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I’ve been on a history binge lately, as it relates to where my own Christian roots and influences originate. I’m seeing a very specific “hinge” person for many of us who came out of the Jesus Movement:
Aimee Semple MacPherson, and The Angelus Temple. I had zero desire to look into this topic, until I realized she was like a great-grandmother on BOTH sides of my spiritual family tree.
Moving up one branch, she founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in the 1920s. In 1945, Chuck Smith graduated from Foursquare “Life Bible College”. In 1952, Jack Hayford graduated from the renamed “Life Pacific University”. Calvary Chapel, The Church on the Way and The Association of Vineyard Churches are all born out of the Foursquare Church.
The other branch… James Gordon Lindsay was one of the original leaders at the Angelus Temple in the 1920s, and would also pastor a Foursquare church. With Lindsay we find a glimpse of the dark side of the Foursquare Movement. He was involved in the British Israelite movement, and the Angelus Temple congregation included both Nazi and KKK members and recruiters. (This was not controversial, being 20 years before the holocaust and 40 years before the civil rights movements.)
Gordon Lindsay would later become the “glue guy” who held together the Faith Healing Revivals of the 40s and 50s. He was behind the scenes, marketing and promoting William Branham, Oral Roberts, A.A. Allen and T.L. Osborn. The healing revivals would evolved into the Word of Faith Movement and what we the Prosperity Gospel.
Why am I sharing this? We have chosen in our history to include just the healings, revivals and evangelistic crusades. We have not dared look into the troubling aspects of our lineage. They do not serve as a warning, and this has left us wide open to Christian Nationalism, Seven Mountain Dominionism and qAnon conspiracies.
While we’re talking history let me make an observation from my own lifespan. We are watching the implosion of the baby boomer revival of the 60s-80s. In those years boomers were experiencing Christ in virtually every setting. Denomination did not prevent it and culture did not resist it. Universities throbbed with Bible toting gatherings of students learning the faith.
Now as the children and grandchildren lack our experience of Christ and deconstruct (trigger warning) their inherited faith. Our institution crumble and close at alarming rates. Among our own numbers the disappointment with life becomes disillusionment with God and especially church. We are de-churching and abandoning our callings.
We are a hot mess. So how do we assess our past and our future? Was it God? Is this present stage of death also God? We seem to be in the same pain that drove us in the beginning. Who am I? Why am I here—still? A lot of the sorrow is our millennial madness that was unfulfilled. Other is simple anguish of unanswered prayers and dreams that have collapsed.
As Michael says “make your own application.”
Terry,
I have asserted for 30 years that Sister Aimee is the mother of modern evangelicalism…and I’m more convinced of that today than ever.
The way she did her services and all the cultural appropriation from secular sources was the blue print for today.
Alan,
That’s a lot…I feel the pain behind the words, because it’s my own and that of many friends.
I only have the answers that enable me to get out of bed in the morning, but they may not work for everyone.
I live in the kingdom to come…
I will say again…as I’ve chanted endlessly for decades now…we didn’t live out what we received…and we lost generations because of it.
That doesn’t change a damn thing.
I think the current distress is an opportunity.
People crave community and connection…and truth.
We have all the tools to change the course of our homes and communities…it’s just a matter of priorities…
The problems are evident. I have found myself looking for solutions.
I have found one that seems to be working for me, but I can’t make promises for someone else. A few years ago I allied myself with a small Anglican church that had about six people in attendance. The young priest in charge was a good man but facing many challenges. I decided to help. When I say help, I do not mean being upfront in a public role. The help was advice given in private and the spending of countless hours helping the priest to reform the liturgy and literally (and figuratively) to clean up the church. My wife thought I was crazy and, indeed, so did my good friend Michael! We determined that the church should not be eccentric. We also determined to stay clear of anything resembling culture wars or politics. It is church pure and simple. Last Sunday we had 44 people in attendance. When the bishop makes his next visit there are going to be 10 souls confirmed. In the last six months, we have had three baptisms. We have restructured the finances of the church so that the priest now earns a living wage. It is our goal to have 50 people in regular attendance by the autumn and 100 by this time next year. We are doing nothing trendy. We are just having normal church.
Now, it may all fall apart tomorrow, but I don’t think it will. People are attending the Bible studies that are being offered and forming a community. Lay readers and servers are being trained. All this is to say, if we want church we may have to do it ourselves. It will not be grand and glorious, but rather it will be discipling people one at a time. I’ve written numerous books and countless articles, but what I am doing with this small church may be the most important aspect of almost 40 years in ministry…
Duane,
That’s such an encouraging story! So glad you shared.
Who cares the size. Numbers can be so shallow anyway.
Depth is a lot more important IMHO.
Sounds pretty obvious that the Lord is in what you all are. doing!
Duane, makes me miss the Anglican Church I attended. The priest was not young, very liturgical, no “relevant” frills. Just normal church.
I’ve had a long distance seat to watch the transformation Duane has helped accomplish in this church.
It has been amazing…and a lot of commitment and hard work.
Those of us in our later stages of ministry have been given a template here…
Reuben,
Normal becomes spectacular when nothing else is normal…praying for you my friend…
It is a lot of mentoring. In the process I have had to learn what mentoring means. It is developing the potential of the other person, not getting your own way about each and every issue. We are so married to the idea that the leadership means being upfront. I am learning that leadership can be developed in a different way by assisting and encouraging out of public view.
And yes, Michael doubted my sanity!
I am in a 56 day inpatient treatment. It is interesting how addiction knows no age. The drugs have just changed. My drug of choice is simple whiskey, theirs is fentanyl, the actual addiction in the mind is the same. I am just older. It makes me wonder, will narcotics be socially acceptable when they grow old?
Alcohol is a 5 minute walk from me, and believe me when I say, I can count the steps. I have not walked in the store, but behind those doors is a perfectly acceptable method of killing pain.
For my drug addict friends here, the walk is shorter. They need only make a phone call and walk to the front door. Ironically, DoorDash can do the same with Jack Daniels so long as you have your ID handy.
The physical addiction I had is long gone. The mental one is ten times my weight and height. It is strong enough to pick me up and toss me around. The likelihood I relapse is massive. More often than not, people leave treatment like this, and in relatively short order pick up where they left off.
My whole future hinges on what I do with Jack Daniels. I partake and die that way, or I smash it and fight the urge to have “Old No. 7 Brand” tattooed to my face every single day. It’s hyperbolic sounding, but the truth.
The last week has been filled with memories of my wife. They don’t bring me joy. My therapist tells me one day, the memories will be happy. Meh… can’t see it. The empty hole in me that screams for just one more handle of Jack has been especially bad.
It’s a good thing I am broke. I fill with distractions like Phoenix Preacher and Netflix.
Prayers appreciated.
Reuben,
You are dealing with something most of use can’t fathom.
Praying you become the miracle I’ve always hoped for…
Reuben, I pray that what your therapist tells you will come true.
Prayers for Reuben and thanks to Duane for sharing his inspirational small church story! I can relate to Alan and Terry’s post as I came to Christ in a San Diego Calvary Chapel in 1974.(Just recently learned about Aimee Temple McPherson from a story in the LA Times of all places!) I came to Christ as a 17-year-old college student fresh from Boston who didn’t know a soul in SD! My parents took my younger brother and lived in Micronesia for the next 20 years & I saw them just once a year at Christmas. The church became my family and Jesus my best friend! He helped me become a teacher, put two children through college and then things became hard as both my husband and I lost our jobs, and my two children moved far away. Empty nest, sudden unemployment, having to downsize homes twice in four years, add marriage struggles, and my mother developing Alzheimers all within a couple of years. It was everything I could do to put one foot in front of another and go on. I couldn’t envision how my life could ever be a happy one again, but I continued to trust Jesus. There was a silver lining after my mother died of Alzheimers- my father needed help and I became very close to him for several years before he died 6 months ago. Now both daughters own homes in San Diego and they both have jobs here with husbands and two children each! I have four grandchildren all living close by! Ten years ago I was struggling mightily, and now God has blessed me beyond anything I could ever have imagined. God can change everything in an instant, so never stop trusting Him! His ways are beyond our understanding in so many ways.
Happy to pray for you, Reuben. Thanks for sharing!
Reuben,
Prayers for you from one addict to another. Much love.
Janet Linn – Incredible story. I can’t believe how your parents left you but took your little brother to a small island in the Pacific. Were you left with other family or friends? My grown daughter lives nearby in Escondido and has 2 delightful grandchildren. I look forward to seeing them this afternoon.
Terry, My father went there as a defense researcher for M.I.T. They lived on Kwajalein Island on an American military base made up mostly of civilian scientists and workers. My brother graduated from high school there. My dad flew everyday to Roi Namur island to work. They worked on defense “missions and with NASA and Horas as needed. And no, I knew nobody in California at all. I had never been to San Diego before I went to San Diego State. I flew there from Massachusetts and I took a taxi to the University at age 17. God took care of me – I met some wonderful people there that are still my closest friends here in SD. One of those friends led me to Christ my freshman year!