some negative press recently. It has been interesting for me to observe the movement as a newcomer because I watch them do the right thing and get negative press for it. Recently, for example, Rice has removed one of the primary leaders of MSI/EN because of misconduct. He is about to remove another. This has taken serious moral courage. At the same time that this is going on, the movement is getting bad press because a suicidal teen tried to commit suicide again when her mother pulled her out of an MSI/EN campus group against the girl's wishes. This will all blow over, of course, but it is the kind of thing you mention. I think that any large, rapidly growing movement devoted to challenging the philosophical status quo would get similar treatment. I find that most of these charges are baseless or minor matters exaggerated while the major moral stands taken by the MSI/EN's leaders are ignored.

On the continuation of Maranatha: I called Ron Lewis and he admitted that after they had closed Maranatha officially, he did continue the incorporation of a ministry in South Carolina by the same general name. This was on the advice of his attorney who was trying to save a young pastor with a church of 75 people a little bit of money. The spirit of Maranatha was dead but the name lived on due to what Ron himself called his "stupidity." Later, when he realized how symbolic retaining the name was--again, he was an inexperienced pastor in his early 20's--he changed it, as you've observed.

I'm willing to answer any questions you have, Richard, but my primary issue is that I see a movement doing a great deal of good that tends to get spanked due to blogs like yours. You have the right to blog what you will, but if you are serious about truth I'm hoping to help you see things a bit differently. If you are willing, let me know how I can help you.

Either way, I wish you well.

www.mansfieldgroup.com

"I know that MSI/EN has had some negative press recently. It has been interesting for me to observe the movement as a newcomer because I watch them do the right thing and get negative press for it ... I find that most of these charges are baseless or minor matters exaggerated while the major moral stands taken by the MSI/EN's leaders are ignored."

Negative publicity? The next episode will be the Wranglers scandal. Moral stand? Tell us what really happened to Greg Ball. Tell us what really happened to Greg Feste. Tell us why this episode was hushed up.

But don't stop there. Tell us how Roy McCollum lost Bethel. Tell us why he pulled the Austin church out of Every Nation.

Mr. Mansfield, you don't know what you're talking about and you're in over your head. Get out before you get burned like so many other people.

"This will all blow over, of course."

Like previous episode blew over. And the previous and the previous and the previous. And the next and the next and the next. The episodes haven't stopped since the day Bob Weiner founded Maranatha.

Stop trying to do damage control for these people. For one thing, they have plenty of practice at doing their own damage control. For another, plenty of other people have done damage control for them. You are rehearsing a script that has been rehearsed many, many times.

Why do they need so much damage control? Repeat, Mr. Mansfield, get out before you become the next casualty.

How do we contact Andrew Bartholomew with updates? His website has no contact information.