> 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