Hi Keith,
sorry, I must have deleted those articles.
Vinny
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Hodges" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: Right Church


> > I think you are from England, right?  I have recently seen some posts
> > indicating the the few Christians left their are going to have to go
> > underground because of the political correct movement.
> > I'm not sure if I still have these articles, but if I find them, I'll
pass
> > them along.
> > Vinny
>
> Vinny,
>
> yes I am from England, I have visited the States on three extended visits.
>
> I would be interested to see the articles that you mention.
>
> I dont know about the drive to go underground, personally I think that
that
> is the way ahead anyway.
>
> I think that there are plenty of Christians in the UK, I am just not sure
> that there are many effective Christians actually "doing the stuff" as
John
> Wimber would say. Furthermore I think that there are even fewer that are
> free of "religious" attitudes and even fewer walking with some degree of
> annointing and power that actually touches the lost or in need.
>
> In my villiage the local Anglican Church has 700 members, it is one of the
> strongest congregations and perhaps the richest in the UK. But to be
honest
> I do not see God in 99.5% of what they are doing there. In my local town
> there are several large churches, the largest has perhaps 2000 members
> having 4 services on a sunday. Yet God has spoken to me about the spirit
of
> that church which is not pleasing to him at the moment this being a mega
> church, idolising particular personalities who abuse and chastise the
> congregation. I have learnt in the last year that Jesus really is not into
> mega-churches prefering to favour a small christian communities in which
> support deeper relationships and accountability. But if you look for
> Christians that are doing the community thing the picture still is not
good.
> For example I used to hang out with guys from a church denomination
focused
> around 80 community houses around the UK, and the Lord began speaking to
me
> and other friends of mine about how they were demonstrating many cultish
> characteristics.
>
> So yes it does look fairly dire at the moment. A while ago I figured that
> until I could successfully "do church" and Christian life in all its
> fullness with a small group of 2 there would be no point in expecting to
> find or run a good church group that was any larger. 6 years later I am
just
> beginning to do that, there are 2 of us that share our faith in my
> community, we are next door neighbours. As I expected the Lord is taking
us
> 2 deeper and deeper and this has been progressing for 18 months now. We
are
> seeing the Lord do much healing though intercessory prayer (in the same
way
> as Phil has shared tesimonies of Jesus healing). It may be another year or
> even 2 before we will be ready to extend our community fellowship to more
> people. I think that there is a whole lot more to doing true church than
> anyone would expect.
>
> It is very true that the denominational churches in the UK are quite
> different tot he US. For example most of the different denominations tend
to
> get along much better here in the UK than I experienced in the US. For
> example one day I was in a Church speaking to a member about the visions
> that he had had about the trees clapping their hands and the mountains
> melting, the next I was speaking to another who said to me "John Wimber is
> of the devil". You see in the UK many of the events, music festivals and
> bookshops serve all denominations and so there is a great deal of cross
> fertilisation of ideas and attitudes. I did not find that in the US at all
> where it seems that many people were very polarised and immersed in their
> particular denomination.
>
> thanks for your interest Vinny
>
> your friend in Christ
>
> Keith