Wisdom Way

Blog Post: Ealiest Mention of Resurrection and Jesus?

Daniel McCarthy — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:57:00 GMT

British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus' life. As UK Daily Mail reporter Fiona Macrae writes, some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947.

The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan—a region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The codices are made up of wirebound individual pages, each roughly the size of a credit card. They contain a number of images and textual allusions to the Messiah, as well as some possible references to the crucifixion and resurrection. Some of the codices were sealed, prompting yet more breathless speculation that they could include the sealed book, shown only to the Messiah, mentioned in the Book of Revelation. One of the few sentences translated thus far from the texts, according to the BBC, reads, "I shall walk uprightly"--a phrase that also appears in Revelation. "While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism," BBC writer Robert Pigott notes, "it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection."

But the field of biblical archaeology is also prey to plenty of hoaxes and enterprising fraudsters, so investigators are proceeding with due empirical caution. Initial metallurgical research indicates that the codices are about 2,000 years old--based on the manner of corrosion they have undergone, which, as Macrae writes, "experts believe would be impossible to achieve artificially."

Beyond the initial dating tests, however, little is confirmed about the codices or what they contain. And the saga of their discovery has already touched off a battle over ownership rights between Israel and Jordan. As the BBC's Pigott recounts, the cache surfaced when a Jordanian Bedouin saw a menorah—the Jewish religious candleabra—exposed in the wake of a flash flood. But the codices somehow passed into the ownership of an Israeli Bedouin named Hassam Saeda, who claims that they have been in his family's possession for the past 100 years. The Jordanian government has pledged to "exert all efforts at every level" to get the potentially priceless relics returned, Pigott reports.

Meanwhile, biblical scholars who have examined the codices point to significant textual evidence suggesting their early Christian origin. Philip Davies, emeritus professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University, told Pigott he was "dumbstruck" at the sight of plates representing a picture map of ancient Jerusalem. "There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city," Davies explained. "There are walls depicted on other pages of these books, too, and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem."

David Elkington, an ancient religion scholar who heads the British research team investigating the find, has likewise pronounced this nothing less than "the major discovery of Christian history." Elkington told the Daily Mail that "it is a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church."

Still, other students of early Christian history are urging caution, citing precedents such as the debunked discovery of an ossuary said to contain Jesus' bones. New Testament scholar Larry Hurtado observes that since these codices are miniature, they were likely intended for private, rather than liturgical, use. This would likely place their date of origin closer to the 3rd century CE. But only further research and full translation of the codices can fully confirm the nature of the find. The larger lesson here is likely that of Eccliastes 3:1—be patient, since "to everything there is a season."

(David Elkington/Rex Features/Rex USA)

Blog Post: Final 60.12 Meeting

Daniel McCarthy — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:57:00 GMT

Dear Friends,

This leg of the journey is almost at an end. I believe this sacrifice of obedience by many of you has accomplished more than we can see right now. One tangible result that I see in many people is a greater release of love for one another, and faith and hope that God will do something truly revolutionary with His church in our days.

If you've been following along from a distance or just coming as you were able, we'd encourage you to come for the last gathering. It's going to be a time of summing up what God has been doing and of transferring His grace onto what He is saying and doing next.

An "Assignment" for Tuesday

Since our first meetings, there has been a real focus on this question: "What would it mean for the church in New England to be "one as Jesus is one with the Father"? (John 17:21) I think in our time together, we've made real progress in understanding and experiencing the answer to this question.

For our last gathering, we're inviting you to bring an offering: Write up a page of what this would look like based on what we've learned over the last year. This could focus on many issues, but should be practical and specific (i.e. Unity among different language groups, process for discerning a regional vision, discerning internal barriers to loving each other, etc. The sky is the limit--we're inviting you to dream big over the New England Church and we'll distill and share this corporate wisdom.

Many of us have a sense of excitement about this last gathering. We're letting this particular formal expression (60.12) die, but we recognize that the journey will take on new form--the dreams of God's heart for His Church are seeming more and more inevitable as our faith rises to meet His word spoken over us.

March 22 at Park Street Church

Park Street is really a symbol, in many ways, of Biblical Christianity in New England and even in the nation. It seems fitting for us to end our journey here.

Parking is a bit difficult: please plan your parking location ahead of time: You can find all you need here: http://www.parkstreet.org/directions_parking

Finally, Please RSVP so that we can be prepared to feed you. Especially in this final gathering, we're not sure how many to expect. Just a quick reply "Yes" will suffice.

Final 60.12 Gathering with Pray for Boston

Tuesday, March 22

9:30am-3pm

Park Street Church

One Park Street

Boston, MA 02108

Map, Directions, and Parking: http://www.parkstreet.org/directions_parking

Blessings,

jonathan

Blog Post: Review of Rob Bell's Book on Heaven and Hell

Daniel McCarthy — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:15:00 GMT

God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of “Love Wins”

Note: This post is long. You can go here for a PDF version of the 20-page review.

Love Wins, by megachurch pastor Rob Bell, is, as the subtitle suggests, “a book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived.” Here’s the gist: Hell is what we create for ourselves when we reject God’s love. Hell is both a present reality for those who resist God and a future reality for those who die unready for God’s love. Hell is what we make of heaven when we cannot accept the good news of God’s forgiveness and mercy. But hell is not forever. God will have his way. How can his good purposes fail? Every sinner will turn to God and realize he has already been reconciled to God, in this life or in the next. There will be no eternal conscious torment. God says no to injustice in the age to come, but he does not pour out wrath (we bring the temporary suffering upon ourselves), and he certainly does not punish for eternity. In the end, love wins.

Bell correctly notes (many times) that God is love. He also observes that Jesus is Jewish, the resurrection is important, and the phrase “personal relationship with God” is not in the Bible. He usually makes his argument by referencing Scripture. He is easy to read and obviously feels very deeply for those who have been wronged or seem to be on the outside looking in.

Unfortunately, beyond this, there are dozens of problems with Love Wins. The theology is heterodox. The history is inaccurate. The impact on souls is devastating. And the use of Scripture is indefensible. Worst of all, Love Wins demeans the cross and misrepresents God’s character.

A Few Preliminaries

Before going any further with a critique, a number of preliminary comments are in order. A few opening remarks may help put this critical review in context and encourage productive responses.

One, although Bell asks a lot of questions (350 by one count), we should not write off the provocative theology as mere question-raising. Bell did not write an entire book because he was looking for some good resources on heaven and hell. This isn’t the thirteen-year-old in your youth group asking her teacher, “How can a good God send people to hell?” Any pastor worth his covenant salt will welcome sincere questions like this. (“Good question, Jenny, let’s see what the Bible says about that.”) But Bell is a popular teacher of a huge church with a huge following. This book is not an invitation to talk. It’s him telling us what he thinks (nothing wrong with that). As Bell himself writes, “But this isn’t a book of questions. It’s a book of responses to these questions” (19).

Two, we should notice the obvious: this is a book. It is a book with lots of Scripture references. It is a book that draws from history and personal experience. It makes a case for something. It purports one story of Christianity to be better than another. Bell means to persuade. He wants to convince us of something. He is a teacher teaching. This book is not a poem. It is not a piece of art. This is a theological book by a pastor trying to impart a different way of looking at heaven and hell. Whether Bell is creative or a provocateur is beside the point. If Bell is inconsistent, unclear, or inaccurate, claiming the “artist” mantle is no help.

Three, I’m sure that many people looking to defend Bell will be drawn to a couple escape hatches he launches along the way. As you’ll see, the book is a sustained attack on the idea that those who fail to believe in Jesus Christ in this life will suffer eternally for their sins. This is the traditional Christianity he finds “misguided and toxic” (viii). But in one or two places Bell seems more agnostic.

Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices? Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because we can’t, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires. (115)

These are strange sentences because they fall in the chapter where Bell argues that God wants everyone to be saved and God gets what God wants. He tells us that “never-ending punishment” does not give God glory, and “God’s love will eventually melt even the hardest hearts” (108). So it’s unclear where the sudden agnosticism comes from. Is Bell wrestling with himself? Did a friend or editor ask him to throw in a few caveats? Is he simply inconsistent?

Similarly, at the end Bell argues, rather out of the blue, that we need to trust God in the present, that our choices here and now “matter more than we can begin to imagine” because we can miss out on rewards and celebrations (197). This almost looks like an old-fashioned call to turn to Christ before it’s too late. When you look more carefully, however, you see that Bell is not saying what evangelicals might think. He wants us to make the most of life because “while we may get other opportunities, we won’t get the one right in front of us again” (197). In other words, there are consequences for our actions, in this life and in the next, and we can’t get this moment back; but there will always be more chances. If you don’t live life to the fullest and choose love now, you may initially miss out on some good things in the life to come, but in the end love wins (197–198).

For anyone tempted to take these few lines and make Bell sound orthodox, I encourage you to read the whole book more carefully. Likewise, before you rush to accept that Bell believes in hell and believes Christ is the only way, pay attention to his conception of hell and in what way he thinks Jesus is the only way. Bad theology usually sneaks in under the guise of familiar language. There’s a reason he’s written 200 pages on why you must be deluded to think people end up in eternal conscious punishment under the just wrath of God. Words mean something, even when some of them seem forced or out of place. Take the book as a whole to get Bell’s whole message.

Four, it is possible that I (like other critics) am mean-spirited, nasty, and cruel. But voicing strong disagreement does not automatically make me any of these. Judgmentalism is not the same as making judgments. The same Jesus who said “do not judge” in Matthew 7:1 calls his opponents dogs and pigs in Matthew 7:6. Paul pronounces an anathema on those who preach a false gospel (Gal. 1:8). Disagreement among professing Christians is not a plague on the church. In fact, it is sometimes necessary. The whole Bible is full of evaluation and encourages the faithful to be discerning and make their own evaluations. What’s tricky is that some fights are stupid, and some judgments are unfair and judgmental. But this must be proven, not assumed. Bell feels strongly about this matter of heaven and hell. So do a lot of other people. Strong language and forceful arguments are appropriate.

Five, I am not against conversation. What I am against is false teaching. I did not go to the trouble of writing a review because I worry that God can’t handle our questions. The question is never whether God can handle our honest reappraisals of traditional Christianity, but whether he likes them.

On the subject of conversation, it’s worth pointing out that this book actually mitigates against further conversation. For starters, there’s the McLarenesque complaint about the close-minded traditionalists who don’t allow for questions, change, and maturity (ix). This is a kind of pre-emptive “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” approach to conversation (cf. 183). In essence, “Let’s talk, but I know already that the benighted and violent will hate my theology.” That hardly invites further dialogue. More practically, Bell includes no footnotes for his historical claims and rarely gives chapter and verse when citing the Bible. It is difficult to examine Bell’s claims when he is less than careful in backing them up.

Six, this is not an evangelistic work, not in the traditional sense anyway. The primary intended audience appears to be not so much secularists with objections to Christianity (á la Keller’s Reason for God), but disaffected evangelicals who can’t accept the doctrine they grew up with. Bell writes for the “growing number” who have become aware that the Christian story has been “hijacked” (vii). Love Wins is for those who have heard a version of the gospel that now makes their stomachs churn and their pulses rise, and makes them cry out, “I would never be a part of that” (viii). This is a book for people like Bell, people who grew up in an evangelical environment and don’t want to leave it completely, but want to change it, grow up out of it, and transcend it. The emerging church is not an evangelistic strategy. It is the last rung for evangelicals falling off the ladder into liberalism or unbelief.

Over and over, Bell refers to the “staggering number” of people just like him, people who can’t believe the message they used to believe, people who want nothing to do with traditional Christianity, people who don’t want to leave the faith but can’t live in the faith they once embraced. I have no doubt there are many people like this inside and outside our churches. Some will leave the faith altogether. Others—and they are in the worse position—will opt for liberalism, which has always seen itself as a halfway house between conservative orthodoxy and secular disbelief.

But before we let Bell and others write the present story, we must remember that there are also a “staggering number” of young people who want the straight up, unvarnished truth. They want doctrinal edges and traditional orthodoxy. They want no-holds-barred preaching. They don’t want to leave traditional Christianity. They are ready to go deeper into it.

Love Wins has ignited such a firestorm of controversy because it’s the current fissure point for a larger fault-line. As younger generations come up against an increasingly hostile cultural environment, they are breaking in one of two directions—back to robust orthodoxy (often Reformed) or back to liberalism. The neo-evangelical consensus is cracking up. Love Wins is simply one of many tremors.

Where to Begin?

With those as preliminaries, you know this won’t be a brief review. The hard part is knowing where to begin. Love Wins is such a departure from historic Christianity, that there’s no easy way to tackle it. You can’t point to two or three main problems or three or four exegetical missteps. This is a markedly different telling of the gospel from start to finish. To fully engage the material would require not only deconstruction, but a full reconstruction of orthodoxy theology. A book review, however, is not the place to build a systematic theology. So where to begin?

I want to approach Love Wins by looking at seven areas: Bell’s view of traditional evangelical theology, history, exegesis, eschatology, Christology, gospel, and God.

1. Not Your Grandmother’s Christianity

Perhaps the best place to start is to show that Bell routinely disparages the faith of traditional evangelicalism.

A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided, toxic, and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness and joy that our world desperately needs to hear. (viii)

At least Bell is honest. In the next chapter, not even his grandmother gets off unscathed. Bell reminisces about the scary picture of a floating cross-bridge to heaven in her house. He likens it to a joint project from Thomas Kinkade and Dante or like Dungeons and Dragons, Billy Graham, and a barbecue pit rolled into one (22–23). He and his sister were freaked out. This story of leaving earth to go to heaven by means of faith in Christ is not the story he wants to promote anymore.

Later, Bell allows that traditionalists can believe their story of heaven and hell, but “it isn’t a very good story” (110). Traditional Christians have inferior news to share because in their story so many people end up in hell. “That’s why the Christians who talk the most about going to heaven while everybody else goes to hell don’t throw very good parties” (179). Not only are they bad at parties, traditionalists are bad at art: “An entrance understanding of the gospel rarely creates good art. Or innovation. Or a number of other things. It’s a cheap view of the world because it’s a cheap view of God. It’s a shriveled imagination” (180). So much for finding beauty or delight in Western civilization. I’ll leave it to the art critics and the partygoers to determine if it’s true that, second to blondes, universalists have more fun.

What’s interesting is that Bell struggles to leave his evangelical upbringing behind. He knows the temptation to be embarrassed that “we were so ‘simple’ or ‘naïve,’ or ‘brainwashed’ or whatever terms arise when we haven’t come to terms with our own story” (194). And yet, he believes it’s important to embrace past understanding of the faith, even if people like him were shaped by a certain environment and reared in certain experiences that can be easily deconstructed (e.g., praying the sinner’s prayer) (193–95). Again, we sense Bell is trying to reconcile an earlier faith with his present trajectory. The result is an awkward attempt to claim his past while still wanting to evolve out of it. This presumes, of course, that the Christian faith is not a deposit to guard or a tradition that must not change (2 Tim. 1:14; 2 Thess. 2:15). Much of Bell’s polemic fails if there is a core of apostolic teaching that we are called, not just to embrace as part of our journey, but to protect from deviation and defend against false teaching (Acts 20:29–31).

2. Historical Problems

Bell maintains he is not saying anything new. And that’s right. The problem is he makes it sound like his everyone-ends-up-restored-and-reconciled-to-God theology is smack dab in the center of the Christian tradition.

And so, beginning with the early church, there is a long tradition of Christians who believe that God will ultimately restore everything and everybody, because Jesus says in Matthew 19 that there will be a “renewal of all things,” Peter says in Acts 3 that Jesus will “restore everything,” and Paul says in Colossians 1 that through Christ “God was pleased to. . . .reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (107, ellipsis in original)

It’s important to Bell that he falls within the “deep, wide, diverse stream” of “historic, orthodox Christian faith” (ix-x). Therefore, he argues that “at the center of the Christian tradition since the first church has been the insistence that history is not tragic, hell is not forever, and love, in the end, wins” (109).

This bold claim flies in the face of Richard Bauckham’s historical survey:

Until the nineteenth century almost all Christian theologians taught the reality of eternal torment in hell. Here and there, outside the theological mainstream, were some who believed that the wicked would be finally annihilated. . . . Even fewer were the advocates of universal salvation, though these few included some major theologians of the early church. Eternal punishment was firmly asserted in official creeds and confessions of the churches. It must have seemed as indispensable a part of the universal Christian belief as the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation. (“Universalism: A Historical Survey,” Themelios 4.2 [September 1978]: 47–54)

Universalism (though in a different form than Bell’s and for different reasons) has been present in the church since Origen, but it was never in the center of the tradition. Origen’s theology was partly anticipated by his fellow Platonist Clement of Alexandria and later shows up in the Cappadocian Gregory of Nyssa. But according to William Moore and Henry Austin Wilson in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series, Gregory’s theology of hell is hard to pin down. He makes much of God being “all in all” and evil being eradicated, but he also warns of the final judgment and the flames ready to engulf the wicked (NPNF ser. 2, 5:16). Whatever Origen’s influence on the Cappadocian fathers (and it was considerable), Origen’s views were later refuted by Augustine and, as Bauckham notes, condemned in 543 in a council at Constantinople.

Bell also mentions Jerome, Basil, and Augustine because they claimed many people in their day believed in the ultimate reconciliation of all people to God (107). But listing all the heavyweights who took time to refute the position you are now espousing is not a point in your favor. Most egregiously, Bell calls on Martin Luther in support of post-mortem salvation (106). But as Carl Trueman has pointed out, anyone familiar with Luther’s creedal statements and overall writing, not to mention the actual quotation in question, will quickly see that Luther is not on Bell’s side.

Universalism has been around a long time. But so has every other heresy. Arius rejected the full deity of Christ and many people followed him. This hardly makes Arianism part of the wide, diverse stream of Christian orthodoxy. Every point of Christian doctrine has been contested, but some have been deemed heterodox. Universalism, traditionally, was considered one of those points. True, many recent liberal theologians have argued for versions of universalism—and this is where Bell stands, not in the center of the historic Christian tradition.

3. Exegetical Problems

Some people may be impressed by the array of biblical texts Bell employs. But there is less here than meets the eye. Time after time, key points in Bell’s argument rest on huge exegetical mistakes.

A partial list—an even ten—in no particular order:

One, Bell cites Psalm 65, Ezekiel 36, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Philippians 2, and Psalm 22 to show that all peoples will eventually be reconciled to God. He does not mention that some of these are promises to God’s people, some are general promises about the nations coming to God, and others are about the universal acknowledgement (not to be equated with saving faith) on the last day that Jesus Christ is Lord. Not one of his texts supports his conclusion.

Two, Similarly, Bell lists a number of passages that point to final restoration–Jeremiah 5, Lamentations 3, Hosea 14, Zephaniah 3, Isaiah 57, Hosea 6, Joel 3, Amos 9, Nahum 2, Zephaniah 2, Zephaniah 3, Zechariah 9, Zechariah 10, and Micah 7 (86–87). Anyone familiar with the prophets knows that they often finish with a promise of future blessing. But anyone familiar with the prophets should also know that these promises are for God’s covenant people, predicated on faith and repentance, and fulfilled ultimately in Christ.

Three, Bell seems to recognize the covenantal nature of the promised restoration, so he goes out of his way to point out that the restoration is not just for God’s people. To prove this point he cites a passage from Isaiah 19 where it is predicted that an altar to the Lord will be in the midst of the land of Egypt. Bell concludes that no failure is final and that consequences can always be corrected (88–89). But Isaiah 19 is not remotely about postmortem opportunities to repent. The text is about God’s plan to humble Egypt to the point where they cry out to Israel’s God for deliverance: “The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them” (Isa. 19:22, ESV). God makes no promise that every soul in Egypt will be saved. Rather he promises, like the prophets do time and time again, that if they call on the Lord he will have mercy on them. There is no thought that they will do this calling in the afterlife.

Four, Bell makes no attempt to understand John 14:6 in context. After acknowledging that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and the only way to the Father, Bell quickly adds, “What he doesn’t say is how, or when, or in what manner the mechanism functions that gets people to God through Jesus. He doesn’t even state that those coming to the Father through Jesus will even know that they are coming exclusively through him. He simply claims that whatever God is doing in the world to know and redeem and love and restore the world is happening through him” (154). Even a cursory glance at John 14 shows that the through in verse 16 refers to faith. The chapter begins by saying, “Believe in God; believe also in me.” Verse seven talks about knowing the Father. Verse nine and ten explain that we see and know the Father by believing that Jesus is in the Father and the Father in him. Verses 11 and 12 touch on belief yet again. Coming to the Father through Christ means through faith in Christ. This is in keeping with the overall purpose of John’s gospel (John 20:31).

Five, Bell thinks the rich man’s question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” has nothing to do with the afterlife. He isn’t asking about how to go to heaven when he dies (30). He’s simply wondering how to get in on the good things God is doing in the age to come (31, 40). Again, Bell ignores all contextual clues to the contrary. Given the resurrection discussion alive in Jesus’ day (see Mark 12:18–27), the rich man is likely asking, “How can I be sure I’ll be saved in the final resurrection?” He is thinking of life after death. That’s why he says “inherit” and why the previous section in Mark discusses Bell’s dreaded “entrance” theology (Mark 10:13–16). What’s more, verse 30 makes clear that some of the blessings in following Jesus come in the next life, what Jesus calls “in the age to come, eternal life.” If eternal life is equivalent to saying the age to come (31), then Jesus is the master of redundancy. But the two terms are not identical. Eternal life here means life that lasts forever.

Six, Bell reads too much into Paul’s discipline passages. Paul handed over Hymenaeus and Alexander to teach them not to blaspheme. He disciplined the man in Corinth so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Therefore, Bell reasons, failure is never final (89–90). But stating the purpose and hope of discipline (as Paul does) is one thing, assuming the repentance happened is another, and thinking any of this opens the door to postmortem second chances is a thing the text never hints at.

Seven, sometimes Bell just ignores the verses that don’t support his thesis. While arguing that we should be extremely careful about making negative judgments on people’s eternal destinies, Bell cites Jesus’ words in John 3:17 that he “did not come to judge the world but to save it” (160). This Jesus, Bell says, is a “vast, expansive, generous mystery” leading us to conclude hopefully that “Heaven is, after all, full of surprises.” Bell’s lean into universalism here would be significantly muted had he gone on to Jesus’ words in verse 18: “Whoever believes in him [i.e., the Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Likewise, according to John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

Eight, Bell’s overview of Revelation skims along the surface of the book in a way that misses all the hard parts he doesn’t want to see. Bell explains that Revelation is a book written for God’s people during a time when they were being persecuted. As such, there are lots of pictures of wrongs being righted and people being held accountable (112). But, he says, “the letter does not end with blood and violence” (112). It ends with the world permeated with God’s love (114).

This is not a bad summary, but the three points he draws from this narrative are problematic. First, he explains the judgments by reminding us that people often reject the love and joy in front of them and “choose to live in their own hells all the time” (114). But even a cursory read through Revelation shows that violent judgments issue from God’s throne. They are poured out from bowls and thrown down on the earth. Christ comes on a war horse with a sharp sword in his mouth. There’s no sense that the wicked are suffering only from their poor decisions in life. They wail for fear because the one whom they pierced is coming with the clouds for recompense (Rev. 1:7).

Second, Bell suggests that maybe the gates in heaven are “never shut” because new citizens will continue to enter the city as everyone is eventually reconciled to God (115). This interpretation is clearly at odds with the rest of Revelation 21-22 which emphasizes several times that there are some accursed ones left outside the city (21:8, 27; 22:3, 14–15, 18–19). The theme of judgment carries through right to the end of the book. What’s more, those facing this judgment will be thrown into the lake of fire where torment never ends, which is the second death (20:10; 21:8). There is never a hint of postmortem second chances and every indication that there is an irreversible judgment decreed of every soul at the end of the age. The gates are open as a sign of the city’s complete safety and security, not as an indication that more will be saved after death.

Third, according to Bell, the announcement “I am making all things new” suggests new possibilities. This, in turn, means we should leave the door open that the final eternal state of every person has not been fixed (116). Again, this is a supposition without any warrant in the text, where the newness of heaven speaks of a new holiness, a new world, a new pain-free existence, and a new closeness with God. Heaven is not new because people in hell get new chances to repent.

Nine, what Bell does with Sodom and Gomorrah should make even his most ardent supporters wince. Really, you have to wonder if Bell has any interest in being constrained by serious study of the biblical text. In one place, Bell argues from Ezekiel 16 that because the fortunes of Sodom will be restored (Ezek. 16:53), this suggests that the forever destiny of others might end in restoration (84). But it should be obvious that the restoration of Sodom in Ezekiel is about the city, not about the individual inhabitants of the town who were already judged in Genesis 19. The people condemned by sulfur and fire 1,500 years earlier were not getting a second lease on postmortem life. The current city would be restored. And besides, the whole point of Sodom’s restoration is to shame wicked Samaria (Ezek. 16:54) so that they might bear the penalty of their lewdness and abominations (Ezek. 16:58). This hardly fits with Bell’s view of God and judgment.

If that weren’t bad enough, the other discussion on Sodom is even worse. Because Jesus says it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for Capernaum (Matt. 11:23–24), Bell concludes that there is hope for all the other Sodoms and Gomorrahs (85). Bell takes a passage about judgment—judgment that will be so bad for Capernaum it’s even worse than God’s judgment on Sodom—and turns it into tacit support for ultimate universalism. Jesus’ warning says nothing about new hope for Sodom. It says everything about the hopelessness of unbelieving Capernaum.

Ten, not surprisingly, Bell frequently harkens back to the Pauline promise in Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1 that God is reconciling or uniting all things together in Christ (149). These are favorite passages of universalists, but they cannot carry the freight universalists want them to. Take Ephesians 1, for example. Paul says that God’s plan in the fullness of time is to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph. 1:10). The Greek word for “unite” is a long one: anakephalaiōsasthai. It means to sum up, to bring together to a main point, to gather together. It is like an author finishing the last chapter of his book or a conductor bringing the symphony from cacophony to harmony. It’s a glorious promise, already begun in some ways by the word of Christ. But we know from the rest of Ephesians that Paul does not expect all peoples to be reconciled to God. He speaks of sons of disobedience and children of wrath in chapter two. In chapter five, he makes clear that the sexually immoral and covetous have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. In Ephesians 5:6 he warns that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. The uniting of all things does not entail the salvation of all people. It means that everything in the universe, heaven and earth, the spiritual world and the physical world, will finally submit to the lordship of Christ, some in joyful worship of their beloved Savior and others in just punishment for their wretched treason. In the end, God wins.

One last general point about Bell’s exegesis: Bell has a reputation for being brilliant and creative, and he probably is in certain spheres. But his use of Scripture exhibits neither characteristic. In fact, it is naïve, literalistic biblicism. He flattens everything, either to make traditional theology sound ridiculously inconsistent or to make a massive point from one out-of-context verse. He makes no attempt to understand metaphors, genre, or imagery (either in Scripture or in his grandmother’s painting). He does not to try to harmonize anything that might rot his fresh take on the Bible. He loves Jewish background and context, but he shows very little familiarity with the actual storyline and the shape of the Old Testament. His style may be engaging to some, but look up the passages for yourself and then pick up a reputable study Bible or a basic commentary series. You’ll seriously question Bell’s use of Scripture.

4. Eschatological Problems

Bell’s eschatology is muddled. On the one hand, he goes to great length to argue that eternal life is not really forever life, just abundant life or life belonging to the next age (57, 92–93). He maintains that the images of hell refer to the pain we create for ourselves on earth and to the impending disaster on Jerusalem in 70 AD (81). Bell sounds like an overwrought preterist at times, having no place for end-times judgment or an unending existence after death. But on the other hand, he seems to leave all these arguments behind later when he talks about an eternal postmortem existence. He does believe in heaven after you die, and he believes in hell.

But in a strange bit of logic arising out of the parable of the prodigal son, Bell maintains that heaven and hell exist side by side. It’s not always clear what Bell thinks, but it seems he believes everyone goes to the same realm when they die; but for some people it is heaven, and for others it is hell (170). If you don’t accept God’s story about the world and resist his love, heaven will be hell for you, a hell you create for yourself. We are supposed to see this in Luke 15 where both brothers are invited to the same feast but one can’t enjoy it. Heaven and hell at the same party (176). To call this is a little stretch is like calling pro wrestling a little fake. Jesus told all three “lost” parables to explain why he was eating with “sinners” (Luke 15:2–3), not to posit a thoroughly un-Jewish notion that the afterlife is whatever you make of it. If the parable of the prodigal son teaches Bell’s theology of heaven-and-hell-at-the-same-time, then the Bible can teach anything Bell wants it to.

In a similar vein, Bell seems unaware that theologians of various traditions have talked about the two sides of God’s will (or two lenses through which God views the world). To be sure, there is mystery here, but it’s common to distinguish between God’s will of decree, whereby everything that he wills comes to pass (Eph. 1:11), and his will of desire which can be rejected (Matt. 7:21). And yet one of Bell’s main planks in support of universal reconciliation is that if God wants all people to be saved, then all people must eventually be saved. “How great is God?” Bell asks. “Great enough to achieve what God sets out to do, or kind of great, great most of the time, but in this, the fate of billions of people, not totally great. Sort of great. A little great” (97–99). The strong insinuation is that a God who does not save everyone is not totally great.

All this is built on the statement that God wants everyone to be saved. There’s no exegetical work on the meaning of “all people” and no discussion on the dual-nature of God’s will. In Bell’s mind, if all people do not end up reconciled to God its tantamount to God saying, “Well, I tried, I gave it my best shot, and sometimes you just have to be okay with failure” (103). Bell has taken one statement from 1 Timothy 2:4 (God desires all people to be saved), avoids any contextual work on the passage (e.g., all probably means “all kinds of people”), and refuses to bring any other relevant passages to bear on this one (e.g., Rom. 9:22, “What if God desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?”) The result is a simplistic formula: “God wants all people to be saved. God gets what he wants. Therefore, all people will eventually be saved.” This is a case of poor theologizing beholden to mistaken logic. If it is “the will of God” that Christians “abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thess. 4:3), does that mean God’s greatness is diminished by our impurity?

In the blog buzz leading up the release of Love Wins, there was a lot of discussion about whether Bell is or is not a Christian universalist. After reading the book, I see no reason why the label does not fit. Now it’s true, Bell believes in hell. But he does not believe that God pours out his wrath on anyone forever (I’m not sure he thinks God actively pours out wrath on anyone at all). Hell is the sad suffering of this life (71). Hell is God giving us what we want (72). Postmortem hell is what we create for ourselves when we refuse to believe God’s story, when we resist his love (170-71, 172, 177). There is hell now and hell later. “There are all kinds of hell because there are all kinds of ways to reject the good and the true and the beautiful and the human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next” (79).

So why do I say Bell is a universalist if he believes in hell? Because he does not believe hell lasts forever. It is a temporary “period of pruning” and “an intense experience of correction” (91). Bell’s hell is like purgatory except his “period of pruning” is for anyone, not just for Christians who die in a state of grace as Catholicism teaches. For Bell, this life is about getting ourselves fitted for the good life to come. Some of us die ready to experience God’s love. Others need more time to sort things out. Luckily, in Bell’s scheme, there is always more time. “No one can resist God’s pursuit forever because God’s love will eventually melt even the hardest hearts” (108). Bell does not believe every road leads to God. He is not a moral relativist. You can get your life and theology wrong. Heaven is a kind of starting over, a time to relearn what it means to be human. For some this process may take a while, and during the process their heaven may feel more like hell. But even those who get everything wrong in this life, will eventually get it right over time in the next life. In Bell’s theology, ultimately, everyone will be saved. If he’s right, most of church history has been wrong. If he’s wrong, a staggering number of people are hearing “peace, peace” where there is no peace.

What’s wrong with this theology is, of course, what’s wrong with the whole book. Bell assumes all sorts of things that can’t be shown from Scripture. For example, Bell figures God won’t say “sorry, too late” to those in hell who are humble and broken for their sins. But where does the Bible teach the damned are truly humble or penitent? For that matter, where does the Bible talk about growing and maturing in the afterlife or getting a second chance after death? Why does the Bible make such a big deal about repenting “today” (Heb. 3:13), about being found blameless on the day of Christ (2 Pet. 3:14), about not neglecting such a great salvation (Heb. 2:3) if we have all sorts of time to figure things out in the next life? Why warn about not inheriting the kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9–10), about what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31), or about the vengeance of our coming King (2 Thess. 1:5–12) if hell is just what we make of heaven? Bell does nothing to answer these questions, or even ask them in the first place.

5. Christological Problems

Most readers of Love Wins will want to talk about Bell’s universalism. But just as troubling is his Christology. Bell has a Joseph Campbell “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” view of Christ. Jesus is hidden in various cultures and in every aspect of creation. Some people find him and some don’t. Some call him Jesus; some have too much baggage with Christianity, so they call him by a different name (159).

Bell finds support for this Christological hide-and-seek in 1 Corinthians 10. This is where Paul calls to mind the Exodus narrative and asserts that the rock (the one that gushed water) was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). From this Bell concludes, “There are rocks everywhere” (139). If Paul saw Christ in the rock, then who knows where else we might find him (144)? Jesus cannot be confined to any one religion, Bell argues. He transcends our labels and cages, especially the one called Christianity (150). Christ is present in all cultures and can be found everywhere. Sometimes missionaries travel around the world only to find that the Christ they preach was already present by a different name (152).

This does not mean Christ is whatever you want him to be. Some Jesuses should be rejected, Bell says, like the ones that are “anti-science” and “anti-gay” and use bullhorns on the street (8). But wherever we find “grace, peace, love, acceptance, healing, forgiveness” we’ve found the creative life source that we call Jesus (156, 159).

Elsewhere, after describing a false Jesus “who waves the flag and promotes whatever values they have decided their nation needs to return to,” Bell offers the promising alternative: “the very life source of the universe who has walked among us and continues to sustain everything with his love and power and grace and energy” (156).

These [Eucharist] rituals are true for us, because they’re true for everybody. They unite us, because they unite everybody. These are signs and glimpses and tastes of what is true for all people in all places at all times—we simply name the mystery present in all the world, the gospel already announced to every creature under heaven. (157)

This is classic liberalism pure and simple, a souped-up version of Schleiermacher’s feeling of absolute dependence. This is all immanence and no transcendence. This is not the objective gospel-message of Christ’s work in history that we must announce. This is an existential message announcing a rival version of the good news, the announcement that you already know Christ and can feel him in your heart if you pay attention.

To suggest the Lord’s Supper unites all people makes a mockery of the sacrament and the Christ uniquely present in the bread and the cup. The Table is a feast for those who trust in Christ, for those who can discern his body, a family meal for those who together will proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again. It brings us together under the sign of the cross. The sheep “not of this pen” are not adherents of other religions who belong to Christ without knowing it (152), but Gentiles who can now fellowship with Jews through the blood (Eph. 2:11–22).

And let’s not forget all of this rests on an illegitimate reading of 1 Corinthians 10. First, the fact that Paul found a type of Christ in the Old Testament does not give us warrant to find whatever types we like in the world. Second, Paul did not mention the rock willy-nilly because it seemed beautiful to him. The gushing rock was a picture of God’s provision and salvation for his people in the Old Testament just like Christ is for the church in the New Testament. Third, the rest of 1 Corinthians 10 militantly opposes everything Bell wants to get out of the chapter. The reason Paul brought up the rock in the first place was as an example, “that we might not desire evil as they did” (1 Cor. 10:6). Paul wants the Corinthians to avoid being “destroyed by the Destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:10) and to “take heed lest [they] fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). There’s no thought that the Corinthians should find Christ in ten thousand places. The whole chapter is a warning against idolatry, to flee from it (1 Cor. 10:14), not to embrace it in the name of mystery.

6. Gospel Problems

This review is too long already, but I really must say something about the two most grievous errors in the book: Bell’s view of the cross and his view of God.

According to Bell, salvation is realizing you’re already saved. We are all forgiven. We are all loved, equally and fully by God who has made peace with everyone. That work is done. Now we are invited to believe that story and live in it (172–73).

Bell is not saying what you think he might be saying. He’s not suggesting faith is the instrumental cause used by the Spirit to join us to Christ so we can share in all his benefits. That would be evangelical theology. Bell is saying God has already forgiven us whether we ask for it or not, whether we repent and believe or not, whether we are born again or not. “Forgiveness is unilateral. God isn’t waiting for us to get it together, to clean up, shape up, get up—God has already done it” (189). This means the Father’s love just is. It cannot be earned and it cannot be taken away. God’s love is simply yours (188). Heaven and hell (however Bell conceives them) are both full of forgiven people.

So what does Bell believe about the atonement? He starts with the familiar refrain that there are many images for what the death of Jesus accomplished and none of them should be prized more than another (though he claims Christus Victor was the dominant understanding for the first thousand years of church history). The point is not to argue about the images. “The point then, as it is now, is Jesus. The divine in flesh and blood. He’s where the life is” (129).

You may wonder where the sacrificial system is in all this. After all, as a friend reminded me, years ago Bell was best known for being the pastor who started his church by preaching from Leviticus. I’m not sure what Bell taught back then, but now it appears his understanding of sacrifice is almost entirely negative. Sacrifice in the ancient world (and he fails to distinguish between Israel and other nations) meant “Offer something, show that you’re serious, make amends, find favor, and then hope that was enough to get what you needed” (124). Sacrifice is a kind of plea bargain, not a substitution.

Consequently, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was a generic doing-away of all sacrifices. It means “no more wondering if the gods were pleased with you and or ready to strike you down” (125). Notice, Bell does not say that Jesus’ death appeased the anger of God/gods, only that his sacrifice shows us we don’t have to wonder any more if the gods are angry. Sacrifice, whether in the Old Testament or on the cross, is not about loving divine self-substitution, but the divine manifestation of love already present in the world, a love whose only obstacle is our ignorance of it and unwillingness to receive it. For all the talk of social justice, there is apparently no need for God to receive his justice.

Bell categorically rejects any notion of penal substitution. It simply does not work in his system or with his view of God. “Let’s be very clear, then,” Bell states, “we do not need to be rescued from God. God is the one who rescues us from death, sin, and destruction. God is the rescuer” (182). I see no place in Bell’s theology for Christ the curse-bearer (Gal. 3:13), or Christ wounded for our transgressions and crushed by God for our iniquities (Isa. 53:5, 10), no place for the Son of Man who gave his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), no place for the Savior who was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), no place for the sorrowful suffering Servant who drank the bitter cup of God’s wrath for our sake (Mark 14:36).

In Bell’s theology, God is love, a love that never burns hot with anger and a love that cannot distinguish or discriminate. “Jesus’ story,” Bell says, “is first and foremost about the love of God for every single one of us. It is a stunning, beautiful, expansive love and it is for everybody, everywhere” (1). Therefore, he reasons, “we cannot claim him to be ours any more than he’s anybody else’s” (152). This is tragic. It’s as if Bell wants every earthly father to love every child in the world in the exact same way. If you rob a father of his unique, specific, not-for-everyone love, you rob the children of their greatest treasure. It reminds me of the T-shirt, “Jesus Loves You. Then Again He Loves Everybody.” There’s no good news in announcing that God loves everyone in the same way just because he wants to. The good news is that in love God sent his Son to live for our lives and die for our deaths, suffering the God-forsakenness we deserved so that we might call God our God and we who trust in Christ might be his children. The sad irony is that while Bell would very much like us to know the love of God, he has taken away the very thing in which God’s love is chiefly known: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

7. A Different God

At the very heart of this controversy, and one of the reasons the blogosphere exploded over this book, is that we really do have two different Gods. The stakes are that high. If Bell is right, then historic orthodoxy is toxic and terrible. But if the traditional view of heaven and hell are right, Bell is blaspheming. I do not use the word lightly, just like Bell probably chose “toxic” quite deliberately. Both sides cannot be right. As much as some voices in evangelicalism will suggest that we should all get along and learn from each other and listen for the Spirit speaking in our midst, the fact is we have two irreconcilable views of God.

Here’s how Bell understands the traditional view of God:

Millions have been taught that if they don’t believe, if they don’t accept in the right way according to the person telling them the gospel, and they were hit by a car and died later that same day, God would have no choice but to punish them forever in conscious torment in hell. God would, in essence, become a fundamentally different being to them in that moment of death, a different being to them forever. A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormenter who would insure that they would have no escape from an endless future of agony.

If there was an earthly father who was like that, we would call the authorities. If there was an actual human dad who was that volatile, we would contact child protection services immediately.

If God can switch gears like that, switch entire modes of being that quickly, that raises a thousand questions about whether a being like this could ever be trusted. Let alone be good.

Loving one moment, vicious the next. Kind and compassionate, only to become cruel and relentless in the blink of an eye.

Does God become somebody totally different the moment you die?

That kind of God is simply devastating. Psychologically crushing. We can’t bear it. No one can. . . . That God is terrifying and traumatizing and unbearable. (173–75)

Of course, this is a horrible caricature that makes God seem capricious and vindictive. No one I know thinks God is loving one minute and cruel the next. But God is always holy. And holy love is not the same as unconditional affirmation. Holy love is more terrifying than even Bell thinks and more unbelievably merciful and free than Bell imagines.

Bell’s god is a small god, so bound by notions of radical free will that I wonder how Bell can be so confident God’s love will melt the hardest heart. If God’s grace is always, essentially, fundamentally, resistible (72, 103–4, 118–19), how do we know some sinners won’t suffer in their own hell for a million years?

Bell’s god may be all love, but it is a love rooted in our modern Western sensibilities more than careful biblical reflection. It is a love that threatens to swallow up God’s glory and holiness. But, you may reply, the Bible says God is love (1 John 4:16). True, but if you want to weigh divine attributes by sentence construction, you have to mention God is spirit (John 4:24), God is light (1 John 1:5), and God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). The verb “is” does not establish a priority of attributes. If anything, one might mention that the only thrice-repeated attribute is “holy, holy, holy.” And yet this is the one thing Bell’s god is not. Having preached through Leviticus he should remember that holiness is the overarching theme. The sacrifices are a pleasing aroma in God’s nostrils because they satisfy his justice, making way for a holy God to dwell in the midst of an unholy people. That Christ’s sacrifice is the same pleasing aroma to God (Eph. 5:2) undercuts Bell’s insistence that God did not need to rescue us from God.

It would be unfair to say Bell doesn’t believe in sin. He clearly does. But his vice lists are telling: war, rape, greed, injustice, violence, pride, division, exploitation, disgrace (36–37). In another place, he says that in heaven God will say “no” to oil spills, sexual assault on women, political leaders silencing by oppression, and people being stepped on by greedy institutions and corporations (37-38). These are real problems and throughout the book Bell mentions many real, heinous sins. But all of these sins are obvious to almost everyone in our culture, especially progressives. What’s missing is not only a full-orbed view of sins, but a deeper understanding of sin itself. In Bell’s telling of the story, there is no sense of the vertical dimension of our evil. Yes, Bell admits several times that we can resist or reject God’s love. But there’s never any discussion of the way we’ve offended God, no suggestion that ultimately all our failings are a failure to worship God as we should. God is not simply disappointed with our choices or angry for the way we judge others. He is angry at the way we judge him. He cannot stand to look upon our uncleanness. His nostrils flare at iniquity. He hates our ingratitude, our impurity, our God-complexes, our self-centeredness, our disobedience, our despising of his holy law. Only when we see God’s eye-covering holiness will we grasp the magnitude of our traitorous rebellion, and only then will we marvel at the incomprehensible love that purchased our deliverance on the cross.

Bell begins the book by noting how fed up he is with the traditional story about Jesus. He insists on telling a different story. And he does. His story, as I’ve noted before, is “first and foremost about the love of God for every single one of us. It is a stunning, beautiful, expansive love and it is for everybody, everywhere” (vii). On the right lips, this might possibly be a fine statement. But from Bell it signals a deviation from the Bible’s plotline. Look at God’s people in the garden, then kicked out of the garden; God’s people in the promised land, then booted out of the promised land; God’s people in the New Jerusalem, then the wicked and unbelieving locked outside the New Jerusalem. Trace this story from tabernacle to temple through the incarnation and Pentecost and the coming down of the new heaven and new earth and you will see that the Bible’s story is about how a holy God can possibly dwell among an unholy people. The good news of this story is not that God loves everybody everywhere and you just need to find Christ in the rocks all around you. The good news is that God over and over makes a way for his unholy people to dwell in his holy presence, and that all these ways were pointing to the one Way, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

At bottom, Bell’s vision of heaven and hell doesn’t work because his vision of God is false. I cannot imagine the angels singing “holy, holy, holy” or Isaiah crying out “woe is me” at the feet of Bell’s god. I see no place for divine wrath or divine justice in Bell’s theology. All our punishment, in this life and the next, is manmade. We get what we want and it makes our lives miserable, now and for a while in heaven. There is some truth to this. The pain of hell is our fault. But it’s also God’s doing. Hell is not what we make for ourselves or gladly choose. It’s what a holy God justly gives to those who exchange the truth of God for a lie. The bowls of wrath in Revelation are poured out by God; they are not swum in by sinners. The ten plagues were sent by God, they were not the product of some Egyptian spell gone wrong. God’s wrath burns against the impenitent and unbelieving; they do not walk into the fire by themselves.

Bell’s god is wholly passive toward sin. He hates some of it and says no to it in the next life, but he does not actively judge it. There’s no way to make sense of Nadab and Abihu or Perrez-Uzzah or Gehazi or Achan’s or Korah’s rebellion or the flood or the exodus or the Babylonian captivity or the preaching of John the Baptist or the visions of Revelation or the admonitions of Paul or the warnings of Hebrews or Calvary’s cross apart from a God who hates sin, judges sin, and pour out his wrath—sometimes now, always later—on the accursed things and peoples of this world. God is God and there is no hope for non-gods who want to be gods, except through the God-man who became a curse for us.

That’s bad news for some, and unfathomably good news for all those born again by the sovereign Spirit of God unto faith in Christ and life eternal.

A Concluding Pastoral Postscript

The tendency in theological controversy is to boil everything down to a conflict of personalities. This is the way the world understands disagreement. This is how the world sells controversy. It’s always politician versus politician or pastor versus pastor. But sometimes the disagreement is less about the men (or women) involved and more about the truth.

This is one of those instances.

I have not spent hours and hours on this review because I am out to get another pastor. I may be a sinner, but with four young children and a very full church schedule, I have no time for personal vendettas. No, this is not about a single author or a single church. This is about the truth, about how the rightness or wrongness of our theology can do tremendous help or tremendous harm to the people of God. This is about real people in East Lansing where I serve and real people an hour down the road in Grand Rapids where I grew up. This is about real people who have learned from Bell in the past and will be intrigued by his latest book, wondering if they should be confused, angered, or surprised to hear that hell is not what they’ve been told.

No doubt, Rob Bell writes as a pastor who wants to care for people struggling with the doctrine of hell. I too write as a pastor. And as a pastor I know that Love Wins means God’s people lose. In the world of Love Wins, my congregation should not sing “In Christ Alone” because they cannot not believe, “There on the cross where Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.” They would not belt out “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood.” No place for “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” with its confession, “the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that Justice gave.” The jubilation of “No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in him, is mine!” is muted in Love Wins. The bad news of our wrath-deserving wretchedness is so absent that the good news of God’s wrath-bearing Substitute cannot sing in our hearts. When God is shrunk down to fit our cultural constraints, the cross is diminished. And whenever the cross is diminished we pain the hearts of God’s people and rob them of their joy.

Just as damaging is the impact of Love Wins on the nonbeliever or the wayward former churchgoer. Instead of summoning sinners to the cross that they might flee the wrath to come and know the satisfaction of so great a salvation, Love Wins assures people that everyone’s eternity ends up as heaven eventually. The second chances are good not just for this life, but for the next. And what if they aren’t? What if Jesus says on the day of judgment, “Depart from me, I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23)? What if at the end of the age the wicked and unbelieving cry out, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16)? What if outside the walls of the New Jerusalem “are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Rev. 22:15)? What if there really is only one name “under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)? And what if the wrath of God really remains on those who do not believe in the Son (John 3:18, 36)?

If Love Wins is wrong—if the theology departs from the apostolic good deposit, if the biblical reasoning falls short in a hundred places, if the god of Love Wins and the gospel of Love Wins are profoundly mistaken—if all this is true, then what damage has been done to the souls of men and women?

Bad theology hurts real people. So of all the questions raised in the book, the most important question every reader must answer is this: is it true? Whatever you think of all the personalities involved on whatever side of the debate, that’s the one question that cannot be ignored. Is Love Wins true to the word of God? That’s the issue. Open a Bible, pray to God, listen to the faithful Christians of the past 2000 years, and answer the question for yourself.

Delight or deception, suffering or salvation—yes, even heaven or hell—may hang in the balance.

Blog Post: Message from Jon

Daniel McCarthy — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 12:43:00 GMT

Dear Friends,

I feel that almost every time I write one of these updates, I feel like saying "our last meeting was the best we've ever had". This last gathering was no exception, and I guess that is a good problem to have. The bottom line is that the presence of God that comes through the communion of the saints is a deeply satisfying thing. When we come together and God shows Himself among us and through us, there's nothing else like it.

"Through the Roof"

Our prayer time seemed to build steadily over the course of two hours. Starting with worship, prayer began to flow into different themes as a sense of God's presence began to build. We spent a good deal of time praying specifically on the issue of abortion as well as other justice matters in the New England states. We continued in a time of "Korean style" prayer (everyone praying at once), declaring the promises of God over the entire New England region and moving our focus to praying for the people of God--as we did this, the sense of God's presence really went through the roof! Our guests from California requested prayer and seemed to be super blessed as God spoke and ministered to them through the gathered believers.

Fellowship

Some of the most valuable happenings at these gatherings occur during the "down" time of lunch. I love seeing the Lord knit lives together over a meal! The result is that relationships of trust and love are formed, we learn from one another and stretch one another. Often strategic connections and introductions are made that will enhance our effectiveness in ministry for years down the road.

Covenant "Parameters"

During our prayer time, Jason Arroyo (CT) shared a word that the Lord had spoken to him on his drive. The central message he articulated through prayer was this: "God is saying there are covenant parameters that we need to come into agreement with in the upcoming revival in New England". As I heard Jason share from God's heart on "Covenant Parameters", I felt very strongly that these "parameters" related very closely to the message that Gaylord Enns was bringing. For those of you who were not there, I want to summarize a bit of the teaching for you.

Gaylord's message to us on Tuesday was about "rightly dividing the word of truth", specifically about clearly distinguishing between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Many of us have, without realizing it, have been living with one foot in the Old and one foot in the New. A clear example of this is in how we think about the "Great Commandments" to "Love the Lord your God..." and "Love your neighbor as yourself". For years, most of us have believed these statements summarized the heart of what it means to live as Christians. However, as Gaylord pointed out, these two statements are actually the greatest commandments "of the Law and the Prophets." In other words, these commandments properly belong to the Old Covenant, along with the 10 commandments and all 613 provisions of the law. So, what is the essence of the New Covenant? How can we describe what is unique and "New" about the Covenant we have in Jesus.

New Covenant/New Commandment

Gaylord shared a bit of his personal journey through a breakdown/burnout experience in 2001 after 35 years of pastoral ministry. As he was recovering from burnout, God opened his eyes in a new way to see Jesus' New Commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you." When he saw the significance of Jesus' Commandment for the first time, he assumed that he was the only one who had missed this command, but that all his friends and certainly Church theologians throughout the centuries had seen it. Part of his journey has been researching church history searching for Jesus' Commandment and the sad discovery that since the first century, by and large we as the Church have missed Jesus' commandment. As he said, "when I discovered that fact, all of a sudden, Church history began to make sense for the first time."

Although Jesus' Command not been well understood, The New Covenant and the New Commandment are inextricably linked. Jesus initiated both of them on the night he was betrayed. Both of them were called "New". In fact, Jesus' Command is so central to the New Covenant that it is actually our mark of authenticity as followers of Jesus: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35)

Summing Up the New Covenant

Is it possible to summarize the "New Covenant" as Jesus summarized the "Old Covenant", with two major commands? Amazingly, 1 John 3:23 does exactly that: "And this is His [Father God's] commandment: that we believe in the name of His son Jesus and love one another, just as He [Jesus] commanded us." At the center of the New Covenant we find these two commandments:

1) Faith in Jesus Christ--this is the Father's Commandment (John 3:16)

2) Love for one another as Jesus Loved us--This is Jesus' Commandment (John 13:34)

I find it fascinating that Jesus Christ Himself is actually right at the middle of each of these commandments.

It's interesting that "faith in Jesus Christ" was actually the issue at the heart of the Reformation that began just over 490 years ago. Faith in Jesus Christ is absolutely at the center of the gospel, but somehow for years a fog remained over this clear fact of Scripture. In a similar way, Gaylord shared his sense that God is removing the fog off of Jesus' New Command in our days--the Holy Spirit is helping us to rediscover and reclaim this central aspect of our faith. I think it's important to note also that in the New Covenant we fulfill the Old--we don't get rid of it. That's why we still have two "Testaments" in our Bibles. I want to emphasize that as we live out of the New we will be fulfilling the commands of the Old as never before.

Meditate on this teaching

Finally, I want to state in the clearest possible language my conviction that if authentic unity and revival is to be possible, we need to be firmly established in this foundational teaching on loving each other. I would venture to say that all of us need heart-level repentance around this issue, and it is essential for us to be grounded here if we are to walk into the promises of God as a region. You can order the book by Gaylord Enns, Love Revolution on Amazon--get it and read it. I've given it away as a gift to many of you already. I want to close with this heart-felt note from Brandt Gillespie, who recorded Gaylord at a conference that weekend:

"Without exaggeration, I have recorded thousands of messages across the length and breadth of the US over the past eleven years. I have been in, around and involved with ministry for over forty years. I now consider the messages delivered by Gaylord Enns at the recent Perfect Love - Conference in New England to be the single most important word to us as the body of Christ that I have ever had the privilege of hearing.

Gaylord's comprehensive explanation of how from the time of the early church fathers we lost sight of the single command Jesus gave is a critical understanding to grapple with as to why the Church has falling so far below our original calling to demonstrate the Father's love in the earth.

Without apology, I implore you to order a copy of these DVDs or CDs. Immerse yourself in the teaching. Share them with your friends. And practice what you are hearing in this word. This could very well be the rebirth of the "Revolution" that Christ has been longing to see accomplished through His Body.

If you find yourself without resource to pay for these DVDs or CDs, please contact me directly at PrayTV@aol.com and let me know your situation. I will do my best to get these recordings to you. We must use all means to get these messages into the hands of everyone we can. This word is that important!

Please request them today at PrayTV.org.

60.12 Comes to an End

Our final 60.12 gathering will be on Tuesday, March 22 in Boston at Park Street Church. We hope you can join us for this final gathering. Mark your calendar now and more information will follow in the upcoming days.

Yours in Christ,

Jonathan Friz

Page: History

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 10:25:00 GMT

By Check:
Make check out to

Wisdom Way

and send to:

Wisdom Way
P.O. Box 3132
Beverly, MA 01915
*Donations are tax deductible

Early History of the Spring and Fall 10 Days

Jonathan’s Call: Santa Fe, New Mexico—Early Fall 2004. During a season of fasting and seeking God concerning the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 for the unity of the Church and a personal call to ministry, I had an experience of God’s presence, voice, and direction. On the last night of the fast, the Lord showed me two 10 day periods of prayer that I was to call others to participate in. These two 10 Day periods were to be Sabbath times, where God’s people dropped their normal lives in order to seek God in an exclusive and intent way.

10 Days in the Spring—Pentecost: That night, the Lord told me that I would be praying for 10 days leading up to Pentecost in 2005. Several months later I learned that the first Global Day of Prayer was being planned for Pentecost Sunday, 2005. Part of the strategy was to precede the Global Day with 10 days of 24/7 prayer, in imitation of the apostles before the first Pentecost (Acts 1). This remarkable providence served as a striking confirmation that this call to set aside these times was really from God.

10 Days in the Fall—The Days of Awe: That night as I was praying, I heard God say, “Babylon refuses to mourn”, a reference to the city of Babylon in Revelation 18. In response to what God was saying, I answered back to Him, “But your people will mourn before you return.” Over the next minutes, I sensed God calling me to call others to a season of mourning during the 10 days from Rosh HaShannah to Yom Kippur on the Jewish calendar.

10 Days Northfield 2007 After moving to New England to attend seminary, we began doing these 10 day gatherings in small groups at our local church. In 2006, we did “A Time to Mourn” with 7 others. During this time, I had another experience of God giving an assignment, even though I was not looking for one. He said, “Call 120 to pray for 10 Days leading up to Pentecost” and showed me four rooms of prayer called Worship, Intercession, Scripture Reading, and Silence. Jeff Marks, my mentor from New England Concerts of Prayer, encouraged and confirmed this call.

David McCahon, a prayer leader and pastor from the Pioneer Valley partnered with me at this time for our first 10 Days Northfield. Along the way, God amazingly confirmed each step we took. Among other signs, He confirmed our choice of location at the school founded by D.L. Moody by showing us that Moody had hosted a nearly identical 10 day prayer gathering based on Acts chapter 1 at Northfield in 1880. It was after this gathering that the campus was dedicated. Amazingly, God had brought us back to Northfield just two years after the campus had been closed and put up for sale. We sensed our presence there was part of the beginning of the next chapter of Northfield’s history.

From May 17-May 27 2007, a core group of about 12 people and 122 total people participated in the first ever 10 Days in Northfield, Mass., a place I had never heard of four months before we arrived. We capped our 10 days off by attending the New England wide GDOP in Fitchburg. Those of us who stayed for the entire 10 days left changed people, having experienced, in the words of one participant “a degree of unity that I did not believe possible before heaven.”

A Time to Mourn 2008

In the Fall of 2008, on the day that the stock market crashed 777 points (Rosh HaShannah), we launched “A Time to Mourn” in a public setting at Northfield for the first time. It was amazing to us that we were issuing this invitation to mourn at the very time when the world system was reeling with the results of the stock market’s crash, especially because this vision had been percolating since the Lord first gave it in 2004. This first fall gathering included involvement in the first New England Solemn Assembly in Weymouth, MA.

Page: Who we are

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 10:20:00 GMT

By Check:
Make check out to

Wisdom Way

and send to:

Wisdom Way
P.O. Box 3132
Beverly, MA 01915
*Donations are tax deductible

Wisdom Way Family:

We function less like an “organization” and more like a family. So, here’s a few people in our family!

Jonathan and Cassiani Friz: The Friz family moved to New England in 2005 in order to attend Gordon-Conwell Seminary, never expecting that God would call them to remain in New England. Jonathan’s one desire is to see Jesus receive the answer to His prayer in John 17: “Let them be one as we are one.” He is committed to building the Body through promoting authentic unity amongst church leaders, one-on-one discipleship, and encouraging a culture of prayer, fasting, and joy. Cassi is a certified Holistic Health Counselor and works to bring healing and wholeness through wise and delicious food. They are blessed with an ever-increasing tribe of children!

David McCahon: David has served in the Pioneer Valley for almost 30 years with passions for prayer, unity in the Body of Christ, and discipling youth and college students. After years of concern regarding the legacy of D.L. Moody on the Northfield Campus, he has been made the New England representative of the new C.S. Lewis College.

Suzanne Loughry: Suzanne, originally from Northern California, remained on Boston's North Shore after graduating from Gordon College. She works part-time, is actively involved in her church, The Harbor: A Community of Faith, and has been a part of the Wisdom Way family since summer of 2009. Currently, her main role in Wisdom Way is as co-leader of Pilgrim House of Prayer (PHOP) in Beverly. She also assists with financial administration, and anything else that is needed. Her passion is for the maturity and unity of the body of Christ, and her areas of ministry are music, prayer, and college students. Looking forward, she eventually hopes to attend graduate school and study British Literature, but is excited to follow God's direction - already the journey has been full of unexpected wonders!

Christ Otto: Christ (rhymes with “wrist”) Otto has been an artist, musician, writer, teacher, pastry chef, and a lot of other jobs in between those ones. Through it all, he has learned how to be a son. After a lot of pain and suffering, a wise priest instructed Christ to “Listen to the Lord and do what He tells you.” That simple advice has transformed his life and opened the doors to the adventure he now leads in Boston. Christ is a graduate of Houghton College and Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Glory of a Wasted Life, and is the director of the 333 House of Prayer in Boston. In 2009 he spearheaded the Red Envelope Project, a movement that eventually sent 3.5 million empty red envelopes to President Barack Obama to protest his stance on abortion. This movement has spread to Canada, the Philippines, France and the United Kingdom.

Christ lives by faith and has devoted himself to ministry to the Lord in prayer, to raising up an army of artists, and to re-establish the tabernacle of David in the earth.

He is available for speaking and ministry engagements by contacting belonginghouse@gmail.com

Benjamin and Laura Wells-Tolley: The Wells-Tolley clan is putting down roots in the gorgeous Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. Benjamin, Laura and their family live and work on an organic diversified CSA farm and are laboring for the raising up of a community of night and day prayer, fasting and farming. It is with great joy that they are serving the Body in corporate prayer, discipleship and teaching both in their home as well as on college campuses in the region.

Page: Our vision

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 10:16:00 GMT

By Check:
Make check out to

Wisdom Way

and send to:

Wisdom Way
P.O. Box 3132
Beverly, MA 01915
*Donations are tax deductible

Our Vision:

	*10 Days of Prayer in the Spring* Every year from Ascension Day to Pentecost Sunday (June 2-12 2011) These 10 days are part of the Global Day of Prayer Movement involving believers from every nation and most denominations. Without a doubt, it’s the largest prayer movement in history (www.globaldayofprayer.com) Time of fresh encounter and discovery: Joyful and full of Awe Focus: The present reality of the Holy Spirit Our vision is to equip and assist city-wide churches to enter into this special rhythm of consecration each year.

	*A Community of Prayer in the Pioneer Valley (Western MA)* A community of families and individuals giving themselves primarily to night and day prayer with a focus on New England and as a training hub and launching point to the nations A commitment to sustainable agriculture and energy, simple living, and local, heathful food as part of life and ministry Discipleship and Equipping ministries to launch missionaries around the globe
	*Promoting Unity and Maturity in the Church through a Culture of Worship and Prayer* Working for Authentic Unity in the Body of Christ, especially in city-wide churches Partnering with local houses of prayer and prayer movements (333 House of Prayer in Boston, Pilgrim House of Prayer in Beverly, and others) Serving and loving local churches and leaders around the region Mentoring, empowering, recognizing, and releasing individuals into their calling Supporting initiatives for 24/7 prayer, outreach and evangelism (Halloween outreach in Salem), city and region wide worship (New England Solemn Assemblies, Boston Night of Worship), and concerts of prayer (5^th Fridays) *10 Days of Prayer in the Fall (“A Time to Mour”n)* Every year from Rosh HaShanah to Yom Kippur (Sept 29-Oct 9 2011) Time of fasting and consecration Focus: Longing for and preparing for the return of Jesus Christ to earth Our vision is to equip and assist city-wide churches in establishing this habit of prayer and fasting so that we can see entire city-wide churches longing together for the return of Jesus Christ to “make all things new”.

Expanded Vision for the Fall 10 Days (also called, “the Days of Awe”, “A Time to Mourn”)

(Mat 9:15 ESV) And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Call: In 2004, I (Jonathan) was in a season of fasting based on Daniel 10 focused on 1) praying for John 17 Unity in the church and 2) receiving an assignment from the Lord. On the last day, the Lord encountered me with these words: “Babylon refuses to mourn.” I answered back, “But your people will mourn before you return.” That night, the Lord gave an assignment to call the Church to fast, pray, and repent (turn from unbelief to faith) during the 10 days from Rosh HaShannah to Yom Kippur. There was a secondary assignment to pray during the 10 days leading up to Pentecost.

This call: to call the church to these two 10 day periods of time has been part of the core-culture of Wisdom Way.

Vision for the Fall 10 Days: An annual, worldwide rhythm of fasting and prayer focused on “longing for and hastening the day of the Lord” (2 Pet. 3:12) and preparing the way for His return to earth (Is. 40:3).

What does this look like? Three Models

· Simple: Pray and fast during this time as an individual or in small groups

o Have special gatherings to mark the beginning, middle, and end

o Normal life-rhythms are mostly uninterrupted

· City Wide: Joins churches across a city or geographic area in this time of consecration

o Have a central location (s) for 24/7 prayer or ongoing prayer

o Host nightly gatherings at different locations throughout city

o The vision of the fall 10 days was given in response to prayers for John 17 unity—uniting as a city is a tangible way to pray for and live out that unity

o Normal life-rhythms are significantly changed by nightly meetings and ongoing prayer

· Set-Apart (Compatible with a city-wide or retreat setting)

o Participants rest from work, ministry, media, entertainment, etc.

o 10 Days is set apart exclusively to minister to the Lord

o Normal life-rhythms are replaced by a “throne-room” daily rhythm (Rev. 4-5)

o Most effective model for personal spiritual preparation/growth. This is a powerful discipleship tool that causes believers to internalize spiritual realities in a relatively short time frame.

Who is this for? Anyone who desires to see Jesus’ return and be the “faith on the earth” that He will find on his return. When the Lord spoke this in 2004 the sense was that this was a call to the world-wide Church.

Dates for 2011: September 29^th (evening) to October 9^th (evening).

Meaning of the Timing: Paul says that Jewish festivals “are a shadow of things to come, but the reality is Christ”. These festivals are a prophetic image of things to come. In particular, the 3 fall Jewish Feasts are shadows pointing to the return of Christ.

In the Spring, liturgical churches review the acts of Christ at his first coming through Lent, Easter (fulfilling Passover), and Pentecost (fulfilling the Feast of Weeks). This rhythm is like Lent, however, instead of looking back at what Christ has already done, we are prophetically looking forward to His return which is “shadowed” in these feasts.

Theological Focus: 3 Kinds of “Mourning”

The English language lacks a word to adequately describe this kind of mourning. In 2004, this was the word the Lord used and he chose it for a reason. By the word “mourning”, we mean specifically:

· Intentionally seeking repentance at the heart level—turning from unbelief to faith in Jesus

o Mark 1:15 “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news.”

o The result of authentic repentance from the heart is joy, peace, and righteousness that comes from a revelation of who we are to God and how much He loves us

· Concerted Intercession to prepare the way for Jesus’ return (As in Dan. 9 and 10)

o The Scripture makes it clear that many things must take place before Jesus’ return

§ The Gospel of the Kingdom must go to the entire earth (Matt. 24:14)

§ The Jewish People must welcome their Messiah (Rom. 11:12)

§ The Antichrist must be revealed/there must be a great falling away from the faith (2 Thess. 2:8)

§ The Bride must be prepared (John 17:20-26, Eph 4:13, Eph 5:27, Rev. 19:7)

o We confess to God that all is not well in the world and through prayer “do for others what they cannot do for themselves”

o We partner with God in arranging Jesus’ return by preparing the way in prayer that agrees with His purposes as stated in Scripture and revealed to us by the Holy Spirit

o We position ourselves to be “wise virgins” with lamps full of oil at His return

o The ultimate goal is to partner with the Father in His stated goal of sending Jesus back to earth and initiating the “age to come” (“Your Kingdom come on earth…”)

· Longing for the Bridegroom and the Age to Come

o This is the most important of the 3 kinds of mourning

o Developing a love-sick heart in the Church that can only be satisfied by the return of Jesus

§ Causing the desire of the Bride for uninterrupted union to match the desire of the bridegroom

§ As we grow in appreciation for the present gift of the Holy Spirit, we intentionally grow in desire for the fullness that will come with Jesus’ return

§ We are longing for our “adoption, the redemption of our bodies”—our joy will be greatly increased when our mortal bodies “put on immortality”

§ These days are fundamentally about receiving from God a passionate longing for the return of Jesus—this is our appropriate response to His promises

§ The cry of the Bride at Jesus’ return is simply, “Come” (Rev. 22:17) These 10 days are devoted to becoming a bride who cannot stand to be separated any longer from her husband

o This quality among Jesus’ disciples is called:

§ “Mourning” (Matt 9:15, Matt 5:4)

§ “Groans and labors of child-birth” (Romans 8:23-24),

§ “Eagerly waiting” (Rom. 8:25, 1 Cor. 1:7),

§ “Watching and Praying”, (Matt. 25:13,

§ “longing for and hastening the day” (2 Pet. 3:12)

§ “Making ready/Preparing” (Rev. 19:7, Eph 5:27)

Blog Post: Are We In Revival

Daniel McCarthy — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:53:00 GMT

Dear Friends,

Tuesday, at a one day prayer Summit for Boston Pastors, Bishop Gideon Thompson made a statement to this effect, “For years, many of us have been praying for revival in New England. Now, we’re in a season where we are experiencing a measure of the revival we have been longing for over decades. We are in revival right now.” Sometimes, we have a perspective on revival that is totally “other than” our normal experience. While I long for an ever-increasing movement of God’s Spirit, I think it can be very valuable to recognize that we are experiencing a measure of awakening now.

Some indicators that we are in the beginning stages of an awakening:

· * Levels of encouragement and expectation among Christian leaders are high as many are sensing “the next 10 years will be the best of our lives”.

· * Many believers and groups of leaders are experiencing unprecedented levels of unity and love for one another

· * The response of believers to Church-wide gatherings such as the NE Solemn Assembly and Boston Night of Worship

Of course, we have a long way to go. However, let’s give thanks to God for how far he’s brought us so far. We are making progress! Also, remember that “awakening” is not something that happens “out there”, it’s something that happens inside your heart, when your heart comes alive to the reality of what God is really like. Just as Jesus had the disciples pray for laborers and then sent them out as the laborers, we are the revival we have been praying for. When God’s life is flowing in you, you’re in revival!

Next Gathering:

I hope to see you in Boston on Thursday, December 16 at Boston Missionary Baptist Church (366 Dudley St, Boston MA) for our 9^th 60.12 gathering. Be sure to RSVP at Madeleine39@earthlink.net so we can plan for your lunch.

Report on November 60.12 Gathering

On November 9, 60.12 converged with a bi-annual gathering of Connecticut pastors. Around 100 leaders from Connecticut and around New England spent the morning together before the Lord. Rick McKinniss, senior leader of Wellspring, facilitated the morning, skillfully steering us through many different expressions of prayer. We worshipped the Lord, sat before him in total silence, and ministered to one another in many different ways.

At one point, leaders who were struggling with discouragement were asked to stand up. Amazingly, only a few people stood up, maybe 10 or 20 people out of 100 present. I’ve been in gatherings like that where almost everyone was just struggling to stay in the fight. So to have around 80% of the leaders in the room saying “I am encouraged” is an amazing indicator of what God is doing in our region. It’s not that there are no problems or struggles. However, when we stand together, full of faith in the midst of adversity, it is a sign that we are winning! (Phil. 1:27-28)

During our conversation time, Keith Tolley of Vision New England asked a question about how we can see the many things that God is raising up in New England gain traction. What follows are portions of Kiernan's notes from what I think was one of our most instructive conversations:

What is hindering God’s movement in NE—preventing us from getting traction—losing momentum?

Don’t Pour New Wine Into Old Wineskins!

Introduction: At the NE Alliance monthly day of prayer at Wellspring in Kensington, CT, about 20-25 NE leaders discussed what the church needs to do to move forward with God’s vision in NE. We specifically discussed what is hindering God’s movement and what we need to do about it. Here are a number of responses we heard:

· Some pastors and leaders simply lack the commitment necessary to work together. Sometimes we simply need more time—like when you are seeding a lawn—you need to work at it for different seasons and it can be years before a mature lawn is formed, so if everyone perseveres in doing their part there can be break through.

· Some are not finding what they hoped for in the existing efforts, and since they have different expectations, they stop coming.

· A new structure is necessary so that you don’t try to pour new wine into old wineskins. A new vision must have a proper foundation on Christ. Sometimes the problem is that “King Saul” does not want to yield to “King David.” Sometimes the problem is that some want to control things or continue in a former leadership foundation. There needs to be a brotherhood built up and everyone has to put aside their leadership role or denominational hierarchy and come together with leaders from other denominations. Our denominations have often deviated from the foundations/essential teachings of Christ such as the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7).

· There is a suspicion among leaders and churches. Relationships and leadership are key. Sometimes NE intellectualism or denominational beliefs or ethnic differences divides the church.

· Overcoming barriers: Jeff Marks witnessed about how Gordon MacDonald and so many leaders of his generation held meetings at Sturbridge and then agreed to go out 2 by 2 each month all over NE—this unity continues to grow to this day. Many times these leaders gathered community pastors together who had never met or didn’t have a relationship.

· We need to change our understanding of church and the way it is structured based on John 13--
“Love one another as I have loved you—all will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”

Blog Post: Merril-Keep Hall

Daniel McCarthy — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 09:27:00 GMT

Hello Everyone,

Hoping to see many of you at Northfield this Monday from 10am-3pm. (remember to bring your own lunch!)

There's been a change in our location--Hibbard Hall has no heat right now, so we will be meeting in Merril-Keep Hall.

Merril Keep is right by the Auditorium--you can find it on this campus map: http://www.nmhschool.org/sites/default/files/pdf/northfield/NMH_Sale_of_Northfield_Campus_Plan-Core_Campus.pdf

Can't wait to see many of you this monday!

Peace

Jonathan

Don't forget--Come to Merril-Keep Hall!

Blog Post: Update - Oct 2010

Daniel McCarthy — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 13:08:00 GMT

From Jonathan Friz:

Dear Friends,

I'm really looking forward to the Tuesday, November 9 60.12 gathering in CT because it has been planned to collide with a state pastor's gathering called "A Day Apart". This bi-annual CT pastor's gathering usually draws 80-100 from around the state. I loved sitting in on the last one in March, and am excited to have these two groups of people coming together. Rick McKinniss, senior leader of Wellspring who has attended several 60.12 meetings will be our host for the day.

Please note below, we'll have a slightly different format and times while retaining the same elements, spirit, and purpose of our other gatherings. If you can't make the earlier times, just come as soon as you are able.

Tuesday, November 9, 9am-3pm (Worship starts at 9:30. We'll be with CT pastors for worship and fellowship from 9:30-1, 60.12 group will split off from 1-3 for lunch and conversation, CT leaders are welcome and encouraged to join in)

Wellspring
222 Lincoln St
Kensington, CT 06037

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&expIds=17259,17291,22881,26637,26992,27095,27183&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&cp=18&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=0,0,9360741769105820504&fb=1&hq=wellspring+church&hnear=Connecticut&gl=us&daddr=222+Lincoln+St,+Kensington,+CT+06037-1118&geocode=2677211479619711577,41.642825,-72.791816&ei=YrPATLXwHoe-sQOJlO2BDA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=directions-to&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQngIwAQ

Update on Roberto Miranda and Andrew Chrysler

Roberto is currently recovering at home after after a minor brain hemorrhage. The hemorrhage caused painful headaches, but is not of the type that is expected to cause any permanent damage down the road. Attached is a letter from Roberto, written several days ago while he was still in the hospital.

Andrew Chrysler, 60.12 representative from Vermont, wrote last night saying: "Please pray for my family. My 2 week old grandson Dominic died of SIDS yesterday. We are all devastated especially my son and his girlfriend. Please pray for wisdom, comfort, and traveling mercies as we reach out to therest of the family."

Update From October 12 in Vermont

Our last 60.12 gathering at Hunger Mountain in Vermont was probably our smallest meeting so far, but was nevertheless one of the best. Around 36 of us gathered (usually we have somewhere between 50 and 70) last Tuesday for worship, fellowship, and conversation. It was great to have so many Vermont pastors and leaders as a part of this gathering.

One of the most encouraging things about the gathering to me was that we seemed to be walking together in the same Spirit of mutual submission and openness that characterized the September gathering. I feel that we have turned a corner in these meetings in terms of our ability to actually do meetings together “in the Spirit”.

Worship led by David Rosen (VT) was intimate and introduced us to what would become the theme of the day, experiencing God’s Fatherly affections for us and giving them away to one another.

After this time, we listened to Vermont leaders share passionately about their vision for the state. Tony Longe, our host who hosts a monthly state-wide pastor’s gathering shared about his frustration with “doing church” as usual and his sense that we are in a season like Martin Luther’s, a time ripe for Reformation. Many VT leaders shared their desire to raise up and father the upcoming generation of church leaders.

Because Vermont is such a small state (approx. 600,000 people), there was a real understanding that a united Church in Vermont would be able to make a huge impact. We spent a good amount of time praying over each of the VT leaders and longing with them to see this Reformation take root in their state.

After communion together and lunch, we gathered for an intimate time of conversation in small groups. These times of conversation have ranged from provocative, to controversial, to missional, to intimate, and this month it seemed that “intimate” was the clear winner. Host pastor Tony Longe asked us to discuss “what does it mean to you that God is your Father?” Ron Stimers, VP of Vision New England, invited us to discuss “What does it look like practically when we love one another ‘as the Father loves the Son’?” (From John 15:9 and 15:12). Highlights of the discussion included:

We need to recognize that God is calling us to love one another in a supernatural way (Ron’s question), that “as God loves God, now we are to love one another”—this can only happen through the working of the Holy Spirit as He enables us to receive love from God and give it away
This supernatural love for one another must be expressed practically in the mundanities of everyday life
As leaders, we need to change our ministry paradigm to become more intimate and tangibly share God’s Father heart with others. There was a strong sense that artificial barriers between pastor/minister and those being ministered to need to come down, which is contrary to what many of us were trained to do
As spiritual fathers and mothers, it is essential for us to lead spiritual children into an encounter with the fountain of God’s love

Blessings,
Jonathan Friz

Blog Post: Next Meeting November 2010

Daniel McCarthy — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:38:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we'll be having a Wisdom Way family meeting on Monday, November 8 from 10am-3pm...Bring your own lunch. It's been a while, so this is a great time to get back together with old friends, celebrate where God has led us so far, and dream for the future. It's been about 6 months from our last gathering of this kind, so i really hope that many of us are able to make it.

The gathering will be in Western MA, location is still To be determined.

Can't wait to see your smiling faces!

Peace

Jonathan

Blog Post: Jonathan's Sept Update

Daniel McCarthy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:17:00 GMT

Hi Everyone,

This is a family email--if you're getting it, you've come to a Wisdom Way planning meeting or to one of the 10 day gatherings and i consider you family!

Most of us have become friends through the 10 days of prayer gatherings that started in 2007 at Northfield. Since then, there have been a lot of changes, mostly good, but it can be hard to follow them sometimes. No one was more surprised than me when God clearly spoke to me (through many of you) this year "Less is more" for the fall 10 days. I was wanting to organize something massive in Boston. So, this year instead of holing up on a nearly abandoned campus together, we're going to be fasting and praying from the comfort of our own homes and beds :)

Wisdom Way started out of a shared experience of God during the spring and fall 10 days, particularly in 2008. We started Wisdom Way not to start a ministry, but rather to give some organizational capacity to what a bunch of friends were already doing together in response to God's voice. In other words, our goal is not to build any structure other than what the Kingdom of Heaven needs at a particular moment--we're flexible and we're missional, all of us have a capacity to go wherever God sends us. We don't really have any kind of "hierarchy" in the sense of no one tells anyone else what to do--in that sense, we are a bunch of friends!

But there are some things that tie us together. The 10 day gatherings and our Wisdom Way planning meetings have been like glue for us. So, as we've been shifting from our cozy Northfield model to more of a city-wide (or sometimes 'family-wide') model for these days, I wanted to touch base with everyone and re-iterate a few core commitments, as well as share some good news.

1) We're committed to inviting the Body into 10 days of prayer in the Spring, and 10 Days of Fasting and prayer in the fall. However, more than that, we're committed to doing it ourselves. God is the originator of this call, and our goal in sharing and in doing is first of all faithfulness to His voice---These times of consecration are part of God's amazing strategy to prepare the Bride for Christ's return. A number of us in 2008 agreed together to do this for 7 years until 2015. I think for those of us who made these commitments, we were all thinking "Northfield"--HA, but God has a way of changing our plans.

2) We're committed to the fulfillment of Jesus' words, "My House shall be called a House of prayer for all nations." We are His house, so ultimately, this means the Church, the Body of Christ, being truly a house of prayer. We work to see this happen by promoting regular prayer rhythms in partnership with local fellowships.

3) We're committed to the Northfield Campus and God's unfolding purposes there. We're overjoyed that it has come into the hands of the CS Lewis Foundation and we're committed to supporting them as they prepare for the CS Lewis College. And yes, we are still holding this dream of a community of prayer in our hearts, and submitting it to God's timing. We're in the unique situation of having absolutely no power to do that on our own--I see it as a joy! Let's guard against any attitude of entitlement and stay in a place of dependence on God.

4) Yep, we're committed to building the Body of Christ as a whole--this means always working in partnerships with other 'parts' of the body, it means a lot of talk and action regarding unity, it means honoring and prefering one another even when we disagree, and it means that "Loving one another as Jesus has loved us" remains at the center of all we do.

So, onto good news...

Our own David McCahon has become the first employee of CS Lewis College--he is the New England area representative. About 5 months ago, we sensed strongly to pray for him to get a job there--and now it's a reality! Praise the Lord!

Because of the Solemn Assembly that is beginning to gain traction, we're seeing people around New England doing the fall 10 days. It's a reality this year--Less is more! Plymouth, Boston, West Haven, Salem/Beverly--all these places are organizing something formal, not to mention the churches and individuals that will be fasting along with us. I spoke to Brian Simmons of Gateway Fellowship in CT about it. His church is hosting a worship meeting each night. He said that the Lord had told him to do it independently--he had it planned before he even heard about the Solemn Assembly. This is really God's message, part of His unique call at this moment in History. How fun is it that we get to be involved!

We will plan to host a Wisdom Way family get-together sometime in October...Until then, I'd love to hear about what some of you are planning for the fall 10 days!

Peace

Jonathan

Blog Post: 10 Days Prayer Guide

Daniel McCarthy — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:56:00 GMT

Hi Folks,

Please also remember to remember that the New England Solemn Assembly is Seeptember 25th. Check out the website www.newenglandsolemnassembly2010.com for more details.

Staff

Blog Post: Upcoming Agenda

Daniel McCarthy — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:16:00 GMT

Dear Friends,

I hope this email finds you well. It's been several months since my last update--I wanted to catch everyone up quickly on some activities of the summer, and inform and invite you into what's going on this fall!

Spring 10 Days of Prayer

For the last four years, many of you have heard me talk about dropping normal life for 10 days leading up to Pentecost in order to seek God's face in community. Nothing has ever impacted me on a personal level as much as those 10 days every spring that i consecrate to seek God. Each year, I come in one person and leave someone else.

From 2007 to 2009, we focused on having 10 day gatherings at the school DL Moody founded in Northfield, MA. In 2009, there was a sense of completion of one part of our assignment there; the school was purchased by Hobby Lobby on behalf of the C.S. Lewis College. In 2010, we entered into a new phase for 10 days focusing on seeing the Body of Christ do 10 days of prayer not in a retreat setting, but in a city-wide context. Honestly, this is what excites me the most--seeing believers from a geographical area get out and discover that the Body of Christ is so much bigger than their own fellowship. Perhaps as more people catch the vision for doing 10 Days, we'll be able to see it happening in city-wide context and retreat settings at the same time.

This Spring, I got to be a part of launching 10 days of prayer on the North Shore. The format was really beautiful--we had prayer throughout the day in one location. Then for 10 nights, a gathering of prayer, worship, and communion was hosted by a different fellowship in our community. So, we got to get into everyone's space and worship together! It was fun to go out before the meetings, talking with everyone. I kept expecting that everyone would come from the host church, but that was not the case--each night people were coming from all over the place. Over the course of the 10 days, we had from 30-100 people every night at the gatherings The 10 days really culminated with a Pre-Pentecost bash at Christ the Redeemer, Anglican Church, where maybe around 300 people gathered to worship, hear the word, and ask God, "please sir, can we have some more Holy Spirit!" Ha!!--And God was so faithful to hear us and answer us. I hope what we did together this year can serve as a model for years to come.

Finally, the intrepid Nancy Smith of Rutland, VT hosted 10 Days Rutland in the face of some real resistance. It was a labor of love for her and the core team that was there to watch and wait for 10 days. Thank you Nancy for your faithfulness to the Lord in this! I can't wait to see what the Lord brings together in in 2011 during the this time. I'm longing to see the Body in New England together in the posture of Jesus' first followers in the upper room...together, in one accord, and devoted to prayer, waiting and watching for God's promise to be released to them.

Summer at Northfield

I said part of our assignment at Northfield was completed--not all though. This summer, Wisdom Way got to be a part of C.S. Lewis College settling in at their new home. Our role in this entire thing was something of a change of pace: we were the foodservice component of the 30 day summer gathering. David McCahon was the visionary who set this all up with CS Lewis college. My wife, Cassi, did an amazing job as head chef along with an awesome volunteer staff. And I led morning devotions for the gathering and took care of the kids while Cassi & co. cooked delicious meals for up to 90 people at a time.

There were really two different groups that we were serving. One was "Vacation with a Purpose" composed of people from around the country coming and volunteering their time to get the buildings on campus looking and working great. We also served Campus America, a group that is catalyzing 24/7 prayer on college campuses around America. In 2009, the day after Easter, we met Ryan and Allison Riggs on the Northfield campus, dreaming together about possibly hosting a summer gathering for college students there. Sure enough, the Lord made a way for us in 2010--it was great to see God's faithfulness at work in bringing "Student Volunteers" back to Northfield in 2010. It was also awesome to be a part of laying the foundation for the CS Lewis College and to hear the story of God's faithfulness over the years and his amazing provision of the campus for them.

Fall 10 Days (Sept 8-18th) and Solemn Assembly (Sept 25th) "Less is More"

Most of you have heard or read me talk about the fall 10 Days of Prayer and how in 2004 the Lord assigned me to call His people to fast, pray and prepare during this time. Set during the "Days of Awe" on the Jewish Calendar, this 10 days of fasting and prayer is focused on cleaning our slates with God and especially on preparing the way and longing for the return of Jesus. This will be the 3rd year that the 10 days of prayer is paired with a New England Solemn Assembly.

For the last two years we have hosted larger, public gatherings (one at Northfield, one at Lowell) during this season. These gatherings have really embodied the sense of consecration and focus that i think is so powerful. Participants have stepped outside of their normal life and into what is essentially an extended Solemn Assembly. This year, as I was praying and seeking advice about what to do, I really sensed the Lord saying, "This year, less is more." When I received those words, peace filled my heart.

This year, we are not planning one central gathering with a sense of total investment and consecration. Instead, we're inviting believers all over New England to fast and pray for 10 days in their churches, home groups, and prayer groups. In other words, do the 10 days, but do it in the context of daily life and with your own community of faith. One of the most exciting things this year is hearing how expressions of the 10 days are popping up all over the place. People will be fasting and praying together on the Cape and in Plymouth, in Boston, on the North Shore, in Vermont, in Connecticut, and it seems in many more places as we continue to get the word out. Truly, God is doing something and there is a fresh hunger to seek after Him and see Him move in our region. Each area will have it's own expression--some bigger, some smaller. I think doing the 10 day fast from home(water, juice, or Daniel Fast) is the number one way you can participate this year. Number two is doing the fast in community with your home group, prayer group, or church. Engage in the fast (Sept 8-18th) and gather to pray in your communities--then come to the Solemn Assembly.

I'll be following up this email with more details on some gatherings that are being planned during the fall 10 days. For now, I want to connect leave you with a few contacts of people who are planning something (Below) and more than that, with this invitation: Join with me and believers around New England. Fast and Pray in your communities during these 10 days--then come to the Solemn Assembly on Sept 25th. Together, let''s approach the Father of Grace during this season, and receive the mercy we so desperately need.

Yours in Christ,

Jonathan Friz

Plymouth and Cape Cod

Contact: Janee Boudreau, jbbnov3@verizon.net

Plans: Unknown

Boston Area

Contact: Christ Otto, belonginghouse@gmail.com

Plans for 10 Days: Daily Prayer M-F 11-3pm at Lion of Judah in Boston--Contact Christ for more information

Connecticut, New Haven

Contact: Gateway Offices, office@gateway-fellowship.org

Plans: Nightly gatherings starting at 6:30 in the Sanctuary during the 10 days--Includes Launch with Sean Feucht on Sept 8 and Conclusion with Justin Kendrick of "Holy Fire" on Sept 18th

North Shore, MA

Contact: Jonathan Friz, 10daysofprayer@gmail.com, Donna Milham, Donnamilham@comcast.net

Plans: Daily Prayer Rhythm at Pilgrim church in Beverly--schedule forthcoming/Healing the Land gathering Sept 17-19 in Gloucester, Email Donna for more information

Blog Post: Updated 60.12 Schedule

Daniel McCarthy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:18:00 GMT

Please see the updated schedule.

Blog Post: Call To Prayer

Daniel McCarthy — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:39:00 GMT

Cindy Jacobs:

An Urgent Call for Massive Intercession

Dear Believers in Christ,

A few days ago as I watched a news business channel, I received the following word from the Lord. As you can tell, it's a serious warning. I know the nation is in a delicate condition now, but I believe that I need to send this word out. I ran it by Chuck Pierce and he said that it fits with what he has been hearing, only more specific on the economic side.

This is a wake up and it's so strong.

A Serious Warning and a Call for Urgent Prayer

A warning received from the Lord on July 17, 2010 in Dallas, Texas:

A few days ago as I watched the financial news, the Lord clearly spoke these words to me, "The nation is teetering!" I then had a vision of the economy of the United States, on what looked like a "scale of justice." He then went on to show me that we must fast, pray and cry out to the Lord for mercy and solutions that will balance righteousness and justice.

In praying to the Lord for wisdom about this word, I realized what must be done—it is time for the Church in America to stand up and take her place once again in the nation. I mulled over the fact that we have already lost so many of our liberties and this is what I heard, "If the Church doesn't fast and pray for a faster acceleration of revival and awakening, the iniquitous sin structures in the nation will tip the scale that is teetering and there will be another great depression."

Of course, this word shook me to the core of my being. Many of you may be aware that the Holy Spirit spoke to me almost a year before the September 2008 economic meltdown, that there would be "no more business as usual."

The balance of the economy is fragile and depending on the way we fast, pray, and how we cast our votes in the next election will depend on which way the scale tips. We must pray and do. We must pray and act. We must awaken the Church to the state of the nation without fear of pleasing man or fear for our reputation.

God is watching to see which way the die will be cast. If we shift the nation to Biblical values in the arenas of righteousness and justice, the economy will follow. If we continue in our stance of support for Israel, the Stock Market will stabilize and prosper, and that which is fragile will become strong. Supernatural solutions will be sent from Heaven that our natural minds could never reason, nor grasp and they will heal the land.

If we do not heed in this hour there will be a tumbling of our economy and dark days will be ahead to such a degree that our nation will possibly never fully recover from and have the greatness as a nation that God has favored us with for generations.

God have mercy. God send an awakening. God send salvation.

Cindy Jacobs
Generals International
Email: generals@generals.org

File: MorningJune172010

DanR — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:10:00 GMT

File: RoundtableJune172010

DanR — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:04:00 GMT

Blog Post: Boston Night of Worship

Daniel McCarthy — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:25:00 GMT

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Become a Volunteer at BNOW 2010/WATCH NEW VIDEO!

To guests who are attending BOSTON NIGHT OF WORSHIP 2010: United Worship Movement

Zenzo Matoga June 19 at 11:55am Reply

Become a Volunteer at BNOW 2010!!

Dear Friend,

As you know, on Friday, Oct. 29, 2010, thousands of people from New England and across the globe will gather in the 8,000-seat Agganis Arena at Boston University for Boston Night of Worship 2010--massive, united and cross-cultural worship rally.

This year, we are mobilizing a large team of dedicated and skilled volunteers to effectively organize BNOW 2010 and ensure its success. I write today to request you to consider being one of these volunteers. We have an enormous, yet exciting task ahead of us. This year, all volunteers will be required to attend planning meetings prior to the date of BNOW.

There are 3 major areas where you can serve:

1. Help mobilize the members of your church (and other churches) to attend BNOW by handing out flyers, “Facebooking” your friends, and showing your congregation a short BNOW promotional video.

2. Serve during the night of worship in an area of your interest, i.e. ushering, security, registration tables, break down or set up of equipment, and more.

3. Join the BNOW prayer team and commit to pray for the night both individually and at special prayer gatherings. We also need a team of people praying on the night of October 29th, before and during the event.

Invitation to a special Volunteers' Meeting:

On Saturday, June 26 at 11a.m., we will gather at Lion of Judah church, located at 68 Northampton St., Boston, MA 02118, for the first BNOW2010 Volunteers' Meeting. You will be able to choose the specific area where you would like to serve, meet the rest of the volunteers, as well as ask questions pertaining to your assignment.

Please R.S.V.P. to help us prepare for the correct number of people. You can call 978-476-2446 or e-mail info@bnow2010.com.

God bless you richly, and we thank you in advance for giving us an opportunity to serve with you in this great cause!

Blessings,

Zenzo Geoffrey, BNOW Visionary
www.bnow2010.com

WATCH new video featuring Ron Kenoly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T3MGcTJ3Mk

Blog Post: Updates

Daniel McCarthy — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:50:00 GMT

Dear Friends,

Most of you know of the special things that God has been doing on the historic Northfield campus since he called us there to do 10 Days of Prayer in 2007. One of the most encouraging developments has been the purchase of the campus by the CS Lewis Foundation. Another true answer to prayer is the summer student gathering that will be happening at Northfield from July 23-August 1.

NORTHFIELD 2010 is being hosted by Campus America, a movement of 24/7 prayer and missions. As most of you probably know, one of the hallmarks of Northfield in Moody's day was the summer conferences. The first ever student conference, held in 1886, would become the most famous because it was the catalytic gathering for the Student Volunteer movement. Our prayer has been to see a fresh movement of prayer and missions arise at Northfield. I can't help but sense that this summer gathering is an initial answer to our prayers. Check out the link to find out more (NORTHFIELD 2010) and please do pass this information on to any college students that you may be interested. More info from Trent Sheppard is below.

Finally, the Northfield 2010 gathering is just a part of Vacation with a Purpose. From July 11-31 this summer, people of all ages are invited to come and help with the beautifying of the Northfield Campus. Check it out here: http://www.cslewis.org/programs/college/vwap/2010/index.html

In addition, Wisdom Way will be serving food for the entire thing--If you come to help with food, you'll be able to participate in Vacation with a Purpose and the Northfield 2010 gatherings at no charge. We're especially looking for people who can commit to all or most of this time to help in the kitchen. Contact Cassi Friz (cpfriz@gmail.com) for more information on the kitchen.

Hope to see you in Northfield this summer,

Jonathan Friz

*** THIS JUST IN! *** Pete Greig (Founder of 24-7 Prayer International and author of Red Moon Rising) has confirmed he can be with us for the Friday evening launch of NORTHFIELD 2010, and Maureen Menard (Vice President of YWAM and legendary international Bible teacher) has confirmed that she can join us to teach through the Book of Acts as well! We're working on flights for Pete (UK) and Maureen (South Africa) right now, and will hopefully be able to finalize their coming within a week.

TOP REASONS TO ATTEND NORTHFIELD 2010

LEGACY: The historic Northfield campus in western Massachusetts is where the greatest student missions movement was born 124 years ago under the leadership of D.L. Moody and others.

TIMING: At the half-way mark in this unbroken year of prayer, the summer will be a key time to celebrate all that has happened so far and to strategically prepare together for this fall.

FOUNDATIONS: Northfield is the future home of the C.S. Lewis College, and we'll be working alongside the C.S. Lewis Foundation in helping to restore this incredible campus.

TEACHING: We'll be digging into the electrifying narrative of the Bible together, exploring the essential themes of Mission, Mercy and Marketplace in the Book of Acts.

FRIENDSHIPS: We are deliberately keeping the gathering intimate, limiting numbers to the first 100 people to register.

DESTINY: We believe the Lord will be speaking to us, leading many into their lifetime callings.

BEAUTY: The campus is a stunningly beautiful place to spend part of your summer.

PRAYER: We will be interceding and worshiping together for our generation.

COST: $400 is all you need for a fantastic retreat with like-minded radicals.

SCHOLARSHIPS: A number of $200 scholarships are available for those in need.