» paul Warner Alliance Church - Lewiston, Idaho

Prosperity Gospel; it seems like every one has their prosperity Gospel radar up these days, and rightfully so. I, like you, have heard too many T.V. preachers make promises to people that sound like, “Make Jesus your choice and drive a Rolls Royce!” We should have our radar up, I know Paul the Apostle did, “if anyone is preaching a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” Paul had strong words for those who preached something other than Jesus.

So is it wrong for us to pray for God’s blessing?

Psalm 67:1-2 reveals how to pray for God’s blessing in a way that pleases him. It says,”

May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all the nations.”

This writer gets it right and in doing so give us an example to live by. He prays, “God be gracious to us and bless us, so that your ways of salvation may be known among the nations.” The writer asks for blessing from God to give the blessing of God away so all people may know this God who blesses. This is the right motivation in praying for blessing. The blessings don’t just stop with you, you bless others with it, so they will turn to the Lord.

Pray that God will use you and us as a church to be people that make his ways known among the nations. Pray for God’s blessing to make that possible.

I love being your pastor, grace and peace.

Heather and I recently returned from what the Beeson program calls, “The Houston church immersion.” My fellow pastors and their spouses, lead by an experienced pastor from Houston, saw 13 churches in action, in 2-1/2 days. It was one of the fastest tours of a city I have ever been a part of.

We worshiped in a house church that reaches out exclusively to the gay community of Houston. We toured a large Southern Baptist church, which had in their foyer a fountain that was larger than most swimming pools. We worshiped in an all African-American church, a post-modern church that meets in a basement where they all do art during the church service, a mission-church, where the dominate out-reach event is the weekly church based poker tournament, and a small little church named Lakewood, who’s pastor’s name is Joel Osteen.

What we learned was the following:
First, the God created uniqueness of each church is what makes it great! Heather and I loved how each church was so different in how God was asking them to carry out their mission. Churches can learn from each other but not try to copy each other.

Second, the people owning the mission of each church is what made them great! The churches which had as their base, that the churches mission is owned by the people, these churches were great churches. Churches that just let the paid staff handle the ministries were flat. Staff, leadership and the people all owned the mission with their hearts.

Third, when a church knew it was placed in their community by God, to reach their community for God, this was a great church. A common thread in all the churches was a desire to look outside their walls, pray for, and love and help those who don’t know Jesus.

It takes all kinds of churches!

One of the joys that Heather, the family and I have had since we have been in Wilmore is to host Matundu Zulu in our townhouse. Matundu came to Asbury for six weeks this past October. He came to complete some research on what he and others can do to be effective in reaching the people of the Congo of Africa with the Gospel of Jesus. Matundu has known the Congo all of his life, he loves the Congo, his people that he loves are in the Congo, he has given his whole life to reaching the people of the Congo.

This was Matundu’s first time to America. America was quite a culture shock. In one of our conversations he asked, “Paul, why do your homes breathe?” With a smile and a perplexed look I said, “What do you mean, our homes breathe?” At this he went over and put his hand over the air conditioning vent and said, “This is what I mean, feel it! Your house breathes and its breath is cold!” At this I had come to see Matundu had just experienced air-conditioning for the first time! And he was 54 years old.

I asked Matundu, “Do you like America?” His reply surprised me. “No not really!” I thought could it be the breathing houses, the strange food, country music, (I thought for such it was the country music:-)

“No, I don’t like all the stuff, it is distracting, I can’t experience Jesus in America, too much stuff.”

With this I felt that Matundu felt sorry for me, when I had felt sorry for him. He told me his church and his home, and all the homes don’t have floors, windows or doors, but to Matundu it didn’t matter. He could always find Jesus, so he was happy.

Matundu taught me a lot that day and I pass it on to you, the people I love! The greatest gift of the Gospel is that we get to know Jesus; we get to know him personally through the indwelling Spirit. He wants to be known by you more than you ever know. And let’s make sure all the stuff doesn’t get in the way.

I love you, have a great Christmas, I am proud of you!

Hello from Asbury!!! It is mid-October and the weather is still hot and humid and the bugs are still a constant!

This week I had the privilege of sitting in the class on the book of Acts taught by Dr. Joel Green. Dr. Green is seen as one of the most prominent scholars on the Book of Acts in the world. I see this time as a great blessing, a blessing that calls me to be a good steward of.

As we have studied the book of Acts in an in-depth way, I and others are seeing a Theme emerge, it is, People First, Vision Always.

The church in the book of Acts is different from any other religious body of its day because it valued and loved people. The Church in Acts did not care about social status, gender or race. The church in Acts loved and prioritized people.

But also the Church in Acts passionately lived out God’s desired vision for the church. Jesus tells his vision for the Church in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the end of the earth.”

The Church in Acts is also passionate about vision-fulfillment. Taking the Gospel to every person, to the person across the street, to the other side of the world, God’s vision for the church is that I reach out beyond its walls.

As we follow God into our future, I believe the book of Acts motto of: People first, Vision always will serve as our guide. We are so excited out the land opening up, but God has made this happen so we can reach, grow and train people!

People First, Vision Always.
I love being your pastor!